Chapter 69

  Art Song Company Headquarters, 11th floor.

  Bei Fuming looked down, and the city that had just snowed was gloomy and oppressive. In mid-air, thick and dirty white fog slowly moved through the air, piercing through the suffocating smoke and dust. Downstairs, reporters with long guns and short cannons were fully armed, staring tightly at everyone entering and exiting the building. Bei Fuming believed that if it weren't for the diligent security guards, these reporters would have already rushed upstairs, occupying every corner of Art Song Company, pulling Luo Fei out from under the protection of the staff, and driving him mad with flashlights and countless sharp questions like a string of firecrackers.

  Last night at 8 o'clock, the well-known Weibo account "Ba Xiao Pu" broke the news that a certain famous idol's father is the leader of a local underworld organization, and he himself was once detained for fighting when he was young. Ba Xiao Pu is an old-fashioned breaking news Weibo in the circle, and the content it breaks has both true and false information. It was even rumored to be a water army account of a certain company, so it didn't cause much commotion. Unexpectedly, this time it suddenly caused a huge stir, with over 800,000 retweets within four hours. A certain forum's gossip community even opened a special post to discuss who the idol mentioned in the Weibo is. Netizens collectively guessed and excluded many impossible options, finally focusing on Luo Fei. At one point, the comments section of Luo Fei's latest Weibo was flooded with countless messages asking if he was the person mentioned in the Weibo, while the phones of relevant staff members of his company were blown up by entertainment reporters to the point of being out of battery and turned off.

  The public relations team of the entertainment company edited and released a statement in a timely manner, and the person in charge of the official Weibo also wrote a long Weibo to clarify. However, at critical moments, they were all intercepted by Bai Fu's name. The outside world was just speculating, without any substantial evidence. If their side rushed to refute the rumors, it would only make them appear guilty.

  Besides... what they said wasn't wrong anyway.

  Luo Fei's father was indeed the local underworld boss.

  Previously, he had successfully eliminated the negative impact of a fight incident and subsequent excellent promotions and operations, allowing Bai Fuming to rise all the way to become the artist director. Now, Qin Da is a hands-off boss, and Bai Fuming has extremely high speaking power in the management team. However, he deeply knows that he is an outstanding producer and knows how to make a program the best, but when it comes to managing artists, he has very little experience. His current position is inseparable from Li Jin's efforts. Years of experience made him foresee that this incident was not trivial, so he trusted and needed Li Jin's judgment, but unfortunately, at the critical moment, Li Jin's phone couldn't be reached!

  At 3:40, "Ba Xiao Pu" posted a long Weibo, stating that since the public had already guessed who he was referring to, there was no need for him to continue hiding. The Weibo listed how Luo Fei's father became rich through improper means and became the leader of a local underworld organization, and how Luo Fei was not diligent in his youth, leading to fights and detention. Suddenly, public opinion was in an uproar, and Luo Fei's Weibo was instantly flooded with questioning voices. The official WeChat account was also instantly overwhelmed. At 4:43, Luo Fei's fan site was hacked again. This time, the hacker directly replaced the homepage of Luo Fei's website with a black background, with eight large red characters that looked like bloodstains, reading "Underworld, get out of the entertainment circle".

  This morning at 6 o'clock, the topic related to this matter occupied the first place in the hot search list, and the entertainment section of major portal websites also put it on the headlines. Bai Fu ordered that Luo Fei's official Weibo and WeChat would no longer publish any new content from today, and required the public relations department to re-draft a PR statement according to the situation and send it to major media outlets as soon as possible. At the same time, contact technical personnel to restore Luo Fei's fan website as soon as possible. However, all these are far from enough compared to the surging momentum of everything.

  It's now 9:10, and all the deputy general managers and above of Art Song Company related to this incident are seated in the conference room. Everyone rushed to the company from home as soon as they received the news, and should have been sitting here half an hour ago. However, downstairs, entertainment reporters from various media outlets flooded in, even hiding in the emergency escape room with cameras and wide-angle lenses, just to interview Art Song Company employees and get first-hand information. Most of the entertainment reporters who rushed out to cover breaking news are tall and imposing, making it difficult to deal with them one-on-one, let alone a large group surging forward. During the executive's desperate attempt to break through, some lost their shoes, others had their mouths poked by microphones, and the head of the public relations department was even dragged away with half his suit torn off, ultimately having to attend the meeting wearing only a dress shirt.

  This is just the beginning.

  Bei Fengming turned his head and looked at the conference room in front of him with no empty seats.

  For more than half a month, I'm afraid there will be days like this fighting with entertainment reporters.

  He pursed his lips and quietly walked back to his seat, pulled out the chair and sat down.

