ATAMMDO 10

Chapter 10 – Your Contract is Illegal

 

As the boss stares at Jiang Liu Cheng, Jiang Liu Cheng looks back at him.

 

He still remembers the day they first met. The boss made a lot of concessions about the contract and said a lot of words to him to win sympathy and make him sign.

 

He said that the entertainment industry is a ruthless place and that Zhou Sheng Entertainment has no strength and can only survive in the gap. He has always depended on him to pull the company’s resources and artists’ announcements.

 

Later, when he found that Jiang Liu Cheng didn’t have many expressions, he changed the routine, saying that no matter how difficult it was, as long as he signed with Zhou Sheng Entertainment, he would try his best to win him popularity.

 

The words of a year ago seem to be fresh still in Jiang Liu Cheng’s mind. Of course, the main reason for this is the fact that his memory is naturally good. In fact, Jiang Liu Cheng’s memory is so good that he can easily recall what’s the boss facial expression was at that time too.

 

Just after that, the boss seems to have forgotten what he once said.

 

While saying that the company didn’t have it easy either, he tried to make Jiang Liu Cheng understand that the company has no choice but mercilessly hide him away. 

 

“Long time no see, Jiang Liu Cheng. You look like you’re doing well. Your face is quite rosy.” The boss smiled and opened his mouth in a gesture of talking about family matters.

 

Jiang Liu Cheng formed a smile, “This is all thanks to the boss.”

 

“I know you have complaints about the company, but you didn’t seize the opportunity yourself. If you hadn’t changed the contract like that, the company would’ve invested in you to make you popular. There wouldn’t have had many discrepancies.” 

 

Because of all the changes to the contract which doesn’t give the company the upper hand, he was reluctant to invest in Jiang Liu Cheng’s career.

 

When he was in the middle of thinking about it, someone approached him and told him to snowball Jiang Liu Cheng.

 

At first, he didn’t want to do it. Zhou Sheng Entertainment has waited so long to sign an artist who is perfect in every way.

 

Li Qiu’s eyes rolled straight away after hearing his boss’ statement. “Boss, we are all sensible people, so we don’t have to say such things. Everyone knows what benefits Zhou Sheng Entertainment got after hiding Jiang Liu Cheng from all the opportunities.”

 

At first, he didn’t understand that it was more beneficial to the company to promote him than to hide Jiang Liu Cheng.

 

Only later did someone tell him secretly that the company had used Jiang Liu Cheng for many benefits.

 

Under the other party’s matchmaking, Zhou Sheng Entertainment not only used the resources given by the other party to successfully promote an artist, but even other artists also drank the soup.

 

Only Jiang Liu Cheng, who had been used, got nothing.

 

Because Jiang Liu Cheng has not come to make trouble about it for the past year, the boss always thought that Jiang Liu Cheng knew that he could not compete with the company. He could only wait for the contract to expire. With that, he also maintains the appearance of courtesy at least until after the termination of the contract.

 

But now that he is being punctured by Li Qiu, the smile on the boss’ face slowly disappeared. He leaned against his chair with boredom. In fact, he even raised his legs just to prove that he could not care any less.

 

“According to my assistant, you want to terminate the contract in advance. Do you know that if you do so, you’re going to have to pay the liquidated damages? Can you handle paying that large sum of money?”

 

The boss looked over at Jiang Liu Cheng as if he already has a tight grip around the victory. 

 

Meanwhile, Li Qiu doesn’t know where the boss is getting his courage. Did he forget all about the revised contract?

 

Jiang Liu Cheng knows that this is probably a common fault of being the boss. He always feels like he is the one who holds the power of life and death of his employees.

 

“I’m not here to compensate for liquidated damages. On the contrary, Zhou Sheng Entertainment has to pay me a sum of money.”

 

When the boss heard such a strange remark for the first time, he smiled, “Are you crazy or did I mishear you when you said Zhou Sheng Entertainment was going to pay you money?”

