Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 341 Dance Troupe Audition [Part 1]

After spending several days dealing with what needed to be done, Zhang Yan originally planned to return to Tianjin on May Day.

As a result, Wang Luyao kept pestering him to wait two more days, at least until he finished watching the dance troupe's recruitment fair before leaving.

Zhang Yan called his parents to confirm that they were settling in well in Tianjin and were very satisfied with Chen Hong, their prospective daughter-in-law, and then postponed his return trip by five days.

Incidentally, he also took over two business negotiations from Chen Hong—the ones that Chen Hong hadn't had time to finalize because she was in a hurry to go back to see her in-laws a while ago.

These two advertising businesses are SunGod Oral Liquid, which is currently enjoying great success, and Kongfujia Liquor, which is eager to make a big splash.

The former dragged on for several days without reaching a conclusion, while the latter went more smoothly, except for an advertising company called Huayi Brothers, which, relying on the background of the children of high-ranking officials, tried to interfere.

However, this Huayi Brothers is a newly established makeshift team. Apart from having some connections and background, it is no match for Yuanmeng in any aspect.

Therefore, Kongfujia Liquor quickly finalized Yuanmeng as its partner and appointed Chen Hong as its advertising spokesperson.

The advertising slogan perfectly matches Chen Hong's upcoming marriage, with the core message being: "Kongfu Family Wine, makes you homesick."

For the first two years, Yuanmeng's advertising business was outsourced to Chengjie, the assistant director of "Hair Messed Up". After establishing a film and television company last year, Chengjie officially joined Yuanmeng and served as the assistant director in the "New Dragon and Phoenix" crew.

The advertising deal was naturally handled by Chengjie again.

However, Li Chunbo said that he has been studying this subject on his own recently and offered to be Chengjie's assistant director.

Although an assistant director is not really needed for shooting an advertisement, since he brought it up, Chen Hong and Wang Jinghua couldn't refuse him.

It just so happens that Chengjie joined Yuanmeng not just to shoot commercials, but will definitely try to get involved in film and television dramas in the future. If Li Chunbo can take charge of the advertising business, it will be a good thing for the company.

In short, after finalizing the advertising deal for Kongfujia Liquor, Zhang Yan put the Sun God project on hold.

The other party clearly wanted to ride the wave of popularity of "New Game Dragon and Phoenix" but didn't want to invest too much in it. They kept pulling and arguing, hoping that Yuanmeng would take the initiative to lower the price.

Since that's the case, it's best to let it cool down for now.

During this time, Zhang Yan also took the time to meet with Tao Hong. Their interaction was not much different from before, but it just didn't feel the same.

After seeing Tao Hong off in the morning, Zhang Yan sat in the living room of the Guomao Courtyard, his mind filled with the image of that person standing naked on the diving platform with their back to him from years ago.

While feeling lost and disappointed, Zhang Yan also felt a little wronged – wasn't it Tao Hong who really dragged him down and led him step by step down the path of a scumbag?
Of course, the main reason is that his will is not strong enough, but apart from those who can't get an erection and homosexuals, how many men in the world can remain unmoved by a woman in their lap?
To dispel the melancholy, Zhang Yan called Jiang Shan to the hotel again, where they engaged in a passionate physical fight devoid of any interest or emotion.

Indeed, for him now, a purely casual sex partner is still more precious.

May Fourth Youth Day has arrived in the blink of an eye.

Early that morning, Zhang Yan was invited by Wang Luyao and Chang Jihong to a restaurant near the Beijing Dance Academy that had not yet officially opened.

The restaurant has just been renovated, and the private rooms and tables and chairs haven't been set up yet. The lobby on the first floor is quite spacious, which is perfect for recruiting dance troupes.

When Zhang Yan arrived, Huang Zhizhong was leading male students from the Central Academy of Drama and Beijing Film Academy, who had already signed contracts to realize their dreams, to set up the venue under the direction of Chang Jihong.

Actually, there wasn't much work to do. It mainly involved setting up a long table in the hall and fixing non-slip cloth to the floor tiles.

Additionally, curtains labeled "Men" and "Women" were hung in the private rooms on the second floor, and a few chairs were placed there to serve as temporary changing rooms.

"Mr. Zhang~"

"Hello, Mr. Zhang!"

