Actresses

Chapter 50 Introduction

After finishing their meal, Shi Jiahe and Wei Ning went to a different coffee shop. Since they had nothing else to do in the afternoon, they continued their deep conversation.

Suddenly, her phone vibrated; a message had come in. Shi Jiahe glanced at it and saw it was a private message from Ding Yi. She hesitated for a moment, but still worried that something unexpected might have happened, so she looked up at Wei Ning and said, "Wait a minute, let me check my WeChat."

"You do your thing," Wei Ning said, then replied to her work WeChat message.

Shi Jiahe yawned, swiped open the screen, and frowned. The message was simple: the boss had returned to the studio, but had announced some news. Ding Yi asked Shi Jiahe to guess what it was.

Shi Jiahe thought to herself, "How would I know?" and replied with the same sentence verbatim.

"The boss has signed a second artist! Did she mention this to you before?"

Shi Jiahe couldn't help but shout out.

How could this be? She knew He Yuran too well. The boss never wanted to develop the agency business independently. Given Ran Jie's personality, she was always one to stand alone. How could she possibly sign an artist in her own company and allow anyone on her team to divert their energy to other actors? But Ding Yi wouldn't joke about something like this. What exactly happened to Ran Jie? A genetic mutation?

She couldn't help but reply, "I have absolutely no idea! Ran-jie and I just had lunch together, and she didn't mention a word about it. Who could it be?"

"Do you know Jiang Fan? She's her college classmate. She's in the studio right now."

"Holy crap!" Shi Jiahe exclaimed in surprise, putting down her phone.

"What's wrong?" Wei Ning asked.

"It's nothing, just some small things to take care of at the studio. Sigh." Shi Jiahe sighed.

Wei Ning, being the kind of person he was, could tell at a glance that something unexpected had happened, but he didn't ask any further questions. "Why don't you go back and get busy? We've already talked about most of the things."

"Hmm, my mind is a bit of a mess right now. I'll go back and sort out my thoughts before we discuss it again. Anyway, Sister Ran has already given her the nod, and you'll be joining as a producer later."

Besides negotiating with actors, the next step for the project is to move it forward within the platform, which can only be handled by Wei Ning, and this also means there will be no further negotiations with other platforms. However, Wei Ning hasn't brought up the possibility of being laid off yet. Nevertheless, Shi Jiahe decided to trust her.

"Tell me anytime if anything happens on your end," Shi Jiahe emphasized.

"Don't worry, we're in the same trench now." Wei Ning held her hand. "And we're still such good friends."

"This is the happiest thing for me today," Shi Jiahe smiled genuinely. "I finally don't have to be on guard against you anymore."

"I fucking knew it!" Wei Ning rolled her eyes and shoved Shi Jiahe's hand away. "Don't think I've forgotten what you did with Ran-jie at the studio, how you ignored me like that. You still think I've changed, are you crazy! What's there to change about a mere employee like me?"

"Who knows if you've gotten too big for your britches, big producer. It's good to know you haven't changed, isn't it? Don't hold it against me. Otherwise, all that expensive wine we drank today would have been for nothing," Shi Jiahe said with a grin.

"Okay, I got it! I owe your sister Ran a favor. Now go on your way, we'll chat on WeChat later."

The two parted ways, and Shi Jiahe took a taxi back to her studio. Actually, she wanted to skip work, but she couldn't sit still when she thought about Ran Jie going crazy.

Shi Jiahe could understand that He Yuran had some feelings for Jiang Fan from their past as classmates, and since Jiang Fan had agreed to star in the drama, the two must have become even closer recently.

However, signing Jiang Fan to the company is a completely different matter.

Managing a talent agency for an actress with past work experience and who is no longer young presents even more challenges than signing a newcomer. Even though Jiang Fan has had a considerable hiatus, her demands on her management team upon re-entering the market are likely to be high. Team composition, salary range, and revenue sharing with the company all need to be discussed in detail. But given Jiang Fan's friendship with her boss, He Yuran, how can these negotiations proceed?

Moreover, Shi Jiahe had absolutely no idea about Jiang Fan's true personality.

When you retire from the entertainment industry, life will surely be peaceful and serene. But what if you come back and cause trouble?

Of course, the celebrities would put their arms around each other, since they're not the ones doing the work themselves; it's the staff who are causing the trouble.

Shi Jiahe hurried into the studio and found her colleagues sitting quietly at their desks. She paused for a moment, then asked softly, "Is the boss back?"

Ding Yi pointed inside, indicating that the people were in the conference room.

Shi Jiahe nodded, returned to her workstation, and put down her bag.

Ding Yi poked her head over; the two of them were sitting directly opposite. "Aren't you going to go say hello?"

"They were chatting, what could I possibly say? What did my sister just tell you?"

"Mainly, it means signing all the agency contracts, then coming up with a plan. Also, we need to update our information, and if needed, arrange a photoshoot, etc., so it'll be easier to submit to other film crews." Ding blinked. "Anyway, we're going to be busy."

"Sigh..." Shi Jiahe frowned.

Why are you so unhappy?

Shi Jiahe immediately waved her hand alertly, glancing subconsciously into the conference room. "What nonsense are you talking about? I'm not upset at all. I was just thinking about how to move a few things forward. Why did the boss suddenly sign an artist?" She suddenly had a bright idea, and Chong Ding winked. "How about you take over Jiang Fan's training? Because I still have acting projects to run, and I'm afraid I won't be able to manage it all."

Ding Yi shrugged. "Some people have been handling both administration and finance for a long time, and they haven't said anything yet."

Shi Jiahe knew that Ding Yi was unhappy. No one is happy to have too much work on them, especially since it doesn't mean they'll get a raise.

