Chapter 1034: Do You Still Not Understand Who Calls the Shots?

Originally, Gu Mang had a line of suitors who wanted to marry her. Now that Lu Chengzhou had cut the queue, he was counting his blessings too.

“Don’t forget about the time when you start working.” Lu Chengzhou fed her a shrimp ball. “I will call Lu Qi to check on you.”

Gu Mang was speechless.

…

The Black Sea had been trending on the Internet very frequently because of casting issues. There was no official announcement, so the discussion about it continued to brew freely.

The movie had become a hit even before it was filmed. And it was a huge hit!

Zhao Xinran, whose popularity was average, used to be unfamiliar to many. Now that he was suddenly cast under the limelight, he shot to fame instantly.

Along with Dark’s reputation and popularity in the past, the demand for The Black Sea’s intellectual property rights’ was unprecedented.

It had been trending on more than 10 platforms in just two days.

Even Eastern Brilliance’s President, Zhao Huai, did not expect The Black Sea to become so popular.

As long as they handled everything well, The Black Sea would definitely become a phenomenal piece of work that could earn them huge sums of money.

Looking at this film’s evaluation report, Zhao Huai stood up. “Inform every department that I’m calling a meeting.”

…

That afternoon.

Sheng Ting was summoned to the office by his manager.

With his status now, he could have a flexible schedule. He rarely visited the office.

“Sister Su.” Sheng Ting walked into Su Shui’s office.

Despite being the top manager in the entertainment industry, Su Shui did not have a good reputation, but she had her own way of handling things. Almost half of the famous celebrities in the industry rose to fame because of her.

Back then, she had taken a liking to Gu Mang and wanted her to join the entertainment industry. She had even used unscrupulous methods such as stealing Sheng Ting’s cell phone to look for Gu Mang’s contact number.

Due to this incident, the relationship between Su Shui and Sheng Ting had become very tense.

It had only improved slightly recently.

Su Shui nodded. “Sit.”

Sheng Ting threw his outerwear onto the sofa and sat down. “Why are you looking for me? You even summoned me to the office.”

…

Recently, Eastern Brilliance recruited a new batch of trainees and many of them were Sheng Ting’s fans. They did not expect themselves to be able to see their idol so soon, so they were all very excited.

However, to their surprise, Sheng Ting walked out of Su Shui’s office with a dark expression in less than three minutes.

Su Shui’s assistant, who was holding cups of coffee, almost bumped into him. She quickly got out of his way and moved to the side.

Downstairs.

Sheng Ting’s phone rang incessantly, but he ignored it. Exuding a cold aura, he opened the door of the huge van and got in.

Just then, his assistant, Xiao Zhou’s phone rang. It was a call from Su Shui.

Xiao Zhou looked at Sheng Ting and picked up the call.

“What I’ve told him just now is the higher-ups’ plans. Tell him to consider his future carefully. I…” Su Shui said with a slightly low voice before pausing. She added, “Forget, pass the phone to Sheng Ting.”

“Okay.” Xiao Zhou handed the phone over to him carefully. “Brother Ting, Sister Su wants you to answer the phone.”

With a tense expression and pursed lips, Sheng Ting took the phone and said coldly, “I won’t sign the three-year agreement that requires me to create fake hype with Zhao Xinran.”

“Think about it carefully. The Black Sea is the most important piece of work that the company is working on right now. We want to help Zhao Xinran rise to fame. If you help her raise her status, the contract will make sure that you will be able to receive many benefits too. You should know your limit. Don’t force the company to take any actions against you,” Su Shui said.

Making threats and promises.

Sheng Ting was the publicly acknowledged Prince of Singing. Even in the current Internet era, he was still clearly the best.

He was a cream of the crop A-list celebrity.

Zhao Xinran and him clearly did not have the same status; they were like heaven and earth.

To ask Sheng Ting to lower his status and hype up the audience with Zhao Xinran, who did not even have any portfolio, Sheng Ting’s fans would probably want to bomb the Eastern Brilliance building.

Sheng Ting cherished his reputation. Hence, he had only focused on his work and never tried to create any fake hype surrounding his albums and films.

Every time he was in the headlines, it was either because he had gotten an award or broken some record.

Now, his company was forcing him to sign this three-year agreement.

This also meant that every time he was on the headlines, he would be featured along with Zhao Xinran.

The contract promised Sheng Ting many benefits. It even said that Sheng Ting could get one percent of Eastern Brilliance’s shares.

However, the consequences of this would be that the reputation that Sheng Ting had built over the years would be destroyed in the blink of an eye.

He could already imagine his fans leaving him and being disappointed at him.

Su Shui sighed. “There is no need for you to go against President Zhao. This will do you no good.”

If Sheng Ting agreed to sign the contract, he would still be able to receive some benefits at the very least no matter the outcome.

If Shent Ting did not agree to sign the contract, the company’s attitude towards artistes who did not obey their orders had always been “If I can help you rise to fame, I can make you crumble too.”

Su Shui had already explained everything clearly.

Sheng Ting scoffed, “Yeah, helping someone rise to fame is difficult. But isn’t destroying someone difficult too?”

Su Shui remained silent for a few seconds. “I have helped you negotiate the best benefits you can get. Listen to my advice. You just have to cooperate. Don’t ruin your future.”

Sheng Ting kept quiet.

Su Shui said, “Go back and have a good rest. Tell me once you’ve made a decision.”

Sheng Ting pursed his lips. “Aren’t you guys scared of Dark’s veto power?”

Putting aside Zhao Xinran’s horrible acting, her appearance was already very different from that of “Jiang Zhao”.

In the first 4 films of the pentalogy, the most important criterion during casting was appearance. This was why the remakes were successful.

Zhao Xinran did not fit the appearance and figure of the character.

If Dark knew that there was an internal agreement to use Zhao Xinran, she would surely reject this idea.

“Do you really think that a random writer can change the company’s plans?” Su Shui asked rhetorically.

“Dark is not a random writer.” Sheng Ting said coldly, “And the veto power that Dark holds is part of the contract that the company and Dark agreed on.”

Su Shui chuckled. “You have been in this industry for quite some time. Do you still not understand who calls the shots?”

So what if there was a contract?

Even the future of someone of Sheng Ting’s status was determined by the company.

What could an insignificant writer like Dark do?

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