"Director Chen, you're too kind."
As Wang Congcong and the others had said, An Sheng Group truly held significant weight in Chengdu.
This Director Chen was likely the Director of the Chengdu Cultural Bureau.
Fact proved that when an enterprise reached a certain scale, it could indeed create such a situation.
After all, every city needed to generate revenue.
Generating revenue relied not only on various plans and measures but also on attracting various enterprises.
Take Richest Man Wang for example; whenever he visited a city, the local Party Secretary would personally come out to welcome and receive him.
Being a walking money bag, they had to be pampered to make the year's revenue look good.
Within the span of two sentences, the staff member had already led Jiang Cheng to stand before them.
An Xin, who had originally been following behind An Jingsheng, showed a hint of surprise on her face the moment she saw Jiang Cheng.
"Jiang Cheng," An Xin called out softly.
Though her voice wasn't loud, it was exceptionally clear in this quiet setting.
Hearing An Xin's call, An Jingsheng and the other big shots present turned their heads in unison, casting their gazes toward Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng smiled and nodded to An Xin, then his eyes met An Jingsheng's.
"And this young man is?" An Jingsheng's voice was deep and gentle as he inquired, pretending not to know Jiang Cheng.
Hearing An Jingsheng's question, the staff member who had brought Jiang Cheng over quickly spoke up: "President An, this is President Jiang of Xingchen Media."
"Xingchen Media?" An Jingsheng repeated thoughtfully.
His gaze lingered on Jiang Cheng's face for a brief two seconds.
Those two seconds felt as if time had frozen.
The surrounding air seemed to have been sucked dry, creating an indescribable sense of oppression.
Even the deputy directors from the Cultural Bureau subconsciously held their breath, not daring to make a sound.
The lines of An Jingsheng's profile appeared exceptionally cold and hard under the overhead lights.
His facial contours were as sharp as if carved by a knife or axe, with a high bridge of the nose and a tight jawline.
Both revealed a sense of coldness and determination.
Those eyes were like knives tempered in ice and snow, flashing with a cold light.
The gaze he swept over seemingly casually carried a ruthless piercing power.
It was as if he wanted to dissect a person from the inside out, leaving them with nowhere to hide.
Especially upon hearing the name 'Jiang Cheng'.
The aura on him erupted like a volcano, instantly fully unleashed.
This feeling was like a father seeing the 'punk' who had bewitched his daughter for the first time.
Anger, vigilance, and hostility—various emotions intertwined, causing his body to unconsciously radiate a powerful pressure.
Jiang Cheng's pupils constricted slightly.
This pressure wasn't the crude hostility of a street thug throwing a punch.
It was a murderous intent that only someone who had truly experienced life-and-death struggles and crawled through blood and blades would possess.
Jiang Cheng had seen such murderous intent before in Tyrande, on Wang Sheng.
It was a sensation carrying the scent of blood and gunpowder.
He hadn't expected that beneath An Jingsheng's elegant Zhongshan suit lay the fangs of a hibernating beast suddenly revealed.
As expected of a big shot with special influence in Great Goose Country and Mexico.
It seemed An Jingsheng was by no means just a legitimate businessman.
The [Sit Like a Divine Bell] skill triggered automatically at this moment, making the aura within his body as steady as a deep pool.
The wonder of this skill lay not only in stabilizing one's physical posture.
More importantly, it could stabilize one's mind.
No matter how powerful the opponent's aura was, Jiang Cheng could remain as firm as a rock, unmoved.
So at this moment, Jiang Cheng's posture didn't show the slightest panic.
He just stood there steadily, as if he didn't feel that powerful pressure at all.
He even gave a slight nod to An Jingsheng, the corners of his mouth turning up in an almost imperceptible faint smile.
This smile contained neither deliberate flattery nor fawning.
Nor did it seem excessively distant or cold; it perfectly displayed an attitude that was neither humble nor arrogant, yet remained polite.
Compared to his own Great-Grandfather and Second Grandfather, this aura was still slightly inferior.
A flash of surprise flickered in the depths of An Jingsheng's eyes.
That look of his just now—never mind these civil servants from the Cultural Bureau.
Even those old foxes who had been in the underworld for years would probably have been scared into a shiver.
Yet this young man before him, at such a young age, could actually meet his gaze so calmly.
