This celebrity became even more popular after being exposed of having multiple girlfriends
Chapter 479 - 350

Chapter 479: Chapter 350

Everyone seemed to be deep in thought when another commotion came from outside.

A middle-aged man with a beer belly, carrying a baby, walked down the main hall stairs, followed by a young woman with a helpless look on her face.

Seeing the two people coming down the stairs, the guests in the main hall gathered around them immediately.

Seeing this scene, even without anyone saying anything, Wu Mu immediately knew that this must be the owner of this place, the vice-chairman of the Film Association, Qiao Xin, and his daughter.

After greeting him briefly, the guests did not linger and dispersed sensibly.

While Yang Rongfa, who was still in the main hall, approached the middle-aged man with a beer belly, pointing in Wu Mu’s direction and whispering something to him.

The middle-aged man with the beer belly then glanced in Wu Mu’s direction and started walking towards him with his daughter.

In the small reception room, everyone immediately stood up.

The bald man with the cotton beret, who had completely ignored Wu Mu’s arrival earlier and continued his conversation, also immediately stopped talking and stood up to wait for the man to arrive.

"Chairman Qiao, is this your grandson?"

"He’s really cute, just like your daughter. He’ll definitely grow up to be a handsome guy."

"Haha, Old Qiao, why not sign your grandson to my company? With some packaging, he could debut as a big celebrity."

"Xiaotong, you work fast, your son is already a hundred days old. My daughter was just complaining a few days ago that she doesn’t have time to hang out with you anymore."

Sure enough, it’s Qiao Xin, the host here.

Many people in the small reception room seemed to know the middle-aged man with a beer belly and his daughter very well, greeting them warmly.

Qiao Xin, too, didn’t immediately greet Wu Mu but instead cheerfully showed off his grandson to the prominent filmmakers and directors present, chatting with them.

After making his rounds, he finally looked at Wu Mu.

With a kind and friendly attitude, he said, "You must be Wu Mu, you indeed look impressive."

Wu Mu also knew how to exchange pleasantries. He looked at the small baby asleep in Qiao Xin’s arms and said sincerely, "Chairman Qiao, your grandson will definitely be more handsome than me when he grows up."

Ordinarily, such words would be just polite, but when Wu Mu said it, Qiao Xin paused for half a second and then laughed heartily, "That would be great, he could really become a big celebrity."

Although Vice-chairman Qiao Xin was friendly, he didn’t seem overly intimate.

However, his daughter didn’t take her eyes off Wu Mu from the moment she arrived.

After Qiao Xin finished greeting everyone, his daughter excitedly said, "Hello, Mr. Wu Mu, I’m a fan of yours, I really love your songs."

Afraid that Wu Mu might not believe her, she quickly added, "I follow you on Weibo."

Concerned it wasn’t enough, she continued, "I even bought that robot dog you sold before."

That made it quite convincing—she was indeed a fan, and a loyal one at that.

Speaking of which, although Wu Mu himself seldom sees fan activities online, except for some obvious Korean fans, he can’t be sure if he even has fans.

But offline, it seems like wherever he goes, he often runs into his fans, and there seem to be quite a few of them.

And many of them are wealthy... He strongly suspects that the Performance Card system secretly pushes him more towards wealthy individuals to redeem the cards.

Wu Mu responded somewhat courteously, "Listening to my songs is fine, but you don’t need to buy things. I don’t really need fans to support me in that way."

Qiao Xin’s daughter, however, didn’t care much, "It’s okay, it wasn’t expensive. I bought it for my husband, he likes it a lot."

Hmm, so they heard, it wasn’t like he was ripping people off. It wasn’t expensive, and they genuinely liked it.

The Performance Card can’t brainwash or hypnotize, at most it increases exposure. Seeing that she didn’t mind, Wu Mu didn’t push further.

Qiao Xin’s daughter seemed to be a real fan of Wu Mu, and after chatting eagerly with him for a few more minutes, she hesitated for a moment before turning around to introduce the people in the small reception room, "Mr. Wu Mu, I heard you rarely attend gatherings. Let me introduce you to Uncle Tang and the others."

This action clearly made everyone in the small reception room a bit uncomfortable.

Her father didn’t even make introductions, and here she, meeting for the first time and already married, was eagerly introducing him?

The people around looked at Wu Mu with strange expressions—does this guy attract rich women that much?

Wu Mu himself was a bit taken aback.

He had no intention of networking for resources. If others wanted to befriend him, he wouldn’t push them away. But clearly, they considered themselves higher in status, unlikely to engage him in equal dialogue, so he didn’t bother.

However, since a fan kindly offered an introduction, Wu Mu didn’t want to make things awkward.

"This is Uncle Tang, Director Tang Wei."

"Hello, Director Tang."

Tang Wei was the bald man with the knitted beret earlier. Introduced by Qiao Xin’s daughter, he smiled warmly, "I know Wu Mu, no need for introductions, Xiaotong. He’s been very popular in the industry recently. I even considered inviting him to be the male lead in my next film."

Inviting me to be the male lead?

Just polite words, nothing serious.

Wu Mu didn’t mind.

"This is Uncle Xie, Director Xie Chunfang."

"Hello, Director Xie."

They were all accomplished and renowned old-generation directors, names that come to mind when discussing domestic directors.

Xie Chunfang’s name had a delicate ring to it, yet he was a tall and burly man, standing a head taller than Wu Mu. He nodded kindly at Wu Mu, "I saw your performance in Wang Ren’s show, very good. Just now, we were discussing the decline in box office and the industry downturn. What do you think, Wu Mu?"

"I don’t know much about these things, not much research." Wu Mu replied modestly.

Xie Chunfang didn’t mind, "That’s fine, just chatting casually. We’d also like to hear the perspective of younger stars in our industry."

Seeing he genuinely wanted to listen and not just making small talk.

Wu Mu thought for a moment. Although he had not thought deeply about the issue, having been a celebrity for over half a year, he had some exposure.

Even as an outsider, one could somewhat grasp why box office earnings were declining.

He organized his thoughts, "Personally, I think there are many reasons, the old issues like short video impact, audiences spending time on short videos and movie commentary videos. Reduced ticket subsidies, higher prices aside, the main issue is the over-commercialization of movies now."

Wu Mu shared his genuine thoughts, "The importance of content and storytelling is overemphasized. Although everyone talks about it, there’s a tendency to treat it as a slogan. Actions don’t quite match the words."

"From the start, a movie’s budget goes into hiring water armies, buying trending topics, hyping directors and actors. With all these overwhelming promotional tactics, the commercialization process is overly sophisticated and emphasized. Though it doesn’t mean movies ignore storytelling, the ease of making high box office returns without good stories makes it hard to focus on strong narratives."

Over-commercialization?

The audience couldn’t help but glance at the few major company heads present.

Wu Mu’s viewpoint wasn’t new; it’s often found online.

But stating it in this setting... he certainly dared to say it.