Chapter 6 – Rejecting A Beauty Isn’t Easy

After chasing away Little Gao, Chen Jianhao’s attention focused on the fatty’s body.

His sight was as sharp as an eagle’s and caused the fatty to start trembling like a quail. Beads of sweat emerged all over the fatty’s forehead.

The fatty claimed to be the third big boss, only ranked under heaven and earth in the sound booth. However, when the real Boss descended on the room, filled with fury, the fat on his entire body started trembling. He was so terrified that he wanted to immediately hide in a crack in the ground.

Since he couldn’t hide, he could only squeeze out a smile that was uglier than tears: “Boss, I know I was wrong. It was Little Gao- “

“I already know this thing was something that Little Gao urged you to do… “

Chen Jianhao cut off fatty’s explanation and said, “That’s why I’m only deducting your bonuses this month. If there is a second time… “

Since he was capable of opening a medium-sized bar in Houhai, Chen Jianhao definitely wasn’t a normal person. His astute and experienced eyes wasn’t didn’t miss the smallest detail and could guess the truth behind the incident without asking a single question.

As the origin of the problem, Little Gao was someone Chen Jianhao definitely couldn’t tolerate. However, the situation in the sound booth wasn’t something so easily resolved.

Of course, a fitting punishment and warning were necessary.

“There definitely won’t be a next time!”

As soon as the fatty received amnesty, he promptly said: “I will definitely do things strictly by the books from now on. I’ll immediately tune Little Lu’s audio!”

He scrambled to open the audio tuner.

Unexpectedly Chen Jianhao hesitated before saying, “there’s no need to tune Little Lu, just tune the others as before.”

Originally, the number of singers in the Forget Worries bar that didn’t need audio tune added up to a grand total of two. These two were the foundations of the bar – the contracted singer Zhang Nana and the bandleader of Wandering Band, Qin Hanyang.

Now, there was also Lu Chen!

The thing that Chen Jianhao was conflicted with was his premonition that Lu Chen would probably leave fly away after this night. The size of the scene here was truly too small.

He nodded towards the fatty then left the sound booth.

He came out to Lu Chen just finishing the second performance of You Who Sat Next to Me to the entire audience’s applause.

There was also another round of beer gifts!

“Little Chen, sing a couple more!” someone hollered.

Faced with this many gifts, Lu Chen also wanted to sing a couple more songs. However, if the bar was likened to the Jianghu, then Jianghu also had Jianghu’s customs. Lu Chen was a small fry that didn’t have the qualifications to ignore the customs.

Singing two songs was standard, as a warmup singer. Acceding to the customer’s requests to play another song was not overbearing. However, he would aggravate many people if he kept on singing and hogged the stage — were all the other singers supposed to watch you sing?

As such, Lu Chen immediately rose up and bowed when he saw the MC coming out: “Thank you everyone, thank you!”

At this time, he coincidentally saw Chen Jianhao waving towards him from a bar counter. He took advantage of the moment to hand the stage over to Sister Hong.

After storing his guitar in the backstage room, Lu Chen hurried rush to the front of the boss’s bar counter.

“Boss!”

“Sit down first … “

Chen Jianhao nodded his head, signaled for him to sit, and then said: “You sang pretty well today. This song, You Who Sat Next to Me, has a lot of depth. I would have never thought you had this kind of ability; it truly slipped through my eyes before.

Lu Chen scratched his head in embarrassment, unsure how he should explain himself.

To tell the truth, he also felt like he was dreaming even now. Everything was surreal.

Luckily, Chen Jianhao didn’t insist on getting to the bottom of this issue. He pointed at the charming woman sitting next to him and said, “This is my cousin, Su Qingmei. She and some other partners just opened a media company. She is interested in your work, so she wants to discuss the question of signing a contract with you.”

“Me?”

Lu Chen couldn’t believe his ears, “sign with a media company?”

This was a dream that he couldn’t even dream of before. Everything happened so quickly, good things came one after another!

Su Qingmei smiled and said, “that’s right, it’s you!”

“Let me introduce myself. I am the director of Light Rain Media, Su Qingmei. I really enjoyed the song that you sang.”

She extended her hand towards Lu Chen and said, “You can just call me Sister Mei.”

“Hello, Director Su…”

Lu Chen extended his hand and shook her hand. The soft and warm touch unexpectedly made his heart pound.

Su Qingmei smiled sweetly. She didn’t correct the way Lu Chen addressed her and said, “Light Rain Media is mainly involved with managing actors, producing films and dramas, various new forms of media, and other large scale activities. Currently, we are hiring talented new artists. If you are willing, we can sign a formal contract tomorrow.”

After the initial excitement, Lu Chen gradually calmed down and asked, “Director Su, if it’s convenient, can I look at the content of the contract first?”

If Lu Chen from yesterday received an offer to sign on, he would not have any hesitation. However, the present Lu Chen possessed a wealth of knowledge from another world and, furthermore, just received affirmation of the information.

Therefore, although the allure of signing with Light Rain Media was very high, it wasn’t enough to make him to lose his rationality.

