This actor has something

Chapter 457 Prelude
Things went relatively smoothly.

In fact, this caught Shanghai TV stations completely off guard.

Previously, Ya Yue had hinted that they might sell the copyright of "Where Are We Going, Dad?", so all their preparations were aimed at that.

Unexpectedly, He Daqi did not mention the copyright issue of "Where Are We Going, Dad?". Even though the management of Shanghai TV brought up the topic, He Daqi and Wang Jinghua subtly changed the subject.

Fortunately, the subsequent cooperation proposals piqued the interest of Shanghai TV, and the two sides finalized the cooperation through a combination of chatting and negotiation.

Firstly, the second season of "Where Are We Going, Dad?" will still be negotiated with four satellite TV stations; this remains unchanged.

Secondly, Ya Yue has the domestic rights to a variety show from a South Korean TV station. Shanghai TV will take the time to investigate this variety show called Infinite Challenge. If the show is of good quality, Ya Yue will import it to China and cooperate with Shanghai TV. There should be progress in the cooperation next year.

Thirdly, the TV series "iPartment" will premiere on Shanghai Satellite TV at an affordable price. He Daqi is even willing to pay for an advertising slot to promote the show.

Both parties only had an intention and did not expect to cooperate perfectly in the first exchange. The reason they were able to reach a consensus was that He Daqi had always had a pleasant cooperation with Shanghai TV when he acted in TV series. In addition, "Where Are We Going, Dad?" is indeed the most popular in China at the moment, and all TV stations are envious. That's why this exchange was relatively pleasant.

If any one of these three collaborations makes substantial progress, then the other two will tacitly agree to collaboration.

Shanghai TV probably thought the second season would be the easiest to make progress on, but actually the new variety show Infinite Challenge is the slowest, even the second season of Where Are We Going, Dad? is faster.

However, He Daqi felt that the fastest progress was probably with "iPartment". Although it was just an extra in this exchange, He Daqi knew after looking at the film library that this TV series would be eating up a lot of traffic on video websites.

That was the result achieved solely through word-of-mouth from netizens without any prior promotion, and the satellite TV station that chose to broadcast it didn't have much market share. Now that Asia Pacific TV has joined the fray, and it's premiering on a Shanghai satellite TV station, the first season of this series will definitely perform much better than before.

Even if it doesn't reach the expected popularity, He Daqi will have Ya Yue throw money at it to make it happen. The main purpose of this TV series is to launch Lu Han and Zhang Jiashuai's careers; making money is just a secondary objective.

"Sister Hua, I'm going back to Beijing first. You'll have to stay here for a while longer. Keep an eye on the main actors in Love Apartment. After all, they might spend a lot of resources promoting this TV series in the future, so it would be best to sign those actors if possible. Otherwise, it would be a waste of resources."

As they left Shanghai TV station, before parting ways, He Daqi seemed to remember something and spoke up with some instructions.

"Alright, I got it. You don't trust Sister Hua to handle things? But Da Qi, do you have a plan for the guest lineup for the second season of 'Where Are We Going, Dad?'?"

"It's up to you. You can choose whoever you like. Lu Yang isn't filming the second season, so remember to find a good director."

He Daqi only cares about the first season of this variety show, or rather, He Daqi created this variety show only for his two children, so he doesn't care how it turns out later.

Upon hearing He Daqi's promise, Wang Jinghua was overjoyed. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that most of Asia-Pacific's resources were now in Wang Jinghua's hands.

Because Liu Ying and Wu Nannan don't care much about these things, they don't mind Wang Jinghua taking on so much responsibility. Now that they have the high-quality resource of "Where Are We Going, Dad?", Wang Jinghua feels even more empowered.

Working with He Daqi and his team is much more enjoyable than working with Da Wang and Xiao Wang.

Previously, Lin Jianyue was the largest shareholder of Asia Pacific. Later, Lin Jianyue got involved in real estate in Hong Kong and stock chain operations at the Securities and Futures Commission. He gradually stopped paying attention to Asia Pacific and eventually sold half of his shares before the listing, no longer being the largest shareholder.

The current major shareholder is Zhou Huimin. Before the listing, He Daqi merged his shares into Zhou Huimin's name, making her own more shares than Lin Jianyue originally had, thus becoming the largest shareholder from the second largest shareholder.

The current second largest shareholder is Gou Chuzhong, who acquired half of Lin Jianyue's shares. In addition, he also acquired more shares through stock market transactions than Lin Jianyue currently holds. His shareholder proxy is He Daqi.

The third shareholder is Lin Jianyue. Although he sold half of his shares, even if he still has half, it is still a considerable amount, so he still has a say.

