Perfect Superstar

Chapter 141 - Breaking One’s Boat

It’s notover yet!

Wen Zhiyuanalmost smashed the mineral water bottle in his hand toward the door - Could youlet Laozi be in peace? (TN: not bother him or let him be alone.)

He took adeep breath and said in a deep voice, "Please come in."

Ever since hesat in this position, Wen Zhiyuan felt that he had become a shrinking turtle.There was a bunch of mothers-in-law pointing fingers, and a group of proudsoldiers that went their own way. He was stuck in the middle of both sides.(TN: Shrinking Turtle: He became an extremely timid person. Mother-in-law means(curse word) for someone who is in higher position.)

For him tobe alive until now without his blood vessel bursting, he must have burned30,000 jin of incense in his previous life!

The door wasgently pushed open and a thin middle-aged man came in with a girl with aponytail.

"Hello,Director Wen..."

Themiddle-aged man came in, nodded and bowed to greet him, with a flattering smileon his dark face, which was wrinkled like an orange peel.

At the sametime, the girl with him also bowed to greet him: "Director Wen, I’m sorryfor disturbing you."

Seeing thesetwo instead of the former two lords, Wen Zhiyuan was greatly relieved.

He stretchedout his hand and beckoned the two, smiled and said, "You’re welcome. Sitdown. There’s water in the fridge."

Themiddle-aged man hurriedly said, "Thank you!"

He walkedquickly over to open the refrigerator in the corner and took out two bottles ofchilled mineral water.

One bottlewas first delivered to Wen Zhiyuan’s table, and the other was handed to theponytail girl who had just sat down.

Wen Zhiyuanlikes to drink chilled mineral water. As they all know, the bottle in his handhas been emptied.

The respect ofthe other party made Wen Zhiyuan show a sincere smile.

Themiddle-aged man, named Li Zhigao, is one of his agents who changed to this joblate in his life. (TN: Another translation is "switch to a job one was nottrained for")

Among themany agents at EMI Brokerage Company, Li Zhigao belongs to the lowest level. Hehas not been in the industry for a long time, and he does not have any personalconnection in the circle, so he can only bring ordinary newcomers.

The ponytailgirl he brought is called Tang Qiaoqiao. She is 19 years old, 1.65 meters tall,with big eyes and oval face, and has good looks. She was one of the top ten contestantson a talent show last year.

After EMI BrokerageCompany signed her up, they trained her in just over half a year. So far, she’sjust a small artist who is getting small notices. Only few people called out toher when she walked down the street.

In recentyears, there have been too many artists coming out of talent shows. With theexception of a few lucky ones, most of them are similar to Tang Qiaoqiao, andmany even have dropped out of the entertainment industry and returned to theiroriginal lives.

Thecompetition in this industry is really fierce!

TangQiaoqiao was someone insignificant among the artists who has made their debutin the company, so she was thrown to Li Zhigao.

Wen Zhiyuanstill has a good impression on Li Zhigao. Although the other party’s ability isnot good, he has a lot of respect for himself, and he was willing to work hard.

If his subordinateswere people like Li Zhigao, he would be sitting comfortably.

It is forthis reason that Wen Zhiyuan was willing to take care of the other party underappropriate circumstances.

He asked kindly,"Old Li, what brings you here with Qiaoqiao?"

Li Zhigaosat on the sofa with half his butt, and asked cautiously, "Director Wen, Iheard that you are going to invite Lu Chen, the champion of "Singing China", fora voice test, aren’t you?"

Un?

Wen Zhiyuanwas stupefied. Not many people knew about it. Where did Li Zhigao hear it?

However,when he saw the look on his face, he understood.

It must havebeen Zhang Qiong, that stinky woman, who spread the news to everyone the momentshe stepped outside his office, intentionally hitting him in the face. As aresult, even Li Zhigao knew it¹!

Flame ofanger was ignited in Wen Zhiyuan’s heart, which is not appropriate to vent on toLi Zhigao.

He sighedand said, "Yes, now Lu Chen and his people are in the reception roomoutside, but Zhang Qiong insisted on looking for other people, so now, I do notknow how to explain to him."

Li Zhigao’smouth is still very firm, and didn’t spit out some bitter water. (TN: Complainany grievances)

Unexpectedly,Li Zhigao showed a look of surprise: "They have come? Director Wen, canQiaoqiao?"

