157: Chapter 156 Activating the Ultimate Method

Seoul.

The 11th floor of the SM Entertainment building.

The sound of protests outside drilled through the gaps in the glass, noisy and annoying.

Park Jung-soo sat in a leather chair, with the brown kraft paper-bound "Supplementary Attachment C" placed in front of him.

He picked up a black signature pen and heavily drew a circle on the last line of the document.

The internal dedicated phone on the desk was connected.

"Legal Department, Supervisor Zheng."

Park Jung-soo's voice was dry, without any beating around the bush, "Initiate the joint breach of contract recovery procedure. Targets: Zhang Yixing, Lu Han, Huang Zitao."

The other end of the phone produced a sound of flipping paper, followed by the legal supervisor's hesitant tone: "Representative, these three people are currently top traffic stars in Huaxia, and their fan base is extremely massive. They left through normal contract termination procedures back then. If we use this hidden supplementary agreement to sue now, the win rate for the cross-border lawsuit will be less than thirty percent. Moreover, it will definitely trigger an unprecedented public relations crisis."

"Who told you I want to win the lawsuit?"

Park Jung-soo slapped the kraft paper onto the desk.

"What I want is a procedural freeze!"

Park Jung-soo lowered his voice, his tone vicious, "Su Chen is still in his non-compete period. He led a team to win a commercial tournament championship, which is a solid breach of contract. According to the joint clauses, if he breaches the contract, the other three people must bear unlimited joint compensation. Immediately issue a formal cross-border warning letter to the three brokerage companies they belong to. Submit a filing for foreign-related economic disputes to the Huaxia Cultural Bureau!"

"As long as the filing is established."

Park Jung-soo sneered, "Before the lawsuit is over, all commercial endorsements, film, television, and variety show contracts of these three people must all enter the legal freezing process. I want these three golden egg-laying chickens to face a complete suspension of work tomorrow morning."

The legal supervisor gasped.

He understood Park Jung-soo's scheme.

Su Chen could not care less about being banned.

But he was a sentimental person.

Three years ago, how many open and covert arrows had he blocked for those three people, just in time to trade for the opportunity for those three to steadily return to the country for development.

Now, Park Jung-soo wanted to put a knife to the necks of those three people, forcing Su Chen to bow his head.

As long as Su Chen voluntarily ceded the subsequent commercial exploitation rights of the World Tournament or openly gave in to SM Entertainment, Park Jung-soo could take this battle result to report to Lee Soo-hyuk and the board of directors, keeping his position as executive representative.

"Within half an hour, send the warning letter over."

Park Jung-soo hung up the phone.

He turned his swivel chair and looked at the gray sky of Seoul outside the floor-to-ceiling window.

In the capitalist game, bottom lines were meant to be stepped on.

Huaxia.

Yanjing International Airport.

Terminal T3 was bustling with voices.

Thousands of fans spontaneously organized to pick up the arrival, with banners stretching all the way from Zone A to the Zone C exit.

The on-site security pulled up three cordon lines.

When the fifty members of Huaxia Team walked out wearing uniform-style red jackets, the roar that erupted in the entire arrival hall almost shattered the glass.

The flashes intertwined into a daylight.

Guan Heng walked at the front of the queue, somewhat at a loss.

Chen Yu patted him on the back and said in a low voice, "Head up and chest out, a champion must have the look of a champion."

Su Chen walked right in the middle.

He pushed a black suitcase with one hand, showing no excessive warmth toward the surrounding lenses and cheers, just steadily walking toward the direction of the tour bus.

Secretly thinking: This is what you call grandeur.

Back then, he was driven out of Seoul like trash; today, he led a team to overturn the place.

Chen Yu lifted his chin, walking with a swaggering stride.

The online live broadcast signal followed closely in sync.

[Finally back! This fucking is the idol one should chase! All members are Ares!]

[Su Chen's gaze is too peerless, he won the world championship yet doesn't even have any extra expression.]