The rest are Wang Jinghua, Liu Ying, and Wu Nannan, who are also in charge of the daily management.

The reason why Wang Jinghua cares so much about resources is that most of the artists under her management did not join Asia Entertainment, and those who did join Asia Entertainment were artists she signed after joining Asia Entertainment, such as Sun Honglei and Jia Nailiang.

She holds more shares than Liu Ying and Wu Nannan, making her the fourth largest shareholder. However, she now controls most of the resources, and the artists under her management can now enjoy the same resources as the artists under Ya Yue.

This isn't about taking advantage of Ya Yue; rather, it's because, before the IPO, to clarify equity, a new contract was signed with Wang Jinghua, bringing her artists back under her name so that the IPO wouldn't be based on those artists. Ya Yue's resources are now compensation from Ya Yue's shareholders to Wang Jinghua; otherwise, Wang Jinghua's shares would be much larger.

Everyone was in perfect sync and hit it off immediately. Wang Jinghua would earn more money, while the others would get more shares.

To put it simply, Wang Jinghua currently owns a subsidiary of Yayue. After Yayue acquired it, it sold it to Wang Jinghua at a low price. However, the subsidiary is still listed under Yayue's name, and Yayue shares resources with the subsidiary.

The subsidiary can only earn a cut from the artists' earnings, while Ya Yue earns from everything.

……

……

April is the season when orioles sing and grass grows, perfect for a spring outing.

He Daqi had a strange expression. As a singer who had only released one album, he would occasionally receive an award because of that album.

The key point is that these awards were all given to him by others; He Daqi never even attended the awards ceremony.

The silver trophy in his hand seemed to be the catalyst that led He Daqi to develop a deep connection with music recently.

Originally, I wanted to take advantage of the good season to take the whole family out for a spring outing, to see the mountains, rivers, flowers and plants, and to relax a little after thinking about things all day long in order to adjust my direction.

Unexpectedly, due to social obligations, the spring outing ultimately fell through.

Lee Tsung-sheng, known for his generosity and kindness, is coming to Beijing for a concert and has warmly invited Ho Ta-chi to be his guest.

The cheap and kind-hearted guy even put together a band, which is full of middle-aged and elderly people. He's hoping that his little brother, an international superstar, will come and support him. Otherwise, if ticket sales aren't good, it would be a bit embarrassing to offer a discount.

I was too embarrassed to go to the Bird's Nest, so I contacted the Workers' Stadium, but they only had two seats available, and they were all in the front row. The problem was the timing. The Hong Kong Film Awards are on the 19th of this month. After learning that Ho Tai-kai and Vivian Chow were going to Hong Kong, Vivian Chow's mother discussed it with the couple and decided that the whole family should go there early to pay respects at Vivian Chow's father's grave around the time of Qingming Festival.

Coincidentally, Li Zongsheng originally planned to hold a concert on the 18th, which is only one day away from the Golden Elephant Awards. If it weren't for Zhou's mother's matter, He Daqi might have been able to manage by flying back and forth between the two places, but now that's not possible.

Fortunately, the older brother is a quick-thinking person. Before the official announcement to the fans and before the tickets went on sale, he didn't hesitate to move the concert time forward, determined to get the local bigwig in Beijing, the international superstar, to help him.

So much so that He Daqi just wants to curse. He finally saw that the solar term was auspicious and wanted to go out for a stroll, but now he can't go out for a stroll to relax, and he has to go through all the trouble of helping others. Who can he complain to?

There was no way to avoid it; the older brother was too good at handling things. No matter what happened before, he always stood by He Daqi and cheered him on, emphasizing loyalty. Although He Daqi didn't lack such a large online army, he shouldn't have disappointed people, right?

Not to mention that just two days ago, Vivian Chow used underhanded tactics to bring down another Taiwanese artist. This time, unlike before, the artist cried terribly at his retirement press conference, even kneeling down before the media, hoping that everyone would stop pursuing the matter and that his family was innocent and should not be harassed.

Everyone knows who he knelt before. Seeing this outcome, the other artists felt a sense of shared sorrow, a feeling of camaraderie mixed with fear. They were united in their hatred but dared not. They had shared a common hatred before, but now they are being purged, and it feels like they are slowly dying.

After this incident, He Daqi and his wife's reputation is really not good now; they're too petty.

This left He Daqi with no choice but to pretend to step forward and help Li Zongsheng, who was supporting him, in an attempt to salvage some of his reputation.

He Daqi was much more generous when he stepped in. He directly asked someone to book the concert at the Bird's Nest. On the same day he appeared, he posted a Weibo on the Yabo.com account to promote the concert and also helped contact Yabo.com to boost the topic's popularity.

