Chapter 198: The Reason for Invitation
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The entertainment industry was a vanity fair. The original intention of the Peeza Star Charity Night was for charity, for example to help poor students in poverty-stricken provinces to get to school; to improve the lives of helpless orphans; to provide medical treatments for the sick and poor children; to purchase ambulances to improve medical conditions in underdeveloped areas; and much more. The Peeza Star Charity Night, held 18 years in a row, had ama.s.sed billions of dollars of donations and had definitely helped many people.
However, charity events such as this carried the word “Star.” Many A, B or C-list celebrities would partake in this event. It would thus attract the attention of countless netizens and the fandoms of those celebrities, bringing forth huge flow rates of attention. The attention this event had was extremely high. This was, of course, a good thing. After all, those celebrities were gathered for charity. They would act as exemplary models for their fans. Their fans would emulate their virtue, learn to give out their love and make small contributions to charity themselves. In the end, this world would eventually become a beautiful world full of love.
But as good as original intentions were, things often ended up the other way around!
There was a netizen that pointed out three major faults of the Peeza Charity Night. The first one was disorder. As a ma.s.sive gathering for celebrities and socialites, the Peeza Charity Night gave others the vibes of enn.o.blement. It might be because of the excessive amounts of celebrities attending the event, the lack of proper flow arrangement and even an essential plan itself that rendered the site in chaos. Whether it was the celebrity or the organizer, they all wished to properly represent themselves via the charity night, but who would have known that the event would become an antic in the eyes of the audiences. There were so many super celebs and each and every one of them were stars themselves. They all had their designated place and rankings within the entertainment field. Logically speaking, the organizer should have roughly arranged where all of them should be positioned prior to the event. But during photography sessions later, all kinds of mess occurred on their positioning, and so, negative news such as scheming, celebrities stealing the spotlight, and many others emerged.
The second one was exploitation. In the Peeza Charity Night, every year, there would be some celebs that went to the event but held their pockets so tight that they could not even take out a single cent. There were netizens that a.n.a.lyzed the situation and discovered that those celebrities partook in the charity night just to step on the red carpet and to show their faces in front of the media. Those kind of people were thus labeled as the exploiters. Honestly speaking, the public had not much of an opinion towards celebrities donating for charity. Whether they donated or not, they could not instill their so-called morality on others. However, the awkward thing was that partic.i.p.ating in the charity night itself was meant for people to do charity work, but there were some celebrities that still refused to seize the opportunity in such an event to donate to charity and earn some kudos for themselves; they just happily faced the camera but fussily held on to their money pouches, and that really showed that they were very low.
The third would be the so-called center position. During the photography session after the celebrities that came to the event finished donating, there were some principles that should be followed on where each of them should be positioned, especially the most important center position. Usually, the ones that should be standing there would be the celebs with the highest popularity. The problem was that there was a rod scale in everyone’s heart about who was the most popular. The organizers had their own way of arranging them, whereas for the fandom of a certain celebrity, their idol would be the one who was the most popular for them and he or she should be standing in the center position. Even if the celebrities themselves did not go for the position, their fans would. Therefore, they would rebuke the organizer or other celebrities that took the spot, and in the end kindle a catfight on the internet.
For female celebs, whoever they stood with, talked with, gazed at, looked upon with disdain, lifted their brows at, or smirked at, any of these would be sought as a big play in the eyes of the media. For most of the time, the media would create headcanons by adding on dramas and attempting to interpret what were they thinking on the inside. And so, news and gossip was born and the fandom of those celebrities would go ham on each other again.
A good old charity night thus became a place for the celebs to fight for fame and fortune. The event was transformed into a large compet.i.tion, thus completely altering its nature. One could catch sight of “the helter-skelter of the entertainment industry.”
Logically speaking, it was totally unnecessary for Chen Jin to attend such a charity night. It had no meaning at all, and he would only find repugnance. Although he would be able to see many celebrities that appeared on television, he was so big of a person and had such high net worth, people would mock him if he was still fanboying over someone! The celebs should be the ones becoming his fandom… Chen Jin did realize that a few female celebs in the A-list followed his personal Weibo account. Moreover, they frequently forwarded his posts and tried to engage with him, but Chen Jin ignored them all.
