The Vase Man People Say Will Collapse

CHAPTER 17—The Job at Hand

Different from the naturally created planets inhabited by other races, the Capital Star was a much smaller artificial planet.

Xie Yu discovered this as early as when he left the Capital’s Starry Sky Harbor in a spaceship.

The volume of the Capital Star was smaller than that of several adjacent planets, and it looked very tiny amongst the vast universe.

It was different from other planets that had a city system.

The Capital Star, which hosts many institutions and corporate headquarters from across the interstellar, was divided into blocks.

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At that point in time, Xie Yu and Zhou Cheng, who came back from the remote Tourist Star, directly boarded a private aircraft at the spaceport, and flew to Tengfei Entertainment located in the core business district along a preset route.

“Brother Cheng, what work do we have scheduled in the future?”

The original body’s memory regarding this wasn’t clear enough, and Xie Yu thought about it over and over again, and couldn’t find an opportunity to speak to Zhou Cheng until now.

“Ah…” Zhou Cheng raised his head to sort out his thoughts, “The endorsement and cooperation with Jiafan’s Qingyun series will end in April next year, which is exactly half a year. There are still two months left to endorse with DMEGC Aircraft. And the endorsement with Tifan Perfume still has seven months left.”

Xie Yu raised his eyebrows in surprise. He had no idea that the original would also cooperate with a perfume brand.

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“October Film Week is over, and Jiafan will definitely have to readjust their product line. According to the usual practices from previous years, we need to make a short film.” Zhou Cheng lowered his head and pondered, “I’m a bit pessimistic about DMEGC. What’s the matter with their previous contact? Even if they wanted dual-spokesperson models, although we don’t suffer a loss on the books, their actions will make the whole circle see us as a joke.”

Xie Yu listened intently while frowning.

It is not a good signal for him that they took the initiative to start communications with other artists for the same product when there were two months still left in the original spokesperson contract under brand policy.

“DMEGC…we’ll have to wait and see their attitude.” Zhou Cheng took out his light brain to browse the webpage while talking, “The cooperation period has been completed up to five months. And whether it’s a commercial, a poster advertisement, or even Weibo publicity, they put you together with the collection series. But on the eve of the film festival, in the brand announcement, you were put with those promotional ambassadors, from a single person to a group photo…”

“What about now?” Xie Yu asked, and joked innocuously, “It can’t be that it’s gone already?”

Zhou Cheng raised his head and gave Xie Yu a blank look, and then went back to rummage before answering, “Hey! There was a new promotion in the early morning, and it was the collection series. The promotional words were… the demeanor of not being surprised by honor or disgrace, and the responsibility of a charming man? The words are not bad, but their attitude is too fickle, and obviously their public relations were faster than us.”

Xie Yu propped up his hands, placed his fist to his mouth to hide his smile, and asked, “What else?”

“Needless to say, regarding interviews and program invitations, I didn’t dare to pick any offers before the awards, and I haven’t yet gone to negotiate after the awards either. But I’ve selected a batch, so take a look at them later.” Zhou Cheng briefly mentioned first, and then emphasized with his tone, “Right now, the most important thing to pay attention to is the next film you choose.”

“Tell me.” Xie Yu had leaned back in his chair, but when he heard this being mentioned, he sat up straight unconsciously.

“This year’s works have been completed, and the crew work of three TV series and two movies have been completely finished. Only <The Legend of Aquarius> is booked for the end of the year, because it hasn’t entered the promotional period yet. But, obviously this has nothing to do with you.”

Zhou Cheng shrugged, conveying a little helpless in his words, “I have no other arrangements for you at hand right now, and the schedule for next year has not yet been determined. You also know that it’s customary for artists to confirm many cooperation opportunities in the last few months of the year. But after this Golden Toilet Awards, I really have no idea what the situation you’ll being facing will be like.”

Xie Yu nodded and tapped his fingers on his knees. He looked out the window with a thoughtful look on his face.

Zhou Cheng told him the entire situation in a hurry, but he didn’t dare to talk about his concerns at all.

In the normal situation in previous years, there would be a large pile of synopses coming to the door at this point, but this year when the Golden Toilet Award was announced, many filmmakers’ attitudes wavered.

According to the division of labor within their team, all film appointments would be screened by him before being shown to Xie Yu.

Many film books or synopses with shortcomings would be screened out in this round by him, and what basically remains are teams and productions that can be considered to be at the forefront of the industry.

But this year, after the announcement of the finalists for the Golden Toilet Awards, several well-qualified ‘seeded’ works tactfully put forth a gesture of rejection.

And for the rest, either Xie Yu couldn’t play the role, or the production team was not good enough, so they couldn’t do it.

After the Golden Toilet Awards were presented, there were indeed quite a few works looking at the enthusiasm and attention Xie Yu was receiving, but they were more or less not good enough to do.

