561: Chapter 561 A Dying Struggle

The footsteps of the Spring Festival were drawing near, and the promotional offensives of the various Spring Festival Movie Season films were becoming increasingly fierce, reaching a fever pitch.

Just at this critical juncture, several events occurred in the Chinese Entertainment Industry, and all of them were inseparable from Lin Chuyan.

First, the highly anticipated variety show "Singer" finally settled, with the final outcome decided.

Facts proved that Lin Chuyan was merely an anomaly; once he left, the other Singers in the Chinese Entertainment Industry continued on as they always had.

But what was baffling was that the final title of King of Singers still fell to a Singer from the Chinese Entertainment Industry.

This sleazy maneuver was just too obvious, sparking complaints from countless netizens.

The most awkward part was that Lin Chuyan somehow ended up trending on Weibo because of it.

#exaggerated#

Yes, netizens who finished watching the final episode went back to revisit Lin Chuyan's "exaggerated".

Clicking into this trending topic was even more outrageous; people were saying all sorts of things.

[The real King of Singers is Lin Chuyan; I don't recognize anyone else.]

[After listening to all the songs, "exaggerated" still has the most feeling; you guys know what I'm trying to say.]

[Lin Chuyan must be laughing his head off seeing this ranking, thinking, "Good thing I was only a challenger."]

[It's a pity Lin Chuyan was only a challenger, otherwise, would this current "King of Singers" even stand a chance?]

[The person above is overthinking it; do you really believe Lin Chuyan would have won the King of Singers title even if he had actually competed?]

It could only be said that the King of Singers title was truly too controversial. The netizens were so unconvinced that they were itching to create a "Lin Chuyan is the real King of Singers" trending topic.

Immediately after, the second event related to him occurred.

In the final week before Chinese New Year's Eve, pre-sales for several Spring Festival Movie Season films officially opened across the board.

From the first day of pre-sales, "la la land" led the pack in pre-sale results without any suspense.

Subsequently, good news arrived from all over the world.

It wasn't just leading in the mainland; this time, it was leading globally.

Over in North America, the two-week exclusive IMAX screening rights undoubtedly laid a solid foundation for "la la land" to take the lead.

Emily had been closely monitoring the public opinion; even with her composed nature, she couldn't help but feel optimistic now—that so-called "revenge story" promotional strategy was truly effective, even better than The Oscars nomination.

Who would have believed it before the related press releases were published?

Here in Asia, such a Hollywood blockbuster entering the market with the halo of numerous European and American awards was equally hard to find a match for.

Sugiura Ran had previously analyzed this situation with Lin Chuyan, and now, combined with the super-high popularity Lin Chuyan had accumulated in Asia... the Asian region was highly likely to become the most stable among the major box office markets.

The only variable that remained was here in the mainland.

The team for "la la land" had been incredibly busy during this period, having to keep up with the release of pre-sale achievement reports on one hand, and preparing subsequent "word-of-mouth special" videos, as well as creating countless posters for breaking the 100 million mark and other promotional tasks on the other.

And just at this moment, the first "victim" appeared—a Spring Festival Movie Season film suddenly announced it was withdrawing from the release schedule.

["dear audience friends: It is with deep regret and reluctance that we announce a difficult decision: the film 'new year painting boy', originally scheduled for the Spring Festival Movie Season, will cancel its release plan for this season and postpone its release.

We will announce the specific new release date to everyone as soon as possible after subsequent preparations are completed.

For audiences who have already purchased pre-sale tickets for 'new year painting boy' for the Spring Festival Movie Season on various platforms, we will coordinate with all major ticketing platforms to do our utmost to provide refund services.

Once again, we thank everyone for your continued support and love for 'new year painting boy'; your understanding and tolerance are the source of courage that keeps us going.

We look forward to witnessing the brilliant blooming of 'new year painting boy' with you in theaters in the near future.

We wish everyone a Happy New Year, family happiness, and may everything go smoothly!"]

The wildest part was that this matter didn't even stir up much of a splash.

No one cared, no one paid attention... there was a kind of aesthetic to it where "it didn't make a difference whether it was there or not."

This was the cruelty of the Spring Festival Movie Season.

