Chapter 37: Confidence is Good, conceit is Not.
Chapter 37
A few people went to the twelfth floor. Yu Sheng casually asked a passing employee, "The photoshoot for the Starlight Bracelet this afternoon, which studio is it in?"
"President Yu." The person looked up and saw the company's leaders standing in front of him. He was so surprised that he stammered, "It's... it's the third one ahead."
"Thank you."
There were many photography studios on the twelfth floor. They entered the third one and stood in the shadows just inside the door.
The shoot had just begun. Li Zhen was standing under the soft lights for a test shoot. The photographer took two shots to check the effect, decided it was good, and started the official shoot.
Li Zhen put on the Starlight Bracelet. Her slender hands had smooth, graceful lines that made the bracelet look extremely luxurious.
Wang Peng looked at the female employee with only one hand, overcoming her disability through perseverance. She looked very familiar. After his brain spun wildly for a few circles, he remembered.
Wasn't this the female employee that Lu Yanming had supported on his first day?
She was also the one Yu Sheng had given his lunch to in the office that day.
And it seemed she was also the crew member who got injured during the location shoot, causing Yu Sheng to anxiously rush to the hospital.
"President Yu..." Wang Peng wanted to ask Yu Sheng her name, but saw that Yu Sheng's gaze was tranquil and exceptionally focused on the person being photographed.
The gaze was too profound. Wang Peng thought back to the previous incidents.
Yu Sheng was divorced. Could it be... his wife discovered he was having an affair with this employee?
Sure enough, even the most loving husband would have moments when his heart itched to stray.
Macro Ocean prohibited office relationships, but this was Yu Sheng. Wang Peng would naturally turn a blind eye. Corporate culture was something for others to manage, Wang Peng only cared about the value employees brought.
Wang Peng quietly asked Zhao Yan, "Manager Zhao, what's the name of this colleague being photographed?"
"She's called Li Zhen, President Wang," Zhao Yan immediately answered.
"Oh..." Wang Peng's tone was meaningful.
Zhao Yan: ...What does that delighted expression mean, like you're happily eating up gossip?
"Yanming," Wang Peng's tone was like a gossipy old man in an alleyway. "What do you think of this employee?"
Lu Yanming withdrew his gaze from Li Zhen and looked at Wang Peng. "In what way?"
"... Wang Peng was stumped for a moment, he wasn't easy to chat with.
Wang Peng thought there would be no more conversation today.
But Lu Yanming slowly said, "Nothing special."
Zhao Yan's back stiffened.
Not good, it seems the boss is angry.
He quickly glanced at Yu Sheng.
Sure enough, Yu Sheng's eyes were cold as he said in a frosty tone, "President Lu seems to have quite high standards for employees?"
Under the spotlight, Li Zhen's hand gracefully struck various poses on the backdrop, her long, elegant fingers fluttering like butterflies. Although her exquisite face was outside the camera frame, the interplay of light and shadows from the spotlight emphasized the soft layers of her delicate features.
Looking like this, as long as one had normal aesthetic sense, no one could say "nothing special" about her.
"President Yu, do you remember the Christmas gala our freshman year of university?" There was a moonlit warmth in Lu Yanming's eyes behind his gold-rimmed glasses for an instant.
Yu Sheng was confused for a moment, not understanding why Lu Yanming would suddenly ask about this after saying "nothing special".
But of course he remembered.
Because Li Zhen had been outstanding that Christmas.
The drama department had put on a stage play that year for the gala, The Song of Everlasting Regret.
Li Zhen played Yang Yuhuan.
She wore a long silken dress, with a touch of vermillion on her forehead. She entered the stage covering her face with her sleeve, then slowly revealed her appearance...
Bewitching the country and city.
In that moment, all the teachers and students of the school were stunned into awed silence by her beauty.
In the final scene, Yang Yuhuan flew up into the sky. Emperor Tang Xuanzong only caught a shred of her skirt, it tore, and the beauty left.
