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Because Wang Lu had rushed over early in the morning, he had yet to eat his breakfast but that became the last thing on his mind when he saw Kang Shengzhe. His complexion was rather ugly, and even Kang Shengzhe, who hadn’t cared much for it after he had returned from sending You Liangxing off, started becoming concerned under Wang Lu’s ceaseless worry.
“Have you sent him off?”
Kang Shengzhe nodded, and Wang Lu asked in hurry: “Is your body really fine? How does your throat feel?”
Kang Shengzhe said: “It’s, fine.” His voice was still raspy and he chose to use his phone to type instead.
— It’ll be fine in a few days.
“That’s good, the live broadcast can still go on, we can manage it in three to four days.” Sighing with relief, Wang Lu wanted to say something but he stopped himself. If he did not want to say it, Kang Shengzhe would not pursue it either; other than the out of the ordinary fervour he had for You Liangxing, he was usually lazy.
After taking a good while to make preparations in his heart, Wang Lu spoke: “Last night, I gave the company a call, and asked what could be done. The company…”
Kang Shengzhe remained silent, and Wang Lu gritted his teeth and spat out: “Didn’t care.”
Like he had predicted.
Kang Shengzhe was not surprised in the least. Within the anchor circles, it was not rare for someone to privately hire the likes of scoundrels to beat up their competitors. And so what if it happened – the company barely interfered with such matters, considering how both the victim and the perpetuator himself were anchors from the same company. Furthermore, after the incident occurred, it was unclear as to who the senior executives in the company would want to protect.
“Considering the circumstances, it’s very obvious who the offender is. But the company said, do you have the evidence? If you don’t have it, how could you accuse Piaoluo…”
While he was speaking, he was constantly gnashing his teeth and he looked so angry that his head seemed to be aching. “Frankly speaking, everyone is well-aware in their hearts that Piaoluo is not a kind-hearted person; if this matter wasn’t his doing, then it may as well be ghosts. However, the company is even better; not only did they not care, they kept asking whether your injuries were heavy, and if you could still broadcast live.”
This entire time, Kang Shengzhe had remained the passive listener but he chose to lift his phone just then.
— What will happen if I can’t broadcast?
Wang Lu showed some delay in his reaction: “If you can’t broadcast live, then it would be in accordance to Piaoluo’s wishes since a substitution is required?”
Kang Shengzhe thought about it for a moment before he typed: k2014; How did Piaoluo react?
Wang Lu stiffened: “I don’t know, I didn’t ask…. But he’ll definitely be happy about the fact that you were injured. If he knew that you were fine and he was being happy for nothing, pei, he would deserve every bit of it.”
Speaking of that, Wang Lu harboured traces of resentment.
Kang Shengzhe: k2014; Call and ask.
Wang Lu could not understand his request in the moment, “Ask what?”
After contemplating it carefully, he realised that something was amiss. Thus, he picked up his phone and left the room with a green tinge on his face, only to return with a darkened expression.
“You read it right, Piaoluo did not stop there. After hearing that you could continue to undertake the live broadcast, he started to implicitly hint to the higher echelons that it was not reliable for an injured person to do it alone, and he was afraid that something might occur during the broadcast, how shameless! If I hadn’t made the call, the company probably would have arranged for the both of you to broadcast together with Bai Yao in the afternoon…. That won’t do, I have to make a trip to the company now.”
Wang Lu got up to leave but Kang Shengzhe stopped him: — Don’t go.
Anxious, Wang Lu said, “If we don’t go, it’ll be too late! Stop messing around, KK, now is really not the time to mess around.”
Kang Shengzhe refused to budge, and the initial struggle that Wang Lu put up came to an abrupt halt. “Are you serious?”
Kang Shengzhe: — En.
Wang Lu: “Do you know what this means? He gave you a beating, and yet you’re halving the opportunity and allowing him to broadcast with you?”
Kang Shengzhe opted to type instead of speaking: — For him, it might not be an opportunity.
At that instance, Wang Lu stilled and looked at Kang Shengzhe for a long while. Tentatively, he asked: “Are you certain?”
Kang Shengzhe shrugged, and it made Wang Lu speechless. Although he was not aware of what plans Kang Shengzhe had concocted, his heart seemed to calm down – inexplicably so – after he saw Kang Shengzhe’s unhurried and calm appearance.
