Everyone Is Spending Money to Push Me Into A Center-Position Debut - Chapter 7

Bai Chang stared at the three words “Ms. Bai” in the chat box, sinking into thought until she was slightly lost in it.

When had it started? When had the relationship between Chi Rui and herself become as distant as this form of address?

Human memory was a very strange thing. There would always be a certain instant when her thoughts suddenly blurred, and she would remember Chi Rui’s warm, radiant smile from when they first met. It had been warm and comforting, as if it had only happened yesterday.

Things remained, but people had changed. That phrase could not be more fitting for the two of them. Chi Rui, who had once been gentle, cheerful, bright, and sunny, had suddenly seemed to become a different person after debuting, so unfamiliar that even Bai Chang, who had once been the person closest to her, felt estranged.

……

Early the next morning, Tang Yu drove Bai Chang to the National Girls production headquarters for a meeting. The production team also knew that Bai Chang had a habit of arriving five minutes early, so they had gathered in the meeting room early to wait for her.

Because she had no other schedule today, Bai Chang was dressed only in the simplest casual clothes. Her silk blouse had an excellent drape, falling over her shoulders and revealing her rarely seen, perfectly straight shoulders. A simple silver collarbone chain rested around her neck, paired with hoop earrings, making her, in light makeup, look extremely elegant.

The director took the initiative to stand and pulled out a chair for her. After everyone was seated, he began introducing the others. “These are the two main executive PDs. Zheng Qiu, the man here, is responsible for all kinds of segments related to the public performance stages. The short-haired woman beside him is Xi Yaozhi. Outside of the public performances, things like daily practice and song selection recordings are all under her management. You’ll probably be in contact with her more often. And the people opposite are the scriptwriters…”

Bai Chang nodded and smiled at each of them. “We’ll be seeing each other often from now on. I’ll be in your care.”

“Not at all, not at all. You’re so busy, yet you were still willing to join the show. We’re the ones who should be thanking you.” The director was someone who loved speaking in polite formalities. Once he became excited, he could go on endlessly.

Bai Chang smiled faintly. “After all, a child from my own family is participating too. Coming over to watch makes me feel more at ease.”

The director’s face stiffened. He clearly understood the meaning behind Bai Chang’s words.

The previous season of National Girls had also been handled by them. The production team’s style was famously obsessed with buzz and used an editing style with obvious personal preferences. They had been scolded by various fanbases all the way until the group formation night, and had even been cursed onto the trending list. People said the production team was manipulating things behind the scenes, suppressing the votes of high-ranking members, and forcibly pushing the chosen ones to debut.

The reason Bai Chang had initially been unwilling to come was because of the production team’s rather poor reputation. But since Tang Yu had rarely opened her mouth to ask her for this, Bai Chang did not want to disappoint her. However, since she had come, it was impossible for her to stand by and do nothing.

But the director clearly misunderstood what Bai Chang meant. “Hahahaha, of course, of course. This time, your side submitted two people, right? That’s easy to arrange. Are you planning to have both of them, or choose one of the two? If it’s both, we’ll probably still have to discuss it with the investors.”

After all, there were only nine debut spots. On average, every major company would get one, and there were not many left after that.

Bai Chang looked at the director’s smiling, wrinkle-covered face, her eyes darkening slightly. She did not speak, but her thoughts shifted, and she remembered what Chi Chengxiong had said during the family meal that day.

“Don’t think I don’t know the tricks behind those talent shows of yours. Training? Dreams? In the end, aren’t they just pushing out a few candidates that investors and big companies have already decided on behind the scenes? Taking part in this kind of meaningless show only lowers your worth.”

He really had not been wrong. Bai Chang smiled with some mockery.

After the director finished speaking and did not immediately receive Bai Chang’s reply, he looked somewhat doubtfully toward Tang Yu at the side. Tang Yu nodded politely to him, took several documents from her bag, and had Bai Yuanyuan hand one copy to every person present.

Everyone looked confused. Tang Yu stood up and began explaining. “Talent shows happen every year. Some become wildly popular, while others disappear without a trace as soon as they debut. If I remember correctly, the group launched last season belonged to the latter category, right?”

