Chapter 42: The Zhou Family is Stirring Up Trouble

Chapter 42: The Zhou Family is Stirring Up Trouble

On the weekend, the four dormmates, including Shi Ling, had completed a round of review and could finally take a short break.

However, the lack of academic disturbances didn’t mean they could relax just yet.

They still had their careers to think about.

Although Shi Ling had mentioned before that he wanted to change his phone, he hadn’t had the time due to his studies. As a result, the latest updates about the game were all coming from Fang Lingyun.

But this was inconvenient, so he planned to take advantage of the weekend to go out and get a new phone.

Before leaving, he asked Fang Lingyun for a recommendation: “What brand is your phone? It seems pretty good.”

Fang Lingyun lazily turned over in bed, still browsing the comments under the studio’s official blog, and replied, “My brother gave it to me before the semester started. I forgot which model it is, but you can ask General Manager Ji; it’s from their family’s company.”

Shi Ling gave him an “OK” gesture and prepared to head out.

This time, he deliberately didn’t take the main gate of Jing University but instead went through the VIP North Gate.

On previous occasions, once he was stopped by Zhong Shao, the main lead, who was waiting for him at the school gate, and another time he was hounded by a TV crew. Shi Ling was starting to get PTSD from these encounters.

But this time, it went smoothly, with no strange people appearing at the North Gate.

Shi Ling nodded in satisfaction, hailed a taxi, and planned to head to the city center.

Sitting in the taxi, Shi Ling suddenly remembered that the last time he visited Ji Mingxiu’s place, it was also in the city center.

He hesitated for a moment but finally decided to contact Ji Mingxiu.

If he was busy, it would be fine. After all, the last quarter of the year was always busy for large companies, especially since Ji Mingxiu had recently been on a business trip. Although someone from the local company would handle urgent matters, there would still be a significant workload left for him.

But if he wasn’t too busy…

Shi Ling remembered that Ji Mingxiu had mentioned he also took weekends off.

Shi Ling blinked and sent a message to Ji Mingxiu.

The reply came quickly, indicating Ji was also enjoying his weekend: [I’m on my way now; I have something to discuss with you too.]

[As for the phone, no need to rush.]

Shi Ling: ……

For him, everything else could wait, but the phone situation was quite urgent.

Shi Ling got off the taxi on Central Avenue and saw Ji Mingxiu’s car slowly entering the Central Building, heading towards the underground parking.

Ji Mingxiu naturally spotted him and lowered the window, waving him over: “Shi Ling.”

Shi Ling, without any hesitation, quickly walked over and sat in the passenger seat as if it were second nature: “You’re fast!”

Even though Ji Mingxiu lived close to the Central Building, Shi Ling had only contacted him after getting into the taxi. It was quite surprising that he managed to arrive so quickly.

Ji Mingxiu turned the steering wheel and continued towards the underground parking: “I was planning to find you too.”

Shi Ling was puzzled: “Find me?”

Ji Mingxiu nodded: “Yes, I unexpectedly learned something.”

“Do you remember the Zhou Family?”

Shi Ling: ?

He leaned back in the passenger seat: “The Zhou Family, feels like a term from a long time ago. What about them? Are they stirring up trouble again? I thought their focus was on Zhou Su now?”

Ever since Zhou Su entered the entertainment industry and brought the Zhou Family into the public eye, they had rarely bothered Shi Ling. Even the previously relentless text messages and calls had stopped.

The last time Shi Ling thought about the Zhou Family was when Zhou Su’s variety show made it to the trending topics.

But that didn’t have much to do with the Zhou Family directly; it was just Zhou Su’s presence that reminded him of them.

Ji Mingxiu sneered while driving: “The Zhou Family is indeed focusing on Zhou Su now, but that doesn’t mean they’ve given up on you, especially with your project showing great potential.”

Shi Ling felt a bit embarrassed: “It’s not that promising; it’s just starting to make some waves, but what does that have to do with the Zhou Family?”

The investor for the *Natural Disaster* project was Ji Mingxiu personally, and according to their contract, even the Ji Family wasn’t involved. The producers were the four dormmates plus Senior Jiang, so it had nothing to do with the Zhou Family.

Especially since Shi Ling had never spent a single cent from the Zhou Family.

Ji Mingxiu didn’t beat around the bush and directly shared what he knew with Shi Ling: “Zhou Zhengde is discussing with the other Zhou Family members about taking your project for themselves.”

Shi Ling: ……

“What kind of delusion is he living in? What’s his plan?”

Ji Mingxiu replied: “Some very traditional capital tactics. Zhou Zhengde appoints people based on nepotism, which has made the Zhou Family’s internal structure rigid. But even a shrunken camel is bigger than a horse. They haven’t discovered that I’m your investor, but they found out about the members of your team and assumed that the money for your game came from Jiang Sijie and Fang Lingyun, thinking this game was just for fun but unexpectedly made some waves.”

“So, they plan to trick you all into selling the game to them.”

Shi Ling understood.

