Chapter 78: We Agree to This Marriage

After all the groups finished their performances, the trainees went up on stage one after another, waiting for the final public performance rankings.

The expressions of Shen Mingliu and the others were very ugly; they glanced at Luo Mo not far away, their hearts dead as ash.

As a contestant temporarily ranked first on the 【Popularity Support Ranking】, his fans all hoped he could debut in the C-Position, but in reality, this C-Position in their eyes had never once beaten Luo Mo to this day.

The only performance where he took first place was because during the first public performance, he didn't go to the Original Group but chose the dance group, so he didn't have a direct PK with Luo Mo from the Original Group.

Otherwise, he would have a screen full of losses by now and would definitely be mocked by others for being pathetically unskilled.

Of course, he is actually already being mocked by the masses now.

Sitting on this throne of first place is truly uncomfortable for him.

But, it is also a case of being in pain yet happy.

Shen Mingliu's mindset is very complex; he knows that in terms of strength, he is somewhat unworthy of his position.

However, the fact that you beat me on stage but still can't beat me on the ranking list for now still gives a bit of secret pleasure.

Feeling both embarrassed and pleased, he feels like he is about to develop psychological problems.

Since one is already this unskilled, one's mentality must be twisted enough!

However, the most important thing is that he is very clear about the importance of a C-Position debut.

When the 3-year group Contract is signed with Pineapple later, the resource allocation for the C-Position is the most significant. The resources one can obtain by debuting in first place are at least double that of second place, or even more!

At the same time, after a C-Position debut, fan cohesion will also be stronger.

Boy group Idols need fans to help boost rankings and help generate data.

Fans of a C-Position Idol will also have a sense of pride in the C-Position.

To maintain this pride, they will be even more desperate when generating data and boosting rankings, gritting their teeth to surpass the data of other boy group teammates in order to preserve the dignity and glory of the C-Position.

If you are in a C-Position and your various data points are still not as good as your teammates', that is when you have truly lost face!

But, for this public performance, Shen Mingliu knows he is going to lose again.

Come to think of it, he's gotten a bit used to losing...

As long as he doesn't have to wash the dishes, anything is fine; Luo Mo loves to eat meat, and his bowls are truly greasy!

The final result was as he expected: the Anonymous Team where Luo Mo was located won first place again.

What made him feel most uncomfortable was that his own team nearly ranked third.

Because the audience was still immersed in the romantic atmosphere of "Daughter's Love" and "Daughter Kingdom," everyone felt very uncomfortable when you suddenly brought out a dark fairy tale, so the live votes were discounted.

Before coming to "Creating Idols," Shen Mingliu's ambition was a landslide debut.

A so-called landslide debut means not only winning first place but also creating an extremely wide gap in votes.

He not only wants to be in the C-Position, he also wants to be the legendary 【Giant C】!

After encountering the harsh beatings of reality, he now only prays to hold onto first place.

"Anyway, the rules of the game are like this: whoever has the highest votes debuts in the C-Position," Shen Mingliu began to deceive himself.

The most important thing is that if Luo Mo also debuts in the group in the end, everyone will be in the same group.

He will have to watch helplessly as this person who has never beaten him uses his C-Position status to get several times more resources than him!

Even when taking group photos in the future, Laozi must stand in the middle; that is the rule!

At this moment, Luo Mo, standing in the first row of the crowd, did not know that Shen Mingliu had so much inner drama going on.

If he knew, he would definitely laugh out loud in the middle of the night while sleeping, waking himself up.

All roads lead to Rome; Luo Mo had long since decided that in this life, he would make his own choices.

A marionette is a marionette after all.

This is also the fundamental reason why he insisted on establishing a studio.

If he really had to find a company, he would just affiliate with one.

He is very clear that compromising with capital is useless. The more you compromise, the more they will think you are easy to manipulate and demand you compromise even more.

If you don't refuse when they touch your hand, then next time they will touch your leg.

If one still lives this life with hands and feet bound and acting timidly, then it would be too unfair to the incomparably brilliant civilization behind him.

………

………

After leaving the stage, everyone in the Anonymous Team was still in a state of high excitement.

People like Li Junyi knew very well that they would have to leave after a while and face Elimination.

But since they took first place in this performance, they were all happy for Brother Mo!

Just as everyone was in high spirits, a staff member from the show approached Luo Mo.

"Luo Mo, come with me to the conference room. Someone from Pineapple is looking for you, and Ning Dao has already agreed to the meeting," this young woman said to Luo Mo.

Tong Shu and the others were a bit excited upon hearing this.

Pineapple's top management wants to see Brother Mo; Brother Mo is about to take off.

