This top celebrity got drunk and acted crazy, and everyone in the Chinese entertainment industry bur

Chapter 46: A historic reunion with Zheng Jie, a relatively unknown singer! "The Coming One" premieres, and I'm here to see what it's like! [Seeking monthly votes]

After hanging up the phone, Xiaoya excitedly surrounded Lü Ming, chattering incessantly: "Brother Ming, this is unbelievable! Kiwi and Jiangzhe TV actually went so far as to disregard Huayue's feelings for you, and even offered such a high fee for the appearance!"

"I'm rich!!"

Lu Ming smiled calmly.

A mere 1650 million in appearance fees!

In the past, he would only get 10% of the money, with the rest going to the company. But now that he is free, all the money will go into his own pocket. Especially since he has a strategic plan to set up a studio, if he receives the money in the company's name, the tax rate will be as low as 25%. In other words, he can get a full 1237 million!
With his current savings, he now has a total of 2793 million yuan!

Although there might still be a gap between filming all the episodes of "Wu Xin: The Monster Killer" and the actual production, if I take on all the male lead's scenes, try to find child actors, and cut back on expenses, it should be enough to finish filming.

Regardless, the "Wu Xin: The Monster Killer" project can be launched immediately. He can fill the gap by taking on other gigs. Without Hua Yue sucking his blood, with his current popularity, his money-making speed is terrifying!

When "Wu Xin: The Monster Killer" is released, all my investment will be recouped several times over!
Thinking this, Lü Ming couldn't be happier.

"Brother Ming, did you already know that Hua Yue couldn't do anything to you?" Xiao Ya looked at Lü Ming's calm demeanor and recalled his confident appearance before. Even if she was slow-witted, she realized what was going on at this moment.

"But why is this happening? As far as I know, both Jiang Zhetai and Kiwi have deep cooperation with Huayue. What they are doing is tantamount to slapping Huayue in the face... Aren't they afraid that Huayue will turn against them?"

Looking at Xiaoya, who was still puzzled, Lü Ming smiled and pinched her slightly chubby face, explaining, "The entertainment industry doesn't revolve around Huayue Company alone. Businessmen are profit-driven, and in the face of profit, no one cares about meaningless things like sentimentality."

"It's not that I need them, it's that they crave the hot traffic from you, Brother Ming."

Xiaoya suddenly realized.

Lu Ming didn't tell Xiao Ya about launching the web series yet, mainly because Xiao Ya knew him very well. If she knew he was going to use all his money to make a web series, she might be scared. The child needed a gradual process to accept it. Lu Ming entrusted Xiao Ya to handle the procedures for setting up the studio.

The name is simply 'Mingri Star Studio', making it instantly recognizable as his own name. After all, he is now the face of the studio, and naturally, he wants to make good use of this wave of traffic to promote his studio.

This might be a bit troublesome elsewhere, but this is Hangzhou.

All procedures were completed within one day!
The next day.

Lu Ming went to Jiangzhe TV Station and met the station director he had never met before. He signed a cooperation agreement with him in the name of his studio. After that, Lu Ming left. It must be said that the TV station was very efficient. In the afternoon, his company received 1237 million yuan after tax in its accounts.

During this time, Xiaoya had already severed ties with Huayue. She was just a junior assistant with a monthly salary of 8,000 yuan. Huayue, being a large and powerful company, didn't care about the departure of its lowly employees. Her resignation was approved in less than half an hour.

Running Man only films one episode a week apart, because the production team needs to do preparation work after each recording, and the celebrities naturally have other commitments to attend to during this time.

Lü Ming didn't forget Gangzi's promise to him. He quickly asked Xiaoya to list all the popular variety shows in the Chinese entertainment industry for him to choose from. In the end, Lü Ming chose a music variety show called "The King of Tomorrow".

For no other reason than that returning home in glory is like wearing fine clothes at night, he now has a wealth of musical talent but nowhere to display it. By using this music variety show stage, he can give those who are prejudiced against him a little auditory shock, and also reverse his reputation that has long since collapsed into ruins.

At the very least, it's time to remove half of the "beautiful waste" label.

