Chapter 445: Forced to Earn Five Hundred Million

Chapter 445: Forced to Earn Five Hundred Million

Li Ruobing’s call came as no surprise to Wu Chen. He hadn’t checked the internet, but he knew exactly how hard public opinion had blown up.

The only thing he wasn’t sure about was whether Li Maoren had just called her. People could do just about anything when they got worked up.

So right now, Li Ruobing might know about one of the big things Wu Chen had stirred up in Modu these past two days. Or she might know about both.

Which one?

“Hm?” Li Ruobing let out a small questioning sound, and her tone changed at once. “What else did you do?”

That settled it!

She had called because of the news online.

She knew nothing about the Gu family.

Whether she knew or not made no difference to Wu Chen. He simply couldn’t be bothered to explain.

“Nothing. I just finished dinner and I’m heading back,” Wu Chen said with a smile, plainly not intending to go into it.

“Hmph!” Li Ruobing gave a soft snort, but she couldn’t be bothered to press him either.

“I have to say, Producer Wu, you’re really something. Two days in Modu, and you’ve already gone to all this trouble for An Menglan. What, afraid her new album won’t be a hit?” she went on, needling him.

“It’s about making money. I get a fifty percent share, so of course I have to put in some effort,” Wu Chen said, smiling.

“Are you that short of money?” Li Ruobing asked.

“Who ever complains about having too much?” Wu Chen countered.

“Ha! Don’t tell me my dear Mr. Wu is planning to debut?”

“Do you think I would?”

“I don’t.”

“Then why ask? Are you… jealous?”

“That’s right, I’m jealous. What are you going to do, punish me?”

It was just idle chatter and bickering, but for the two of them it was a kind of fun in itself.

Li Ruobing was a deeply proud woman, and an extremely clever one. Having lost her bet with Wu Chen, she wasn’t allowed to get jealous, so she had always refused to admit it whenever she was. That had left her at a disadvantage.

So she’d changed tactics.

“Punish you…” Wu Chen laughed. “Miss me?”

“Of course! We haven’t seen each other in more than two days. I’m practically dying of longing for you, my dear Mr. Wu.” Li Ruobing put on an exaggerated tone. Her words admitted she missed him. Her attitude didn’t.

“I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon, and we’ll go home in the evening. Don’t worry, nothing’s going to get in the way,” Wu Chen said, a smile in his voice.

“…” Li Ruobing was quiet for a moment. “Could you stop being so smart?”

“Can’t help it. I was born this wise,” Wu Chen boasted jokingly.

He had seen straight through her.

The online uproar was only the excuse for her call. The real reason was that Wu Chen had promised to take her home with him at the end of the month.

Tomorrow was already the thirty-first!

She was clearly worried that, having whipped up such a storm while helping An Menglan, he might break his promise and not make it back to Donghai in time.

They chatted idly a little longer.

Once she knew he’d be back tomorrow, Li Ruobing relaxed.

She didn’t say much more about An Menglan either.

As for the online frenzy around An Menglan’s new album, Li Ruobing was really only watching the show. She knew what Wu Chen was capable of. Driving public attention to that pitch didn’t exceed anything she understood about him.

An hour later.

It was past eleven-thirty at night.

Hongtu Building, Dongpu District, Modu. Sixteenth floor, Chenghai Entertainment. The luxury suite.

The bedroom.

The light was dim. Only the lamps on either side of the bed were on.

Wu Chen and Zhuang Xiaodie had already washed up and gone to bed.

Zhuang Xiaodie held a tablet as she leaned against his shoulder. Wu Chen supported the other side of it with one hand, and the two of them read the news together.

The scale of Weibo’s meltdown was… arguably the hottest “public-opinion event” of the past five years.

For the first time ever, every one of the top ten trending searches was about Wu Chen!

—Producer Morning Mist

—An Menglan’s New Album Released

—Genius Superstar Morning Mist

—Who Exactly Is Morning Mist?

—The Final Chapter

—Morning Mist and An Menglan

—An Menglan Earns 600 Million in One Day

…

…

News of An Menglan’s new album, along with every rumor imaginable about Morning Mist, had completely taken over the twenty-four-hour trending list and kept rotating through the hourly rankings.

