Chapter 375: Team-Building Culture

“No.”

Chen Mo flatly rejected Tang Qiu’s suggestion.

“Starting small and expanding later? Why bother with all that? Just open a large law firm from the start. Wouldn’t that be better?”

“Alright, it’s settled. The office building should be at least 2,000 square meters. As for recruiting interns, hire more. Let’s start with around fifty.”

“What?!”

Tang Qiu couldn’t help but cry out.

“President Chen, isn’t fifty interns a bit too many? I think we can start with ten or so, train them up properly, and then gradually expand and bring in new members.”

“No. That pace is too slow. We’re hiring fifty. You can even hire more if you want, but fifty is the minimum.”

Chen Mo gave Tang Qiu a calm glance. Suddenly, he realized Tang Qiu was starting to resemble Wei Yan.

Every time he gave an order, they had to argue.

Which meant he always had to come up with reasons to justify himself.

“Understood, President Chen.”

Seeing how firm he was, Tang Qiu knew there was no changing his mind.

President Chen’s approach was certainly risky, but if it succeeded, the payoff would be enormous.

Fifty interns—if they were all trained successfully and could handle cases independently—that would be a massive legal team.

Thinking back on it, every one of President Chen’s investments had seemed reckless at first.

But in the long run, they all carried huge potential returns.

Nanhe Coffee was the best example.

When it was first founded, the business had been running at a loss for a long time.

But President Chen never gave up on it. He kept pouring money into Nanhe Coffee, pushing for constant expansion.

And now, thanks to a small reform, Nanhe Coffee had undergone a dramatic transformation.

It wasn’t profitable just yet, but it was getting close.

And the expansion hadn’t stopped. Based on President Chen’s site selection criteria, she could more or less guess his ambition for Nanhe Coffee.

He wanted to take over Starbucks’ market share.

If that plan succeeded, Nanhe Coffee’s future revenue could rival that of Cangxue Games.

Looks like she needed to step up too. She had to train those fifty interns as quickly as possible.

Tang Qiu made a silent resolution. She picked up the proposal President Chen had rejected and was about to leave when he spoke again.

“Also, about the law firm’s interior design—talk to Shen Rou. She’ll handle the arrangements.”

“Got it, President Chen.”

Tang Qiu nodded. Once she was sure he had nothing else to say, she took her leave.

…

Beijing.

Inside a five-star hotel, a server pushed a cart loaded with abalone and lobster into a private room. Several more servers followed, each pushing crates of red wine.

“Director Luo, this red wine is insanely expensive. Why don’t we just switch to beer? It’d save a lot of money.”

One of the crew members looked at the crates of wine and couldn’t help but twitch at the corners of his mouth.

The rest of the crew also looked expectantly at Luo Xiao.

They still hadn’t forgotten the last time they drank red wine.

Sure, it tasted good, but the aftereffects were brutal. Beer was just so much more satisfying.

“Brother Xiao, maybe we could…”

Wang Bin cautiously suggested. Last time, he’d lost an entire day of filming because of that wine.

Feeling everyone’s eyes on him, Luo Xiao gave a wry smile.

He wanted to switch to beer too, but President Chen had already given the order: red wine was part of the company’s team-building culture. Every company event had to include red wine.

Since it was a corporate tradition, and he was a manager in the company, there was no way he could break it.

“If everyone wants to drink beer, I’ll treat you all when we get back to Jiangcheng. But for this team-building event, it’s part of the group’s culture, and we can’t break that. If you can’t drink much, don’t push yourselves. Just drink what you can.”

After Luo Xiao spoke, the crew didn’t argue further. They turned their attention to another part of the company culture: caviar rice bowls.

“All the preparations for returning to the company tomorrow are done, right?”

After settling the team, Luo Xiao turned to Wang Bin. With this team-building event wrapped up, their filming in Beijing was officially complete.

All that remained was post-production.

He wasn’t too worried about that. The production account still had tens of millions in funds, all earmarked for editing and special effects.

He was confident the final product would surpass most of the films currently in theaters.

Many movies these days looked like they had huge budgets, but a large chunk of that went to hiring actors or marketing.

Very little actually went into the production itself.

“Everything’s been arranged. But the drama school students—they’re heading straight back to Shanghai tomorrow. They won’t be going to Jiangcheng.”

Wang Bin replied.

“Alright.”

Luo Xiao nodded. The students from Shanghai Drama Academy had already come to discuss this matter with him.

They hadn’t graduated yet, so naturally, they needed to return to Shanghai to complete their studies.

Besides, there wasn’t much left for them to do in Jiangcheng. The rest of the work was now in the hands of the editors.

So he agreed without hesitation.

“Director Luo, a toast to you. Thank you for taking care of us during this time.”

Jiang Xue and Su Tang approached with several students from Shanghai Drama Academy, each holding a glass of red wine.

Luo Xiao glanced at the group and gave them a faint smile.

“No need to thank me. You all worked hard during the shoot. And the one you should truly be thanking isn’t me, but President Chen. Without President Chen’s directive, none of you would have had the chance to be part of this film.”

With that, he picked up a glass of red wine from the table and took a sip.

What he said was true. If President Chen hadn’t insisted on casting only amateur actors, Luo Xiao wouldn’t have gone to Shanghai Drama Academy to recruit these students who hadn’t even graduated yet.

“We understand, Director Luo,” Jiang Xue and the others nodded slightly, then downed their wine in one go.

They were well aware that the order to cast only amateurs had come from President Chen—the very same President Chen they had only met once.

It was because of that decision that they got the chance to star in this film.

But President Chen was the head of the entire corporation, while they were just students who hadn’t even graduated yet. Even if they wanted to express their gratitude, they had no way of meeting him in person.

So,

The only way they could show their thanks was by working hard to improve their acting skills, striving to help Blue Film Studio create better films and achieve box office success.

After finishing their drinks, Jiang Xue and the others left. Soon after, a few extras came over.

Of course,

“Extras” was just their former title. Now, they were officially signed actors under Blue Film Studio.

One of them, a short man with a goofy grin, raised his glass of red wine and looked at Luo Xiao.

“Director Luo, I’m not very educated, so I don’t know how to say anything fancy. All my thanks are in this drink.”

With that,

He downed the entire glass of red wine in one go.