Chapter 30

Ji Linyu didn’t need to do anything. Just standing there quietly, smiling at her, was enough to make her blush and her heart race.
Before Ji Linyu could approach, Zhu Xinyue gave up all pretense and fled the room in a panic.
As she rushed out, Ji Qingyuan, who had plans that morning, had just opened his door and stepped out.
He saw Zhu Xinyue dart past him like a gust of wind, heading straight for her room. She opened the door, slipped inside, and closed it behind her in one fluid motion.
Her eyes… were healed?
Just as Ji Qingyuan was about to feel happy for her, he heard another door open. Turning, he saw his older brother stepping out of his room, shirt unbuttoned halfway, a sight that invited speculation.
Wait, hadn’t Zhu Xinyue just run from his brother’s direction? Ji Qingyuan’s expression shifted repeatedly, and the look he gave Ji Linyu grew increasingly suspicious.
“Don’t overthink it,” his brother said simply. Ji Qingyuan breathed a sigh of relief, until he added, “We’re not at that stage yet.”
His brother turned and went back into his room, closing the door behind him. The hallway was left to Ji Qingyuan, who was still processing the overwhelming implications.
No way? His childhood friend... is going to become his sister-in-law?!
Back in her room, Zhu Xinyue threw herself onto the bed, treating the pillow as Ji Linyu who had teased her, and punched it several times fiercely.
Hmph! That big jerk, Ji Linyu!
After venting her frustration on the pillow, Zhu Xinyue finally calmed down.
When exactly did he figure it out? She had acted so convincingly! Hugging the pillow, Zhu Xinyue lay on the bed, replaying all the slip-ups she might have made along the way.
The more she thought about it, the more she realized it wasn’t her deceiving him, but him pretending to be deceived by her.
What "afraid she couldn’t see," so he carried her out of the car, he never used to do things like that before. And holding hands interlocked? He probably did that on purpose just to make her reveal herself.
Zhu Xinyue felt inexplicably hot and fanned her face with her hand to cool her flushed cheeks quickly.
This round, she had lost so miserably!
Zhu Xinyue didn’t know that she had already won last night; she just wanted a chance to even the score.
A strange competitive spirit ignited within her!
Just as Zhu Xinyue was lost in her chaotic thoughts, there was a knock on the door.
A servant informed her that she had a visitor.
Originally, her manager, Brother Hu, had come to pick up Ji Qingyuan for a magazine shoot. But as soon as he heard from Ji Qingyuan that Zhu Xinyue’s eyesight had recovered, he immediately slapped his thigh, had his assistant take Ji Qingyuan to the shoot first, and turned back to see Zhu Xinyue.
He had to prioritize Zhu Xinyue, who was still a budding talent.
"Yue! This is wonderful! Your eyes can finally see again! Ever since your accident, I haven’t had a single good night’s sleep, the dark circles under my eyes are worse than when I first entered the industry..." As soon as Brother Hu saw Zhu Xinyue, his eyes welled up with tears, even more emotional than she was, genuinely overjoyed that her sight had returned.
After all, his artists were his livelihood; if they did well, he did well!
Zhu Xinyue poured a glass of cold water for this burly man weighing over a hundred jin to help him calm down.
"Brother Hu, you’ve worked hard."
After her accident, Brother Hu, as the manager for both her and Ji Qingyuan, had been run off his feet. When Ji Qingyuan was busy, the manager was even busier, and on top of that, Brother Hu had to bear the brunt of the fans’ anger, his personal social media comments section had been flooded and torn apart by Ji Qingyuan’s fans.
Brother Hu held the palm-sized glass, downed the cold water in one gulp, composed himself, and then got down to business.
"First, this." Brother Hu took out a card and placed it on the table in front of Zhu Xinyue. "Qingyuan mentioned that your relationship with your family is... complicated, and you ran away from home to come to Tianze City back then.
"After you signed with Jin Huan Group, the company took out insurance for you. The money in this card is the insurance payout after the accident. As for medical expenses, fees for specialist consultations, and the like, don’t worry, our big boss said to put it on his account."
Brother Hu was sharp; he suspected there might be some undisclosed relationship between Ji Linyu and Zhu Xinyue, especially since it was the first time he’d seen Boss Ji so concerned about someone. But he wasn’t entirely sure and didn’t dare ask too much, so he kept his speculations to himself, quietly observing Zhu Xinyue’s expression.
