Everyone Spends Money to Make Me Debut as Center (GL) - Chapter 7
Bai Chang was staring at the words “Ms. Bai” in the chat box, lost in thought.
When did it start? The relationship between Chi Ling and her had become as distant as this form of address.
Human memory is a strange thing. There was always a moment when she would be lost in a daze and remember Chi Ling’s warm, radiant smile from when they first met. It was so warm and comforting, it felt like it was just yesterday.
“People change, but things remain the same” was too fitting for them. The once gentle, cheerful, and sunny Chi Ling had suddenly changed after her debut, making her, who was once the closest person to her, feel like a stranger.
••••
Early the next morning, Tang Yu drove Bai Chang to the headquarters of “Nation’s Girls” for a meeting. The production team knew Bai Chang had a habit of arriving five minutes early, so they had already gathered in the conference room to wait.
Because she had no other schedule for the day, Bai Chang was only wearing simple casual clothes. Her silk shirt had a great drape, highlighting her rare, perfect right-angled shoulders. A simple silver chain rested on her neck, and with her hoop earrings, she looked very elegant even with light makeup.
The director stood up and pulled a chair for her. After everyone was seated, he began the introductions. “These are our two main executive PDs. The man, Zheng Qiu, is in charge of various aspects of the live performances. The short-haired girl next to him is Xi Yaozhi. She’s in charge of things outside of the performances, like daily practice and song selection. You’ll probably be in more contact with her. And these people opposite you are the scriptwriters…”
Bai Chang nodded and smiled at each one. “We’ll be seeing a lot of each other from now on. Please take care of me.”
“Oh, no, no, we should be thanking you for being so busy and still agreeing to join our show.” The director was a man who loved to talk. When he got excited, he could go on and on.
Bai Chang smiled faintly. “After all, one of my own is on the show. Coming to watch makes me feel more at ease.”
The director’s face stiffened. He clearly understood the meaning behind Bai Chang’s words.
They were also in charge of the previous season of “Nation’s Girls.” The production team was famous for its love of controversy and its obviously biased editing. They were cursed by fans all the way to the finale and trended for allegedly rigging the show, suppressing votes for top members, and forcing a predetermined candidate to debut.
Bai Chang was initially unwilling to come because of the production team’s terrible reputation. But since Tang Yu had made a rare request for her, she couldn’t disappoint her. However, now that she was here, she wouldn’t stand by and do nothing.
But the director clearly misunderstood Bai Chang’s meaning. “Hahahaha, of course, of course. This time, your side only has two people signed up, right? That’s easy to arrange. Do you want both of them, or just one? If it’s both, we’ll have to discuss it with the investors.”
After all, there were only nine debut spots. If each big company got one on average, there weren’t many left.
Bai Chang looked at the director’s smiling, wrinkled face, her eyes sinking. She didn’t speak, but her mind wandered, remembering what Chi Chenxiong had said at the family dinner that day.
‘Don’t think I don’t know the tricks in your talent shows. What training, what dreams, in the end, it’s just a few people picked by the investors and big companies. A meaningless show like this will only lower your value.’
He was right. Bai Chang laughed with a hint of sarcasm.
The director, not getting an immediate response from Bai Chang, looked at Tang Yu with some confusion. The latter nodded politely at him, took a few documents from her bag, and had Bai Yuanyuan pass one to everyone present.
Everyone looked confused. Tang Yu stood up and started explaining. “Talent shows happen every year. Some become incredibly popular, while others debut and are immediately forgotten. I believe the group from the last season was an example of the latter.”
“That’s a problem with post-debut management. It has little to do with our production team. And what… what is this supposed to mean?” The director couldn’t quite wrap his head around it. He pointed at a bolded line in the document. “Propose a change to the show’s voting system? Demand transparency and authenticity?”
Tang Yu couldn’t be bothered with the director’s nonsense and continued, “We have a suggestion: the accounts used for voting must be linked to a verified social media account. One ID can only be tied to one voting account. The voting data will be updated in real time, and the voting account nicknames will be made public.”
“That’s not an issue. Our voting is already based on real names. Real-time updates and public account names will require some technical investment, but we can discuss that later.”
“The funds required for the technical investment can be invested by Ms. Bai Chang in her personal name. This is her decision, and as her agent, I respect it. Furthermore, Ms. Bai Chang has hired a team of public notaries to help the production team ensure the transparency of the voting mechanism.”
The scriptwriters looked at each other, surprised that Bai Chang was so serious. This would make their job of writing the scripts much harder.
Bai Chang hadn’t done something like this in a long time. When she first entered the industry, she was direct and stubborn. After years of working on various sets, she had been polished into a smoother version of herself. She was aware of many industry secrets but never spoke out about them. But this time, she didn’t want to be an “uninformed” participant.
In fact, being an out-of-line, straightforward person once in a while was quite interesting.
“This is exactly the same request as Ruan Yuequan’s. It’s like we wasted money…” someone whispered.
This money referred to the difference in pay between Ruan Yuequan and Bai Chang. The production team was willing to offend Ruan Yuequan and replace her with Bai Chang partly because the director wanted her national popularity and high profile, and partly because they couldn’t reach an agreement with Ruan Yuequan.
Ruan Yuequan was known in the industry for offending people. It wasn’t that she was difficult to get along with; she was just too principled and blunt, which blocked many people’s opportunities. If she didn’t have a strong family background to support her, she would have been blacklisted and banned multiple times.
