Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 202 Visit and Study
[I'm having a headache from all the arguing, so I'll only post one update today. Consider it a day off.]

When Li Shaohong and Li Xiaowan saw that Chang Jihong and Jiang Wenli were there to greet them, they were taken aback at first. Then Li Xiaowan exclaimed, "I didn't expect you to actually come and make my dream come true."

"You have to thank you for this."

Chang Jihong smiled and said, "Our General Manager Chen has already made all the arrangements. Let's go have dinner first, then put our luggage at the TV station's guesthouse, and finally visit the company."

Then he turned to Jiang Wenli and asked, "Girl, are you staying at the guesthouse, or would you like to squeeze in at my place?"

"Let me squeeze in with you."

After Jiang Wenli finished speaking, she explained to the two Lis, "I came to see Sister Ji Hong. I just arrived in Tianjin not long ago."

The two Lis weren't very concerned about this, but they were more interested in Chang Jihong's car. Later, when they heard that it was Chen Hong's car, they were relieved.

The lunch cost over 400 yuan, and the women didn't order any drinks, so they ate until they were stuffed.

We were transferred to the guesthouse.

Just then, Chang Jihong saw Li Chunbo writing and drawing in the lobby. Although she was not familiar with him, she still took the initiative to go up and greet him.

"That must be Li Chunbo, the singer of 'Xiao Fang'."

Li Xiaowan remarked with emotion, "His song 'Xiao Fang' really hit the nail on the head for the educated youth."

"Brackets, male educated youth."

Li Shaohong added a supplementary explanation, and after Chang Jihong returned after greeting everyone, she asked curiously, "Is Li Chunbo also staying at the guesthouse?"

“No, some of the singers live in two-bedroom apartments arranged by the company, while others rent their own apartments.” Chang Jihong explained, “He’s here to teach training courses—to the local TV station staff, to talk about how to run a song request station.”

The karaoke machine business is now booming everywhere, and most of them are already on the right track. Generally, you can get some information from other cities, figure it out yourself, and follow the example to make it work.

But there are always people who want to come to Tianjin to learn the 'true secrets', so the training courses have never stopped.

Originally, this kind of thing didn't need a singer like Li Chunbo to get involved, but he was quite interested in it. He first attended a few classes, and then volunteered to become a 'mentor'.

After listening to Chang Jihong's introduction, Li Shaohong and Li Xiaowan exchanged a glance and exclaimed, "Your trick really works! Local TV stations are broadcasting your music videos now. In the future, it might become a habit. When people encounter things like getting into a good school, confessing their love, or expressing gratitude to their parents, they will subconsciously think of those songs."

"The main reason is that our General Manager Zhang has a long-term vision and immediately discovered the pain points of local TV stations. This is a win-win cooperation between us."

"Yes, this way you can establish relationships with TV stations all over the country and have acquaintances wherever you go."

Hearing Li Xiaowan's remark, Chang Jihong smiled but didn't say anything. She thought to herself that this was more than just an acquaintance; those who participated in the training course and went back generally did quite well.

After all, this is tantamount to securing a long-term meal ticket for the local TV station. The station leaders will surely show some appreciation, and some students have even risen to leadership positions because of it. Naturally, these people would be even more grateful to Tianjin TV, where their dreams were realized.

Both Lis were quick-tempered. After putting down their luggage, they followed Chang Jihong to Yuanmeng Company.

Chang Jihong parked her car in her designated parking space. When she got out of the car, she saw Xu Wei leaning against a new car, looking up and showing off to Zhang Yadong.

"You've made quite a few of your dreams come true with your cars."

Li Xiaowan said enviously, "It's much more extravagant than our Beijing Film Studio."

Li Shaohong then asked, "Are these all the singers' cars?"

"That's not it."

Chang Jihong pointed to the two Xiali cars next to her and said, "Those are the cars of our agency's vice president and office director. The music director also has a Santana, but it's not parked here; he must have gone to the recording studio. And..."

Just then, Chen Hong came out with Zhang Yadong's wife, Cao Fang, and greeted them with a smile, "Welcome to the two directors for their guidance."

After shaking hands with the two Lis, he turned to Jiang Wenli and said, "The fact that 'Farewell My Concubine' won the Cannes Grand Prize this time has really boosted the morale of us industry professionals."

