Chapter 45: Salary
“Li Beiqu! Stop!”
Lin Jing, an artist manager who had just come from the meeting, still had a smile on her face when she saw Li Beiqu following Wei Lishi, the manager who had just resigned.
Li Beiqu was the artist Lin Jing had invested the most time and effort in, and he was also the most successful one she managed.
“Oh, Lin Jing, what are you so angry about?” Wei Lishi said slowly, deliberately raising his voice.
“None of your business. Get lost!” Lin Jing ignored Wei Lishi, a bald man who had always opposed her. She addressed Li Beiqu directly, “Are you going to terminate your contract with the company? Are you leaving with him?”
Li Beiqu remained silent, his lips pursed.
“Xing Hang Entertainment is much better than Yi Shang. I can give him more resources there—much more than the scraps you keep scrounging up,” Wei Lishi boasted, his bald head gleaming under the bright lights.
Xing Hang Entertainment primarily focused on online dramas, and even its popular artists only appeared on a few episodes of popular variety shows. It was significantly better than Yi Shang. However, Xing Hang Entertainment signed countless artists, with only a few achieving success. Competition was far more intense than at Yi Shang.
Lin Jing knew this, Wei Lishi knew this, and Li Beiqu knew it as well.
“You know what Xing Hang Entertainment is like, and you know that Wei Lishi is only interested in profit. Are you sure you want to leave?” Lin Jing asked again.
Li Beiqu lowered his head, his unkempt bangs covering his eyes. He avoided Lin Jing’s gaze, his lips tightly pressed together.
“I’ve been diligent and dedicated to you. Since you don’t want to talk to me, then go.” Lin Jing felt helpless at Li Beiqu’s silence. Since he was determined to terminate his contract, she didn’t need to tell him about the male third lead role she had secured—what a great opportunity that was.
“Let’s go, let’s go.” Wei Lishi impatiently urged them to leave.
Li Beiqu silently followed him, showing no reluctance.
“Ingrate,” Lin Jing muttered under her breath.
When Lin Jing first saw Li Beiqu at the company, she thought his appearance was perfect for the current market and actively requested to manage him.
She fought with other managers for resources for him, which is when she clashed with Wei Lishi. This role had helped Li Beiqu escape obscurity, becoming the most successful artist under her management.
She had always secured any resources Li Beiqu could possibly get.
Later, she focused her work on him, and Li Beiqu also became increasingly successful. Their collaboration had been excellent.
Yet, this ingrate had left with the very man she had offended for his sake.
Thinking back to the meeting, Lin Jing felt a surge of schadenfreude.
Hmph, he’ll regret it once he leaves.
“This lousy company has no resources. Only fools stay here, right, Beiqu?”
“I’m going with Brother Wei.”
Wei Lishi swaggered away with Li Beiqu to terminate his contract, their conversation loud enough to be overheard from afar.
The same thing happened repeatedly in just a few hours.
That week at Yi Shang Entertainment was tumultuous.
The artists who terminated their contracts left, the employees who resigned departed, and the already disorganized departments of Yi Shang Entertainment were now in utter chaos.
Luckily, the “Announcement on the Increase in Employee Salaries” appeased the remaining employees.
The film and television, variety show, and artist management departments all desperately needed staff. Zeng Lei, along with seven or eight subordinates, was posting job openings on job websites.
However, only a handful of applicants sent their resumes to the company’s email inbox that day.
On this day, a bored entertainment industry worker, Xiaoyu, a casual internet surfer, was browsing an entertainment group when she saw a post: “Are entertainment company employee benefits really this good?”
The poster included a screenshot of a job advertisement with unusual benefits, along with the question, “Is this real?”
Curious, Xiaoyu clicked on the image:
Ten to five work schedule, 14 months’ salary, meal allowance, commuting allowance, housing allowance, overtime pay, filial piety fund, medical subsidy…
All legal holidays had holiday benefits, a minimum birthday allowance of 800 yuan, 20 days of annual leave, family leave, and maternity leave for both male and female employees…
From salary to working hours to benefits, it was too good to be true, like a fake job advertisement.
