Entertainment mogul: Starting his business with the internet

Chapter 249 Vote Hacking
Since the beginning of March, the entertainment industry has been full of big moves.

First, Weibo launched a campaign to select the new four little actresses and the new four little actors. The campaign was very popular and the topic became increasingly popular, with almost the entire internet participating.

In the middle of the month, Tengda Culture released a major announcement: the company's top executive, Qiao Zhengyu, had established a studio.

Following closely behind, leading actress Zhang Ziyi made a high-profile announcement of her collaboration with Enlight Media to establish a film and television company.

However, just a few days later, the entertainment industry was once again shocked by news: Zhou Xun and Chen Kun had also jointly established Dong Shen Film Industry, venturing into the investment of TV series and film projects.

Suddenly, the entertainment industry seemed to be ignited, and even the big names in the industry who were originally observing and hesitating were eager to make their move.

The trend of A-list celebrities establishing their own studios or investing in film and television companies has become a strong trend in the entertainment industry, seemingly an inevitable trend.

At Tangren Media, Liu Shishi arrived at work early in the morning. She hadn't joined a film crew yet, so it was rare for her to be on time every day at Tangren, experiencing the regular nine-to-five life of a white-collar worker.

In the CEO's office, Cai Yinong glanced at the radiant, glowing CEO in front of him, whose skin looked so smooth it seemed to drip with moisture. He naturally understood what was going on and knew that she had been well-nourished again last night.

"Your partner is in the East China Sea again?"

Liu Shishi nodded gently, a hint of shyness and spring-like joy in her eyes.

She walked over and sat down on the sofa, then took out a bound manuscript from her bag. It was the first volume of Song Ci's new book, "The Flourishing Tang Dynasty," which she planned to read first at Sister K's place.

"President Song has been coming to Donghai quite frequently lately? If I remember correctly, he has come to Donghai on business five times in the past month, from mid-February to now."

"Tengda Group is going to build its second headquarters in Donghai. He has been coming over frequently lately to talk to government officials."

"You're staying here again, instead of going back to your own office!"

Liu Shishi chuckled playfully, "Sister K, I'm joining the film crew in a couple of days, so I wanted to keep you company!"

Upon hearing this, Cai Yinong replied irritably, "Thank you." After saying that, the two of them couldn't help but laugh.

After a few casual words, Cai Yinong threw himself into his work, while Yi Jie sat quietly to the side, flipping through "The Legend of the Tang Dynasty," the two not disturbing each other.

Time slipped by unnoticed, and more than an hour passed in the blink of an eye. After reviewing the backlog of documents, Cai Yinong stretched and prepared to browse the news online to relax and adjust his work pace.

Upon opening the webpage, the trending topic of Chen Kun and Zhou Xun jointly establishing Dong Shen Film Industry was still on the hot search list yesterday.

Looking at this message, Cai Yinong subconsciously glanced at the female celebrity who was engrossed in reading on the sofa, feeling a little helpless. The entertainment industry has really been changing rapidly in recent years.

If things continue like this, it probably won't be long before our top brother and sister follow the trend and establish their own studios.

However, on second thought, following the example of Tengda Culture and directly investing in celebrity studios might also be a good development path.

With this in mind, after scanning the trending topics, Cai Yinong habitually clicked on the list of the four most popular young male celebrities.

The list is unchanged from yesterday, with our own top star still in second place, second only to Wang Kai of Tengda Culture.

Wang Kai's acting career has been booming in the past two years, with his roles in hit dramas like "My Love from the Star" and "Struggle".

Now, with a shift towards serious dramas, she has reaped both resources and a good reputation, and in terms of career, she has indeed surpassed Hu Ge, making her first place well-deserved.

As for Lin Yushen and Zhu Yucheng, who ranked third and fourth respectively, Cai Yinong secretly shook his head in his heart, feeling that these two were not good enough and to some extent lowered the value of the four young actors.

Her thinking wasn't out of favoritism towards Hu Ge, but rather because among the other new generation of male stars, their career development was indeed quite mediocre. Lin Yushen and Zhu Yucheng's rise to prominence was simply a case of choosing the best among the worst, somewhat like filling a quota.

After looking at the list of rising male stars, let's take a look at the list of the four most popular actresses.

Cai Yinong, who had been in a relatively relaxed mood, glanced at the screen and his smile vanished instantly. He exclaimed in surprise, "Shishi, your ranking has dropped!"

Liu Shishi was immersed in the dramatic plot of "The Legend of the Tang Dynasty," feeling the magnificent history of the establishment of the Tang Empire, and was captivated by Mr. Song's wonderful writing.

Startled by K-sister's sudden shout, Cai Yinong looked at her, confused, and asked, "K-sister, what did you just say?"