She was already quite capable, and after serving as general manager for a year, she became increasingly adept at interpersonal communication, handling everything with ease and grace after just a few pleasantries.

Li Erli and Chang Jihong had already seen it all before, so they didn't find it particularly surprising. But Jiang Wenli couldn't help but be astonished. So, on the way to the office, Jiang Wenli leaned close to Chang Jihong's ear and asked, "Is this your boss's wife? I didn't expect someone so young and beautiful to have such an imposing presence."

And at the same time.

Cao Fang, who had gone to say a few words to Zhang Dongya and Xu Wei, quickly caught up and whispered in Chen Hong's ear, "It's Xu Wei's new car, called a Toyota Camry [later the Camry]. I heard it cost more than 300,000 yuan. In our company, only President Zhang's Crown can compare to it."

Chen Hong frowned slightly. Last year, Xu Wei went into seclusion to write "Persistence," vowing that once he made money, he would buy a big house and bring his wife to Beijing.

The scene from that time is still vivid in my mind, and now, having just finished the tour, he has bought the most expensive car in the entire company—others may not know how much Zhang Yan paid for that car, but Chen Hong certainly does.

It's worth noting that among all the singers who made it to the top of the list, Xu Wei's income was the lowest—if he hadn't received all the income from "Persistence," he wouldn't have even earned as much as Gao Feng, who joined last.

This is a common problem among rock singers: once they have money, they feel like burning it out and only feel good when they spend it lavishly.

It seems we'll have to ask Wong Jing to keep a closer eye on things and not let him go too far—there are quite a few rock singers who get involved in gambling and drugs, and as for prostitution, well, that's not even considered a problem anymore.

We arrived at the general manager's office.

The two Lis and Jiang Wenli were drawn to the display case next to them, which contained several trophies and medals arranged in a neat and orderly manner, the most eye-catching of which was the Feitian Award for Best Actor.

Li Shaohong asked in bewilderment, "President Chen, why are there so many trophies in your office?"

"These are all replicas."

Chen Hong smiled and said, "Our CEO Zhang said that the most important thing for a talent agency is to promote its artists, so the artists' honors should be displayed in the most prominent position so that all important visitors can see them."

Li Shaohong and Li Xiaowan exchanged a glance and both felt that this method was worth learning, because in addition to promoting the company's artists, it could also demonstrate the company's strength.

So they were even more excited about the rest of the trip.

Jiang Wenli then pointed to the Feitian Award for Best Actor and asked, "This trophy is..."

"That belongs to Chen Daoming. He won Best Actor in 90 for 'Fortress Besieged' and was nominated for Best Actor at the Golden Eagle Awards in 91 for 'Tianjin Wei', but unfortunately he did not win the award."

On the left is Zhang Guoli's Plum Blossom Award for Best Performance in a Stage Play and Best Actor in a Television Art Film; next to him are the two Best Supporting Actress awards, which Deng Jie won for her role as 'Wang Xifeng'...

After introducing them in great detail, she smiled and said, "We haven't officially opened yet. We've only secured these three deals so far, and we're still in talks with a few other big names."

Then, he looked at Jiang Wenli and said, "If Miss Jiang is willing to join, we should be able to add a few more trophies and medals in the near future."

Jiang Wenli only received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the Feitian Awards before going abroad, so saying this is obviously a compliment.

However, Jiang Wenli was indeed tempted, after all, even the Feitian Award Best Actor took the initiative to join Yuanmeng, which shows the strength of Yuanmeng itself.

But Gu Changwei clearly had other ideas...

"Mr. Chen."

At this moment, Li Xiaowan smiled and said, "I have long heard that your company's General Manager Zhang has unique insights and a long-term vision. I wonder if we will have the opportunity to meet with General Manager Zhang this time?"

"This one……"

Chen Hong said apologetically, "He was supposed to return to Tianjin a couple of days ago, but something came up and he was held up."

"What's going on?"

"The Football Association wanted to carry out commercial reforms and approached several well-known companies to discuss sponsorship contracts. Tianjin's Bright Instant Noodle Factory was among them, so Zhang Yan was invited to be a consultant."

After listening, Li Shaohong, Li Xiaowan, and Jiang Wenli looked at each other, not understanding what the relationship was between them.

"cough~"

At this moment, Chang Jihong decisively stepped forward and began to explain to the three of them the connection between President Zhang and Guangming.

(End of this chapter)