042 Unconvincing
In Wang Heng’s view, this was perhaps the strongest insurance policy.
Have Pei Ningle treat him as her manager, and a manager who has signed a harsh contract at that. This way, when this girl really starts to become popular, she will naturally want to reclaim the benefits that should belong to her. At that time, the two will turn against each other, and any ambiguity, any romantic disaster, will naturally vanish.
Just like in that story, the old farmer was willing to donate a hundred million, but not a single cow, because he really had a cow. Right now, Pei Ningle was penniless, so giving up a nominal 50% was naturally not a problem. But when she could really hold concerts and earn hundreds of thousands or millions, and let her ‘manager’ take half, could she still have no complaints? Not even a ghost would believe that, right?
And before they had a falling out, with Pei Ningle’s talent… Wang Heng felt that he could definitely take a huge cut.
So, on the spot in the hotel, he asked for a pen and paper, searched online for the format of an economic contract, and rushed to produce two copies of the contract. Of course, he couldn’t be too exploitative, so he agreed with Pei Ningle that she wouldn’t need to share the income from her bar singing gigs with her manager.
In the hotel room, this 50% commission contract, which would leave the vast majority of professional managers speechless, was freshly produced.
The two signed their names and even pressed their fingerprints.
“Alright, two copies of the contract. You take one, I take one. We’ll both keep them safe.”
After Wang Heng finished speaking, he saw the girl extend her right hand.
Pei Ningle: “Want to pinky swear?”
Wang Heng was speechless.
Pei Ningle: “You don’t want to?”
Wang Heng: “Fine, as long as you’re happy.”
The two hooked their little fingers, and Pei Ningle even specifically said, “Pinky swear, cross your heart, hope to die, stick a needle in your eye!”
The corner of Wang Heng’s mouth twitched, and he resisted the urge to retort—a 50% commission rate, if it really doesn’t change for a hundred years, this girl will lose out until she dies!
But Pei Ningle clearly didn’t realize this problem. She giggled, folded the contract, stuffed it into her backpack, and then continued to write her song with peace of mind.
Wang Heng silently left her room, walked out of the hotel, and took out his phone to see that there was a new text message from Lu Qi.
【Report to the Penguin building at 10 a.m. tomorrow.】
Below this sentence was a detailed address.
Wang Heng put away his phone and muttered to himself, “Let’s make this wave of money first…”
**
As a top giant in the domestic internet industry, Penguin possessed wealth beyond the imagination of ordinary people. They owned more than one office building just for their employees to work in. From the Imperial Capital to Shen City, including Rongdu, there were Penguin Company buildings.
However, not everyone who worked in the building in Rongdu was a full-time employee of Penguin Company. Nearly half of them were actually outsourced personnel, or short-term workers.
For example, Wang Heng, who was walking into the building at this moment.
He didn’t have an employee card and couldn’t even get past the access control at the building’s entrance. Fortunately, Lu Qi had sent someone down.
The person sent down to lead Wang Heng through the access control was a programmer who was not yet thirty. Besides his dark-colored short-sleeved otaku outfit, the slightly sparse hair on top of his head also seemed to hint at his identity and position.
“You’re Wang Heng?” The programmer sized up the handsome young man in front of him and frowned slightly. “Come with me. Sister Lu asked me to bring you up.”
Wang Heng smiled. “Okay. How should I address you?”
“My name is Feng Zhuo. You can just call me Brother Feng.”
“Okay, Brother Feng.”
Leading Wang Heng into the elevator, during the time it took for the elevator to ascend, Feng Zhuo was secretly sizing him up.
Finally, Feng Zhuo couldn’t help but ask, “Which school did you graduate from?”
Wang Heng: “University of Electronic Science and Technology.”
Feng Zhuo: “Oh, that one. No wonder…”
Wang Heng: “I’m a current student, not graduated yet.”
Feng Zhuo’s eyes widened. “Impossible!”
Wang Heng: “Actually, to be precise, I’m a freshman, the kind who has just enrolled and hasn’t even participated in military training.”
Feng Zhuo blurted out, “Then you know how to program? Don’t tell me you came here without even knowing the syntax of C language?”
“You’ll have to ask the big boss Lu Qi. Wasn’t she the one who asked me to come for a part-time job?” Wang Heng was too lazy to defend himself and pointed to the slowly opening elevator doors. “We’re here. Shall we go?”
“Oh…”
With a head full of disbelief, Feng Zhuo led Wang Heng into Lu Qi’s office.
Before entering, Wang Heng noticed a sign on the door of this private office, which read ‘Technical Director of Group One’. He then understood that after being transferred from Shen City, Lu Qi had probably been promoted and had become a leader. This progress seemed to be faster than in the first timeline. In addition, the fact that Penguin Games had already started the development project for Honor of Kings also seemed to be a bit ahead of schedule.
Wang Heng couldn’t help but ponder secretly. If this was all the influence of the worldline’s correction mechanism… then it was probably really hard to say what would happen in the future.
“Sister Lu, Student Wang Heng is here.”
As he said this, Feng Zhuo also sighed inwardly. When Lu Qi had instructed him to go downstairs to pick someone up earlier, she had said she was picking up ‘Student Wang Heng’. But he never would have thought that this kid was actually a student, and a freshman at that!
Lu Qi glanced at the two of them and pointed outside. “Isn’t there an empty workstation next to you? Take him there. Wang Heng, I’m very busy here. What you need to do is to work with Feng Zhuo to polish the pipeline we’ll be using in the future, understand?”
Feng Zhuo and Wang Heng nodded one after another, indicating that they understood.
“That’s it then. You two go and get to work. The project timeline is very tight. By the way, Wang Heng, although you’re not a full-time employee, you’re not here to do miscellaneous tasks either. Don’t be afraid to voice any ideas you have.”
With that, Lu Qi waved her hand and unceremoniously sent them out.
Feng Zhuo and Wang Heng walked out of Lu Qi’s office and came to an empty workstation. Feng Zhuo’s face still had a look of disbelief, but Wang Heng was quite calm and composed.
“You can use this computer for now,” Feng Zhuo said, pointing to the empty workstation.
Wang Heng nodded, sat down without any ceremony, and pressed the power button.
Feng Zhuo stood to the side, hesitated for a few seconds, and finally couldn’t help but ask, “You know what Sister Lu meant by ‘pipeline’ just now, right?”
Wang Heng answered without thinking, “Pipeline. It’s all the tools used to make a game, including art, animation, special effects, and the planning system.”
Feng Zhuo: “Oh, so you know…”
Wang Heng glanced at him strangely. “If I didn’t even know this, why would Sister Lu ask me to come and work?”
Feng Zhuo scratched his head, at a loss for words for a moment.
At this moment, the computer had already started up, and the Linux operating system appeared on the screen.
Feng Zhuo asked again, “You know how to use this system, right?”
Wang Heng turned his head, said nothing, and just looked at him with a gaze one would use on a mentally challenged person.
Feng Zhuo couldn’t help but scratch his head again. He didn’t see the deep meaning in Wang Heng’s gaze, but for some reason, he felt a little embarrassed…
