My capital is quite large.

In the early morning, sunlight pierced through the heavy floor-to-ceiling curtains of the Waterside Villa, casting dappled light and shadow on the carpet.

On the large, luxurious European-style bed, Yang Mi was fast asleep.

In order to protect her hard-won resources and status, she used every trick in the book last night, desperately trying to please everyone, until she was completely exhausted and collapsed just before dawn.

Li Feng stood by the bed, slowly and methodically buttoning up his bespoke shirt.

"Boss, the car is ready."

Outside the bedroom door, Zhang Xinyu, dressed neatly, gently reminded him.

She glanced at Yang Mi on the bed through the crack in the door, and a hint of mockery flashed through her mind.

So what if that vixen screamed the loudest last night? Once the boss gets out of bed, all he has on his mind is his business empire, and no one can stop him.

"Let's go to the company."

Li Feng ignored Yang Mi on the bed, turned around and strode out of the master bedroom.

……

9:00 AM, Haofeng Network Headquarters Building.

Li Feng, accompanied by Zhang Xinyu, strode into the core conference room of the Weibo project operations department.

Although last night's Weibo Night created a miracle, the hype is like a mirage. If we don't keep adding fuel to the fire, netizens' memories will soon fade.

What he's going to do today is push this traffic frenzy to an even more insane, even distorted, extreme!

"Mr. Li!" The operations manager quickly came forward to greet him.

"Last night's grand ceremony was just the beginning; now, it's time to really get this pot boiling."

Li Feng pulled out the chair at the head of the table and sat down, his arms crossed, a dark glint in his eyes. "The internet is never short of harmony. What netizens love to see most is infighting, conspiracies, and gossip! Immediately release a few targeted smear articles!"

The operations manager perked up and quickly took out his notebook to take notes.

"First, spread the word on all the major forums and our Weibo page, writing that Huang Xiaoming and Deng Chao were fighting backstage for the dressing room, that the two didn't exchange a single word and clearly disliked each other! Make their secret rivalry for the title of 'Weibo King' completely explicit in your writing!"

"Secondly, take a video clip from last night's group photo of the four young actresses, slow down the frame rate, and hire online trolls to write smear articles, saying that Huang Shengyi, who ranked fourth with the lowest number of votes, deliberately used her shoulder to squeeze into the center position during the photo, forcibly stealing the absolute center position from Liu Yifei, who ranked first!"

Upon hearing these two tricky angles, the operations manager gasped.

These are all super-toxic rumors that could trigger a massive, earth-shattering battle between the two fan groups! Especially the competition for the center position among female celebrities, which is a blood feud that can never be broken in the fan community!

But Li Feng's plan was not yet finished.

"Wait two hours after these two news items have been circulating, then add fuel to the fire."

Li Feng sneered, "Hire a group of top-notch online trolls to spread rumors in Huang Xiaoming's fan page, saying that Deng Chao's team spent a lot of money hiring smear campaigners and online trolls to smear Huang Xiaoming's acting skills and English accent. Portray Deng Chao as a treacherous villain who will stop at nothing to get ahead."

"What about Chen Kun?" the supervisor asked cautiously.

"Send a press release to Chen Kun, creating a persona called 'Unique Beauty'."

Li Feng tapped his fingers lightly on the table. "Just say that Chen Kun disdains to get involved in the power struggles between Huang Xiaoming and Deng Chao, preferring to remain aloof and beautiful. That will best strike at the sense of superiority of his group of artsy female fans."

"The final and most important step!"

Li Feng stared intently at the operations manager. "Create countless inflammatory posts across all major online forums! Compile all the awards, box office receipts, viewership ratings, and even endorsement deals of these eight top stars and actresses since their debut into a comparison table! Let their fans compare their achievements, fight amongst themselves, and battle it out!"

The entire conference room was completely silent.

That's ruthless! This exposes all the hidden human weaknesses, jealousy, vanity, and competitiveness within the fan community under a microscope!

Once this combo is unleashed, the entire fan community in the Chinese entertainment industry will be engulfed in bloodshed, and their only battlefield to protect their idol will be Haofeng's Weibo!

The daily active users and traffic here are about to experience a second explosive growth!

"Understood! I'll immediately deploy my entire PR team!" The operations manager was trembling with excitement and ran off to carry out the order.

After setting up the Weibo public opinion hegemony campaign, Li Feng did not stop. He turned around and went down to the platform R&D department to inspect the independent video player software that had just been launched—[iQiyi].

"Mr. Li." The project manager in charge of iQiyi greeted him with a worried look on his face.

"How's the data?" Li Feng walked to the back-end monitoring screen.

The project manager wiped his sweat and shook his head bitterly: "It's not doing very well yet. Although we've brought in some users through Weibo, the platform's technical issues haven't been fully resolved. Many users have reported that the picture quality is severely compressed when watching our exclusive HD dramas, and there are frequent buffering and stuttering during peak evening hours. Our customer service hotline is practically overwhelmed with complaints."

Technological bottlenecks were a pain point for everyone in the early days of streaming media.

"What's the rush? We've only just begun."

