Li Yimao, a third-tier celebrity, hesitated and remained silent for a long time. Cheng Xuelan's promise of being a "singer" seemed as distant as a fragile bubble, but he was still wary of Du Ze.
But he was unwilling to easily close the door to that beautiful dream.
“Congratulations,” Cheng Jixue suddenly patted Li Yimao on the shoulder while he was still hesitating. “I told you you would get this opportunity.”
Just minutes earlier, when the two were talking about Cheng Jixue's four-year contract, Li Yimao was lamenting, "Oh, I'll definitely renew my contract, but I don't want to... I want to be a real singer and release my own albums in the future!"
Li Yimao suddenly woke up, and in that instant he made up his mind. His eyes shone brighter than ever before as he looked at Cheng Xuelan with great enthusiasm: "I want to be a singer! I want to be an original singer! I don't want to be a traffic star anymore, trying to please my fans!"
Du Ze wanted to say something more, but Zhang Chaohe didn't give him a chance to interject and made the final decision: "Contact Jiang Wei later to handle the formalities. From now on, you'll be with Sister Cheng."
"Very good." Du Ze glared coldly at Cheng Xuelan, trembling with anger. He could see that Zhang Chaohe was simply supporting Cheng Xuelan, completely unaware that this old fox, Cheng Xuelan, had sharp eyes and had just taken a big bite out of him.
With Cheng Xuelan around, even if the Second Prince is a good-for-nothing, he will be a very troublesome one.
Du Ze slammed the door and left. Even though he was secretly laughing at Zhang Chaohe's humiliation, Zhang Chaohe's expression remained arrogant and aloof, perfectly maintaining his CEO demeanor. Li Yimao was only mentioned briefly in the original text, but Cheng Xuelan wouldn't openly break ties and snatch a stranger for no reason. He must be a very important general under Du Ze.
He stroked his chin. Originally, he was just thinking about how to minimize the losses from Du Ze's departure, but now that he had acquired Chengxue Lan bulldozers, Zhang Chaohe even had the audacious idea of directly crushing Du Ze.
Just as Zhang Chaohe was marveling at his growing boldness, he suddenly heard Mei Jinghan greet him timidly: "Mr. Zhang... did you include me in what you just said?"
“Uh…” Zhang Chaohe then noticed Mei Jinghan, who had been silent all along. He was not tall, only a little over 1.7 meters. Although he was good-looking, he was shy and reserved. Not only was he inconspicuous among the flamboyant and talented boy bands, but he was also a marginal figure in this training room.
God knows how much courage it took for him to speak to Zhang Chaohe.
"Of course, that includes, do you also want to change your agent?"
Mei Jinghan was overjoyed! He stood up straight, his fingers unconsciously fidgeting with the seam of his trousers, and spoke rapidly: "No, no, no, Mr. Zhang, I don't want to cause Sister Cheng any trouble. I just want to change my career path. I think I'm more suited to acting. Being in a boy band... I... I'm not really suited..."
Zhang Chaohe looked at him thoughtfully. Mei Jinghan did indeed have an elegant and handsome face and a pair of beautiful eyes that told a story. However, on the stage, where the overall effect and tension are emphasized, his height became his upper limit. But in front of the screen, the limitations of height and physique would be greatly reduced. In addition to acting skills, his temperament and appearance might be able to support him to go further.
He was just about to have Mei Jinghan go to Jiang's assistant to handle the formalities, since this washed-up nobody wouldn't lose much no matter what she did, when Cheng Xuelan spoke up again: "Your former manager was indeed not a smart person. I have a suggestion, I don't know if you'd like to hear it."
Mei Jinghan nodded. Cheng Xuelan's professional instincts were definitely much sharper than Wang Yin's. In his spare time, his study of some film and television dramas made him feel that he loved acting even more—he just had a vague idea that he would feel more natural and comfortable if he were to act.
"Do you dare to sign a performance-based agreement with the company?" Cheng Xuelan said in a surprising way: "You should be almost thirty now, and you can't go any further in the boy band market, so you can only change careers. But whether the audience will accept you or whether it's worth the company to train you again is not something you can decide with just your opinion."
“I suggest you sign a performance-based agreement with the company to give you a chance to receive preferential treatment in terms of resources. But to be honest, I do have a high opinion of your face; male celebrities are all too ugly these days,” Cheng Xuelan complained, half-jokingly. “The idol drama market needs fresh, good-looking blood.”
"So you signed me because you think I'm good-looking?" Cheng Jixue jokingly interjected.