Of course, most importantly, this competitive music variety show has been heavily promoted and publicized under the guise of online voting by netizens and the absence of any behind-the-scenes manipulation. The champion's prize money is very generous, amounting to ten million yuan. This money is considered an accidental gain, and only 20% tax needs to be paid, so the winner will still receive eight million yuan.

What kind of appearances can make so much money?
With his superior foundational skills that far surpassed his mentor's, plus a vast repertoire of songs in his head, competing with a bunch of amateur singers was a piece of cake.

Although the competition format of each mentor being able to add 100,000 votes to the contestants is a bit exaggerated, it doesn't matter. There are only three mentors, so at most the difference in votes can be 300,000. As the number one variety show god in the Chinese entertainment industry, he only needs to make a slight move, and the onlookers will surely rush to give him a million votes.

Thinking this, Lü Ming immediately dialed Gangzi's number.

He's determined to get that championship prize money; not even Jesus can stop him!

"What?" Gangzi on the other end of the phone was incredulous after hearing Lü Ming's request: "You said you want to participate in a music variety show? Little brother, what's gotten into you lately? This show doesn't offer you any appearance fees, and it's produced by Tencent. If you go, you'll just be giving them free traffic. And in principle, if I push you to Tencent, I'm aiding the enemy!"

“I want to broaden my horizons,” Lü Ming said.

“If you go, you’ll really have a great time. After all, with your ear-piercing voice and the opportunity to embarrass yourself on stage, very few people get to see that kind of ‘spectacle.’” Gangzi said speechlessly, “I still suggest you switch to an outdoor variety show. With your current popularity, the appearance fee for a guest appearance is quite high, definitely two million per episode!”

"No, the world has misunderstood me too much, and I'm going to prove them wrong!"

"What are you watching? Watching the top 64 get eliminated in the first round?" Gangzi said sarcastically. "By then, Tencent will gain popularity, netizens will gain laughs, but you will only gain insults and scandals."

"I don't care, I'm going to do it anyway!"

"Fine!"

Although Gangzi didn't understand why anyone would rush to make a fool of themselves, he knew that words spoken are like water spilled. After hanging up the phone, he immediately contacted the person in charge at Tencent. Although the two platforms were rivals, they actually had some cooperation in private. For example, some big productions during the Lunar New Year and Spring Festival seasons required several investors to share the profits, and usually the two internet platforms took the lion's share.

When the other party heard that Gangzi was going to send a currently popular but now-obscure celebrity to participate in their newly launched program, which was a music variety show, they were immediately delighted.

Huayue's ban is nothing compared to the sheer volume of traffic.

That afternoon, Lü Ming added the person in charge of Tencent and signed the electronic version of the competition agreement. Just two hours later, the official account of "The Coming One" released an announcement and a poster of Lü Ming's participation.

The netizens who rushed over to watch were all dumbfounded.

【? ? ? 】

Is it true that a relatively unknown celebrity is going to participate in a music variety show?

[I just checked the calendar, and today isn't April Fool's Day. Wait, this guy previously said he was going to film a web series that netizens would absolutely love, which resulted in a nationwide boycott. And today he's pulled another big stunt—he's gone to a music variety show! Seriously?]

It's clear he really doesn't want to let the netizens off the hook!

[Having failed to poison netizens' eyes, are they now trying to poison their ears?]

We have no grudge against each other, why is this nobody so relentlessly pursuing us!

If I remember correctly, Zheng Jie just recently announced her role as a mentor, right?

[A reunion of obscure celebrities like Zheng Jie?!]

Why am I suddenly feeling a bit excited?

[Looking forward to it, damn it! Haven't you heard "Seeking a Loan" or that obscure single from a year ago that was already taken down? The sound engineer who earned a million-dollar annual salary became a laughing stock in the industry just because he collaborated with that obscure artist, and now he's a live-streaming e-commerce host!]

[I just finished reading this gossip. After Running Man ended yesterday, the chat in the live stream of that former sound engineer was full of questions about that now-obscure single. The sound engineer, who was originally laughing and saying he was going to do something for his fans, suddenly stopped offering rides and giving away freebies when netizens brought up the old story again. He was a grown man crying like he'd just lost his father in the live stream.]

