Chapter 144: Two-in-One (3)
In addition to taking today’s part-time job, Luo Qiaoming had free time for the next few days. Gu Wanrong actively invited her to stroll down the Avenue des Champs-ĂlysĂ©es with her.
After all, apart from business matters, Gu Wanrong and Luo Qiaoming got along quite well.
Moreover, with a professional designer by her side in a shopping paradise like the Champs-ĂlysĂ©es, how could they not go shopping and buy everything together?
Luo Qiaoming also readily agreed. With Gu Wanrongâs beauty, which unified Eastern and Western aesthetics, the opportunity to personally coordinate her outfits would truly make her satisfaction and inspiration explode.
In this way, the two walked hand-in-hand, determined to shop from one end of the street to the other.
With Luo Qiaoming there, Gu Wanrong only had to swipe her card. No, she didn’t even have to swipe the card herself; Butler Liu was behind her to provide that service.
“My muse, your face and your figure are too perfect. Look at them; they are all envying me for being able to coordinate your outfits personally, hahahahaha!”
Luo Qiaoming was full of praise for Gu Wanrong. As she spoke, she turned back and gave a proud look to the designer in the shop they had just visited.
Gu Wanrong helplessly patted her arm, unable to decide whether to laugh or cry. “It’s only because it’s Fashion Week; otherwise, where would you run into designers everywhere on the street? Besides, I don’t know them at all; how could I agree to their invitations?”
While speaking, they were attracted by a lively commotion ahead and moved closer.
It was an opening event for ANZ, a fast-fashion brand. They had invited some celebrities and influencers to attend, and there was a group of shirtless male models standing outside.
A line of tall men with bulging pectoral muscles actively cooperated with passersby for photos, even grabbing female passersby’s hands to let them touch their abs.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Isn’t this a daytime version of a Magic Mike show?” With male beauty on display and everyone being handsome, Gu Wanrong couldn’t help but be attracted as well.
It was just this brandâGu Wanrong didn’t have much of an impression of it, but if they could open a shop on the Champs-ĂlysĂ©es, it couldn’t be that bad.
“Shall we go in and have a look?” Gu Wanrong invited Luo Qiaoming.
Today, she hadn’t seen any brands with a sexy or mature style yet, so it was a good time to go in.
Luo Qiaoming knew what Gu Wanrong meant. “This brand focuses on fast fashion and mainly targets a teenage style. We can take a quick look.”
Gu Wanrong was a bit surprised. Upon entering the door, she could smell a perfume in the shop that mixed wildness and maturity. Inside the shop, the lighting was quite dim compared to other brands.
She asked curiously, “Whatâs going on? This style is a far cry from what you described.”
Luo Qiaoming explained in a low voice, “You can think of ANZ as the Victoria’s Secret of fast fashion. The male models outside are just a gimmick. ANZâs CEO has used this marketing method for many years.”
So it was an imitation of Victoria’s Secret’s marketing; no wonder it felt a bit familiar.
But looking at the hoodies, sweatshirts, and jeans in the shop, Gu Wanrong only felt confused and very much lacked understanding. “If it were the first time using such a gimmick, it would be fine. But using this kind of marketing that doesn’t match the brand image for so many yearsâhow can they still open a new shop on the Champs-ĂlysĂ©es?”
Shouldn’t they be going downhill and closing shops everywhere?
“It’s exactly as you think.” Luo Qiaoming understood Gu Wanrongâs unsaid thought. “Didn’t they purposely open at this time during Fashion Week? They even specially invited so many celebrities and influencers, planning to ride the coattails of the trend to reverse their decline.”
“Look, ANZâs CEO Jeffrey and his boyfriend Marcus are here.”
Following Luo Qiaomingâs gaze, Gu Wanrong saw many known and unknown celebrities and influencers, both domestic and foreign.
That Jeffrey was an old man whose hair was completely white. His left hand was on Marcusâs shoulder, while his right hand intimately held another man’s hand.
Looking at the man’s build, he should be a model. It was just that Jeffrey’s expression felt very greasy, and his boyfriend also gave off a vibe that wasn’t quite right.
After Jeffrey and Marcus finished their pleasantries with the male model, they walked hand-in-hand toward a group of people. Weren’t those the Endless-9 members?
Did their itinerary include this?
Hey, what is that old man Jeffrey doing? Jing Xiu has already taken a step back; why is he still stepping forward? Does he not know about social distancing?
Wait!
I remember! These perverts!
“Stroll around here for a bit; Iâm going to check on my artists.” Gu Wanrongâs face turned cold. After greeting Luo Qiaoming, she pulled Tong Shenba and walked toward Jeffrey.
Luo Qiaoming felt something was wrong and nodded obediently.
