“Chengyang…” Xiao Lu was surprised.

Assistant Xu couldn’t help but glance at her through the rearview mirror.

“So, what now?” Lin Yu asked after a long silence.

Sitting in the back seat and unable to see Lin Yu’s expression, Su Chengyang was a little scared of him but still thought it was better to tell him in advance.

“I’m sorry. I signed with Starlight Entertainment just to prove my innocence, without considering your thoughts. If you want to fulfill your bet with the chairman, I hope you will consider it carefully and sign a new artist. What I’m saying may be irresponsible, but it’s the truth. I don’t want to waste your time. If you still think I’m deceiving you, I won’t accept any compensation from Yang Xiuyi, and I will work for the company for free for a year.”

The car fell into silence, and no one spoke first.

Su Chengyang was extremely anxious, knowing that her actions might make Lin Yu angry.

Xiao Lu knew his cousin brother’s temper. When it came to work, he hated wasting time and energy in the wrong places.

She quietly tugged on Su Chengyang’s sleeve, shaking her head to indicate that she shouldn’t speak.

“Cheng…” Xiao Lu planned to find a topic to get past this awkward situation.

But he was interrupted by a voice from the front row.

“No wonder you plan to wait a year to read the letter.”

Su Chengyang was completely caught off guard by his attitude.

“W一what letter?” she asked confusedly.

“The letter that Xingxiu entrusted me to deliver.”

Lin Yu’s attitude left Su Chengyang a little puzzled.

“Huh?” Su Chengyang looked puzzled.

Weren’t they talking about the bet? Why did it suddenly involve Xingxiu?

Xiao Lu and Assistant Xu obviously didn’t understand Lin Yu’s meaning either. They looked at each other and remained silent, observing from the sidelines.

However, Lin Yu did not continue to ask.

It seemed that he also realized how inexplicable his words were.

He turned his head and looked out the window. The shadows of the trees passed by, casting a dim and unclear color in his eyes.

Su Chengyang moved forward a bit, propping her hand on the front passenger seat, trying to see Lin Yu’s expression at the moment.

Unfortunately, she could only see a blurry profile.

“Manager Lin, are you angry? I’m sorry, I should have told you in advance,” Su Chengyang said apologetically.

At that time, she only wanted to help “Su Chengyang” clarify things and didn’t consider whether her actions would cause trouble for others.

“I’m not angry,” Lin Yu said.

He really wasn’t angry, but he had a kind of indescribable emotion that made him abnormal.

However, he couldn’t find the reason for it for a while.

Nevertheless, he didn’t plan to let Su Chengyang feel guilty any longer.

“I don’t have any bet with the chairman. It’s just a rumor from the outside,” he said.

Su Chengyang: “??”

Xiao Lu: “??”

“Cousin brother! Is it true or not? Our company is also spreading the rumor,” Xiao Lu couldn’t believe it. She thought Lin Yu was going to bring in an artist like Mary.

Su Chengyang also looked incredulous.

Assistant Xu was equally shocked but didn’t dare to show it. In fact, upon careful reflection, Manager Lin and the chairman had never shown the existence of a bet, but then why did he go to such great lengths to sign an artist to bring in himself?

The three of them shared the same doubts.

“Manager Lin, why did you sign me then?” Su Chengyang couldn’t hold back her curiosity.

Lin Yu said lightly, “I enjoy the process of polishing a work of art. If you only want to give me a year, I’ll try my best and won’t force you.”

Su Chengyang couldn’t fully understand his words, but Manager Lin’s reaction to her termination after a year was not significant, which made her breathe a sigh of relief.

“Manager Lin, please arrange the matter of the dance partner,” Su Chengyang said.

“Okay,” Lin Yu replied, but he didn’t say anything else during the ride back.

Su Chengyang took out her earphones from her bag and searched for some death metal music to listen to. She didn’t have much of a musical sense, and aside from the extreme chaos and noise, she couldn’t discern anything else.

When they returned to the capital city, it was already past midnight.

As she removed her earphones, Su Chengyang felt her head buzzing.

As she was about to get off the car, she suddenly remembered something and knocked on the passenger seat window.

Lin Yu slowly lowered the window and looked at her.

Su Chengyang observed his expression and asked tentatively, “Manager Lin, how did I do in the past two days?”

Lin Yu was puzzled and his dark brown eyes looked terrifyingly deep under the moonlight. “Hmm?”

Su Chengyang nervously continued, “If you think I did well and you’re satisfied with my performance, then could I have the snacks that were confiscated before… I won’t eat too much, and Xiao Lu can supervise me!”

After listening to her request, Lin Yu gradually withdrew his gaze and looked straight ahead. He said calmly, “Not for now. Get some rest.”

“…Oh.”

“Drive.”

Assistant Xu smiled at Su Chengyang and then drove away with Lin Yu.

Watching the figure of the car in the distance, Su Chengyang felt helpless. Lin Yu was too unpredictable, she didn’t know what she could do to please him, let alone what would make him angry.

The air pressure in the car was obviously lower than when Su Chengyang was in it.

Lin Yu’s eyes were dark, his lip line was tight, and his face looked a bit sharp.

Assistant Xu sat in the car, not daring to breathe, even though they had already arrived at Lin Yu’s residence, he dared not speak up.

