After Transmigrated as a Black-Hearted Entertainment Boss [Transmigration] - Chapter 1

Everything was finally sorted out.

Tao Zui leaned back in his chair, his eyes blurred with exhaustion, and let out a long sigh of relief.

He was just about to stretch his stiff limbs when he heard a knock at the door. He immediately lowered his arms, smoothed his expression into one of professional composure, and said in a deep voice, “Come in.”

The heavy wooden door slid open along its track. Zhang Ling, his assistant, poked her head in and called out cautiously, “Young CEO Tao…”

Hearing her hesitant tone, Tao Zui rubbed the space between his brows helplessly. “What’s the bad news this time?”

Zhang Ling gave an awkward smile, walked to the desk, and handed him a document. “Sister Yun just submitted her resignation. She needs your signature…”

Tao Zui looked at the text—Resigning from all duties related to the Artist Management Department—and suppressed the urge to sigh. Without a word, he signed his name with a flourish.

Zhang Ling hadn’t expected him to be so blunt. She hesitated for a moment before murmuring, “Young CEO Tao… if Sister Yun leaves… there will be no one left in the Management Department…”

Did she think he didn’t know? Never mind Sister Yun; even Zhang Ling herself was originally just an intern agent. Now, out of pure necessity, she had been promoted several levels to become his assistant.

“And…” Zhang Ling gritted her teeth and lowered her voice, “Sister Yun didn’t hand over the renewal contracts for the artists under her care.”

Tao Zui curled his lip, twirling a pen in his hand. “That’s normal. If it weren’t for the breach-of-contract fees holding them back, they would have terminated their contracts and run away a long time ago.”

Taoli Entertainment followed the traditional talent agency model: resources and connections followed the agent. There had been many cases of agents jumping ship and taking their stars with them. Otherwise, how could a twenty-year-old veteran agency end up without a single presentable artist? In the past, Taoli could rely on film and TV production to keep its footing in the industry, but now…

Tao Zui gave a bitter laugh. “The company is in such a state that those who want to leave can’t be kept, and there’s no point in keeping them. It’s better to part on good terms; it makes future meetings easier.”

Zhang Ling looked at Tao Zui’s handsome face—one that could easily rival any top star—and swallowed the suggestion at the tip of her tongue: Maybe you should just consider debuting yourself, Boss. Instead, she took the document and said, “Understood. I’ll head out then.”

“Wait,” Tao Zui stopped her, glancing at the time on his computer. “Today is Thursday… I remember the company dorms are nearby, right?”

Zhang Ling nodded. “Yes, less than eight hundred meters away.”

Tao Zui calculated the time. “In a bit, notify the artists in the Trainee Department. Tonight at… let’s say seven, come to the office for a meeting.”

“The Trainee Department?” It took Zhang Ling a few seconds to realize who he was talking about, her face etched with surprise.

The company had indeed established a trainee department a year ago and recruited a few boys. But because survival shows were banned, the entire department existed in name only. The trainees had been “snowbound”—put on indefinite hiatus—until now.

Why did Young CEO Tao want a meeting with them? And so late at night?

Seeing her delayed response, Tao Zui raised an eyebrow. “Is there a problem?”

Zhang Ling jolted and shook her head quickly. “No! I’ll go make the calls right away!” With that, she scrambled out, shutting the door behind her to hide that distractingly beautiful face.

Stay calm! You’re here to make money, don’t let a male fox spirit daze you! Remember your goal: buy a house in North City before you’re thirty! No feelings, only money. Go, go, go!

After a round of self-motivation to steady her mindset, Zhang Ling headed toward the HR department with her head held high.

Inside the General Manager’s office, completely unaware that he had been labeled a “male fox spirit,” Tao Zui slumped into his chair the moment Zhang Ling left. His long legs stretched out, rocking the executive chair back and forth like a salted fish drying in the sun.

“So tired…”

He was truly exhausted. He had to handle his “cheap” father’s funeral arrangements while simultaneously taking over a completely foreign entertainment company. In the three days since he had transmigrated, he had acted mature, steady, and confident to the outside world, while privately poring over company data and learning everything he could, terrified of dragging the protagonists down.

Yes, Tao Zui was not from this world.

Three days ago, he was an account director at an advertising agency, working himself to the bone for his clients. While leading his team through an all-nighter for the umpteenth version of a proposal, he accidentally dozed off. When he opened his eyes, he was sitting on a plane holding a tablet, greeted by sensationalist gossip headlines:

[One Night Stand: 57-Year-Old Entertainment Boss Dies of Sudden Illness]

[Taoli Entertainment Deep in ‘Hidden Rules’ Scandal! Boss Drops Dead in Hotel; Cause of Death Unsightly]

[Founder Passes Away Suddenly; Taoli Entertainment Unlikely to Recover]

Before he could react, a flood of memories rushed into his mind. That’s when Tao Zui realized he had transmigrated!

The person he inhabited had the same name and face as him, but was much younger—only twenty-four. His mother had passed away years ago, and his father was a “coal boss” who had invested in TV dramas after coal mines were nationalized, eventually opening an entertainment company.

In the early years, his father had good luck and made a name for himself. But as the state tightened control over the entertainment industry and top artists left one by one, the company lost its former glory.

In an attempt to revive the company, Father Tao turned his sights to boy band survival shows—the fastest way to generate traffic and cash. Unfortunately, his luck was abysmal. Just as the hardware and software were in place, the government banned survival shows.

