Chinese Entertainment King: Starting as a Fat Boy and Becoming a Singing King

Xu Yao was just preparing to take the first step in terminating his contract when, to his utter surprise, the company beat him to it and started making moves first.

The meeting room of Canxing Culture.

Five people were sitting at either end of the long table.

Mr. Liu sat at the head of the table, with a printed screenshot of Weibo in front of him, showing Liu Yifei's repost.

"Everyone says the song is good, but doesn't anyone compliment my brother's good looks?"

The number of reposts has exceeded 100,000.

"What do you think of this Weibo post?" Mr. Liu tapped his finger on the edge of the screenshot.

Sister Lin, sitting to his right, spoke first: "I asked Xu Yao at the hospital that day. He said he wasn't familiar with Liu Yifei. His parents were colleagues when he was young, and he had met her a few times."

"Not familiar with her?" Mr. Liu pushed the screenshot forward a bit. "Do you know how much a single repost of Liu Yifei's Weibo is worth?"

No one responded.

"Top-tier celebrities charge between 500,000 and 1 million yuan for a single Weibo post. Zhao Yanzi charges 1 million yuan, and Yao Chen charges 1.2 million yuan."

"Someone at Liu Yifei's level would charge at least a million for a single repost, enough for us to shoot an entire music video. Is this what you call not being familiar with her?"

The meeting room was silent for a few seconds.

Director Zhang from the operations department took over the conversation.

"Liu Yifei has publicly spoken out for Xu Yao twice. The first time was on the night of the finals, and the second time was during this music video. Neither of these was a commercial collaboration; they were private interactions. This kind of relationship cannot be explained away by simply saying 'we don't know each other.'"

President Liu nodded: "Regardless of their relationship, we need to use this connection. Xu Yao's single entered the top 60 of the new song chart, Na Ying switched, Yang Kun switched, and now Liu Yifei switched too. The hype has reached a critical point, just one step away. If we make that final push, we can break into the top 30."

"A new artist's debut single making it into the top 30—what does that mean? I'll see who in the industry still says Canxing can't make an artist famous!"

The operations director opened the notebook in front of him.

"What does Mr. Liu mean?"

"Buy trending topics. But not things like 'Xu Yao's MV is released.' Buy the topic 'Liu Yifei and Xu Yao's relationship. Compose the footage of Xu Yao shouting 'Sister, don't break your promise' to the camera on the night of the finale together with Liu Yifei's repost, and let the marketing accounts stir up the rumor that 'the sister Xu Yao shouted to on the night of The Voice of China's finale was Liu Yifei. The Voice of China production team has personally verified that there is indeed a promise between the siblings.'"

Sister Lin frowned slightly.

"Mr. Liu, isn't this direction a bit too...?"

"Too much?" Mr. Liu looked at her.

"This is too ambiguous. We don't know anything about Xu Yao and Liu Yifei's relationship. What if the gossip accounts turn it into a scandal?"

"We're going to create a scandal," Mr. Liu interrupted her. "But it won't be officially released by us. It'll be released by marketing accounts, and we won't confirm or deny it. Once the hype builds, Xu Yao's single will follow suit. When the hype dies down, we'll clarify through other channels that they're 'just siblings.' We can reap the benefits of the scandal and walk away unscathed. We should learn from other companies' tactics."

The operations director nodded in agreement.

"I'll contact the marketing accounts. We'll launch it tonight."

That evening, the hashtag #XuYaoCalledForLiuYifeiTheSisterInTheFinals# trended on social media.

It didn't climb up gradually; it was driven up by marketing accounts.

More than twenty marketing accounts published almost identical images and text at the same time.

The moment Xu Yao roared at the camera while holding the trophy during the finals was juxtaposed with a screenshot of Liu Yifei's repost of the MV's caption.

In the middle, a line of large text read: "The Voice of China officially announced that Xu Yao's 'Don't break your promise, sister' was actually her?"

The comment section was like a hornet's nest that had been stirred up.

"Holy crap!!! The sister Xu Yao called out to in the finals was Liu Yifei??? It's confirmed, case closed!!!"

"When Liu Yifei first posted 'My younger brother is so handsome,' I felt something was off. What top celebrity would call a talent show champion 'younger brother' for no reason? It turns out she had already claimed him on the night of the finale; we just didn't understand."

"So what does 'Don't break your promise, sister' mean? What did Liu Yifei promise Xu Yao?"

"Wow, what an amazing sibling relationship! Liu Yifei only publicly called Xu Yao 'brother' after he won the championship, probably because she didn't want people to think she got it through connections, right?"

"Upstairs +1. Xu Yao never mentioned Liu Yifei once from the blind auditions to the finals. It was only after the finals that Liu Yifei posted on Weibo to acknowledge her younger brother, which clearly indicates a relationship between an older woman and a younger man."

