How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 111 Flaw
Journalists are the lookouts at the bow of the ship, warning humanity of risks.

When reporters start flocking to the scene, it's a risky moment for those involved.

"Have you offended anyone recently?" The nearly 80-year-old Li Chaoren was still vigorous as he looked at his second son, who was currently overwhelmed with troubles due to his children's personal affairs.

He naturally doesn't go online, and there are people specifically handling public opinion in the market.

So when some reporters find him through special channels, it means that the situation may have already exceeded the scope of what his subordinates can handle.

"No, the privatization of the CETC company was quite successful, without any major upheavals," Li Zekai said, frowning.

"Why did Xiao Liang suddenly break up with you? Didn't you say you had reached an agreement?" Li Chaoren continued to ask.

"I don't know what got into that pregnant woman, suddenly insisting on getting married." Li Zekai's tone was somewhat irritated.

Given the Li family's status, they would naturally not marry a female artist who is extremely risky and of very low value, as this would not have a positive impact on the image of the entire family.

“No matter what, the child is still a member of the Li family. We can’t let her be used as a tool. You need to handle this matter properly during this time. You can give up custody, but you can’t let her really become a fatherless wild child. Otherwise, she’ll be laughed at for the rest of her life.” Li Chaoren’s tone was somewhat solemn. He was from the last century, so his thinking was relatively conservative.

He only felt that the woman was a concubine, and no one cared whether the concubine lived or died, but the child was of the Li family bloodline and would represent the Li family in the future.

"Don't worry, I'll handle it." Li Zekai sighed.

"While you're at it, look into why that woman suddenly started posting on Myspace. I remember it was a project that the media group had already abandoned," Li Chaoren said in a deep voice.

"You mean, this time it might be the media group pulling some dirty tricks behind the scenes?" Li Zekai was taken aback. "That doesn't make sense. We've always kept to ourselves."

“All the water in the world flows into the sea, how can we not interfere with each other?” Li Chaoren glanced at him. “Although we have avoided friction with them in the media field, as the value of the communications market increases, everything is uncertain.”

He had been investing in the telecommunications industry for years, all for the sake of reaping the rewards now. He knew it wouldn't be smooth sailing, after all, it was a lucrative opportunity, but he couldn't yet determine where the enemy was coming from.

"You mean my privatization of the electronics company has affected them?" Li Zekai was taken aback.

"I can't be sure, but it's always good to be cautious. If there are any misunderstandings, we should clear them up as soon as possible and not let them affect our relationship." Li Chaoren looked out the floor-to-ceiling window at the foreign scenery below, his tone indifferent.

at the same time.

The eyes of many people around the world have been drawn to these news reports about Li Chaoren in China.

Some noticed the gap, some smelled the blood, and others scoffed.

Wang Yao's gaze was fixed on the two screens in front of him; he had been looking at them all day.

On the left is the stock market data for Chengtian Entertainment, and on the right is the stock market data for Hejiang Group.

After a series of copyright disputes and scandals, Chengtian Entertainment's stock price has fallen from a peak of 25 yuan two days ago to 22 yuan.

Although it seems like it only dropped by about 1%, it's actually a lot, because about 80% of the shares of Chengtian Entertainment are held by the top three shareholders, and Wu Kebo has an absolute controlling stake of nearly 66%. This means that the shares circulating in the secondary market are unlikely to cause much fluctuation in the stock price.

The characteristic of this 'absolute control' major shareholder model is that the small number of shares in circulation makes the stock price easy to manipulate, and the major shareholder only needs a small amount of cost to control the stock price.

If a company only holds around 40% of the shares, it will still attract some short sellers. However, if the shareholding exceeds 70%, short sellers are generally unwilling to operate, because such companies cannot attract retail investors.

Retail investors and short sellers are naturally wary of companies with a dominant shareholder, believing that they have high governance risks and a high possibility of transferring benefits. This directly leads to institutional investors avoiding the company and valuation discounts, meaning that the stock price is consistently lower than the industry average, with little room for significant price increases or decreases.

A small number of shares in circulation means low trading volume, which is like a stagnant pool. Unless there is a major positive development or a change in the shareholding structure, few people will pay attention to it.

After all, even if all the shares in circulation were acquired, it would only be about 20% of the shares, which would not allow for a reverse takeover or manipulation of the company.

Chengtian Entertainment's newly announced plan was immediately rejected by Wang Yao. They finally gained some recognition, but it was suppressed in just two days. Moreover, if Wang Jing and his team's copyright dispute is successful, it will be equivalent to stripping away a lot of core assets, and their assets will likely shrink.

