Chapter 146 You're Not the Only One: Spoiled, Oh

The color TV in the private room was on, playing melodious music.

Song request programs are incredibly lucrative, practically the money-making machine among county and city-level television stations, and are especially popular with the general public. As a result, the program length is generally at least one hour, and at least ten songs can be played.

The song playing now is an old Soviet song, "Katyusha." Accompanied by the lyrics, "When pear blossoms bloom all over the world, and soft gauze floats on the river," the screen shows Soviet female soldiers marching in formation.

To be more precise, she is a female model from a CIS country wearing an old-fashioned military uniform.

Because there isn't a wealth of online video material available in this era, trying to simply adopt Soviet-era military parades is like trying to cook without ingredients.

Fortunately, there are still some old movies, such as "The Dawns Here Are Quiet," which can be used to extract parts of the film and add them to music videos to enhance the background image.

The combination of the energetic female models marching in formation created a pretty good effect.

Even though it's a pretty well-made music video, it's miles ahead of those cookie-cutter music videos of swimsuit-clad women walking around on the beach.

The model standing in the center of the group has a small head and face, delicate features, and a naturally photogenic face; she practically glows.

Wang Xiao sighed inwardly: What a pity.

The private room was warm and cozy, thanks to the air conditioner, a luxury item for this era, which was running tirelessly.

The hot pot on the dining table exudes a rich aroma.

Behind the billowing white mist, Xiang Dong slightly raised his eyelids and said, "If you're not satisfied, I won't force you. Don't worry, Sophia, the company will buy you a plane ticket and send you home."

His voice was gentle and calm, even amiable.

However, this seemingly casual remark was like a bomb, causing Sofia and all the male and female models in the private room to nearly jump up on the spot.

That's right, Xiang Dong was speaking Russian.

Although his foreign language talent is only average, after dealing with Russians for a long time, while reading and writing are still a bit of a struggle, his listening and speaking skills are definitely not a problem.

If we're being lenient, we could definitely compliment him, saying his pronunciation is really authentic.

Therefore, everyone present did not need a translator to understand what he was saying.

Sofia's face flushed red instantly, and she instinctively stood up.

Her beautiful, angelic eyes were now blazing with fury as she glared angrily at Xiang Dong: "Why are you kicking me out?"

After saying that, she reflexively turned to look at Ivanov.

The latter was peeling an orange.

Winter is the perfect time to eat oranges. In traditional Chinese culture, oranges are also known as "lucky oranges," symbolizing good fortune.

The dish of tangerines on the table is probably a type of cold dish. It's piled up into a small, pagoda-shaped mound from top to bottom. Its orange-yellow color, illuminated by the light, gives off a warm glow and looks particularly comforting.

Ivanov finished peeling the whole orange, as if only then realizing someone was staring at him.

He slightly raised his eyes, nodded and smiled at Sophia, with the same gentle smile a big boss gives to his junior employees: "You all go about your business, don't worry about us, we can take care of ourselves."

As if to prove his point, he handed the peeled orange to Wang Xiao.

The latter readily agreed and broke off a piece, putting it in his mouth.

It's a bit of a shame there are no pine nuts on the table, which affected Ivanov's performance.

He's quite good at shelling pine nuts; he shells them very quickly, and each one is perfectly intact. His skill level is quite impressive.

Never mind, it's okay even without fish and shrimp, it's all the same idea.

Moreover, the flesh of these tangerines is tender and quite sweet.

Wang Xiao ate with relish, and also nodded and smiled slightly at the girl.

Seriously, big bosses only yell at their senior executives, but when it comes to frontline employees, they're usually all gentle and persuasive.

Xiang Dong, the head of the model agency, showed no sign of yelling at his unruly subordinates.

He then explained slowly and deliberately, "If we don't send you back, you'll be an illegal resident in China. The reason you can legally stay in China right now is because you're an employee of our company. Now that your employment relationship with the company has been terminated, you certainly can't stay on that basis anymore. It's fate that we met, so let's part amicably. The company certainly can't abandon you, so of course we have to book you a plane ticket and send you home."