He stutteredincoherently. Wen Zhiyuan understood, shook his head and said, "Old Li.It’s not that I don’t want to help you. Lu Chen’s asking price for a song is250,000. I already help Zhang Shuhui to applied for this money. Qiaoqiao,there’s really nothing I can do."

Anybrokerage company, including EMI, has an internal hierarchy of contractedartists. The higher the level, the more resources they get. This is a clearrule.

In EMI BrokerageCompany, among the artists under Wen Zhiyuan, Zhang Shuhui’s ranking is B, andTang Qiaoqiao is D, the difference between the two is really great.

Therefore, whileWen Zhiyuan can apply for a fee of 250,000 yuan for Zhang Shuhui to buy songs, hecan, at most, apply for 50,000 yuan for Tang Qiaoqiao.

Wen Zhiyuan reallywanted to help but he’s unable to.

The mainreason was that Lu Chen’s asking price is really too high. No newcomer dares tooffer such a high price.

ZhangQiong’s opposition was not entirely unreasonable.

Wen Zhiyuan isbitter in his heart.

At thistime, Tang Qiaoqiao, who was sitting on the sofa, bit her lips and suddenlysaid, "Uncle Wen, if I am willing to pay half the money myself, is that okay?"

Wen Zhiyuanwas surprised: "You... you’ll pay for it yourself?"

It is normalfor singers to buy songs out of their own money, but Tang Qiaoqiao is a newartist who has just started her career. Wen Zhiyuan knows that her family isvery ordinary, and the money she earned through the company is also spent forfood and clothing in Beijing. Wanting to eat well is already difficult.

Now she actuallywants to buy a song worth more than 100,000. This really shocked Wen Zhiyuan.

This is breakingone’s boat!

If a signedartist of a brokerage company wanted to buy songs, they can’t do it arbitrarily.According to the rules, they have to arrange it through the company, because italso involves the later production, publicity and promotion.

In fact,many entertainment brokerage companies do not like artists to make their owndecisions.

For TangQiaoqiao to take the initiative to look for Wen Zhiyuan to propose to buy songsfrom Lu Chen, there is no doubt that this has taken up a great deal of courage.

And the timingis just right.

However...

Wen Zhiyuanstill shook his head: "Half is not enough!"

It’s notthat he’s hard-hearted, but that the company has rules, and he, as a smalldepartment head, does not have the ability to break the rules and raise TangQiaoqiao’s hierarchy ranking.

Li Zhigaosaid: "Director Wen, Qiaoqiao will pay 100,000 yuan and I will pay 50,000yuan. Please help her apply for 100,000 yuan!"

He looked atWen Zhiyuan and said with a sincere attitude, "It’s not easy for thischild. Please help her."

Is Old Licrazy too?

Wen Zhiyuanwas so dumbfounded that he couldn’t believe it.

50,000 yuan,perhaps it’s all the savings of this man. How could an agent act so recklessly?

But at thesame time. The director of the brokerage department was also moved.

In theentertainment industry, there are not many agents who can do this forcontracted artists. Most of them try to squeeze out the value of the latter andfinally spit it out like bagasse. (TN: Bagasse: Sugar cane waste.)

So many staridols choose their relatives and friends as agents. Even if the other partydoesn’t know how to do the job at all.

Bang!

Wen Zhiyuanslapped the table, got up and said, "All right! Since Qiaoqiao called me uncle,I, as an uncle, will sell this old face to help you once, and apply for 100,000yuan of song purchase fee for you!"

Li Zhigaoand Tang Qiaoqiao were both overjoyed: "Thank you, Director Wen/UncleWen!"

The two didn’thold much hope, just trying to fight for a chance for themselves.

Unexpectedly,it really moved Wen Zhiyuan.

Wen Zhiyuansmiled. Waving his hand, he said: "You don’t need to thank me. if you wantto thank me, then work hard. Let’s go see Teacher Lu Chen now. Remember to bepolite, and don’t neglect."

It’s alsoTang Qiaoqiao’s good luck. If it wasn’t for Zhang Qiong going against him, thisopportunity would not fall on Tang Qiaoqiao at all. Moreover, if Zhang Qionghad not forced him too hard, he wouldn’t have wanted to fight for it.

