Abstract Art Award Winner

In the Japanese entertainment industry, the difference between star power and status is quite obvious.

Just like South Korea.

Because the place is small, everyone's social circle is also quite small.

Having been in the industry for a long time and holding a high status means having more resources, connections, and influence.

For younger artists to debut, they either need to rely on connections or possess high public appeal to attract the attention of their respective companies or agencies.

Saito Asuka belongs to this category.

Although she debuted as an idol in a group, she quickly demonstrated her talent after entering the film and television industry and accumulated a lot of fans.

Therefore, even now, going solo can lead to great success.

As for this trip to China, it was only to participate in the recording of Bilibili's New Year's Eve Gala and to sign a Chinese management contract and various domestic promotional agreements with Guo Qilin. It does not mean that he will settle down and develop in China in the future.

When Guo Qilin was talking to them, it was already agreed that they would spend most of their time in Japan, and as for China, they would only post videos occasionally.

"Feiniao, do you think your company might release you? You could come and develop your career in China in the future."

Inside the house, Zhou Le sat on the sofa, drinking tea from his own thermos, and tentatively asked a question.

"How could that be? The company will never let me go. Even if I graduate from Nogizaka46, I will most likely set up my own studio, but my contract will still be with Nogizaka46."

Actually, Zhou Le was just asking because there's someone in China who claims to be a "3000-year-old beauty," while Saito Asuka is known as a "4000-year-old beauty" in Japan.

Furthermore, Saito Asuka's current company is Nogizaka46, which is named after the group, but it is actually backed by Sony Music.

In terms of strength, Sony Music is one of the world's three major music copyright companies, and Jay Chou, Rainie Yang, and Elva Hsiao were once affiliated with it.

Let's take three of the top music companies in China—Rolling Stone, Ocean Butterflies, and Huayi Brothers—for comparison.

All three of these companies combined can't compare to Sony.

Currently, Rock Records is still relying on the digitization of physical record heritage and can only rely on the existing IP of Wakin Chau and Mayday to try to move towards streaming media. However, it has now lost the dominant position in distribution, and its recording technology is very lagging behind.

Ocean Butterflies was quite good in the past, but now it's almost become a factory for customizing viral songs for TikTok.

Lacking underlying sound effects development, distribution relies entirely on platform algorithms. Moreover, after being acquired by another music company, it has been reduced to a middleman in copyright distribution, with very low profit margins.

As for Huayi Brothers, it goes without saying that the parent company is now caught in a performance-based agreement, and the music sector has become collateral for capital.

In contrast, Sony not only has its own acoustics lab, but also acquired Spotify, becoming its second-largest shareholder.

Sony can now even dominate the global music royalty distribution rules. It has formed a powerful industry chain from upstream to downstream, and even has a deep-rooted relationship with the hi-res audio standard setter.

Not to mention that Sony itself has strong capabilities in hardware manufacturing as well as in the soft culture fields of games, movies, and animation.

With such a company behind them, it's not impossible for them to expand internationally in the future.

Even if Saito Asuka is young and willing to spend time with Zhou Le, she is aware of the pros and cons.

Saito Asuka knew this, and Zhou Le naturally knew it too.

Trying to poach Saito Asuka is roughly equivalent to poaching an actor from Hollywood and getting them to abandon Hollywood and sign with you.

After all, if it were Zhou Le's choice, it would be unlikely that he could resist the temptation of such a world-leading company.

Anyway, Zhou Le didn't have much hope before he spoke, so since the other party indicated that it was unlikely, he didn't ask any further.

However, as a Japanese entertainer, there is still room for development in the Chinese market.

Just recently, Su Yunxia had mentioned to Zhou Le that Hunan TV is currently preparing a reality show featuring returning female celebrities competing in a competition called "Sisters Who Make Waves," and they're currently in the process of contacting people. The confirmed cast includes Wan Qian, Meng Jia, Li Sidan, and Zhang Yuqi, among others.

Some of them are Hunan TV's own people, and some are invited in as a guarantee of ratings. There are talented singers and well-known actors, but most of them are past their prime.

So he told Saito Asuka about it.

