Chapter 37

Receiving a call from his own mother, asking him to review a contract for that brat Wei Sheng, Lawyer Liang himself was at a loss for words.

Had he really become “old and washed up”?

Back when he was a kid, he was clearly his mother’s most precious treasure, the little darling she doted on!

But ever since his mom got to know Wei Sheng, her own son had completely lost favor.

Forget just reviewing contracts—years ago, when Wei Sheng was still in school and got bullied, coming home crying like a little kitten, his mom actually made him send a legal notice to the kid who bullied Wei Sheng?!

Come on now, the law doesn’t really apply to kids under sixteen!

In any case, whenever it came to anything related to Wei Sheng, Lawyer Liang was just left speechless.

But since it was an order from his mom, he couldn’t just ignore it.

Besides… judging by what Wei Sheng said on the phone, the kid was about to sign with a talent agency and debut as an entertainer?

The entertainment industry was anything but simple.

Just imagining the possibility of Wei Sheng getting bullied in the industry, only for his mom to make him send out legal notices again, Liang Yi got chills. Without hesitation, he dropped a multimillion-dollar contract he was working on, got in his car, and rushed over to meet Wei Sheng and the others.

Liang Yi had originally assumed that Wei Sheng had been scammed by some shady, bloodsucking entertainment company. He hurried over in a panic, picked up the contract, and took a closer look—

Good lord!

Was this Zhou guy running a charity or something?

Forget everything else—just the base salary alone was 20,000 yuan per month, plus full benefits, including five types of insurance and two pension funds. Even a bunch of graduate students would be fighting tooth and nail to get a job like this!

In other words, even if Wei Sheng didn’t make any money for the company in the next two years, his salary and benefits wouldn’t be reduced a single cent.

Still, recalling all those rumors online in recent years about sky-high entertainment salaries—things like 2 million yuan for a single day’s work, or getting paid 3 million just to stand in a livestream without saying a word—Liang Yi gave Wei Sheng a long, deep look.

Was this kid getting blinded by money?

“Does your mom know you’re switching careers to become an entertainer?”

“I already explained it to my family, and actually, it’s not really a career switch, Uncle Liang. I’m still under contract with the TV station—I’m just transferring from the post-production department to a position within its subsidiary entertainment company.” Wei Sheng lowered his head and explained the station’s policies to Liang Yi.

In simple terms, the TV station allowed employees with special talents to transfer across departments if permitted, with salaries adjusted according to the new department’s standards.

For example, in recent years, local media outlets had been pushing into the new media industry. New media departments were aggressively poaching talent from traditional departments, offering salaries that were 30% higher than equivalent positions.

“You little brat, you’ve really done your homework on all this, huh?” Liang Yi gave him an amused glance.

He really was getting old. It felt like just yesterday that Wei Sheng was a little kid, running to his mom with teary eyes, demanding to sue a classmate. But in the blink of an eye, that little crybaby had turned into a street-smart kid who wasn’t easy to push around anymore.

“Hehe~ It’s all thanks to my seniors looking out for me, secretly giving me advice so I don’t get taken advantage of.” Wei Sheng didn’t think he was showing off at all, but Liang Yi was already feeling bitter.

This guy! His luck with elders had always been ridiculously good, to the point of making people jealous!

How long had he even been at the TV station? And already the seniors there were afraid he’d get shortchanged?

Whatever. The contract was fine overall, with just one minor adjustment—adding a clause about retaining control over Wei Sheng’s personal social media accounts, as he had requested.

Wei Sheng then followed the company’s standard procedures, drafting a position transfer request. First, he got the post-production director’s approval stamp, then had Zhou Mingxing sign off on it. The rest would be left to the higher-ups to battle it out.

Pu Xiangdong stared at the fully prepared transfer request in his hands, only needing his final signature, and nearly coughed up blood!

“This contract’s salary and benefits are basically on par with the station’s mid-level management. That doesn’t seem very reasonable, Old Zhou.” Pu Xiangdong started nitpicking.

“It’s not like I wanted to do it this way. The original contract we prepared was a different one, but…”

“But what?”

“But Wei Sheng’s lawyer is Liang Yi.”

“Liang Yi?”

“Yeah, the very same Liang Yi from the famous Gongyi Law Firm.”

Pu Xiangdong immediately fell silent.

He’d seen Liang Yi a couple of times at business dinners.