 

Jiang Liu Cheng: “You heard it right. I think you just have no idea why. According to the contract, if I want to terminate the contract, I need to compensate the company’s liquidated damages several times the cost the company has invested in me this year. But unfortunately, the company has invested almost zero cost in me in the past year. The liquidated damages can hardly be counted.”

 

The boss’s expression slightly twitched, the company’s training of Jiang Liu Cheng was indeed interrupted before it had time to start, and those small roles given later were not wanted by others since they’re not actually relevant to benign with.

 

“If you say that there is no input cost, does it really mean that there is no input cost? Ha. Do not make me laugh, you young people. If the company says that there is, then you have to wait for a minute and there will be. You are just an ordinary person. You won’t be able to beat a company.” 

 

“Are you going to fake? Do you know what the consequences will be if you defraud other people’s property for the purpose of illegal possession? Not to mention, if you try to list a large sum of money? It’ll be a violation of the criminal law.” Jiang Liu Cheng asked calmly. 

 

Upon hearing this, the boss could not help but remember the picture of Jiang Liu Cheng reciting the legal provisions in public when he signed the contract a year ago.

 

He almost forgot that this man was a high achiever, a graduate of Q University. He not only studied law, but also took the law exam, and got a high score.

 

The boss subconsciously changed his sitting position.

 

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t know. What I want to say now is another thing. In the contract we signed, there is a provision that if the company fails to win popularity for the artist in accordance with the agreement, resulting in loss of wages and income of the artist, then the company should compensate and terminate the contract according to ten times the actual income of the artist in previous years.” Jiang Liu Cheng read the terms word by word.

 

Clauses like these are usually the company digging a hole for the artist, never the artist digging a hole for the company, and then the artist ought to not have the capital to negotiate with the company since they are still just starting out.

 

However, if it is stated in the contract and that contract has legal effect, then it is established.

 

The boss immediately looked up to his assistant: “Is there such clause in the contract signed between the company and Jiang Liu Cheng?”

 

The assistant nodded with a worried expression on his face. “There’s indeed such a clause in the contract, sir.”

 

At that time, Jiang Liu Cheng was just a fresh college graduate, which had no actual income, and even if there was, a fresh college graduate’s income would not be that high.

 

Zhou Sheng entertainment was not a big company and at that time, the boss sincerely has his bet on Jiang Liu Cheng, so he did not consider these small therms of his. Besides, Jiang Liu Cheng has also equipped with high intelligence, so he finally agreed just to have him aboard the company.

 

“You don’t need to doubt. I won’t have said it if I am not sure that the clause is not in the contract.” Jiang Liu Cheng said as he noticed that the two men before him were making eyes at each other. 

 

The boss’ face fell. “It’s just a little money. How much money can you earn by just yourself?”

 

Jiang Liu Cheng took out a piece of paper and put it in front of him.

 

The boss picked it up and looked at it. His face immediately turned blue. 

 

The assistant at the side swept a glance and his jaw dropped alongside his boss.

 

This is Jiang Liu Cheng’s printed out salary flow. Was he exaggerating the meticulously set out details? It feels like the final total outcome is just so impossible. 

 

If the compensation to be paid is going to be ten times of that amount, then the company will have to compensate Jiang Liu Cheng for more than seven figures.

 

Who would have thought that the annual income of a college student would be so high? If you would look at the details, it seems that he gets mostly of his income from tutoring.

 

Jiang Liu Cheng seems to see the doubts in their hearts so he vaguely explained: “I tutored students from rich families.”

 

The rich are generous. So long as they will see their children’s progress, they’ll reward me. And when they happen to get admitted to key schools, they tend to be more generous than before.

 

“Your contract is illegal.” The boss blurted out.

 

With that, the office was incomparably quiet.

 

The assistant has full of complaints. Although, he was not sure how to say it. It seems like the boss and the artist has switch places.

 

Li Qiu was trying so hard not crack a smile since he was so amused with what was happening before him. He couldn’t stand it any longer that he has to pinch his thighs hard just to get rid of his smiling for the meantime.

 

Although he knew it would be like this, he didn’t expect the process to be so funny. It was so cool.

