The Entertainment Industry in Turmoil: Young Actresses All Want to Rise to the Top

Chapter 342 Digging a pit for you to jump into

The trending topics list on Weibo has turned a deep red.

The entire internet is waiting for an explanation from Shen Mo, or even a public relations move from Mohen Media.

Sun Zhonghuai sat in the office of Tencent Video, holding a cup of espresso.

But he wasn't in the mood to drink. He was still waiting, waiting for major game companies to withdraw their investment from "Love O2O" and for the show's viewership to plummet.

"Mr. Sun, there's still no word from Mohen." The secretary whispered a reminder.

Sun Zhonghuai sneered, "There's no use playing dead in the face of solid evidence."

Just then, the official account of Mohen Media posted two surveillance videos.

The timeline is clearly shown in the video.

First paragraph.

At 11 p.m., Bai Lu entered the house after Shen Mo. Four minutes later, Bai Lu pushed open the door and came out, holding a thick stack of documents in her arms.

Immediately afterwards, Liu Haocun entered the house, and three minutes later, she quickly left carrying a box of half-eaten duck necks.

The second paragraph.

The surveillance footage shows that at 7:00 AM, Bai Lu and Liu Haocun knocked on the door and entered, each carrying a steaming bowl of Chongqing noodles. A few minutes later, the three of them came out one after another.

[Bai Lu: I'm going to find Brother Mo to discuss the promotional plan for "Love O2O".]

[Liu Haocun: I'm trying to scam some food from Brother Mo.]

[Mohen Media: This incident involves the deliberate taking of blurry photos to confuse the facts, and there is evidence of someone maliciously bribing paparazzi and organizing online trolls to smear us. We have collected targeted evidence and reserve the right to sue.]

Public opinion across the internet reversed instantly.

"Damn it—what can you do in four minutes inside? Not even brush your teeth!"

"I knew Mo Ge's career couldn't possibly collapse! Someone's just jealous of 'Love O2O's' popularity and's doing this dirty trick!"

"Bribed paparazzi? Who did it?"

Enraged, Sun Zhonghuai slammed his fist on the table.

Just then, the door was pushed open, and a man walked in, led by his secretary.

The man held a document in his hand and placed it in front of Sun Zhonghuai.

Sun Zhonghuai's eyes widened suddenly, and he looked up at the man in surprise.

The document clearly contained screenshots of bank transfers between Sun Zhonghuai and the paparazzi.

The man smiled, took out his phone, dialed a number, and handed it to Sun Zhonghuai.

Sun Zhonghuai paused for a moment, seemingly still pondering the connection.

A familiar voice suddenly came from the phone.

"Hello, Mr. Sun!"

Sun Zhonghuai frowned, and at that moment he finally realized what was going on.

"President Shen, this is a brilliant move."

He picked up the phone, put it to his ear, and chuckled softly.

"Using yourself as bait, did they anticipate I'd fall for it?"

"What kind of bureau?" Shen Mo asked with a hint of mockery. "I don't understand what President Sun is saying."

"I just saw someone smearing me, and based on my intuition, I guessed who would benefit the most. I followed the paparazzi's lead and got lucky; I found some transaction records from them."

Sun Zhonghuai took a deep breath, trying to calm the knot in his chest.

"Since Mr. Shen has my contact information, why doesn't he call me personally?"

"I'm scared," Shen Mo smiled.

"What if I personally send the pictures to Mr. Sun, and he accuses me of extortion? Or what if he records audio or screen recordings? Wouldn't that damage our deep friendship?"

"Is there still any affection between us?"

"Why not?" Shen Mo's tone turned cold.

"Before Inkmark Video was established, didn't we have a pretty good working relationship?"

Sun Zhonghuai remained silent.

Indeed, since its inception, Mohen has collaborated with Tencent Video on most of its projects, which has been very profitable for Tencent Video.

"As President Shen also said, that was before the company was established."

