Chapter 450: Chapter 247: Seizing the Initiative
"Please... give us a chance. A chance to relearn how to ’understand’ and ’respect’ the true creators."
"Some terms of the contract, even the form of cooperation, can be set by you. You can choose not to view it as an endorsement. You can see it as an investment or transformation for our brand that has lost its direction."
"We need you... Not just for your traffic, but more importantly, for the soul you represent, which our brand had at its inception but is now gradually losing."
These words finally brought a slight change to Lin Yu’an’s glacier-like hardened expression.
He paused for a moment, then slowly said, "Mr. Weber, turn your sincerity into a detailed proposal and send it to my email."
After speaking, he decisively hung up the phone again.
The entire cabin fell into silence.
Then, Aliya and Emily erupted into a burst of irrepressible cheers!
"Oh my God! Darling! You’re just too cool!" Aliya rushed over and hugged him tightly. "’I’m not interested in being a part of your brand’s atonement coupon!’ That sentence should be written into a textbook!"
Emily also laughed, full of admiration in her eyes, "I particularly liked the part, ’How did I, in just one year, become the neglected pawn in your assessment report that lacked commercial exposure and wasn’t renewed?’."
"That’s like tossing a colossal problem right back to them. I bet Marcus must have gone mad hearing that."
Lin Yu’an smiled, letting them cling to him, with a seemingly indifferent and composed expression on his face as he maintained control over the entire situation.
Once his two wives slightly calmed down from their excitement, Emily looked up at him with curiosity and confusion, "Really, dear, did you really... just reject it like that? That was... 8 million dollars for a year!"
Looking at them, Lin Yu’an finally couldn’t hold back, and his "master" expression instantly broke, revealing a smile that was both smug and slightly guilty.
He lowered his voice, like a child who’s done something naughty and wants to show off, confessing to them, "To be honest... when he mentioned 8 million, after taxes, my heart skipped a beat."
He motioned with his hand to where his heart was pounding wildly: "At that moment, the only thought in my mind was ’deal!’ I almost blurted out, ’Good, send the contract over.’
"Then I had a second thought, ’No, wait!’ The tone of Lin Yu’an’s voice was filled with unstoppable satisfaction at his successful show of cool.
"Now they’re the ones begging me! The initiative is in my hands! This opportunity to rub them into the ground face-to-face might only come once in a lifetime! If I agree so easily, it would be too cheap for them!"
He looked at the stunned expressions of his two wives and raised his eyebrows triumphantly.
"I had to put on an act! I had to act like money is nothing to me!"
He imitated his previous tone, vividly saying, "The key issue has never been the money. I’m not interested in being your atonement coupon... How’s that? Isn’t it especially classy? I almost got charmed by myself, haha!"
"Pfft—" Aliya and Emily looked at his demeanor, finally unable to hold back their laughter. The earlier sense of reverence for a business giant was instantly replaced by a kind of intimate amusement.
"So..." Emily laughed until tears almost came out, "that whole lot about respect and keeping the original intent, was all... an act?"
"Not entirely." Lin Yu’an put away his playful side and regained a touch of seriousness, "Seventy percent true, thirty percent an act. Being underestimated by them irritates me internally."
"But to say I wasn’t moved by that 8 million dollars would be a lie. I just... wanted them to understand that to earn back my respect, they need to pay more than just money."
He paused, a playful smile reappearing on his face: "Of course, I mainly wanted to put on an act, that feeling is just too exhilarating!"
Seeing his candid yet somewhat roguish demeanor, Aliya and Emily exchanged smiles, completely relaxing.
This was the man they loved. He possessed steadiness and strength in the face of storms, and in front of his family, he revealed his true and adorable self with all pretense removed.
Aliya shook her head with a smile, "You certainly acted in a world-class way." She said with a hint of teasing in her voice, "Still, I really wonder, darling, why you wouldn’t seriously consider Mountain Rat or Old Man’s Head?"
"You just mentioned them yourself, showing you recognize their value. Old Man’s Head even offered to give you a mountain... these terms sound much more sincere than the Archaeopteryx ’atonement’ contract."
"And from a brand personality standpoint, those with a more niche and extreme style seem to align better with your current state, don’t they?"
Emily also nodded in agreement, "Yes, dear. Choosing Archaeopteryx feels like... mending existing cracks. While choosing Mountain Rat or Old Man’s Head feels more like starting a brand new, more respected relationship."
Lin Yu’an did not immediately answer the question. Facing the questions posed by his two wives, he knew that it wasn’t just curiosity; it was their most sincere consideration for his future path.
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(Hehe, my 10,000 subscription milestone is reached, and I posted six Chapters with 30,000 words at the beginning of the month! Dear brothers, please cast your month-start votes for me!)