I became famous in the entertainment industry by burning incense

Chapter 540: The Ban Triggers an Outbreak, and the Entire Internet Learns of It

Yan Xingdong felt half worried and half relieved.

Through this conversation, he learned that Gu Cheng had no intention of retiring from the entertainment industry and would make an annual comeback.

Therefore, there's no need to worry about group activities.

What he was worried about was that Gu Cheng would become indifferent and only spend a few months a year in the entertainment industry, and even then, it would just be for team announcements.

But Yan Xingdong thought again that if Gu Cheng was interested in photography and wanted to switch to filming TV dramas, that would actually be a good thing.

Celebrities ultimately rely on their youth for their careers.

When youth fades and the face becomes loose and sagging, where is the way out?
Not every artist can transition to the right career at the right time.

It seems that many people take many things for granted.

For example: work at twenty to save up some capital for starting a business, start a business at thirty, seize the opportunity of the trend of internet celebrities monetizing their influence, and after accumulating popularity at forty, transform into live-streaming e-commerce.

Then buy a house, get married, and have a baby.

It seems that everyone's imagined future is just right.

I don't fantasize about becoming a billionaire, but with a little effort, I can live a comfortable life with modest wealth.

This is also the thought of many young people—

This is so simple, I could do it too!
It's easy to dream, but hard to do.

Everyone says that you can make money by live streaming, but how many people who join the live streaming industry can actually succeed?

Before entering the live streaming arena, everyone thinks: My live stream is unique, and I can build a large following!
But actually doing it is another matter—

Holy crap, so many people are streaming, and someone's even streaming Akaishi! I can't mess with that, I'm not playing anymore!

Even ordinary people face numerous difficulties in striving to become pillars of society by following their own ideas, let alone top-tier celebrities whose every move is restricted.

Yan Xingdong knew that there were many seniors in the industry who didn't always want to play handsome men and beautiful women, or stay forever eighteen.

The term "middle-aged historical drama idol" is used by netizens to mock celebrities who are middle-aged but still act in idol dramas.

But only those in the industry know the hardships they endure.

Some people have reached a certain age, but their mindset hasn't kept pace with that age.

Some people have reached a certain age and have a certain mindset, but their fans are still stuck in the era when the artist was at their most glorious. They think that if an artist changes their career path and doesn't play leading roles but instead plays middle-aged women, it is a sign of lowering their status and becoming degenerate.

Some artists are lucky; they reach a certain age, develop the right mindset, and their fans have a proper understanding of them, so they can start playing middle-aged roles, but...

The hype is gone, the popularity is gone, and the market value is gone.

The entertainment industry is known for its tendency to promote the weak and demote the strong. If you can't maintain your high market value, it will be difficult to get high-paying gigs in the future.

Yan Xingdong could understand the mindset of those artists, watching helplessly as they were gradually eliminated from the entertainment industry, overtaken by newcomers, with fewer and fewer gigs and their careers fading into obscurity...

Many artists develop mental health issues.

Yan Xingdong sighed softly as he thought about this.

It's good to make a transition sooner rather than later. Only when you let go of those unrealistic things can you truly see the world with your feet on the ground.

In the end, the entertainment industry is nothing more than a superficial and glamorous arena of fame and fortune.

After a week of silence from March Band, their fans finally started to react.

In various fan groups, many people are asking what activities March Band has been busy with lately, and why they can't find any information about them online.
[No media outlets have mentioned them lately, what happened to them?]

Tianding Entertainment is quite active, giving many of its boy groups high-quality gigs.

[Damn! I just saw a brand announcement for a collaboration, but wasn't this a collaboration with March Band? March Band already teased it before!]

Watson, congratulations on discovering the blind spot!
The belated fans finally realized that their idol hadn't appeared in public for quite some time.

Adding to the issue of the collaboration being changed, these fans started going through Marchday's official blog and discovered that they had edited many of their posts.

These blogs all officially announced collaborations, endorsements, and announcements. After being edited, only some of March Sky's personal feelings were retained, while all business-related information was deleted.

Fans left comments under these edited blog posts.

What happened? All the officially announced notices have been deleted. Were they replaced?

[My goodness! The contract was signed, and the endorsement only lasted two months. They've already replaced me? Isn't this a breach of contract by the brand?]

[You guys haven't spoken in a while, what happened? Have you been blacklisted by the company?]

The greatest anxiety is actually ignoring it.

When a person or company feels neither hatred nor love for you, it means they are completely ignoring you.

