Chapter 136 : Chapter 136

Chapter 136: “Tell him to stop slacking off; a Long Aotian shouldn’t slack off.”

After returning home, there was a rare three-day holiday—Chu Zu even counted the continuous social engagements as part of his vacation.

In his words, “It’s just having a meal, chatting, not work.”

Before a formal business meeting, a meal was an indispensable part of the process.

Traditional Chinese culture emphasized “family culture” and “circle culture.”

Eating was a core activity for family and social interactions, and it was preferred to finalize the basis of business cooperation at dinner parties.

Compared to the strange gym, chatting at a dinner table certainly wasn’t work—Chu Zu said so.

Three days of dinner engagements: one day taking Xu Qiqi around to get familiarized with people, one day attending a young director’s initiative for filmmakers by invitation, and one day socializing with investors alongside Marcus Li.

The prospective collaborations needed to be finalized; these were crucial resources for the protagonist.

Support for young domestic directors needed to continue, ensuring that industry connections would not be severed.

Lishou Entertainment’s IPO plan also needed to be steadily advanced; this was the most troublesome task.

Strategic financing before listing, preparations before initiating an IPO, submitting a prospectus, roadshows, and pricing… finally came the listing and trading.

The System felt its scalp tingle just looking at the schedule.

It counted on its chicken claws and found it unbelievable.

Entertainment to Death was supposed to be a vacation, but after arriving, he actually needed to squeeze out time for holidays.

Weren’t holidays meant for relaxing the body and mind?

What kind of holiday was this?

It was contrary to nature!

It recalled Ancestor Teacher’s long review in the reader forum, which said that a busy agent was the norm—the Little yellow chicken felt Ancestor Teacher had been too subtle.

But the host was very proactive.

Unlike before, when he simply followed the plot, Chu Zu showed enthusiasm for these things that the Little yellow chicken found tedious and boring.

Wanshu Zu was going to take a shower.

After showering, he had to continue an online meeting.

Looking at his schedule, he wouldn't be able to rest until after midnight.

The Little yellow chicken weakly said to its host: “The Little black cat wants to play with me.”

Chu Zu: “Go play.”

Actually, it was the “Long Aotian Correction” Little chicken that had approached the Little yellow chicken, furtively asking it not to tell the host.

The Little yellow chicken initially thought the Long Aotian Little chicken had some colossal secret.

It decided to scout first, then report back to its host.

It ran to the Little black cat’s sea of consciousness, playing cat-chicken battle with its little brother while contacting the neighboring Little chicken.

The Long Aotian Little chicken’s first words were: “Does your host frequently violate rules?”

The System’s alarm bells rang loudly.

It didn’t even care that the Little black cat had pulled off a few of its feathers, and vigilantly said, “Occasionally, just occasionally!”

“How do you usually handle it?”

The Long Aotian Little chicken’s mechanical voice was flat, carrying a bitterness that only Systems could understand instinctively.

“Like, the kind where the host is always reliable, very professional, and then suddenly gives you a dose of rebellion, taking you by surprise—do you have to report it to your Superior?”

The System insisted: “My host is not rebellious at all.”

“Oh, come on, would you dare say that to the vexed Dazed Feather Little chicken?”

The Long Aotian Little chicken: “The Dazed Feather Little chicken said your host is terrifying. Not only did he turn you into a battle chicken to act tough in the Superior’s office, but he also drastically changed its host’s personality.”

“When you came to me for advice, I didn’t hold anything back. So answer me this question: What should I do when my host becomes rebellious?”

The System thought for a long time, then said: “My host is not rebellious at all.”

“I don’t think he’s rebellious, so I won’t report it to the Superior.”

The Long Aotian Little chicken: “…”

The System: “What did your host do to scare you like this?”

The Long Aotian Little chicken: “He’s been going on a crazy shopping spree recently, saying he’s not short on money, and buying up all sorts of useful and useless props.”

“I can understand that his Long Aotian progress is slow this time, but it hasn’t fallen out of expectation. If we fast-forward and take the path of ‘thirty years of youthful poverty,’ that’s fine. We can change routes, counterattack, slap faces, and abuse villains.”

“…But he’s just focused on shopping, not doing any real work!”

The System understood.

The host, who was supposed to be pushing for performance, had collapsed midway, becoming lethargic, and indulging in revenge spending.

The Long Aotian Little chicken’s complaints were endless: “He doesn’t care about forum comments either, telling me that a Long Aotian should be fearless of worldly opinions… Isn’t he just messing with a chicken?”