Su Qingmei was a bit surprised and smiled, “Of course it won’t be a problem. I have a copy of the new artist contract saved on my phone. I’ll open it for you or I can send it to you on QQ.”

Lu Chen promptly said, “Then I’ll have to trouble Director Su for her phone. It will be faster this way…”

It was better to not disgrace himself by pulling out the lousy phone in his pocket.

Su Qingmei pulled out her phone from her CHANEL branded bag, used her fingerprint to unlock the phone, and passed it to Lu Chen.

The magnified text of the contract clauses was clearly displayed on the 5.5 inch, ultra-HD screen.

The content of new artist contracts was very long. To carefully read all of it was not something you could do in a short period of time. However, when Lu Chen roughly looked over a couple clauses, he became more and more apprehensive.

This contract was much harsher than what he imagined!

Before, Lu Chen browsed through news blogs online and frequently saw a such-and-such actor or such-and-such singer fall out with their management companies and have disputes. They would have lawsuits and create a lot of buzz. Among those cases, the contract that both parties agreed on never failed to be among the accusations of the celebrity.

Too severe, inhumane, no freedom, being exploited… in short, it was miserable.

However, Lu Chen only enjoyed the liveliness of the situation and didn’t really believe it. Those celebrities could all act and perform. Everyone was used to celebrities doing those things to try to gain sympathy.

Only now that he came in contact with the industry did he realize that a lot of the news wasn’t completely untrue.

This new artist contract was a 10 year contract and, in this 10 year period, Lu Chen couldn’t leave Light Rain Media.

In addition, the penalty fee could be as high as 10 million RMB!

If he signed the contract, the most beautiful springtime of his youth would be completely sold to the other party!

This was only one clause but it already made Lu Chen disgusted.

In addition, according to the contract, during the period of time when the new artists train, practice, the artist would only receive the legal minimum wage. There weren’t any benefits nor any bonuses and, furthermore, the company didn’t permit privately taking up an extra job to earn extra money.

Lu Chen thought for a bit. He might as well find a piece of tofu and kill himself with it.

If he signed the contract, his personality rights[/note]The right of publicity, often called personality rights, is the right of an individual to control the commercial use of his or her name, image, likeness, or other unequivocal aspects of one’s identity.¹, his original works’ copyrights, etc. would all belong to the agency.

Even though there were still many more clauses in the contract, Lu Chen could no longer bear to read further.

He returned the phone to Su QIngmei and said, “Director Su, I’m very sorry but I don’t want to sign this contract.”

“Why?”

Su QIngmei wrinkled her brow and asked, “You made a decision before you finished reading. Are you being too rushed?”

Lu Chen tactfully answered, “The first couple of clauses already aren’t suitable for my circumstances. I’m really sorry.”

His family owed a huge debt. He, himself, struggled hard in the capital. Even though it was tiring work, at least the income wasn’t bad.  While he eked out a living in the capital, he had enough money to send back a considerable amount to his family at home.

If he signed this contract, he would undoubtedly be unable to sustain his current situation in the future.

Most importantly was the rights clause. According to the contract, his identity rights and the copyrights to his original works would belong to the company. At most, he would be left with some leftovers.

If it was Lu Chen from before, perhaps he would ignore this point outright. However, now that he had this huge treasure trove, why should he be submissive and let others have it?

Not to mention those clauses that restricted his freedom…

However, Su Qingmei didn’t understand Lu Chen’s thoughts and was upset because she thought that he was trying to haggle.

She thought for a second and said, “If you have a problem with the clauses, all the other entertainment, media, and management companies have similar contracts for new artists. You just need to sign this contract and my Light Rain Media company will use a large amount of resources to nurture, package, and promote you. You shouldn’t just look at the immediate benefits.”

“Carefully think it over. Don’t be impulsive and miss this chance!”

Su Qingmei really wanted to tell this brat in front of her how many people wanted this contract but couldn’t get it.

However, Ly Chen didn’t like her overbearing tone and used an even tone to reply, “I’m really sorry Director Su. It may be because I am being short-sighted now. If there’s a chance in the future, let’s collaborate.”

You are very pretty. You have a lot of money. You are the director of a media company. So what?

I don’t need anything from you, why should I listen to you?

Lu Chen straightened his waist and used his eyes to tell the other party of his rejection and his perseverance!

It wasn’t easy to reject this beautiful lady director.

“Collaborate?”

Su Qingmei was so angry she almost laughed — he sure can talk big without being embarrassed!

So what if you are handsome? So what if you can perform? Just writing a single original composition made you think you’re all that?

Too naive!

The two parties began to argue and the atmosphere became one with swords drawn and bows bent. Chen Jianhao who sat beside them saw this and coughed twice. He said, “Little Lu, why don’t we do this? After you go home tonight, think about it carefully. Tomorrow-”

“No need for tomorrow!”

Su Qingmei pinched her brow and stood up. She elegantly put her phone back into her bag with a proud look on her beautiful face. This small temple Light Rain Media isn’t capable of inviting this deity. This young lady will leave first! ”

As soon as she finished, she turned her head and walked away. In an instant, she disappeared from the bar’s doorway.