Which top celebrity doesn't support a few female stars?

Even before leaving Tencent Music headquarters, Li Zhou already knew that "Rice Fragrance" was doing very well and that a large proportion of its fans were male.

Now that everyone's there, how can we not check the platform's official backend data?

How reasonable.

The staff at Penguin Music did not refuse Li Zhou's small request.

In addition, Penguin Music also respects Li Zhou's personal opinions.

Because, if the battle report format were used in the past, the content would not include—

Play count and percentage of male fans

then……

As Tencent Music released its official battle report, Li Zhou had already opened Weibo to watch the excitement unfold.

Seeing netizens from all walks of life mocking and attacking the haters, her mouth seemed to be coated with venom, only sharp and incisive comments.

Li Zhou felt that every second was more cheerful than the last.

As they watched, they even sighed with feigned concern, "Sure enough, if you want to be happy, you have to watch a lot of haters have fun."

It was worth it for Mr. Li to specifically choose the "strategy with the most bullet comments," prompting Tencent Music to release a battle report showing the percentage of male fans.

Upon hearing this, Yang Sisi, who was standing next to him, smiled and chimed in: "President Li is just chasing internet speed."

It's a tone that's half-joking with a touch of flattery.

Li Zhou did not deny it: "It is indeed about keeping up with the internet speed. We can't just listen to your report; there will inevitably be information loss when relaying it."

When this was mentioned, he suddenly looked up at Yang Sisi.

"I've assigned you a task: from now on, spend one hour each workday browsing platforms like Weibo, Douyin, and Hongshu..."

"Only browse topics related to me, see the latest statements from fans, haters, and bystanders, and then summarize them for me."

Li Zhou felt that he should personally and promptly understand the changes in external evaluations, opinions, and views about him.

Although the total number of haters is extremely large... and there are even several big internet celebrities with millions of followers who are openly haters, engaging in all sorts of deliberate smear campaigns, we still need to break out of the information cocoon as much as possible.

A top influencer should be able to get along well with both fans and haters.

...

……

.........

The following day, July 18th, Friday.

At 10:00 AM, Zhong Huai, Vice President of Tencent and Chairman of Tencent Video, and Wang Juan, Co-President of Tencent Video, visited Shengshi Entertainment for business exchanges.

At the beginning of the month, Li Zhou showed the script of "Chinese Paladin" to Xu Qingyi, hoping that she would coordinate with Tencent Video.

Once Mr. Xu agrees, he is always very efficient. He submitted the script to Tencent Video on the same day.

Today, Zhong Huai and Wang Juan, two senior executives from Tencent Video, came to have final discussions and then launch the project.

As an aside, although Li Zhou has collaborations with both Tencent Music and Tencent Video, both of which belong to the Tencent ecosystem, they negotiate separately with each other.

Furthermore, it involves bringing up past cooperative relationships with any party, which could even have the opposite effect.

Both Chung Huai and the CEO of the independently listed Penguin Music are vice presidents of Penguin, and both report to Penguin's COO.

Within the broader Penguin ecosystem, there is an implicit competitive relationship between the two parties.

Even though they're already in high positions, who wouldn't want to advance further...?

...

Specifically, at present, Xu Qingyi, along with Li Zhou and Zhang Qiming, welcomed Zhong Huai and his entourage at the Shengshi Entertainment headquarters building.

After shaking hands and exchanging greetings, the group walked into the conference room on the second floor, chatting and laughing.

The negotiations began with the inevitable small talk.

Then Wang Juan took the lead in getting down to business: "We've discussed the new script written by President Li repeatedly, and ultimately, we all agree..."

After a two-second pause, Wang Juan raised her voice with a beaming smile, emphasizing, "The story of 'Chinese Paladin' has the potential to redefine the fantasy genre!"

Although the current negotiations involve bargaining over interests, she still frankly expressed Tencent Video's recognition of "Chinese Paladin".

Although Li Zhou was not surprised, he still made a slight self-deprecating remark.

He never doubted the industry insight possessed by various large systems... because without it, the business would easily die.

After praising the script of "Chinese Paladin", Wang Juan also affirmed Li Zhou's high pursuit of visual effects.

The final total production budget for the entire project was set at 3.5 million, of which 2 million was planned for visual effects production.

Before discussing the various parties' investments and other related interests, Zhong Huai suddenly smiled and suggested, "I think we should first settle on President Li's fee."

Li Zhou: "..."

He was a little surprised, but didn't say anything.

There's no way around it; Li is a screenwriter, a representative of the investors, and an individual investor... the interests are too intertwined, so he has to remain anonymous.

Zhong Huai's proposal was approved by the key personnel present.

Xu Qingyi directly defended him, saying, "This is Li Zhou's first film. We can't lower his salary just because he has a stake in it."

It's important to know that she basically plays the role of a "mascot" in external affairs, rarely getting involved herself.

