Chapter 156 Early Unsealing

Returning to his hotel room, Su Tong felt a bit low, thinking that breaking into the television industry to produce a show was simply too difficult.

He had no prior television experience, let alone any experience in reality show production, directing, or hosting. Expecting Xinghang to sign his show proposal was nothing short of a pipe dream.

What were his previous talents worth after all? They had nothing to do with reality shows.

Well, if one really had to stretch it, there was a tiny connection.

It was precisely because Tao Jingjing knew that the script for *Love Apartment* had been written by Su Tong, and that he had also served as its producer and director, that she hadn't laughed him out of the room or rejected him on the spot.

After Su Tong spent the entire evening agonizing over the matter, Zhang Xin suddenly called him. She had received word from Tao Jingjing, the executive in charge of variety shows at Xinghang Satellite TV, inviting her to come over the next day to discuss the contract negotiations.

"Little Tong, you actually managed to bluff them into this." Zhang Xin knew about Su Tong's plan to create a reality show, but she honestly hadn't expected that, even before the plan was fully formed, Su Tong would suddenly hook up with Xinghang Satellite TV.

"Haha, Sister Xin, our team is simply formidable; we shine wherever we go. Hearing my creative concept, Xinghang Satellite TV must have panicked, worried that we'd take our business to another station." Excited, Su Tong reverted to his habitual bragging.

And the truth was indeed so. After Tao Jingjing and a few of her trusted subordinates had stayed up late into the night to discuss the matter, their general consensus was that they should secure this rising star Su Tong first and foremost.

Furthermore, this show, *Fairies Descend to Earth*, must feature Su Tong in the capacity of producer, and ideally as its director or host.

Of course, the position of assistant director would need to be filled by a capable veteran—whether to support Su Tong or to gradually sideline him, the goal was to make the outside world believe Su Tong had officially signed with Xinghang Satellite TV.

The benefits of signing Su Tong went without saying. Once they agreed to back his show, naturally, *The Voice* would also fall into place. He could perform as he pleased; winning the grand championship would be even better, proving to the public that the title wasn't rigged, and that it belonged to whoever had the talent.

Over the past few seasons, audiences had developed a crisis of trust in *The Voice*. This left the production team in a passive position, worrying that after another couple of seasons, a show that had once swept the nation would come to an inglorious end.

Additionally, several executives raised differing opinions regarding Su Tong's contract. Some demanded that in addition to signing the *Fairies Descend to Earth* program, Su Tong should also undertake certain obligations, such as appearing on other Xinghang Satellite TV reality shows to boost their popularity.

Others demanded that Su Tong write no fewer than three songs free of charge for other artists and singers affiliated with Xinghang Satellite TV.

Still others insisted that Su Tong must bring Xiaoyu and Xiaoxiao onto the show—a wish shared by the massive legion of *League of Legends* fans.

Currently, the number of *League of Legends* fans was several times larger than it had been a little over a month ago.

Nian Nujiao's follower count on Weibo alone had already exceeded two million.

Insiders believed this was a solid, organic follower count without any inflated metrics.

"Just leave tomorrow to me. I'll go talk to them. You focus on preparing, and once the negotiations are done, you can record your show. If the negotiations fall through, we'll just withdraw from the competition." Zhang Xin was fiercely ambitious. She found this kind of work immensely interesting and approached it with great enthusiasm.

The next day, Zhang Xin flew in from Yandu, met briefly with Su Tong, and then went off to negotiate with Xinghang Satellite TV.

After a grueling afternoon of talks, Zhang Xin finally emerged from the conference room, looking somewhat exhausted.

Negotiations were just like a war, a battle of wits and courage that drained one's mental energy.

"Done deal." Dressed in professional attire, Zhang Xin collapsed onto the sofa in Su Tong's hotel room like a lump of cotton, utterly exhausted.

Her counterparts were seasoned executives who had seen far more of the world than she had. Had it not been for her sheer passion, she would have caved long ago.

With the contract signed, both parties were quite satisfied.

