Before Going Live

Li Xun was eating in a small restaurant when his WeChat notification chimed. He picked up his phone and saw it was Dai Ying.

Yingying: "Mr. Huang Ting thinks your songs are good and wants to use these two. Who do you think would be suitable to sing them?"

Li Xun: "I don't know much about the music industry. You're the CEO, you decide."

Yingying: "How about Han Qing?"

Li Xun searched his memories.

Li Xun: "He's good, a talented singer, and his style fits."

Yingying: "Then it's settled. Prepare yourself, you'll report to Thunder Music Studio tomorrow."

Li Xun: "I have to go too? Is Mr. Huang Ting having trouble with the arrangement?"

Yingying: "Not at all. But you're one of the lead singers. How can we record if you're not there?"

Li Xun: "???"

Li Xun: "I'm a lead singer? Don't joke. I've never learned to sing. Everything I do is self-taught, just messing around. I don't even know do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do. You want me to sing lead?"

Yingying: "It's okay. Mr. Huang Ting thinks highly of you. He even said you're in the wrong profession, otherwise, you might have become a superstar."

Li Xun: "Really? But honestly, Mr. Huang Ting has a good eye for people."

Yingying: "Shameless!"

The message was immediately recalled.

Li Xun saw it but pretended he hadn't.

Li Xun: "What did you send? Why did you recall it?"

Yingying: "Nothing, just a slip of the finger, a typo."

A flash of lightning struck Li Xun's mind.

Li Xun: "Right, I'm a lead singer, so why do we still need Han Qing? My ending theme song is a duet!"

Yingying: "I know. Han Qing will sing the male part, and you'll sing the female part."

Li Xun: "?????"

Li Xun: "Are you kidding me? Sister, I'm a man. You want me to sing the female part? Are you taking revenge for personal grievances?!"

Yingying: "I'm not kidding. Wasn't the voice message you sent me sung by you? Aren't you good at switching between male and female voices? Also, we don't have any grievances, why would I take revenge for personal reasons?"

Li Xun: "I did that to more clearly demonstrate the effect of a duet. You really want me to sing the female part? You might as well kill me! You are taking revenge for personal grievances! Do you remember that time I kissed you a hundred times when I was drunk and charged you ten thousand yuan? Listen, boss! You're a Vice President of a Fortune Global 500 company. Be magnanimous, a leader should be able to tolerate minor offenses. Can you stop holding onto these small things?! How about I return the ten thousand yuan? If you're still not satisfied, I'll let you kiss me back! A hundred kisses aren't enough, a thousand is fine, I won't mind!"

It took her a long time to reply this time.

Yingying: "If you mention this again, I'll really fire you."

Li Xun quickly sent two pleading emoji packs.

Seeing no reply, Li Xun sent another message.

Li Xun: "Boss, I'm serious. If you let me sing the male part, I can reluctantly accept it. But letting me sing the female part is absolutely unacceptable."

After a while.

Yingying: "Let's talk about this later. Also, don't send such long voice messages in the future. I really don't want to open them. For this time, your two songs were almost missed. I didn't listen at first. It was only today when I met Mr. Huang Ting and remembered that the lyrics you wrote were somewhat interesting that I showed him the chat history. He opened the voice messages and said the songs were quite good, which is why we decided to use them."

Li Xun: "You showed our chat history to someone else? You let an outsider listen before you even listened to the voice messages yourself? You have a problem with me? I have a problem with you too!!!"

Yingying: "What problem do you have with me??"

Li Xun: "What problem? Is my privacy worth so little? Let me be blunt, I've been lecherous since I was young. I can't walk past a beautiful woman. I feel uncomfortable if I don't flirt with beautiful women every day. I'm addicted to teasing beautiful women, as vulgar as can be. You didn't listen to the voice messages and directly let an outsider listen. Do you know what I said? Do you think what I said is always suitable for outsiders to hear? What if I called you 'baby' in the voice message? What if I asked you to kiss me? What if I called myself 'husband'? Did you consider the consequences of directly showing it to an outsider? Baby?!"

Li Xun: "If you dare to casually show my voice messages to outsiders again, I'll spank you!"

Li Xun immediately recalled his second message.

At the same time, at Thunder Music Studio.

Dai Ying looked at the recalled message, her face flushing red, like a hot coal.

Dai Ying: "Excuse me, where is the restroom?"

Huang Lei had a staff member lead Dai Ying to the restroom. Dai Ying turned on the faucet and splashed cold water on her face.

She had lived for 29, almost 30 years, and had never felt her heart about to explode like she did today. This was the first time in her life she had experienced such a feeling.

In the end, Dai Ying did not find a male singer. Instead, she found the popular female singer Zheng Yuji to partner with Li Xun.

On December 18th, the two songs were completed.

On December 22nd, all post-production for "Young Bao Qingtian" was finished, and the sample film was sent to Penguin Video headquarters.

Penguin Video, Head of Acquisition Department's Office.

This year marked Gong Cheng's tenth year at Penguin Video. Without any family background, he had managed to climb his way to the position of Head of the Acquisition Department. Gong Cheng's personal abilities were indeed outstanding.

A department head at a Fortune Global 500 company, not yet forty years old, Gong Cheng should have been content. But that's human nature; one always wants more.

He originally had a chance to become a Senior Vice President at Penguin Video. Unexpectedly, a few years ago, a young girl suddenly joined Penguin Video. Even more unexpectedly, this girl, who he hadn't paid any attention to, had quietly developed the struggling original drama center.

With less than 20% of the expenditure, they achieved a 40% increase in Penguin Video's drama VIP membership growth. Then, with this solid performance, they directly surpassed others and landed themselves in the position of Penguin Video's Senior Vice President.

That position was originally supposed to be his, Gong Cheng's!

The performance of self-produced dramas this year was also quite good, but compared to his film acquisition department, it seemed somewhat mediocre.

Several dramas he had his eye on this year achieved excellent results. His department attracted over 9 million net new paid subscribers for Penguin Video throughout the year, a figure more impressive than that of the self-produced drama center. With this solid performance, he might also reach the coveted position of Penguin Video Senior Vice President next year. However, the prerequisite was that the self-produced drama center must not cause any trouble at this critical juncture. His Penguin Video Film Acquisition Department had to be the most outstanding department in the entire company this year!

2010 was drawing to a close. The only project the self-produced drama center was about to launch was Young Bao Qingtian. He had investigated and found that the entire drama had only one screenwriter. Furthermore, before joining Penguin Video, this screenwriter used to deliver for Haotuan Delivery?

Gong Cheng chuckled.

He heard that this new screenwriter was exceptionally handsome, even surpassing many popular young idols. Could it be that he relied on his looks to secure an A-Class Production?

He heard that Dai Ying, the Senior Vice President of the self-produced drama center, was already being called an old maid behind her back. She must be truly desperate this time, right?

Gong Cheng shook his head and clicked on the sample footage on his computer.

Within Penguin Video, the film acquisition department reviewed the dramas from the self-produced drama center, and the self-produced drama center's executives also reviewed the films acquired by the film acquisition department.

Not only did they have to watch, but they also had to provide their own evaluations. This was a system established by senior management to ensure that the decision-makers of each department always possessed keen insight and could stay at the forefront of drama trends.

"As long as the performance of this Young Bao Qingtian doesn't reach the level of iQIYI Video's hit drama The Coroner, then the most outstanding department of Penguin Video this year will be his film acquisition department."

"He, Gong Cheng, will then be much more confident about securing the Penguin Vice President position!"