[Hahahaha!]

Although it's true that this unknown singer's voice is ear-piercing, if he were to sing "Seeking a Loan" in front of Sister Zheng, I'd definitely have to go check it out.

[Sister Zheng: This is so presumptuous!]

【…】

The news that a struggling celebrity was going to participate in a music variety show spread rapidly. As more and more netizens learned about this, Ming's haters, who were looking for a reason to criticize him, immediately stood up and banded together, pleading with the struggling celebrity to spare the audience's ears.

Aside from a few people who care about the entertainment value of seeing the unknown singer and Sister Zheng together, most netizens keep their distance from the unknown singer's musical talent. Especially these days, the self-proclaimed idols who usually stand tall while surfing the internet immediately went to Lu Ming's Weibo to earnestly advise him when they heard that their idol was about to sing again.

In ancient times, Sun Quan encouraged students to study; today, a plaque urges Lü to do the same.

The already rapidly escalating controversy exploded!

Seeing the enthusiasm of netizens, Lü Ming responded. He posted a status update and then tagged [Not Chu Yu Xun]: "Fate brings us together from a thousand miles away."

Just after landing in Shenzhen and preparing to familiarize herself with the program schedule, Ms. Zheng heard a special notification tone on her phone. She opened it, and her previously good mood immediately plummeted. She replied with four letters: "NXNM!"

She initially thought that Lü Ming had suddenly gone mad to disgust her, but after surfing the internet for a while on the way to the nanny van, Sister Zheng realized that things were not as she thought.

"Damn it, this bastard is coming for me!"

Enraged, Sister Zheng immediately called Lü Ming: "Are you crazy? You'll do anything to disgust me! I've already paid you back, what more do you want? Besides, weren't you blacklisted by Huayue? How can you still show your face? Did you sell your ass?!"

"Please speak!"

"..." Lu Ming was silent for a moment, speechless: "How am I supposed to talk when you keep chattering away like that?"

"Let me tell you, it's over between us. I'm not going to give you any more face!" Sister Zheng thought that Lü Ming was desperate and coming to her for charity after being blacklisted, so she arrogantly said, "It's no use begging me!"

"Big sister, is it you who called me?" Lu Ming was speechless.

"Oh, right." Sister Zheng suddenly realized, "Although I don't know where you got your connections, this is a legitimate music variety show. With your singing level, I'm not saying that being eliminated in the first round of the top 64 is the lower limit of the rules, not your lower limit!"

"Whether my singing ability is good or bad is open to questioning, and it's not up to you to question it either."

Sister Zheng glared at her: "Why can't I question it?"

"Based solely on the arrangement of one song, a popular female star blushed and shed tears after listening to it, and immediately took out a loan of ten million to say that I sang well!" Lü Ming explained.

Sister Zheng gritted her teeth and accidentally bit her tongue, causing her mouth to bleed profusely. She groaned through a sob, "Fuck you!"

“You know I didn’t.” Lu Ming thought for a moment and said, “It’s fate that we can participate in the same program. I heard that you can get 100,000 votes if the judges turn around. With our friendship, you will definitely turn around for me, right? I will sing your favorite song, ‘Seeking a Loan,’ during the program. I will use this time to prepare and let the whole country know our story.”

"What kind of fate do you think you have? You dare to turn around for me? Don't worry, I'll definitely bring a basket of rotten eggs to teach you a lesson!"

"You've really lost your manners. Dumping you back then was definitely the best decision I ever made."

"You...you even dumped me?!"

Sister Zheng was furious and about to start cursing when she heard a busy signal from the other end of the phone.

Enraged, she immediately logged into her Weibo account and hastily drafted a manifesto accusing Lü Ming of insulting music and using improper connections to gain entry into the industry.

The short essay was released and received a swift response from the public.

In fact, "The Coming One" did go through a month-long audition process before finally selecting 64 new generation singers to enter the main competition for a more intense contest. It is indeed unfair that someone like Lü Ming, who is known to be unable to sing and has a terrible voice, was able to enter the main competition.