Cai Yinong hurriedly waved his hand, looking anxious: "Shishi, come quick! Your ranking has dropped to fourth place, and Lu Yi, who jumped to fifth place, is very close to you in votes."

"What? My ranking has dropped again!" The top female contestant exclaimed in shock. She quickly put down the novel she was reading, rushed to Cai Yinong's side, and leaned over to look at the computer monitor.

On the screen, the latest ranking of the four young actresses' votes clearly showed that she had indeed fallen to fourth place.

Moreover, in the online voting section, Lü Yi, who is in fifth place, is very close in votes, only tens of thousands of votes behind, and there is a possibility of her being overtaken at any time.

Given the current momentum of vote growth, with three days left in the voting, it is entirely possible for Lü Yi to push her out of the top four.

After carefully examining everyone's vote count and comparing it mentally with yesterday's, Liu Shishi's eyebrows furrowed, and she gritted her teeth, squeezing out a few words: "Fine, fine, you're trying to play dirty tricks on me, aren't you?"

After dinner last night, she even checked the leaderboard, where she saw that her votes were firmly ahead of Wang Luodan, who was in fourth place.

However, after just one night, Wang Luodan's votes actually surpassed his own, which was quite unexpected.

Moreover, the number of votes for the top two candidates, Liu Yifei and Yang Mi, also increased significantly, and this unusual change clearly indicates something fishy.

Originally, she was second only to Liu Yifei in votes, firmly in second place. Three days ago, when Yang Mi surged ahead and surpassed her in box office, she didn't care much. After all, she wasn't in first place, and the difference between second and third place wasn't significant, so it didn't matter.

However, seeing that the top-ranked people on the list were all playing tricks and manipulating things, especially Yang Mi's unusually high number of votes, Liu Shishi felt extremely annoyed. Anger welled up in her heart. "My sister and I are of one mind, but she's playing tricks on me. What a good best friend!"

Pointing at the screen, Liu Shishi's almond-shaped eyes widened: "They've gone too far. They must have been rigging the votes. Otherwise, how could they have gained so many votes in just one night?"

Let's not even mention Yang Mi and Wang Luodan. Liu Yifei is really going too far! She was already in first place, and she kept boosting her votes! What, is she trying to show off her overwhelming lead and crush me?!

Seeing that the eldest sister was flushed and breathing rapidly with anger, Cai Yi-nong quickly got up, gently patted her back, and comforted her in a soft voice:
"Alright, alright, don't get angry. Your boss Song will be heartbroken, it's not worth it. We still have three days, let's catch up in votes. But this is also a lesson for you. A few days ago, when Yang Mi's votes surpassed yours, I advised you to be more careful. What did someone say to me back then?"
"Oh dear, Mimi and I are best friends, so second or third place doesn't matter to me. You, you've taken my kindness for granted, why are you getting so anxious now?"

"At that time, Mimi...she..." Liu Shishi blushed instantly, stammering, both angry and ashamed.

Cai Yinong spoke earnestly, taking the opportunity to offer some advice: "Alright, I don't mean to blame you. You'll learn from your mistakes. The higher you go in the entertainment industry, the more intense the clashes of interests become. There will be many more backstabbing incidents like this in the future."

The top-ranked woman felt she had truly misplaced her trust and hung her head in dejection: "I know, K-sister. So what do we do now? I hope I don't really fall out of the top four."

Cai Yinong, on the other hand, appeared calm and composed, showing no sign of panic: "We're just giving them a taste of their own medicine. It's just canvassing and vote-rigging, nothing fancy. If they can rig it, so can we."

Upon hearing this, Liu Shishi looked conflicted, biting her lip as she hesitantly asked, "Is this method appropriate?"

Cai Yinong shook his head helplessly, sighing inwardly. He thought that Sister Yi had been too well protected by Boss Song and himself, and was still a bit naive.

There is no such thing as absolute fairness and integrity in the entertainment industry. Let alone a small event vote, even prestigious awards such as the three major film awards and the Feitian Magnolia Awards for television dramas are not immune to interpersonal relationships and social dynamics.

Cai Yinong thought about it and concluded that the one who tied the knot must untie it. He guessed that the "queen" (referring to a female celebrity) felt that manipulating votes on Weibo had a bad influence. She trusted her fiancé, Song Ci, the most and regarded him as her backbone.

Then a thought struck her: "How about this, Shishi, you can ask President Song and see what he thinks about this."

“Okay, I’ll call him right now.” Liu Shishi did as she was told, took out her phone, answered the call, explained the whole story clearly, and then asked Song Ci for his opinion.

The reply from the other end of the phone was crisp and decisive: "In business competition, everyone relies on their own methods."

Liu Shishi was extremely surprised by her fiancé's straightforward answer. She gripped her phone tightly and remained speechless for a long time.

