69novels Chapter 055 Rescue
Chapter 055 Rescue
Yang Du slept soundly for days.
Last night, I celebrated Zhou Feng's birthday with a hot pot restaurant. It was not only physically exhausting, but also mentally taxing.
After all, it takes skill to hold back laughter and sing the entire "Birthday Wishing Song" in front of a crowd.
It was already 11 a.m. when he struggled to get out of bed and groggily reached for his phone on the bedside table.
In addition, there were several missed calls on my phone.
All of these came from agent Yuan Xiuqing.
"It's the weekend, Qingjie is such a workaholic."
Yang Du yawned, then grabbed a T-shirt and put it on. As he walked toward the restroom, he pressed the call button.
Soon, Yuan Xiuqing's voice, filled with surprise and delight, came from the other end of the phone: "Boss, you're finally awake. Do you know how much of a storm your video caused online last night?"
"I know." Yang Du tilted his head slightly, clipped his phone to his ear, and squeezed some toothpaste onto his toothbrush. "When I checked last night before bed, it had already surpassed six million likes."
"That's not all. On Douyin, the video of 'encountering Yang Du's hardcore birthday celebration' has firmly occupied the top spot on the trending list, and its likes officially exceeded 10 million half an hour ago."
Yang Du spat out a mouthful of foam: "Thumbs up, that's awesome!"
In this era where traffic is king, tens of millions of likes on a short video platform means that the actual number of views for this video has most likely exceeded 100 million!
This is definitely a national phenomenon that has gone viral.
Damn it, why isn't the number of views over 100 million? Yang Du felt a little disappointed.
"It's that exaggerated." Yuan Xiuqing paused, her tone becoming more formal, "The business manager of Lao Yi Lao's headquarters contacted our studio at 11 p.m. last night."
"They want to talk about authorization?" Yang Du wrung out the towel. "They're quick on the uptake."
In its previous life, celebrating birthdays at Haidilao was a very popular activity, even evolving into a unique dining culture.
"Lao Yi Lao, as a catering giant, has always been known for its meticulous service, and many young people are willing to celebrate their birthdays at their restaurants. But—"
Yuan Xiuqing analyzed, "In terms of birthday services, they have always faced a pain point: apart from thoughtful and attentive service, they have no other competitive advantage. To put it bluntly, they lack a signature song that can instantly resonate with the entire audience."
"But yesterday, this song appeared."
"What's even more amazing is that the catchy, upbeat melody in yesterday's video, your roommate's utterly dejected expression, and the images of the employees of 'Lao Yi Lao' clapping and holding up light boards have become deeply ingrained in people's minds as the video's popularity has soared."
"Boss, your new song, to some extent, is naturally labeled as a cash grab in the public's subconscious."
"This kind of brand effect is something that can only be achieved by spending tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars on Google Play. If they don't buy 'Birthday Blessing Song,' they'll be really wasting a golden opportunity."
After washing his face, Yang Du unscrewed a bottle of mineral water and asked, "How much are they planning to offer?"
"We initially presented two options," Yuan Xiuqing reported. "The first option was to buy out all the copyrights to the song. The second option was to purchase the exclusive rights to use the song in all Lao Yi Lao stores nationwide."
"No buyout." Yang Du refused without hesitation.
In a world with extremely robust copyright protection, the long-tail effect and derivative value generated by a phenomenon song that has already shown the potential to become a national hit are immeasurable.
Buying out a company is like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, handing over a gold mine that is never truly finished.
"So I rejected their first offer immediately," Yuan Xiuqing continued with a smile. "Regarding the second licensing offer, I quoted 130 million yuan per year."
Yang Du nodded. For a catering empire like Lao Yi Lao, which has nearly 2000 directly operated stores nationwide and annual revenue of tens of billions, the annual authorization fee of 130 million yuan, when spread across each store, is not even worth a day's gross profit.
It's a great deal to use this small amount of money to acquire the exclusive rights to a nationally popular background music track and solidify their birthday service culture.
"What did they say?" Yang Du asked.
"There wasn't much resistance, after all, they were well aware of just how incredibly popular the song was."
"The specific contract details and price will definitely change; business negotiations always involve a process of testing each other's bottom lines. But it should fluctuate around 130 million, without too much difference."
