Chapter 42 - Needing More Work (2/2)

“How about Monday?”

“I can’t ah. I have to work.”

“Those people are only there during work days, what should we do?”

ZhouXiang thought for a moment, “I’ve just started work. It’s inappropriate for me to take time off. Let’s wait two weeks. I’ll go with you then. You also rest your body a bit. You’ve been taking care of me all this time, it’s tiring enough.”

ChenYing furrowed her brows, “That’s also good.”

After ZhouXiang finished eating, he called CaiWei. He has just entered the company. Nobody thinks of him as anything so his salary now is just a meager. He wanted to ask CaiWei to help introduce some private work for him on the weekends. It can be anything as long as he can make some money.

The average person will never mention this request to a person he had just known for a few days, especially if the other party has given him a stable job. But perhaps because ZhouXiang knew CaiWei too well, and subconsciously, he still felt very familiar to him, so he didn’t think too much when making this request.

From CaiWei’s perspective, for a newcomer who had just entered the company to dare ask him this request, he would have quickly hung up. But he don’t know why, he especially wanted to help ZhouXiang.

ZhouXiang told him very genuinely on the phone that his mother had to sell their two condos for his hospital care. They owe a large amount of debt. What he needs most now is to make money.

After CaiWei heard this, his heart felt very heavy. Perhaps, it is because ZhouXiang gave him a sense of familiarity… perhaps it is because ChenYing helped him take care of his father many times… or perhaps it was just because he is also called ZhouXiang, which made him continuously think of his buddy whose body still can’t be found. Thinking of this buddy made him feel full of guilt. He wanted to make himself feel a bit better by helping this ZhouXiang.

In short, CaiWei immediately agreed. He has many printed and media ads all year round. The decision to use any new person is up to him. He had heard from ChenYing that ZhouXiang had wanted to become a star before his accident. Now is just the time to pull him in. It’s not that ZhouXiang don’t have the potential to become popular.

CaiWei arranged an audition for him on Sunday. It is a printed magazine ad for men’s skincare and is a job that CaiWei placed him in at the last minute.

ZhouXiang is very happy. This kind of face-only advertisement he had never thought about doing before. But this young ZhouXiang has a handsome face. Although he had no distinguishing features, it is enough to shoot this kind of low-cost advertisement.

ZhouXiang went out early the next morning and got to the audition site half an hour early. He went into the place and looked, it was a home modified to be a photo studio. The area is small and looked quite unprofessional.

The other two young boys who came together to audition looked disappointed. ZhouXiang can understand their mentality. The newbies who had just entered this industry always had unrealistic fantasies about their career prospects, and then become disappointed when faced with the reality gap in front of them.

This kind of low-cost magazine print advertisement will give the brokerage company a maximum of ¥6,000 to ¥7,000. The model could probably get the remaining ¥2,000 left. But even if it wasn’t for the money, some people will fight for the chance to get their faced exposed. Even if it was just to take a few photos in a sleazy studio for a magazine that is not popular, there is competition.

Reality is so cruel.

These two boys obviously looked down at such a shabby workplace. So when they were auditioning, it is inevitable that they would reveal their discontent, making the staff displeased. On the contrary, ZhouXiang is much more calm and at ease. His spoken words were polite and he looked sincere and responsible. So even though he is a little older and his appearance is not as good as the other two, he got the job effortlessly.

ZhouXiang spent the entire day in this small studio. For three photos on the magazine, he smiled for hours, smiled so much that his cheeks hurt from having to constantly repeat the same movements over and over again to be in alignment with the ad’s requirements. All in all, he took more than 400 photos.

After the job ended, ZhouXiang dragged his tired body back home.

After dinner, CaiWei called him and asked him about the progress of his work today. ZhouXiang briefed him and CaiWei was elated saying that he’ll give ZhouXiang 50% of the pay. After doing more jobs in the future, he will find a way to increase his price.

ZhouXiang is infinitely grateful to CaiWei. Their company has rigid rules. On the basis of this rule, CaiWei can decide on what percentage of pay to give a model. Generally, for a newcomer to get 30% is already not bad. The management company gets an agency fee. But CaiWei gave him half of it so he’s definitely being especially caring towards him.

CaiWei had always been like that. When he went to take on stuntman work previously, CaiWei would give him a bigger share, usually 20-30%. Without CaiWei, ZhouXiang didn’t know how many jobs he would have had to work in order to have a stable income after graduating from sports university. It was CaiWei who gave him a way to make a living and not have to worry about his livelihood. And now that he has died and lived once again, it is still CaiWei who is helping him.

This advertising job alone gave him a month’s of his salary. If he can continue to get these private jobs, his life with ChenYing will improve a lot.

He decided that after he got the money, he would first buy a TV so that ChenYing won’t be too bored at home.