Early in the morning, Li Liang picked up Qin Wei at the agreed place. Qin Wei got into the car on time, and Li Liang still couldn't help asking curiously:
"Sister, long time no see, where have you been living recently?"
Qin Wei: "On a park bench."
"Huh?"
Li Liang drove the car and couldn't help but glance at the park across.
"At the bus stop."
"?"
"Under the overpass..."
"??"
Qin Wei: "None of those are where I live."
Li Liang breathed a sigh of relief, feeling a little wronged:
"Sister, why are you panting when you speak?"
"Humph!"
"?"
Qin Wei didn't answer. Li Liang had no way to make her. He chatted to her about the company's recent arrangements as they drove along.
In short, Qin Wei's work had been stagnant due to online smears, but the company had fought to get her some partnerships during this period, however she had rejected them all.
Once or twice was fine, but her rejecting everything made things difficult to explain.
Yesterday, Xu Mingchuan called her to ask her to come back to the company for a meeting to discuss this matter...
...
Having not been back at the company for a long time, as soon as Qin Wei entered, all her colleagues looked at her, making her feel a little uncomfortable.
Over the past few months, Anxing Entertainment had grown bigger and bigger, with more employees and newly signed artists, so Qin Wei saw many unfamiliar faces and truly felt that Anxing was developing.
...
In the conference room, Xu Mingchuan was alone, head down sorting out contracts. Now, in addition to Anxing, he was also in charge of the Xu Group, so he was very busy every day. Anxing’s affairs were basically left to the management team to deal with.
He had made time today for this meeting entirely because the management team was clearly dissatisfied with Qin Wei's current behavior.
"You're here."
Qin Wei had been sitting there for a long time before Xu Mingchuan even noticed, as he was completely absorbed in his work. It was only when he inadvertently glanced up that he saw Qin Wei sitting at the other end of the round table.
"Mm-hmm."
Qin Wei nodded. Xu Mingchuan put down the work in his hands, got up and went to the fridge to take out a bottle of sparkling water, hesitated, then put it back and asked his assistant to make him a cup of coffee.
"Lately things haven't been going so smoothly for you at work."
As he spoke, Xu Mingchuan picked up another laptop from the table and walked over. As he booted up the laptop, he said to her,
"An artist's public opinion is transient - no one can stay red forever, and no one will be smeared forever either. Finding the right opportunity can lead to a turnaround. It's just that now isn't the right time when things are at their peak.”
More than one person had said this to her, and Qin Wei also agreed:
"That's why I'm waiting."
Xu Mingchuan nodded:
"Right, but that doesn't mean doing nothing while you wait. Work still has to go on..."
Xu Mingchuan hesitated, wanting his words to be as gentle as possible. The person in front of him was not his subordinate or business rival. He couldn’t talk to her as he would in a negotiation, without an ounce of warmth.
"You can choose one work option from what’s currently available to you. After all, you have your own team working solely for you. If you don't work, the company still has to pay their salaries. So it's understandable that the management team and other teams would have opinions about this, because it’s not fair...
At least if you go and do something, even if you earn less money, your team's salaries can be charged to my account..."
Qin Wei pondered:
"You’re right, that was negligent of me.
It’s normal for artists under the same company to have different statuses and be treated differently, because the bigger names also earn more for the company.
But with Qin Wei currently unable to earn anything, if the company still pampers and coddles her like this, it will naturally cause discontent."
"President Xu, show me the recent work offers.”
Xu Mingchuan pushed the laptop in front of her. The list contained all the jobs Qin Wei could currently accept.
There were still quite a lot of options, just not great quality.
"Livestream shopping... More livestream shopping... Tsk tsk, I won't do it..."
Qin Wei muttered to herself. Although she had been addicted to online shopping lately, and watched streaming sessions where quality hosts sold nice products...
If she were to sell things herself on a livestream, first, she was worried she wouldn't understand things thoroughly enough to guarantee quality; second, impulse shopping often happened in livestreams, and she didn't want her fans to buy things they didn't need just because of her.
She’d put that aside for now and look at other options...
Further down the long list was a TV drama.
Xu Mingchuan pointed to this drama:
"It's an idol drama, an office romance. You wouldn't need to get made up early or anything, you could just wear your own clothes. Also, it's easy to act - this kind of sweet indulgent drama is what many people like."
Qin Wei clicked the link to check out more details.
"‘The President and His Silly Little Assistant’??? I play the president?"
"You play the silly little assistant."
"...The female lead's silliness catches the president's attention... The president gets drunk and... female lead, female lead..."
Tsk tsk.
"That's way too many illegal acts! I can't even read it out, there are barely any words I can say! What kind of ‘sweet’ is this?? Every single thing the president does here could warrant imprisonment!"
Qin Wei strongly rejected this so-called "sweet indulgent" drama.
"Then there's this dating show."
Xu Mingchuan pointed to the last line at the bottom of the screen ——
"Goose's Love" (Yes, it was that kind of dating show)
Xu Mingchuan turned to look at Qin Wei:
"This show is made to showcase celebrities dating. There's a lot of room to play around.
Initially, some celebrity guests weren't willing to participate with you, mainly afraid of being affected by association, but the producers prefer having you on, just like previous shows Peach Blossom and Stars. Their belief is that an artist's popularity outweighs their reputation."
After all, online traffic reigns supreme. Whether being praised or criticized, either way brings publicity, and the show producers weren't aiming to build a time-honored brand anyway - just meeting their KPIs for the year would be good enough.
Qin Wei remained silent. Xu Mingchuan glanced at the time:
"There's still time to think about it, go home and consider slowly. I won't keep you company today, I need to follow up on a project in Shanghai."
"Oh, and take this bank card for now, it has 2 million yuan - use it as living expenses first, no need to scrimp for me..."
"...Really no need, thank you..."
...
When she got home, it was just past 5 pm, so Qin Wei went to the supermarket on the way back to buy some groceries. Returning home, she saw a large box sitting in the living room.
“You’re back?”
Qiao Sixiao was sprawled on the sofa watching a movie, bored out of his mind. With nothing to do himself, and Qin Wei being out for most of the day before only just coming back now...
“Mm-hmm, what’s this?”
Qin Wei walked in and kicked the box.
Qiao Sixiao glanced back lazily and told her casually:
“Lego. Hogwarts. A gift for you.”
That would keep her from wrecking the place.
Qin Wei was delighted with this present and couldn’t wait to take it out and start building right away.
But no, she still had a bunch of stuff to handle first.
“Thanks for the gift, I’ll play with it tonight. For now let me go get changed first, then I’ll cook - I bought some beef. I asked the doctor and she said I can have small amounts of light meat broth...”
Qin Wei hurried off to change clothes, but was called back by Qiao Sixiao:
"Wait, how did you get that bruise on your shoulder? Did someone hit you? Antis? Random strangers? Surely not your boss??"
Qin Wei sighed and touched her shoulder:
"President Xu asked me that too, but he suspected I was secretly working on construction sites lugging bricks. Actually... it was just... yesterday's bath pouf, the color rubbed off..."