After Marchday's fans discovered that Marchday's schedule had been changed, they immediately tagged Tianding Entertainment.

Tianding Entertainment's public relations strategy is: ignore it!

I couldn't hear what the fans were saying.

I can't see what the fans wrote.

Even though every message released by Tianding Entertainment was met with comments from March Sky's fans asking what was going on, the company never responded.

The fans asked about it for three days in a row, and they figured it out.

It seems that March Band will not renew their contract with Tianding Entertainment!

Otherwise, Tianding, who was so proactive in dealing with March Sky's public relations in the past, wouldn't have remained silent even though they clearly saw their comment was at the top of the trending list.

Is Tianding blacklisting March Band? The money March Band has earned for Tianding over the years could buy several buildings in Shanghai, right? Is Tianding really that petty? They're already signed a contract and they want to replace them?

Boycott those brands that replaced March Sky! You don't honor contracts, you disregard industry rules!

My friend works at Tianding and said that March Band had a falling out with Tianding a week ago and refused to renew their contract. As a result, Tianding's president resigned and is now unreachable. Many internal affairs are in complete chaos.

They say it's easier to deal with the King of Hell than with his underlings.

Tianding Entertainment appears to have suffered no losses, yet it has become a meme among fans, and even the brands that breached their contracts and replaced their employees have benefited from it.

—【Breach of contract? Look to brand XX!】

—【This utterly immoral behavior is comparable to that of XX brand】

—【Just look at Tianding Entertainment for how they discard their tools after they've served their purpose!】

The fans are really sarcastic. These past few days, whenever there's a hot social news story, they compare Tianding Entertainment to brands that have breached contracts. They say the company is as inhumane as half of Tianding, as arrogant in breaching contracts as 1.5 brands, and as heartless as a combination of Tianding and another brand.

Thanks to the efforts of March Sky fans, the news that Tianding Entertainment desperately wanted to cover up and down was eventually spread rapidly.

And those marketing accounts that had originally been paid to stop reporting such news couldn't resist opening a small account to reveal the latest first-hand news in the industry because of the high level of discussion online.

#MarchBandWillNotRenewContractWithTianDing#
#MarchBand and their manager start a new company#
#TianDingEntertainmentPresidentResignsToTakeResponsibility#
#TianDing replaces March Sky's contract#
#TianDing is heavily promoting its boy group!#
On this day, the top ten trending topics on blogs were all about the gossip surrounding March Sky and Tianding Entertainment.

Every piece of gossip looks appealing, and netizens say: They love watching this kind of business warfare; it's much more reasonable than forcibly breaking into an office and seizing the company seal!
Some netizens even joked: "Thanks to Tianding, they've given us a real business war, paying real money in breach of contract penalties, gradually taking away March's appearances, supporting their promising boy bands, and eroding March's market share."

……

On the day that March Sky and Tianding Entertainment became trending topics, Zhang Guang's phone and Tianding Entertainment's customer service hotline were inundated with calls.

Some of the people calling Zhang Guang's mobile phone are brand owners, some are experienced investors in the industry, and some are competitors.

The brand called, essentially offering to deliver the money to our door.

Most of these brands are second- or third-tier brands. In the past, they couldn't meet the threshold for signing with March Sky. They could only watch as big brands signed March Sky while they squatted in a corner and silently shed tears.

Occasionally, I'll interact with those big brands online and try to ride their coattails.

However, this time, March Sky and Tianding Entertainment had a major falling out, with Tianding Entertainment even resorting to tactics to softly block March Sky. These second- and third-tier brands saw this as an opportunity to rise.

You top-tier brands don't want to offend Tianding Entertainment, but we small brands don't care!
You treat the March sky like worn-out shoes, but we regard the March sky as our "savior"!
Small brands are all eager to compete. Brothers, our chance to overtake the top brands has arrived!

By securing the endorsement of the band March, and gaining their immense popularity, we can drive up the prices of our products!
In order to secure the endorsement deals from March Sky, these smaller brands, despite negotiating endorsement contracts, offered discounts that amounted to deep collaborations.

Zhang Guang was somewhat astonished by the determination of these small brands to make a comeback.

They really are willing to give up so much!

This is a concession that lasts for more than two years. If March Sky seizes this opportunity and quickly signs endorsements with more than a dozen small brands, then they won't have to worry about their KPIs for the next two years.

but……

Although Zhang Guang admired the determination of the small brands, March Sky hadn't lost yet; they didn't need to rely on endorsements from second- or third-tier small brands to survive.

