How can you ascend to heaven when you are a star?

Chapter 523 Breaking Defense
The live stream is still going on...

Because Zhang Wen would intersperse his answers to questions related to art exams with gossip from the entertainment industry and the latest news about celebrities, the number of viewers in the live stream skyrocketed, quickly surpassing 100,000.

As a live stream introducing Xingxiang and its courses, the number of viewers was already quite large. Zhang Wen was well aware of this, so he prepared to get to the point at this time.

While answering questions from netizens, he glanced at Xu Zining, who was standing behind the cameraman. Xu Zining immediately understood and left a message in the live stream.

“Alright, let’s move on to the next question.” Zhang Wen said, turning his gaze back to the phone screen. “A user named ‘Little Koi’ asked: Principal Zhang, when will you open a branch in Shanghai? Beijing is too far away, we can’t go.”

"There's another problem: we're asking for help coming to Shenzhen, but it's too much of a hassle for the kids to go to Beijing."

"Art students in Sichuan are genuinely envious of those in Beijing. I also want to study at Xingxiang Art School."

"..."

Zhang Wen read out more than a dozen questions from netizens from other places, then looked up at the camera and said with a faint smile, "Since the start of the live broadcast, I have seen many parents and students from other places who want to attend classes at Xingxiang. First of all, thank you for your trust and support. I know everyone's expectations, because we receive many such inquiries every day."

At this point, Zhang Wen took out his phone and displayed the messages he received on Douyin and Weibo in the live stream.

"I don't know if everyone remembers, but at the beginning of the live stream I said that I had something very important to announce today. Since so many netizens from other places have asked about it, I'll announce the news in advance..."

Zhang Wen paused for a few seconds, watching the number of viewers in the live stream rise rapidly, before slowly saying, "In order to allow more students to enjoy our high-quality art exam training right at their doorstep, Xingxiang's nationwide expansion has officially begun."

"What does that mean? It means that Xingxiang will be opening branches all over the country, and the first batch of cities to open branches has been determined. They are Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Sichuan and Wuhan!"

"Each branch is built to the standards of the headquarters in Beijing, and the teachers are all key personnel transferred from the headquarters. Currently, all branches are in the decoration stage and are expected to officially open before September 1st."

As soon as Zhang Wen finished speaking, the live stream chat exploded!

"They've really come to Shanghai? That's great!"

"Parents in Hangzhou are overjoyed! They no longer need to send their children to Beijing for classes!"

"Please provide the exact address of the Shenzhen branch!"

"Turn on tipping, I want to send rockets!"

"Parents in Shenyang are genuinely envious. When will you open a branch in Shenzhen?"

"..."

Seeing the buzzing live stream, Zhang Wen continued, "Next, I'll connect with teachers from various cities and have them introduce the current situation of the branches."

After saying that, he started the connection, and soon another person appeared on the screen.

"Teacher Cui, please say hello to the parents and students in the live stream," Zhang Wen said with a smile.

"Okay, Principal. Hello to all the parents and students in the live broadcast room. I am Cui Anying, the person in charge of Xingxiang Shanghai Branch. You can call me Teacher Cui. I am currently at Xingxiang Shanghai Branch, which is located in Baosheng Plaza, next to the entrance of Building A."

As the camera moves, images of Baosheng Guangcheng appear on screen.

"One, two, three, these three floors are Xingxiang Shanghai branch, which is currently under renovation. I'll give you a tour."

After Cui Anying finished speaking, she went inside.

Viewers in Shanghai started spamming the chat with messages.

"Haha, that's great! My home is near Baosheng Plaza, it will be so convenient to take my child to school in the future."

"Damn, I'm eating right now in Baosheng Plaza."

"Although it's a bit far from my home, it's still quite close compared to Beijing. Principal Zhang is awesome."

"Waiting to register for the grand opening!"

The announcement made by Zhang Wen in the live broadcast room quickly spread throughout the entire art exam training industry.

Art exam training institutions in six cities—Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Sichuan, and Wuhan—were all completely bewildered.

Originally, everyone watched the live stream hoping to learn something from Xingxiang—management skills, teaching experience, marketing methods, anything—but they never dreamed that Xingxiang would open a branch in their city.

With Xingxiang's arrival, won't fewer students sign up with them?
Damn, do you have to go this far?!

Tianxi Media.

Li Lehua stared blankly at the tablet in her hand, her eyes filled with disbelief.