[Damn, all fifty people are wearing red clothes, this scene is too oppressive.]

[Who noticed? Even the interview vehicle of Yanjing TV is outside the airport.]

[Neighboring South Korea Empire Team returned home, not a single person at the airport, laughed to death.]

Lin Yue did not walk in the queue.

She exited the passage in advance and stood in front of the tour bus door making a phone call.

When Su Chen approached, he found that Lin Yue's expression was wrong.

It was not the kind of exhaustion from dealing with the media, but a certain anger suppressed to the extreme.

"Don't sign yet."

Lin Yue spoke quickly into the phone, "What do you mean by must stop work? That agreement didn't have cross-border legal validity at all back then. Wait until I return to the studio."

She hung up the phone and turned to see Su Chen.

"Get on the bus and talk."

Lin Yue pulled open the door of the tour bus.

The vehicle started, drove away from the airport, leaving the noisy sounds behind.

The front row of the carriage.

Su Chen leaned against the back of the chair and unscrewed a bottle of mineral water.

Lin Yue pushed the tablet in her hand over. The screen was lit, displaying a screenshot of a cross-border email with a red expedited mark.

"Fifteen minutes ago, the three brokerage companies in Huaxia mainland, Tianyu, Yuehua, and Shidai, simultaneously received a warning letter sent by the legal department of SM Entertainment."

Lin Yue spoke extremely fast, "Requesting Zhang Yixing, Lu Han, and Huang Zitao to stop all public performance activities."

Su Chen's action of drinking water stopped.

"Reason."

Su Chen put down the water bottle, his gaze falling on the tablet screen.

"Supplementary Attachment C."

Lin Yue gritted her teeth, "You are still in the five-year non-compete period. They seized upon the fact that you participated in WDSC and won the championship, judging that you seriously breached the contract. According to that joint liability agreement, they demand those three people jointly bear sky-high liquidated damages, and freeze all performance resources during the investigation period."

The air pressure inside the carriage instantly dropped to freezing point.

Brother Cai and Chen Yu sitting in the back row both heard this passage, and their expressions changed abruptly.

"Are they crazy?"

Chen Yu stood up, "This is cross-border extortion! Taking other people's futures to threaten the captain?"

Guan Heng clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles popping.

Su Chen did not speak.

His fingers slid across the screen, enlarging the scanned copy.

The Korean clauses were in black and white, and at the end there were also three red fingerprint marks.

That was three years ago, in the darkest days of the SM basement, the marks forced upon four Huaxia youths harboring dreams.

At that time, Zhang Yixing had also injured his waist badly from practicing dancing.

If Su Chen hadn't taken the lead in bearing all the thunder, the three of them wouldn't even have had the chance to return to the country for treatment.

"What's the situation now?"

Su Chen's gaze left the screen.

"The three companies have exploded."

Lin Yue pressed her temples, "The commercial value of those three people combined exceeds tens of billions. Suddenly facing asset freezes, shareholders are all applying pressure. Currently, the original announcements of the three people have been stopped by brand parties. Weibo hot searches can no longer be suppressed."

Lin Yue took out her own mobile phone.

The hot search list was refreshing crazily.

[# Zhang Yixing, Lu Han, and Huang Zitao face breach of contract lawsuits #]

[# SM Entertainment initiates joint liability #]

[# Su Chen implicates former teammates during non-compete period #]

Following the entry was a dark red "Explode" character.

Online public opinion trends began to tear apart.

Fans who were celebrating the championship a few minutes ago fell into extreme panic at this moment.

[What do you mean? Brother Chen won the championship and breached the contract, why should our family's Yixing be punished?]

[Capital is too vicious! If you can't beat Su Chen, you go mess with his former brothers?]

[Can this kind of agreement be legally recognized? Isn't this daylight robbery?]

[Miserable. Just now several brand parties deleted Huang Zitao's endorsement posters. Capital is most afraid of provoking lawsuits.]

[What on earth is going on with Su Chen? Showing off himself and making his brothers take the blame?]

