CHAPTER 681: CHAPTER 614: SPEAKING OF HER, WHAT A PITY

In the afternoon, the exclusive rest area of Xingyue Entertainment was filled with a strong aroma of coffee. Sunlight streamed through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, casting sharp geometric shadows on the floor.

Xue Yi’s slender fingers unconsciously traced the edge of the open script, finally stopping at a certain point, letting out a barely audible sigh, breaking the brief silence.

Just back from the set, Xi Hongxia rarely had time to rest. Missing the company cafeteria’s coffee, she specifically invited them to the seventh floor to chat and discuss the next work.

"Sister Xia, did you hear?" Xue Yi’s voice carried a complex and indistinct emotion, "Xu Mengjie... was kicked out by the Su Family, completely driven out with nothing, they didn’t even let her take decent luggage."

Xi Hongxia, applying lipstick in a small mirror, didn’t pause at all at these words, she just glanced at Xue Yi through the mirror, her red lips curling into a highly sarcastic arc.

"Tsk, a fresh-off-the-press story of broken dreams at eight? Not surprising at all. Why, are you overflowing with sympathy?"

Xue Yi frowned slightly, shaking his head, "I wouldn’t say overflowing. It’s just... after all, she was once a colleague who fought beside us, seeing her end up like this doesn’t feel right. When she came back to the company to sign the termination agreement with the legal team, Sister Man reminded her, saying President Zhou had advised for a long time, almost carving ’jumping into a fire pit’ into the conference table, analyzing the pros and cons so thoroughly... alas, just a sigh."

Sister Man is Li Manman.

No one expected that after more than two months, she, an artist who had left the industry, would actually join Xingyue’s legal department, saying she wanted to learn while studying law.

President Yue always believed in the limitless potential of a person, so he arranged it for her!

Regarding Xu Mengjie’s termination, Li Manman understood very well the intricacies involved. Although not familiar, thinking she was under President Yue, she kindly reminded her for a long time.

Unfortunately, she didn’t listen.

"Thorough?" Xi Hongxia sneered at this point.

She snapped the small makeup mirror shut with a "clap," swiftly turning around, her eyes, meticulously lined, shot out a gaze as sharp as a knife.

"President Zhou didn’t just speak thoroughly? He almost showed her every thorn, snake, and lava in the fire pit! It was her own foolish infatuation! For that mama’s boy Mr. Su, for that fleeting illusion of being ’Young Madam Su,’ she was even willing to abandon her foundational skill—singing! The five million breach penalty covered by the Su Family? Ha! There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world! That’s a down payment for a sell-out!"

"Everyone understands the reasoning," Xue Yi smiled bitterly, rolling the corner of the script annoyedly, "but once someone gets stuck in a corner, caught in the situation, all they see is that bit of illusory light, how can they see the abyss beneath their feet?"

Back then, wasn’t it also because of his father’s illness...

Xi Hongxia fully understood what Xue Yi was thinking: "Hey, I say, don’t compare her situation to yours, okay! The nature of your problems is completely different!"

She sneered even more, almost forming actual frost, "Good advice is hard for a fool to listen to! You think only President Zhou advised? Didn’t I also advise her? And what was the result? She didn’t listen at all, and now she’s been dumped like garbage and has nowhere to go, and only now thinks of us ’old colleagues’? What was she doing earlier!"

Her tone carried a strong sense of frustration at Xu Mengjie’s lack of progress, she swiftly grabbed the phone on the table, unlocked the screen, and shoved it in front of Xue Yi’s eyes.

Focusing his gaze, Xue Yi saw it was the chat interface between Xi Hongxia and Xu Mengjie, the timestamp strikingly yesterday at midnight.

Beside Xu Mengjie’s avatar, was a long string of heart-wrenching despairing messages:

Xu Mengjie: Sister Xia, I was wrong! I really know I was wrong! Completely and utterly wrong!

Xu Mengjie: The Su Family is a bunch of liars! Wolves in human skin! They’ve drained all my savings, even the last bit of money my mom left me is gone!

Xu Mengjie: I’m begging you to help me... I have nothing now, not even a place to stay... they even want to withhold the earnings from my previous endorsements, saying I breached the contract...

Xu Mengjie: Sister Xia, what should I do? I feel like I can’t go on living...

Xu Mengjie: [Unanswered voice call request]

Xi Hongxia suddenly withdrew her phone, as if the words on the screen carried a plague, and her voice was as cold as the Siberian tundra wind.

"See that? A chilling midnight cry, a desperate plea for help. Back then, I was hoarse from advising her, almost needing a baseball bat to knock sense into her stubborn head! Did she listen? Not only did she not listen, she thought I was sharp-tongued and blocking her ’brilliant path’ into a wealthy family! Now she wants to cry for help? Sorry, my heart is made of stone, I won’t save those who seek their own misery for love, nor will I play firefighter to extinguish the fire she set herself!"