Chapter 54: Chapter 54 The Easy-to-Placate Li Sili
The little girl, who had been keeping a stern face, finally couldn’t hold it back when she saw her uncle holding the irresistibly delicious milk tea. He personally inserted the straw for her and held it to her lips.
Unable to resist, she took a big, satisfying gulp. Smacking her lips a few times, she marveled at how tasty the milk tea was.
Seeing her uncle looking at her with a half-smile, she huffed and turned her head away. "Don’t think a cup of milk tea is enough to make me forgive you."
"Oh? How many cups of milk tea will it take then?" Sun Dasheng asked.
She held up both hands. "It’ll take at least ten cups to make this girl happy again."
Sun Dasheng placed the milk tea in her hand and smiled. "Alright. For the next ten days, I’ll personally buy you a cup of milk tea every day as an apology."
Only then did the little girl’s face light up with joy.
In truth, she knew the mistake wasn’t her uncle’s fault. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been so easily placated by just a few cups of milk tea. After all, she was an eighteen-year-old college student, not a kindergartener who could be cheered up with a single piece of candy. She was simply giving both of them an easy way to move on.
"Do you need me to find you a new operations manager?" Sun Dasheng asked, sitting beside her.
"Uncle, there’s no need. Manager Sun is very dedicated to my account. This incident was even a blessing in disguise; my personal account gained tens of thousands of followers," Li Sili replied, ever the optimist.
Sun Dasheng looked at her with pity. Silly girl, are those really fans you’ve gained? They’re all just trolls. But she’s on a roll right now, so I can’t dampen her spirits. I’ll just hand her account over to professionals later and keep her from seeing those nasty comments. If I can’t see the bad comments, then there are no bad comments. Perfect plan!
"Si Han and Yu Qing have both gone to film their new projects. What about you? Do you want to act?" Sun Dasheng asked.
Hearing this, Li Sili pouted. Uncle really knows how to touch a sore spot. It’s not that I don’t want to act, is it?
But she had seen Si Han’s and Yu Qing’s scripts. The required female roles were either a cool and aloof heroine or a vicious, conniving female antagonist. Neither type suited her at all.
You could say she was born at the wrong time. Although the mainstream female leads in TV shows were often the "sweet girl" archetype like her, they were all backed by powerful investors. While the looks of these sweet female leads were often average, they all had backers willing to push them into the spotlight.
A genuine beauty like Li Sili, however, had no market. Mainstream TV shows wouldn’t cast her. Was she supposed to play a supporting role just to make the investors’ unattractive children look less plain by comparison?
The currently popular short web dramas didn’t need her either. Their female leads were all stunning, reminiscent of the classic beauties from the golden age of television. It was an amusing irony that the female leads in short web dramas were often more attractive than those in major TV series.
"Uncle, I’m fine just being an internet celebrity. If I get enough followers, I can make good money too," Li Sili replied with a radiant smile.
"And Uncle, I’m not obsessed with money or anything. I just want to earn more to lighten my parents’ burden so they don’t have to work so hard."
Listening to Li Sili’s explanation, Sun Dasheng had a sudden realization. All this time, I’ve only been thinking about farming experience points from them. The so-called give and take, the balance of responsibility and obligation, should be mutual. I’ve been rather inconsiderate.
He took the young woman back to his office and called for the HR manager of the media company. He wanted to sign her to a new, official contract, replacing the temporary one that paid her daily.
The new contract offered extremely generous terms: a guaranteed monthly salary of 30,000 yuan, with the company only taking a 10% commission on profits from her short video content. Furthermore, the termination clause was incredibly lenient, allowing her to leave at any time without a significant penalty.
The HR manager glanced at the standard contract in his hand and then heard the terms the boss laid out. He hesitated at the vast difference. "Boss, these terms are three times the normal market rate. Perhaps you should reconsider," he advised.
Indeed,
he thought. How could they offer such a high base salary and low commission to an influencer with no track record? Not to mention, the termination clause was practically non-existent. If the company invested a large amount of resources to build her up only for her to jump ship, the losses would be incalculable. No MCN company would ever offer such ridiculous terms."Yes, Uncle, the terms you’re offering are too generous. The other employees will have issues with it," Li Sili chimed in reasonably.
She’s right, Sun Dasheng thought. The old saying is true: ’It is not scarcity that is to be feared, but inequality.’ If everyone had the same contract, they could accept it even if the pay was lower. But if one person’s contract is so much better, it’s bound to cause resentment, even if the others are well-paid.
Sun Dasheng waved his hand grandly. "We’re signing the contract this way. If anyone has a problem with it, they can come to me. It’s my own company; am I not allowed to make decisions? Am I going to let others push me around?"
Anyway, I never planned on running this media company successfully. The sooner it goes bankrupt, the sooner I get my experience points. Wonderful. The ones who make a fuss will probably be the most capable employees. This is the perfect opportunity to reassign these talented people. The gym I’m about to take over is short on managers, isn’t it? It’s the perfect place to transfer them. Firing them is out of the question. In fact, I’ll have to give them a raise. As someone who was once laid off myself, I can empathize. Of course, if they can’t accept their new positions and decide to quit on their own, that’s none of my business. After all, I’m even giving them a raise. If they still refuse to stay, then I’ve done all I can.
"Yes, Boss. I will go draft a new contract right away," the HR manager nodded, indicating that he understood the boss’s farsightedness.
"Bring three identical copies," Sun Dasheng instructed. Since Fang Sihan and Yun Yuqing were also at the company, he figured he might as well get all three of their contracts renewed at the same time.
After the HR manager left, Li Sili hopped behind Sun Dasheng. Her delicate, fair hands began to gently knead his shoulders. "Uncle, you’re too good to me. You’re even better to me than my own father."
"Oh, is that so?" Sun Dasheng said, closing his eyes to enjoy the soft pressure on his shoulders.
"Hehe... well, that was a slight exaggeration," she admitted with an embarrassed laugh. "My dad is very good to me."
With that, she began talking about her family for the first time. Her parents ran a small breakfast stall in their hometown. Although the income was decent, the grueling hours—waking up before dawn and working late into the night—took a heavy toll on their health. Between constant medical bills and paying for her tuition at art school, the family had very little savings. That was why she was so determined to earn more money: so her parents could switch to a less demanding line of work and live long, healthy lives.
Her sincere feelings touched Sun Dasheng deeply.
"Didn’t your parents ever have a son?" he asked.
It’s very rare for a rural family to have only one daughter. The older generation’s belief in raising a son for security in their old age is deeply ingrained and hard to change. How could her grandparents’ generation possibly have agreed to her parents having just one child, and a girl at that?