  On the right side, the position that should have belonged to Li Jin was still empty. Bei Fuming knew that Li Jin was a person who focused on his work so much, and now, with such a big thing happening, he still hadn't shown up. The only explanation was that something had happened to him.

  But Bei Fongming didn't have time to think about what was wrong with Li Jin now, what's important is ——

  "I believe everyone is aware of what happened yesterday, so I won't say more. I've called you all here to discuss how to handle this situation." Qin Yige rarely attended company meetings, which were usually presided over by Bei Fengming. "Luo Fei is a trump card that Star Voice has cultivated through competition and will be heavily promoted by the company for a long time to come. It can be said that Luo Fei's current image indirectly represents Star Voice and also represents the company's image. Therefore, this matter not only concerns his personal affairs but also affects the rise and fall of the company."

  After finishing speaking, Bei Fuming closed his mouth and silently swept a glance at the crowd seated in the room.

  "My suggestion is to make good use of this matter." After about half a minute of silence, a slightly hoarse voice said, "Ruo Fei's fan base is generally younger, and the majority are young girls. This age group loves fantasy, and Ruo Fei's identity as a gangster young master can satisfy their fantasies. We can follow up on this story and make it more mysterious and intriguing to attract more young fans. This approach has precedents, when Huayue Entertainment's artist Chen Ke debuted with the image of a gangster young master, quickly gaining a batch of young fans. At the same time, we can turn the tables and reverse the negative impact of this incident."

  The speaker was the deputy manager of the marketing department, who is currently mainly responsible for artist endorsement work and is allowed to attend the meeting. After Li Yiheng removed a group of people in charge of the original marketing department, the new leaders were all precarious, so when they had the opportunity to speak, this deputy manager hurriedly performed and took this proposal as a treasure, solemnly saying it out loud.

  "Huh, Manager Qin thinks PR is a game of mahjong? Still want to play tricks? It's really like being in a different profession. His voice had just fallen when someone immediately retorted with a cold laugh. The speaker was Dai Xu, the deputy manager of the PR department, who had always been at odds with the marketing department. As soon as he spoke up, his voice wasn't loud, but it was full of sarcasm and ridicule. "Chen Ke is a star from Treasure Island, our laws don't apply to them, so Chen Ke can play the underworld card at will, but does Rong Fei dare? He's a local born and bred, playing this card... he'll be investigated!"

  Dai Xu finished speaking and exchanged a glance with the public relations manager. That smile was no longer contemptuous, but something more complex.

  "Well... what's your brilliant idea?" The deputy manager's face turned red with rage.

  Dai Xu sneered and smiled: "It's very simple, as long as..."

  "Kick out Luo Fei." Suddenly, a sharp voice cut in, "The company isn't just about Luo Fei, even if he was the main rookie before. Now it's not too late to start promoting other new artists. Moreover, the lifespan of an idol is short-lived anyway. If we rely on the momentum of the competition to promote Luo Fei and he doesn't have enough stamina, all our efforts will be for nothing. By then, it'll be too late to regret. So why not take a heroic step now, before the final winner is announced, and have Luo Fei withdraw from the competition voluntarily? This way, we can eliminate the negative impact of the scandal on the competition once and for all, which would be beneficial for Luo Fei, the other contestants, and the competition itself."

  As soon as this was said, a murmur of private conversations immediately erupted around the conference table.

  Bei Fuming gazed at Huang Wei coldly, who was speaking. Currently, there were only two matches left in the Star Voice competition: the semifinals and the finals. All three artists led by Li Jin had made it to the semifinals, while the other semifinalist was managed by Huang Wei. Although Huang Wei had spent a considerable amount of time under Qin Yige, she was later surpassed by Li Jin, who took over as the top agent. After Bei Fuming's promotion, the position of artist manager became vacant, and everyone knew that this position was reserved for Li Jin, waiting for her to gain enough experience to take it smoothly. However, she had other plans in mind.

  The contestant under Huang Wei's hand was named Zheng Qi, who was the most popular candidate for the championship after Luo Fei. Huang Wei had always been cultivating him with care, hoping that he would eventually win the Star Voice Grand Champion. For this reason, there were several times when she even wanted to rob Luo Fei of his endorsement. At work, Huang Wei and Li Jin had many conflicts, and she was very dismissive of Li Jin as a nominal leader, often giving him trouble in public and private. Moreover, at this moment, taking advantage of Li Jin's absence, she boldly proposed the suggestion of taking away Luo Fei, and this simple and quick method to solve the urgent problem actually got everyone's tacit consent.

  "No way, Luofei absolutely cannot be forced to retire!"

  Suddenly, the door of the conference room was pushed open and a figure with a chill walked in quickly.