"Alright, we can go now." Meng Ziqiu also changed into a clean set of clothes.
"Where's your brother?" Xu Qian stood up and twisted his neck as he did so.
"I told him to wash his face. He had only exercised for a short while and was covered in sweat."
"Oh." Xu Qian nodded, reached for his coat on the chair, and casually draped it over his shoulder, his eyes still glued to his phone. He was a complete 'internet addict'.
Meng Ziqiu wasn't surprised; in fact, he was already used to it. After all, he himself was a young man addicted to the internet, and mobile phones were an indispensable part of their lives. Besides, his older brother had never used them before, so novelty was to be expected...right?!
A moment later, Meng Liangchen walked over with his face covered in water droplets. Xu Qian even suspected that he had washed his hair while he was at it, judging by how wet it was.
Meng Ziqiu was in a great mood. "There's a really delicious hot pot place on the pedestrian street. I really have to try it. Their shrimp balls are so tender. I could eat two plates by myself..."
The three of them walked and talked, and arrived at the hot pot restaurant that Meng Ziqiu had mentioned in about ten minutes. The restaurant was quite crowded, and there were hardly any seats left. However, the owner of the restaurant and Meng Ziqiu obviously knew each other. As soon as they arrived, the owner called out "Old Meng, Old Meng" and said that a seat had been reserved for them.
As soon as Xu Qian sat down, he noticed several pairs of eyes looking at him from the front. He looked up, but the young girls immediately looked away, pretending that nothing had happened, which puzzled Xu Qian for a while.
Meng Ziqiu was busy exchanging pleasantries with the boss, and several dishes were gradually served on their table. Even the hot pot would take a while to boil.
When Meng Ziqiu finished his work and came back, he saw that one of them was playing on his phone and the other was memorizing vocabulary, not disturbing each other at all, and they were very harmonious.
Just as he was about to speak, his phone rang; it was a WeChat message from Feifei.
Xiang Feifei:
Your friend... is famous...
Meng Ziqiu was taken aback. "What's trending? Who's trending?"
Xiang Feifei:
[Link] See for yourself.
Meng Ziqiu clicked on the link and entered a short video on Xing Video, which was only 3 minutes long.
The opening scene is set on a bus, with the camera shaky from bottom to top, indicating that the person filming was acting very suddenly. The camera then pans to a young man in a black denim jacket; because he's wearing a hat, his face isn't clearly visible. In the young man's arms lies a middle-aged man who seems to have suddenly fallen ill; his complexion is visibly pale. Meng Ziqiu notices a fleeting bright light in the middle-aged man's hand; upon closer inspection, it looks like… a needle?
This scene continued for a while. The car stopped, and the door opened. The young man in the shot scooped up the middle-aged man in his arms. At that moment, the comments section seemed to come alive, instantly flooding the entire screen. Meng Ziqiu caught a glimpse of several comments: "[Did you see his boyfriend power?!]", "[Look at his hand gestures! So cute!]", "[This is the most magical princess carry I've ever seen... but I can do it!]". But that wasn't the most outrageous part. The next second, the young man turned around...
"Holy crap—"
Xu Qian subconsciously looked up at him and met Meng Ziqiu's "Holy crap" expression. He immediately laughed and said, "What kind of expression is that?"
Meng Ziqiu maintained the same expression, "I was about to ask you that, bro. See for yourself—"
Xu Qian leaned over to take a look, and then something seemed off. "...This was just an accident."
"What? What kind of accident?" Meng Liangchen also joined in the fun.
Xu Qian coughed and turned his face away.
On the other side, Xiang Feifei was chatting with Xiaomai on WeChat, and the content was about Xu Qian.
wheat:
Sister, sister is number one in popularity!
He replied with a '1' to Feifei, paused for a moment, found Bei Junjie's account, and sent him a WeChat message.
Xiang Feifei:
I've found a suitable person for your third anniversary promotional song.
Bei Junjie:
Wow, that fast!
Xiang Feifei smiled. This was practically offered to her, so how could she not hurry?
After replying to Bei Junjie, Xiang Feifei sent another WeChat message to Xiaomai, asking her to restore the video she deleted today and send her another copy.
wheat:
...? ? ?
Xiang Feifei didn't offer much explanation, but instead took the opportunity to contact Xu Qian.
...
"...Promotional song?" Xu Qian stared at his phone, lost in thought. He couldn't act, so what was he going to do?
"What propaganda song?" Meng Ziqiu asked.
"Miss Xiang just introduced me to a job, saying it's for an anniversary promotional song for a game."
"Oh, that's great, go ahead and take it!"
"But I don't know how."
"It's just a promotional song... so it's not a big problem, right?"
While Xu Qian was hesitating, he sent Fei Fei another WeChat message.
Xiang Feifei:
Are you free tomorrow?
"Yes, yes, yes," Meng Ziqiu interjected.
Xu Qian glanced at him and replied to Xiang Feifei with a "yes".
Xiang Feifei:
Come to my office at 9 a.m. tomorrow. Someone from Feng Tang Studio will also be there. I'll send you the location in a bit.
Meng Ziqiu: "Feng Tang is good! It's an established studio with a good reputation."
