After Transmigrated as a Black-Hearted Entertainment Boss [Transmigration] - Chapter 28

Tao Zui lowered his gaze to the phone in his hand. He watched the screen light up under his gaze, and then gradually fade to black over time.

In truth, he wasn’t 100% certain that the person targeting Gu Nan was Lu Junhao. But even if it wasn’t Lu Junhao, this person had to be a high-level executive at Xincan who possessed enough leverage to convince Lu Junhao to foot the bill for poaching talent and investing capital.

In fact, a high-level executive at Xincan fit the identity of the mastermind behind the scenes much better. There was one detail Tao Zui could never wrap his head around: if this person wasn’t short on cash, why hadn’t they directly made a move against Gu Nan?

To put it bluntly, if Lu Junhao were the mastermind, hiring a hitman to commit murder shouldn’t be a difficult task.

And based on the underlying meaning in Zhou Fanghong’s words…

However, speculations regarding the mastermind at Xincan ended there. Whoever this person was, they were not someone the current version of Taoli Entertainment could handle. Right now, they could only endure silently and wait for an opportunity to strike.

With this thought, Tao Zui quietly exhaled a breath of turbid air.

His actions and the existence of the mastermind at Xincan proved that the plot could be altered. However, Long Feifei’s sudden appearance seemed like ironclad proof of the plot’s self-correction. This plunged Tao Zui into confusion, unsure of what to do next.

After all, this didn’t just affect the future of Gu Nan and the other four; it also involved their romance.

Tao Zui looked at a tuft of hair sticking up from Gu Nan’s head due to his deep sleep. While a wave of tenderness filled his heart, he also felt a slight trace of bitterness.

Perhaps Long Feifei’s appearance was simply telling him that no matter how the plot shifted, the core figures who were meant to appear by the protagonist’s side would always show up. Even if he intentionally arranged for them to stay far away, they would still cross paths with the protagonist.

Forget it. Tao Zui lowered his eyelids.

He would let nature take its course. What was meant to happen couldn’t be stopped, and the people meant to arrive would always come. What else could he do? Naturally, he would act as a good spectator, just like how he used to be a quiet reader on the sidelines.

When Shen Yi pushed the door open and entered the General Manager’s office, he happened to see Lu Junhao savagely smashing a glass ashtray onto the floor.

Shards of glass splattered everywhere, and even a section of the smooth, high-end marble floor tiles shattered from the impact.

Shen Yi furrowed his brows imperceptibly, stepped forward to place the documents in his hand onto the desk, and asked gently, “What’s going on here? Why such a massive temper?”

Lu Junhao’s expression twisted for a brief second before he finally managed to rein it in, putting on a huffy, petulant front. “I just ran into a few absolute trash teammates while gaming, which caused me to lose three ranked matches in a row.”

“Even so, don’t throw things. What if you hurt yourself?” Shen Yi’s tone was soft as he leaned sideways to press the intercom on the desk. “Amanda, have someone come in to clean up the office, and contact the renovation company—a floor tile has cracked.”

“Understood, Assistant Shen.” The female voice coming through the intercom was crisp and pleasant, yet it made the anger inside Lu Junhao flare up fiercely.

Amanda was someone Shen Yi had brought over from Universal International. On the surface, she was his secretary, but in reality, it was glaringly obvious whose orders she followed.

Aside from the secretary, there was also the chief financial officer, the human resources director, and even the legal director and the head of the artist management department. Even if they didn’t come from Universal, they knew the relationship between Xincan and Universal, and they understood even better who the actual decision-maker of this company was.

Even though he was the one who founded the company, even though he was the Second Young Master of the Lu family, and even though he was the one who hired these people, Shen Yi had used a mere two months to bring everyone completely to heel.

And far from being able to get angry, he even had to applaud and praise him for it.

He couldn’t let anyone suspect his true purpose in founding Xincan, nor could he let a single person familiar with the Lu family discover Gu Nan’s existence.

Because Gu Nan looked far too much like the members of the Lu family.

Those phoenix eyes inherited from Mrs. Lu, Xi Ying, and her identical smooth contours; that straight, high nose bridge that looked as if it were cast from the exact same mold as Lu Chang’an’s, and that sharply defined, knife-like jawline…

Taken apart, a source could be found for each feature; combined together, he was a living male version of Lu Junxi. Anyone who saw him would bound to remark with emotion—

He matches; he looks simply far too similar.

