Free Web NovelChapter 410: Chapter 232: Won’t Admit It Even If Seen! Won’t Let a Single Cent Go!
"First, find a girl and a guy to film from a couple’s perspective. Let the two of them shoot the opening. For the part where they turn around, you’ll dress up as a woman and take the girl’s place. At the end, the guy has to start vomiting uncontrollably."
"I guarantee it’ll get a ton of likes."
"That sounds like a great prank." Elephant’s eyes actually lit up. Ever since the "So High" prank video, he felt this niche was a goldmine. So, upon hearing his boss’s suggestion, he was extremely interested.
After dealing with Elephant, Chen Jincheng headed to his office. He had just sat down when Xiaoju followed him in, looking at him with a wronged expression.
"What’s wrong? It’s so early in the morning," Chen Jincheng asked with a smile.
Xiaoju pouted and said, "Cheng, you’re always going too far. Back in Ganjiang City, you spent one night with me and then ran off to find that Teacher Li. It was the same last night. Right after we were together, you went to find Yinyin and Ximeng."
Seeing he’d been found out, Chen Jincheng didn’t panic at all. Instead, he feigned displeasure. "Xiaoju, what kind of person do you take me for? There’s nothing going on between Teacher Li and me. What are you talking about?"
Xiaoju reminded him, "I caught you on the day we returned to Coastal City. I saw Teacher Li’s torn nightgown on the floor."
"What on earth are you talking about?" Chen Jincheng said instantly, without batting an eye. "I already told you, Teacher Li came over early that morning specifically to see me off. Besides, I already explained that was a tablecloth on the floor. How did it turn into a nightgown?"
"Also, when I left your place last night, it was clearly to deal with the one-hundred-million-yuan planning fund from the Coastal Publicity Association. How did that turn into me going to see Yinyin and Ximeng? Did you see them come to the office with me??"
"If I’d been at their place, wouldn’t it have made sense for me to give them a ride to work?"
Caught off guard by his question, Xiaoju didn’t know how to respond. She stubbornly retorted, "Maybe they just aren’t coming to the office today."
But just then, Yinyin and Ximeng’s voices rang out from outside.
Ximeng walked into the office with a bright smile and greeted him, "Boss!"
"See?" Chen Jincheng gestured toward the door, his expression clearly saying, ’It’s not what you think at all.’
"..." Xiaoju was momentarily stunned.
’Could I really have overthought things and wrongly accused Cheng?’
Seeing Ximeng enter, she felt embarrassed and left the office. Once outside, she sent a text to Chen Jincheng: "Cheng, I shouldn’t have let my imagination run wild."
Chen Jincheng smiled when he saw the text.
’And just like that, I talked my way out of it.’
’So, when a girl discovers or exposes something, the key is not to panic. Stay calm and act like it never happened.’
’Even if she saw it with her own eyes, she must have been mistaken.’
He pretended to be angry and sent Xiaoju a text: "I’m very angry that you would accuse me like that."
"I was wrong!" Xiaoju replied instantly, adding a smiley face emoji.
Chen Jincheng smiled, put down his phone, and decided not to reply. It was best to let her stew for a bit.
Xiaoju clutched her phone, waiting for a long time. When no reply came, she did indeed start to get anxious.
’Cheng wouldn’t really be angry over something so small, would he?’
Back in the office, Ximeng had already walked up behind Chen Jincheng and started massaging his shoulders. "Boss, that ’reward’ you gave Yinyin and me went viral again!"
Chen Jincheng smiled. "Mhm. So, you two can keep building up this ’bestie’ series. It’s a good way to carve out your own niche."
Hearing this, Ximeng said in a syrupy voice, "I’m thinking of convincing Yinyin to buy some leashes, collars, and a fox tail plug... Will there be a reward for that?"
Chen Jincheng’s eyes lit up at her words. "Ximeng, you should know that if there’s one thing your boss has plenty of, it’s rewards."
「Just then.」
Sister Hong walked in from outside. She wasn’t the least bit surprised to see her boss getting intimate with one of the girls.
’This boss is determined to sleep his way through the entire office.’
She walked over, handed a few files to Chen Jincheng, and reported, "Boss, I’ve selected the applications for a few historical costume designers from the materials HR sent over. Please take a look!"
Chen Jincheng hadn’t expected Sister Hong to move so quickly. He smiled, took the files, and began to look through them.
The resumes for these historical costume designers were all quite good. They had also submitted portfolios of their past work, which clearly showed that they were indeed professionals.