Xu Qian was about to say that even a good reputation was useless, since he didn't even have an ID card, so even if he passed the test, he couldn't sign a contract.
At this moment, Xiang Feifei replied again.
Xiang Feifei:
When you come, please invite Lao Meng along.
"...Huh? Me?"
Xu Qian shrugged. "Yes, it's you."
The next day, the two arrived at Xiang Feifei's office on time.
In the office, Bei Junjie was complaining to Xiang Feifei about their company's new intern. The two were college classmates, although they were not in the same department, but they worked in the student union and got to know each other over time. They also kept in touch after graduation.
Xiang Feifei smiled and said, "Beginners are all like this, you'll get used to it... Oh, the phone's ringing, they must have arrived."
Bei Junjie recalled the video he had sent to Feifei yesterday, and his thoughts immediately returned to normal. Judging from the video alone, he still thought highly of the person she had introduced, and he just hoped that seeing it in person would confirm it.
A short while later, led by the receptionist, Xu Qian arrived at Xiang Feifei's office.
"Hello, I am Xu Qian."
As a gaming tech geek, Bei Junjie always outsources promotional videos to the management team. If it weren't for someone proposing the promotional song this year, he might never have met anyone outside the gaming industry. But he has to admit... it actually looks quite convincing. After all, celebrities are celebrities; they are much more pleasing to the eye than ordinary people.
"How was it? Didn't disappoint you?" Xiang Feifei raised an eyebrow.
Bei Junjie laughed, "How could that be? You trust me so much."
After a brief exchange, the work on the promotional song officially began.
Before they arrived, Xiang Feifei had already briefed Xu Qian on the situation. Fengtang Studio was a game development studio with two PC game projects that could be considered the pride of China. However, the game they were going to film this time was another PC game from Fengtang Studio, "Qian Yao Lu". The third anniversary promotion for "Qian Yao Lu" was much grander than in previous years. On the one hand, the game had indeed been developing well in the past two years, and the studio wanted to take this opportunity to reignite its success. On the other hand, the studio wanted to take this opportunity to promote their new mobile game project of the same name. When it comes to making money, mobile games are still the way to go.
Of course, as the old saying goes, you can't catch a wolf without risking your cub.
The initial investment was quite necessary; otherwise, Bei Junjie wouldn't have sought out Xiang Feifei's "One Meter Sunshine." If they had simply hired a few cosplayers to shoot promotional photos like in previous years, it wouldn't have been like adding fuel to the fire.
After talking for half an hour, both sides had a basic outline of the preliminary plan.
“Although Xu Qian is a newcomer, you can rest assured about his work.” Xiang Feifei unexpectedly gave him her assurance, which made Meng Ziqiu glance at her several times, but given that there were outsiders present, he didn’t say anything.
"Okay, let's settle on that for now. I'll arrange for someone to come over tomorrow to coordinate and work out the specific plan."
"OK, OK, I know you're busy," Xiang Feifei stood up, her smile absolutely perfect. "I won't keep you for dinner, but I'll definitely do it next time!"
"That's easy, I'll be going now."
Bei Junjie quickly left the office, leaving only the two bewildered individuals behind. He turned to Feifei and smiled slightly, "Alright, now it's our turn to talk."
"?"
Xiang Feifei clapped her hands, "You heard it just now, right? Feng Tang has a good impression of your appearance. Once the first proposal is out, we should be able to finalize it."
"so?"
“So,” Xiang Feifei lowered her head, “I have to sign you on behalf of 'One Meter of Sunshine'.”
"You should know who I am..."
Xiang Feifei knew what he wanted to say, "That's why I asked you to invite Meng Ziqiu as well."
Meng Ziqiu: "...???"
"Of course, our main job at One Meter Sunshine is production, not entertainment. We weren't in a company-signed artist relationship before. I just provided you with a platform to work, and you brought me some revenue... yeah, it was that simple."
"I just want to do a part-time job...that's all." Xu Qian was almost tempted by her words, but the thought of his unregistered status immediately dampened his spirits.
“I understand, I understand, this is easy to handle. Look at you, you can write and you can move, you are a talent that is needed everywhere. Our Yimi Sunshine is a specialist in period dramas, and I also want to sign a stable professional stunt double, otherwise we always have to find people to fill in the shots in post-production. Of course, for 'extra income' like Mr. Bei, I will definitely give priority to our own people.”
Meng Ziqiu glanced at his older brother subconsciously. Although he and Xiang Feifei were childhood friends, there were so many hidden meanings in what they were saying that he didn't really understand.
Xu Qian raised his eyes. "How do you want to sign?"
Xiang Feifei knew he had agreed, and smiled, saying, "It's like this..."
...
"...Are you really going to let me sign?" Meng Ziqiu held the pen in his hand, but hesitated to make a move.
"Sign it." Xu Qian nodded, his expression calm.
“Feifei,” Meng Ziqiu turned to his childhood friend, “don’t sell me out.”
Xiang Feifei couldn't help but roll her eyes at him, "You're not that bad, don't worry."
“…” Meng Ziqiu muttered to himself, “It sounds like he’s insulting me.”
—Meng Ziqiu
—The contract is now in effect!
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