Internet moguls are being held hostage by the entertainment system!

Chapter 295, "The Qin King's Battle Song," is currently airing in Japan.

October 16th, Hengdian Film and Television City.

"1, 2, 3, let's all give a thumbs up!"

Meng Ziyi smiled sweetly and made a peace sign at the camera.

Only after the photographer said OK did she go to shake hands and say goodbye to the cast of "Ashes of Love" with whom she had worked for four months.

After a round of greetings, there was no regret or reluctance on their faces. They were all professional actors, and once they left, they had to rush to the next event, so their emotions didn't easily get out of control.

After saying goodbye to his newly acquainted "friends," Meng Ziyi did not stay to attend the wrap party.

After removing her makeup, she and her assistant rushed to the airport and took the next available flight back to Beijing.

After leaving the airport, Meng Ziyi called Chen Xiu and then got into the company's van that was there to pick her up. After several hours of travel, she finally opened the door to Xiangshan Qingqin.

After dismissing her assistant, Meng Ziyi carried her luggage into the house alone, and then began her call for love.

"Brother Xiu~~, I'm back!"

There was no response.

Meng Ziyi stood there, frowning and pouting. After thinking for two seconds, she threw down her luggage and walked inside.

Reaching the living room entrance, she called out again, still not believing it, "Brother Xiu~~, I'm back!"

After shouting, he looked inside, only to find it empty.

Looking through the French windows into the backyard, Meng Ziyi didn't see Chen Xiu at the archery range either.

Filled with dissatisfaction and doubt, she went upstairs to the study. She was about to rush in, but then she was afraid of disturbing Chen Xiu, so she quietly pushed open the door.

This time, we finally found the person.

Looking at Chen Xiu sitting behind the desk among the books, Meng Ziyi chuckled and was about to rush over, but remembering that Chen Xiu had ignored his calls earlier, he couldn't help but pretend to be angry and pace back and forth.

When Chen Xiu saw Meng Ziyi enter, her face lit up with joy at first, then she put her index finger to her lips, signaling her not to speak.

This strange reaction made Meng Ziyi forget her anger. She went to the desk and leaned over to look at Chen Xiu, only to find him listening to the phone.

"Yeah, I know."

Chen Xiu nodded and reached out to hold Meng Ziyi's hand, but Meng Ziyi slapped her hand away.

After taking a picture of Chen Xiu, Meng Ziyi puffed out her cheeks and glared at him, thinking: What call made you run to the study to answer it? Do you know how worried I was when I couldn't find you downstairs?

Seeing Meng Ziyi's thoughts written all over her face, Chen Xiu gave her an apologetic smile, while continuing to deal with the person on the phone.

"Mr. Sun, don't worry, Tencent Video will definitely have a share in the production of 'The Xuanwu Gate Incident'."

Upon hearing that Chen Xiu was talking about work, Meng Ziyi's dissatisfaction instantly subsided, and her pouting lips slowly pursed.

Seeing this, Chen Xiu reached out to hold her hand again, but Meng Ziyi stopped patting him.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Meng Ziyi was taken aback, thinking that Chen Xiu was talking about him.

Looking up at his beaming face, Meng Ziyi immediately realized that he had said this to the person on the phone, but the volume of that last sentence was significantly higher than the previous two sentences, a stark contrast…

Based on past experience, she had an 80% chance of suspecting that Chen Xiu was deliberately trying to scare her.

Thinking of this, Meng Ziyi pinched Chen Xiu's forearm muscle with his two slender, white fingers with precision.

Seeing Chen Xiu's expression instantly turn into a grimacing grin, Meng Ziyi smugly released his grip and gave him a provocative look.

Chen Xiu chuckled inwardly as he interacted with the silly beauty, but outwardly he was still dealing with Sun Zhonghuai, the CEO of Tencent Pictures.

"Mr. Sun, after all, Kiwi Fruit co-produced 'The Song of Qin King' with us. It would be a bit inappropriate to leave them out in the sequel, wouldn't it?"

“I know that business is business, but Mr. Gong helped a lot when we were preparing for this.”

"Let's discuss it some more! I have some things to do here, and the script isn't finished yet. It's too early to talk about who to kick out now."

"OK, let's have dinner together next time we're free."

After saying this, Chen Xiu put her phone on the desk and hung up.

During the brief break, Meng Ziyi saw that the call duration displayed on his phone was 12 minutes.

Then, she saw Chen Xiu, who was also lying on the table, wink at her: "Sister Meng, you're back!"

"Hmph! I called you as soon as I got off the plane at the airport. Why didn't you wait for me in the living room?"

With a complaint, Meng Ziyi deliberately turned his head to the side, while simultaneously observing Chen Xiu's reaction out of the corner of his eye.

Chen Xiu saw this little gesture, but he didn't expose it. He just used the hand that was holding Meng Ziyi's hand to scratch her palm.

Seeing Meng Ziyi's cheeks gradually flush red, making her even more radiant and beautiful, Chen Xiu realized that she was pretending to be angry before explaining why she hadn't waited for her in the living room.

"I just received your call. I was about to go downstairs to pick you up when I got a conference call, and then two more calls came in. The one you heard was the second one."

"So you've been sitting here for almost half an hour?"