Sofia opened her mouth: "No, that—"

Xiang Dong nodded slightly: "I understand what you mean. You mean the nightclub will hire you? No problem, the company fully respects your choice. After you finish eating, go back to your dorm and pack your things. I'll work overtime today to process your resignation."

The models in the private room were stunned. They looked at each other, hardly believing their ears.

Sophia said she was leaving, and Mr. Xiang didn't even try to stop her.

And the boss—

The male boss, who was also a foreigner like them, not only peeled the oranges, but also tore off the white pith from the orange segments.

Why go through all this trouble? Why don't they just eat canned oranges directly?

Oh no, the key point is, boss, such a big thing, and you're just sitting on the sidelines like you're doing nothing?

Wang Xiao and Ivanov really didn't intend to get involved.

Terminating her contract with the company was a huge deal for Sofia.

The plight of the models in the private rooms, at the very least, evoked a sense of shared sorrow.

But for a billionaire, it's not even worth mentioning; it's not a big deal at all.

Only Xiang Dong, the person directly in charge, had no choice but to take it seriously and deal with it in front of everyone.

His smile remained unchanged, and he was particularly understanding: "Don't worry, you can leave tonight. Don't worry about the follow-up work; the company will take care of explaining to the partners. A new person will fly over tomorrow to take over your incomplete filming duties."

As if afraid Sofia would worry, he emphasized very seriously, "It's really okay. To the client, you all look pretty much the same, so it doesn't matter who does the photoshoot."

A commotion erupted in the private room as the models instinctively looked around, seemingly trying to make out each other's faces.

Wang Xiao ate the orange slowly, leaning back slightly as he looked up at the music video on the TV.

The female soldiers in the picture had changed formations. They all had the same blonde hair, blue eyes, high noses, and deep-set eyes. For a moment, even she, who had dealt with the Russians for several years and was quite familiar with their appearances, couldn't recognize who Sofia was.

Let alone ordinary Chinese people who have seen few foreigners and feel that they all look the same?

Sofia and her ilk have a market, but only because they are foreigners, or even more specifically, because they are beautiful foreigners.

But are there few beautiful foreigners? Caucasians are known as natural supermodels, and it's no exaggeration.

In addition, they are keen on dressing up, and you can see men and women dressed in bright colors everywhere on the street, ready to be photographed at any time.

Xiang Dong reassured Sophia once again: "Don't worry, go to work at the nightclub. The company is always hiring, and the new employee training will be over soon, and everyone can start working together."

This time, not only Sofia, but all the models in the VIP box went crazy.

Are you kidding me? The newcomers aren't here to share the workload, they're here to steal it.

With new faces joining the team, clients are more likely to hire them for photoshoots.

Sofia's face turned a mixture of red and blue.

She's not some clueless fool who doesn't know anything about the world; she knows exactly what nightclubs are all about.

Nightclubs can be found in almost every city of any size across Russia.

The salary offered is indeed high, but it's not easy to earn that money.

Customers would take advantage of you, and the mafia would extort you.

Even worse, they might resort to force.

It's not that you can simply stick to your bottom line if you want to.

Why would someone stuff $100 into your underwear?

Is it because I feel a special connection with you and want to lie on the roof with you, watching the stars and the moon, and talking about life and our dreams?

She may lack worldly experience, but she's not mentally challenged.

Without anyone's protection, she simply couldn't survive in the nightclub.

When Xiang Dong was running a stall in the shopping mall, he often interacted with women.

Now, he was particularly patient with the female model: "Actually, you don't necessarily have to stay in nightclubs in China. Western Europe, America, Japan, and South Korea are all richer than China. I imagine their nightclub patrons are more willing to spend lavishly."

The expressions on the faces of the people in the private room all changed.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the trafficking of women to Europe and America for prostitution has become commonplace and no longer a rare occurrence.

Russian gangs in Western countries largely control the overseas prostitution industry. Like most gangs worldwide, their sources of clients are primarily their own compatriots.

After all, it's easier and more effective for people to cheat each other.

From this perspective, the powerful and wealthy in most countries of the world are not fundamentally different from gangsters.

Even if these models go abroad to work in nightclubs, no matter how much they deceive themselves, they cannot imagine that they can remain untainted by the mire.