Li Feng patted the project manager on the shoulder, his tone confident, "A little lower quality, a little lag—that's temporary. What's the core of a video website? Content! We hold the exclusive streaming rights we bought for hundreds of millions. Even if netizens are cursing from the lag, if they want to watch a show, they'll have to grit their teeth and watch it on iQiyi!"

"Go contact the top headhunting firms in China! Go to major internet companies and Silicon Valley to poach talent! As long as they are top experts in video streaming architecture and bandwidth compression technology, money is no problem, double their base salary! With our copyright moat, we can completely overtake them from behind!"

After reassuring the technical team, Li Feng turned his attention to the operations team.

"Has the cooperation agreement with Hunan TV been finalized?"

"It's settled!" the project manager quickly reported. "Starting June 9th, Hunan TV's 'Super Girl Breakthrough Competition' will be co-broadcast with iQiyi! And as per your request, we've opened an exclusive 'VIP Member Voting Channel' on the iQiyi app. Only those who have purchased iQiyi VIP memberships can cast ten extra votes for their favorite Super Girls!"

This model of deeply binding talent show voting with video website VIP memberships to exploit viewers became common practice more than a decade later, but in 2009, it was an absolutely cutting-edge tool for attracting traffic.

Li Feng nodded and casually picked up a list and information of the top 100 contestants of the "Super Girl Breakthrough Competition" sent by Hunan TV from the table.

He flipped through a few pages, but his brows gradually furrowed.

Zeng Yike, Jiang Yingrong, Yu Kewei...

Looking at the names and photos, Li Feng threw the documents back onto the table with some disappointment.

"It's too weak." Li Feng shook his head. "The quality of this year's Super Girls is several levels below that of the 05 season with Li Yuchun and Zhang Liangying. None of them have that 'sudden fame' feeling that can make people's eyes light up. The traditional talent show model has reached its end."

The decline of talent shows means that there will be fewer and fewer viral hits to attract viewers in the future.

Haofeng Network wants to create a true closed loop in the entertainment industry, and it absolutely cannot let the TV station control its lifeline!

"Go and call Old Han from the film and television department over here!" Li Feng's eyes narrowed, and he made a decision in an instant.

A few minutes later, Lao Han rushed into the R&D department.

"Mr. Li, you wanted to see me?"

"Old Han, besides filming and stockpiling copyrights, the film and television department is now officially launching its 'self-produced variety show' segment!"

Li Feng, his eyes sharp, issued the order: "The first major variety show project will be personally overseen by me! The show will be called—'The Voice of China'!"

The Voice of China?!

Old Han was stunned for a moment, not understanding what kind of business storm was hidden behind this somewhat mainstream name.

Li Feng strode to the whiteboard, picked up a marker, and began to sketch the framework of this phenomenal national music variety show that would later sweep the country and generate billions in commercial value!

"First, have the legal department register this name and all the program format copyrights for me immediately worldwide!"

"This show doesn't care about looks or background; it only cares about the voice! It's a true nationwide audition!"

Li Feng sketched four chairs on the whiteboard, his pen tip heavily touching them:

"The core gameplay of this tournament is called 'blind pick'!"

"Four top-tier celebrity mentors sit in specially designed swivel chairs, their backs to the stage! When a singer performs, if a mentor thinks the voice is good, they press a red button in front of them! The chair instantly swivels around – that's called 'I want you'!"

"If multiple mentors turn their chairs, then the students will take the lead and choose their mentors! To compete for top students, mentors will have to banter and undermine each other on stage!"

Upon hearing about this revolutionary blind audition format and the mentor-snatching-talents-players-trap-the-tests-all approach, Lao Han and the iQiyi project manager standing next to him nearly popped their eyes out!

That was so dramatic! So exciting!

In the past, talent shows featured judges who were aloof and offered harsh critiques. Now, top celebrities are forced to turn their backs on the stage and fight tooth and nail to recruit grassroots contestants?!

Just imagining the scene, Lao Han can feel that once this show airs, it will definitely cause a nationwide frenzy!

"Mr. Li, this plan is simply brilliant! The suspense and plot twists are sure to break viewership records!" Old Han exclaimed excitedly, his face flushed. "So, how do we decide on the lineup for our four mentors?"

"A configuration of three men and one woman."

Li Feng stated his criteria without hesitation: "They must be absolute superstars in the Chinese music scene who have genuine national recognition, seniority, and exceptional singing skills!"

"What about the appearance fee and budget..."

"There is no upper limit!"

Li Feng waved his hand, revealing his tycoon nature, "Show the same boldness we had for the Weibo Night! Go smash Zhang Xueyou, go smash Wang Fei, go smash Jay Chou! As long as they're willing to sit in that swivel chair, we'll give them whatever money they want!"

"This groundbreaking super music variety show absolutely requires a massive upfront investment! As long as this show is exclusively streamed on iQiyi, the membership subscriptions and revenue generated will definitely pay off tenfold or even a hundredfold!"

"Old Han, immediately start preparations for the global auditions, and make a huge splash! I want all the grassroots artists in the Chinese music scene to regard 'The Voice of China' as their only pilgrimage site!"