"Mango TV is quite good at producing variety shows. If you're interested, I can help you get in touch. You're very popular in Japan and also very successful in China. Even if you don't make it to the end, participating in this show would still be a great boost to your career."

Saito Asuka herself doesn't mind pursuing diversified development, but there are many things she can't control within the company, so she can only say that she can talk to her manager later and ask the company if there are any plans in this regard.

However, both of them are currently in the stage of learning a foreign language.

After chatting for a while, they started learning from each other.

We were all young people who loved to learn, and we studied until after midnight.

Just then, when Zhou Le went to the bathroom in the middle of the night, he suddenly received a WeChat message from Nazha.

"Are you asleep? If not, log in and play a couple of games."

Zhou Le didn't even click on it after seeing it. He thought for a while before going back to tell Saito Asuka that he had something to do and had to go home first.

"Okay, pay attention to safety on the road."

Saito Asuka didn't try to keep her, since they had to go to rehearsal the next day and she was already quite tired after chatting for so long that night.

A 158 and a 185.

They were not even in the same league.

She was also worried that if Zhou Le stayed, he wouldn't even have the energy to rehearse tomorrow.

"Sorry, I'll pick you up by car tomorrow morning, around 7 o'clock."

"Okay, I'll set an alarm."

It wasn't until he got into the car that Zhou Le took out his phone to reply to Nazha's message.

"I haven't slept yet. I've been busy with work these past few days. I have to go to Bilibili for rehearsal tomorrow. But are you in Beijing right now?"

"Yeah, I just got back today. I've been really busy these past few days, recording variety shows and attending events. Playing games?"

"Sure, wanna play a few rounds?"

"Play!"

After Naza replied, she also posted a beckoning finger emoji.

"Wait for me for half an hour."

Zhou Le then sat in the car for about 10 minutes before driving towards Nazha's house. The journey took another 30 minutes.

After parking the car, I went upstairs to Nazha's house.

"Open the door."

Within 10 seconds, Naza opened the door with a look of surprise on her face.

"You really came? Aren't you supposed to go to rehearsal tomorrow?"

"Just kidding, if Sister Nazha calls me, why wouldn't I come? I'm available anytime, okay? Besides, didn't you say you wanted to play?"

"So what? Come on in, I was planning to tell you in the game, I've accumulated quite a few juicy stories lately."

Gulinazha's words piqued Zhou Le's interest.

"Come on, let's talk while we play."

Zhou Le is quite interested in gossiping, since he often makes jokes when he has nothing to do.

So, while chatting, Zhou Le not only washed off the smell on his body, but also listened to Nazha talk about some of the things she had learned recently.

"There were two major events last month: one was Jiang Jinfu's domestic violence, and the other was Godfrey Gao's accident while recording a variety show."

Zhou Le nodded: "I have heard about these two scandals, but I have been too busy to look into them in detail. But I remember Jiang Jinfu is from your company, right? And I remember he had a similar incident last year, when his girlfriend was Japanese."

"Yes, last year was last year. Last year's victim was from Japan, and this year's victim is from Uruguay. I feel that he still has some of these tendencies. After all, if there is domestic violence, there will be a second time."

But he didn't tell us the actual situation in detail. I asked around and found out from other people, but no one could say for sure. Of course, it's also possible that they knew something but didn't tell me.

In short, Jiang Jinfu is unlikely to admit it at this time. The previous time, there was evidence, but this time the woman probably doesn't have any special proof. The only evidence released so far is the chat history with Jiang Jinfu's parents.

Zhou Le sighed: "Well, these things are really hard to say. I suggest you don't ask about them anymore."

Naza nodded: "I understand. The more you know about these things, the worse it is, because you always have to take sides. After all, Jiang Jinfu usually eats with us and we get along well, but who knows what will happen in the future? I guess he might retire from the entertainment industry because of this."

"Yes, it might be okay if it only happened once, but it would be very difficult to do it again."

Also, what's the situation with Godfrey Gao? By the time I found out, it had already happened, and many celebrities had posted on Weibo saying that being an actor isn't easy.

"That was purely the TV station's own problem. There was an ambulance on site, but the treatment was not timely. I feel that if the response had been faster, the person could definitely have been saved."