Right now, we're just looking at what Chengtian Entertainment internally expects from this company.

They can either focus on transforming into a cinema chain company and stop hoping to profit from the stock price, or they can find someone in the industry willing to take over while their assets are still relatively valuable.

However, judging from the current decline in stock price, it seems that the shareholders are somewhat dissatisfied with Wu Kebo's decision this time.

After all, the slogan was barely out before it was attacked, and now the company's image is even being damaged because of his scandal.

Meanwhile, the stock of Lijiahejiang Group remained stable despite the stirring up of public opinion, and even rose slightly before the market closed today.

But there's no rush. After all, Wang Yao has already thrown out the bait for the Li family, and he doesn't believe that no one will take the bait.

After all, the Li family is not without rivals.

Although the founder's scandal is a matter of public opinion, it still has an impact on the company.

Moreover, while Wang Yao might not be able to uncover valuable news, others might.

Besides Liu Haifeng, he also revealed this plan to Deng Wendi.

The reason why Liang Luoshi stepped forward at this time to become the catalyst for public opinion within the Li family was not only due to Zhou Yougen's personal lobbying, but also mainly due to Deng Wendi's efforts.

With Zhou Yougen's help, Wang Yao made a deal with Liang Luoshi. Wang Yao would use public opinion to force Li Zekai to marry her. If that failed, the Li family would not be willing to give up three bloodlines over such a small matter and would most likely pay a breakup fee as compensation.

For Liang Luoshi, if she cannot marry into the Li family, then everything is just empty talk. The most advantageous option for her is to negotiate the price before the child is born.

Faced with a behemoth like the Li family, Wang Yao had very limited options.

All he could do was use a chain of public opinion to sow the seeds of wealth inequality, starting with the initial monthly salary of 4,000. Whether it was charity, the wealthy, or metaphysics, it was all to make this resentment towards the rich even stronger.

If one's emotions are strong enough, one can tear open the Li family's weaknesses bit by bit, and then see if the blood flowing from those weaknesses can attract real sharks.

Emotions can't solve problems, but they can expose them. If a problem is valuable enough, someone will naturally solve it.

Even though it was almost midnight, discussions about the Lai family were still going strong on various internet platforms, and even attracted a large number of Hong Kong netizens to share their experiences, with more and more posts revealing information.

Let the bullets fly a little longer.

You see things differently at different levels.

Tang Yan, who has been at the center of recent entertainment news, has been experiencing a great deal of anxiety these past two days.

I thought he just wanted to find someone to hype up his 'poor little thing' persona.

The result was that it caused such a huge mess.

Although most netizens are now focused on gossiping about the Li family, many entertainment fans are still clinging to them.

She didn't care, because she was the 'victim'. Not only did netizens sympathize with her, but her Weibo followers also increased to nearly two million, and she even received many collaboration offers.

She didn't care how much pressure her ex-boyfriend and Dong Xuan were under, after all, the seamless transition was indeed true.

The only thing that gave her a headache was that the circle of close friends she had worked so hard to build seemed to be really going to be torn apart because of this incident.

She doesn't care about others, but she cares a lot about Yang Mi and Hu Ge.

Even though she called both of them on the day of the incident to explain the situation, they both said they didn't care.

But as fans became increasingly extreme, even going so far as to portray Yang Mi as a homewrecker who interfered in Hu Ge and Xue Jianing's relationship (Xue Jianing is also under Chengtian Entertainment), she became genuinely worried.

After all, the recent crackdown on the three types of illegal activities has been quite strong. She is a veteran netizen, and her biggest pastime when she is not working is surfing the internet. She even has an account on Myspace.

"Don't worry, this is just a small fan circle's squabble. It won't affect anything. Besides, it's a good thing that people are discussing it. These days, the worst thing for actors is no one to talk about them. The more they're discussed, the more popular they become. Who cares if they're haters or fans? Being infamous is still being famous. Look at Fan Bingbing." Yang Mi didn't seem to care at all, and instead comforted Tang Yan on the phone. "Mi Mi, I really didn't know it would cause such a sensation. The company we were working with didn't say there would be such a big commotion. I wish I hadn't done it." Tang Yan sighed.

"The commotion means we found the right person. By the way, how much did it cost?" Yang Mi asked curiously.

"It was achieved through Sister Hua. The idea was to leverage this public opinion to terminate the contract with Cheng Tian and directly establish a studio. The only downside was that the profit sharing was higher, with her taking 70%," Tang Yan said softly.

