CH 22

He Gaoyi and Yue Tianhua hadn’t had a good time recently.

As Qin Siyuan’s stuntman[1], now that Qin Siyuan was unwilling to employ him any longer, who was he going to be a stand-in for?

He Gaoyi was also currently being chased by several brands for compensation and was in distress himself.

The two protagonists were not doing well, but Qu Siyuan couldn’t have a better word to describe his contentment.

***

The Movie crew was still busy looking for an actor to fill the role originally given to He Gaoyi. But that was out of Wu Siyuan’s concern.

Even the Company he signed at couldn’t bug him, since it turn out Qin Siyuan was in fact, the major shareholder of the Company itself.

Lately, he devoted himself to studying (the current situation of this world’s economic state as well as the entertainment industry), using the experience he had gained in the previous world, and starting to invest in some projects.

Qin Siyuan had his interest solely set with being an Actor, on the other hand, Wu Siyuan was someone who had been smitten with the joy of investment.

But first, he had to let his Family Group put pressure on the TV station or any Entertainment Program, subtly hinting that they shouldn’t expect any investment if they dare to use either He Gaoyi or Yue Tianhua in the program.

Similarly, Wu Siyuan’s Film and Television Company issued an official statement that their Company’s artists would never share the stage with the two people mentioned.

Be it a TV Station, or a Program Group, in order not to offend the big sponsor behind Wu Siyuan, they simply banned He Gaoyi and Yue Tianhua from having any appearance.

Yue Tianhua’s banning was purely incidental. After all, apart from relying on Qin Siyuan to rack some attention to himself, he had no worth to be famous in the first place (even without the banning notice, he had little to no chance of appearing on TV).

Originally, He Gaoyi and Yue Tianhua wanted to maintain their exposure using the support of a certain part of the mass, as well as some parties who fancied their hype, such as streaming on some LIVE broadcast websites, and so on. However, all of their measures received complaints and were reported one by one, to the point that they couldn’t do any LIVE streaming or even publish new videos.

***

On Wu Siyuan’s side, after he had succeeded in getting rid of his doom, being a stepping stone for others, his mind was soon filled with how to make more money.

Coincidentally, it’s also time for their Company to have a breath of fresh air. So, Wu Siyuan planned to create several talent shows.

A men’s team and a women’s team were held in the same year in a sequence, where the men’s team was held in the first half of the year.

Additionally, Wu Siyuan also took advantage of the show to use his Family’s Jewelry brand as the sponsor, giving more brilliance and grandeur sparkle as a feast to the audience’s eyes. During the period of talent show casting, Wu Siyuan was also personally involved in selecting various accessories to be used as props during the competition later.

He had no worries over the possibility of the jewelry being stolen or swapped with counterfeits. Besides the fact that the competition would be held in a closed dormitory with restricted contact with the outside, Wu Siyuan also had confidence in his jewelry brand itself. The reason why they were infamous and able to gain a firm hold internationally, was because aside from the relatively low-end models, the rest of the goods were implanted with microchips[2].

If one were to lose their jewelry, they could find them using the positioning device.

Therefore, Wu Siyuan felt at ease about using the jewelry as props. To put more guarantee, in the closed management, there were also cameras installed all over the place.

Wu Siyuan started by contacting a lot of Entertainment Companies and other Performing Arts Groups, sending the invitation for their young trainees or artists to participate in the competition of the talent show.

The goal of the talent show was to screen the contestants and finally, leave a total of 11 people to form a group. Wu Siyuan ensured that the voting was fair and there would be no information disparity between the participants.

After the finalists form a team, it didn’t matter from which Companies they originally come from, they would form a group and sign in Wu Siyuan’s Company for a period of 2 years. After the contract expired, the group would disband and the members may return to their previous affiliated Company.

There had been a lot of such talent shows held in the country, and as a result, a lot of Entertainment Companies were willing to send their artists or trainees to participate. Despite the constant debatable fairness or some other surreptitious affair latched on such shows, at least their artists could utilize the period of casting to help increase their public exposure.

Even after Wu Siyuan valiantly declared that there should not be any conspiracy or underhanded move, no one actually took his words to heart.

