Chapter 81
The explosive popularity of Evil Valley is a foregone conclusion.
Other film and television companies began to consider avoiding the release dates of martial arts films and television dramas.
After all, judging from the current trend, every film and television series produced by Jianghu becomes a hit, and other companies, even if they spend a lot of money on promotion, will find it difficult to compete with them.
It's better to spend a lot of money but not get the corresponding results.
It would be better to avoid them altogether and choose a different time slot to air your own flagship drama.
Anyway, the output of Jianghu Film and Television is not high. Judging from the current situation, it is only two or three dramas a year.
Half the year is free time, so there's no need to compete with them for those few months.
With this in mind, many people choose to retire at the peak of their careers.
They chose to give up competing with Hu Zhenzhen's company for TV dramas.
The film company is still observing. Hu Zhenzhen has never invested in films before. Even if the TV series is very successful, there are still barriers to entry when it comes to movies.
Whether Jianghu Films can produce good movies remains to be seen by many.
However, one thing is certain: Hu Zhenzhen is willing to spend money, so the publicity for this movie will definitely be substantial.
This alone is enough to deter many companies.
You need to find out the release dates of Jianghu Films' movies in advance, because if they clash with each other, the publicity costs can be a huge expense.
Lu Ye's new movie has a very straightforward title: Erlang Zhenjun.
The film is currently in production.
After finding a suitable lead actor, Lu Ye took the crew directly to a city further north.
He found a deserted lake and confirmed that the water was frozen several meters thick, enough for a person to stand on.
They filmed scenes of the celestial palace here.
Everyone was on guard against this 1.1 billion yuan film, and for a moment they overlooked Hu Zhenzhen's other actions.
The immense popularity of "Villain Valley" also indirectly boosted the popularity of its theme song.
This stylish move has recently become a favorite on young people's playlists, creating a wave among them.
Most record companies in the music industry don't take top-tier artists seriously.
A newly established music company with only three debuting artists—what competitive advantage does such a lineup have?
Even if Xu Jie is signed, it will only be to give the company a facade.
If you really put all the companies together, the top-tier ones are actually at the bottom of the list, and they can't be considered a threat to other companies.
Therefore, not many people are paying attention to the recent actions of those in the martial arts world.
Other companies also learned about their upcoming concert tour from trending topics.
"A concert? Are you going to organize one for Xu Jie? He's probably the only top-tier artist who can afford to hold a concert tour."
"It doesn't seem so. I heard it's some kind of star-studded concert."
"A concert featuring multiple stars?"
Other music company executives who were discussing the top tiers of the music industry laughed, "Can the top tiers even put together a constellation of stars?"
It's really impossible to come up with that amount.
You need to have released at least one or two albums before you are qualified to hold a concert and sing for everyone.
Among the top figures in the martial arts world, only Su Zhao and the Sanshanyue duo have been able to achieve this so far.
Even with the addition of Xu Jie, who switched from Yinli, there are only three who can hold their own, far from being a group of stars.
To put on a star-studded concert, the number of attendees is indeed far from sufficient.
But Hu Zhenzhen had other ideas.
If her own company didn't have enough artists, she would invite artists from other companies. What was originally a tour concert was turned into a music festival by Hu Zhenzhen, who cobbled together a few artists from various sources.
However, compared to the situation of the entire audience being crowded together at a music festival, the venue for a concert is more professional.
The five venues that Hu Zhenzhen drew finally came in handy.
The five venues are located in five different cities. Hu Zhenzhen plans to have at least seven stops on her national tour.
In addition to her own venue, she specifically rented two stadiums.
The lineup for this tour is not fixed.
Only Su Zhao and Sanshan Yue are considered regular members and will definitely be there. Even Xu Jie is considered a surprise guest and will only appear in a few venues.
When the concert tickets first went on sale, they didn't sell very quickly.
Relying solely on the names of Su Zhao and Sanshan Yue, tickets could be sold, but not very quickly.