"7%? That's outrageous! What kind of company is this?" Yang Mi exclaimed in shock.

She just terminated her contract with Rongfu and is preparing to sign with Meiya Entertainment, which is also an independent studio model, and the company will only take 4% of the profits.

"It's a bit shady, but the resources are still very good. I'm currently a B-level actress, with about 10 minutes of screen time in two S-level movies every year, plus at least one leading role in a TV series and five guest appearances on variety shows," Tang Yan revealed.

"Hmm? What level is an S-class movie?" Yang Mi raised an eyebrow upon hearing this and did some calculations.

Mei Ya promised her basic benefits: one supporting role in a movie, one leading role in a TV series, several supporting roles, and one album per year. When you calculate it this way, it's not even as good as Tang Yan's resources.

"The male lead is someone like Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, or Kotono." Tang Yan suppressed her excitement.

She sacrificed so much back then, only to be able to get Zeng Ziwei and Wu Zhenyu along with her. Now that she's been promoted to a higher level, of course she's happy.

"That's great? You didn't sign with Bernard, did you?" Yang Mi's tone was a little sour.

There are very few companies in China that can promise such good resources, and it was introduced by Wang Jinhua. Huayi is out of the question, so it can only be Bona.

What, Tang Yan, are you really going to become the next Fan Bingbing?

"No, it's a new company. I don't even know who the boss is. His name is Xinghuo." Tang Yan shook her head.

"A new company? No wonder, wow, the resources are amazing! Can you get me in too?" Yang Mi joked, seemingly serious but actually not.

"Didn't you already sign with Meiya? I saw you go to Wang Jing's press conference," Tang Yan asked, puzzled.

"No, the contract with Rongfu is still over a month away, but it's basically settled. Actually, I didn't want to go to Meiya either, but I offended Tang Ren first, and now I've offended Rongfu. There aren't many opportunities for me to develop in China, so I can only go to Hong Kong." Yang Mi sighed.

"But the people there are all very lewd, you have to be careful when you go," Tang Yan said, worried for her best friend, as someone who had been there before.

Tang Yan was targeted by Wu Kebo back then, and Vice President Xu Li was worried that they would affect the company's development, so she temporarily postponed her development to the Hong Kong entertainment circle.

Because Xu Li and Wang Jing have been partners for many years, Tang Yan's resources belonged to Xu Li. Later, because Xu Li left Chengtian, her resources in the Hong Kong entertainment circle also dried up, and Tang Yan was arranged to return by Wu Kebo and handed over to the current vice president Ji Jinran. It was also she who arranged Tang Yan's collaboration on "Chinese Paladin 3".

"Don't worry, I'm not some newcomer. At worst, I can go back to school and act in plays for a couple of years." Yang Mi laughed heartily.

"How about I ask around for you?" Tang Yan said, somewhat reluctantly.

"Huh? I was just saying. What if we actually end up having the same resources at the same company?" Yang Mi laughed.

"No, we have different development directions. It's okay, let me ask first." Tang Yan said dismissively.

She had a falling out with her college best friend Bai Baihe back then because of resource conflicts, so she cherished her friendship even more afterward.

After ending the call with Yang Mi, he immediately called his agent, Ji Rujin.

Ji is now the vice president of Chengtian Entertainment, but because Wu Kebo still failed to fulfill his equity commitment after the company went public last year, and even spun off the artist management and film and television production resources, this has seriously affected her career plan.

If a film and television company stops investing in films and television, is it still a film and television company?

So Ji has been planning to leave Chengtian. Coincidentally, Tang Yan became popular unexpectedly because of "Chinese Paladin 3". She wanted to replicate Wang Jinhua's operation back then, first use the company's limited resources to promote a few artists, and then leave to give them a good backstabbing.

So when Tang Yan mentioned her ex-boyfriend's seamless transition to another relationship, she thought of collaborating with Wang Yao. She thought that would be the end of it, but unexpectedly, Wang Jinhua, who had been a top star for a long time, took the initiative to contact her and introduced her to Wang Yao's Xinghuo Media.

After considering it, Ji realized that if she could use Wang Yao's help to escape Chengtian and at the same time become the vice president of this promising new company, she would naturally be willing.

Although she hasn't met her future boss yet, with Wang Jinhua as her guarantor, the company's resources are definitely top-notch.

Upon hearing that Tang Yan was helping Yang Mi find a new agency, Ji Rujin immediately objected, "Silly girl, do you believe everything people say? What if we sign her? Will you still be able to maintain your position as the top female star in the company? Whether it's seniority or popularity, Yang Mi is superior to you. When allocating company resources, she will be given priority."