For some reason—maybe it was just guilt—whenever he saw Liang Yi, he always felt like the man was looking at him the way a lawyer looks at a defendant… cough.

Still, just letting Wei Sheng—such a potential gold mine—slip through his fingers didn’t sit well with him.

“Let’s put it on hold for now. We need to review the contract more carefully,” Pu Xiangdong decided, stalling for time.

After all, it wasn’t his cash cow, so why should he care about Wei Sheng’s fate?

In fact, he’d prefer to drag things out until Wei Sheng’s hype died down. By then, if Zhou Mingxing saw that he was no longer valuable, he might even regret signing him. And when the two of them turned on each other, that would be entertaining to watch!

Zhou Mingxing had expected this wouldn’t go smoothly.

Did they really think he’d just sit around waiting for a signature?

If they wanted to stall, fine!

It just so happened that Wei Sheng’s luck was kicking in.

While Pu Xiangdong was busy burying Wei Sheng’s transfer request in a drawer, Zhou Mingxing swiftly lined up several short-term gigs and endorsement deals for him!

Before long, a little rumor spread throughout the entire TV station—

I heard that Wei Sheng, who is still in his internship period in the post-production department, became popular after participating in an in-house TV program. He has already received several endorsement deals and is making money hand over fist!

But what a pity! The kid only signed a labor contract with the company, not a talent management contract.

In other words, the TV station won’t get a single cent from his endorsement fees! After deducting personal income tax, the rest belongs entirely to Wei Sheng.

What? You say that government employees aren’t allowed to take on private jobs outside?

Cough~ Sorry! Wei Sheng is just a contract worker for now, not an official full-time government employee.

How can this be?!

This concerns the unit’s financial interests! Even if Pu Xiangdong doesn’t care about losing this money, the other station executives certainly do!

Don’t be fooled just because the TV station is under the broadcasting system. It actually became independent years ago and now operates on a self-sufficient budget.

That means the station’s annual earnings directly determine how much everyone gets in year-end bonuses!

Pu Xiangdong may be making a fortune on his side business and not care about the station’s bonuses, but others are counting on that extra money for the New Year!

Very soon, at the Monday executive meeting, several deputy directors teamed up to pressure Pu Xiangdong into transferring Wei Sheng to a different department and giving him the green light!

This kid’s fan base is growing rapidly—he can make headlines just by visiting a vegetable market! If they don’t sign him to their in-house entertainment company soon, what if their cash cow runs away?

Even if he doesn’t leave, what if he lands an even bigger endorsement deal in the meantime?

That’s their money!!!

Zhou Mingxing sat in his office, leisurely waiting for a few days, until the HR department personally delivered Wei Sheng’s transfer approval.

“Director Zhou, you did it! You should’ve seen Pu Tai’s face at yesterday’s executive meeting—he was livid! Pfft~” The HR staff had a good relationship with Zhou Mingxing and joked with him in private.

Well, what could he do? His wife had recently become a hardcore fan of Wei Sheng—and a career fan at that!

Before, she used to nag him about where he was socializing, whether he’d be home for dinner, and all sorts of annoying questions.

But ever since she joined Wei Sheng’s fan club, she had been busy managing his online engagement. Even when he didn’t have a business dinner and went home for a meal, she would grill him about Wei Sheng’s latest projects and even ask him to get an autographed photo… She completely forgot she had a husband! Ridiculous!

Hearing that Pu Xiangdong got humiliated at the meeting, Zhou Mingxing secretly rejoiced.

Serves him right! He thought he could suppress powerless newcomers just because of his seniority.

People are like that—if something doesn’t concern them, they won’t care. But once their year-end bonus is at stake, they suddenly take action.

Receiving a call from Zhou Mingxing telling him to bring his approval form to HR for processing, Wei Sheng quietly sighed in relief.

To be honest, the atmosphere in the post-production department had felt off these past few days.

Just as Zhou Mingxing had warned him when persuading him to transfer, he was no longer the same workplace rookie he had been a few months ago.

He had fame, attention, and fans. Other than not being signed to a management company, he was no different from any other celebrity.

And ever since news broke about his endorsement deals, his colleagues had been looking at him strangely—after all, even after tax deductions, he was still making millions from just a few short-term deals.

Zhou Mingxing was right. He and his post-production colleagues were now from two different worlds.