“If we don’t care about reader evaluations, then we’re finished!”

The System: “Oh, right.”

The Long Aotian Little chicken from the emails was high-spirited and full of fighting spirit; the current Long Aotian Little chicken was practically stifled to death.

The System also felt a little soft-hearted: “I remember your host was always very capable, why is he so dejected now?”

“Do you know there’s a Long Aotian sub-genre called ‘Lying-Win Long Aotian’? It’s about doing nothing, attracting powerful figures to invest in them with their talent, turning these powerful figures into personal nannies, and effortlessly reaching the peak of life.”

The System: “I generally know… Is this also called a ‘charmer’?”

“Yes, in female-oriented fiction, it’s called a charmer, but it shouldn’t be considered female-oriented… Anyway, this time it was supposed to be this route, but the powerful partner suddenly changed his mind midway, completely unpredictably.”

The Long Aotian Little chicken said, “Not only did he want to part ways, but he also firmly suppressed him. The forum is even calling my host a dog!”

The System: “…”

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

Something wasn't right.

Very wrong.

The Little yellow chicken swallowed, flapping out from under the Little black cat’s paws, and flew onto its head.

It settled its bottom and tentatively said, “Do you remember I asked you what to do if your persona was affected by a partner?”

The Long Aotian Little chicken: “Blast the partner!”

The System: “Right, you can still urge your host to blast the partner and remain a pure and innocent Long Aotian.”

“No, the host won’t do it.”

The Long Aotian Little chicken was even more troubled when talking about this.

“He said that this time, the persona couldn’t be too forceful, and the background character Long Aotian shouldn’t have too many scenes. He wants to be a quiet Long Aotian… I suspect he’s been emotionally manipulated by the partner. After his persona was completed, he got tangled up in it himself.”

“…What persona did you complete?”

“Collaborating with the powerful partner to start a business.”

“Didn’t you say it was lying-win? How did it become starting a business together?”

“You’re so strange…”

The Long Aotian Little chicken said, “Aren’t all lying-win Long Aotians on the market like this? If there isn’t a certain level of participation, if they’re just forcibly given benefits, readers will think both parties are idiots.”

“The core of the lying-win Long Aotian is to focus on participation, but participation is worse than no participation; just having a name is enough.”

“They absolutely must not exert themselves. Besides showcasing their talent, they do nothing else, otherwise, readers who immerse themselves will only feel too tired and dissatisfied.”

The Little yellow chicken: “…”

Your host may be satisfied, but what about my host?

Doesn’t that mean my host is the one working so hard?

The Little yellow chicken could pretty much confirm who the darn Long Aotian was.

Lying-win, and a partner willingly acting as a nanny and investing in him, and the powerful partner changing his mind midway… and being called a dog by the forum.

There was only one person! Li Yamin!

The Little yellow chicken had never handled a Long Aotian, nor had it had deep contact with one.

Usually, it didn’t discuss work with the Long Aotian Little chicken.

This was the first time it realized that the Long Aotian Correction’s authority was so vast, it could directly influence other characters’ personas.

—After all, he was a Long Aotian; it seemed even the world had to make way for him.

The Little yellow chicken furiously opened its mic: “The Long Aotian you’re talking about is a very unreasonable Long Aotian! How can there be a Long Aotian who makes others suffer terribly while he enjoys the fruits of their labor?”

The Long Aotian Little chicken felt bewildered: “…What nonsense are you talking about? Readers love to see this kind of thing. Male-oriented Long Aotian, female-oriented charmer; novels with the same theme are abundant, and the market has proven this audience is very broad.”

The System: “Heh, what market are you talking about? Isn’t your host overwhelmed?”

The Long Aotian Little chicken: “…”

The Long Aotian Little chicken: “That’s why I said he’s rebellious.”

The Long Aotian Little chicken: “He really was emotionally manipulated. The powerful partner

insisted on going solo, and the host actually thought it made a lot of sense. He struggled symbolically for a bit, then just gave up.”

The System was furious, finding the Long Aotian Little chicken incredibly difficult to communicate with.

But oddly enough, what the other party said wasn’t largely incorrect.

If viewed solely from Li Yamin perspective, readers would only see a talented actor oppressed by his family.

Both were background characters, but Wanshu Zu was a side character, while Li Yamin could be classified as a Long Aotian—the difference between them was obvious.

It was difficult to clearly explain Wanshu Zu’s work plan; he had endless tasks but no periodic achievements.

