Chapter 384 Smoke of War
Lu Yanhe didn't win an award, but it can't be said that he didn't win an award at all.
Friends won the Best Television Series award that night, and as the lead actor and writer, his glory cannot be erased by anyone.
As a result, although Lu Yanhe did not win any of the major awards he was nominated for, he became the most watched person at this year's awards ceremony because of the Best TV Series award.
His speech was once again praised as a "textbook-level" speech.
Many media outlets produced transcripts of his speech and disseminated them online.
In particular, the line "A work is art, but art is made up of all kinds of work. Without the efforts of everyone in front of and behind the camera, art is not art, but just a crude craft" was forwarded by many behind-the-scenes staff in the film and television industry, who expressed their feelings.
"We all know that celebrities are the most lucrative profession in the film and television industry, while behind-the-scenes staff such as lighting technicians, sound engineers, and makeup artists don't appear on screen directly. So, unless they reach the top or the very top of the industry, they are generally hard to see. We always hear celebrities thanking all the staff both on and off screen, and we're tired of hearing that. I didn't expect Lu Yanhe to say something like this." Entertainment critic Guan Suchen wrote, "Lu Yanhe's words are really good. It's not that only acting is art, and other jobs aren't. He's a rare actor who can truly see the importance of each job. With actors like him, we can believe that the film and television industry will get better and better."
Then, someone dug up Li Zhenzhen's remarks at the press conference that day.
"All the artists in 'The Days of Youth' shared a portion of their income with the behind-the-scenes staff. Seriously, we always see all sorts of things like tax evasion, or people being anxious because they only have one or two million left in their bank accounts. It's as if all the artists in the entertainment industry are a bunch of brainless idiots whose brains are structured differently from ordinary people. Fortunately, there are artists like Lu Yanhe who are clear-headed and have empathy. Otherwise, I really don't know what kind of idols we usually pay attention to."
"Hasn't Lu Yanhe always been a breath of fresh air? 99.99% of male actors in the entire entertainment industry, especially those his age, wouldn't take the role in 'Late Spring.' Those without acting skills would ruin it, and those with skills would complain it's an ensemble piece, that the male lead doesn't have enough screen time, or that the pay is too low. The film and television industry should be secretly happy to have an actor like Lu Yanhe. How many newcomers has he brought to the forefront this year? 'Friends' made Yan Liang, Wen Minglan, Zhan Yun, and Yin Xincheng famous all at once; 'Three Mountains' launched three complete newcomers: Chen Jiang, Sui Fangran, and Wang Lu; and 'Late Spring' is even more remarkable—aside from Lu Yanhe, the entire cast is newcomers. Do you know why Lu Yanhe's status is so high at such a young age? Because he's an actor who can truly carry a film on his own. I'm not saying he's the only one, but in recent years, which other actor has done that?"
The group's agitated state made it seem as if Lu Yanhe had been smeared or attacked, but upon closer inspection, no one had attacked him. Why were these people so agitated?
"Why? Of course, it's because it's so rare to encounter such a rare and popular celebrity, I can't help but get excited."
During an internal meeting of Yemai.com, Xin Zixing analyzed a phenomenon that had emerged online based on her own understanding.
“Isn’t this how we feel? What kind of celebrities did we work with before? They were all so well protected by their teams, so sensitive, and so arrogant. When we worked with them, we had to set aside a special budget for marketing to boost their popularity, haha,” Xin Zixing said. “We’ve worked with Lu Yanhe for so long, have he and his team ever made a single inexplicable or absurd request?”
"Zixing, we all know you and Lu Yanhe have a good relationship, but you don't need to praise him like that." Zuo Yu, sitting opposite her, teased with a smile. "Of course, Yanhe is indeed a very excellent artist, but won't your Mr. Huang get jealous if you praise him like this?"
Everyone else laughed along.
Xin Zixing was surprised that Zuo Yu would suddenly mention Huang Kairen.
But this isn't the first time.
Since her relationship with Huang Kairen became public, Xin Zixing has often encountered situations where people tease her about it to her face.