At this time, Wu Siyuan proceeded by introducing the voting platform developed by his affiliated small Software Company. Here, one card number could only be used to register for one account. However, only one mobile phone could be bound, or in other words, one mobile phone could only be used for one account[3].

The whole voting process thereon was conducted through the newly developed APP. The number of votes for each account was limited to a certain amount, and you have to sign in and leave a comment every day to get items to support the Talent Show participants. Each account was provided a maximum of 3 items per day[4].

The nonacceptance of krypton gold basically limited the audience’s behavior of relying upon who had the most money to support their Idol. The use of ID numbers also restricted the fact that most people had more than 1 phone number. If they wanted to have 10 accounts, they had to own 10 mobile phones accordingly.

If it weren’t for the possibility that IP addresses might be faked, Wu Siyuan might even resort to one account for one IP address. However, IP address was even more unreliable compared to phone numbers, so that’s how the final decision eventually came to be.

***

Regarding Qin Siyuan’s insistence to present fair voting as best as he could, the Major Companies didn’t really care much. What they need was a chance for their artists to appear in front of a camera. However, for the minor Groups, his move gave them more guarantees. If there’s really no shady deal on the backstage, then their artists could have a higher possibility to compete fairly with other contestants.

Two years was relatively short, in the future after the winner’s contract ended, they could return to the place they originated from.

Therefore, despite it being the first time for Wu Siyuan’s Company to host this kind of show, even though the TV Station they cooperate with didn’t have any high expectations, they still earned a wave of participants.

Naturally there needed to be a proper screening.

Even if he was not a face-con, but he still had to pay attention to the participants’ appearance. After all, the targeted audiences were mostly visual animals.

The first priority was of course, toward those with good looks and excellent temperament. Next was, those who had incredible talent but lacked in appearance. As for the rest who neither had talent, unique temperament, or even good look? Well, sorry, but Wu Siyuan didn’t attempt to do a charitable event.

There were also independent applicants who had yet joined any Ent. Company or Art Group. The selection for those people would be added with the intention of selecting new artists for Wu Siyuan’s own Company. It didn’t matter whether they could be one of the 11 finalists later or not. They could still be trained and directed to other paths.

By the way, aside from the Company’s Official announcement, Wu Siyuan also helped promote the newly issued Talent Show on his own Weibo, encouraging the young man out there to actively sign up.

His fans could only wail in the comments:

[Sobs-sobs, I want to join, but he just wants boys…]

[I also want to apply, but why does my gender restrict me so.]

[My friend asked me, if someone with an imaginary Pillar can be considered a boy?]

After seeing this comment, Wu Siyuan rarely gave a reply:

[Don’t be anxious, this is just the first part of the show.]

Due to this comment of his, a lot of people began to look forward to the second half of the year for the Girl Talent Show.

Even so, there were also some who were not optimistic about it:

[There are plenty of Talent Shows being held, many of which couldn’t produce a satisfying enough rating.]

[I don’t know how good would the finalists’ quality come out to be, but will they flop after being debuted just like others were?]

[Every year, there are always some groups who failed to reach their expected success. I wonder if the boyband produced by Qin Yingdi’s Talent Show will face the same fate?]

Actually, Wu Siyuan had his own concerns regarding this project.

It’s not about whether the competition achieved a good outcome or not, but he was worried about one thing.

In case some contestants were Sea Kings[5]who got exposed during the competition, or some other contestant overturned their character set, even worse, when contestants with black history were selected—then, cleaning the matters up would be a pain in the butt.

Without further delay, Wu Siyuan immediately asked his subordinate to investigate the background of those who had been selected in the preliminary.

No need for an in-depth investigation, just checking any past news on the internet, their Weibo, etc. Anyway, the Show had yet started, and most of them had not deleted particular posts. If they could find a problem by doing a simple screening, then the participant was really no good.

Unexpectedly, they did find some.

Wu Siyuan was honestly…flabbergasted—that he immediately packed these guys and sent them back overnight!

***

Qin Siyuan was originally a popular Actor, coupled with the recent explosive scandal of him being schemed by He Gaoyi and his lover not long ago, therefore, the Talent Show hosted by him attracted quite a great deal of attention.

In the past, Actor Qin Siyuan had never been so active and high-profile. Everyone assumed his change of style was due to the previous trauma, overcoming grief and anger and turning them into strength and motivation.

