Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

Ni Bingyan rarely found a job she enjoyed this much.

On the way home after recording the show, she couldn’t resist gleefully sharing some juicy poet gossip with Wei Shuojie.

”So, Sister Wei, Sister Li, have you guys heard of Chen Ziang? He’s from my hometown, you know! And when it comes to self-promotion, he’s the master. I’m not impressed by anyone else, haha! Have you heard the story about him buying a qin?”

The show’s recording had been a blast. When it officially aired on Chu Liu, it was sure to set the internet abuzz. Wei Shuojie was thrilled, her mind already racing with promotional ideas.

Hearing Ni Bingyan’s question, she replied absently, ”Oh? What’s the story?”

Ni Bingyan slapped her thigh and launched into the tale. ”So, Chen Ziang had failed the imperial exams twice and was getting desperate! One time, he went to the capital for the exams and saw an old man selling a qin. He spent a fortune on it, then told the crowd of onlookers, ’I’m an absolutely amazing qin player! I’m going to perform in public in a few days, and you all have to be there! You’ll be kicking yourselves if you miss it!’”

That sounded quite interesting. Wei Shuojie looked up from her thoughts, and even Duanmu Li, who had been driving silently, couldn’t help but glance at the rearview mirror.

Seeing she had caught their interest, Ni Bingyan felt encouraged and the words began to pour out of her.

”When the day he set for the performance arrived, the area around his place was a sea of people—it nearly caused a stampede! People were climbing trees and scrambling onto rooftops. Once everyone had finally secured a spot, Chen Ziang appeared.

”He walked onto the stage, holding the qin he’d spent a fortune on. Then, with a loud CRACK, he smashed it to pieces!

”The crowd was in an uproar! ’Dude! Are you made of money? You said you were going to play, so why’d you smash it?’

”Then he grinned and gestured for everyone to quiet down. ’Hey, my friends, just listen to me for a sec. What’s so great about listening to a qin? It’s just decadent noise! I’ve got something better for you to *see*. Interested?’”

Ni Bingyan’s deliberate imitation of Chen Ziang, complete with a thick Sichuan accent, made the other two burst out laughing.

”And then?”

”Then he took out some booklets he’d prepared earlier and handed them out. ’Come on, come on, take a look at my poems and essays! I’m a real talent, aren’t I? Isn’t this way more exciting than listening to some tune?’ And not long after that, he was trending, and he passed the exam that year.”

”He certainly knew what he was doing.”

Duanmu Li remarked, then went back to focusing on the road.

Wei Shuojie, however, chimed in. ”So the principles of self-promotion have been the same from ancient times to today. You need a gimmick to draw a crowd, a twist to get people emotionally invested, and real substance to keep them talking for a long time. For his story to be told for over a thousand years... that’s truly impressive!”

Her words trailed off, and only then did she remember she hadn’t told Ni Bingyan about her own trending topics. ”By the way, you’ve been trending several times these past few days. You didn’t see?”

’There really was some kind of voodoo in the entertainment circle. Some people could try to generate all the hype they wanted, but their fans wouldn’t buy it. Even if they attracted attention, it would just be a torrent of insults. Then there were people like Ni Bingyan, who was practically being spoon-fed by fate itself.’ Outsiders might think she was manufacturing hype and just not admitting it, but as her agent, Wei Shuojie knew she’d never do something like that.

Ni Bingyan, long accustomed to this, was perfectly calm when she heard the news.

”What is it this time? The show doesn’t premiere until Chu Liu, right? There shouldn’t be any buzz about it online yet.”

Wei Shuojie thought to herself, ’Sure enough. This sweet, clueless girl has no idea and couldn’t care less about this stuff.’

”Yesterday, the trending topic was #NiBingyanDating. Today, it’s #NiBingyanSecretlyMarried.”

”What?”

Ni Bingyan, a perpetually single workaholic, was utterly flabbergasted by such a rumor!

”I’m not flirting with anyone, so how could a topic like this start trending? These people can spin a better yarn than a master weaver!”

Ni Bingyan carefully thought back over recent events.

After the Huabiao Awards, she had filmed a commercial and then come to record this show. The only male star she had worked with was a veteran, award-winning actor in his fifties—his son was even older than her.

”What scoundrel is trying to frame me? Zhang Ji’s son is older than I am, and he’s a married man! Aren’t they afraid of getting sued for making up rumors like that?”

”What? Who are you talking about?”

Wei Shuojie was completely floored.

”Zhang Ji! He’s the only man I’ve worked with recently!”

Even Duanmu Li couldn’t help but crack a smile.

”So you wracked your brain and he’s the only person you could think of?”

Wei Shuojie was rendered speechless.

”You watched the New Year’s Gala with Sang Yuan. Today, you invited him to the show’s recording. And not just him, you invited his whole family! What do you expect netizens to think when they see the pictures?”