After hearing Tang Yu’s words, the director frowned. He was also in a passive position. If he didn’t have someone pressuring him from above, he wouldn’t be doing such thankless things. “Bai Chang, I’ll be honest with you, I can’t make this decision alone.”
Mainly, he didn’t want to offend people. The show’s investors were not just one or two companies; they were a significant part of the entertainment industry.
Regardless of how stunned the director and the staff behind him looked, Bai Chang, in her white clothes, remained calm and collected. “Director, of course, I know what you’re worried about. That’s why I had a meal with Mr. Wang and the others before I came and presented this plan to them. Everyone was in complete agreement.”
Tang Yu, seeing the nonchalant look on Bai Chang’s face, felt like she was about to spit bl00d. This woman was so low-key and quiet when she wasn’t causing trouble, but when she did, she went all out!
How could the “agreement” Bai Chang mentioned have been reached? By giving resources and benefits to these people, one by one, in a way that resulted in a loss for her, and racking up a mountain of favors, she finally got those people to reach a consensus.
A temporary idol group only lasts for a year. Only one or two members can really reach the peak of fame and achieve a lucrative return. It was better for the others to accept Bai Chang’s favors and be able to ask for a favor in return—and besides, even if the voting was transparent, it didn’t mean they had no other tricks up their sleeves.
A big company had many ways to promote new artists. It was just that recent talent shows had given them a taste of taking shortcuts.
Everyone benefited from this arrangement, except for Tang Yu, who watched the precious resources she had worked so hard to secure with her persuasive words being given away. It felt worse than being stabbed.
Bai Chang, however, kindly consoled her: “It’s okay. I wasn’t planning on taking on 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 make it up to you.”
Can a person actually say something like that?!
The director, surprised that Bai Chang would go to such lengths for a talent show, pushed down his shock and went over a few more details before starting to explain the show’s procedures.
In the end, the director tentatively asked a question. “I’ve heard that the online comments about Chi Ling’s participation aren’t very positive…”
This was the only motivation he could think of for Bai Chang’s grand gesture. While the fans were in the dark, he, as an industry insider, knew about Bai Chang and Chi Ling’s marriage. Although there were rumors that their marital relationship was not good, Bai Chang’s reaction seemed to suggest otherwise.
“Mm,” Bai Chang replied, surprisingly calmly.
“Then should we be mindful of that during post-production editing?”
The editing of a talent show could have a decisive impact on the votes. But there were different types of editing, such as malicious editing and highlight editing. They originally wanted to maliciously edit Chi Ling to attract some attention, but Bai Chang’s attitude was truly hard to figure out.
Hearing this, Bai Chang looked up. Her eyes, as cool as water, made the grown man of a director feel a little unnerved. Just as the director was wondering if he had asked the wrong question and was about to take it back, she spoke softly, “I personally hope that the post-production editing can be as fair as possible to every contestant.”
“Yes, since we’ve decided to make major reforms to this season’s show, the old editing style is also not a good idea. Hahahahaha, wouldn’t you all agree?”
Everyone: Speechless.
••••
As they were leaving the main building, Bai Chang seemed to suddenly remember something and said to Tang Yu, who was walking ahead, “Sister Tang, you’ll be with Chi Ling for the next two months.”
Tang Yu: My heart hasn’t healed yet, and you’re already exiling me to the frontier?
Bai Chang seemed to see through her thoughts. “Just as you said, more heads mean more salary. Consider it compensation for the resources.”
It was not uncommon for an agent to manage two artists, but Tang Yu had been with Bai Chang since MK. Later, when Bai Chang started her own career, Tang Yu also quit her job to follow her. Everyone thought it was only natural for them to be an inseparable pair.
“She requested me?” Tang Yu was the one who fired Zhou Ping, but she never thought she would have to take over this mess.
“She doesn’t know yet.”
Bai Chang hadn’t replied to Chi Ling’s WeChat message. She was unexpectedly bothered by the distant address of “Ms. Bai.”
“Then what are you planning to do?” This time, even Tang Yu couldn’t figure out what Bai Chang was thinking.
“Just think of it as me paying back a favor.”
Tang Yu: Why are you dragging me into your marital accounting?
••••
Chi Ling was the last one to know her agent had been replaced. She thought Bai Chang not replying meant she didn’t agree, but then a friend request suddenly popped up on her silent WeChat.
Tang Yu: Please accept my request. I’m your new agent.
“Huh?”
Chi Ling sent a message to Zhou Ping.
[Message sent, but rejected by the recipient.]
She just fired her directly?
If Zhou Ping had stayed at the studio, she wouldn’t have been able to block Chi Ling on WeChat, since they would’ve had to see each other.
She’s quite efficient.
Chi Ling accepted Tang Yu’s request and politely sent a “Hello.” At the same time, she felt a ringing in her head like tinnitus, and the system’s voice came out again.
[A new S-rank target object has been added! Host, please check the relevant information!]
With this fawning tone, Chi Ling knew a big spender had arrived. But she had been home all these days, and she was being cursed out online. Where did this big spender come from?
The target information started to transfer.
Name: Bai Chang
Fan Type: None
Pay-to-win index: 200,000
Occupation: Actress
Hobbies: None
Skills: Singing, composing, dancing, acting…
Measurements: 81/58/82
Goodness, she has a great body.
After she processed the information, Chi Ling thought, “Two hundred thousand? What is my soon-to-be ex-wife up to now?”
Author’s Note:
Ahhhhh, the foreshadowing in Chapter 5 and this chapter is super obvious, isn’t it! Bai Chang isn’t a heartbreaker; she’s very dedicated!!