If he doesn’tfight back, Zhang Qiong will only trample on his face even more!

Wen Zhiyuan wasactually gambling that Lu Chen’s strength was as strong as he had expected.

A singer-songwriterwho wrote "In Spring", "You Who Sat Next To Me" and "TheBrightest Star In The Night Sky" should have no problem writing a songsuitable for girls?

Wen Zhiyuan,who took Li Zhigao and Tang Qiaoqiao to the reception room, didn’t have fullassurance in his heart.

EMI CulturalBrokerage Company, reception room.

Lu Chen andLi Feiyu have been waiting for 10 minutes.

To tell the truth,Lu Chen was a little unhappy in his heart. He took the initiative to come tothem to do a voice test. But the result, he just sat on the sofa and waited.

But thereceptionist was beautiful and polite, and the coffee provided was delicious,so he could bear it.

Li Feiyu,this thing², was captivated by the big-chested and white-skinnedreceptionist. He kept peeking at them when drinking coffee.

Lu Chensuspected that he is into receptionist - There is also Sister Xiaomei in theirstudio!

"Youmust be Teacher Lu Chen, right?"

Just as LuChen began to get a little impatient, three people appeared at the door of thereception room.

Among them,the one walking in front is a middle-aged fat man with a round waist. He smiledlike Maitreya Buddha: "I’m sorry, I’m really sorry, I’ve kept youwaiting!"

He came overand extended his hands to Lu Chen: "I’m Wen Zhiyuan, the director of EMI BrokerageDepartment. Nice to meet you."

Don’t hitsomeone who shows a smiling face. Wen Zhiyuan’s sincere attitude made thelittle unhappiness in Lu Chen’s heart disappeared. (TN: A Chinese saying: Don’thit someone who shows a smiling face - The other party has already apologizedand is showing a smiling face, so you should forgive him.)

He stood upand shook hands with the opposite party. He said with a smile, "Hello,Director Wen. We haven’t waited long. Your company’s coffee is delicious."

Wen Zhiyuanlet go and said with a smile, "This coffee was brought by our boss fromBrazil. We don’t have this here in our country. If you like it, Teacher LuChen, I’ll ask Xiao Wang to pack some for you."

Lu Chen chuckled:"Director Wen, you are too polite. Just call me Lu Chen."

Wen Zhiyuansaid: "You are one of the judges in "Singing China" next season. You areworthy of the title teacher."

The firstseason of Beijing Satellite TV’s "Singing China" was very successful,and its audience rating has surpassed Xiangnan Satellite TV’s "Super Singer"and the production cast of the second season of next year has already been reserved.

At thattime, more singers are bound to participate. Among the reasons why Wen Zhiyuanapplied for Lu Chen’s song was that Lu Chen’s identity as a judge for the nextseason of "singing China" has also been written into the list.

Lu Chen modestlysaid: "It’s just an audition judge in the singing area."

"SingingChina" has a total of seven major singing area. In addition to Beijing singingarea, the other singing areas have different audition judges. Lu Chen is one ofthem, not the four judges who will determine the winner.

BeijingSatellite TV has long told Lu Chen that it is nothing more than a publicity stunt.

________

TN: Aboutthe title. Breaking One’s Boat - to be resolute and cut off any means ofretreat, or A Last Stand or It’s All or Nothing.

TN: Anothermistake, the "Sound Test" on the previous chapter is actually "Voice Test". Ifinally understand the meaning of "voice test", this means that the songwriterwill listen to the artist sing, and from what the songwriter heard or thesinger’s style of singing, the song writer will create a song suitable for thatsinger.

TN: I’vealtered the sentence here. Here’s the original machine translation: "It must beZhang Qiong, the stinky woman, who just went out with her front foot and herback foot outside, talking about everything and beating herself in the face. Asa result, even Li Zhigao knew it!"

Here’s theraw: 那肯定是张琼那个臭婆娘前脚刚出去,后脚就在外面到处乱说,存心打自己的脸,结果连李志高都知道了！

TN: "This thing" - this word contains derogatory meaning. However, it does not reach the level of swearing. In addition, the word is sometimes used between people who are close to each other. A word of ridicule. At this time, although there is a derogatory meaning, there is no derogatory component.

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