She was certainly annoyed, but despite her annoyance, she could only endure it.
The whole environment is like this; if she cares about it, it will make her seem too calculating.
"Mr. Zuo, you're so concerned about me, won't your wife be jealous?" Xin Zixing replied in a neither harsh nor soft tone, with a smile on her face, "I can't handle your concern."
Zuo Yu was slightly taken aback.
The others were also stunned, not expecting Xin Zixing to retaliate in this way.
Xin Zixing said, "My relationship with Lu Yanhe is indeed good, but business is business. Why do I say he's a rare find, and why are so many people excited about the emergence of an artist like him? It's the same principle. We've built a magazine brand and a documentary brand. As one of the most authoritative websites for film and television ratings in China, we actually gather far more artistic youths than other platforms. This is our platform's biggest advantage—investors and brand clients, what do they value in us? In the simplest terms, it's our style. Other platforms are mass-market, only our platform is elite-oriented. This is what distinguishes us from other platforms. Just now, Mr. Zuo said that we need to increase traffic and investment, and I agree with that. However, I think the premise for this is not to damage our website's positioning and image—or rather, do you all think our website's positioning and image can be damaged?"
Zuo Yu said, "YeMai.com's positioning and brand image have always been far ahead in the market, but why does such a website with such a good reputation and brand image have such a small market share? Have you all thought about this question?"
The others looked at each other in bewilderment.
"Actually, I don't need to say it; everyone already knows the answer. This isn't an era where good wine needs no bush. In fact, it's become an era of extremely fragmented time. Think about it, how much time do we spend online every day on average? We receive countless pieces of information every day: a celebrity cheating, I need to click and see; a new drama is out, I need to watch an episode; a seed from a thousand years ago has been regrown and blossomed in this era, how amazing, I need to see. There are so many such situations, aren't there? Every online platform is trying every trick in the book to get people to click and spend more time on their platform," Zuo Yu said. "But where does our website's traffic come from? Or rather, where does it mainly come from? We've done data analysis, and more than half of our traffic comes from registered users. What does that mean? We have many loyal users, but very few new users. This shows that our user acquisition is terrible."
Zuo Yu looked at Xin Zixing: "Zixing has created two very good works, one is 'City Travelogue' and the other is 'Jump Up'. Our backend data also shows that these two works have the most loyal users. Every month, several million users are active on our Yemai.com because of these two works. However, on the other hand, we also have to see the fact that their user acquisition is not very good. Some people say that they have reached a bottleneck and the data can't go up. They say that the threshold of these two works is very high and it is impossible for them to have tens of millions of users like those mass-market works."
Xin Zixing frowned slightly.
This argument has indeed been around for a long time, and it is a major reason why Xin Zixing's ideas have been restricted and she has not been able to obtain more resources.
The higher-ups are no longer optimistic about them expanding their user base further. Many people feel that as long as they can maintain their current size and not decline, that's already good enough.
Is Zuo Yu going to reiterate this argument once again?
Xin Zixing wasn't very familiar with this newly recruited executive, who had only been there for less than six months. She didn't know what his methods were, only that his background was in publicity, marketing, and promotion.
Zuo Yu then changed the subject, saying, "In my eyes, they are far from reaching their limits. They still have a large market to explore. In fact, it is our high-threshold positioning of these two works that has made us give up a lot of market share and a large number of users."
What does this mean?
Zuo Yu said, "Let me give you an example. Jump Up is not only a magazine, but also a very successful self-media platform. In fact, all the content that appears on self-media platforms can also appear on YeMai.com. If we had taken a longer-term view and brought self-media platforms under our YeMai.com umbrella, just think how many users the several self-media brands under Jump Up, which now have tens of millions of fans, could have brought to YeMai.com?"
The meeting room fell silent.
Even Xin Zixing remained silent.
"In the less than six months I've been with the company, I've been diligently studying the core business, operating model, strengths and weaknesses of our website. I can say this: Zixing is a very good content creator, but unfortunately, our company didn't have someone to ensure that her content was disseminated 100% or even 1000% of the way."
