Chapter 4 – First Job

As he was going to become Ji Mian's assistant, he naturally must first understand Ji Mian. As soon as Xiao Jiashu returned home, he turned on his computer, searched Ji Mian up and was shocked. Ji Mian was a grand slam film emperor who was the first person in the country to have won a Golden Horse, Golden Statue, Golden Rooster, Hundred Flowers and Marble Pillar Prize at the same time. He had also won countless awards overseas and had had a close brush with the Academy Award for Best Actor several times. His achievements were cool and dazzling with no equal. Furthermore, you wouldn't be able to find any fault in his moral character either. He had supported many juniors, was extremely respectful to seniors and was willing to help anyone in need. His connections were explosively good. The replies underneath any casual Weibo post of his would all be from big shots in the entertainment world. It could be said that he could rally multitudes at one call[1]. The resources he had were all top notch, every film he acted in were classics, besides himself, there was no way for others to surpass him...

Xiao Jiashu silently finished reading his new boss' data. After a long long time, he finally gasped in admiration. "This person is so cool![2]" He really wanted to watch every single one of his boss' movies and dramas once, however, a single night's time was but helplessly too short, and he could only hurriedly note down all of the names of the works, and wait until sometime in the future to slowly appreciate and enjoy them. Afterwards, he started researching about the celebrity assistant occupation. After all, he wasn't a fan of Ji Mian. Whether he liked Ji Mian's works wasn't important, what was important was whether he could do his job well.

A celebrity's assistant could roughly be categorised into three types. One: The normal type, in charge of the celebrity's schedule like a secretary. Two: Planning and Marketing type, in charge of promotion, advertising, planning, public relations and other related work, and could also double as a manager. Three: Nanny Type, in charge of looking after the celebrity's everyday life and necessities like clothes and food. The job content of a planning and marketing assistant was most diverse, but at the same time was the best job to expand your future prospects, and you could learn a lot of things. Xiao Jiashu naturally took a huge fancy for the planning and marketing assistant job, but was a bit perturbed when he saw the job requirements.

If you wanted to become a planning and marketing assistant, you first needed to be sensitive towards news events and have good project planning skills and organisational experience. Next, you needed to control an abundant amount of print media and internet resources, and have a sharp mind and strong logical thinking skills. You also needed have good interpersonal skills, be proficient in the use of all kinds of software in the workplace and the internet, have a solid foundation in written Chinese, strong language skills and a strong ability in writing news articles and documents. Finally, you also needed to have outstanding news planning and business public relations negotiation skills.

To summarise, being a planning and marketing assistant was not an easy job, but rather a job that required you to be strong in every aspect before you could distinguish yourself over others. Xiao Jiashu compared himself against every condition, and discovered with despair, Need experience: Don't have any; Need media resources: Don't have any either; Need a foundation in the Chinese written language: He left the country so early, there's no way he'll have that. The only aspects that he would be up to scratch in would probably be the negotiation and organisational skills. However, he wasn't too confident about those two either. After all, he had never worked in this field, and didn't know if he would be able develop any potential in it.

So even the job of an "assistant", a job which sounded like it'll be really easy was this challenging to do well in. Then under what basis did he think he would just be given a key position in the Xiao Group right after graduation? Would he be qualified for the task? Did he have the ability? Xiao Jiashu stared at the computer screen and the load in his mind that had silted over a good number of months completely dispersed all at once. His past delusion of "Return home in glory, fully brandish my great abilities and talents, and in the end, Dad, Big Brother and Grandfather will see me in a new light," at this very moment was all brushed aside with a laugh.

A person must not be overly ambitious; it's better if one is more be practical and realistic. As he shook his head with a hidden sigh, he registered a Weibo account with the account name, "Lil' Sapling, and followed Ji Mian's account. He then turned off his computer, and fell asleep with nervous excitement and expectation. The next day, he got up at seven thirty, ate breakfast, changed into a brand new suit and then combed his hair in front of a mirror.

