I'm A Baller - Chapter 332
Chapter 332: Fooling Everyone
They were indeed a little early…
Wait. What was Wang Yan about to do just now?
He was going to turn Shen Man down!
If the two girls had come in just five seconds later, they would have seen his level of righteousness, self-discipline, denial of desires was enough to fill the seas and move the mountains!
Wang Yan felt very wronged, but he took the opportunity to get up and walk towards the two girls.
“Let me introduce to everyone, Fu Yushi and Reyi Nawu, my two good friends. They are also the first batch of actors signed with Wangting Entertainment.”
The two girls’ stunning looks did not stun everyone, but when they heard the words “signed actors”, everyone’s eyes lit up at the same time.
Everyone stood up and introduced themselves — Wang Yan was already standing up, so who could sit still?
After exchanging pleasantries and taking their seats, the two of them tacitly sandwiched Wang Yan in the middle.
Shen Man’s smile froze on her face. She silently sat between Li Yixu and Chen Handong, one seat away from Fu Yushi and a distance away from Nawu.
There was no other way. She felt inferior…
Good heavens, what sort of diet were these two on?
The two girls took a long time to dress themselves up, but their final outfits weren’t too over the top.
Nawu wore a tight-fitting high-necked cashmere sweater under her coat. The white sweater didn’t really show her figure that well, but her top heavy figure was obvious anyway, since she couldn’t hide that.
Fu Yushi wore a windbreaker on the outside and a floral skirt with flesh-colored stockings on the inside. It was simple and stylish.
The two girls wore a little light makeup but easily beat up Shen Man’s heavy makeup. One looked aloof and the other looked hot. It felt like some kind of ultimate move put together.
Wang Yan sat in the middle and enjoyed their presence. He finally felt a little smug.
It was such a waste to use these two girls to deal with these people!
While he was still gloating, Fu Yushi raised her wine glass, turned her head, and looked over with her big eyes. She said apologetically, “I’m sorry.”
“I came at the wrong time and ruined Mr. Wang’s mood. Here’s a glass of wine to apologize to you!”
Oh my my…Wang Yan sucked in a breath of cold air. Why was she doing this?
She sounded like some woman with a grievance. Others would think that he had done something to her!
She was usually very sensible, so why was she suddenly acting like a princess after seeing Shen Man?
Wang Yan stretched right hand out under the table and flicked a finger onto her thigh.
Fu Yushi immediately trembled slightly and her ears were a little red.
That hurt!
After that little bit of mischief, Wang Yan finally raised his glass.
“Come, everyone, let’s toast to Brother Xu. Thank you for your hospitality!”
Li Yixu was now forced to look more like Wang Yan’s guest instead, but his smile remained as warm and friendly as the spring breeze.
“Young Master Yan, you are an important guest who is so hard to invite. My friends here also have a request from you. It should be us toasting you, right?”
“But, we’re here to make friends, so it’s boring if we just talk about work. Let’s be straightforward with each other and drink according to our mood. Let’s talk openly, okay?”
His tactics changed again. Li Yixu began to open his heart and say whatever was on his mind.
His reaction was really fast. How amazing…
Everyone cheered loudly and drank a mouthful together. Then, Liu Kun and Chen Handong took turns to flatter Wang Yan.
“Mr. Wang, your company just dropped a big bomb in the livestreaming industry. We are still in a daze and have yet to react. But you have already set your sights on the film industry… we have to admit defeat!”
“Mr. Wang has a lot of talented people under him. These two ladies are extremely beautiful and dazzling. Just by looking at them, you know they are going to be famous!”
Even Li Yixu was very excited.
“Young Master Yan, what project are you preparing for? Do you need me to invest? I can put in five to eight million in cash at any time.”
Wang Yan was stunned by such a sudden change.
“Brother Xu, this project is not even confirmed, and you’re already ready to invest like that?”
Who discussed business like that?! What happened to his shrewdness?!
However, Li Yixu waved his hand and looked very serious.
“Young Master Yan, your ability and character are obvious to all.”
“Even though it’s a big step for you to go from livestreaming to film and television, as long as you’re the main sponsor, I’m willing to place all my bets on you.”
