After Chairman Bai made his decision, Lihua rejected Shenghuang's contract termination negotiations and adopted a delaying tactic.
Upon learning this, Feng Xuanqi calmly replied, "If you're not going to talk, it means you're not planning to release him. Have you investigated Xu Zifan's detailed situation at Lihua?"
"It's been investigated, Mr. Feng." The assistant stepped forward and briefly summarized the unfair treatment Xu Zifan received at Lihua, which artist he was at odds with, and Xu Zifan's own attitude toward the matter.
Feng Xuanqi nodded. "Li Hua doesn't want to let him go but can't keep him either. He'll definitely ruin Xu Zifan. Keep a close eye on him and handle this matter properly. I want Xu Zifan to come here as a key trainee. He can't have any blemishes on his record. I hope we can resolve this before he comes back from filming."
"Also, prepare Xu Zifan's contract, S-level. As for his agent... compile a list of the current situations of the company's top three agents and give it to me. Let him decide who to work with for now. Create a packaging plan and future development strategy for him, including a list of potential resources and a success rate assessment. Give it to me tomorrow. Also, prepare his apartment and vehicle. Since we're going to spend manpower and resources to snatch him from Lihua, we need to cultivate him with maximum effort. We can't waste his value. The Holy Emperor doesn't do unprofitable deals, understand?"
"Understood, Mr. Feng. I'll get to work now."
"Um."
Feng Xuanqi's personal pronouncement was taken seriously by his subordinates, who kept a close eye on online comments about Xu Zifan and also kept a close watch on Li Hua's movements. Sure enough, in the early hours of the morning, negative information about Xu Zifan appeared online. It was clearly written with great effort by the public relations department. Even without evidence, it would shake people's confidences and make them wonder if Xu Zifan had done the things described in the article.
Delinquent youths, smoking and fighting, tricking young girls into abortions, drug use, prostitution, gambling away all savings, etc.—the dirtier the better.
Saint Emperor's public relations department quickly quelled these rumors. Lihua, as an established company, was strong, but lacked drive and its fighting power was far inferior to the rising and striving Saint Emperor. In this confrontation, Saint Emperor prevailed, winning in a single night on this battlefield without bloodshed. Lihua's methods made absolutely no difference.
Xu Zifan was on a different time zone than Yanjing on the island. When Li Hua was criticizing him, his group had just arrived on the deserted island and were preparing to start surviving.
Shao Hua kept a close eye on the online situation and immediately informed him if anything seemed amiss. Xu Zifan took a look and, finding the Holy Emperor to be very helpful, decided not to take action himself, but instead had Shao Hua continue monitoring and help the Holy Emperor identify and correct any inappropriate content.
Shaohua has access to the global internet and possesses certain hacking skills, allowing her to move freely online. With her secretly helping Shenghuang, Lihua lost completely, and her attempt to hack Xu Zifan using this method failed entirely.
Xu Zifan confidently led everyone on the island to find water. This time, the island had very few resources; it was truly deserted, making it much more difficult than the last time. He wasn't even asked to bring any seasonings; they had to rely on themselves for everything. Even the trees were much taller, with only thick trunks and no branches, making it impossible to cut them down to build a hut. Even chopping firewood and starting a fire became extremely difficult.
The production team had gone to great lengths to make things difficult for them, but to everyone's surprise, Xu Zifan found a cave that looked to be about ten square meters, more than enough to accommodate the six of them. He then found some animal droppings to start a fire, and instead of smelling bad, it smelled like fresh grass. Everyone was amazed and impressed, and even the two newcomers were won over, completely following Xu Zifan's orders and making him the team leader.
Where there are animals, there is bound to be water. Xu Zifan followed the footprints to find the water source. The group got confused at times, as there were some places where they could see no footprints at all. But Xu Zifan could tell that they were different from other places and found the right direction. After half an hour, he actually found the water source.
With fire, water, and a cave, everyone felt completely at ease. They had complete confidence in Xu Zifan regarding food. Then, Xu Zifan dived into the sea and didn't come up for a long time. When he finally came up, he was holding a large fish weighing over ten kilograms, which had been pierced through by a sharp spear.
This spear is the tool that Xu Zifan brought to the island this time. He has cultivated it and it is very easy to catch fish with it. It is also easy to attract fish by releasing a drop of spiritual spring water.
He sliced sashimi for them, each slice very thin. This fish was also unique; the flesh was not very colored, and after being sliced thinly, it looked somewhat transparent. You could vaguely see the other side through the sashimi. The group played with it together for a while before starting to eat.
Xu Zifan found the leaves of an edible tree. The leaves themselves had a strong taste and were not very tasty, but after wrapping them with sashimi and putting them in his mouth, the taste of the leaves and the fishy smell of the sashimi were actually neutralized. He could only taste the tenderness of the meat and the texture of the vegetables. The group sat in a circle and ate quickly, as if they were eating a delicious Japanese meal.
They also grilled some fish fillets. The fish fillets were thin, and the fishy smell was almost gone after grilling. It was a pity they didn't have any seasonings. It would have tasted better if they had been wrapped in leaves.