An Jingsheng immediately recalled the file in his study.
Jiang Cheng: mysterious background, massive capital, second shareholder of Hengcheng Company in Tyrande.
Frequent actions in Shanghai, yet no one had ever caught a flaw.
The details of his background in the Capital were unclear.
Before meeting Jiang Cheng face-to-face, An Jingsheng had originally thought he was just a brat who charged ahead relying on his family background.
After all, the few things Jiang Cheng had done in Shanghai before were quite high-profile.
Especially during the Supercar Festival, he had really stolen the spotlight.
However, at this moment, when An Jingsheng actually met Jiang Cheng in person,
He realized Jiang Cheng was far more steady than he had imagined, completely lacking the impetuousness of youth.
"President Jiang is truly young and promising!" An Jingsheng finally slowly averted his gaze.
Although no obvious joy or anger could be heard in his tone, it was as if he had retracted the sharp blade he had just bared.
The tense pressure in the air suddenly dissipated.
The big shots from the Cultural Bureau only then dared to take a breath.
The looks they cast toward Jiang Cheng were filled with a bit more wonder.
They were all too familiar with that aura of An Jingsheng's from their interactions over the years.
It was just that the social atmosphere in recent years was a bit different from before.
If it were ten or so years ago, An Jingsheng's aura would have been even more terrifying.
What impressed Director Chen the most was a negotiation with a transnational smuggling group several years ago.
An Jingsheng had used this very gaze to force the other party's CEO to sign a settlement agreement on the spot.
Who would have thought that the young man before them wouldn't even change his posture under the pressure of that gaze?
Jiang Cheng smiled, his voice steady: "Chairman An is the senior; I should indeed ask for more guidance if given the chance."
His words sounded polite, but there wasn't the slightest bit of a junior's constraint toward a senior; it sounded more like mutual business flattery between peers.
An Jingsheng's gaze fell intently on Jiang Cheng, as if he wanted to see something deeper through his exterior.
After a moment, a hint of appreciation actually surfaced in his eyes.
He didn't respond further.
It was as if that moment of murderous intent just now was merely an illusion of the bystanders.
An Xin, standing behind, had been watching anxiously.
Then, An Jingsheng followed as she quickly spoke up, taking the initiative to say to Jiang Cheng, "I didn't expect you to come too."
Jiang Cheng nodded, not mentioning Qiao Yinyin and the others.
"What a coincidence."
Seeing An Xin greeting Jiang Cheng, Director Chen on the side quickly and politely extended his hand toward Jiang Cheng.
"Hello, I am Chen Hong, Director of the Chengdu Cultural Bureau."
"Hello, Director Chen."
After a round of enthusiastic pleasantries, Director Chen tirelessly led their group into the main exhibition hall of the event.
Upon stepping into the hall, the first thing that caught their eyes was a giant Shu embroidery piece hanging at the entrance—"A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix." The piece was magnificent and breathtaking.
The phoenix's tail feathers were meticulously embroidered with gold thread, shimmering with a delicate and enchanting luster under the lights, as if the phoenix were about to spread its wings and fly.
With a smile, Director Chen pointed to the scrolling branch patterns on the edges of the embroidery and introduced it to everyone: "This is a masterpiece that took the veteran artist Old Li three whole years to complete! Moreover, just to embroider this piece, a full twelve taels of gold thread were used!"
Looking at this embroidery, a hint of reminiscence appeared in An Jingsheng's eyes.
He leaned in to carefully examine the Shu embroidery.
After gazing for a moment, An Jingsheng said with emotion, "There are very few craftsmen left today who can master this Panjin embroidery technique; probably no more than five."
Having said that, he suddenly turned to look at Jiang Cheng, a hint of testing in his eyes.
He said slowly, "President Jiang, how do you think such exquisite craftsmanship should survive in today's society?"
Jiang Cheng knew An Jingsheng's words were meant to see if he was an empty-headed fool with no ideas.
Jiang Cheng's gaze fell on the video playing on a loop next to the embroidery frame.
In the video, a white-haired veteran artist was demonstrating the Panjin embroidery technique stitch by stitch.
His fingertip lightly tapped the glass display case, his voice neither fast nor slow: "Relying solely on museum-style protection won't work; we must turn traditional crafts into a 'living business'."