Xiang Dong emphasized: "When it comes to security, Huaxia Nightclub is no better than Europe and America. They send you flower baskets worth 10,000 yuan each, it's not because they want to reminisce about the Soviet era with you. They're thinking about riding on foreign horses."

Everyone seemed to have been struck by a thunderbolt, and several people's expressions changed drastically.

Xiang Dong concluded definitively: "Alright, that's settled then. Let's eat first, and then we'll go back and process our resignations."

As he spoke, he stopped looking at Sofia and picked up his chopsticks again to eat, this time a huge lobster.

That's incredibly extravagant.

Sofia herself turned into a cooked lobster, and even her back involuntarily hunched over.

But the workers have already confronted the boss directly; if they back down now, it would be a joke.

She always tries her best to fight for the interests of herself and her brothers and sisters: "The money is too little, the wages are too low. We have clearly made a lot of money for the company, this is not fair to us."

"a lot of?"

Xiang Dong chuckled twice as if he had heard something ridiculous before speaking, "Now let the company calculate for you how much money we've spent and how many resources we've invested in you?"

"translate."

He held up one finger and emphasized, "Because you don't speak the same language, you basically need a translator to accompany you to complete your work, especially when shooting music videos."

A decent Russian translator can easily earn two or three thousand yuan by going to a wholesale market or a commercial center in Beijing.

They don't need to be on call 24/7, nor do they need to accompany others on business trips. They can earn money as soon as they complete a deal, and they are free to do as they please.

Our company needs a translator. 24 is willing to accompany you, and it involves frequent business trips. Who would want to do this job for less than 3,000 yuan a month?

That's right, so far, most of these models don't speak much Mandarin.

Their unified explanations all focused on the fact that Chinese is too difficult to learn.

But is that really the truth? That's hard to say.

Thirty years later, when Hong Kong and Taiwanese artists and overseas stars were making money in mainland China, their Mandarin was generally quite poor.

Is it because they lack language talent and can't learn it no matter what, so they can only make a living by dubbing?

Let's send them to Hollywood and see if they can learn English and memorize fluent English lines.

Of course I can memorize it, of course I can learn it, otherwise the client would just fire me.

Ultimately, it's all due to spoiled bad habits.

If speaking fluent Mandarin doesn't affect their job opportunities at all, why should they bother to learn it?

Anyway, the market doesn't demand anything of them, and their audience has no bottom line, so it's not worth them putting in any extra effort for those who pay for their services.

They naturally don't need to treat this segment of the audience as equals to other audiences.

The same would happen if these models were used instead.

If they had spent the time and energy they used for drinking, bragging, and fooling around on learning Chinese, they wouldn't be fluent in Mandarin now, or at least they wouldn't be stagnant or even regressing.

But in this world, if you indulge yourself, you'll be quickly eliminated by the times, so don't complain.

After all, you chose this path yourself.

"The car and the driver."

He raised a second finger towards the east and pointed twice with his other hand, emphasizing two key points: "Regardless of what happens in your country, in China, cars and drivers are very expensive."

If a driver uses a sedan to drive a taxi, earning five thousand yuan a month is already a balancing act of playing around with work. With a little effort, earning seven or eight thousand is easily achievable.

"If the company provides a car to take you to work, and they don't pay you three to five thousand a month, would they be willing to come?"

"Customer maintenance".

Xiang Dong's finger was already pointing to his ring finger, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. "You don't actually think that customers come to you willingly, do you?"

In order to promote you in music videos, give you more opportunities to appear on camera and increase your popularity, the company has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars just on treating you to meals.

Moreover, nowadays, our company is expected to give gifts to family members on holidays and birthdays.

Otherwise, why would they hire you to take their photos? There are quite a few foreigners in Beijing too.

He continued the conversation on this topic.

"You think shooting a music video for 300 yuan makes the company a lot of money? But to be honest, the company doesn't make a single penny from that. Where are the music videos shot? Mainly in Beijing and Guangzhou."

If only one of you goes, we'll need to send at least a translator and an assistant. Leaving aside the round-trip travel expenses, three people will need to pay for accommodation and meals, right?