Because of their short time in the industry, even though they have already made a name for themselves online, they don't have many die-hard fans, and scalpers are still observing and haven't snapped up tickets immediately.
When the entire lineup of surprise guests was revealed, the ticket-buying audience was pleasantly surprised.
[Wow, I can't believe my eyes! Xu Jie is in it, and there's also the singing legend Zhang Tianyu!]
[Oh my god, after four years, I can finally hear Song Ge perform live again!]
[I love Sister Hu! I knew there would be a surprise with so many surprise guests on the promotional cover!]
[Song Tianwang, the God of Songs, Xu Jie, Deng Aiying—just these four alone, their combined appearance fees must be in the eight figures! And there are so many other well-known singers too. This ticket is such a bargain!]
[I wish I knew who the surprise guest would be for the performance in Province B! I really want to hear Yingzi perform live; I'll buy tickets for wherever she sings.]
Jianghu First Line has only announced that the surprise guests for the first show are Xu Jie and Zhang Tianyu. As for the shows in other cities, they will be officially announced the day before the concert.
Even so, the 400 yuan ticket price was still considered a great deal by fans.
After all, these superstars were the ones who dominated the music scene five or six years ago.
They've all won so many awards, they have both great works and talent, and after achieving fame and success, they naturally rarely perform anymore.
They've held their own concerts so many times that they know how exhausting it is to organize one all by themselves.
As people get older and don't release any new works, they become too lazy to go on tours.
Hu Zhenzhen was able to invite these people because she paid them a generous invitation fee and gave them a stage to sing just a few songs.
Returning to the stage occasionally to sing a few songs is a way to earn money without any burden, so naturally, people are willing to come.
After the announcement, the few remaining tickets were quickly snapped up.
【Aaaaaah! Who was so quick? I just checked and there were clearly two hundred tickets left!】
[I just changed my bank card! Where are my tickets?!]
Does anyone have tickets for the show in Province B? I'll buy them at a high price!
Even more distressed than the fans of these veteran singers are the scalpers who are unaware of the prevailing trend.
"I was so stupid. I knew all along that the organizer was Hu Zhenzhen. How could she possibly mess things up? Why didn't I buy tickets?"
"Don't even mention it, cousin. I didn't manage to snag many tickets either. That sly Li Hai had over twenty!"
Two scalpers, arms around each other, were looking at their phones.
"Let's grab a drink. It's getting harder and harder to be a scalper these days."
The two had barely finished their conversation when they discovered Li Hai was crying and complaining in the scalper group.
[Oh no, this ticket is linked to an ID card; each person gets one, and it cannot be resold.]
The two looked at each other, their eyes filled with relief.
"Wow, thank goodness I hesitated and didn't buy any. If I had hoarded tickets, I would have lost so much money!"
Another person echoed the sentiment, "Luckily I only had two, otherwise I would have been completely ruined this time."
The two entered the restaurant even faster than before. "We're really lucky today. Let's drink until we drop!"
No one sympathizes with scalpers who are crying out that they can't sell their tickets.
The fans saw it, but they only said one curse.
"Damn scalpers! I could have gotten tickets before, but now there are empty seats in the venue, and I can't buy them!"
"I knew it! The venue is the biggest stadium in Province B, and they're still sold out! Those damn scalpers!"
Fans are cursing, scalpers are crying – this is a rare sight.
Desperate scalpers even pleaded on Hu Zhenzhen's Weibo account.
[Excuse me, Sister Hu, can I get a refund for my tickets? I accidentally bought too many.]
[Hilarious! The person upstairs is probably a scalper, and they even accidentally bought too much. How careless!]
[Shouldn't scalpers contact the websites for refunds? Why are they coming to Sister Hu's place? What bad luck.]
Serves you right! (Tui!)
Despite the spittle from these people, the scalpers remained undeterred, pleading under every single one of Hu Zhenzhen's Weibo posts.
Those who acted quickly even spent 100,000 yuan to have someone buy tickets for them.