“If you lose, it’ll just be a lesson learnt and an opportunity to make friends. If you can afford to lose, I can afford to lose.”
“How about it? Just tell me if you lack investment!”
The moment these words left his mouth, the entire table fell silent.
Chen Handong, Liu Kun, Xiao Zhe, Shen Man, and the others were dumbfounded. Nawu was so shocked that her mouth was slightly agape. Only Fu Yushi was relatively calm and only clenched her small fists.
Was Wang Yan already a man of this stature?
He had only let slip a few words and someone was already giving money away?!
Everyone had underestimated the financial strength, boldness, and ability that Wang Yan had displayed in the three eating competitions. They also did not realize the degree of sensation that his activities had caused in certain small circles.
This subtle influence couldn’t be explained in one or two sentences.
For some reason, Li Yixu had a lot of confidential data in his hands.
After the third big eater competition, the daily average number of visits to Fish increased by 40%, and it continued to increase rapidly every day.
Among them, the proportion of users who watched livestreaming for the first time was as high as 63% .
That was incredible!
One could use the most straightforward layman’s method to convert it —
Wang Siming’s several large-scale promotions had resulted in less than 70% of the traffic that Panda TV received from Wang Yan’s one event!
The retention rate was even lower.
As a result, the dominance and potential benefits that Fish had obtained were in the hundreds of millions!
The specific number could not be calculated for the time being because the impact was extremely far-reaching and could only be concluded after a long time.
It was not an exaggeration to say that Wang Yan had single-handedly pushed the livestreaming industry to take a big step forward.
This was not just one person’s evaluation, but the common judgment of many bigwigs in the live streaming industry.
Li Yixu knew a lot of insider information, so his judgment was not based on personal feelings, but on data.
The online media’s reports on the big eater competition and Wang Fugui were mostly focused on how Wang Yan was just flaunting his wealth at the beginning. The public opinion was not good, but it had attracted a lot of attention.
The first trending topic was “insanely expensive mukbang competition”, and the second trending topic was “godfather of livestreaming”.
Because there were no whistleblowers, no videos, no photos, and Fish was watching everything online, any gossip about Wang Fugui was quickly covered.
Instead, there was a series of discussions about mukbang livestreamers.
Discussions like how it wasn’t necessary to have such an expensive competition, or whether it was right to eat so much at one time, or whether it was bad to promote such activities, or whether livestreaming had any value…
Two words: extremely popular.
Once the enthusiasm of the netizens was activated, only time could make it fade.
Wang Yan went into seclusion for a week to change the script, so even he himself did not know how hot the discussions in the outside world were.
Wang Yunxi followed Wang Yan’s request and put all his energy into signing models. He focused on building up the company and ignored any offers from the outside world.
Even so, the secretary still received countless invitations to meet and discuss every day.
The sponsors who were close to Wangting Entertainment now simply waved their checks and sincerely begged him to do an event.
They didn’t care what event it was. As long as there was one, it was fine.
The situation was so crazy.
Sina Entertainment was the exclusive media for the third eating competition. At that time, they did not expect that a live webcast competition would become such a hot topic, so they had so much regrets they felt like their intestines had nearly turned green.
Why?
Because there was no exclusive interview with Wang Yan.
At that time, the person in charge of Sina Entertainment actually mentioned doing a exclusive interview to Wang Yan, but after Wang Yan rejected it, he did not continue to insist.
Everyone judged from experience: such an exclusive interview did not have much meaning. The eating broadcast itself would trend online, and at most, it would trend for a day.
In the end, the final trending topics were like a slap in their faces.
The trending topics on the internet were sometimes so inexplicable. Everyone was initially shocked and confused, but after thinking about it carefully, they had to admit that Wang Yan’s event had been done beautifully.
The main beauty was in the integration of resources and the sharing of benefits.
Haidilao wanted to expand its brand awareness, Haagen-Dazs wanted to promote their new luxury cream, Fish wanted to expand its share of the live broadcast market, Beauty Ko wanted to announce an opening to investors, and basically all the sponsors wanted to promote their products…
Everyone’s interests were tied together.
And the event itself provided a solid foundation for the relevant parties to do what they wanted.
Of course it would become popular.