Is Xingxiang no longer able to fit in Beijing, and is it starting to open branches in other cities?
This expansion is happening way too fast!
Her Jiahua Art Examination Training Center has been established for over 20 years and is considered one of the top art examination training institutions in Beijing. However, she has never thought of establishing branches in other cities.

why?
It's simply because the competition in this industry is too fierce!
Moreover, there are only a few excellent teachers. When a branch is established, will they be transferred over?

If we adjust the schedule, it will affect the art exam results of our students in Beijing; if we don't adjust it, the art exam results of our branch students won't improve, and we'll have to close down the following year.

This guy surnamed Zhang is really something, opening branches in six cities all at once. He's taking such big steps, isn't he afraid of messing things up?

So crazy!
However, one thing is certain: Xingxiang must have made a lot of money in the past two years, otherwise it would not have been able to open so many branches all at once.

Rent, equipment, and teachers' salaries—all of these cost money.

In the past two years, Xingxiang has taken away a lot of students from Jiahua. In fact, all of this money should have been hers.

Thinking of this, Li Lehua clenched his fists tightly, feeling as if he had been robbed of tens of millions.

'You, surnamed Zhang, have gone too far!'

Zhou Maoquan, who was standing to the side, was already dumbfounded.

Cui Anying, who asked him to resign a while ago saying she wanted to go back to her husband's hometown, how did she suddenly become the head of Xingxiang's Shanghai branch?
Is this a coincidence, or was it premeditated?
If it was a coincidence that Cui Anying returned to Shanghai and happened to come across Xingxiang's Shanghai branch recruiting, he could accept it.

But if it was premeditated, and Cui Anying's return to Shanghai was actually because she reached an agreement with Xingxiang to return to her hometown of Shanghai to be in charge of establishing Xingxiang's branch, then that's a bit like bullying her.

and many more!

Cui Anying wasn't the only teacher who resigned and returned to her hometown during that period.

At that moment, he suddenly felt like he was eating a hamburger and finding a fly in it, and it was missing a head.

If other teachers appear in the upcoming live streams, then it will definitely not be a coincidence.

"That concludes the introduction to Xingxiang's Shanghai branch. Parents and students from Shanghai are welcome to visit and register, Principal." Cui Anying spoke for a total of ten minutes, providing a very detailed introduction.

"Okay, thank you for the introduction, Teacher Cui." Zhang Wen ended the call and continued, "Teacher Cui has just led everyone on a tour of the Shanghai branch. Parents and students in Shanghai who want to learn more can go to the branch for consultation. Next, let's connect with Teacher Chen, the person in charge of the Xingxiangchuan branch. Can you hear me?" As soon as he finished speaking, another live stream appeared.

“Principal, I can hear you.” Chen Haiping stood in front of the camera, wearing a white T-shirt from Xingxiang Art Examination Center, clearly having come prepared.

“Teacher Chen, it’s your turn to introduce Xingxiang’s branch in Chuancheng,” Zhang Wen said.

"Yes, Principal..."

Inside the live stream, netizens from Sichuan started spamming the chat again.

"Damn, isn't that Baosheng Plaza in Chuancheng behind us?"

"Is Xingxiang's Sichuan branch located in Baosheng Plaza in Sichuan?"

“I passed by Baosheng Plaza yesterday and saw that it was under renovation. I thought it was a new hot pot restaurant under renovation, but I didn’t expect it to be the Xingxiang Chuancheng branch.”

"..."

Zhou Maoquan looked at Chen Haiping, who was full of energy in the picture, and felt terrible.

Liar, big liar!

Didn't you say you were going home to take care of your parents? How come you're taking care of the Xingxiangchuan City branch?
Even if he were slow to react, he would realize at this moment that he had been deceived.

Going back to my hometown? Bullshit!
He clearly switched jobs to Xingxiang, to help that Zhang guy expand his territory.

Real hammer!
You, surnamed Zhang, are really bullying me!

Zhou Maoquan was both angry and aggrieved.

He only poached two teachers from Xingxiang, but the other party poached more than thirty teachers from Jiahua. Isn't that too vengeful?
"Old Zhou!" Li Lehua suddenly looked up, pointing at the person on the screen and asked in confusion, "If I remember correctly, isn't this Chen Haiping Jia Hua's teacher? How come he went to Xingxiang and became the head of the Chuancheng branch?"

Zhou Maoquan shuddered, and sweat instantly began to pour from his scalp.

Regarding the fact that Teacher Jia Hua resigned one after another and returned to his hometown, he did not tell the boss. Employee turnover is a normal phenomenon in the training industry. You poach my people and I poach yours. There is no need to report it.

But now that the boss is asking, the situation is completely different.

