Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 342: Experience "Dining Table Play"

In the last few days of 2017, the entertainment industry revealed another big piece of news to the netizens.

An entertainment reporter posted a follow-up video online, in which actor Li Xiaolu and rapper PG One, who became popular this year because of "The Rap of China", went home together after dinner and did not go out until the next morning.

On the same evening, when Jia Nailiang was live streaming, a viewer asked Li Xiaolu where he was, and he said, "My wife went to get her hair done."

Immediately afterwards, Zhuo Wei, who had disappeared for half a year, posted a message saying "See you on Wednesday", and then reposted the post about the "overnight stay" incident.

Many netizens had been looking forward to it for the entire New Year holiday, thinking that this "No. 1 paparazzi in the domestic entertainment industry" would reveal some inside information again. Unexpectedly, on the 3rd, he posted a message that "Wang Sicong has changed two new female companions."

The netizens who were waiting to see the melons held their breath in their chests and almost choked. Is it worth "previewing" for Wang Sicong, a daily news that changes three times a year?
Some smart netizens immediately realized that the so-called "See you on Wednesday" was not a warm-up for the spectators, but a time for the star team to pay the "ransom".

Wang Sicong, who was pulled out to take the blame, also posted a Weibo post cursing, "Today is my 30th birthday, and someone bought a hot search to pull me out to take the blame, qnmlgbd."

At the same time, he also posted a photo of a condom with the caption "I'm going to make my first meal."

At this point, the originally normal word "doing hair" suddenly has many new meanings full of green.

Li Xiaolu and PG One were also not idle. They issued a "clarification announcement" stating that they were only discussing a "hip-hop music movie script" that night, and that other people were also present.

But obviously, no one believes this explanation of "discussing the script all night". After all, what kind of script requires discussing it all night long?

Netizens were like wild animals in a melon field, jumping up and down in the comment sections of several parties involved.

Some went to Li Xiaolu and PG One to ask for resources, some left emoticons under Jia Nailiang’s Weibo to "comfort", and some left a message on Wang Sicong saying "Lu stayed overnight and Jia pretended nothing was wrong. I never expected that Zhuo Shi was so amazing."

Of course, there were also people who were accidentally hurt. Some "husband-friendly netizens" went to Li Xiaoran's Weibo and scolded her: "Are you doing this to Jia Nailiang? How will Tianxin see you in the future?"

Li Xiaoran: ???

Another group that was not happy was the satellite TV stations. They had spent a lot of money and effort to invite a bunch of celebrities to hold a "New Year's Eve party", but in the end all the attention was diverted to a "hairstyle" event.

Even Li Qin complained to Meng Bai. She had received an invitation to the CCTV New Year's Eve Concert this year and sang a song. Her publicity team wanted to see if they could buy a hot search to prove that they were doing their job.

As a result, the entry was bought, but apart from some flattering comments from its own fans, it had no influence at all.

Fortunately, Mr. Li always adheres to the attitude of "doing our best and leaving the rest to fate" in marketing. Since no one is paying attention, forget it and you can save some money.

"The white tube-top dress you wore when you went on stage was quite beautiful. I wanted to show you." Li Qin said on the phone, "But you've been out for so long and haven't come back yet."

"Don't waste any time. I've looked up your clips online and they're really pretty. When I get back in a couple of days, I'll have someone contact the brand to customize a pair of the same style for you. You can wear it for me to see."

"Tsk, that's rare... I'll send you the size later."
-
The Spring Festival in 2018 was relatively late, with New Year's Eve not arriving until mid-February. Therefore, after returning from the New Year's Day holiday, most workers had to work for more than a month before they could take a vacation.

Meng Bai didn't return home until after New Year's Day.

After a stopover in Shanghai, the plane landed directly in Changsha.

As the third season of "Who's the Detective" was coming to an end, he just happened to talk to Mango TV about developing peripheral games and apps in collaboration with the "Detective Chinatown" series.

"Boss, this is the data compiled about the development of 'script-killing' games in the country."

