How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 178 Let's get on the bus first and talk about it later!

The environment is created by the mind; what people see is a manifestation of their mind.

Because people always live in their own interpretation of the world.

Having been in the modeling industry for too long, Yang Ying's thinking about all the rules has become somewhat rigid.

After realizing that Wang Yao seemed to have simply brought her here for location scouting.

Yang Ying returned to Wang Yao's side with a complicated expression.

Wang Yao was chatting with the bartender at the top-floor bar; they seemed to know each other quite well.

"Finished recording?" Wang Yao asked.

"Mmm, these places are all so beautiful. I've heard of the peninsula since I was a child in Hong Kong, but I've never been there. I never expected to visit it in Shanghai." Yang Ying smiled awkwardly.

“Xiangjiang is a century-old establishment, and its atmosphere is quite different from ours. If you have the chance, Miss Yang, you can go there and have a look around. Just mention Mr. Wang’s name, and you’ll get free afternoon tea,” Zhao Jiajia said with a smile.

"It's not that my name is so useful, it's that the four million in rent for the year is so useful." Wang Yao chuckled. "Did you help me coordinate the swimming pool?"

“Of course, I specifically asked the general manager, but there’s no way to guarantee its availability. At most, we can only notify you in advance if there are no guests. However, if guests arrive, your filming must be stopped. Of course, you can also book a private event in advance, but it’s a bit expensive.” Zhao Jiajia shrugged.

“Actually, we could dig an infinity pool on the balcony,” Wang Yao suggested.

"Well, I can give you that feedback," Zhao Jiajia said with a smile.

"Would you like something to eat?" Wang Yao asked Yang Ying.

"Oh? Okay." Yang Ying nodded.

Although she wasn't hungry, she wanted to find opportunities to spend more time with Wang Yao.

"Should I have the kitchen deliver it to my room later?" Zhao Jiajia thoughtfully suggested.

“That’s fine, as long as it’s quiet.” Wang Yao nodded.

Room?!
Yang Ying's heart, which had just been at ease, was now filled with anxiety again.

"This is a room that the company has been renting year-round, specifically for Kimi's upcoming projects," Wang Yao explained after showing her the year-long suite.

"Wow, the scenery here is so beautiful!" Yang Ying exclaimed as she stood on the balcony, gazing at the bustling night view on both sides of the river and enjoying the cool evening breeze.

“Sitting here, the view is great no matter what you see,” Wang Yao said with a light laugh.

Yang Ying turned to look at Wang Yao, her eyes gradually welling up with tears.

Girls in their early twenties are at an age when they yearn for a life of luxury and vanity.

The yearning for a better life is an instinct ingrained in our very bones.

Otherwise, platforms like Xiaohongshu and Instagram wouldn't have created such a unique landscape.

In this kind of environment, girls are more likely to feel a flutter in their hearts because they are naturally more empathetic and can easily relate to others.

Like a rich second-generation heir in Shanghai who drives a Ferrari and has five girlfriends in a year, then there will be five women in Shanghai who are obsessed with the idea that their ex-boyfriends drove Ferraris. Even though the car wasn't theirs, they will think that they are worthy of Ferraris because of this brief ownership.

If each of them has 5 best friends, then 50 more women in Shanghai will be thinking, "My best friend isn't even as good-looking as me, but she can find a rich second-generation heir who drives a Ferrari, so why can't I?"

So, the fact that a rich second-generation heir who drives a Ferrari can cause 60 more women in Shanghai to think they are a match for a man who drives a Ferrari.

This is one of the reasons why many cars, despite being limited in production, are owned by an average person in China.

Yang Ying is the same. She started as a model, but because of her talent, she was given special attention from a young age. She dated Chen Weiting when he was still a rich second-generation, so her standards are higher. Otherwise, she wouldn't have gotten together with Huang Xiaoming.

However, because of her inferiority complex and intelligence, she couldn't stay in the 'temporary sense of possession' that ordinary girls could deceive themselves into, so she thought about getting what she wanted through her own efforts.

The same principle applies to running a trendy brand store and a nail salon.

But everything comes at a price; it's not just about hard work and talent.

The more times you fail, the less determined you become.

"The rent for this room is four million a year?" Yang Ying asked.

“Yes, the value of this kind of hotel isn’t just about accommodation, but about the premium it brings in terms of status. So we need to consider how to maximize its value,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

As long as you take a photo at this hotel and upload it to social media, even a country dog ​​can be packaged as a Tang Dynasty show dog.

