The next day at 8 AM, while everyone was eating breakfast, they suddenly received a call from Xu Baichuan saying the new boss wanted to meet them—all five should return to the company for a meeting.
Xiao Fei asked puzzledly: “Why does the big boss suddenly want to see us?”
Tan Junwen smiled: “New officials light three fires when taking office. President Zhou just became CEO—of course he needs to talk with employees individually, both to appease emotions and establish his authority.”
Mo Xun urged quietly: “Eat quickly, don’t be late.”
He paused, then suddenly said: “Also, if President Zhou brings up contract issues, I hope everyone can maintain a united front—don’t renew.”
All four were stunned.
Mo Xun said seriously: “Most idols sign eight-year minimums, but our contracts are five years—something Brother Xu and I fought hard to negotiate, precisely so everyone could have more choices in the future.”
“President Zhou might promise us better terms to persuade renewal and contract changes, but with current high-level changes and management personnel switches, our development path planning is completely uncertain. Renewing now would be a huge trap—don’t be blinded by immediate benefits.”
Hearing this, Fang Yinnian couldn’t help but admire Mo Xun’s foresight. He nodded: “Exactly. President Zhou is very calculating—his promises can’t be fully trusted. Everyone be cautious.”
Tang Che nodded: “Understood.”
Tan Junwen smiled: “Got it.”
Xiao Fei said actively: “I don’t understand these things—I’ll listen to Brother Mo.”
At 9 AM, the five followed their assistant to Company Building A’s top floor, walking through a spacious corridor before stopping at the CEO office.
The assistant knocked and brought them inside: “President Zhou, all five FTM members are here.”
Inside was an enormous executive desk with a wall of bookshelves behind it and a row of leather sofas nearby.
270-degree floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the most beautiful river views below—an excellent vista that would surely provide a sense of achievement while working here.
Sheng Yao’s new CEO Zhou Haoran smiled and waved upon seeing them: “Come, come, sit down. Xiao Zhang, pour tea for the handsome guys.”
Assistant Zhang turned to pour five cups of tea and serve them.
Zhou Haoran continued smiling: “This is premium Longjing tea I got from a friend—everyone try it.”
The five nervously sipped their tea.
Fang Yinnian didn’t understand tea, but this cup had a fragrant taste—definitely good tea. Not wanting to be rude, everyone carefully sipped small amounts.
Seeing their restraint, Zhou Haoran smiled: “No need to be nervous. On Golden Song Award day, I even drank with Mo Xun and Junwen. We can get along like friends, just like that day.”
Mo Xun: “…”
Friends my ass! That celebration banquet you barely drank while forcibly getting us drunk. They say “liquor reveals character”—Mo Xun had seen through this smiling tiger’s hypocrisy that day.
Mo Xun smiled: “President Zhou, you’re too kind. You called us here today—is there something specific?”
Zhou Haoran cleared his throat: “It’s like this. CEO Zhao resigned for personal reasons, and now I’m in charge of the company. Don’t worry—FTM is Sheng Yao’s heavily promoted boy group. The company will continue providing resource support to take you to the next level.”
“You’ve seen the new variety show contracts, right? I discussed with Old Xu before booking them for you. One regular spot each, doubling income.”
“The second half will also bring more commercial work. I guarantee your income this year will be at least double last year’s.”
“Additionally, August 18th marks your two-year debut anniversary. I want to organize an internal fan meeting for direct fan interaction—no ticket fees, just a benefit for fans.”
The five exchanged surprised glances.
Splitting them up for variety shows, then organizing a free anniversary fan meeting—was this a slap followed by a sweet treat?
Mo Xun asked: “For the fan meeting, if there are no ticket fees, the company pays venue rental costs, right? Thank you, President Zhou.”
Zhou Haoran waved dismissively: “Small matter. You earned so much for Sheng Yao last year—the company’s willing to spend this money on you.”
If Mo Xun hadn’t warned them this morning, they might have thought the new boss was a very good person upon hearing this.
But now, with mental preparation, all five felt uncomfortable… sensing President Zhou’s many benefits came with ulterior motives.
Sure enough, the next moment Zhou Haoran said: “Your contracts are all five years, right? Want to consider renewing now?”
All five: “…”
Holy crap! Brother Mo was absolutely prophetic!
Tan Junwen glanced at Mo Xun, smiling: “President Zhou, why suddenly bring up renewal?”
President Zhou said frankly: “Other idol boy groups sign eight-year minimums—your five years is too short. For your long-term development, how about changing to ten years? The company could cultivate you more confidently.”
“Sheng Yao provides more resource support for ten-year contract artists. Look at Xie Shiqi—because of her ten-year contract, the company made her a music diva with stable status, even able to hold world tours.”
“If you sign ten years, I promise to absolutely make you domestic entertainment’s number one, even world’s number one group!”
“Then forget national concert tours—world tours would be easy. Our Sheng Yao overseas business is very mature. Later we can record English albums preparing for world tours. Don’t you want to hold concerts in international cities like Tokyo, New York, Paris?”
All five: “…”
Really knew how to paint rosy pictures. That was years away—who knew when it could be realized?
“If willing to renew, the original 80-20 split could become 70-30—you’d earn millions or even tens of millions more each year.”
“How about it? Consider it.”
The middle-aged man behind the executive desk smiled warmly with kind attitude, his eyes showing cunning confidence. As if he were a great benefactor thinking of FTM’s future—with him around, FTM would definitely explode in popularity.
But ten years with 70-30 splits?!
Did he think they were idiots?!
Mo Xun said very decisively: “President Zhou, our original contracts are five years. We don’t want to rush renewal—let’s continue with original contracts. If the company truly treats us well, we can consider renewing then.”
