You can"t escape from it. An Jing"s words left Sheng Jiaoyang in a daze.After pondering for a moment, she figured it out. They had been very intimate before this and only hadn"t done the last step, so there was nothing to be embarra.s.sed about. Acting coy like this wasn"t like her at all.
However, it would no longer be a surprise if she were to follow everyone"s suggestion.
Sheng Jiaoyang stared at the drawing board and an idea gradually formed in her mind.
Around the afternoon, Sheng Jiaoyang received a call from Li Yu. The latter invited her for lunch to discuss the work arrangements for the coming period. She finally agreed after Li Yu said that Xu Ping was coming along.
When Sheng Jiaoyang arrived at the restaurant, she proceeded to a private room. However, when she walked in, there was also a foreigner present aside from Li Yu and Xu Ping; it was Director Miller"s a.s.sistant.
"h.e.l.lo, Miss Xu!" Miller"s a.s.sistant stood up. His att.i.tude wasn"t extremely respectful, but it was rather courteous.
"h.e.l.lo." Sheng Jiaoyang nodded politely in response.
She then turned to Li Yu and smiled, "President Li, aren"t we here to discuss my upcoming work arrangements?"
"Yes, this endors.e.m.e.nt is also part of the discussion." Li Yu smiled faintly.
Sheng Jiaoyang"s expression remained indifferent. She turned to Xu Ping and asked, "Have you brought the script?"
"Yes." Xu Ping took out a script from her bag and handed it to Sheng Jiaoyang.
"If you want to act, then the second female lead role is yours," Li Yu haughtily stated. The second female lead role was a.s.signed to his company to begin with, so he was able to make such a decision without further consultation. Moreover, there weren"t any female stars in the company at present who were as popular as Jiaojiao.
Sheng Jiaoyang, however, didn"t respond. She read through the script earnestly and then said, "Sis Ping, could you please provide more information on this role."
"There"s no rush, let"s first discuss the endors.e.m.e.nt," Li Yu interjected.
Sheng Jiaoyang turned to look at Li Yu but didn"t reject him outright as she did on the phone yesterday.
"Jiaojiao, this time, Mr. Miller sent his right-hand man to discuss our cooperation. Clearly, Mr. Miller attaches great importance to you as he is willing to pay you an endors.e.m.e.nt fee of 10 million RMB. Think about it, who else can get an endors.e.m.e.nt worth 10 million in less than a year after their debut? This shows that you"re already a first-tier celebrity in Mr. Miller"s eyes. Some first-tier celebrities would even be willing to lower their face value and accept a lower endors.e.m.e.nt fee in order to get this level of endors.e.m.e.nt. Even so, they might not necessarily get such a good offer!"
"President Li, since you deem that Mr. Miller thinks highly of me, I"d like to know how much I"m worth in your heart." Sheng Jiaoyang calmly stared at Li Yu.
Li Yu choked at her words. He then said, "From the artists who debuted at the same time as you, only a handful managed to get endors.e.m.e.nts worth millions. If you look at your current situation, you have only starred in one TV series thus far and it was your luck to have shot to popularity in one fell swoop. In fact, I had a.s.signed the role of Zhen Xin to you despite everyone"s opposition. Without this role, would you be as famous as you are now?"
"To tell you the truth, if I wasn"t considering Big Boss" feelings, I would never have promoted you. If we look at your contract, what our company nominally gained was an artist who may leave at any time. As a matter of fact, I have to invest so many resources in you but there are no gains for our company at all. You"ve gotten everything easily, so you don"t appreciate nor find it valuable. Don"t pin your hopes on a man. Taking me as an example, even though I love my wife at present, I can"t guarantee that I won"t betray her in the future. You can"t rely on others forever. You have to learn to seize all the opportunities in front of you."
Even Li Yu was moved by his own speech. He"s so thoughtful. He even went as far as to reason with her by breaking the truth.
"Mhmm, you have a point." Sheng Jiaoyang nodded slightly.
The corner of Li Yu"s mouth raised slightly. Since he"s attending to this matter personally, he would certainly be able to subdue this little girl.
"But, do you know how many a.s.sets I own?"
"Ah?" Li Yu thought he had misheard. He stared amusingly at Sheng Jiaoyang. This little girl had only debuted for a few months and just turned eighteen, how many a.s.sets could she possibly possess?
"Pray tell, how many a.s.sets do you own?"
He did a mental calculation. Taking everything into consideration, she"d only partic.i.p.ated in two fas.h.i.+on shows and starred in one TV series, but the remuneration wasn"t that much. As for the supporting character she"d played in the film directed by Director Steve, the pay wasn"t that high either. Then there was the film that Gu Zhou had invested in. As far as he knew, the remuneration wasn"t a lot since they were friends. Besides, she didn"t take on any highly paid endors.e.m.e.nts and that"s all the work she"d accepted until now. Yet, she dared to mention the word "a.s.set" in front of him. Sure enough, the young and inexperienced are fearless; those who know nothing fear nothing!
Li Yu"s rhetorical question already made his att.i.tude clear. Sheng Jiaoyang wasn"t angry but smiled instead. "It looks like President Li still doesn"t know me well enough and only sees me as your boss" girlfriend."