Even if he didn’t sign with Zhou Mingxing, unless he abandoned his current popularity and commercial value to return to a regular nine-to-five grind, leaving the post-production department was inevitable.

After quickly completing the transfer process, Wei Sheng booked two tables at a nearby restaurant and treated his post-production colleagues to a farewell dinner.

“Xiao Wei, work hard over there! When you become a big star, please go easy on us when we edit your show, okay?” joked Jiang Fei, the post-production department head, giving him a pat on the shoulder.

Wei Sheng looked over innocently. “Director, shouldn’t I be the one begging? I’ve spent months in this department—if my face ever appears in the footage archive, please, for the sake of old times, don’t turn me into some ridiculous edit!”

As the saying goes, your perspective depends on where you sit.

When Wei Sheng worked in post-production, he only cared about aesthetics and visual impact.

But now that he was the one being edited, he couldn’t help but want his former colleagues to smooth out his skin and add some flattering highlights… Ahem!

The dinner ended on a high note.

Wei Sheng knew that as an artist, there were two people he absolutely could not offend: stylists and post-production editors. Now that he had made some money, he decided to be generous—after the meal, he took the whole crew out for an escape room game.

By the time he got home, it was already past eleven.

As he stepped inside, he almost tripped over several large boxes piled by the door.

“Mom! Did you buy even more stuff for Rice Ball?”

Seeing his mother lounging on the couch, petting their cat while watching a drama, Wei Sheng resigned himself to carrying the heavy boxes into the storage room.

Ever since she got a cat, their house had been packed with cat litter, cat food, and cat trees—it was almost overflowing.

But to his surprise, these boxes weren’t from Hu Qianqian’s shopping spree.

“These were sent by your grandpa’s friend, Uncle Yang Shunde from Yingxiang. He had a delivery truck bring them over as a thank-you for promoting their factory during your livestream. He even invited you to visit sometime.”

Hu Qianqian saw that her son had returned, put down her phone, walked over, and sniffed him carefully. After confirming that he hadn’t been drinking, she asked if he wanted a late-night snack—she had made fresh shepherd’s purse and pork wontons earlier in the evening.

“Give me a bowl! I just went to play an escape room with my colleagues, and when we came out, they all said they had work tomorrow and didn’t want to go for a late-night snack. I was starving!”

Hu Qianqian quickly went to the kitchen to cook the wontons for her son.

Wei Sheng sat on the sofa and watched for a while. Through the glass door of the kitchen, he could see his mother happily humming the theme song of a popular TV drama. Their chubby cat, Rice Ball, was curled up on the chaise lounge, snoring softly in its sleep.

This was nice.

No more endless arguments. No more people lurking in the shadows like hyenas, waiting to scheme against his mom and his grandfather’s family.

Watching his mother move with a lighter step, her face regaining confidence and a bright smile, Wei Sheng suddenly felt a surge of motivation.

His grandfather’s three-story house was already thirty years old. The neighborhood was an old residential area, and its greenery and amenities weren’t as good as those in newer developments.

Once he finished filming his current short-term endorsements and received the final payments, he planned to start looking at houses to buy his mom, grandma, and grandpa a bigger villa.

Preferably in a retirement-friendly community with a canteen, a health clinic, and accessible facilities.

Back when his parents used to argue, his dad would always say, “I don’t need my son to support me; my nephew can take care of me just fine.” Wei Sheng had nearly cried from how stupid that was.

People still believed in “raising children for old-age support” in this day and age?

Setting aside the fact that if a son turned out to be useless, he wouldn’t take care of you at all and might even mooch off your pension—

The amount of money his dad had spent on Wei Mian’s family over the years, if saved in a bank with interest, would have been enough to afford at least ten years in a well-equipped nursing home.

There, he’d have professionals taking care of his meals, regular medical checkups, people looking after his mental well-being and entertainment, and a group of peers to play chess, drink tea, and chat with. Instead of enjoying that, his dad was counting on that ungrateful nephew to serve him tea and take care of him when he was sick?

Wei Sheng thought, thank goodness his mother had cut her losses in time and decisively divorced his father. Otherwise, if he really bought a big villa, his dad would insist on moving his grandmother in. Then wouldn’t he end up supporting that old woman who bullied Hu Qianqian all the time?

Taking care of her in old age? Not a chance.

His dad always claimed that Wei Mian was more filial than his own son.

Great. When he gets old and has no one to take care of him, he better not come looking for this son!

(End of Chapter)