Wangting Entertainment did not even contribute. It was extremely busy. Without spending a single cent, its popularity had exploded like a volcano.
Now, it was a completely different situation.
Numerous media outlets were looking for an opportunity to interview Wang Yan, but they could not even get in contact with Wang Yunxi.
Many of Li Yixu’s friends in the media industry asked him. “Third Brother, did you go to the event? Do you know Mr. Wang?”
When the small and medium-sized platforms heard that Wangting Entertainment was recruiting, they were all tempted.
Some wanted to change jobs, some wanted to invest in Wangting Entertainment, and some wanted to strike a deal with Wangting Entertainment…
Today’s dinner was because of this.
If it wasn’t for their shallow friendship, Li Yixu had at least 20 friends who were extremely interested in Wangting Entertainment to accompany Wang Yan.
The attention of the netizens was very skewed. They only paid attention to what they could see online. But this was not the case in the various small circles. They only paid attention to Wang Yan.
The main characters who participated in the event had a highly consistent evaluation of Wang Yan.
This man was a genius.
Businessmen were all like jackals. When they smelled the smell of meat, they would immediately swarm over.
Wang Yan was now that piece of meat.
It was precisely because of the above reasons that when Wang Yan announced his new plan, Li Yixu did not even think about it and his first reaction was to join in.
It did not matter if he made a loss or not, he was going to get first dibs.
If the prospects did not look good, he would treat it as just a chance to make friends. In any case, the Wangting Entertainment was now being treated as a gold mine, so they didn’t have to worry about finding investors.
If the prospects were good, he would work hard to expand his share of investment, and it would not be a problem for him to climb up.
Li Yixu was a person who planned before he moved. It was precisely because he had planned too much in the past week that he moved so decisively at the critical moment.
Liu Kun and the others were too far on the outside to see through any of this, so they naturally felt shocked.
Information suppression had nothing to do with intelligence.
Wang Yan was a little caught off guard.
In the past week, he had been completely immersed in the script. He did not know much about what was happening in the outside world. He did not expect Li Yixu to value him so much.
In fact, if he had not been in a hurry to look at the office buildings today and found time to chat with President Ai, Wang Yan would have been much more relaxed.
But this wasn’t a big problem, because Wang Yan would not have told anyone about The Witch in the first place.
He didn’t lack money and this was a project that was bound to make money. Why would he bother telling anybody else about it?
Unless..
He decided to just sound Li Yixu out first before deciding on his next step.
“Brother Xu, it’s really not at all confirmed, so I can’t talk about it since it would be a waste of your time. Let’s talk again in the future.”
That was a phrase that meant that there was nothing left to talk about.
His attitude of tactfully rejecting was very firm.
If he wanted to extort a smart person, he couldn’t make a big deal out of it. He had to be conservative.
Being able to get money out of someone outside of the industry was something he could brag about later.
Sure enough, the more Wang Yan didn’t want to talk about it, the more curious Li Yixu became.
However, Li Yixu was very methodical in doing things. He didn’t continue to ask questions and inquired about other things.
“Okay, then let’s not talk about it for now. Oh right, the popularity of the eating competition on the internet is currently very high. Do you really not plan to use this opportunity to hold another competition? Sponsorship fees, popularity, influence… there are countless benefits!”
Wang Yan smiled confidently and shook his head.
“The expansion of the company is enough for us to be busy for a while. The people we recruit must be settled properly. Even our other important projects have had to be postponed, so nobody has any energy to do a fourth competition now. Wait a little longer!”
Li Yixu’s pupils suddenly constricted.
More important projects…
The development plans of Wangting Entertainment was indeed fully controlled by Wang Yan!
Moreover, they were all linked together, and it was hard to say how far into the future they had planned.
Could it be that the next step was really a movie or TV series?
That was not a project that laymen could play with…
What on earth was going through Wang Yan’s mind?
If he did not understand, he would ask. Li Yixu humbly asked, “Young Master Yan, could it be that you want to break through the chain from the bottom to the top of the entertainment circle and establish an some sort of ecological closed loop?”
Wang Yan was stunned by the other party’s words. “Eh? Brother Xu, your words sound so familiar…”
Li Yixu smiled indifferently but it was clearly filled with pride.