Zhu Xinyue thought back to her argument with Zhu Shilang at the hospital that day. Reflecting on it now, there really wasn’t much to fight about, it was just a matter of differing perspectives and positions.
“How much is in here?” Zhu Xinyue asked.
Brother Brother Hustured a number and said, “Also, your scenes in ‘Peach Blossom Spring’ have all been filmed, and your salary is on this card too.”
Seeing him hold up seven fingers, Zhu Xinyue asked, “Seventy thousand?”
Brother Hu coughed and said, “Seven figures.”
Zhu Xinyue gasped sharply, nearly biting her tongue.
Having worked part-time jobs before, she knew how hard it was for ordinary people to earn money. Hearing “seven figures” now made her grit her teeth with a mix of love and resentment.
After processing the shock, she clutched the card but didn’t think about what to buy with it. Instead, she considered how this could serve as startup capital for her future earnings.
Indeed, spending someone else’s money versus spending your own felt entirely different.
“Aside from the card, there’s the matter of your upcoming work. I didn’t schedule anything else for you earlier because your eyes hadn’t fully recovered, but now your schedule is wide open. Do you have any new ideas about your future career path?” Brother Hu probed cautiously.
If she really had something going on with Boss Ji, she might not plan to dive deeper into this industry.
Previously, Zhu Xinyue had prioritized fulfilling the original host’s wishes. Now that she had accomplished the goal of protecting Ji Qingyuan’s path to stardom, only the wish to reconcile with the Zhu family remained.
“I want to make money.” Zhu Xinyue needed a certain level of financial stability to stand up to the Zhu family, rather than being as passive as before, shut down by Zhu Shilang’s remarks about how she could never repay them, leaving her speechless.
Brother Hu thought to himself, This girl still has ambition.
“If you want quick money, then do variety shows. Recently, Fruit TV is planning a girl group reality show, they bought the rights from H Country next door and are adapting it locally…”
As Zhu Xinyue listened to Brother Hu describe the show, it sounded strangely familiar. Suddenly, she remembered something she had overlooked before.
She had transmigrated into a book, and the timeline was right at the beginning of the novel. The story spanned a long period, and at this point, many variety shows and dramas that would become huge hits in the future were still in pre-production.
Besides that, some industries that would later become trending were still in their infancy.
“Send the variety show details and scripts to my email first. I’ll take a look later.”
Zhu Xinyue already had ideas forming in her mind. After finishing her conversation with Brother Hu, she returned to her room, opened her laptop, and began researching and comparing the differences between this world and her original one.
Judging from the pace of technological development, this world was at least five years behind her original world.
In a way, Zhu Xinyue could be considered as having come from the future.
The information gap between the two worlds was her greatest golden finger.
Although she had this advantage, she couldn’t abuse it recklessly, lest she alter the course of major events and render her "foresight" useless, just like how she had changed the novel’s plot from the very beginning, leading to a storyline that now completely diverged from the original.
While researching, Zhu Xinyue discovered that Jin Huan Group’s business empire was vast, with investments in many industries that would become trending sectors in the future. Besides Jin Huan Group, other large corporations had also recognized the future value of these industries even earlier than she had.
Perhaps Jin Huan Group and those other major companies were the very winds of change.
All she needed to do was ride that wind.
Self-awareness was a virtue. Zhu Xinyue didn’t believe her current abilities were enough to change this era or compete with those large enterprises.
Zhu Xinyue opened her office software and began drafting a business proposal.
First, set a small goal: earn one billion.
Once she started focusing on making money, Zhu Xinyue entered a state of intense concentration, losing track of time. She even had lunch in her room.
As the sun set, the light in the room gradually dimmed.
Zhu Xinyue faced the glowing screen of her computer, sorting through the variety shows and TV dramas sent by Brother Hu. After careful consideration, she made her decision.
[Brother Hu: Are you sure you want to produce this variety show? It’s just a small online program. The regular cast members are, to put it nicely, veterans, but to put it bluntly, they’re washed-up celebrities. It might not gain much popularity after it airs.]
[Zhu Xinyue: I think it has a lot of potential.]
[Brother Hu: …Alright, at least the filming schedule isn’t too long.]