Cai Yinong, standing to the side, wore an expression of unsurprised surprise, secretly thinking that Song Ci's ability to build such a large business and become the richest man in mainland China was definitely not due to a pedantic person.

She realized that all Tengda Group wanted was the influence and buzz surrounding the event; who ultimately came to power was irrelevant.

It's likely that actresses like Liu Yifei, Yang Mi, and Wang Luodan tested the Weibo platform from the very beginning of the voting process.

Seeing that Tengda did not interfere much with the vote-rigging and did not care much, they have become bolder recently and have gradually become more unscrupulous in manipulating the vote count.

After a while, Liu Shishi slowly came to her senses and said in a huff, "Anyone can find people to lobbied for votes, I'll give them a hard time right now! Sister K, can I use your computer?"

After saying that, he plopped down in the boss's chair, picked up the keyboard and mouse, quickly logged out of Sister K's Weibo account, and logged into another account.

Cai Yinong, standing behind him, noticed something amiss and asked uncertainly, "Shishi, you're not logging into President Song's Weibo, are you? Do you know his account and password?"

The top female contestant said smugly, "It's his account. All his passwords are my birthday. I'm going to use his account to get votes for me. You want to call for votes, huh? I, Liu Shishi, can do that too!"

"Shishi, calm down! What you're doing is inappropriate. Even if you're using President Song's Weibo account to garner votes for you, you should at least tell him first. You can't do it behind his back."

The way you're acting right now is like a kid who lost a fight and is rushing to tell their parents. This is a very simple matter that I could handle myself; why are you making such a fuss and dragging President Song into it?"

After listening to Cai Yinong's explanation of the pros and cons, Liu Shishi calmed down a bit. Her actions just now stemmed from two reasons: her indignation at the female celebrities' vote-rigging and her resentment at her fiancé's indifference to the vote-rigging.

Looking back on his actions, he couldn't help but feel a little regretful, secretly annoyed at himself for being so impulsive.

"So annoying!" The top female contestant slammed her hand on the keyboard in frustration and slumped into her chair in anger. "This is so pointless! Why can't we just have a fair competition based on merit? Why resort to these underhanded tactics!"

"Alright, don't worry about this. Leave the rest to me."

Cai Yinong patted Liu Shishi on the shoulder, suggesting that she should stay out of these complicated matters and do the dirty and tiring work herself.

Liu Shishi hung her head, looking like a wilted eggplant. Although she was struggling internally and didn't want to go along with the corrupt practices, she was unwilling to give up her position as one of the Four Little Actresses.

After much hesitation, I had no choice but to follow Cai Yinong's advice: "Sister K, then I'll leave it to you."

Cai Yi-nong nodded in agreement: "Don't worry, I'll make you satisfied. You don't need to have any concerns. It's just a common practice in the entertainment industry. You'll get used to it after you experience it more."

After offering a few words of comfort to Sister Yi and seeing her out of the office, Cai Yi-nong immediately got to work.

Time waits for no one. The voting for the four most popular actresses will end in three days. While you're voting, others are voting too. If you don't want to fall behind or even overtake them, you have to vote even more.

He called over the head of the public relations team and Jiang Yuanyuan, the assistant to the top female executive, and instructed them to split into two groups.

First, connect with professional vote-buying agencies. Second, mobilize fan groups and support groups. Some big fans with good financial resources are willing to help their idols boost their rankings and data, which is also a force to be reckoned with.

Tangren is also a well-established film and television company with extensive experience in various fields. After Cai Yinong assigned the tasks, each department proceeded in an orderly manner.

By the afternoon of the 17th, Liu Shishi's votes on Weibo had visibly increased rapidly.

By 10 p.m., the votes had once again surpassed Yang Mi's, placing her in second place on the list.

Meanwhile, Lü Yi, who was in fifth place, also saw a rapid increase in votes. By noon on the 18th, he successfully squeezed into the top four, pushing Wang Luodan to fifth place.

As the voting deadline approaches, the top-ranked female celebrities are all using various methods to manipulate the votes. They are all clearly aware of the methods used to rig the votes, and as long as Weibo's backend doesn't detect any obvious abnormalities, they can continue.

The actresses went back and forth, each using their own methods. Liu Shishi and Yang Mi's votes once approached Liu Yifei's, which scared the originally calm and collected Liu Yifei into having to resort to some more tricks to maintain her lead.

The voting continued in this back-and-forth until 8 p.m. on March 20th, when it ended.

As expected, after fierce competition, Liu Yifei, Liu Shishi, Yang Mi, and Wang Luodan were selected as the new generation of four little actresses.

Wang Kai, Hu Ge, Zhu Yucheng, and Lin Yushen have been named the new "Four Little Fresh Meat" (a term referring to four popular young male celebrities). The grand "Post-80s Generation Entertainment Stars Event" has finally come to a close.

(End of this chapter)