As soon as Zhang Yan entered, the young men greeted her, all of them dressed up specially – the Central Academy of Drama and the Beijing Film Academy certainly have no shortage of beautiful women, but the Beijing Dance Academy offers a different experience.

No wonder Jiang Wu wasn't seen; after all, he's about to get married, and he's much more mature than these young people...

"Mr. Zhang, you've arrived!"

Just as he was thinking this, he heard Jiang Wu's voice behind him. Zhang Yan turned around and saw Jiang Wu carrying an electric fan in, which he casually placed in the corner. Okay, he had been overthinking it.

Seeing Wang Luyao and Chang Jihong approaching, Zhang Yan asked, "Didn't you say there was a surprise this time? Where is it?"

We arranged to meet tonight.

Wang Luyao turned around and ran to the long table, grabbed a stack of documents, and returned to Zhang Yan as if presenting a treasure: "These are his relevant documents."

"Zhang Yunfeng?"

Zhang Yan looked down and examined the information, discovering it belonged to a senior choreographer.

According to the records above, Zhang Yunfeng showed extraordinary talent in his sophomore year, and in his junior year, his self-choreographed classical dance won an award, earning him the reputation of a choreographer who is a rare talent in ten years.

This is indeed a promising talent, especially considering the setbacks in poaching from the Oriental Song and Dance Troupe—I only learned from Zhang Weining that many of the choreographers in the Oriental Song and Dance Troupe have military status, and some even hold high ranks.

After reading it, Zhang Yan asked, "Has he agreed to join our Dream Come True team?"

"Not yet."

Chang Jihong said, "But he agreed to meet with you tonight, so I suppose he's not opposed to joining our company."

Zhang Yan nodded slightly, took the information he had found, went around to the back of the long table and sat down. He carefully reviewed it again, and then asked Chang Jihong, "What are his family's financial conditions like?"

Although Wang Luyao brought the materials, Zhang Yan believed that Chang Jihong did the main work.

"His father or mother probably worked in a local dance troupe, but they were probably not leaders or cadres. Their daily life was only considered average to below average in the class."

Upon hearing this news, Zhang Yan nodded again.

The reason the other party is interested is probably mostly about money, but you can't talk about money directly with a young man of this age. You have to put honor in front of him as a fig leaf.

Having figured out how to negotiate, Zhang Yan praised Wang Luyao a few times, saying that if Zhang Yunfeng could really join Yuanmeng, he would first give credit to her as the team leader.

Wang Luyao looked quite smug.

Zhang Yan then called over Jiang Wu, Huang Zhizhong, and others for a chat. Around 7:30, students from the dance academy began to arrive.

As more and more people gathered for the interviews, Wang Luyao was secretly delighted. The students who graduated from Beijing Dance Academy were all pretty good, and Yuanmeng was prepared to accept all of them who had signed up, so this interview was just a formality.

If we can recruit thirty people directly from the Beijing Dance Academy, then our dance troupe will be truly outstanding!
However, Chang Jihong, who was in charge of registration, was not as optimistic as Wang Luyao. First of all, many people were just there to accompany the test takers and had not registered for the interview.

Among those who actually sign up for the interview, a considerable number of them include "lead dancer" or "principal dancer" in their job aspirations.

To put it bluntly, these young people are worried that the competition in the state-run song and dance troupe is too fierce and that they will not be able to stand out, so they choose to come here to fulfill their dream of becoming a "chicken head".

But a dance troupe can't all be lead dancers or principal dancers, right?

Out of thirty people, you can only arrange three or four lead dancers at most. Any more than that would be fooling idiots—even if you dared to give them more, they wouldn't believe it.

Not to mention that to fulfill his dream, he also planned to recruit some experienced dancers from the state-run song and dance troupe, who would normally be the first choice for lead dancers.

Upon discovering this, Chang Jihong immediately informed Zhang Yan and Wang Luyao.

Wang Luyao panicked immediately, not knowing what to do.

Zhang Yan didn't find anything strange about it. He hadn't expected to attract many students from the Beijing Dance Academy, so the fact that so many people signed up was already a pleasant surprise.

He immediately instructed Chang Jihong: "Today, you should set high standards and strict requirements and try to select two qualified lead dancers from among them. As for the rest, inform them of the actual situation and let them choose for themselves."

(End of this chapter)