It was as good as a slap on Cat Live’s face when Tiger Shark released the announcement.
Tiger Shark was blatantly telling the world that they had stolen live telecasters from Cat Live, but Cat Live was powerless.
Cat Live’s manager and all the employees wanted to pass out when they saw this.
Everyone felt this was just a prelude to Cat Live’s eventual collapse.
If these were just small-time live telecasters, who were highly replaceable, it would not affect Cat Live badly if they quit in throngs.
However, Jiang Rou’er, Pumpkin, and Jiaojiao were main live telecasters from important categories and had a lot of loyal fans. The moment they left, their fans were bound to follow.
Tiger Shark had the backing of Li Group and it had money to burn. As it was, Cat Live was already having trouble keeping up with Tiger Shark this year.
Now that their most important live telecasters had decided to leave, it was as good as signing a death sentence on Cat Live.
After Tiger Shark made the announcement, a lot of small-time live telecasters also left.
Before long, many investors told Cat Live that they wanted to pull their investments out of the company.
In just a single afternoon, as many as 15 investors had called to terminate their contracts with Cat Live.
“Forget it.” Cat Live’s owner sat in the conference room as he leaned against the seat and waved at everyone exhaustedly. “I will get finance to settle the accounts. If you want to quit, now is the time. To be completely honest, we are dead ducks.”
The atmosphere in the conference room became depressing.
Cat Live had been around for four years. The company had started out in an old house in the capital suburbs with only one computer until It became one of the biggest live telecast platforms around.
The company was established through everyone’s painstaking efforts. They had such a hard time convincing the first batch of live telecasters to work for them. Some people even thought Cat Live was an MLM scammer, and they were reported to the police.
The employees recalled the days they spent squatting by the roadside and eating buns with their shirts off, and they could not help sighing when they looked at the well-renovated conference room they were in now.
Was there really no hope?
Were they going to stand around and watch powerlessly as Cat Live and everything they had built got destroyed?
The operations manager recalled the black hole effect Mu Sheng had when it came to drawing in viewers and a thought crossed his mind. “Isn’t Mu very popular? Do you think we can use him to keep our market share?”
The moment he brought up Mu, everyone looked annoyed.
“Don’t even start. Even though he is very popular, we ended up like this because of him.”
“Exactly. We thought he was going to be the future of Cat Live, but he ended up attracting so much trouble for us.”
People kept sighing in the conference room, but the owner waved his hand. “Enough. This isn’t Mu’s fault. We were to blame for not steering the company properly. We didn’t stop to reflect on the risks we took and got cocky. Never mind. It is too late to talk about this now.”
The operations manager quietly shrank his head back in.
The boss was right. What was the point of saying this now?
Most of their investors had pulled their funds. No matter how good Mu was, once Cat Live was gone, there was nothing for them to live telecast with.
In comparison to the depressing atmosphere at Cat Live, people were celebrating at a posh restaurant somewhere else in the capital.
“Congrats on joining Tiger Shark.” The Tiger Shark manager looked at the live telecasters happily.
“Thanks! We are looking forward to working with you.” Jiang Rou’er was dressed in a light pink dress and looked particularly pretty. The dimples on both sides of her face looked exceptionally sweet when she spoke.
“You are too kind. I have you to thank for our great success at getting so many live telecasters to jump ship and join us.” Liu Yong offered Jiang Rou’er a toast.
Tiger Shark always wanted to end Cat Live, but Cat Live had a strong foundation and was not an easy target.
Fortunately, they managed to use Jiang Rou’er to do it.
Liu Yong had sent men to give Jiang Rou’er a lot of gifts three months ago and told her about the astronomical pay package he could offer her from Tiger Shark.
However, Jiang Rou’er remained very ambiguous about his offer. She neither agreed nor disagreed.
Liu Yong knew full well that Jiang Rou’er did not want to leave Cat Live with a bad name by betraying it, so she wanted to push the blame on Cat Live for making her leave.
They just happened to chance on the opportunity.
The fight to become Top Star between Jiang Rou’er and Mu Sheng was the perfect cover.
Hence, they prepared announcements to make them sound like victims and pushed all the blame on Cat Live for forcing them to leave.
Now Jiang Rou’er and the others would not be blamed for leaving Cat Live and would also stand to rake in a lot of pity points.
“Mr. Liu.” Jiang Rou’er toasted Liu Yong as well. “Now that we are family, you have to stop saying that. I would like to thank you in advance for all the help you will give us in the future.”
“Of course.” Liu Yong chuckled loudly. “You mean a lot to us, so we were prepared to pay top dollar to hire you. We will definitely do you justice. From now on, I am counting on you to make loads of money together.”
Glasses clinked and wine got splattered onto the table.
The private room was filled with laughter and joy.
Since it was almost evening, the sun was not as warm as in the afternoon and was slightly purple as it quietly added a hint of softness to the sky.
Mu Sheng lay on the couch almost entirely covered with a wool blanket for a while before she finally moved.
Li Hanchen put down the newspaper and walked over from nearby.
Since Mu Sheng had just woken up, she felt a little cold, so she automatically held the blanket closer. When she slowly opened her eyes, she saw Li Hanchen right away.
As he walked over with the sunset in the background, she noticed that he was dressed in a smart-looking suit and neatly arranged shirt cuffs and was holding a glass of water.
People often felt lonely after waking up from afternoon naps.
Before Mu Sheng was able to experience this solitariness, a glass of warm water appeared in front of her mouth. Mu Sheng automatically drank it as Li Hanchen held the glass for her.
The water was slightly warm as she drank it.
Mu Sheng was covered in a blanket as she yawned. She wanted to get up.
Since the living room lights were not on, it was slightly dim. Mu Sheng frowned as she looked around, but she was unable to find her slippers.
Just as she was about to move to the other side of the couch to find them, Li Hanchen suddenly walked over and squatted in front of her, and he placed a pair of slippers on the ground. “Put these on.”
Li Hanchen raised his head to show his gorgeous face. Since it was slightly dark, it blurred his well-chiseled lines slightly, making his deep eyes appear a little softer.
Mu Sheng suddenly recalled something that happened while she was skiing. She was never able to wipe that scene from her mind ever since she saw it.
It was the sight of an eagle soaring in the sky above the snowy mountains with cherry blossoms in its claws.