The Zhou Family saw the potential of their game and wanted to buy it, especially since they were relatively new to the gaming industry, making it easier for the Zhou Family to lowball them.

Shi Ling scoffed: “They have limited abilities but big dreams. Even if I don’t step in, Senior Jiang and Lingyun wouldn’t be fooled. They’ve seen much more than the Zhou Family’s petty tricks.”

Ji Mingxiu nodded in agreement but then shook his head: “Jiang Sijie definitely won’t be fooled; the competition in the Jiang Family has always been fierce, and she’s seen a lot. As for Fang Lingyun, there’s a possibility he might be deceived.”

Shi Ling was surprised: “No way, I checked before; the Fang Family isn’t much different from the Jiang Family.”

"The Fang family's structure is relatively simple, without many weird relatives." Ji Mingxiu replied to him.

In the midst of their conversation, Ji Mingxiu had already found a parking spot and parked the car.

Before getting out of the car, Ji Mingxiu suddenly reached into the built-in compartment and pulled out a square box, tossing it to Shi Ling: "Here, take this."

Shi Ling fumbled to catch it: "What is it?"

It was a phone, seemingly of the same brand as Fang Lingyun's.

Ji Mingxiu turned off the engine and got out of the car first: "It's the commercial model from the beginning of this year, with a pretty good configuration. Although it was released earlier than Fang Lingyun's model, the configuration is actually a bit better. After all, the one given to Fang Lingyun was meant for college students during the summer vacation."

"This was one of the dual-color models sent to me earlier. I picked one, and the other has just been sitting there. Since you need one, you can use it!"

The most important thing was that Shi Ling, of course, had to use a couple-style phone with him; how could he possibly use the same one as Fang Lingyun?

Shi Ling held the square box in his hand, staring blankly.

He had specifically run this errand today for what again?

Oh, right, to buy a phone.

He glanced at the phone in his hand again: "Then it seems I don't have anything else to buy once I enter the mall."

Ji Mingxiu smiled: "Go buy some ingredients, I'll treat you to hotpot for lunch today."

Shi Ling thought about it and agreed: "Then wait for me a moment, I need to swap the SIM card first."

It must be said, this phone was indeed of the same model as Ji Mingxiu's.

After turning it on, registering the ID, downloading software, and logging into his account, despite the usual 999+ notifications, everything went smoothly.

He was quite satisfied, except that the battery level was dangerously low.

Shi Ling put the phone in his pocket: "Let's go, let's go, if we don't hurry, it's going to die."

Ji Mingxiu locked the car and followed Shi Ling towards the elevator: "You're in too much of a rush, I didn't get a chance to charge it."

While Shi Ling and Ji Mingxiu were shopping in the supermarket, Fang Lingyun, who was still lying in his dorm, suddenly received a call from Jiang Sijie.

Her tone was very serious: "Fang Lingyun, I just couldn't get through to Shi Ling's phone, do you know where he is?"

Fang Lingyun was puzzled, unsure why Jiang Sijie's tone was so grave, but he still informed her of Shi Ling's whereabouts: "His phone has been very laggy, so he planned to buy a better one today. Maybe when you called him, he was in the middle of changing his SIM card. Is something wrong?"

Jiang Sijie let out a breath: "That's good. I just received a call from the Zhou family. When he comes back, remember to tell him."

Pausing for a moment, she continued: "It's not just Shi Ling, all of you need to be careful. At the start of the project, we signed a contract. Don't do anything illegal."

Fang Lingyun, upon hearing this, tensed up: "So, Senior Sister, what exactly is going on that involves illegal activities?"

Jiang Sijie replied: "The Zhou family called to persuade me to sell them 'Natural Disaster'."

Fang Lingyun: ?!

He sat up abruptly on his bed: "What the hell?"

On the other end of the line, Jiang Sijie repeated: "You heard me right, the Zhou family wants to buy 'Natural Disaster'."

Fang Lingyun said word by word: "Tell them to go to hell where they came from."

Jiang Sijie was very pleased with Fang Lingyun's reaction and continued to advise him: "I've already rejected them, but I don't think they'll give up so easily. So no matter what, be on your guard."

"I trust that you guys wouldn't do something like this, but since you've just entered university, especially Mo Jin and Shao Qin, who probably haven't encountered such things before, if the Zhou family really approaches them, they might get deceived. Keep an eye on them."

It must be said, sometimes there is a wall between ordinary people and the wealthy. Although Fang Lingyun seemed innocent, having grown up in the Fang family, even if he hadn't encountered such things, he had heard of similar cases. However, Mo Jin and Shao Qin, who hadn't even heard of such things before, were still a cause for concern.

Jiang Sijie suddenly remembered that Shi Ling should technically fall into the same category, but since he had been so steady and had been spending time with Ji Mingxiu, he wasn't as concerning.

The key concern remained Mo Jin and Shao Qin.

Before hanging up, Jiang Sijie reiterated to Fang Lingyun once more: "Remember to tell Shi Ling."