Contrary to what the reporters expected, Jin Chonglin didn't speak right after the announcement to clarify the reason why he decided not to stay with Bright Summit. The entertainment company's president continued speaking instead.
"All of you must be wondering why Iris Long is also here with us on the stage today beside Jin Chonglin, who is now her brother-in-law." The president found Jin Liwei in the audience and gave him a warm smile. "By the way, all of us at Bright Summit send our sincerest congratulations and best wishes to the newlyweds CEO Jin and Iris Long."
Jin Liwei nodded with a smile but his eyes were on his wife the whole time.
"Thank you, President," Iris Long replied, a bright smile on her face.
She pulled up the exquisite red, silk scarf she was wearing around her neck and lowered her head for a few seconds, covering her mouth and nose, seemingly acting shy. However, her husband knew that she was sniffing his scent on the scarf. She had rubbed the scarf all over his naked body last night knowing that she needed to attend today's press conference and might get dizzy from the surrounding smells.
"This brings us to the second important announcement today." Bright Summit's president paused and looked at all the reporters for dramatic effect. "Following Jin Chonglin's departure from Bright Summit, we and Iris Long have jointly and amicably decided to terminate her contract. She will also no longer be an artist signed with Bright Summit Entertainment Company after this month."
Compared to Jin Chonglin's decision not to extend his contract with Bright Summit, this announcement about Iris Long terminating her contract with the entertainment company was more shocking to everyone. They knew that she still had a few years left on her contract. This meant that she had to pay a hefty termination fee as penalty to Bright Summit. They studied the expression of Bright Summit's president for any hint of displeasure but the older man was all smiles. Perhaps he was faking it for the cameras or maybe it was because a powerful man like CEO Jin was present, but nobody could glean any useful hints from the president's expression alone.
Terminating a contract before its expiration was usually extremely disadvantageous to the artist. If this were any other celebrity, he or she might be in deep trouble especially if he or she also offended the entertainment company that contracted him or her. He or she might even be blacklisted in showbiz. However, this was Iris Long, the new wife of Jin Corporation's President-CEO Jin Liwei. She now had a lofty status that protected her from this kind of bad situations.
The reporters glanced at the man in question, CEO Jin Liwei, who was also sitting in the audience. Now they began to understand the real reason why he attended today's press conference. He was showing everyone that his wife had his full support and Bright Summit shouldn't dare to perform any monkey business against her.
They were all itching to fire a flood of questions to both Jin Chonglin and Iris Long, mostly to Iris Long because her situation was more interesting, but the host still wasn't letting them.
"Thank you very much, President," the host said, nodding at his boss. "Now we'll move on to the next portion of this press conference. Jin Chonglin and Iris Long also have an important announcement to make today."
Jin Chonglin took the mic in front of him and greeted everyone again, not forgetting to charm everyone with his killer smile. "I already have an idea of the kind of questions you want to ask me and my sister-in-law, but I want to clarify something. Although the two of us are leaving Bright Summit, we are doing so very amicably with the company. There are no hard feelings. None at all."
Not many believed his claim. After all, he had been Bright Summit's biggest star and fattest cash cow. And although Iris Long's current fame and status in showbiz couldn't be compared to a superstar like him, her extraordinary achievements so far and rising popularity since her first comeback was without a doubt a great asset to Bright Summit. There was no way that Bright Summit would just let the two of them go without any bitter feelings.
"I also know that all of you are wondering what the two of us are planning to do now that we've decided to leave Bright Summit."
They nodded and waited for his next words in anticipation.
"My sister-in-law Iris Long and I have decided to start our own entertainment company. In Bright Summit, the two of us had a senior and junior relationship, but in our new company, we will become partners instead."
Then Iris also took the mic in front of her and spoke next. "Indeed, everything that Brother Chonglin said is true. You may remember that there is a company called LX Productions that co-produced the now successful and award-winning indie film called "Strong Yet Broken". To tell you the truth, it is actually my husband's company. We have decided to transform it from a film productions company to a full-fledged entertainment company which we will now call LXC Studio."
All the reporters were shocked by all of these successive revelations. The itch to fire questions grew stronger.
"Brother Chonglin owns 50% of the company while my husband and I own the other half."
This revelation shocked them again. What?! Didn't that make Jin Chonglin the majority shareholder? They thought that with CEO Jin Liwei in the picture, he and Iris Long would own a bigger piece of the pie together, or in a fairer situation, all three of them would be equal partners.
"The current CEO of LX Productions will continue his duties at our newly transformed company, LXC Studio. Brother Chonglin will be the President while I will be the Vice-President."
This time, they nodded, not surprised that Jin Chonglin held a higher position than Iris Long in the company. It was only appropriate because he was the superstar and had more experience and connections in the showbiz industry than her.