Chapter 391: Business District |
"Why would I lie to you?" Hoshino Gen asked, giving her a strange look.
Seeing her brother's reaction, Hoshino Rin was finally convinced that everything he had just said was true.
She broke into a delighted smile and grabbed her brother's wrist, pulling him inside. "This is your first time here, right, Brother? Let me give you a tour!"
Assistant Sato, who had been following behind Hoshino Gen, kept his eyes down and minded his own business. Seeing the situation, he tactfully excused himself, rushing off to supervise the setup of the new office that had hastily begun just minutes ago.
Occupying three entire floors of the Fanxing Building, Fanxing Entertainment naturally covered a massive area. The Rehearsal Hall on the twenty-ninth floor, the Activity Hall on the twenty-eighth floor, and the bar-style Lounge Hall on the twenty-seventh floor took up the main spaces across the three levels. Beyond that, there were countless lounges, changing rooms, offices, a Music Hall, a Screening Room, and a Gym.
Within TKY02, there were actually some people who recognized Hoshino Gen. Back in Shiratora Village, the dozen or so girls who had been filming there had all crossed paths with him.
Although Hoshino Gen had long forgotten most of their faces, they certainly had not forgotten him. This was not only due to his unforgettable eyes and striking appearance, but more importantly, his identity...
When they first met, Hoshino Gen had held no official position and was merely a student. Yet look at him now—only a few months had passed, and he had become their ultimate boss!
Being dragged around all three floors of Fanxing Entertainment by Hoshino Rin, it was inevitable that Hoshino Gen drew attention along the way.
The weight of Fanxing Entertainment could not be considered light. Although it had only been established a year ago and its only notable asset was the idol girl group TKY02, it was, after all, backed by the colossus that was the Fanxing Group.
However, to say it wielded massive influence would be an overstatement. As the saying goes, they had entered the game too late and lacked sufficient accumulation.
The reason Hoshino Gen taking over Fanxing Entertainment was such heavy news had little to do with the company itself. The crux of the matter was that he had begun taking over the family business.
The people at the very top of society were always paying close attention to many things in the Hidden World. When someone possessing that kind of power started getting involved in commerce, it was more than enough to change the entire business landscape.
The Tokyo business district, which had been like a stagnant pool of water, suddenly found its undercurrents surging.
Leaving aside how many calls Hoshino Sosuke, the actual controller of Fanxing, suddenly received, Hoshino Gen had barely finished the three-floor tour with his sister and found Tamamo-no-Mae treating a Screening Room like her private cinema when he immediately got a telephone call from Asaba Shinichi.
"Hey! Hoshino, I heard you've started meddling in business? Is it true? The rumors are flying everywhere outside. Those rich folks are terrified, especially the industry leaders who have managed to rise rapidly in prominence within the entertainment circle. A few of them even called me, trying to sniff out if you're mentally stable enough or if you're going to act outside the rules. Hahaha, it's killing me!"
"Since you just said people are already calling you, what do you think?" Hoshino Gen sat in the chair of his hastily arranged office, his back to the desk as he faced the floor-to-ceiling windows. Outside, the sky was a vibrant blue dotted with snow-white clouds, offering a panoramic view of the incredibly bustling downtown area of Tokyo.
"Hah, so it is true? Tsk, tsk, tsk. I never noticed you had an interest in this kind of stuff before. I always thought you were just a brute who only knew how to throw fists!"
"..." Hoshino Gen ignored his self-projection and asked calmly, "Did you call me just to say this?"
"Hah, I'm not suffering from that much boredom. I didn't approach you before because I figured you weren't interested, but since you're taking the reins now, I think Fanxing and Asaba could collaborate a bit. What do you say?"
"You can make that call?" Hoshino Gen could not help but chuckle. "I certainly can't. I'm only in charge of the subsidiary company, Fanxing Entertainment."
"Stop joking around. If you really wanted to call the shots, I don't believe for a second that you couldn't," Asaba Shinichi laughed. "But from the sound of it, you aren't planning to truly step into the business district, are you? Just taking over Fanxing Entertainment... don't tell me you're just looking for a toy to amuse yourself?"
"Or let me frame it differently: do you even know how to navigate the entertainment circle? Business isn't like slaying ghosts; tracking down a location and showing up with a sword won't work here. Well, no, I can't say it wouldn't work, but it would be too boring. The business district actually has unspoken rules specifically meant to restrict transcendents."
"Although for people at our level, those rules hardly make a difference, I still suggest you don't act recklessly. The waters of the sea of business run deep. Who knows where a massive shark on par with us might be hiding? And let me be clear—they definitely exist, I just don't know exactly how many there are."
Hoshino Gen listened patiently before responding, "So, what you really wanted to tell me is to not break your rules?"
"Close enough. And it's only a suggestion. If you really want to raise hell, I won't stop you. Who doesn't love watching a good show, right?"
Hoshino Gen rolled his eyes. "Relax, I haven't reached that level of boredom yet. As long as no one uses so-called 'outside the rules' methods to provoke me, I won't bother wreaking any havoc."
"Great! With that word from you, the folks outside can finally get a good night's sleep, hahaha! But seriously, you really don't want to collaborate? Given our friendship and the sheer scale of Fanxing and Asaba, it'd be a pity not to. Aren't you looking to mess around in the entertainment circle? The Asaba Conglomerate has a few cinema chains; I'll give them to you. In return, a five percent shareholding in Starlight Heavy Industry isn't too much to ask, right?"
Hoshino Gen scoffed and was about to hang up the telephone, but Asaba Shinichi laughingly interrupted him before he could, "I'm just kidding! But on a serious note, a collaboration between our two families really wouldn't hurt. The cinema chains I just mentioned, plus a twelve percent shareholding in TBS, in exchange for Asaba investing in Starlight Heavy Industry..."
"I told you, I'm only in charge of Fanxing Entertainment," Hoshino Gen sighed. "Besides, cinema chains and the like are of no use to Fanxing right now. We don't even have a single proper actor under our banner. What do I need your cinema chains for?"
Hearing this, Asaba Shinichi chuckled in amusement, as if he found haggling over business with Hoshino Gen quite comical and interesting. He laughed, "If the cinema chains are useless, what about TBS? It's one of the top six television stations. If you own a piece of it, sending a few of your TKY02 members to the Kohaku Uta Gassen would be a breeze! Even sending the whole group wouldn't be hard! And Asaba only holds thirty-seven percent ourselves, so this shows plenty of sincerity~"
"Of course, if you say you're only calling the shots for Fanxing Entertainment, that's fine too. How about a one percent shareholding in TBS in exchange for fifty-one percent of Fanxing Entertainment's equity?"
"Get lost."