It wasn't entirely about saving face or being loyal; there was a bit of personal motive involved.

He went to be a guest for the elder brother, and then brought two more guests of his own. He used the elder brother's venue to promote his own people, and he believed that the elder brother would understand.

Whether Li Zongsheng understood it or not is unknown, but Lu Han and Zhang Jiashuai certainly didn't understand it.

She was supposed to be filming a TV series on set, but how come she was pulled back to sing backup for He Daqi at a concert after only a short time of filming?

Fortunately, He Daqi's songs are very popular in South Korea. Lu Han and the others had practiced before, so they weren't worried about messing up. The key question was whether the two of them had debuted or not.

They're said to have debuted, but the drama they're supposed to be debuting in is still being filmed. They're also said not to have debuted, but just because He Daqi posted a photo of himself with the two of them, claiming they were newcomers to the company and his backup singers, they gained a huge number of fans.

Is it right to become famous without having any work to show for it?
The young man still had some sense of shame, or rather, his dream wasn't too far out of reach. If this doubt were placed on He Daqi, given his current thick skin, he probably wouldn't even let a ripple of water splash in his heart.

Once they said they'd invest resources, they meant it. From now on, whenever there's an opportunity, Lu Han and Zhang Jiashuai will make appearances everywhere to get noticed.

Singing backup vocals at a concert is nothing; later, I even need to ask for leave from the Love Apartment crew to make a cameo appearance in Lu Yang's "After the Flowers Bloom, a Hundred Flowers Kill 2".

The concert made everyone happy, and everyone gained something from it.

Especially for Li Zongsheng, He Daqi was incredibly kind this time. He helped find a venue, put the tickets on the ticketing website, and even paid for the venue fee upfront. This made Li Zongsheng feel proud in front of his friends, and he would praise He Daqi whenever he had a drink.

Unfortunately, Ho Ta-chi flew to Hong Kong the day after helping him with the concert, which meant that Lee Tsung-sheng didn't even have the chance to have a drink with Ho Ta-chi to express his gratitude.

……

……

Having lived in Beijing for so long, going to Hong Kong feels incredibly boring.

No wonder villas here all seem to be built up in the mountains. I bet there's some reason for the better air circulation there. It can't all be about feng shui, can it? You know, this thing was first popularized by foreigners in Hong Kong. You're trying to talk to foreigners about feng shui?

He Daqi's family arrived at noon, just when the sun was blazing. The five family members had already agreed to stay at Zhou's mother's villa when they arrived.

There were no Filipino maids here. Zhou's mother's villa had been uninhabited for several years. Even though she called ahead to hire a housekeeper to clean it, the house still felt a bit damp because there were only a few days between when they arrived and when they called.

The villa is uninhabited year-round, and the dehumidifier and air conditioner are never turned on. Some of the walls are already covered in mottled patches, clearly caused by the constant accumulation of dampness.

Fortunately, both the bedroom and guest room were tiled, so there was no problem with that. Otherwise, He Daqi and his wife would have had to consider whether they should take their elderly parents and young children to stay in a hotel.

"Didn't you say you were going to sell this villa? I remember that was several years ago, right? Didn't you say you'd already found a buyer?"

He Daqi accompanied Zhou Huimin on a tour of the villa. This villa was bought by Zhou Huimin some time after she debuted, when Hong Kong films were at their peak and actors' salaries were skyrocketing. Compared to actors' income now, buying this villa back then was really a bargain.

"I did intend to sell it before, but I got busy and forgot about it. Later, I couldn't bear to part with it, so I kept it as a keepsake."

As Zhou Huimin mentioned this, she seemed to remember something and excitedly pulled He Daqi down to the basement.

There was actually a wine cellar on the basement floor, which was something He Daqi hadn't expected. With Zhou Huimin's limited alcohol tolerance, she really had nothing to do with wine cellars.

"These were all gifts from friends when I was filming movies and TV series back then. There were so many that I had someone build a wine cellar. After all these years, I estimate that these wines are worth a lot of money now."

Seeing Zhou Huimin's smug look, He Daqi didn't have the heart to discourage her. Judging from the humidity he could feel right now, the wine in the cellar was probably almost ruined.

Not necessarily. Some wines can be preserved if they are well packaged, but He Daqi has searched around twice now and hasn't seen this kind of wine.

"Daqi, don't you think it would be quite prestigious to give these wines as gifts in the future?"

"Forget it, I'm afraid people will just throw it in the trash when they leave. It's more suitable for the Golden Elephant Awards party in a few days. I bet if they use your wine, it'll knock out several people in the hospital." He Daqi shrugged dejectedly.

(End of this chapter)