Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 132 Fundamentals
We arrived at the lounge.

Wang Jinghua turned on the ceiling fan and said to An Wen, "Please sit wherever you like. This is a temporary resting place for me and Wang Luyao. We don't have time to clean it when we're busy."

An Wenshun asked, "So where do you usually live?"

"Mr. Zhang arranged a two-bedroom apartment for me. Wang Luyao and I will share a room, and Han Hong will have her own room. Since Wang Luyao is away for the next few days, if you're not in a hurry to leave tonight, you can stay at my place."

"Wang Luyao isn't here?"

An Wen asked in surprise, "Where did she go?"

"He went on a gig, traveling around the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. It will probably take at least a month before he comes back."

"Going to do some gigs?!"

An Wen was taken aback by this and questioned, "Isn't she one of yours? How come..."

Wang Jinghua explained, "The company's singers don't have fixed managers yet. Besides, Han Hong is under a lot of pressure right now and can't do without me. And Brother Liu, who leads the team, is an old hand at this, so he's more adept at leading the team."

Although she gave many reasons, An Wen simply did not believe them, convinced that Wang Jinghua had been discarded after being used—that people who work as prostitutes do so to make money, how could they voluntarily step down at this critical juncture?

So An Wen lowered his voice and said, "We're old classmates, you don't need to hide anything from me—if this were at Lao Su's company, he definitely wouldn't let you suffer this injustice."

Wang Jinghua, who was pouring tea, glanced back at An Wen and shook her head, saying, "A manager and a talent agent are not the same. You need to have a longer-term vision."

This gig was indeed something Wang Jinghua declined on her own initiative.

Although Wang Luyao is currently more popular than Han Hong, Wang Jinghua still thinks Han Hong has more long-term potential—after all, it was her idea to sue Wang Luyao with the Women's Federation, and in terms of relationships, Liu Weidong can't surpass her for the time being.

"Yes, yes."

An Wen forced an awkward smile. She was the one who introduced the word 'agent' to Wang Jinghua, but now Wang Jinghua was lecturing her instead.

But An Wen couldn't say anything, after all, Yuan Meng had already achieved results, while her husband's Puan Company, which he boasted about to the skies, could only get jobs singing in bars.

…………

the other side.

Zhang Yan had just seen Chen Jiantian off and then "lent" Dou Wei to Han Hong before slumping in his chair and closing his eyes to rest.

As the saying goes, laymen watch the spectacle, while experts see the details.

Audiences only pay attention to the singers on stage, but those in the industry know who the biggest driving force behind "I Am a Singer" is. So, starting from the top four competition, more and more people have come to the show under various pretexts.

In addition, Zhang Yan is so busy lately that he hasn't had time to send Morse code messages because he has to come up with some fancy tricks for the semi-finals.

Just as I closed my eyes to rest, I suddenly felt a pair of warm, smooth hands pressing on my temples and rhythmically massaging them.

Zhang Yan leaned back and sighed, "Darling, it's a good thing you're here, otherwise..."

"What else?"

Halfway through his sentence, Zhou Tao's plaintive voice suddenly came from behind him.

Why is it her?

Zhang Yan thought it was Chen Hong, so he quickly grabbed her hand and whispered, "My girlfriend is here."

"I just went out with Fangfang."

Zhou Tao said, "I don't think he'll be back anytime soon."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yan closed his eyes again, securing the back of his head in a stable position—at this moment, nothing he said would be appropriate, so he might as well express affection through body language.

Feeling his 'reliance', Zhou Tao's nameless anger subsided a little, and he said softly, "The Beijing-Taiwan Railway just contacted me, wanting me to be transferred there."

After the huge success of "I Am a Singer", she, as the host, was also widely praised in the industry, so it is not surprising that she received an invitation from Beijing TV.

Let's postpone it for now.

Zhang Yan stroked her wrist and said, "Let's see if CCTV makes any moves. If we can get a job at CCTV..."

Just then, Zhang Yan's pager went off. He took it out, glanced at it, and quickly sat up straight, picking up the phone. At the same time, he turned to Zhou Tao and said, "It's that Director Lin who was just transferred!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Tao also held his breath and focused, not daring to disturb Zhang Yan's work.

After the call is made.

Zhang Yan smiled and said, "Old boss, what brings you here today to call me?"

In truth, the two never had a superior-subordinate relationship, but Director Lin readily accepted Zhang Yan's form of address.

Director Lin laughed and said, "If you don't make a call soon, you'll be causing havoc in the Heavenly Palace like Sun Wukong. There was a lot of controversy in the ministry about the 'Ru Fu' (Ode to RU), but because the Women's Federation took the lead and the author's identity was special, the matter was eventually dropped."