“That was all an issue with later operations. It didn’t have much to do with our production team, right? And this… what does this mean?” The director still had not quite caught up. He pointed at a bolded line in the document. “Proposal to change the program voting system, requiring transparency and authenticity?”

Tang Yu could not be bothered with the director’s attempt to shirk responsibility and continued, “Our side has a suggestion. Accounts used for voting must be linked to a social media account that has already completed real-name authentication. One ID card can bind one voting account. Voting data will be updated in real time, and the nicknames of voting accounts will be publicly displayed at the same time.”

“That’s easy enough. Our voting already requires real-name registration. As for real-time updates and public voting account nicknames, that will require a certain amount of technical investment. We can discuss it later.”

“As for the funds involved in the required technical investment, Ms. Bai Chang can invest through her personal name. This is her intention. As her manager, I respect it. In addition, Ms. Bai Chang has hired a team of notary personnel to help the production team ensure the transparency of the voting mechanism.”

Several scriptwriters looked at one another, not expecting Bai Chang to be this serious. In that case, how difficult would it be for them to write the scripts?

In fact, Bai Chang had not done this kind of thing in a very long time either. When she had first entered the industry, her personality had been very direct and stubborn. After running through more production crews over the years, she had slowly been polished into someone smoother. With many things in the industry, she saw through them but did not say them out loud. However, this time, she did not want to be that “uninformed” person inside the game again.

Actually, occasionally being an inflexible, straightforward person who did not know how to read the room was rather interesting too.

“How is this exactly the same as the demand Ruan Yuequan raised? Then wasn’t that money wasted…” someone whispered below.

The money they were referring to was the price difference between hiring Ruan Yuequan and Bai Chang. The reason the production team had been willing to offend Ruan Yuequan and replace her with Bai Chang was partly because the director had his eye on Bai Chang’s national recognition and high popularity, and partly because they had failed to reach an agreement with Ruan Yuequan.

Ruan Yuequan was famously good at offending people in the industry. It was not that her personality was difficult to get along with, but that she was too aloof and upright, blocking many people’s paths to profit. If not for her solid family background supporting her, she would have been shelved or blacklisted who knew how many times by now.

After listening to Tang Yu’s words, the director frowned. He was actually very passive in this matter too. If not for pressure from above, why would he go and do those thankless things? “Bai Chang, I’ll be honest with you. I can’t make the decision on this matter alone.”

The main thing was that he did not want to offend people. The investors and client companies involved in the show were not just one or two companies. That was half the entertainment industry.

No matter how colorful the expressions of the director and the group of staff behind him were, Bai Chang, dressed in white, sat there with an air of calm and composure from beginning to end. “Director, of course I know what you’re worried about. That’s why, before coming here, I had a meal with President Wang and the others and introduced this proposal to them as well. Everyone’s opinions were very unified.”

Tang Yu, standing at the side, saw Bai Chang’s light and breezy expression and felt so stifled she almost coughed up blood. When this person did not cause trouble, she was restrained and low-profile. But the moment she did, she gave her a huge one!

What else could Bai Chang’s so-called “unified” mean? She had used money-losing deals to deliver resources and offer benefits to them one by one, owing a whole pile of favors, before finally making that group of people reach a consensus.

A temporary group formed through a survival show would not even last more than a year altogether. The members who could truly climb to the peak of traffic and achieve ultra-high monetization would only be one or two at most. In that case, it was better to accept Bai Chang’s benefits and sell her a favor. Besides, even if the voting was transparent, it did not mean they had no other methods.

A major company had plenty of methods to push newcomers. It was just that in recent years, survival shows had allowed them to taste the sweetness of taking shortcuts.

In this matter, everyone had obtained benefits. Only Tang Yu, watching the precious resources she had wasted so much breath and effort to negotiate for be handed over to others just like that, felt her heart hurt more than if she had been stabbed with a knife.

Bai Chang had even kindly comforted her before: It’s fine. I wasn’t planning to take too much work over the next few months anyway. It’s good for everyone to rest a little. I’ll give you a larger year-end bonus to compensate you properly.

Listen to that. Were those human words?

The director had not expected Bai Chang to go this far for a talent show. He suppressed the shock in his heart, went over several more details, then began explaining the program’s process.

