Chapter 46: Heh

“Why did you and your agent break up?”

Jiang Lieyuan had asked the agent this question two days ago, but the message he sent was like a stone sinking into the sea, receiving not a single word in reply.

But he was truly curious. After signing the contract with Shen Xici, he seized the opportunity to ask during their lunch together.

Shen Xici blinked, thinking of a reason that wasn’t exactly a lie. “He went back to inherit the family business.”

“No wonder, so he has a family business to inherit! This guy’s life is maxed out!” Jiang Lieyuan turned into a Sheng-praiser. “Before this teacher retires from the agent industry, I strongly object if he doesn’t write a book! His professional skills are too strong. His control of public opinion, selection of PR firms, and tempo for creating trending topics are all out of this world!”

“Yes, he is indeed very formidable.” With a mind like Sheng Shaoyan’s, he could reach the top of the pyramid in any industry. And besides being overly suspicious and extremely good at hiding his emotions, making it difficult for those around him to guess his thoughts, even his face was exceptionally handsome. He had almost no flaws.

Truly terrifying.

“Come, come, you’re the guest today. Order whatever you want to eat!” Jiang Lieyuan, with his thick eyebrows and large eyes, looked very energetic. He handed the menu to Shen Xici and said generously, “Don’t worry, I got an advance for today’s lunch from our finance department before I left!”

He had a look of satisfaction and gratitude. “Thanks to you, I can finally have a big meal with both meat and vegetables for lunch today!”

Holding the plastic-laminated menu and hearing this, Shen Xici suddenly wondered if there was some kind of magnetic field connecting poor people.

Like him and Lu Jiming, and now Jiang Lieyuan in front of him.

The company Zhulong Guangqi was truly poor. Its address was almost in the suburbs of Ningcheng. If he hadn’t been in contact with them, Shen Xici would have suspected he’d gone to the wrong place.

They rented a ground-floor unit in an old residential area where everyone was crammed together to work. Behind the residential building was a converted warehouse. The exterior walls were covered in climbing ivy, but it couldn’t hide the dilapidated nature of the building, making one worry that if it rained heavily outside, it would be drizzling inside the warehouse.

But to Shen Xici’s surprise, when he followed Jiang Lieyuan inside for a tour, he found that the interior of the warehouse was actually quite well-renovated. At the very least, the machines inside were better maintained than the scruffy-bearded President Jiang.

Therefore, for them to proactively set the two-year brand endorsement fee at 500,000 yuan, even if paid in installments, was indeed very sincere. After signing the contract, when they said they wanted to treat him to a meal, Shen Xici suggested eating at a restaurant just outside the residential area—it was convenient and, most importantly, saved money.

While saying, “How can I accept this!” Jiang Lieyuan led him briskly to a Sichuan restaurant and got a small private room.

After ordering two dishes that weren’t very spicy, Shen Xici returned the menu to Jiang Lieyuan. “President Jiang, you can order the rest.”

Jiang Lieyuan looked at the two dish names Shen Xici had written on the paper. “You don’t like spicy food? That was my oversight, I didn’t ask beforehand. Should we eat somewhere else?”

“No need for the trouble. It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that I want it all. I want something flavorful, but I don’t dare to eat anything too flavorful, worrying that it might be too harsh on my stomach if it’s too spicy.”

Jiang Lieyuan was relieved. He then ordered two moderately spicy signature dishes. After going out to give the menu to the owner, he sat back down and said gratefully, “It’s embarrassing to say, but in the early stages of a startup, we’re short on money everywhere. It’s like having dozens of holes in the roof; you patch one here, and another one appears there. It’s a never-ending cycle. Fortunately, thanks to your recent popularity, we sold quite a few machines and were finally able to pay everyone a bit of salary.”

“The most important thing is that your company’s product is good. All it lacked was an opportunity for exposure. The lighting director on my last set couldn’t put down your brand’s lighting console; nothing else compared.” Changing the subject, Shen Xici asked, “President Jiang, would you like even more exposure?”

Jiang Lieyuan’s eyes lit up. He eagerly poured a glass of water and presented it to Shen Xici with both hands. “Here, here, wet your throat and take your time!”

Shen Xici was at a loss whether to laugh or cry, but still took a sip. “I’m collaborating with a director named Lu on a film that’s currently in the preparation stage. We need to purchase all sorts of instruments and equipment.”

Hearing that business was coming their way, Jiang Lieyuan’s eyes grew even brighter. “Great, come to us! Other companies give away some worthless little things as freebies, but we’re different. We give away a person! As long as your crew provides three box meals a day, you get a free technical consultant to take home!”

This level of enthusiasm made Shen Xici chuckle. “Please hear me out first. This director is a newcomer. Although he has secured investment, it’s hard to say what the final outcome will be. My idea is, if the movie does well at the box office, we can use the opportunity to promote the brand, and people in the industry can see the effects more directly on the big screen. If the box office numbers aren’t good, we can do some reverse promotion, like, ‘The picture quality and lighting effects are so good, but this is the plot?’ The promotional effect should be pretty good too.”

The film and television industry is a very closed circle. Connections, networks, and channels are often more important than the product itself. The reason they couldn’t sell their products was that they were just starting out and hadn’t found a good entry point to truly break into that circle.

According to Shen Xici’s proposal, regardless of the box office outcome, they could achieve their promotional goals. Most importantly, it would be the first official step into the film and television industry.

Jiang Lieyuan pondered for a moment and asked carefully, “For such a good deal, what’s the price?”

“Whether you buy or rent the equipment, give the crew the lowest discount you can offer.”