In his past life, a mere few giant posters had stirred up intense discussions within North City’s wealthy circles, thereby sparking the curiosity of the Lu family. It caused them to involuntarily shift a fraction of their attention onto Gu Nan, only to be rapidly captivated.

He was unyielding, hardworking, and humble. Even though destiny had never been fair to him, he remained upright and kind, refusing to bend his back for money without becoming arbitrarily arrogant. He possessed principles and boundaries, acting with perfect propriety and manners.

A Gu Nan like that drew a fan base whose age demographics spanned an immense range rarely seen in the domestic entertainment circle. It seemed only right that the Lu family would harbor immense goodwill toward him.

In his past life, Lu Junhao hadn’t paid it any mind. Even when products endorsed by Gu Nan gradually appeared around the house, and movie tickets starring Gu Nan became employee benefits at Universal International, he never held this actor in any regard. He had even mocked Xi Ying and Lu Junxi privately with his scoundrel friends, saying they were chasing stars at their age and failing to preserve their dignity in their later years.

It wasn’t until Lu Junxi invited Gu Nan to become the brand ambassador for her clothing line that a certain person panicked.

She charged out without a single care, accusing Gu Nan of mistreating his mother, desperately trying to pull him down from his pedestal and keep him far away from the Lu family.

But she forgot that contemporary netizens possessed miraculous capabilities; their ability to dig three feet into the ground could rival the FBI.

Thus, the fact that she and her husband ignored and abused Gu Nan was exposed. Even the fact that Gu Nan missed the national college entrance examination several years prior due to a bone marrow donation surgery was unearthed.

What followed next happened as a matter of course.

Why would a biological mother trick her own son into donating bone marrow? Why did Gu Nan share an uncanny, mysterious resemblance with the Lu family? Why did the Second Young Master of the Lu family possess round eyes and a round face that didn’t look like a member of the Lu family at all, but rather shared a striking resemblance with Gu Nan’s mother?

Could it be that these two were swapped at birth?

A casual joke from a passerby brought the truth of a swapped-at-birth case from over twenty years ago to light. The dramatic nature of the event provided a half-year-long gossip feast for the vast number of netizens.

Naturally, the Lu family had to welcome back the true Second Young Master Lu, but they didn’t treat the fake young master harshly because of it. The Lu family, renowned in North City as scholarly merchants, had never been people who failed to distinguish right from wrong. How could they blame a mistake made by his mother on him when he was merely an infant back then? Moreover, the bond of upbringing outweighed the bond of birth; he could still remain the spoiled, chaotic young master within the Lu family.

However, Gu Nan was unwilling to return to the Lu family. He had his own career, a deeply loved partner, and brothers who were as close as real kin. He was satisfied with his current state and was unwilling to shatter everything he possessed.

He maintained contact with the Lu family much like distant relatives—offering greetings over the phone during holidays or paying visits to their doorstep. The manners were perfectly in place, but the emotional depth was lacking.

Initially, Lu Junhao was highly satisfied with his tactfulness, feeling that this person at least possessed a bit of self-awareness. But as the other man grew increasingly popular, things began to go wrong.

The family members started keeping Gu Nan’s name constantly on their lips, their words filled with nothing but praise. Yet when they mentioned him, it was always with a sigh of helplessness, and the disappointment in their eyes gradually accumulated over time.

Coupled with the fact that outsiders who knew the truth were constantly gossiping behind his back, in order to curry favor with the Lu family and avoid being thrown out, he had to give up his unbridled, arrogant, and carefree lifestyle. He became cautious, constantly trying to please them and play the good boy.

But he was supposed to be the most arrogant and domineering Second Young Master Lu in North City!

Why should he have to compromise and accommodate? Why should he have to swallow his anger? On what grounds did Gu Nan look down on the identity and status Lu Junhao possessed, ignoring everything he had been proud of since childhood?

On what grounds did he have to become the inferior foil in the old adage: “dragons give birth to dragons, phoenixes give birth to phoenixes, and the son of a rat knows how to dig holes”?

Lu Junhao didn’t want to compromise for the rest of his life, so he began to save himself. After messing up one opportunity after another given by his parents and older sister, he shifted his gaze onto Gu Nan.

If you can’t solve the problem, then just eliminate the person causing the problem.

Lu Junhao was unwilling to look back on everything that transpired before his rebirth, only rejoicing that he could get a second chance at life after death—a chance to set things right.

It was just a shame that the timing of his rebirth wasn’t ideal. It happened right after the surgery concluded, when Gu Nan was discharged from the hospital and entered Taoli Entertainment, while he was confined to his bed and couldn’t go anywhere.

