Shen Lan was bent over processing a large stack of press briefs on her desk.
She was nearly forty years old, but because she took good care of herself and had good genes, she looked no different than someone in their early thirties.
She wore a neat, short haircut and was dressed in a matching OL uniform, looking sharp and formidable.
"Speak up if you've got something to say. Don't you see I—"
Shen Lan was signing and frowning at the same time, but she was stunned the instant she looked up.
Her gaze fixed on the boy hiding behind Jiang Li, and to her surprise, she stood up.
"Shi Xu? What are you doing here?"
It wasn't hard to hear a mix of surprise and excitement in Shen Lan's voice.
No wonder she was excited; because of family and work, she rarely had time to spend with her son.
Moreover, due to his personality, he liked to lock himself in his room every day, unwilling to interact with anyone, including his own mother.
She only had the chance to speak a few words to him through a door during the rare moments she was home.
But he had always been extremely resistant.
This was the first time he had taken the initiative to appear, and he had even found her company.
The usually decisive Shen Lan seemed a bit flustered for the first time, pacing the spot for a moment before she calmed down and cast her gaze to Jiang Li beside her.
After sizing him up twice, she finally recognized him.
"Jiang Li? What are you doing here too?"
She had been away from home for just over half a month, so why had her niece suddenly changed so much?
She was completely different from before, almost unrecognizable.
From the moment she entered the office, Jiang Li had been observing Shen Lan.
This was her habit.
Being somewhat familiar with Mystical Skill, she always habitually observed someone's facial features upon meeting them.
And seeing the tangled fate in Shen Lan's energy gate, she knew she had come to the right place.
She clearly remembered Shen Lan's fate in the book.
In the novel, shortly after her second uncle retired from the circle, Shen Lan also quit her agent job and completely retreated behind the scenes to start an entertainment company.
However, due to external public opinion and relentless pressure from her family, her Xingmei Entertainment was not doing well.
Jiang Li had sensed this since she had come in.
—Anyone she met on this floor was unenthusiastic, and the office equipment and decorations were haphazardly placed with no sense of energy or alignment to speak of.
These were all details often considered in mysticism; a place's Feng Shui and energy field best reflected its alignment and fortune.
And Xingmei Entertainment's fortune was just about to run out.
Lowering the thoughts in her eyes, Jiang Li met Shen Lan's probing gaze.
"Auntie, I came here because I need to talk to you."
Hearing this, Shen Lan reacted as well.
The emotion in her eyes gradually cooled, and then she sat down on a nearby sofa.
"Is it about the stuff online? If so, I'm afraid I can't help."
"From the beginning, your second uncle and I agreed to three rules: we married in our personal capacities and agreed not to interfere in each other's families. Though I am your aunt, I am also the head of Star Media. If you think you can use our family connection to have me handle this matter and step into these muddy waters, I'm afraid I cannot agree."
Anyone insightful could see that Jiang Li had offended someone she shouldn't have.
She had tried to change this family, including her wayward niece, when she first married into the Jiang family, but nobody was willing to cooperate with her.
She gave up altogether and entirely devoted herself to her work.
Over the years, she had observed Jiang Li's arrogance and the things he had done, and after unsuccessful attempts at persuasion, she could only choose to watch coldly from the sidelines.
Now that her company was at a critical juncture, it was unnecessary to muddy the waters because of a person with a spotted record.
Hearing this, Jiang Shixu, who stood behind Jiang Li, shrank his hand.
He knew—how could she, always cold-hearted, possibly help someone?
But Jiang Li was not in a hurry; instead, he sat down calmly opposite Shen Lan.
"Second Aunt, you misunderstand; I'm not here because of this."
"Then what for?"
"You've been organizing a transformation reality show recently, haven't you? I want to sign Jiang Yan up."
This was completely beyond Shen Lan's expectations. After exchanging a surprised look with He Wen, Shen Lan said with a complex expression,
"Are you serious?"
Jiang Li earnestly nodded his head.
She too had accidentally clicked into Shen Lan's Weibo while browsing her own negative publicity and thus learned about the reality show.
In her past life memories, Shen Lan, to ensure her company's successful IPO, had signed a high-risk agreement with someone.
To fulfill the agreement, she gambled all her resources to prepare this unprecedented reality show—"Shining Transformation Trip."
The targeted participants were precisely those artists with negative public images.
The bold planning and the novel live-streaming format attracted an unprecedented level of popularity.
However, just as Shen Lan was about to fulfill the agreement, something uncontrollable happened.
Because of this incident, the transformation reality show was forcibly halted, and Shen Lan ended up with a huge compensation fee and lost the high-risk agreement.
A series of setbacks completely broke her, and she had a car accident on the way home.
Following this, her uncle also received terrible news.
Unable to bear the blow, Jiang Shixu then chose to take his own life.
So, to reverse the tragedy of her uncle's family, starting from this reality show was essential.
But it was impossible to lay it out directly to Shen Lan, who was a career-oriented strong woman and the one who least believed in mysticism and feng shui.
Therefore, she had to find another reason.
"Second Aunt must have heard about Jiang Yan's recent issues with the Qiao Family. His reckless behavior is not new, and to prevent him from causing more trouble, I thought I'd come over and discuss with you if he could also participate in this reality show?" Jiang Li stated.
Shen Lan was extremely surprised.
Not only because of the content of what Jiang Li said but also because of her clear, logical expression and composed demeanor.
Was this the Jiang Li she remembered?
But thinking it through, Shen Lan came to accept it.
Now that Jiang Li could even bring Jiang Shixu with her, a change in personality was within reason.
At this moment, Shen Lan no longer saw her as the former Jiang Li and after looking at her deeply said,
"Since that's the case, I'll just speak frankly with you."
"Our reality show has been in preparation for a year now, and the way we choose participants is also quite special—"
Because the transformation reality show targets those artists with negative public images, they had already posted a Weibo titled "Choose the artist you think most needs transformation and send them to our show for a makeover" when initiating the project plan.
Later, they selected the artists who had the highest number of likes in the comments section and sent them an invitation.
It was inherently a job that offended people.
One might ask, looking across the entire entertainment industry, which star would truly dare to admit they need transformation, need a makeover?