Chapter 505 - Chinese New Voice

“Zi Yan?” As Cheng Xu uttered this name, all the people on the scene were at a loss.

However, following that, they all became silent, thinking about the feasibility of this idea.

Tian Zhong, the person in charge, squinted.

Upon seeing the scene, Cheng Xu, the general director, thought that he had offered a pretty good suggestion.

At the same time, he also thought that Zi Yan was an ideal option. According to his original plan, all of the three supervisors would be male, which was somewhat too masculine. He thought it would be better if he combined both male and female supervisors. Consequently, he started considering the options of female stars. As he pondered on it, he found that though many female stars seemed to be suitable for this position, they were not suitable at all. He had a brainstorm all of a sudden after he saw the piece of news related to Zi Yan yesterday.

He thought the kind of innocent and beautiful girl like Zi Yan could not be more suitable for this position.

It was not until all the people on the scene had been silent for 10 minutes that he spoke. “It was not long ago that Zi Yan made a comeback. I remember she issued an album at first and the sales of the album were poor. At that time, some even criticized her. However, according to the hearsay later on, the Royal Entertainment Company did not equip her with good resources and connections. After that, the God-level song-writer, Han Yang, prepared exactly 10 competitive songs. It seemed that she rose to fame overnight.

“However, she was popular once. She is amazingly good-looking. Besides, she soared up into the sky in one go with the competitive album that Han Yang had prepared for her. Currently, she is highly popular.

“After she became popular, there were many topics related to her. However, almost no pink news was related to her. The situation was almost the same as that of several years ago. However… after her song “Loving You” was released, there were more and more topics about her gradually.

“Many people suspected that she had gotten married. Now, someone photographed her in a car along with a young man and the look on her face was quite affectionate. Moreover, they had been spotted at the entrance to a kindergarten.

“Their panda car led a line of luxurious cars, went to the kindergarten again, and escorted a little girl to school today. Now so many people wondered if the reason why Zi Yan had gone and lived in seclusion was that she had gotten pregnant. If we start counting the time when she had been pregnant from there, it happens that the child would be exactly four years old and suitable to go to kindergarten.”

Cheng Xu told everybody on the scene all that he knew. As he ended his speech, he pointed at the table with his fingers forcibly and said emphatically, “So! Before the truth is revealed, there will be many topics related to Zi Yan and her popularity will be pretty high. If she comes to our show, the traffic to our show will be qualitatively elevated! Consequently, this is my suggestion. I hope the person in charge can consider it.”

After his voice faded away, many others also offered their suggestions.

“I think Director Cheng’s suggestion is a good one. Zi Yan’s appearance alone can attract many people. Moreover, her singing skills are quite good.”

“Yes, I agree. Zi Yan’s singing skills are not problematic at all. Her popularity matters more, which can mainly bring in a large amount of traffic to our show.”

“So far, Zi Yan can beat anyone among the 12 celebrities.”

“…”

Upon hearing everybody’s discussion, Tian Zhong, the main person in charge, nodded and waved his hands, making the whole scene quiet down gradually.

“Zi Yan is indeed a good option. I hear that she just left the Royal Entertainment Company and started her own company. Currently, she needs to fight for her performance.” Tian Zhong’s eyes became bright gradually. He smiled and said, “We may invite her at a small cost. In that case, we can use the remaining budget to look for one more second-tier celebrity to preside over the show!”

The chief director, Cheng Xu, asked hesitantly, “Then, should I ask someone to get in touch with Zi Yan?”

“No need. I have an old friend in Hong Kong who comes from the Chu family. The Chu family is quite well-known in Hong Kong. With his help, the price for inviting Zi Yan will probably be much lower.”

Tian Zhong shook his head smilingly, took out his cell phone directly, and looked through the contacts.

Since the program division needed to get this thing done today, they had many tasks. Instead of avoiding the task, Tian Zhong sat in the seat of honor and dialed Chu Mingyuan’s number.

“Hello, Brother Chu, it’s me, Tian Zhong. Oh, yes, we have not contacted each other for a long time. How have you been recently?”

“…”

It was not until they had been chatting for a minute that Tian Zhong started talking about his official business. “By the way, Brother Chu, the reason why I called you today is that I need you to do me a favor.”

Chu Mingyuan smiled and replied, “Junior Brother Tian, you can get to the point. I definitely will help you out if I can.”

Normally, people could say words like this quite politely. However, if one pondered on it carefully, though people could try their best to offer their help, mostly they could do nothing at all.

Of course, Tian Zhong knew human nature quite well and did not intend to trouble him too much. All he wanted was to ask Chu Mingyuan to set him up with Zi Yan, elevating his importance by using the identity of the members of the Chu family.

Consequently, Tian Zhong spoke straightforwardly. “I wonder if you know Zi Yan, Brother Chu.”

