Chapter 27
Zhong Ruanxing was very eager to see some sort of reaction on Zeng Mingzhi's face, like anger, shock, disgust, and dissatisfaction with her but unable to get rid of her.
Unfortunately, there was nothing on that cold and glamorous face. Her pretty eyes were like a bottomless abyss, and Ruanxing couldn't even see her joy or anger.
The Zeng Mingzhi today was even calmer than her impression. Ruanxing suddenly realized that she hadn't seen her artist for half a year. The last time at the party hosted by Director Zeng, she didn't even wait for her. She went in with Cheng Xitian instead after sending her a location.
Ruanxing didn't care whether Mingzhi went afterwards or how she left, whether she talked to Director Zeng. It was clearly a party that Director Zeng had singled out to see her.
She had ignored her for too long, to the point where she knew nothing about the current Mingzhi.
She heard Mingzhi say to the intern she had deliberately brought in to disgust her, "Nice to meet you, I hope we can cooperate happily in the future. Let's chat in your office."
She just calmly accepted this new agent intern.
Although she had achieved her goal, Ruanxing felt like the loser when she watched the three of them leave. She was so angry that she threw the office documents all over the floor.
...
Ran Ting had just joined the company less than half a month ago as an intern yesterday. This morning she suddenly received a notice to officially take over as an artist's agent.
The importance of an agent lies not only in work experience and ability, but also in the resources and connections accumulated in the industry. Assigning an intern like Ran Ting who had just graduated from college to manage an artist was no different from letting the artist fend for themselves. The normal procedure should be to start as an artist's assistant first and accumulate 4-5 years of experience before qualifying as an agent.
Ever since receiving the notice, Ran Ting had been uneasy. She didn't know why the company would arrange this, but she wasn't stupid and could guess it was probably related to personal grudges. She was a little worried that the artist would vent their anger on her, and had already started feeling sorry for her future cannon fodder life.
Zhong Ruanxing?
It was a name she had heard but didn't have much impression of. Ran Ting spent an hour searching for information about her. After reading it, she felt heavy-hearted. Sex-related scandals could easily drag a female artist down to hell. Ran Ting thought most people online nowadays were brainless. Didn't they think that if those bed-climbing rumors were true, how could Ruanxing have climbed so many beds and still remain unknown?
She thought that when she became Ruanxing's agent, the first thing she would do for her was get rid of all these rumors.
But before meeting Ruanxing, she didn't expect her aura to be so strong.
Her office was just vacated this morning, and it was a mess with things left behind by the previous employee who had resigned.
Ran Ting was so nervous she became clumsy. Seeing the sofa covered in dust, she quickly wiped it with her sleeve and stammered, "Can you sit here?"
"Don't be nervous." Song Jinghang reassured her, "Where's the new contract?"
"Oh oh!"
Ran Ting hurriedly took it out and gave it to him.
She had expected the first meeting today to be confrontational, but the atmosphere had been very calm since she entered senior Weng Hanzhi's office. Her artist had great control of the situation, arranging all future work in an orderly manner. It seemed like Ran Ting only needed to nod.
"This is my lawyer. He will handle the false rumors about me online. Just cooperate with him."
"Okay, okay!"
"Someone will contact you today to discuss advertisements for two products under the Song brand. Just give them the standard quote."
"Ah? Song brand?! Okay, okay!"
"In the future, any questions about contracts and legal matters can be referred to Lawyer Xu. He serves you 24 hours a day."
"24 hours?! Oh oh, thanks Lawyer Xu."
"The audition results for Director Zeng Mingzhi's movie should come out in the next few days. Notify me immediately if there's any news."
"Got it!"
...
After a handover, Ran Ting felt disoriented. It was as if she had done nothing and everything at the same time, giving her a fuzzy sense of being led along.
Was she really her agent? Why did she feel like she was the one relying on connections? It wasn't until Song Jinghang left the company that Ran Ting reacted - the endorsement mentioned by her artist was indeed Song Corporation, right? The Song Corporation she knew?
Song didn't easily hire artists as endorsers. All of their spokespersons so far were either top actors or supermodels. Even first-line top-flow artists in China had to be carefully weighed by them to get Song's endorsement.
When choosing endorsers, Song didn't care much about commercial value. They made it clear they didn't lack money, and cared more about the fit between the product and endorser, as well as their status. If Ruanxing could really get Song's endorsement, her popularity would rocket up!
Did her artist just now make a slip of the tongue? Could it be hallucinations from being angered by Weng Hanzhi? Oh no, that would be quite serious, she'd have to take her to see a doctor...
Ran Ting started working while doubting and anticipating at the same time. Whenever her phone rang, she would swiftly take it out.
Food delivery, package delivery, water delivery...
Oh my god! This was too nerve-wracking!
After spending the morning handling rumor-spreading marketing accounts and sending them all lawyer letters with Lawyer Xu, Ran Ting went to lunch with a dejected look. On her way downstairs, she came across some intern colleagues who had joined the company at the same time. Seeing her, they whispered among themselves. Che Jiayu, who didn't get along well with her, deliberately said, "Ran Ting, congratulations on becoming an agent after just half a month. We'll all have to learn from you in the future."
Anyone with eyes could see she was just a small fodder caught up in personal grudges. The intern colleagues following their senior agent mentors would gain experience and connections more steadily step by step. But she had been thrown out early to follow a scandal-ridden unknown artist. One could easily imagine how terrible her career would be.
Hearing such words, Ran Ting thought she would be angry.
But for some reason, she recalled her artist's calm yet powerful gaze in that messy office this morning.
It made her believe everything would turn out not so bad, and would definitely get better and better.
So Ran Ting held her head high and smiled confidently at Jiayu, "Thanks, you guys keep at it too."
Jiayu's malicious smile froze on her face. After Ran Ting left with unfamiliar strides, she incredulously asked her companions, "Is she stupid? What does she have to be cocky about?"
Ran Ting didn't care what they thought.
Because this inexplicable confidence made her feel full of strength. She even ate two more chicken legs!
Just as she was gnawing on a chicken leg, the phone ring that had tormented her all morning rang again. With a chicken leg in one hand and her phone in the other, Ran Ting answered casually, "Hello."
The polite male voice on the phone said, "Hello, am I speaking to Ms. Zhong Ruanxing's agent? This is Song Corporation. We have two products we'd like Ms. Zhong to endorse. Are you available this afternoon?"
Ran Ting's chicken leg fell to the ground.