“Oh, some time ago, I went with my family and had the honor of chatting with Leeco’s CEO, President Jia. I have learned a lot and I very much approve of some of his ideas.”
Everyone at the table was in awe.
Who was the most popular in the Chinese business world now?
President Jia.
He was a true tycoon, a leader who could subvert an “Ecosystem”.
Wang Yan had looked at the various interviews and was very impressed with that person. On one hand, he was doubtful about the future, but on the other hand, he had respect for him. He felt that it was truly not easy.
In the future, President Jia would be the person that Wang Yan wanted to arm wrestle with.
Li Yixu dropped that name, and his level instantly rose to the highest level, causing everyone at the table to gasp.
Wang Yan had no choice but to re-evaluate the other party’s ability, and then… his mind became more and more determined to extort him.
However, if he wanted to extort something from the other party, he first had to suppress the other party’s arrogance.
Wang Yan nodded with a smile and explained to Li Yixu in a really earnest manner —
“I don’t really talk about things like ecosystems to fool investors. I prefer to talk about the promotion channels to my employees.”
“You start as a livestreamer, become a top livestreamer, and then you can turn into an internet celebrity.”
“You become an internet celebrity, rise to the top of that as well, and then you can turn into a professional artiste.”
“You can cut albums, do performances, get endorsements, participate in variety shows, make movies and TV shows, and even open a studio or become a partner. You can do anything.”
“Whether you are popular or not depends on your fate. However, the company must at least provide you with opportunities.”
“I can’t let those good seedlings who come for me to roll in the livestreaming sector for life.”
“After they’ve sold five years of their youth away, they would have earned a lot, but they would have nowhere else to go. I can’t let that happen.”
“If that happens, nobody will be motivated to move on.”
“The employees would start desperately finding other sources, running along with big brands or just scraping money together by doing anything. It’s hard to say.”
“President Jia liked to talk about the closed circle of ecology. In my opinion, the circle of the entertainment industry could never be closed.”
“How could an industry that relied on content for output be closed?”
“Novels, comics, animation, games, music, movies, television, and more…”
“Even if they had everything under their company and could get a cycle going within their own company, would that be enough for them to be self-sufficient?”
“Probably not.”
“Using a good novel as the literary source, every adaptation is a complicated secondary creation that involves countless links.”
“How could it be closed? It can’t be closed.”
“Rather than thinking about the ecology, it was better to be pragmatic and focus on cultivating people.”
“From livestreamers to artistes, it is the promotion channel that Wangting Entertainment will provide for its employees.”
“We had to let every livestreamer know as soon as they entered the company that their limits were limited by their lifetime, and not by the little livestream platform they had here.”
“We are on the road to film and television, and we’re looking at acquiring or working with record companies, variety program production is also in the works. Wangting Entertainment is a pan-entertainment group, but our core will always be people.”
“In this way, they never lose their fighting spirit, and we can continue to absorb the best talent.”
“In the end, our ring may never be closed, but has it formed a good ecosystem?”
“I think it will.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the room was silent for a long time.
Wang Yan picked up his wine glass and took a sip. His graceful posture and leisurely attitude showed his magnanimous style.
As for Li Yixu…
He had been so caught up in Wang Yan’s words that his entire brain was just going ‘Oh my god’.
Shen Man and Xiao Zhe were already floored by the time they heard that Wang Yan wanted to go into variety programs and film. The rest was incomprehensible to them.
But Li Yixu was different. He was probably the only person who could understand Wang Yan’s overall ideas.
In fact, he had already guessed Wang Yan’s next move after signing so many livestreamers on.
He was going to spread them over all the livestreaming platforms!
As an equally rich and powerful heir, Li Yixu might not have the ability to pull this off. But based on the current situation, he was very sure that this was Wang Yan’s next plan.
In an instant, he was shocked by Wang Yan’s ambition, schemes and foresight. His heart trembled.
He had money, people, and credibility. He’d definitely win the negotiations with the livestreaming platforms!
When did this guy start making these plans?!
Why was his choice of entry so strange?!
Such a huge success could not have been an accident. He must have planned all this in advance! !
He was so young, yet so far-sighted. What other trump cards do he have to ensure the smooth implementation of the follow-up plan?!
