Chapter 108

Recently, Haitangyuan Street has been making headlines not just in J City, but across the entire J Province!

Who would’ve thought that a workplace reality show could actually help revitalize an entire elderly care ecosystem?

With the aging population worsening, it’s not just the national pension gap that’s under pressure—grassroots workers like them are feeling the strain too!

So many elderly people! Those with pensions and good health are fine, but the real headache are the ones without pensions and in poor health—especially those whose children don’t provide for them.

Faced with such cases, the street offices and community centers can’t just turn a blind eye, but their capabilities are limited. They only get so much funding a year, and by the time they distribute year-end relief, the entire budget’s gone. How could they possibly accomplish anything big?

But unexpectedly, ever since they started working with The Wage Earners show, not only has there been a surge in young people applying to work at their elderly care service center, but they’ve also birthed a massively popular “Sunset Red Live Streaming Group”!

Most importantly, the online company that Wei Sheng and his team founded even helped them set up a “City Foundation for Poor and Solitary Elderly Assistance” specifically for Haitangyuan Street.

Rumor has it that every year moving forward, Wei Sheng’s company will allocate part of its profits to this foundation. Plus, with all the material donations Wei Sheng has managed to collect through his relentless fundraising, it’s almost certain that this coming New Year, every poor and solitary elderly person in the entire Haitangyuan Street jurisdiction will enjoy a safe and prosperous holiday.

Because this poverty alleviation model was entirely unprecedented—enriching the cultural and entertainment life of retired seniors while indirectly solving the support issue for impoverished elderly—it quickly became a case study worth learning from. In no time, towns and streets across the province were calling Haitangyuan Street, hoping to come for field visits and learn from their experience.

Even their higher-level supervisory departments repeatedly praised Haitangyuan Street by name in recent meetings. The leaders of the street office walked into every meeting lately with their backs straight and heads high.

Ah, in the past, street and community offices were the ones getting scolded the most during meetings. Who would’ve thought they’d live to see the day they were publicly commended? Satisfied!

The only pity was that the production team had only shot one chapter of the show at their location before moving on to the next place. No one knew who the next lucky street would be.

Just as everyone was thinking things were going great and expecting Wei Sheng and the team to get even busier, a bolt from the blue struck—Zhou Mingxing and Wei Sheng were reported!

The reason for the report? The very online tech company they had just founded.

The whistleblower claimed that Zhou Mingxing and Wei Sheng had colluded during Wei Sheng’s time participating in the production of the TV station’s self-made variety show The Wage Earners, using their positions for personal gain.

If verified, this would be a very serious crime—embezzlement of duties by non-public officials. In severe cases, it could even lead to prison time!

When the news broke, Wei Sheng was in the middle of reviewing background materials for the next episode of The Wage Earners, completely unprepared, when both he and Zhou Mingxing were summoned to the TV station headquarters for questioning by the unit’s disciplinary inspection committee.

Though Shen Yi and the other responsible parties hadn’t yet been called in for questioning, all external activities unrelated to their internal station work were immediately suspended.

What was going on?

Facing the stern expressions of the three middle-aged men across the table, Wei Sheng, with a clear conscience, felt utterly baffled.

“Using our guest status on the show for personal gain? That’s not right at all. When we registered the company, the entire approval process was fully legal. The funding sources were completely transparent too—entirely from our own legal appearance fees. If you don’t believe me, you can check the company’s payment records.”

No matter how seriously the disciplinary committee painted the situation, Wei Sheng stuck to one point: their company was legally registered, and their funding sources were transparent!

Most crucially, the whistleblower had gotten the core issue wrong—it wasn’t that they had used their positions during the show to seek personal gain, but rather that the show had run into a production bottleneck. To help the production continue and achieve better results, they had privately raised funds among themselves to set up a separate company.

“If it was for the show’s needs, why didn’t you go through official channels and apply to set up a subsidiary under the unit?”

