Chapter 381: Negotiations Require Sincerity

“You know what I like most about you?” Wu Chen smiled at Peng Wei. “You obviously think this is dangerous, and yet you still had the nerve to ask me to meet. You’re careful, but you’ve got guts…”

Peng Wei’s face didn’t so much as flicker in the face of that smile. It stayed perfectly blank.

What Wu Chen had just said was actually rather strange. The two of them were plainly here to negotiate, yet he had said something that sounded almost like admiration.

“Where are my people?” Peng Wei asked, staring straight at him.

“What people?” Wu Chen smiled, his brow furrowing slightly. “What are you talking about? What’s happened to your people?”

“Mr. Wu! At this point, do you really still need to play dumb with me?” Peng Wei’s tone was heavy, and his face had darkened considerably.

“So…” Wu Chen smiled. “You want to have a serious talk?”

“What else? I didn’t come here to drink tea with you!” Peng Wei said.

“Then where’s your sincerity?” Wu Chen frowned again, though the smile never left his face. He looked entirely relaxed, at ease, almost casual. “This is how you want to negotiate with me?”

“What more sincerity do you want?!” Peng Wei snapped. He couldn’t for the life of him work out what all this posturing was meant to achieve.

“Boss Peng, you don’t look so good. Didn’t get much rest yesterday?” Wu Chen kept smiling.

Peng Wei’s eyelid twitched. He knew Wu Chen was putting him on notice.

“You…” he began.

Wu Chen didn’t wait for him to finish. He stood abruptly, walked to the window, tugged the cord on the blinds, and drew them shut.

Peng Wei’s expression shifted slightly.

Anyone else in the room would have found the gesture baffling. Peng Wei didn’t. In that instant, a suspicion struck him: Wu Chen knew he had been watching him through that window.

And not only Peng Wei himself.

Peng Wei had come over, but Old Qian was still in the hotel room across the street, watching the two of them talk and taking pictures.

Did Wu Chen know?

Peng Wei watched him closely as he closed the blinds, walked back, straightened his jacket, and sat down.

“You said I was playing dumb.” Wu Chen smiled at him again. “Actually, I think you’re the one who’s best at it. Take the Qu Xiaoying scandal, when she was cheating with Zhang Hongjin. You took those photos, didn’t you? You’ve never admitted it. When Yu Chenghu asked you, you played dumb with him too. But I know it was you. Right?”

Peng Wei’s gaze sharpened, and his expression changed slightly.

Qu Xiaoying: thirty-eight, married, a top-tier A-list actress signed to United Media.

Zhang Hongjin: twenty-six, unmarried but with a girlfriend, a rising young actor and singer, also signed to United Media.

Yu Chenghu: senior executive vice president of United Media and president of its film and television division. The company’s number two.

In April the year before last, New Horizon Studio, a well-known domestic paparazzi outfit, had suddenly broken the news online that Qu Xiaoying and Zhang Hongjin had vacationed abroad together.

United Media had always promoted Qu Xiaoying heavily. Once the scandal broke, her career collapsed and her future as a star was in ruins. Zhang Hongjin, who had only just made his name, was driven straight out of the entertainment industry.

On the surface, it looked as though New Horizon Studio had caught Qu Xiaoying in the act. New Horizon had never been in United Media’s camp. All they had to do was approach one of United Media’s rivals, name a price, and publish the dirt, effectively “taking out” Qu Xiaoying.

But Wu Chen knew the truth.

It had actually been Peng Wei.

Peng Wei and United Media were thick as thieves. Ordinarily, he would never break any dirt on United Media. He wouldn’t even go looking. If anything, he had to guard against other paparazzi studios smearing United Media’s artists.

Yu Chenghu was his backer, so naturally Peng Wei did United Media’s work.

There had been a reason he’d turned on one of his own that time.

Qu Xiaoying was arrogant. She had been famous for years, a big name with a bigger temper. A great many stories about her diva behavior had been smoothed over by Peng Wei, who had mobilized his paid online commenters to steer public opinion.

The two of them had clashed.

It happened at an internal United Media banquet that Peng Wei had also attended. Paparazzi kept catching Qu Xiaoying in minor scandals, so she aimed barbed remarks at Peng Wei, some open, some veiled. She looked down on paparazzi, felt Peng Wei had no business being at that banquet, and said so in front of everyone.