In the car, the young assistant Hua Yan handed a document to Meng Bai, which contained the information that her boss had asked the company to organize a few days ago when he was abroad.

Meng Bai flipped through the documents in his hand. Due to the popularity of "Who's the Detective Season 2", the new party game "script killing" is gradually becoming known to many young people.

Although the current audience is still relatively small and in most cases it is combined with other board games such as "Werewolf", the market is growing rapidly.

In just over half a year, dozens of physical stores offering "script-killing" games have appeared in super first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

At this rate of development, a new industry model should be supported in one to two years.

Meng Bai calculated the time in his mind. "Detective Chinatown 2" is currently scheduled for this year's National Day, followed by "Who's the Detective Season ".

Then the "Crime Master" app can be used as a supporting promotional peripheral for the movie. When the market matures next year and the "Script Killing" game has a certain scale of audience, the game functions can be gradually expanded.

With a rough plan in mind, Meng Bai put down the information and asked the assistant next to him, "By the way, is there any program recording for Ming Detective today?"

"Yes, Sister Tongtong told me before that we will record the final episode of the closing party today." Hua Yan said.

"It's the last episode so soon." Meng Bai sighed. He had hardly paid attention to the show this season because of the tight schedule. "How are the results recently?"

"Wait a minute, boss, let me take a look." Hua Yan said, taking the Pad beside her.

After several years of experience, this girl is no longer the confused "Lolita girl" she once was. Although she is still obsessed with her paper man in private, she is becoming more and more mature in her work.

More importantly, because she has been with Meng Bai for many years, she has a deep understanding of her boss's habits. Just like the situation in this season of "Celebrity Detective", although Meng Bai has not said it before, she still regularly connects with the program team to record.

"The total number of views for this season has exceeded 35 billion, and the ratings are the same as the second season. The discussion has also remained stable." Hua Yan looked at the information in her hand. "However, the real-time popularity ranking of 'online variety shows' on third-party platforms such as Yunhe Data has recently dropped one place to second."

"Second place." Meng Bai asked curiously, "Which program surpassed it?"

"Idol Producer" recently launched by Qiyi TV."

Meng Bai suddenly realized that Dai Ying had mentioned this program to him before. It was a program focusing on "boy group idol audition" and was of the same type as Tencent Video's "Creation 101" project.

He glanced at Hua Yan who was a little excited beside him and asked, "Why, are you following this show too?"

"It's not really a fan, I just watch every issue and occasionally vote or something."

Is this not considered chasing? Meng Bai asked with a smile: "Didn't you say you don't like the three-dimensional world? Why do you suddenly find that paper people are not attractive anymore?"

"That's not the case. The ACG world is always the best!" Hua Yan clenched her fists. "But it's rare for a show to have so many handsome guys at the same time. It's fun to watch it occasionally."

"Oh, woman."

Meng Bai imitated the assistant's usual mocking tone and replied, then casually said, "Tell your boss which one you like, and I'll take you to see the real person later."

"Really?"

"Of course. It's not that difficult to meet a contestant." Meng Bai said indifferently, "Maybe you also know people at Qiyi TV, so you can just talk to them yourself." As the first assistant who has followed Meng Bai for many years, Hua Yan's status in Arc Light is only slightly lower than that of Liu Jun, Chen Jing and a few others.

Not to mention Arclight Films' current status in the circle, just based on its relationship with Qiyi TV, it would be easy for them to meet a little idol.

"Forget it, there's no need." Hua Yan said in a dull tone, "I suddenly realized that there doesn't seem to be anything to see."

Meng Bai saw that she looked bored and smiled in his heart.
This is what star chasing is like. Fans outside the circle are attracted by the halo of "idols" and "stars" because they are far away, and are naturally full of enthusiasm.

But as soon as the distance is shortened, most people will immediately find that the other person is not as good as they imagined.

And for someone like Hua Yan, whose status exceeds that of the other person, it will be even less fun.

