DF Chapter 94

Chapter 94: Asking if she’ll come home for dinner this weekend.

Sheng Jia indeed didn’t see Song Ji’an again after that day.

The main reason was that she went to meet Hilda in Haiyao on the very same day.

It was nothing new that Opter wanted to re-enter the domestic market, and Sheng Jia didn’t have any intention of refusing cooperation either. However, she was used to maximizing profits and wanted to wait for Hilda to offer suitable benefits.

Initially, Hilda had tried to get Meng Yeran to arrange a meeting with Sheng Jia, but it didn’t work out. After Sheng Jia politely declined several times, she finally understood.

Being born into a long-standing capitalist family, Opter’s cooperation with the Song family in the domestic market would definitely be a win-win situation. She didn’t believe that Sheng Jia was truly unwilling to cooperate with her.

Then the only reason could be that she wasn’t satisfied with the conditions offered.

Five years ago, they could be said to have each held onto each other’s weaknesses, but this time was their first real meeting.

Sheng Jia didn’t reject the olive branch that Hilda extended. Hilda understood the principle of giving to get, and even promised to concede 40% of the profits to Song’s Heavy Industry in the initial stage of their first year of cooperation. All Song’s needed to do was provide equipment assistance.

The two women actually had a very pleasant meal. They discussed everything they needed to at the table, and now they were just waiting for Opter to officially enter the market in October of the second half of the year.

However, Meng Yeran was somewhat unhappy about this. The reason was simple: Opter’s target market clashed with the cooperation between the Meng family and the Song family.

When Hilda initially approached Sheng Jia through Meng Yeran, it had actually lowered her guard. Who knew that Opter, who was going to compete with the Meng family, would dare to use Meng Yeran’s connections to find Sheng Jia? The Song family, on the other hand, was playing both sides, like a slippery fish, yet both sides couldn’t do without her cooperation.

It wasn’t impossible to cooperate with other heavy industry manufacturing enterprises, but all the conditions would have to be renegotiated. The industry news spread quickly, and once the Meng family ended their cooperation with the Song family, it would indicate that the Meng family urgently needed a replacement. The high price was due to this urgency. Since they were in a hurry, they couldn’t blame other enterprises for raising prices. Therefore, the Meng family couldn’t abandon their cooperation with the Song family, especially since there were a few specialized pieces of equipment that only the Song family could produce.

The domestic film market was actually already saturated. In recent years, the Meng family had been exploring new, unreplicable blue oceans, and were hailed by netizens as having kicked open the door to domestic science fiction films. Only a small part of the Opter family’s overseas market was related to film and television. Hilda was said to have come here under orders, and no one believed that she didn’t have the idea of surpassing the Meng family and making money off their backs in the production of hardcore science fiction films.

Even the reason for insisting on cooperating with the Song family was clear. It wasn’t just about the price, but it could also easily create an advantage in public opinion. Everyone could see that they were essentially saying to everyone in a high-profile way: Come and see, we’re going to compete with the Meng family! We’ve even secured the cooperation of Song’s Heavy Industry! Just sit back and enjoy the show!

Therefore, after Hilda deliberately announced the cooperation between the two parties the next day, Meng Yeran angrily called Sheng Jia. However, it was clear that this call, apart from venting emotions, didn’t have any other effect.

In fact, to Meng Yeran, Sheng Jia’s tone on the phone was so leisurely that she seemed like a different person. If she hadn’t turned on the video and seen that the person on the other end was, as usual, in her office processing documents, she would have wondered if Sheng Jia had changed her personality and gone to learn flower arranging to cultivate her mind.

“Did you call just to say these things?” Sheng Jia paused her pen on the other end and surprisingly offered an explanation, “Isn’t it common knowledge that enterprises pursue profits? The Meng family didn’t sign a monopoly agreement with us. Since Opter came to cooperate and there was a profit to be made, of course, we wouldn’t refuse.”

“Something’s not right,” Meng Yeran, who had just been somewhat resentful, suddenly said, “Has something happened to you recently? Usually, you’d be the deadpan type who thinks these words are meaningless and not worth saying. If I came to argue with you like this, your normal reaction wouldn’t be to curse me for being sick in the head and then hang up on me directly?”

