Everyone: “…”
President Zhou continued: “Besides, this isn’t just about the name. We must consider FTM’s represented popularity, heat, and commercial value. Your commercial value far exceeds 100 million.”
President Zhou reconsidered: “You’ll use FTM’s name for future endorsements and concerts, right? How about this—we sign a profit-sharing agreement, 70-30 split with you taking 70%.”
All five were shocked by his shamelessness.
This was outrageous profiteering—wanting to earn lying down? In the future, 30% of their concert income would go to Sheng Yao who did nothing but provide a name? Dreaming!
Tang Che held back, swallowing his curse words.
Mo Xun said decisively: “No profit-sharing consideration—too messy later.”
President Zhou smiled: “So you want me to completely transfer FTM usage rights to you—equivalent to buying out this name. Sheng Yao can’t use FTM’s group name to make money in the future. This is painful sacrifice for me! 100 million isn’t excessive.”
Mo Xun said straightforwardly: “30 million. You know clearly how much money we earned for the company during our Sheng Yao years. We didn’t save much ourselves. Earn this money if you want—if not, we’ll change names and continue activities. Yinnian wrote many new songs, enough for our albums. As for those previous 12 songs, worst case we won’t sing them.”
Fang Yinnian nodded in agreement: “Exactly. I registered 33 songs for copyright protection. Besides those performed in competitions, the rest are all written for our group. Even without using FTM’s name, we won’t lack songs to sing. Moreover, my teacher Yu Ziluo and senior brother Xu Feng also agreed to write new songs for us.”
President Zhou: “………..”
Mo Xun: “Consider it carefully. If you disagree, we’ll have to change names.”
President Zhou’s expression was very ugly.
30 million to buy FTM usage rights and 12 hit song copyrights? What a joke! Treating beggars?! You’d earn this back in a few concerts!
President Zhou took a deep breath: “30 million is impossible. I’ll reconsider at 100 million.”
Mo Xun said: “Then there’s no need to continue negotiations.”
He decisively stood up, leading teammates away.
***
Days later, Tao Yizhou’s dirt suddenly exploded online!
#Tao Yizhou Arrested for Prostitution#
This hashtag shot straight to trending #1, becoming the day’s hottest social news.
The incident began when a “concerned Beijing citizen” reported Tao Yizhou for prostitution. Police raided and caught Tao Yizhou red-handed.
This “concerned citizen” was naturally Mo Yao. After infiltrating fan circles, she’d obtained the address of an “upscale club” Tao Yizhou frequented from his sasaeng fans. These days Mo Yao had been staking out with paparazzi. Discovering Tao Yizhou entering, she immediately called police.
Police arrived—caught with evidence!
One strike killed, absolutely no whitewashing possible.
Following this, a fansite admin ID’d “Love Zhouzhou Most” with 1 million followers in Tao Yizhou’s fan circles (Mo Yao’s alias) began leading fan defection and criticism.
Mo Yao wrote a heartfelt essay expressing how much she’d once loved Tao Yizhou and how disappointed she now felt!
This essay resonated with massive fans.
Next, this fansite admin “Love Zhouzhou Most” began continuous exposures.
“Previously because I liked you, I viewed you through fan filters and couldn’t bear exposing many things. Now that you’ve collapsed, I needn’t save face—please enjoy Tao Yizhou’s lip-syncing scenes.”
Mo Yao dropped a stage video filmed by a fansite admin.
At a New Year’s Eve performance, Tao Yizhou actually mouthed the wrong words several times!
Fans: “…”
Those who’d previously praised his beautiful live vocals and full mic performances “like eating CDs” now felt their faces burning!
He’d been lip-syncing all along, yet had the nerve to call himself “Prince of Love Songs”? What full mic—he never had his mic on!
The fansite admin’s defection and criticism continued with exposures, next revealing “Tao Yizhou plagiarism evidence.”
Tao Yizhou’s plagiarism also had massive evidence. He had little talent himself—the company spent money buying songs to build his “musical genius” and “Prince of Love Songs” persona, then claimed he wrote them.
His three so-called “original albums” in recent years were all bought with money!
Fans’ worlds completely collapsed.
Perhaps it was everyone kicking when the wall falls—following this, “industry insiders” arranged by Mo Xun exposed a big scoop on forums: “Tao Yizhou is Sheng Yao’s real crown prince, the nephew of a major Tao-surnamed shareholder, the young master the company heavily promoted. He plagiarized Fang Yinnian’s song back then—that’s why Fang Yinnian left Sheng Yao!”
“At the time, Fang Yinnian wrote several songs for the company, wanting to release solo singles. The company suppressed him and wouldn’t let him release them, but they were taken by Tao Yizhou.”
