Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

”Huh, why aren’t you working late today?”

At the Sang Family home, Mrs. Sang watched her son, who had rushed through dinner and was now heading out the door, a teasing look on her face.

”If I worked late every day, where would you get a daughter-in-law?”

With the experiences of his past life, Sang Yuan was no longer a shy young man. Not only did he not mind his mother’s teasing, but he would even turn the joke back on her.

”Don’t you know how old you are? You’re about to hit forty! Is it wrong for me to want a daughter-in-law? No one can say I’m wrong. By the way, how are things going with you two?”

The last time, she had indirectly arranged to have dinner with Ni Bingyan’s agent and gotten a lot of inside information. She knew her son was reserved and didn’t like to talk about these things, so she’d been pretending not to know, but she still couldn’t help but feel hopeful.

”Everything’s going according to plan. Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”

Sang Yuan didn’t care one bit about hitting forty. He gave a perfunctory reply and left.

’He couldn’t very well tell her that he’d gone to great lengths recently to scheme against his future father-in-law, thinking he had everything perfectly under control, only to find the old man was as cunning as they come. He didn’t gain a single advantage and ended up getting fooled, could he?’

”As long as you know what you’re doing. You have to realize, a girl as wonderful as Bingbing has countless suitors. If you’re not proactive, some dark horse will pop up and steal her away. Don’t blame me for dealing with you then!”

”I know, don’t worry.”

After leaving his house, Sang Yuan ambled toward Number 32.

But before he got there, he ran right into Ni Bingyan.

”Good evening. Have you eaten?”

Sang Yuan saw her first and greeted her.

Ni Bingyan was walking with her head down, uncharacteristically looking at her phone as she went, her fingers tapping away as if replying to messages.

Hearing the greeting, she looked up and broke into a smile when she saw it was Sang Yuan.

’Whoa, my Treasure Basin! Can’t afford to offend him!’

It was still early before her appointment anyway, so she wasn’t in a hurry. She stopped, planning to chat with Sang Yuan for a bit.

”Hey, you too! Out for a walk after dinner? I haven’t eaten yet. A friend invited me to dinner, and I’m on my way to meet them now.”

’A friend invited her to dinner?’

Their neighborhood was far from the city center, yet she was walking. The meeting place was obviously nearby.

Sang Yuan resisted the urge to ask and decided to make some small talk first.

”Work not busy lately? It’s rare to see you so free.”

”It’s not too bad. I just have two red carpet events before the New Year, then I’m going to Chili Channel for their Spring Festival Gala. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, I’ll join the cast of *Demon Suppression Tower*. What about you? Is your company especially busy at the end of the year?”

He used to be very busy, but ever since he resolved to put his wife and children first, he had delegated more of his work.

”I’m doing okay. I have a team of very capable employees.”

Sang Yuan didn’t say much more about work.

”That makes sense. With a company that big, if you had to watch over everything yourself, you’d work yourself to death and still not be done.”

”Exactly! Life can’t be all about work. When you spend a fortune hiring talented people, you have to let them prove their worth.”

Sang Yuan smiled. Noticing her scuffing the ground with the toe of her shoe, he knew she wanted to leave. He didn’t try to keep her, but lowered his gaze and asked, as if casually:

”Where are you headed? Are you worried about drinking and not being able to drive later? Do you want me to give you a ride? It’s late, and this area is pretty deserted. It’s not safe to walk alone at night.”

Ni Bingyan quickly waved her hands. ”No, no, that’s okay! It’s just in the next neighborhood, right across the street. There’s nowhere to park a car anyway. I was thinking, I still have over half an hour before the meeting time! It’s the perfect distance to walk.”

Seeing her in black Martin boots, black skinny pants, and a dark green bomber jacket, with her long hair worn loose, he noted that while her outfit seemed casual, she was wearing exquisite makeup. Sang Yuan guessed she was most likely meeting people she knew, but wasn’t particularly close with, and that there were other beautiful women among them.

”The next neighborhood? You have friends living there?”

There were a lot of villas in this area. It was normal for celebrities who had made a name for themselves, and thus had high incomes, to live nearby.