“Zi Yan? Of course, I do! Haha. Everybody in Hong Kong knows Zi Yan now. Junior Brother Tian, why did you ask about her?”

Tian Zhong said, “Because I am now preparing a variety show called Chinese New Voice. We are one celebrity star short. Upon thinking about it, I think Zi Yan is quite suitable.”

“Oh, she is suited for a variety show very much.”

Tian Zhong lowered his voice as he said, “Since Zi Yan is in Hong Kong, I wonder if you can show up and set her up with our connections, Brother Chu. With your help, we definitely can get a good price. I think… Should we abide by the old rule?”

“What did you say?”

On usual days, when it came to a kind of thing like this, they preferred sitting down and having a good conversation. However, surprisingly, Chu Mingyuan got angry directly. Even his voice was raised by three decibels. He said, “Tian Zhong, do you f**king intend to trap me?”

“Huh???” Tian Zhong was at a loss instantly. He asked confusedly, “No. How can I intend to harm you? What happened? Brother Chu?”

At this moment, Chu Mingyuan got his senses back, took a deep breath, and said, “Sorry, Junior Brother Tian, I got agitated.”

“No, what on earth happened?” Tian Zhong felt more confused.

“Well, Junior Brother Tian, the way I see it, you are too open-minded. To be honest, I am afraid that you can’t invite Zi Yan successfully since she is out of your league. Do you know what kind of connections she has? Even people from the three grand families of Hong Kong need to be polite to her upon meeting each other. The Chu family is not strong enough. Even though my family is strong, I can’t help you with that. Honestly speaking, I am not entitled to meet her in person on usual days. How can I talk to her?”

“As for this…” The look on Tian Zhong’s face froze. He was somewhat startled.

It was not until this moment that he thought of one point.

Since he intended to invite Zi Yan to his variety show, the key lay in whether or not he could convince Zi Yan. Since Zi Yan just opened her company, she needed to fight for the performance results. However, the reality might not go as he had expected. He had made light of the reality and taken everything for granted.

Tian Zhong could not help asking, “In this case, the pink news related to Zi Yan recently is true, right?”

“Junior Brother Tian, be careful about what you say. We are not fit to comment on these kinds of things.”

Tian Zhong forced a smile and said, “All right then.”

Knowing that his plan had failed, he was more certain that Zi Yan would fit his variety show. As the saying goes, the best thing is something you can’t get. It is the same when it comes to someone you can’t win over.

However, when Tian Zhong was about to give up, Chu Mingyuan said all of a sudden, “Hold on! Since you intend to invite Zi Yan to a variety show, the project that the Purple Moon Entertainment Company took a few days ago will be over soon. Zi Yan does have a gap in her schedule. Stay calm. I will consult my boss now and call you back later.”

As the saying goes, there is always a way out. Upon hearing Chu Mingyuan’s words, Tian Zhong said continuously, “All right, all right. So sorry for troubling you, Brother Chu. I will wait for your update.”

He had done him a great favor by going to consult Patriarch Chu.

After Tian Zhong hung up the call, he stared at all the people in the conference room, chuckled, and said, “The update will arrive soon. Let’s discuss the other details.”

As a result, everybody started another discussion.

During the process, the chief director, Cheng Xu, got distracted sometimes. He had figured out the meaning of Chu Mingyuan’s words a moment ago. All in all, Zi Yan was socially influential.

It was evident that she was very socially influential since she had gotten the attention of Patriarch Chu.

However, never did it occur to him that she would be that socially influential.

“Ding!”

Before the discussion lasted 20 minutes, Tian Zhong’s cell phone rang.

After a few words, he hung up the phone.

Tian Zhong said, “Give me the laptop. I need to video chat with Patriarch Chu and discuss something with him. Keep quiet.”

Speaking of the more than 20 persons attending the conference, they were all trained and cultivated by him, who turned out to be his trusted aides. As a result, Tian Zhong did not avoid them at all while getting things done.

Soon, Cheng Xu opened the laptop and placed it in front of Tian Zhong.

President Tian did some operations and connected via video chat.

Cheng Xu and the other two executives could see the image of the video. A desk showed up in the image of the counterpart’s video. A middle-aged man in glasses was sitting at the desk.

This middle-aged man was well known, it was Patriarch Chu of Hong Kong!

Undoubtedly, they all needed to look up to this tycoon.

Even Tian Zhong was nervous. He swallowed, greeted him, and said, “Hello, Patriarch Chu.”

He saw that Chu Mingyuan was standing behind him and there were several middle-aged men beside Patriarch Chu. It was evident that they were the high-level executives of the Chu family.

Even Brother Chu was not qualified to sit down!

Patriarch Chu greeted him, smiled amiably, and said, “Hello.”

Patriarch Chu asked, “I heard that Chinese New Voice is your variety show and you intend to ask Zi Yan to be a supervisor, right?”

