Starting from a Bar to Sign Internet Celebrities

Besides, with their capital advantage, things shouldn’t have turned out that way.

He didn’t even have to think about what caused their downfall. Considering the information he had now, it was obvious.

He, however, had never considered entering the film and television costume and prop industry. After all, launching the Hanfu line was about developing the Hanfu community, a market with enormous profit potential. That much was clear just from the sales data generated by the four girls’ videos.

That’s why he thought these people were morons.

If they had leveraged the influence of film and television to develop costumes and props for the mass market, managed the industry properly, and guided the customer base, they could have made a killing from the Hanfu business alone.

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

But instead, these people chose a method that carried the greatest risk and didn’t even guarantee greater profits.

In his past life, the number one short-form drama platform had become a ten-billion-USD industry, and its costume and prop department was a huge contributor. It led many of the popular modern fashion trends.

When Zhou Huapeng heard Chen Jincheng’s words, his expression instantly darkened. "President Chen, it seems you have quite an appetite. Be careful you don’t choke on it. Don’t think we’re just pushovers."

"???" Chen Jincheng was completely stunned.

’What the hell?’

’Does this guy not understand plain language?’

But before he could say anything else, the other party had already hung up.

"Fuck..." Chen Jincheng cursed as he listened to the dial tone from the disconnected call.

’Seriously,’ he thought, ’that Internet Celebrity Young Master must have had a great time with his tirade, but it looks like he’s just landed me in a pile of unnecessary trouble.’

Meanwhile, after hanging up, a furious Zhou Huapeng kicked over a nearby chair and said viciously, "Damn it! That Chen Jincheng is too greedy! He wants to destroy us and monopolize all the profits!"

His words made everyone else in the conference room’s expression turn grim.

Anyone who knew the film and television industry understood. It was difficult to recoup costs on most productions based on viewership, streaming numbers, and box office alone. Therefore, they had to make up for it in other areas, and merchandising costumes and props was a major one.

Otherwise, their Si Rui Film and Television Group couldn’t have become the most profitable film company.

Now, it seemed Chen Jincheng was planning to fight them to the death.

"Fuck! Since he doesn’t know what’s good for him, let’s just crush him."

"Right, we can’t back down. If we let him keep this up, we’ll be the ones who are finished."

"..."

Zhou Huapeng said viciously, "He’s planning to wipe us out. We absolutely can’t just sit here and wait for death. First, let’s discuss how we’re going to strike back."

The others nodded at his words and began to strategize.

One person suggested, "We could try to get him and his company blacklisted. After all, we’re not the only ones affected in the costume and prop side of the business."

Zhou Huapeng frowned and said, "That’ll be difficult. His film company has that President Lei backing it. More importantly, he acquired LeTV Film and Television and its streaming platform. The other film companies won’t necessarily join us in blacklisting him."

The man immediately added, "I’m not talking about film companies, I’m talking about Tiao Yin. Isn’t he Tiao Yin’s number one influencer? His Second-Life Star relies heavily on his fame to attract traffic to its new talents."

"If we can get him banned, it would definitely deal him a heavy blow. It would also show him that we’re not pushovers and make him think twice."

Another person agreed with this idea and immediately said, "Didn’t Tiao Yin contact us before about inviting celebrities to join their platform? They obviously want to increase their influence. We can contact Tiao Yin and offer to lead the charge in getting our company’s celebrities to sign up, and in exchange, demand that they ban Chen Jincheng."

"Even if he is Tiao Yin’s top influencer, compared to so many celebrities, Tiao Yin should know how to weigh its options. After all, they can always promote a new ’number one,’ but they can’t just create celebrities out of thin air."

Zhou Huapeng nodded. That was indeed the case.

Since Chen Jincheng had pulled this stunt to embarrass them, they had to respond. They had to show him that if he wanted to be endlessly greedy, he’d better check if his teeth were sharp enough.

He didn’t have the contact information for the person in charge at Tiao Yin, but he got Han Shangyou’s phone number through one of his contacts there and dialed it.

Tiao Yin.

Han Shangyou had arrived at the office early. When the call came in, he already knew who it was.

His subordinates had already reported to him.

Although he wasn’t in the film industry, he was aware of certain things. He had a rough idea of why they were calling him. After all, the issue with the film industry’s costumes, props, and money laundering had already hit the trending topics list on Tiao Yin that morning.

Even though there was no proof, with this kind of thing out in the open, it would surely be investigated if it caught the attention of the higher-ups. At that point, they couldn’t just turn a blind eye.

