Yan Zijin shifted his gaze toward the trainee who spoke.
There was no sign of nervousness on the other party’s face, as if he hadn’t noticed the impropriety of his question at all. Seeing Yan Zijin look over, that trainee even raised his chin provocatively.
The smile at the corners of his lips vanished, and Yan Zijin’s expression turned stern: “Showing leniency would be irresponsibility toward them, and toward Jincan Qichen as well.”
Seeing that the situation was about to run in an uncontrollable direction, the staff member hurriedly spoke up to interrupt, asking Yan Zijin to go backstage first.
“Teacher Shen, recording is about to begin shortly, please head to the backstage first.”
Yan Zijin nodded, rising to walk toward the backstage. When passing by that trainee, he paused.
“There was a saying popular on the internet: Minor popularity relies on promotion, major fame depends on fate, but forced promotion leads to ashes and smoke. I think this saying is extremely true. Without ironclad capability, even if one becomes explosive overnight, they won’t go far.”
Yan Zijin wasn’t merely paying lip service.
Before transmigrating, he had spent over a dozen years in the entertainment industry, witnessing the experiences of countless artists.
There were those who became explosively popular for a short duration, only to vanish very quickly; those who were popular from their twenties all the way to playing the parents of twenty-year-old youths, yet remained the main characters; and those who went through many ups and downs before slowly gaining a firm footing.
The most common was the first type, while the latter two were often the minority. To become the latter two, one’s own capability had to be ironclad.
“The artists at Jincan Qichen have all signed contracts of five years or more. As the person-in-charge of Jincan Qichen, I believe that making money for the company for just one or two years is completely insufficient. Without ironclad capability to support them in going further and staying popular longer, the resources invested in them by the company would merely be a waste. Trainee, I believe your company is just like Jincan Qichen.”
Ever since this trainee raised a sensitive issue involving grading—and targeting a mentor holding grading power at that—the entire studio had quieted down.
So although Yan Zijin’s voice wasn’t loud, it reached the ears of everyone in the studio.
This passage from Yan Zijin wasn’t just stating his stance. It was also telling everyone that the trainees of Jincan Qichen were not vase-like showpieces needing to rely on cheating in grading. Even for the sake of making money, Jincan Qichen wouldn’t invest in artists without capability.
Even more so, it was reminding the other party—talent competitions rely on strength. Without strength, even if one becomes popular, they can only be a short-lived, fleeting shooting star.
The person asking the question was merely a trainee, whereas Yan Zijin was a mentor holding the grading power over all trainees.
Yet this trainee chose to raise such a sharp, sensitive question on such an occasion. He was either foolish, or wanted to establish a persona of “unfazed by authority,” or had something to rely on and didn’t care about offending him at all.
Yan Zijin leaned toward the latter two options. But regardless of which one it was, he would not allow himself to be stepped on for someone else’s rise to power.
After speaking, he looked at the other no longer, turning around to follow behind the staff member toward the backstage.
Although official recording hadn’t started yet, the cameras had been turned on ever since the first trainee walked in. They faithfully recorded the scene that had just occurred.
“Second Young Master Shen?”
While walking toward the backstage, Yan Zijin was contemplating the sudden situation just now when he heard a somewhat familiar voice near his ear.
A few steps away, Ning Siyin had already changed clothes and finished his styling, looking over this way in slight surprise.
Yan Zijin: !!
Ning Siyin really was one of the mentors for Super Idol!
Ning Siyin smiled: “I saw someone outside just now who looked like Second Young Master Shen, and I thought I had mistaken him. It turns out to be true.”
“Second Young Master Shen, you are…?”
Yan Zijin’s mind was a bit jumbled as he said evasively: “A few artists from my company are participating in this show, so I came over to take a look.”
Ning Siyin’s gaze swept over him lightly, letting out a refined smile.
Meticulously coordinated accessories, makeup specifically styled for stage recording… he didn’t look in any way like he was merely here to “take a look” at the show’s crew.
Yan Zijin also knew that with the protagonist’s intelligence, he didn’t believe his words at all.
However, because of Ning Siyin’s appearance, he was indeed considering quitting. So it wasn’t completely lying either.
Yan Zijin truly hadn’t expected that Ning Siyin was actually one of the mentors for Super Idol.
This was different from the novel; why was a plot that hadn’t appeared happening?
He had originally intended to dodge the plot in the novel, stay away from the protagonist Ning Siyin, and avoid this body encountering the original ending to the greatest extent, yet he ran into such an unexpected situation.
Super Idol was going to record for four months. Although they didn’t have to be together every day, there were still twelve episodes where they must share the venue. It was impossible for the two to have zero interaction.
To quit or not to quit?
Yan Zijin needed to make a decision immediately.
Thinking for a moment, he recalled the personality of Ning Siyin described in the text.