"Is this really that explosive? A relationship between an older woman and a younger man???"

"Our two families have been friends for generations. Xu Yao has called Liu Yifei 'sister' since he was little. Could it be a childhood betrothal?"

The topic started trending on social media.

After learning this information, Xu Yao immediately dialed Sister Lin's number.

"Hello, Xu Yao?" Sister Lin had a bad feeling.

"Sister Lin, is this trending topic something the company bought?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone: "No way, I'll go ask..."

"No need to ask anymore. I have only one request: remove it from the trending topics immediately. Right now. Otherwise, I will refuse to participate in any of your upcoming performances."

"Xu Yao, calm down..."

"Let me calm down for a bit."

Xu Yao was completely enraged, and his words seemed to indicate that he was about to lose his mind.

The company's actions have indeed touched a nerve with Xu Yao.

Since the start of the talent show, Xu Yao has used the topic of his breakup to generate buzz, but he has never revealed who his ex-girlfriend is.

Even if Xu Yao is certain, it wouldn't be unreasonable for him to say Wu Qian's name and cause a stir, gaining her 100,000 followers.

They didn't use the "Sister, don't break your promise" line from the finals to generate more exposure and traffic. If they had dug deeper into the incident and the media had revealed the older sister's illness, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they would have gained another 200,000 followers.

Did he climb to the top by stepping on his relatives and friends?

Xu Yao could not tolerate it.

He also used this incident as a pretext to start the battle to terminate his contract with the company.

"If the trending topic isn't removed by today, there will be no room for negotiation between me and the company. I will terminate the contract immediately, at all costs."

"Even if I, Xu Yao, am no longer a nobody in the music industry, I will fight the company to the end."

"Why?" Sister Lin's voice finally changed. "Xu Yao, the company is buying trending topics for you. And we haven't released any information on our official platform; it's all from marketing accounts. Once the hype dies down, it'll be easy to clarify. Just say it's fake news made up by the marketing accounts. It won't cause us any loss, and it won't cause you any loss either."

"Stop your damn rambling and get this trending topic removed as soon as possible. There's no room for negotiation on this."

Xu Yao hung up the phone angrily after speaking.

Fortunately, Xu Yao discovered it in time, and the "Liu Yifei and Xu Yao's relationship" hadn't become a hot topic yet.

A few hours later, the posts and trending topics related to the marketing accounts disappeared.

Xu Yao breathed a sigh of relief and texted Liu Yifei: "I'm sorry, Sister Qianqian, I've affected your reputation."

About two minutes later, Liu Yifei's reply popped up.

"It's alright, we're all family."

Then another one followed.

"I've been in this industry for so many years, I could write a whole book of stories about myself. But my fans won't give up so easily, you'll have to get used to it."

Xu Yao looked at the two lines of text and typed: "I saw that the Yi family came to my place."

Then I sent over a few screenshots I had taken on my phone.

Liu Yifei's fans left neat and orderly comments in the comment section of his Weibo.

"Shameless," "Crossing the river and burning the bridge," "Ungrateful," "You even exploited the help of the fairy sister," "Xu Yao, do you deserve to be my younger brother?" "Xu Yao, get out of the entertainment industry."

"Haha, it has everything." Xu Yao typed.

Liu Yifei paused for a moment, then replied: "I saw it. I've already asked my assistant and fans to let you off the hook and not to cause trouble at your place, but there will definitely be exceptions."

"Overall, your fans are quite well-behaved, sister," Xu Yao typed. "If it were other people's fans, they'd probably be bombarding the screen with 'national treasures,' and my ancestors for generations would be insulted."

Liu Yifei sent a laughing emoji with her hands covering her mouth.

"Xiao Yao."

"Um."

"Why don't you terminate your contract? Your company has a terrible reputation in the industry; they have absolutely no idea how to make artists famous. How much compensation do you want? I... I'll lend it to you first."

"Thank you, Sister Xixi," Xu Yao typed. "After all, I also rose to prominence through this company. Terminating the contract was inevitable, and I'll handle it. I'll come to you again when I really can't make it anymore."

Liu Yifei sent a head-knocking emoji: "Fine. Remember what you said, you're my only younger brother in the entertainment industry. Besides, the entertainment industry is all about connections, so don't feel embarrassed."

Then he sent another message.

"Oh, and don't forget about the audition. I almost never use connections to get roles, so you can't let me down this rare opportunity."

Xu Yao replied, "Okay, Sister Xixi. I'll prepare well. I'll be going to Beijing for the audition in a few days."

Liu Yifei replied, "Okay, perfect timing. I'm also in Beijing recently. See you then."