Thankfully, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse. After cutting the film production department, the company could barely stay afloat. Seeing the situation, Father Tao stopped meddling with the business and poured all his ambition into the “arms of beauties.” This indulgence eventually led to his downfall.

The boss’s cause of death was scandalous, causing the company’s reputation to plummet. As the ship began to sink, no one wanted to go down with it. Anyone with talent sought a way out, and within days, the staff had been cut by more than half. Those left were either trapped by contracts or too inexperienced to find a new job.

It was under these circumstances that the original owner was called back from abroad to inherit the family business.

This “precious treasure” of Father Tao’s was a classic “empty-headed” rich kid whose path through university had been paved with gold. Upon hearing of his father’s death, he cried his eyes out, then—fueled by a mysterious confidence—vowed to revive Taoli Entertainment.

Before returning to China, he had pulled all-nighters researching files and even wrote a PPT for the company’s future development. He brought it with him on the flight home.

Perhaps his brain was too overstimulated from the lack of sleep to rest. On the plane, he searched for news about his father’s death. Seeing the various “explosive” tabloid takes on the scandal, he suffered from a lack of oxygen and tachycardia. He couldn’t catch his breath and died right there, leaving everything to the corporate slave, Tao Zui.

At first, Tao Zui thought it was a simple transmigration. He was actually quite happy to be a rich second-generation heir; even with a mess to clean up, at least he had money! If things got too bad, he could just dissolve the contracts, close the company, and live off the massive inheritance.

It was a beautiful dream, but reality slapped him in the face repeatedly.

The first thing Tao Zui did after taking over was check the artist contracts. He was stunned to find five ten-year contracts with breach-of-contract fees as high as 50 million yuan—the kind where whoever initiates the termination pays the price!

Worse, the names of the artists on those contracts looked more and more familiar. As he stared, his blood ran cold, and he nearly fainted—

He hadn’t just transmigrated; he was inside a book! And not just one book!

During his last annual leave, Tao Zui hadn’t gone anywhere. He had stayed home reading a series of “Entertainment Industry BL” novels—four books in total, where each protagonist was loosely connected but had their own story.

The protagonists of these four novels debuted in a boy band. Their agency was blind and black-hearted; everyone from the boss to the staff was corrupt, constantly looking for “shady” shortcuts. After ruthlessly exploiting and humiliating the protagonists, the company was exposed by the entire internet, eventually going bankrupt while the boss landed in prison.

The reason Tao Zui hadn’t realized this earlier was that this plot only appeared in the first half of the first two books. The ruined boss didn’t even have a name in the narrative! Having binged all four books at once, he had long forgotten the name of the trashy company.

Fortunately, he still remembered the names of the protagonists.

Tao Zui sat up straight and pulled five files from a folder, looking at the names and photos.

These five people—a top-tier Movie Star, a popular TV King, and three viral boy band members—were all destined for fame and romantic bliss. But none of that had happened yet. Right now, one was a miserable youth forced to drop out of school, another was a runaway young master chasing a dream, and the other three were middle-to-high school kids living in a cramped Taoli Entertainment dorm, snowbound for six months.

The reason for the hiatus was simple: the company was broke.

Father Tao was a man who believed in “sharpening the tools before the work.” To launch the boy band, he spent a fortune moving the company to a cultural industry park, occupying a three-story building with luxury equipment. He had almost emptied the company’s coffers.

Then came the ban on survival shows.

Father Tao hadn’t given up without a fight. He hired songwriters and put the five boys together in a group called Pentacle. He sent them to shows and music festivals, desperately seeking exposure.

But domestic stages were scarce. Without a survival show to drive traffic, putting five “nobodies” together only resulted in five bigger nobodies. After a lot of spending, they were still unknown.

He tried to send them into acting, but the kids were either too young or too stubborn to play the game. After a few attempts, no agent was willing to take them on.

The boy band couldn’t take off, but they were signed for ten years. Terminating the contracts would require paying them off. Father Tao had no choice but to leave them there. Fortunately, the contracts stated that their “salaries” were offset by “training fees,” so he only had to provide housing. The dorms were commercial apartments he had invested in previously, so they barely counted as an ongoing cost.

This was the situation Tao Zui faced: tight funds, agents and artists fleeing, and five ten-year contracts he couldn’t afford to break.

However, none of that was a problem!

A sharp light glinted in Tao Zui’s eyes. Tossing aside his “salted fish” demeanor, he jumped up and paced toward the floor-to-ceiling window, full of ambition.

If the company lacked money, he would “open sources and throttle flow.” A group of people was already eager to jump ship and resign; that meant no severance pay and saved salaries! The loss of agents and artists meant losing connections, but it also saved a massive amount in PR fees. Once he had money, he could hire even better agents.

Most importantly, he held the ten-year contracts of five protagonists!

Compared to being a 9–9–6 corporate slave with no end in sight, where else could he find an opportunity like this? All he had to do was hug the protagonists’ legs tightly and wait a year to be carried to success. Even if he had to work “0-0-7” (24/7) for that year, it would be worth it!

The more Tao Zui thought about it, the more excited he became. He couldn’t wait to meet the protagonists.

The company’s affairs were mostly sorted, and he had listed the major plot points of the novels. Calculating on his fingers, the top Movie Star’s first big film role was about to fall from the sky. He had to build a good relationship with them before that resource arrived.

This was the first step to successfully clinging to those legs!