Ni Bingyan was speechless.

”There were dozens of people in our group at the New Year’s Gala! I was focused on the performance and barely exchanged a few words with him. And today, his family was in the audience while I was on stage recording. We didn’t speak the entire time, and we even came and went separately. How can they force a connection like that? I’m not the one who’s desperate to get married, are my fans desperate on my behalf? This is just absurd!”

Ugh.

’This was the bad part about being a public figure. When rumors were fabricated about you, your friends and family often got caught in the crossfire.’

’If it were family, that would be one thing; they could more or less tolerate it. But when outsiders get dragged into the gossip, they’re bound to feel uncomfortable. If it happens too often, you can’t even stay friends.’

Ni Bingyan felt terrible about it.

”Sigh, I have to go apologize to Aunt Shui tomorrow. This whole mess... President Sang is at the age where he should be thinking about marriage. This is terrible for his reputation; she must be furious. Ugh, I shouldn’t have been so lazy. I just happened to have five tickets, so I gave them all to him. I should have tried to get more and invited some other neighbors too.”

’I was trying to repay a favor, but it backfired and I just ended up causing trouble for them.’

’A family like the Sangs would surely be upset about their only son getting tangled up with me.’

At this thought, Ni Bingyan couldn’t help but sigh. ”I shouldn’t have been so cheap. I should have just bought a proper gift to thank him in person instead of giving him tickets.”

”Thank him? Thank him for what?”

”Didn’t you tell me he was the one who sorted out my cousin’s situation? He helped me out, and I’m supposed to pretend I don’t know? That doesn’t sit right with me. I hate being indebted to people. I just figured they wouldn’t care for any other kind of gift, and that inviting them to a CCTV show would be a nice novelty.”

The conversation had come full circle, landing right back on this topic, and now it was Wei Shuojie’s turn to be embarrassed.

”This is all my fault. I didn’t handle it well. *Sigh*.”

”Speaking of which, I never asked. How did President Sang find out about my cousin and decide to help?”

Sang Yuan isn’t in the entertainment industry, is he? Does he have connections at Huanyue?

Wei Shuojie choked.

’If she explained, she’d have to mention that Sang Yuan was targeting Li Yi. But if she didn’t explain? It would look like she’d gone around gossiping about Bingyan’s cousin’s private affairs after being asked for help.’

’A woman in her twenties mindlessly idolizing a celebrity, losing a ton of money, and nearly getting into real trouble... that was definitely not something that reflected well on a young woman. If she had spread that story around, especially to a young, single man, it would be completely unjustifiable.’

Helpless, Wei Shuojie had no choice but to throw Little Sang under the bus.

”Earlier, when you asked me for a favor, President Sang happened to ask for my help too. I figured the two tasks were similar enough, so I hired some paparazzi to handle them both. But his first attempt didn’t go well and word leaked out. When I hired a different group of paparazzi, the news spread, Huanyue found out, and they approached Little Sang about it...”

’So after Sang Yuan was approached, he must have asked her about it, which is how he learned about my cousin’s problem and took care of it on the side?’

Ni Bingyan was flabbergasted. ”Isn’t he in venture capital? Besides *Demon Suppression Tower*, what else has he invested in? Is he planning a full-scale invasion of the entertainment industry?”

’Investing in the entertainment industry? You’d have better odds cutting raw jadeite in Myanmar!’

’One cut could make you poor, the next could make you rich. One cut could leave you in rags, the next could buy you a mansion. A movie flops, a TV show flops, every investment flops.’

’Does he really think the entertainment industry is paved with gold for anyone to just scoop up?’

Ni Bingyan’s train of thought always strayed from the norm. Wei Shuojie took a deep breath. ”Aren’t you going to ask why he has it in for Li Yi?”

”Huh? So why? The two of them couldn’t be more unrelated!”

Wei Shuojie was at the end of her rope.

’For most men, winning over their future mother-in-law is the hardest part of getting married. Sang Yuan would probably rather deal with a hundred mothers-in-law than someone this dense.’

’But Ni Bingyan didn’t have a mother, so saying that out loud would be cruel.’

Wei Shuojie forcefully suppressed her urge to make a sarcastic comment. She let out a slow breath and said, ”He probably has his reasons that are hard to talk about. Since he isn’t saying, it’s best not to pry.”

Ni Bingyan recalled him saying, ”I have a friend...” and instantly understood.

’He was probably screwed over by Li Yi and is too embarrassed to let anyone know.’

Being a perceptive person, Ni Bingyan knew better than to dig into someone’s privacy.

Still, she couldn’t help but sigh to herself.

’Sang Yuan seems like such a nice guy! I can’t believe he’s such a player behind the scenes.’

’And so petty, too. Tsk, tsk.’

’I wonder what really happened to make him go after her so ruthlessly.’