Chapter 592: Making Money is Not Shameful

“Mr. Zhang, hello, I’ve long admired your reputation.”

Xu Yang and Wang Xiaocong were both grinning as they shook hands with Zhang Jiahui.

“Hello Mr. Xu, hello Young Master Wang, I am Zha Zha Hui,” Zhang Jiahui said.

Zha Zha Hui?

Xu Yang and Wang Xiaocong were both momentarily stunned.

“It’s Zhang Zha Hui, not Zha Zha Hui,” Zhang Jiahui corrected with effort.

At this, Xu Yang and Wang Xiaocong finally understood.

Zhang Jiahui’s Mandarin was terribly bad.

Gu Tianle’s Mandarin was already considered decent, although it wasn’t as good as that of people like Liu Dehua and Zhang Xueyou, it was passable and wouldn’t lead to incomprehension.

Compared with Gu Tianle, if Gu Tianle scored a six for passability, Zhang Jiahui would be doing well to score a three.

Xu Yang and Wang Xiaocong, however, didn’t make fun of Zhang Jiahui, after all, different living environments.

“Mr. Xu, please take a seat,” Xu Yang gestured for Zhang Jiahui to sit down.

“Mr. Xu, Young Master Wang, I…” Zhang Jiahui had the self-awareness to realize his Mandarin was poor and tried hard to speak so that Xu Yang and Wang Xiaocong could understand every word he said clearly.

Seeing him like this, Xu Yang said, “Mr. Zhang, you should be able to speak English, right? Young Master Wang studied overseas, so you can communicate in English. My spoken English isn’t very good, but I can mostly understand and occasionally speak a bit. You two chat, and I’ll just listen.”

His level of English was just average, with no issues in basic reading and writing.

But his spoken English was quite poor, since he didn’t have that language environment to speak English.

Wang Xiaocong was different, having returned from studying abroad, his English was super smooth.

Upon hearing Xu Yang’s words, Zhang Jiahui breathed a sigh of relief and immediately said in English, “Thank you for your understanding, Mr. Xu, Young Master Wang. First of all, I want to apologize, I seldom speak Mandarin, I usually speak Cantonese. Although I have been working hard to learn Mandarin recently, the results haven’t been ideal.”

Wang Xiaocong replied fluently in English, “No problem, we understand. I’ve seen Liu Dehua and Zhang Xueyou speak very good Mandarin. I know you’re good friends with them, especially with Zhang Xueyou. You could learn more from them. I believe that with effort, you can certainly improve your Mandarin.”

Zhang Jiahui replied, “Thank you, I will.”

He then asked, “I heard Gu Tianle just left, right?”

Wang Xiaocong nodded and said, “Yes, Mr. Gu has already agreed to endorse our game, and the contract is signed.”

“He had no choice but to agree to the endorsement,” Zhang Jiahui said with a bizarre expression. “Now the whole country knows about Gu Tianle’s ‘greening’. To be honest, that slogan does quite a bit of damage to Gu Tianle. If he didn’t agree to the endorsement and decided to take you to court, you obviously wouldn’t want to pull the ad. His ad would circulate on the internet for years. By agreeing to endorse, he doesn’t have to worry about that ad anymore. If I’m not mistaken, he must’ve made you promise to take down that ad quickly, right?”

Wang Xiaocong nodded and said, “Yes, we’ve promised him. We will remove the ad within twenty-four hours.”

Zhang Jiahui continued, “Mr. Xu, Young Master Wang, honestly, I’m quite interested in endorsing your game.”

Zhang Jiahui was getting older and couldn’t compete as fiercely anymore.

He was still quite willing to make money by shooting commercials.

Whenever someone approached him for an endorsement, as long as it wasn’t a subpar brand, he would take it.

These days, making money from films wasn’t easy, especially for an award-winning actor like him.

Endorsements and commercials were relatively easy ways to make money.

Zhang Jiahui was quite happy to earn money this easily.

