Chapter 8: 《cnm》
Chi Ye looked at his mobile phone in the off-screen state, feeling that things were far more complicated than he had imagined.
Yue Na’s attitude was unusually tough.
The tougher they were, the worse the situation was.
“Keke, Keke.”
Chi Ye recalled Keke’s eyes and knew that this personal assistant of the original host definitely knew something.
“Chi, Chi Ge.”
Keke walked in with small steps, looking at him with concern: “Are you okay?”
“When do they usually settle the announcement fees for the announcements I’ve been running these past few days?”
Chi Ye sat on the chair, staring at Keke’s cheek.
“Settlement…” Keke was stunned, lowered his head and stammered: “I don’t know about this kind of personal matter, Chi Ge, you should… know it yourself.”
Chi Ye was silent.
Keke raised his head, saw Chi Ye’s appearance, suddenly thought of something, and his face turned pale: “Chi Ge… you won’t… are you okay?”
Chi Ye rubbed his temple and didn’t speak.
“There… aren’t any announcement fees at all, Chi Ge.”
Chi Ye suddenly opened his eyes: “None?!”
Keke lowered his head again, mumbling: “I… I found out about these things by accident… sorry Chi Ge, I didn’t mean to.”
“Keep talking, I want to hear how much more you know.”
Keke’s little face turned deathly pale, not daring to speak.
“Speak, you should already know pretty much all about my situation.”
Chi Ye gave a “self-mocking” smile: “It’s just the two of us here, I won’t blame you.”
“Really?”
Keke bravely raised his head, his eyes already turning a bit red.
Chi Ye was stunned and nodded: “Of course.”
“…” Keke was silent for a moment, then said: “Actually, it’s not that there are no announcement fees… once, when I was bringing food to Chi Ge, I saw you crying alone in secret… sorry Chi Ge, I didn’t mean to, later I found out that Chi Ge’s announcement fees were all used to pay back the company’s money, so the announcement fees never get transferred, you’ve been paying off debt.”
Chi Ye fell silent again, and only after a long time did he ask: “Do you know how much I owe?”
“It’s not owing…” Keke reacted and corrected: “At least I don’t think it’s something you owe… but indeed… you were deceived.”
Chi Ye calmly talked with Keke, but the further he listened, the worse his mood became.
Later, he couldn’t help but start cursing Yue Na’s ancestors eighteen generations.
The original host debuted as a trainee, and before debuting, he was actually signed to a small company mainly doing idol training.
This company was notoriously unreliable in the industry, with no conditions or ability to debut, and made profit mainly by earning and scamming liquidated damages from kids.
The original host was young and ignorant, only realized something was wrong after being tricked in, but by then it was too late to leave.
Until three years ago, this company ran into some financial difficulties and sold the contracts of the artists under it in a package to Yue Na.
Yue Na Group.
This was one of the top management companies in the internal entertainment circle, the boss was a certain super first-tier superstar from the 80s, now backed by two juggernaut capitals, the big company that all newcomers in the industry yearned for most.
The original host was happy to be sold here and trained even harder, wanting to stand out in the fiercely competitive Yue Na.
The result proved that going from a small company to Yue Na was just jumping out of the wolf’s den and into the tiger’s mouth.
Even compared to the small company, Yue Na relied on powerful background relationships and a legal department even more adept at law, handling them this batch of “black slaves” in a more seamless and despair-inducing way.
They used the existing black slave contracts to exert deeper control and bloodsucking on the original host and a batch of unlucky ones.
The specific operation was: for any business activity, the company would set “targets” for them, targets that were ridiculously high and basically impossible to complete, and if not completed, they had to pay sky-high compensation to the “brand party”.
But the brand parties were all controlled behind the scenes by the two major groups.
Similar to bet-on-performance contracts, but more like mini versions, and appearing every business deal.
As a result, let alone the original host who didn’t have much business ability, even if the business ability was outstanding, it was impossible to complete such targets.
Naturally, the original host owed more and more money, and then could only desperately run announcements, ride on popularity, make money to pay off debt.
But this kind of debt could never be paid off, because its fundamental logic was “the more you work, the more you owe”.
Thus, running nearly five million in announcement fees in three days, but ending up with not a single cent for himself, was the situation.
—It wasn’t no money, it was the company “auto-deducting” to pay off debt.
Of course, Yue Na wasn’t fools, while making the black slave original host work, they didn’t forget to transfuse blood periodically, ride on popularity, market the original host’s Yue Na crown prince persona.