However, this is the official statement. In reality, most of the contestants were pre-selected and placed in by their respective agencies, and the preliminary selection was just a formality for show.

It's only because this variety show is funded and produced by Tencent and supervised throughout that the management company can't openly predetermine the champion like they have in previous music variety shows.

Even so, it was already predetermined who would get the 300,000 votes from the three mentors and who would not.

Lü Ming didn't argue with Zheng Jie. He'll wait until the main competition starts, and his strength will speak for itself. At that time, not only Zheng Jie, but also those Ming haters who always clamor that he's a beautiful but useless person will be shocked.

However, his silence only fueled the online controversy. Even fellow mentors Yang and Hua were envious of the attention and launched sharp critiques of Lü Ming's singing ability and his use of connections to get on the show.

Why is it "again"?

This wasn't the first time these two had done something like this.

Back when their predecessor was at the top of the charts, their single flopped, and when their breakup with Sister Zheng was exposed, and they were criticized by the whole internet as simps, they had repeatedly used Lü Ming as a topic for sharp commentary.

After all, a celebrity's status is determined by their popularity. If they can't produce good works within a year or two, they will naturally lose their status. It's common in the Chinese entertainment industry to profit from others' misfortunes. Whenever a celebrity has a high-profile controversy, not to mention their peers, even the most sycophantic people in the Chinese entertainment industry will stand up and offer their opinions to attract attention.

During these few days of preparation, Lü Ming didn't prepare anything, such as singing practice, topic selection, or lyric writing and composition.

He did only one thing: hide in his spacious hotel suite, drink, and get stronger.

Dilraba would chat with him enthusiastically every day and share some interesting things about her life. As they chatted, their relationship became more and more familiar. However, when they talked about music variety shows, Dilraba would bluntly tease him, saying that he was going to harm the audience's ears. Every time Lü Ming responded sincerely, he would be teased by her.

This left him speechless.

The Chinese entertainment industry still has too many misunderstandings about itself.

……

The time comes on June 5th.

At 7 p.m., "The King of Singers," broadcast live on the Tencent Penguin platform, officially premiered amidst the eager anticipation of countless netizens.

Host Zhang Dada introduced the three mentors one by one in his glib style. As the mentors took their seats, the production team saw that the popularity of the live broadcast room had completely exceeded their expectations. Without further delay, they had Zhang Dada quickly read out the sponsor's product announcement and then started serving the dishes.

They clearly want to firmly grasp this wave of traffic.

As the studio went dark, the first contestant came on stage and sang a pop song.

Upon hearing just the first line of lyrics, Mr. Yang, sitting in his mentor's chair facing the audience, frowned. As the most senior and accomplished veteran singer among the three mentors, he had the ability to assess the contestants' skill level.

This contestant's singing skills are really terrible!
So bad that every single lyric was off-key. As the song reached its climax in the chorus, the contestant who was passionately singing on stage clearly started to panic, her breath completely collapsed, and she even let out a effeminate scream because of her off-key voice!

The three mentors looked at each other in bewilderment. Even Zheng Jie, the least experienced among them, was suffering greatly from the ordeal.

Just then, the manager's voice came through the earpiece: "Sis, the contestants are almost done singing, what are you waiting for? Turn around now!"

Sister Zheng: "?"

"We received 500,000 from this guy, and he transferred the money before he even took the stage!"

The next second, Sister Zheng gritted her teeth, pressed the red button in front of her, and with a sudden jolt of the seat, she turned directly to face the camera. Then, she forced out a sweet smile for the camera and exclaimed, "Wow!"
Teacher Yang: "??!"

Teacher Hua: "?!?!"

The two stared at each other, their eyes wide.

Is that how you play?
boom!boom!
With only one second left in the accompaniment, both mentors simultaneously pressed the turn button.

The contestants on stage, who had been on tenterhooks, were overjoyed when they saw the two mentors, who were paid to do favors, turn around at the same time.

Teacher Yang smiled and nodded in approval, and Teacher Hua clapped her hands and gave a thumbs up.

【What?!】

Are these three just messing around?

　The next update will be before midnight tonight.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)