Ch4 - The Only Human in the Company

Bai Ze ushered Lu Xu to sit down. He walked to the counter and turned his head around to ask, “I have black tea, coffee, and soda, what would Mr. Lu like to drink?”

“Don’t trouble yourself, Director Bai. Just a cup of water is fine.”

Bai Ze took out a bottle of mineral water and personally handed it over to Lu Xu, who was sitting across from him. “I only learned today that the Grim Reaper Bureau also recruits based on appearance.” If the other party hadn’t given a greeting prior to the meeting, Bai Ze really wouldn’t have been able to connect this smiling boy before him to the guides of the underworld who had the scent of death lingering on them.

Lu Xu’s image was sunny and healthy, his eyes gleaming brightly. At first glance, he looked like a pretty boy, one of those enchanting, charming types.

Manager Bai Ze had personally raised so many artists that he could tell whether someone would be famous or not with a single look.

“Director Bai, you flatter me.” In the face of Director Bai’s praise, Lu Xu’s expression was extremely calm, the corners of his mouth curving up at an attractive angle. “So, can you arrange for me to enter the show?”

Bai Ze crossed his arms over his lap. His suit was absolutely spotless, and there wasn’t even a wrinkle in sight. “Mr. Lu, you’re one of the artists under contract in my company. We will, of course, recommend you to participate in ‘Birth of an Idol’.”

Lu Xu raised a brow. “Contracted artist?” Then he thought about the show’s selection requirements and nodded. “I do want to use your company to obtain the identity of a signed trainee, but I’m only going to be passing by. I probably won’t be able to record many scenes.”

He was just greeting Bai Ze beforehand as a formality, because he was, after all, going to be using other people’s reputations.

“Of course, I understand Mr. Lu’s work. It’s just that idol survival shows are very different from our personal lives. When the time comes, there will be closed training as well as filming. There will be cameras in the rooms. Every move made by the trainees will be captured by the cameras. Since Mr. Lu has accepted our company’s reputation as a means to participate, we hope that during filming, Mr. Lu will be serious about it.”

There weren’t many artists from Yao Guai Entertainment, but all of them were big players who were well-known in the entertainment industry.

No one wanted to ruin their own brand, so Lu Xu nodded his head in acknowledgement. “Don’t worry, Director Bai. As long as I am there I will cooperate with the filming. But I can’t promise that I will last until the end. I need you to understand this as well.”

“Of course.” Bai Ze phoned his secretary, his tone brisk. “Secretary Zhang, please bring the contract over.”

Not long after, Secretary Zhang knocked on the door and came in. “Director Bai, this is the contract for Mr. Lu.”

Lu Xu vaguely remembered seeing this Secretary Zhang when he walked in the door, her eight octopus tentacles busy waving about. Some of them were busy tidying schedules, some were sending and receiving items, and two of them were even typing on the keyboard and entering information.

Seeing Lu Xu examining Secretary Zhang, Bai Ze laughed and praised his employee. “Secretary Zhang is a senior worker at this company. Her capability is very strong. She’s in charge of all of the company’s promotional material as well as the organising and printing of other various information.”

“Then Secretary Zhang is really super good at her work.” Lu Xu smiled politely at Secretary Zhang, recognising her efficiency in her work.

Even with all the beautiful demon artists in the company, Secretary Zhang still blushed when suddenly confronted by Lu Xu’s smiling face. After she left her boss’s office, she immediately took out her phone and sent a message to the company group chat.

[Secretary Zhang: The new artist the boss signed is super good looking. Most importantly, he seems to be a real human!]

[Front Desk Xiao Ai: Right, right? I wanted to say that just now. I also think this new guy is super handsome!]

[Janitor Lao Shi: Fuck, a human? There’s an actual human existing in our company?!]

…

An entire horde of underwater demons blew up in excitement.

It must be understood that in the many years since their company had been created, all the employees had been demons, from the boss to the employees. To suddenly have a human appear, it was no wonder everyone would be shocked.

This new person was probably the only human in their entire company!

**

In the office, Lu Xu looked over the contract in detail.

When it was a contract involving both parties, it was even more important that it was looked over seriously.

The accommodations that Yao Guai’s side provided were not bad. The contract was for five years, with a 40-60 split in profits. More importantly, Bai Ze would personally be his manager.

“If you think there’s a problem anywhere, do bring it up. The company will do its best to satisfy.”

Bai Ze was extremely courteous with his words. Lu Xu shook his head and smiled. “I have no problem with the contract terms.” As he said that, he picked up the pen and signed his name on the line for Party B.

Not only was Lu Xu attractive, his penmanship was also good. He wrote in proper xingkai calligraphy. The movement of his pen seemed casual, but the words that came out were written with a chic and bold momentum. There was a saying that words reflected the person. This saying made quite a lot of sense now.

The contract was signed. Bai Ze did things efficiently. He immediately gave a call to the program’s team. “Lao Fan, it’s me.”