But you'd better be careful from now on, otherwise… “I'm sorry to have troubled you, but don't worry, from now on we'll have a broad and easy path to success, and we definitely won't resort to these underhanded methods anymore.”

"That's good—of course I'm on the side of our station, but some of the older staff members are more conservative in their thinking, so we also need to take into account their capacity to accept it."

After chatting for a few more minutes, Zhang Yan put the receiver back after the other party hung up the phone.

Then he wondered whether he should suggest to Ma Yuan that Director Lin be invited to give guidance during the finals.

With such a big commotion at his old workplace, Director Lin will definitely be willing to come back, but whether Old Ma is willing to let his former superior steal the spotlight is another matter.

Let Deputy Director Yan ask him.

Anyway, he's stubborn and arrogant, so he's not afraid of being retaliated against by Lao Ma.

Seeing Zhang Yan frowning and deep in thought, Zhou Tao felt her heart pounding like a deer—she was a career-minded woman, and naturally, she was most easily attracted to a man who was serious about his career.

So she gently wrapped her arms around Zhang Yan's neck, pressed her red lips against his earlobe, and whispered, "I've locked the door."

That professional-level vibrato sent chills down Zhang Yan's spine.

"do not do that!"

He hurriedly shrank his neck and said, "This is too dangerous! What if someone finds out?"

But Zhou Tao didn't loosen his grip; instead, he tightened it even more, turning the originally comfortable cushion into a sandwich.

Listening to the surround sound of her heartbeat behind her head, Zhang Yan could fully sense her barely suppressed impulse, and finally could only change his mind and say, "At least not here, let's go somewhere else, okay?"

--------

At noon that day.

Back in Zhang Yan's own office, he first applied some floral water to his arms, then lit a mosquito coil at his feet before settling down in his chair.

Tsk~
I thought that if we avoided meeting in private as much as possible, we would drift apart over time.

However, Zhang Yan clearly underestimated the impact of "I Am a Singer" on Zhou Tao, especially after making Wang Luyao famous with "RU Fu". Zhou Tao, who witnessed the whole operation, not only failed to extinguish the fire in his heart, but it also burned so intensely that he became somewhat distorted.

He actually bit his own toe just now...

Although he didn't feel much physically, Zhang Yan felt a strange sense of accomplishment. He had originally planned to rush to the next event, but he had gotten carried away and delayed until now, and didn't even have time to take a shower and destroy the evidence.

Knock knock knock~
Just then, there was a knock on the door. Zhang Yan kicked the mosquito coil inside and then called out, "Come in."

Then Chen Hong walked in with a smile.

"Just come in, why are you knocking?"

Zhang Yan tried hard to appear nonchalant, but it was clearly not very successful.

Chen Hong stared at him, looking him up and down, and sighed softly, "As expected, there's only a brother, no sister-in-law."

“Uh, well…”

Zhang Yan coughed lightly and changed the subject, saying, "I plan to make you the legal representative of that separate commercial performance agency. From now on, Wang Jinghua and Liu Weidong will also be mainly managed by you—they are a bit overwhelmed, so it would be best to hire two more agents."

When Zhang Yan brought up serious matters, Chen Hong let him off the hook, since it wasn't the first time she had indulged him.

"The agent's matter isn't urgent."

Chen Hong said, "On the contrary, Wang Luyao has earned nearly 500,000 yuan in performance fees in just one and a half months. As the saying goes, money can move people's hearts. Shouldn't we try to tie her down even more tightly?"

Nowadays, record companies are not very legitimate, which leads to a rather chaotic revenue sharing ratio for singers.

Some popular singers may not receive any payment for attending events organized by their employers, but they can earn the lion's share of the appearance fees if they perform privately.

Some industry leaders with extensive networks can even get more than 90%!
Of course, those fledgling singers are also ruthlessly exploited by the organizers, busy every day but struggling to even guarantee their basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter.

Chen Hong was somewhat worried that Wang Luyao was always looking for something better and might not be satisfied with fulfilling her dream of following the profit-sharing system set by Hong Kong.

"How do you tie it?"

Zhang Yan shook his head and said, "If you ask me, the right thing to do is for us to grow bigger and stronger. When the finals come around, let Han Lei, Tian Zhen, Han Hong and Lao Lang all perform at their best. Then we can get the release of the compilation album sorted out, and our dream can blossom in all aspects."

At that point, Wang Luyao's importance will naturally decrease—even if she really becomes greedy and threatens to break up with us, it won't shake the foundation of our dream."

Seeing his smug and confident demeanor, Chen Hongmei's smile deepened. She moved closer to Zhang Yan and began to grope under the table...

“My dear, you are the foundation for our dream to come true.”

(End of this chapter)