To put it bluntly, he was much like countless office workers: dedicating more time and energy to earn richer rewards, and nothing more.

That’s how it was working behind the scenes in the entertainment industry.

The glamour belonged to the stars, and awards and achievements did not belong to him.

After working hard for a long time, his presence was mostly limited to being a scapegoat when trouble arose and curses were needed.

But Li Yamin career path was clearly laid out; he only needed to be an actor.

He fit the classic image in conventional entertainment novels, with each milestone defined by awards.

Best Newcomer was a small step to success, becoming a Movie King was a big step, and he would later go international, gaining more attention and more honors.

With his extraordinary talent, why shouldn’t he be favored?

He had “suffered so much,” and listened to his agent, his career taking off as a result.

Of course, he should be favored, becoming a male-oriented Long Aotian and a female-oriented charmer.

Now the side character was quitting, and the Long Aotian was perplexed.

Surely, a large portion of readers would also feel uncomfortable.

Empathizing with Li Yamin perspective could satisfy expectations; fame was within reach, and effortless success and renown were so satisfying to watch.

But from Wanshu Zu’s perspective, he had toiled for a long time without quantifiable rewards.

The resources he negotiated were given to others, and he still had to constantly facilitate connections, treating dinner parties as vacations, acting like a fool dressing up someone else’s wedding.

The most unforgivable thing was that he even wanted to dissolve his partnership with the Long Aotian.

The fact was, the market proved what was popular, and Wanshu Zu was not among them.

The Little yellow chicken was almost driven mad.

It couldn’t sit still on the Little black cat’s head, feeling more stifled than the Long Aotian Little chicken.

“My host is not rebellious at all, I’m going back to work! Goodbye!”

The Little yellow chicken dropped a sentence, got off the Little black cat’s head, and rolled back into Chu Zu’s sea of consciousness.

The System never hid anything from its host, but this time it hesitated for a while.

Chu Zu originally had a meeting to attend.

Seeing the reclusive Little chicken in his sea of consciousness, he kept the meeting on hold, letting his employees report first, while squatting in front of the reclusive Little chicken, poking its head with his finger.

“What’s wrong?”

He was very patient, and his tone was gentle.

Coupled with the continuous sound of the meeting from Wanshu Zu’s computer, the Little yellow chicken felt even more wronged.

It didn't want to work anymore; it wanted to run away with its host.

The Superior would regularly serve up some side character chicken soup, saying that without them and the host working together, many characters wouldn't even exist—but this job was really tiring!

Side characters couldn’t be too brilliant; it would make readers suspect the author had “internal character favoritism,” stealing the protagonist’s spotlight and secretly changing the main storyline into a multi-threaded narrative.

Side characters should suffer losses when due, because you’re not popular anyway, and readers prefer you to be a contributor, not a predator.

—Even the concept of predation was defined by other characters; if you took even a small benefit from them, that was predation.

“What’s wrong?”

Chu Zu softened his tone even more, “Did the Little black cat bully you?”

“I wish you would rest well,” the Little yellow chicken said, regardless of whether these words would be written into the system logs and seen by its Superior.

It listened to its inner voice and said, “Work is not a holiday, Host. No one on holiday has to consider so many things… Readers are very unfair to you.”

Chu Zu didn’t speak immediately.

He picked up the Little yellow chicken, placed it on the sofa in his sea of consciousness, and then sat casually on the floor, keeping his gaze level with the Little yellow chicken.

The Little yellow chicken was still very dejected.

It didn’t want its host to worry, so it sat obediently, suppressed its feelings for a long time, and then told Chu Zu about its conversation with the Long Aotian Little chicken.

“This is fair.”

Chu Zu said slowly, “Really, being able to start working is the greatest fairness to me. Do you know where fairness comes from?”

The Little yellow chicken shook its head.

“From the readers.”

Chu Zu’s usually indifferent brows and eyes gently curved into a smile.

“I died suddenly long ago, but I didn’t complete my life. I am a very superficial person, without much awareness. Ancient Greek philosophy held that death was insignificant to humans; I never believed that.”

“You just care about me very much, so you feel it’s unfair, but if there were no readers, I wouldn’t even have the chance to know you.”

The Little yellow chicken retorted: “I know you not because of readers, but because of ‘Side Character Correction’.”

“I don’t think so.”

Chu Zu said, “And readers aren’t as demanding as you think—do you think Wanshu Zu would be well-liked?”

The Little yellow chicken: “Many people in the reader forum like you!”