"Mr. Wang is so rich, yet he cares about gains and losses?" Yang Ying asked with some surprise.

“My money didn’t grow on trees. Besides, it’s precisely because I care about gains and losses that I make money.” Wang Yao glanced at her.

“Mr. Wang is different from many of the wealthy people I’ve met.” Yang Ying said with a sweet smile, her arms crossed as if she were feeling the chill of the night wind.

He quietly approached Wang Yao, like a kitten seeking warmth and companionship, which was quite endearing.

"Because I'm not a rich person to begin with," Wang Yao said with a smile.

"If you're not considered rich, then aren't we beggars?" Yang Ying retorted.

"Come inside. The night wind is strong, and you're not dressed warmly enough to avoid catching a cold," Wang Yao said just as Yang Ying was about to get close to him.

Yang Ying's body stiffened, and her heart sank to the bottom.

Oh no, it seems that the trick of feigning weakness that Kimi taught me isn't working anymore.

It was indeed much warmer back in the room, but Yang Ying felt a chill in her heart.

Two food carts have appeared in the living room at some point, filled with all sorts of delicious-looking but not filling dishes.

Yang Ying wasn't hungry at first, but her appetite was instantly whetted.

"Wait a minute, let me take a picture." Wang Yao took out his digital camera, snapped a few photos, and handed them to Yang Ying, waiting for Kimi to come and give them to her.

"I heard that Mr. Wang is a photographer by training, is that true?" Yang Ying asked curiously.

The habit of taking photos before meals was not developed before social media and the iPhone 4 became widespread; only a few people with a photography habit would record them.

Because the cost of taking photos to record events was very high, it was only after the widespread adoption of smartphones that the cost of recording life was reduced.

“Indeed.” Wang Yao nodded, sat down and started eating.

"Could you take a couple of photos for me later? I don't know when I'll be able to come again." Yang Ying blushed slightly.

“If you need to take photos or use it for your own purposes, you can apply in advance. It can be used as a company meeting room. Zhang Meng and the others even had a party here last time,” Wang Yao said casually, but did not refuse.

A party?

Zhang Meng and the others?

Upon hearing these two words combined, Yang Ying blushed even more and pointed to the ice bucket, saying, "Can I have some champagne?"

“Of course, you don’t drive.” Wang Yao smiled.

Yang Ying poured herself a large glass of iced wine, which cheered her up as she drank it, and she began to chat about her past anecdotes.

Sharing experiences is the fastest way to bridge the gap between people.

Especially sharing 'painful experiences'.

Yang Ying shared that Zhou Yougen initially arranged for her to create a backup dancer rumor with Jay Chou, which was criticized. Later, he arranged for her to create a rumor with Hong Kong prince Cheng Chung-chi. However, unexpectedly, Cheng Chung-chi had been secretly married to Ah Sa for four years at that time. Fortunately, the two had already divorced, otherwise she would have been inexplicably labeled as a mistress.

Wang Yao raised an eyebrow slightly after hearing this.

I originally thought Yang Ying was cheated on by Ah Sa, but I didn't expect there to be this hidden story. The entertainment industry really is a small world.

"Actually, I really dislike this kind of hype and attention-grabbing method, but it seems there's no faster way." Yang Ying downed another glass.

“There are no shortcuts in the world; speed is just a matter of survivorship bias,” Wang Yao shook his head.

"Mr. Wang, could you please talk to Sister Kimi and let me work in peace?" Yang Ying pursed her lips, squatted down on the ground, and looked up at Wang Yao pitifully, like a little dog that had been soaked by the rain.

“You’ve already signed with Skyfire, so the company’s resources are all subject to fair competition.” Wang Yao squinted, his angle of gaze quite clever.

"Where in the world is there true fairness?" Yang Ying said with a bitter smile.

“If you just don’t want Kimi to interfere with your career anymore, then I can talk to her about it,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

"What if I want more?" Yang Ying gritted her teeth, her hands trembling slightly as she placed them on Wang Yao's knees.

"If you want more, it depends on your luck." Wang Yao tilted his head slightly, looking down at her.

"Mr. Wang, could this be my luck?" Yang Ying asked seductively.

“I am the luck of many people, so everyone can get relative fairness here.” Wang Yao smiled sincerely, a slight smirk playing on his lips. Yang Ying stiffened, her expression faltering.

Everyone?

What do you mean?
So candidly admitting that you're just one of them?!
What's wrong with this man?
He didn't say a single kind word; he was like a robot.

