Traffic Star Development Program

Chapter 44 We Also Need a Dark Horse

Zeng Hao put down his chopsticks without moving or saying a word.

She moved her hand down his shoulder a little, her voice even lower, as if she were talking about something trivial, "I just came to see you, don't overthink it."

The curtains were closed.

Forty minutes later, Zeng Hao opened the curtains in the conference room a crack again. It was still bright outside. It was 4:30 pm in Qianhu City, and the sunlight slanted in, casting a pale yellow light on the floor.

Zhang Tianai sat across from me fixing her hair, brushing her bangs back with her hand, glancing down at her phone, "I have a schedule at six, I have to go."

"Hmm," Zeng Hao said, unscrewing the cap of the mineral water bottle and taking a sip.

Zhang Tianai stood up, put on her coat, picked up her bag, paused at the door, turned back to look at him, and said, "That project, you mean this year?"

"This year," Zeng Hao said.

She nodded, opened the door, and left.

As Zeng Hao listened to her footsteps fading into the distance in the corridor, he put the mineral water bottle on the table, stacked the two empty lunch boxes, pushed them to the corner of the table, turned on his computer, found the script file for "Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms," and started reading from the first scene.

Xu Wen arrived at the company at 8:50 in the morning.

When she entered, Sister Liu was already there. The two met at the front desk. Sister Liu was carrying a thermos. Xu Wen put her bag on her workstation, turned on her computer, and the first thing she did was open her emails.

The program team's reply was the second one in my inbox, sent at 11:47 PM last night.

Xu Wen opened the email and read it from beginning to end. He paused when he got to the third paragraph, scrolled back a line, read it again, then pushed his chair back, stood up, and walked towards Zeng Hao's office.

Zeng Hao is already here.

He sat behind his desk, on which sat a cup of hot tea and next to it the sticky note from yesterday, which listed the problems he had found while reviewing the script. There were also a few new lines of writing next to it, which he had added the night before.

Xu Wen pushed the door open. "President Zeng, the production team replied last night. Do you want to see it now?"

"Give it to me," Zeng Hao said without looking up, holding a pen in his hand and making a line on the sticky note.

Xu Wen returned to his workstation, forwarded the email, then sat down again, staring at the third paragraph of the email, waiting for Zeng Hao's response.

About three minutes later, Zeng Hao's office door opened.

He came out, phone in hand, and stood next to Xu Wen's workstation. "Did you see the third paragraph?"

"I saw it," Xu Wen said. "They said they hope the contestants will cooperate with the program's sponsors during the recording period, including but not limited to brand exposure and co-branded promotions during breaks in recording. The specific brands are yet to be determined, and they require a supplementary agreement to be signed."

"Yes," Zeng Hao said, "Do you understand what this supplementary agreement means?"

Xu Wen thought for a moment, "It means that the show has sponsors, and the singers have to help promote the sponsors during the show. This should be an industry practice."

"Industry practice," Zeng Hao repeated the three words, his tone flat. "Industry practice is to cooperate with the program's sponsors during the program, but their wording is 'including but not limited to.' These four words mean that they reserve the right to expand the scope. Today it's about the breaks in recording, tomorrow it can be extended to the promotional period after recording ends, and the day after tomorrow it can be that the singer's personal social media account also has to include the sponsor's materials. Since you signed this supplementary agreement, we have no grounds to object."

Xu Wen went over those words in his mind. "Then we won't sign?"

"It's not that we won't sign," Zeng Hao said. "It's that we'll renegotiate and change 'including but not limited to' to a specific list of areas, clearly stating what we'll be involved in during the recording, how many times we'll be involved, and the format of each session, leaving no room for ambiguity."

Xu Wen noted this down, "I'll reply to the production team saying we need to confirm the contents of the supplementary agreement?"

"No need to say that," Zeng Hao said. "Just say that Sunshine Entertainment attaches great importance to the program team's invitation, and Xu Jiaying's schedule has been fully coordinated. Regarding the supplementary agreement, our legal department needs to go through the process and expects to provide specific opinions within three working days. Please understand."

Xu Wen wrote down these words, looked up at him, and said, "We don't have legal counsel."

"The production team doesn't know," Zeng Hao said. "Three working days is the time we need to discuss the terms of the supplementary agreement. Print out the supplementary agreement this afternoon, listing out the terms we can and cannot accept. I will review it tomorrow morning and reply to the production team the day after tomorrow."

"Okay," Xu Wen said, "have they replied about the order of appearance?"

"They replied," Zeng Hao said. "They said the order of appearance takes into account the singer's status and popularity, and they will notify us two weeks before recording. This is a standard evasive answer, but there is one sentence that is useful."

Xu Wen scrolled down the email. "Which sentence?"

"In the second to last paragraph," Zeng Hao said, "they said they were looking forward to Xu Jiaying's 'surprise performance.' This word wasn't used casually. The production team internally positioned her as a dark horse. Where would a dark horse be placed for the best effect? ​​In the first three episodes, because the first three episodes are the period when topics ferment. A dark horse emerging in the first three episodes can bring the most popularity to the show, so they won't put her at the end."

After listening to this, Xu Wen asked, "So we don't need to manipulate the order of appearance?"

"No need," Zeng Hao said. "The production team will put her ahead of the competition. What we need to do is ensure that her song selection in the first episode is strong enough. The production team will arrange the rest because the interests of the production team and us are aligned in this matter. They also need a dark horse."

Xu Wen wrote down this conclusion in his notebook, closed it, and said, "When should we tell Xu Jiaying?"

"Three weeks after filming wrapped on 'Diamond Lover'," Zeng Hao said.

He turned and went back to his office, closing the door behind him.

Xu Wen reopened the email and began drafting a reply.

Xue Zhijian arrived at the company at 2 PM.

Before he arrived, Xu Wen sent him a message saying there was a meeting, without mentioning the content, only saying that President Zeng wanted to talk about "Ugly Monster". He thought it was about confirming the release, but when he entered the conference room, he saw a printed table on the table with three columns of data, the heading of which read "Comparison of Copyright Procurement Quotations of Mainstream Music Platforms in Q4".

He sat down in the chair, picked up the form, glanced at it, and then put it down. "Mr. Zeng, what do you want to discuss here?"

Zeng Hao sat opposite him, flipped the form to the second page, and pushed it towards him, saying, "Take a look at the distribution plan."

Xue Zhijian picked up the second page.

This page presents the platform's initial release plans, divided into three options: Option A is an exclusive seven-day premiere on Tencent Music, followed by a full release on all platforms after the exclusivity period; Option B is an exclusive seven-day premiere on NetEase Cloud Music, with the same conditions; Option C is a simultaneous release on all platforms, with no exclusivity period.

He looked at all three options. "Which one do you plan to choose?"

"B," Zeng Hao said.

Xue Zhijian put down the form. "NetEase Cloud Music? Tencent Music has a larger user base, right? Several people I've worked with before all chose QQ."