Meanwhile, Tong Shenba made an even more obvious move to protect Gu Wanrong. At the same time, two bodyguards with a very low sense of presence also stepped quickly toward Gu Wanrong in a protective stance.
Gu Wanrong was aggressive, and the people nearby made way for her. She looked like someone not to be trifled with.
“Don’t you market yourselves as each other’s true love? Why does it not look like that to me?” Gu Wanrong wedged herself between them, separating the two groups.
Of course, it wasn’t Gu Wanrong herself who physically separated them; she found Jeffrey and Marcus disgusting. It was her two bodyguards who stepped forward and separated them.
Gu Wanrongâs sudden arrival made Jing Xiu and the others feel as if a heavy burden had been lifted.
Jeffrey was a big shot in the fashion world, and they didn’t dare to tell him directly to stay away. His boyfriend also carried significant weight, and they similarly didn’t dare to refuse directly.
They were all straight men. These two old men were standing so close, smiling so lewdly, and looking at them with ambiguous meanings. It was truly disgusting.
“Who are you? Truly an impolite fellow.” Jeffrey looked at the assertive Gu Wanrong, and the wrinkles on his face sagged.
“Itâs none of your business who I am.”
“Iâm warning you two pervertsâstay away from my artists!”
Gu Wanrongâs gaze was locked directly on the two of them. Words as cold as winter frost spat from her mouth, each syllable a heavy warning.
Jeffrey turned to the nine members’ manager with a nasty expression and asked angrily, “Is this how you show your cooperative attitude?”
The manager stood there helplessly; he hadn’t expected to run into Director Gu here. He felt that being touched a couple of times was just being touched; after all, they were men, what was there to fear? They were flying back home tomorrow anyway.
Who would have thought Director Gu would have such a big temper.
Gu Wanrong turned her head slightly and saw at a glance what the manager was thinking. She gave him a sharp glare.
She only said, “Perverts are not worthy of cooperating with us.”
“Let’s go.”
Then, leading them away from the ANZ shop, the manager gave an apologetic and fawning smile to Jeffrey before quickly following.
Luo Qiaoming, who had been watching the whole time, also quickly left the shop.
With two muscular bodyguards and one with an agile build, the three of themâone leading and two closely following Gu Wanrongâexuded a chillingly deterrent aura.
Jeffrey and Marcus could only watch helplessly as they caused a scene in the shop and then left openly.
In the car, Luo Qiaoming asked curiously, “Rongrong, you are too amazing, daring to directly embarrass Jeffrey on the spot. Heâs a big shot in the industry!”
“You called him a pervert. Did he do something behind the scenes?”
What did he do behind the scenes?
A top fashion mogul secretly built a complete industry chain for abuse and human trafficking. The elderly former CEO of the century-old brand ANZ and his boyfriend worked together to commit atrocities against over a hundred male models.
Explosive and disgusting enough, right?
After Jeffrey became the CEO of ANZ, he implemented a marketing strategy of sexy, seductive “muscle men.” This strategy was like a blockbuster bomb, instantly attracting countless eyes. ANZ successfully turned its losses into profits and rose strongly from its predicament.
When ANZ relied on this kind of marketing filled with “male-color” borderline content to trigger a global craze, Gu Wanrong was still small and didn’t have much of an impression of these things.
Today’s scene initially only felt somewhat familiar. In the end, when she saw Jeffrey’s nauseatingly ugly face and arrogant posture, her past life’s memories surged like a tide, instantly making her recall the bits and pieces of this shocking scandal from her previous life.
During Jeffreyâs tenure as CEO of ANZ for over a decade, as long as Jeffrey took a liking to a male model, his assistant would immediately send a so-called “interview invitation” to that model.
Once these unsuspecting male models stepped into the trap, what awaited them was the knockout drug that had been prepared. After the male models lost their ability to resist, Jeffrey and his accomplices would pounce on them like a pack of hungry wolves, taking turns assaulting the victims.
Afterward, they used their power, status, and the other party’s future as leverage to force the assaulted male models to remain silent, not daring to say a word.
For those unfortunate male models who had suffered their assaults, regardless of whether they satisfied Jeffrey or not, he would frequently and relentlessly force them to provide sex services to all sorts of people with the same predilections.
Looking at the time, this year was precisely the year Jeffreyâs scandal was exposed, and ANZ also fell into trouble because of it, never to recover.
Gu Wanrong sorted through the bits and pieces of memories related to it from her past life, then took all the details she knewâomitting what couldn’t be saidâ and told everything as it was to Luo Qiaoming and the others.
“Holy cow, these guys are simply too perverted!” Luo Qiaomingâs face was filled with a shocked and disgusted expression. “I thought it was to please us, but it turns out it was to please themselves.”