You think it's everyone sharing the box office, but in reality, it's often a "winner-takes-all" situation.

"I don't even want to mention the reason for withdrawing... I bet it definitely has to do with 'la la land'; it's all because we're selling too well."

Wu Yue said with a hint of schadenfreude: "Understandable, understandable. How could they not run? Once the pre-sale box office numbers came out, it was miserable.

As an animated film, it couldn't beat 'boonie bears', nor could it compare to the other live-action films. Staying in the Spring Festival Movie Season would only result in an even worse defeat."

However, Wu Yue's schadenfreude didn't last long.

February 14th, Valentine's Day, three days before Chinese New Year's Eve.

At six in the morning, Lin Chuyan was still asleep when he was rudely awakened by a phone call from Wu Yue.

"Xiao Yan, are you awake?"

"One moment."

Wu Yue wouldn't call early in the morning for no reason.

Lin Chuyan's heart skipped a beat. He quickly crawled out of the warm covers, moving lightly for fear of waking Ruan Xingyu beside him.

After walking to the living room, he spoke again: "Brother Yue, what happened?"

"A trending topic suddenly popped up early this morning; take a look first. Don't worry, it's highly likely that Director Deng Yu is acting out of desperation and making a deathbed struggle."

"Trending topic? What trending topic? Alright, let me check."

Logging into Weibo.

#Exposure: Lin Chuyan and Tian Junfeng summoned for tax payment#

Clicking in to see, the real-time square was already in an uproar.

["Really? Lin Chuyan earns so much, and he still evades taxes?"]

["Holy crap, can this 'la la land' still be released?"]

["Shouldn't he be banned directly? It's already trending, how can it be fake?"]

["It's over, another major addition to the list of disgraced artists."]

["Holy crap, brothers, hurry up and download Lin Chuyan's songs first!"]

"I've finished reading it, Brother Yue. I remember we don't have any issues with taxes, right?"

Lin Chuyan had always paid attention to his tax situation and personally checked on it every year.

"Of course there's no problem!" Wu Yue explained. "Look, the trending topic says 'supplementary tax payment'. Last year, when you first became popular, there was indeed one instance.

That was because your business was just starting out, and some income hadn't been fully declared. This situation is very common among newcomers, and it was resolved by paying the supplementary amount later.

Later, our company hired a CFO and specialized tax lawyers, and we haven't had any similar problems since then."

Lin Chuyan understood: "In other words, a matter from last year has been dug up this year and made into a trending topic.

Moreover, even though it's clearly about supplementary tax payment, many people under the trending topic are leading the narrative to say it's tax evasion."

"It's not just that." Wu Yue was extremely sensitive to this kind of negative public opinion. "Trending at six in the morning, how shameless.

If we hadn't discovered it in time, it would have been left to let public opinion ferment. We would not only be hung out to dry for the whole morning, but we wouldn't even have time to respond."

It must be said that they were lucky this time; one has to know that in entertainment companies like theirs, no one is at work before ten in the morning...

Lin Chuyan was now very familiar with these tactics of rumor-mongering and smearing: "The trending topic is still 'supplementary tax payment' right now, but I guess it will soon be changed to 'tax evasion'.

Besides, there will definitely be a bunch of marketing accounts following the trend to hype it up."

"That's inevitable. Xiao Yan, this time we can't drag our feet and respond slowly like last time."

With the release of 'la la land' imminent, if Lin Chuyan continued to remain silent, not only would Director Deng Yu intensify his actions, but the production companies of the other Spring Festival Movie Season films would, in all likelihood, seize the opportunity to kick him while he was down, swarm him to tear him to shreds, and then bury him directly.

Lin Chuyan didn't speak. He sat quietly on the living room sofa, lost in thought.

A moment later, he spoke slowly: "Respond, we must respond. However, Brother Yue, don't you think that trick of using 'Singer' for an official announcement last time was very effective?"

At that time, the 'Singer' production team merely announced the news of Lin Chuyan becoming a challenger Singer, and it successfully resolved many doubts and controversies.

This time, Lin Chuyan intended to follow the same pattern and continue to leverage the momentum.

To leverage even greater momentum.