In the novel, Ning Siyin was refined and gentle on the surface, but in truth was not close to anyone, to the extent that his romance line wasn’t written until the grand finale. Ning Siyin adhered to the code of conduct of “I won’t offend others unless they offend me,” and wouldn’t randomly target someone who hadn’t offended him. This was also why Yan Zijin chose to stay far away from him.
Since the two were now participating in recording the same show, having intersections was inevitable, but it was merely four months after all. Besides, they would only meet during recording, not staying together every day. It was just like in his past life: he had filmed so many dramas and cooperated with so many people in the entertainment industry, yet after a short few months of interaction, didn’t they still part ways, at most bumping into each other once or twice at year-end galas?
Thus, Yan Zijin decided to wait and see, temporarily keeping it the same as before—not taking the initiative to approach, and keeping his distance as much as possible.
“Teacher Ning and Teacher Shen know each other?”
The two were blocked at the corridor entrance for quite a while without speaking, and the staff member nearby felt the atmosphere was a bit awkward, coming out to smooth things over.
“Early last month…”
“We’ve only met once.”
Before Ning Siyin could finish speaking, he was interrupted by Yan Zijin, who preempted the answer.
The staff member looked at Ning Siyin, then at Yan Zijin. Thinking to himself: judging by Teacher Ning Siyin’s tone just now, it didn’t seem like they had merely met once.
Yet Ning Siyin’s expression appeared slightly surprised, but he still good-naturedly nodded, confirming Yan Zijin’s words.
“Indeed, we have only met once.”
Those who could mix in the entertainment industry were no fools; the staff member didn’t pry any further, leading the two directly to the waiting area backstage.
In the waiting area, several other mentors had already arrived.
Yan Zijin swept a glance; two were artists he had heard of before transmigrating who had debuted long ago and been wildly popular for a time, while he didn’t recognize the other one. But looking at their way of interacting and conversational content, it wasn’t hard to guess that his status was no lower than the other two.
It seemed he truly was in a parallel world; the two worlds had similarities as well as differences.
“Ning Siyin! It really is you. Long time no see.”
“Hello, long time no see,” Ning Siyin replied with a smile. “The last time we met was at the music festival last year, right?”
“Yeah, yeah,” that female artist stood up in pleasant surprise. “How long has it been since you took on work? Us fans are practically looking forward to it until our eyes bleed.”
“Things at home have been quite busy, so I wasn’t able to come out and take on work,” Ning Siyin explained in a gentle voice.
Yan Zijin found a seat at random and sat down, watching the other few people surround Ning Siyin.
Truly worthy of being the protagonist—loved by all wherever he went, able to chat up a few lines with anyone, completely different from the cold and domineering persona that night.
Which was good, though. With others surrounding Ning Siyin, it saved him from having any interaction with him.
As for the matter that night… treat it as an accident.
No, no, no, no accident. It should be: nothing happened that night; he relied entirely on willpower to make it through. As for the other person on the bed, it was merely the effect of the drug, combined with the original host Shen Qing’s consciousness not having fully vanished yet, creating a hallucination due to obsession with Ning Siyin.
Yan Zijin made up his mind: Yes, that’s it!
Once the show finished recording, his relationship with Ning Siyin would become just like those previous co-workers—going from current colleagues to former colleagues.
Idol talent selection variety shows were basically all more or less the same. The main content of the first episode was trainee self-introductions, and of course, the most important was the first stage performance, where mentors assigned initial grades based on each person’s performance, followed by recording episode by episode.
For broadcast effects, the production crew would deliberately set up certain segments to catch the audience’s eye. For example: a trainee with a pitiable background who could only practice hard to change fate, a trainee who had practiced for many years without being able to debut but refused to give up, a trainee whose starting grade was a rookie but slowly turned the tables through hard work… these were all long set up on the script.
Aside from these pre-arranged ones, the rest depended on the trainees’ own performance. At this time, what was being put to the test was strength—not only the trainees’ own artistic capability, but also the marketing capability of each agency.
Jincan Qichen possessed no marketing capability, so Yan Zijin signed a marketing firm after taking over.
In the end, Father Hu heard that his son wanted to open a marketing company, and upon asking clearly that it was due to being influenced by Shen Qing, he directly bought out that company Jincan Qichen was cooperating with.
Yan Zijin was completely speechless upon hearing this. No wonder the original novel used only one word when describing the Hu family—nouveau riche. This behavior was indeed very nouveau riche.
Yan Zijin possessed sharp eyes, and the few artists he selected were quite capable; with the help of the marketing firm added, the rankings of several trainees from Jincan Qichen were all pretty good.
Half a month later, Jincan Qichen signed a further cooperation agreement with Leguo Video.