Wei Sheng’s heart skipped. He looked up at the speaker, sneering inwardly.

So that’s what this was about!

He had wondered—why had this come out of nowhere? Turns out their “cake” was too tempting, and some people were jealous.

Well, who wouldn’t be? Everyone knew that livestream e-commerce was a goldmine. With the “Sunset Red Live Streaming Group” from Haitangyuan showing explosive potential, if they managed to incubate even one or two influencers with tens of millions of followers, the revenue from this single company could easily rival the combined annual revenue of several of the station’s own subsidiaries. Who wouldn’t be envious?

So… was someone trying to use the disciplinary committee’s investigation to scare them into handing over the company voluntarily, so the people behind the scenes could reap the benefits?

Thinking this, Wei Sheng put on an innocent face and asked—

“But the station leadership should be well aware, right? Each chapter of our show has a production cycle of at most half a month. Even though I’m new here, I know that just to set up a subsidiary through the station’s formal channels, from project proposal to approval, it takes several months, doesn’t it?”

The middle-aged man across from him froze for a second, then switched to a gentler tone—

“Wei, you’re new to the unit, and you probably haven’t fully grasped all the rules and procedures yet. Let’s take it step by step. Why don’t you carefully tell us—was founding this company your idea alone, or was someone else behind it?”

“Don’t be afraid, speak boldly! Trust the organization—we won’t wrong a good person, but we definitely won’t let a bad apple slip through!”

The gentler their tone became, the more uneasy Wei Sheng felt.

What did this mean? Were they hinting that as long as he exposed the so-called “mastermind,” he’d get off scot-free?

Wait a minute! Could someone be deliberately setting a trap to take down Zhou Mingxing?

That wouldn’t do! If Lao Zhou went down, and someone new came in and started squeezing him for all he was worth, how could he enjoy the relatively easy days he had now, with time left at night to study for exams?

Wei Sheng lowered his head, picked up the cup on the table, took a few slow sips of water, and his mind began working at lightning speed.

They’d been separated for questioning, and the investigators had suddenly appeared, taking them straight from the office without giving them a second to prepare—clearly to prevent them from coordinating their stories in advance.

So at this point, lying would not only be easily exposed but would also put both him and Zhou Mingxing in an extremely disadvantageous position!

In less than thirty seconds, Wei Sheng made up his mind—he would tell the truth!

After all, every step they took had been fully legal and compliant, and they had never used their connection with the TV station to ask the Haitangyuan Street Office for any special favors. Procedurally, he had nothing to feel guilty about.

Most importantly, he trusted Zhou Mingxing!

As a seasoned veteran with decades of experience in this industry, he believed that if this matter violated any TV station regulations, Zhou Mingxing would never have agreed to let them set up the company from the start.

Since Zhou Mingxing had agreed—and even held shares himself—that meant the whole thing was probably nothing like what the whistleblower had alleged. It wasn’t about abusing their positions for personal gain at all.

At most, they’d get criticized for engaging in side business during work hours. Worst-case scenario, maybe a public reprimand? With no real evidence, would they seriously be sent to jail?

Thinking this, Wei Sheng secretly breathed a sigh of relief, though outwardly, he put on an Oscar-worthy performance—nervous, slightly uneasy, with a timid look in his eyes. In a low voice, he explained how they’d run into difficulties while filming the show, had gone to the street office for help, only to be told the office had no authority to sign contracts with streamers, let alone establish a separate company for that. With no other option, they had discussed it with Jin Yannan and decided that a few of the guests would pool their own money to start a small company and make the filming process legal.

After finishing his explanation, Wei Sheng even added with a humble-brag air:

“The street office said they couldn’t come up with the budget, so we found someone to do an estimate. Turns out, with just a little over a million yuan, we could get the company up and running. Split between the few of us, it was only a few hundred thousand per person.”

