Yan Ruyu was once immensely popular, and even now, the signing fee couldn't be less than three to five million, if not ten million!

Zhang Xinlan's direct and crazy haggling was practically an invitation to war!

Surprisingly, Zhang Xinlan's antics did not incite Yan Ruyu to jump up in rage. Instead, she smiled knowingly.

"I understand my current worth. Even if I had my days in the sun before, I'm just a has-been now!" Yan Ruyu said. "Ten million was me shooting for the moon! One million may be on the low side, but it's reasonable. However, once I sign with your company, you must support me fully, create momentum for me, and I want to return to the entertainment circle in the strongest way possible!"

Yan Ruyu was negotiating terms with Zhang Xinlan. If she had been a newcomer, she wouldn't have had this privilege, but having once been on par with Liu Shihua, she naturally had the right to bargain.

"Rest assured, you are one of the most important artists for our future," Zhang Xinlan promised. "We will utilize our resources to the maximum extent for you!" Zhang Xinlan saw great potential in Yan Ruyu and was willing to back her strongly.

"I have one last condition!" Yan Ruyu said.

"Speak!" replied Zhang Xinlan.

"Ye Chen is the chairman, and I will be an artist under him, but I don't want to be subject to any underhanded tactics!" When Yan Ruyu spoke these words, her expression was extremely quirky, and her tone was very flirtatious.

"Can't you speak properly!" Ye Chen demanded, his face stern. Yan Ruyu's light words were a matter of his reputation, and his chastity, and he would not allow Yan Ruyu to slander him like this.

"Do you think he would dare?" Zhang Xinlan laughed, taking Yan Ruyu's words as a joke.

"That would be best. Just make sure someone keeps their hands to themselves in the future! Also, don't casually wander into women's underwear stores!" Yan Ruyu teased, not clarifying whom she was referring to.

"Ye Chen, have you ever been to a women's underwear store?" Zhang Xinlan frowned, intrigued by the volume of implications in Yan Ruyu's statement.

"Never been there," Ye Chen shook his head, appearing very natural. "Yan Ruyu, don't insinuate. Did I go to the lingerie store with you?"

"You!"

Furious, Yan Ruyu found Ye Chen's implication too much to bear, suggesting as if something was going on between them! Nonetheless, she didn't dare offend Ye Chen too much, as he was still to be her boss.

Ye Chen glared at Yan Ruyu menacingly, picked up the coffee in front of him, and gulped it down in one go, even licking his lips afterwards.

Ye Chen's provocative action caused Yan Ruyu's cheeks to turn instantly rosy, filling her with shyness.

"Miss Yan, what's wrong?" Zhang Xinlan asked, puzzled by Yan Ruyu's abnormal behavior.

"Nothing, nothing at all!" Yan Ruyu replied dismissively, her cheeks flushing even more.

Just as Ye Chen finished his coffee, Yan Ruyu had an epiphany and remembered that the coffee Ye Chen drank was the one she had intentionally spat into!

Ye Chen had drunk the coffee mixed with her saliva, and the way he looked at her now felt like a challenge to Yan Ruyu.

"Excuse me, I need to take a call!" Zhang Xinlan, who failed to notice the strangeness between them, took out her phone and walked to a quiet corner.

"Don't talk nonsense in front of Zhang Xinlan, understand?" Ye Chen warned Yan Ruyu, his voice thick with threat.

"Disgusting, shameless!" Yan Ruyu retorted indignantly. Ye Chen's act of drinking her saliva was revolting to her, the man truly had no shame!

"Yan Ruyu, I've always had an interest in beautiful women! So you must obey, or I might do something even more disgusting," Ye Chen said with a wicked smile on his face.

"You!" Yan Ruyu's face was covered with anger, Ye Chen's salacious words inciting a mix of shame and fury in her.

"I have a particular fondness for women with long hair reaching their waist, especially a beauty like you. You make my heart race!" Ye Chen gazed at Yan Ruyu, his eyes filled with an unrestrained desire. "So you better not say anything to provoke me, or I won't know what I might do to you!"

Yan Ruyu lowered her head helplessly, Ye Chen was clearly threatening her, warning her not to speak about his visit to the lingerie store or how he bullied her.

"Ye Chen, it's terrible, there's a problem with the renovation at the company!" Zhang Xinlan hung up the phone and hastily approached Ye Chen to inform him.

"What's the problem?" Ye Chen asked with a frown.

"The phone call wasn't very clear, but it seems our manager and the workers are about to come to blows!" Zhang Xinlan's face showed urgency. "We need to hurry over; there's a standoff with a hundred and eighty workers, and I can't calm the scene. This is something you'll need to take care of!"

Zhang Xinlan was capable, a true strongwoman adept at strategizing. She could easily handle networks and relations, but reasoning with a group of construction workers seemed unreliable to her, and this was where Ye Chen's role would come into play!

