Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

BEEP! BEEP BEEP!

Old Luo went downstairs to the parking lot, worrying. His pain-in-the-ass client had run off, and with fans pouring out of the venue, it would be a nightmare to get a cab. Just then, he heard a car horn honk up ahead.

He looked up. The headlights flashed—it was Hu Zhenning’s RV.

A wave of warmth washed over Old Luo when he saw the vehicle was still there.

’The kid might have a bit of a ’young master’ temper, but he’s always been a good person at heart,’ he thought. ’He’s considerate. He was probably worried I wouldn’t be able to get home!’

Scrambling onto the bus with his short legs, Old Luo started complaining to the driver, "Next time, I’m definitely not wearing these damn skinny pants. I can’t even run in them..."

Just then, a chilly voice cut in, "This afternoon, weren’t you the one saying they were ’divine pants,’ guaranteed to be ’absolutely dazzling’?"

The stylist had told him three times that the pants were a size too small, but he had insisted on squeezing into them.

He even skipped his thermal underwear just to wear them.

"Ha, haha... Buddy, I thought you’d already left."

"I wanted to leave. But it’s crawling with fans out there. What was I supposed to do, fly?"

Hu Zhenning shot him a look. Even a fool could hear the sarcasm dripping from his words.

The more you engage with him when he’s like this, the worse he gets. Old Luo didn’t take the bait.

"Hey, let’s just wait here for a bit. The crowd will disperse soon."

After so many years in the business, Old Luo could guess what the situation was like outside.

Hu Zhenning’s Weibo had already blown up. Some of the nearby fans would surely ignore the warnings and flock over, wanting to see if he was okay.

"Come on, let’s record a quick video to let everyone know you’re safe."

Business was more important in the end. Old Luo suppressed his emotions and started arranging the work.

Assistant Number One, sensing the tense atmosphere, brought over a plate of freshly washed strawberries.

"Brother Luo," she said sweetly, "have some strawberries. Brother Ning specifically asked me to wash them for you."

’This girl really knows how to read a room,’ Old Luo thought, deciding not to call her out on the white lie.

Assistant Number Two pulled up a video. "Brother Luo, we already filmed this while we were waiting for you. Brother Ning said to let you review it before posting, just in case there are any issues."

Old Luo sat down, glanced at Hu Zhenning, and ignored the video. He started eating the strawberries directly, one after another, emptying half the plate in the blink of an eye.

At first, he’d been a little timid, afraid that Hu Zhenning would actually throw in the towel and go home to inherit the family business. But as the strawberries went down one by one, he seemed to regain his strength, and his tone hardened:

"Who am I doing all this for? I haven’t had a single sip of water since this afternoon! And no offense, but what you did today was completely reckless! I was out front helping the police with their investigation, and you were in the back making trouble for me. You know to show me the video before posting now, but why didn’t you think to ask me before you posted on Weibo in the first place?"

His perfectly good plan had been completely derailed by him. The more Old Luo spoke, the angrier he got!

"Is getting concentrated sulfuric acid thrown at you some kind of good publicity? And you’re rushing to take the blame? Do you have any idea how ruthless that Wei woman is? If you dare to admit today that Ni Bingyan saved you, you’ll have to repay her handsomely later. Otherwise, just you watch and see if she doesn’t secretly screw you over!"

Hu Zhenning, furious that Old Luo still had the nerve to yell at him, retorted:

"So what do you think I should have done? Would my reputation be any better if one of my die-hard fans threw sulfuric acid at someone else? Believe it or not, if I hadn’t taken the fall for this today, no actress would ever be willing to work with me again!"

This agent of his was good at everything, except that sometimes his perspective was too narrow.

"And don’t even try to say that fan was from another fandom who infiltrated ours. You and I both know exactly what happened! The fan club is managed this poorly, and you’re blaming me? If I hadn’t acted decisively today, all Ni Bingyan would have to do in an interview is say one thing—’For my own personal safety, I’ll be more careful when considering co-stars for future projects’—and I’d probably never get a male lead script again!"