When Zhang Qiming heard Xu Qingyi speak, he quickly followed suit and presented some facts.

After making her statement, Wang Juan pretended to look around, cleared her throat, and said, "I think the salary should be set at 4000 million."

There was a two-second silence in the meeting room. Xu Qingyi nodded slightly first, and Zhang Qiming then spoke up to express his agreement.

Previously, it was widely rumored that Taoyuan Film Studio offered Li Zhou a film fee of 2500 million, but he declined, mainly because Li Zhou thought the fee was too low.

Regardless of the truth, given Wang Juan and Zhong Huai's shrewdness, they had clearly already taken this rumor into account.

In addition, the hashtag #LiZhouNewSongRiceFragrance# is still trending on Weibo.

Yesterday's scene of male and female fans going crazy together

The predictable growth trend of popularity in Lizhou...

Zhong Huai and Wang Juan believe that 4000 million is a reasonable range for film remuneration.

Anyway, Wang Juan felt that if the salary demand was lowered by even one cent, it might lead to... "Who dares to accuse this official?"

Li Zhou, who had already been slated to be the male lead in "Chinese Paladin," was somewhat pleased with the salary.

He couldn't help but mutter to himself, "Finally, a little progress. It wasn't easy..."

From 2500 to 4000, a slight increase of 60%, the efforts of the past two months have not been in vain...

...

The two sides reached an agreement on Li Zhou's lead actor fee in a seemingly amicable manner, but the good times didn't last long.

They quickly discussed the specific funding for "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" and the resulting profit distribution.

Li Zhou spoke first: "I think that based on the budget of 3.5 million, and under the previous cooperation framework, including joint investment and basic production costs, your total initial investment will exceed 5 million..."

"The risk is really too high for you."

Investing 5 million yuan in a project before it even starts airing... Tencent Video's money doesn't just fall from the sky.

Without pausing, Li Zhou continued, "Frankly speaking, from my perspective, I'm worried that the Legend of Sword and Fairy project will be affected as a result."

"For example, an excessively long filming and production cycle can lead to unforeseen complications..."

"It would be better if you simply participated in the project as a co-investor, thereby securing exclusive online broadcasting rights."

After hearing Li Zhou's story, for a second, both Wang Juan and Zhong Huai thought they had encountered a naturally kind person.

However, Zhong Huai quickly realized what was going on and said with a smile, "President Li... you seem to be taking the Legend of Sword and Fairy series quite seriously."

In short, the hybrid cooperation model of purchasing and profit sharing has the advantage of reducing the financial pressure on the production party, but the disadvantage is that the profit sharing will be less in the later stages.

Li Zhou's proposal is essentially a pure revenue-sharing cooperation model, with Tencent Video belonging solely to the investors.

Although Zhong Huai felt that Li Zhou's emphasis must have its reasons and that he should not agree to this approach, Li Zhou's concerns about the risks were also valid.

So, after some back and forth, Zhong Huai agreed to Li Zhou's proposal.

Tencent Video participated only as a co-investor, with its investment share remaining at 30%.

Tencent Video will certainly not inquire further about how the remaining 70% will be used to fund the video...

...

Beforehand, Zhong Huai and Wang Juan had never imagined that Li Zhou and the Shengshi Group behind him would have such thoughts.

Although the cooperation was ultimately achieved relatively smoothly, but...

On their way to lunch at a private club at Xu Qingyi's invitation, Zhong Huai and Wang Juan couldn't help but bring up the matter again.

Since they were all on the same side, Zhong Huai cut to the chase and asked, "What do you think Shengshi and the others are really thinking?"

Wang Juan immediately replied, "Let's develop the copyright."

"But I can't imagine what kind of copyright development prospects would make them give up our guarantee."

Both of them were well aware that Tencent Video's investment essentially only secured exclusive broadcasting rights.

However, even with a hybrid cooperation model, Tencent Video is not the copyright holder of the series.

However, Li Zhou, representing Shengshi, has shown an attitude of wanting to position Penguin Video entirely as a platform, which is... quite interesting.

Zhong Huai pondered for a moment, then asked, "What do you think of Li Zhou?"

Wang Juan pondered for a long time before replying, "To be honest, I don't quite understand him."

"As a top-tier celebrity, it's understandable that he tries to become an entertainment mogul..."

"Moreover, he has advantages that other celebrities don't possess..."

Zhong Huai listened quietly. Of course, he knew that Li Zhou's most unique advantage was that Xu Qingyi was standing behind him.

Even those at the very top all aspire to become capital and control their own destiny.

Wang Juan continued to share her observations: "I have a strange intuition that this kind of cooperation is mainly Li Zhou's idea."

"He has an indescribable confidence in the Legend of Sword and Fairy project."

Zhong Huai agreed with this point: "Then let's wait and see..."

