Because Qi Huan held an important piece of leverage over the Long family—leverage powerful enough to make Long Yuan afraid to lay a hand on his own younger brother.
Although Grandpa Qi did not know why his grandson was so calm, he remembered that, aside from being deceived by Qi Yue and Qi Yu, Qi Huan had never made a mistake. So he did not pursue the matter further and merely said, “As long as you can find your biological younger brother, you may use any of the Qi family’s resources.”
“Otherwise, even after I die, I’ll still feel that I’ve failed your mother.”
Qi Huan gave a quiet “Mm.”
Grandpa Qi withdrew his gaze and stared at the constantly shifting balance on the chessboard. “There’s one more thing. Next month is the Qi family’s annual family meeting.”
Qi Huan’s hand, holding a white chess piece, paused.
Every December, the Qi family held a family meeting at the old residence. All the Qi descendants who managed branch companies would gather there to give an end-of-year report on the companies under their supervision.
If a company’s performance fell behind, its manager might face the risk of being dismissed by Grandpa Qi.
That was why, during the final two months of the year, every company manager would do everything possible to boost their performance and win Grandpa Qi’s approval.
Qi Huan had achieved impressive results after taking over a branch company, quickly earning Grandpa Qi’s recognition and being transferred directly to the head office.
He had then naturally put forward his request to bring his younger brother, Qi Yue, back into the Qi family.
During the first three quarters, the head office had flourished, with excellent results. Yet in this final quarter, performance had not increased but declined instead.
In the month after Qi Huan had become paralyzed and handed the company over to Qi Yue, the impact on the Qi Corporation had been considerable. Even after Qi Huan returned to reorganize the company, many people still remained on the sidelines, waiting to see what would happen.
“Bring the results back up during this final month or so. Don’t give the others in the Qi family an opportunity to make a big issue out of this or your legs,” Grandpa Qi said.
“I hope that, by then, the Qi family will have three joyous occasions to celebrate: first, the official announcement that you are the heir to the Qi family; second, your legs recovering; and third, you and that girl, Youli, getting married.”
After playing two games of chess, Qi Huan returned to his room. He showered, then started a video call with Jiang Youli.
When she answered, Jiang Youli appeared on the screen wearing an avocado-green autumn pajama set. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, and she looked relaxed and carefree.
“New pajamas?” Qi Huan asked.
During their previous video calls, Jiang Youli had always rotated between the same three sets of pajamas.
One with yellow ducks.
One with a green bamboo-forest pattern.
And one with black-and-white pandas.
But the pattern on today’s pajamas was unmistakably a cartoon depiction of the three little snakes Jiang Youli kept.
Black, white, and green.
The illustrations were incredibly lifelike.
Jiang Youli could not hide her smile. “Mm. My mom is determined to pick out or design all my clothes now. She says that from now on, she’ll personally design everything I wear, from formal gowns to underwear, panties, and socks. That way, everything will fit perfectly, and I’ll never end up wearing the same thing as anyone else.”
Qi Huan smiled. “Then from the inside out, you really will be the only one of you in the entire world.”
“That’s what my mom says too. She wants me to become the most unique version of myself in the world.” After saying that, Jiang Youli could not help sighing inwardly. “I’m practically becoming a total mama’s girl. I say ‘my mom’ all day long. Children who have a mother really are treasures.”
“You are a treasure.”
Qi Huan’s sudden words were accompanied by an unusually serious look.
Seeing him so solemn for once, Jiang Youli burst out laughing. “Why are you suddenly being so serious?”
Qi Huan said softly, “I always want you to know exactly how I feel about you. You’re not the kind of person who takes the initiative to express affection, so I have to keep reminding you how much I like you.”
“I know, I know.” Jiang Youli tried to suppress her smile. To be honest, she used to find words like these unbearably cheesy. But when Qi Huan said them, they sounded rather pleasant. “All right, I’m going to sleep.”
“Okay. Have sweet dreams, Little Li’er. Good night.”
“Good night.”
After ending the call, Qi Huan stopped the recording and lay down on the bed. He watched the video he had just recorded.
He recorded every video call he had with Jiang Youli.
Whenever the dead of night left him feeling empty, he would take them out and watch them over and over.
The more he watched, the fuller his heart became.
…
The next day.
When Jiang Youli arrived at Starlight Entertainment that morning, Secretary Little Yang immediately followed her to her office and anxiously reported, “President Jiang, Gale Entertainment’s new drama, The Rise to Glory, has announced its female lead, male lead, and main cast. It’s caused an absolute sensation.”
“The female lead is, without a doubt, the popular young actress Yu Linglong. The male lead is the Best Actor Yang Yufan, whose popularity is incredibly high!”
“Even the major supporting roles are being played by very famous artists.”
“On top of that, they’ve also brought in an especially prominent veteran actor—Zhang Youlin.”
“With all these people involved, The Rise to Glory has attracted an extraordinary amount of attention.”
Jiang Youli sat down in her office chair and calmly turned on her computer. “Oh. Looks like Gale Entertainment has spent quite a lot of money marketing The Rise to Glory in advance.”
Secretary Little Yang said anxiously, “President Jiang, Gale Entertainment has beaten us to everything. If The Rise to Glory airs before ours, A Path to the Azure Clouds is likely to lose a lot of attention. Anyone can see that The Rise to Glory was deliberately made to imitate A Path to the Azure Clouds. The original novel’s fans have been mocking it online, but television ratings have never depended on a group of fans alone.”
Jiang Youli first logged into her social media account, then opened Weibo. “There’s no need to panic. Let Gale Entertainment promote their drama as wildly as they want. No matter how much they spend on marketing or how many popular stars they hire, it will all be money down the drain.”
Sure enough, the hashtag “The Rise to Glory’s Male and Female Leads” climbed to the top of the trending list.
It seemed that Gale Entertainment really had spent a fortune on marketing this time.
[Holy crap! Gale Entertainment is really going all out this time. Yu Linglong is one thing—she is, after all, the eldest daughter of Gale Entertainment. But they actually got Best Actor Yang Yufan to play the male lead, and even the eighty-year-old veteran actor Zhang Youlin has come out of retirement for this!]
[This cast is seriously worth looking forward to!]
Quite a few fans of the original novel A Path to the Azure Clouds also showed up to criticize it:
[This is obviously trying to copy A Path to the Azure Clouds! They couldn’t buy the rights, so they made a knockoff instead. Shameless!]
[What’s the matter? Your idol didn’t invent the time-travel genre. Does using the same genre automatically make it plagiarism?]
[Using the same time-travel premise isn’t necessarily plagiarism. But the female lead also comes from the countryside, is also pursued by several princes, and also relies on her talent to become the first female official in the imperial court. You don’t see that kind of plot often in television dramas, do you?]
“All right, President Jiang.” Seeing that Jiang Youli was not panicking in the slightest, Secretary Little Yang could only calm down as well.
After all, she had been working with the new President Jiang for some time and knew very well what she was capable of.
Not long after Secretary Little Yang left, Jiang Youli received a call from Uncle Liang.
“Uncle Liang, what is it?”
“That’s the situation, Girl Li. You should know Zhou Zerui, right?”