Li Yu raised an eyebrow and asked, "Did Boss say he was going to marry you?"
Xu Ping wanted to remind Li Yu, but she knew her position. She was now on Jiaojiao"s side, so she naturally couldn"t reveal anything without Jiaojiao"s consent.
Sheng Jiaoyang didn"t pay Li Yu"s words any heed. She turned to the confused a.s.sistant and said in authentic British English, "Sorry, I"m afraid that you have to return home empty-handed. Please tell Mr. Miller that I"m very busy at the moment. After he"d backed out the last time, I"ve already packed my schedule to the brim and don"t have the time to pick up a small endors.e.m.e.nt."
"A small endors.e.m.e.nt?" Miller"s a.s.sistant repeated with a shocked expression.
Li Yu"s eyelids twitched. He hurriedly warned, "Jiaojiao, please pay attention to your wording and don"t use the wrong terms. You meant to say "big endors.e.m.e.nt", right?"
"I can still tell the difference between "big" and "small"." Sheng Jiaoyang looked at Miller"s a.s.sistant and added, "So far, I haven"t taken on any endors.e.m.e.nt, not because I don"t have the resources. Rather, I believe that my value will double soon, so I don"t need to devalue myself at this time."
"Devalue?" The a.s.sistant caught another word.
"President Li has invited you to eat authentic Chinese food today, so I hope you"ll enjoy it." Sheng Jiaoyang stood up and prepared to leave.
Li Yu felt his authority challenged, so he stood up and pointed at Sheng Jiaoyang. "Xu Jiaojiao, if you dare to leave without accepting this endors.e.m.e.nt, don"t expect me to give you another chance!"
"Heh~" The corner of Sheng Jiaoyang"s mouth curled upwards. "Do as you please."
Afterwards, she exited the room.
"She"s really out of control!" Li Yu gritted his teeth, but there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn"t possibly tell his boss: "Boss, you have to keep your woman in check".
At first, in order to set up an attractive pitfall, he left the clauses in the contract so lax that left them no way of legally binding Xu Jiaojiao. Now, Xu Jiaojiao was like a bone that couldn"t be gnawed or thrown away because the big boss was the one backing her behind the scenes.
He didn"t dare to make a move on the boss" woman. However, it"s really hard to extract any value out of Xu Jiaojiao.
"Xu Ping, go and have a good talk with her. You must advise her to not take things too far. Her foundation is unstable and she doesn"t have many projects. Sooner or later, she will gain more enemies than friends if she continues behaving in such an obnoxious manner. And, I"m sure the boss won"t like it when she makes use of his name to swagger before others and attaches no importance to people like us who work hard for his company."
Xu Ping stood up and hesitated for a moment. Considering that he was the one who saved her from the pitfall in the past, she kindly urged, "President Li, Mr. Shen and Jiaojiao are far more intimate than you think. They are on an equal footing."
Li Yu waved to dismiss her. He didn"t agree with Xu Ping"s words. On an equal footing? Haha, they are naturally on an equal footing when he"s pampering her. Perhaps, even if she were to go overboard, it would still be fine. However, once this love is over, can they still be on an equal footing?
When Xu Ping exited the building, she saw Sheng Jiaoyang boarding the van and she followed suit.
"Jiaojiao, I have inadvertently seen your contract before. The contract is very lax, so you actually have a lot of freedom. Even if you were to terminate the contract, nothing is legally binding you to the company. President Li doesn"t seem to think highly of you. Why don"t you leave and open your own studio?" Xu Ping a.n.a.lyzed the situation from her standpoint.
Sheng Jiaoyang looked up at Xu Ping and responded, "That"s a good idea, I"ll consider it."
After the last scandal of her pus.h.i.+ng down a pregnant woman, she was well aware of her position at Entertainment International. From her first scandal to date, the company"s att.i.tude and efficiency in dealing with her negative news hadn"t met her expectations. It didn"t matter before, but now that Xu Ping had brought it up, she began to consider leaving and opening her own studio.
She was already an heiress to her rich grandfather"s a.s.sets, so some people might wonder if she still had to continue mingling in the entertainment circle. Sheng Jiaoyang actually didn"t need to work so hard and pursue an acting career, but she liked to challenge herself. She also wanted to promote the welfare of others by supporting more charitable projects, so that more people can join in philanthropy.
If she wanted to, she wouldn"t need to follow the path of others to become famous.
"Uhmm, Sis Ping, can you work out a proposal? We"ll discuss the details afterwards. I don"t want to stay at Entertainment International any longer." Even though Entertainment International was Shen Zhining"s property, Sheng Jiaoyang no longer wanted to be a part of it. If she opens her own studio, then she would be the one in charge of everything and she would no longer need to stay at Entertainment International to listen to their criticism.
"Okay, I"ll collect the information and work out a proposal later," Xu Ping replied.
"Sis Ping, I"m certain that you"ll leave with me when the time comes, but I don"t know if A"Huan is willing to leave Entertainment International."
Xu Ping and Zeng Huan are different. Xu Ping was halfway scouted from another company, so she isn"t attached to the company yet. Whereas, Zeng Huan has been with Entertainment International since her graduation, so it"s going to be a difficult decision.Previous ChapterNext Chapter