Zhou Cheng read their titles and didn’t even bother to open the emails.

It’s not that Xie Yu didn’t understand the implied meaning in Zhou Cheng’s words, but seeing that his manager didn’t want to give him bad news, he simply agreed without expressing any further opinions.

“Ayu, if… I mean if.” Zhou Cheng licked his lips, thought about his words, looked at his artist’s serious listening expression, and immediately blurted out, “If the chances of getting a film appointment are not ideal…under the circumstances, would you like to participate in some variety shows and live broadcasts?”

Over the years, knowing that Xie Yu doesn’t like variety shows and other activities very much, he was willing to plan for Xie Yu’s career path mainly as an actor.

But the Golden Toilet Award at the end of this year was too special, and obviously at this time, they had no choice but to broaden their choices.

Zhou Cheng thought deeply, thinking of the worst-case scenario, and came up with a method that was applicable to turning the tide.

Xie Yu’s eyes lit up, and he asked lightly with no other intentions, “If Brother Cheng thinks it’s suitable for me, I can accept. I have never participated in variety shows or live broadcasts before, so you may have to give me some buffers to help me adapt to them.”

Xie Yu’s words were subtle, not only expressing support for Zhou Cheng’s suggestion, but also following his own thoughts.

He arrived here due to a shipwreck, and while he was grateful to be able to resume his old career, he actually didn’t know much about interstellar programs or filming methods of this era.

Even though he had the memories belonging to the original body, those memories felt unreal as if they were separated by a layer or veil.

If Zhou Cheng asked him to participate in a show or to join a crew immediately, he might still have some concerns.

But the current situation was exactly what he wanted.

“Okay, okay.” Zhou Cheng even said a few good words, “Actually, the remuneration for variety shows and live broadcasts aren’t lower than a film contract. You also don’t have to take a few months to film on other planets. You can also maintain a high appearance rate and increase your popularity…”

Seeing that Xie Yu readily agreed, Zhou Cheng felt that his artist was feeling wronged and was holding back.

When Xie Yu mentioned the word “variety show”, he could guess what his manager was thinking.

So he listened as his manager listed out the advantages of variety shows and live broadcasts, and comforted Xie Yu with all his might.

At this point, the Golden Toilet Awards were over, and the opportunities for film appointments were not optimistic.

As such, Zhou Cheng wanted to take advantage of the popularity brought by the Golden Toilet Awards, and create fans through participating in shows in order to maintain income and popularity.

It’s just that there are so many variety shows, and it’s been a long time since he’s been unable to get any other work.

So, he was afraid that Xie Yu’s identity would change from an actor to a broadcast star.

Although Xie Yu was very curious about all the kinds of interstellar programs, he knew that his real job was acting.

Now that he’s talked about his development path with his agent, he also expressed his own opinion.

“Brother Cheng, in order to get through this period, if there is a suitable variety show, I will go on it. If there are any films looking for me, we’ll choose slowly, select a suitable script, and then make a decision.” Xie Yu explained everything very carefully, “I’ve listened to criticism because of the Golden Toilet, and so I hope that the next work will have a breakthrough.”

Zhou Cheng nodded and agreed with Xie Yu’s statement.

“Don’t worry that no film studio will come to us. Aren’t there some media already predicting what my new work will be?” Xie Yu smiled and waved his hand leisurely, “With such a big gimmick, film studios will not ignore it. The focus should be to relax more on the price. As long as the role is suitable, the rest will be fine.”

Zhou Cheng was amused by Xie Yu’s calm response and gesture.

While he was happy that his artist was able to be forgiving of himself, but still, thinking of Xie Yu’s acting skills, he had to bite the bullet and speak.

“Why don’t we sign up for the company’s actor training class… No, it’s too embarrassing. Why don’t you find a senior as a teacher and learn by hand?” Zhou Cheng stroked his chin, and the more he talked, the more he felt it was feasible, “Although you have a professional background, you may have almost forgotten everything by now…”

Xie Yu, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, quickly declined the suggestion, changing the topic on the grounds of him being “not in a hurry”.

Then, he began his work on Weibo with his manager.

The two communicated with their whole team from inside out, and when they arrived at Tengfei Entertainment, Xie Yu already had a deeper grasp of his position in the interstellar entertainment circle.

Their aircraft was directly connected to the high-altitude entrance of Tengfei Entertainment’s building, leading them directly to the artist department.

Zhou Cheng went to his office to get materials first, while Xie Yu was led into a meeting room, where he saw a group of glamorous, handsome men and women.

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TL: Lotsa background info in this chapter, but glad Xie Yu has pretty sound logic behind his thoughts and actions  (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶) unlike a lot of other novels…(⇀‸↼‶)