Now that they're stuck with all these tickets, how can they not be anxious?
This group of people kept pestering her for a long time, which Hu Zhenzhen found amusing.
Two days before the concert started, they finally relented.
[A refund channel can be arranged, but only half the price can be refunded. The refunded tickets will be resold through the platform.]
After the news was announced, the fans were instantly overjoyed.
It's worth noting that Zhang Tianyu, who will be singing at the first concert, hasn't appeared in front of his fans for four years.
Many fans are willing to pay high prices for tickets just to see him.
Now that nearly a hundred tickets at full price have appeared out of nowhere, how can everyone not be happy?
【Aaaaaah! Don't anyone try to take it from me! I've already booked the hotel!】
I'd even sleep on the street, Lao Zhang, I'll do anything for you!
[What time will the invoices be issued? I need them urgently!]
Although the scalpers weren't entirely satisfied, recovering half of their money was still a good outcome compared to the huge losses they had suffered.
They cursed each other in private, but their words online were consistent: "Thank you, President Hu."
There's nothing else to it, I'm just afraid that if Hu Zhenzhen gets upset, she won't even refund half the money.
Hu Zhenzhen's account also has a scalper, but the other party is unaware that it belongs to her.
She also witnessed a scalper with the same name thanking Mr. Hu on Weibo one moment and then making sarcastic remarks on WeChat Moments the next, saying, "How stingy they are, they won't even refund this little bit of money."
Seeing them unhappy made Hu Zhenzhen happy.
Speculators are everywhere, but as a business owner, she hopes that fans of her company's singers can buy concert tickets at reasonable prices.
To achieve this, cracking down on scalping is essential.
Scalpers who want to resell tickets for this concert will definitely not be happy, that's for sure.
The louder their complaints, the more effective Hu Zhenzhen's methods for preventing scalpers are.
Two days later, the concert officially began.
Hu Zhenzhen specially reserved a few front-row tickets and took Xiao Chen, Chen Kai, and Liu An to see the show.
Sanshan Yue was in charge of the opening.
Their songs are mostly lively and can really liven up the atmosphere.
With the recent popularity of the TV series "Evil Valley," the song "Calm and Unrestrained" has become a hit, and a small number of audience members were even able to sing along, gradually heating up the atmosphere.
Sanshanyue is not very well-known yet, so when Hu Zhenzhen arranged the songs, she only gave them time for three songs.
In these three songs, they need to make the audience remember them as much as possible.
Many people came to this concert because of the mystery guest. Before that, they probably didn't even know who Sanshanyue was. Only by performing exceptionally well on stage could they get these people to pay attention to Sanshanyue.
The agent had already mentioned this before we arrived.
Therefore, even though the three people on stage were nervous, they still gave their best performance.
Following Sanshanyue was Su Zhao.
Hu Zhenzhen knew that although it was a star-studded concert, what these people really wanted to hear were the songs of those veteran superstars.
Top-tier singers currently have few releases, so forcing them to appear last would disrupt the rhythm.
Put these newcomers at the front, and let them finish singing while the audience still has a sense of novelty.
This arrangement is necessary to attract fans who are genuinely interested in their songs.
This can be seen as a way of attracting fans from the fan base of these well-known singers, but even if it were said out loud, these established veterans wouldn't care.
It's just singing in a venue. If the younger generation can really steal fans, it means they are truly talented.
Older generations of singers tend to mentor others more than compete.
The people Hu Zhenzhen invited didn't do much business; they were all indifferent to fame and fortune and didn't care about such things.
The concert ended at 11 p.m.
Hu Zhenzhen felt comfortable watching it, so she took a selfie and posted it on Weibo.
Some people around recognized her and took a photo with Hu Zhenzhen, which was then posted on Weibo.
[I ran into Sister Hu!]
[Ahhh! My favorite singer and my favorite sister! Tonight is perfect!]
[As expected of Sister Hu, even her bodyguards are so handsome!]