“Yes,” Cheng Xuelan looked him over with satisfaction, “You could stand there and be nothing more than a pretty face and people would still be interested. Why didn’t anyone try to recruit you before?”
“We Peking Opera singers don’t recognize each other once we take off our costumes,” Cheng Jixue said, dusting off his sleeves. “I still have to thank Mr. Zhang for his guidance.”
Mr. Zhang: I suddenly feel guilty.
Before Cheng Xuelan had even taken office, she had already made a series of bold moves. Zhang Chaohe was extremely moved. Chairman Zhang sent him Special Assistant Jiang, and General Manager Zhang sent him Cheng Xuelan. General Manager Zhang could now rest easy even if he continued to slack off.
The following rehearsals had little to do with Zhang Chaohe. Li Yimao had arranged to have dinner with him and Cheng Xuelan that evening, so he planned to go back to his office to sit for a while and wait to get off work.
In the afternoon, his assistant told him that the "Dream Training Camp" program team had asked him to take promotional photos during his free time, and also mentioned that he would need to repost them on Weibo. Only then did Zhang Chaohe remember to log into the original owner's Weibo account. However, he was shocked as soon as he logged in—the original owner only had a lonely "3" on Weibo, but had more than 2.3 million followers!
He initially thought it was fake followers, but after clicking on the Weibo content, he immediately understood where the 2.3 million came from.
"Congratulations to XX Company under Hengxiang Group on its overseas listing. One hundred people will be randomly selected to share one million yuan in cash by forwarding this Weibo post."
"Congratulations to Shengjing Group... One hundred people will be randomly selected from those who retweet this post to share one million yuan in cash."
The last post was a photo of the nameplate on the office desk, showing Zhang Chaohe's name in gold and his gleaming title of president, accompanied by the caption: "First day at work, let's draw 100 people to split one million yuan in cash."
Zhang Chaohe, you really are a sucker! You gave away 3 million yuan and you still don't have 3 million fans.
Zhang Chaohe had no idea that the moment he logged into Weibo and sat on the homepage for five minutes, someone on a celebrity-following app detected his online activity; less than half an hour after he went offline, a strange topic suddenly trended on Weibo: #The Generous Little Zhang Just Went Online#!
Clicking through, the comments became even stranger:
[Breaking News! The Money-Giving Boy has arrived!]
[Is there some weird reason for this giveaway yet?!]
[I'm wishing (praying) that I'll be chosen this time!]
[This is hilarious! Just because CEO Zhang gives away a million every time he logs in, how many people have set him as a "special contact" on Xing Entertainment?]
[Breaking News! The Spoiled Money Boy has gone offline! He didn't even give away a million this time!]
The topic square was filled with joy. During the period when everyone was "looking forward to the lottery and then shocked that CEO Zhang had only logged in for a short while before logging off", Zhang Chaohe's verified Weibo account was actually sent to the top of the trending searches!
However, this time Mr. Zhang didn't participate in the giveaway, and he didn't seem to follow up on Weibo. It seems he just logged in briefly and then moved on, so the buzz quickly died down. But just as the onlookers were about to leave, a teaser post from the official Weibo account of BlueFocus quickly surged to the bottom of the trending topics!
Dream Training Camp Official Weibo_V: #DreamTrainingCamp# Episode 6 Preview: After the second elimination, the training stage welcomes a new challenge - this episode's special guest, Mr. Zhang Chaohe, CEO of Jiasheng Media, will lead a challenge team to the stage! How will the trainees perform in the face of the seniors' challenges? Ignite the audience with music and light up the stage with passion. Find out next Saturday at 8 PM!
The accompanying image was a gray-black silhouette and a seating chart filled with question marks. After reading the entire trailer, netizens quickly realized that the production team probably just wanted to capitalize on the popularity of the "splurging child" character, and the show's progress was probably still at the "creating a new folder" stage.
However, Mr. Zhang's mysterious background and his extravagant spending habits instantly ignited the curiosity of netizens.
[Mr. Zhang actually came to celebrate with the people!]
I'll definitely print out the screenshot of Mr. Zhang and hang it in front of my desk, and I'll pray to him before the next giveaway.
...
There haven't been any fresh topics on Weibo in the past two days, and netizens are getting bored out of their minds. As a result, the topic of "Little Zhang" rose so quickly that even the official Weibo account of Jiasheng Group didn't have time to react. As a result, the official Weibo accounts of Hengxiang Group and Shengjing Group took the initiative to forward the post and try to ride the wave of popularity. A number of official Weibo accounts and subsidiary accounts of Zhang's Group actively participated in promoting the second prince's screen debut.
