Chapter 1676 - 680: You Don’t Know Me Well Enough

Chapter 1676: Chapter 680: You Don’t Know Me Well Enough

After the first-class passengers left on their exclusive shuttle, passengers from the economy class of flight CA1885 began to disembark as well.

Among the passengers, two men appeared quite suspicious, frequently glancing around and keeping their distance from the crowd. The younger man held tightly onto a small bag as if it contained some priceless treasure.

"Master, why didn’t we fly first class? I’ve never experienced VIP treatment in my life... And I hear first class has special transportation and doesn’t make you wait this long after landing."

As they queued to board the shuttle bus, the younger man couldn’t help but complain.

"Ever heard of ’spend wisely, save wisely’?"

The elder nicknamed "Fumo" within the industry scoffed while chastising his apprentice, "First class costs two thousand yuan more than economy class, and those two thousand yuan could get you four massages in a major city, maybe even a little extra for a special room..."

These two were the paparazzi duo who had secretly photographed Xia Xiwei and Miss Di’s conversation in Hengdian.

After getting "a bombshell scoop," Fumo didn’t hesitate to leave Hengdian Film City with his apprentice and head straight to Beidou.

For professionals like them, there are generally three ways to handle such a "big scoop."

The first method is to locate the involved parties and have them pay a certain amount to redeem the information while he and his apprentice sign a "sky-high" confidentiality agreement and take the money.

Every year, many leaks in the entertainment circle disappear quietly through such means.

This method’s advantages include low risk and quick returns, and generally, the involved parties would begrudgingly accept it if it’s not too overboard. If handled well, it could even foster good relations.

But the downside is that it doesn’t bring fame and could harm long-term career prospects.

Moreover, demanding too much can backfire, and disputes over trust often lead to failed negotiations.

The second method is "multiple sales."

This involves simultaneously contacting multiple influential entertainment media and individual bloggers, selling the same scoop to them at different prices. How those media handle the scoop and who publishes it first isn’t their concern.

The advantage is gaining quick fame, and the funds gather quickly too. However, selling to multiple parties means the unit price won’t go too high, and it’s quite a hassle... every negotiation takes time, not to mention the subsequent haggling.

Therefore, as a seasoned paparazzo, Fumo, after careful consideration, decided to adopt the third method, the most reliable one... "single sale."

In short, this means an "exclusive scoop."

This method allows for the highest unit price because there are very few media outlets capable of buying exclusives in the industry, and they never skimp on such budgets. Moreover, these media outlets backed by huge capital can quickly help him gain fame.

However, selling an exclusive requires careful choice of whom to sell it to.

To be cautious, Fumo eventually chose "Today’s Headlines," a subsidiary of Douyin Group, with whom he had collaborated over a year ago.

Before Douyin’s rise, Sina Entertainment was in control of Weibo, leveraging its social platform advantage to serve as the central hub for news dissemination in the Chinese entertainment scene. Years ago, Fumo would have definitely prioritized cooperation with Sina.

But times have changed.

Since Douyin burst onto the scene, evolving into a nationwide entertainment platform, its parent company ByteDance has built an "entertainment empire" covering the entire industry chain through its vast product matrix and investment layout, surpassing any single entertainment media in influence and penetration.

And under Douyin Group, Today’s Headlines is resourceful, well-backed, and not short on funds. To capture the entertainment domain long dominated by Sina, they’d spare no expense, making them Fumo’s best choice.

A year or so ago, when he exposed the coming out news of that young idol, he already reaped benefits from "Headlines" and established a good personal relationship with an associate editor in their editorial department.

Thus, after leaving Hengdian and arriving in Beidou, Fumo promptly contacted the associate editor at "Headlines" and disclosed some information.

However... the subsequent developments puzzled Fumo.

The associate editor indeed valued his scoop, and after meeting Fumo, he hurried back to the company, claiming he needed to report to the editor-in-chief.

This was normal, as the transaction involving at least seven figures was evidently beyond an associate editor’s purview, and they’d need an internal discussion to decide on a suitable price.

But to Fumo’s utmost surprise, the associate editor went off and simply vanished.

After waiting in a Beidou hotel for a day, an impatient Fumo was about to contact the associate editor again when he unexpectedly received another call.

What astonished Fumo the most was that the caller’s surname was Qiu, claiming to be the HR director of Douyin Group.

Notably, it was Douyin Group, not "Today’s Headlines."

Fumo was baffled, unable to comprehend why this matter caught the attention of the group’s higher-ups. Although the scoop was explosive within the entertainment circle, on a higher capital level, it was merely a trifling affair.