The success of this concert gave fans who bought tickets for later shows confidence.
The quality of this concert will definitely be excellent.
With this in mind, the Star Cluster tour became an instant sensation, even overshadowing concerts by well-known singers.
After all, no matter how famous a singer is, he's the only one who can hold a concert.
Hu Zhenzhen's popularity has remained consistently high due to her large number of followers.
The music company only started to panic now, but it was already too late.
At Huatian Music Company, President Xu Jia glanced at the number of trending topics and rubbed her throbbing temples.
"This Mr. Hu is really quite capable. He managed to organize such a mixed-genre concert and still have so many people buying tickets."
The secretary thoughtfully poured her a cup of coffee. "Perhaps the people she invited were just too high-profile."
The secretary was speaking from the heart.
Not to mention ordinary viewers, even those working in her industry want to buy a ticket to see it.
"No matter how heavyweight they are, they are still a group of washed-up singers who haven't been active in ages. I don't believe they really have that many active fans willing to support them."
Xu Jia thought more deeply, "Her methods are still superior; she used publicity and hype to spread the word first."
"People have this mentality that they'd be missing out if they didn't come, so how could tickets not sell out quickly?"
She understood the analysis clearly, but the thought of Hanada's current concert schedule gave her a headache.
"Are the tickets for the cat sisters still sold out?"
The secretary also became nervous when this was mentioned.
"Not all tickets have been sold yet; there's still a third left."
The venue for their concert wasn't even a big venue to begin with, yet they still couldn't sell all the tickets. It seems like this group has no hope.
Xu Jia thought for two seconds and then made a decision decisively.
"Cancel the subsequent concert plans and instead focus on cultivating new talent. There's no hope for the Cat Sisters, so abandon them and allocate resources to Li Kai."
The words that determined the fate of several people came out of her mouth with a nonchalant air.
The secretary felt sorry for the two younger sisters of the cat sisters for a few seconds, then quickly replied, "Okay, I've noted it down. I'll pass it on immediately."
But that's just how real the entertainment industry is.
The two cat sisters have no background, and the company promoted them out of the way to test the waters.
They've only been in the industry for a year, so by all accounts, it's already pretty good that they've achieved this attendance rate for their concerts.
However, for the company, this achievement is far less valuable than cultivating other singers who can quickly generate profits.
There are so many people in the world who can sing well, but not everyone has the potential to become a star, and not everyone can become famous. For singers who don't have the luck to become famous, there's no need for them to waste their time.
The secretary relayed Mr. Xu's instructions.
Soon, the two sisters, who had just finished their concert, also learned the news.
Before she could even recover from the emotions of her first concert, she was hit with a devastating blow.
"Sister, the company..."
The two sisters are truly a pair of beautiful sisters, two years apart in age. They joined the company together because of their beautiful singing voices.
The younger sister saw the message first today and was so shocked that she couldn't accept it for a moment, so she handed the phone to her older sister.
"What's wrong? Are you so happy you've gone crazy?"
They had just finished their concert, and the older sister's smile was so stiff from laughing that she couldn't help but smile.
The older sister smiled and gave her a push. Noticing the strange expression on her younger sister's face, she realized what was wrong and looked at her phone.
The speaker was their agent, Sister Zhao.
All the remaining concerts have been cancelled. You two should go straight back to the company.
"What does this mean?" The sister's smile vanished instantly. "Weren't we only supposed to have two concerts? How could another one be canceled?"
She immediately wanted to call Sister Zhao, but when she dialed the number, all she heard was a dial tone.
"Sister Zhao isn't answering the phone."
The older sister got anxious, "What about the program we were supposed to go on? Why are they just sending us back to the company? Does that mean we can't go to that music program either?"
Everything happened so suddenly that neither of them was prepared.
My younger sister sat listlessly on the sofa in the lounge.
The champagne, originally intended for celebration, is now sitting aside, becoming the most awkward thing.
What will we do next?
She already had a bad feeling.