"Mum, an assistant needs to pay attention to their appearance, and can't be better looking than the celebrity, right? Is my hair colour too cool and dazzling? Do I need to dye it back?" He bragged while waxing his hair. "Mum, will I steal Ji Mian's limelight? When I walk out with him, will those reporters all come running to take photos of me and forget all about Ji Mian?" After he finished talking, he felt that it was very amusing, and laughed until his eyes squeezed together, looking just like a little mouse that had managed to steal some sesame oil.

In front of outsiders, her son would never casually talk and laugh. He would always be uncommunicative, and appear cool and arrogant. He would only even reveal this childish and shamelessly narcissistic side of him in front of her. Xue Miao gazed at her son's beaming face, and the melancholy in her heart scattered away. From the looks of it, finding a job for her son was indeed the right decision.

���Even dyeing your hair back won't be able to cover up my son's handsomeness." Xue Miao flattered her son, and seeing him look even more pleased, she couldn't help but laugh as well. A brief moment after she stopped laughing, she pretended to casually ask, "Son, you won't think being someone's assistant is too belittling for you? Would you like mum to give you money to open up a company?" The thought of asking Father Xiao for funds never even crossed her mind.

A few years ago, Xiao Qijie's second brother's illegitimate son started a real estate company outside, and was making quite a profit. In the end, the members of the Xiao Family used "the Xiao Clan provided the capital" as the reason to divide up the shares of that company and even took away the authority of the company from him. Besides gaining the reputation of someone who "Acknowledged His Roots and Ancestors," the illegitimate child dredged up nothing.

Under those circumstances, how could Xue Miao ask Father Xu to provide funding? She knew how soft-hearted her son was more than anyone. If Old Master Gu voiced his approval of him, or Father Xiao or Xiao Dingbang gave him one warm look, he would do absolutely anything for them. Independently starting up a company? In the end, for whom would her son have worked himself to death for? Thus, Xue Miao had never once entertained the thought of starting up a company for him. It was only because she was afraid that her son would blame her for not exhausting her all for him that she asked in order to sound him out.

Xiao Jiashu thought it over for a moment and then waved his hand to reject her offer. "Nah, Grandpa will be even more uneasy if I started a company outside." After he finished speaking, he rubbed his head against the hollow of Xue Miao's neck and said lovingly, "Thank you, Mum. I will conscientiously go to work. Being a celebrity's assistant is actually really interesting. I researched a lot of material about it last night; it's really challenging." He truly didn't have big ambitions for the future and at most his goal was also just to become a high level executive[3]. Moreover, as his Grandpa and Big Brother were the bosses of the company, the highest he could possibly be promoted to was also just that.

Xue Miao stroked her son's very hard hair. She didn't know whether she should feel happy or lament over his pure goodness and thoughtfulness. He was such a good kid, so obedient, how could the Xiao Family not see it? But, this situation wasn't too bad either. It could be assumed that the Old Man Xiao, with his feudalistic ways, would find it beneath himself to take any cent her son earns in the entertainment world. Only if her son enters the entertainment circle, will he possess complete freedom and an occupation that is fully his, and to be a successful man one must not lack any of those two.

Even if her, Xue Miao's, son is not valued by the family, he must also not become a failure.

"Don't drive too fast, and work hard. Mum will be waiting for you to come home to eat dinner." After Xue Miao saw that her son's car had driven far away, she finally let out a deep sigh.

Xiao Dingbang and Xiao Qijie had gone to work at dawn, so neither were aware that the Young Master Xiao had already become an official member of the work force, and still thought that he was at home playing games.

Xiao Jiashu swiped his card[4] with bottomless aspirations and stepped into the office with the help of a nice colleague who showed him the way. As the most senior artist in Crown Age, Ji Mian had long set up his own studio as company under Crown Age, and it occupied an entire floor of the Crown Age building. Xiu Changyu originally wanted to personally take Xiao Jiashu to meet his co-workers but was rejected. Without any better option, he instructed Fang Kun to secretly take special good care him. However, Fang Kun had clearly misunderstood the meaning of his old chief's words, and simply told his subordinates that the newcomer was a "Noble Precious Young Master," and had come to work purely for fun, so don't treat him as intern for real and assign him work.