All of this was paid for by the company.

After all, they could easily find someone locally to film it; there's no need for them to cater to you.

Sofia was speechless, unsure of what to say in response to Xiang Dong.

She racked her brains for a long time before finally finding a point to retaliate: "Taking photos, we can earn the company ten yuan for each outfit we photograph, and we can photograph at least a hundred outfits a day."

She became more and more aggrieved as she spoke, "But we only get a thousand yuan a month."

The models all felt that she was their mouth double, speaking for the working class.

They should earn more money.

Xiang Dong lowered his raised finger, as if he had heard some ridiculous fantasy: "Do clients who ask you to take photos fall from the sky? Without a company, who would come to you asking to take photos?"

Are you kidding me? Do you think just anyone can easily pick up a bowl of rice?

If it weren't for the fact that it's backed by the International Trade City, why would manufacturers come to us?

In fact, he had already done everything he could, and had spent so much time trying to persuade her.

If he were even slightly ruthless, he wouldn't waste a single word and would simply kick the person out the door.

If you want to go to nightclubs and get yourself killed, go ahead and get yourself killed. Nobody's stopping you.

But do you want to continue working in this industry?

I'm sorry, the company will notify all partners that your contract has been terminated.

This will prevent you from continuing to use the company's name to swindle and deceive others.

After all, the company has a responsibility to its partners.

It's hard to say whether a self-employed individual can fulfill their responsibilities in completing the filming task.

If you don't do your job well, or run away with the deposit, it's a small matter for the client to lose a little money, but it's a big deal if the filming is delayed and subsequent work is affected.

Therefore, Xiang Dong has ample reason to believe that after leaving the company, Sophia will be unable to continue working using her previous resources.

Firstly, the partner manufacturers did not want to offend the International Trade City and insisted on cooperating with models who were blacklisted by Wuzhou Model Agency.

Secondly, there are too many uncontrollable factors associated with individual businesses, making filming management very troublesome, and it's difficult to find anyone to claim compensation if something goes wrong.

It would be better to just hire a regular model who's signed with a company, even if the latter is more expensive.

Because business people understand one principle: saving a little money often leads to spending a lot of money later.

Mr. Xiang just felt that the young girl lacked social experience and, after being flattered and encouraged, started to lose her bearings.

Therefore, adhering to the principle of treating the sick and saving lives, he pointed out to the other party: "Besides, is your income really that low? If you shoot a hundred sets of clothes a day, the manufacturers will at least give you three to five sets as gifts, right?"

The saying goes that the seller is always more shrewd than the buyer. The manufacturers are being so generous, not to emulate Lei Feng, but to get the models to promote their products.

They are good-looking and have great figures; they are walking clothes hangers. Clothes on them become the best showcase and billboards for events.

It can attract the attention of more customers.

“Three to five sets of clothes, the cheapest of which costs at least five US dollars each, would amount to twenty or thirty US dollars a day. How much would that be in a month? Seven or eight hundred US dollars wouldn’t be a problem, right? If you take them back to China and resell them, the price would double to two thousand US dollars.”

Looking around to the east, a half-smile played on his lips. "No one's going to tell me they've never done this kind of business before, is they?"

How could that be!

Even the most unsavory young people, if immersed in the business world every day, will start to imitate what others do.

"so--"

Xiang Dong calculated the figures for the models, "Your actual income will not be less than 1,500 US dollars per month. If you feel that's not enough, then find someone else. Don't worry, it won't hinder your bright future at all."

They've all gotten too cocky, not realizing their own limitations.

If we don't give them a good talking to, they'll all be living in a fantasy world, thinking they're the only rose in the world.

In fact, they have no core competitiveness and can be replaced at any time.

If you're not behaving yourself and still want to cause trouble, then go cool off somewhere else.

The company's business is expanding rapidly, and new employees are constantly emerging. President Xiang doesn't have the energy to waste his time.

He picked up his chopsticks again, smiling as he gestured to the handsome men and beautiful women: "Eat up, the hot pot is very delicious."

Wang Xiao had every reason to suspect that this time, he wouldn't be able to put down his chopsticks until he was full and left the table.