Even the Endless-9 members were disgusted to the core at this moment, their stomachs churning with discomfort.
Remembering the ugly behavior of the fellow named Jeffrey and that Marcus just now, it was clear that they had already locked their greedy gazes on the members of their team with outstanding physiques.
A significant portion of people in the fashion world seemingly loved this, but such behavior as using threats to force others into prostitution or even human trafficking, and then forming a complete black industry chain, was truly dark and filthy.
Thinking that they might have already become the targets coveted by the other party, those few people coincidentally felt secretly lucky in their hearts.
“Thank god Director Gu came; our innocence is preserved!”
“From now on, Director Gu, you are my god!”
If it weren’t for Director Guâs appearance, just thinking about Jeffreyâs well-practiced, interlocking methodsâfirst throwing out an enticing cooperation invitation, then secretly drugging and threatening them, plus being in a foreign country and isolatedâthe consequences would have been unimaginable.
Even the manager, after hearing Gu Wanrongâs account of the events, couldn’t help but feel a brief wave of intense discomfort in his heart.
The Endless-9 itinerary was originally added temporarily. When the notification was received, everyone had happily thought it was a big windfall.
However, after the managerâs brief disgust passed, taking advantage of the time when Luo Qiaoming and the nine members were not present, the manager quietly pulled Gu Wanrong to a secluded spot.
Then, he asked with a worried face, “Director Gu, we are people of the Xia country. Even if Jeffrey is capable, his reach shouldn’t be this long, right?”
“We have completely offended him today. If he really speaks out in the fashion world and claims heâll blacklist our WĂčjĂŹng JiÇ, what should we do?”
His words, both inside and out, were still the same as before in the shop. Endure being touched a bit by Jeffrey and the others, then take the cooperation with ANZ, and after returning home, Jeffrey wouldn’t be able to do anything.
It seemed as if he were thinking of Endless-9 and kindly reminding Gu Wanrong, but in reality, he was complaining that Gu Wanrong had interfered with his work and destroyed a cooperation with ANZ that would likely have been secured.
While he spoke, Gu Wanrong crossed her arms, and the look in her eyes became increasingly cold. “This is Paris, their territory. What are you being lucky about? Didn’t I say from the beginning what things can’t be done and what bottom lines can’t be crossed?”
“But Director Gu, precisely because ANZ is currently in a decline, our chance of getting a global endorsement is higher!” The manager talked around the subject. “Yishangâs investment in Endless-9 is huge. As the manager of Endless-9, I am also aiming to make Endless-9 a top-tier boy group, an epoch-making boy group.”
“Why should we give up an endorsement for an international big brand?”
Gu Wanrong saw that the manager hadn’t taken her words to heart at all. Essentially, he didn’t think there was anything wrong with sacrificing one’s body.
She warned the manager decisively, “Jeffrey is committing crimes and will crash sooner or later. ANZ is not a good egg; don’t be so hungry that you’ll eat anything!”
Although the manager lowered his head when Gu Wanrong spoke to him, Gu Wanrong could easily feel that the aura he exuded was clearly resisting her warning.
Forget it, there was no point in talking to him further.
“Take Endless-9 back to the hotel. Absolutely do not let Jeffrey get close to them.” Gu Wanrong waved her hand with some annoyance, her tone harsh.
This kind of person was not suitable to stay in the company. She would have Tong Shenwu fire him later. Leaving a person like him in the company would only ruin the reputation of the company and the artists.
Although the manager was full of reluctance, he obediently took the nine members of Endless-9 and left Gu Wanrong.
In the hotel corridor, the manager was covered in a low-pressure aura. The nine members of Endless-9 were pushing each other.
Jing Xiu was pushed out by the other members. He spoke cautiously to the manager, testing the waters: “Brother, our Paris itinerary is over. Are we going back home today?”
While he was speaking, no one noticed that several masked Black men were approaching them at extremely high speeds behind them. Their physiques were extremely robust, like moving iron towers.
The ten of them were completely defenseless. In the next second, they suddenly felt their throats being tightly choked by pairs of powerful hands. Before they could make any reaction, their eyes went black, and they all fainted, collapsing softly on the ground.
Then, these Black men quickly dragged the unconscious ten people up and crudely stuffed them into a van parked nearby, like throwing cargo.
Then, the van quickly started and disappeared at the end of the road in front of the hotel entrance.
Translator’s Note: “ANZ” is a fictional stand-in for brands like Abercrombie & Fitch, which famously used shirtless models and faced various scandals. “Mike show” refers to the movie Magic Mike. The term “male-color” (ç·èČ – NĂĄnsĂš) refers to the use of male beauty or eroticism as a selling point. Gu Wanrong is a protagonist who values the safety and dignity of her artists above profit, setting her apart from the “greasy” industry standards.
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