 

Before all of this, he had made protests to his boss about hiding Jiang Liu Cheng so many times. But he was either ignored or kicked out of his office. He even went as far as threatening him to be fired.

 

Although he has entered this line of work, he wants Jiang Liu Cheng to be an entertainer in the company.

 

The boss also realized that he had said the wrong thing, and his face was getting worse and worse.

 

“I won’t pay for it. Don’t even think about it.”

 

The boss, nicknamed Iron Rooster, never thought that he would have to compensate the artists for breach of contract damages. If not for the development of the company, he also wanted to reduce the proportion of the artists under him.

 

Jiang Liu Cheng expected this response from him. “Then you can only file a lawsuit. Once you lose, you will only lose more.”

 

The boss gave a cold grunt as a response that he doens’t believe it.

 

“You don’t think so?” Jiang Liu Cheng taunted with a smile. “If the news of Zhou Sheng Entertainment’s defendant compensating the artist for liquidated damages gets out, what do you think people outside will think of the company?”

 

The boss almost doesn’t have to think about it. The company will definitely be famous, but it is definitely not for good reputation. His wife will definitely feel that he, the boss of Zhou Sheng Entertainment has a hole in his brain for signing such a contract with an artist, and even once the details of the contract are exposed, the company’s reputation will only get worse.

 

Not only that, other artists in the company will be unhappy if they learmed that they have signed such a contract with Jiang Liu Cheng, especially those who are popular. If the other party is dissatisfied with the contract, the loss of the company will be even greater. So the content of the contract must not be known to outsiders.

 

If Jiang Liu Cheng wins the case, more artists will want to emulate him in the future, which is disadvantageous to the development of Zhou Sheng Entertainment. Not to mention the fact that the company’s partners might suddenly withdraw their shares.

 

For an entertainment company that can’t even control its own entertainers, who knows what will happen? What many partners fear most is that something happens to the entertainers, leading to the stagnation of the project.

 

This can’t be, the boss thought to himself. This cannot be absolutely exposed to anyone. 

 

After realizing this, the boss’ only thought was to never let this get out, but he had to go along with Jiang Liu Cheng’s wishes. But he was still not willing to.

 

After a tangle, it was Jiang Liu cheng who made the decision for him, “The person who made the deal with you probably didn’t know the existence of this contract. If he knew, he wouldn’t have made a deal with you in the first place.”

 

The boss did not expect that Jiang Liu Cheng would figure this out. He could only stare at him wide eyed as if to say, how’d you know?

 

“It’s not that hard to figure it out.” Jiang Liu Cheng had guessed that this was the case at the very beginning.

 

It was not until this moment that the boss realized that he could not beat the young man in front of him. He was so smart that he might have calculated every step from the time he signed the contract.

 

“What do you want?”

 

Hearing this, everyone in the office knows that the boss has compromised and he no longer struggles, which means that Jiang Liu Cheng has won, and there is no doubt about it.

 

Ten minutes later, Jiang Liu Cheng and Li Qiu left the boss’ office.

 

Li Qiu stood at the gate, looking at the termination agreement in his hand, vaguely conscious of the feeling that he was dreaming. The contract was terminated, and there was no need to pay any price.

 

Li Qiu’s initial assumption was that the process would be tortuous and difficult, and that the two sides would keep wrangling and bickering.

 

He even thought that this won’t be possible and he’d end up filing a resignation instead. But the process they had couldn’t have gone more smoothly. 

 

Jiang Liu Cheng was on the phone. He told Director Cheng Qinghua about the termination of his contract with the company and that he could personally sign to his company.

 

Cheng Qinghua was very surprised from the other side of the line. But he was not that surprised to let the opportunity go. Before the call ended, they agreed on the time and place where they could do the contract signing.

 

Jiang Liu Orange put away her cell phone and confronted Li Qiu with a complex expression.

 

“You are so young and yet you have done great handling everything until today.” 

 

Jiang Liu Cheng smiles lightly: “Being young doesn’t mean anything. Some people are forced to grow up early. If you have parents like mine, you will do the same.”