“Yes, I do. So I called Brother Mingyuan and asked him to help me with this.”

Patriarch Chu asked plainly, “Oh. Then, based on your budget, how much do you plan to pay to Miss Zi?”

“Gulp…”

He was under a lot of pressure while talking with the tycoon about monetary things.

Though Tian Zhong felt too shy to speak, he replied, “As for the pay… the budget is at about 25 million dollars.”

Originally, he had planned to prepare 20 million dollars at most and hoped that he could lower the pay to 15 million dollars or below after negotiation.

However, upon facing Patriarch Chu, he thought for a while and said a higher price, proving that he was more sincere.

However…

“Isn’t it too little?” The look on Patriarch Chu’s face froze. He said, “The pay is too low. Sometimes, sincerity is related to pay. If you do so, you would look insincere. It is Miss Zi who you are inviting now. The pay is simply too low!”

“However, there are only 40 million dollars left for our program funding.” Tian Zhong felt sweat all over his palms.

Though he had said a higher pay, it turned out the pay was still too low. Oh, he did not understand the tycoon’s world!

“40 million dollars…” Patriarch Chu shook his head and said directly, “Do you need an investment?”

“Ah?” Tian Zhong was at a loss instantly.

The atmosphere of the conference room was tense.

“Investment? Is it coming?”

“As for this, I…” Tian Zhong was confused and did not what he should say at all.

Upon seeing the scene, Patriarch Chu was not interested in talking with him anymore, feeling that he could not make the final decision. He said, “Forget it. I will talk with the president of the Silver Fruit Company.”

Tian Zhong nodded continuously and said, “Ah. All right, all right.”

The video chat was cut off.

All the attendees in the conference room were in an uproar, as was Tian Zhong, who wondered whether Patriarch Chu would make the investment or not.

Soon, before five minutes had passed, Tian Zhong’s cell rang.

It was a call from the president himself.

Tian Zhong picked up the call worriedly. Upon hearing the words, he was dumbfounded. After hearing the president’s praise, he got excited.

After he hung up the call, he glowed with health, leaned on the table, and said excitedly, “We will be rich! We will be rich!

“Hahaha, the Chu family will invest 300 million dollars!

“Zi Yan’s pay will be 200 million dollars and the remaining 100 million dollars will be our funding!

“Eventually… we can be extravagant!

“Cheng Xu, go to Hong Kong today and communicate with the Chu family about this. After you talk with the Purple Moon Company, you should do your best to get the deal done. According to the president, as long as you can get the deal done, it does not matter even if the pay will be doubled! Do you get it? Do you understand?”

After hearing his words, Cheng Xu replied somewhat confusedly, “Yes, I get it!”

But he did not understand what was going on at all.

The kind of feeling and this kind of funding… was the same as the situation where the air gun was equipped with a missile, which was f**king awesome.

However, if he wanted to equip the air gun with a missile, he needed to get the contract done first.

Consequently, they started the preparation in full swing.

In the end, Tian Zhong decided that he would go to Hong Kong with Cheng Xu and others.

…

The whole afternoon, Zhang Han had been practicing medicine under the thunder yang tree.

It was not until four o’clock that he went to pick Mengmeng up at kindergarten. Fortunately, no issues took place this time.

He had promised Zi Yan at noon that he would never do anything like that again.

He went into the kindergarten after standing in line. The little girl ran up to him as usual and said, “PaPa!”

Mengmeng’s small face was filled with happiness. After she was held up by Zhang Han, she said happily, “PaPa, we had a football match today. Guess how many goals I got?”

“Well, let me guess… 10?”

“Hey! My goals can’t be that many! It’s wrong. Start over!”

Zhang Han asked hesitantly, “Then… is it two?”

As Mengmeng’s big crystal-clear eyes blinked, she said, “No. I scored three!” After she finished her words, expectation filled her eyes.

Of course, Zhang Han wouldn’t let the little girl down.

He looked surprised and laughed out loud as he said, “Wow, you are so amazing! Mengmeng. You are so amazing to score three times. I must reward you for that! In this case, how about eating ice cream in a moment?”

Mengmeng said cheerfully, “OK, OK. PaPa is the best! Hohoho, my teacher said I am amazing. I replied that PaPa is the most amazing.”

“Haha, my precious daughter is the best.”

Zhang Han held Mengmeng in his arms smilingly and walked out of the kindergarten.

“Click, click, click…”

Slight sounds of shutters were heard from across the street. Zhang Han heard the sounds, saw the people, and did not bother with them at all.

He put Mengmeng down on the ground, held her tender hand, and walked back to the car.

After they got back to the restaurant, Zhang Han called Zi Yan again at 5:30 p.m.

Originally, he had thought she would be home at six o’clock. However, Zi Yan told him that she would arrive home after seven and he should finish dinner with Mengmeng first.

