Su Lanyi was two years older than Shen Qianzhan. Spoiled at home, she had never suffered much hardship from childhood to adulthood. Her only descent from ivory tower to earthly trials should have been when she first left the ivory tower, misjudged people, and was brutally cheated on.

The year Shen Qianzhan met Su Lanyi, the company was undergoing internal division and reorganization. She was just an insignificant project planner at the film company. After serving her internship on the cold bench and becoming a regular employee, her first project brought her into contact with Su Lanyi, who had come to script meetings with the prominent screenwriter Han Xiaoli.

The project lasted an entire year, and Shen Qianzhan worked with Su Lanyi for that whole year. In the end, due to internal company conflicts, the project died in its early filming stages and came to nothing.

Su Lanyi was naturally arrogant, an ambitious person whose abilities matched her dreams.

From acquaintance to familiarity to the project’s ultimate failure, Shen Qianzhan and she went from getting along well to losing contact and breaking ties due to company positions and the project’s end.

Until the second year, when the project was restarted.

When Shen Qianzhan contacted Su Lanyi, she had already established a copyright agency company—the predecessor of Qiandeng.

Only then did Shen Qianzhan learn that Su Lanyi wasn’t a penniless newcomer screenwriter fresh out of society. She was distantly related to Han Xiaoli’s husband, Su Qiancheng. The tedious process of repeatedly revising and advancing scripts had worn away any love she had for the screenwriting profession. After enduring it for a year, when the project disbanded, she opened a company with family investment to do copyright representation herself.

If not for the fact that the project was originally taken on to pave the way for Su Lanyi, she probably wouldn’t have been willing to come clean up the mess.

After rejoining the crew, Su Lanyi and Shen Qianzhan’s friendship rekindled.

Through every night of deadline pressure and sleeping in their clothes, Su Lanyi and she talked about dreams, pursuits, and first love. During the five-month filming period, Shen Qianzhan witnessed her awakening to love, falling into passionate romance, cold wars, breakups, and reconciliation.

After the project wrapped, Su Lanyi returned to being her little rich lady, while Shen Qianzhan seamlessly joined another project crew, with the male lead still being Su Lanyi’s puppy-dog boyfriend.

Initially, everything was still on track. Because of her good relationship with Su Lanyi, he was pleasant and agreeable. Gradually, Shen Qianzhan watched him sneak around, picking wild flowers under her very nose.

After catching him several times, fearing exposure, he both warned and threatened her privately. After countless internal struggles, Shen Qianzhan finally followed her conscience and invited Su Lanyi to visit the set.

Like every melodramatic youth story, she brought Su Lanyi to catch him in the act, and her righteousness was subsequently subjected to unfair torment and treatment in the days that followed.

She and Su Lanyi should have had a very brief intersection of fate at that time, then drifted further and further apart. Perhaps because she had glimpsed the most painful and wretched period of Su Lanyi’s life, leaving an insurmountable gap. Or perhaps, Su Lanyi awakened from this experience and returned to her own world—a world that had nothing to do with Shen Qianzhan.

Later, she fell to rock bottom, trapped in the abyss.

Su Lanyi seemed to pass by coincidentally, remembering their past friendship and extending a helping hand out of pity. But regardless of Su Lanyi’s motives for pulling her up, Shen Qianzhan remained grateful.

All these years, even Su Zan thought the relationship between her and Su Lanyi was an inseparable, intimate friendship. But only Shen Qianzhan herself knew that she and Su Lanyi had never truly been friends.

Not before, and not now.

If Su Lanyi hadn’t mentioned today “Haven’t I told you before? I just love seeing you refuse to admit it—it’s particularly charming,” Shen Qianzhan hadn’t recalled these past events for a long time.

She copied several video clips from the USB to her computer, returned the USB to Qiao Xin, then slightly lifted her chin, gesturing: “You can go out first.”

Qiao Xin couldn’t have asked for more.

Watching the two bosses’ conversation become increasingly private, she had been trembling in the cracks, struggling to survive. Even if Shen Qianzhan hadn’t asked her to leave, she was already thinking of finding an excuse to escape and avoid the storm.

Immediately, she efficiently packed up her things and left the conference room as if wings had sprouted from her feet.

Once Qiao Xin left, the atmospheric pressure in the conference room suddenly dropped, creating a tense, confrontational feeling.

Shen Qianzhan didn’t look up. After moving back to her computer screen and sending the video, she released the mouse and continued organizing files: “When you said this to me last time, was it when you asked if I needed help?”

