Chapter 141: Chapter 35: Zhang Yan’s First Business

After all, most mainstream companies of the same type were distributed in Tier 1 or mega-cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Even with Changying’s historical legacy, Meng City only had a few small and medium-sized entertainment companies operating on a purely amateur level.

Among them, the Dai family’s Xingmeng Entertainment could be considered the local industry leader, closely followed by the Ren family’s Renwofei Entertainment.

Renwofei Entertainment’s headquarters occupied a rented full floor of an office building in the Economic Development Zone. It spanned about 500 square meters and had forty-five full-time employees.

Yesterday, Zhang Yan had privately obtained a login for Renwofei Entertainment’s internal app through Ren Jintian, so he was able to easily scan his way through the access control gates today.

Zhang Yan took his first business venture quite seriously, wanting to get a firsthand look at the company’s true state before doing anything else.

It was already fifteen minutes past the official start of the workday, yet many seats in the office remained empty. He didn’t know if they implemented flexible working hours or if the daily work attitude was simply this lax.

No one seemed to notice anything amiss about Zhang Yan, an unfamiliar face, suddenly walking in. They were all busy with their own tasks and ignored him entirely.

Zhang Yan was perfectly happy with this. He strolled around casually, carefully observing every corner.

Having obtained the company’s documents beforehand, he was familiar with the floor plan. The company was roughly divided into an office area, a content production area, a public reception area, and a storage and miscellaneous area. Right now, he was walking through the office area.

"Hey, Brother Liu, do you think the company is going to go under? It looked like a lot of things were moved out yesterday."

"I don’t know, but the things moved out yesterday seemed to be some of the big boss’s personal collections. They used to be kept here as props for filming, so they aren’t actually company property."

It seemed the employees were still unaware of the change in ownership. Moreover, it sounded like the company’s profits had been steadily declining lately, leading to a sense of panic among the staff.

Zhang Yan kept this information in mind and continued walking.

When he arrived at the content area, a team was just preparing for a shoot. Two somewhat attractive young women were having their makeup applied by a stylist.

"Sigh, profits are getting worse and worse lately. Paopao, isn’t your contract expiring soon? Have you decided where you’re going next?"

"Not yet. I feel like if I really want to develop my career, I have to go to a big city. I’m still considering it. But I also don’t really want to go that far. If I stay locally, the worst-case scenario would be jumping ship to Xingmeng. What about you, Fengfeng?"

"I still have half a year left on my contract, so I can’t leave anytime soon. I’m dying of anxiety day by day."

"Tell me about it. The company is buying less and less traffic promotion. A web drama that was already negotiated ended up falling through. If you ask me, this company is about to go under too!"

At this moment, the two young women spotted the unfamiliar Zhang Yan through their makeup mirrors. The company had lost many veteran employees recently and recruited quite a few newcomers, so seeing a fresh face was completely normal.

Since Zhang Yan had come straight from Xiaoyan’s home, he wasn’t wearing formal attire, and he had forgotten to put on any accessories after his morning shower. Right now, he just looked like a young guy in casual clothes, exactly the age of a fresh graduate. Naturally, the two women mistook him for a newly hired intern.

"Hey, handsome, you’re new here, right? Go to the pantry and pour me a cup of coffee. Add ice."

"I want a glass of orange juice, half ice."

After waiting a moment and realizing Zhang Yan wasn’t moving—merely pointing at himself with a "dumbfounded" look of confusion—one of the women spoke up again.

"Ugh, you’re so dense! Why do college students these days know absolutely nothing? You enter the workplace and act like total idiots. The pantry is all the way in the back. Just keep walking straight, and you’ll find trays and cups on the side."

Zhang Yan finally realized they had mistaken him for an intern. Giving a carefree smile, he actually went to fetch their drinks.

Seeing Zhang Yan finally take action, the two young women looked at him with exasperated disappointment. "He has such a handsome face, but he has zero situational awareness."

A moment later, Zhang Yan returned with the two drinks.

"Ladies, this is my first time at the company, and I don’t know anything yet. What do you guys think of this place?"

The girl named Paopao was clearly about to resign and had no lingering attachment to the company. She said bluntly, "My advice is to leave as soon as possible. Don’t waste your time. There’s no future in this dump."

