Chapter 103: Then Let Us End the Agreement

Seeing how confidently he said it, Su Xiaolin arched a brow. How amusing. Did he really think he knew the boss that well? Then a thought flashed through her mind all at once. Wait a moment—these two were so strangely close. Could they have even had breakfast together?

The absurd idea vanished in an instant. As Ji Ya’s personal secretary, the one who handled her meals, daily life, and work, how could she not know whether Ji Ya was respectable or not? At most, it was just a wild guess from Lin Yu as he tried to dodge punishment.

The call connected, and Ji Ya’s voice came through, clear and awake, as cool and emotionless as ever. She did not sound as though she had been asleep.

“Go on, then. Tell the boss all about that rebellious little stunt you just pulled.”

Lin Yu: ...

Fine, fine, fine. So this was how one tattled face to face, was it?

“What’s going on with you two?”

On the other end, Ji Ya had already heard the small argument on this side. She frowned slightly. When she was busy with meetings, she usually would not answer calls unless they were from Su Xiaolin. But hearing the two of them muttering back and forth without getting to the point, wasting ten precious seconds of her call time, her tone inevitably turned serious.

The two on this side passed the phone back and forth for a while, and in the end it still landed in Lin Yu’s hands. He showed a trace of despair. Though flustered, he still gritted his teeth and answered.

You really are ruthless.

“What is it?”

“Boss, have you had breakfast?”

“I just had a meat bun, soy milk, and a tea egg...”

“Get to the point.”

“Sister Xiaolin said she misses you and wants to come back to help you.”

Ji Ya rubbed her brow. Setting aside why the number belonged to Su Xiaolin but Lin Yu was the one answering, the real question was why Lin Yu had suddenly said something like that. The female CEO’s mind worked quickly, and she found the answer almost at once, then asked in return:

“You two aren’t getting along?”

Wouldn’t one expect no less from a female CEO? Her learning and intelligence were exceptional; with a single glance, she had guessed the key point.

Of course Lin Yu would not admit it outright, otherwise, in a sense, it would amount to accusing Ji Ya of poor judgment in people.

That would be the least of it. If she misunderstood him and thought he meant she had assigned him a manager who was incompetent at the job, wouldn’t Ji Ya’s face turn dark?

“It’s not really a big issue. I just want to try going solo and see whether I can carve out a place for myself in this industry...”

“Besides, working alone isn’t impossible. My self-management is pretty good. I can handle the small stuff myself, and the company can arrange the big stuff, right?”

Lin Yu did not have any objection to Su Xiaolin personally. He simply wanted a little more freedom. As a manager, she had professional ethics: she was supposed to supervise the artist, make sure he managed himself properly, and keep close watch over his work and even his daily life.

Lin Yu was just not used to having no private space.

Or perhaps he had not yet grown accustomed to the true life of an artist. At first, he had simply wanted to become one to make money and rise to the top, without considering the fact that being an artist also meant being constrained.

Now that the issue had arisen, he could not even eat breakfast properly, so he used how it would affect his songwriting as an excuse to brush off Ji Ya, trying to persuade the boss to accept his suggestion.

On the other end of the line, Ji Ya fell silent for a moment. She was seriously weighing the pros and cons. Only a few seconds passed before she sorted the whole matter out in her mind.

She understood Lin Yu’s thinking. Though they had known each other for just over a month, as his boss she had already grasped the rough shape of his character: unrestrained, fond of freedom. Otherwise, he would not have been producing songs day after day while keeping everyone else in the dark.

As for Su Xiaolin, she understood her even better. They had grown up together; there was no one more familiar. Since childhood, Su Xiaolin had been taught to behave with discipline and propriety. In her view, without rules there could be no order.

The two of them were, by nature, in profound conflict—like water and fire, incapable of blending. How could they possibly get along harmoniously?

But then again, every relationship needed time to adjust and adapt. No relationship ever began with complete understanding and perfect cooperation.

Even someone as flawless as Su Xiaolin had reached such seamless coordination and tacit understanding with Ji Ya only because she had been by Ji Ya’s side since childhood. They knew each other too well.

Besides, being an artist was not actually such an easy job. There were schedules, then the demands of daily life, the endless little chores of every day. Without the identity of a manager, if Lin Yu had to solve all those domestic trivialities himself, he would not be able to do it well even if split into four or five people.

His main task should be to put all his energy into creation, to write better songs, so that his path in the industry could open wider and wider. If he had to shoulder those petty concerns as well, life would become terribly hard for him.

He might even end up delaying his own progress.

Lin Yu still did not quite understand how to move through the industry. Everything still required the patient and careful guidance of Ji Ya and Su Xiaolin. In any case, letting him do as he pleased was absolutely impossible. This was work, not playing house.

“No.”

Hearing the refusal, it would be a lie to say he was willing, but since the boss had spoken, he had no choice but to comply. Lin Yu let out a sigh.

In truth, he did not hate being managed. He simply had long since grown used to self-management. In a harsh world, he had learned the truth that it was better to rely on oneself than on others.

To live by depending on others meant that at any time and any place, one could lose one’s support and still have to read other people’s expressions. But if one relied on oneself, then so long as one was diligent enough and had a goal, one would not starve.

In his past life, he had worked alone with all his strength, only to suffer a cold and heartless betrayal. It was precisely because he had trusted his ex-girlfriend too much that he had ended in such a miserable state.

With those two burdens weighing on him, it was truly too difficult for Lin Yu to trust others and depend on them. He did not want to repeat the same mistake.

“Since our opinions don’t align and our values are different, there’s no need to force it. President Ji, after the shoot ends, let’s talk about ending the contract.”

It was the first time Lin Yu had addressed her so politely. Ji Ya was momentarily stunned by it, but he did not give her time to speak before the call ended.

Ji Ya was silent for a moment. The old guard in the room saw her frown and could not help but tense up. Although they had held many private meetings to fight for more benefits, and had complained about Ji Ya being a cold-blooded female CEO and an unfeeling woman in front of one another, when the shareholders’ meeting had gone on for half an hour, not a single one of them had dared to say a word of dissatisfaction.

Now that Ji Ya only frowned slightly, these old foxes grew so nervous they even forgot why they had come to the meeting in the first place, and one by one they found excuses to get up and flee.

They could not afford to provoke a woman like Ji Ya, especially when she looked irritated for some unknown reason. Not one person in the room dared to rush headlong into the line of fire.

Only after the old men had left did Ji Ya regain her composure. She glanced at the already prepared contract for the buyout of shares. She had originally planned to discuss directly with those sly old foxes and buy up all of Ji Fei’s shares, completely cutting out the company’s cancerous tumor. She had not expected... this outcome was unexpectedly, well... subtle.