They Regretted it After Their Hearts Turned to Ashes

Chapter 4 – Dim Sum

Luo Zhi was already mentally prepared when Huaisheng Entertainment was taken away.

In the eyes of Luo Chengxiu, the head of the family, a medium-sized entertainment company that was once almost delisted and closed down, and now barely had a market, may have some value. Still, it was far from worth the trouble.

For Luo Chengxiu, this was just a decision made at will.

Giving the company to Jian Huaiyi was just to make Luo Cheng have family support behind her so that she would not be bullied.

Compared with Luo Zhi, allowing Jian Huaiyi to be in charge of Huaisheng Entertainment and letting Jian Huaiyi take care of Luo Cheng would certainly make everyone in the family feel more at ease.

Luo Zhi opened the unread email in his mailbox.

Luo Chengxiu went to the company in person and sent someone to take over, which meant that Huaisheng Entertainment really had a relationship with the Luo family.

The efficiency of the board members who are usually stingy about providing and sharing the smallest amount of resources, and are only active when the profit is shared, is unprecedentedly high at this time.

All it took was a single phone call, and these people have already worked together to find out the reason why Luo Zhi “cannot continue to be in charge of the company”.

He doesn’t know if he saw Jian Huaiyi’s painted face, but the wording of the email was quite polite, and he cautiously stated that his personal image had a negative impact on the company to a certain extent, and he was not suitable for the position of general manager.

Luo Zhi put up the car window.

He casually lowered the air conditioner by two degrees and clicked on the link attached to the email to have a look.

It’s a trending search that just hit the top of the list a few minutes ago.

The timing was just right. Just two hours ago, Li Weiming, who was currently in the limelight, suddenly posted a Weibo, telling an unbearable past.

In this micro-blog, Li Weiming recalled that two years ago, when he was just an unknown artist of the 18th tier, a person responsible for him forcibly took him to a hotel to open a room late at night.

On Weibo, Li Weiming frankly admitted that this incident had a considerable impact on him.

Li Weiming said that since that incident, he has been suppressed and hidden, and he has also suffered serious psychological problems. It was only recently that he finally mustered up the courage to walk out of the shadows.

Although no one was clearly named or pointed out on Weibo, everyone knew that Li Weiming was an artist of Huaisheng Entertainment.

In recent months, Li Weiming has become well known because of a big IP adaptation. This Weibo is quite in line with his character in the play. The pain, hesitation, despair, and desperation performed in the play were instantly substituted into the long Weibo, and one stone aroused thousands of waves, sweeping countless righteous indignation and sympathy from fans and passers-by.

It didn’t take long for the angry fans to pick up a bunch of information, and they were trying to reason and solve a case. Finally, they targeted Luo Zhi, who had just taken over the company two years ago.

…

So far, there is no suspense about the matter.

When Luo Zhi himself made his debut as a singer, he was chased and sent many threatening letters because of the rumors that he was trying to suppress people.

There were people that chased him everywhere, swearing and cursing, wishing him a young death, and diligently writing small essays everywhere to “popularize” his evil deeds.

Even the comment section of the songs written by Luo Zhi is full of “Good songs, but it’s a waste for this song to be sung by this kind of person”, “Please cover it”, “The song is good, but the singer’s name is like a good soup mixed with mouse droppings”.

Later, Luo Zhi retired from the entertainment circle, and since there was almost no news about him on the Internet, these malicious thoughts that had nowhere to vent were forced to accumulate… This time, he finally encountered a hole, and it almost poured out with the momentum of breaking the wall.

There are more and more related articles, and public opinion is forming like a snowball. Every once in a while, someone who claimed to be a “hotel staff” appeared, swearing to describe how Luo Zhi robbed him and how Li Weiming was innocent and stubborn, as vividly as if he was there at the time.

Luo Zhi even got a few blurry old photos.

He couldn’t see the head and face at all. Even the human shape could barely be recognized.

He doesn’t know what kind of fiery eyes people had to recognize that this is a picture of Luo Zhi, who is coercing Li Weiming, at a glance.

After seeing more than a dozen versions of the late-night hotel suspicions, Luo Zhi put down his mobile phone and closed his eyes with his arms propped up.

…

To be honest, Luo Zhi sometimes felt that Jian Huaiyi really treats himself too much as a dish.1

For example, deciding that it was necessary to seize the company that he put all his heart and soul into from him.

Jian Huaiyi will set out the board, and move Li Weiming’s chess piece.

After that, Jian Huaiyi will arrange several “coincidences” to make Luo Cheng interested in acting, and try to guide Luo Cheng to have the idea of entering the entertainment industry before graduation.

Immediately afterward, Jian Huaiyi will make Luo Chengxiu realize that there needs to be a trustworthy person in charge of Huaisheng Entertainment.

Finally, everything had to be detonated within a day, so that the furious Luo Chengxiu would completely make up his mind to kick Luo Zhi, a bastard who knew how to cause a lot of trouble, out of the company forever.

…but there was no need to go through so much trouble.

If Jian Huaiyi wanted to take Huaisheng Entertainment from him, all he had to do was talk to Luo Jun, Mrs. Luo, or the Luo family head.

Just like in the past ten years, Jian Huaiyi took away his name, his birthday, and his home, and “accidentally” testified to the unfounded black material on the final night before his debut. He took away everything from Luo Zhi, whether it was something he cared about or didn’t care about.

There was no need for Jian Huaiyi to be so jealous of him.