He already had a lot of scandals from the last big IP that he couldn’t shake off. He’d finally managed to land a male lead in a movie with decent box office numbers. If all that effort went down the drain because of this, he’d probably cough up blood from regret!

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand these things, nor was he actually stupid enough to be duped by those two women. He had simply chosen the path that was more advantageous to him.

The person who threw the acid would end up in jail no matter who their intended target was.

As a man, since he was already involved, pushing the blame onto a girl would be just too despicable.

"I told you that you were reckless, and you didn’t believe me! Give her ten times the guts, and she still wouldn’t dare say that!"

Old Luo frowned, deeply displeased that his own client was so afraid of Ni Bingyan.

Being afraid of Wei Shuojie, fine. But Ni Bingyan? ’That girl looks so gentle and meek,’ he thought. ’Even when she’s angry, it probably just looks like she’s pouting. What’s there to be scared of?’

Hu Zhenning was speechless.

His agent might not know Ni Bingyan’s temper, but he had experienced it firsthand. She seemed friendly with everyone, but in reality, she was the queen of passive-aggressive sarcasm.

She never cursed, but she could often reduce someone to utter shame with just a few well-placed remarks.

In fact, it would be better if she actually said what he’d quoted. If she came out with something like, "Collaborate? The kind that gets you disfigured?" he’d probably become meme material again. Just the thought of it made his scalp tingle.

Old Luo was good at many things, but he often underestimated people, always thinking he had everything under control when, in fact, unexpected things happened constantly.

"And you’re still mad at me? Let me be clear. I saw you back there earlier. I left without waiting for you on purpose because I didn’t want to argue with you in front of them! You think I didn’t notice all those little moves you were pulling?"

Using him for publicity was one thing. But using someone else, sacrificing their reputation to build his own, was something he couldn’t accept.

’A man of integrity has lines he will not cross. A gentleman’s conscience is clear.’

Realizing this was the root of the problem, Old Luo was speechless.

"My publicity plan has three steps. We just started step two! Step three was the clarification! What does it matter if people misunderstand for an hour or two? Isn’t it a good thing that I’m giving her all this free publicity? I’m not an idiot. Why would I dare to offend your Sister Wei?"

"The problem is, did you discuss it with them beforehand? You just went ahead and did it? I’ve told you before, Ni Bingyan isn’t like other female celebrities! She doesn’t like being used for hype! She never gets into ambiguous ’relationships’ with anyone. What you did is shameful, even for me!"

Ni Bingyan was only three years older than him, basically his contemporary. While others were honorably acting in movies and calmly waiting for awards afterward, he could only rely on publicity stunts to stay relevant. When he wanted to take a movie role, he was afraid of taking on too much screen time, worried he couldn’t carry it.

He knew his own situation best. Despite all the press releases hyping him up as the next big serious actor, the truth was, he’d been sprinting down the path of publicity stunts for years.

It was a bitter thought.

The two of them had once spent a long time together on the same film set, and he had witnessed her excellence up close. Hu Zhenning refused to drag her into his publicity stunts.

’I’m already inferior to her in every way. If I lose my integrity too, wouldn’t she look down on me completely?’

"When did you ever tell me that?"

The young man’s sensitive pride wouldn’t let him admit his inner thoughts.

"How can I just casually talk to you about other female celebrities? If I say more than a couple of sentences, you’ll just assume I’m involved with them!"

Seeing the two of them getting more and more heated, the assistant hurried over.

"Brother Luo, Brother Luo, please look at the video! We’re still waiting to post it on Weibo!"

Both men took a deep breath.

Old Luo took the tablet and silently watched the video. Hu Zhenning was quiet for a moment before letting out a sigh.

"We should be more meticulous with our work from now on. Taking things for granted will only lead to major losses."

This time, Old Luo didn’t say a word.