“Because I don’t appear much, and the few words leave a lot of room for interpretation, people can fill in the character with their own understanding.”

Chu Zu said, “Suppose what the readers saw was a complete Wanshu Zu—”

He enumerated.

“He’s busy every day with things they’re not interested in, doesn’t talk about dreams or love in the entertainment industry, views fans’ love for artists as leverage for profit, and believes paying fans are superior within the entire group… And this is still the part considered ‘reasonable.’”

“There are too many strange things in the entertainment industry, with endless unexpected metaphysical occurrences, without reason or logic.”

“It’s like people find it hard to accept that a powerful artist, whose reputation and ability far surpass traffic stars, has commercial performance fees that are just a fraction of a traffic star in the same tier, considering it absurd. Many things are absurd, but they just happen.”

“Wanshu Zu is one of the driving forces behind this deformed ecosystem.”

Chu Zu asked: “Do you think readers would accept Wanshu Zu in such an environment?”

System: “…”

“Some would, some wouldn’t. There’s nothing to criticize about that; different strokes for different folks. I’m still alive, sitting in front of you; that’s already a bonus. All that needs to be grasped is a certain degree.”

System: “…What degree?”

“Showcase entertainment, skip the boring parts. For example, I won’t tell Xu Qiqi that establishing a studio is actually about optimizing the tax structure.”

Chu Zu smiled, “To put it more bluntly, if the two of them conducted activities in their individual names, personal income tax could be as high as 45%, whereas if they received income under the studio’s name, calculated as operating income tax, the rate would be between 5% and 35%.”

“The protagonist of the main story is walking the right path, still waiting for an opportunity to realize his self-worth. People are always more moved by spiritual pursuits. If these worldly contents appeared early in the main text, the reception would be very risky.”

Chu Zu: “So you must distinguish; don’t treat our lives as the readers’ responsibility. That’s what’s unfair.”

The System’s chicken brain was overloaded; it had been dizzy since the tax rates.

This was also one of the reasons why it often couldn’t help now.

For Wanshu Zu, there were no earth-shattering grand plots, only tedious and boring work.

The host worked swiftly, and it couldn’t even catch up with the learning time before the next task arrived.

The Little yellow chicken heard things it could understand from the long passages of speech.

Before, the Superior spoke, and it listened; now, the host spoke, and it listened.

—The Little yellow chicken was very bad at dealing with things that were difficult to define as black or white.

If something was detrimental to itself and its host, or made it uncomfortable, it considered it wrong, a zone that needed to be debated and argued against, so it would be easier to handle.

But the host blurred many things, treating them as gray areas.

Their thoughts were not on the same dimension at all, but the host was very patient, explaining to it, wanting to make it feel better.

The System also hoped the host would feel better.

The Little yellow chicken slowly said: “You said… you should feel that you are more important…”

“Yes.”

Chu Zu saw that it wasn’t so awkward anymore, and scratched its chin, “So now I want you to do something you really don’t want to do. Can you help me?”

The Little yellow chicken: “What do you want to do?”

Chu Zu thought for a moment: “Didn’t you say that in the same novel, all channels for contacting other systems were shut down, and inter-specialist contact was strictly forbidden?”

The System quickly replied: “I suspect the other side is also on vacation. The author of Entertainment to Death basically doesn’t care about the follow-up of this book.”

“And because we didn’t contact each other subjectively due to a mission, we weren’t forbidden… it should be like that.”

Otherwise, with enough intent, if systems contacted each other one by one, those that couldn't be reached would be the specialist systems from the same book.

It would actually be possible to establish contact through elimination.

Chu Zu smiled: “Then you help me contact the other system and say—”

He said, “I know he recognized me. I don’t need him to make concessions; he should only be responsible for his character.”

The System was bewildered: “What? Recognized what?”

“Every time, the appearance is similar to the person himself, so it’s easy to recognize.”

Chu Zu sighed, “Otherwise, how do you think a good brother like Marcus Li, who is one in a million, came about? And how did my trust fund and industry connections come about?”

The System: “Wasn’t it because Li Yamin just happened to bring them to you… No, you know him too?”

Chu Zu: “You could say I do.”

He poked the Little yellow chicken, “Tell him to stop slacking off; a Long Aotian shouldn’t slack off. I don’t want to see a dejected Li Yamin either.”

The Little yellow chicken was utterly confused, tidying itself up, and planning to go find the other Little chicken to gather intelligence.

Who?

Which other “Long Aotian Correction” specialist could the host know?

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