Heartthrob, Your Image is Crumbling!

Chapter 573: One Size Larger

They called it a meeting, but in reality, everyone present was part of the inner circle.Originally, the company's leadership was basically made up of Zhou Yuwen's women. Now that Chen Wan—the only exception—had left, every single person remaining had intimately known Zhou Yuwen's depths.

As a result, the atmosphere was quite relaxed. Before Zhou Yuwen arrived, Zheng Yanyan, Lu Lin, Li Shiqi, and Shen Yu were doing as they pleased—some spinning their pens, others sprawling over the desk.

Zheng Yanyan looked thoroughly sleep-deprived as she mumbled, asking when Zhou Yuwen would finally show up.

"If he doesn't come soon, I'm just going to go home and sleep. I stayed up until four in the morning playing ranked matches." The dark circles under her eyes proved she wasn't lying.

Lu Lin, crossing her legs, casually replied, "If you want to go back, then go. It's not like you're of any use here anyway."

"Hey, watch it. You know I have a short temper."

The meeting officially commenced as Zhou Yuwen and Tao Tian walked into the room.

It could hardly be called a formal meeting; rather, it was a quick huddle to assign the responsibilities for the Planning Company and the Cultural Media Company.

First up was the Cultural Media Company. Originally, it started with Zhou Yuwen taking a group of female students from the Arts Department out for gigs, working part-time as exhibition models. Later on, due to the incident involving Tao Tian, Zhou Yuwen signed talent contracts with each of the girls. The terms stipulated that over a five-year period, the company would arrange commercial activities for them, including working in independent media and becoming internet celebrities. However, two years ago, people had absolutely no concept of what an internet celebrity was, so they hadn't taken it seriously. They just assumed "commercial activities" meant going out to do part-time work to earn three or four hundred yuan.

Although livestreaming had surged in popularity over the past couple of years, Zhou Yuwen hadn't interfered much with their broadcasting endeavors. The contracts were essentially just a safety net cast wide—just in case they stumbled upon a female influencer with real potential. If she were scooped up by another agency, the company could simply collect thirty to fifty thousand yuan in penalty fees and terminate the contract.

Furthermore, Zhou Yuwen's Campus Fun app was currently the largest short-video platform in Jinling. These girls were all drawing in fans directly through the app anyway.

Zhou Yuwen stated that the Cultural Media Company had always been under Lu Lin's management.

Therefore, now that Qu Jing had left, Lu Lin would continue to take charge of it.

Lu Lin groaned in complaint upon hearing this. "In the past, I only handled basic personnel management for the exhibition centers," she said. "Now you're diving into livestreaming and building online traffic. I don't know the first thing about any of that! If I completely mess this up, you can't blame me."

"Oh, come on," Zhou Yuwen chuckled. "You seem to understand it just fine. You already know all about livestreams and traffic."

"Besides, you aren't fighting this battle alone. Yanyan is here to help you, right?" he added.

"Gee, thanks," Lu Lin retorted, rolling her eyes at the suggestion.

Zheng Yanyan, on the other hand, was brimming with enthusiasm. "Don't worry, Linlin! With the two of us sisters joining forces, we'll expand this business and create a brilliant legacy!"

Lu Lin didn't respond aloud, but she couldn't help thinking, 'I'll thank my lucky stars if you just manage not to be adding to the trouble.'

Although she verbally resisted, she had actually already given it some thought. She admitted that she truly didn't understand the internet sector, and at most, she could just fall back on her old trade—taking the girls out for part-time gigs.

Zhou Yuwen nodded in agreement. "That works too. Just keep things running as they are."

"In that regard, Sweetie, you should get involved and work with her," Zhou Yuwen said, gesturing toward Tao Tian. Tao Tian was currently in charge of the company's internal logistics and administration, but she had managed the exhibition models in the past. Since they were short-staffed now, he needed her to lend a hand.

Tao Tian didn't decline; she accepted the task straightforwardly.