At the end, the director tentatively asked a question. “I heard that online, the current comment trend regarding Chi Rui’s participation isn’t very good…”

The only motive he could think of for Bai Chang going to such great lengths for the show was this. The fans might not know, but as someone in the industry, how could he not know about the marriage between Bai Chang and Chi Rui? Although there were always rumors saying the relationship between the two of them during marriage was not good, judging from Bai Chang’s reaction, it did not seem to be the case.

“Mm.” Unexpectedly, Bai Chang’s reaction was quite calm.

“Then, when we do the later editing, should we pay some attention to it?”

The editing of a survival show could have a decisive impact on the vote count. But there were different types of editing methods as well—malicious editing and highlight-style editing. Originally, they had intended to maliciously edit Chi Rui in the early stage to draw a wave of traffic, but Bai Chang’s attitude was truly somewhat difficult to figure out.

Hearing this, Bai Chang raised her head. Her cool, water-like glance made the director, a grown man, feel a little cold down his back. Just as the director was wondering whether he had asked the wrong question and was about to take it back, she finally opened her mouth lightly. “Personally, I hope the later editing can be as fair as possible to every contestant.”

“Yes, since we’ve already decided to carry out major reforms for this season’s program, the old editing methods aren’t very appropriate either. Hahahahaha. Everyone agrees, right?”

Everyone: Nothing to say.

……

When they came out of the headquarters building, Bai Chang seemed to suddenly remember something and said to Tang Yu, who was walking ahead, “Sister Tang, follow Chi Rui for the next two months.”

Tang Yu: My wounded heart hasn’t even healed yet, and you’re already exiling me to the frontier?

Bai Chang seemed to see through her inner thoughts. “Just like you said, one more person means one more salary. Treat it as compensation for the matter with the resources.”

One manager handling two artists was not rare at all. It was just that Tang Yu had followed Bai Chang since MK. Later, when Bai Chang came out to develop her own career, Tang Yu had also loyally resigned and followed her over. Everyone felt that the two of them being attached at the hip was only natural.

“She specifically asked for me?” The matter of Zhou Ping being fired had been personally handled by Tang Yu, but at that time, she had never imagined she would be the one to take over this mess.

“She still doesn’t know.”

Bai Chang had not replied to Chi Rui’s WeChat message. Unexpectedly, she did not particularly like such a distant form of address as “Ms. Bai.”

“Then what are you planning to…?” This time, even Tang Yu could not quite grasp Bai Chang’s meaning.

“Just treat it as me repaying a favor.”

Tang Yu: Why are you two keeping accounts as a married couple and dragging me into the water?

……

Chi Rui was the last person to know that her manager had been changed. She had thought that since Bai Chang had not replied to her message, that meant she did not agree. In the end, after half a day of silence, a friend request suddenly popped up on WeChat.

Tang Yu: Accept the request. I’m your new manager.

“Mm?”

Chi Rui sent Zhou Ping a message.

[Message sent, but rejected by the recipient.]

So she had directly fired her?

If Zhou Ping were still staying in the studio, she and Chi Rui would inevitably run into each other, and she would not have blocked Chi Rui’s WeChat.

“She’s pretty efficient.”

Chi Rui accepted Tang Yu’s request and politely sent over a “Hello.” At the same time, she felt her mind buzz as though her ears were ringing, and the system’s voice came out again.

[One new S-rank target subject added! Host, please check the relevant information!]

Hearing that bootlicking tone, Chi Rui knew that a big money sponsor had arrived. It was just that she had been staying perfectly well at home these past few days, while the internet was overwhelmingly full of netizens cursing her. Where had this money sponsor fallen from?

Target information transmission beginning.

Name: Bai Chang

Fan Category: None

Money-Spending Index: 200000

Position: Actor

Hobbies: None

Specialties: Singing, composing, dancing, acting…

Measurements: 81/58/82

Good heavens. What a great figure.

After reacting, Chi Rui said, “Two hundred thousand? What exactly is my future ex-wife trying to perform here?”

Author’s Note:

Ahhhhhhhh, with the foreshadowing in Chapter 5 plus this chapter, it’s super obvious, right! Ms. Bai isn’t a scumbag woman. She’s very devoted!!