Everyone Spends Money to Make Me Debut as Center (GL) - Chapter 7

Bai Chang stared at the three words “Ms. Bai” in the chat box, lost in thought.

When did it start? The relationship between her and Chi Rui had become as estranged as this formal address.

Memory is a strange thing; she would often have flashes of the warm, radiant smile Chi Rui wore when they first met. It was comforting and bright, as if it had happened only yesterday.

The phrase “things remain, but people have changed” suited them perfectly. The once gentle and optimistic Chi Rui had suddenly transformed after her debut, becoming someone so different that even Bai Chang, her closest person, felt like a stranger.

The next morning, Tang Yu drove Bai Chang to the National Girls production headquarters for a meeting. Knowing Bai Chang’s habit of arriving five minutes early, the program team had gathered in the conference room well in advance.

Since she had no other schedules today, Bai Chang wore simple casual clothes. Her silk blouse draped perfectly, accentuating her rare, standard “right-angle” shoulders. A simple silver clavicle chain and hoop earrings complemented her light makeup, giving her an air of effortless elegance.

The director stood up to pull out a chair for her. Once everyone was seated, he began the introductions. “These are the two main Executive Producers. Zheng Qiu handles the performance stages, and the woman with short hair is Xi Yaozhi. She manages everything off-stage, like daily practice, song selection, and recording. You’ll likely interact with her the most. And across from you are the screenwriters…”

Bai Chang nodded and smiled at each person. “We’ll be seeing a lot of each other. I look forward to working with you all.”

“The pleasure is ours! We are so grateful you agreed to participate despite your busy schedule.” The director was a man of many words; once he got excited, he could talk indefinitely.

Bai Chang gave a faint smile. “After all, a child from my own family is participating. I’ll feel more at ease being here to keep an eye on things.”

The director’s face stiffened. He clearly understood the underlying meaning.

Their team had also been responsible for the previous season of National Girls. They were infamous for their love of manufactured drama and highly biased editing. They had been cursed by fans all the way to the finale; the “Hot Search” lists were filled with accusations of black-box operations, suppressed votes, and “forced” debuts of hand-picked favorites.

Bai Chang was initially reluctant to join precisely because of the show’s poor reputation. But since Tang Yu had rarely made such a request of her, she didn’t want to disappoint her. However, now that she was here, she wouldn’t just stand by.

The director, however, misinterpreted her. “Hahaha, of course, of course! Bai Chang, you only have two people from your studio signed up this time, right? That’s easy to arrange. Do you want both of them to go all the way, or just one? If it’s both, we might need to discuss it with the investors.”

After all, there were only nine debut spots. If each major company took one, there weren’t many left.

Bai Chang gazed at the director’s smiling, wrinkled face, her eyes darkening. She remained silent, but her mind drifted back to the family dinner and her father-in-law’s words:

‘Don’t think I don’t know the tricks of those survival shows… what “training,” what “dreams”? In the end, it’s just pushing out candidates pre-selected by investors and big companies.’

He wasn’t wrong at all, Bai Chang thought with a mocking internal smile.

When she didn’t respond immediately, the director looked toward Tang Yu in confusion. Tang Yu gave a polite nod and pulled several documents from her bag, which Bai Yuanyuan distributed to everyone in the room.

The crowd looked bewildered. Tang Yu stood up to explain: “Survival shows happen every year. Some are massive hits, while others produce groups that are forgotten the moment they debut. If I recall, the group from your last season fell into the latter category.”

“That was a matter of subsequent management; it didn’t have much to do with our production. And… what does this mean?” The director still hadn’t caught on. He pointed to a bolded line in the document: “Recommendation to change the voting system; demands for transparency and authenticity?”

Tang Yu ignored the director’s deflection and continued, “We have a suggestion. Voting accounts must be linked to real-name verified social media accounts. One ID card per voting account. Data must be updated in real-time, and the nicknames of the voting accounts must be made public.”

“That’s easy to say, but real-time updates and publicizing account names require technical investment. We’ll have to discuss that later.”

“Ms. Bai Chang will invest personal funds to cover the costs of that technical requirement. This is her wish. As her manager, I respect it. Furthermore, Ms. Bai Chang has hired an independent team of notaries to assist the program in ensuring the transparency of the voting mechanism.”

The screenwriters looked at each other. They hadn’t expected Bai Chang to take this so seriously. This would make writing the “script” significantly harder.

Actually, Bai Chang hadn’t done something like this in a long time. When she first entered the industry, she was blunt and stubborn. Years of working on film sets had polished her into someone more diplomatic; she usually saw through things without pointing them out. But this time, she didn’t want to be an “uninformed” bystander.

Actually, being an “unreasonable” and blunt person once in a while felt quite interesting.

“This is exactly the same demand Ruan Yuequan made. Doesn’t that mean this money was spent for nothing?” someone whispered in the back.

The “money” referred to the difference in appearance fees between Ruan Yuequan and Bai Chang. The reason the production was willing to offend Ruan Yuequan to switch to Bai Chang was partly because the director wanted her national popularity, and partly because they couldn’t reach an agreement with Ruan Yuequan.

Ruan Yuequan was famous for offending people—not because she was difficult to get along with, but because she was too noble and upright. She had blocked many people’s paths to easy money. If not for her powerful family background, she would have been “frozen” or banned from the industry long ago.

