Chapter 61

Chapter 61

On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the day of welcoming the God of Wealth, Chi Tuo met face-to-face for the first time with the legendary golden agent Yan Wan.

At the negotiation table of Huanzhou Entertainment, seated across from them were Huanzhou's legal team, Yan Wan, and two senior company executives—among them, Guan Shengyu, the Third Young Master Guan who had once sent a food truck to An Ye.

On An Ye’s side were the legal team brought by Chi Tuo, Qi Wei, and the two assistants she had brought along.

There were quite a few people on both sides—the large conference room was completely filled.

An Ye was dressed very much like a movie star today: an ivory form-fitting sweater paired with a dark green embroidered long skirt, a matching ethnic-style sweater necklace, light makeup, shoulder-length hair styled into big curls. She sat quietly next to Chi Tuo, wearing a faint, distant smile—one that employees at Huanzhou were very familiar with.

The two sides' legal teams had been locked in a tug-of-war for five straight days. After New Year’s Eve, Chi Tuo had barely slept more than an hour at a stretch. That morning, when he came to pick her up, he’d forcibly taken two slices of ginseng from her pocket and put them in his mouth.

Still dressed in all black.

So with her bright, vivid outfit beside him, she stood out starkly.

Yan Wan couldn’t help but glare at her several times.

His days had been miserable. Chi Tuo had come for the sole purpose of crushing him. Over the past five days, the information Chi Tuo’s side had provided Huanzhou Entertainment was more than enough to land Yan Wan in jail.

Yan Wan had always had terrible relationships. His life had gone too smoothly; he looked down on people, flattered those above and trampled those below. Once Huanzhou’s employees learned he might be taken down, many began to secretly provide dirt—a classic case of the wall falling and everyone giving it a push.

So although he still sat on Huanzhou’s side of the table, dressed sharply in a suit and tie, his eyelids were swollen, his face pale with a sickly hue, and his eyes glimmered with a trace of madness.

He still couldn’t believe he had ended up in this situation because of a crazy woman.

She was clearly so far gone she barely recognized people anymore—her sleep intervals grew shorter and shorter. After finishing a shoot, she’d sit there dazed and unresponsive when called. He had countless videos of An Ye losing it, and even medical records from Wang Shanshan. In those videos, An Ye’s manic behavior made it impossible to believe she was just “acting.”

A real lunatic—completely different from performing. Anyone with eyes could tell the difference.

Lan Yifang was a fool. An Ye’s stiffness and muttering during shoots? He had known for a long time, had filmed it many times. Only that fool Lan Yifang still treated every incident like a crisis, locking herself in a room with An Ye.

Just a few days ago, the stylist who was preparing to work with Qingze even sent him another video of An Ye having a breakdown. He looked into it—this was called a dissociative state. An Ye had schizophrenia. Even if she didn’t yet, it was close.

Celebrities were just tools for making money. Identifying risks and eliminating them was the core duty of an agent. Rather than waiting until An Ye’s madness became public and she couldn’t act anymore, it was better to set the stage early and shift this proud movie star into a new lane.

After all, the film industry was already nearing its end. There was no money to be made. Better to switch careers.

Yan Wan didn’t think he’d done anything wrong. He was creating maximum value—for the company, and for himself. Even on the day An Ye stabbed him in the back, he’d still forced himself to go to Wang Shanshan’s house on New Year’s Eve to host some reporters, prepping them in advance. Once Yang Zhengyi’s film wrapped, he planned to publicly expose An Ye’s mental condition.

By then, she barely had any endorsement deals left.

He had done the math—it wouldn’t cost much. The traffic from news of An Ye’s breakdown would more than cover the losses.

But then that idiot Wang Shanshan started fighting with him over a few tens of millions in penalty fees. An award-winning actress’s mother, penny-pinching to the point of clinging to scraps. Then, just as the reporters arrived, he hadn’t even begun when he received a string of calls from the company.

The company said: An Ye wanted to terminate her contract.

When he first heard it, he thought it was some end-of-year prank from the company.

An Ye? With that kind of brain?! Even if Qingze wanted to terminate, it would’ve made more sense than An Ye doing it.

But it turned out to be true.

He was just one step away from making An Ye switch lanes.

He was unwilling to accept it. He also refused to acknowledge the legal department’s accusations. He was the artist’s agent. If he told the artist to do something, they had to do it.These people don’t have any brains. They’re just a bit better looking. Without him, they were nothing. Without him, An Ye would still be acting in web dramas at some third-rate company!

What right did she have!

And that man sitting next to her now—what were all those things listed in the slides about him?!

“These are all points of consensus we reached in our previous meetings,” Chi Tuo flipped through over ten pages of the PPT. “Your company did indeed breach the contract during the time it had a working relationship with my client, Miss An Jiujiu, resulting in economic losses for her…”

Yan Wan stared at Chi Tuo.

He recognized this endlessly eloquent lawyer—the same one who had been standing beside An Ye when rumors about her and Qing Ze had spread. A highly educated man. An Ye had mentioned he was a childhood friend. Wang Shanshan had brought him up on New Year’s Eve, saying she had a lawyer who was like a son to her—it was him who had reminded Wang Shanshan about the issue of penalty clauses.

So, they had planned everything from the start. He was the only one kept in the dark.

“Heh.” Yan Wan suddenly let out a cold laugh.

Chi Tuo, in the middle of his speech, stopped and looked at him.

The assistant to the general manager sitting next to Yan Wan awkwardly smiled and tugged at Yan Wan’s sleeve.

Yan Wan had been brought here to apologize and soften his stance. The evidence An Ye’s side had provided was solid and comprehensive. The company had already decided to abandon Yan Wan and let him bear full responsibility. The legal department had already started preparing the lawsuit.

