Chapter 49 - Counterstrike ("WanWan, we are already engaged. Why are you still calling me Mr. Mu?")

Having used a lot of magic and spoke too much, Xu WanZhi crashed onto the bed and fell asleep as soon as she got home. It was already dark when she woke up.

She logged onto Weibo to look at the trend – sure enough, it was a very poetic day on Weibo. All sorts of explosive news were released and Xu WanZhi was certain that all of those who had paid to reserve a spot on the most trending list in advance had lost every single dime that they had spent.

Along with Mu ZhenYu's behind-the-scene effort, all of the Weibo that accused her of having casual relationships had been removed. Now the top three on the most trending list were #Chen Jin set up Xu WanZhi#, #The Qin's Corporation under investigation#, and #Chen Jin being boycotted by several famed directors#.

During the few hours that Xu WanZhi was sleeping, Chen Jin was slammed by almost all netizens royally on almost every single platform. She had already turned off the comment area on her own Weibo page but anywhere that her name appeared online, there would be no shortage of passersby coming to slam her.

Finally, even those from the entertainment circle had joined in and the first of them being Director Jiang ChenXi of Plainness.

Xu WanZhi recalled that the day that her photos were released, Jiang ChenXi called and asked her what was going on, worried that her scandals would negatively impact Plainness. Now that she was able to clear herself, he was also the first to call and congratulate her. In a sense, he was trying to make it up to her.

The third topic on the most trending list #Chen Jin being boycotted by several famed directors# was started by him.

Chen Jin had earned the title of film empress years on ends but, due to limitation of her age, she had run into bottleneck in her acting career. She was hoping to sign with Plainness, tear apart Xu WanZhi, and climb back to her apex. But now that this had all blown up, she wouldn't even get any contract at all.

Under the hot searches, there were many interesting feedbacks from the netizens. Some of them even edited Chen Jin's face onto the same photos:

[Film Empress Chen Jin turned into photo-editing guru. That a lot for getting a role. I think she'll be just fine even if she's not in another show ever again. She can always start her own company and offer up her photo-editing service. She just might make more doing that than acting.]

[It's just photo-editing. Everyone can do that. Watch me do it to Film Empress Chen. Guaranteed to make her look better than a snake demon.]

[Chen Jin had clearly demonstrated to us the text book case of the uglies have a lot of drama.]

[Oh shoot, now that she is being blacklisted by all the directors, how am I going to see her live shows going forward? What would I do for fun then? Who's going to make me laugh in the future? Laugh-Till-I-Cry.jpg]

[Hasn't she been trying to taint WanZhi daily and called her "little Chen Jin"? Why does she take on the role as the middle-aged and elderly version of Xu WanZhi in Blossoming Us? I want to see how good she can be.]

[Middle-aged and elderly version. LOLOL. But, seeing that Blossoming Us was left behind by WanZhi, I doubt they'd use Chen Jin.]

After Xu WanZhi clicked out of that topic, she clicked into #The Qin's Corporation under investigation#.

Even though there was nothing official, but many netizens had already said that the Qin's are already being re-evaluated for their qualifications in participation of Project Falcon. Should they find any issues with that, the Qin's would not only be disqualified from the Project, they'd also be sued.

1 PM in the afternoon, when the stock market had just opened, the Qin's stocks had plummeted. After this incident, the front entrance of the Qin's were surrounded by shareholders, reporters, and many from the general public who worried about their investment and demanded for an explanation.

Among all of the other news, Xu WanZhi immediately spotted the one that stood up the most: [Qin Sheng contacted Angel Investor Feng Chun for an emergency meeting].

While their stock prices were plummeting, their capital chain being severed, and their corporation under investigation with possibility of being assessed a penalty, reaching out to Feng Chun was, indeed, a very good idea. Xu WanZhi couldn't help but frowned – she wasn't sure if the dirt that she had tossed out would be enough to last until the Qin's went belly up. She worried that if Feng Chun was truly as mighty as Bai Fei had described, he just might be able to save the Qin's.

She pulled out her cellphone and pondered over whether she should give Mu ZhenYu a call. She knew that he usually caught wind of these news way before she did. But this one time, at this very critical moment, she was truly worried that he just might missed it because he wasn't paying close attention to Weibo.

Opening up her contact list, she looked down until she found the surname Mu and that's when her phone rang.

It was a call from Mu ZhenYu.

She picked it up immediately. "Hello, Mr. Mu?"

His relaxed voice that suggested that he was smiling came from the other end of the phone. "WanWan, we are already engaged. Why are you still referring to me as Mr. Mu?"

Xu WanZhi blushed when she heard that. She almost forgot what it was that she wanted to tell him.

Mu ZhenYu did not continue to pursue the subject but just asked, "Have you had dinner yet?"

Xu WanZhi shook her head. "No, not yet."

"Then get ready. I'll have my chauffeur go and pick you up."

Xu WanZhi thought about it for a second. It might be better to talk about Feng Chun with him face to face anyway so she agreed with his suggestion.

Mu ZhenYu brought her over to a club. It wasn't like the one that she had been to when she followed behind Chen Jin when she met up with Chen Yi. This one had customers from all walks of life. It was cacophonous and lively.

