Chapter 82: The Confrontation Begins

Wang Shilin said he would only talk for three minutes; in reality, Luo Mo left the meeting room in less than two minutes.

As for Wang Shilin, the Pineapple executive who kept saying his time was tight and using pressure tactics, he stayed in the meeting room alone for nearly ten more minutes after Luo Mo left to soothe his emotions.

He actually dared not to sign the contract!?

When Wang Shilin left, his complexion was far worse than that of Music Director Zheng Quan, who had come last time wearing sunglasses even at night.

Wang Shilin didn't even go to greet Ning Dan in person; he just had the staff outside go and tell her that he was leaving first.

For Pineapple, this company had forged its glory in the nineties, and over these many years, it had encountered many disobedient stars.

Today, Pineapple is still the powerful Pineapple, and remains one of the four major companies in the industry.

And these once red-hot stars have mostly become has-beens.

They used to be able to play the lead in big productions, but now they might only shoot some rotten productions, or even go on the internet to do live broadcasts and become influencers.

In Pineapple's eyes, a person's life is very long.

Your star path has only just begun.

Let's wait and see.

At ten o'clock in the evening, the helmsman of Pineapple Entertainment, Wang Shisong, received a call from his distant cousin Wang Shilin, who was reporting on his work that night.

And at ten o'clock the next morning, Wang Shisong received a call from Li Fengshan of Xingshi Entertainment.

One refused to sign, while the other brought two popular contestants about to debut to seek a win-win situation and was willing to make concessions.

Wang Shisong knew very well that he had to make a choice.

Kill the chicken to warn the monkey.

Since Luo Mo cannot be swallowed, then he must properly intimidate the other nine people who are about to debut, so as to extract more from them.

……..

……..

A new Saturday arrived just like that.

"Creating Idols" was about to air a new episode.

Because more and more people were being eliminated, the program content gradually became compact.

Today, there would be new performance stages to watch again.

Looking at this past week, Luo Mo's popularity could be described as second to none.

He frequently appeared on the Hot Search, his fan base was constantly growing, and every song had a place on the Hot Song Chart; those who didn't know better would think some first-line male Singer had released a high-quality new album.

The Strangers were recruiting and expanding their army non-stop throughout this week.

This evil organization had a corrupt atmosphere and was incompatible with the fan circle culture everyone was familiar with; it was the number one outlier in the fan circle, yet it made people unable to resist wanting to join.

Although judging from the current situation, as Luo Mo's fans grew more numerous, the forest grew larger and all sorts of birds appeared.

In the Strangers group, there were also wealthy young ladies, rich women, and even big shots.

You must know that in the entertainment industry, there really are those extremely wealthy fans who, with their own strength, rent out subway stations or display screens in shopping malls to support their Idol.

Over time, this even triggered a culture of comparison.

"Oh my, your brother doesn't have these? Then your brother isn't good enough; only those who have these are truly popular—yours is fake, fake popularity!"

But the Strangers organization still kept its original intention, advocating not to spend large sums of money on ranking or support.

You should definitely support the original version of the works, if you are willing to support them. However, you must absolutely not let chasing stars affect your life.

The tenet of the Strangers remained to create an immersive and happy atmosphere for chasing stars.

However, because Luo Mo's personal charm was truly too great and too intoxicating, the big fans held a meeting and finally reached a conclusion—let's raise the previous 1-yuan limit to 10 yuan.

This was an internal advocacy that everyone promoted by word of mouth.

Not everyone would necessarily follow it, but it was still effective.

If you go look at Shen Mingliu's fan groups, if a female fan jumps out and says she is supporting her brother with 5000 yuan, a bunch of people will definitely be licking her boots below, shouting that the sister is mighty and domineering.

But if it's in a Luo Mo fan group, if someone says they want to support Luo Mo with 100 yuan, there will be dozens of replies flooding the screen—"Boss, you're being foolish!"

Yet, even in this atmosphere, Luo Mo firmly sat in the second chair on the 【Popularity Support Ranking】, and was getting closer and closer to the throne, only Close at Hand away.

Many people estimated that after tonight's "Creating Idols" aired, it might only take a few days for Luo Mo to rush to first place!

At 7:30 in the evening, the two best friends Xiao Fang and Xiao Cai had already gathered in their rented apartment, waiting for the new episode to air.

As mentioned before, Xiao Fang was a JK Uniform-loving rich girl who had a wardrobe full of authentic JK Uniforms at home.

Now, I can clearly tell everyone that she is indeed a second-generation rich kid.

During this time, she had already been pulling strings to see if she could get tickets to the "Creating Idols" grand finale.

