The Secret Realm of Time, His and Her Life Through the Changes

Chapter 166 Do you respect it?

Ding Jiajia walked in carrying a shopping bag, gently placed the two cups of coffee from the bag on the coffee table, and said to Shang Yibo, "Here, have a cup of coffee. Sister Qingnan just had someone buy these."

Shang Yibo took the coffee, took a sip, and asked, "Is Qi Qingnan here too? I didn't see her."

Ding Jiajia replied, "While you were changing, we chatted for a while at the door. I even called Sister Yanruo, and the two of them talked about your business contract. It seems they even arranged to meet tomorrow."

"Meeting tomorrow?" Shang Yibo raised an eyebrow, looked at Ding Jiajia, and blurted out a series of questions, "Who's meeting with whom? Zhou Yanruo and Qi Qingnan? Isn't Zhou Yanruo supposed to accompany me to the recording studio tomorrow? How come she has time to meet with someone else, and why didn't she tell me she had other things planned? Can an agent work so unplanned?"

Faced with Shang Yibo's barrage of questions, Ding Jiajia was at a loss, looking at him blankly.

Shang Yibo urged again, "I'm asking you."

Ding Jiajia was just saying it casually; in fact, she hadn't heard clearly whether Zhou Yanruo and Qi Qingnan had confirmed that they had arranged to meet.

Unexpectedly, Shang Yibo took such a small matter very seriously and insisted on getting to the bottom of it, leaving her speechless and stunned.

At this moment, Zhang Xiaoguang quickly took over the conversation and cleverly defused the situation, saying, "Sister Qingnan probably won't be free to make an appointment with President Zhou tomorrow."

Shang Yibo turned his head and looked at Zhang Xiaoguang with a questioning look in his eyes.

Zhang Xiaoguang continued, "I was going to say hello to Teacher Yibo anyway, but since we're on the topic, I thought I'd take this opportunity to let you know. Tomorrow morning, I'm going with General Manager Qi to the Linxian TV station to discuss a project. Here's the thing, Sister Qingnan's people are all on the project, so they're short-handed. They asked Brother Can for help, and since I just came back from Zhuocheng and have a day off tomorrow, he asked if I could work overtime. I thought it would be great to have the opportunity to learn from someone I've never been involved in business negotiations before, so I agreed."

Shang Yibo remained noncommittal and said, "You can decide what you want to do during your rest time; you don't need to ask for my permission."

Zhang Xiaoguang, being sensible, quickly expressed his gratitude: "Thank you, Teacher Yibo. If there are similar situations in the future, I will definitely take the initiative to inform you in advance."

"Okay, fine," Shang Yibo said. "Why didn't I see Qi Qingnan come with you? I need to talk to her."

Ding Jiajia slapped her forehead and said, "You asked about their meeting, and that interrupted me. I changed the subject I was going to tell you. Sister Qingnan is talking to Brother Can outside."

Shang Yibo asked in surprise, "Jie Can is here? What's he doing here?" He then looked at Zhang Xiaoguang.

Zhang Xiaoguang quickly waved his hand, "I don't know, how would I know?"

Ding Jiajia said, "Brother Can brought Shen Qing over, saying they need to add another piece of advertising material for today. Ugh... so annoying, nothing good ever comes of it. I'll have Sister Qingnan talk to you about it later."

Just then, Qi Qingnan pushed open the door and walked in. "Yibo, is everything ready? I noticed you didn't sleep much last night, so I had them bring you some coffee to perk you up. Try to finish early today so you can go back and catch up on some sleep. You have to go to the recording studio tomorrow."

Shang Yibo sat on a lounge chair against the wall, leaned forward slightly, and said, "Thank you, Qingnan. I was feeling sleepy, and this coffee is a lifesaver."

Zhang Xiaoguang pulled over a chair and placed it next to Shang Yibo. "President Qi, please have a seat."

Qi Qingnan hummed in agreement and sat down. "Yibo, there's something I need to tell you about. We just signed the contract last night." She shifted forward, sitting on the front third of the chair, and leaned closer to Shang Yibo, whispering, "We added an extra set of footage for today's shoot. It's like this: 'The Legend of Huizhou Merchants' has added a title sponsor, which is the 'Mingye' brand you endorse. Originally, the footage we shot today was for outdoor advertising. However, the individual footage wasn't enough for commercials. The brand suggested using the storyline from 'The Legend of Huizhou Merchants' for an extension, and since the brand is also from Huizhou, it matches the tone of the film perfectly. So, the company arranged for Shen Qing to partner with you for a set of footage. Are you okay with that?"

Shang Yibo said with a calm expression, "I see."

Upon hearing this, Qi Qingnan added, "Of course, you are still the spokesperson for 'Mingye'. We signed a one-year endorsement contract. The promotional materials featuring you and Shen Qing are only limited to the promotion of 'Legend of Huizhou Merchants' and the airing of the drama."

Shang Yibo replied calmly, "It's fine, you guys decide."

Qi Qingnan couldn't quite figure out Shang Yibo's attitude from his tone, and was about to continue speaking.

Ding Jiajia, who was listening nearby, couldn't help but purse her lips and interject, "Sister Qingnan, why didn't you mention this arrangement to us before?"

"Oh, that contract was only signed last night. It was indeed a bit rushed, and we didn't have time to go into details. After all, if we don't finish filming these materials today, when you go to the Huizhou location, Shen Qing's schedule is fine, but Yi Bo really can't find the time to do the reshoots." Qi Qingnan explained apologetically.

Ding Jiajia's tone was still tinged with dissatisfaction: "Even so, you should at least have discussed it with your agent before making a decision. When you were on the phone with Sister Yanruo just now, you didn't mention once that doing things this way is inappropriate."

While companies typically have the right to decide on contract matters, it was indeed somewhat unexpected for a junior assistant to so bluntly question the director of the artist's business department. However, Qi Qingnan knew she was in the wrong and did not blame Ding Jiajia for her rudeness.

She explained somewhat awkwardly, "This collaboration is a corporate sponsorship that benefits both the company and the production team, and it hasn't harmed Yibo's interests, so..."

Ding Jiajia quickly chimed in: "So, you signed a contract in private and only remembered to inform us when you were on set."

Qi Qingnan withdrew her smile and said seriously, "That can't be said. The company has the right to decide to sign business contracts with external parties, especially when it's something that benefits everyone. Why not do it? I don't think it's wise to nitpick or get hung up on minor details."

Ding Jiajia wasn't with Yihua Entertainment, so naturally she didn't respect Qi Qingnan's management. In her eyes, there was only one boss, and that was Shang Yibo.

She was usually polite to the people at Yihua Entertainment because she didn't want to cause trouble for Shang Yibo. But now that Shang Yibo's vital interests were involved, she was not going to back down. "Do you even know what respect is? You didn't communicate before signing the contract, and now you just give me a heads-up when it's time to execute it? Is this how you treat the company's cash cow? You think Yibo is easy to manipulate? That's because he doesn't want to argue with you. The last time you changed the script, you discussed it and just brought the screenwriter and actors to the set. And now you're doing the same thing again. You've crossed our bottom line, you know? I can't stand by and watch this anymore."

Shang Yibo paid no attention to the argument between the two women. He turned to Zhang Xiaoguang and asked, "Go and see how much longer it will take before filming can begin."

He was concerned about the additional filming assignments that had been added at the last minute, how long they would take, and what time they would finish if they didn't start filming soon. He just wanted to finish filming here as soon as possible so he could go back and get some sleep and be in top condition to record "Ling Bo Jing" tomorrow.

At that time, Zhou Yanruo would also be at the recording site, which he was really looking forward to.