President Ji’s Cat - Chapter 8

Two women stood at the elevator door. Ji Chufeng’s gaze was immediately drawn to the woman whose height was nearly level with her own.

The woman had a delicate, palm-sized face with exquisite makeup. Her bright red lip glaze made her skin look even paler, and her beautiful lip shape looked full and inviting under the lights. Even though her expression was neutral, her slightly upturned willow-leaf eyes seemed to give off a spark, softening her overall aura.

Ji Chufeng consciously glanced down, sizing her up.

She found this person extremely familiar.

Her searching gaze was so focused that she didn’t even notice An Yi taking a step back.

The other girl outside the elevator took in the situation. Seeing that Ji Chufeng had no intention of yielding, she had no choice but to step in first and circle around behind her.

Then, the woman walked in as well, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Ji Chufeng.

Throughout the process, the woman looked straight ahead without a single expression, treating Ji Chufeng like a complete stranger. This made Ji Chufeng wonder if she had actually mistaken her for someone else.

That was until she caught sight of a tiny mole on the woman’s ear. Memories of that night instantly flooded her mind—she had gently bitten that ear, and in a moment of mischief, she had purposely licked that mole, eliciting a soft moan from the other woman.

She definitely hadn’t mistaken her.

Ji Chufeng studied her through the reflection in the elevator doors. Her companion that night had been beautiful even without makeup, but now, with it, she was absolutely stunning.

She was more beautiful than any woman Ji Chufeng had ever seen. After all, for some women, the gap between being made up and being bare-faced is vast.

But for her, it was only a matter of being beautiful or even more beautiful.

Their eyes met inadvertently. Ji Chufeng gave her a silent, incredibly charming smile.

“…”

Instead of being captivated by the smile, the woman directly looked away.

Hiss… how cold.

Before she could react, the elevator reached its floor and opened.

The two women walked out.

Feeling thoroughly ignored, President Ji rubbed her nose and turned to ask An Yi, “Who is she?”

“That is Fu Sixue.” An Yi spoke the name without a hint of surprise.

Although Fu Sixue wasn’t currently the most popular artist at Xingyao, her looks were certainly top-tier. It was only logical that President Ji would be interested in her. However, An Yi could never have guessed that President Ji’s “interest” went beyond mere curiosity—the two had already shared a bed.

Ji Chufeng frowned but said nothing more.

The elevator opened at the top floor, and several people met them. Leading them was a middle-aged man. An Yi whispered a reminder: “President Ji, he is the current head of Xingyao.”

“Little… President Ji? Eldest Young Lady?” The person in charge wasn’t entirely clear on the recent changes within the Ji Group and had only just learned that Chairman Ji had an eldest daughter, so he wasn’t sure how to address her.

The title “Little President Ji” reminded Ji Chufeng of that waste Ji Chengye. Plus, she didn’t like the descriptor “Little.” She said directly: “Call me President Ji.”

“Yes, President Ji!” The manager straightened his back and led her toward the conference room. “Welcome to Xingyao. The financial reports for this quarter are ready.” He introduced as they walked: “Our main focus this quarter is promoting newcomers…”

The meeting lasted for an hour. The manager had originally wanted to call in the management team and major agents to introduce them to the new boss, but Ji Chufeng didn’t like crowds and dismissed them, leaving the manager to perform his solo act.

Ji Chufeng didn’t speak the entire time. She just sat there, legs crossed, sitting elegantly like a queen. Occasionally, she would stare at the manager with an expressionless face. It was precisely her silence that put immense pressure on him; he had to secretly wipe away sweat several times.

He felt that this President Ji had a much stronger aura than the “Little” one. Just being stared at by her felt like all his weaknesses were being exposed, making him want to surrender.

When he finished, Ji Chufeng merely gave a hum of acknowledgement, appearing satisfied with his work. The manager breathed a long sigh of relief.

Before he could find another topic, the President, who was flipping through files, suddenly took the conversation on a 180-degree turn.

“Why don’t I see Fu Sixue’s name?”

As soon as she said this, the manager’s expression shifted, and he didn’t respond immediately.

“Hmm?” Ji Chufeng raised her eyelids and set the file aside, clearly intending to dwell on this topic.

“Uh…” An embarrassed look appeared on the manager’s face. “President Ji, I don’t know if you’ve been following the Weibo trending topics lately.”

“Her scandal these past two days has been quite big…” He carefully observed Ji Chufeng’s face. “We are currently handling the termination of her endorsements, which is troublesome. Plus, she hasn’t had many assignments this year, so she hasn’t made much money for the company…”

“The brands want to terminate? Then let them. We haven’t lost anything.”

“No,” the manager explained. “It was Fu Sixue who proposed the termination.”

“…” Ji Chufeng remained silent, appearing to be deep in thought.

Worried the boss would blame him, the manager quickly added: “President Ji, although Fu Sixue proactively proposed the termination, the company won’t cover the penalty fees. She is responsible for all of it herself. This was a consensus reached after negotiations with her, so in terms of profit, we won’t lose out.”

“So you made a profit for nothing, is that it?” Ji Chufeng looked at him with a half-smile, her eyes full of scrutiny, leaving the manager unsure of how to reply.

Ji Chufeng stood up and continued: “Adults should be responsible for their actions. As a partner, since she leaked a scandal that caused sales to drop, she should bear the consequences. She is very responsible, isn’t she?”

She was now even more interested in Fu Sixue. If it were her, she wouldn’t necessarily be willing to pay that penalty fee for no reason.

Manager: “…” As a businessman, he suddenly couldn’t understand this new President Ji’s point.

“However, the company’s handling of this matter is very problematic. Do you think you can wash your hands clean of the fact that Fu Sixue is being blackballed across the entire internet?”