He didn’t want to talk about anything else. He just wanted to be part of this!
In an instant, Li Yixu even forgot his original purpose. All he could think about was how to hop onto Wang Yan’s bandwagon.
Now, even if Wang Yan told him the truth in all seriousness —
“Actually, I didn’t plan anything. I was just doing stuff randomly. It was the few cards from the system that got me here, and actually it feels really terrible to be in this position where I can neither advance nor go back down…”
“I’m speaking the truth! If I lie to you, I’m an asshole!”
Li Yixu would never believe it.
He would never believe it.
The dignified third young master of the southeast Li family had already been conquered by the logic of reality.
Wang Siming’s family had such a huge amount of wealth, but they were unable to convince him. But Wang Yan’s words had fooled him so hard he was completely convinced.
— No, to be exact, he had been completely convinced by his own imagination of what must have happened.
Actually, it was not Li Yixu’s fault. The more elite one was, the easier it was for one to be fooled by Wang Yan.
A simple-minded fool would not have seen this logic and would not realize how rare Wang Yan’s extraordinary success was. On the contrary, he wouldn’t think Wang Yan was that great.
He would think that Wang Yan just got lucky and anybody else could have done the same.
A truly rational elite, on the contrary, rarely had the illusion that he could do it if he did it. Once he was able to correctly recognize the difference between them, it was easier to exaggerate Wang Yan’s ability.
Was Wang Yan really that incredible? Nah.
If it wasn’t for those lousy cards, he would be happily spending the system’s money to flirt with girls right now. He wouldn’t have completely conquered the livestreaming world!
Up until now, Wang Yan didn’t really care about the small amount of pocket money that could be earned from livestreaming!
If he didn’t need a company to explain where his money came from and the glorious prospect of being listed on the market overseas, Wang Yan wouldn’t have bothered him with doing so much.
For example, today, he was obviously going to chat with Liu Kun and Chen Handong to see what they were capable of. If they were good, he’d sign them with Wangting Entertainment.
That was all he was here to do. But Wang Yan didn’t get to that part and just continued beating round the bush with Li Yixu for fun.
He didn’t place any importance on it and he was very relaxed about it. He was leaving everything up to fate.
The result…
Uh, the result was very mysterious.
Liu Kun and Chen Handong scratched their ears and cheeks. They simply could not sit still on their stools and looked at Wang Yan with eager eyes.
They were just short of paying their respects and expressing their stance directly by saying “My Lord, please accept my bow!”
That was because they had not found an opportunity. If there was an opportunity, there was an 80% chance that they would really bow down.
It was all done step by step in the business world. Whether a leader’s strategy was good or not, whether his ambitions were big or not, whether the results were good or not, everyone would have a basic judgment in their hearts.
The biggest difference between Wang Yan and an ordinary glib tongue was that until today, the netizens were still discussing that competition and it was still trending.
That was the reality of the matter. Of course everyone was going to believe everything Wang Yan said now.
That was how amazing Wang Yan was!
Chen Handong was just sighing in his heart, while Liu Kun immediately decided to take the initiative.
“Mr. Wang has really incredible foresight, and his thinking is precise and clear. He really lives up to his reputation as a genius!”
Chen Handong immediately tried to chime in.
“Mr. Wang’s words are so inspiring. As someone in the industry, I really didn’t expect that I could push the platform from such an angle and reach a broader market… I’m convinced, I’m convinced, I’m convinced!”
The angle this guy chose to use to flatter Wang Yan was pretty amazing too.
At least these two were shrewd. They knew that the most important thing about job-hopping was not to look desperate, but to fully display their own value and work hard to sell themselves at a good price, so they did not directly express their opinion of wanting to follow him.
Of course, there were no fools present at the table. They were all working according to their common sense.
Er, Nawu might be the only exception…
Her expression was deeply confused.
She and the little princess watched as Wang Yan continued to act pretentiously, making a bunch of 30 year olds suddenly start wondering if they had lived their lives in vain and feel like they were in a dream.
“Is Wangwang trying to trick people again?” whispered Nawu to Fu Yushi. Based on her simple thinking and sharp intuition, she immediately felt that something was amiss.