Signing his grand name on the contract, stamping the official seal, and handing the copy belonging to Jincan Qichen to his assistant, Yan Zijin stood up and shook hands with the person-in-charge of Leguo Video.
“Those few artists from my company will be handed over to Leguo; I’ll ask Manager Zhu to take good care of them,” Yan Zijin said.
After today’s contract was signed, the remaining artists of Jincan Qichen who couldn’t participate in Super Idol would successively join the crews of Leguo Video’s self-produced web dramas.
The opportunity had been provided by Yan Zijin; whether they could stand out required their own hard work.
Manager Zhu’s chubby face was all smiles: “Certainly, certainly. If there are opportunities for cooperation in the future, I also hope Jincan will think of our Leguo Video first.”
The other party was willing to sign this agreement with him out of respect for the Shen family and Jincan, which had long been within Yan Zijin’s expectations. This was also the reason why he had deliberately changed the company name to Jincan Qichen.
With the agreement signing completed, Yan Zijin declined the other party’s proposal to tour the Leguo Video building, bidding farewell and leaving directly with his assistant.
“President Shen, I seem to have an upset stomach from lunch.” The young assistant blushed, her tone a bit anxious.
Yan Zijin said considerately: “Go ahead quickly, I’ll wait for you over by the sofa. Do you know where it is?”
The young assistant nodded while running flustered toward the restroom.
Yan Zijin walked over to sit on the sofa in the lounge area, casually picking up a promotional flyer on the coffee table printed with promotional materials for Super Idol.
Super Idol had already broadcast four episodes. After all, it was a key project for Leguo Video, plus having a popular traffic star like Ning Siyin as a mentor. When the show aired its first episode, the online hype exploded directly. The subsequent episodes climbed even higher, directly crushing similar shows on neighboring websites.
This promotional material in his hand would be eagerly fought over by fans if placed outside, but in Leguo’s office, it was no different from ordinary scrap paper.
Truly an experienced big firm; they sure have a knack for hunger marketing, Yan Zijin thought to himself.
After waiting for a good while, the assistant hadn’t returned yet. Feeling a bit bored, Yan Zijin looked around.
Suddenly, Yan Zijin’s gaze condensed in a certain direction.
In the hallway diagonally opposite, a group of men in suits and leather shoes walked over, and the person guarding the front was particularly eye-catching.
How did he look a bit like Ning Siyin?
Just as Yan Zijin was thinking this, that person happened to turn his head, exposing his entire face completely.
It really was Ning Siyin!
Yan Zijin subconsciously lowered his head, pretending to read the materials in his hands.
That group of people passed by Yan Zijin’s side; fortunately, they didn’t notice him sitting on the sofa, engrossed in chatting about work matters.
“That project cooperating with Huaya, delay it a few more days to see if the other party is willing to concede another percentage point. Why hasn’t work resumed at Fenglong Town Film and Television City? Tell Yu Bao that if he doesn’t want to do it, submit his resignation letter; I don’t have time to waste with him. Also, regarding Zhang Yi’s side, have Zhu Ming go negotiate in person. The director for Interstellar Visitor must be him, and the compensation is up to him to name…”
“Understood, President Ning.”
Once those few people walked far away, Yan Zijin was completely stunned.
President Ning???
If he hadn’t misheard, the person speaking just now referred to Ning Siyin as “President Ning”? And Zhu Ming was precisely Manager Zhu, the executive president of Leguo Video who had signed the further cooperation agreement with Yan Zijin ten minutes ago.
Filming a drama?
Yan Zijin immediately rejected this guess. Whether it was Huaya Company, Fenglong Film City, or Director Zhang Yi, they all existed in reality; filming a drama wouldn’t use so much real information.
A shocking truth surfaced in his mind.
Could Ning Siyin be that mysterious boss behind Leguo Video?
Yan Zijin was bewildered. He recalled the plot once again, confirming that the original text had never mentioned this detail.
Had he transmigrated into the wrong novel? Or were there more than one parallel space?
Yan Zijin couldn’t come up with a rationale.
What troubled him was that if his guess was true, wouldn’t the life and death of Jincan Qichen be gripped in Ning Siyin’s hands?
This was truly not good news. Even half an hour earlier, he wouldn’t have fallen into such a predicament.
Now that the cooperation agreement had been signed, if the cooperation were canceled, Jincan Qichen would face massive compensation penalties. Even if Yan Zijin could produce this money, he wasn’t willing to just throw it into the water like that.
Not to mention, deciding to choose Leguo Video in the first place was a decision made after Yan Zijin conducted multiple investigations and comparisons across several platforms and gave it thorough consideration. Unless absolutely necessary, he didn’t want to give up such a suitable platform.
After pondering for a bit, Yan Zijin decided to do nothing for the time being, trusting that Ning Siyin, as the protagonist, wouldn’t be someone who couldn’t separate public and private matters.