Their current position was simple: Yan Wan’s actions had clearly and undeniably breached the contract. In the past five days, public opinion online had snowballed beyond their control. Several artists Yan Wan had once managed—and who had since quit the industry—had stepped forward with videos, audio recordings, and even lawsuits.

The fact that Yan Wan had mentally abused artists was already a nailed-down conclusion. The company’s PR could only shift focus to Huanzhou’s current internal mismanagement. They had to paint it as not the company condoning abuse of artists, but rather Yan Wan acting on his own for personal gain.

Huanzhou was already in a passive position and didn’t want to truly lose An Ye, so they showed enough sincerity: they would establish a highly autonomous personal studio for her. Apart from needing to submit financial reports during annual audits, Huanzhou would not interfere in any way.

But even with that, An Ye’s legal team refused. They insisted on going through the liquidation process—calculating An Ye’s previous financial losses and offsetting them against the termination fee.

An Ye would rather pay a massive fee to gain her freedom.

So today, they brought Yan Wan out, hoping he could read the room and play the emotional card with An Ye. After all, he was the one who had brought her into Huanzhou. Her previous agency would never have gotten her that Best Actress trophy.

Before the meeting, Yan Wan had agreed readily.

After the meeting started, he remained silent for over an hour. His first words were a mocking “heh.”

“Do you have an opinion?” Chi Tuo looked at Yan Wan, asking politely.

“What opinion could I possibly have?” Yan Wan grinned. “You all had this planned from the beginning, laid a trap and waited for me to walk into it—and now you want to ask my opinion?”

Chi Tuo was silent for half a second.

An Ye, sitting beside him, was actually quite worried this severely sleep-deprived man might suddenly lash out and hit someone. After all, he had some combat training, and it was rumored he’d kept practicing all these years.

But the suited adult Chi Tuo simply said, “You’re overthinking it. You’re really not that important.”

There was never any need to lay a trap specifically for you.

An Ye lowered her head to hide the fleeting smile on her face…

The conference room fell silent for a second.

At the exact moment Yan Wan tried to explode, the assistant beside him forcibly held him down.

“Let the agent step out,” Guan Shengyu said blandly. “The company’s management really does need to be restructured. Not just anyone should be allowed in on such important occasions.”Yan Wan didn’t leave.

The assistant holding him down looked thin and small, but his strength was frightening. Yan Wan was pinned to the chair so hard that veins bulged from his forehead, and his shoulders felt like they had been crushed.

He looked at Guan Shengyu and rasped, “Director Guan, the important person hasn’t arrived yet. There’s no need to rush to kick me out—I can still be of use.”

Guan Shengyu frowned at Yan Wan.

He was the person who least wanted An Ye to leave. On the professional side, they had fewer and fewer marketable actors left. Without good scripts or good actors, it would become incredibly hard for Huanzhou to continue. He didn’t want this massive ship to end up steering toward the kind of fan economy Lian Zhen wanted. That wouldn’t last—it was bound to implode.

On the personal side, if it weren’t for some concerns about An Ye’s mental health, he probably would’ve already pursued her. She was too beautiful, soft-spoken, low-maintenance, with an artistic temperament. In today’s entertainment industry, she was a rare breath of fresh air.

He liked her—liked her enough to consider dating, to give her the best resources.

So he had advocated for a conciliatory tone in this meeting. They were already on the back foot—pushing the issue of breach penalties any further would only drive An Ye away.

But the company wasn’t run solely by his father Guan Li anymore. Lian Zhen’s stance was simple: if they could keep her, keep her. If not, get the penalty money, tarnish An Ye’s reputation through PR before the contract termination, and suppress her future market value.

In business, it’s all about cutting losses in time.

An Ye’s termination fee was a huge sum—enough to groom several new idols.

Guan Shengyu remained silent in thought.

Yan Wan was now clearly part of Lian Zhen’s camp.

And if someone from that side were to go down, it would only be a good thing. Yan Wan was dirty, and digging into him would uncover plenty more. That worked in his favor.

So he didn’t stop Yan Wan right away. After glancing at An Ye, he asked, “Who else important is coming?”

Yan Wan smiled.

The assistant let go of Yan Wan’s shoulders. Yan Wan took out his vibrating phone, glanced at it, picked up, and walked out.

Outside the door stood Wang Shanshan, dressed to the nines and seething with anger.

“I don’t agree!” Wang Shanshan was startled for a moment by the number of people inside the room, but then stiffened her neck and immediately shouted, “My daughter’s not in her right mind! I’m her only guardian—I don’t agree to her terminating the contract with the company!”

The smile on An Jiujiu’s face had already faded. Hearing Wang Shanshan say this, she couldn’t help but laugh again.

Chi Tuo glanced at her and patted her on the shoulder.

In full view of everyone, after patting her shoulder, he squeezed her hand, slipped her a piece of candy, and then stood up, unhurriedly walking over to Wang Shanshan. He handed her a copy of a contract.

“Auntie,” Chi Tuo said, “this is a copy of the guardian intent agreement signed between Jiujiu and me. This one is a certificate assessing her current mental condition and her capacity for civil conduct. You may take a look.”

Wang Shanshan was dumbfounded the moment she saw Chi Tuo. Her hands trembled as she took the documents.

“She is twenty-seven years old. When her narcolepsy is not active, her mental condition is sound. She is a legally competent adult, fully capable of handling contract matters on her own.”

“Even if she happened to fall asleep during the termination process and temporarily lost civil capacity, her legal guardian would not be you—it would be me.”

“So,” Chi Tuo looked at Guan Shengyu, “I believe Madam Wang Shanshan does not need to be present at this meeting. I also hope your company, under the principle of friendly cooperation, will present terms acceptable to both parties and refrain from creating unnecessary complications.”