Signing The Contract

Director Wang's shoot did not last that long at all. The shoot was already over the day after Lu Ze received the call.

Two thousand yuan for four days was high pay no matter how one looked at it. Withdrawing a part of it, Lu Ze had no need to make online payments. A thing like money was better in the bag. If you do online payments, you would be a lot more careless and end up spending more.

This time, he would truly appear on the television! He had his own dialogues and own character in the story line. His mood remained on a high note throughout the journey, and the smile never left his face.

Getting off the train, he took the subway and again arrived at the Orange Entertainment Office. However, he was in no hurry to enter this time. With the help of the navigation assistant, he arrived at the law firm based in Xiyuan Finance Tower.

Standing outside the firm, Lu Ze observed it for a moment. Its scale was big enough, and there were quite a few people inside. Thus, he finally decided to choose this firm.

Opening the door, as he entered, the receptionist nodded at him with a smile. "Hello, how may I help you?"

"Hello? I have to sign a business contract today. I was hoping to get a lawyer to accompany me."

"Sir, may I know your good name? Please follow me. What would you like to drink?"

"My family name is Lu. Anything is fine, I'm not that picky. I'm in a bit of a hurry so I'll have to trouble you to make it quick."

 They arrived in a small reception room. An employee immediately poured him a glass of warm lemon water. Lu Ze took a sip and felt the sourness. It was clearly not the kind of lemon water made from infusing a slice of lemon in water for a long time. It tasted quite good. 

After waiting for about three minutes, a thirty-something-old man in black-framed spectacles entered the room after a knock.

"Hello, Mister Lu. I'm the commercial layer of this firm. My surname is Yuan, and you can call me Yuan Yi. Pleased to meet you."

After the two held hands for a moment, Yuan Yi began to ask the specific of the contracts.

"It's like this. I am an extra, and today I'm here to sign a contract with Orange Entertainment right over there. My requests are not much. As long as I understand the specifics of my duties and obligations in the contract. You don't have to get involved in remuneration. That can be settled between me and the company."

"No problem, Mister Lu. Our firm usually handles acting contracts like these. We have a standard fee on the hourly basis. The fee for acting outside is four hundred yuan per hour. Is that acceptable for you?"

"No problem. Do I have to pay first?"

"You'll have to make a deposit of four hundred yuan to the account. Please follow me."

After entering the accounting office, Yuan Yi waited at the entrance. Once Lu Ze deposited the money and took the receipt, they headed to Orange Entertainment together.

 The receptionist waiting for them was stunning yet again. After he announced his identity as Lu Ze along with his purpose of coming here to sign the contract, they were led to a small reception room.

A woman in professional attire placed two contracts on the table then shook hands with the two.

"Director Guo didn't come today. I'll be responsible for discussing the specifics of the contract with you. If you want changes in the contract, you can tell me, and I'll inform Director Guo. Please have a look."

It was two copies of the same thick contract. Lu Ze handed one over to Lawyer Yuan. The latter began to go through the contract. After reading the first clause, he pondered in silence for a moment, then told the specifics to Lu Ze and began waiting for his approval. 

When they arrived at the remunneration's part, it was twenty thousand yuan pre-tax. Lawyer Yuan considerately took out a paper and began calculating the taxes. After a moment, he calculated somewhere in between 17,000 yuan and 17,500 yuan.

Upon thinking for a bit, Lu Ze agreed. The other requests were not excessive, and he found nothing to change in the contract.

In the end, Lu Ze took the pen and signed the contract. The employee then stamped both contracts with an official seal. The first and second party signatures were already there. The director and producer had already signed the contract.

After the contract was officially in effect, Lu Ze and Lawyer Yuan again shook hands with the employee, revealing professional smiles.

"Mister Lu, Director Guo asked me to inform you that you'll have to leave Hengdian before November 15th and announce your presence in the crew. You can make your arrangements prior to that as you please. It was nice working with you."

"Alright, thank you. Nice working with you."

Putting the contract into the black envelope, Lu Ze and Lawyer Yuan walked out of Orange Entertainment. They had spent just short of three hours in total.

Thus, Lu Ze would have to fork out 1,200 yuan, making his heart bleed. Swiping his card at the firm, Lu Ze instantly deleted the message from the bank.

Walking out of the firm, Lu Ze held the contract high in the air and looked at it for a moment before letting out a long sigh of relief as he held the contract in his embrace. From today, his life would be completely different. This he firmly believed!

After taking the first big step of your life, what would you do? You have to nicely reward yourself.

Although he could not eat expensive stuff, he could surely try the street food of Shanghai- brown crab pastry, meaty steamed bun, stuffed bean cracker, and so on. Lu Ze tried everything he saw on the road. Although he was not sure how different it was from the dishes in expensive restaurants, he was quite satisfied.

He then saw the university of his dreams — Shanghai Acting School. Of course, this dream formed after he began his acting career.

Before that, Lu Ze's dream was to become an astronaut. For all his childhood, he would always think about how to reach the sky…

Despite the students of acting school disappointing performance in Hengdian, Lu Ze's thirst for acting small was not quenched in the slightest.

There were a lot of expensive cars outside the university. However, the atmosphere was completely different upon entering. There was a lot of greenery, and students were riding bicycles or walking on foot, creating a cozy and peaceful scene.

The lake, the academic block, as well as the student-favourite grove — Lu Ze strolled past them all. En-route, he also saw many students working on their basic skills.

Lu Ze liked this environment. He really liked this environment. It had nothing do with the good-looking students in the campus...perhaps it had a little do with that.

Sitting by the lake, Lu Ze obliquely threw a pebble. It bounced four times on the water before sinking.

He sat for a long time, lost in thought, conjuring up imaginary people. This kind of feeling in reality was not that good, but upon reaching this point, it was not easy to control.

After sitting for an hour and twelve minutes, he decided to leave. Exiting the institution he had admired for so long, he could only stroke the signboard 'Shanghai Acting School' at the entrance.

He then went to a mall to buy a local brand high-end phone. His current phone was already four years old, and it was indeed the time to replace it. Its battery was almost non-existent, making it switch off on its own within two hours. Moreover, its body was riddled with wear and tears due to fall damage. On the outside, it could easily be labeled as a dead phone.

He fell in love with his new four thousand yuan phone. After all, even when replacing a wallpaper, people would find beauty in it for a while before slowly getting into the habit of using it.

At this point, his day-long trip in Shanghai finally ended. He bought a sleeper bus ticket to return. He comfortably lay down on the bed. There was nobody talking inside the bus. When he took a gander, he saw everybody was lying down and it was as if the bus was carrying corpses.

Four hours later, the bus reached Hengdian. He felt the contract with his hands, then got off the bus.

The sky had already turned dark. Lu Ze casually found a small restaurant, ate dinner, and drank a few beers. Right afterward, Lu Nan called him and talked about some non-sense that could be basically ignored.

However, her next words caused Lu Ze to be dazed.

"Big Brother, Happy birthday!"

Today was actually his birthday… Today, he had turned twenty-five-years old. In his carelessness and hurry, he had forgotten his own birthday.

However, today, he could say that this day was his birthday. At the very least, he had toured Shanghai.

Birthday or not, it did not make much of a difference. Apart from her little sister, he did not care much about it and neither did he celebrate it before.

Moreover, laying on the Kang, he realized that this was probably the first birthday present he had received throughout his entire life when he glanced at the black envelope.