According to the rules, the grand finale would have 10,000 live audience members, completely like the scale of a large concert!

Most importantly, it was still a live broadcast!

For such a big move, I reckon only Director Ning Dan in the entire industry would dare to play it.

Relying on layers of connections, Xiao Fang had basically already secured two tickets, one of which she decided to gift to Xiao Cai, causing Xiao Cai to serve her hand and foot these days.

Previously, the two sisters had a dispute over seniority; Xiao Cai felt that she was the first to fan Luo Mo and was the "big wife," so Xiao Fang could only be the "small wife."

Now, she could already accept two women serving one husband; everyone is a legitimate wife, with no distinction between big or small.

While waiting for the show to start, Xiao Cai said: "Do you think it would be inconsistent with our Strangers' advocacy if we go to the scene to watch the competition?"

"Not really," Xiao Fang denied: "The group didn't say everyone couldn't go to the scene. And this is payment for the concert-style finale, not just that kind of support where you get nothing in return."

The two women cut open a small watermelon as usual, then each held half.

Xiao Fang held the watermelon and continued: "Not to mention, Xu Chujing and Wei Ran and the others will be there on site; one thing is one thing, this is just a normal transaction."

"That's true, we aren't that kind of crazy 'no-ship-back' style of support," Xiao Cai said.

The so-called "no-ship-back" originated from the consumption of overseas stars by our countrymen, such as boy groups and girl groups from the ROK. They would buy many albums and throw money to support their Idol, but the international shipping fees were expensive, so they simply didn't ship them back to the country.

These albums might then be used for organized support activities abroad, or taken as prizes during promotions.

Some people choose to only want the small cards or the Poster inside the album, and just have those shipped back.

It's exactly like when we were kids and the rich kids in class would buy Raccoon crispy noodles just to collect the Water Margin cards.

Gradually, this trend has also become popular domestically, which is equivalent to just giving away money.

At eight o'clock sharp, the new episode of Creating Idols began airing.

Xiao Fang and Xiao Cai used a projector to watch Pineapple TV, then used their phones to vote for Luo Mo on Penguin Video, spreading their support equally.

But after watching for half an hour, they felt something was off.

Many viewers in the bullet comments also expressed confusion.

"It's been half an hour, and Luo Mo hasn't had a single shot!"

Honestly, the fans of Luo Mo are very laid-back; if fans of someone like Shen Mingliu saw their idol had very few shots in an episode, they would start flaming immediately.

Luo Mo's fans don't fight or scramble; that Instructor Luo of ours is on a double salary, he's getting paid.

Why the hell should we worry for him?

But for a full half hour, for a hot contestant to have zero shots, that is just too bizarre.

"Let's drag the progress bar," Xiao Fang suggested.

Xiao Cai nodded, she dragged the progress bar, fast-forwarding to look for Luo Mo's shots, only to find that even when dragged to the very end, there wasn't a single shot!

The worst part is, there wasn't even a stage performance!

In other words, Luo Mo was directly deleted from this public performance!

"What is going on, so sudden?" The two women looked at each other, both stunned.

At this moment, they couldn't help but think that just a few days ago, Luo Mo's personal videos were also taken down.

They immediately opened Weibo and checked their fan group.

Soon they were even more confused.

Because over at Penguin Video, everything was normal.

The two women discussed it and decided to go to Penguin Video first to finish watching the variety show.

Xiao Fang has a VIP Member subscription on every platform.

It's just that they couldn't understand why Pineapple TV would pull such a shady move?

Over at Penguin Video, the bullet comments were much more cheerful.

"Hahaha, I saw Luo Mo!"

"Ah, thank goodness, my husband is still alive."

"As long as he's alive, I don't ask for much."

"My big Penguin is truly the best!"

"Duh, fruit and animals, can they be the same?"

In reality, ever since Penguin Video cut in, Creating Idols changed from being exclusively broadcast on Pineapple TV to being jointly broadcast on the two major platforms, and the profit distribution had already been negotiated at the start.

As mentioned before, the voting channel for the Popularity Support Ranking is on the Penguin Video side; there isn't a single vote on the Pineapple side.

Penguin earns the voting money, the money from everyone buying VIP Member subscriptions.

Pineapple earns the subsequent group-formation profits; the group variety shows after formation, and various other projects, are all exclusively broadcast on Pineapple, and Penguin doesn't get a drop of the soup.

For Pineapple TV, during the airing of Creating Idols, the revenue cannot compare to Penguin's side.

So they can completely do this, to avoid benefiting others.

If Luo Mo won't sign any Contract, then what the hell are we playing at?

Penguin Video, on the other hand, was overjoyed.

