Chapter 47

  After that day, Li Jin successfully joined Qin Yige's "Yi Ge" company.

  Yi Ge Company was funded by three parties, Qin Yige invested 40%, Xinhuo Weishi representative invested 30%, and the remaining 30% was invested by Ji Yanji, who was not seen that day at the hot spring. The first batch of signed artists were chosen from the top 20 students of Xīn Shēng Dài.

  As the major shareholder, Qin Yige has absolute say in Art Song Company, so Li Jin, who was once his assistant for a period of time, also had a smooth sailing and jumped over the artist assistant link to sit directly on the position of chief broker, under the artist unified Beifengming. Moreover, since he served as Lee Yi-heng's special assistant, he also took on the role of liaison between this competition and Li Corporation.

  Most people in the company had no opinion on Qin Yige's decision. Firstly, Li Jincheng's past experience was there, and he was poached from his position as a special assistant to Lee Yiheung, and any company would want to hold onto him. Secondly, he was indeed exceptionally capable, and it was easy for him to handle troublemakers like Luo Fei and Qi Yichen, but handling the unpredictable Qin director was a big deal.

  However, there are still different voices. Qin Yige's company has indeed brought in some talents from the circle, and these talented people have been in the circle for a long time with extensive connections. It is already the limit to tolerate the old men of the program group stepping on their heads, and they cannot tolerate Li Jin, a newcomer, sitting in a middle-level position.

  So in front of Li Jin's eyes was a smooth and unobstructed path, but in reality, thorns were everywhere in the unseen places.

  Fortunately, he had also come this way in his previous life, and for those ghostly tricks, he had long been prepared. He countered the moves with ease, having dealt with them several times before. His opponent found him difficult to handle and stopped making further trouble.

  Luo Fei's competition was also smooth sailing. His fight with Qi Yichen became a great publicity stunt, as the two talented young men clashed over their different musical ideas and then reconciled due to their shared love of music. The whole process was full of ups and downs, making the show's ratings explode within half an hour of its broadcast. Later, the two performed together on stage in front of countless audiences, with their electric guitars sparking like fireworks. The boy holding the guitar was handsome and charming, successfully sending "China Star Voice" to the top of various search charts, breaking the ratings record for similar shows and winning numerous advertising sponsorships for the program team.

  At the same time, Luo Fei's popularity also surged. His fan forum's daily online numbers rivaled those of many popular artists, and comprehensive forums like Tieba had fans' posts floating on the homepage every day, with an exposure rate that was unmatched for a while. What's more delightful is that many manufacturers began to contact Li Jin through various connections, hoping to invite Luo Fei to endorse their products. Bei Fengming visited Li Jin's office one day and saw him simultaneously handling fifteen cooperation intention letters, admiring him so much that he was speechless.

  "Wow, 600,000 yuan for a one-year endorsement deal! Our little Qiao Fei is going to be blinded by the money!" Fatso's hands trembled as he held the letter of intent.

  Li Jing gave him a cold glance, snatched the crumpled letter of intent from his hand and turned around to stuff it into the paper shredder.

  "This is unacceptable." He bowed his head and continued working.

  "Why?" Bai Fuming shouted loudly, "I'm telling you, don't be in such a hurry to jump around before you've even learned how to walk! Do you know how much Liu Meiqing's endorsement fee is? One million!"

  Liu Meiqing is a popular newcomer, debuting for one year and winning numerous newcomer awards. She recently endorsed a cosmetics brand, claiming the endorsement fee was 5 million, but in reality it was only 1 million before tax.

  Li Jin replied, "I know." The paper shredder beeped to signal its completion of work. He turned around and glanced at the pile of shredded paper in the box, "A cookie brand that's only sold in third- or fourth-tier cities... If Luo Fei endorses this, I'm afraid the most high-end product he'll endorse in the future will be a treadmill."

  In the entertainment industry, when an artist is just rising to fame, they often hastily accept endorsement deals, which lowers their value. As a result, even after becoming extremely popular, they can't get high-end endorsements. Bei Fengming knew that Li Jin didn't want to repeat the mistakes of Luo Fei, so he pretended to be nonchalant and walked away with a snort, shaking his plump waist.

  After this incident, Luo Fei became much more confident and no longer impulsive. He learned to think things through carefully. Li Jin designed a series of devilish training plans for him, filling up his daily schedule except for the 7 hours he slept, but he didn't even frown, following the routine every day, a model good student.

  He thus entered the national top 10 without any surprises, and in the subsequent quarterfinals PK match, he won easily against his opponent, advancing to the national top 8 along with Qi Yichen.