Ji Chufeng curled her index finger and tapped on the table a few times. The muffled sound made the manager’s heart pound.

“First, why did the manager post on Weibo before confirming with the male party? Afraid there wasn’t enough chaos? Second, after it happened, you allowed Fu Sixue’s name to stay high on the trending list. Is the PR department just for show?”

Ji Chufeng glared at him, her eyes sharp. “Don’t think I don’t know what you were thinking—you just wanted to ride the free wave of trending traffic. By disregarding your artist’s reputation, you are derelict in your duty.”

The manager broke into a cold sweat and opened his mouth to protest, but Ji Chufeng cut him off again.

“Finally, failing to handle the matter proactively and instead making the artist pay out of pocket—this is your responsibility as the head of a company.”

If the news of Fu Sixue paying the penalty herself got out, who knows how many people would mock Xingyao for being petty and unable to protect its own artists. Who would dare work hard for the company in the future?

“It’s not… I…” The manager desperately wanted to explain, but President Ji didn’t need his explanation: “Write your resignation report and leave immediately.”

“And Fu Sixue’s manager as well.”

The management system at Xingyao was deeply flawed. Although it made a decent profit every year, the focus was entirely on training “fast-food” idols. Those idols relied on their youth; they were flashes in the pan that faded within two years.

To this day, Xingyao couldn’t produce a single “Ace,” and many veteran actors under their wing were being held back because of it. Gold was being buried in the sand, wasting away their prime years.

Fu Sixue was that piece of gold.

Ji Chufeng learned from her file that she was thirty years old. She debuted at sixteen—this was her fourteenth year in the industry.

She signed with Xingyao five years ago; before that, she was with Fengyu Media. During her time at Fengyu, she was at the peak of her career, landing all the high-quality IPs she wanted. She had several representative works and was a literal gold-standard brand. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Fengyu Media, now a famous star-making factory, made its fortune off her.

But since signing with Xingyao, she had hit rock bottom. In five years, she had only landed five roles—all supporting characters—and mostly did print modeling.

With such refined acting skills, she was reduced to print ads at Xingyao. How could President Ji not be angry?

“Fu Sixue has such high-quality conditions and has produced so many great works. Yet Xingyao signed her and didn’t give her good resources, instead making these instant idols. I don’t know how much money they’ve missed out on over the years. If I don’t fire him, who should I fire?” After the manager left, Ji Chufeng sat in the boss chair and grumbled.

An Yi heard her and explained: “President Ji, you’ve been abroad for years so you might not know. The company Fu Sixue was previously signed to, Fengyu Media, is her parents’ company. It’s normal for parents to be invested in their daughter.”

This confused Ji Chufeng: “Then why didn’t she inherit the family business? Why did she come to Xingyao?”

An Yi said calmly: “Five years ago, Fu Sixue publicly severed ties with her parents, left Fengyu Media, and signed with Xingyao. It caused quite a stir back then. As for why she’s faded from the public eye these past few years, I’m not sure. It might really be as you said—a lack of effort from the company.”

“Looking at the caliber of her manager and a management team obsessed with ‘idols,’ even the best actor would become a has-been,” Ji Chufeng said with disdain, though she was curious about the rift between Fu Sixue and her parents.

She secretly looked up Fu Sixue’s info online. The fallout with her parents was indeed a sensation back then, but there were no specific reports on why they turned against each other. President Ji felt like she had gained no new information.

Just as she was about to exit, a related news item popped up about Fu Sixue. This time, her name was followed by three letters: “VER.” It looked strange.

She thought Fu Sixue was “special” enough for choosing to proactively terminate her contract when she could have just played dumb and kept the money, but it turned out the owner of this skincare company was also “special”—she had actually rejected Fu Sixue’s request to terminate and kept the endorsement contract unchanged.

Ji Chufeng found the official Weibo for “VER.” The account only had a few dozen posts, but the most recent one had gone viral.

The reason was simple: the announcement that they would continue to work with Fu Sixue.

The boldest move was that the official account had turned off the comments, leaving only the earliest ones visible. Those anti-fans of Fu Sixue were left hanging there like they were pinned to a pillar of shame. In the “reposts,” many people were calling on their friends to look at the “idiots” in the comment section.

Ji Chufeng was amused and gave the post a like.

But gossip aside, now that both the head of Xingyao and Fu Sixue’s manager were fired, someone needed to clean up the mess.

Ji Chufeng thought for a moment and asked An Yi: “Where is Fu Sixue now?”

After checking, An Yi replied: “In the gym on the fifth floor.”

Ji Chufeng raised an eyebrow, her interest piqued. Without even putting on her jacket, she headed straight to the fifth floor.

The fifth floor had only two areas: a practice room and a gym. As she passed the practice room, Ji Chufeng looked inside and saw people training.

The gym was much more spacious than the practice room, with a full glass design. Three walls were covered in mirrors to observe one’s body from multiple angles.

Currently, there was only one person in the gym. She was stretching. From Ji Chufeng’s angle, she could only see her back. She wore a sports bra; the lines of her shoulder blades and the tight curve of her waist were very beautiful. Her honey-brown hair was tied up in a loose ponytail.

Her lower body wasn’t as “revealing” as her upper body; she wore five-point tight yoga pants. Generally, sports bras came with matching shorts, but these five-point pants didn’t look like a set—it seemed like she was intentionally covering something up. This made President Ji’s gaze turn playful.

Perhaps her gaze was too prominent, for Fu Sixue finished her last stretch and locked eyes with her in the mirror once more. This time, she didn’t dodge like she had in the elevator.

Ji Chufeng pushed the glass door open and walked in.