“Not many people know this, but walls have ears. Many industry professionals involved in Tao Yizhou’s album production and release know clearly. I also heard this industry gossip.”
This revelation left countless netizens stunned.
“Holy crap? Fang Yinnian originally left Sheng Yao because of this?”
“I’m shocked! When FTM debuted, many paid commenters spread rumors that Fang Yinnian was Sheng Yao’s crown prince—that was Tao Yizhou’s team deliberately throwing mud, right?”
“So Tao Yizhou was the real crown prince the company spent money heavily promoting. Poor Fang Yinnian suffered such injustice”
“I’m so heartbroken for Yinnian 5555! How could the dog company treat our Yinnian like this!”
“Good thing Fang Yinnian returned with his original songs and wasn’t buried by the dog company.”
“Sheng Yao is so stupid—not promoting such a talented songwriter as Fang Yinnian but promoting the useless Tao Yizhou?”
“Capital is always arrogant. Marketing and hype indeed created a fake top star~”
“Lip-syncing, plagiarism, prostitution—this young master really collapsed thoroughly”
“I always felt his innocent, kind musical genius persona was ridiculous~”
“I’m ashamed of once liking Tao Yizhou”
“Fans who bought lots of his endorsements are devastated—damn unlucky!”
“I wondered how Fang Yinnian, so talented, didn’t release solo albums during his Sheng Yao period? So they were stolen by Tao Yizhou!”
“The dog company is truly despicable!”
“How much will Tao Yizhou have to compensate for commercial endorsements? Hope the scumbag loses everything!”
“The concerned citizen did great! Congratulations to Tao Yizhou for being caught red-handed and earning an official blue-and-white notification”
Public opinion rapidly fermented.
#Tao Yizhou Caught for PC#
#Tao Yizhou Plagiarism#
#Tao Yizhou Lip-syncing#
All three hashtags had deep red “explosive” tags!
Entertainment industry scandal news spreads fastest beyond circles. Momentarily, the entire nation knew top music star Tao Yizhou had collapsed, with inside and outside circles excitedly following the gossip.
This massive exposure clearly aimed to completely destroy Tao Yizhou. Sheng Yao’s PR department frantically tried paying to remove trending topics, but with “police arrest of celebrity Tao XX” official reports posted, they couldn’t remove them.
Forum exposure threads were deleted and reopened continuously—impossible to delete them all.
The manager called the president’s office with tears: “President Zhou, several brands have unilaterally announced terminating contracts with Zhouzhou, claiming he damaged their brand image and threatening lawsuits for penalty compensation!”
President Zhou: “…”
With over ten endorsements, penalty fees alone would be enough trouble for Tao Yizhou.
Which “concerned citizen” had reported Tao Yizhou? Tao Yizhou was Sheng Yao’s biggest money tree—targeting his destruction was targeting Sheng Yao’s life!
President Zhou’s head throbbed. This was truly troublesome. Sheng Yao’s second-half financial reports would definitely look terrible. Could he even keep his CEO position?
***
At this moment, Mo Yao was reporting battle conditions to her brothers at Sound Wave Entertainment offices: “Tao Yizhou’s fan circles have completely collapsed—more and more people are defecting and criticizing.”
Fang Yinnian said seriously: “Mo Yao, thank you for your hard work this time.”
Mo Yao waved dismissively: “No problem, Brother Nian. I enjoyed being undercover and learned a lot. Never expected such disgusting celebrities in entertainment.”
Fu Fei praised: “Mo Yao, you’re way better than those secretive paparazzi!”
Mo Yao smiled: “Hehe, do I have paparazzi talent? Of course my brother contributed too—he provided lots of funding and connections support. Otherwise I couldn’t have tracked Tao Yizhou’s whereabouts.”
When Tao Yizhou stole Fang Yinnian’s song, everyone harbored resentment, especially Mo Xun. He’d never forget Yinnian’s sad yet helpless expression when revealing his song was taken by Tao Yizhou.
He’d sworn to help Yinnian vent this anger.
Back then they were too weak to directly confront such a large company as Sheng Yao and a music industry top star.
Now, after two and a half years of tracking and investigation, they’d finally caught Tao Yizhou’s weakness.
No whitewashing possible—complete collapse.
Such “morally corrupt” problematic artists would be industry blacklisted. His star career was finished.
Mo Xun said happily: “Now we wait for President Zhou to contact us actively. Tao Yizhou must compensate brands massive penalty fees, concerts must be canceled—Sheng Yao’s second-half income sharply reduced. President Zhou should have major headaches now.”
Teammates all sighed—their captain was truly far-sighted, keeping such a trump card.
Reclaiming FTM’s group name was just around the corner!
**
