Chapter 94: Arrangements

The show's review went very smoothly; on her way out, Zhang Baizhi even left Cheng Chen her contact information.

However, she didn't stay long in Jingcheng—there was a pile of matters waiting to be handled over in Gang Sheng.

But she made a pact with Cheng Chen: whenever he came to Gang Sheng in the future, she would personally host this Heavenly King of Chinese music.

On the *Dyeing House* side, Cheng Chen's scenes were nearly all filmed, so he didn't need to stay with the crew at all times.

Sometimes he would text Yan Danchen to chat and nurture their relationship, sometimes he would go over to Tianhai Records to inspect the work.

Since Xinghuo Entertainment and Tianhai Records operated out of the same building, Cheng Chen could attend to both sides.

Considering Cheng Chen's current level, having to personally handle everything himself was honestly a bit tiring.

So, at his commission, Wang Tianxiao prepared a round of interviews for an agent.

Most of these candidates had been contacted through headhunting firms; they themselves were already working at various entertainment and media companies.

They had plenty of experience and understood certain rules of the entertainment circle, but most were unappreciated and stuck at their original companies.

Cheng Chen's recruitment of an agent this time was not done with great fanfare—it was a blind hiring.

So when those agents saw that the boss behind the curtain was Cheng Chen, you can imagine how surprised they were.

In the end, from over a dozen candidates, Cheng Chen chose 30-year-old Su Qingya to serve as his agent.

Well, besides being good-looking with a great figure, the key was that she was capable enough.

She should have risen to the top-agent position at her entertainment company, but ended up being suppressed because she refused to sleep with her boss.

"Sister Su, normally you'll just help me arrange my schedule and handle some company matters.

There's a three-month probation period. During these three months we'll adapt to each other; if either side feels it's not a fit, either party can propose termination at any time. Is that acceptable?"

Cheng Chen said with a smile.

"No problem."

Su Qingya nodded briskly.

The two chatted for a while; Cheng Chen roughly explained his situation so Su Qingya could carry out her subsequent work.

With Su Qingya on board, Cheng Chen was immediately freed from the work, so he began planning what came next.

On the Huaxia Blog side, thanks to his capital injection it had come back to life, and with his endorsement, the user count surged, faintly becoming the leading force among domestic blogs.

But Huaxia Blog's current results were far from meeting Cheng Chen's requirements; in his vision, Huaxia Blog would ultimately evolve toward the Weibo form of his later life.

Ideally it could beat Weibo to launch a Huaxia Weibo; putting the concept out there was far from enough—beyond integrating platform resources and technical support, it also needed content operations and topic marketing.

Launching at the right moment, and following up with a combo of "news-media attributes + anonymous broadcast-style voice + celebrities and stars."

It would absolutely leave the countrymen who were desperate to make their voices heard on the internet unable to fend it off.

And this combo was what helped the then-Xinliang Weibo gain hundreds of millions of fans within a year of its beta launch.

It also became the last straw that crushed Penguin Weibo.

Therefore, Cheng Chen—who came from an era of information explosion and was a seasoned Weibo enthusiast—understood these tactics inside out.

Replicating them on Huaxia Blog wouldn't be a problem; if it really didn't work, he'd just poach Old Wang's entire team and leave him a bare-bones commander.

As for film and television and albums, in the past two years the Korean Wave had been growing increasingly rampant, and this year marked the tenth anniversary of China-Korea diplomatic relations.

The Korean drama ratings champion *Autumn in My Heart* was therefore brought into China.

The leads of *Autumn in My Heart*, Song Huiqiao and Song Chengxian, also became the first batch of South Korean artists to enter the hearts of the Chinese people.

According to statistics, in the year 2002 alone, as many as 67 Korean dramas were broadcast in mainland China.

Precisely because of this, the Korean Wave was sweeping across mainland China, and this trend would peak around 2010.

Cheng Chen's idea was exactly what he'd said on the Singer Competition:

Chinese style is the baddest!

So in his upcoming albums he would, in batches, weave Chinese-style songs into them.

Saying he'd fight the Korean music wave single-handed was a bit arrogant, but at the very least he wouldn't let them run rampant.

At the same time, in this era digital was gradually replacing traditional CDs and cassette tapes, so Cheng Chen was also aggressively acquiring the digital rights of existing music.

Right now digital rights were still a novelty, and the market was utterly chaotic—so much so that as long as it was a music website, you could almost hear every song, as long as someone was willing to upload it.

Vague copyright, chaotic transactions, rampant piracy, and the indifference of distributors and singers left the entire digital music market in total disarray.

It wasn't until 2015 that the state issued anti-piracy policies; within a single month, nearly every piece of music software on the market was affected, taking 2.2 million songs offline.

Then they began scrambling to purchase rights, and among them Penguin Music was the most aggressive, through acquisitions and purchases.

It bought up nearly all the music rights on the market, dominating alone.

Other software companies without music rights had no choice but to either go bankrupt or take the route of cultivating music creators.

For a time it was utterly brutal.

Now Cheng Chen was going to, in this era when buying digital music rights was basically sold by the bundle,

when prices were no different from roadside cabbages, frantically acquire them and clutch them tightly in his hands…

As for film and television, besides acting, Cheng Chen gradually shifted his identity toward that of an investor and producer.

Or he would write a few scripts for TV dramas and films that had been massive hits in his later life, and use his fame to pull in investment and crews to start shooting.

Regardless of other factors, going down this path was basically a sure thing—no losing.

……

Time flew by; before he knew it, New Year's Day was approaching.

The shops on the street were decked out in lights and decorations, and the festive atmosphere grew thicker.

"Got any plans for New Year's?"

That day Cheng Chen received a text from Yan Danchen.

"I've been so busy with company stuff my head's spinning, I totally forgot New Year's is almost here. I've got nothing planned that day."

Cheng Chen quickly typed back.

"Great, I'll come to Jingcheng then, and we'll spend New Year's together."

Seeing the reply, Cheng Chen's face lit up, and he typed:

"Are you coming to Jingcheng just to keep me company? I'm honored!"

"Dream on. There's a launch event for a co-branded partner in Jingcheng on New Year's Day that I need to attend. Once it's over, we'll make plans."

Yan Danchen replied.

"Got it!"

Cheng Chen happily pocketed his phone, his mind already scheming what to do that day.

"Ding~"

A text message notification sounded.

"Got plans on New Year's Day?"

Cheng Chen picked up his phone, and his expression instantly became very interesting.

The reason was simple: this text was from Gao Yuanyuan.

"Sis, aren't you on set?"

Cheng Chen replied.

"Yeah, my scenes are almost wrapped up. I took New Year's off from the crew. What, you got plans?"

"N-no."

"Great!"

Pocketing his phone, Cheng Chen sat in his chair in a daze, muttering:

"So, does this count as a Shura field?!"