"It's getting late. If you're tired, you can rest here for the night." Wang Yao saw her lost in thought and prepared to get up.

But Yang Ying suddenly grabbed his hand.

"Mr. Wang, you haven't taken my picture yet." Yang Ying pursed her lips, her originally blank gaze suddenly becoming firm, which, combined with her makeup and attire, gave her a unique stubbornness.

Wang Yao stared at her for a long time, then got up, opened the safe, and took out a contract. Yang Ying glanced at it from afar and found that it was almost entirely filled with folders.

When Yang Ying saw Wang Yao hand it over, she finally knew what it was.

I've never eaten pork, but I've seen pigs run.

Having been by Zhou Yougen's side for so many years, what outrageous rumors haven't she heard?

But when she saw the contract, she admitted that she really didn't know much about such things.

Mr. Wang can be considered the first person to refuse unspoken rules.

However, by removing the word 'underground,' the rules are laid bare.

Is this reasonable?
Yang Ying was filled with excitement, and the alcohol began to ferment in her stomach.

Never mind, I'm drunk driving.

Let's get on the bus first and talk about it later!

There's a line in "Rickshaw Boy" that goes like this.

Love is something only the most outstanding people can give; true romantics are only born into wealthy families.

For the poor, love and hate are decisions made in terms of money.

Wang Yao was a typical poor man, so he didn't have time to think about romance, but he believed more in the pleasure of mutual affection.

A contract is a guarantee, not an exchange.

Otherwise it would be unfair, and fairness is what Wang Yao values ​​most.

However, Yang Ying's drunk driving performance was somewhat disappointing. The only redeeming quality was her pica. When Wang Yao brought her back to the film set the next afternoon, she still looked like she was still hungover.

This drew the attention of Zhang Meng and others.

Wang Yao returned to his office. Today is May 20th.

This day, which originally had no meaning, gradually became a meme due to the emergence of Penguin Chat in 2000, which sounded like "I love you" in Chinese. However, it has remained just a meme and has not yet been packaged by capital into an important holiday for the "licking dog economy," but that will soon be the case.

520, Women's Day, and Valentine's Day have all gained widespread popularity due to the rise of e-commerce, becoming tools for reaping consumer profits. SEO search can be considered the culprit.

Wang Yao got there first this time, having Mulan Street prepare a related topic activity a month ago. It officially went live yesterday morning, with nearly three to four thousand posts related to Wang Yao's managed stores being promoted simultaneously.

Includes couple jewelry, couple clothing, couple dolls, and QQ-themed items.

The total sales in 12 hours exceeded 10 million yuan, and the sales in 24 hours are expected to exceed 30 million yuan. The main sources of sales were Vancl and JD.com. The cooperation between the two companies and Wang Yao's "520 same-day delivery" special line greatly stimulated consumers' enthusiasm for placing orders.

Mulan Street's model has been widely imitated by social media platforms such as Weibo, which have followed suit and created many dedicated product recommendation and marketing accounts. However, due to the platform's lack of vertical integration, the results have not been very good.

However, because of the large user base, it wasn't too bad, especially since the old Sina Weibo V-Task system had previously provided a monetization path for some Weibo influencers.

Therefore, in order to ensure that traffic for e-commerce seeding and conversion is not lost, the old Sina Weibo internally set 'Mulan Street' as the highest level of traffic restriction list. Any traffic with related keywords exceeding 10,000 would be manually restricted, which is a de facto ban.

Not only Sina, but even Baidu's price for buying search results on Mulan Street is 50% higher than it was initially.

This is the downside of traffic monopoly.

But Wang Yao had other ideas. At 10 a.m., he used the tail end of the "refusal to move" trend to create a new hot search term.

[Tianhuo Media 520 Amazing Company]

The content was originally a recruitment advertisement posted a few days ago on the official Tianhuo account.

Tianhuo Company, with its corporate culture of 5 days off, 2 days off, and no drinking parties for team building, has successfully become a dream company on the internet, thanks to the popularity of workplace unspoken rules driven by its refusal to engage in superficial activities.

As a result, Tianhuo's recruitment email inbox has been overflowing lately.

Wang Yao capitalized on the 520 (May 20th) hype today, buying his way onto the trending topics list. Along with this, official accounts of companies like Mulan Street, Taobao Girl, Xingyou, and Xingdian also expressed their support for the 520 call, indirectly generating a huge wave of discussion.

