Chapter2

As soon as I stepped off the red carpet and into the VIP backstage area, I heard the chaotic and hurried sound of high heels behind me.

"Ethan! You stop right there!"

Maddie stormed up to me, her once-perfect makeup now slightly distorted with rage. Her borrowed off-season haute couture gown looked utterly out of place in the cramped aisle, making her resemble a peacock with its feathers puffed up, trying too hard to maintain a proper appearance.

"Are you crazy? How dare you embarrass me on the red carpet!" She pointed her finger at my nose and screamed in her usual imperious tone, "You get back to the legal department right now and send a retraction email! Otherwise, I guarantee I'll use all my media resources and connections to make sure you can't survive in the PR world in Los Angeles! Who would dare hire a low-level assistant who throws tantrums like that?"

Ryan and his management team followed. The popular actor hid behind McGrady and quickly gave a signal to his assistants, who immediately and discreetly raised their phones to record the scene.

"McGrady, don't provoke Ethan." Ryan deliberately raised his voice, his tone revealing a pitying, manipulative tone, every word of which was meant to smear me. "He's probably been staying up late revising spreadsheets lately, his mental state isn't very stable, and he's developed some kind of paranoia. We should be more tolerant of employees who lose control of their emotions like this, there's no need to take it seriously."

The group worked together, trying to quickly characterize my counterattack as a "mental breakdown of a low-level employee" in front of the PR colleagues who were peeking around.

I watched these clowns, so engrossed in their own scripts, and felt utterly bored.

Emotions? Those are the cheapest things.

"Tolerance?" I raised my eyelids slightly, my tone cold and unwavering. "Save your breath. What you should be worried about now is how to pay off the penalty for breach of contract."

I didn't give them a chance to continue performing. I simply raised my phone and, in front of everyone, completed the three-step operation.

The first thing to do is log in to the group's intranet OA system. Access the electronic signature function, check "Force withdrawal from the project," attach the automatic notarized stamp from a top-tier law firm, and submit the withdrawal letter with one click.

The second thing was to package the red carpet recording, the WeChat screenshot of McGrady arbitrarily changing the name of the person in charge, and the timeline of the entire project's underlying architecture into an encrypted, ironclad chain of evidence, and simultaneously send it to the brand's legal director and co-founder.

The third thing, and the most fatal one.

I accessed the back-end management terminal and dismantled all the "protective scapegoating" public relations firewalls. For the past three years, the media angered by McGrady's diva-like behavior and the paparazzi photos of Ryan's late-night rendezvous were all managed by me through budget and contractual pressure. Now, I've cut off the automatic renewal channels for those contracts.

"bite--"

The sound of the command being sent was particularly crisp in the quiet corridor. I turned off the screen and slid the phone into my suit pocket.

“The performance is over . ” I looked at Maddie’s stunned face. “So, please move aside, you’re blocking my way home from work.”

"You... what are you pretending for!" Maddie glared at me, trying to find a trace of panic on my face, but she failed.

Just a second before she was about to continue her outburst, her phone suddenly started vibrating wildly like a death knell.

Not only her, but also Ryan's agent's phone and the phones of several key members of the studio nearby, all started ringing with piercing message notifications.

McGrady glanced down at the screen, his face instantly turning deathly pale, as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over his head.

The public WeChat group on the large display screen was brutally broadcasting everything that had just happened.

[System notification: You have been removed from the "Global Co-branding Project Core Decision-Making Group" by senior management of the brand.]

[System notification: You have been removed from the "External Statement Release Group".]

[System notification: Ryan (artist representative) has been removed...]

Within three seconds, everyone at Maddie Studio and Ryan's team was cleanly and decisively kicked out of the entire project's communication chain by the brand!

"This is impossible! How dare the brand cut off communication? They need my connections to expand into the North American market next week!" Maddie held his phone, his voice distorted with extreme panic.

Just then, from the other end of the passage, the brand's North American Executive Director strode over with his legal team.

McGrady, as if grasping at a straw, immediately put on that obsequious smile and went to greet him: "Director, please let me explain, Ethan has mental problems, I'll take care of it right away—"

"Shut up."

The director didn't even look at her directly, and coldly slapped a document with a red stamp onto her chest.

"Ms. Maddie, given your attempt to unilaterally replace the core project leader and your serious breach of the brand's risk control line, we hereby formally inform you that your project leadership has been completely stripped away."

The director's icy voice echoed in the corridor: "According to the supplementary clause of Article Fourteen of the contract, your actions led to core partner Mr. Ethan exercising his veto right and withdrawing, which constitutes a unilateral and material breach of contract. Prepare to face our exorbitant claim."

In an instant, the entire backstage area fell into a deathly silence.

Those onlookers who had been whispering and waiting to see me make a fool of myself all gasped in shock, and their gazes towards me instantly changed.

They weren't stupid; they immediately sensed something was wrong.

The brand actually didn't hesitate to kick out its popular and all-around female boss like trash for a "low-level assistant"? They even went so far as to cut off their own media placement channels?

There's only one answer—Ethan, who was constantly insulted by McGrady and considered a backstage execution tool, is the real Buddha who holds the power of life and death and makes brands have to bow down and worship him!

Ryan's face turned completely green. He took two steps back in terror, desperately trying to distance himself from McGrady.

Maddie trembled, her mind blank at the stark contrast between the immense information gap and the sudden collapse of her privilege. She had always thought I couldn't live without her resources, but now she realized that it was only through my charity that she had the right to sit at the table and eat.

For the first time, she truly felt the sense of loss of control, as if falling from the clouds into the abyss.

"Wait...you can't do this!" McGrady's eyes suddenly reddened, and he tried to grab the director's sleeve tightly. "At least let me attend the rest of the press conferences! I'm the person in charge!"

“You’re not anymore.” The director disgustedly shook off her hand, glanced at his watch, and said, “Furthermore, to protect ourselves, we need to immediately reactivate our public relations contingency plan. Maddie, I’m giving you ten minutes to send that original document and multilingual master copy from your computer to the legal department immediately! Even a missing punctuation mark will double the penalty for breach of contract!”

"The original file...yes, I can give you the original file!" McGrady grabbed at the last straw and frantically opened the tablet computer he was carrying.

She firmly believes that as long as she hands over the documents and proves that she still has value, there is still room for maneuver.

Her fingers trembled as she clicked on the Ultimate Core folder on the desktop.

The next second, a blood-red dialog box popped up on the screen.

Access denied. This file requires dual authorization from the creator (Ethan) using both their face and a 16-bit key. Current status: Locked.

McGrady's eyes were fixed on the screen, his pupils suddenly contracted, and his breath stopped completely at that moment.

She finally realized a fact that could shatter her—this crucial original version, which was the life or death of the entire project, could only be opened by me from beginning to end.