And because the original host himself had “no income”, Yue Na thoughtfully provided full board and lodging, so the original host didn’t have to worry about food and accommodation, and could workhorse in peace.
Oh right, heard there’s bonuses every month, if you do well, you can get over a hundred thousand a year, white-collar level!
This is really… fuck your mother.
Chi Ye listened with gritted teeth, his whole body breaking out in goosebumps.
He had seen a lot in his previous life, but incidents like this still blew his mind every time he heard them.
Moreover, this time the protagonist of the incident was “himself”.
Yes, this kind of model was extremely inhumane, not many artists who could become popular to be sucked dry by the company, most endings were very tragic.
From this point, the original host relied on this superior face to take a “shortcut”?
After all, Chi Ye should now be one of the few with popularity among that batch of black slaves.
Ding ling ling.
The phone bell rang.
Keke had already wiped his eyes and walked out, Chi Ye picked up the mobile phone and saw it was the agent’s call.
He thought for a moment and answered the phone.
“Hello? Calmed down now?”
“Fuck your mother.”
Sister Ge: “???”
Beijing, Yue Na Group.
Ge Shuang heard that “warm greeting” from the other end of the phone and was actually confused for two seconds.
Moments later, she reacted, her face ominously dark: “Chi Ye, my patience with you is limited, you’d better know who you’re talking to!”
“Fuck your mother.”
Ge Shuang: “You cursing again?!”
Chi Ye still those three words: “Fuck your mother!”
Bang!
Ge Shuang trembled with anger, kicked the trash can, startling the surrounding clerks.
She glanced back, hurriedly walked into her office, then lowered her voice: “Chi Ye, I don’t know what wind you’re on now, but if you want to die, pay off the money first before dying!”
“That money isn’t what I owe.”
“Not what you owe?” Ge Shuang sneered: “You signed the contract, you own it, who forced you to sign it back then?”
Chi Ye: “Those were all tricked into signing by you guys, and the so-called standards and compensations don’t exist at all, they’re all Yue Na’s own business, without legal effect.”
“Legal?” Ge Shuang laughed even happier: “Let me tell you, the law can’t save you, but it can kill you!”
She gnashed her teeth: “You’d better obediently keep running announcements for me, otherwise if you can’t pay back that much money, don’t blame me for sending you to prison.”
Chi Ye paused: “Then send me, I’m not running any announcements.”
In his previous life, due to his personality, even though his workplace was one of the top domestic marketing companies, he resolutely chose to resign and go solo.
Now what was he afraid of?
Moreover, he felt that as long as Ge Shuang wasn’t a fool, she shouldn’t really tear faces.
Sure enough.
The aggressively pressing Ge Shuang on the other end of the phone fell silent.
After a long time, she seemed to have adjusted her emotions, and spoke softly: “What exactly do you want?”
“I want to breach the contract.”
“Impossible!”
The two fell silent again.
“How about this, I’ll give you an extra ten thousand a month.”
Chi Ye still didn’t speak.
Ge Shuang paused, her tone softening a bit: “Chi Ye, ask your conscience, these years I’ve treated you pretty well, right?”
“When they were bullying you in the group, who helped you solve it? Without me, do you think your teammates would be that ‘gentle’? Not to mention far ones, just that one million, without me, could you pay it back yourself?”
“This was all paid back for you by me and the company!”
“Besides life, your life now is so good? Stable money every year, no need to buy house or car, just work and get rewards, do you know how many people envy you?”
“Go back and run announcements properly, sis promises you, later I’ll help you get some good resources, didn’t we agree last time, in two more years, when the time comes, the company will let you go, by then you’ll definitely be even more popular… this is the best choice for you.”
Pa.
Chi Ye directly hung up the phone.
Not because of anything else, just purely disgusting.
Two more years? The original host that silly sweet believed it, but he with years of workhorse experience didn’t buy it.
PUA played out flowers?
Go die, old witch!
……
“Ungrateful wolf!”
Ge Shuang had been “disobeyed” by Chi Ye multiple times today, her mood extremely explosive, wishing she could crush the mobile phone in her hand.
She thought about it, reopened the mobile phone, dialed a number: “Hello… Finance Department? Stop the expenses for Chi Ye Team first.”
“Yes… um, we temporarily don’t need that much, if needed I’ll call you.”
“Mm good, that’s it, I’ll treat you to dinner later.”
……
Chi Ye was still unaware that the agent had already started knocking him from behind.
After hanging up, although he wanted to smash Ge Shuang’s skull, the top priority was still to think about how to escape the current predicament.
First, honestly paying back money was definitely impossible.
