Chen Jing woke up early as usual. After washing up, he began practicing his vocal exercises.
Half an hour later, he prepared to go grab breakfast. Just as he opened the door and stepped out of his room, he saw Mina standing in a daze right across the hallway. "What are you doing here?"
Hearing this, Mina snapped out of her daze and smiled. "I'm here to report to my boss."
"Didn't I give you a week to handle your family matters?" Chen Jing asked.
Mina nodded. "Thank you, Boss. But honestly, our family just lacks money. Once we have money, everything gets resolved. My sister has already gone back to Xinjiang, and she and my mom are going to bring my dad to Beijing for surgery. There's nothing I could do to help by going back, so I came to find you instead."
Chen Jing frowned upon hearing this. "Are you sure you don't need to go back?"
"Yes, I came to fulfill my agreement with you," Mina replied, her face slightly flushed as she kept her head down.
"Agreement?" Chen Jing raised an eyebrow. "You mean the contract?"
Mina looked up at Chen Jing, seeing that he was still putting on an act. She bit her lower lip hard and lowered her voice. "Didn't you buy me to be your underground mistress?"
"Underground mistress?" Chen Jing was stunned. Was there such a clause in the contract? Who added it? How come he didn't know? And how did he land such a great deal?
"Yeah, 600,000 for 10 years!" Mina said softly.
Chen Jing couldn't help laughing between amusement and exasperation. "Did you even read the contract carefully?"
"No!" Mina shook her head directly.
Chen Jing smiled helplessly. How on earth did someone with a brain like hers manage to survive in the entertainment industry? No wonder her public reputation was so terrible—besides god-given looks and a pair of jaw-droppingly long legs, what else did she even have?
Sure enough, the heavens were fair.
"Even though you are indeed my type, the contract we signed is a standard artist contract. When I said I signed you to train you as an artist, I meant it," Chen Jing said.
"Really?" Mina asked, still half-doubting him.
"If you don't believe me, go back and read the contract again," Chen Jing said. "Alright, head back. I'm going to get some food."
Instead of leaving, Mina suddenly dashed over and blocked his path. "Since you're going to train me as an artist, you should support me and take care of me, then!"
Hearing this, Chen Jing's expression turned slightly peculiar before he pulled Mina directly into his room.
Seeing Chen Jing pull her inside, Mina felt a mixture of panic and contempt. Such a hypocrite! Putting on a false front of propriety!
Paying no attention to her facial expressions, Chen Jing spoke the moment they entered. "I was originally going to wait until you finished handling your family matters, but since you don't need to go back, I'll tell you my arrangements for you in advance."
Mina kept her head down, fidgeting with her fingers, and gave a resigned "mm" in response.
"Go back now, get a good preparation, and sign up for the art exams. Once you pass the art exams, go back to Xinjiang to prep for your academic subjects, and you can apply to either Beijing Film Academy or Central Academy of Drama," Chen Jing said.
Hearing this, Mina suddenly lifted her pretty face. "The art exams? Beijing Film Academy? Central Academy of Drama?"
"Right," Chen Jing said. "Being an actress isn't easy. Besides a glamorous appearance, you also need professional knowledge and skills. Having a formal conservatory background makes it a lot easier to get by than taking the unorthodox route."
"Are you really planning to make me a star?" Mina asked in disbelief.
Chen Jing shook his head helplessly. "Alright, your goal right now is to pass the art exams. Hurry back and prepare. If there's anything you really don't understand, ask my assistant, Xiaofeng."
Staring blankly at Chen Jing, Mina was truly bewildered. She had genuinely thought he was after her beauty, and that mentioning making her a star was just a cover—or perhaps he thought having a star for a lover would be even more exciting?
Could she really have run into a benefactor?
Seeing Mina staring at him in a daze, Chen Jing waved a hand. "Go on, I have an event to attend shortly."
Mina nodded and stood up to leave. But right before opening the door to step out, she suddenly turned back around and asked, "Boss, did you mean it when you said earlier that I'm your type?"
Chen Jing paused. "Ahem, well, cough, cough..."
"Heehee..." Giggling softly, Mina closed the door behind her.
Chen Jing shook his head at the sight. He waited a moment before opening the door to leave, only to run right into his assistant.
Ge Feng looked at Chen Jing with a very peculiar expression. "So fast?"
Glaring at his assistant, Chen Jing snapped, "If you say I'm fast one more time, I'll have Sister Chang assign me a different assistant."
Ge Feng scurried off immediately.
After wolfing down a quick breakfast, Chen Jing and Ge Feng headed straight to the Weibo commercial shoot location.
"Hello, President Zhuang, sorry to keep you waiting." Prompted by Ge Feng, Chen Jing found President Zhuang, the person in charge on the Weibo side.
"Not at all, not at all, we still have twenty minutes before the scheduled time," President Zhuang said with a smile. "Would you like to rest for a bit, and we can start in twenty minutes?"
"No need, I'm ready to start whenever," Chen Jing said.
"In that case, let me have the director brief you on the content of the shoot, and then we'll begin?" President Zhuang offered.
"That works. Just arrange it however you like, and I'll follow along," Chen Jing nodded.
President Zhuang nodded with satisfaction. "Alright then."
Five minutes later, the director of the promotional video came over to go over the scenes with Chen Jing.
This Weibo promo was only half a minute long. Chen Jing would play an observer, weaving through people from all walks of life—travelers camping, housewives, office workers, young couples, expectant young spouses, and couples celebrating their golden anniversary.
All he had to do was watch them post on Weibo and then sing a single line of the promotional slogan.
Ten minutes later, the filming began. Because it was a promotional video, the requirements for acting were not overly demanding. Having spent years knocking around film crews in his past life, Chen Jing had a great camera presence and pulled off his expressions quite well.
It took only three takes to complete the footage.
"Fantastic, let's shoot one more just to be safe!" the director said.
"No problem!" Chen Jing nodded immediately.
Filming resumed. Once the take was finished, the director nodded in satisfaction. "Not bad, not bad!"
After finishing the scenes of weaving through the crowd, Chen Jing smiled at the camera and sang, "If you're feeling a bit moved, want to share, have something to say... Let's start using Weibo from this day!"
The slogan was sung to the tune of the children's song "Clapping Song." It was quite simple and posed no difficulty for Chen Jing, so he nailed it in a single take.
"Thank you for your hard work!" President Zhuang said, coming over as soon as the shoot wrapped up.
"Just doing my job," Chen Jing smiled.
After exchanging a few more polite pleasantries with President Zhuang, he departed.
Once inside the car, Chen Jing smiled and said, "1.5 million is in the bag! Gotta keep working hard!"
After finishing the Weibo commercial, Chen Jing headed straight to Huayi Music to pick up the backing track for "Those Years."
He was about to fly to Star City to attend the rehearsals for Xiangnan Satellite TV's New Year's Eve concert, and "Those Years" was the song he would be performing.
Choosing a new song was strategic: first, he had already left SJM, and continuing to sing SJM songs would invite accusations of ingratitude and spark unnecessary controversy; second, it would help generate pre-release buzz for his new album.
If "Those Years" managed to generate widespread buzz during Xiangnan Satellite TV's New Year's Eve concert, it would undoubtedly provide incredible promotion for "A Ming Jing Ren".
After all, Xiangnan Satellite TV was the undisputed ratings powerhouse among regional channels and had claimed the ratings crown for the New Year's Eve concert for years running. It was an exceptionally prime platform for exposure and promotion.
Therefore, after consulting with Zhang Yadong, Zhang Yadong readily agreed and rushed to produce the backing track for "Those Years" so Chen Jing could take it with him to Star City.