So no matter how tempting the prices these brands offered, Zhang Guang simply said, "Thank you for your call, but March Sky's business is still being restructured, and we are not accepting any endorsement offers for the time being."

Meanwhile, the experienced investors and industry peers were all there to gather information.

Zhang Guang casually answered a phone call from a coal mine owner.

"General Manager Jiang."

President Jiang said boldly, "President Zhang, I heard that March Sky and Tianding Entertainment have fallen out. I also heard that you are planning to open a new entertainment company to continue managing March Sky."

If you ask me, there's no need for all this trouble. Why don't you just bring March Sky with you and jump ship to my company? I'll give you the best treatment in the industry, plus 5% of the company's stock dividends.

As for March Sky, I can give them 20% of the stock dividends. There are exactly four people in the team, so each person gets 5%. What do you think?

Zhang Guang smiled and said, "President Jiang, thank you for your kind offer, but at the moment, March Sky will not be joining any company."

Mr. Jiang asked curiously, "Are you really planning to do nothing and just obediently wait out the contract termination in June?"

Zhang Guang simply said, "President Jiang, you'll find out when the time comes."

Mr. Jiang is rich. A few years ago, he had too much money and nowhere to spend it, so he was tricked into investing in film and television dramas in the entertainment industry.

But Mr. Jiang wasn't completely foolish. Although he entered the entertainment industry to invest, he only sought out big stars in the industry. He even found him and asked him which of March Sky's dramas needed investment.

Initially, March Sky had no one to film, so there was no investment.

But Mr. Jiang was a patient man. Every month, he would send a message to Zhang Guang, asking which of March Sky's dramas needed investment.

Seeing how persistent President Jiang had been asking for two years, Zhang Guang revealed that Gu Cheng had decided to take on the role in "Assassination," and President Jiang successfully secured investment.

And the series "Assassination" ultimately became a hit.

Mr. Jiang also received a share of the investment proceeds. From then on, he set his sights on March Sky. Every month, he would not only ask which of March Sky's films or TV series needed investment, but also when March Sky would switch jobs to join the new entertainment company he had established.

Goodness, they're poaching artists right on our doorstep!

President Jiang is ambitious; he not only wants to poach popular artists, but also wants to poach Zhang Guang, their agent.

At first, Zhang Guang was a little amused and exasperated when he saw messages like "When are you going to resign and come to my company?", but he got used to it later and would even joke about it with President Jiang.

"Why don't you join Tianding Entertainment and become my boss? That way you'll be in charge of me and March Sky."

Zhang Guang still remembers what Boss Jiang said: "What's so good about working for someone else? You're just a watchdog."

Zhang Guang thought of the president's plight and couldn't help but feel a little sad.

The coal mine owners really have a keen eye!
Zhang Guang would answer calls from investors, but not from competitors. These people's intentions were too easy to guess; they all wanted to poach March Sky.

What a joke! He's about to start his own company, why would he wait for competitors to poach his talent?
If March Sky really gets poached, then he can dig a hole for himself and bury himself!

……

Zhang Guang remained calm and composed, taking his time.

Tianding Entertainment, on the other hand, was in a bit of a panic.

He Yan, acting as acting president, received a call from the head of Yulinling's China region.

Yulinling is an internationally renowned luxury brand. He Yan understands the immense influence of luxury brands, and he doesn't want to offend even someone who is just the head of the China region.

The person in charge asked bluntly, "Does Tianding Entertainment want to ruin March Sky?"

He Yan quickly shook his head: "No, we are just following the contract. We did not deliberately target March Sky."

Even if it's a breach of contract, the breaching party will act in accordance with the contract and pay the penalty, so no one can find fault with it.

The person in charge pointed out incisively: "I don't care how you want to compete with March, but the brand still has a year left on its contract with March. In the last year, the brand does not want to see March's reputation collapse inexplicably."

He Yan immediately assured him: "Tianding Entertainment will not do anything underhanded in this regard. I assure you, if March Sky really collapses, it will only be because of a problem with their character and morality, or because they have done something illegal or criminal!"

After the person in charge of Yulinling hung up the phone, the person in charge of another luxury brand called back.

He Yan's phone was filled with messages from the heads of these luxury brands.

He once again realized the enormous commercial value of top-tier celebrities.

Damn it, how come March Sky has so many collaborations with top luxury brands?
It was actually a little scary that these officials called him one by one to warn him.

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