Now, however, he accepted the organizer’s invitation to partic.i.p.ate in the 19th Peeza Star Charity Night. But why? Why did he nod his head and agree to do so? Because in the Peeza Charity Night that would be held, the two products that the organizers prepared to donate were all Xing Hai Technologies’ products.
The first one was a “full medical version” Bang Bang robot. The family mode was sc.r.a.pped, and its medical capabilities were enhanced. The robot’s thoracic area became an electronic microscope with magnification levels of x5000 and its functions were even better than that of the deluxe edition of the robot. It was priced at $69,999 dollars per unit. The donations collected by the organizers would be used to purchase the “full medical version” Bang Bang robot which would be used to improve the medical level in poor areas.
The second one was the “Little Star learning machine.” The donations made by the celebrities could also be used to purchase the Little Star leaning machine priced at $8,800 dollars per unit, which would be donated to schools in poverty areas. The school can then “loan” the machine to teachers or students to improve local teaching standards and ensure fair education. Not only was the Little Star learning machine able to improve the student’s academic results, but it could also increase the teaching standards of teachers. Apparently, within the Z nation, the proportion of teachers who owned the Little Star learning machine had reached more than 90%, far exceeding that of students. For students without a learning machine, many schools had commenced providing ‘rental’ services, renting the learning machine for free to students from families with poor conditions. They would have to pay compensation for any loss and damage of the machine and return it upon graduation. If the renters learning improvements were not obvious, they would lose their eligibility for rental.
Therefore, this served as a good advertis.e.m.e.nt and a good chance to establish Xing Hai Technologies’ bright and positive image. Besides, all the products that the organizer planned to donate were products from Xing Hai Technologies. If Xing Hai Technologies did not even send a representative over, and indicate that they were willing to partic.i.p.ate in charity and show their willingness to a.s.sume social responsibility, they might be heavily criticized.
Xing Hai Technologies was making too much profit, and yet, people never heard of the company donating money or products, nor involving themselves in any charity. Putting moral coercion aside, some busybodies that were green with envy would definitely criticize them behind their backs. Therefore, after some discussion, Chen Jin decided to partic.i.p.ate in the Peeza Charity Night. He was already prepared to let his wallet bleed a little. He sighed. “Organizers, I can feel what you’re thinking, thank you for favoring Xing Hai Technologies.”
In fact, the organizers were also somewhat forced to do so. Because of various reasons from several aspects, the influence of the Peeza Charity Night was diminis.h.i.+ng over the past few years. There were not many celebrities partic.i.p.ating in the event, and there were fewer and fewer bigshots coming over. If they did not try to remedy the situation, the event could really end up like what some netizens said on the internet: The Peeza Charity Night was about to close down.
Therefore, the organizers squeezed their brain and came out with a coup. They invited Mr. Chen, chairman of Xing Hai Technologies, and the local top cream, “Two Billion Dollar Director” s.h.i.+ Xiao Tao. With these two big figures partaking in the event, it was impossible not to cause a sensation within the entertainment field. As expected, when the organizers announced that the chairman of Xing Hai Technologies, Mr. Chen, and “Two Billion Dollar director” s.h.i.+ Xiao Tao would be coming to the Peeza Charity Night, they received innumerable partic.i.p.ation requests from famous celebrities within a mere one to two days’ time. The enthusiasm was overwhelming. It was even possible to create a grand a.s.sembly of bigshots that had never been seen before.
“Mr. Chen is our savior!”
“The Peeza Charity Night is resurrected!”
The organizing team embraced each other and cried out of happiness. The person in charge, Li Fangyu was feeling incredibly relieved. The Peeza Charity Night that had been running for 18 years would not be ruined in his hands.
…
At six in the evening, at Junting Grand Court, Chen Jin pulled up in his Bentley Versailles 65. “Let’s go Xiao Tao,” he said. He got out of the car. He was wearing a dark blue tuxedo, and he fixed his bowtie as he spoke.
“Okay.” s.h.i.+ Xiao Tao was wearing a red wine-colored evening dress. She leisurely walked over to Chen Jin while lifting her dress’ train. She held his arm and struck two poses. After affirming that there were no big problems with her gown, they got into the car and went straight to the venue of the charity night.