“Is that so?” Sheng Jia chuckled, “Meng Yeran, you should be more worried about why Hilda insists on entering this domestic market and stealing your business. The Meng family’s industries aren’t limited to these. She’s a capitalist who’s never been involved in science fiction film and television. Why would she come to China and insist on taking this path?”

“The domestic entertainment industry is easy to make money in, who doesn’t know that?” Hearing this, Meng Yeran’s tone became somewhat cynical, “The Meng family is taking this path, and they’re following suit. Naturally, where the money is, that’s where people are.”

“Is that so? I heard that the Opter family originally planned to focus on idol groups. Later, Hilda herself argued with Opter’s grandmother and ultimately decided on the advanced hardcore science fiction blue ocean, and chose domestic companies for all collaborations instead of foreign ones. But—” At this point, Sheng Jia paused, seeming to chuckle lightly, “Before she argued with Opter’s head of family, you seemed to have taken a trip to Iceland. After you came back, you told me that you saw a big joke involving the Opter sisters, but it seems like you’re the one being laughed at now.”

Sheng Jia’s words were practically pointing at her nose, saying that the reason Hilda wanted to enter the domestic hardcore science fiction market was most likely because of Meng Yeran.

As for what Meng Yeran had done in Iceland, only Meng Yeran herself knew.

However, Meng Yeran probably already guessed this reason. After Sheng Jia pointed it out, she only curled her lips, “Can a strong dragon suppress a local snake? It’s not certain who will be laughing at whom.”

After saying that, she hung up the phone in a hurry, probably afraid that if she talked a few more sentences, Sheng Jia would dig up the things she wanted to hide, which would be truly laughable for Sheng Jia to see.

Listening to the beeping sound on the phone, Sheng Jia silently put down her phone. She looked at the calendar, where she had drawn huge circles around the 5th and 24th of next month. One was the time she was returning to Jingjiang, and the other was the time she was going to Iceland to attend the Opter family’s banquet.

Not long after, her phone rang again. This time, it was Xu Lijing calling.

Xu Lijing’s law firm was thriving. She had recruited several well-known seniors in the industry to join. A few days ago, they joined a case of human trafficking, which made the law firm’s name in one fell swoop, and the opposing lawyer did not have the slightest strength to resist. Within the scope of the law, they strived for the maximum penalty for the other party.

She wasn’t calling to report anything.

“Song Yi is retiring next year, and I’m preparing to call her over to be in charge of security at the law firm. Speaking of which, let’s start our own security service company next year? I won’t even mention the work environment. Every time we go down to the countryside with the leaders of the Women’s Federation, the local customs are so fierce. If we don’t bring security escorts, do you believe that the medical expenses will probably be higher than the security costs next year? The key is, if we suffer a work-related injury, we can’t go to court! It’s okay if our hand is broken, but what if our leg is broken?” Xu Lijing said, sighing repeatedly, “Just to tell you, a few weeks ago, we went to find that orphaned child who was being forced to work as a laborer by his own uncle. We and the leaders of the Women’s Federation persuaded him five times. Later, that leader was truly a woman among women! She directly grabbed the little girl and wanted to leave, but her uncle led a group of villagers over and almost smashed us to death in the car. If my driving skills weren’t good enough, and I didn’t drive the van out, you would have seen us in the hospital. Who knew that these grassroots leaders usually lived such miserable lives?”

The Women’s Federation also often cooperates with public welfare lawyers’ teams with relevant directions, but through Sheng Jia’s connections, Xu Lijing got this opportunity faster.

This case will be heard in court in two days, and Xu Lijing is confident that she can win. It would be better for this little girl to go straight to the orphanage than to return to that village.

Sheng Jia didn’t refute her suggestion. If Song Yi was willing to come back, it wouldn’t be a big deal to allocate money to start a security company. This was indeed an urgent problem to solve. It was also possible to hire other security companies, but it was naturally a better option to have trusted people of their own.