‘Birth of an Idol’ was a summer program hosted by Dongcheng TV. Naturally, the production lineup was quite strong.

The head director Fan Zeng was China’s golden producer, as well as the father of China’s variety shows. He was considered one of the pioneers of variety show producing. All of the programs he played a part in in the twenty or so years of his career received top ratings.

Dongcheng TV specially invited Fan Zeng this time to produce the show. This showed the importance they placed in this program.

Fan Zeng and Yao Guai Entertainment had two previous work engagements that went decently. The first time, they produced the TV Show Emperor Su Mubai. The other time, they produced the Vocal Queen Yu Manman.

Because of this relationship, Fan Zeng had given Bai Ze a call at the beginning of the preparation for the show. He wanted to ask Bai Ze if his company had any suitable artists.

At that time, Bai Ze had not signed a new artist in two years, so they obviously did not have anyone suitable.

Fan Zeng did not push the matter. He could only liaise with national management agencies and ask them to send trainees over.

There were three days left before the shooting of the program began, and the list of trainees was more or less complete.

Fan Zeng never would have thought that Bai Ze would call him at this time to say that he wanted to recommend an artist.

“A new person?”

“Mn, just signed.”

Fan Zeng hesitated when he heard that. “If it’s a newbie, then their training time is probably not that long.”

Bai Ze glanced at the new artist he had just signed today. His tone was forgiving. “Less than a year.”

Lu Xu raised his eyes to glance at Bai Ze. He never expected this new manager to gloss over the details so well.

“Not even a year?” Fan Zeng sighed from his end of the line, and thought of declining. “The trainees that the other companies have sent this time have trained for two years at the very least. I’m afraid this artist of yours won’t make it big.”

Bai Ze was not troubled. He stayed firm. “Fan ge, what about this? I’ll take him to you right now so you can see for yourself. If you think he’s suitable, then he’ll stay. Is that okay?”

Fan Zeng wanted to say that the namelist was more or less decided already. Unless this person was extremely outstanding, there would be no chance.

But because he had worked together with Bai Ze so many times, Fan Zeng did not want to reject him too directly, so he agreed.

A trainee that had not even trained for a year… It wouldn’t work unless he had the talent like Su Mubai or Yu Manman. But whether it was Su Mubai or Yu Manman, there would be no one like them in the entire world.

Not to mention that Bai Ze had not signed any artists in the past two years.

Fan Zeng thought that he would take a look when Bai Ze brought the newbie over. If he met the conditions, then he would recommend the newbie to one of his other friends. After all, they were his friends, so he would return the favour.

Just when he was anxious over confirming the details, he turned around to notice that two of his assistants were squealing while holding their phones.

“What are you two looking at that’s so exciting? There’s so much work, shouldn’t you be taking care of it?”

The two assistants didn’t panic upon hearing that, they only showed him what was on their phones. “Fan ge, what do you think about this xiao gege from the subway?”

“What xiao gege from the subway?” Fan Zeng nonchalantly looked down at the phone screen. His eyes immediately lit up. The boy in the video had a face carved from jade, and his figure was the best of the best. The most amazing feature was still his eyes that carried the bright light of spring. Even though it was just a simple quirk of his lips, it could make people feel like they could cry.

Fan Zeng had never had an interest in viral internet things, and rarely kept to date with people on Mouyin.

However, this time was different. With just one look, Fan Zeng thought that this boy was special, that he dazzled like a star.

He thought that if he could get this boy to appear on his show, then it would definitely be a hit!

The more Fan Zeng thought about it, the more excited he became. He hurriedly spoke to his assistant, “Is this an influencer or an artist? Get in touch with him, and be sure to invite him to our show!”

The assistant couldn’t help but sigh. “Fan ge, we also want to get in touch with this xiao gege, but it seems like he’s just a random guy that someone online happened to film. Now the entire internet is looking for this xiao gege from the subway station, but there’s no trace of him at all. We can’t even find this person.”

Mouyin recommended the top trending videos to its users every day and the assistants had originally just wanted to click on a few to pass the time.

But they had immediately seen the ‘subway xiao gege’ suggestion. They had watched the video dozens of times already, stunned and reluctant to swipe away.

The original video had achieved over a million likes, the comments section was a standard screaming match.

Everyone wanted to know who this beautiful xiao gege was, but no one could contact him.

“Maybe in a few days he’ll come out and create his own account to make videos?” Many viral sensations went down this course of action. Although the assistant said this, they felt like the xiao gege didn’t seem like he was doing this for a publicity stunt.

Fan Zeng could not help but sigh.

The program was going to be recorded soon, and he wouldn’t make it in time if they found him even within a few days. He had finally discovered a treasure with much difficulty, but couldn’t contact him. Fan Zeng was full of disappointment.

It was at this time the program staff ran over to report, “Fan ge, Mr. Bai has arrived.”