"I'm your company's future heavyweight artist, yet you leave without even a courtesy word, what an annoying guy!" Yan Ruyu muttered to herself while Ye Chen and Zhang Xinlan had already left.

...

"Zhang Xinlan, you're finally here!"

Zhang Xinlan had just gotten out of her car at the company when she was immediately met by a middle-aged man who had clearly been waiting there for some time.

"Li, have the workers started fighting yet, and has anyone been injured?" Zhang Xinlan asked anxiously.

"They haven't started yet, but it looks like it's about to happen. I've already called 110 to report it, the police will be here soon!" Li said.

"What exactly happened? Why are they fighting?" Zhang Xinlan asked, eager to understand the cause of the dispute.

"I'm not entirely sure myself. Mr. Xu, one of our managers, saw a worker stealing materials from the site, so he went to report it to Wang, the foreman. I don't know what they said to each other, but they're about to come to blows!" Li explained. "Wang has fifty or sixty workers under him, and Mr. Xu also manages dozens of people. All in all, that's nearly a hundred and eighty people involved. If they really start fighting, this could turn into a big issue!"

"Why didn't you stop them?" asked Zhang Xinlan.

"Miss Zhang, I wanted to stop it, but I was by myself. I got pushed out before I could even get close or talk to the foremen!" Li exclaimed, clarifying that it wasn't for lack of wanting to intervene but rather a lack of capacity to do so.

"This won't do; I must go and stop them. If there's fighting on the construction site and someone gets hurt, or worse, dies, how can I continue the renovation of my company, let alone open for business in the future!" Zhang Xinlan said, her pretty face tense with urgency.

"Miss Zhang, please don't be rash. There are too many people in there, all strong men towering and robust. With you being such a delicate beauty, what if something happens to you?" Li began to dissuade her when he saw Zhang Xinlan moving toward the site.

"I can't just stand by and let them fight in front of me!" asserted Zhang Xinlan. The company bore her hard work and Ye Chen's dreams. She couldn't let it all come to nothing at this stage.

Seeing Zhang Xinlan's determination to stop the fight left Li sweating with anxiety, thinking why the police hadn't arrived. If Miss Zhang went in there and got an arm or leg twisted, the situation would indeed get out of hand!

As Li fretted, he noticed that Zhang Xinlan was stopped by a man.

"This is a man's business. It's not appropriate for a woman to step in. Let me handle this," said Ye Chen, unwilling to let a woman take such a risk at a critical moment.

"But it's dangerous in there!" Zhang Xinlan voiced her concern.

"Have you forgotten what I used to do?" Ye Chen said with a slight chuckle, his smile carrying a calming strength.

"Then, please be careful!" Zhang Xinlan blinked, suddenly recalling Ye Chen's unbeatable prowess, remembering him as someone who could hurl a car as if it were a brick!

"Miss Zhang, who is he?" Li asked, curiously eying Ye Chen's receding figure.

"He's my man, the person in charge of the entire company!" Zhang Xinlan declared.

For some reason, Zhang Xinlan felt a natural sense of pride as she spoke these words—pride gifted to her by Ye Chen. She was proud to be his.

"So he's your lover, the Chairman!" Li exclaimed, hurriedly saying, "Miss Zhang, you wait here for the police. I need to follow the Chairman to prevent any mishaps."

Ye Chen made his way to the construction site, his stride neither hurried nor slow, casually walking with hands clasped behind. He didn't appear to be someone there to break up a fight but rather a senior executive inspecting work progress.

Ye Chen didn't ask Li where the workers were causing trouble because the whole site was filled with cryings and cursings, allowing him to locate the workers by sound alone.

"Fuck your mother, who are you saying is stealing?"

"I'm saying it's you, don't think I haven't seen you, you've stolen several times already!"

"Damn it, so I've stolen, what about it? Don't agree? If you want to fight, then let's fight!"

"Shit, you're really too arrogant!"

Nearly a hundred workers faced off, wielding shovels, steel bars, hammers, and wooden sticks—anything they could use as a weapon. The scene was quite a spectacle.

Seeing this, Ye Chen's face turned grave. With so many people raising weapons capable of killing, if a melee did break out, having only three or five fatalities would be considered few.

"Fuck, Li, I gave you face, and you're not taking it. Today, I'll butcher you! With so many people around, even if you die, it would go unnoticed, and the police won't be able to find out who did it!" Just then, a thunderous roar came from deep within the crowd.

"Brothers, grab your weapons and kill this son of a bitch!"

Upon the foreman's roar from within the crowd, all the heated workers lifted their arms and began advancing with improvised weapons in hand.

"Enough!"

At that moment, Ye Chen suddenly let out a booming shout, unleashing a technique akin to the Lion's Roar Skill. His voice boomed like spring thunder, overpowering all other noises and causing everyone's eardrums to ache.

...

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