Fang Yinnian immediately agreed: “Exactly. I also think changing to 70-30 splits and ten years is unnecessary. Better to continue 80-20 for five years, then renegotiate during renewal.”
Tan Junwen squinted: “Right, President Zhou treats us so well—we’d definitely prioritize renewal consideration then.”
Tang Che said: “I also think discussing at expiration is better.”
Fu Fei scratched his head: “I think the same as my brothers.”
Zhou Haoran: “…”
Had they planned this in advance? He’d never expected that despite offering so many good conditions, these five kids would be extremely firm without wavering.
Zhou Haoran frowned but quickly masked his displeasure, sighing with feigned sadness: “Sigh, seems you still don’t trust me.”
Mo Xun said politely: “President Zhou, that’s not true—we certainly believe in your abilities and trust you’ll continue helping FTM. It’s just that ten years is too long—we can’t accept it immediately.”
Fang Yinnian agreed: “Yes, let’s continue with five years—renewing then would be the same.”
Xu Baichuan remained silent throughout.
Because Mo Xun’s original contract was personally negotiated with legal affairs, he clearly knew Mo Xun’s future plans involved transitioning to film and TV. So Mo Xun would absolutely never renew with Sheng Yao.
Sheng Yao had no film/TV resources. For roles Mo Xun auditioned for himself, Sheng Yao only needed to stamp approval yet could take 80% of acting fees while Mo Xun worked hard filming for three months but only got 20%.
Why work for the company for free?
As long as Mo Xun firmly refused signing, Xu Baichuan guessed others wouldn’t easily renew either. Captain Mo Xun had great authority in FTM—everyone called him “Brother Mo” and truly treated him like a brother, willing to listen to him.
Xu Baichuan smiled, smoothing things over: “President Zhou, let’s discuss contracts later. They’re still young and unclear about future development—directly signing ten years would definitely make them nervous. I’ll persuade them later.”
President Zhou had to take the offered out: “Fine, this matter isn’t urgent—there’s still time before expiration, we can discuss slowly later. You can go back now. Management changes won’t affect your status or popularity.”
“I’ve assigned five assistants who’ll separately follow up with you and accompany your new variety show recordings. Relax.”
All five stood up: “Thank you, President Zhou.”
Xu Baichuan waved: “You go wait for me at Building B recording studio.”
The five immediately left.
Reaching the recording studio, everyone finally relaxed slightly.
Fu Fei quickly locked the door and gave Mo Xun a thumbs up: “Brother Mo, you’re practically a prophet! He actually brought up contracts?”
Mo Xun smiled helplessly: “New officials taking office are eager to achieve results—binding promising artists to the company is the fastest method. Not just us—other artists were definitely called back for talks too.”
He paused: “Also, since he’s assigning five assistants, everyone be careful—people around us might not be reliable.”
Tan Junwen ran fingers through his slightly messy hair: “You’re worried his assigned assistants will watch us and find dirt on us?”
Mo Xun said: “Exactly. Once they catch our weaknesses, we’ll have to renew even if we don’t want to. The company could also suppress our treatment to extremely low levels—we’d lose negotiating initiative.”
Everyone: “…”
The entertainment industry was so complicated.
Though their debut process was hasty, it had been relatively smooth. They hadn’t expected so many scheming politics after becoming popular.
Indeed, businessmen prioritized profit. Driven by interests, various demons and monsters jumped out one after another.
Mo Xun instructed: “Everyone focus on recording shows. As long as we don’t do wrong things ourselves, weaknesses aren’t so easily found.”
Everyone nodded in unison.
Moments later, Xu Baichuan arrived holding a stack of sheet music for the five: “These are songs Yinnian wrote. Practice them these days and sing at the fan meeting. We’ll also release a single on the 18th celebrating FTM’s two-year debut anniversary—President Zhou approved it.”
“Excellent!” Fang Yinnian was very happy his songs could officially meet fans—this should be the best news recently.
Xu Baichuan paused: “Yinnian, your other solo singles were rejected by President Zhou. He said don’t rush—accumulate songs and release an album when you officially go solo.”
Fang Yinnian lowered his head: “Okay, I understand.”
Mo Xun saw obvious disappointment flash in Yinnian’s eyes, his heart aching slightly, not knowing what to say.
Yinnian had been working hard writing songs with many works recently, eagerly wanting to share with everyone.
But company planning didn’t allow solo releases—he could only sing quietly to himself and listen alone.
Domestic entertainment’s full-contract artists had no “freedom.” What songs to sing, what variety shows to join, what dramas to film—everything required company arrangement.
In this moment, Mo Xun especially yearned to have sufficient ability to establish their own studio.
He wanted to create a space for Fang Yinnian where he could sing whatever he wanted, release singles whenever he chose.
When not wanting to sing, he could rest at home. He wouldn’t force Yinnian to do anything or let him suffer any grievances.
But… that day was still far away.
They currently lacked such capability.
Mo Xun looked away, saying quietly: “Alright, everyone cheer up and practice. These are Yinnian’s songs—let’s sing them well.”
Hearing this, everyone immediately perked up, sitting before music stands to seriously study the scores.
***
The following week all five practiced songs while preparing for new variety show recordings in their spare time.
August 18th—FTM’s two-year anniversary celebration.
The Sheng Yao-organized benefit activity—FTM fan meeting—was held as scheduled in Jiangzhou. The company found them a small 10,000-capacity stadium with all tickets distributed via online lottery to FTM fans, including local Jiangzhou residents and many who flew in from elsewhere.
Some entertainment industry stars charged for birthday parties, so the company’s “free tickets” approach genuinely built goodwill, receiving considerable external praise.
Online buzz included: “Heard Sheng Yao changed bosses—definitely more generous with FTM now!”
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