It took Jiasheng quite a while to quickly rejoin the forwarding team and report to Assistant Jiang.
Assistant Jiang: Zhang Chaohe was leisurely drinking tea, pondering whether he should launch that big IP movie to promote Cheng Jixue, when Assistant Jiang subtly reminded him to check Weibo.
Amidst various leaks, speculations, and the Zhang Group's praise, Star Entertainment App once again notified users: "Your special concern—Zhang Chaohe has logged into Weibo!"
[The Money-Giving Boy! You've arrived!]
[It's trending!! Mr. Zhang, how about we do a giveaway? (Rose)(Rose)]
Zhang Chaohe looked at the inexplicably trending topic: ?
A note from the author:
The follower numbers mentioned in the article are all fabricated proportionally. Just think of this as an era where entertainment companies buy fake followers to create a false impression.
Chapter 7
Faced with the teasing from enthusiastic netizens, Zhang Chaohe fled in panic. The program team urgently contacted Jiasheng, hoping to move the photo shoot to tomorrow to cooperate with the publicity.
Meanwhile, bored netizens started speculating about the lineup of guests for Jiasheng's challenge, given that CEO Zhang had not responded at all. Jiasheng's artists were also trying to ride the wave of popularity, posting on Weibo about every little thing to show their presence.
The afternoon passed quickly. Of course, Zhang Chaohe couldn't actually let Li Yimao treat him to dinner. He used the excuse of welcoming Cheng Xuelan to have his assistant Jiang arrange a restaurant. Although this private restaurant offered good privacy, it was still impossible to avoid running into other acquaintances. As soon as Zhang Chaohe entered, he bumped into President Zhou, a good friend of Zhang Yinshan.
During the gathering, the other party made a courtesy visit to the private room and mentioned his numerous investments in the film and television industry to build rapport, so Zhang Chaohe had to drink some wine; after President Zhou left, Li Yimao toasted him, Mei Jinghan toasted him, and even Cheng Jixue, who needed to protect her voice, poured some red wine to toast him.
Zhang Chaohe used to be a formidable figure in social situations, having outdrunk countless opponents, so naturally he didn't take this little bit of alcohol seriously.
When Cheng Xuelan poured wine to toast him, she realized that Zhang Chaohe, who had just been able to prop his chin up and twirl the wine glass with one hand, looking calm and composed, was now sitting still.
He closed his eyes quietly, his breathing deep and even, and fell asleep without making a sound.
Cheng Xuelan, a seasoned drinker, had never seen anyone with such good drinking manners before. After drinking too much, he quietly fell asleep on his own, so no one dared to wake Mr. Zhang, and they continued drinking on the other side of the table.
Cheng Xuelan first explained the plan to everyone. For Cheng Jixue, the goal was to create a "star" in the traditional sense. She didn't ask Cheng Jixue why she wanted to enter the entertainment industry. It's very common for opera actors to switch careers. They just feel hopeless about the future and want to earn more money.
But Cheng Xuelan rarely spoke more about Li Yimao: "Actually, we've met before, but you probably didn't notice me. You know, Teacher Zhang Feng actually had your eye on you at first."
“Back then, you and Xu Shen were both promising talents in Group A, and Teacher Zhang Feng had a hard time choosing between you two,” Cheng Xuelan said candidly. “In the end, he cast the crucial vote for Xu Shen because of his original song. After we went offstage, I heard you arguing with Du Ze. You said that you wrote that song, but Du Ze threatened you and told you not to say it.”
Li Yimao was stunned for a moment. Zhang Feng was a mentor on a music talent show he participated in when he first entered the industry. The almost forgotten memory was brought up again, and the argument seemed to have faded away.
How much did you get paid for that song?
"180,000 yuan, for my mother's medical treatment." Li Yimao stared at the half-empty bottle of Moutai on the table. The porcelain white bottle made it impossible to see how much liquor was left inside. All that could be seen was the red silk cloth, damp with the liquor, stuck wetly to the bottle opening. "Even if I could do it all over again, I would still sell songs. I can't watch my mother die from her illness."
“You don’t need to sell songs anymore,” Cheng Xuelan said, clinking glasses with him. “I wish you all the best.”
