if you are enjoying this series, please consider sponsoring a chapter, all of your donations are very appreciated!

also as a special surprise for happy march and happy no piano (I quit this week yayayayyay), if I can at least have one chapter sponsored, I’ll translate up to chapter 20 before this weekend arrives! let us clap b/c I have no school on friday! let us pray that ur translator’s chem teacher is in a good mood and won’t torture me with any more assignments.

Chapter 16.1

“Mo, Emperor Mo … …” Wearing a long pink dress, the beautiful woman’s mouth opened in shock, and then meekly smiled, “I, I suddenly remembered that I have some urgent things to do, I’ll leave first!”

Her voice echoed in the large hall, as she passed Mo Zhen, her black high heels made clicking sounds on the wax floor.

The light summer breeze brought the fragrant smell of the woman’s perfume to all corners of the hall, Ah Yao’s small nose itched and she suddenly sneezed.

The pink silhouette quickly disappeared from sight as the sounds of her high heels slowly became fainter and fainter, but the brown-dressed beauty at the counter that had been left behind cursed secretly in her heart at her friend- traitor ah! disappearing so quickly!

“Han Meimei.” Mo Zhen walked up to the front of the counter, placing his left hand casually onto the marble counter. Han Meimei’s face was entirely stiff- like a dead fish, the expression on her face was like a small animal waiting to be slaughtered.

“Delete my phone number.”

He had only stated a short order, but to Han Mei Mei it was like an imperial edict from the Emperor,  she quickly picked up the phone on the table, scrolled down into her contacts, and without hesitation, she deleted his number from her phone.

When Mo Zhen saw that the number had been deleted, he finally moved back a little. He had only moved back a little, only a few centimeters or so, but to Han Meimei it was a great amnesty, even her breathing had become more stable than before.

“If I hear you and Lucy talking about my private matters again.”

“I swear, it will never happen ever again!” Han Meimei interrupted him before saying “Then I’ll XXX”.

Mo Zhen lowered his head and looked at her silently. The sun shined on his head, bathing a warm golden light around him. Han Meimei felt her heart tremble a little, she looked up slightly and saw Mo Zhen’s extraordinary appearance, and finally gave up against the beauty, “I swear we will never gossip about your private matters ever again!”

Mo Zhen was finally satisfied, facing Han Mei Mei he slightly nodded his head, turned and left her desk.

The computer on the table continued to [DEE DEE DEE] without stopping. When Mo Zhen’s figure had disappeared for five minutes,  Han Meimei collapsed breathlessly onto her chair, opened the computer and clicked on the non-stop QQ notifications.

BOSS is a big pervert: Han Meimei you still alive?

BOSS is a big pervert: Han Meimei you must continue holding on ah!

BOSS is a big pervert: Han Mei Mei I will come and tidy up your corpse QAQ

BOSS is a big pervert: Han Meimei, you’ve done such a noble deed, you can definitely become a superhero.

Han Meimei scrolled through the messages, her fingers pressing the keys with a [ Pa Pa Pa] sound.

Nine Pairs of Plums: Emperor Mo dealt such a critical hit!!! The blood levels are now empty!

BOSS is a big pervert: Han Meimei it’s good that you are still alive!

BOSS is a big pervert: (it’s another idiom that I don’t know rip 是佛山無影腳還是降龍十八掌?searched it up, it’s referring to Shadowless Feet, a Chinese movie, I haven’t watched it before rip)

Nine Pairs of Plums: I just lost the chance to catch a beauty worth a thousand dollars!

BOSS is a big pervert: …

BOSS is a big pervert: Have you even confirmed it’s his phone number yet?

Nine Pairs of Plums: no ┬┬ ﹏┬┬

Nine Pairs of Plums: I’ve already deleted his phone number from my phone ┬┬ ﹏┬ ┬

BOSS is a big pervert: and yet you didn’t even send it to me before, we are no longer friends.

Nine Pairs of Plums: but I’ve long already memorized his phone number

BOSS is a big pervert: tonight, I’ll treat you to barbecued meat how about it? = 3 =

Nine Pairs of Plums:

Mo Zhen closed the door behind him and directly sat across Tang Qiang. Tang Qiang’s desk only had a few pictures on it, one was the Oh ~ MY God! Next sample album cover. Several of the photos were very similar, the only difference between them were that the people surrounding the person in the middle were different each time.

Oh ~ MY God! Was the most popular band group at the moment, they had only debuted three years ago, but since then they had won last year’s Music Award of the Year and placed top on the charts each time they released a new song.

Mo Zhen’s eyes swept the picture of the 5 figures, their young and handsome faces were very attractive to the worship of young teenaged girls. Ah Yao also looked down and gazed beside Mo Zhen, and then pointed to the boy in the middle of the picture, “I like this one.”

Mo Zhen raised his eyebrows, even the corners of his mouth were slightly turned up in amusement. The person Ah Yao had pointed to was named Zhang Cheng, in the group Oh ~ MY God!, he was the most popular one.

Ha ha.

“What did you call me here for?” Mo Zhen looked up at Tang Qiang, there was no courtesy greeting between them, not even a small good morning sentence.

Tang Qiang felt a vague feeling of unhappiness in his stomach, but Mo Zhen had just come in, even if he wanted to take revenge, he could not afford to do so. He dryly coughed a couple times and said: “Yesterday, the issue on Weibo the company is already aware, and they finally came to a compromise, after this Song Ni will not be bothering you.”

“And what else?”  About this incident, Mo Zhen really did not care much about it, if things had already developed to this point, and the company still wished to make him get involved with Song Ni, it was like making him tear off his entire reputation.

“The script for Forbidden God’s Zone 3 “will be changed, and the role of Song Ni … may not last long.”