However, quite a lot of them also thought that Qin Siyuan might have really liked He Gaoyi. It’s just that, after sensing something was fishy at that time, he decided to reject the confession.

This rumor actually stemmed from He Gaoyi’s efforts. He was still working hard to brainwash the few fans or some ignorant passersby, hinting that Qin Siyuan actually liked him.

After he knew of this rumor, Wu Siyuan hurriedly responded:

[It’s not even RMB[6], how confident are you to think everyone must want you? I merely wish to focus on my own things. May the two of you grow old together and shall never be apart.]

After seeing his Weibo post, a wave of people went to He Gaoyi or Yue Tianhua to leave a comment in unison:

[We wish He Gaoyi and Yue Tianhua to stay together, ’til death do you part. Please get married asap, wherever you are.]

He Gaoyi was halfway furious when he saw Wu Siyuan’s posting, and was still thinking of another way to ride on his popularity, yet at the next moment, due to the said posting, a lot of his acquaintances specifically went to find him to have a good laugh. That’s right, he was still a contracted artist in his Company. Since he had a good relationship with the Boss, instead of directly firing him, he was just ordered to lay low in the meantime.

After getting rid of the annoying flies, Wu Siyuan began to concentrate on his future cash cows.

He didn’t want them to put on a fake persona and simply wish they could come out as natural. There were some hidden gems among the selected participants, but whether they could withstand the polish in the Entertainment Industry or not, was still unknown.

The men’s team Talent Show that started with huge traffic had finally begun recording.

Wu Siyuan spent a lot of money in preparation, honestly, he was a bit nervous himself, afraid of the Show might not end up as they expected. Fortunately, his own filming had been completed.

Speaking of the Movie crew, the Actor who ended up replacing He Gaoyi’s role was a somewhat unlucky guy.

Every time he played a role, he always ended up being a transparent guy. Everyone else was popular due to their roles, yet this Actor remained unknown for a long time. Even if his resources were not bad, his acting skills were also praiseworthy, and he didn’t even have any scandals or faulty character, yet his luck was just that bad.

In the original plot, this Actor actually was one of Yue Tianhua’s suitors. During the filming before, Wu Siyuan had to be careful, guarding the possible revenge against him for the sake of Yue Tianhua.

Yet, nothing happened.

The said guy was honestly filming and did nothing else.

He wondered, ‘Is it because he doesn’t have a chance to be familiar with Yue Tianhua?’

In the end, the Movie was smoothly recorded, hence, Wu Siyuan was able to devote himself to this Talent Show.

***

The Talent Show was the first step in adding some refreshment to his Company.

Apart from producing this show, Wu Siyuan had also ordered his subordinates to do some research on the current online novels.  After buying some of the IP[7], they immediately formed a team, and began the production of the adaptation.

So far everything was going under control, nothing seemed to stray from Wu Siyuan’s plan.

As long as this Talent Show was wrapped in a successful end, the next Variety Show would also follow suit.

Wu Siyuan planned to make a Variety Show about married life, focusing on displaying the sweetness of some couple’s love life.

The targeted participants were the popular newly married artists, or those old couples who had been married for a long time.

Though it may take time to arrange, but Wu Siyuan was not in a hurry either.

He had to do this in order to pave for his future plans. He just hoped He Gaoyi and Yue Tianhua could live up to his expectation and stay a little longer until that time.

Wu Siyuan had directly dealt with them the moment he arrived in this world, they shouldn’t possess any threat, for the time being.

Speaking about the two protagonists, Wu Siyuan thought those two were absolutely true love.

After going through a massive scandal in the failed conspiracy, Yue Tianhua’s path to enter the Entertainment Industry was cut off. Right now, He Gaoyi was also in a semi-retired state. However, the two lovebirds were still together!

‘If this was not true love, then what should it be?!’

Thinking about this matter, Wu Siyuan had a sudden idea, and directly instructed the Talent Show participants to perform under the theme of “Love” in the next performance.

Anyway, when you have money and status, you could do as you pleased~

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T/N: I honestly translated this chapter in a daze, distracted by the huge temptation to continue watching Jujutsu Kaisen (that I finally have the time to watch these days).

The huge narration and lack of conversation in this chapter didn’t help either, lol~~~