“If you keep insisting, I can’t stop you either. However, we are letting Piaoluo off too easily. If neither the company, you nor Piaoluo want to give in, and with the way things are proceeding, it would be as if we are the only ones at a disadvantage, whereas the others are fully satisfied since their demands are met. These two words ‘KK’, doesn’t it seem too easy to bully?”
Kang Shengzhe smiled: — Company wise, demand for money.
Wang Lu was still wallowing in his grievances when the reminder made him lift his head. Apart from the broadcast, the reason why KK came to Beijing this time around was to sign the contract as well. Originally, he had intended to wait for the live broadcast to pass so that his popularity could go through another exponential increase again to raise his value further, but he did not expect that Kang Shengzhe would bring it up at this point in time.
However, after considering it for a while… If they agreed to the company’s request to allow Piaoluo a place in the live broadcast, it would be an opportune moment to raise the price of the contract.
If they made an equivalent exchange, they would have gotten some value out of the incident at least.
“How much do you want, is there a minimum price?”
Kang Shengzhe typed: — Five million.
Five million, it was roughly the same price as the most famous anchor in MengMao. Wang Lu’s heart warmed and he said: “Sure, leave this matter to me.”
Since he promised that he would achieve it, Wang Lu no longer hesitated and he turned around to leave. Before he left, however, he was still complaining about the unfairness of the situation on Kang Shengzhe’s behalf. “Even if we managed to settle the contract, I still feel enraged; Piaoluo really got a huge profit!”
Kang Shengzhe did not respond and watched as Wang Lu stalked out of the door.
Because You Liangxing had been with him, he had woken up early with high spirits and vigour; however, now that the person was gone, he grew drowsy very quickly and went to back to sleep after his body hit the bed.
His deep and drowsy nap lasted until late noon as Kang Shengzhe was awoken by a stream of notifications which was made by Little Sword Fairy’s repeated bombardment on WeChat.
He tapped on the message to take a look, but it was not the usual expression packs that he would use. Rather, it was a genuine and anxious inquiry.
[Jian Jian]: — Did something happen to you? What’s going on in Weibo?
[Jian Jian]: — KK!
With drowsy eyes obscuring his vision, Kang Shengzhe’s first reply was: — I’m fine.
But Little Sword Fairy did not have any intention to stop; as they continued to chat, Kang Shengzhe briefly explained the events that had transpired, from how he had been beaten up to how he had escaped it without any major issues cropping up. Afterwards, he went onto Weibo to take a look.
In the span of an afternoon, Piaoluo had not been idle in the least as he made good use of every second that he had. After the changes to the event had been confirmed, and the official account had immediately issued a notice.
It was the same publicity stunt with an additional anchor to Bai Yao’s broadcast. However, by virtue of the fact that the news of Bai Yao broadcasting King’s Glory live had already been issued, the impact of the addition was lessened. When the official account released it, it did not cause much ripples.
[Jian Jian]: — I saw quite a few colleagues helping him forward the news. Although Bai Yao’s fans did not react much to the change, Piaoluo’s fans seem to be holding themselves highly, and it gave me a scare.
[Jian Jian]: — Either way, it’s good that you’re okay.
[Jian Jian]: — But then again, two anchors broadcasting together, how do you even broadcast? If you don’t happen to fight, it would already be considered fortunate.
Knowing that Kang Shengzhe was in good health, Little Sword Fairy reverted back his usual mischief in just a few words.
— Little brother, what do you plan to do?
Kang Shengzhe: — An individual’s charm conquers everything.
[Jian Jian]: — ……
It was hard to continue this chat.
After a short while, Jian Jian sent another message: — Don’t be like this, elaborate further, will you?
Kanf Shengzhe chuckled and replied ambiguously: — Some people like to slap people’s faces behind their backs, but I prefer to slap them while we are face to face.
Pondering over the meaning the remark held, Jian Jian quickly replied: — Using what?
Kang Shengzhe: — Attractiveness.
[Jian Jian]: — ……
Since he was cracking jokes, they exchanged a few more lines without going deeply into the matter. Kang Shengzhe pulled himself out of bed and washed up. After he felt less lethargic, he went to find You Liangxing.