Huayu: From the Era of Ringtones to Becoming a Legend

Liu Sixi stood in front of his desk, his face flushed with excitement. He pointed to the gold-embossed notification in his hand, his voice trembling with barely suppressed emotion.

"Interfere? How could they not interfere!"

"At this year's music awards ceremony, all the major awards—such as Best Popularity, Most Popular Singer, Best Ringtone of the Year, and Best Single—will be open to public online voting by music fans, not a one-man show by industry judges!"

Lu Jiuge tapped her fingertips lightly on the table, listening quietly.

"From the very first day of voting, Zhao Mingliang and his team frantically bought online trolls, manipulated data, and suppressed popularity, constantly engaging in underhanded tactics in an attempt to completely crush our singers."

"But what was the result?"

Liu Sixi suddenly raised his voice, his eyes flashing with intense excitement:

"Our songs are played everywhere; our singers are known to everyone, young and old; and Lingyun Terminal has over 100 million users—a living, breathing ticket bank!"

"Two months after the online voting channel opened, singers under Qianxing Entertainment occupied seven of the top ten spots and twelve of the top twenty spots, a completely overwhelming victory!"

"No matter how much they try to disrupt or sabotage things, it's all useless against absolute popularity and online traffic!"

After those words, the atmosphere in the office suddenly warmed up.

Zheng Lin, Zuo Wei, and others rushed over upon hearing the news and stood aside, their faces beaming with triumphant excitement.

They have been suppressed, targeted, and blocked by the traditional record industry for a long time, suffering all kinds of difficulties and exclusion.

Today, relying on his works, popularity, and the support of hundreds of millions of listeners, he has fought his way through and stood on the nomination seat of the highest stage in the music industry.

Lu Jiuge picked up the nomination notification, glanced at the long list of names of Qianxing Entertainment, and smiled faintly.

[System Prompt]

[The host's artists have been detected to have received sixteen nominations at top music awards ceremonies]

[Public approval rating soars, positive faith value increases by 368000!]

[The traditional record industry is insanely jealous, negative faith level +220000!]

The light blue system panel flashed by.

The positive faith value remained steadily above 50 million, while the negative faith value also successfully broke through the 20 million mark.

Despite being besieged and attacked by the traditional record industry, both openly and covertly, Qianxing Entertainment was not harmed in the slightest. Instead, it became the most stable source of faith points for Lu Jiuge.

Lu Jiuge placed the notification slip back on the table, looked up at the group, and said domineeringly:

"Get ready, we're leaving for Shanghai tomorrow."

"Bring all the nominated singers along."

Zheng Lin's eyes lit up:

"Mr. Lu, are you taking everyone with you?"

"yes!"

Lu Jiuge nodded, her tone indifferent:

"This is not just my honor, it's the honor of everyone at Qianxing Entertainment!"

"In the past, they looked down on Qianxing Entertainment, ostracized us, and thought we were not up to par."

"This time, we'll stand united before the entire nation and show them clearly who truly represents the mainstream of this era!"

One sentence ignited the passion of everyone present.

The person on the left clenched their fist, their voice resounding:

"Don't worry, Mr. Lu, all the staff at Mirror Media are ready for the publicity!"

"This time, we're going to make the entire music industry remember the name Qianxing Entertainment!"

After listening to Zuo Wei's words, Lu Jiuge lightly tapped her fingertips on the table, looked at Chen Bin, who was in charge of public relations, and spoke calmly but with an undeniable air of authority:

"Old Chen, go and communicate with the organizers."

"All on-site reporting, live text and photo coverage, and interview rights related to Qianxing Entertainment at this awards ceremony have been exclusively handled by Jingjie Media."

"This is a prerequisite for our attendance; it's not something to be discussed."

Chen Bin and Zuo Wei exchanged a glance, their eyes flashing with a sharp light.

"Mr. Lu, you're brilliant! With our current popularity and the number of nominations, the organizers simply wouldn't dare refuse!"

Without delay, Chen Bin took out his phone, walked to the side, and dialed a number. His tone was calm and confident as he clearly conveyed Lu Jiuge's conditions to the organizers.

Within half an hour, the organizers called back one after another, their tone quickly shifting from initial hesitation to compromise.

