Blue Star, Jinghai City.
At a CBD commercial center on the Fifth Ring Road, traffic streamed by and crowds surged.
Internet celebrities doing street photography were everywhere, wearing trendy clothes or dressed in bizarre outfits.
If you happened to see a celebrity, there was no need to be surprised.
After all, more than half of the country’s entertainment agencies were gathered here.
From here, it took only half an hour to get to the airport or the highway entrance.
Convenient transportation, connected in all directions.
Li Lu stood beneath a building over fifty stories tall and removed his sunglasses.
About two minutes later, he put them back on in frustration.
He felt a little desolate. So this was how unpopular he really was now.
Even standing beneath his own company building, no fans came over to photograph him.
Today he had come specifically to discuss his contract, because his previous one would expire in a few days.
The company had sent him a draft six months ago, which he had flatly refused.
Compared with the previous one, the difference was night and day.
It was simply too terrible, completely classing him as a bottom-tier celebrity.
He had expected his agent, Sun Xiang, to send him a revised version, but there had been no news at all.
He couldn’t wait anymore, so last night he took the initiative and called him.
They agreed that he would come to the company today for an in-person talk.
“Brother Xiang, I’m here.”
Led by a colleague he didn’t know, Li Lu arrived at the agent’s office.
He knew Old Sun had been promoted and was now a company partner.
He hadn’t expected the new office to be so grand, easily twice the size of the one in his memory.
“Little Lu, make yourself comfortable.”
By a floor-to-ceiling window, Sun Xiang didn’t even turn around, just kept swinging the golf club in his hand.
“Brother Xiang, I’m here to discuss…”
“Mm, I know. Everything has already been prepared for you.”
Sun Xiang watched his shot roll slowly into the hole, then turned around with satisfaction.
Golf is something you really have to practice a lot.
“I still have to play a friendly match with a few friends this week, so I need to practice more.
Anyway, just talk to my assistant.
Marry, take him to the inner suite.”
“Mister Li, this way, please.”
Li Lu had noticed her as soon as he came in. She was tall and slender, with a standard oval face, gold-rimmed glasses, and slightly full lips.
Her sharp suit, on the other hand, perfectly highlighted her figure.
Walking behind her, he couldn’t help sneaking a few more glances.
He immediately scolded himself a few times in his head.
He had a girlfriend. How could he be like this?
Criticize it. Criticize it.
She only had a nice figure; his girlfriend was ten thousand times prettier than her.
Damn it, at a time like this he should be angry, not distracted.
He had earned the company at least several hundred million yuan, and now that he was no longer popular, they were making an assistant receive him.
Heartless. Disgusting.
After closing the glass door of the suite, the assistant walked past Li Lu.
He shuddered instantly, nearly screaming.
Damn, someone had actually pinched him from behind.
Holy shit (,,#ﾟДﾟ), (,,#ﾟДﾟ)
Was this some kind of casting-couch setup? No way.
So he actually had a day like this.
“Mister Li, my name is Ma Rui. You can also call me Marry.”
The assistant was perfectly normal, took out a file, and motioned for him to sit across from her.
“Sister Ma, just call me Li Lu.”
Li Lu shook off his stray thoughts. Calm down, calm down.
He had already been in the business for eight years. This was nothing.
“This is the renewal contract the company prepared for you. Take a look, and if you have any questions, we can talk it over.”
Li Lu no longer had time to think about his own embarrassing problem. He needed to get down to business.
He flipped past a pile of boilerplate; the key clauses in the contract had already been marked in red.
It didn’t take long before he finished reading it.
“Sister Ma, did you get it wrong?
This contract is the same as the one you gave me before.”
Li Lu was furious, but he could only hold it in.
Goddamn it, not a single word had changed. How was he supposed to sign this garbage contract?
A ten-year term, with a 10/90 split.
Base pay: 3,000. Housing allowance: 2,000.
Driver and assistant: all gone.
No annual drama or record contracts either.
That was bad enough, but the obligations section also said he could not unilaterally refuse any commercial activity the company arranged.
Special note: he must participate in at least two live-stream sales sessions every week.
Even newcomers who had just entered the company didn’t have contracts this miserable.
Although artists didn’t live on their base salary, this was still far too low.
They were clearly trying to drive him away. Five thousand yuan? He might as well go deliver takeout.
“Sorry, Mister Li.
This is the company’s standard. It’s already the most suitable contract for you.”
Ma Rui was still wearing a professional smile, her eyes fixed tightly on the man opposite her.
He really was handsome. Even though they worked for the same company, this was her first time seeing him in person.
A few years ago, he was the country’s top male star in terms of popularity, and his looks really were enough to make anyone salivate.
“Sister Ma, I can’t sign it.
There isn’t a single clause I can accept.”
Li Lu frowned. This was outright humiliation.
“It looks like the company isn’t prepared to keep cooperating with me. In that case, forget it.”
With a sigh, Li Lu pushed his chair back and stood up.
He had been strapped for cash lately and had already prepared himself to be squeezed, but he had not expected the other side to have no intention of talking at all.
For a moment, he felt discouraged. Forget it. Forget it.
It seemed he really couldn’t make it anymore. It was time to go.
He would go back and ask his parents for help first. At worst, he would be mocked a few times, but it would solve the immediate problem.
He pushed open the glass door and, too lazy to say goodbye to Old Sun, walked toward the entrance.
Although Sun Xiang had brought him into the industry, they had had little contact over the years and were basically not even friends anymore.
“Little Lu, stop.”
“Is there something else, Brother Xiang?”
“Come over and have a cup of tea before you go.”
“No thanks, Brother Xiang. You’re busy.”
“You’re throwing a tantrum in my office? Do I have to go over and invite you myself?”
Sun Xiang pretended to be angry, walked to the tea area in the corner of the room, and sat down.
He started boiling water by himself.
Li Lu understood at once. This was the good cop routine.
Damn it, they really had to do it this way.
Why couldn’t they have just said things properly from the start?
But by now, his mindset had already shifted. Fine, then let’s keep talking.
If they could cooperate, then cooperate. If not, he wasn’t going to play along.
“Hiss… hiss…”
The hot water bubbled, and the fragrance of Tieguanyin tea drifted through the air.
“You, after all these years, your temper hasn’t changed at all.
If you’d listened to me back then, you’d already be a superstar by now.
At the very least, you wouldn’t be worse than Lin Lin in the company.”
As he poured the tea, Sun Xiang deliberately mentioned the name of the company’s current top female star to provoke him.
“How could I compare with Lin Lin? She’s worked much harder than I have.”
When Li Lu heard that name, he felt awkward. Lin Lin was his first love.
The two of them had joined the company together and become the male and female faces among the newcomers.
They were discovered secretly dating, and after a stern warning, they broke up.
He had shot to fame overnight, enjoying boundless glory, but three years later his popularity had crashed.
She, step by step, had instead become the hottest young actress of the current generation.
“What’s your biggest objection to the contract? Tell me.”
Sun Xiang got straight to the point and brought the topic back to today’s business.
“I don’t want to do live-stream sales, especially the kind you’ve arranged before.”
Li Lu had been forced to do it once before. After seeing the product, he couldn’t even bring himself to read the promotional script written for him.
The live stream was cut off, and he even lost money because of it.
“Ridiculous. Ignorant.
What era is it now? And you’re still acting like a top star?
Don’t you know that the end of a celebrity is live-stream sales?”