Most girls subconsciously prefer men who are stronger than themselves. Even when older sisters are looking for young men, they can't help but urge them to "become better".

But then again, the boy group project is so popular, so Tencent’s girl group project shouldn’t be much different.

Meng Bai couldn't help but think of Yang Chaoyue, and wondered what kind of results she would get by then.

But I have to say that this girl is blessed with some luck.

When we arrived at the Mango TV headquarters, Zhou Shan, the vice president in charge of the variety show department, was already waiting there.

Meng Bai exchanged a few pleasantries with the other party, and then got straight to the point: "I wonder what Mango thinks of the proposal to jointly develop the surrounding areas?"

"We received a proposal from Arclight a few days ago. We discussed it internally and are very interested in it," said Zhou Shan.

In fact, before contacting Arclight Films, Mango TV had already considered how to develop the IP value of "Who's the Detective" and had proposed many plans internally.

For example, we could create a new satellite TV program of the same type according to the standards for satellite TV programs. Or we could dig out the "NZND group" that emerged from the plots in the past few seasons and do live performances of film, television or music.

Of course, this also includes game development.

After all, "Who's the Detective" is now the "trump card" of the entire Mango TV, so naturally we must make the best use of it.

However, these plans are still in the conceptual stage and none of them have taken shape.

"We have no objection to the linkage and subsequent game and application development." Zhou Shan said: "But we still need to discuss the specific details of the linkage cooperation slowly."

"Of course, we don't expect to complete it in a short time." Meng Bai said with a smile: "What's more, it will take some time to cultivate the market. We still have a lot of time to prepare."

The negotiations with Mango TV went smoothly. After all, everyone knows that this is a "win-win" cooperation that benefits everyone.

The only possible conflict is how to allocate the focus between the two IPs.

Meng Bai chatted with Mango TV for an entire afternoon and had dinner together in the evening.

After finishing the work and returning to the hotel, he washed up first, then sat on the sofa, looking at the company's financial statements while waiting.

It was not until after ten o'clock in the evening that there was a sudden knock on the door of the room.

Meng Bai went over and opened the door. The next second, a figure wearing a thick coat and wrapped tightly slipped in from outside the door.

"call……"

The man took off his mask and let out a long breath. Then he turned towards Meng Bai, and a small face with crescent-shaped smiling eyes appeared under the light.

Looking at Li Yitong's blushing face, Meng Bai covered her cheeks with both hands: "Your face is so red from the cold? Is it very cold outside?"

"The temperature is not bad. It's warmer here in Changsha than in northern Beijing. My face is red because I ran in a hurry just now."

"Why are you running so fast?"

"Because I want to see you earlier." Li Yitong put her arms around Meng Bai's waist, looking up at him.

"Tsk." Meng Bai chuckled, "Boss Li is really good at it now."

"hey-hey……"

Li Yitong smiled with her eyes curved, and rubbed her little head against Meng Bai's chest.

Although they hadn't seen each other for only a dozen days, she still missed him a lot.

"Have you eaten yet?"

"Yeah, we ate it together during the recording today."

"Oh, yes, today is the final closing dinner." Meng Bai paused and asked casually, "Who is here this time?"

"Teacher He, Teacher Sa, then Teacher Da and Wei Chen, and then Sister Yang Rong."

Meng Bai breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that. Fortunately, Sister Ou should still be in the crew after returning to China, so she didn't come.

But then, he felt a little nervous. Wang Ou was a mature older sister after all, and she would not show any other emotions even when she was face to face with Li Yitong.

Putting aside his worries, Meng Bai leaned over, grabbed Li Yitong's legs and picked her up.

"Ah - you, put me down first, I haven't gone to wash up yet."

"It doesn't matter. I still have to wash it later anyway. Let's do the business first."

"Really? You're in such a hurry... Hey, isn't the inner room over there? Where are you taking me?"

"Change the scene once in a while and show Boss Li some table play. Come on, grab the edge of the table and turn around."

"Humph, I knew it... Well, Meng Bai, you're a hooligan!"

(End of this chapter)