The other girl, Fengfeng, hesitated for a moment before speaking fairly.

"Actually, the company used to be thriving. In terms of operations, content, and promotion, we weren’t too far behind Xingmeng.

"But ever since they cut off traffic promotion a while back, the company has been going downhill rapidly. In our industry, exposure is everything. Without traffic, everything else is just an illusion."

Zhang Yan nodded and chatted with them a bit more.

Although much of this information was in the documents provided by Ren Jintian, Zhang Yan clearly hadn’t read them carefully.

Through their casual conversation, he learned that Renwofei Entertainment primarily relied on three business sectors to make money: livestreaming, influencer incubation, and web drama/short drama production.

The livestreaming sector covered gaming, entertainment, and e-commerce, featuring both male and female streamers. Influencer incubation involved scouting newcomers and providing them with training, branding, and exposure. Both of these largely generated revenue through commission cuts from commercial earnings.

Then there was web drama and short drama production. Renwofei Entertainment had once produced one or two minor hit short dramas and held a few copyrights in their hands.

However, the cost of filming a drama was comparatively too high, and the returns were extremely unstable. After their last project fell through due to insufficient funding, there hadn’t been any new projects for a long time. Even their signed artists, screenwriters, and other personnel had jumped ship and left one after another once their contracts expired.

Overall, it was a company with potential but was now riddled with problems and nearing its end. However, he didn’t care too much about any of that.

The reason Zhang Yan had chosen this industry for his first business venture was not only for the reasons mentioned before, but also for another crucial factor.

Companies like this were very easy to prop up with money. As long as there was enough traffic and proper operations, the next step was simply waiting for a stroke of luck to produce a hit. After that, continuous investment in traffic would naturally snowball their success.

Right now, Zhang Yan might lack everything—talent, trusted aides, management experience... but as long as it involved normal operations, the one thing he absolutely did not lack was money.

Bidding farewell to the two young women who were rushing off to their shoot, Zhang Yan felt he had gathered enough understanding of the company.

He walked into the conference room, picked up his phone, and called the current general manager.

"Hello, General Manager Kong Chen? This is Zhang Yan."

"Ah! Mr. Zhang, it’s you! I’ve been eagerly awaiting your call," Kong Chen replied. "May I ask when Mr. Zhang plans to visit the company and show your face so the management team can get to know you?"

"I’m already in the company’s conference room."

There was an obvious silence on the other end of the line, as if he had been caught completely off guard.

"Then I’ll head over right now and bring everyone along to give Mr. Zhang a warm welcome!" Kong Chen said.

"There’s no need. Keep it quiet for now and just come over by yourself."

Although he found the request rather strange, whatever the big boss wanted made sense.

"Understood, Mr. Zhang. I’ll come over alone right away," Kong Chen replied.

The company’s general manager rushing into the conference room naturally attracted the attention of quite a few people. Various speculations gradually spread alongside hushed whispers.

Inside the conference room, Kong Chen finally laid eyes on the new boss who had just bought the company.

Although he already knew the other party was very young, actually seeing him in person still made him sigh in admiration. "I had long heard that Mr. Zhang was young and promising, and seeing you today, you truly live up to your reputation!"

Ignoring the man’s flattery, Zhang Yan maintained an indifferent expression and slid a piece of paper made of some unknown material in front of Kong Chen.

"I wrote a job resume not too long ago myself, and I know full well that they are mostly embellished. So, I figured I should do a surprise inspection.

"Please fill this out casually, President Kong. As long as it’s truthful, it doesn’t need to be too detailed. Consider this my first assessment upon taking office."

Kong Chen looked at the piece of paper in front of him, which bore the word "Resume." The contents were very minimalistic and didn’t look like any standard format.

On the surface, he looked as if he were facing a formidable enemy, but inwardly, he was full of disdain.

He thought, "The streets are full of people who can memorize their resumes back to front. What kind of depths can such a petty trick possibly probe?

"Before leaving, President Ren specifically told me that the new boss was incredibly formidable. Looking at it now, it’s just mutual business flattery.

"Whatever. I’ll play along with this wet-behind-the-ears kid."

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