"In addition—" Yuan Xiuqing brought up another matter, "When they were discussing the authorization, they mentioned an additional condition: they were going to invite Tuya, the brand ambassador and singer of Lao Yi Lao, to re-record 'Birthday Blessing Song'."
"Tuya?"
Upon hearing this name, Yang Du couldn't help but chuckle, and a gossip story from the Chinese music scene involuntarily surfaced in his mind.
The incident dates back to the 18 Golden Chart Music Awards ceremony.
In an effort to create hype, the organizers invited all nine of the most popular, influential, and popular female singers in the music scene at the time to the event.
That was an era when the Chinese music scene was a battle of titans, and the media, in order to grab attention, referred to these nine people as the Nine Queens of Pop.
However, the problem was that the seating arrangement was not handled properly, leading fans of each artist to feel that their idols were being neglected and treated unfairly.
This really stirred up a hornet's nest. Before the awards ceremony was even over, the fans of the nine groups launched an unprecedented fan war on Weibo and major music forums, fighting fiercely until the sky darkened and the sun and moon lost their light.
The controversy escalated until a data-savvy fan posted an extremely detailed performance chart on Weibo and publicly challenged:
Becoming a pop diva isn't as easy as sitting in the same row as someone else; you have to have won the Golden Bell Award for Female Singer of the Year as a hard requirement!
These remarks were well-reasoned and supported by evidence, instantly gaining recognition from professionals and the general public alike, and attracting a large following.
After a rigorous selection process based on performance, only four out of the nine had won the Golden Bell Award for Female Singer of the Year.
As a result, the fan community set a standard, designating four top female stars as the top four, while the other five were kicked out of the group chat due to insufficient achievements.
From then on, the "Nine Greats" became "Four Great Queens" plus "Five Greats".
However, the term "top five" not only sounds unimpressive but also carries an awkward sense of being ridiculed.
Can the fans of the top five celebrities tolerate this?
No.
If it's a 4+5 format, wouldn't their idols always sound inferior, like mere foils to the diva?
If the Four Heavenly Queens can set thresholds for awards, why can't we?
Therefore, the fans of the three relatively stronger and larger groups among the five groups privately formed a group, discussed it, and directly introduced a new standard—
The talent pool will be redefined based on whether the singer has won the Golden Globe Award for Best Female Pop Singer.
If we can't call her a pop diva publicly, then calling her a little pop diva is perfectly fine, right? She's the future pop diva, after all.
And, at least, it's not at the bottom anymore.
This series of bizarre moves directly caused the five major music groups to split up again, successfully evolving into the well-known four major and three minor groups in the Chinese music scene today.
Tuya was the unlucky one who was kicked out of the group chat twice, once from the Ninth and once from the Fifth.
Tuya's singing skills are actually very solid, but because she sings folk pop, her audience is older and lacks the kind of fighting fans who can control comments, generate data, and fight day and night online. As a result, she has been losing the fan war.
This has led to her absurd situation: she is quite famous and has high public recognition, but she doesn't have a respectable official title.
However, the fact that she is not recognized by the fan community does not mean that she is not recognized by the market.
Yang Du took a bite of bread and opened Tuya's representative work in the music player.
Her voice is high-pitched, loud, and penetrating, naturally carrying the boldness of a son or daughter of the grasslands.
"Tuya can sing without any problem."
"Birthday Blessing Song" is inherently popular and down-to-earth, so having a female singer specializing in folk pop sing it is undoubtedly very suitable.
"Okay, since you agree, I'll go give them the confirmation later," Yuan Xiuqing replied, then added, "By the way, boss, Lao Yi Lao's business director is taking this cooperation very seriously and would like to invite you to dinner tonight. Is that convenient for you...?"
"Tonight?" Yang Du refused outright. "Tonight is not an option. My senior invited me to dinner."
"Fine, forget I said that." Yuan Xiuqing didn't insist and took the initiative. "I'll go to the dinner tonight. Perfect timing, I'm better at talking about money over drinks than you are."
"Then I'll have to trouble you, Sister Qing." Yang Du was happy to be the one to leave things to others. "Oh, by the way, could you also ask me for a black card when we have dinner tonight? I just saw that Zhou Feng has been turned into a meme, so I'll give him a black card to comfort him."
"Hahaha." Yuan Xiuqing couldn't help but laugh. "Don't worry, boss, I guarantee I'll complete the mission."