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Chapter 726: 713: $180k for a One-Year Endorsement

Chapter 726: Chapter 713: $180k for a One-Year Endorsement

After chatting for a while longer, the second and third brawny men who had caught their full three fish successively came into contention. More and more competitors took the boats back to the starting docks, where a large number of fishing boats docked, packing the area to the brim.

In the competition of sixty boats, many were brimming with confidence before the race; however, once the race had ended, those who had been the loudest in their claims failed to secure the first place, which instead was snatched away by Yue Feng, the outsider monk.

There was no controversy over the scores. As the competition time came to an end, a senior executive representative from the sponsor company quickly joined the event organizers’ staff to conduct the awards ceremony for the winning anglers.

Yue Feng had originally not held any expectations for prize money from this private invitational competition, but with the sponsorship of the yacht ship company, the prize money for this invitational surprisingly exceeded that of the state competition.

Seventy thousand US dollars before taxes. Even after paying a tax of just over thirty but less than forty percent, he would still have over forty thousand dollars in hand, which was more than two hundred thousand RMB.

Soon, after the names of the three winning anglers were publicly announced by the judges, a simple awards ceremony officially began.

This time, the awards ceremony was much simpler. There were only three spots for winners, starting with the third place to come up and receive their awards, then they carried off an enormous check model for photo opportunities. After stepping down from the stage, they coordinated with the staff on the prize money.

When it came to Yue Feng, the champion, for fear that he might let loose some startling remarks, the staff were much more cautious. They did not give him the microphone at all but instead had a young staffer hold it and carry out a brief victory speech in an interview-like manner.

Although there had been some trash-talking and even provocation during this competition, those guys had been relatively disciplined and didn’t affect Yue Feng’s performance.

As such, Yue Feng’s brief speech wasn’t aggressive—just a spate of thanks and pleasantries. In less than a minute, he had wrapped up the speech segment of winning the championship.

After the awards ceremony concluded, more American anglers surrounded Yue Feng. Some of them had even recently sailed out to compete.

Taking photos, signing autographs, asking for email contact information, these Americans were so aggressively enthusiastic that it made Yue Feng a bit unaccustomed. Even after becoming a champion and being crowned Fishing King back in China, he had not experienced such over-the-top fan treatment.

Busy until after three in the afternoon, Yue Feng finally managed to satisfy the various demands of the crowd. He then took the kids with Zhang Lin and got into the car, eager to leave the place of contention right away.

Now seated in the back seat, Yue Feng felt both tired and hungry. He hadn’t even had lunch, and neither Zhang Lin nor the kids had prepared food on the boat. All three decided to head home to fill their stomachs first since the banquet at Lawrence’s in the evening had a fairly relaxed schedule.

After returning to their residence and freshening up, Yue Feng lay on the couch, not wanting to move a muscle. Prolonged, high-intensity physical confrontation had excessively depleted his reserves, and even with the support of the System Card, he was still extremely tired.

Once he had eaten and rested for over an hour, he began to feel slightly better. Seeing that it was getting dark, Yue Feng changed his clothes and, taking Zhang Lin and the kids with him, headed again to Lawrence’s farm for the banquet.

It was Yue Feng’s second visit here, and he felt much more relaxed. This dinner didn’t have any outsiders, just Lawrence and Captain David. Even the blonde girl they had seen last time wasn’t present. Other than the servers, there wasn’t a stranger in sight.

“Having tasted authentic Chinese cuisine, I’ve now fallen in love with their flavors! This is master chef I recently asked a friend to bring. Try his cooking and see what you think,” said Lawrence, leading Yue Feng and the others into the dining room even as he spoke.

Well, this was nothing like the last Western meal, it almost repeated the menu Yue Feng and his team had used to host Lawrence recently, and in the hands of professional chefs, the color, aroma, and taste of the dishes were all elevated a notch, making them incredibly authentic.

For dinner, they had Chinese cuisine accompanied by baijiu. After some simple pleasantries, the banquet began!

As they dined, Yue Feng inquired about the endorsement deal. Lawrence was very familiar with these matters and immediately said he would arrange for someone to interface with Yue Feng to ensure the fairness of the contract and Yue Feng’s interests.

Now Yue Feng had nothing to worry about; during the dinner, he drank three glasses of Moutai vintage liquor. By the time dinner was over and he left, his head was a bit muddled.

The next day when he woke up, it was already past eight in the morning. After hastily grabbing some breakfast, Yue Feng found himself with nothing to do.

According to his previously scheduled itinerary, following the competition, Yue Feng and the child were supposed to prepare to return to China. However, since the endorsement deal with Willcraft Company still needed discussion, Yue Feng decided to stay a few more days in the United States to finish his business before returning home.

The efficiency of Willcraft Company was high. Around noon, they sent Yue Feng a draft contract.

The child helped translate, and after a quick review, Yue Feng found many clauses in the endorsement contract to be quite stringent. For example, during the contract period, he was required to attend a number of product launches on behalf of the company, assist in promoting the brand within Mainland China, and participate in various competitions in the United States, among other things.

Yue Feng wasn’t the least bit accommodating about these terms. As an ambassador, filming promotional materials was no problem, and assisting the subsidiary company with brand promotion in Mainland China was also okay.

But participating in various competitions in the United States was where Yue Feng drew the line!

He and his buddies traveled all over to fish; there wasn’t that much time to stay in the United States for competitions.

Moreover, fishing competitions in the United States seemed mediocre in Yue Feng’s eyes. Although they were slightly more commercial than Taiwan Fishing back in China and had high public enthusiasm, Yue Feng felt they weren’t particularly advanced in terms of technicality and professionalism.

Something like driving a boat to fish for Big Mouth Bass in a freshwater lake was fine once or twice, but it would be meaningless to keep doing it because, for Yue Feng, there was no challenge in that!

For the next two days, Yue Feng met with Lawrence’s team of professional legal lawyers and Willcraft Company’s signing team for two formal meetings and discussions.

With Yue Feng’s insistence, most of the spokesperson terms were kept, while clauses related to participating in U.S. competitions and other potentially controversial supplementary terms were removed under the guidance of professional lawyers.

The final endorsement fee was 1.8 million US dollars per year, making Yue Feng the brand spokesperson and promotional ambassador for Willcraft Yacht Ship Company!

Having stayed in the United States for less than half a month, he earned two championship prizes and an endorsement income exceeding ten million, filling Yue Feng’s coffers. After attending to all the necessary business and resting for another day at his accommodation, Yue Feng formally bid farewell to Zhang Lin and Lawrence, taking the child with him onto the plane back to China.