Chapter 271

Several women stirred with hidden currents, and Seeing Yan Li triggered two pieces of intelligence, but he paid no attention.

Let them surge if they want!

Although these people around him had some influence, recommendation rights, and even a degree of scheduling authority in relevant matters, no matter what, their moves still couldn't escape Seeing Yan Li's control.

The so-called recommendations and arrangements—every side still acted out of respect for Seeing Yan Li's face; promotion and heavy backing could only happen with Seeing Yan Li's approval.

Especially Dong Xuan and Qin Lan—their so-called personnel and connections within the Yi'an faction were, in essence, his own people.

Fan Xiaopang had greater fame, energy, and reach, and did have his own network, but most of his key connections still depended on Seeing Yan Li; otherwise, their effect and impact would be greatly diminished.

Under these circumstances, no matter how they surged, it was all, in a sense, meat rotting in the pot—and the power to divide the meat still rested in Seeing Yan Li's hands.

So Seeing Yan Li didn't care; if Qin Lan and Dong Xuan truly managed to pull down the company—or even the people he favored—Seeing Yan Li would actually respect them more.

It would mean these two had grown capable, or that the people they supported held considerable value—which was still good for Seeing Yan Li.

In short, no matter who won, Seeing Yan Li would definitely win!

In mid-April, Huang Xiaoming officially joined Huayi, and Huayi's Two Wangs held a sizable signing ceremony for him.

Judging by the cost of the ceremony, the guest lineup, and the promotional intensity, Huayi treated Huang Xiaoming with great importance—stronger than previous signings like Zhou Young Master, Lin Xinru, and Su Youpeng—even before the ceremony began, Huayi had already released press releases calling him their number-one male artist.

Of course, this was only part of Huayi's thinking.

As mentioned earlier, Huayi's artist management was divided into several teams, each with its own flagship artist.

For example, Li Bingbing and Li Xue formed one team, Zhou Young Master another, Lin Xinru and Su Youpeng—a pair who stood together—formed a third, and now there was a new team after Huang Xiaoming's arrival.

As is well known, within large companies, departmental interests often outweigh corporate interests.

Although Huayi heavily promoted Huang Xiaoming and tacitly accepted him as their number-one, that didn't mean the other artist management teams had no other ideas.

At least Su Youpeng, who considered himself equally famous and popular, felt he had the right to compete for Huayi's number-one spot.

Also remaining at Huayi alongside Li Bingbing was Ren Quan; although currently focused on business, he still had considerable fame and seniority, and wasn't without a chance if he chose to run.

Other Huayi male artists also had ambition, and some teams were already approaching outside popular male artists.

Earlier, Huayi had wanted to poach Deng Chao, but Deng Chao was snatched by Yi'an; naturally, they began considering other candidates.

It was said that Lu Yi had grown very close to Huayi.

Although Lu Yi's career had hit some bottlenecks these past two years, and his popularity had been affected by romance and marriage, he still ranked among the top young male actors; with Huayi's support, he might break through his bottleneck.

Another name frequently mentioned was Du Chun; though his fame wasn't high, several of his dramas had performed decently, and he was showing signs of emerging.

Popular young male actors were coveted by every company and hard to poach; promising newcomers were equally key targets.

At present, Huang Xiaoming, with his strong momentum and Huayi's backing, held a major advantage—but also faced internal challenges.

Especially Lu Yi—if Huayi secured him, it might ignite a battle for Huayi's number-one title.

Huayi was fully capable of doing this.

After all, they had already stirred up a number-one female artist rivalry between Li Bingbing and Zhou Young Master, and now had Lin Xinru and planned to sign popular female stars including Liu Tianxian.

If female stars can be stirred up, male stars can be stirred up too—all for profit and exposure.

As always, Huayi's Two Wangs cared about listing and stock prices; internal rivalries were temporarily outside their consideration.

But Huayi hadn't anticipated that just as their internal "Huayi number-one" topic was beginning, Yi'an started promoting a rivalry between Yi'an's number-one and Huayi's number-one.

Just four days later, Deng Chao officially joined Yi'an, and his signing ceremony was even more lavish than Huang Xiaoming's.

