Chapter 77 - 76: All Signed

Chapter 77: Chapter 76: All Signed

Hu Xia answered the call and saw Qin Youyou arriving with a group of people to sign the contract. She hadn’t expected her to be so fast.

"Xiaxia, this is my senior brother, Ding Haolian. From now on, he’ll be in charge of planning our performances."

"Hello. It’s been many years, but I guarantee I’ll get the Colorful Silk Dance into top shape."

Ding Haolian cherished this opportunity. Before coming, he had thoroughly researched Lin Xian Village and had even asked around for more information.

He was stunned to find out just how incredible the place was. All the wealthy people in the entire county had their eyes on it, and it was bringing a massive number of tourists to Wuyuan County every day.

"Hi, I’m Hu Xia. If you run into any problems in Lin Xian Village, feel free to find me. I’ll have you all join our WeChat group in a little while."

Everyone happily signed their contracts. They were given two days to prepare before starting their new jobs in Lin Xian Village.

The performers were actually eager to start the next day, but Hu Xia turned them down, explaining that the village’s stage facilities still needed some repairs.

All that was left was to sort things out with the Vitality Dance Ensemble. In the future, besides the three resident acts, they could also invite outside performers for shows.

If a particular act proved popular with the tourists, they could negotiate to have the troupe stay on as a permanent fixture.

However, she had heard from Lin Feng that he had also found an acrobatics troupe, and they would be coming for an audition tomorrow.

「The next morning.」

Kong Lin arrived at the training room. ’I need to hurry and start a livestream to make some money,’ he thought, staring in confusion at the locked main door.

’Why is no one here today? If I don’t crack the whip, all they know how to do is slack off.’

When he opened the main doors, the room was completely empty. All the performance props were gone. His heart sank; he thought he’d been robbed.

’But that’s not right,’ he reconsidered. ’Those props aren’t worth anything. You can’t sell them. A thief would have no use for them.’

He was suddenly struck by a terrible premonition. ’Could they have secretly taken a gig behind my back?’

He took out his phone and made a call. "Hello, Xiaoli, why aren’t you guys at the training room? What happened to all the stuff in here?"

"You old bastard! You bloodsucker! Go play by yourself from now on. We’re done working with you."

"Hello? Hello? What...? BEEP BEEP..."

He found someone he was usually on better terms with and called them. "Zhou Xiang, what happened? I just called Xiaoli, and he said our partnership is over."

"Master Kong, we’ve decided not to work with you anymore. We’re all going to work at Lin Xian Village. Not only is the pay higher there, but they also cover our social security."

"Anyway, I’ve got things to do. Goodbye."

"BEEP BEEP BEEP..."

Kong Lin’s face turned ashen. His worst fear had come true.

What stung even more was that everyone had left without a single person bothering to tell him.

"Hello, Youyou, where are you now? We need to talk."

"Heh heh, so now you want to talk? I’m at my senior brother’s place. Are you coming over? Do you dare?"

Kong Lin’s face flushed red as he stared at the disconnected call. He raised his hand as if to smash the phone but ultimately couldn’t bring himself to do it.

After a moment of thought, he called his son. ’I can’t just let this go,’ he fumed.

After quite a while, his son finally answered the phone.

"Hello, Da Wei..."

"Dad, why are you calling at a time like this?"

"Whose call is that?"

"Be quiet, it’s my dad."

"Dad, go ahead. What’s up?"

"Everyone in the troupe went to work for that Lin Xian Village behind my back. Our family’s performance troupe is finished."

"And Ding Haolian was involved. What do we do now?"

"What?! Those ungrateful bastards! How dare they! Just wait at home, I’m heading back right now."

His cash cow was gone, so Kong Wei was in no mood to fool around anymore. He got dressed and left.

"Hey, hey, don’t run off! You haven’t paid yet!"

But all she heard was the sound of the door closing as he fled.

"Fuck! That’s the first time I’ve ever had someone run out without paying. We’re not done!"

"Hello, Brother Wang? Someone finished up and ran off without paying."

"Son of a bitch! There are still people like that? Just wait, I’m on my way."

Kong Wei was in such a hurry that he completely forgot about the incident, hopping in his car and speeding toward his hometown of Wuyuan County.

When he arrived home, he found his parents arguing. His father had scratch marks on his face, and his sister was eating snacks while enjoying the show.

"Stop fighting! Dad, what the hell is going on? Everything was fine yesterday."

"It must be your lecherous old father. The way he stares at that little hussy Qin Youyou, his eyes practically pop out of his head."

"Don’t talk nonsense. That Lin Xian Village is offering them a minimum salary of 4,000, plus bonuses."

"I told you a long time ago to have Da Wei sign contracts with them, but you just wouldn’t do it."

"And look what happened! They kicked us to the curb, and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it."

"Dad, what do you mean there’s nothing we can do? What about the number of the official who invited you? We can ask him to step in and help us."

"If that doesn’t work, we’ll go to Lin Xian Village and cause a scene! On what grounds can they kick our family aside and sign contracts with them?"

"Right, right! Hurry up and call that official you know. Explain the situation."

Kong Lin had no choice but to call Director Liu. Over the phone, he explained that Lin Xian Village had gone around him and recruited all of his people.

Director Liu found the news hard to believe. ’That doesn’t sound like something Lin Xian Village would do,’ he thought.

He called Lin Feng. "Boss Lin, the boss of the Colorful Silk Dance troupe says you went around him and poached all his people. What’s going on?"

"Director Liu, my apologies for the trouble."

"This wasn’t our fault. The performers came to us on their own initiative to sign contracts."

"It’s a bit complicated. It turns out Master Kong only had a partnership with the performers; there were no formal contracts between them."

"Besides, in all the years they’ve worked with Master Kong, the highest pay any of them received was 500 for the female lead per performance. Everyone else got less than 300."

Director Liu understood immediately. Lin Xian Village paid the choir 10,000 for a single performance.

’This Kong Lin is truly ruthless,’ he thought. ’The total pay for all the performers in a single show was less than 3,000.’

As far as he knew, the fee for a single performance of the Colorful Silk Dance was never less than 15,000.

"Alright, Boss Lin, I understand the situation now. I really didn’t expect him to be that kind of person."

After hanging up, he immediately called Kong Lin.

"Boss Kong, I’ve already called and asked. They said that those people went over and signed the contracts themselves."

"Ah! Director Liu, I only brought my people over to perform because you notified me! You can’t just wash your hands of this!"

"There’s nothing we can do about this. They worked for you, but you didn’t even sign a contract with them. That means you had a partnership, and both sides are free to choose."

"But they’ve all left now! What am I supposed to do with my troupe?"

"You could recruit a new group. This time, it would be best to sign formal contracts. Otherwise, if people want to leave, there’s really nothing you can do."

"Anyway, I have other matters to attend to."

Staring at the disconnected call, the father and son’s faces were grim.

"Dad, let’s just expose them online. We’ll blow this thing up, and then someone will have to step in."

"Is that a good idea?"

"What’s not good about it? Since they don’t care if we live or die, they can’t blame us for exposing them."

Kong Lin still felt that exposing them was a bad idea, but since his son, daughter, and wife all insisted on this plan, he could only agree.

As for how to expose them, Kong Wei, who spent a lot of time online, had a few ideas.

’We definitely can’t film the video here in the villa. We need to find a shabbier place to gain public sympathy.’

’That training room would be perfect. The state it’s in is ideal for filming an exposé video.’