Shen Xici thought that if Director Lu were here, he would surely be spinning a tall tale about how beverage brands shower their endorsers with drinks, clothing endorsers with new clothes, and jewelry endorsers with jewels. So, as a lighting control equipment brand, shouldn’t you be covering all the equipment the endorser uses on set?

Shen Xici still had a conscience; he couldn’t bring himself to ask them to give it away for free.

Jiang Lieyuan made a decisive decision. “No problem. After I give you the lowest market discount, I’ll give you another discount on top of that. However, during the movie’s promotional period, you have to post a dedicated Weibo for us, and in the ending credits of the movie, Zhulong Guangqi’s name has to be prominent.”

Posting on Weibo and such was too easy. As long as it saved money, Director Lu would be willing to post ten or twenty times a day.

Shen Xici agreed, “No problem. Then it’s a pleasure to work with you!”

Although the contract was signed, the endorsement fee hadn’t arrived yet. Shen Xici looked at the fare displayed on the ride-hailing app and obediently took a seat in the last row of the bus.

On a weekday, the bus moved slowly along the road with only a few scattered passengers. The ride to his place was nearly two hours. Shen Xici took this time to look at the script Zhong Yue had sent him.

Zhong Yue’s side was indeed very efficient. It didn’t take long for him to find three roles that met his requirements and let him choose.

After reading the script, Shen Xici replied in the chat box: [Teacher Zhong, I’d like to play the role of the gloomy, possessive, and somewhat world-weary young emperor.]

In the movie, this emperor’s most frequent line was to drag various people—ministers, concubines, imperial relatives, eunuchs—out to be executed. He single-handedly killed his way through the entire script without even having to lift a finger, more effective than a magic spell or a death note.

Moreover, this role didn’t have many scenes and could be filmed in less than a month. During this period, Lu Jiming would be busy with pre-production preparations, so the schedules for the two crews would align seamlessly.

Zhong Yue replied quickly: [Sure, but the scriptwriter isn’t quite sure about this character and has some disagreements with the director. When you come for the costume fitting, we can discuss our ideas together.]

Shen Xici replied, “Okay.”

He recalled that in his previous life, this character did not exist in “Capital City Massacre.” It seemed that the character was eventually removed or changed.

As soon as Shen Xici replied, Zhong Yue’s side began to release the news, which seemed more like an opportunity to quickly clarify his stance on the thermos-swapping incident with Xu Lingjia. After Zhong Yue forwarded the latest update from the official “Capital City Massacre” Weibo account, it quickly became a trending topic. The production company was rich and generous, and they even paid to put Shen Xici on the trending list as well.

“——OMG OMG, Zhong Yue’s slap in the face is so harsh! Although we didn’t get an official Weibo response from Brother Zhong, we got to see him deliver the slap! So satisfying! He deleted the Weibo announcing Xu Lingjia as the second male lead, and then not long after, forwarded the post welcoming Shen Xici to the cast. He might as well have changed his signature to ‘I know full well who saved me and who harmed me’ hahaha!”

“——Shen Xici is going to play an emperor? Ahhh, he will definitely look amazing in ancient costume! My heart is fluttering! Get to the set quickly!”

“——Was Brother Zhong waiting by his phone? The official account just posted it, and Brother Zhong forwarded it in less than a minute. Does he value him that much! I couldn’t stomach that ‘Xu Wo Zhong Qing’ CP before, the visuals were too mismatched, I didn’t see any chemistry at all, but now it’s different…”

“——A sister gets me, sob! I’m such a sucker for this kind of plot where he initially mistakes his lifesaver, goes through all sorts of hardships, and finally finds the right one and treats him even better!”

“——Sisters, see you on Bilibili!”

In his office, Sheng Shaoyan logged into his “Dong Yu” account. The backend showed 99+ comments. He had no mood to read them, but when his peripheral vision caught a comment that said, “When is big boss Dong Yu coming back? It’s been so long without any new fan edits, did you un-stan?” his finger, which was swiping the screen, paused.

He read that sentence several times, then typed a reply: “I have not un-stanned.”

He started reviewing documents while playing his own fan edit videos. The feeling of frustration that had been clogging his chest for the past two days lessened considerably. However, just by listening to the background music, frames of the video flashed before his eyes.

He thought that after regaining his “Sheng Shaoyan” identity, under the impact of over twenty years of memories, he would surely have no recollection of these trivial matters. But in reality, he still remembered clearly what was in every frame of the video, and the rhythm of every beat drop.

After the video finished playing, the system automatically jumped to the next related video.

First came the intro. After a short while, a stranger’s voice sounded. Sheng Shaoyan looked up and realized that the person who appeared on the screen was not Shen Xici.

Zhong Yue?

His gaze slightly hardened. Sheng Shaoyan seemed to sense something and moved his eyes down to the title—”Fateful Intersection! My Shipper Soul is Boiling! [Zhong Yue x Shen Xici cut]”

His gaze froze.

Five minutes later, Sheng Shaoyan had figured out the whole story.

That check had still not been cashed. Even when he needed money for a movie, he went to Cheng Mingye.

And he kept calling him “Mr. Sheng.”

But now, he had not only accepted Zhong Yue’s gratitude but was also about to join his cast to film together.

On the phone screen, layers upon layers of bullet comments stacked up. Phrases like “This sugar is so good to eat!” “Ahhh, so well-matched!” “This is the quality content I should be eating!” “So sweet, so sweet! I’m swooning from the sweetness!” filled the screen, jumping straight into Sheng Shaoyan’s eyes.

With a dark expression, Sheng Shaoyan went through and reported every single video that shipped Shen Xici with Zhong Yue.