"Next, the Planning Company."

Zhou Yuwen shifted his gaze to Shen Yu, prompting her to involuntarily sit up a little straighter. Actually, Su Qing had previously wanted to hand the planning department over to Shen Yu. However, at the time, Shen Yu had wanted to distance herself from Zhou Yuwen's circle and declined the offer. She hadn't expected the responsibility to find its way back to her after all this time.

The only issue was that running the planning department required going out to drum up business, and Shen Yu clearly wasn't the type of girl cut out for sales. After pondering for a moment, Zhou Yuwen simply stated, "I'll take charge of the planning side for now. Shen Yu and Shiqi will act as my assistants. You have three months. If you prove you can handle it by then, I will hand full authority over to the two of you."

Hearing this, Shen Yu couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment. She had assumed Zhou Yuwen would hand the reins directly to her, just as he had given the Cultural Media Company to Lu Lin and Zheng Yanyan. She hadn't expected him to still lack trust in her. 'Is it because my abilities just aren't good enough?' she wondered.

Unaware of the thoughts swirling in Shen Yu's mind, Zhou Yuwen simply clapped his hands together. "Alright, everyone! Let's get to work."

"We're currently in a critical period of crisis. The time has come to test your mettle. Do your best!"

After the main meeting concluded, smaller groups began to huddle. On the Cultural Media Company side, Tao Tian took the lead, bringing the other two girls directly into the office for a discussion.

Zheng Yanyan was yawning and insisting she wanted to go home and sleep, but Lu Lin practically dragged her into the room. Lu Lin then turned to Tao Tian, asking how they should distribute the workload moving forward.

Tao Tian pointed out that the part-time exhibition gigs actually accounted for a very small fraction of the company's operations now, and the growth potential was quite limited. Furthermore, even though they had monopolized the majority of the part-time work on campus, some students were still taking on private commissions on the side.

"I believe the company's primary focus should be shifted online," she declared.

"Online? You mean livestreaming?" Zheng Yanyan scoffed. "What's so fun about that? It's just a bunch of females singing and dancing in front of a camera. I seriously don't get it. Are there really that many suckers on the internet willing to throw money at them?"

It was currently 2015. Various small livestreaming platforms were already cropping up, and quite a few girls had already started reaping the lucrative benefits.

Of course, Zheng Yanyan, who was exceptionally well taken care of by Zhou Yuwen, viewed it with absolute disdain. She couldn't even fathom the behavior—neither the girls who chose to stream, nor the audiences who spent their time watching them.

Hearing her remark, Tao Tian simply offered a slight smile. She was clearly well-prepared. Reaching into the desk, she pulled out a data spreadsheet and showed it to the two of them. "These are the statistics for livestream donations on the Campus Fun app from last month."

"Twenty thousand?"

Zheng Yanyan froze as she glanced at the numbers. There was actually a student who had earned twenty thousand yuan from streaming online.

What's more, she personally recognized the streamer! It was a girl from the Arts Department, a year beneath her. How on earth had she managed to make twenty thousand yuan?!

Tao Tian noted her surprise. "Shocking, isn't it? If we coordinate a small part-time exhibition gig, even if we add up the earnings of all our exhibition models, we couldn't break twenty thousand for a single event. But if we cultivate a few more streamers like her, forget about twenty thousand—making two hundred thousand would be a piece of cake!"

Lu Lin stared at the data on the spreadsheet and asked, "What's your plan?"

Tao Tian smiled subtly.

During this period in 2015, there were simply too many profitable industries. Even though Zhou Yuwen was a reborn person, it was impossible for him to handle every single minute detail personally. The best approach was to point the girls around him in the right direction and let them unearth the potential themselves.

Just like right now—Tao Tian had successfully sniffed out the immense business opportunities within independent media. She planned to increase investments in streamer management. By combining that with traffic support from the Campus Fun app, they could incubate a solid batch of highly popular influencers.

In Zheng Yanyan's mind, livestreaming was entirely synonymous with girls relying on borderline explicit content.

