Chapter 68: Reaching Middle Age

Yellow Lantern used to be a fierce competitor of Cocoon! Back then, Cocoon naturally tried every possible means to step its rival into the dust.

However, today Cocoon is probably going to acquire Yellow Lantern’s platform division. Since they are all brothers under the same roof, nobody naturally wants to make things too awkward.

That is why Cocoon is willing to help Zhou Yifan hype up the content he desires!

Although no one on Cocoon's side knows what Zhou Yifan's actual intentions are—whether he is sacrificing the rook to save the king, dumping the minor to protect the major, or harboring some other hidden thoughts—it doesn't matter, truly it doesn't.

"Keke, I'm very sorry, but I'm afraid this won't work. The trending charts at Cocoon these past couple of days were personally arranged by the executives."

Under normal circumstances, if a young girl came to him, Cheng Guanzhi might not have responded this way. After all, they were just trending topics, and hyping anyone up was the same to them—all they needed was traffic.

But this time, Zhou Yifan had approached him personally. Regardless of whether his artist's reputation had collapsed or not, Zhou Yifan's personal connections and influence as an agent were undeniable.

There was no reason for them to reject Zhou Yifan's friendship.

Lin Ke grew somewhat anxious: "But, but we're a short-video platform! Don't we just need high engagement and views? Why must we deliberately throw dirt on Xu Meiqi? Her traffic isn't even that big; hyping up Eliane would get way more people's attention!"

"We wouldn't dare second-guess the leadership's intentions. After all, this circle is so complicated, with intricate relationships behind the scenes that outsiders can hardly fathom."

"But Xu Meiqi is innocent!"

Without fully grasping the subtext in Cheng Guanzhi's words, and even less able to understand why Zhou Yifan would personally step in to push Xu Meiqi under the bus, Lin Ke only felt that the company was once again acting entirely without bottom lines simply for the sake of traffic.

Though calling it that wasn't entirely wrong, either.

If the company had to choose between Lin Ke's negligible friendship and the heavyweight figure Zhou Yifan, Lin Ke simply wasn't in the same league.

Neither could Cheng Guanzhi tell her anything more: "Keke, my dear, it is what it is. Since it's already happened, tell your friend to accept reality and let it go!

The company has already made its decision. Whether it's you or me, our only option is to obey; there's no room for any resistance.

You haven't been at Cocoon for a short time either; you should understand that only by listening to the company can you make good money. As long as you listen to the company, you can make good money.

After all, she's your friend, not you. She brought this upon herself by her own actions, and she dug her own grave. Why ruin your own future for someone else's mistakes?

Even if you were willing, I wouldn't be. I can only follow President Wang's instructions, do you understand?"

Right now, Cheng Guanzhi didn't even have the heart to resist anymore.

Yellow Lantern was truly about to be acquired by Cocoon, leaving him without even a fallback option. Middle-aged, with aging parents above and young children below, what qualifications did he still have to put up any resistance?

He no longer wanted to care about matters genuinely concerning justice, let alone these petty, everyday entanglements.

His attitude toward Lin Ke remained fairly good for two reasons: on one hand, this girl was essentially brought into Cocoon by him; on the other hand, Lin Ke's popularity was steadily rising, and who knew who would hold a higher position in the future? Regardless of whether Cheng Guanzhi was currently a director, one always had to be polite to the company's cash cows.

"Boss Snow, I..."

Before Lin Ke could say more, Cheng Guanzhi interrupted her.

"Hurry home and get some good rest! It's very late, and working overtime these past couple of days hasn't been easy. I need to head home too."

Cutting off whatever else Lin Ke wanted to say, Cheng Guanzhi shut down his computer and packed his backpack. He had pretty much finished his work for the company; since he hadn't gone home at all yesterday, he would head back a bit earlier today.

Traffic on the streets of Jincheng at night was smooth, without any intersection causing tens of minutes of gridlock. Cheng Guanzhi drove home the entire way in just 20 minutes, arriving at the underground parking garage when it wasn't even ten o'clock yet.

He didn't rush to get out of the car.

Netizens were right after all: the freest moment for a man is the time after he gets off work, before he returns home, while he is still sitting in his car.

He didn't play games, listen to music, or open any short-video apps. He simply leaned back quietly in his seat, closing his eyes as if he were dead.

For just these brief moments, he wasn't a corporate workhorse, nor a father, a son, or the pillar of his family—he was simply himself.

Yet, Cheng Guanzhi didn't linger for long.

He could not escape forever, and even if he tried, eternal peace was impossible.

The moment he had just parked and closed his eyes, Cheng Guanzhi could still enjoy the present with a peaceful mind. But after a mere five minutes, those chaotic matters flooded back into his mind, making him stand up in frustration.

Forget it, time to go upstairs.

His wife was in the bathroom washing the child's shoes, while his daughter was unrolling a yoga mat in the living room, working hard to jump and dance along with an online fitness video. Kids nowadays were really so vain; at such a tender age, they already knew how to work out in advance.

"Yaoyao, have you finished all your homework?"

Yaoyao was sweating profusely, but she didn't miss a beat: "I finished it ages ago. I'm learning how to dance."

Cheng Guanzhi changed his clothes and lay down on the sofa: "If you like dancing so much, I'll send you to a tutoring class so a professional teacher can guide you."

Yaoyao turned her head back: "Then I want to learn jazz dance."

"Why would a little kid learn jazz dance? You should learn classical dance; it gives you a nice posture and good temperament."

Bah!

Yaoyao twisted back around and didn't want to talk to him anymore.

Anyway, they had never respected her own wishes.

What use was classical dance? She wanted to shake her waist! Only those perverted old men with sexy tastes would like that kind of thing.

Cheng Guanzhi wasn't actually going to send Yaoyao to dance class; artistic things sounded like something pursued by people poor at academic subjects. If she was going to cram school, she should be studying English or Olympiad math.

Once the dance tutorial video finished playing, the living room fell quiet for a moment. Seeing Cheng Guanzhi lying on the sofa without doing anything busy, Yaoyao mustered up her courage for a long time before finally creeping over.

"Dad..."

Cheng Guanzhi rubbed his temples without even opening his eyes: "Dad is a bit tired, play by yourself for a while."

Yaoyao's voice sounded somewhat dejected: "You haven't accompanied me in so long. I know you're busy, but during the entire winter break, everyone else had their moms and dads taking them out to play, and I had nothing."

It wasn't as if Cheng Guanzhi didn't feel a pang of heartache for his daughter, a tiny trace of guilt welling up: "It's just that Dad is too busy. There's so much going on at Dad's company; the trending searches have been relentless these past few days, and I can't spare a single minute.

Be a good girl, Yaoyao. If you want to go out for a stroll, go for a stroll; if you want to watch some TV, watch some TV. Once Dad gets through this busy spell, I'll take you out to play."

"Dad, you said the exact same thing before the winter break! You're lying to me again."

Cheng Guanzhi finally opened his eyes and turned his head, still without sitting up: "Doesn't Dad have to stay busy to make money? Without money, how could you attend an international school, and how could you buy whatever you want?

Food, clothing, housing, transportation, daily expenses—is there anything where Dad hasn't given you the very best? Your starting line is way ahead of children your own age."

Hearing this, Yaoyao finally spoke up: "Then Dad, I want to go on the school's study tour. There are teachers leading the team, it's super safe, and parents don't need to accompany us, so it won't delay your work. Just treat it as me going out to play during the winter break to relax. Can I?"

"A study tour? Where to? To climb the Great Wall? Go if you want to. How much does it cost? Dad will pay for it."

"Not much, just... tens of thousands of yuan."

"How much?!"