Sun Zhonghuai snorted coldly, "Now everyone's fighting for a living on this land. It's either you die or I die."

"Wrong," Shen Mo interrupted him. "The market is still huge."

Sun Zhonghuai was getting a little impatient.

"President Shen, let's skip the high-sounding words and get straight to the point. I have another meeting later."

"good!"

Shen Mo agreed and got straight to the point.

"Penguin and Inkmark can join forces."

"If we hadn't fallen out, 'Love O2O' could have been broadcast on two platforms simultaneously. You should be able to see the potential of this drama now."

"It was Mr. Sun who had a preconceived notion that InkHen had become too powerful and was no longer willing to cooperate with Tencent."

"Moreover, Tencent Video can also co-produce and fund future big-budget productions of Ink Trace."

"7

"Mr. Sun, you must be confident in the quality of Shen Mo's work, right?"

Sun Zhonghuai remained silent; he was weighing his options.

"But the pants are different."

Shen Mo suddenly changed the subject.

"Its backer is Alibaba. Mr. Sun knows better than I do about the competitive relationship between Alibaba and Tencent."

"In addition, the pants have been relying on their past achievements for the past few years, and the content production has become terrible."

"From a cooperation perspective, Tencent is the least likely to cooperate with Pants."

"In that case, why not let Penguin and Inkmark join forces?"

"Even if the market only needs three video platforms, there shouldn't be any left to lose, right?"

Sun Zhonghuai's pupils contracted slightly; this was indeed a very tempting offer.

"And, Mr. Sun, don't forget..."

Shen Mo paused for a moment, then dropped a bombshell.

"I also hold 1.8% of the shares of Penguin Holdings. There is also cross-shareholding between Inkstone Pictures and Penguin Pictures."

"In a way, I'm also a minor shareholder of Mr. Sun's company."

"If we fight amongst ourselves, it won't do any good for Tencent's stock price. It will only make Alibaba laugh. Why do something that hurts our friends and pleases our enemies?"

"But if we cooperate, Tencent will have another content channel, which can also disrupt Alibaba's entertainment sector layout."

"It's mutually beneficial for us to cooperate, isn't it?"

Sun Zhonghuai remained silent for a long time.

In this round, he not only lost ten million, but was also used as a free publicity machine by Shen Mo.

That ten million buyout fee, in the end, went around in circles and actually became evidence in Shen Mo's hands to counter him.

"Mr. Shen could have just said these things directly; why beat around the bush like this?"

Sun Zhonghuai spoke coldly, feeling somewhat uncomfortable after being toyed with by Shen Mo.

"If I don't have some leverage over Mr. Sun, I don't think he'll be willing to sit down and listen to me."

Sun Zhonghuai suddenly felt relieved; he realized that this was indeed his personality.

He shook his head and smiled.

"Mr. Shen, you win. I'll consider it."

"Well then, I look forward to Mr. Sun's reply."

"I hope that next time we meet, we'll talk about how to split the bill, not how to calculate it."

The phone hangs up.

Looking at the transfer record, Sun Zhonghuai suddenly felt a sense of powerlessness.

This young man in front of me is definitely not someone who can be simply regarded as an artist in the entertainment industry.

He is a true, cold-blooded capitalist hunter.

If you're not careful, you'll fall into his trap.

That's ruthless!

Shen Mo put down the phone, a mischievous smile appearing on his face.

Liu Haocun sat up, rubbing his sleepy eyes; his hair was disheveled.

She saw the smile on Shen Mo's lips and cautiously moved closer.

"Brother Mo, is it resolved?"

Shen Mo naturally put his arm around her waist, the coldness in his eyes dissipating and replaced by a clean smile.

"Don't worry, with Brother Mo handling things, it'll be a piece of cake."

Sun Zhonghuai will definitely cooperate, because he has no other choice.

As for the issues with the paparazzi photos and surveillance footage, it's actually quite simple.