The production crew gathered outside the cave to film them. The planners looked at each other, feeling that this challenge was a bit too easy. They had found all sorts of important things on the first day and gotten through it safely. It seemed that they would have to make the next challenge more difficult.
However, the transformation of the cabin into a cave and the seafood feast into sashimi is already quite novel. Xu Zifan leading them to track animals, go fishing in the sea, and the harmonious teamwork are all very interesting aspects, and there's no problem filming it.
Xu Zifan had done similar variety shows before and knew what the audience liked to watch, so he didn't make things difficult for the production team. He deliberately increased the difficulty of finding supplies each day to showcase...
They demonstrated their teamwork spirit, with the six of them working together to survive, and they also interacted with each other by throwing and catching jokes.
Chen Zaimin said with satisfaction, "The youngest son is much more cheerful now, and he's more talkative than last time."
Xu Zifan smiled meaningfully and said, "Because everyone is easy to get along with, I relaxed without even realizing it."
The implication is that the two who left were difficult to get along with. The group was busy finding supplies and didn't pay attention, but Xu Zifan believed that the audience would definitely see the difference. After eliminating the two discordant individuals, they are now truly a team.
Xu Zifan didn't forget about the food either. In fact, with his world-class culinary skills, as long as there are ingredients, it will be delicious no matter how he cooks it. The island is so big, there are always some things to go with the seasoning. Although the food looked simpler than last time, everyone ate very happily. You could tell from the camera that they were eating delicious food.
After filming for two days, the production team provided them with an abandoned fishing boat. The boat was quite large and dilapidated, decorated as if it were one of the ships that had been blown ashore by the waves after an accident, as if it contained treasure, attracting them to explore.
Of course, we had to go to this extra dungeon, but it happened to be overcast and rainy, which made the atmosphere a little scary. The group had very different personalities; some were timid, some were afraid of heights, some loved to chatter, and some loved to joke around. Their exploration on the ship together was full of laughs, turning some of the scary parts into comedic moments. Xu Zifan was the center of their interaction, catching every joke perfectly. His comedic talent was overflowing, showing everyone another side of him.
Exploring for treasure is like opening Pandora's box; the curiosity will keep the audience watching. They gradually move from bow to stern, slowly unveiling all the mysteries. They find a usable pot, some seasonings, a teapot and teacups, and other odds and ends. Back in the cave, they set it up, and it instantly becomes a cozy campsite. Watching them evokes a sense of accomplishment and happiness.
Xu Zifan also repaired the broken fishing gear on the boat and took everyone fishing after the rain stopped. With seasonings, they could cook more things, and that night they had a sumptuous seafood feast, including a soft-shelled turtle. The production crew watched with their mouths watering and regretted giving them the broken boat.
But the process of creating something from scratch was incredibly fulfilling. The director was extremely satisfied with the sample footage and decided that Xu Zifan would have another chance to showcase his culinary skills at the next location.
We spent one day filming on the exploration boat, and another day filming the island's food preparation, thus concluding our desert island trip. There weren't any particularly unusual or exotic foods this time, just an abundance of seafood. We ate ten meals over four days, varying the seafood dishes in every way. It could easily be considered a seafood special, no less delicious than the last time, and perhaps even a fatal temptation for seafood lovers!
After returning to the city, Xu Zifan finally asked Shao Hua about the company's situation. Shenghuang was very helpful, doing an excellent job in all public relations, and even spreading the word that Lihua was sidelined by Xu Zifan, giving him no resources except for "Survival on a Desert Island".
If other things are hard to believe without solid evidence, this one immediately ignited the fans' anger.
They've been searching everywhere for Xu Zifan's work lately, but apart from "Survival on a Desert Island," there are only his past shows. Xu Zifan is currently not active at all, and fans have nowhere to go to see their idol.
Fans were already confused, so how could they not be furious upon seeing this news? They flocked to Lihua's official Weibo account demanding an explanation. Xu Zifan is so popular right now, why isn't the company giving him resources? And when Xu Zifan was being attacked online before, the company didn't do any public relations work. In fact, if you count them, a large portion of the artists who were trying to discredit Xu Zifan were from Lihua.
What is Li Hua doing? Is he bullying Xu Zifan?
Shaohua used hacking techniques to delete all the comments from Lihua's online army, protecting Shenghuang's online army. The news that Xu Zifan was being sidelined spread wider and wider. On the contrary, Lihua's counterattack was helpless. They could only issue an official statement saying that no one was bullying Xu Zifan and that the company's resources were distributed fairly. They only did not arrange other activities because Xu Zifan was too tired from filming "Survival on a Desert Island".
It also subtly implied that Xu Zifan wanted to switch jobs as soon as he became a little famous, and that he was ungrateful and treacherous towards his former employer.
After reading through the online updates, Xu Zifan found several master tapes from the archived hard drives of the programs the original owner had filmed. He made a comparison video between the improperly edited footage and the master tapes, took many screenshots of the online comments from those artists who had criticized the original owner and the program team who had wronged her, and also made a comparison chart of Li Hua's resource distribution among the artists. He then posted these images online using different alternate accounts.
With Shaohua watching, no one could delete it, and public relations were useless. Lihua could only watch helplessly as these revelations spread rapidly and convened an emergency meeting to discuss solutions.