ILSITM Chapter 82

We looked towards the voice, and the male voice speaking was actually Acheng, who was sitting in the corner of the conference room.

Acheng’s full name was Zhang Zhicheng, and he was the cousin of Afei, the recording engineer at the record company.

Afei had introduced him as a part-time summer worker, specifically responsible for recording.

Because Afei had to handle the arrangement during this time, with a heavy workload and being too busy to cope, he introduced his cousin to the record company to temporarily help him out.

Acheng was 16 years old this year and still in high school, but although he was still a middle school student, he was very talented in composing.

He handed over a dozen of his own songs to us.

“The lyrics need some revision in places, but the melody is not bad,” I said, my eyes lighting up after looking at Acheng’s songs.

General Manager Chen and Deputy General Manager Li also thought Acheng’s songs were good and very suitable for me to sing.

For my second album, I used nine songs written by Acheng, including “Voice,” “Sleepless City,” and “Three O’Clock in the Morning.”

The tenth song was a collaboration between me and Acheng. The song was called “Perfect,” with me writing the lyrics and Acheng composing the music.

However, what was unexpected was that my new album received no attention whatsoever after being released for a week.

This time, General Manager Chen had invested heavily in the early stages to make my new album a hit.

After my new album was released, the record company was already running at a loss because there was no income, and people from “Eighteen” came to demand repayment.

“Eighteen” is a Malaysian triad organization.

This time, General Manager Chen had staked all his savings on my second new album and had also borrowed some high-interest loans from “Eighteen.”

But unexpectedly, my second album encountered a Waterloo, not only failing to make money but also losing money.

If the high-interest loan wasn’t repaid by the agreed time, these gangsters wouldn’t be merciful.

“General Manager Chen, today is the day for repayment, why haven’t you transferred the money to our account on time?” a burly man said, pretending to be polite.

“Boss, please give me a few days’ grace. Our new album has just been released, and I’ll transfer the money to your account as soon as we have some income,” General Manager Chen said obsequiously.

“Okay, I’ll give you face and grant you three days’ grace. If you don’t repay the money after three days, don’t blame me for being impolite,” the burly man patted General Manager Chen’s right cheek lightly, looking like a smiling tiger.

After the burly man left, I didn’t know how to comfort General Manager Chen.

Now that the new album had been met with a cold reception, I could only blame myself for not listening to General Manager Chen in the first place, stubbornly refusing to sing my own “created” songs and insisting on singing songs written by some kid.

The next three days were difficult.

General Manager Chen stared at the new album’s sales and the bank account balance every day, but the results were all zero. Every day seemed to end with a sigh from General Manager Chen.

The time quickly came to the third day of grace.

Today, General Manager Chen came to the company very early.

“General Manager Chen, I feel like something’s not right this time. Why hasn’t anyone paid attention to our album even after it’s been released for ten days or so? Someone must be playing tricks on us behind our backs,” Deputy General Manager Li analyzed.

“Who would do such a thing?” General Manager Chen muttered to himself.

“Competition makes enemies,” Afei reminded.

“Afei is right. It must be Guotai Record Company playing tricks. After our first album sold well, we became Guotai Record Company’s biggest competitor. They must be the ones behind this,” Deputy General Manager Li said with certainty.

General Manager Chen didn’t say anything, looking thoughtful.

At this moment, Acheng suddenly ran into General Manager Chen’s office and shouted loudly to the four of us, “It’s bad, the people from ‘Eighteen’ are here!”

General Manager Chen sighed.

Soon, a group of people came out of the elevator and poured into General Manager Chen’s office.

“General Manager Chen, you wanted me to give you three days’ grace. Today is the day for repayment. When will you transfer the money to our account?” The one who spoke was still the burly man who had come last time.

“Boss, our new album hasn’t sold this time. I suspect Guotai Record Company is playing tricks on us. Can you help us investigate?” Deputy General Manager Li approached the burly man, speaking in a humble tone.

A loud “slap” was heard, and the burly man suddenly raised his hand and slapped Deputy General Manager Li in the face.

“Investigate your head! I’m not a royal policeman. Hurry up and transfer the money to our account, or I’ll shut down your company!” the burly man yelled.

Deputy General Manager Li covered his face and retreated behind General Manager Chen.

“Boss, today is the last day of grace. It’s 9:00 AM now, and I guarantee that I’ll raise enough money and transfer it to your account by 5:00 PM,” General Manager Chen said with a confident look.

“Whenever I come, you have to repay the money to me at that time. Go and raise the money for me now. If you can’t raise the money within half an hour, I’ll shut down your company,” the burly man said fiercely.

“Boss, please give me two more hours. I promise to raise enough money for you,” General Manager Chen pleaded.

The burly man suddenly walked up to General Manager Chen, raising his hand to slap him in the face.

Just then, I, who was standing next to General Manager Chen, turned sideways and pushed General Manager Chen.

General Manager Chen was pushed to the wall by me, just dodging the burly man’s slap.

The burly man missed General Manager Chen’s face with his slap, and rushed towards me in frustration.

I stood still, not dodging.

The burly man was about 1.8 meters tall. Although he wasn’t particularly tall, he was very broad and thick.

His palms were very thick. Deputy General Manager Li’s face was already swollen like a pig’s head after receiving a slap from him.

“You brat, go to hell!” the burly man raised his hand to hit me.

I suddenly squatted down quickly, sinking my shoulders, and stepped forward to meet his knees.

After his slap missed, he hadn’t reacted yet, never expecting to be met with my shoulder-knee strike, his body lost its balance, and he quickly fell forward, while I quickly leaned to the side.

The burly manpū – pounced/fell to the ground with a loud “bang.”

He struggled on the ground for a moment but didn’t get up.

“Boss! Boss! Boss…”

More than a dozen of the burly man’s henchmen, while shouting for their boss, rushed towards me.

I gathered all my strength and rushed towards them at an even faster speed.

Just as this group of thugs was about to rush in front of me, I suddenly jumped up high and kicked out at them with my feet.

The two thugs in the front, caught off guard by my kick, lost their balance and fell backward.

The few thugs behind them were tripped by these two falling backward and all fell to the ground.

The other thugs were stunned for a moment when they saw this scene.

Capture the leader first.

I turned to look at the burly man, who had already gotten up from the ground at this time.

Taking advantage of the fact that he hadn’t straightened up yet, I ran two steps, then jumped up high and kicked out at him with my feet.

He staggered and fell heavily to the ground again.

Then, with lightning speed, I rushed towards the other thugs.

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