Chapter 33 - Summons

Song Xiao blanked out for a long while before he reacted to what Yu Tang had said and turned red on his end of the phone call. “Empress – empress dowager… why does she want to meet me…”

“Transfer ownership of this apartment to Zhuo Jingjing.” Inside the chairman’s office at Xinghai Entertainment, Song Zicheng passed the real estate agreement to his secretary to handle.

Si Dashu took the agreement, which was for a luxury apartment. In a place like A city, where land was expensive, it was pretty valuable. As a member of the working class, Si Dashu really felt his heart ache when he looked at the agreement. “The meeting will begin in ten minutes. This is the financial report which the finance department just sent in; take a look.”

Getting up and accepting the report, Song Zicheng looked through it as he walked. The figures in the report weren’t impressive, and the profits column was awful to look at.

“The finance department believes that if this trend continues, we will still be in the red by the end of the year.” Si Dashu pressed the button for the elevator, which opened with a ‘ding dong’. Inside the elevator was a colleague from reception who had come up with an express delivery.

“Put it on my table ba.” Si Dashu greeted the receptionist beauty, then followed his boss to the meeting room.

The female receptionist placed the express delivery, which was tightly wrapped and had the words “Private and Confidential: Chief Song” on it, on Si Dashu’s table. In any case, as a private secretary, Si Dashu had access to all the boss’s things. From the pile of letters for the boss on Si Dashu’s table, he was truly admirable!

“To reverse the deficit, we need four hundred million at the very least by the end of the year.” The head of the finance department pointed at the profits trend displayed on the presentation slide. “Last year’s investments consumed too much working capital. We don’t have many projects this year, and our only hope for turning things around is the three movies that will be released next month and at the end of the year.”

“Director Liang’s ‘Profound Theory’ is one of them, so four hundred million shouldn’t be a problem,” the person from the investment department interjected solemnly.

The finance department head looked at him. “I hope that is the case.”

In recent years, China had aligned with international film standards and started to popularise big productions. Xinghai Entertainment wasn’t an exception and had invested in a major film production. The movie’s director was Liang Xinmu, who was famous in the domestic scene, and the actors and actresses were all at the level of film emperors and empresses. Given the big scenes and large production, their single investment had exceeded four hundred million.

Liang Xinmu was on friendly terms with Song Zicheng, so Xinghai Entertainment’s investment in ‘Profound Theory’ accounted for the bulk of investments.

“Publicity for ‘Pink Winter’ will start next week, but the female lead, Zhuo Jingjing, is in the hospital…” The person from the marketing department took out the latest publicity plan and began to explain it.

Song Xiao already had a photocopy of the diagnosis report. At first, he planned to give it to Song Zicheng when the latter returned, but Yu Tang stopped him.

“I’ll mail it to him directly, don’t worry.”

For a son to hand his father this sort of matter would be an obvious slap in the face. Even if Song Zicheng could be regarded as loving towards his son, it was quite possible that he would fly into a rage out of humiliation. Song Xiao felt that what his family’s emperor said made sense, as he should give his father some face. He then didn’t bother with this matter anymore, and instead began to worry about responding to the empress dowager’s summons.

Right at that moment, Li Weiwei came looking for him. The company had acting training today, which would be especially fun, so he wanted to drag Song Xiao along.

“Say, if you’re going to meet, uh, someone else’s parents, what should you bring?” While Song Xiao was distracted by his thoughts, Li Weiwei pulled him into the car.

“Oho, meeting the parents!” Li Weiwei gave him a strange look. Looking at Song Xiao’s appearance of one earnestly seeking advice, he couldn’t help teasing him. “That depends on the parent: is it the future mother-in-law or father-in-law?”

Song Xiao thought about it. “Mother-in-law.”

“…Whut?” Li Weiwei’s eyes widened.

Li Weiwei’s soul still hadn’t returned by the time they reached Xinghai Entertainment, and they directly bumped into a gorgeously dressed Zhuo Jingjing.