The models looked at each other again, as if someone was about to pick up a spoon or chopsticks—

They learned this quite quickly, because they discovered that some dishes really are only suitable for being picked up with chopsticks.

Sofia, with her hands still free, glanced at Ivanov, one look after another.

Wang Xiao was completely bewildered and subconsciously whispered in his ear, "Hey—what's your relationship with him?"

Look at how expectant they are of him, hoping he'll risk everything for her. He's definitely not simple.

As it turned out, the two of them really did have something going on, so Wang Xiao decided to stay away from Ivanov to avoid enduring the smell of tea while eating oranges.

However, Ivanov looked blank, and with a completely indifferent attitude, replied, "I don't know, I have no recollection of it."

Even if he wasn't a thousand-man slayer, he was definitely a hundred-man slayer. How could he possibly remember an unimportant face?

Wang Xiao thought about it and realized that it made sense. During her own time as a sea queen, she also couldn't remember what her brothers looked like.

So the eldest brother, let alone the second brother, are all cut from the same cloth.

She was even less likely to stand up for Sofia.

It's not jealousy, she's just bored and has nothing better to do than engage in this pointless competition between women.

She's not insane; she wouldn't betray her own senior executives.

As expected of someone who has risen to the ranks of business tycoons, Xiang Dong first knocked someone unconscious with a slap, and then offered a sweet treat to appease them.

He did a great job, why is she criticizing him?

Wang Xiao stood up and nodded to everyone: "Then you all eat well, eat more. When you ask Mr. Xiang to pay the bill, don't be soft-hearted towards him."

Some of the quick-witted models immediately responded with laughter.

The others then realized what was happening and joined in with small groups of laughter.

Someone mustered up the courage to ask, "Boss, if new people come, will our workload decrease?"

They earn more money because they take more photos.

Wang Xiao and Ivanov said in unison, "You should ask Director Xiang about this."

Xiang Dong replied mysteriously, "It must be the best of the best; the client has specific requirements."

You've all been spoiled rotten. Did you think that without Butcher Zhang, the whole city would have to eat hairy pigs?

He also stood up and saw the two bosses out.

As he walked out the door, he sighed, "Young people these days are so hard to manage!"

His tone was so weathered that you'd think he was seventy or eighty years old.

Wang Xiao laughed and said, "Then being around them and constantly being influenced by them will definitely make you look younger."

Xiang Dong just chuckled; it would be more accurate to say he died ten years earlier.

"Alright, I'm not going to waste my breath on you."

The female boss got to the point, "We can expand into two more business areas."

One option is to build your own photography studio, train your own photographers, and directly collaborate with clients as a complete team.

Because manufacturers nowadays mainly focus on production, their business acumen isn't very strong, let alone advertising.

Currently, many of the photos they take are taken by the factory's publicity team, so you can imagine how poor the quality of those photos is.

Why don't they handle the whole package? They specialize in this area, and the client just needs to pay.

When people are in an industry they are not familiar with, as long as the expenses are not particularly large, they are more willing to pay money for peace of mind.

"The second point is that song request programs can be recorded and used to send blessings."

Wang Xiao reminded Xiang Dong, "As you've seen, people are now very willing to spend money on song request booths to celebrate their birthdays."

For just thirty or fifty yuan, you can see your name on TV and receive blessings from relatives and friends.

For ordinary people, this is a very prestigious thing.

Especially in areas below the county level, where every household in the township knows each other, its impact is so great that it can sweep away thousands of enemies and is extremely popular.

"Our models are foreigners, and when they record videos to send blessings, our clients will definitely welcome it."

How could she be so sure?

Haha, thirty years later, videos of Black people giving blessings are still going viral online, let alone in 1993 when China was particularly eager for international recognition.

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I was exhausted after running all day yesterday. Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants between 2024-02-11 07:10:02 and 2024-02-12 07:24:22!

Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: Miss San (30 bottles); Na Lan (20 bottles); Little Sister (5 bottles); White Clouds in the Sky (2 bottles); Fatty Bear, Happiness Forever, Little P, and Cornstarch (1 bottle);

Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!