From the day Shen Mo discovered paparazzi staking out the hotel, he began to plan his scheme.

When Bai Lu and Liu Haocun actually stayed in his room, the paparazzi would definitely not be able to take any pictures.

Besides Wang Zheng, Shen Mo now has several of his comrades-in-arms acting as bodyguards.

Whether the paparazzi took photos or not, they know perfectly well.

After Shen Mo arranged the times for Bai Lu and Liu Haocun to enter and leave the room, Wang Zheng and the others deliberately relaxed their surveillance of the paparazzi, making them think they had caught an opportunity and quickly took photos.

Only in this way can they have the confidence to go to Sun Zhonghuai without revealing their secret. Even if Sun Zhonghuai investigates, he will not find any connection with Mohen.

Moreover, if the photos were arranged by Shen Mo's own people, that old fox Sun Zhonghuai might not believe them.

Fortunately, the plan was successful this time.

The three major platforms' strategy against Mohen Video has been largely broken.

Their three new dramas have no chance of winning against Mohen, so it's inevitable that Mohen Video will establish itself firmly.

If Sun Zhonghuai were to defect again, then the kiwifruit and trousers would be even less of a concern.

Previously, Mohen Capital had also invested in Houtao together with Lei Jun's Shunwei Capital, holding a 5% stake.

Therefore, if we bring kiwifruit together, the chances of us dealing with pants together become much greater.

At that time, the pattern of the peach-shaped pants should change to the peach-shaped tube.

Just then, Shen Mo's phone received two text messages from Li Yitong and Tian Xiwei.

The content is exactly the same.

[I heard you're having a one-woman show in Chongqing?]

Clearly, the two are together right now, and they might be gossiping about him behind his back.

Shen Mo stared at the screen, his lips twitching slightly.

The battlefield of this lifetime seems even more difficult to navigate than the capital market.

Without the underhanded tactics and dirty tricks of Sun Zhonghuai and Tencent Video, "Love O2O" completely blasted open the door to the summer movie season in China and soared all the way.

By the second week of airing, the real-time viewership rating on Tomato TV had exceeded 3%.

Mohen Video's daily views skyrocketed to over 1.5 million, with the average number of views per episode remaining steadily at 5000.

The terrifyingly high level of tens of thousands.

This phenomenal hit has completely transformed into a "national electronic pickled vegetable" that is loved by everyone from urban white-collar workers to young girls in the throes of first love across the country.

On almost every street and alley, wherever there is a screen, you can see Shen Mo's stunning profile in a white shirt.

In mid-August, during the summer vacation, the lights were still on in the 302 girls' dormitory at Jiangcheng Normal University.

Four girls who had been preparing for their postgraduate entrance exams during the day flocked back to their dorm that night, not for any other reason than to be the first to see the drama "Love O2O".

Update.

At exactly 8 p.m., as that familiar intro began, four heads instantly crowded in front of the same computer monitor.

When the scene showed Xiao Nai standing at the bridgehead, giving Bei Weiwei a cool and aloof smile.

A suppressed yet extremely loud crowing sound suddenly erupted in the dormitory.

"Aaaaaah! Shen Mo's smile! It's killing me!"

The dorm leader pinched her best friend's thigh hard, her face turning bright red.

"Don't move! Don't block my way!"

"I want to see Mo Ge's fingers typing on the keyboard, those veins, that hand speed—he's the epitome of an e-sports god!"

Suddenly, the door to the next dormitory was pushed open, and another girl with disheveled hair rushed in with the same doting smile, holding half a watermelon in her hands.

"Sisters! This is an iconic scene! I'm about to faint from sweetness!"

At that moment, the once empty dormitory building was filled with occasional screams echoing from afar, making one think that the dormitory supervisor had lifted the internet restriction.

At 12:30 pm, at a top accounting firm in Lujiazui, Shanghai.

