"I'm their chaperone for the night, Sir. Please don't mind me." Su Xiaofei said with a wicked smile on her face, ignoring how Song Yiran was curiously looking at her.
Had she been hiding from the public for too long? Not really. People should have taken notice of her when she attended the birthday banquet with her husband not too long ago. Perhaps this old perverted man wasn't able to recognize her due to the poor lighting within the room and the way she was dressed tonight.
The drinks continued to pour in, but none of it touched Su Xiaofei's lips as she knew that she needed to be in charge of tonight. With Ye Mingyu within the vicinity, she also needed to keep an eye on Xiao Rufeng, just in case Ye Mingyu was planning to pull a dirty trick on her.
"Miss, are you sure you won't join the fun?" Song Yiran asked her with a wicked grin on his face.
"Sorry. I need to drive tonight." Su Xiaofei declined the glass he was offering her and gave him a pointed glare. If anything, she could see that Song Yiran was trying to make fun of her tonight, as if he was amused by the situation she was in.
Song Yiran shrugged and didn't bother her anymore. "If you say so."
"Pity." CEO Zhou laughed. "You look like a smart girl, but it would be too good for someone like you."
Su Xiaofei rose a slender brow at that. It wasn't the first time she was looked down on by a man like him. In her previous life, she was constantly reminded that she could only be a trophy wife or a wallflower. People just expected her to be beautiful and not smart, and she hated the way they looked at her.
"Oh? How so?"
CEO Zhou shrugged and draped an arm on the couch, drinking his brandy in one go.
"Just thinking that it would be a pity not seeing your beautiful face in public. Why hasn't VP Fang offered you a contract? With a face like yours, wouldn't it be easy for you to reach stardom?"
Even Song Yiran didn't seem like he was pleased with what he'd heard from his companion. He gave Su Xiaofei a concerned look, but she didn't seem like she was offended by the old man's words.
Because she knew that what he said wasn't true at all. She was more than just a pretty face, and she certainly could do better without people hounding her for her looks. As for what the old man claimed, that was definitely not true.
It takes so much more than relying on a pretty face alone to become a queen and reach the peak of stardom. Many actors honed their crafts for several years, and it would be unfair to degrade them like this. Acting was an art not everyone was good at, and even with her beautiful face, Su Xiaofei had never surpassed the level of a B-rated actress.
See? Even Bai Qingyue, whose looks weren't so different from hers, took more than a decade to get to where she was now. Tang Liyan just got lucky to have gotten a second chance to be able to redeem the status she almost had in the past.
It was really annoying for Su Xiaofei whenever people made such remarks towards her, as if her value was nothing more than an eye candy. Look, her mother even started Bluemedia from scratch and spent so many years cultivating it, so why couldn't she do the same?
"The world is changing. It seems to me that CEO Zhou still doesn't acknowledge that women could be more."
CEO Zhou scoffed at that, dismissing Su Xiaofei's words.
Yueying glared at him, wanting to say her piece, but Su Xiaofei held her hand and shook her head.
"Eyeing such an impossible dream, huh?" The man continued his insults. "It's already surprising that your new president is able to keep Bluemedia afloat at this rate. Although Ms. Yun surely gave her daughter the proper education and mentorship she needed, once she gets married, wouldn't that mean she would need to succumb to her husband's wishes? He would surely take over Bluemedia and run it himself."
His eyes then turned to the four women, who had been uncomfortable the moment they arrived here, but they were slightly relieved knowing that their manager was here with them.
"As for them, weren't they here to give a performance and entertain us in exchange for money?"
A sound of glass hitting the hardened floor startled everyone in the room, their eyes turning to Song Yiran, who had obviously lost his cool midway hearing CEO Zhou's insult.
"I won't hear another nonsense from you, CEO Zhou. Our business ends here tonight."
"W-what?" CEO Zhou's face paled upon hearing Song Yiran's words. "What the hell are you talking about?"
For the first time since Su Xiaofei met him, Song Yiran sneered, a vein almost popping on his temple.
"Pretty sure you've heard what I said clearly. I'm a damn fool for bringing someone like you to invest in Bluemedia. I was clearly mistaken."
Su Xiaofei's brows hit her bangs upon hearing what Song Yiran had just said. Indeed, Bluemedia would have nothing to do with CEO Zhou even if her mother was still the head of the company. Her Uncle Fang must have made an error in judgment when he allowed her girls to meet this horrible man.
"But I don't understand…" The older man said in panic. Whatever Song Yiran had over CEO Zhou, it would probably cost the older man a fortune.
The other man adjusted his glasses as he shivered in his seat, as if he wanted to be anywhere but here.
Song Yiran grimaced then glanced at Su Xiaofei, but she remained calm in her seat.
"Well, well, Mr. Zhou. If you still haven't recognized the person in front of you, then you might really have a bad eyesight."
"What?" The older man snapped his head and looked at Su Xiaofei.
"CEO Zhou, nice to meet you. I'm Su Xiaofei, the manager of Full Moon and head of Bluemedia Entertainment." Su Xiaofei said with a tone of mockery.
The colors on CEO Zhou's face changed from white to black, then white again as he looked at her in disbelief. To think that he'd been insulting the very person right in front him… he didn't know what to expect now.
"Ah, CEO Zhou, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable." Su Xiaofei said as she crossed her shapely legs and rested her chin on her propped hand over the side of the couch. "But I'm pretty sure that the last thing my husband would do is to take Bluemedia from me, considering a business empire is enough to keep him busy."
Song Yiran rose to his feet and faced Su Xiaofei, while the four women stared at Su Xiaofei confusedly. When did their manager get married?
"I'm sorry, Big Sis. I should have known better."
Gone was his playful and flirty persona, but a man who was deeply concerned over his brother's wife.
"Big Sis?! You know each other?" CEO Zhou's exclamation brought everyone's attention back to him.
"Why, of course." Song Yiran harrumphed as he crossed his arms over his chest. "The woman you've been insulting all this time is the wife of a very dear friend of mine. President Su and I were also schoolmates, so we are familiar with each other. So I apologize Mr. Zhou, I don't think my company and Lu Conglomerates would want to do business with you. You are on your own now." He then turned and slightly bowed his head at the four women.
"Ladies, let's meet some other time, shall we? Please forget this embarrassing night and pretend I never introduced this man to you."
He was calm as he spoke, but Su Xiaofei knew that he was anything but calm on the inside. She had never expected one of her husband's brothers to stand up and protect her.
CEO Zhou and the man who turned out to be his secretary panicked when Song Yiran made a move to leave.
"Wait! What does this mean?!" He demanded. He'd been trying to approach Song Yiran for the sole reason of getting in touch with Lu Conglomerates.
Su Xiaofei barked into laughter as she looked at the pathetic man.
"Shall we get you a dictionary, then?" She offered, earning a furious glare from the man. It was obvious that he was still oblivious of his offense after Song Yiran explained the situation to him.
Song Yiran scowled and buried his hands in his jacket.
"You want to meet Mr. Lu, right?" Of course he was well aware of CEO Zhou's intentions towards him, but the old man didn't dare to deny it as he nodded.
"Then convince his wife to meet you, right after you just insulted both of them in her face."
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