Pleasure working with you

The four headed to the markets, which became even more of a hassle in the end due to the sheer number of people there. Compared to before, now, they had so much people shooting glances at them, Zhi Min even started hiding behind Lan Du as they walked.

This made the three extremely protective as they shot glares at people who were taking peeks over, but that only served to make more people look over...

Lan Du sighed

"Are you sure this will be a hard goal to reach one billion views? We haven't even started yet and there are already hundreds of people staring at us" Lan Du shot a questionable glance towards Liu Fei who was just as confused.

"I never received this much attention when going out alone" He replied

"Well, neither have I" Lan Du and Hou Tian shook their heads and said

"Um...I-I have" Zhi Min said meekly

The three turned to him, so it was him! Hearing this, they actually felt a little relieved, it only proved that their youngest is definitely the cutest! As they headed into the mall, they felt a gaze on them that was unlike before.

Hou Tian and Lan Du both turned their heads towards the entrance of the mall behind them, there, they saw a chubby man running over to them. When he caught up, he was panting and sweating heavily.

"C-Can I *huff* Can I talk to you all f-for a moment" He said

The four of them paused, Lan Du and Hou Tian's gaze on him are especially cold, wondering if this was another idiot coming to confess to Zhi Min.

"What do you want fatty, if you don't have a good reason, I'll grind your fat off with a mean grinder" Lan Du growled, making him jump back in fright.

"I-I'm Cao Lao, manager of Star stream visual entertainment, here is my business card, I would like to know if you are contracted with any industries or supported by anyone" He asked earnestly

Liu Fei's eyes glistened, he stepped to the front and smiled

"Before I answer your questions, I would like to ask, how is your industry's standing within this country, do you have any debts or bad reputation, or have you contracted with suspicious individuals that could or have been to prison" He directly shout out three questions that caused the chubby man to start sweating.

"Th-This, our standing isn't the greatest, we're in around the middle compared to other industries, b-but we still have enough influence to invite people like Han Xiao and Ye Feng, we don't have any bad reputation nor contractors who have such reputation" He answered them carefully, hoping Liu Fei wouldn't get angry.

Liu Fei rubbed his chin

"Any financial issues?" He asked

"N-No" Cao Lao shook his head

Liu Fei fell into thought

'Starting from a middle ranked industry actually isn't as bad as people think, the higher ones would have tension and competition between the contracted actors, whereas the middle section ones will at most have some minor arguments'

He stared at the card Cao Lao gave them, after a few moments, Lan Du patted his shoulder.

"We're in a hurry, it's almost four, if we waste any more time, it'll hit six" Lan Du said, snapping Liu Fei out of the daze.

'Indeed, we need to go back home to discuss, waste any time here and Zhi Min will be exposed'

"Cao Lao...we'll think about it, I will contact you when I have time, for now, we need to go buy the stuff quickly" He turned back to the others and they all left hastily.

Cao Lao sighed

"It seems I have no fate with those seedlings, their faces were honestly too good to not have someone contact them and pull them to their side" He muttered and left in disappointment.

He headed back to his company, which was a small studio.

"Boss, any luck with recruitment?" He heard a man call him as he flung his arm over Cao Lao's shoulders

Cao Lao sighed and shook his head

"I met some great ones, but it seems I was rejected, their faces were honestly heavenly, if I could have persuaded them more, then maybe we could revive our company" He said bitterly

"Wow, really? Ah, by the way, today on Weiba, I found some interesting news, check this out" The man took out his phone and showed it to Cao Lao, whose eyes opened wide in shock.

The image was of Lan Du, Hou Tian, Liu Fei and Zhi Min.

"Look at these four, I don't know which company has such pretty faces, but damn, I was caught up in a trance the moment I saw this picture" He said with a laugh

Cao Lao was stunned as he stared at the phone

"Th-That's the group I was talking about, I made contact with them in the afternoon, but alas, thy merely said they'd consider us, it seems there might have been other contacts with them prior to mine" He shook his head and said bitterly.

The man was stunned

"Damn, they actually weren't contracted to any industries! Boss, we must contract them, if we can, our industry will definitely not drop to the bottom of the barrel"

"I'll do my best, but don't get your hopes up, I doubt they'd c-"

*Ring*

He felt his phone vibrate, he picked it up and it was an unknown number.

"Who's calling me at a time like this" He muttered and picked it up

[Hello Cao Lao, you should remember me, my friends and I decided that we will accept your offer if you fulfil some simple conditions for us] He heard this familiar overbearing tone over the phone and his hands shook.

"Y-Yes, what will your conditions be, we will fulfil it to the best of our abilities!" He exclaimed, shocking the man beside him

[It's simple, we want to limit our work time based on the time of day and the type of show we will film is a variety show based on our daily lives] Liu Fei said calmly over the phone

Cao Lao trembled

'God is helping me! His conditions are literally nothing! My industry majors in such variety show!' He exclaimed in his heart.