"What? How on earth did you end up signing with Xinghang Satellite TV?" When Su Tong informed Sister Yaya of the outcome, Yang Feifei, who was standing nearby, snatched the phone right out of her hand.

"It's just a program contract, I'm still a free agent. What are you screaming for?" Su Tong offered a lengthy explanation before Yang Feifei's anger finally subsided.

If he had truly signed an exclusive, all-inclusive management contract with Xinghang Satellite TV, Yang Feifei would have killed him.

When it came to artist management contracts, if Su Tong didn't choose Emperor, he would be nothing short of a heartless ingrate who forgot those who helped him.

Yang Feifei and Sister Yaya belonged to Emperor. Without Emperor's help back then, Su Tong would never have thought of participating in *The Voice*, and even if he had, he wouldn't necessarily have made it through the preliminary auditions.

In short, without Sister Yaya and Yang Feifei, there would be no him today.

"Hehe, a reality show? What kind of genre? Tell me all about it." Yang Feifei didn't know the specific details of Su Tong's reality show plan yet.

The moment Su Tong gave a rough outline, Yang Feifei immediately shrieked, "I want in! I want in! If I'm not a fairy, then who is?"

Su Tong almost wanted to toss the phone away. "There's always you. You dragged our production down and kept *Love Apartment* buried away in the dark, and I haven't even settled accounts with you yet. You want to drag this reality show down too? Beat it."

"Little Tongtong, good Tongtong, I know you're the best. Just say yes, please! I'll be the first to sign up. I'm super sincere, look how supportive I am of you," Yang Feifei pleaded. She had already figured out Su Tong's personality: he yielded to soft tactics but resisted hard ones.

"If you aren't unbanned for a single day, I won't take you back. It's been over five months, Big Sister! The show has to air after at most a month of recording. Do you want us to record the whole thing and then make everyone wait another three or four months?" Su Tong's tone actually softened a bit.

Yang Feifei suddenly let out a giggle. "Little Tong, let me tell you some good news I just received."

Su Tong asked suspiciously, "What good news?"

Yang Feifei said triumphantly, "I'm getting unbanned ahead of schedule."

Su Tong was taken aback. "They can ban you just like that, and unban you just like that?"

"Of course! Remember the hotel incident? We caught those people from those rival companies playing dirty, so they have to make reparations," Yang Feifei said proudly. But soon, she looked a bit embarrassed. "However, it requires you to write a few songs—one song offsets a month of the ban."

"Are you kidding me? How did your feud drag me and Sister Yinin into this? Whatever, I suppose we're considered part of your Yang family. And wait, writing songs?" Su Tong was baffled. "You want me to write songs for you?"

"Why are you so dense?" Yang Feifei was about to get mad, but quickly giggled again. "Of course not for us, it's for our sworn enemies. There are four companies in total. Write one classic song for each of them—well, one of them needs two songs—and I get my ban lifted five months early."

Are my songs really that valuable? Su Tong didn't realize yet that the new songs for the four mentors had already been released, and every single one of them was a certified classic that made countless singers green with envy.

Liu Fan's *Start Over*, Na Jie's *Days Don't Understand the Darkness of Night*, A Lin's *Spring Mud*, and A Jiu's *Can I Hold You* had swept across every major music chart.

*The Voice* had only showcased Su Tong's talent to a portion of the audience—those who watched the show and played *League of Legends*—while most mainstream musicians in the industry didn't know much about him yet.

However, with the successive releases of the four mentors' new songs, all composed and lyricized by Su Tong alone, their massive popularity and commercial success forced people within the industry to take notice in shock.

"It's just five songs, and their quality just can't be lower than those four tracks the mentors sang, right? No problem. Tomorrow, once the recording for the top six to top four round of *The Voice* wraps up, I'll write them as soon as I get back." Putting aside anything else, "writing" songs happened to be Su Tong's third greatest strength. As for what his first and second greatest strengths were—at the very least, everyone on Earth knew what the first one was.