They all knew very well that the show was broadcast on Pineapple TV, and the final group debut would be signed with Pineapple Entertainment.

For Pineapple's top management to see Brother Mo at this time, that is a sign of being valued!

Seeing them all grinning foolishly, Luo Mo just smiled easily and didn't say much.

There was only one member in his team who had signed with a company; the others were all Individual Trainees who knew very little about the tricks of the trade.

Innocent youths like Tong Shu were especially easy to fool.

In their eyes, having an industry bigwig take time out of their busy schedule to specifically see you is such a great thing.

And then, the bigwig paints a few big pictures for them, and they might even happily show off these big pictures when eating with friends and family later.

Being in the growth phase of their careers, they themselves feel they are potential stocks.

The more it is this kind of time, the easier it is to be trapped by the art of painting big pictures, thinking it is all real.

Look at this pancake; it is both big and round.

Luo Mo waved Farewell to his teammates, but the moment he turned around, the relaxed smile on his face vanished completely, leaving no trace behind.

He followed this young woman to a small conference room, and as soon as he entered, he saw Zheng Quan.

He had heard the songs Zheng Quan wrote, but personally, he did not particularly like them.

Judging by his attitude, Zheng Quan was quite enthusiastic; he began making small talk the moment they met, and then proceeded to lavishly praise Luo Mo's stage performance just now.

As for Luo Mo's attention, it was primarily fixed on Zheng Quan's sunglasses.

It was nighttime, and they were indoors, yet this long-haired Zheng Quan still insisted on wearing sunglasses; perhaps this was just his personal style.

After finishing the small talk, Zheng Quan said, "Luo Mo, judging by your current momentum, you are bound to debut as part of the group, and you are also a strong contender for the C-Position."

"You should know that after forming the group, you will be signing with our Pineapple, and Pineapple has prepared a massive amount of resources for you all, such as the group variety show after debut, as well as film and television resources from Pineapple TV to facilitate crossovers."

Actually, just listening to this, it sounded very tempting.

Zheng Quan raised his head, looked at Luo Mo through his sunglasses, and said, "I won't beat around the bush; I'll get straight to the point. Both President Wang and I think very highly of you. How about it? Do you want to come to our Pineapple?"

"Let me tell you, if you join our Pineapple now, your personal exposure will be increased on Pineapple TV when 'Creating Idols' airs."

The main episodes of the program are edited by Ning Dan's team; neither Pineapple nor Penguin can re-edit them, as they must follow a unified standard.

But besides the main episodes, Pineapple and Penguin can come up with many tricks.

For example, on the homepage Poster, whose pictures should be placed there?

In the VIP version, who should be given more screen time?

Some of the contestants' personal behind-the-scenes footage and daily life content are also broadcast in the special versions.

In short, the impact they can have is very significant, and it is not limited to just these examples.

Luo Mo did not give an immediate reply, but calmly said, "Director Zheng, may I take a look at the Contract first?"

"Of course you can; I came here with sincerity," Zheng Quan said with a smile.

When Luo Mo had a rough understanding of the Contract, he thought to himself, "It's roughly the B Class standard."

If this could be called full of sincerity, then the sincerity from Shen Yinuo's side could be said to be overflowing.

Although Shen Yinuo's side had not yet given a definitive answer and whether it could reach A Ji was unknown, the A Ji standard was the bare minimum.

Fifteen minutes later, Luo Mo left this conference room.

Another fifteen minutes passed before Zheng Quan walked out of the conference room.

Before leaving, he specifically went to greet Ning Dan.

This mature woman saw at a glance that Zheng Quan's expression was very ugly.

But she did not care at all, and did not even ask a single word about the content of their conversation.

Watching Zheng Quan's Back Shadow, the woman's sexy, full lips curled up slightly, but her gaze was very cold.

After returning to the car, Zheng Quan looked out the window, though because he was wearing sunglasses, he couldn't actually see anything clearly.

He had come with the intention of a sure win, but Luo Mo said he would consider it further.

Luo Mo did not give a clear answer, nor did he state the true conditions in his heart.

If Zheng Quan knew that what Luo Mo wanted was S Class, he might think this person was crazy.

Luo Mo could tell that some of Zheng Quan's later words contained a bit of a subtle tactic of coercion and inducement.

Therefore, he couldn't be bothered to say anything more, and he couldn't be bothered to state his own price.

When you know that a deal can no longer be reached, then simply stop talking. It's tiring for you to speak, and the other side will just think, "Is this lunatic provoking me or playing with me?"

Zheng Quan's feeling at this moment was: "This Luo Mo is a smart person, but not smart enough."

He felt that Luo Mo had no realization of the seriousness of the situation at all.

If you end up debuting in the group, you have to sign your 3 years of group activity time to Pineapple.