He had also heard about some of the issues involved, which explained why the other party was so anxious.

He answered the call. "Hello, this is Han Shangyou."

Zhou Huapeng immediately said with a cheerful tone, "President Han, hello. This is Zhou Huapeng from Si Rui Film and Television. I’d like to talk to you about a potential collaboration."

Hearing this, Han Shangyou replied with a laugh, "President Zhou, please, go ahead."

Zhou Huapeng got straight to the point. "President Han, you’ve always wanted to spearhead getting celebrities to join Tiao Yin, right? I assume it’s to expand Tiao Yin’s influence. I can help you with contacts and make this happen. I imagine a great number of stars will join Tiao Yin after this."

Han Shangyou, still sounding cheerful, replied, "And what would President Zhou need us at Tiao Yin to do?"

Without hesitation, Zhou Huapeng stated his goal. "President Han, I hope you will ban Chen Jincheng. To Tiao Yin, he’s just an internet celebrity. Even if he’s the number one, a ban is a ban. You can just promote a new one. In exchange, you’ll get a flood of celebrities joining the platform. I’m sure President Han would be willing to make this happen."

"Uh..." Han Shangyou was taken aback for a moment, then said decisively, "President Zhou, I’m afraid we can’t agree to that. I have something else to attend to, so I’ll be hanging up now."

He hung up just as decisively, then couldn’t help but complain to himself, ’What an idiot. Doesn’t he do any research on the current situation before making a call?’

’Given the current situation between Tiao Yin and Kuaishou, would I have to be out of my mind to ban Chen Jincheng? Worried that Kuaishou can’t poach him, so I should give them a huge assist, is that it?’

’I’m positive that if I even showed a hint of doing that, Chen Jincheng would jump straight to Kuaishou. That would be a fatal blow to Tiao Yin. Our shopping cart feature would lose half its business.’

’Didn’t you see? He just had four girls make some videos selling Hanfu and they immediately took the top four spots on the weekly shopping cart sales chart.’

’Is he kidding me? Asking me to ban Chen Jincheng right off the bat.’

’Even if Tiao Yin were to deal with Chen Jincheng someday, it wouldn’t be now. And celebrities? Please. Once Tiao Yin defeats Kuaishou, you celebrities will be begging to join our platform, begging us for traffic.’

’He doesn’t even understand the situation. Truly clueless.’

’But then again, he’s just some film industry guy. How would he understand how fierce the battle between our short video platforms is right now?’

As for Zhou Huapeng and Si Rui Film and Television Company, he didn’t give them a second thought.

With Tiao Yin’s current power, that film company was nothing.

Besides, he had a feeling that company was headed for trouble.

Meanwhile, Zhou Huapeng was left completely stunned after being so decisively hung up on.

This was completely different from what they had expected. The other party actually refused to ban Chen Jincheng and, more importantly, hung up on him. ’Is he out of his mind?’

"President Zhou, how did it go?" someone next to him asked anxiously.

Zhou Huapeng’s face was grim as he said, "Tiao Yin refused. They’re going to protect Chen Jincheng at all costs."

"They wouldn’t give you any face at all?" another person asked, annoyed. But besides being annoyed, he realized there was nothing they could do about Tiao Yin. They couldn’t afford to offend a platform with that much traffic.

Just with this current news, if Tiao Yin let it trend for a little longer, they would be in big trouble.

Someone else said, "Since we can’t get Chen Jincheng banned, let’s ruin his reputation. Smear him completely. Then he won’t be able to do much of anything, and no one will buy what he’s selling. And that’s something we’re good at."

Many agreed with this. After all, it was something they excelled at: hiring online trolls, releasing ’smear material’ through the media, questioning their target’s motives and character, diverting public attention, blurring the incident into a private dispute over profits, and leading the public to doubt their opponent.

Once the plan was set, Zhou Huapeng and the others began to discuss the details. Finally, he summarized, "Alright, we’ll proceed on two fronts as discussed. First, we’ll claim he’s disrupting the industry for his own market interests. Get all the designers in the industry to attack Chen Jincheng."

"Second, we’ll focus on his ’unclear’ relationships with the artists under his label. Accuse him of coercing his artists into sexual relationships and having a chaotic private life. Get the trolls to drag all the famous female influencers from Second-Life Star into it. I refuse to believe we can’t ruin his reputation."

The others all took out their phones and began making calls. They would need a lot of online trolls to smear Chen Jincheng.