Pirates began to dominate the Chinese entertainment industry.

Two hours later.

Ji Yun finally finished meeting everyone and prepared to leave.

As soon as he went downstairs, he bumped into Lou Yixiao and two other girls standing by the car waiting for him.

"Junior brother!" Lou Yixiao waved and called out excitedly from afar.

She pulled the two of them over at a trot, her face still flushed, and she kept stealing glances at Ji Yun. "Thank you so much just now."

Ji Yun shook her head. "It was yours to begin with. I was just telling you in advance."

"What about me? What about me?" Li Jinming squeezed in, looked up at him, and revealed his signature two sweet dimples.

"Congratulations." Ji Yun blinked.

"Yay!" Li Jinming clenched his fist and jumped up and down happily.

Ji Yun smiled and congratulated Zhao Ji, who was standing quietly to the side.

Zhao Ji was taken aback, then smiled slightly and nodded her thanks like a lady.

"Wait, why were you sitting in the middle just now?" Li Jinming realized what was happening and asked him with her beautiful big eyes.

"I really like this show, so I bought it."

"Wow, boss!" Li Jinming exclaimed exaggeratedly.

Lou Yixiao and Zhao Ji also looked at him in surprise; this handsome junior brother seemed to be even more capable than they had imagined.

Lou Yixiao's eyes sparkled; she had heard that Ji Yun had broken up with her boyfriend...

"So, you guys do your best in your acting; this show has great potential."

Ji Yun glanced at Li Jinming. She had six months left before graduation, and after finishing "iPartment," she would be unable to find acting roles and would have to work as a host in Anhui Province, causing her to miss the second season, which was quite a pity.

As for Zhao Ji, it is said that he suffers from severe anemia. In addition, after filming the first season, he was cyberbullied for his role, accused of "nepotism" and "bringing his own money to get into the production," so he retired from the entertainment industry after filming.

Actually, the most suitable people to sign from the cast of "iPartment" are Chen He, Wang Chuanjun, and Sun Yizhou. The former is funny, mainly does variety shows, and can earn money. The latter two can play supporting roles in movies, and their popularity has lasted a long time without any setbacks, making them good value for money.

However, if these girls are willing to play supporting roles in a large number of idol dramas for him in the future, it would be worth signing them.

"To celebrate our first film, the boss is treating us to dinner!" Li Jinming flashed a sweet and bright smile, displaying the vivacity of a lively young girl.

"We should be the ones inviting him," Zhao Ji said, tugging at her sleeve.

"Oh, it's all the same." Li Jinming waved his hand dismissively, as if he were channeling Mika.

Lou Yixiao was too embarrassed to say much to her two senior sisters, so she just stood next to Ji Yun and waited.

Ji Yun was surrounded by three girls as they went to a restaurant outside the Shanghai Theatre Academy for a hot pot meal.

…………

"Sister Yun, please come with me~"

Zhao Liying leaned on the desk, acting coquettishly towards the middle-aged woman across from her.

"Were you drugged or something?" Agent Yun said helplessly. "That's just a company that makes pirated DVDs. They don't even have a single decent movie. What would you be doing there, burning DVDs?"

"But he made me the female lead!" Zhao Liying pouted and said cutely.

"..." Sister Yun covered her face, feeling that the artist she was managing was hopeless. So what if she had been sitting on the sidelines for two years? She was desperate to become the leading lady.

"Aren't you afraid of being scammed? What if they cheat you out of money or sexually assault you?" Sister Yun threatened.

"My brother works at that company too." A glint of shrewdness flashed in Zhao Liying's eyes.

"And the boss is very handsome. He was very handsome when he was a director. He really knows how to make movies. And the company was short of people, so that's why he called me up."

If I miss this opportunity to play the lead role, I might regret it for the rest of my life.

Sister Yun sighed, her eyes softening:

"Even if he's a decent person, you're saying he's planning to produce a movie and a TV series at the same time. Where will he get the money?"

Moreover, he's offended big directors and big companies; how can he possibly get ahead?

Zhao Liying opened her mouth, but couldn't say a word.

If she offended a big director or a big company, she could still stubbornly say that no one in the Chinese entertainment industry can control everything.

But she did hear from her younger brother that the company was short of money and the boss had even sold the house.

While filming, Ji Yun also tried to save money in every way possible, traveling back and forth in the dead of winter and even staying in hotels.

Zhao Liying looked depressed and slumped in her chair, her eyes burning with discomfort.

She had been working in Beijing for several years, and despite being in a well-known company in the industry, she couldn't find a job. Finally, a small company was willing to promote her, but they were also struggling financially.

She lay on the desk, pouting, tears welling in her eyes.

"Sigh, take it easy, that's how it is for newcomers in this industry." Sister Yun patted her hair. "If all else fails, you can come with me to a few drinking parties. I'll handle the drinking, and you can talk to the bosses and say nice things to them. When I'm drunk, you can take me home. If you try a few times, you'll eventually get one or two opportunities."

"No, I'm not here to drink with you," Zhao Liying said stubbornly, but then she remembered how Sister Yun often helped her find roles when she went out drinking, and she felt a little ashamed. "I'm sorry, Sister Yun, I didn't mean to you."

Sister Yun patted her reassuringly, indicating that she didn't take it to heart.

She actually quite liked this girl. She was strikingly beautiful and photogenic, with a lively and adorable personality, yet incredibly strong-willed. Even when bullied and discriminated against on set, she endured it all and was very resilient. Otherwise, she wouldn't have kept this girl with her; the company would have long forgotten about this young actress.

Sister Yun said softly, "You, don't be fooled by some good-looking men in this industry who are clearly broke but good at sweet talk. These kinds of people use you and then leave you, they have no morals whatsoever. Stay away from them, understand?"

Zhao Liying knew who she was talking about, raised her head, and opened her mouth as if to defend the other person.

The phone suddenly rang; it was my younger brother calling.

"Sis, come back quickly! The boss has struck it rich! No, he's become a god! If you don't come soon, you'll lose your job at the company!"

"Huh?" Zhao Liying looked up and met Sister Yun's gaze, confused. "You've been drinking?"

"What?! The boss has become a stock market genius and made tons of money. The company's phone lines are ringing off the hook, and so many young models want to sign him. If you don't come soon, the office will be overflowing."

Xiao Zhao shouted at the top of his lungs.

The landline phone would ring every now and then, sounding like a hotline in a TV station's editorial department.

"I heard from Sister Li that the boss went out to invest in TV dramas and hasn't come back yet... Sigh, just go online and check, the Tianya Finance section is down, hurry up and check."

The call was cut off.

Zhao Liying stared blankly at the Nokia she had saved up to buy.

"What stock market guru, little model, TV series?" Sister Yun was completely confused.

Zhao Liying didn't answer. She quickly walked around the desk, turned on Sister Yun's office computer, and then opened the Tianya website in the Internet Explorer browser.

She didn't even open the finance section; she found a post about a "stock market guru" at the top of the trending topics list on the homepage, with a title in bold, bright red:

[In-depth analysis: The astonishing battle of Shanghai's little stock market genius. Turning ten million into over three hundred million in one month!]

She clicked on it and saw that the post had only been published for a little over two hours, but the number of comments had already exceeded 5 and the number of clicks had even surpassed 9.