Mo Zhen looked at Tang Qiang in surprise, ah, he did not predict that they would take this action. The character Song Ni played, Nessa, had a special role, although she did not have too many scenes, but because her identity was Gao Sen’s assistant, it was likely that should appear in God Forbidden Zone 4,5 and 6.

Now that the script was being changed, it cut off all of the possibilities.

“Emperor Mo, now you won’t want to quit the job right?” Tang Qiang got up and filled a cup with hot water, and placed in front of Mo Zhen.

However, as usual, Mo Zhen was unmoved by Tang Qiang’s efforts, “the old man had the heart to give up Song Ni?”

Tang Qiang chuckled, last night he had been in a meeting until 2 in the morning “They will probably develop another set of programs for Song Ni. However, you know that the chairman finds it extremely annoying when the company’s artists get caught up in a scandal, no matter how high of a position they have.”

Mo Zhen really had no viable reason to quit, Kai Huang was one of the largest out of the companies in the entertainment industries, in addition to packaging an idol and developing them, the management of the artists could also be described as more or less harsh. This was also why Kai Huang had only had a small number of artists that had gotten involved in scandals or gossip.

“The script will be changed today, tomorrow shooting will resume, do not be late.” Tang Qiang looked at Mo Zhen, there was nothing to worry about anymore.

“I know.” Mo Zhen stood up and was ready to leave, however, a knock came from outside of Tang Qiang’s door.

“Come in.”

The door was pushed open, Zhang Chengyi also came from outside. Mo Zhen had already lifted his body to get up, however when he noticed someone coming in, he quickly put down his feet, calmly turned himself, and re-sat in the chair.

Zhang Chengyi also went to Tang Qiang’s desk, he saw Mo Zhen sitting there but did not do a courtesy greeting and only nodded his head at him in recognition; switching his gaze back at Tang Qiang, he said, “Tang Dong, what happened?”

Tang Qiang looked at the unmoving mountain Mo Zhen and pointed to the space next to him, “Sit ah.”

“I’m fine.” Zhang Chengyi did not move as he stood in place and only looked at Tang Qiang in the eyes, “If there’s something to say, please say it.”

Tang Qiang’s eyebrows scrunched up with slight displeasure, he raised his face and stared back at Zhang Chengyi, his voice becoming more strict and blunt, “Chengyi, Oh ~ MY God! is a team, yet you don’t get along well at all with the rest of your teammates, not only is it harming your development, it’s also harming the entire team’s development. ”

Zhang Cheng bit his lip, but did not answer.

Tang Qiang, as instructed by the director, continued to speak to Zhang Cheng. “As a company’s artist, I think you should first learn to obey the company’s management.”

Zhang Cheng also chuckled twice, he glanced at Mo Zhen sitting on the couch and turned to Tang Qiang said: “Does Emperor Mo also need to obey?”

“Wait until you’re standing as high as Emperor Mo, then you can come and talk to me about that.” Tang Qiang seemed to be irritated by Zhang Chengyi’s attitude, his entire facial expression looked likehe was in a very bad mood. The sudden change of atmosphere had made Ah Yao a little scared, making her shiver in fright and she subconsciously drifted to hide behind Mo Zhen.

“Tang Qiang, lower your voice.” Mo Zhen leaned back on the leather couch, very casually listening to their dialogue, there was no point in hiding it anyway.

Tang Qiang listened to Mo Zhen’s advice, he drank a cup of coffee to clear his throat.

The hands at Zhang Chengyi’s side slowly balled into fists, though the volume of his voice did not increase, “Even if I listen to the company’s commands, and develop as they wish, I will never stand at his height!”

Tang Qiang and Mo Zhen looked at him, even Ah Yao was also determined to look at him. The office was quiet, only their slight breathing was heard inside the room.

“Those fans of yours, they only like the person the company has shaped you into, if you remove this layer and shell, then in the end, you are worth nothing.” Mo Zhen’s voice was low and sweet, without any sense of color or care, each word felt like it could bury into a person’s heart like a thorn.

Even if the words were painful, they were still true.

The sorrow of an artist was that they would have to become another person in order for the world to like them. Although their true self and the person on the TV or movie screen may be different from each other by a thousand miles, but they would still have to play another character in front of the camera.

Because an artist’s job, was to make people like them.

Tang Qiang glanced at Mo Zhen for a moment, and finally took over, “What Mo Zhen said was right, the entertainment industry is very tough, if you do not want the company to develop you in any way, then it is going to be very hard to make it out on your own.”

This was not a threat, Tang Qiang had encountered many people entering the entertainment industry inexperienced, they were carrying lifelong dreams- that they would be the next superstar. But the fact was that only the best could become a superstar, and out of the thousands of celebrities, only Mo Zhen could be crowned as the Emperor of the industry.

Zhang Cheng did not say anything, he just stood in place for a while and then walked out of Tang’s office.

Mo Zhen looked up and glanced at Tang Qiang for a moment and asked: “He wants to go solo?”

“Well,” Tang Qiang nodded, ” he thinks that being in a group limits his development.” Tang Qiang said, “He does have some talent, but he is too poor to go through any backdoors.”

Ambitious, this was a common trait among all the new idols.

Tang Qiang’s eyes swept the few sample albums and he pressed the call button, “Han Meimei, come in.”

Han Mei Mei came in very quickly andTang Qiang handed her an album sample: “tell LILI, the next album will have this cover.”

“Yes, Tang Dong.” Han Meimei took the photo and looked down. The new picture Tang Qiang had picked did not have the most popular Zhang Chengyi standing in the middle, instead, the person standing on the middle was someone Zhang Chengyi did not get along with, his bandmate, Wu Yan.

note: I used the word artist to describe well, literally everyone in the entertainment industry, I think that’s what they call it usually in the english world