Once he recovered and left the hospital, the first thing he did was eliminate any future trouble.

He secretly contacted his biological mother and sent her out of the country, ensuring she would want for nothing in terms of food and clothing, but ensuring she would absolutely never return. As for his biological father, he didn’t bother looking after him. Before long, this man would squander his savings due to gambling, get beaten half to death by thugs, and ultimately succumb to his injuries, becoming an unclaimed corpse in the newspapers that drew no one’s attention.

The second task was to review his actions from his past life to find the absolute best way to handle Gu Nan. But combining his current circumstances, Lu Junhao discovered that completely destroying Gu Nan was incredibly difficult.

In his past life, he hadn’t begun making moves against Gu Nan until he was around twenty-seven or twenty-eight. Back then, he held a 1% share in Universal International, netting over a hundred million yuan annually in dividends alone; he lacked neither money nor networks.

But back then, Gu Nan was also a Movie Star at the absolute peak of his fame. Due to obsessive stalker fans, he was constantly surrounded by bodyguards, with a massive crowd accompanying his every entrance and exit. Trying to deal with him was intensely difficult, and a slight slip would lead to immediate exposure.

In his past life, it was precisely because his attempt to hire a hitman failed that he ended up behind bars, ultimately dying a tragic death in prison.

The current Gu Nan resembled a broken shack exposed to the wind on all four sides—clearly far easier to handle than in his past life. Yet Lu Junhao discovered that he lacked the funds to pull strings, and it was very easy to startle the target.

The Lu family’s method of educating their children was to satisfy material demands as much as possible but strictly control pocket money. Before turning eighteen, Lu Junhao’s weekly allowance was a mere five hundred yuan. After entering university, it rose to two thousand. He wouldn’t receive the company’s dividend payouts until he graduated.

He could rely on his status as the Second Young Master Lu to get free food and drinks among playboys, and he could seek his parents’ permission to throw massive parties, but he couldn’t pull out much cash to orchestrate hidden schemes.

The only large sums of money he could control were the several hundred thousand yuan of red envelope money given by his uncles during the New Year. Before his illness, this money wouldn’t last past the holiday; after his illness and rebirth, most of it was spent on sending his biological mother abroad.

After mulling it over, Lu Junhao used the small amount of remaining money to quietly register Xincan Entertainment. Then, he intentionally left a trail before Lu Junxi, thereby securing the support of the Lu family.

Using the money and personnel supported by the Lu family to suppress the Lu family’s true son—keeping him mediocre and turning him into a useless piece of trash for the rest of his life, just like himself in the eyes of the Lu family during his past life.

What could possibly be a better revenge than this?

“Everything was clearly going smoothly before…”

After Shen Yi departed, Lu Junhao stared dead at the office door. The impulse of pure fury crashed wildly inside his chest, yet he didn’t dare vent it out ever again. He could only clench his teeth in hatred and endure.

In his past life, he wasn’t familiar with the entertainment industry; apart from a beautiful face, nothing could catch his eye. Even those grand achievements of Gu Nan’s were barely memorized because Xi Ying and Lu Junxi repeatedly droned on about them without ever getting tired of it.

Relying on that bit of memory, he had very smoothly snatched away Gu Nan’s opportunities, watching all the boy’s efforts go down the drain under his manipulation. Even if he couldn’t witness his despairing face firsthand, merely imagining it was enough to soothe him.

Who could have anticipated that Zhou Fanghong would actually be so ungrateful! Rejecting money delivered right to his doorstep!

Lu Junhao paced around frantically in his office like a headless fly, harboring an ominous premonition that things were gradually slipping out of his control.

But very quickly, as if he had just thought of something, his footsteps came to a halt. His eyes gradually lit up, and a smile arched at the corners of his mouth.

He indeed knew very little about the entertainment industry, but he understood the Zhou family! From a young age, he had played alongside the Zhou family’s eldest son, Zhou Fangwei, watching him inherit the Zhou family estate to become one of the top theater chain tycoons in China, constantly surrounded by handsome men and beautiful women, which consequently benefited his brothers… Within this infinitely glamorous landscape, there was absolutely no place for the Zhou family’s illegitimate son, Zhou Fanghong!

He remembered clearly that Zhou Fangwei used to tell everyone as a joke how Zhou Fanghong had liquidated all his assets to shoot a movie in an attempt to vie for inheritance rights, only to lose every single cent and get kicked out of the family mansion.