My capital is quite large.

Inside a high-end, private high-rise apartment in Yanjing.

As the morning light began to pierce through the window, Liu Yifei sat quietly in a wicker chair by the French windows, holding a cup of coffee that had already cooled down.

My gaze fell on the tablet computer on the coffee table next to me. On the screen was the "Four Little Actresses" poll list that was in full swing on Haofeng's Weibo.

Her votes were overwhelming, placing her at the top of the list by a landslide.

After the Weibo Night event, she seemed to experience overnight that long-lost feeling of being surrounded by admirers at the pinnacle of power.

The past year has been arguably the darkest period of her career.

Since Chen Fei, the godfather, encountered economic disputes and fell into trouble, the reality and ruthlessness of capital have been fully exposed.

Those friends and besties who used to follow her around calling her "Fairy Sister" all became strangers in a very short time, afraid of getting involved in any trouble.

However, in just half a month, she joined Haofeng Films in a high-profile manner, landed a role with director Tsui Hark, and shone brightly at the Weibo Night.

Those former best friends and acquaintances in the industry who had lost contact all suddenly reappeared, with text messages and phone calls filled with warm compliments and attempts to get closer.

Looking at these hypocritical faces, Liu Yifei felt utterly bored.

In the world of fame and fortune, only fame and profit matter.

The press releases are all claiming that she has the title of "Weibo Queen" on New Year's Eve and the five million yuan diamond trophy in her grasp.

But Liu Yifei was more clear-headed than anyone else.

As I put down my coffee cup, the image of that young man who seemed to have everything in his grasp came to mind.

From the time he spent 45 million to buy her from Chen Fei until now, that wealthy and powerful boss hasn't even made a single private phone call to her.

But how could a businessman who spent such an astonishingly high price really have no demands of her?

Others may not know, but being inside Haofeng, she naturally heard a lot of rumors.

Yang Mi, who closely followed her in second place on the list, was almost completely blacklisted by her company for refusing to report for work and faced exorbitant compensation claims.

As a result, he flew to the Shenzhen headquarters overnight. When he returned, he was not only safe and sound, but he also bypassed a group of young actresses and got a big role in Feng Xiaogang's "Aftershock"!

What the deal behind this is, in this cutthroat world, doesn't need to be explicitly stated.

"Is my Queen really secure?" Liu Yifei murmured to himself.

If that man is willing, he can simply move a finger behind the scenes, and the so-called data and votes are nothing more than a matter of his whim.

"Buzzing—"

The phone on the table vibrated; it was a call from the executive agent the company had recently assigned to her.

"Yifei, did I disturb your rest?" The agent's voice was tinged with excitement. "Huang Xiaoming and Brother Hu's teams both contacted me privately just now."

"Looking for me?" Liu Yifei frowned slightly.

"Yeah! Right now, the poll for the 'Four Top Celebrities' on Weibo is in full swing."

The agent explained, "Huang Xiaoming suggested that we use the Yang Guo and Xiaolongnu pairing from your previous collaboration in 'The Return of the Condor Heroes' to do some promotion and hype, in order to solidify his current number one popularity."

Hu Ge's side also has the same idea; they want to use the characters Li Xiaoyao and Ling'er from "Chinese Paladin" to stir up some fans and boost their rankings.

"Both teams have stated that as long as you are willing to interact with them on Weibo for a few posts, they are willing to pay a generous fee out of their own pocket."

Upon hearing these words, a hint of resistance flashed in Liu Yifei's usually calm and collected phoenix eyes.

Without much thought, I gave a straightforward answer: "Reject them all. Just say that I need to stay home and study the script recently, I won't have time to go online, and I won't cooperate with any form of CP hype."

"Huh? You've pushed them all down?" The agent said with some regret. "Yifei, this not only makes money, but it's also good for building your fanbase..."

"It's over." Liu Yifei's tone left no room for argument.

At this critical juncture, to create a romantic pairing with another male star? That's asking for trouble!

I couldn't help but recall the words Zhang Xinyu, the president's chief secretary, said to her backstage at the Weibo Night event, with a half-smile.

"Yifei, Teacher Wang Lihong wants you to star in a youth romance movie, but the boss feels it won't elevate your image. Considering your future path to high-end films, he turned it down rather unhappily. You should understand the boss's good intentions."

Recalling Zhang Xinyu's meaningful look at that time, Liu Yifei felt a chill run down his spine.

If it really was just a simple career path planning, why would Secretary Zhang go to the trouble of coming all the way to tell her that "the boss is not happy"?

A solitary and beautiful existence is the only safe way to survive.

……

Shenzhen, Haofeng Networks headquarters.

In the Weibo operations department's office area, the sound of keyboards clicking could be heard everywhere.

The operations manager was looking at the "hot search purchase price lists" sent by several brokerage firms in his email, stroking his chin and hesitating.