However, the subsequent incident involving Jiang Jinfu caused a huge uproar online, partly because people love gossip, and partly because I suspect their TV station was behind it all.

"Trying to suppress trending topics, huh?"

"Yes, this definitely needs to be suppressed, after all, the impact is too great."

"How busy have you been lately? How come you haven't even had time to eat melon?"

"I'm really busy. Before, I was filming 'Like a Flowing River 2,' and then I was working on my script. This time, I've been busy with last year's promotions. A few days ago, I was filming videos with them every day. In a few days, I'll probably be going on a variety show."

Moreover, I'll be attending this year's Bilibili Gala and CCTV's gala as well.

"You must be very busy."

While chatting, the two finished showering and then went back to the bedroom, tossing their phones aside to play games.

"Hmm, you mentioned the gossip from last month, what about this month?"

"This month isn't as explosive as last month. On one hand, those two scandals are still brewing, and on the other hand, I attended a Cosmo Fashion Awards in Shanghai last night, which was attended by many people in the fashion industry."

It was Baby, Cai Xukun, Song Qian, Xiao Zhan, and so on. The host at the time was Zhu Dan. I didn't have much contact with her to begin with, but in my impression, she was a host with very good professional skills.

During the Q&A session, they called me Dilraba by my real name, and then called me Gulnazar. Do you know how embarrassed I was?
There were only two people between us, and out of everyone else in the room, we were the only two who kept smiling. Everyone else's expressions were completely out of control, you know?
I was speechless. How could a host like her get my name wrong? Didn't she do her homework? We don't look alike at all!

"Sigh, it's a good thing I wasn't there, otherwise I would definitely have stood up for you."

"Forget it, forget it. It's hard to say if you're here. Her lack of professionalism is her problem, but if you stand up, then people will attack you."

They'll definitely say you're petty as a man, because some people won't listen to reason; all they see is a grown man bullying a woman.

"I'm not afraid of any of that. I'll just do what I think is right."

Naza felt a surge of emotion. She had only said one sentence, and Zhou Le had come immediately. Moreover, she didn't think Zhou Le was lying to her.

She personally witnessed Zhou Le being publicly chosen to perform at a luxury gala, where he went up on stage and played a suona (a traditional Chinese wind instrument).

Everyone's expression changed at that moment, and Zhou Le was directly blacklisted by the brand. Even many foreign luxury brands dared not invite Zhou Le to some of their events in China.

It doesn't matter if one of the organizers doesn't go, as long as the other top celebrities can attend. But if Zhou Le goes and does something that damages the brand image, the losses will be significant.

"Alright, I know you'll stand up for me, but if this situation really happens again, let's discuss it together."

However, I wasn't the only one who suffered that way. She also called Lin Yun "Yoona." It wouldn't have mattered in other situations, but the main problem was that the Korean actress, Lim Yoona, was also in the audience yesterday.

Although Zhou Le didn't go, just listening to it made him feel incredibly awkward.

Immediately afterwards, Nazha picked up her phone and showed Zhou Le Zhu Dan's Weibo.

"Regarding this mistake, Zhu Dan posted three Weibo posts in just over an hour."

The first apology mentioned his name, but later he still mentioned his partner Wang Yaoqing, saying, "Our group is pretty good."

The accompanying picture is a photo of her and Wang Yaoqing hosting the show.

The second apology said he was frustrated and shouldn't have made the mistake, but the accompanying picture was a grayish-white photo of him lying on a chair.

The third message was sent almost an hour later.

First, she said she didn't want to fall asleep feeling frustrated, and that it was probably just a mistake. Then she said she would strive for perfection in the next game.

What's puzzling is that they then started praising that fashion gala, promoted the iQiyi Scream Night they were going to attend, and thanked the dress brand.

She even mentioned at the end that a friend had just comforted her, saying that things would be better when the baby turned three.

The accompanying image is her own nine-grid layout.

"Sigh, it's all business after all. I even think she might have done it on purpose. She could call the wrong person from the list. That's definitely not something a professional host would do."

Finally, resolving the awkwardness in the most awkward way is what makes it truly awkward. (End of Chapter)