As soon as Zuo Yu finished speaking, the conference room erupted in chaos.
Even Xin Zixing looked at him in astonishment, not understanding why he would say that.
However, putting everything else aside, Xin Zixing felt that what Zuo Yu said actually made some sense.
"Sticking to old rules will only lead to stagnation or regression. Now, let's all think back to when I made an inappropriate joke about Huang Kairen in front of Zixing. Do you all remember that?"
Amid the murmurs, Xin Zixing frowned, looking at Zuo Yu with confusion, not understanding why he had brought up this matter again.
Does he find it interesting?
Everyone was watching him, waiting for him to continue.
"When I made such an inappropriate joke, although it was inappropriate, everyone's attention was drawn to me, and then to Xin Zixing. Did you all not know that Xin Zixing and Lu Yanhe have a good relationship? Those of you who have been with the company longer than me certainly know this better than I do. Did you all not know that Xin Zixing and Huang Kairen are a couple? You certainly do. However, when I put these two things together, I especially remember the look Zixing gave me. Of course, she's a very kind person; she didn't directly retaliate or scold me, and I'm already very grateful. But actually, besides thinking I was crazy, her look at me contained a very important point: she was questioning how I could connect these two things without any evidence. You all had the same reaction. No matter how outrageous I was, at that moment, I grabbed everyone's attention. So, whatever I said, you listened very attentively, even if what I said later had nothing to do with this."
Xin Zixing seemed to have vaguely grasped something.
"This is the most important thing about promotion. It's not about finding something that has never happened before for every promotion, nor is it about constantly innovating. If the product is good enough, then our core task at this stage is definitely not to further improve the quality, but to let more people know how good it is," Zuo Yu said. "We need to find ways to let more people know about and engage with branded works like 'City Travelogue' or 'Jump Up,' not by repeatedly emphasizing how good they are. These days, being good is not enough to make people willing to try it."
He looked at Xin Zixing: "The short film project is novel and can cultivate a lot of talent. However, Yemai.com is not a video platform, right? You mentioned collaborating with other platforms to do this project, which could very well be done beautifully and have a good reputation, and I have great faith in your ability to create excellent content. But no matter how well it's done, other video platforms might still capture the largest share of traffic and profits. Where should we focus our efforts to achieve twice the result with half the effort? This is what I've been thinking about. So, Zixing, I don't agree with your proposed short film project. It's not that I disagree with your plan, but it's a waste of resources to dig new places when we already have several gold mines that haven't been fully explored. If we don't solve the problem of our mining tools not being precise and powerful enough, even if we find a hundred gold mines, we can only extract a small amount of gold, and we'll never find the biggest, best, and most abundant place."
-
Xin Zixing was reluctant to admit that Zuo Yu's words had made her begin to waver on the short film project.
Is now really a good time to launch a short film project?
Both "City Travelogue" and "Jump Up" have reached this point, but their potential for further expansion and strengthening has been limited by the ideological issues at the top. The short film project is very likely to suffer the same fate.
She pondered for a long time, and when she came to her senses, she realized it was already 8:30 pm.
She grabbed her bag, turned off the lights, and left the office. Some colleagues were still working overtime, but most had already left.
She greeted her colleagues who were still working overtime and headed towards the elevator.
As a result, when the elevator doors opened, Zuo Yu was found inside.
"Mr. Zuo, what a coincidence." Xin Zixing greeted him.
Zuo Yu smiled at her and asked, "Just got off work?"
"Hmm." Xin Zixing didn't want to admit that she had been thinking about what he said and had lost track of time, so she gave a vague smile.
"I haven't formally explained to you yet that I voted against your previous request to increase the production budget for 'City Travelogue' and your proposal to make a short film this time. Please believe me, I'm not targeting you, but based on my professional judgment."
Zuo Yu smiled, appearing very candid, but whether he was trustworthy remained to be seen. In the workplace, there were too many masked people. Xin Zixing was on edge, but her face also wore a mask of nonchalance. She nodded and said, "What you said today is indeed thought-provoking."