"Manager, Huang Xiaoming and Brother Hu's teams have both offered to buy a few trending topics about them and Liu Yifei in the top ten. The prices they're offering are quite high. Should we sell?" an employee reported to the manager.

"Well..." The supervisor was somewhat tempted.

Just then, Lao Han, the director of the film and television department, was carrying several documents and was about to go upstairs to find Lao Chen, the technical director, to discuss the interface. He happened to pass by the operations department and overheard this conversation.

Old Han suddenly stopped, strode into the operations area, pointed at the employee's nose, and launched into a tirade of abuse:

"What are you selling?! Have you all lost your minds?!"

Old Han glared at them, lowering his voice to angrily rebuke, "Without President Li's personal approval, you are not allowed to utter a single word about the company's female artists' scandals or trending topics! Anyone who dares to use the boss's people to promote others for this paltry sum of money wants to be fired, right?!"

The operations manager and employees trembled with fear, cold sweat pouring down their backs. They quickly nodded repeatedly, "President Han is right! We were foolish. We should reject their request immediately!"

Only after seeing the supervisor honestly reject the quote did Lao Han snort coldly and leave.

With daily active users exceeding 30 million, Weibo's foray into commercialization has achieved initial success.

Although Li Feng avoids accepting those nasty, intrusive advertisements to ensure user experience, the income from precisely selling "trending search terms" to promote upcoming movies and TV series is already quite substantial.

Although there is still a long way to go before the company becomes a big money-maker, the monthly revenue from trending topics and promotions is already enough to cover the huge server bandwidth and operating costs.

After half a year, Haofeng Weibo has finally ended its phase of burning money and bleeding out, and has initially achieved a self-sustaining ecosystem!

……

The CEO's office is on the top floor of the building.

Li Feng leaned back in the boss's chair, closing his eyes to rest.

Zhang Xinyu walked in carrying a thick report document.

"Boss, Lao Han from the film and television department has compiled the list of mentor invitations for 'The Voice of China'," Zhang Xinyu said softly as she walked to the table.

"Tell me, who did you come into contact with?" Li Feng opened his eyes, picked up his teacup, and took a sip.

"Because there was no upper limit to the budget we offered for the appearance fee, the response from Hong Kong and Taiwan was very enthusiastic."

Zhang Xinyu opened the document, "However, the Four Heavenly Kings declined the invitation to be regular cast members on variety shows due to scheduling conflicts and personal preferences. The communication with Eason Chan went very smoothly, and his schedule was finalized."

"Yes, Eason Chan's singing skills and quirky personality are well-suited for stages that require interaction with mentors." Li Feng nodded. "What about the mainland side?"

"In mainland China, Li Yuchun is currently the most popular and has the strongest fan base. She just signed an exclusive contract with Weibo, so how about...?"

"no."

Li Feng interrupted her, "The positioning of 'The Voice of China' doesn't need popular idols as mentors; it needs truly respected and influential senior figures to anchor the show! Otherwise, why should grassroots contestants respect you?"

After a moment's hesitation, recalling the standard answer from his previous life: "Mentors from mainland China, one male and one female."

"For male mentors, go invite Liu Huan! He's a titan of mainland pop music. With him sitting in that swivel chair, the show's professionalism and sophistication will instantly skyrocket."

"As for the female mentor..."

Li Feng tapped his fingers lightly on the table.

Actually, at this point in 09, the mainland female singer he most wanted to invite was Wang Fei, but a diva of that caliber was already semi-retired, and even if he spent money, he might not be able to invite her.

After a moment's thought, Li Feng decisively decided on the candidate: "Go and invite Na Ying."

"Liu Huan, Na Ying, Eason Chan..." Zhang Xinyu took notes carefully. "Boss, what about the last mentor? Currently, Zhou Jielun and Wang Lihong's teams in Taiwan have expressed interest in collaborating."

"Choose Jay Chou." Li Feng made the decision without even a second's hesitation.

Upon hearing this choice, Zhang Xinyu paused slightly in her grip on the pen.

She was about to say something like, "Jay Chou's appearance fee is more than one order of magnitude higher than Wang Lihong's," but then she suddenly remembered the scene backstage at the Weibo Night event.

"Wang Lihong really offended the boss!"

Zhang Xinyu, in her naiveté, thought that the boss was holding a grudge against Wang Lihong for trying to take advantage of Liu Yifei, and was deliberately kicking him out of this huge variety show market.

She swallowed the rest of her sentence: "Okay, boss, I'll tell Lao Han to sign Jay Chou right away."

Li Feng had no idea what was going on in his chief secretary's mind.

In reality, every decision he makes is based on absolute commercial interests.

At this juncture, Jay Chou possesses an unparalleled level of popularity and unmatched dominance among the new generation in the Chinese music scene!

As long as we can use money to get Jay Chou into that mentor's swivel chair, the show's ratings will be guaranteed!