Before 2018, the Hanfu industry existed, but it had a widely criticized flaw: the people designing and making Hanfu didn’t actually understand it. They didn’t grasp the unique construction, color palettes, and stylistic features of Hanfu from different eras.
Some designers would incorporate stylistic features from the Song Dynasty into Tang Dynasty garments. Whether this was due to a simple design error or an attempt to be unconventional, it was completely unacceptable.
A design error is a matter of competence. Trying to be unconventional is a matter of attitude. The whole point of promoting Hanfu culture is to pass it down, to preserve the original history and culture, and to maintain its profound heritage.
Messing around with it arbitrarily is a disservice to that very history and heritage.
This issue wasn’t just confined to the Hanfu industry. It was also apparent in many movies and TV shows, where production crews filming historical dramas couldn’t even get the basic clothing characteristics of the era right.
This is one reason why the costume and production design in traditional TV series were being outshone by those in short-form web dramas.
After 2018, with the arrival of the National Style trend, the Hanfu industry began to flourish once more. People delved deeper into researching Hanfu, paying meticulous attention to detail. This not only showcased the diverse beauty of the garments but also faithfully preserved the unique characteristics of each dynasty, avoiding anachronistic mix-ups.
And as it turned out, you didn’t need to do anything unconventional to showcase the beauty of Hanfu. The aesthetic sensibilities of our ancestors were in no way inferior to our own.
"Sister Hong, these candidates are good. Let’s hire them all," Chen Jincheng said with a nod and a smile. Then he added, "But just hiring these few won’t be enough. We need to keep recruiting. It would be best to get several more senior designers. Let’s aim for twenty people to start."
"???" Sister Hong looked at him, completely bewildered. "Boss, a senior historical costume designer makes at least 15,000 a month. With bonuses and attendance pay, it could be as high as 20,000. Does our company, Second-Life Star, really need that many people for a costume design department?"
"The costs would go way over budget instantly. Or... do you have a new plan for the design department?"
"I do have a new plan," Chen Jincheng confirmed with a nod. "My original idea was to take it slow, wait for the National Style trend to really take off, have these designers create some costumes for our videos, and then eventually try to launch our own Hanfu brand."
"But a new opportunity has presented itself, so naturally we need to adapt. Our company is going to have a collaborative project with the Coastal Publicity Association focusing on historical Hanfu."
"This project has a promotional budget of one hundred million yuan. So, I need you to lead a team and draft a comprehensive plan. If you’re short-staffed or need people with specific skills, go ahead and recruit them."
"One hundred million?" A look of utter disbelief spread across Sister Hong’s face.
Second-Life Star was just an influencer agency. Now, an official government department actually wanted to partner with them on a project and was putting up one hundred million yuan in promotional funding right off the bat.
Heavens, that was a staggering amount of money.
Chen Jincheng explained the details of the collaborative project to Sister Hong, then added, "Since the Coastal Publicity Association is putting up a hundred million, we’ll have more than enough capital. We can seize this opportunity to launch our Hanfu brand and capture the market. Besides, the domestic Hanfu market is only going to get bigger from here on out."
"Of course, the shopping cart feature will be live by then. Livestream shopping for apparel is bound to be one of the hottest niches, and it’ll be the best channel for promoting our clothing brand."
Sister Hong immediately understood her boss’s intentions. If this plan succeeded, Second-Life Star would no longer be just an influencer agency. It would at least have its own line of merchandise and a supporting industrial chain.
But she still had one question. "Boss, one more thing. Based on the promotional activities you’ve described, it seems like we won’t need the full one hundred million. What do we do with the leftover funds?"
Hearing this, Chen Jincheng sighed with feigned exasperation. "Sister Hong, you can’t be so honest about these things."
"???" Sister Hong was confused.
Chen Jincheng continued, "Sister Hong, let me give you a little lesson in project planning. You can add a ’planner’s fee’ to the project cost. Also, for the costumes we’ll be using, say one has a production cost of 100 yuan. On top of that cost, you can bill another 1,000 yuan for ’artistic processing,’ ’copyright fees,’ and ’design fees.’"
"And for inviting or poaching influencers, let’s say one costs 100,000. Ten of them would be 1 million. But before you’ve even found them, you can write in the proposal that Second-Life Star is authorized to handle the contracting for a fee of, say, 5 million yuan..."
"...!" As Sister Hong listened to him lay out these ’planning tips’ one by one, her jaw dropped in sheer admiration.
’The boss isn’t planning to let a single cent of that hundred million slip through his fingers!’
’The crucial thing is that for all these items he mentioned—planning fees, design fees, copyright fees, and so on—the prices are so subjective that the Coastal Publicity Association would have no way to verify them!’
