Internet moguls are being held hostage by the entertainment system!

Chapter 182, "The Qin King's Battle Song," passed censorship, and "Love O2O" aired ahead of schedule.
After visiting the film set in Xiangshan and returning to Shanghai, Chen Xiu began her personal investigation of Pinduoduo.

Many things are one thing when others say them, but quite another when you verify them yourself.

During this inspection, Chen Xiu went to Pinduoduo at 8 am every day and returned at 8 pm, resting on weekends, just like when she was working.

After thoroughly understanding every aspect of Pinduoduo, he then had his investment company begin discussing the details of the Series B financing with Huang Zheng.

When Pinduoduo was founded last April, its angel round of financing was jointly participated in by several big names, including Sun Tongyu, Ding Sanshi, Wang Jimi, and Duan Yongping.

This is what's called a "circle activity," and Chen Xiu couldn't get any food even if she wanted to.

Then came the Series A funding round in July of last year, led by two well-known internet venture capital firms, Sequoia Capital and IDG.

Chen Xiu is quick to seize the opportunity to get involved in the Series B funding round negotiations.

During the inspection, Huang Zheng also said that he originally wanted to seek investment from Tencent, but since Chen Xiu had appeared, there was no need to contact Tencent anymore, since the number of shares offered for financing was limited.

Upon learning that she had taken the entry slot from Penguin, Chen Xiu said that she had given them Mobike, and now that she had taken Pinduoduo's slot, it was perfectly reasonable.

After a month of investigation and a week of negotiations, Pinduoduo and Pinhaohuo have secured $50 million in Series B funding. The two companies will officially merge after the funding is completed.

In short, the Series B round was actually $1 million, and Chen Xiu took 30% of it, which is $3000 million.

By mid-May, the script for "The Song of Qin King Breaking the Enemy's Formation" had successfully passed the review process.

Chen Xiu, who was staying at home in Shanghai, also received a call from Wei Feng.

"Boss, filming for 'The Untouchable' wrapped up smoothly yesterday. I also mentioned 'The Qin King's Battle Song' to Master Han, and he's quite interested."

Hearing Wei Feng's voice from the phone, Chen Xiu nodded with satisfaction.

After acquiring the film and television rights to "The Untouchable" last year, iQiyi proactively contacted Datang Pictures, expressing its hope that the two companies could collaborate on a joint production.

After some negotiations and resource exchanges, Datang Pictures and iQiyi officially signed a cooperation agreement.

Filming for "The Untouchable" officially began in April of this year, with Wei Feng serving as producer.

Chen Xiu also specifically instructed him to contact Han Sanping, the producer of "The Untouchable Crime," to see if Han Sanping could be brought to the "Qin King's Battle Song" production team as a producer.

It now appears that Wei Feng has successfully completed both tasks.

Chen Xiu also praised him: "You did a great job. I feel very reassured leaving things to you!"

"Hey boss, how's my junior doing with it?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Xiu also recalled the young man who initially seemed a bit dull.

These days, he's been running around with me, and he's been quite quick-witted in his interactions with people, so he must be a wise and intelligent person with a simple and peaceful nature...

"Luo Shikan is doing well. Let's make him a permanent employee at the end of the month."

"Okay, I'll tell him at the end of the month."

"Heh, the script for 'The Song of Qin King's Battle' has been approved. I'm going back to the capital tomorrow. Let's have a small meeting to discuss it and see which companies we'll be working with this time."

"Speaking of this, when I was in contact with Han Sanping, Mr. Gong from Kiwi also asked me to learn about 'The Qin King's Battle Song'. He seemed very interested in this project."

Upon hearing this, Chen Xiu raised an eyebrow, not objecting to the addition of kiwifruit.

"Let's set a time to chat together."

"If we choose kiwi, what about the penguin?"

“Let’s do it all together! Once the drama is finished filming, we’ll have ‘The Song of Qin King’ broadcast on both platforms, taking care of both sides.”

Chen Xiu answered nonchalantly, noting that Tencent had collaborated with iQiyi when filming the first season of "Joy of Life," and the series premiered on both platforms.

Later, when "Joy of Life" became a hit, Tencent Video dropped iQiyi and made the second season an exclusive broadcast on its platform.

Chen Xiu's primary objective now is to find powerful allies and get "The King of Qin's Battle Song" filmed.

If the show becomes a hit, many problems will cease to be problems.

Hearing Chen Xiu's words, Wei Feng understood his meaning: "Okay, boss, I'll go and have a brief chat with President Gong later to see what he thinks."

"Well, I leave it to you."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Xiu stood by the window, glanced down at the lush sycamore tree in her yard, and let out a soft sigh. She felt like she was constantly busy with one task after another, with no end in sight...

"Hey Xiu, are you done talking about work?"

Hearing this sweet and innocent question, Chen Xiu silently thought to herself: Fortunately, I still have someone by my side.

He turned around and looked at Meng Ziyi, who was sitting on the bed with her hair down, wearing a nightgown, with a smile on her lips.

Sitting down by the bedside, Chen Xiu, seeing Meng Ziyi's clear eyes, reached out and hugged her: "Sister Meng, I'm going back to the capital tomorrow."