The boss hasn't been too busy lately, which is actually a good thing for everyone. We don't have to work overtime all the time, and we can even slack off a bit. But now, we have to start over with new artists, and just thinking about that workload is huge. Naturally, nobody wants to be the first to step up in this kind of situation.

The two children next to them didn't dare to say anything either.

The two women at the workstation were both highly experienced, and equally important to the boss. Therefore, neither Xuanxuan nor Danzai dared to misbehave, and they both kept their heads down and worked diligently.

Shi Jiahe glanced at Xuanxuan's computer screen next to her. Xuanxuan had already started searching for Jiang Fan's pictures and preparing the layout for her PPT materials.

"Do we really have to book a studio and a photographer to take pictures? That would cost money again," Shi Jiahe asked Ding Yi.

Once an artist is signed, regardless of their experience, the agency is required to arrange one or more studio photoshoots with multiple outfits to update their profile and resume. These expenses are borne by the agency. If the agency charges the artist for these services, it is definitely a scam.

Shi Jiahe thought about the company's revenue and felt even more overwhelmed. Although He Yuran had some family wealth, he couldn't just spend money without a plan; it would be unsustainable to have nothing going on all the time. Even if Jiang Fan could get a role right away, there wouldn't be much of a salary to speak of. Not only that, the studio would also have to contribute some of its staff. Why didn't the boss consider anything...?

Moreover, once she changed her perspective, Shi Jiahe began to think specifically about how much Jiang Fan should be paid for his role in their own production.

Signing them as artists in the same company makes things more complicated. Paying them too low is inappropriate because they're family, but paying them too high will seem like a mere transfer between investors and platforms, and could even lead to speculation.

She stood up abruptly.

Ding Yi pursed his lips and looked at her meaningfully.

Shi Jiahe didn't care about anything else and ran towards the conference room. When she got to the door, she closed her eyes, rubbed her temples, and knocked three times.

"Come in." He Yuran's voice rang out from inside.

Shi Jiahe silently took a deep breath before pushing open the door and entering. At the same time, her expression switched to a very pleasant and sensible smile. She didn't know if the boss would suddenly decide to give Jiang Fan shares; if that happened, the person sitting inside would be the second-in-command. She had to leave a good first impression.

"Hello, boss! Hello, Teacher Jiang Fan!" Shi Jiahe greeted him warmly.

Just by looking at her expression, you could tell that He Yuran was especially happy. When she saw her top agent come in, she immediately waved, "Come on, come sit down! Let me formally introduce you this time."

"My top agent, who is also the head of our studio, is Shi Jiahe," He Yuran said, then pointed to Jiang Fan. "My old classmate Jiang Fan is also a new colleague in our studio starting today."

"Hello, Jiahe." Jiang Fan stood up.

"Oh, Sister Fan, don't be so polite! Please guide me in the future." Shi Jiahe quickly took the initiative to shake hands.

Once everyone was seated again, He Yuran, in a strong voice, said to Shi Jiahe, "Here's the thing, Jiang Fan wants to take on a few other projects before our show starts filming to get back into shape. I think instead of her going out and looking for projects herself, it's better for our team to handle it. It's a convenient thing to do anyway. Besides, we know the project schedules, so negotiating availability is much clearer, and we can directly avoid filming time. It's a win-win situation. Jiahe, don't you think so? You're also the producer of my new drama, so I think this arrangement couldn't be more perfect. I can't even think of a better way."

"Yes, yes, yes, I think it makes perfect sense that Sister Ran thinks that way. So let me think about how to arrange things next?"

"Don't overthink it, just get to work. Treat all matters as if they were my matters, just as important, and that's it."

Shi Jiahe listened, thinking, "What a joke! How could I possibly have the same priority as you? You're my boss. Just because you're close to Jiang Fan doesn't mean I'm close to her. Jiang Fan is one of the main characters in this play, but that doesn't mean we have to handle all her other issues."

But Shi Jiahe couldn't say that right now. Her boss was in high spirits, and no matter what the reason for her sudden willingness to go to such lengths, she couldn't go against her during this time. She should just put on a show for now.

"Okay, I'll go and make the arrangements first, including getting the team members familiar with each other and assigning tasks. We'll gradually establish these things." Shi Jiahe turned to look at Jiang Fan. "Sister Fan, I also want to discuss a few things with you in advance."

"Thank you for your hard work, Jiahe. Please go ahead and speak."

"Well, our studio only has a few people right now, and we don't really have any plans to hire anyone, so everyone will probably be juggling two things at the same time. Please understand and bear with us."

"Oh no, no, I'm afraid of causing you any trouble."

"Please don't say that. I was just reporting work-related matters to you in advance. Secondly, the agent's work doesn't have an immediate effect. It's not like publicity, where you can see where you are just by trending on social media. We might have to re-edit your information, including communicating with production companies in the industry about your characteristics and the roles you're interested in, and then reviewing the scripts. All of this takes time. So there won't be any clear results too quickly."

"Jiahe, don't worry, I understand all of this."

"Okay, I have nothing else to add. If any of your friends send you scripts or anything else, just let us know and we'll follow up."

Jiang Fan repeatedly expressed his gratitude. "Okay, okay, thank you for your hard work, Jiahe. Hearing you say these things makes me feel very at ease."

"No, it's what we should do. Well then, Sister Ran, Sister Fan, I'll go out first. You two continue chatting."

He Yuran waved his hand, "Go, go."

Shi Jiahe added Jiang Fan on WeChat before leaving the meeting room.

After getting to know Jiang Fan, Shi Jiahe felt that his personality was alright, and he spoke softly. But who knows what the future holds? She was afraid that the boss might suddenly come up with another idea. Shi Jiahe thought to herself.