Chapter 70
Xie Shiqing leaned forward, lying on her back, wrapping her arms around her neck. Zhong Ning first held her by the thighs with her hands. Once she was stable, Zhong Ning stood up, carrying her step by step into the villa.
"Do you want a cup of hot milk later? It helps with sleep."
"If Ning Ning feeds me, I’ll drink."
What official could resist such temptation? Zhong Ning certainly couldn’t. She felt dizzy, her whole heart soaring into the clouds, floating blissfully in a sea of happiness.
Like a little servant, she carefully wiped her beloved’s face and hands with a towel. If necessary, she was even willing to help with the bath as well.
When Xie Shiqing went to the bathroom, Zhong Ning made the bed, went downstairs to heat up some milk with the induction cooker, carefully brought it upstairs, and also carried up a plate of small pastries in case Xie Shiqing was hungry after not having had a proper dinner.
Filled with tenderness and love, she had completely forgotten the troubles of the afternoon, focusing only on taking care of the person she liked.
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Zhong Ning (to others): Hello, I’m a soft little bun.
Still Zhong Ning (to Zhong Zinuan): Take my baguette strike!
Chapter 34
She had watched Xie Shiqing busy for three days, almost leaving early and returning late, always walking briskly with a grave expression.
Finally, on the afternoon of the fourth day, when Zhong Ning was scrolling through Weibo again, she saw the top trending topic had become — ‘Lunar Rescue footage leaked! Xie Corporation’s huge crisis!’
Her heart sank. The class bell rang, but she didn’t move. Only after a few classmates called her did she snap back, get up, and walk out of the classroom to make room.
Students were coming and going in a hurry, chatting and laughing. Leaning against the corridor wall, Zhong Ning quickly opened the trending topic. It was a post by an entertainment reporter, saying that the full three-hour-twenty-minute movie ‘Lunar Rescue’ had been leaked online, suspected to be a major internal mistake by the company.
Below, the post detailed Xie Corporation’s investment: how many physical sets were built for this film, the actors’ salaries, the special effects team’s cost, additional follow-up investments—all in all, at least over two billion yuan, with the exact figure hard to estimate.
The leaked footage wasn’t just about financial losses. The exposure of Xie Corporation’s internal crisis, the plummeting stock price—these were the real damages. If not handled well, it could severely harm the company.
This was the last class of the day, and there were no more classes in the afternoon. Zhong Ning rushed out quickly.
After leaving the classroom, she hopped on a shared bicycle by the roadside. But since it was right after class, there were too many students, and she couldn’t ride fast.
So she put the bike back into the rack and ran forward instead. It was the transition between summer and autumn, the sun scorching. In just a few minutes after leaving the air-conditioned classroom, she was already drenched in sweat.
The driver, knowing her class schedule, was already waiting in the parking lot outside the school.
Zhong Ning got into the car, panting, and said, "Quick, go home—no, go to Xie Corporation."
Feeling the bag on her back, her heart was filled with anxiety. Inside it were bank cards containing all the money Xie Shiqing had transferred to her during this time, amounting to nearly a billion.
Apart from the fifty million for each marking, Xie Shiqing often wired her money on a whim.
Sometimes, while they were just chatting, several million would be deposited into her account without any pattern or reason.
She hadn’t touched this portion of money and had saved it all. She didn’t know how to resolve a crisis, but one thing was certain—give money!
If the problem was a financial deficit, wasn’t this money exactly what was needed?
She herself had also saved up some during this period, adding to the original balance left by the previous host of this body, which totaled about five million.
She rarely had any personal expenses. Her food, clothing, and housing were all covered by the Xie family. The original host still had over four million left, and she had worked hard these days livestreaming to earn tens of thousands more. This was after she secretly bought traffic boosts, took shortcuts, and seized every available moment to stream and save bit by bit.
With no expenses and only income, it was easy to save money quickly.
She could also give all this money to Shiqing. After all, she had no place to spend it.
Even a mosquito’s leg is still meat.
Zhong Ning anxiously rubbed her hands. After thinking it over again and again, she finally sent a message to Xie Shiqing, telling her that she was heading to the company.
She hadn’t often contacted Shiqing over the past few days, afraid of disturbing her work.
Now was not the time for idle chatter.
After a while, Xie Shiqing replied, "Why are you coming to the company?"
Zhong Ning hesitated for a moment and replied, "I have something I want to give you."
She actually hadn’t been to Xie Corporation many times. This peculiar skyscraper had an alien-like design, shaped like a segment of a DNA helix. There was another identical building known as the Twin Spiral Towers, which had become a landmark of Fengcheng.
The place wasn’t far from the seaside. Through the gap between the Twin Spiral Towers, one could see the distant sea. When the sun set, it looked as if the whole sea was sprinkled with gold, sparkling with waves. The scenery reflected on the glass of the towers, as if dusk had solidified and heaven had descended.
Every year, every day, countless people came here to check in and take photos, including fans hoping to catch a glimpse of their celebrity idols.
However, no celebrities used the main entrance. For safety reasons, they all departed directly from the underground parking lot, drove through to the back street, and exited from there.
The few times Zhong Ning had visited Xie Corporation were when she brought lunch to Xie Shiqing.
Xie Corporation was indeed the leading benchmark of the entertainment industry. Everyone walking around here, even the staff, looked decent and presentable.
It wasn’t that everyone was a stunning beauty, but everyone was clean, tidy, full of energy and spirit. Perfect features weren’t necessary; as long as one carried themselves with confidence and grace, they looked attractive and appealing.