The fact that agents are now so reluctant to even answer their calls speaks volumes about the company's attitude.
They were abandoned.
The situation that had just begun, the business that had just started to thrive, was about to come to an end.
She was unwilling to accept it no matter what.
The younger sister looked up at her older sister.
Are we just going to sit here and wait to die?
But what can they do?
The older sister's expression was complicated; she was clearly unwilling, but she couldn't think of a way to get the company to retrain them.
Especially if they don't want to use some kind of exchange to curry favor with powerful figures, the possibility of obtaining resources again is basically zero.
Do you have any ideas?
My sister didn't have any good ideas either; she was just unwilling to accept it, really unwilling to accept it.
They had already reached the point of holding a concert, so why did it suddenly come to an abrupt end?
She fell silent, opened her phone, and swiped aimlessly a few times.
The image shows Hu Zhenzhen taking a photo with fans at a concert.
"If only we were on the front lines of the entertainment industry, our scheduled concerts wouldn't have had to be canceled."
My sister couldn't help but say something.
She was just envious; she didn't mean anything by it.
The listener, however, took it to heart.
Upon hearing this, my sister reacted as if she had grasped a lifeline. She stood up and spun around in the lounge like a little top.
Once her younger sister had forgotten what she had just said, she suddenly slapped her on the shoulder.
"I have a bold idea, would you like to try it?"
The younger sister looked up and saw her older sister's eyes, bright and sparkling, as if they held a burning flame.
"Let's try switching jobs!"
Changing jobs?
"ah?"
This was the younger sister's first reaction upon hearing those words.
Most companies in the entertainment industry have very strict conditions for terminating their contracts.
In this situation, the concept of job hopping is almost non-existent.
Even popular singers who want to terminate their contracts with another company usually have to stay until the contract expires and then choose not to renew it.
"Change jobs? Would any other company be willing to pay our breach of contract penalties?"
The penalty for breach of contract is several million yuan, which is a huge sum for small singers like them.
The younger sister knew that their value wasn't high enough for other companies to poach them. Even if they wanted to go to another company, that company wouldn't be willing to accept them, and the issue of breach of contract fees wouldn't be easy to resolve.
Absolutely no one would be willing to spend millions for two singers who are not yet famous.
Such an investment is far too risky.
Businessmen are shrewd; no one does business at a loss.
How will you know if you don't try?
Her older sister was more optimistic than she had thought; after hearing about the penalty for breach of contract, she also wanted to give it a try.
"I have confidence in the two of us. What if President Hu sees potential in us?"
When my sister said this, she wasn't very confident; she was just clinging to a sliver of hope.
"Xiao Kui, since we're going to be sidelined anyway, why not give it a try!"
"If you don't take a chance, there's really no hope. Do you want to end up like Wang Xiangxiang?"
Wang Xiangxiang was their senior and a very nice person, but because she couldn't become popular, the company gave up on her.
She later got involved with Mr. Wu, the company's general manager, and only then did she have access to resources again.
If it were up to her sister to choose, she would never want to become a mistress to a fat, bloated man.
The older sister held her younger sister's hand, and the sweat on her palms was so damp that Xiao Kui couldn't ignore it.
Let's give it a try!
**
Two days later, Gao Chen arrived at the Jianghu Film and Television office building at the appointed time.
After he came so many times, he stopped paying attention to formalities, knocked twice on the door, and then pushed it open and came in.
"Mr. Hu, what I said last time—"
Gao Chen saw the situation in the office and stopped talking abruptly.
Inside the office, two scantily clad young women were dancing, their bodies forming two S-curves.
No wonder, no wonder I've never heard any gossip about Mr. Hu even after working in the entertainment industry for so long.
Gao Chen suddenly realized.
So that's what she likes.
"Excuse me, Mr. Hu, I'll be leaving now."
Hu Zhenzhen knew without even thinking that he was definitely not thinking about anything serious.
She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Mr. Gao, there's no need to leave. What's there to see here?"
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