"No problem, no problem! I will accept it" He said hurriedly, afraid he'd leave Liu Fei on hold for too long, even if it was only by a few seconds.

[That's good, then I will meet with you tomorrow at the mall we met today, the other three won't be there tomorrow as we just moved into the house so they will be going to buy some furnitures]

"Yes, I will definitely be there at twelve" Cao Lao exclaimed

[Alright, see you then] The phone hung up, and Cao Lao turned to the man beside him dumbly as he stared at him with a blank expression.

"O-Old Hei, smack me right now, I need to make sure I'm not in a delusional coma at the moment" Cao Lao said in a daze

*Smack*

A crisp smack sound was heard immediately, the searing pain however didn't make Cai Lao feel angry, instead he laughed with joy as he jumped around.

"HAHAHAHA, old Hei, our company is saved! They accepted the offer and we'll be discussing it tomorrow!" Cao Lao shouted out as he jumped around.

Old Hei was stunned

"Wh-Who accepted" He asked for confirmation

"Those four you just showed me, they accepted the offer!"

Old Hei's expression changed, it twisted between shock and joy as he joined Cao Lao in jumping around, this scene was very weird as it was two grown up men jumping around as they held each other's hands.

*Clank*

The door opened up, they saw a woman standing by the door who stared at them for a few seconds before slowly closing the door again.

"Wait, Yi Shi, don't go yet, we have good news!"

The woman named Yi Shi walked back in and stared at the two with a strange gaze.

"What is it? Are you two finally getting engaged with one another? Because from the looks of it, you two can just kiss already" She said with a hint of disgust.

Cao Lao didn't get annoyed, he kept laughing as he showed her the picture on the phone.

"No, I was able to come into contact with these four and I'll be having a meeting with the guy with glasses to talk about the possible future contract with them" Cao Lao shouted in excitement

Yi Shi's eyes were now filled with doubt, she has also seen these four on Weiba recently, but she never imagined that her boss would be able to contact them so quickly, and he even struck a possible deal with them!

"A-Are you serious?" She exclaimed

"Yes, we'll be meeting tomorrow at twelve" He replied with a face full of confidence

"Really? Then I wanna come, I need to see them in person" She said with glistening eyes.

"Alright, but don't cause a scene, I don't want you to scare them off" Cao Lao spoke in a low voice to express how serious this matter was.

Yi Shi nodded without hesitation.

The next day...

Standing outside the mall, Cao Lao and Yi Shi waited for the clock's hand on their watch to hit twelve, they were quite literally staring at the watch as if they wanted to speed it up themselves.

It wasn't long before Liu Fei arrived to see such a weird scene

"Um...did I come at a bad time?" He approached them and asked

Cao Lao and Yi Shi looked up, and their eyes lit up immediately.

"Not at all, we were waiting for you" Cao Lao said hastily

Liu Fei smiled

"Let's go to the café just down the road, I checked the reviews and they aren't too shabby" Liu Fei said with a smile that made Yi Shi sway.

'He's such a hottie, the other three are just as pretty, we must contract them so I can meet these pretty boys every day' She thought to herself as she followed them.

Liu Fei sat down, facing the two of them with a stern gaze

"I'll get straight to the point, our group cannot work separately, we must end the recordings at five and our pay can be determined by percentage deals" Liu Fei crossed his arms and said calmly.

Cao Lao focused on the last point which was also the most important one.

"What is the percentage" He asked

"Fifteen percent" Liu Fei replied calmly

His reply left them a little stunned, fifteen percent? Even some famous actors don't earn much in a year, and Liu Fei is directly asking for fifteen percent?!

"I'm not talking about fifteen percent of the profits" Liu Fei said calmly, which allowed them to heave out a high of relief.

But then he added

"I want fifteen percent of the total gains, not included into deduction of cost" He said calmly, which immediately stumped the two of them.

That was even worse than the previous thought! Isnt that daylight robbery at this point!?

"F-Fifteen percent is too much, h-how about five" Cao Lao raised his five fingers and said

"Fifteen" Liu Fei said with a stern face, looking extremely cold

Cao Lao gritted his teeth

"T-Ten percent, that's the most I can do!" He shouted

But immediately, Liu Fei's expression became brighter than the morning sun as he shook his hand.

"Pleasure working with you" He said with a smile

It was then that Cao Lao realised how stupid he was, even five percent was considered a lot already for even ten actors together, yet he actually said it without thinking. He was then drawn into Liu Fei's flow of absurdity which caused him to suffer such a loss!

'H-He played me like a fiddle!'

Liu Fei then took out a contract and slid it over to him.

"Ten percent of the total earnings and we will work with you" Liu Fei said, the contract details were exactly the same as the things they have just discussed!

'H-He predicted all this! He knew I'd stop at ten percent, what type of monster is this!' He exclaimed in shock as he stared at Liu Fei's beaming face.

He could only helplessly sign the contract...

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