As a result, Xiao Jiashu had no work to do all morning, and could only sit with extreme awkwardness at his own desk. When someone told him to photocopy a document, he was just about to stand up, when a female co-worker promptly snatched away the document, and even gave him a fawning smile. When a person told him to write an announcement, he was about to agree, when yet again, someone said that the announcement had been written already ages ago… After this sort of thing happened quite a few times, Xiao Jiashu gradually realised what was happening: These people are taking me for a flower vase, just placed there to look good! His anger immediately manifested on his face. His original cool and handsome face turned even more cold and detached, and people no longer dared to go near him.

Fang Kun was hiding away in his own office room, and had pulled open a small gap in his window blinds to secretly look out. He muttered, "This Young Master Xiao's temper sure is big. We didn't make him do anything all morning, and he's still putting on a stinky face, like everyone in the world owes him money. What's he doing coming here to work for, instead of happily staying at home? It's purely just making trouble for us!"

"I imagine that he must have been forced to by his elders to come." Ji Mian was currently devotedly studying his script, and had absolutely no interest in his new assistant.

"I see he won't last here for long. Just look at him, this is just the first day and he already looks like he's about to explode!" Fang Kun carefully scrutinized Young Master Xiao's stinky face, and couldn't help but lament. "I really don't get what Chief Xu is thinking. With Xiao Jiashu's face, being an assistant is such real waste. He should become a celebrity, he'd definitely be popular. If his family background was a bit more normal, I'd definitely sign him."

Why is he saying that Young Master Xiao's family background isn't normal? No need to ask, have you ever seen a small assistant wear such a high class order-made suit to work? Even just one suit would cost several thousand[5]!

"Don't worry. You'll get your chance. Chief Xiu has recently been searching for a good script," Ji Mian said uninterestedly. Getting Xiu Changyu to personally look for a script for someone was not an easy feat. Besides Xiao Jiashu, Ji Mian couldn't think of anyone else who Xiu Changyu would give such big face to[6].

"Good, as long as he's not your assistant anymore. He's more arrogant than you, dresses better than you, and his face is just as handsome as yours, having him as an assistant will be a disaster." Fang Kun was distressed these days because the greatest star under him wanted to retire from acting. Hearing that he might have a chance to sign the Young Master Xiao, he was inevitably interested. "Why don't we invite him for lunch in a while, and see what he wants to do. Even if you retire from acting and start working behind the scenes, this studio still has to continue running as usual, this is the perfect opportunity to build him up to become your successor."

Ji Mian finally raised his head up to look at Fang Kun straight in the face. He slowly said, "Become my successor? That won't be easy." Without true talent, who in the entertainment world would dare to say such words? He did not rise up to his seat today, relying only on his face.

Fang Kun hastily waved his hands. "Don't be so serious. It was just a passing comment. There's no one who can replace you."

Only then did Ji Mian lower his head and continue studying his script.

[1] 一呼百应 (yī hū bǎi yìng) Idiom – a hundred responses to a (single) call; be able to rally multitudes at one's call; get ready to go into action in (ther) hundreds; Multitudes respond to sb.'s call. —With one call/appeal of his, everyone will respond and help.

[2] "so cool" is said in English

[3] 金领阶层 – Gold-collar level worker. I put "high level executive" as "gold-collar worker" may not mean the same thing in all countries. In China, "gold collar grade workers" are usually high level managers, Chinese representatives in a foreign owned Company situation in China, Directors in a comparatively big company, high level leader in government etc.

[4] Card that records down when you come in to work and when you leave work – the hours you've worked.

[5] Several Ten Thousand Chinese dollars is around Several Thousand American Dollars

[6] 'Face' is hard to translate and explain, so here's another translation to give you the general idea: "Ji Mian couldn't think of anyone else who Xiu Changyu would go so far for (treat with such respect/show so much deference to/be so attentive to)."