During these three years, Pineapple can assign you work, delay your time, but give you no exposure.

Take the post-competition group variety show as an example; after the group is formed, Pineapple will specifically record a season of variety shows for this boy band. At that time, they can make you follow the recording the whole time, using up your time and schedule, but they can edit out your screen time as they please.

How many Idol stars in this world can withstand three years of delay?

Traffic won't wait for you for three years!

Your star path, Luo Mo, is essentially already half-pinched by Pineapple.

However, Zheng Quan truly appreciated Luo Mo's talent, so he made a call to Wang Shisong.

"President Wang, it's me."

"Yes, yes, yes, we've finished talking."

"Luo Mo said he wants to consider it further... Yes, yes, yes, I did drop a few hints, but I didn't say some things too clearly; I can tell he understands a little."

"This... I also understand President Wang's meaning. My personal thought is that, actually, we could appropriately raise the conditions for Luo Mo; perhaps a B+ Contract would also be acceptable. After all, he can still create, and he could actually bring benefits to other Singers in the company."

"..."

This call lasted about ten minutes, and Zheng Quan failed to persuade Wang Shisong.

Most importantly, based on his understanding of his boss, he had already smelled something.

Tomorrow, the third public performance of "Creating Idols" will be broadcast on the two major platforms, Pineapple and Penguin.

If nothing unexpected happens, Wang Shisong might be about to give Luo Mo a taste of his own medicine.

The standard tactics of a capital tycoon are just like this: beat you down a little first, so that you will be obedient.

Young people, after all, are mostly worried about gains and losses, and their foresight is weak; a few knocks, and they get scared.

Pineapple is one of the four major companies in the industry and has its own video platform; let alone one Luo Mo, even some companies in the industry dare not provoke them.

There is one more thing that Zheng Quan knows roughly.

He is very clear that his President Wang is a person who cares very much about Face, and he especially cannot lose Face in front of Ning Dan.

There is a rumor in the circle that Wang Shisong, who has been divorced twice, once had some thoughts about Ning Dan, but he was rebuffed.

Zheng Quan knew that this was not a rumor; it was a fact.

It was precisely because of this matter that Penguin Video was able to intervene, causing "Creating Idols" to be broadcast on two platforms simultaneously.

This was perhaps also a form of checks and balances and leveraging of power by Ning Dan.

………

………

The next day, before eight o'clock in the evening, at the Xinyu headquarters.

The head of Xinyu, Shen Shaoqiu, was currently sitting in front of a large screen with two shareholders, waiting for the broadcast of the new episode of "Creating Idols".

Shen Yinuo had previously told her father that he must remember to watch this episode, as it featured her stage performance.

As a man who doted on his daughter, Shen Shaoqiu naturally would not miss it.

His daughter was full of filial piety and wanted to showcase herself before him; how could he possibly not watch? Haha, hahahaha!

It just so happened that he could call over a few major shareholders to discuss matters regarding Luo Mo once more.

When the program began airing, the three of them were chatting and laughing while drinking tea brewed by the secretary.

But as it played on, Shen Shaoqiu's expression suddenly changed.

At this very moment, the Anonymous Team had not yet gone on stage to perform "Xi".

According to the program's editing, before the official stage content was broadcast, footage of this group practicing and their daily lives would be shown.

During that period, Shen Yinuo had been hanging out with Luo Mo the whole time, so naturally, a small portion of that would be shown in the program.

The most fatal part was that Shen Shaoqiu and the others were big shots in the entertainment industry, and he himself was happy to accept new things; when he watched videos, he would turn on the bullet comments to analyze market trends and audience preferences.

At this moment, on the large screen, Luo Mo was assigning dance moves with Shen Yinuo.

The bullet comments suddenly became lively.

"They're a perfect match! They look so good together!"

"Am I the only one who thinks they are a talented man and a beautiful woman, and that they are very pleasing to the eye standing together?"

"Strange, why is there a sense of a 'couple pairing'? They are clearly mentor and trainee, am I sick?"

Driven by the netizens, as the interactions between Luo Mo and Shen Yinuo in the program increased, and as the broadcast footage made the two look increasingly familiar with each other, the trend of the bullet comments became completely solidified.

The usual antics of the silly netizens appeared again, with the entire screen filled with a single phrase.

——"We approve of this marriage!"

The other two shareholders of Xinyu sipped their tea while casting a look at Shen Shaoqiu with a smile that wasn't quite a smile.

Shen Shaoqiu held his teacup, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.

"What do you mean you approve?"

"Huh? Have you bastards asked for the opinion of this old father!?"

……

(PS: Today's second update, also 4000+ words.)

(End of chapter)