Chapitre 60: Chapter 60 : Choosing The Company Representative

That night, Xiulan wasn't able to sleep peacefully because of the talent fee for a B-list actress working under Hongqi's company. She knew that hiring celebrities are so painful for the bank account but she did not expect that they would be so expensive.

She also asked her big sister Nuo Shu, who's very preoccupied lately, and just like what Hongqi said, the B-list talents under her big sister's company are half a million to two million.

"Why are they so expensive ah?" She can't help but pout while she lays on her soft bed. Should she grab Hongqi's sweet offer? But she can't stomach that she'll owe him something so big.

It's not about her pride but she doesn't want to owe Hongqi more. He's been busy prospering the Song family business. He also takes care of her and dots on her. How can she even ask such huge lose in his business?

"I will do my homework tomorrow and find a suitable actress. If my company will spend huge money over this, might as well find the best one." Xiulan contemplates while she tries to get herself to sleep.

In the morning, Secretary Dandan fussed over with the marketing team and business analyst team which actress or model they should pick as the representative. They already chose a few streamers and bloggers to advertise their company. The only problem now is the celebrity representative.

The marketing team wanted to get an A-list actress since it's the best plan. Getting a B-list actress might cause backlash towards their company. After all, their CEO is married to Xing Hongqi.

People might discuss that Xing Hongqi is not helping his wife. This will bear fruit another scandalous rumor. As possible they wanted to avoid bad rumors.

"I get your point." Xiulan suddenly talked while the team angrily conversed with each other. They were frightened by her sudden appearance. She has been quietly listening to their trivial debate.

"G-good morning, boss..." they awkwardly greeted her.

"I asked my husband last night how much the minimum talent fee of a B-list actress under him. He said it was half a million yuan to three million yuan. Almost same with my sister's." Xiulan reported to the crew and she sat in an empty stool nearby.

Someone tried to offer a more comfortable office chair to her but she declined and only smiled to that employee.

"Three million!?" they all gasped when it finally sink-in to them how much money they would lose from this marketing plan.

"We are not a huge and popular company to spend that kind of amount for marketing purposes. I think we need to draft this and think of another plan. In case it's really what we need then we must get the best A-list representative. But first, do any of you recommend any actresses for this role?" Xiulan questions and eyes each of the person inside the meeting room.

It was silent for a moment since no one dared to speak.

"I would like to recommend Qiao Chunhua, she's a cousin of mine that works under Song Nuo Shu's company. She's 24 years old and a fresh face in the industry. She never had any scandal or any malicious rumors about her. She got her fame from appearing in tons of music videos and as a second female lead in youth dramas. Currently she got her big break as a female lead in 'With You is Spring' a romantic drama series that garnered 500 million views for a span of a year. Though she's still a B-list actress." a female employee from the BA team said. Everyone gasped that she has a cousin who is very popular.

"Minnie, I didn't know you have a popular relative." one of he co-workers teased.

Xiulan quickly jot down the name so she can search it later. "Thank you for recommending your cousin Qiao Chunhua. May I ask if she is fond of computers and games?"

"I can confirm that she likes to play online games in PC. I'm not sure if she's super into computers but she has slight interest to it when she was not an actress yet." the employee name Minnie said.

"That's good then. Thank you, Minnie." Xiulan smiled at her. "Any more recommendations?"

"How about Han Meili?" someone from the HR department recommended.

Secretary Dandan suddenly hits this employee with an elbow on the sides of her stomach and carefully whispered "Why would you recommend that woman? She's an ex of our boss' husband."

Though it was not loud but everyone could hear it. This gave a brief awkward atmosphere inside the meeting room.

"It's fine even if it's my husband's former lover. No hard feelings since this is work. Tell me more about Han Meili." Xiulan suddenly said and has nonchalant look on her face. They can't even read what she's thinking since she has a poker face.

Truthfully, she doesn't think much of this issue about hiring Hongqi's former lovers. It can't be helped since they are the popular ones.

"Uh..." the female employee warily looked at Secretary Dandan but Dandan could only nod her head with a bad frown on her face and let the female employee continue.

"I'm actually a fan of Han Meili... She's known for having a fresh face, no make-up and part of the 'it girls'. She has countless of popular dramas and movies. She's always invited in high-end fashion shows. She doesn't have any scandal... but she was... involved... with... Xing... Hongqi... before..." the female employee was so enthusiastic on her introduction about Han Meili but as soon as it went to the scandal, it became a soft mumble.

