Chapter 62: The Terms are Up to You
Author: Black Lantern (黑色花灯)
Link: https://book.qidian.com/info/1009922190
Translated by Gumihou
Snow Café.
Ye Fei found a seat by the window and sat down. He ordered a cup of black tea from the server.
At first, he thought of waiting for Feng Tianlai at a restaurant, however, since he had already eaten, it was better to have a bit of tea to help his digestion.
Feng Tianlai appeared to really care about matters relating to Ye Fei. Though Ye Fei had no idea why this guy was so insistent about coming over to see him, [1] he patiently waited with his tea. Before he finish drinking his cup of black tea, a call came from Feng Tianlai.
“I’m here,” Feng Tianlai announced excitedly voice over the phone.
The thought of seeing Ye Fei in the flesh soon nearly made him vibrate out of his skin.
Ye Fei, “… so quickly?”
“Naturally, when it comes to matters concerning Deity Ye, if I work too slowly, my superiors will have me sacked.”
“Heheh, I’m at Snow Cafe. You can ask some locals for directions and you’ll find me here.”
“Yes, we shall meet soon.”
Feng Tianlai hung up the call and grabbed a passing person, a girl in her twenties, and asked, “Snow Cafe, do you know where is it?”
At the shock of being grabbed, the girl screamed in fright. She broke free from Feng Tianlai and ran away.
Left in the dust, Feng Tianlai blinked, “…why are you running away? Am I that scary?”
Just then, an old man in his 60s happened to walk past Feng Tianlai. The old man shook his head and muttered, “Young people nowadays are getting more and more domineering when it comes to chasing girls. Even if you happen to like someone, you should at least speak nicely to them and not frighten people away.”
Feng Tianlai, “… …”
F*ck me, I was just asking for directions, how did it become ‘liking someone’? Uncle, if you don’t know anything don’t comment, alright?
However, Feng Tianlai soon recovered. He realised that his action earlier was really too aggressive. He faintly laughed at his own excitable attitude.
“Aiya, Feng Tianlai,calm down. Calm down, ah.”
After calming down, he stopped another young person and politely asked for the location of the cafe. This time, he was given proper directions.
Feng Tianlai hurried towards the cafe.
There was still a bit of black tea left in Ye Fei’s cup when a middle-aged man rushed through the doors of Snow Cafe. The man was dressed in black trousers, a white shirt and a blue tie. There was a smart looking briefcase under one arm. He looked like a typical urban white-collar worker.
When Feng Tianlai stepped into the cafe, he swept his gaze across the cafe and immediately spotted Ye Fei.
As the supervisor of the Fine Food Section, if he could not recognise Ye Fei, their most powerful and popular great Deity Ye on sight, he would have been a tremendous failure as a supervisor.
After spotting Ye Fei, Feng Tianlai beamed. Ignoring the eyes of the curious people in the cafe, he excitedly trotted over to introduce himself.
“Deity Ye, to finally see you in the flesh… no, to see the real thing, ah. You are so much more handsome in person.” Feng Tianlai continued to beam as he sat down opposite Ye Fei.
Ye Fei, who had just sipped the last bit of his tea, nearly spat out his mouthful of tea at Feng Tianlai’s obvious flattery.
F*ck, I like this guy. I really like this kind of ‘straight-shooting’ guy, ah.
That’s right, daddy’s greatest weakness is my lack of photogenic quality.
“You are Supervisor Feng?” asked Ye Fei with a smile.
Feng Tianlai said, “Just call me Brother Feng [2], or you can call me Old Feng.”
“Heheh, I think Brother Feng is good. Why has Brother Feng called for this meeting?”
[1] Since Ye Fei had gone straight to the point, he also did not waffle about and said, “Deity Ye, it’s like this. I am here on behalf of the company to speak to Deity Ye about our contract with Deity Ye.”
Ye Fei was taken aback, “When I first registered with the company, didn’t I already sign a contract?”
Feng Tianlai said, “At the moment, our digital contract is still just a standard contract with many loopholes and limited benefits. Moreover, there are many things we cannot include due to confidentiality issues. What we are proposing is a formal paper contract that includes some special clauses just for you. There’s no need to worry, I guarantee that you will love the added terms to your contract.”
Ye Fei said, “Oh? Did you bring the contract? Let me have a look.”
“I brought it, I brought it, here you go.”
Feng Tianlai quickly opened his briefcase and took out two sets of contracts, each had more than 10 pages stapled together. From the number of papers and amount of words, it was clear that this paper contract was more detailed than the digital version.
