19: Deep into the cemetery

Down the mountain, the Director, seeing the two walk out of the woods, leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh, raising a hand to touch his forehead and finding a thin layer of cold sweat.

After a couple of seconds, he looked at Xie Yunxuan and Pan Pengpeng's live streams.

Their progress was normal, with 26,000 viewers.

Then, looking at the data for Chen Fang's live stream, the Director's eyes widened slightly.

"My goodness?! 72,000!"

That poisonous snake directly doubled the number of viewers.

The Director let out a long sigh, a slight smile playing on his lips; today's numbers were secure.

He fixed his gaze on the tall figure on the screen and couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

He had no opinion of Chen Fang; he was just a collaborator. Having been in the entertainment industry for a long time, he already knew that scandals were a mix of truth and falsehood, impossible to discern. Those who hadn't been exposed weren't necessarily clean.

He just wanted to sigh, Chen Fang was very suitable to be a variety show personality, why did he have to go down the path of music?

He had heard Chen Fang's songs. This young man had released one album to date, "Heartbeat Rhythm," and two singles, "Happy Train" and "Summer Before." They were all lighthearted, cheerful love songs or motivational songs. His vocal timbre didn't stand out, his breath control was mediocre, and even his emotional expression was full of performance traces.

"Sigh, why be a singer? Variety shows are what suit him!"

Familiar footsteps sounded nearby, and the Director turned his head to see it was the producer, Zhuang Ning.

Zhuang Ning placed a stack of documents on the table, sat down, and said, "Brother Liu, the sports brand Morning Sunshine contacted the production team, saying they want to increase their advertising investment in our group by 2 million."

The Director's eyes lit up. "Great!"

This brand ranked among the top three in the country and had considerable recognition throughout Asia. Normally, it only cooperated with top-tier, popular variety shows. The reason it established a brand partnership with "the adventures" was because it hadn't found a very suitable spokesperson yet, so it was casting a wide net with advertising.

They invested 7 million in their group for the first season, and an additional 2 million would bring it to 9 million.

This was the budget for upper-middle-tier variety shows. The exclusive title sponsorship they gave to the travel variety show "Youth Travel Bureau" reached 90 million. Sigh, he wondered when he would be able to secure cooperation fees of that level.

The Director was both happy and sighing, but Zhuang Ning opposite him looked somewhat troubled.

The Director asked, "What's wrong?"

Zhuang Ning hesitated, "They think our show involves mountain climbing and physical challenges, which is very suitable for advertising, and they also think Chen Fang's temperament is quite fitting. They want to provide clothing and equipment and ask Chen Fang to display them more, but due to the negative publicity, they don't want direct advertising mentions. As for compensation, we'll give him a larger share of the advertising revenue."

The Director nodded, looking at Chen Fang on the screen.

This guy had certainly brought a lot of viewership to the production team. If the popularity continued to rise, they could even attract a second round of investment. Besides the popularity, thanks to him, the Silver Ring Snake incident was averted.

He was never stingy. In this line of work, one had to learn to share the pie; those who ate alone wouldn't go far. And who knew which small figure might become a big shot in the future?

The Director nodded in agreement, "No problem, how much are you planning to give?"

"He's participating this time in his personal capacity, so he doesn't have to split the money with his company. Plus, with the scandal, his appearance fee... is very low, currently 2 million. We'll increase his share of the advertising investment by 2%, giving him an additional 800,000. How does that sound?"

"That's fine. It'll motivate him. Besides, tonight was thanks to him; otherwise, who knows how much money we'd have to spend on public relations."

"Alright, then you go ahead and be busy, I'll go handle this."

"Okay." The Director stood up and instructed his Assistant Director, "Quickly edit the footage of the poisonous snake's appearance and push it hard. Today is May 2nd, and before May 5th, our viewership data must enter the top fifteen for this period. Hurry up!"

"Don't worry, we've already bought a trending topic, and many netizens are also helping to spread it."

"Mmm."

...

As the Assistant Director said, the top spot on the entertainment trending topics list at that moment was the one they had bought—""the adventures" Live Stream Features a Poisonous Snake!"

Sixth place: ""the adventures" Stars Enter a Graveyard!"

It was just past nine o'clock in the evening, and people on holiday were lying on their sofas, scrolling on their phones. Seeing this trending topic, or being pushed a video, they became curious and flocked to the live stream.