It made the atmosphere inside the meeting room incredibly awkward again.

"I see... I think the people might have forgotten about her scandal. But who knows... it's not like it's her dark past, it's just a dating scandal after all. If she's really good in her craft, then people can just forget about it, right? We shouldn't use the past to judge people's capabilities. Maybe in their behavior, but professionalism wise, I think we should't use the past. We always progress every day." Xiulan positively said like a Miss Universe candidate. Her staff can't help but adore and idolize her optimistic views in life. If they could clap during this moment, they might have given her a standing ovation.

"Yes, ma'am!" the employees energetically agreed.

"I'll jot down her name." Xiulan said and wrote Han Meili's name on her notebook. "Anyone else?"

"Gu Jia Shu!" someone shouted. "She's incredibly beautiful, also an 'it girl', tons of magazine covers in neighboring Asian countries. Four block-buster movies and also currently the most popular Xianxia actress." the enthusiastic staff from the marketing department announced.

The marketing head suddenly smack the back of the head of this staff and angrily whispers "Idiot! That woman is also Xing Hongqi's ex!"

It was a whisper yet they can all hear it. Another awkward atmosphere.

Xiulan can't help but gulp from this awkward tirade against her husband. Is this a slap from reality how flirtatious her husband was? It somewhat left a bitter taste in her mouth. But it's inevitable that she would encounter them one of these days. They are celebrities and very popular.

"It looks like her credentials are good. I'll also include her." Xiulan forced a smile to the poor employee and wrote down Gu Jia Shu's name on her notebook.

It can't be helped... though she was really pissed hearing that this person or that person is her husband's ex. She thought it was nothing at first but she's human after all, she can feel other emotions and she doesn't like feeling like this at all.

"Okay, I'll try to check on these people's profile and I will let you know who to contact." Xiulan stood up from the stool and solemnly went inside her office.

She sat on her presidential chair and firmly closed her eyes to think deeply about what they had discussed.

Xiulan can't help but heaved a long sigh once she's alone in her office. She can't believe that this world is really small. Her husband's ex-lovers... so many of them that even her employees are a fan of them.

There's this bothering feeling inside her right now that she can't explain. An annoying emotion.

"Han Meili and Gu Jia Shu... I wonder why Hongqi left them if they were incredible women..." Xiulan mumbles while her eyes are still firmly shut.

The door in her office suddenly opens and Secretary Dandan came in. She marched towards her boss and firmly gave her opinion "I think we should stick with Qiao Chunhua."

Xiulan eyed Secretary Dandan in surprise while she sat on her presidential chair. "Is it because she's not an ex of my husband?" Xiulan innocently asked but it quite gave a tone that she was being sarcastic.

"Eh?! Of course not. I think she is a good choice since she's a relative of one of our long time employee and add that she works under your big sister's company. This will be a nice opportunity to create a noise that our company will not use anyone from your husband's company just because you are married to him." Secretary Dandan explained.

Xiulan didn't understand the motive. She has a lot of question marks in her face. "Please elaborate, I don't really get your point."

"Boss, I am not sure if you are aware of this but the online community has been waiting for the collaboration of our company with your husband's company. They were expecting that any time soon Mrs. Xing might ask help from her husband. I think it's kind of sexist of them to think like this. Also, this is also a win-win situation since your sister is a female CEO. We never collaborated with a male CEO right?" Dandan further explained. They are not a feminist company but they just want to continue what they are famous of.

"I see... you are right." Xiulan silently agrees to Dandan's proposition. By this way, they can be consistent to what they are famous of. Add that she didn't have to work with Hongqi's exes.

"Please report this to the marketing team and start contacting Miss Qiao Chunhua." Xiulan ordered to Secretary Dandan. Her face brightened for some reason. She's was slightly feeling elated that she didn't have to collaborate with any of Hongqi's ex-lovers anymore. She found a good excuse not to contact them.

She can't believe that she's bitter and jealous about them. Gosh, what a petty emotion. She never wanted to be like this, ever.

She sighed contemptuously again when Secretary Dandan left. This is not good. Is she still the old Xiulan? She's becoming petty over small things.

