Chapter 107: What’s Wrong with Giving the Big Boss a Little Publicity?

After the two songs were finished, the singer was drenched in sweat.

The audience’s response was only so-so, nowhere near the intensity of the previous matchup between Tang Zhichu and Liu Xingyun.

It was a hard thing to pull off. Songs like this had to take the singer’s own ability into account; if you wrote them too intricately, no one could actually perform them.

“See? This kind of project is just—” Xige had not even finished before Yun Miao pinched him.

Xige clapped a hand over his mouth as well. Some things really could not be said.

“You’re going to die one day because of that mouth of yours,” Yun Miao murmured.

Tang Zhichu only laughed. “It’s money, isn’t it? Nothing shameful about that.”

Xige nodded at him. Fair enough. The pay was high, after all. It was about making money.

Yun Miao instinctively reached out again, but the pinch turned into a light thump at the end, and she merely tapped Tang Zhichu once. “Don’t learn from Brother Xi. He’ll say anything.”

“Sis Miao, that’s not fair. You should be pinching him.”

Yun Miao glared and pinched Xige again.

Xige froze, rubbing his arm as he looked at her. “Why me?”

“Why? Because it was you who said it, wasn’t it? Little Tang is so polite. When did he ever talk like that before?”

Xige was speechless.

Tang Zhichu smiled it off. He had people above him; unlike Xige, even if he did say something, it would never make it to air.

Then, suddenly, cheers broke out from the next room, followed by a chorus of groans. Tang Zhichu looked at the screen.

Guo Jinglong had won.

The cheers came from Bai Xiwei’s side, while the wailing came from the Pioneer Alliance.

After the stage recording ended, no one left right away this time.

Both alliances had accumulated elimination spots.

Since the recording wrapped up early this round, everyone gathered in the hall at four-thirty in the afternoon to record the next challenge.

The Star Alliance and the Pioneer Alliance would each have to decide on one person to eliminate.

This part of the variety show always felt a little melodramatic.

But Tang Zhichu was on the sidelines, happily watching the show.

The two rounds the Pioneer Alliance had lost were Pu Jingshi and Bu Yu. By rights, both of them counted as Sun Zhe’s own people. Sun Zhe himself was all right, but the real problem lay with Pu Jingshi: he wanted to leave, and nobody would let him. The one left in the awkward position was Bu Yu.

The Star Alliance was just as complicated. The loser from the previous episode was Chen Yi, one of the backbone players of the Star Alliance, and this time even Liu Xingyun himself had lost.

If Chen Yi left, their strength would take a serious hit. If Liu Xingyun left, not only would the people in his alliance refuse, but even the production crew would never agree.

It was a mess.

After a long round of tugging and arguing, a rookie on the Star Alliance, one who had never once been sent out, finally stood up and said, Then how about I go?

Everyone fell silent.

And then, he really did leave.

Tang Zhichu was stunned.

“Brother Tang, Sister Miao, Brother Xi, Teacher Shen, you can all go fight without worrying. If something goes wrong, I’ll go.” On the Wildfire Alliance side, a young man suddenly said this.

Shen Jianxin shot him a look and told him to stop talking nonsense.

Tang Zhichu also glanced at him, but said nothing. He did, however, remember the young man’s name: Luo Xiujie.

The Star Alliance reached its decision, and the Pioneer Alliance followed right behind. The one who left was Bu Yu.

The next morning, Tang Zhichu set out early.

In front of the small building across the lake, Tang Zhichu and Zhou Yun saw Wang Xiaoyan off.

They watched the car disappear down the road, and Tang Zhichu turned to Zhou Yun, asking with some curiosity, “Xiaoyan didn’t tell you the result?”

Zhou Yun shook her head and went inside.

Only after Tang Zhichu came in after her did Zhou Yun speak. “Forget her. They must have broken up, that much is certain. As for what Yu Hua gave her, only she knows. For me, that can only be a good thing.”