[Internet trolls upstairs, get lost! This is clearly a plot by SM Entertainment, trying to sow discord!]

"The PR department is preparing to issue a statement to clear your relationship."

Lin Yue looked at Su Chen, "As long as it is proved that this agreement was signed under duress, there is a chance to knock it down. But the cycle is very long."

"Useless."

Su Chen spoke, his voice piercingly cold, "As long as it enters a legal tug-of-war, the resources of those three people will stall. Not appearing in the entertainment industry for three months is equivalent to being banned. This is exactly what Park Jung-soo is plotting."

"What does he want?"

Lin Yue asked.

"To make me bow my head."

Su Chen looked at the rapidly retreating street view outside the window.

He reached out and pressed the lock screen button of the tablet.

The screen went dark.

"Three years ago, I was able to send the three of them out of that broken basement."

Su Chen leaned back against the chair, his gaze as cold as a piece of ice, "Today, no one can drag them back."

"What do you plan to do?"

Lin Yue sensed the dangerous aura exuding from Su Chen.

"Stir the water muddy."

Su Chen closed his eyes, "Since they want to play a contract game, then let them not even have a table to overturn."

He took out his own phone, flipped out a cross-border number saved for a long time without any remarks, and pressed the dial button.

At the same time.

Changsha.

The recording backstage of a certain large-scale variety show.

The dressing room was dead silent.

Five managers, the legal supervisor, and the PR director stood in a row, the atmosphere solemn.

Zhang Yixing sat in front of the makeup mirror.

He had not removed his makeup yet, wearing a simple white T-shirt.

He looked down at the printed copy of the Korean warning letter on the table.

The red seal on the paper looked particularly piercing.

"The production team just notified that the subsequent recording is suspended."

The manager sighed, breaking the silence, "The legal departments of the brand parties for the other two newly signed commercial endorsements are asking us to issue a risk-free guarantee. But we can't issue it right now."

The legal supervisor stepped forward: "Yixing, the risk of this contract is too great. Our only way out now is to unite with the other two companies, immediately issue a statement unilaterally declaring this joint agreement invalid, and push all responsibility onto Su Chen's rule-violating participation behavior. Only in this way can we protect your commercial base."

"Push the responsibility onto Brother Chen?"

Zhang Yixing raised his head.

He usually always wore a gentle smile in front of the camera and was called "Little Sheep" by fans.

But at this moment, his gaze had no temperature whatsoever.

"This is a company-level decision."

The PR director explained, "The capital market does not talk about feelings. The trouble caused by Su Chen cannot be paid for by the three of you."

Zhang Yixing lowered his head.

He thought of three years ago.

That leaking basement in Seoul.

His waist injury relapsed, and he rolled around in pain on the wooden floor.

The company supervisor took out a ten-year slave contract and forced them to sign it.

It was Su Chen who walked up to him and tore that contract to pieces.

It was Su Chen who pointed at the supervisor's nose and said: "I'm taking the people away, I'll shoulder the liquidated damages alone."

Su Chen traded five years of his youth and future for the freedom of the three of them.

Zhang Yixing's fingers gently rubbed the red seal on the warning letter.

"Yixing, the company has already drafted the statement."

The manager handed over a document, "You sign it, and we will immediately use your account to send it out."

Zhang Yixing did not take that document.

He reached out and grabbed the phone on the table.

Opened Weibo.

Clicked the "+" sign in the upper right corner.

"What are you going to do?"

The manager's face changed drastically, wanting to step forward to stop him.

Zhang Yixing raised his left hand and made a blocking gesture.

He usually never lost his temper at the staff, but this gesture at this moment carried an unquestionable power.

The legal supervisor and the PR director were all stunned in place.

Zhang Yixing looked at the screen, his fingers hovering over the virtual keyboard.

The copy of the Korean warning letter was laid flat by him on the desk.

The sunlight outside the window shone on the white paper, reflecting the black handwriting.