When Wang Xiaocong invited him to endorse the game, Zhang Jiahui’s agent analyzed the situation for him, pointing out that the biggest issue with endorsing this game was that it might lower the status of Zhang Jiahui, the award-winning actor.

To this concern, Zhang Jiahui felt it was not an issue at all; becoming an award-winning actor was just so much.

He used to care a lot about status right after winning the award.

But over the years, the prestige of the award hadn’t helped him make much more money, and gradually he stopped caring about it.

Moreover, the agent pointed out many advantages of endorsing this game: the pay is generous, the filming period is short, there aren’t any hassles, and no negative aftermath.

In the eyes of Zhang Jiahui’s agent, it was an exceptionally high-quality endorsement deal.

In fact, only Chen Long’s agent insisted on maintaining Chen Long’s international superstar image and strongly advised against taking this endorsement.

Most celebrities’ agents would consider the game endorsement offer very attractive.

Previously, Xu Yang and Wang Xiaocong said that many celebrities desired this endorsement, but they did not give everyone a chance; this was not entirely a bluff.

As long as there’s money to be made, why bother with anything else?

Xu Yang and Wang Xiaocong were quite satisfied with Zhang Jiahui’s attitude.

Making money isn’t embarrassing at all!

If you want to earn money, there’s no need to be squeamish.@@novelbin@@

If Zhang Jiahui were to speak ill of endorsing the game, Xu Yang and Wang Xiaocong would probably send him off with a single word: “Scram!”

“Mr. Zhang, since you’re interested, let’s get down to the main topic of our negotiation,” said Wang Xiaocong.

“Sure, let’s get to it. How much are you offering me for the endorsement?” Zhang Jiahui was very direct.

Now that everything was on the table, there was no need for secrecy. Talking about money isn’t shameful; if one found it embarrassing, there was no need to negotiate.

“Mr. Zhang, based on our research, your standard endorsement fee is around five million, right?” asked Wang Xiaocong.

“Yes,” Zhang Jiahui candidly nodded.

Endorsement fees are transparent; a simple check will reveal the truth, and no one bluffs about this matter unless they are some foolish celebrity.

“We’ll offer you seven million, what do you think?” Wang Xiaocong proposed.

This was indeed a premium offer, and a proactive one at that.

This valuation had been discussed between Wang Xiaocong and Xu Yang, who felt Zhang Jiahui was worth the money.

Moreover, Gu Tianle and Zhang Jiahui were screen partners; their joint endorsement would have an effect greater than the simple sum of one plus one, definitely more than two.

It can be said that part of the reason for offering Zhang Jiahui such a high price was due to Gu Tianle’s presence.

On this trip to Harbor City to secure celebrity endorsements, Wang Xiaocong and Xu Yang were willing to pay a premium for certain stars, and Zhang Jiahui was one of them.

“Can we make it a lucky number, eight million?” Zhang Jiahui knew Wang Xiaocong was indeed offering him a premium.

But since it was the negotiation stage, if Xu Yang and Wang Xiaocong did not agree, seven million it would be; either way, it was a good deal.

Wang Xiaocong glanced at Xu Yang, and seeing him nod slightly, he replied, “All right, let’s go for that lucky number, eight million!”

For the two, an extra million wasn’t much.

“Thank you, Young Wang, thank you, President Xu. Let’s settle on eight million and sign the contract,” Zhang Jiahui appeared very excited.

His endorsements generally amounted to around five million.

This “around” meant a fluctuation of a million either way, and it never exceeded six million at most.

An eight-million endorsement was the highest fee he had ever received, and he had every reason to be thrilled.

Moreover, he was aware that this advertisement would be very simple to shoot, nowhere near as exhausting as filming a scene in a movie.

Thus, both parties immediately signed the contract.

Having signed the contract, Wang Xiaocong paid Zhang Jiahui an upfront fee of four million.

After arranging a shooting schedule, Zhang Jiahui left joyfully with his agent and lawyer.

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