Before Wang Xiaoyan and Yu Hua split, Zhou Yun had prepared an exit strategy. On the surface, the resources would all go to Wang Xiaoyan, but there had to be backup plans. You could not count on a woman with a powerful man behind her to work hard for the job.

But after the breakup, Wang Xiaoyan’s state of mind instead gave Zhou Yun a little hope.

After all, she had once captivated Yu Hua. Now that she was ready to build a career, there might be surprises.

On the surface, Zhou Yun might not look like she was doing anything serious, but she had her own plans. Getting Wang Xiaoyan properly settled would matter a great deal to her studio.

In such a short time, Huang Zejun’s side had put out six videos and gained three hundred thousand followers.

Zhou Yun came out of the kitchen carrying a clay pot. She had even cooked congee.

Tang Zhichu placed a bank card on the table.

“What’s this?” Zhou Yun asked.

“The money for the Drunken Red Cliff project has come through. Brother Jun told me everything. He said I had you transfer a sum to him, and that I still owe you two hundred thousand.” Tang Zhichu lowered his voice a little.

Mostly because it was embarrassing. In fact, he had known about it before coming to the music show and had been pretending to be clueless the whole time.

Taking over Huang Zejun’s company had been like catching fish in empty water; he had not spent a cent. And the little money he did have had already been used by Wang Jun to buy a car.

Tang Zhichu had originally figured that Huang Zejun was an honest man. If he dragged things out a little, and since the man was the general manager of the company, surely it was not unreasonable to ask him to cover the wages for the staff below first.

A general manager, the person openly running the place, fronting a bit of money for now—that was not too much to ask, was it?

Once he had the cash, he could pay it back.

He had never expected Zhou Yun to use her own name to send a sum to Huang Zejun’s side and keep the company running. It had left Huang Zejun gossiping for days, convinced Tang Zhichu and Zhou Yun were together.

Zhou Yun smiled with bright, clear eyes and pushed the card back toward him, giggling, “What’s the rush? Keep it for now. Pay me back when you have more breathing room.”

Tang Zhichu did not take it. He sat down at the dining table, not the least bit polite, and served himself a bowl of congee.

“Soon. Once the paperwork is done, the money from Passing Through the Human World will come in, and I won’t be so short on cash anymore.”

Zhou Yun pushed the card toward him again, then leaned forward against the table. “Then let’s do it another way. Think of it as me buying a song from you.”

“Buying a song?”

“Mm. Otherwise, how is my studio supposed to get off the ground? You already taught Brother Jun such a good idea, and he’s gained three hundred thousand followers. We can’t play favorites, can we? Besides, I’m not like Brother Jun. He only knows how to freeload. I’m paying.”

If she put it that way, Tang Zhichu only smiled and slipped the card away without a word.

This was not living off a woman. This was a proper business deal.

“I don’t need anything too amazing. Just write something casually. Best if it fits the style over on DY,” Zhou Yun said softly.

That morning, Wang Xiaoyan had asked Zhou Yun to go back with her.

Wang Xiaoyan had said men were unreliable, that a woman had to rely on herself, and the more she clung to a man, the more lightly he would treat her.

That was the reason Zhou Yun used to persuade her.

What was she thinking? Staying here for a man? Too vulgar.

It was for the studio’s development, for Wang Xiaoyan’s future.

Wang Xiaoyan had been thoroughly taken in by Zhou Yun. And when she thought about it carefully, it did make sense. After hearing Tang Zhichu sing, after seeing his talent for herself, she could hardly imagine what it would be like if he wrote a song for her.

So she obediently went back on her own, and even told Zhou Yun to work hard, not to rush back, and that she would keep an eye on things in Yuzhou for her.

“Look, it’s quiet here, and no one comes to bother us. My cooking may not match yours, but it’s still edible. Come over when you have time.” Zhou Yun said this as she watched Tang Zhichu drink his congee.

Of course, this was not for a man either. It was for the studio’s development. What was wrong with doing a little PR work with the big boss? Perfectly reasonable.