Chapter 78: Sail against the Wind
Chapter 78
"If she wants to give it, then let her give it. Just treat it as a gift with light feelings and deep affection..."
Xu Mingchuan advised Li Yao to relax. He took out the contract and put it in front of Qin Wei:
"This matter is also my negligence. I don't have enough understanding of the dark side of the industry after returning to China for a short time. I was also too impatient, and almost caused irreparable loss to you. Don't worry, the same thing won't happen again.
Here are several projects under Xu's Group that need brand endorsements. You can choose freely, and it will be yours once you sign your name. Consider it my compensation to you."
Qin Wei picked up the contract and took a look:
"Xu's Group? Asked from your dad?"
Xu Mingchuan didn't say anything, which was tantamount to acquiescing.
"You're just afraid I won't participate in the competition."
Qin Wei handed the contract back to him.
"Wanting to rely on the big tree to enjoy the shade, you should go inherit the family business. There's no need to go abroad one moment and start your own company the next just for my sake.
We were unlucky, but isn't this no big deal? At least I'm not so fragile mentally that I can't make it well without endorsements. "
Seeing her like this, it seemed that there was no major problem. Xu Mingchuan breathed a sigh of relief, and did not force her to accept the contract. Instead, he took out another contract from his bag - a thick stack, almost fifty pages.
"Take a look at this one then. It's the contract for the competition. It takes effect from the time you sign the contract until the end of the competition. During the competition, I will bear all your sponsorship fees, and I will also take a percentage of the remuneration generated from the resources you receive afterwards...
In short, you will no longer have an independent studio, but an artist under my Anxing Entertainment. However, due to various reasons, our relationship will not be made public for the time being. I will slowly explain the specifics to you later."
Qin Wei flipped through the contract curiously. Wow, Xu Mingchuan had written it very meticulously, even arranging everything clearly for her in the event of advancing or being eliminated.
"Is everything you wrote here true?"
Seeing her shocked expression, Xu Mingchuan must have read the first part. He said,
"In order to increase your enthusiasm for participating, I also set up a reward and punishment mechanism. Don't worry about punishment, as long as you don't deliberately slack off, even if you're eliminated, it has nothing to do with you.
The main thing is the reward. The competition has a total of twelve rounds, ten elimination rounds and two final rounds. For every round you advance, you will receive a corresponding reward, with the specific algorithm and predicted amounts written very clearly...
As for the contract, I'll only sign with you until the end of the competition. If you still want to continue afterwards, I certainly welcome it."
Qin Wei was curious:
"Won't you lose money this way?"
Xu Mingchuan smiled,
"Are you worried about me? Don't worry, let's just say the harder you work, the less I lose. Qin Wei, I..."
He hesitated,
"Forget it, don't worry about the school stuff either, just leave it to me."
Qin Wei nodded, but there was one thing she was very concerned about:
"After making such serious plans for the future, will I really get through the preliminary selection?"
...
Three days passed in the blink of an eye. After the voting channel closed and the data was calculated, the director sighed repeatedly looking at the strings of numbers.
Real-name system, three votes per person, but participation was still very high, indicating that many people were paying attention to the show, which was a good thing.
However...
The director looked down at the printed complaint letters. Some people believed that Qin Wei's audition performance did not demonstrate her singing and dancing skills, so giving her high scores was unfair to other contestants. Therefore, she should be disqualified.
And the data in front of the director proved that Qin Wei had the highest popularity - from the real-time reaction during the live broadcast, to the video view count afterwards, and the first place in voting - everything was telling him that Qin Wei was the show's traffic password.
"Let's continue the meeting."
The director sighed. The show's executives and judges had also been arguing endlessly about whether or not to keep Qin Wei. Meeting after meeting was held, but no conclusion had been reached.
But the list of selected contestants had to be announced tonight, so a decision had to be made before then.
At the meeting, the director first stated his opinion:
"I think Qin Wei can't be eliminated. First of all, her audition performance was shocking and amazing. For our show, traffic is king. It's the first time our station has tried a combination of live streaming and pre-recorded broadcast format. Having a few artists with high traffic and topicality is very necessary, and the sponsors care about this too. Qin Wei can bring traffic to us."
But some still objected, for reasons similar to those in the complaint letter - to form a girl group, they would definitely need singing and dancing skills, and her performance didn't meet the rules.
Seeing that they were about to start arguing again, the director calmed down this time:
"Whether it complies with the rules or not, let's ask the station head's opinion!"
...
At 8pm sharp, Qin Wei picked up her phone to check the competition results, but the platform froze and she couldn't get in no matter how much she tried.
It seemed that too many people wanted to know the results, overcrowding the network and crashing the platform servers.
But the more this happened, the more anxious Qin Wei became to see the results. Not being able to access it made her even more anxious.
A vicious cycle.
"I couldn't have not made it through, right..."
Qin Wei regained the nervousness she felt about final exam results during her student days.
She had already signed the contract with Xu Mingchuan. Even if she was eliminated in the preliminary selection, that contract would still be valid. Anxing Entertainment would be her agency for the next four months or so, and she would have to comply with all of Xu Mingchuan's lawful arrangements.
And this time happened to be the production period for filming a TV series. Xu Mingchuan's contract stated that he would reasonably arrange for her to record variety shows, act in dramas, film commercials and other commercial activities.
If Xu Mingchuan arranged for her to act, that would be problematic...
She had no acting experience at all, and she was also very aware of her own acting skills -
certainly not as good as the original owner, not even as good as the mushy short videos on those platforms.
It was this self-awareness that made her a little panicky. Not accepting the acting role would violate the company contract and require monetary compensation; accepting the role she couldn't handle would produce a crappy work, letting down the audience, crew, and wasting the remuneration.
The main thing was she hadn't lost all her conscience yet. She couldn't make herself act terribly in trash films for now...
After a bout of wild thoughts, when she opened the platform again, she finally got in smoothly.
Qin Wei looked at the long list and muttered to herself,
"First place, Qiao Sixiao, rightfully deserved...Second place, Chen Xinya, hmm, alright...
21st place, Liu Xin...I'm not on here yet...
43rd place, Youyou...Oh no, don't tell me I really got eliminated?"
She felt a tinge of regret for signing the contract that day, thinking she could make it through the preliminary selection.
She was still too arrogant, thinking the audience would appreciate her excellent performance style.
Qin Wei became worried that in the not-so-distant future, another crappy drama would be born, and her acting skills would be ridiculed by the audience for years to come.
She only wanted to retire from the industry, not be canceled...
Qin Wei flipped to the last page, and her name was at the very bottom of the last row.
"Last place..."
She actually made it through the preliminary selection!
But this ranking really dampened her excitement.
The comments from netizens below made her even more annoyed:
【Hahahaha qw last place! This is too funny!】
【I voted for her, but it seems not many people appreciate her. Don't young people nowadays believe in brilliance?】
【I'm a black fan but still voted for her. Looks like she really is past her peak. Sigh.】
【The black fan above is even feeling down haha, what about the real fans?】
【In a sense, last place is also first place, so Big Sis Qin is still number one.】
【Pfft!】
【Too funny, I'm starting to look forward to the story of the dead last rising to the top.】
【Rising to become the Seventh Hokage?】
【Pfft, I meant the C position.】
Overall, they were mocking her for being dead last and watching for entertainment, which made Qin Wei very unhappy.