“Given our industry’s income… ahem… I think the leaders probably know… a few hundred thousand really wasn’t that big of a deal for us.”

At this, the three people across the table all felt a sharp pang in their chests.

No wonder young people these days are all scrambling to break into the entertainment industry! If you can make it big in this line of work, the money really is outrageous! Even someone like Wei Sheng, a newcomer with barely over a year in the business, could casually pull out hundreds of thousands to invest in a project…

“And honestly, when we put in the money, we didn’t expect to make much from this little company. We just wanted to help the street office solve a problem and maybe recover our costs. Who could’ve imagined… ahem…”

Another collective pang.

Exactly—who would’ve thought that a few “outsiders” like Wei Sheng and Shen Yi, on a whim, would throw together a small company, didn’t even hire any big internet influencers, no pretty girls—just a bunch of elderly men and women—and it actually took off?

Wei Sheng’s guess was right. Given how cunning Zhou Mingxing was, there’s no way he would’ve kept the unit in the dark when they were pooling money to start the company.

Plus, none of them were strictly government employees, so many internal rules didn’t really apply to them. And even Zhou Mingxing himself probably never imagined that those retirees they’d brought in from the street’s cultural center would actually go viral online. Along with that, the little company they’d impulsively set up would ride the wave and grow so big that even some people inside the TV station couldn’t help but get jealous. Tsk…

Some people really are just favored by the God of Wealth—like Wei Sheng.

And some people, no matter how hard they scheme and scramble, still end up empty-handed and shamelessly steal others’ achievements—like whoever filed this report.

Wei Sheng wasn’t wrong. Right at that moment, just a few rooms away, as Zhou Mingxing faced questioning from the disciplinary committee, he made the same choice as Wei Sheng: tell the truth!

Moreover, he even played the innocent card, claiming that from the start, he’d worried the kids would end up losing money. Afraid their losses would be too great, and considering the company was mainly set up for charity anyway, he decided to pitch in with his own money to help Wei Sheng cover part of the investment.

As for the whistleblower’s claim that “as the general manager, he colluded with subordinates to misuse public resources for personal gain,” that was utter nonsense!

“If you don’t believe me, go check the accounts. The company still hasn’t recovered its investment yet!”

“Then how do you explain the relief funds and materials you distributed to the impoverished elderly in Haitangyuan Street? If the company hasn’t broken even, where did that money come from?”

Uh… That question was a bit dumb.

Whether or not they’d recovered their investment and whether the company was profitable were two separate things!

Zhou Mingxing wasn’t in the habit of showing off his intelligence in front of others, but since someone had served up their face for him to slap, how could he pass up the opportunity?

“Yes, the company hasn’t recouped its investment costs, but it has already turned a profit—our first month after launching was profitable.”

“We shareholders decided, first for the sake of the show’s success, and second because we wanted to quickly improve the lives of those impoverished elderly folks, so we unanimously agreed not to take any dividends for now. Part of the profits went to cover daily operating expenses, and the rest was allocated entirely as relief funds.”

“As for those living supplies distributed to the poor elderly, that wasn’t the company’s doing at all. That was thanks to Wei Sheng, Shen Yi, and the others who went around begging brand sponsors for donations.”

Just as Wei Sheng had guessed, if there’d been any real problem with the company, Zhou Mingxing would never have gotten involved as a shareholder. The fact that he dared to invest meant the whole operation was procedurally sound and fully compliant!

According to Zhou Mingxing’s stance, let alone an investigation—he wouldn’t even accept a public reprimand!

Why should he? Oh, the TV station’s own show ran into a critical hurdle, and since the official channels couldn’t handle it in time, the guests used their own money to help the production team solve a massive problem. Not only are they not getting commended, now they’re facing disciplinary action?

If the station really went that route, who would ever again be willing to step up and make sacrifices for the collective good?

These days, leadership is hard enough as it is, and now they want to dishearten excellent employees like Wei Sheng?