They won't take down any of Luo Mo's videos, even if the outside world is full of turmoil, they won't take them down.

Our Penguin's philosophy is very simple, and that is to make money.

Harmony brings wealth, harmony brings wealth, haha, hahahaha!

At this very moment, Xiao Fang and Xiao Cai had already seen Luo Mo take the stage.

A song, Daughter's Love, directly stunned the entire audience!

Luo Mo's performance was as stable as ever; every single stage could make people's eyes light up and feel deeply shocked.

Whether it was the things expressed in this song, the visuals on the big screen, or that poem at the end, it all made people applaud in admiration!

"Wow! They actually dared to play with the Drama of Daughter Kingdom like this!"

"I love it, I love it. Who doesn't like beautiful sisters? Even as a girl, I like them too."

"When I watched Journey to the West as a kid, I only paid attention to the monkey. Now that I recall it, I find that the actresses in Journey to the West were all more beautiful than the last."

"Yeah, Guanyin sister, I can!"

"To the person above, watch your words, the internet is not a place outside of Buddha!"

"Do you guys think Tang Seng will regret it?"

Romance is an eternal theme that can always touch people's hearts.

Until this moment, the sound of a wooden fish resonated throughout the venue.

On stage, when that final "Amitabha" appeared, Xiao Fang and Xiao Cai both felt an indescribable, complex emotion.

They never thought that, with the foreshadowing from earlier, the appearance of a single Buddhist chant would make their hearts tremble involuntarily.

Most importantly, Luo Mo, dressed in white on stage, raised his left hand and extended his wrist under the spotlight.

On his wrist, a red thread was tied.

Seeing the red thread, Xiao Fang and Xiao Cai wanted to scream with excitement!

Every one of Luo Mo's stage designs is just too superb, too thoughtful!

Naturally, this time, the Anonymous Team was first place again.

Luo Mo, the god forever.

His undefeated Myth continues to extend; on this stage, he is the true Great Demon King!

Xiao Fang and Xiao Cai opened the voting channel at the same time and quickly cast their votes for Luo Mo.

Only then did they open Weibo, attempting to find the reason why Pineapple TV did not have Luo Mo's footage.

As a result, the moment they opened the Weibo Hot Search, looking across it, there were several items related to Luo Mo.

The number one spot on the Weibo Hot Search list read: Pineapple TV deletes Luo Mo's footage.

Hot Search number two: Pineapple TV responds: Luo Mo refused to sign the group formation agreement.

Hot Search number three: "Daughter's Love".

A trainee who had yet to debut had actually, one day, come to dominate the top three spots of the Hot Search list all by himself.

Moreover, behind these three Hot Searches, all were marked with the highest level 【Explosive】 character, the red 【Explosive】 character!

In reality, within the top ten of the Weibo Hot Search, there were two other items that also had a certain degree of relation to Luo Mo.

This heat, this traffic, this level of discussion—it was simply incredible!

For those in the industry, they could clearly realize from this that, although they did not know how this young man named Luo Mo would develop next, at the very least, at this very moment, his overall heat was already comparable to a Top Traffic star!

And that is at the very least!

When Xiao Fang and Xiao Cai were using Weibo, they even felt that Weibo was a bit laggy, as if it were on the verge of crashing.

To crash Weibo—that is something only a true Top Traffic star can achieve.

The two women looked at each other, both seeing a look of shock in the other's eyes.

"Luo Mo actually doesn't have a group formation agreement!?" The two women who had just finished voting felt a bit disoriented.

Immediately following, it was actually Xiao Fang who first let out a scream of Surprise: "Ahhh! That's great! Luo Mo might not form a group! Ahhh!"

Don't forget, Xiao Fang was originally a fan of Ji Kangdong, but after watching this show, she changed her heart, openly cheated, and threw herself into Luo Mo's embrace.

Originally, she only intended to cheat for a week, but in the end, she discovered she couldn't go back.

To her, if Luo Mo formed a group, wouldn't that be equivalent to having her ex-husband and current partner in the same group?

Xiao Cai glanced at her dancing best friend and was, for a moment, left between laughter and tears.

She lowered her head and looked at Weibo again, very clear about one thing in her heart.

This night was destined to be a chaotic night.

………

On the other side, the usually composed Ning Dan was a bit restless tonight.

This godmother who had created countless Myths of talent variety shows had not had this feeling for a long time.

If one had to blame someone, blame that young man who made one unable to help but worry.

What Ning Dan cared about most right now was what kind of data sheet Penguin Video would send her tomorrow, especially the data on the 【Popularity Support Ranking】!

(PS: Second update, over 4000 words, asking for monthly tickets at the end of the month.)

(End of this chapter)