It wasn’t that her emotional intelligence was appallingly low. She had simply gotten too full of herself.

Her new drama was a massive hit at the time, and she was red-hot. For a stretch, her buzz even eclipsed that of some of the hottest young idols.

Peng Wei had already found her a nuisance, a troublemaker. After that night, he more or less stopped cleaning up after her. Then, later, he discovered she was having an affair…

After that, the two of them argued on several more occasions.

Peng Wei advised her to rein herself in.

She snapped back at him.

So Peng Wei had her tailed for three months and got conclusive photographic proof of the affair. He sold the photos through an intermediary to New Horizon Studio, and New Horizon went to one of United Media’s competitors, negotiated a price, and released them.

New Horizon didn’t even know Peng Wei had taken the pictures. They didn’t care where material came from in the first place. As long as the dirt was explosive enough, they would buy it, sell it on, and pocket the difference.

The domestic paparazzi business was highly mature by now. It ran on a purely commercial model.

Peng Wei had pulled it off without leaving a trace.

Apart from the trusted core members of his studio, no outsider knew he was the one who had taken Qu Xiaoying down.

Yu Chenghu had even asked him afterward whether he’d caught any whispers beforehand.

Peng Wei had played dumb.

“Mr. Wu, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Inwardly, Peng Wei was shocked that Wu Chen knew it had been him. There hadn’t even been rumors. Nothing tied him to it.

But he didn’t let it show. He went on playing dumb.

“You don’t?” Wu Chen smiled. “Then let me mention something you will. Something from this year. In March, right after New Year, you went to the capital… March sixth, ten in the morning. You met a man surnamed Wang. Remember?”

This time Wu Chen was very oblique, deliberately leaving out the more crucial details.

Yet Peng Wei’s face changed dramatically.

He reached into his jacket at once, took out his phone, and ended the call.

The phone had been on a call the whole time.

Since before he walked into the room.

On the other end was one of his core people: Old Qian.

Peng Wei had wanted Old Qian listening in real time, to make sure he stayed safe.

But what Wu Chen had just alluded to, Peng Wei wanted no one to hear.

Not even a trusted man.

The Qu Xiaoying affair was known to Wave Studio’s core members, Old Qian included. There was no harm in him hearing that. But the second matter Wu Chen was about to raise was something Peng Wei had done in secret, on his own.

He had kept it from everyone from the very start, and he couldn’t let anyone find out. That matter alone was enough to tear his studio apart and destroy his career.

In truth, Peng Wei had no idea how much Wu Chen knew, or in how much detail.

But!

Wu Chen had been right about the first matter.

So Peng Wei didn’t dare gamble on the second.

“Wouldn’t it have been easier to take it out sooner? I told you, negotiations require sincerity.” Wu Chen smiled at him.

He picked up his teacup and drank. After setting it down, he lifted the teapot and poured himself more.

Throughout, Peng Wei sat gripping his phone, glowering at him.

Splash…

Wu Chen finished pouring, set down the pot, and looked at Peng Wei again.

“And the recorder? Aren’t you going to take that out too?” he asked with a smile.

That smile had begun to make Peng Wei’s skin crawl.

It was as though Wu Chen could see right through him, as though he knew everything about him.

Peng Wei hated the feeling.

But Wu Chen had called him on it, and there was no point keeping up the act. He reached into his jacket again, took out a voice recorder, and switched it off in front of Wu Chen.

“There we go. Now that’s sincerity!” Wu Chen laughed.

Peng Wei couldn’t take any more.

He knew he had been pulled completely into Wu Chen’s rhythm. If this went on, there was no way he could negotiate.

With that, he reached into his jacket once more, fished around twice, pulled out a thick stack of photographs, and flung them onto the table.

They fanned out across the tabletop: Zhuang Xiaodie and Wu Chen outside Laopinxuan the night before. Among them, the shot of her kissing him stood out sharply.

“Mr. Wu! I know you’ve looked into me. You’re very good, I’ll admit that!” Peng Wei stared at him, his face blank. “But if we’re being honest, what you’ve done is a lot more serious than anything I’ve done, isn’t it? What do you think would happen if Miss Li Ruobing saw these?”

The corner of his mouth lifted.

He was going to turn the tables.

Snatch victory from the brink of defeat.