Becoming a Movie Star, System Only Finished Loading After Ten Years
Chapter 104 - 103: Can Your Conscience Rest Easy? (Requesting Monthly Votes)

Chapter 104: Chapter 103: Can Your Conscience Rest Easy? (Requesting Monthly Votes)

"Ao Bai, did you miss me!"

You can’t control a donkey’s life, but you can control a cat’s.

When Qi Hao returned to the capital, he snuggled with Ao Bai a little.

At first, Ao Bai cooperated, but then he turned his face away, using his paws to push Qi Hao away, wanting him to keep some distance.

"Ao Bai, I’ve been out there losing my appetite over missing you, but look at you, you’ve gained weight again. Old Tian, why is he fatter again? Didn’t we say he’d go on a diet?"

"The people at the office keep feeding him."

Old Tian was helpless. Every day he brought Ao Bai to the company, and immediately a crowd would feed Ao Bai canned snacks and whatnot.

Now Ao Bai is the office mascot.

Even Zhanqi Laiden, who openly claims to dislike small animals, secretly pets the cat when no one is watching.

He also buys the most and the best canned food.

If Old Tian doesn’t bring Ao Bai over, the office morale drops, and work efficiency plummets.

"Can’t you have a bit of backbone, not living off handouts, do you get it?" Qi Hao had no choice but to give Ao Bai a moral lecture.

Ao Bai had had enough of the novelty of Qi Hao being home. After finishing with him, Ao Bai swaggered off like a scoundrel, wiggling his big butt.

"He’s not really that fat; he just looks it because of his thick fur."

Old Tian felt a bit sorry for Ao Bai.

It was like seeing the woman he liked marry another man; he knew he had no standing, but he couldn’t help but feel attached.

"Alright then, anything new at the company lately?"

Qi Hao made two cups of tea with boiling water, brought one to himself, and handed the other to Old Tian.

"Not much, since everything’s on track," Old Tian took the cup from the boss, placed it on the coffee table, and continued, "You’ve got an endorsement that’s expiring. They increased the fee by 20% and renewed for another two years."

"The watch one?" Qi Hao remembered a bit.

"Yes, and they also plan to shoot a TV commercial. They might invite a female star and asked if we have any recommendations."

The implication from Old Tian was to ask if Qi Hao had someone in mind.

After all, it would be Qi Hao shooting the commercial with them.

Shooting a commercial is different from endorsing a product.

Previously, when tasked with shooting a spicy strip ad, Qi Hao wasn’t required to necessarily endorse it.

"An Feng?"

Qi Hao wasn’t short of people to find.

In fact, he had too many people he could ask.

However, asking An Feng would help dispel rumors of her being blacklisted.

"She already has a watch endorsement, that’s still intact," Old Tian reminded.

After the blacklist rumors surfaced, An Feng lost two endorsements, but the rest seemed unaffected.

Unless there’s an official written announcement, brands wouldn’t terminate contracts with artists just due to rumors.

"Then how about Wan Qian?" Qi Hao picked another choice.

"That works too."

Old Tian agreed with Qi Hao’s choice.

Qi Hao wasn’t lacking in hotter female stars, but participating in such an ad, rather than endorsing it, would require Qi Hao to use personal favors to invite them.

Just like for the Little Flying Stick spicy strip ad, having An Feng and Gao Yuanyuan participate was a favor to Qi Hao.

And such favors must be repaid whenever possible.

It’s better to choose someone like Wan Qian, who isn’t as popular, so it’s not considered a personal favor, and it could even be seen as Qi Hao introducing a job to Wan Qian.

"Try to negotiate a higher pay for her."

"No worries, also, our company has received a lot of artists’ applications to join."

Old Tian felt quite conflicted about this.

If people are willing to join, it shows their studio is doing well and some see its potential.

But he didn’t want to take on too many people.

It’s very troublesome to manage, and there’s no guarantee they can all succeed.

Like Ziwen, after so many years in agency business, not one made it big.

Qi Hao had already starred in popular TV series such as "Married the Right Man" before joining Ziwen, so he wasn’t exactly made popular by them.

"Just reject them all." Qi Hao wasn’t interested either.

The cost-effectiveness of being an artist agent is too low; unless you make the contracts extremely harsh, it’s hard to make any money.

But if you make the contracts too harsh, can you live with yourself?

If you lose money, you can make it back, but if you lose your conscience, you’ve really scored big.

Even if Qi Hao could shamelessly sign people up.

Once you make someone popular, you face the possibility of contract termination or non-renewal.

No matter what, once you sign them, you have to take care of all their needs.

"Right, we’re not doing artist management. If we must expand our business, I think film production is best, with the market improving, production costs are rising. Producing a film or TV series, whether it ultimately makes money or loses, the production side is always profitable."

Old Tian was clearly not just focusing on Qi Hao’s agency business.

Now that Qi Hao had become independent and had struck a deal with the Coal Boss to start the Little Fatty Sheep Company together.

If he didn’t know to expand business, he’d be grossly negligent.

"Hah, if you really make it lose money, no one will invest anymore."