“My past work was more or less related to publicity and marketing. Coming to Yemai.com actually surprised me a bit. I rarely see a company that has reached this scale, yet many of its management and employees still retain idealism and so-called artistic sentiments.”
Xin Zixing said, "If you weren't that kind of person, you wouldn't have joined our company in the first place. There's bound to be some attraction between like-minded people. And you, President Zuo, why did you come to Yemai.com?"
"Because for me, this place is like a place that is somewhat famous but has not yet become a world-class tourist attraction. This is where I can make the most of my value," Zuo Yu said. "This place is not lacking in good content, but it lacks good promoters, and coincidentally, I am good at promoting it."
Xin Zixing noticed that Zuo Yu spoke with a convincing sense of professionalism.
At this moment, the elevator arrived at the parking lot.
Zuo Yu blocked the door with his right hand, gesturing for Xin Zixing to go out first.
Xin Zixing nodded her thanks and left.
"Zixing," Zuo Yu suddenly called her name again.
Xin Zixing turned around and looked at Zuo Yu with some surprise.
"I apologize for the joke I made about you, Huang Kairen, and Lu Yanhe today," Zuo Yu said.
Xin Zixing hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Did you make that joke just to use it as an example later?"
“Of course not, it just happened to come up,” Zuo Yu said. “It’s because I’ve noticed that lately, no matter what I say, you seem to subconsciously resist what I say, probably because I opposed your previous suggestions, or even ignored me. I think I might have to take a stand against you before you’ll take me seriously, listen carefully to what I have to say, and understand my way of thinking.”
"Huh?" Xin Zixing looked at Zuo Yu with a face full of disbelief.
"I'm so glad you finally got to know me today," Zuo Yu said with a smile. "Let's have dinner together again next time. I'm sure we'll have a lot to talk about. You're good at making things, and I'm good at selling things. One of us is upstream, and the other is downstream. We should work together to clear the river."
Xin Zixing nodded and said with a smile, "Okay."
-
Xin Zixing told Huang Kairen about this, and Huang Kairen's first reaction was: "Why do I feel like you've been tricked?"
"How did you get caught up in this?" Xin Zixing asked.
Huang Kairen: "What he's really trying to say is that he wants to highlight the importance of his job. What about your job? He's implying that you've already done a good enough job, there's no need to do it any better, you're no longer the core business of YeMai.com, and the core business will be his responsibility for publicity and promotion. Are you really going to accept all of this and hand over your position to him?"
Xin Zixing felt as if she had been hit on the head, which jolted her awake.
She suddenly realized.
"This guy has a whole set of excuses. He makes fun of you first, then apologizes, giving himself a high-sounding reason. He says everything, good or bad, that everything has a cause and a reason." Huang Kairen sneered, "He's really good at propaganda, he can really fool people."
Xin Zixing: "Yes, it's his business how he promotes himself. I'm in charge of content creation, so I don't care what he thinks. My job is to make the content better and better, and to create more and more good content."
She looked at Huang Kairen incredulously and asked, "How come I didn't even realize this? I actually thought he made sense. What's wrong with me?"
-
"Spokesperson? Spokesperson for YeMai.com?"
Lu Yanhe looked at Chen Ziyan with disbelief. "We've been working together for so long, why are you suddenly asking me to be your spokesperson? Is it really necessary? I've been working with Yemai.com for so long, my fans basically all know about Yemai.com. What's the point of them asking me to be their spokesperson?"
"We hope you can appear on Yemai.com more often and cooperate with the website's planning to create some topics," Chen Ziyan said. "One of their new executives, Zuo Yu, personally came to talk to me and also wanted to meet you. To be honest, the cooperation proposal he put forward has many good ideas, which are obviously explosive and may spark a social discussion."
Lu Yanhe shook his head subconsciously.
"Sister Ziyan, I've already got enough trending topics. Let's skip this kind of high-exposure collaboration," Lu Yanhe said.
He felt he really needed to lower his profile, otherwise people would get annoyed if he kept appearing in front of them.
Chen Ziyan said, "That's what I thought too, but since it's Yemai.com, I think it's better to let you know first."
