The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

Zhang Yong can still contact Linghua.

But can he contact them? Definitely not.

In fact, the moment he saw Shen Youwei driving a Cullinan, he knew that there was no possibility for him and her anymore.

In Guangdong, beautiful women often have to pay a price with their bodies if they want to get ahead.

As far as he knew, his boss had several mistresses who were college graduates and were being kept outside the home.

Many Hong Kong business owners, or even those who aren't business owners, like to come here to keep mistresses.

Zhang Yong could only say that he couldn't get in touch with Linghua.

Shen Youwei brought Chen An'an with her, but since they couldn't get in touch with her, there was nothing they could do.

After all, we're from the same village. It's rare for us to meet in Guangdong, so having a meal together shouldn't be a problem.

Chen An'an just wanted to learn more about the lives of ordinary people; she didn't have any particular purpose.

When she got home, Erpiya was playing with two other children in the neighborhood.

She spoke in a childish voice and liked to walk with her little hands behind her back. Chen An'an didn't know why she liked to act like a little adult so much.

He's only four years old.

The two sisters will have to stay here for a few more months before they can go back home after the semester ends.

……

April was supposed to be an ordinary month.

After completing its asset restructuring, Tencent Video Group began to collaborate extensively with short video platforms across the entire traditional industry.

Whether it's store managers, regional managers, or senior executives within the group, everyone has started learning short video operations this month.

The training will be handled by Tengyou Media.

Not only traditional businesses need to learn from this, but Tencent Entertainment is no exception.

Celebrities also need to constantly maintain their exposure and generate buzz, otherwise they can easily be replaced by newcomers.

When his younger cousin Jiang Peiyao came to find him, Chen Pingsheng was still at home taking care of his mistress Chen Lu.

To be honest, he seems to have been a bit too quiet since leaving his two sisters in Guangdong.

Without his two older sisters by his side, the mistress hardly cried anymore, and even when spanked, she would giggle foolishly.

"Brother-in-law, are you taking care of the child at home all by yourself?"

"Yeah, anyway, there's nothing else to do."

Little Chen Lu, who is less than a year old, is quite cute, with big, bright eyes.

It's mainly because his mother taught him well; when he needs to poop, he pinches his little nose and pretends to want to poop.

"Let me hug you."

Jiang Peiyao held the mistress in her arms. This time, she came to see Chen Pingsheng again to talk about some things in the entertainment industry.

Jiang Peiyao herself doesn't have much ambition; for her, earning a few million or tens of millions a year would be great.

That's what she thinks, but others don't.

With so many artists signed to Tencent Entertainment, it's impossible for everyone to have top-tier resources.

Only a very small number of people can become big stars.

These resources become the most important ladder for newcomers to rise, even though Tencent Entertainment has repeatedly emphasized that no under-the-table deals can be made within the company.

However, it's still impossible to stop some newcomers from selling their bodies for resources.

Recently, another troublesome matter has arisen, and Jiang Peiyao came to discuss this matter.

Chen Pingsheng hadn't paid attention to Tencent Entertainment for a long time; he hadn't even looked at any of the specific movies or projects.

If Jiang Peiyao hadn't come to him this time, he wouldn't have known that the entertainment industry had become so corrupt.

Several major TV series invested in by Tencent Entertainment in 16 were filmed as early as the beginning of 17.

They also sold the copyright to a large local television station.

The contract included a portion of the exclusive broadcast fee, with additional advertising revenue to be earned once the show officially airs. It's fair to say that advertising revenue is the main source of income; the copyright fee doesn't even cover the production costs.

Actors' salaries have skyrocketed in the past two years, and it's something that no single company or firm can stop.

Any random celebrity with a bit of popularity can come along and demand tens of millions in fees.

Celebrities make money no joke.

It was only after Chen Pingsheng summoned Bai Xin to Shanghai that he learned of this outrageous situation.

"Uncle, we went to that TV station and asked. It's easy to get it broadcast. We just need to buy the ratings from someone they designate."

Chen Pingsheng already knew about the ratings fraud.

Popular actors used to do this all the time, but are local TV stations being so blatant about it now?

"He told you to buy ratings from a specific person. Did he mention a price?"

"He said it, 800,000 per episode guarantees it will air within three months, and he also explicitly told us that if we don't buy the ratings, there won't be any commercials during the broadcast."

Bai Xin was still fuming when she talked about this, "Isn't this blatant extortion? We spend more than 100 million yuan to film a TV series, but we have to spend tens of millions of yuan to buy the ratings. If we don't buy them from the designated people, they won't let us broadcast them at all."

"How are you going to deal with this?"

"Uncle, I can only ask you about this. The atmosphere in the industry is very bad these days. You know those big TV stations are state-owned enterprises, and that person's position isn't low. If we don't pay, the drama won't air; if we do pay..."

She didn't say anything more, but it meant that if you spend money, you'll be ripped off.

Chen Pingsheng tapped on the table. "Have someone go and talk to them again, and remember to preserve the evidence."

"Uncle, are you going to sue them?"

Why are you so surprised?

"Their rank is quite high."

"Oh... if the level is not low, we will have to spend tens of millions more on the 'fool' fee'."

Chen Pingsheng shook his head and said, "Bai Xin, you've been with me for quite a few years now. Why do you start to become timid and hesitant as the group grows bigger? Just because others are of a higher rank doesn't mean we are lower."

"No..." Bai Xin quickly waved her hand, wanting to say that many film and television production companies do this nowadays.

It's not that they wanted to, but rather that they were forced into it; you could also interpret it as a kind of helplessness.

Everyone in this circle is in the same industry, and no one else has gone out of their way to expose this kind of thing.

If they're the first to flip the table, they're likely to offend quite a few people.

After all, relationships are like a net, and no one knows which side that net leads to.

Television stations have departments responsible for purchasing, and naturally, they also have departments responsible for broadcasting.

Many people believe that only directors and producers can freely engage in sexual harassment.

Actually, that's not the case; there are many other people who can do it too.

For example, those who control procurement rights can produce so many TV dramas a year, but only a small portion of them can be broadcast on major television stations.

These are the people that major film production companies all want to curry favor with.

This is also why Bai Xin has been afraid to deal with it.

Now that the big boss has spoken, what does she have to be afraid of?

Why not just flip the table and remove some people from office?

Although I don't know what the consequences will be, just thinking about it is quite exciting.

Chen Pingsheng's idea was simple: even the smallest company can cause things that shouldn't happen to happen because of various selfish desires.

Not to mention the entertainment industry, which is so big and full of beautiful women.

The employees in the company don't earn high salaries, but with a little bit of whimsy, they can easily make tens or hundreds of millions of yuan.

It's inevitable that some people will lose control.

His current plan is to investigate and gather evidence first, and then decide how to overturn the table once he has concrete evidence.

(End of this chapter)