She tried hard to recall Su Lanyi’s expression at the time. Too much time had passed, and her memory was somewhat blurred. She only vaguely remembered that Su Lanyi hadn’t even entered the door, just stood at the threshold, with her first words being: “I heard about your situation. Do you need my help?”

The second sentence was: “How much money do you need? Let me see how long it would take to gather it for you.”

Su Lanyi’s “appreciation” stemmed from Shen Qianzhan maintaining rationality and clarity even when desperate, politely declining her help. She had leaned against the doorframe, watching her for a long time before saying: “I just love seeing you refuse to admit defeat. When I asked if that scumbag was giving you trouble behind the scenes, you said no. When I asked if anyone at the company was bullying you because of this incident, you also said no. What, were you that afraid of owing me a favor?”

After saying this, she entered the room, looked around, casually took off her shoes and sat on the floor, saying: “Qiandeng isn’t doing well and can’t get off the ground. Since you don’t have any better options anyway, come to Qiandeng.”

She wasn’t too concerned about Shen Qianzhan’s downfall due to production responsibilities. After helping Shen Qianzhan through her urgent crisis, she let go gracefully, whether out of trust in her professional abilities or belief in her do-or-die determination.

So much so that when Shen Qianzhan made a beautiful comeback in just a few years and paid off her enormous debts, Su Lanyi wasn’t too surprised. She just gave a big red envelope and smiled as she blessed her: “Congratulations on your rebirth.”

“That sounds right.” Su Lanyi glanced at her, apparently noticing Shen Qianzhan’s displeasure, and restrained herself somewhat: “You dismissed Qiao Xin just to reminisce with me?”

“What’s there to reminisce about the past,” Shen Qianzhan picked up her coffee and took a sip, asking: “Regarding Qiandeng and Xiang Qianqian’s peaceful contract termination, what conditions did he agree to for you?”

The question came suddenly, catching Su Lanyi off guard, her expression momentarily uncontrolled.

She raised her eyebrows, puzzled: “Why are you suddenly asking about this?”

Shen Qianzhan answered: “I was too embarrassed to ask before.” She was also afraid she couldn’t repay whatever conditions Ji Qinghe had exchanged, adopting the ostrich mentality of covering her ears and stealing bells.

Su Lanyi was somewhat surprised: “You know that Mr. Ji intervened in Xiang Qianqian’s contract termination for you?”

“I know.”

Ji Qinghe’s feelings for her were no longer a secret in the industry.

She didn’t know how many people were aware of this, but Ji Qinghe had never concealed it from the beginning. Like someone determined to win, he was so high-profile that he might as well have published it in the newspapers.

She had become shrewd over the years. Forget about Ji Qinghe’s obvious and subtle approaches—even if he were reserved and restrained, only contributing silently in the shadows, he would still pretend to casually make these quietly accomplished deeds public.

This person was accustomed to calculating. How could he be content with silent devotion that went unrecognized?

Shen Qianzhan might refuse, but she knew about every single thing she should know.

“Xinghai Management released quite a few press releases, planning to break through from your side.” Su Lanyi turned slightly to meet her eyes: “About as I predicted. Although you made early preparations, Mr. Ji still single-handedly promoted the three-party cooperation to ensure your complete safety.”

That’s why Shen Qianzhan’s situation remained calm and stable.

Su Lanyi tucked her hair behind her ear, saying: “I didn’t make things too difficult for Mr. Ji. Considering future cooperation between both parties and for your protection, I only asked for that little bit of sweetness.”

She didn’t want to say more, didn’t give Shen Qianzhan another chance to speak, and changed the topic: “Oh, there’s something else. Last November, Xiao Sheng’s ‘Spring River’ started filming in Hengdian. After New Year, they moved to Wuxi but got trapped by snowstorms within days. The company has already invested money to keep the crew running. If the weather doesn’t improve in a couple days, you’ll probably need to make the trip yourself.”

Xiao Sheng joined Qiandeng at the end of the year before last. Su Lanyi intended to cultivate him, assigning him to Shen Qianzhan’s team for a year to familiarize himself with procedures and accumulate experience. Last November, with Xiao Sheng’s wings barely grown, he took on the role of producer and started filming the period drama “Spring River” in Hengdian. Su Lanyi had specially flown to Hengdian to celebrate with him. Marketing accounts praised Xiao Sheng to the skies, making him quite the sensation for a while.