”It’s close to the airport, so it’s convenient for gigs. A lot of people in the industry like to live around here. Tomorrow night is the Weibo Night Gala, right? Since everyone happens to be in Beijing, my classmate Li Yi organized a little get-together for a few old classmates to have dinner. You know, it’s pretty hard for us to just casually meet up, so Li Yi just hired a chef to come to her house...”

It wasn’t anything that couldn’t be said. Ni Bingyan cared a great deal about her ”Treasure Basin,” so when he asked, she answered without hiding anything.

She spoke casually, not noticing that Sang Yuan’s expression changed the moment he heard Li Yi’s name.

In his past life, a certain celebrity couple’s divorce had dominated the trending topics for nearly a month. As they kept slinging mud at each other, they ended up dragging out Li Yi, the entertainment industry’s number one madam.

[Li Yi is devoid of all honor and shame. Who can write the matching line?]

That hot comment became a widespread meme back then, on par with ”My dad is Li Gang” or ”taking turns having X relations” from before Ni Bingyan transmigrated.

The scandal was so huge that anyone with internet access knew about it. During that time, whenever people got together, they would inevitably talk about it. Even Sang Yuan, who didn’t care about entertainment news, knew the details very well.

”...We weren’t that close back in school, but she’s an old classmate. Since she invited me, and our neighborhoods are just a street apart, it would be so rude not to go...”

Seeing Ni Bingyan still talking with a smile, Sang Yuan’s heart twisted into a knot.

In his past life, he and Ni Bingyan had gotten together by accident—a classic case of getting the ticket after boarding the bus, a pure ”marry first, love later” situation.

At first, he was afraid of being tricked, so he did a thorough background check on her. He found out that other than Jiang Sheng, she had never been with anyone else.

Many years later, he discovered that it wasn’t even her who had been with Jiang Sheng. On top of that, Ni Bingyan never flirted or acted ambiguously with other men in her daily life. He couldn’t even get jealous if he wanted to.

So, on this day in his past life, without him there to stop her, Ni Bingyan had definitely gone to the get-together.

When the scandal about Li Yi being a pimp broke, the reason Ni Bingyan was unaffected was most likely because she had sensed something was off, went once, and never contacted her again.

’It makes sense,’ he thought. ’It’s a reunion of old classmates. As long as Li Yi isn’t crazy, she’ll be on her best behavior tonight.’

But Sang Yuan knew Li Yi’s scandal would blow up in a couple of years. Naturally, he didn’t want Ni Bingyan to have the slightest connection to her. Even casual contact should be cut off, let alone attending a private party at Li Yi’s house.

After Ni Bingyan had said her piece, she saw the strange expression on Sang Yuan’s face and immediately asked, ”What’s wrong? Why do you look so pale? Are you not feeling well?”

If feigning illness could stall her, Sang Yuan might have thrown himself to the ground right then and there.

Unfortunately, they weren’t far from his house. Even if he fainted, his family could take him to the hospital. She would only be delayed for a little while and would still have to go to the party.

So, Sang Yuan stopped her with a serious expression. ”I advise you not to get too close to Li Yi. If possible, it would be best to draw a clear line between you.”

”Huh? Why?”

’In the original owner’s memories, although Li Yi was relatively plain-looking, she was very hardworking. She acted diligently, and five years after graduation, she could be considered a third-rate actress. Why should I draw a line between us?’

”Why don’t you ask Sister Wei?”

Ni Bingyan looked at him suspiciously. ”If you know something, just say it. We’re friends, more or less, right? What’s the deal with telling me only half the story?”

Sang Yuan sighed, left with no choice but to tell her what he knew. ”I have a friend who was... sponsoring a female celebrity for a while. He often showed off in his Moments how beautiful she was. Someone privately asked him how he managed to land her, and he said, ’Just have Li Yi set it up.’”

’So, you see, she’s a pimp. Anyone who values their reputation should keep their distance from her.’

Ni Bingyan finally understood why he had stopped her.

But— ”This ’friend’ of yours... it wouldn’t be you, would it?”

The accusation left Sang Yuan utterly floored.