The online variety show Zhu Xinyue selected was a management-style slow-paced program called "A Moment, A Scene." The regular cast included a former Asia-wide superstar and film emperor who hadn’t acted in years.
When the show first launched, it suffered from a lack of funding and couldn’t afford promotion. It relied entirely on the film emperor’s loyal fans to spread the word organically. The guest stars in the early episodes weren’t well-known either, they were mostly the film emperor’s industry friends, including directors, producers, and faded singers…
It wasn’t until the second-to-last episode that the daughter of one of the film emperor’s fans made a video. Initially intended to help her mom promote the film emperor, she ended up binge-watching from the first episode, finding herself both crying and laughing throughout. She realized it was a hidden gem and her promotional video was featured on the homepage, quickly amassing millions of views.
Marketing accounts and other self-media outlets caught wind of the trend and jumped on the bandwagon, fueling the show’s explosive popularity.
After the show went viral, a second season was immediately greenlit. Sponsorship fees exceeded hundreds of millions, and the guest stars became increasingly famous, even Ji Qingyuan appeared on the show in the second season.
Rather than participating as a guest for a appearance fee, it was better to offer help in times of need by directly investing in the show, playing the long game for bigger returns.
Zhu Xinyue stretched, closed her laptop, and went downstairs for dinner.
After working all day, as she sat in the dining room, she was still pondering how to secure more startup capital and whether she should take out a bank loan…
"Miss Zhu, the boss is already on his way back. Would you like to have your meal now, or...?" The private chef had been by Ji Linyu's side for several years now. Even when Zhu Xinyue's eyes weren't well, the convalescent meals she ate were prepared by him.
"Then I'll wait, " Before Zhu Xinyue could finish her sentence, a tall figure appeared at the dining room entrance.
"We'll eat now." Ji Linyu walked into the dining room. Normally, he would sit at the head of the long table, facing the door, but today he didn't head to his usual seat. Instead, he pulled out the chair beside Zhu Xinyue and sat to her right.
Zhu Xinyue stared at the platinum luxury watch on his wrist.
He's back quite early today, what time is it even?
Her gaze was so intense that Ji Linyu found it hard to ignore.
"Do you want the watch?" he asked.
Zhu Xinyue thought he meant whether she needed to check the time using his watch.
"Mm." Her phone wasn't with her, and she wasn't in the habit of wearing a watch either.
Ji Linyu removed the watch from his wrist.
Zhu Xinyue held her palm up, ready to take it from him.
But Ji Linyu didn't place the watch in her palm. Instead, he took her hand and pulled it a little closer toward him.
The black crocodile leather strap wrapped around her slender wrist, and the watch face, still warm from his body, pressed against her cool skin, sending a shiver through her fingertips.
Zhu Xinyue looked up at Ji Linyu and quickly explained, "That's not what I meant..."
Even though she had never owned a watch like this, she had heard of the brand. Their cheapest timepiece was worth a house, let alone the limited edition collector's items that Ji Linyu wore.
For her current situation, it was far too extravagant.
"This is what I meant." Ji Linyu fastened the watch on her wrist, then grasped her fingertips and turned her hand over.
The watch face was still too large for her, but at least he'd have a better idea of what size to get for her women's model next time.
Zhu Xinyue stared at Ji Linyu for a long moment.
His eyes were lowered, his thumb resting on her hand, stroking the base of her fingers as if measuring their size.
Meanwhile, the servants and kitchen staff had finished setting the table and serving the meal before quietly exiting the dining room.
With the sound of the door closing, the dining room fell back into silence, so quiet that Zhu Xinyue could hear herself swallow.
"Ji Linyu," she couldn't hold back any longer, a mix of envy and admiration in her voice, "you're so rich."
To give such an expensive gift so casually.
Ji Linyu lifted his gaze to meet hers, his thumb lingering on her ring finger.
"Do you like it?" He didn't care about the value of the gift, only whether she liked it or not.
"I like it." Zhu Xinyue curled her fingers slightly, as if actively holding his hand, then quickly relaxed, letting him keep her hand in his.
She answered quickly, without hesitation, whether it was a perfunctory reply or the truth was unclear.
Ji Linyu pressed down slightly harder on her ring finger, as if punishing her for not thinking before speaking.
He said meaningfully, “I was asking about a person.”
Completing his sentence, Do you like rich people?
Or… Do you like him?