After hearing Tang Yu’s words, the director frowned. He was also in a passive position; he wouldn’t do such thankless tasks if there weren’t pressure from above. “Bai Chang, to be honest with you, I can’t make this decision alone.”

Mainly, he didn’t want to offend the investors. The show involved more than just one or two companies; it involved half the entertainment industry.

Regardless of the expressions on the faces of the staff, the white-clad Bai Chang sat there looking perfectly composed. “Director, I know what you’re worried about. That’s why before coming here, I had dinner with President Wang and the others. I introduced this plan to them, and everyone’s opinion was unified.”

Tang Yu, seeing Bai Chang’s calm face, nearly vomited blood. This woman usually stayed low-profile and didn’t cause trouble, but when she did, she went big!

How “unified” could that opinion be? Bai Chang had gone house-to-house, handing out resources and favors at a personal loss, racking up a mountain of favors to get that group to reach a consensus.

A temporary group only lasts a year. Only one or two members ever truly reach the peak of traffic to realize a high return on investment. The companies figured they might as well take Bai Chang’s favors and owe her one—besides, even if the voting was transparent, it didn’t mean they didn’t have other tricks up their sleeves.

Major companies have plenty of ways to push newcomers; survival shows had just made them addicted to taking shortcuts.

Everyone gained something from this deal—except Tang Yu. Watching the precious resources she had fought tooth and nail for being given away just like that made her heart ache as if it were being stabbed.

Bai Chang had kindly comforted her: “It’s fine. I don’t plan on taking too much work in the next few months anyway. It’s good for everyone to rest. I’ll give you a bigger year-end bonus to compensate.”

Listen to that! Is that how a human talks?!

The director, stunned that Bai Chang would go to such lengths for a survival show, suppressed his shock and finalized several more details before beginning to explain the program’s flow.

At the end, the director asked tentatively, “I heard the online sentiment regarding Chi Rui’s participation isn’t great…”

The only motive he could imagine for Bai Chang’s massive effort was this. The fans didn’t know, but as an insider, how could he not know about the marriage between Bai Chang and Chi Rui? Although there were rumors that their relationship was bad, Bai Chang’s actions suggested otherwise.

“Yes.” Surprisingly, Bai Chang’s reaction was quite flat.

“Should we keep that in mind during post-production editing?”

Editing can make or break a contestant’s vote count. There is “malicious editing” and “highlight editing.” Their original plan was to maliciously edit Chi Rui in the early stages to farm drama and engagement, but Bai Chang’s attitude was hard to read.

Upon hearing this, Bai Chang looked up. Her cold, watery gaze made the director—a grown man—feel a chill down his spine. Just as he was wondering if he had said the wrong thing and was about to take it back, she spoke airily: “Personally, I hope the post-production editing is as fair as possible to every contestant.”

“Right! Since we’ve decided on a major reform for this season, those old editing methods are indeed undesirable. Hahahaha, don’t you all agree?”

Everyone: Speechless.

As they left the headquarters, Bai Chang suddenly remembered something and said to Tang Yu, who was walking ahead, “Sister Tang, you should manage Chi Rui for the next two months.”

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

Bai Chang seemed to see right through her. “As you said, another head means another salary. Consider it compensation for the lost resources.”

It wasn’t unusual for a manager to handle two people, but Tang Yu had followed Bai Chang since her MK days. When Bai Chang left to start her own studio, Tang Yu had loyally resigned to follow her. Everyone saw them as a package deal.

“Did she ask for me?” Tang Yu had personally handled Zhou Ping’s firing, but she hadn’t expected to pick up the mess herself.

“She doesn’t know yet.”

Bai Chang hadn’t replied to Chi Rui’s WeChat. Surprisingly, she didn’t like the distant address “Ms. Bai.”

“Then you plan to…?” Even Tang Yu couldn’t guess Bai Chang’s intentions now.

“Just consider it as me returning a favor.”

Tang Yu: Why are you dragging me into your couple’s accounting?

Chi Rui was the last to know her manager had been changed. She thought Bai Chang’s silence meant a refusal. Then, her quiet WeChat suddenly popped up with a friend request.

Tang Yu: Please approve. I am your new manager.

“Huh?”

Chi Rui sent a message to Zhou Ping.

[Message sent, but rejected by the recipient]

She was fired directly? If Zhou Ping were still in the studio, she wouldn’t have blocked Chi Rui’s WeChat; they’d still have to see each other.

“She moves quite fast.”

Chi Rui approved Tang Yu’s request and sent a polite “Hello.” Simultaneously, a ringing sound like tinnitus echoed in her head, and the System’s voice emerged.

【New S-Grade Target Object detected! Host, please check the relevant information!】

Hearing that fawning tone, Chi Rui knew a big “whale” had arrived. But she had been staying home quietly, and the internet was still drowning her in insults. Where did this big spender drop from?

Target Information Transmitting…

Name: Bai Chang

Fan Category: None

Spending Index: 200,000

Occupation: Actress

Hobbies: None

Specialties: Singing, Composing, Dancing, Acting…

Measurements: 81 / 58 / 82

Damn, her figure is really good.

Then, Chi Rui realized: “200,000? What game is my soon-to-be ex-wife playing?”