Instead, this case that Xu Lijing mentioned in her chat reminded her of another person.

Sheng Jia was thoughtful, and then said, “If you want to continue down this path, a single law firm is definitely not enough to achieve the goals you envision. If you want to expand your influence, perhaps there’s another person I can recommend to you.”

“Who is it?” Xu Lijing asked curiously.

“Dong Zhen,” Sheng Jia uttered this name, “Contact her. If you can convince her, there should be unexpected results.”

In recent years, Dong Zhen has been completely cultivated by Fu Minglang as an heir. Since Sheng Jia returned to the Song family, she has met with Dong Zhen more often than Meng Yeran.

She has rarely produced scripts, but her influence is still there. The directors in the entertainment industry have already changed half of the country under her influence, and her own personal entertainment company is full of talent, which has become one of the major capitals.

Based on her personal experience, she would most likely agree with Xu Lijing’s ideas. Now that the law firm has strength, it’s time to have more voice and mouthpiece.

Xu Lijing noted what Sheng Jia said, and then changed the topic, “By the way, I finally met Ji’an last time. She’s changed a bit.”

“But since then, it’s basically impossible to find her,” she complained, “Her funeral home affairs are busier than my law firm. Every day, she’s either collecting corpses or on her way to collect corpses. It’s basically impossible to get through on the phone. Didn’t you two meet? Didn’t you make up?”

With Xu Lijing’s simple values, after learning that the always calm and rational Sheng Jia and Song Ji’an had already met, she felt that the two were so smart that they should have talked everything out.

But the reality was completely different from what she thought. Some things were not so simple.

She couldn’t imagine what the scene would be like if Sheng Jia and Song Ji’an attacked each other and had a big fight, but she didn’t have the idea of interfering in her friends’ affairs. The two chatted for a few more sentences and then hung up the phone.

And Song Ji’an, who was far away in Jingjiang, has indeed been very busy recently.

Since Sheng Jia’s investment, the funeral home’s economic crisis has been barely resolved, and as Sheng Jia said, she has been a lot more idle after she didn’t have to squeeze her energy and brain power to make up for the accounts. But the idleness brought about the emptying of her brain. In fact, not only did Sheng Jia not know how to handle their relationship in the future, but even Song Ji’an herself didn’t know how to handle it in the future.

If leaving the Song family was her original intention, that doesn’t mean she wants to go back now.

Some things are not so easy to solve for her. Sometimes she would almost masochistically think that Sheng Jia had suffered for her for eighteen years, so she should also go through eighteen years in a daze as compensation so that they wouldn’t owe each other.

But Sheng Jia’s quarrel made her face the fact that she had been avoiding for five years—Song Ningqiu would be very sad.

Sheng Jia would at least contact Sheng Huaiying from time to time, but Song Ji’an’s decisive departure at the beginning made her never contact Song Ningqiu again, or rather, she dared not contact Song Ningqiu.

Sometimes she didn’t know whether to call her mother or Ms. Song, as if neither title was appropriate for her.

Sheng Jia didn’t say a word wrong, it was they who tore Song Ningqiu apart.

Not only Song Ningqiu, but they also tore Sheng Huaiying apart, so that two people who should have had two daughters could only be estranged from their daughters at this moment.

When Song Ji’an was idle, she would think of this from time to time, so she simply ran out more often and filled herself with busyness again.

Cheng Fangyang’s capital operation was very proper. Although there was no increase in personnel for the time being, at least the wages of the outsourcing team could be paid, and they finally had money to buy some advertisements.

Immediately afterwards, there was a steady stream of orders coming in. Song Ji’an’s workload increased sharply. The time she spent in the embalming room every day had exceeded eight hours and was moving towards nine hours. Either she was helping to pick people up everywhere.

There are benefits to being busy. When you get busy, you won’t think about some things. As for what Sheng Jia said, she didn’t care too much about the fact that she would no longer abide by her request.

But on Wednesday, she received an invitation that she couldn’t refuse—a message from Sheng Huaiying, asking if she would come home for dinner this weekend.