Ye Fei took one. As he flipped through it, he said, “Order whatever drinks you like, it’s my treat today.”
Feng Tianlai excitedly called the waiter over and ordered, “Black coffee, no sugar… iced.”
Ye Fei turned to glance over at Feng Tianlai. He smiled and said, “You don’t feel that life is bitter enough?”
Feng Tianlai smiled, “I’m used to this kind of taste.”
“That’s fine, you enjoy your drink while I look through this,” said Ye Fei. Then, he bent down and studied the contract carefully.
After looking through it once, Ye Fei finally understood why Feng Tianlai personally came out to get him to sign the contract. There were a lot of clauses here that were missing from the digital contract.
For example, how many years a broadcaster would cooperate with a platform, as well as the types of resources they were willing to provide. All these were internal information and not something they would put on the internet for their rivals to study and grasp their bottom line.
After all, no matter how many layers of security they put in, with hackers being so good nowadays, it is only a matter of time before something that had been put online is revealed.
More importantly, within this contract were money-related terms.
Ye Fei had just counted, the money-related terms alone numbered over 10.
The terms included the shared ratio of each broadcast, guaranteed minimum salary for the broadcaster, some other attractive benefits and more importantly, insurance-related terms.
Ye Fei placed the contract on the table.
Feng Tianlai put his coffee down with a smile, “Deity Ye has finished reading the contract? What do you think?”
Ye Fei said, “This contract definitely has more terms and conditions compared to the digital version. I also noticed that a lot of the conditions involved money.”
“That’s right, the special conditions we offered to each of our broadcasters are confidential and cannot be given out on the digital contract for fear of information leaks. Our digital contracts only contain the standard terms and conditions.”
“En, but I have a question. When I look through the contract just now, I noticed that the platform the amount of the guaranteed minimum salary as well as some special benefits are blank. Surely the platform has already made its decisions on these matters?”
Feng Tianlai cleared his throat twice, “That is… well, I shall not hide this from Deity Ye. For other broadcasters, the company would, of course, put these details down before discussing them with the broadcasters. However, things are different with you. The upper echelons of our company have spoken, so long as you agree to our conditions, you are free to fill in whatever number and benefits as you like on those blank lines.”
Ye Fei, “… …”
F*ck, so incredible, ah? Just when did I become so amazing?”
“Up to me to fill?”
Feng Tianlai nodded, “Of course.”
“What if I put one million on the guaranteed minimum salary?”
“… … sure!”
“… …”
“Really, ah?”
“Of… course!”
Even as Feng Tianlai gave the okay, the words trembled on his tongue. A guaranteed minimum salary of a million yuan, ah. Holy crap, if Deity Ye actually dared to demand this… Even the guaranteed minimum salary of Silver Rankers was not so high, ah.
However, when he thought of Zhao Sen’s instruction to sign Ye Fei no matter what, he could only grit his teeth and give the okay.
When Ye Fei realised that Feng Tianlai was serious, his cheeks trembled and he laughed out loud, “Kidding, ah. Just kidding, even though money is a good thing, I, Ye Fei, am not such a greedy person. I am just joking with you, don’t take it seriously.”
Feng Tianlai breathed a sigh of relief. He thought: You still dare to joke ah. If word gets out that you actually demanded a million yuan in salary, the other broadcasters would team up and storm against the top management in protest.
“Then, Deity Ye’s meaning is…?” Feng Tianlai asked, unsure what Ye Fei really wanted.
Ye Fei smiled and pushed the contract back to Feng Tianlai. He shook his head, “I will not sign your contract.”
Feng Tianlai nearly cried, he anxiously asked, “Deity Ye, why? Don’t say you plan to leave QQ Platform!?”
[Gumihou: Lol, this MC actually reads his contract. Much salute.]
[1] Smoothed out text with minor additions
[2] Brother Feng – Is really 冯大哥 ‘Older Brother Feng’
However, since we have established Name+哥 as Name Bro, we decided that Name+大哥 as Brother Name would be appropriate. Close, but not too intimate, not peer either.
Old Feng is also intimate, but that has a more superior+inferior kind of relationship. Depending on the nuance, Old Feng could be a close yet inferior person to Ye Fei. Calling him Brother Feng has a more close+superior/equal relationship, with Ye Fei acknowledging Brother Feng as someone with a higher corporate status, thus affording him more face.
In short:
Name+哥 – Cucumber Bro – peer+intimate
Name+大哥 – Brother Cucumber – superior+close, but not too intimate
Name +老 – Old Cucumber – senior in years, but inferior in status, close-ish
There are other nuances, of course, but these are some of the basics.
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