It's a minor matter; the boss wouldn't ask about it. But since the boss did ask, it means he cares about it a lot.

“Boss, it’s like this.” Zhou Maoquan hesitated for a moment before saying, “Teacher Chen resigned from Jiahua some time ago and went back to his hometown to take care of his parents. I think he probably saw that Xingxiang was recruiting in Chuancheng, so he applied for the job.”

Li Lehua, with a gloomy face, said nothing and continued watching the live stream.

Zhou Maoquan secretly breathed a sigh of relief. If the boss knew that half of Jia Hua's employees had been poached by Xing Xiang, he would be furious and give him a severe scolding.
Just when he thought he could get away with it, the introduction of Xingxiangchuan City branch ended, and then they started contacting the person in charge of Wucheng branch.

When Zhang Zhancheng appeared on the screen, Zhou Maoquan felt a wave of dizziness, as if the sky had fallen.

Zhang Zhancheng is the head of the performing arts program at Jia Hua. The boss has met him many times and praised him to his face.

“Zhou Maoquan!” Li Lehua pointed at the person in the live stream, gritting his teeth as he said, “What exactly happened? I need an explanation, a true and reasonable explanation!”

Zhou Maoquan's legs went weak, and he almost collapsed to the ground.

He quickly braced himself against the desk with both hands, barely managing to stand up straight, and said in a trembling voice, "Boss, a group of teachers resigned a while ago, saying that the pressure in Beijing was too great. But I have already taken measures and hired several new teachers to fill the original positions. Everything is normal at Jiahua now."

After speaking, he lowered his head, not daring to meet the boss's gaze, but secretly observed him out of the corner of his eye.

"How many teachers are there in this batch?" Li Lehua asked in a deep voice.

"There are probably about twenty people," Zhou Maoquan replied softly.

There were also more than a dozen people who had been poached before, but he didn't include them in the group of people who resigned voluntarily. There is a big difference between twenty or thirty people.

"So, all twenty-odd people have now become teachers at Xingxiang's branches in various locations?" Li Lehua asked in an icy voice.

"I don't know, but I guess so." Zhou Maoquan wasn't sure; he only learned the truth today after watching the live stream.

If he had known that these people who resigned were poached by that guy surnamed Zhang, he would have reported it to the boss long ago.

"boom!"

Li Lehua slammed his hand on the desk and launched into a tirade: "You didn't know? You didn't know your people had been poached! What kind of principal are you?!"

"..." Zhou Maoquan shrank his neck and dared not speak.

He knew that no matter how he explained, it would be useless. Not only would the boss not listen, but he would also take the explanation as a sign of incompetence, and would only scold him more fiercely later.

"Zhou Maoquan, look at all the stupid things you've done this year, how many times I've had to clean up your messes. Now you can't even keep a teacher. You're a complete waste, utterly useless!"

Li Lehua cursed fiercely, releasing her pent-up anger. Gradually, she calmed down, leaving only helplessness in the end.

She also knew that this matter could not be entirely blamed on Zhou Maoquan. Zhang Wen had so many powerful figures behind him, so poaching people would be an easy task for him.
It's already quite good that Zhou Maoquan was able to quickly replace the missing people; what more could you ask for?

After all, even she had suffered losses at the hands of that man surnamed Zhang.

If she herself can't do it, why should she ask Zhou Maoquan to?

"Zhou Maoquan, I won't pursue the matter from before. You must do a good job with tomorrow's live stream and suppress Xingxiang's popularity, do you hear me?" Li Lehua's expression was serious, with the aloof demeanor of a domineering female CEO.

Zhou Maoquan knew this was an opportunity his boss was giving him, and he could very well be fired, so he quickly stood up straight and said, "Don't worry, boss, I will definitely do a good job with tomorrow's live broadcast."

Li Lehua didn't say anything more and continued watching the live stream with her head down.

She wanted to see what other tricks this guy surnamed Zhang could pull!
In the following period, Zhang Wen connected with the heads of several other branches, asking them to introduce the situation of their branches and raise their profile.

"All six branches have been introduced. Parents and students in other cities don't need to worry. Xingxiang will add more branches next year to help more students realize their dreams."

"That concludes today's live stream. Thank you for joining us. If you have any questions, please send a private message to our staff, and they will be happy to assist you. Alternatively, you can wait until the next live stream, where I will answer your questions. Goodbye."

"..."

After saying this, Zhang Wen turned and walked out of the frame.

The live stream was filled with "goodbye" messages, with the occasional comment like "hurry up and go back to write a new song," until the live stream ended.

……

(End of this chapter)