114: To get one of the black pearls

The phenomenal work "Zhu Xian" is like a brilliant pearl, bringing massive profits to Qingcheng Entertainment!

Furthermore, the hotel project previously invested in and built by Lu Qingyu is flourishing even more, as if adding wings to a tiger.

As the scale of the airport continues to expand and the construction progress remains stable, according to the current construction speed and planned schedule, it will be completed in about four more months.

At the same time, the hotel side is also going all out, striving to complete within four months as well.

There are other hotels being built near the airport, but their locations and scales are not as good as Lu Qingyu's.

Qi Fei's company business in the United States is expanding smoothly, and the company has also gotten on the right track.

Meng Wei's attempt to swallow Qingcheng Entertainment failed. The status of "palace lock" was the exact opposite of "Zhu Xian"; it started high but ended low. When "Zhu Xian's" viewership ratings hit top 1, "palace lock" flopped directly.

A-list stars aren't cheap; the results of "palace lock" couldn't even earn back the actors' salaries.

The company's directors were very dissatisfied with Meng Wei's decision this time, expressing their criticisms of him during the meeting.

It hasn't been easy for Xiangwan Entertainment to reach its current level of achievement. Meng Wei has been in this position for four or five years, but the results over these four or five years haven't been good. The company's annual profits have essentially broken even. Out of the five major projects invested in, two lost money, and while the other three didn't, they failed to meet the projected revenue for such large-scale projects.

This time, the high-profile "palace lock" met its Waterloo, leaving people greatly disappointed.

Behind the scenes, the directors of Xiangwan Entertainment could no longer contain their dissatisfaction and began to plot to replace Meng Wei.

Inside Xiangwan Entertainment, a tense meeting was being held. As one of the company's directors, Wang Xiao was the first to break the silence:

"President Meng, our Xiangwan Entertainment's goals for this quarter have not been met, especially the performance of the drama 'palace lock', which is truly worrying. If things continue to develop like this, even breaking even might be difficult!"

His words revealed concern about the current situation and doubt about Meng Wei's leadership ability.

Wang Xiao and Meng Wei had always been at odds; Meng Wei had long been mentally prepared that this meeting would not be very friendly.

"Chairman Wang, the industry is in a slump right now. Look at how many entertainment companies have filed for bankruptcy. Although I haven't led everyone to make big money, at least I haven't lost money, right?"

Wang Xiao sneered: "But President Meng promised during the meeting last quarter that profits this quarter would increase by 6%. Now that the results haven't been achieved, can we just let it go? And that 'palace lock', didn't you say this palace drama would be a hit? Now that it's flopped, whose fault is it?"

Sitting in the middle of the conference table, Meng Wei's tone wasn't particularly good either: "The 'palace lock' project was approved by everyone. You all had no objections then. You can't take credit when it makes money but blame me for everything when it doesn't."

Wang Xiao: "President Meng doesn't need to find so many excuses."

"It's not the first time you've failed to fulfill your original promise."

Everyone at the conference table looked at Meng Wei. Although they didn't speak, their thoughts were the same as Wang Xiao's.

Meng Wei knew that if he didn't give everyone a satisfactory explanation today, his position would be in jeopardy.

"Next quarter, I plan to acquire an entertainment company and increase the company's profit by 8% through this project."

Wang Xiao raised an eyebrow. Eight percent? What kind of dream was Meng Wei having? However, since he had said so, it actually gave everyone an opportunity: "Does this count as President Meng issuing a military order?"

Meng Wei: "Consider it my military order."

Xiangwan Entertainment was a large company. For small companies, increasing profits by 8% or even more was easy, but for large companies, their annual profits were already very high, so increasing them by 8% was very difficult.

Wang Xiao stood up and smiled: "Good, then I'll wait for President Meng's good news."

After the meeting adjourned, Meng Wei returned to his office with a dark expression on his face.

The assistant looked worried: "President Meng, you were a bit impulsive at the meeting."

Meng Wei naturally knew that, but there was no other way.

The assistant said: "To increase the company's profit by 8%, acquiring an ordinary small entertainment company won't have any effect."

Meng Wei had already thought of this. He could only look among the "Eight Small Entertainment Companies" in the industry.

Currently, Feiyu Entertainment is relatively easy to acquire, but it no longer has any noteworthy artists, so acquiring it wouldn't be very useful.

The owners of those other entertainment companies have more than just this industry, and offending some of them wouldn't be good. Overall, Black Pearl is the best target.

The owner of Black Pearl, Chen Ting, has a simple background. Most importantly, their company has Lu Qingyu, a profitable artist.

Moreover, Lu Qingyu is also the boss of Qingcheng Entertainment. If they can get their hands on Black Pearl, they can also use this opportunity to manipulate Qingcheng Entertainment.

Although the process would be risky, the benefits were huge.

Thinking of this, Meng Wei began to launch an acquisition campaign targeting Black Pearl Entertainment.

Wang Ning organized a victory banquet and sent the time to Su Jixing.

The location of the victory banquet was at the Hot Pot Restaurant Chain. This shop was exactly Lu Qingyu's store. After more than three months of development, the Hot Pot Restaurant Chain, with its crazily high level of service, successfully conquered the hot pot industry and attracted major internet celebrities to visit and post about the store.

The number of stores has risen from the original five to 27 in the city, with 23 more stores currently being rolled out outside the province.

The hot pot restaurant is controlled by DS Finance's investment. This has always been managed by Qi Fei, so everyone has always thought Qi Fei was the owner of this company, not knowing it was Lu Qingyu's personal asset.

At 7:00 PM, Su Jixing took Lu Qingyu to the Hot Pot Restaurant Chain.

"Qingyu, your hard work during this period has paid off. Since you like eating hot pot, eat more tonight."

Lu Qingyu: "It really has been a long time since I've had hot pot. The one we ate at last time wasn't bad either."

Su Jixing: "It's not that one this time. It's a newly opened one. Everyone says the service at that hot pot restaurant is incredibly good. While you're there, you can even have the waiter feed you if you want."

Lu Qingyu: Why does it sound like my own Hot Pot Restaurant Chain?

"What's the name of that store?"

Su Jixing: "YU Hot Pot Restaurant Chain."

Lu Qingyu: ...It really is.