The little princess, on the other hand, had a face filled with admiration. She scolded, “Don’t talk nonsense! What do you know!”
Nawu pouted sadly. However, Fu Yushi was still as serious as ever.
“Forget about how Wang Yan is always so cheeky and playful! This is the real Wang Yan, an intelligent, self-disciplined, ambitious, determined…natural born leader!”
The two of them were mumbling right in front of Wang Yan, and the corner of his mouth twitched. He subconsciously wrapped his arms around their waists and tightened them slightly.
He really didn’t mean to take advantage of them!
Damn it, if he didn’t find something to hold himself up, Wang Yan was afraid that he would burst out laughing!
Even so, he still felt uncomfortable holding it in, and his shoulders twitched.
Damn it!
He hadn’t meant to fool these two along with the rest! Really!
Fu Yushi and Nawu’s delicate bodies trembled from his sudden attack, and their faces turned red. They quickly retracted their heads, sat upright, and then quietly bent his fingers behind them.
Wang Yan didn’t intend to do anything, so he casually took his hands back and then tightly pinched the legs of his chair, continuing to stifle his laughter.
Other than getting his fingers pinched, nothing else happened.
Fu Yushi and Nawu were miraculously not angry. One of them turned on her phone, while the other picked up her wine glass, trying to cover it up.
That was because Wang Yan had a godly skill that even he couldn’t remember.
[Inebriated Immortal: Drunken Fist]
[permanent skill]
[description: Snakeskin movement, groping left and right]
[your actions of hugging girls on your left and right at a place of drinking will not arouse the girls’ disgust]
He didn’t have to say anything and could just do it.
Unfortunately, Wang Yan didn’t think about that and had literally just done it without even being able to enjoy it.
The good thing was that everyone else was stunned. No one had noticed that little gesture.
Even the clever little princess was stunned, not to mention Xiao Zhe and Shen Man.
The moment Wang Yan started saying lofty things, the two of them couldn’t help but be in awe.
Xiao Zhe was just starting out, so he wasn’t that stunned. But Shen Man was someone who had become successful a good seven years ago.
After that, just like what Wang Yan described, she looked up and saw that she had reached the limits of livestreaming. She did not know where to go at all, and she had lost her fighting spirit.
The current Shen Man was no longer that same top ranking livestreamer.
She only started actively livestreaming again because it was nearly November and the platform was going to rank them soon.
Otherwise, she would just work a few days and rest the rest of the week.
There was no particular reason for her to do this. It was exactly as what Wang Yan said – she felt like she didn’t have any other road ahead of her and she was very tired of doing this already.
So now, Shen Man’s eyes were filled with a light that had never been there before. She stared at Wang Yan eagerly.
Since she was a girl, she went all out and asked, “Master Wang, you just said that these two ladies are the first batch of actors signed with Wangting Entertainment. Are you going to start a film project for them next?”
Wang Yan did not intend to reply too directly, but Nawu couldn’t resist showing off.
She immediately puffed her chest out and said proudly, “That’s right! We’ll be on the silver screen! Shishi will be the female lead!”
The entire venue fell silent again.
Everyone had different reasons for being surprised, but the degree of surprise was about the same.
Liu Kun and Chen Handong thought, my goodness, Mr. Wang is always so efficient in doing things! Wangting Entertainment is set for life!
Li Yixu thought, shit! You were really planning something huge! You even have the female lead cast and you told me everything wasn’t confirmed?!
Xiao Zhe thought, shit, this guy’s first project is a movie, while I’m still stuck in this lousy company begging my viewers to subscribe and donate…
Shen man thought, Mr. Wang! When would you be free to audition me? I can do anything and I’m not picky! I don’t mind just being a supporting role!
Fu Yushi gritted her teeth and glared at Nawu, silently threatening her in her mind.
Big Bear, you’re dead tonight!
Nawu was so scared that she shrank back, but she was still indignant. She raised her eyebrows and made a face at the little princess.
Fu Yushi was angry. A strange scene from a strange dream suddenly appeared in her mind.
She thought to herself, just you wait! I’m going to wash that Wang Yan clean and tie him to your bed!
Wait a minute.
That…that sounded wrong!