Zhuo Jingjing had just had a miscarriage, so by right she should’ve been resting in bed. However, her plan to blame it on Song Xiao had failed, so she was feeling anxious. Song Zicheng also hadn’t visited her in the past two days, so she couldn’t help but come to the company.

“Jingjing jie, I heard you were sick, so why are you here?” When a few of the company’s C-list actresses saw her, they welcomed her with smiles on their faces.

“Isn’t it because publicity for the new film is about to start? Work can’t be put off, after all.” Zhuo Jingjing had thick makeup on, which masked the haggardness on her face.

Everyone in the company clearly knew who the “Mr. Song” she had mentioned in front of the media was. Song Zicheng still hadn’t denied it until now, which indicated tacit acknowledgement of the fact that he was marrying Zhuo Jingjing. Even the receptionists were much more polite to her compared with before.

“It’s hard on your body, you don’t have to jeopardize your health like this.” The female actresses who wanted to curry favour with Zhuo Jingjing hurriedly enquired about her well-being and congratulated her on her pregnancy, while advising her to rest.

“It’s work ma, it can’t be put off.” The moment Zhuo Jingjing turned around, she bumped right into Li Weiwei. Staggering a little, she was about to open her mouth to reprimand the rash junior, when she saw Song Xiao behind him. Instantly, she switched to a smile. “Xiaoxiao, why are you at the company?”

The entire lobby instantly fell silent. The young master versus the future stepmother – it seemed that there was going to be a good show to watch.

On the other side, Song Zicheng was done with the meeting, and he somewhat tiredly rubbed the space between his eyebrows. With the company continually making a loss, the pressure on him was the greatest. They hadn’t entered the market for very long, and the market had very high hopes for Xinghai Entertainment. Their investment in ‘Profound Theory’ exceeded their budget last year, causing the company to fall into the red. Song Zicheng had already been severely berated by the board of directors.

No matter what, they couldn’t make further losses with the three movies at the end of the year.

Si Dashu knocked on the door and entered. With a queer expression on his face, he handed Song Zicheng a file, along with the real estate agreement that had been given to him that morning.

“What happened? Is there a problem?” Song Zicheng took the file for a look.

“Take a look at this first.” After Song Zicheng saw it, he probably wouldn’t want to give the apartment away anymore. Si Dashu didn’t dare say too much, and turned around to leave. As a private secretary, he knew too many of the boss’s secrets. The pressure really was enormous.

Song Zicheng flipped the file open, and he stopped breathing for a few seconds. Then, all the blood in his body rushed to the top of his head.

Si Dashu, who was considering whether he should take leave today, had just shut the door, when he heard a bellow from inside. “XIAO SI!”

Si Dashu could only turn around bitterly and go back in to face the raging Song Zicheng.

In the lobby, the grand show of a familial dispute which everyone had been anticipating never came to be. They only saw Zhuo Jingjing, the future stepmother, go over to say hello, but Song Xiao walked past without even sparing Zhuo Jingjing a glance as he directly entered the elevator. He had initially thought that she was an innocent person, but now it seemed that she was actually a prostitute, so he didn’t say much to her.

The receptionist lifted a folder to cover the way her lips couldn’t help stretching wide. The other female actresses who were passing by looked at each other, then did what they had to do as they scattered, pretending that they hadn’t seen anything.

Zhuo Jingjing’s face felt painfully hot. Gritting her teeth, she lifted her feet and followed Song Xiao into the elevator.

Little Theatre

David: Wh- wh- what, what’s all this?

Xiaoxiao: Mother-in-law means mother-in-law

David: I know, but that isn’t the main point, ok?

Fish Tang: (holding wife) You have complaints?

David: …

Zhang Xiaoren: Come stand with me, woof!

Baobao Notes

For those who noticed that Dairi Media became Dari Media, that’s because i’m a big dumdum who accidentally auto recognised da as dai, but later realised that the Da probably is pronounced like Dayu.