“How much longer until Chengyang’s contract expires?”

After a long silence, Lin Yu suddenly asked.

Assistant Xu thought for a moment, “More than nine months.”

“President Lin… Chengyang probably didn’t mean to deceive you…” Assistant Xu tried to explain.

“She didn’t deceive me.”

From the day of signing the contract, Su Chengyang told Lin Yu everything she wanted to do.

Lin Yu didn’t say anything else, opened the car door and turned back, “Be careful on the way back.”

“Yes.”

. . . . .

After washing up, Su Chengyang lay in bed and turned off the death metal playing on her phone.

Before going to sleep, she opened her phone to check WeChat messages, replied one by one, and then saw the chat that had just ended in the WeChat group.

She clicked on it and saw Han Songxue complaining that her agent had booked her for two events. Other guests seemed to have received program invitations as well. After the first episode of the program was broadcast, they received widespread attention online and gradually began to appear in some small and medium-sized events. However, everyone seemed to have lost interest in the second episode of the program.

After listening to too much death metal before bed, Su Chengyang had a nightmare that night. She dreamed that a group of zombies surrounded her but didn’t attack her. Instead, they played drums and electric guitars while shouting loudly. In the end, Su Chengyang gave up and thought, ‘You might as well just bite me to death.’

Amidst the prelude of metal music, Su Chengyang wearily opened her eyes. She had slept for a full eight hours, but she felt exhausted as if her body had run a few marathons while she slept.

She reached out and fumbled for her phone at the bedside, and turned off the alarm.

To familiarize herself with death metal, Su Chengyang had set all her alarms to play metal music.

After washing up and finishing her healthy breakfast, Xiao Lu received the address from the company and drove Su Chengyang to practice.

On the way there, Su Chengyang still had the music playing, looking dead tired while Xiao Lu was quite excited and occasionally sang along.

Su Chengyang was numb. She had never learned English and had no idea what she was singing. It felt like she was giving a desperate and angry scream all alone, which was very eerie. Towards the end, she even felt like she wanted to fall asleep.

After arriving, Su Chengyang turned off the music and rubbed her cheeks vigorously, trying to perk herself up.

Xiao Lu chuckled, but her eyes showed concern. She said, “Chengyang, if you don’t like it, don’t force yourself. My cousin brother won’t give you a hard time.”

Su Chengyang shook her head. “It’s okay. Manager Lin has helped me so much, and I want to do something that will satisfy him.”

Xiao Lu parked the car in the outdoor parking lot, unbuckled her seat belt and bumped her shoulder, jokingly saying, “Since you want to repay my cousin brother so badly, why not offer yourself to him?”

Su Chengyang hooked her neck and laughed, “Do you believe it or not, If I actually had that thought today, I’ll be kicked out by your cousin brother tomorrow.”

“Ha!” Xiao Lu laughed and tickled her, “My cousin brother isn’t as heartless as you make him out to be. He will definitely take you in for a few days and only kick you out after you find a place to stay.”

“That makes no difference.”

The two of them got off the car while chatting and laughing.

“But I feel like my cousin brother treats you and Mary differently,” said Xiao Lu.

“Huh?” Su Chengyang looked at her in surprise. “How so?”

“I just feel it, I can’t really put my finger on it. I feel like he’s really deep and can hide his thoughts well, not like a good person.”

“That’s not true, Manager Lin is the best person I’ve ever met.”

“My cousin brother is indeed very good, it seems like he has no flaws, but it’s even more frightening when someone has no flaws,” Xiao Lu said.

Su Chengyang couldn’t quite understand her words and didn’t think too deeply about it.

The two walked into the building in front of them, and the receptionist smiled at them.

“Do you have an appointment?” she asked.

“Yes, at 10:30, Su Chengyang,” Xiao Lu said.

“Please wait a moment.”

The receptionist confirmed on the computer and then pointed to the right, saying, “The elevator is over here, on the 12th floor, there will be a staff member waiting for Miss Su at the elevator entrance.”

“Thank you,” Su Chengyang nodded and thanked her, then followed Xiao Lu in the direction she pointed.

They took the elevator to the 12th floor. The elevator door opened slowly, and there was indeed a young lady with a work badge hanging on her chest waiting outside the door.

“Miss Su,” the young lady smiled, with two dimples showing on her fair face.

“Hello,” Su Chengyang took off her sunglasses and nodded gently at her.

“Please follow me.”

“Okay.”

The young lady led them to the right and passed through an employee area where many people cast curious glances at her.

Su Chengyang kept her eyes straight ahead, and Xiao Lu lagged behind her a bit, looking back at anyone who looked at her.

They went around to an “L”-shaped corridor in front of a transparent glass wall that separated them from the employee area. The three of them stopped outside a door.

The young lady didn’t knock on the door immediately, but turned around and said to Su Chengyang, “Terry is inside, he wants to see you.”

Su Chengyang had seen Terry’s name on his profile before, he was the lead singer of a death metal band.

Su Chengyang nodded at her and then said to Xiao Lu, “You can find a place to sit and rest first.”

“OK.”

The young lady smiled, “I’ll take her to the rest area.”

“Thank you.”

After Xiao Lu left with her, Su Chengyang took a deep breath and knocked on the doo