But Tao Tian explained that this wasn't the reality at all. The livestreaming industry wasn't just about softcore allure; it also featured genuine talent shows, exactly as the data indicated.

Some girls gained popularity purely because they had beautiful singing voices, while others succeeded through comedy—a single, unassuming joke could make them go viral.

There were even girls who streamed magic tricks.

All of these elements generated online traffic.

"Moving forward, I believe our company contracts should be divided into two separate tracks, and we should heavily prioritize the network livestreams," she concluded.

"Aside from that, we can't restrict their streams solely to the Campus Fun app. We can register accounts for them on Kuaishou and YY, spend money to buy traffic, and cultivate their platforms. Then, once they start raking in the cash, we'll split the profits fifty-fifty with the company!"

Tao Tian grew more and more animated as she spoke, already faintly mirroring the structure of future influencer agencies.

Meanwhile, Zhou Yuwen took Shen Yu and Li Shiqi out and summoned everyone from the Planning Company—except for Chen Wan—for a meeting.

These were all highly capable individuals that Su Qing had recruited based on memories from her previous life. They possessed a certain degree of loyalty to her, so when Su Qing called them, they all showed up without a second thought.

Of course, among them, there were bound to be those who were close to Chen Wan and would tip her off.

Upon discovering that, aside from a select few absentees, virtually everyone had betrayed her, Chen Wan was stunned.

This threw Chen Wan completely off balance. 'Just wait and see,' she thought bitterly. 'Let's see how you manage to handle this!' Currently, the Planning Company's largest project was a wedding planning commission worth five hundred thousand yuan. Su Qing had secured this contract a while ago and had already provided the design proposal early on. However, the pressing issue was deciding who the company should send to interface with the bride and groom.

In the past, Chen Wan had always been the point of contact, and they had gotten along quite well.

Faced with the question raised by his subordinates, Zhou Yuwen simply replied, "Just proceed according to the original planning. As for handling the bride and groom, I'll figure out a solution."

Although he said that, in truth, Zhou Yuwen didn't care about it in the slightest.

He turned directly to Shen Yu and Li Shiqi and told them that they would be responsible for negotiating this deal.

If they could successfully secure it, that would be ideal.

But if they couldn't, they would just shut the department's doors for good.

Zhou Yuwen delivered the ultimatum casually, but the two girls didn't dare take it lightly.

They knew full well that this was a test from Zhou Yuwen—a crucial evaluation of their capabilities.

If they passed, they would undoubtedly be entrusted with heavy responsibilities.

But if they failed, wouldn't it just prove how incompetent they were?

The two exchanged a glance and secretly began to psych themselves up for the challenge.

Just like that, three days quickly flew by.

Over those three days, aside from the first night when Zhou Yuwen stayed at the villa, he spent the rest of his time crashing at either Tao Tian's or Lu Lin's place. On that first night away, Pan Min called to check in on him. When she found out he wouldn't be returning, a wave of disappointment washed over her, and she couldn't help but ask if her presence was causing him any inconvenience.

"No, Aunt Pan, please don't overthink it," he reassured her. "I have to do some overtime work today, so I'm just staying at an apartment near the company. I'll be back tomorrow."

'I still need to go back frequently,' Zhou Yuwen thought to himself. 'Otherwise, Pan Min will definitely think I'm holding a grudge over what happened that night.'

Over the past few days, Pan Min's life in Jinling had been extremely comfortable. However, it was precisely because it was so flawlessly idyllic that it left her with an intense feeling of unreality. For over a decade, she had been a teacher, living a monotonous nine-to-five routine, bouncing between the same three locations day in and day out.

But now, every time she opened her eyes, she was waking up in a spacious, sunlit villa.

Not having to go to work certainly allowed her body to relax completely.

Yet, after that initial relaxation faded, it was replaced by an endless sense of isolation and feeling lonely.