Xu WanZhi was taken over to the couch area. Mu ZhenYu ordered her a set of western food but only a glass of wine for himself.

When the steaming steak was served with the delectable smell, Xu WanZhi picked up the utensils unfamiliarly before she remembered to look up at him and asked, "Mu… ZhenYu, have you had dinner yet?"

Mu ZhenYu's lips curved upward. His smile under the light was somewhat perverse. "So you finally dare call me by my name now? I've already eaten earlier."

"Oh…" Xu WanZhi lowered her head, cut and fed herself a little piece of meat. "Then why did you take me here?"

Mu ZhenYu lifted up his hand and stroke her plump forehead with his long fingers. He brushed back hair stray hair to behind her ear. "What's wrong with taking my fiancée out to dinner?"

Xu WanZhi's heart itched. She lowered her head and remained silent.

Her shy look made an invasiveness inside of him stirred. He suppressed that stirring inside of him, leaned back in the couch and said, "I want you to meet someone today as well."

"Eh?" Xu WanZhi stopped in her actions and looked around. "You invited someone else?"

"Keep eating. No need to stop." Mu ZhenYu turned around and pointed at a rounded table not too far from them. "The person that we are going to meet is sitting over there."

Xu WanZhi looked over at the direction that he was pointing at and saw a few familiar faces.

They were Qin Sheng, Mu XiYuan, and Feng Chun.

Did the three of them get together to see how they could get through this crisis?

"The Qin's stock price had hit rock bottom. The contact person on Project Falcon had already reached out to me and wanted to terminate the process for the purchasing of Cobra. If this situation lasts for another week or two, then even if I could resolve my credential issue with University of Pennsylvania, the Qin's would still be turned down by Project Falcon due to poor management. If that happens, all our investment will be gone," said Qin Sheng.

Xu WanZhi glanced over that stealthily and saw that Mu XiYuan had chimed in, "Mr. Feng, you have mentioned before that you desire a three-party partnership that would allow us to take out Mu ZhenYu. I think now is the time for us to launch our attack. I, too, would demonstrate my readiness to you."

Feng Chun only smiled after he heard that. He lowered his head and took a sip of wine from his glass.

After w long while, he looked up and asked the other two of them, "I wonder if the two of you had did some research into my capital before you sought me out in excitement. I trust that as both of you are very exceptional businessmen, you would, naturally, have done your homework.

Qin Sheng and Mu XiYuan exchanged a looked and both of them nodded. "Of course. That goes without saying."

"In that case, how come neither one of you seem to be aware of where the funding for me, an angel investor, came from?" Feng Chun smiled and ironed out the folds on his suit with his hand. "Truth was, the capital from the two rounds of investment did not come from my own money. It came from… Huanyu."

"Huanyu?" Qin Sheng sat up disbelievingly.

"Exactly." The corners of Feng Chun's lips lifted up even higher. "Truth was, the two round of investments that have been injected into the Qin's came from the capital from Huanyu's bankruptcy. How did you think Huanyu went bankrupt? What you didn't know was that the investments were approved by Mr. Mu ZhenYu. Which means, he was the real dormant shareholder of the Qin's."

Having said that, Feng Chun pulled out a copy of a contract. "This is the anonymous agreement that the two of us have signed for your reference."

The minute that Qin Sheng saw the contract, he turned pale. Xu WanZhi, too, was very surprised.

So, the entire time that the Qin's were doing better and better and almost winning over Project Falcon were all orchestrated by Mu ZhenYu from behind the scene?

She tightened her lips and was deep in thought. She did not notice that Mu ZhenYu was observing her this entire time.

Mu ZhenYu stood up, waved at Feng Chun, and looked back down at Xu WanZhi. At this distance, he could only tell that their mouths were moving but couldn't hear a word that they were saying. This girl, on the other hand, judging from her focused look, seemed to be able to hear them perfectly well.

Could his speculation be true?

Qin Sheng, having just found out the truth, was infuriated. Lifting up his right hand, he pointed straight at Feng Chun's nose and growled at him. "Feng Chun, you set me up with Mu ZhenYu?"

Feng Chun chuckled and didn't care that Qin Sheng was angry. He looked at him as though he was looking at a clown. "Don't be so melodramatic. You were just a broke little boy when you returned from studying overseas. You turned to me for help because you wanted to save the Liang's and ensure the quality of life for Miss Liang. Several rounds of investments later, my investment had allowed your Qin's Corporation to go up and up. But didn't you stop while you were ahead? No. Your ambitious grew as well and wanted to become the top dog in this circle. That was all your own greed. If you weren't so ambitious, I trust that Boss Mu would easily have let you off the hook."

Qin Sheng turned, gave Mu XiYuan a look, and said, "Feng Chun. Aren't you worry that the Qin's and the Mu's would join force and destroy the Feng's for having cross me so?"

"The Qin's and the Mu's? Which Mu's?" Feng Chun raised his brows, looking like a rich kid. "I only know of Mu ZhenYu as far as the Mu's are concerned and I am already working with him. So why are you going to join force with?"

Xu WanZhi was listening carefully when she suddenly heard Mu ZhenYu's voice coming from above her. "WanWan."

"Hmm? Xu WanZhi paused for a second and quickly looked up. "What's the matter?"