Li Zhen rose into the air, her skirts fluttering, her beauty dazzling, drawing in everyone's eyes in a frown and mournful expression.
At the height of the tragic atmosphere, her beauty was like an illusion, proud and desolate.
After that night she blew up on the forums of all the top universities in Jin City. The video clip of her flying up into the sky appeared on nearly every college student's phone. Many girls used screenshots from that scene as their avatar.
For a period of time, nearly everyone used verses from The Song of Everlasting Regret as a trend.
Girls posting a selfie might caption it: A girl has just grown up in this household, raised deep within, still unknown to the world.
Guys making dirty jokes would also pretentiously quote: The spring night is short, the sun rises high, from now on the emperor will no longer attend court early.
Those dumped would moodily post something like: Heaven and earth may end, but this hatred is endless.
"President Yu," Lu Yanming's magnetic voice lowered a few degrees. "I still remember Li Zhen from back then, do you? Do you still remember her?"
Yu Sheng's fingers couldn't help but tremble slightly.
The Li Zhen in front of them now had a wooden expression under the spotlight, nothing like her lively radiance commanding the stage and all eyes.
This was work she didn't love, Yu Sheng knew.
Yu Sheng also remembered her shocked then silent expression at graduation when he made her give up entering the entertainment industry, and her later acquiescence.
But she couldn't enter the entertainment industry.
The dreams she gave up, he would make up to her in other ways.
Yu Sheng took a deep breath, his thoughts calming down. "President Lu, you knew Li Zhen from before? So you recognized her that first day?"
Lu Yanming nodded. "Yes, I often went back to school after graduating, and ran into her more than a few times. She left a deep impression on me."
"That's a bit strange," Yu Sheng's gaze grew cold, his tone turning icy, looking at Lu Yanming with a hint of scrutiny. "We're fellow alumni, yet President Lu said he didn't recognize me at the executive banquet, but you say today you remember Li Zhen? At A University I was much more well-known than her, it seems."
"More well-known than her?" Lu Yanming let out a soft chuckle. "President Yu, confidence is good, arrogance is not."
Wang Peng was baffled. Weren't they just chatting about the past as alumni? Why did it sound like the tone was off?
Zhao Yan was terrified at the side.
The boss's gaze looks dangerous, what's going on?
The four had different thoughts.
At this moment, there was a sudden cry from the set, "Li Zhen!"
Lu Yanming and Yu Sheng both looked over. The huge light on the ceiling rig was shaking precariously.
In the next second after someone called out Li Zhen's name, the light's connectors suddenly broke free and it rapidly plunged down, right above Li Zhen's head.
Li Zhen quickly dodged, but her abrupt movement made her trip over the messy boxes underfoot. As she fell forward, knowing she was about to be smashed by the falling light, two hands suddenly reached out to catch her.
How were Lu Yanming and Yu Sheng here?
She didn't have time to think too much, just one thought - she and Yu Sheng were known to be alumni at the company, but she had no connection with Lu Yanming here.
So in a split second she threw herself into Yu Sheng's arms and was firmly caught.
Lu Yanming's movement froze mid-air.
With a crash, the light smashed to pieces behind Li Zhen.
Yu Sheng held Li Zhen tightly in his embrace, yelling loud enough to shake eardrums, "Who the fuck is in charge, get out here!"
Originally a falling light wasn't a big deal, and no one was hurt, but Yu Sheng's furious blaze was too intense. The person in charge turned deathly pale with fright and hurriedly bent over to run over.
The entire studio descended into chaos, the ruckus so loud that people from other studios also crowded in to watch the spectacle.
Only Lu Yanming stood quietly in place, his gaze heavy behind his gold-rimmed glasses.
The main light was gone, but the fill lights were still bright.
Their glow focused entirely on Li Zhen and Yu Sheng, like it had carved out a safe, quiet space for them in this noisy, chaotic world.