Chen Ziyan meant that Lu Yanhe's cooperation with Yemai.com was too deep, and they were not ordinary partners. She did not want to refuse on her own initiative.
-
Zuo Yu wore an expression of disbelief.
"Mr. Chen, given Yan He's relationship with our Yemai.com, who else could be the spokesperson but him? Why are you unwilling? Is it a matter of endorsement fee? If that's the case, we can discuss it further."
"President Zuo, no, that's not the issue. Our cooperation with Yemai.com has a long history, so why would it be for this reason? To be honest, Yan He is too popular, especially this year. One topic after another has been constantly generating buzz. We plan to keep a low profile for the next year or two and let him disappear from the public eye. This is completely contrary to your cooperation plan and is not suitable."
Zuo Yu never expected that the reason would be like this.
From Zuo Yu's perspective, this matter is even incomprehensible.
For celebrities, shouldn't the more trending topics and discussions they generate, the better?
How could you possibly have too much?
Zuo Yu was stunned for a long time.
This reason is truly astonishing.
Chen Ziyan added, "Actually, if Yemai.com is looking for a spokesperson, I have some ideas. Mr. Zuo, shall we find some time to talk about it in person? I think the best spokesperson is one who makes people feel that the person and the brand are a perfect match. I can recommend a few people to you; they are all top-tier celebrities."
Zuo Yu hadn't even come to his senses yet.
He said, "Okay, okay."
After subconsciously agreeing and hanging up the phone, Zuo Yu still frowned, unable to understand the matter.
-
Soon after, news spread within the industry that Lu Yanhe had declined the endorsement deal with Yemai.com.
The reasons and justifications for the refusal also began to circulate.
Different people have different feelings when they hear this news.
Some people were envious, some were jealous, some complained that Lu Yanhe was being pretentious, and some, upon hearing the news, went to find the middleman, hoping to secure the endorsement deal with Yemai.com.
A sense of unease began to stir beneath the surface.
Xin Zixing received numerous phone calls. She noticed that the matter was gaining increasing popularity online. Firstly, there was discussion about Lu Yanhe's refusal to be the spokesperson for Yemai.com because he didn't want high-intensity exposure, which resulted in it trending again. Secondly, marketing accounts were constantly reporting that various celebrities were actively contacting Yemai.com, wanting to be its spokesperson. Thirdly, there was heated debate about why so many artists were vying to endorse Yemai.com. This topic was about leveraging brand works like "City Travelogue" and "Jump Up" to cultivate the website's artistic image. Fourthly, it was directly related to her; shouldn't Huang Kairen, who had a deep connection with Yemai.com, be the most suitable spokesperson?
Yemai.com's traffic has surged dramatically.
Huang Kairen's agent sent a message to Xin Zixing, saying: "Your company's new vice president is quite capable. He managed to get seven or eight celebrities to promote him without paying any endorsement fees."
When Xin Zixing saw this sentence, her cheeks turned bright red, burning red, and she felt embarrassed.
At the same time, Chen Ziyan sat in her office, looking at the list of people who had proactively contacted Yemai.com to become spokespeople. Several familiar names were on the list; they were all her clients…
Chen Ziyan hadn't been tricked like this in a long time.
She was almost laughing in anger.
She thought to herself, "She's really used to everything going smoothly. She's been taken advantage of all of this, and she still dares to call herself a top agent."
Chen Ziyan, are you getting worse as you get older?
She looked at the name Zuo Yu and took a deep breath.
At this moment, Xin Zixing sent a message: Sister Ziyan, I heard about what Zuo Yu did. It was really underhanded. He even used me and Kai Ren. But no matter what, I hope his actions won't affect our cooperation.
Chen Ziyan typed and sent it:
Of course it won't have any impact, but Zixing, after something like this happened, can you still tolerate him?
Xin Zixing replied after a long while: There are some things that I am just an employee and I am willing but unable to do.
Chen Ziyan: It's been a long time since we last met. Do you have time tonight? Let's get together.
(End of this chapter)
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