“Are you really that happy?” Tristan grumbled. What's so amazing about the album topping the music charts? If I enter the entertainment industry, I can do it too.
Putting down her phone, Sophie smiled. “Of course I'm happy! As I expected, good music won't get buried. Mark and the others are worth it!”
The fact that her company's first album and the title track for it managed to reach the top spot was an excellent achievement worthy of celebrating.
Additionally, that was just the beginning. She believed the other songs would become just as famous in the following days.
“You need to be careful of Clayton. He's a petty man. Since The Wheelers used to belong to him, I doubt he'll let it slide after seeing the band doing so well. The Wheelers is unquestionably a profitable band, and losing a money tree like that no doubt makes Clayton uncomfortable,” Tristan warned.
“I know. You don't need to worry about me.” It wasn't Sophie's first time dealing with Clayton, after all.
“If you need anything, you must tell me about it, okay?” Tristan wanted to aid her in her battle against Clayton.
“Sure. If I need anything, I'll let you know.”
After Sophie returned to school from Lombard Group, she attended an afternoon's worth of classes. When the classes were over, Ysabelle immediately approached her.
“What's wrong?” Sophie promptly realized something was off when she saw her friend's expression.
“Clayton's going overboard, Sophie! He's clearly trying to damage The Wheelers' reputation!”
“What happened?” Sophie was asleep for the whole afternoon, so she had no idea what was going on.
“Take a look yourself!” Immediately afterward, Ysabelle handed over her phone for Sophie to see.
As expected, Clayton had made his move on The Wheelers. People started talking about how the members of The Wheelers used to consume narcotics.
That was very bad because the entertainment industry had zero tolerance for anything related to gambling, drugs, and prostitution. Even though it was just a baseless rumor, it had already affected The Wheelers' spot on the charts.
“Currently, Freezewave's sales have exceeded The Wheelers'! Even worse, the situation is still escalating!” Ysabelle was furious. “Clayton's such a despicable man! He's willing to do anything to achieve his goal! What should we do now, Sophie? I wonder how the band's holding up. We should go check up on them. Anyone's mental state will collapse if they encounter such a thing.”
“Hold on.” After returning the phone to Ysabelle, Sophie pulled out her own phone to call Jonathan.
“Take care of them. Ignore everything else. You can also confiscate all of their phones if need be,” she ordered.
“This matter has severely affected The Wheelers, Ms. Tanner. It must be the work of Clayton because he's jealous of how well the band is doing. Right now, public relations is very important. We're a new company, so our public relations team's no match for Clayton. There's nothing I can do on my end, too.” Jonathan wasn't a naïve idiot. He had been in the entertainment industry for many years, so he knew how deadly Clayton's tactics were.
“I got it. In any case, just leave this matter to me. All you need to do is to take care of them.”
Sophie's words didn't put Jonathan at ease, as he was genuinely scared of Clayton. “What can you do, Ms. Tanner? Clayton's an entertainment industry mogul! It's as easy as lifting a finger for him to blacklist someone.”
“What you all need right now is to calm down. The battle has only just begun and you're throwing in the towel already? How are we going to continue if that's the kind of mentality you have?”
“All right then, Ms. Tanner. If you're unclear about anything, let me know.” That was all Jonathan could say.
After all, Sophie was only eighteen years old. He believed she had no idea about the darkness lurking underneath the entertainment industry. Some people cannot be offended. Once they are, they'll make sure to plunge whoever offended them into endless agony. Clayton is someone like that.
After the call ended, Jonathan confiscated The Wheelers' phones.
“What are you doing, Jonathan? We're not greenhorns, you know. Why take our phones away? Is it really necessary?” Sunny protested.
“All you guys need to do right now is to calm down. Although it's true that our title track is popular right now, there's still a long road ahead. Sophie's still young. You all can't make her worry.” Jonathan's words rendered Sunny speechless.
Fine. I'm not that addicted to my phone, anyway. I don't mind if it's taken away from me. Sunny grumbled inwardly.
It seemed that the band members were willing to accept anything whenever Sophie was mentioned.
Meanwhile, after Sophie hung up her phone, she called the manager of TS' Public Relations Department.
It cost her an arm and a leg to hire the department manager because that person knew how to handle stuff like that in the entertainment industry.
“Don't worry, Ms. Sophie. I'm already taking care of the matter. I won't let you down.” The manager had saved many celebrities before, and she could do it again.
“Tell me if you need anything.” Sophie had no reason to doubt the manager's ability as she would never hire someone she was skeptical of.
Thus, she believed the manager would be able to handle the matter.
“All right, Ms. Sophie. If there's nothing else, I'll carry on with my work now,” the manager replied.
There were always two sides to a matter.
While The Wheelers were being vilified, they had also gotten a massive amount of publicity.
Ever since the rumors broke out, The Wheelers had remained trending for days. As long as the truth came out in time, their other songs would surely become popular as well.
“Is everything really going to be okay, Sophie?” It was the first time Ysabelle encountered something like that, so she had no clue if they were going to pull through.
Most importantly, TS was far too young compared to Sky Media. They never thought about vilifying their competitors before.
Just then, Willow arrived with a smug grin on her face. “Did you see the news, Sophie? That's the band you signed a contract with!”
The Wheelers is suffering a crushing defeat under Freezewave's boots right now. Hah! What a useless company TS is. Thank goodness I didn't sign a contract with the company back then. Otherwise, my future would have been doomed.
“What does it matter to you? Why are you here again? Do you crave for attention that much?” It seemed that whenever Ysabelle saw Willow, her battle spirit would soar.
“No, I'm not here for that. By the way, Clayton's treating me very nicely! Even though I haven't even entered a film school yet, he's already letting me star in a web series! Not to mention this web series is adapting a very popular novel.” The reason why Willow was there was that she wanted to show off and laugh at Sophie. “You know, Sophie, there's no need to keep throwing your fortune into the trashcan like this. It's your hard-earned money, after all. I think you should just disband TS. With Sky Media around, there's no way TS can survive in the entertainment industry!”
Ysabelle couldn't help but roll her eyes. This d*mn woman! Can she stop acting loathsome for once?
“Is that so? In any case, you don't get to say what'll happen to TS! In fact, you should pay more attention to yourself so that you won't get sold out.” While Ysabelle had no idea why Clayton brought Willow in, she was certain he had a hidden agenda for doing so, especially when he specifically sought Willow out. I can't believe she still had the gall to show off in front of me and Sophie when she knew nothing!
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