With sixteen nominations, overwhelming popularity, and nationwide viewership, Qianxing Entertainment simply doesn't have the confidence to refuse.

Ultimately, faced with Chen Bin's tough stance, the organizing committee had no choice but to compromise and agree to all of Lu Jiuge's conditions.

……

A night passes in the blink of an eye.

The next morning, downstairs at Qianxing Entertainment.

More than twenty singers lined up neatly, all dressed in custom-made suits, looking energetic and exuding confidence.

All the singers are nominees for this music awards ceremony.

After a brief mobilization, Lu Jiuge led the team to Shanghai to prepare for the annual music awards ceremony the following day.

Instead of taking a flight, Lu Jiuge arranged for a convoy of ten Audi A8s to travel to Shanghai by car.

Four hours later, the convoy arrived in Shanghai on time and stopped in front of the hotel designated by the organizer.

As soon as Lu Jiuge and her team got out of the car, passersby, fans, and reporters surrounded them, taking pictures like crazy.

"Those are people from Qianxing Entertainment, right? They're all singers!"

"My goodness, this is huge!"

"I heard that Qianxing Entertainment received a total of sixteen award nominations, that's truly historic!"

"Of course, I already voted!"

"I listen to 'Love for Sale' and 'Damn Tenderness' on repeat all the time; they deserve an award!"

The clamor of discussion transformed into a continuous stream of faith points, flooding into Lu Jiuge's system panel.

Lu Jiuge walked slowly into the hotel, watching the company singers hurrying behind him, and whispered an instruction:

"This is your first truly glorious moment since joining Qianxing Entertainment. Don't rush back to your rooms, stay and show yourselves!"

Upon receiving the instruction, the singers stopped and turned to face the fans and reporters who had been blocked outside.

Seeing that the singer from Qianxing Entertainment was so down-to-earth and took the initiative to step forward, the surrounding fans screamed even more wildly.

"Lee Wai-ching! I can never get enough of 'Ex-Tenant'!"

"Zhang Jie! I will always support you!"

……

Facing the crowd of fans, Zhang Jie, Zhang Liangying, Li Huizhen, and others maintained a smile throughout, patiently signing autographs and waving, displaying a humble attitude.

As the crowd grew larger, security personnel stepped in to direct the flow of people, and they slowly made their way into the hotel.

After resting in their rooms for the night, Lu Jiuge led the team off again at 3 p.m. the next day, with the convoy heading towards the annual music gala venue.

After a whirlwind drive, the convoy arrived at the venue for the grand event, the Shanghai Grand Theatre, forty minutes later.

Even before you get close, you can feel the grand atmosphere that is overwhelming.

The red carpet stretched from the intersection all the way to the main entrance of the venue, with fans and reporters crowding both sides, their cameras and microphones clicking away in a continuous cacophony.

Vehicles from major record companies, well-known artists, and industry bigwigs arrived one after another, each time a car door opened, it was met with screams and cheers.

This is the most prestigious annual event in the Chinese music scene, and it is also the pinnacle of the industry, broadcast live nationwide by CCTV's music channel and watched online by hundreds of millions of people.

When Qianxing Entertainment's convoy arrived, it did not attract much attention.

In the eyes of traditional music industry forces, Qianxing Entertainment is still that grassroots, upstart "wildcat company" that has emerged halfway through its journey. No matter how many nominations it receives, it can never truly be considered a mainstream company.

Reporters on both sides of the red carpet mostly focused their attention on the teams from traditional record companies such as Yawei and Xinghai.

Zhao Mingliang stepped out of the car with his top singers, smiling broadly at the camera and deliberately adopting the demeanor of an industry veteran. However, his gaze inadvertently swept coldly toward the direction of the Qianxing convoy.

In that gaze, there was disdain, hostility, and a hint of barely concealed jealousy.

Standing at the back of the crowd, Lu Jiuge looked at the company singers who were feeling uncomfortable under their gazes and offered a reminder:

"Ignore them. This is an era where merit speaks for itself. Whoever wins the most awards is the winner!"

Zuo Wei, standing beside him, frowned slightly and lowered his voice to remind him:

"Mr. Lu, we should still be cautious. In previous years, there have been many precedents of traditional record companies colluding to manipulate the results and change the list of winners at the last minute."