Shen Qianzhan lowered her eyes without speaking.

Taking over a crew midway was usually thankless work. She wouldn’t get credit for successes, but would have to bear half the responsibility if things went wrong.

Qiandeng had cultivated many producers, but few were as renowned as Shen Qianzhan. Xiao Sheng was conceited about his talents. During the year under her guidance, he appeared humble and eager to learn on the surface, but was internally competitive and accumulated much dissatisfaction toward her.

Every meeting required maintaining surface harmony and friendship since they were colleagues at the same company. Others might not know, but Su Lanyi should have heard something.

This was only because many company employees speculated that Su Lanyi was wary of Shen Qianzhan being the sole dominant force in the production department, deliberately cultivating someone of equal strength to compete with her, thus causing Shen Qianzhan’s dissatisfaction.

And Xiao Sheng, because Shen Qianzhan overshadowed him in everything, also disliked her. In the company, these two usually operated like kings who never met, rarely appearing in the same frame.

Perhaps guessing Shen Qianzhan’s concerns, Su Lanyi smiled, stood up and patted her shoulder: “You’re the only one at Qiandeng who can take charge. The company invested so much money in ‘Spring River.’ If this continues, we’ll lose money whether we film or not.”

With things put this way, Shen Qianzhan had no reason not to comply. She frowned, and though she didn’t express her position directly, she tactfully indicated: “Then we’ll see how it goes. Hopefully everything goes smoothly and I won’t need to deploy.”

As for what sweetness Su Lanyi had asked Ji Qinghe for, she never told Shen Qianzhan until the end.

——

A few days later, Bu Zhong Sui officially announced their spokesperson for Asia—Song Yan.

Song Yan gained Fu Yang’s appreciation and debuted young, reaching her peak immediately upon debut. She later retreated at the height of her career to return to campus, only making a strong comeback last year.

When casting for “Spring River” last year, Shen Qianzhan had dined with Song Yan and was quite impressed by her. Later, when Xiao Sheng specifically chose Song Yan as the female lead, Shen Qianzhan wasn’t surprised. However, while her comeback was strong, her ability to secure Bu Zhong Sui’s endorsement was still shocking.

Even more dramatic was that Bu Zhong Sui also announced a Watch Ambassador that same day—Zhou Yan.

Shen Qianzhan saw the Weibo announcement while packing her luggage. After days of bad weather, her incense prayers were obviously useless. Su Lanyi had issued orders, dispatching her to Wuxi to give Xiao Sheng a hand.

It just so happened that Old Shen and his wife’s flights were cancelled due to snow, and they were worrying about being trapped in Beijing until the snow melted. This coincided with Shen Qianzhan’s business trip to Wuxi.

As Mother Shen chattered while placing organized clothes into the suitcase, Shen Qianzhan lay on the bed edge, wondering whether Zhou Yan was the “little bit of sweetness” Su Lanyi had asked Ji Qinghe for.

Before she could figure it out, Ming Jue sent her a schedule, asking if she was available in the coming days so he could arrange the Xi’an trip.

Only then did Shen Qianzhan’s head buzz, replying: “I’m traveling for business recently. The Xi’an trip will have to be postponed.”

Ming Jue quickly called her. After learning that Shen Qianzhan was going to Wuxi on business with an indefinite return date, Special Assistant Ming rarely fell silent for several seconds.

Shen Qianzhan also remained quiet for a few moments, then proactively asked about Ji Qinghe’s situation: “Has your Mr. Ji been busy lately?”

Ming Jue held his phone, turned to look at Ji Qinghe working at his desk, and answered fairly while leaving room for interpretation: “Mr. Ji is as always.”

Upon hearing this, Shen Qianzhan didn’t know what to say and simply remained quiet.

She and Ji Qinghe hadn’t seen each other since parting in the residential parking lot that day. Even when Qiao Xin sent the meeting contents to Ming Jue, it was two days later before she received Ming Jue’s phone feedback.

Shen Qianzhan couldn’t figure out Ji Qinghe’s intention for the sudden distance, but with his earlier compromise followed by his persistence, after days of thinking, her only conclusion was that she was a scumbag—she had no other insights.

She thought about it and decided to hang up.

She had just drafted some polite closing remarks when someone else took the phone. His voice carried slight laziness, light and casual: “I hear someone’s been thinking about me?”

Shen Qianzhan: I’m not, I haven’t, don’t make things up.