"..."

...

Li Zhou just thought that Boss Xu was a really interesting person.

He had clearly stated his thoughts beforehand, but now Boss Xu specifically asked him to ride in the same car, and as soon as they got in, he started asking all sorts of questions…

"I still don't understand why you would willingly take on such a huge risk..."

"If there are risks with Tencent Video, that's Tencent Video's problem."

"Besides, wouldn't all that hard work in negotiating the cooperation framework with Tencent Video have been for nothing?"

After patiently listening to Xu Qingyi finish speaking, Li Zhou replied calmly, "How could that be?"

"It's difficult to create a script like the Legend of Sword and Fairy series, which features an ensemble cast. In order to make money, they'll definitely write some simpler scripts later, and then they'll be useful."

Meeting Xu Qingyi's gaze, Li Zhou continued to explain: "Because I want to rely on the Legend of Sword and Fairy project to create a framework of film and television + cultural tourism consumption."

"Get yourself a protective charm."

He briefly mentioned the strategies for boosting consumption that have been repeatedly emphasized in recent years.

Then, Li Zhou didn't hide anything and simply explained his thoughts: "This way, even if all my previous scandals are dug up again..."

"Considering my efforts to boost consumption, and since it doesn't involve tax evasion or other fundamental issues, could you make an exception..."

He wasn't too worried about the industry's soft ban on him; what he was worried about was that the mainstream group might have some opinions about him because of it.

This is bad.

....................................

Damn it, I had something to do today and didn't finish writing. I'm typing like crazy now, and I'll replace it later. Sorry.

"If there are risks with Tencent Video, that's Tencent Video's problem."

"Besides, wouldn't all that hard work in negotiating the cooperation framework with Tencent Video have been for nothing?"

After patiently listening to Xu Qingyi finish speaking, Li Zhou replied calmly, "How could that be?"

"It's difficult to create a script like the Legend of Sword and Fairy series, which features an ensemble cast. In order to make money, they'll definitely write some simpler scripts later, and then they'll be useful."

Meeting Xu Qingyi's gaze, Li Zhou continued to explain: "Because I want to rely on the Legend of Sword and Fairy project to create a framework of film and television + cultural tourism consumption."

"Get yourself a protective charm."

He briefly mentioned the strategies for boosting consumption that have been repeatedly emphasized in recent years.

Then, Li Zhou didn't hide anything and simply explained his thoughts: "This way, even if all my previous scandals are dug up again..."

"Considering my efforts to boost consumption, and since it doesn't involve tax evasion or other fundamental issues, could you make an exception..."

He's not too worried about the industry's soft ban on him; what he's worried about is the mainstream media's opinion.

"If there are risks with Tencent Video, that's Tencent Video's problem."

"Besides, wouldn't all that hard work in negotiating the cooperation framework with Tencent Video have been for nothing?"

After patiently listening to Xu Qingyi finish speaking, Li Zhou replied calmly, "How could that be?"

"It's difficult to create a script like the Legend of Sword and Fairy series, which features an ensemble cast. In order to make money, they'll definitely write some simpler scripts later, and then they'll be useful."

Meeting Xu Qingyi's gaze, Li Zhou continued to explain: "Because I want to rely on the Legend of Sword and Fairy project to create a framework of film and television + cultural tourism consumption."

"Get yourself a protective charm."

He briefly mentioned the strategies for boosting consumption that have been repeatedly emphasized in recent years.

Then, Li Zhou didn't hide anything and simply explained his thoughts: "This way, even if all my previous scandals are dug up again..."

"Considering my efforts to boost consumption, and since it doesn't involve tax evasion or other fundamental issues, could you make an exception..."

He's not too worried about the industry's soft ban; what he's concerned about is the mainstream media's opinion. "If Tencent Video faces risks, that's Tencent Video's problem."

"Besides, wouldn't all that hard work in negotiating the cooperation framework with Tencent Video have been for nothing?"

After patiently listening to Xu Qingyi finish speaking, Li Zhou replied calmly, "How could that be?"

"It's difficult to create a script like the Legend of Sword and Fairy series, which features an ensemble cast. In order to make money, they'll definitely write some simpler scripts later, and then they'll be useful."

Meeting Xu Qingyi's gaze, Li Zhou continued to explain: "Because I want to rely on the Legend of Sword and Fairy project to create a framework of film and television + cultural tourism consumption."

"Get yourself a protective charm."

He briefly mentioned the strategies for boosting consumption that have been repeatedly emphasized in recent years.

Then, Li Zhou didn't hide anything and simply explained his thoughts: "This way, even if all my previous scandals are dug up again..."

"Considering my efforts to boost consumption, and since it doesn't involve tax evasion or other fundamental issues, could you make an exception..."

He's not too worried about the industry's soft ban on him; what he's worried about is the mainstream media's opinion.