Model agencies and entertainment companies that are still recovering from the Feng Jiao incident have also expressed their desire to ride the wave of attention and have asked their signed models and artists to help repost and clear her name.

Regardless of whether there are any unspoken rules behind the scenes, there must be none on the surface.

Sina Weibo is a trendsetter among social media platforms like Weibo. Once a topic trended on the hot search list, other Weibo platforms quickly followed suit.

Thus, 520, which was originally a homophone for "couples" in Chinese, has been transformed into a meme representing company culture.

Many job seekers will find their first sentence on recruitment websites such as Zhaopin, Liepin, Yingcai, and 51job to be...

"Honey, is this 520?"

This will likely create a more ambiguous atmosphere during the recruitment process.

This adds a new standard to the Chinese workplace, much like the 996 work schedule proposed by Jack Ma in the future.
Leveraging this wave of popularity, the Mulan Street 520 event can also attract a lot of general traffic, but how much of it will be converted remains to be seen.

After Wang Yao finished processing several important documents, he was greeted by Li Rixue, the founder of the treasury company.

Founder Li Rixue led his team to obtain the first batch of luxury goods appraiser qualifications in China. When they first started their business, they started with the O2O second-hand home appliance model, but it failed due to the imperfect logistics system and the impact of the financial crisis.

Later, in 2008, Siku was established on the basis of the original platform. It was one of the earliest companies in China to venture into the field of second-hand luxury goods consignment. The name Siku comes from "the temple of etiquette and the treasury of heaven".

The treasurer is currently an offline company limited to a small area in Shandong and Beijing, and its revenue just exceeded ten million last year.

Normally, Li Rixue would have no connection with someone like Wang Yao, who has two internet upstarts with billions in assets. He was quite surprised to receive Wang Yao's invitation.

But this year he did want to transform into an e-commerce platform. He realized that Wang Yao might be interested in the second-hand luxury market. In addition, Mulan Street was indeed the main traffic entrance he was optimistic about in the future. So he immediately set off after receiving the news.

Just consider it as making friends.

After landing at the airport, he discovered that the person who came to pick him up was none other than the internet celebrity Ma Ruo, which immediately made him feel more favorably toward Wang Yao.

"Mr. Wang, it's a pleasure to meet you." Li Rixue was handsome and refined, with a sharp suit that gave him the air of a British gentleman. His accessories also had a hidden meaning.

This fits the public's stereotype of people working in the luxury goods industry.

"Please forgive my presumptuous invitation, Mr. Li," Wang Yao said, rising to exchange pleasantries.

"You flatter me, you flatter me. Mr. Wang is truly a man of great talent and appearance, even more so than in the newspapers," Li Rixue exclaimed.

Those in their line of work are best at judging people by their appearance. Although Wang Yao was dressed in sample clothes customized by his own brand and had no famous watches or dzi beads to match, his resume and appearance were enough to make him look distinguished in front of others.

"Mr. Li, you flatter me. Would you like some tea?" Wang Yao said with a smile.

“I’m fine with anything, I don’t have any dietary restrictions,” Li Rixue said with a smile.

Ma Ruo understood and soon brought up several cups of Mixue fruit tea. Zhang Hongchao had given Tianhuo and Xinghuo companies several sets of equipment and raw materials, and the original companies' benefits now included fruit tea, milk tea, and ice cream options.

"Milk tea?" Li Rixue asked in surprise after taking it.

Is this the kind of tea that young people drink for social gatherings these days?
Wait, is this even considered tea?
“It’s fruit tea, healthy.” Wang Yao smiled.

"Indeed, it's novel." Li Rixue took a bite with mixed feelings and raised his eyebrows slightly.

Surprisingly, it tastes pretty good.

"To be honest, I'm quite curious about the luxury goods business, so I've asked Mr. Li for some guidance," Wang Yao said after a few pleasantries before getting to the point.

"I wouldn't dare say that, I'm just a luxury goods enthusiast," Li Rixue said modestly.

“President Li should know that I have many models and artists under my management, who are the main consumers of luxury goods. I wonder if this market can match President Li’s resources?” Wang Yao asked tentatively.

Upon hearing this, Li Rixue raised an eyebrow, roughly understanding Wang Yao's purpose.

It's estimated that they want to resell their luxury goods resources to their artists, or resell the artists' luxury items to make a profit.

But this is only a small amount of money? Wang Yao's e-commerce business is valued at billions of dollars.

(End of this chapter)