Chapter 239: Penalty
On the second day, Zhang Pei when to the old storage place to send out products with the employees. Liu Man was at the new warehouse, so she wasn’t worried at all.
At noon, when it was lunchtime, Owner Wang took the lunchboxes up for them. Zhang Pei was very familiar with Owner Wang now; she knew that whenever he came upstairs, he must have something to talk to her about.
Sure enough, Owner Wang said, “Owner Zhang, I need to negotiate with you about something.”
He said in an obsequious tone. It was obvious he had a request for Zhang Pei.
Zhang Pei was exhausted from dealing with Liu Chengyu, so she was in no mood to entangle with Owner Wang, “What is it? You can directly say it.”
“I would like to take back the second floor,” Even Owner Wang himself felt too awkward. His voice was very tiny, “I’m not renting it out anymore.”
Ever since the last time Liu Man visited his restaurant, she had brought him lots of popularity. His restaurant instantly became a very well-known cyber star shop.
Owner Wang’s business could not be even better. Spots were reserved every day, especially at dinner. The line with customers waiting and holding numbers usually could reach the entrance of the pet clinic.
As for during the time Ye Ziliang and the others were filming the documentary, they had never even thought about eating at Owner Wang’s, for they could never squeeze in.
The first floor could no longer hold so many customers, Owner Wang naturally wanted to take back the second floor, which initially belonged to him, so he could earn more money.
The problem was, the contract Owner Wang and Liu Man had signed lasted for one year. Now, only half a year had passed since they signed the contract. Owner Wang was obviously violating the contract.
He knew he was the unreasonable one regarding this matter, so he took the initiative to say, “The deposit and the rest of the rent will be refunded to you at that time. I will give you every single penny I promised.”
Zhang Pei did not reply. She was thinking about her and Liu Man’s plan.
After renting the warehouse, they were already planning on leaving the old storage space. This place was too small to be a warehouse, and it was inconvenient to both unload and load products. If they stop renting this place, they would be able to save 14k RMB every month.
They had already thought about it. At the end of August, the warehouse makeover should be almost done. After they were sure they would be able to use it regularly, they would leave Owner Wang’s house. The penalty for violating the contract was the deposit, and they wouldn’t want the deposit back anyway.”
They didn’t expect Owner Wang to ask them first. This was such a lucky coincidence, but unlucky at the same time; there was still an entire month before they reach the end of August.
Zhang Pei asked, “When do you want us to leave?”
As soon as possible, of course!
Owner Wang only dared to think about it, and he said,
“We can negotiate about that.”
Zhang Pei started manipulating the penalty. She had read the contract before. No matter which side violated the contract, they would have to pay the other side the penalty. Owner Wang was obviously violating the contract first.
She was already very familiar with Owner Wang. Should she ask for this money? Besides, she knew Owner Wang’s restaurant got popular and his business became very good all because of Liu Man.
Owner Wang, seeing how Zhang Pei had not been replying at all, assumed she was upset and was reluctant to leave. After all, their business was very popular, too. Every single day, huge delivery vans came over to get their products. Where could they find another fitting storage space now that he was suddenly kicking them out?
He thought about it for a moment. He was very clear that Liu Man was the sole reason why his restaurant got popular. If he offends Liu Man, she could make a protesting video online, and he would be a complete goner, “How about this? I will let you continue renting this place until the end of August. You have one month to find a new place.”
“Let’s do this according to the rules on the contract. Excluding that, you must give us one month’s worth of rent as the penalty. On the 31st of August, we will leave right on time. You must give us 42k.”
Zhang Pei’s official attitude made Owner Wang feel very uncomfortable, “Owner Zhang, we are already friends. Why are you so merciless?”
“Weren’t you merciless when you told me you want us to leave?”
Owner Wang laughed awkwardly and could only accept this deal. He would treat this money as the fee for Liu Man’s advertising, and it would be worth it.
Before he left, he told Zhang Pei, “But people like us, who do business, cannot be too softhearted anyways, or else we won’t be able to earn money.”
Zhang Pei let these words melt into her heart. Mhm, her heart was getting harder and harder right now, especially towards her husband.
After the filming stage of “Vet’s Cuties” ended, it immediately entered the editing stage. The entire team got together and cooperated, and they finally finished all the work at the end of July.
On July 28th, Ye Ziliang handed in everyone’s hard work to the documentary department. The leader opened the documentary files from the other three and glanced through them briefly, and only Ye Ziliang’s work did not get looked at at all. The leader told Ye Ziliang, “Copy it over and it’ll be fine. Later, the website’s video team will upload your video. Just wait for the results.”
The leader didn’t put any hopes into his work. His words were basically implying that after the results come out, Ye Ziliang would naturally be out, and he wouldn’t be a subordinate to him anymore.
Ye Ziliang could hear the chuckling from his three competitors.
Guo Nan’s chuckling was especially loud.
Ye Ziliang felt very upset. His yearning for a reward wasn’t as strong as back when he first received his task.
He had tried very hard with everyone on his team for almost a month, and he really enjoyed the process of their fighting. He no longer focused on the final result and didn’t care about winning. He only wanted the video he and the others worked so hard on to receive the most basic respect, but his boss could not even do that.
Ye Ziliang asked himself:
He did all he could just to stay in such a work environment and to get an official job here. Were his actions worth it?
On July 29th, 30th, and 31st, the recommendation homepage of the national TV department’s official website changed into an image. The image read: “The documentary team will post a new documentary every day starting from next Monday, and this will continue for four days. We hope you look forward to them.” Besides these words listed the four documentaries’ titles: “Six Hundred Years of the Forbidden City”, “Daily Life in the Live News Room”, “Lights of the City”, and “Vet’s Cuties”.
“Vet’s Cuties” was listed last. Obviously, they didn’t pay any attention to Ye Ziliang’s work.
On August 1st, “Six Hundred Years of the Forbidden City” was the first to get played on the national TV department’s official video website.
Compared to the other video websites, the official national TV department’s website had very less visitors. This website featured more traditional work, and the audience was mostly people above forty-years-old. Most of them chose to watch the programs on TV, and they rarely go online. Even if there were lots of advertising in the past three days, “Six Hundred Years of the Forbidden City” still received very less views. There were only 1,000 views and only nine comments.
However, in the early morning next day, some youngsters who had nothing to do and stayed up overnight discovered the new documentary the national TV department came up with, realized it was pretty good, and immediately transferred this video to video websites that younger age groups liked. On these websites, “Six Hundred Years of the Forbidden City”s’ views immediately grew on an exponential scale.
“Six Hundred Years of the Forbidden City” was centered around introducing the past of six artifacts. It introduced the stories of historical figures behind these artifacts and their complex relationships. The times varied went from the start of the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, which crossed six hundred years. The film introduced one artifact from each decade.
Translated by: Sydney
THIS CHAPTER UPLOAD FIRST AT NOVELBIN.COM