In a residential area in Guangzhou.

A twelve-year-old girl stood at her bedroom door, secretly glancing at the living room. Seeing that her parents weren't there, she breathed a sigh of relief, opened her phone, and searched for "Chen Fang" on a short video platform.

The phone screen changed, and one by one, edited videos from "the adventures" popped up.

She clicked on a video, swinging her legs, staring at the screen with an adoring smile.

She had only watched for a short while when a familiar dragon's roar suddenly came from behind her—

"Zhang Zihan! I knew you were secretly opening the door! You're watching Chen Fang again! Turn it off immediately! If you watch him again, I'm confiscating your phone!"

Zhang Zihan turned back aggrievedly, looking at her furious mother, Wang Ping, "I didn't spend any money on him, I just watched for a bit."

Wang Ping took a deep breath and sat by the window, "I don't object to you having an idol, but can you like a normal celebrity? Isn't it better to take those older brothers and sisters from Capital Film Academy as role models?"

Zhang Zihan innocently pointed at her phone, "He is! He graduated from Capital Film Academy with a major in Composition and Composition Technology Theory."

"Are you trying to exploit a bug with me?"

Zhang Zihan stomped her foot, so wronged she wanted to cry, "He's not a bad person! When I was bullied by classmates before, I messaged him to confide, and he even replied to me, encouraging me to live hard, that the future is beautiful."

Wang Ping scoffed, "That's all marketing tactics, it's his studio replying!"

Zhang Zihan shoved her phone screen in front of her mother, "I'm not spending money. And he saves people! Look, he even saved the cameraman! You're being unreasonable!"

...

Wang Ping was so angry she was speechless. Saving people, that kind of thing, was clearly a script.

She stood up and walked to the door, gripping the doorknob, suppressing her anger, "Alright, you just wait for me. I'm going to watch that variety show now, and later I'll come back and have a good talk with you!"

Wang Ping slammed the door shut with a bang, put her hands on her hips, and took a deep breath.

Saying she was unreasonable? Heh heh, she was going to go see what kind of outstanding charm this young idol had that made children adore him!

Wang Ping picked up her tablet, plopped down on the sofa, and opened the live stream.

At the same time, marketing accounts and media outlets, drawn by the popularity of "the adventures," also poured into the live stream.

The live stream chat was buzzing.

However, the two people on screen and the cameraman behind the lens felt a chill in their surroundings.

Under the night sky.

In the graveyard behind Qingtan Village, a thin layer of mist hung in the air.

The four of them climbed up the small path.

On both sides were rows of neatly arranged gravestones, casting long shadows in the moonlight. They looked like motionless human figures.

The surroundings were very quiet. Chen Fang could clearly hear Zhao Jin's heavy breathing, unsure if she was tired from climbing or scared.

A gust of wind blew, making a rustling sound. Suddenly, Chen Fang felt something gently tugging him from behind. He looked back and saw it was Zhao Jin gripping his backpack.

"I... I'm sorry, I'm just... I'm really a little scared." Zhao Jin's teeth chattered as she tightly clutched the fabric on the side of his backpack.

Chen Fang frowned slightly, "How about we chat?"

"Brother Chen, do you often go to graveyards?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, Zhao Jin awkwardly pursed her lips. She was truly a bit unnerved, her mind had gone blank.

Chen Fang shook his head, "Not often. Since you're so scared, how about I sing you a song?"

Zhao Jin's eyes lit up, "Oh, yes!"

Chen Fang's songs were all lighthearted and cheerful in style. Listening to his songs would make it easy to escape the gloomy atmosphere and return to real life, right?

"[Singing his songs in a graveyard? Is that appropriate?]"

"[Is he trying to pursue Little Zhao? And singing for her.]"

"[Oh no, I feel like Little Zhao might actually fall for him. Have you heard of the suspension bridge effect? It's when someone is nervous in a dangerous environment, and then they encounter someone of the opposite sex, they can easily mistake that feeling for infatuation.]"

"[My goodness, wasn't corpse driving also proposed by Chen Fang?]"

"[When I'm really scared, if a handsome guy sings me a lighthearted and cheerful song to comfort me and make me happy, who could resist that?]"

"[Little Zhao, stay sober!]"