This celebrity became even more popular after being exposed of having multiple girlfriends
Chapter 189: New Program Connection

Chapter 189: Chapter 189: New Program Connection

Wu Mu wasn’t really targeting the points, at least not mainly for the points.

He planned to release the original movie soundtrack as an album after filming the series, and then utilize the Performance Card on the album. That might help boost the popularity of the series and raise its selling price later on.

Plus, as a singer, it wasn’t good form not to release any albums. He might as well take this opportunity to launch one.

As for why not use the Performance Card directly on the series itself, Wu Mu didn’t fully finance the film. Even now, his investment would only amount to a bit more than one-third of the shares. Using the Performance Card on such a project would be like spending his own resources to make money for others.

Wu Mu considered this as one of his main demands. When Yang Rongfa heard it, he breathed a sigh of relief—so it was just that.

The income from an original soundtrack album was trivial in his eyes.

It wasn’t even worth mentioning.

In the current entertainment circle, if an original soundtrack album could sell tens of thousands, it would already be considered top-tier. Normally, it would be just a nice bonus of a few million.

Yang Rongfa never expected Wu Mu to plan on exchanging the album for a Performance Card.

Aside from these two conditions from Wu Mu, there were other details. Although Yang Rongfa hadn’t decided whether to accept Wu Mu’s investment, he had made sure to clarify everything.

For example, if Wu Mu were to play the second male lead, his payment would be a lump sum of ten million.

That was a lot less than Zhou Yu’s fee, mainly because Yang Rongfa felt Wu Mu’s commercial value couldn’t match Zhou Yu’s.

However, he agreed that the ten million could be offset by Wu Mu’s investment shares.

The same applied to the price for Wu Mu to compose and perform music, with two solutions offered. One was to stick to the initial agreement of two million per song for composing and singing, and the other was to reduce it to one and a half million but still offset it against investment shares.

After all the details were discussed and dinner was shared, Yang Rongfa and Wang Ren left.

Wu Mu couldn’t be certain if they would accept his investment, but it didn’t matter. If they didn’t, he could just wait for future projects. After all, it was purely a matter of mutual willingness, and he wasn’t forcing anyone.

...

Given a choice, Yang Rongfa naturally didn’t want to accept Wu Mu’s investment.

He saw the cost-effectiveness of Wu Mu’s investment as too low.

Therefore, after leaving, he immediately contacted other potential investors to see if he could secure alternative investments.

Indeed, the first place he reached out to was Zhou Yu’s company, and he didn’t bother to hide his intentions, openly disclosing Wu Mu’s contact and the intention to replace Zhou Yu.

"Wu Mu wants to invest in this film and is vying for the role of Wang Chuan?" Zhou Yu’s agent was stunned upon hearing the news.

Zhou Yu, however, looked disdainful, "With his level of acting, can he even perform the role? When he acts alongside Cui Fu, won’t he get overshadowed? Isn’t he afraid of embarrassing himself?"

On this point, his agent quite agreed. Wu Mu’s acting skills truly couldn’t compare with veterans like Cui Fu, not to mention Sun Yueqing.

In an earlier series where Wu Mu collaborated with Sun Yueqing, it was clear that Wu Mu’s performance was completely overshadowed by Sun Yueqing.

Back then, he was heavily criticized for his acting being out of character, as a blatant weak point that his fans had to excuse with claims like "My brother is working so hard" to save face.

"How dare Wu Mu aspire to roles in such series? This play is far more challenging than anything he’s done before," his agent couldn’t understand.

If it were a project unrelated to them, he would have been delighted to watch Wu Mu embarrass himself and then compensate their Zhou Yu.

But their company was very optimistic about this project; they went after it to solidify Zhou Yu’s reputation as an actor. So as soon as the news leaked from Wang Ren’s side, they were proactive in approaching it and were even willing to leverage Penguin’s resources.

But if they wanted this project, judging by Yang Rongfa’s attitude, it was apparent that their company had to invest or help him find investors.

And that was clearly not very worthwhile since the project didn’t seem to promise much profit. It didn’t seem worth the money to invest in filming.

"Sigh, what a mess this has turned into," the agent felt troubled. Although the final decision wasn’t up to him and would require the company’s leadership to decide, he’d still need to present his opinion and preference when reporting.

Ultimately, he blamed that stupid investor—if he hadn’t been arrested because of that video, none of this would be happening.

They had gleefully watched the drama unfold when Li Hu had trouble with Wu Mu, but now, in an unexpected turn, the investor was done for, and the project they were keen on was going up in smoke. It truly felt as if the misfortune that man talked about had befallen them instead.

The agent was indecisive, but Zhou Yu was nonchalant, "If he wants to act, let him. Let’s see how he gets slammed later. And for the investment, let him lose it."

...

While Yang Rongfa was unabashedly seeking investors, using Wu Mu to increase his bargaining power.

The production team of the iQiyi platform’s "Idol Daily" was also discussing which celebrity to invite for the next episode.

"Idol Daily" is an online variety show independently produced by the iQiyi platform.

The content of the show was self-evident from the name—it documented the daily lives of celebrities. The show was a live broadcast format, following the life of a celebrity for twenty-four hours.

Initially, iQiyi didn’t put much emphasis on this program when it was approved; it was only seen as a filler show to sweeten their platform’s lineup and wasn’t expected to achieve significant success.

However, the show unexpectedly became a hit after airing. The instant live broadcast, lacking any scripts, seemed to hit a note with the audience. Many were particularly interested in tuning in to see how celebrities lived their daily lives.

Especially celebrities with interest and fame would bring the heat to the show, rivaling even frontline web variety shows.

Thus, selecting which celebrity to invite had a major impact on the show’s popularity.

"How about inviting Lu Yao? Everyone should be quite curious about her daily life," one of the editors, Pan Mingxuan, suggested.

Lu Yao?

This was a good choice. While Lu Yao wasn’t the most popular among the new generation, her unique personality made her one of the favorites.

Inviting her to the show was bound to generate significant heat.

But...

Director Yang Chen shook his head, "Lu Yao doesn’t have any slots available recently. ’The Good Life’ has invited her to be a guest."

"How about Zhao Xue? She hasn’t been on any shows lately, right?"

"She’s off filming a movie."

In the conference room, as the editors each proposed names, those mentioned were either unavailable or not quite the right fit.

It wasn’t until after some thought that the producer threw out a name, "We could try inviting Wu Mu; he should be available recently."