Hearing Ji Jin say that, Tang Yan felt a little uneasy. "It shouldn't be like that. Her acting career path has already been set, and besides, I should be more popular now."

Ji was about to reason with her when a thought suddenly struck him.

Tang Yan's defining characteristic is that she's naive and obedient, but her career prospects and talent aren't particularly outstanding. Ji Jin is only promoting her now because he has no other choice, since the company only has familiar faces like Xue Jianing and Gao Lu left, who don't have much potential.

She knew Yang Mi well, and in terms of both potential and talent, she was indeed superior to Tang Yan. If they could sign her before going to Xinghuo, she would be a great asset, which would give them more assurance in terms of influence within the company in the future.

"Moreover, she has now offended Tang Renhe and the Rong family, which is equivalent to offending the Taiwanese circle and half of the Beijing circle. Even if I am willing to help her, the new boss may not want this troublemaker," Ji Jinru said earnestly.

"Oh, I almost forgot. I'm sorry, Mr. Ji, I've caused you trouble again." Tang Yan realized what she had done and quickly apologized.

“However, since you’ve brought it up, I’ll still give you face and go through the motions. Otherwise, it will seem like you haven’t put in the effort, which could affect the relationship later. So, you and she can schedule a time for us to talk in person,” Ji Jinru said.

"Really?!" Tang Yan was already thinking about how to comfort Yang Mi, but the situation took an unexpected turn.

"Whether it's feasible or not, we can only discuss it in person; I can't decide for sure," Ji Jinru said with a smile.

On February 28th, as March approached, Beijing was already experiencing a cold snap.

The temperature dropped directly to minus six or seven degrees Celsius.

However, online discussions about the Li family in both regions remain heated, and Hong Kong stocks are also booming.

Hejiang Group led the market with a nearly 0.5% gain at the opening, seemingly using its strength to refute the insignificance of public opinion.

However, Cheng Tian Entertainment continued to decline because the 'copyright battle' launched by Wang Jing and others had entered a heated stage. Most of the screenwriters and directors of Jiahe at that time stood up and claimed the theme of 'returning Hong Kong films to their rightful owners'.

The continuous crashes of Chengtian.com's forums have already affected sales.

On the other hand, on the movie streaming website, hardly anyone is discussing the price of annual passes anymore, and online ticket sales are gradually recovering to over a million.

Since the "4,000 yuan monthly salary" incident, forum users have analyzed the services of major cinema chains and found that only cinemas partnered with Kanpianer.com offer better service than cinemas like Wanda.

Even the weight of cola and popcorn is more reasonable.

Given the same amount of money, consumers will definitely prefer to go to a place with better service.

The ticket subsidy war that moviegoers and theaters had been looking forward to did not materialize as expected. Kanpianer.com did not respond directly to these issues. Instead, many theaters suffered from various shutdowns for rectification or a wave of resignations due to issues with employee treatment.

The attempt to steal a chicken backfired, a sentiment shared by all cinemas. But they hate not only movie websites, they hate entertainment all the time.

If you don't have the ability, why do you have to jump out and act all high and mighty?
Now that they're too busy taking care of themselves, they're hiding away like turtles!

Meanwhile, Wang Yao is supervising Nazha's exam preparation. Although he had already given her advance notice, in order to avoid any future problems, Nazha needs to perform even better in this Beijing Film Academy exam.

Fortunately, Miao Miao is around recently, so I can give her guidance on posture and dance skills as a bonus.

Wang Yao watched as Miao Miao posed Nazha in a T-shape, then a W-shape and a K-shape, and felt that she really didn't have that kind of heavenly, supple dance talent.

I guess I can only go down the "pretty face" route. If that doesn't work, I should start selling products from now on.

　Thanks to Qingshanfu, Andy丶Xiaoyu, Jialebuchiniurou, 12nianxiaoshuxian, sxs, Laowangputao, Ouerdeluguo, Curryyudan, 123abcww, Chongchongtaichongchong, Pinweishenghuo_Eb, jinx, geigezhenxinxie, jaychen1981, luanqizhaoba, wochaolianligenxichangfaxi,zaishen, guaernian, wuyous, yungebuyu, yuyao, wison11, gubaiyi, and SHAAAARK.

　　书友20230118215634524、书友20171030085824139、书友20220325142212569、书友20200110193723359、读者1766791954525933568、书友20250429200919125、书友2017830224740944、书友20220129234202104、书友20220422232331891、书友20220505140630474的月票支持~万分感谢
　　
　
(End of this chapter)