"Ah? Well, you should go back too." Meng Ziyi nodded, indicating that he fully understood the situation.

Over the past month, she spent half her time filming and the other half in Shanghai with Chen Xiu.

On weekends, when Chen Xiu didn't have to go to Pinduoduo to do research, she would take Meng Ziyi to play in the surrounding area or watch movies. The two spent half a month like an ordinary couple.

Now that those days are coming to an end, Meng Ziyi was already mentally prepared.

She turned around and kissed Chen Xiu, counting on her fingers, "Hmm~~, I'll be filming my scenes for 'The Legend of the Condor Heroes' until July, and then I can go back to the capital. So we'll be able to see each other again in a little over a month."

Seeing Meng Ziyi's charming appearance, Chen Xiu leaned over and kissed her cheek.

Then, his expression suddenly froze, and he started talking to Meng Ziyi about something else.

"Are you sure you want to stay at Yongle Films for the rest of the year? Last month, those trending topics about outshining others were just bringing you trouble. Your PR skills are really third-rate."

"Hehe, the company has actually treated me quite well. Didn't you step in to help smooth things over last month?"

"That's because we were together, so we found out in time and were able to suppress it. If we had waited for the trending topic to spread, you would have really gone down the path of being infamous and famous."

Chen Xiu tapped Sister Meng's simple head and continued, "Public relations ability is an important part of an artist management company. When 'With You' aired recently, Bai Lu was criticized for her academic background and acting skills. Yang Ming's response was much better than Yongle's."

Meng Ziyi, who frequently surfs the internet, was naturally aware of what Chen Xiu was talking about.

The youth campus drama "With You," produced by iQiyi, officially premiered on April 8th.

Due to its appealing subject matter, unconventional plot, and high degree of compatibility between the actors and their roles, the drama quickly became a trending topic on Weibo after its release, with its viewership and popularity on the platform soaring.

The male lead Peng Yuchang and the female lead Tan Songyu have become a popular on-screen couple among drama fans.

With a hit show and popular actors, and if the actors don't do anything reckless, they shouldn't have any bad things happen to them.

However, wherever there are people, there is a social dynamic; as long as someone wants to cause trouble, there will always be something to attack.

Even before "With You" was airing, trending topics on Weibo included "The second female lead, Bai Lu, has no acting skills," "The second female lead is a former print model," and "Bai Lu has a low level of education."

With such an obvious trending topic, it's obvious that the attack on Bai Lu is just a smokescreen; what they really want to attack is the drama "With You".

In response to the attacks, Yang Ming arranged for Bai Lu to appear on a variety show and then directly addressed the criticisms on Weibo.

Although the haters are still there, the discussions have decreased significantly, and Bai Lu has gained his first batch of fans as a result.

Compared to Yang Ming's professional solution, the "maid outshines" trending topic that Yongle Films bought for Meng Ziyi was just a blatant attempt to gain attention and bring negative publicity to the artist. The level of service was incredibly amateurish.

So Chen Xiu wanted to step in and help Meng Ziyi negotiate with Yongle to terminate her contract, but the silly beauty refused...

"The company has treated me quite well, so I can't just terminate my contract with them because of this one thing!"

Meng Ziyi repeated her reasons for not wanting to terminate the contract.

Hearing this, Chen Xiu didn't know what to say.

Because of his connections, Yongle Films treated Meng Ziyi quite well. Their amateurish public relations skills were simply a matter of their own abilities, and there was no intention to blame them.

"So you'll stay until next year and then terminate the contract?"

"Yes, yes, let's wait two years before terminating the contract, that way it'll look better for everyone."

Meng Ziyi nodded and explained her considerations. She felt that the company was quite good, so she wanted to show some leniency. If she were to discuss terminating the contract as soon as a problem arose, it would be a bit too inhumane.

Next year, when this matter is over, everyone can talk about terminating the contract amicably and with some dignity.

Chen Xiu could more or less guess what she was thinking.

However, there is never any elegance in artists terminating their contracts. The negotiations between the two parties are always about naked compensation and damages. The sooner the negotiations begin, the less the artist will have to pay.

He was aware of this.

Meng Ziyi hasn't experienced physical punishment before, so she tends to assume things are still going to happen peacefully and that the two parties can terminate the contract amicably...

However, since she's a bit simple-minded, Chen Xiu is willing to spoil her.

That's not a big deal. It'll just be a little troublesome when we talk about terminating the contract next year, but otherwise there won't be any problems.

Thinking this, Chen Xiu leaned over and kissed Meng Ziyi's forehead again.

Meng didn't understand the meaning of the word, but she could feel Chen Xiu's care for her, so she happily put her arms around his neck.

Just as the two were deeply in love, two cell phone beeps sounded in the room one after the other.

Chen Xiu and Meng Ziyi both looked at their phones. The WeChat message displayed on the screen was from the "Love O2O" work group chat, and the sender was Fang Ying, the producer and group administrator of the production team.

"@Everyone, Love O7O will premiere on July 11th on Tomato TV's Dream Theater. We hope everyone can make time to participate in the promotion of the drama."

(End of this chapter)