"Including the time spent writing the script, it must have taken several hours. My back is aching. Would you like to massage it for me?"

"Well, okay!"

The meaning of the character "孟" perfectly illustrates what it means to be easy to please and not hold grudges.

Chen Xiu lay down on the desk and came over with a serious expression, pressing the erector spinae muscles that were located on her vertebrae with her elbows.

As he continued pressing the buttons, Meng Ziyi sensed something was off: "Hey? Was I just angry?" "Um, do you know what the conference call was about?"

Chen Xiuguang quickly changed the subject, and Meng Ziyi's attention was successfully drawn to her.

"what?"

"The Qin King's Battle Song" aired on NHK's prime-time weekend slot, marking the first time a Chinese drama has aired in prime time (the Legend of Hao Lan aired on NHK's prime-time weekend slot in 2019, also a first for a Chinese drama). Previously, dramas were aired in less popular time slots. The seventh episode, which aired yesterday, titled "Zhang Nanbao Disarms, and the Defenders Sing the Qin King's Battle Song," achieved a peak viewership rating of 8%...

"8%? That's so much higher than in China?"

Meng Ziyi was greatly surprised. She had been following the performance of "Qin Wang Po Zhen Qu" in China, which is why she understood how exaggerated the 8% figure was.

Chen Xiu nodded dismissively.

"The TV dramas over there seem to have pretty high ratings. 'Hanzawa Naoki' even reached 45% at its peak, and 'Qin Wang Po Zhen Qu' had a rating of 8%, which is quite good. Moreover, most of the series hasn't aired yet, so it should be even higher later on."

"So, is our show a hit?"

"Yes! The two calls that followed were after it became popular."

"Who?"

Chen Xiu turned over and stood up on the desk, grabbed Meng Ziyi's hand, and sat down in the armchair.

"The first one is iQiyi Video, the second one is Tencent Video. You're so smart, guess what they said."

"Hehe, let me think about it."

Praised for her intelligence, Meng Ziyi leaned against Chen Xiu's chest, her eyes darting around as she carefully recalled the contents of the phone call she had just heard.

"Did the person on the phone just now ask you to bypass iQiyi Pictures and work with them alone to produce 'The Xuanwu Gate Incident'?"

"By the way, guess what the kiwi said."

How could I possibly have guessed that?

Meng Ziyi pouted and said mischievously, "Why don't you call back and say it again?"

"Pshaw! What Kiwi said is basically the same as what Penguin said."

"Huh?! They both want to shake each other off?"

"Yeah, they're all the same. My replies are pretty much the same."

Chen Xiu nodded with a bored expression. When he was on the phone with Sun Zhonghuai, he had basically just repeated the content of his conversation with Gong Yu, which is why he had time to exchange expressions with Meng Ziyi.

Upon learning of the seamless cooperation between the two companies, Meng Ziyi found it difficult to offer any comment.

Why would they do this? Did they plan this all along to test you?

"..."

Chen Xiu was taken aback, and inexplicably admired Meng Ziyi's imagination for coming up with such a point, but she still couldn't help but offer her criticisms.

"My girlfriend is you, not them."

"Hey... I didn't specifically test you! So why did they do that?"

"Everyone wants to eat it all by themselves."

"Isn't there our company too? How is that considered taking it all for yourself?"

Meng Ziyi blinked, puzzled as to how the two companies that had invested in the company, which was affiliated with Datang Film Industry, could monopolize the profits.

Looking into her clear and pure eyes, Chen Xiu swallowed back the explanation that was on the tip of her tongue and summarized, "They want to get the exclusive online broadcasting rights for 'The Xuanwu Gate Incident' to attract new users and traffic to their own company."

"why?"

"That's all boring stuff. Why don't you tell me about the situation on set?"

"I've already told you that when I call you before."

“Every time we talk on the phone, you veer off-topic after just a couple of sentences. It’s much clearer to talk face-to-face.”

"I'll talk about it tonight. First, tell me what you mean by attracting new users and driving traffic to the company?"

Meng Ziyi grabbed Chen Xiu's hand, trying to figure out what he was talking about.

Chen Xiu had thought she wouldn't be interested, but now that she saw this, she was happy to explain: "User growth for video apps has slowed down. Now, the cost of acquiring a user willing to subscribe to VIP service is 50-80 yuan."

"When 'The Song of Qin King Breaking the Enemy' was broadcast on iQiyi and Tencent's apps, it created 80 VIP users for each of the two platforms. Just from this traffic, their investment has already been recouped."

"With the profits from their investments, both companies made a fortune. Then they wanted to take over each other's investment in the sequel so they could have exclusive online streaming rights. So they lined up to call me."

Chen Xiu shrugged, preferring a three-way investment relationship. Although he was a shareholder of Tencent, he also had many collaborations with iQiyi. There was a win-win situation for all three parties, so there was no need to force a choice between two.

Meng Ziyi pursed his lips, thought for a moment, and then nodded with an expression of approval.

"It is indeed very boring, and it's right that you don't want to talk about it."

"I did prepare a gift for you."

"what gift?"

"You just got back, go pick it up in a few days. I'd like to hear about your life on set first."

Having already been approached once, Meng Ziyi could only patiently tell Chen Xiu about her life on the set of "Ashes of Love".

(End of this chapter)