Zhang Min, the HR director who is usually known as the "stern and ruthless nun," had the blinds in her office drawn tightly shut at this moment.

She took off her gold-rimmed glasses, slumped onto the desk without any regard for her image, Bluetooth earphones plugged into both ears, and stared intently at the computer screen.

On the screen, Shen Mo, who plays Xiao Nai, is riding a bicycle with the female lead on the back through the campus greenway, and the sunlight shines on Shen Mo's high nose bridge.

Zhang Min's perpetually taut and cold face was now tilted upwards in an incredibly beautiful arc, her eyes filled with the pink bubbles of a young girl's first love.

"Knock knock".

A knock suddenly sounded at the door, and the new intern nervously pushed the door open and entered.

Zhang Min was startled and in her panic, she accidentally pulled off her headphone cord, causing the computer sound to suddenly play out loud.

"—Unfortunately, I was waiting for you."

Shen Mo's magnetic voice instantly resounded in the serious office.

The intern froze on the spot, and Zhang Min's ears turned bright red.

She coughed, instantly switching back to her aloof, powerful businesswoman mode, and took the document to sign.

She looked at the interns standing there and a thought suddenly flashed through her mind.

"There's nothing wrong with this expense report."

"Also, spread the word that today's afternoon tea at the company will be a 'Weibo collaboration' event, and it's on me."

"Also, note—it must be Shen Mo's single cup sleeve. If you give me the wrong one, I'll make things difficult for you."

The intern's eyes lit up instantly, and she grinned, flashing a bright smile.

"Mission accomplished!"

"By the way, if I order milk tea and there are any extra souvenirs, can I take one? I like Shen Mo too!"

If girls watch "Love O2O" to see Shen Mo fall in love...

The straight men in the internet cafe were completely blown away by Shen Mo's e-sports skills in the show and the special effects produced by Mohen Pictures.

Inside a large e-sports internet cafe, several men were playing League of Legends together, with profanities rising and falling.

Suddenly, on the huge projection screen in the center of the internet cafe, the manager switched off the live broadcast of the competition and started showing the latest two episodes of "Love O2O".

In the scene, Shen Mo, dressed as a white-robed musician, holds a guqin and stands on Luoxia Peak, his robes fluttering, preparing to engage in a server-wide PK with a challenging max-level player.

"Damn it, what the hell are you doing, internet cafe manager? Why are you playing some idol drama?! Holy crap?!"

A bald, tattooed man was about to start cursing, but when his gaze fell on the projection screen, he froze.

On the screen, Shen Mo's fingertips left afterimages as they traced across the keyboard.

With a change of perspective, Shen Mo's character in the game transforms the heavenly music into a sharp, icy blade. Combined with top-notch 3D effects and incredibly smooth move combos, he launches his opponent into the air.

This set of micro-management and combo design has taken the violent aesthetics of Chinese style to the extreme.

"These game's special effects—and who made them? They blow all the other Xianxia MMORPGs out of the water!"

"Stop arguing, stop arguing! Look at Shen Mo's hand speed! Holy crap, if he were really playing a game, his hand speed would be at least in the top ten of the national server, right?"

Within ten minutes, the once deafeningly loud internet cafe fell eerily quiet.

A group of straight men who disregard idol dramas were sitting on stools, smoking cigarettes, craning their necks to stare at the big screen.

They're watching Shen Mo's cool and pretentious antics, and also Bei Weiwei and Bai Lu. Their popularity soared through Running Man, and now, in this drama, they're attracting even more straight male fans.

"Damn! That's so pretentious! But I love it!"

"Hey internet cafe manager, give me fifty yuan for internet! I'm not playing League of Legends today, I'm going to create a musician character in the collaboration game with Weiwei, 'New Legend of the Condor Heroes'!"

"I want to find a Bei Weiwei too!"

As usual, I'm asking for your monthly votes!

If you're passing by, feel free to give your child a monthly pass!

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