No one was cursing Wu Chen anymore. The occasional stubborn holdout who still attacked him in some comment section was immediately swarmed and shouted down!

Even the “An Menglan Fan Club,” the largest celebrity fan group on Weibo and once his fiercest attacker, had defected to his side entirely.

He was one of their own now.

Some people had even started shipping him with An Menglan, calling them a match made in heaven and so on and so forth.

With the release of An Menglan’s new album, Wu Chen, under the name Morning Mist, could be said to have… stunned the entire Chinese-language music scene!

Many famous musicians who had earlier written long essays tearing into the “genius superstar” claims had now posted new long essays reviewing the album he’d produced for An Menglan in full. They rated it exceptionally highly and said openly that they wanted to meet him.

Of course, there was no shortage of haters.

Some musicians lavished praise on the album and on his musical talent at great length, then tacked on a few sour remarks at the end.

That Wu Chen was too arrogant, and who knew what would become of him.

Or that he had talent but poor character.

Those people had all but been flamed into silence by netizens! Some simply shut their comment sections down altogether.

Also worth noting were the album’s sales. It was a digital album, released simultaneously on the three major music platforms.

It had gone on sale at eight o’clock sharp that evening. Seven songs, none sold separately. Buyers had to purchase the whole album, priced at thirty yuan.

Three and a half hours had passed.

Total sales across the internet had already passed nine million!

The vast majority of an album’s sales came on the first day. When a superstar released an album, roughly half of total sales generally came in the first few hours.

So at this point, total sales of An Menglan’s new digital album could be projected to reach twenty million!

It was an absolutely staggering figure!

Her previous digital album had sold six million copies online!

At the time, that alone had been astonishing!

Normally, if a superstar singer released a full album and sold two million copies, that was already top tier!

Albums weren’t like singles. Some superstars could sell eight or nine million copies of a single, but singles were cheap. Usually three yuan, four or five at the most.

Full albums were expensive. Twenty or thirty yuan at the least! That sharply cut into fans’ willingness to buy and drove a good number of people to hunt for pirated copies.

Two million in digital album sales was enough to prove a superstar’s popularity and standing!

And the reason An Menglan was called the “Great Demon King” was precisely that she was a female singer capable of setting legendary records!

The six million sales of her last album were the proof!

This time, Menghua Music had originally projected sales of around eight million for the new album. After the audio leak, that projection had been slashed straight to five million.

Yet now, thanks to Wu Chen’s maneuvering, the album had become the talk of the entire Chinese-language internet, and in a mere three and a half hours it had sold more than nine million copies!

Projected total sales: more than twenty million!

Thirty yuan a copy, twenty million copies. Six hundred million yuan!

A number so huge it was almost absurd!

So absurd, in fact, that a topic called “An Menglan Earns 600 Million in One Day” had shown up on the trending list, based on someone’s advance projection.

In truth, it was someone steering the narrative. An Menglan had to split revenue with the three platforms. It wasn’t as though every yuan of album sales went straight into her pocket.

On top of that, fifty percent of her net proceeds had to go to Wu Chen.

The public, of course, knew nothing about that.

Wu Chen ran a rough calculation in his head. From the album’s sales alone, he expected his final share to come to a little over two hundred million yuan.

Then there were the various licensing and copyright fees. Over the following six months… those should bring him another two or three hundred million in revenue shares.

All told, producing this album for An Menglan should earn Wu Chen more than five hundred million yuan!

And fairly easy money at that.

He hadn’t actually expected to make this much.

He’d originally figured on one or two hundred million. If not for the audio leak, he would never have played it this way and blown the whole thing up to this scale!

Wu Chen had, in effect, been “forced” to earn five hundred million!

Time to sleep!

——

A new day.

July 31, 2020, 8:10 a.m.

Ring, ring, ring!

The phone woke both Wu Chen and Zhuang Xiaodie. Wu Chen opened his eyes, turned his head to look, reached for his phone, checked the screen, and answered.

“Hello, Miss An,” he said.

“Mr. Wu, something’s happened!” An Menglan sounded urgent.

“Huh?” Wu Chen was a little surprised.

Something else?!

“Mr. Wu, look online…” An Menglan went on.