However, Zhang Han replied they would finish dinner together when she got home.

Since Mengmeng had just finished the ice cream, she was not hungry at all.

Consequently, the flavor of the dinner dishes Zhang Han had cooked was quite light. There was only one dish with meat. As for other dishes, they were all made up of vegetables.

As they were eating dinner, Zhou Fei was somewhat distracted and spellbound. After enjoying a few mouthfuls of food, she said in bewilderment, “Sister Yan, the way you see it, however amazing the brother-in-law is, his influence only lies in Hong Kong. Why did the show from Lin Hai City seem to intend to give us money for free? It is somewhat over the top.”

“I don’t know either,” Zi Yan shook her head slightly and said. “The pay is indeed high. I checked over the plan of the variety show, which is quite good.”

Zhou Fei said all of a sudden, “They arrived here together with the members of the Chu family. Could it be that the Chu family has increased the price?”

Zi Yan licked her lips and said, “It’s hard to tell.”

At this moment, Zhang Han glimpsed at them, smiled, and said, “What are you talking about? Did you have a new project?”

Zi Yan pouted her red lips as she said, “There are always many new projects. Honey, it’s all your fault.”

“Well?” Mengmeng was at a loss, lifted her head, stared at Zi Yan distractedly, and said, “You can’t blame PaPa for that.”

“Pfft…” Zi Yan stared at Mengmeng, who favored her father, and burst into laughter. She pinched Mengmeng’s tender cheek and said, “I blame your PaPa for being too amazing.”

“Hmm, PaPa is so amazing.” After Mengmeng heard her mother’s words, she was confused and thought, “If PaPa is so amazing, why did MaMa blame him? I just can’t figure it out. I will just eat dinner.”

The little girl mumbled and continued eating chicken wings.

Zi Yan looked at Zhang Han, licked her lips, and said smilingly, “Others all want to get higher pay and earn more. However, speaking of the contracts I have chosen currently, most of them have extremely high pay and a pretty light workload. Without your influence, that would not be the case.”

“Oh, haha…” Zhang Han broke into laughter as he said, “It is easy for you to make the decision. You can do whatever you want. If you’d like to take the job, feel free to take it. If you don’t like it, just say no. You can ask for any payment you want. All you need to do is to let them know.”

Zhou Fei said, “The way I see it, what brother-in-law said is right. There are three more supervisors in the show, right? Maybe you can ask for almost the same payment as them, Sister Yan.”.

Zi Yan nodded and said, “That suggestion works.”

After Zhang Han was full, he put down the chopsticks and said, “What is the name of the variety show?”

Zhou Fei replied, “It is called Chinese New Voice, which will be promoted by the Silver Fruit Video Company. Up till now, the show has been quite innovative. The flow of the show and the three other supervisors they have chosen are quite good. They visited us at around four o’clock this afternoon. Except for the high pay they offered, there were no problems at all with the things they discussed with us. The show suits Elder Sister Yan very much. We are interested in cooperating with them.”

Zhang Han asked, “If you join the show, do you need to go to Lin Hai City?”

“Yes,” Zi Yan nodded and said. “After all, we have a private jet. It is convenient for me to go back and forth.”

“How will it be convenient for you? If you start getting busy, you won’t have any time.” Zhang Han shook his head, stared at Zhou Fei, and said, “Let’s do it this way, ask for normal pay and see if they can move the location to New Moon Bay.”

“Ah?” Zhou Fei was at a loss and thought, “Could we play the game in this way?”

“It seems that this way will also work.” Zhou Fei got up directly and walked to the guest bedroom as she said, “Then, I will call and see how it goes.”

She walked into the guest bedroom, and it was not until about 10 minutes later that she walked out.

“It’s done,” Zhou Fei grinned and said. “After they discussed it, they agreed. However, it is somewhat difficult for them to move the location to Hong Kong. It is because most of the participants come from Hua nation and there will be many people at the open auditions. Some issues will be pretty difficult to be handled. They asked if it was OK to move the location to Shenzhen. If not, they will consult their upper-level supervisor.”

Zi Yan nodded and replied, “Shenzhen is also OK. It takes me less than two hours to get there driving on the highway. If I go there in a helicopter, it will take just over half an hour.”

Zhang Han also agreed and said, “Right.”

Consequently, they did not continue talking about this issue.

Though they had discussed the pay previously, as they signed the contract the second day, the pay for Zi Yan on the contract was 60 million dollars.

As for other celebrity supervisors, the highest pay they got was 30 million dollars, which was half of what Zi Yan got.

After the contract signing ended, they ate lunch in the cafeteria of the company.

Tian Zhong invited others to drink to celebrate the success smilingly, which startled Chu Mingyuan. He thought, “Drinking? Are you kidding me?”

Tian Zhong said, “We will replace the wine with tea, with tea…”