Mei Jinghan is not an artist under her management, so Cheng Xuelan can't say much. She just suggested that he take the route of fast-paced idol dramas. However, since he has decided to sign a performance-based agreement with the company, he will probably be filming and appearing on variety shows like crazy in the future to generate revenue for the company and become a new generation of work machine.
The four of them drank until almost ten o'clock, and Zhang Chaohe slept soundly like a statue until ten o'clock, his face flushed. Cheng Jixue gently patted him, and he opened his eyes slightly dazed, his gaze seemingly still quite clear.
Cheng Xuelan called her assistant to pick them up. Mei Jinghan and Li Yimao were both a little drunk, so Zhang Chaohe called the driver to take them home first.
Cheng Jixue drank the least to protect her voice and sat there to help Zhang Chaohe sober up. Suddenly, Zhang Chaohe said, "Come with me back. I have an apartment nearby."
A hint of mockery flashed across Cheng Jixue's expression—but his voice still carried a gentle smile: "Okay, Mr. Zhang, please take your time."
Zhang Chaohe strode out of the private room, even greeting the waiter without any apparent sign of distress, and then stood in the front porch for a while.
Cheng Jixue waited patiently beside him, wondering what he was going to do.
"Why aren't you leaving yet?" Zhang Chaohe asked the pillar next to him, his hands behind his back. "Are you waiting for a package?"
Cheng Jixue: He carefully observed the other person's expression. Zhang Chaohe lowered his eyebrows, his long eyelashes covering the bloodshot in his eyes. His face was still flushed, and even his lips were red and rosy, with a soft pinkish-white ring where he pursed his lips.
"President Zhang?" Cheng Jixue called out to him tentatively.
"Uh..." Zhang Chaohe looked at him as if he had just realized something: "Are you also waiting for a package?"
Cheng Jixue dialed Jiang's number without any expression.
Assistant Jiang was wearing a face mask when he heard this and immediately sat up from the sofa. His unscrupulous boss, drunk, hinted that the artist should take him home. Why does this sound like something out of a legal drama?
However, in a flash, Assistant Jiang remembered the first draft of the sugar daddy contract that Zhang Chaohe had asked her to draft, and he suddenly hesitated, a hesitation he had rarely shown in his career.
She left the face mask on for a while, but still decided to go against her conscience: "Mr. Zhang does have a duplex apartment nearby. Could you please take him there? I'll send you the address."
Cheng Jixue hailed a car and coaxed Zhang Chaohe into the back seat. He looked handsome and refined, but he was actually quite strong. After getting in the car, Zhang Chaohe kept looking down at his wrist. Only then did Cheng Jixue realize that he hadn't been paying attention to his strength and that half of Zhang Chaohe's wrist was red from being gripped so tightly.
“Uh…” Cheng Jixue sighed silently, pinched the corner of his eye hard to calm himself down. He was afraid that Zhang Chaohe would wake up the next day and remember that his image had collapsed, so he had to rub his reddened wrist for him.
As it turned out, Mr. Zhang, who looked like a cool guy, actually had extremely sensitive skin. Cheng Jixue had only rubbed it a couple of times when the area on his wrist turned bright red, making it even more eye-catching under the shimmering blue mother-of-pearl dial.
Cheng Jixue completely gave up on trying to save her, choosing instead to look out the window at the scenery. The driver, secretly observing the two exceptionally good-looking passengers in the back through the rearview mirror, chuckled and said, "You two don't seem like ordinary people, do you have boyfriends?"
The country has only passed the same-sex marriage law for two or three years, but drivers who travel all over the country are already used to it.
“No,” Cheng Jixue said in standard Beijing dialect, “this is my boss.”
"Hey, what do you two do for a living? You're really good-looking!"
“I sing Peking Opera,” Cheng Jixue said with a smile.
"What a coincidence! My grandpa and dad used to listen to this all the time when I was a kid. Let me give you a little 'drumming and cursing' performance, and you can give me some pointers?"
The driver tested his voice, and while turning the steering wheel, he confidently began to sing: "In the past, Han Xin suffered the humiliation of crawling between someone's legs, a hero fallen from grace wandering the world, but later he rose to command, assisting the Han dynasty and protecting its prosperous home. Tomorrow he will go and curse the traitors, risking his life to stain the yellow sands..."
Zhang Chaohe, who had been resting with his head down in the back seat, suddenly looked up and pulled his phone out of his pocket like a zombie. The driver's loud singing was interrupted by the sudden light from the screen in the back seat, and even Cheng Jixue, who was sitting next to him, was stunned for a moment.