Qi Hao snickered at Old Tian’s wishful thinking, but he also knew Old Tian wasn’t wrong.

Investment and production are clearly directions for making big money.

"Isn’t there Boss Gao for that?" Old Tian said with a grin.

"Help me set up a company, mainly for investment..." Qi Hao was thinking about Penguin and Mrs. Hua’s stocks.

Personally holding stocks isn’t impossible, but there are too many drawbacks.

Moreover, Penguin stocks will continue to increase, and in the future, Tongzi might even reward with other stocks.

It would be better to establish an investment company.

"Alright," Old Tian perked up and asked, "Be honest with me, when did you start investing behind my back?"

"What do you mean by ’behind your back’?" Qi Hao was speechless.

This sounds like accusing me of sneaking around with another woman.

You pervert.

"Tsk, didn’t see it coming, Qi, you’re actually hiding private savings from me."

When he said this, he pinched his voice, sounding effeminate, which disgusted Qi Hao.

After joking around for a while, the two discussed some work-related matters.

Qi Hao Studio has been established for less than a year but is currently one of the most successful studios.

This success isn’t reflected in how much resources Qi Hao has found.

Rather, it’s a recognition within the industry.

People don’t consider collaborating risky just because Qi Hao left a proper management company and operates with a personal studio model.

The success of Qi Hao Studio also makes more top celebrities lean toward establishing their studios.

Rather than continuing with a win-win with management companies.

After all, even in a win-win, you have to give at least thirty percent or more to the management company.

However, Qi Hao Studio has recently been somewhat off-track.

Although "October Fortress" and "Wait and See" have investments from Little Fatty Sheep, the main production isn’t related to Little Fatty Sheep, so the involvement in work wasn’t much.

This time, "Lost on Journey" is solely funded by Little Fatty Sheep.

Moreover, Ye Weimin, a Xiangjiang director, can form a production team—it is beneficial because of the good network relations and Xiangjiang connections, but it is somewhat hard-pressed for him to manage all other aspects.

At this time, Little Fatty Sheep has to bear more responsibility.

Making money or losing money is Little Fatty Sheep’s business.

But Little Fatty Sheep doesn’t even have a full-time employee, so they must have Qi Hao Studio’s people help with the work.

Yang Liu followed Qi Hao to the old county town but was recalled to the capital in a few days.

Mainly because of a manpower shortage in the capital.

Fortunately, Gao Yang gave an extra ten million, considering it as operating funds for Little Fatty Sheep, allowing outsourcing to Qi Hao Studio.

Adding twenty million for "October Fortress," two million for "Wait and See," and five million for "Lost on Journey," Gao Yang’s side has already invested thirty-seven million.

To date, Boss Gao is yet to see any return money.

Nevertheless, they not only haven’t suspected Qi Hao of cheating him but also sent his daughter here as a hostage.

This is what we call vision!

After Qi Hao returned, he could also lend a hand.

At least in casting, he has over ten years of acting experience, understanding better than the average casting director what kind of actors to seek.

"Lost on Journey" is a dual male lead film.

Qi Hao and Wang Baoqiang are the leads, although there are other roles within, none count as the main cast.

When hiring actors, one could either find those with little fame or utilize social connections for cameo roles.

For instance, Qi Hao casting Gao Yuanyuan as a wife and Li Xiaoran as a mistress.

Gao Yuanyuan and Li Xiaoran are accustomed to grabbing resources as top female leads, why play the wife who’s been overshadowed, and the mistress who’s the third party?

Additionally, there are two relatively important roles, a female con artist, and a sexy housewife.

The duo protagonists encounter a disfigured woman on the road, kneeling and begging passers-by for money, claiming she needs it for her daughter’s surgery.

Li Chenggong immediately recognized it as a scam, but Niu Geng, who shares a poor background, couldn’t walk away, he quarrels with Li Chenggong, choosing to believe the woman is not a con artist, giving all his savings and trusting her promise to return the money in two hours.

Niu Geng waited by the roadside.

Until nightfall.

Later, faced with Li Chenggong’s ridicule, simple Niu Geng replied with only one sentence:

"It’s better if she’s lying; if she’s lying, it means no illness, no illness is even better."

The screenwriter hoped this would enrich the character image of Niu Geng.

Afterward, the duo protagonists encountered the female con artist again on the road, chasing her to her home.

Unexpectedly, there were indeed a group of children dressed in rags, and a little girl just operated on, eyes covered with gauze, hand receiving an IV drip.

Qi Hao, after reading the script, questioned the script’s logic.

Why are there so many orphans for this woman to care for? Where are those welfare institutions? Also, after her boyfriend’s death, and her disfigured face, wasn’t there any compensation received?

A single woman with so many children, why wasn’t there any intervention from relevant institutions?

The screenwriting team promised to try to make the logic plausible.

But the female con artist role was retained.

Finding someone to play her became an issue.

According to Ye Weimin’s idea, since Qi Hao could invite two former... rumored girlfriends to play a wife and a mistress, why not find another ex-rumored girlfriend for the female con artist?

Since they are already here... right?