  After the fight, Qi Yichen's contract was also signed with Li Jin. Li Jin thought he would be a difficult person to deal with, but after getting familiar with him, he found that Qi Yichen was actually very loyal and had a wide range of knowledge, being more clever than Luo Fei. Many unspoken rules in the entertainment industry that Luo Fei couldn't understand, Qi Yichen could grasp easily. At one point, he and Li Jin worked together seamlessly, and it seemed like they were about to surpass the tacit understanding between Li Jin and Luo Fei.

  If there's such a thing as tacit understanding.

  Li Jin thought in despair after Huo Fei asked a silly question for the nth time.

  But undoubtedly, even if Luo Fei is a moron like a blank sheet of paper, everyone loves him.

  There are people in this world who are so naive and innocent, they don't know the ways of the world, their minds full of thoughts of everyone getting along, it looks out of place but makes you want to protect them, to keep their innocence for a little while longer.

  It seems that Li Jin's desperate attempts to help Luo Fei grow have made him look like a bad person. Even once, when Li Jin met Director Shi Dongning backstage, the usually poker-faced "devil" couldn't bear it and offered gentle advice.

  "Li Jin, don't you think Lu Fei should take a few days off?" he said. "He's been idle and has nothing to do but hold a small notebook to recite words, as if the college entrance examination is next month."

  "No problem, Teacher Shi," replied Li Jin very seriously. "As long as his English reaches the level where he can chat with people without any obstacles - he still doesn't understand the past perfect tense now."

  Then Shi Dongning shut up and left.

  From then on, no one dared to question any decision Li Jin made about Luo Fei.

  Until the bad guy received a phone call in the afternoon.

  "Brother Lei, can you come over for a moment?" On the other end of the phone was Xiao Pu, the company's newly promoted broker, his voice trembling with a hint of panic and helplessness in every word. "Something's happened here!"

  At that time, Li Jin was sitting in the physical education classroom of a certain art school with Bei Fengming. In the fourth year of graduation season, countless art students were looking for their next path, and countless entertainment companies also sent their own veteran brokers to major art schools at this time to find future superstar seedlings.

  The Quanzhou Art School has produced many stars in recent years, so Qin Yige waved his hand and asked Bei Fuming to partner with Li Jin to select new people. When Li Jin received the call, the selection was nearing its end, and Bei Fuming was staring blankly at the uniform faces of the contestants, on the verge of falling asleep, when he heard the words "something's wrong" and suddenly became wide awake.

  Li Jin's expression turned cold as he finished the phone call, and he hastily asked: "What happened?"

  "There's a problem on Luo Fei's side." Lí Jǐn said concisely, "Xiao Pu brought people to the scene only to find out that our artist was there to warm up for someone else today. The main act is Shū Mù. But Shū Mù didn't show up after waiting for a long time, so the organizer asked our people to keep singing until Shū Mù arrives."

  "That won't do!" Bei Fuming knew about this event. After the top eight students were selected, many business organizations had invited them to perform, and after discussing with Li Jin, they decided to only select the most worthwhile events to avoid affecting the students' competition due to too many commercial performances. This event was submitted by the marketing department, the first domestic flagship store of an internationally renowned luxury goods seller's opening ceremony, from its reputation to its high-end degree, all impeccable. But Bei Fuming remembered clearly that the contract only required each of the top eight students to sing one song, and...

  "There's no mention of Shu Mu going in the contract! Once Shu Tian Wang appears, will our people have any chance to show their faces tomorrow?" Bei Fuming gritted his teeth in anger, "What's going on over there? Weren't Germans supposed to be the most meticulous and reliable? How could they openly breach the contract?!"

  Li Jin lowered his head: "Old Bei, something is off about this matter."

  Bei Feng was taken aback for a moment, then suddenly reacted: "You mean it's our people who made the mistake?"

  It is very likely that the contract was reviewed and personally agreed upon by Lai Kam, so he should be held responsible for such a big matter.

  It seems those jinxed people still haven't given up.

  Li Jin picked up his own coat from the side: "Anyway, such a big thing, Xiao Pu, who has just been in the business for half a year, will definitely not be able to hold on. I'll hand it over to you here, and I'll go take a look."

  As he spoke, he stood up and explained a few words to the art school teacher, then quickly walked towards the door.

  "Big agent!" As she was passing by the door, the girl who was sitting down was suddenly stopped by someone, "Can I exchange phone numbers with you?"

  Li Jin turned his head and saw a beautiful girl smiling sweetly at the door.

  He raised his lips and smiled at those unreservedly flirtatious eyes.

  "Sorry, I'm not interested in little girls."

  "You don't look much older either." The girl pouted and shrugged her shoulders, not taking the phone.

  But immediately, in a place where her classmates couldn't see, she smiled again.

  That person's smile... is really beautiful.