Looking at the company name, Yi Shang Entertainment, she recognized it.
Yi Shang Entertainment had recently terminated its contracts with many artists, but it wasn’t big news, and even the marketing accounts in her studio hadn’t reported on it.
Faced with such generous benefits, most people remained skeptical.
:It must be a publicity stunt. Especially those less famous small companies.
:I searched this company on the job site and saw many positions advertised.
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:Such good treatment, it’s impossible.
:I said how did this garbage get into the entertainment group.
:There will definitely be a bunch of harsh conditions.
:Has anyone tried submitting their resume?
…
The number of replies continued to increase, and the post’s popularity climbed.
Xiaoyu, despite appearing to spend all day online, was actually looking for popular topics.
She started working the moment she woke up and had to work overtime at night. Though skeptical, she submitted her resume to Yi Shang Entertainment’s email inbox.
Yi Shang Entertainment processed matters very quickly.
A few hours later, Xiaoyu received a call for an interview the next day. After a moment of hesitation, she took the next day off to go to Yi Shang Entertainment for the interview, which was conveniently located in the same city as her job.
That afternoon, Xiaoyu received an offer from Yi Shang.
September 29th.
In the entertainment group, under the post, “Are entertainment company employee benefits really this good?”, a new reply appeared, along with a blurred payslip:
Actual salary: 99,000, Basic salary, Performance bonus, Commission, Position bonus, Overtime pay, Position allowance, Full attendance, Deductions, Income tax, Five insurances and one fund
: Yi Shang small worker’s salary!
Due to Gu Wanrong’s injection of 100 million yuan into Yi Shang Entertainment’s account and her requirement for the company’s salary to be paid at the end of the month, the payment originally scheduled for early next month was moved to today.
Zhou Zhou, a junior publicity specialist at Yi Shang, uploaded her payslip under the post, “Are entertainment company employee benefits really this good?”
When netizens in the thread saw the payslip, they went wild!
:Yi Shang Entertainment really pays that much!
:@Boss dog, when will I get a raise?
:Oh my god, it’s real.
:Is the picture photoshopped?
Some netizens still remained unconvinced, so Zhou Zhou uploaded a blurred image of her employee ID.
:Publicity Specialist, so high a salary!
:Jealous, people in my position haven’t received their salaries yet.
:Friends, hurry up and submit your resume!
Countless resumes flooded Yi Shang Entertainment’s inbox, yet none of the applicants received a notification.
Meanwhile, Yi Shang Entertainment’s official Weibo account posted a pre-prepared announcement.
Netizens flocked to Yi Shang’s Weibo account, summarizing three pieces of information from the announcement: first, gratitude to applicants for their recognition of Yi Shang; second, that the company’s recruitment positions were already filled; third, the hope to meet them at the next recruitment.
Too bad, Yi Shang wasn’t hiring anymore.
The number of views for Yi Shang Entertainment’s new Weibo post continued to rise. Not only netizens from the entertainment group but also countless job seekers across the internet participated in the discussion. The topic of Yi Shang Entertainment’s employee benefits quickly surged to the top of the trending charts.
The payslip in the post, “Are entertainment company employee benefits really this good?”, became a popular check-in spot, with those hoping to become Yi Shang employees, those praying for a raise, those expressing envy, and those curious all posting new comments and replies every day.
Yi Shang was no longer an entertainment company that marketing accounts ignored. They started posting about Yi Shang every day.
After seeing Yi Shang’s topic trending, and as the topic spread and gained popularity, even those who didn’t follow the entertainment industry knew that there was a company in the industry with employee benefits that far surpassed those of civil servants.
“The publicity team has largely completed this task, and the effect is good. The basic bonus can be paid,” Tong Shenwu received a message from Gu Wanrong.