"I hate this. I am not this kind of person." she bitterly mumbles while her small hands balls into a fist.

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Inside the tall tower of Hongqi's company at the presidential suite, Hongqi's inside a separated room full of large HD monitors. He silently watches the stock market in one monitor, on the other the trending topics in Weibo and other local Chinese social media, in another monitor are international social medias like Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.

Hongqi pulled out his phone from his pockets and called the head of the Social Media marketing team. "We'll be releasing a new music video in 5 hours. Make sure the team will monitor the amount of views we get per hour.If we reached the desired quota per hour, we can release a practice video or behind the scenes."

"Noted, young master." the social media marketing head affirmed.

Hongqi ended the call and went outside the separated room. He sat on his presidential chair and started reading this big proposal for the Song family business.

Ever since he got married to Xiulan, he's the one controlling the Song family business. The old Song Yingpei gave him all the right to control it. Xiulan's not aware of this.

Though the company is still under the name of Song Yingpei, Hongqi has a huge share in it the company which makes him wealthier and more powerful.

Hongqi thought that the old Song was too trusting to him. He finds it stupid to be honest. But even though he found the old Song to be gullible, he's not that evil enough to sabotage the company.

He doesn't have any enmity towards the Song family anyway. He's just here to make a lot of money, broaden his power and use the Song name.

But he never thought that his relationship with his wife, the youngest daughter of Song Yingpei, could affect his heart. He's not sure if this is what they call love but she's very important to him. By far, she's more important than his father right now.

Before, he only wanted to control and prosper the company for his selfish sake and to continue acting like he cares about the Song company. But now that Xiulan is deeply important to him, he wanted to make sure that the company prospers so Xiulan's attention will be on him. Praising him, loving him, thanking him.

He became thirsty over her attention especially that she's always busy. Her attention is divided to a lot of things like family and friends, her own IT company, government related jobs and him. How many percent of attention left for him when she's so busy?

During his single days, he hated women that would always give their attention to him. Now that he got married to a woman like Xiulan, he badly wants her attention like a needy child.

Now that he finds out that she needs an actress as a representative for her company, he must make use of this chance. He will lend her the most popular actress he currently have.

Hongqi's dark planning got interrupted when Secretary Yang Bo suddenly came inside the office.

"Young master, according to our intel, the madame decided to pick someone from her big sister's company." Secretary Yang Bo reported and handed him a document that contains the artist Qiao Chunhua's profile

"What?" Hongqi glowered and angrily took the document. He browsed the file and irritably threw it in front of him. "What was the reason?" he probed.

"Uhm... according to the report. The other choices might be distasteful for the madame's liking. We didn't have any representative to create suggestions so this has brought bad news for us. Apparently, a huge number of madame's staff are a huge fan of our artists. Most of them suggested an artist of ours but they blurted out the wrong names." Secretary Yang Bo tried his best to explain and a cold sweat started to form in his back.

"Please just straight to the point. If the staff recommended an artist from our company, so why didn't she pick any of them?" Hongqi impatiently ordered.

Secretary Yang Bo cleared his throat before continuing. "The staff recommended Han Meili and Gu Jia Shu. Currently, those two are very popular to young adults and office ladies because of their impeccable fashion and beauty. We all know that those two were your former flings. This news has reached your wife." Secretary Yang Bo bravely explained.

Hongqi unbelievably stared at Secretary Yang Bo. Did he heard that right? Han Meili and Gu Jia Shu?

The side of Hongqi's mouth twitched. He's not sure if he should do extreme measures to fire those people who suggested those two actresses' names. He has a lot of better female talents in his company yet they really have to pick those two.

"Someone's sabotaging my relationship with my wife, huh?" he darkly asked.

"..." Yang Bo's not sure what to reply. Why his boss suddenly thought of that? "Is his narcissistic side reaching its limits?" He secretly thought.

"Please make sure to punish those two staff who recommended the names. No need to fire them but maybe scare them a little." Hongqi sighed and he relaxed on his seat. He's really angry whoever decided to blurt those names and leak his relationship with them.

"But wait.... that means she got jealous?" Hongqi excitedly thought. His mouth created a sweet grin.

Secretary Yang Bo watches his boss who just made multiple expressions in just span of minutes. He's not sure if his boss is still sane or naturally abnormal.