After Zhou Yuwen left that day, Pan Min thought, 'Since I'm staying in his home, I should at least make myself useful.' So, she tidied up the room a bit and decided to wash his clothes while she was at it.

Naturally, the laundry pile also included some women's clothing.

Just as Pan Min was planning to hang the freshly washed clothes out to dry, a sound echoed through the house.

The doorbell suddenly rang.

Forgetting about the laundry, Pan Min assumed it was Zhou Yuwen returning and hurried over to open the door. To her sheer surprise, she found Xu Qing standing on the doorstep.

"Hi! Sister Min!" Xu Qing happily threw herself into Pan Min's arms.

Pan Min was undeniably glad to see her, but she was equally bewildered as to why Xu Qing was there.

"Didn't President Zhou tell you? He was afraid you'd be bored, so he specifically sent me over to keep you company. Sister Min, you're so lucky! To have such a wonderful son-in-law like President Zhou!" Xu Qing had just landed a massive contract with Zhou Yuwen, so she was in exceptionally high spirits and spared absolutely no praise for him.

She had been escorted over by the property manager. Once the manager confirmed that the resident recognized her, he didn't linger and promptly turned to leave.

And just like that, Xu Qing entered the villa. Gazing around at the magnificent, opulent decor, she couldn't help but marvel once again at Pan Min's incredible good luck. She had lived in Jinling for years and had never stepped foot in a villa this exquisite.

Yet, Pan Min had only been in Jinling for two days and was already living in one.

The older generation always claimed that having sons was better.

But from Xu Qing's perspective, having a daughter wasn't bad at all!

As long as the daughter married well, the mother could still bask in luxury.

Hearing her friend's effusive remarks, Pan Min simply offered a helpless smile.

She had never imagined that Zhou Yuwen would be so exceedingly thoughtful—he had even considered the fact that she might get bored and deliberately sent Xu Qing over to keep her company.

Pan Min asked Xu Qing if she didn't have to go to work today.

Xu Qing proudly declared, "President Zhou completely bought out all my class hours for the day!"

"Bought them out?" Pan Min stared at her in shock.

"Yes! See, Sister Min, where else could you find such an amazing son-in-law? Oh? Are you doing laundry?" Xu Qing had been wandering around the villa and noticed a basin full of clothes sitting in the living room.

Pan Min uttered a soft sound of realization and explained that she had just finished washing them and was about to take them out to dry.

"Let me help you."

And so, Pan Min and Xu Qing grabbed the basin of clothes together and headed up to the terrace on the second floor.

This gave Xu Qing the perfect opportunity to tour the villa from bottom to top, prompting her to marvel yet again at Zhou Yuwen's immense wealth. Based on current market prices, this villa had to be worth at least seven million yuan, hadn't it?

Pan Min shook her head and began hanging the clothes on the line. "I really wouldn't know."

"Come to think of it, it's quite strange. With a villa this massive, your son-in-law hasn't even considered hiring a nanny," Xu Qing pointed out.

Pan Min couldn't help but laugh at that. "Hasn't the nanny already arrived?"

Xu Qing picked up on the fact that Pan Min was jokingly referring to herself as the nanny, and she chuckled in response. "Sister Min, you're absolutely not a nanny. You're practically half the mistress of this house! How could you consider yourself a nanny?"

"What mistress of the house?"

Pan Min wasn't about to buy into Xu Qing's flattery. She picked up a piece of freshly washed underwear, shook it out, and then paused, her brow furrowing slightly as she inspected it. 'Wait a minute,' she thought. 'My daughter isn't this size, is she?'

'There's no way Su Qing is this big.'

'This underwear feels like it would be much too large even for me to wear.'

"What's wrong?" asked Xu Qing, who was helping her hang up the laundry.

"It's nothing," Pan Min replied smoothly.

"It just feels a bit fake," Pan Min added.

Xu Qing burst into laughter upon hearing this. "What's the big deal? We're all women here. When I buy underwear, sometimes I deliberately buy them one size larger too!"