The son of the Luo family master and Mrs. Luo, the elder brother’s younger brother, and the younger sister’s second elder brother are all Jian Huaiyi.

Luo Zhi was like a thorn in their eyes. Even if it is just his existence itself, it will provoke their irritability and disgust all the time.

…

Thinking of this, Luo Zhi felt that he should have known better to not go back to the Luo family’s house to upset everyone.

But for a moment, he seemed to be unable to think of where else he could go.

Usually, if you can’t go home, at least there is a company to go to.

Luo Zhi put a single bed in the office. When he was tired from work, he would go there to sleep for a while. When he woke up, he would drink coffee and continue to work overtime. When he needed a break, he would play the guitar for a while.

It’s not that there were many many things to do on a day-to-day basis, it’s just that he kept his days so full that there would be no time for his mind to drift.

If there was no time to space out, there would be no need to think about messy things.

There would be no need to feel sad.

Luo Zhi is actually okay now. Compared to being sad, his state is more of the feeling of being “dazed”.

Suddenly, there is nothing to do, nowhere to go. All there was, was an intense blankness that can almost drown people.

Before this dazedness began to erode his mobility, Luo Zhi fastened his seatbelt, started the car and drove out the dazzling bright sunlight.

Luo Zhi drove the car around the city a few times before finding a parking lot to park in. He wanted to buy some clothes to change into first.

It is said that people rely on clothes, which seems to have some truth.

Luo Zhi’s appearance is actually very outstanding — if you want to know, he could hide his identity and family background, and only rely on his face and a guitar to slaughter the competition in a talent show. Or at least he would be able to withstand the level of high-definition close-up.

As for how the wind changed abruptly later, the public’s aesthetics seem to follow the gossip trend. After he used his family background to pressure people, threatened to force the production team to give the green light, and suppressed other innocent amateur players, a cloud of black material spread all over the network. “Am I the only one who thinks Luo Zhi is extremely ugly?” This kind of obvious blind post will last forever, and every once in a while, graves will be dug and trampled on… There is no need to think about these things anymore.

Luo Zhi himself didn’t care much about this.

Black or red, it didn’t matter much since it was still traffic. He relied on his popularity to make people remember Huaisheng Entertainment, pulled up a company that was on the verge of bankruptcy, and picked up several leading artists.

…

It’s just that for this moment alone, it’s really hard for Luo Zhi to get hooked up with a better image.

The windbreaker was dirty with either blood or mud, and it was impossible to wear it for a long time. He simply threw it on the car and let it lay there. He was going to wait for it to dry before he sent it back to the dry cleaner for cleaning.

Although Luo Zhi did not have tinnitus at the moment, his head still felt a little dizzy. Thankfully, it was still within the range he was used to.

He entered the mall and immediately felt as if the air conditioner was older than usual. He realized it might be because there was still cold sweat on his body.

The shirt had been soaked several times. The collar of his shirt was floppy, its cuffs stained with blood, and the trousers were dusty.

Luo Zhi felt a little embarrassed about his appearance.

He looked at himself in the mirror and thought about it for a while, if he took a few photos like this and posted them online, would there be black fans who hated him to the core that they would spend money on them?

Fortunately, no acquaintances saw it.

Luo Zhi closed his eyes, put his index and middle fingers together, and gently rubbed in-between his eyebrows.

He was recalling what he had come to do when he vaguely heard someone calling him, the voice was coming from his left rear side, and he couldn’t hear what was being said clearly.

…

Even though he couldn’t clearly hear what the person was saying, Luo Zhi knew who was the owner of the familiar voice.

Luo Zhi was about to turn around and leave, but the figure had already quickly caught up with him and raised his hand to stop him.

Luo Zhi paused and raised his eyes: “Brother Chenbai.”

If someone asked him which person he didn’t want to see in this kind of place, he would answer Ren Chenbai within five seconds.

Ren Chenbai is one of Luo Zhi’s few friends he had since he was a child.

Because Mrs. Luo would fall ill as soon as she saw Luo Zhi, for a long time, Luo Zhi had been fostered in the Ren’s house.

Ren Chenbai’s mother was Mrs. Luo’s best friend. The two of them were best friends when they were young. They loved children, and Ren’s mother also loved Xiao Luo Zhi very much.

Later, Ren Chenbai’s mother passed away due to illness. Since too many things were happening at home, Luo Zhi was sent back.

The period of staying at the Ren’s house was probably the most relaxed and happiest years of Luo Zhi’s life.

Ren Chenbai is two years older than Luo Zhi and has already taken over the family business. He has a gentle and calm temperament, is very kind to everyone, and has always helped take care of Luo Zhi because of his mother’s last wish.

Since childhood, Luo Zhi has trusted and been close to Ren Chenbai.

He regarded the other person as his role model and the person he wanted to be close to the most.

Xiao Luozhi quietly wrote in his diary that when he grows up, he will live with Brother Chenbai, and he wants to be in a family with Brother Chenbai, Uncle Ren, and Aunt Ren. When he made some dim sum, the bad ones were eaten by himself, and the best ones were given to Brother Chenbai.

Luo Zhi really planned to do so.

…when he found out that there was still dim sum left, he excitedly chased after Ren Chenbai. But when he ran to the door, he saw Ren Chenbai frowning in the distance, as if he was holding something disgusting. He saw him throwing the box of dim sum to the stray dogs on the roadside.

Before that, Luo Zhi had always wanted to be a good person like Brother Chenbai.

I’m assuming this means JH sees LZ as a threat?