What Yue Na did was too outrageous, that money wasn’t something he could pay back now or even in the future, no need, didn’t need to pay.
Then the only path left was one.
—Through legitimate means, file a lawsuit, stir up public opinion.
On this point, he felt he could try.
The original host’s personality was indeed too easy to control, like a docile little sheep with a face full of aggressive beauty, but turned out to be a silly sweet.
Yue Na’s legal affairs were definitely polished, but there must be loopholes.
At least, if it really blew up, just the public opinion aspect would be a boost.
But the original host didn’t dare do this, because one wrong move, the current “stable” life would turn into prison disaster.
But he wasn’t afraid of these.
“Filing this kind of lawsuit will definitely cost a lot, so where does the money come from…”
Two days later.
Chi Ye had returned to outside Beijing’s third ring, his “home”—an old rundown neighborhood, a house rented for him by the company.
In these two days, he checked through the original host’s bank card, Alipay and other software, as expected, poor as a church mouse.
A second-tier traffic star, total deposits less than one hundred thousand.
And this was still “frugal living” saved up, because although the company periodically gave expenses to Chi Ye Team, the county official is not as good as the current manager.
Many times it was too late, the original host used his own meager savings to advance, as for whether reimbursed later, sometimes yes sometimes no.
If reimbursed.
Anyway, Chi Ye tightened his belt, even brought back the hotel’s disposable slippers and toothbrush toothpaste.
Truly worse than a workhorse.
With this wealth situation, definitely not enough for a lawsuit.
Fortunately, through these two days, Chi Ye had found a new path.
—Someone owed the original host money, and a lot at that.
What Ge Shuang said earlier “that 1 million I paid back for you”, Chi Ye didn’t understand at the time, but later he specially asked Keke and got the general idea.
Turns out, the original host wasn’t without thoughts of resistance.
Two years ago, the original host had privately used his public figure identity to loan money, ultimately over one million, from the chat records, Chi Ye guessed he probably had the same idea as now, wanting to file a lawsuit to escape the cage.
But this matter was known by his former teammate Shen Qing Yu.
At that time Rise was already formed, the original host had some fame, Shen Qing Yu was one of the original host’s few friends.
At the time, something probably happened in Shen Qing Yu’s family, urgently needing money, so he wanted to borrow from the original host.
The original host this silly sweet heard Shen Qing Yu had already loaned out and had no more to loan, plus the other had less popularity than him but wasn’t a black slave, earned money fast, over one million could be paid back soon, so he lent it to Shen Qing Yu.
Who would have thought, after lending, Shen Qing Yu never intended to pay him back.
From Chi Ye’s current view, this was clearly Shen Qing Yu knowing the news, privately telling Yue Na, both colluding to pit the original host, preventing him from making a big fuss.
“So cheap!”
Looking at this impactful face in the mirror, Chi Ye wanted to curse a few times, but thinking of the original host’s tragic life, he sighed.
In the end, this was just an honest kid from an ordinary family, divorced parents, forming his people-pleasing personality.
In his short life, he lived in an environment of being bloodsucked by others, struggling in pain.
“I’ll help you get everything back.”
Chi Ye murmured, then took out his mobile phone, flipped through Shen Qing Yu’s chat records.
The other had long deleted him, but the original host hadn’t moved.
Flipped to the very back, clicked in, inside were the two’s conversation from two years ago.
Chi Ye: I really need that money, can you pay me back? （ laugh cry ）
Shen Qing Yu: How many times have I said, tight on cash now, pay you back in a few days.
Half a year later.
Chi Ye: Are you there? （ peek ）
Chi Ye: Are you there Qing Bao~ （ scratch head ）
Chi Ye: Can you pay back the money Bao, the loan company is urging me （ big cry ）
Shen Qing Yu: Just this little money, what are you urging for? What star power am I now? Run one announcement and it’s enough to pay you back, what’s the rush.
Chi Ye: Sorry Qing Bao, they’re blocking my door, say if not pay back they’ll chop my hand, I’m so scared.
Shen Qing Yu: In a few days, I’m filming these days, in a few days filming fee comes I’ll give you.
Chi Ye: A few days is how many days?
Shen Qing Yu: Three days later, three days later I’ll give you.
Chi Ye: Okay, thank you! （ kitten kowtow ）
Three days later.
Chi Ye: Bao~ Bao are you there? （ kitten peek ）
Chi Ye: Last time I told them it’s settled, now they’re right beside me.
Chi Ye: Bao, I beg you, can you pay me back the money?
System: The other party is no longer your friend, please add them as a friend to chat.
