The men and women who had been chatting leisurely all put down their glasses and rushed to the door to greet the "main characters" in Leng Chuanjin's words.
"Do we need to go too?" Xia Sanghuan couldn't help asking, looking at the grand scene in front of her.
"Normally, we don't."
"But this time the situation is special."
The man stood up, bent slightly, and reached out his hand to the girl.
"Let's go."
"Go and meet the 'main characters'."
She placed her hand in his. With a gentle tug, the man pulled her up from the beach chair.
The two deliberately slowed down and dawdled at the back of the crowd. There was only one reason for this: it was the least likely way to draw the attention of their target.
"It's him?" the girl murmured softly after seeing who was coming, unable to hide her shock.
And anger.
Why was it Kevin? When discussing this matter with her sister, this man seemed to be the protagonist of the whole incident, connecting every important link.
It was he who first brought Aria to Fu Moning's company to discuss cooperation. Although only he was sent as a representative from his company for the negotiation, Aria was a top - tier model with a lot of world - class brand resources. Her worth was even comparable to that of Fu Youqing, a Hollywood actress.
Moreover, Kevin was well - spoken and polite. He almost agreed to all of Fu Moning's requests that were within the budget.
Most importantly, the compensation offered by this company was extremely generous. It wasn't about how much profit this project would bring, but rather the opportunity it could provide for the company to expand its connections and cooperate with other high - end luxury brands.
It was impossible for Fu Moning not to be tempted. But she didn't agree immediately.
Kevin's company wasn't a charity. Why would they offer such favorable terms? Don't even mention that they took a fancy to her ability—she had stopped believing such a pretext since the first year she founded her company.
After several meetings with the board of directors, even those old guys who had been in the business world for many years were convinced by Kevin. This put all the pressure on Fu Moning.
Seeing her sighing for days and even losing her appetite, Fu Lingshi couldn't help but feel heartache. He knew his sister's pride. After all, if it weren't for him, Fu Moning would be the eldest in the family. And before he was adopted by the Fu family, it was she who had taken good care of the two younger siblings. If he rashly offered to help, she would surely refuse. In a worse - case scenario, it might even make her angry.
So he had to first explain the situation to his father. Although Fu Zeming didn't know exactly what was going on, he had noticed the recent changes in his second daughter. He had been thinking about how to help her, and then his eldest son brought it up.
Finally, the two decided to talk to Fu Moning before taking action. That was how the cooperation among the three companies came about. However, the Fu family's company only played an auxiliary role, providing a small amount of funds, but would share the risks with Fu Moning's company. Their original intention was to encourage her to be bold, but when something really went wrong, it became a shackle for her instead. So, if it weren't for this desperate situation, Fu Zeming wouldn't have allowed Leng Chuanjin to "mess around" with his precious daughter.
Accompanying Kevin was the ace model Aria. But Aria looked different today.
To get a better understanding of the two, Xia Sanghuan had almost read all of Aria's magazine shoots from her debut to the present, and even watched fashion shows that she didn't understand at all.
"Aria has been a model for seven years."
"But why is there so little information about the first three years?"
She flipped through the materials that Leng Chuanjin had found for her while turning back to ask the man who was sipping coffee leisurely.
"Everyone has secrets they don't want outsiders to know."
"Right?" he replied meaningfully.
The girl understood his implication and fell silent for a moment.
"Can't you find out?"
"Of course I can if I dig deep."
"But that would tip off the enemy."
He placed the coffee cup on the small table beside him.
"Moreover."
"Isn't it better to let the person herself tell the story?"
At that time, she didn't quite understand what he meant. Until she saw Aria tonight.
As far as she knew, Aria had become famous overnight because of a set of photos. The theme of the photos was "purity", a common but difficult - to - shoot theme. In the photos, Aria was wearing a white long dress, and even her hair and eyelashes were dyed the same white as the dress. Coupled with her gray - blue eyes, even Xia Sanghuan, an outsider, couldn't take her eyes off. So she had earned the title of "the Pure Goddess" in the modeling circle.
In addition, her daily life was very simple and clean. Over time, she had become like "Astraea" in the public's mind. It was said that she also held herself to such a standard.
Most of the time, she was inseparable from Kevin. But rather than having a good relationship, it seemed that Kevin was more like a puppeteer.
Yes, in the eyes of some people, Aria was more like a marionette than a real person. Most of the time, there was little expression on her face, but the feeling she gave was different from Xia Sanghuan's. It was a state of lifelessness.
Occasionally, when someone raised this question, she would release a set of extremely spiritual photos to silence them. But tonight, her outfit completely overturned Xia Sanghuan's perception of her.
It was too revealing. After Aria made her entrance, Xia Sanghuan's attention, which had been on Kevin, was immediately drawn to her.
"What she's wearing is just too..."
The girl stammered for a long time but couldn't find an appropriate adjective. And Leng Chuanjin beside her didn't respond to her either.
Was he stunned? She turned to look at him and found that he wasn't looking at Aria at all. Instead, he was staring intently at Kevin.
"What's wrong?"
"Isn't Aria also one of the key targets to observe tonight?" Xia Sanghuan couldn't help asking.
"Why do you keep staring at Kevin?"
His anger turned into a laugh at her words.
"Respect privacy."
"Understand?"
He patted her head as if he were disappointed in her for not being up to the mark. She had been jealous just because other women were looking at him. How could she go back to being like this just a few minutes later?
"They're walking over there." Xia Sanghuan exclaimed when she saw the crowd start to move.
"We have to follow them..."
She hadn't taken a few steps when Leng Chuanjin grabbed her wrist.