Seeing Yan Li, rarely given to bold statements, declared that Deng Chao had the potential to become the representative of mainland male actors.

Simultaneously, it was officially announced that Deng Chao would star as the lead in Yi'an's next Gu Long drama, *Xiao Shiyilang*.

The choice between this drama and another, *Meteor, Butterfly, Sword*, had sparked much debate; ultimately, *Xiao Shiyilang* edged ahead due to its relatively higher recognition.

Moreover, this was Deng Chao's own choice—he personally preferred Xiao Shiyilang.

Although Deng Chao rose to fame in historical dramas, he had mostly played young emperors; to portray Xiao Shiyilang's chivalry and wildness, he would need to put in considerable effort.

Gu Long dramas were one of Yi'an's golden trademarks; to avoid tarnishing the brand, Seeing Yan Li had even considered halting production after the Wu Xia craze faded.

Of course, there were other reasons as well—but this indirectly demonstrated Yi'an's high regard for Gu Long dramas.

If Deng Chao failed in the Gu Long drama and caused the project to collapse, his position as company number-one would be unstable.

Everyone could see Yi'an's heavy investment in Deng Chao, but they never openly declared him their number-one.

Just as Huayi never openly declared Huang Xiaoming their number-one, companies had to consider others' feelings, especially since both were newcomers.

But while the company didn't acknowledge it, press releases poured out nonstop.

Some came from the company itself, some from the artists' teams, and others from media outlets eager to stir up trouble.

Thanks to these press releases, more and more people began linking Deng Chao and Huang Xiaoming together; Huang Xiaoming was even asked by reporters at an event about his opinion of Deng Chao.

Anyone with eyes could see this was Yi'an's trademark "copycat marketing"—the same old tactic used years ago with "Two Bings."

Huayi was still hesitating whether to respond, but Chengtian—more precisely, Wang Jinghua—had already begun acting.

She created a Chengtian number-one, Tong Dawei, and joined the fray.

Whether Tong Dawei truly qualified as Chengtian's number-one was debatable; after all, Chengtian still had Chen Daoming, Hu Jun, and Xia Yu—all far beyond Tong Dawei's reach.

There was also Zhou Jie, not under Wang Jinghua's management, a prominent popular young male actor.

But Tong Dawei had his own advantages.

First, he was a popular young male actor, with higher commercial value than Chen Daoming and others; he was Wang Jinghua's protégé, highly valued by Chengtian, had been given the *Red Cliff* resource, and held several dramas including *Struggle*.

More crucially, he had a good personal relationship with Seeing Yan Li.

Publicity stunts aren't something you can just launch at will.

Anyone can try to copycat, and many had tried to copycat Huang Xiaoming—but only Deng Chao had gained momentum.

Why?

Because Yi'an had sufficient weight, knew how to create topics, was willing to spend heavily, and had enough channels to dump exposure.

For ordinary copycat attempts, Huang Xiaoming's team wouldn't even respond; but Yi'an's campaign had pushed Huang Xiaoming's team to consider responding.

Because responding to others' copycatting meant bleeding for Huang Xiaoming, but with Deng Chao backed by Yi'an, even though Deng Chao currently held the advantage, Huang Xiaoming still gained exposure—and long-term competition strengthened his position and stabilized the hype.

The example of the two of them is right there — which artist wouldn't be jealous of the many benefits this kind of competition plus binding brings?

By the same logic, two people like Deng Chao and Huang Xiaoming are enough to stir things up — why bring a third?

But Tong Dawei is different — he counts as half of Seeing Yan Li's own people, and sometimes can be used by Seeing Yan Li, so bringing him along isn't out of the question.

Three people stirring things up, three companies — the momentum can be even bigger, and Tong and Deng Chao can sometimes join forces.

Precisely because of this, Wang Jinghua persuaded and suppressed the dissent within Orange Sky, forcefully pushing Tong Dawei up.

And the smart ones are clearly not limited to Wang Jinghua — Hairun's Chang Jihong also moved swiftly to push her subordinate Liu Huohua out.

Liu Huohua is considered the universally acknowledged number one brother at Hairun, though his presence as number one brother isn't as strong as number one sister Sun Li's.