This producer has no bottom line.

October 22nd, Industry and Commerce Bureau.

Ren Pingsheng, Dapeng, and Sister Zhao stood in front of the service window and submitted their company registration application.

Company full name: Yanjing Wanhe Tianyi Culture Media Co., Ltd.

Legal representative: Ren Pingsheng.

Registered capital: five million.

Shareholder structure: Ren Pingsheng holds 70% of the shares, Da Peng holds 15%, and Wang Sicong holds 15%. Zhao Jie's stock options are held through a nominee agreement and are not reflected in the business registration.

The woman at the window flipped through the documents and glanced up at the three people in front of her. One was wearing a wrinkled T-shirt, another was wearing a suit jacket over a cheap work uniform that he hadn't had time to change, and the third was a middle-aged woman carrying a canvas bag.

"There are quite a few cultural media companies registering these days," the woman said casually while stamping the seal. "What do you do?"

"They're filming a video," Ren Pingsheng said.

"Oh, wedding planning?"

Da Peng almost burst out laughing, but Ren Pingsheng glared at him and made him swallow it back.

Once the materials are submitted, the business license will be issued in five working days.

But Ren Pingsheng couldn't wait five working days.

After leaving the Bureau of Industry and Commerce, he took out his phone and called Liu Lei, Wang Sicong's assistant.

"Brother Liu, I've sent the investment agreement to your email today. Please have Mr. Wang sign it as soon as possible. The first payment will arrive in your account no later than the day after tomorrow."

"Everything is ready here. Mr. Wang said that the payment will be transferred directly after the signing, without going through the approval process."

After hanging up the phone, Ren Pingsheng glanced at Dapeng and Sister Zhao.

"Go back to work as usual today. Don't say anything, don't do anything. Submit your resignation tomorrow."

"Why not deliver it today?" Da Peng asked.

"If we deliver it today, Alex has two days to make things happen. If we deliver it tomorrow afternoon, he only has half a day."

Da Peng thought for a moment, then clicked his tongue. "You even calculate your resignation down to the hour?"

"Let's go, we still have a script to revise this afternoon."

Back at the Sohu Building, everything was as usual.

Ren Pingsheng sat at his workstation, typing out the episode outlines for the "Diaosi Man" Zhuxian chapter on the screen, and spent two hours revising them.

Alex passed by him once in the corridor, glanced at him, but didn't stop.

This apparent calm made Da Peng very uncomfortable. Every ten minutes, he would glance at Ren Pingsheng, repeatedly flipping through the same page of his manuscript.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Ren Pingsheng got up and went to the restroom.

When I came back, I saw that there was another person next to my workstation.

Attorney Chen from the legal department, in his early thirties, wore glasses and carried a folder under his arm.

"Team Leader Ren, is it convenient for us to chat for a bit?"

"chat."

Attorney Chen opened the folder and pulled out a form.

"Here's the thing, we're doing an asset inventory before departmental integration, and we need to confirm the copyright ownership of all content products under the innovation team."

Ren Pingsheng glanced at the table, which listed all the episode information for "Unexpectedly" and "Men's Diary".

"The planning, filming, and production of these two projects were all completed during your tenure at Sohu, right?"

"right."

"Did you use the company's equipment and facilities?"

"The first five episodes of the first season used some of the company's equipment, and all subsequent episodes used externally leased equipment. We have the lease contracts and invoices."

Attorney Chen adjusted his glasses. "The original platform for that content was Sohu Video, there's no dispute about that, right?"

"The initial release platform is Sohu, but initial release does not mean exclusive access." Ren Pingsheng spoke at the same pace, "The production company for these two projects is listed as 'Shengpingshi Studio,' not Sohu Video."

"I know, but you're an employee of Sohu, and the content you created during your employment—"

"Attorney Chen," Ren Pingsheng interrupted him, "Does my employment contract contain a clause regarding the ownership of intellectual property rights?"

Attorney Chen paused for a moment.

"I signed an internship agreement when I joined the company, not a formal employment contract. Later, General Manager Gong promoted me through the special channel of the Spark Program. The agreement only stipulated the job responsibilities and salary, and there were no clauses regarding the ownership of the copyright of the works I created."

Ren Pingsheng took out a copy of a document from the drawer; it was the agreement he signed when he joined the company.

"You can take it back and look at it. Articles 7 to 12, the part about intellectual property rights, is blank. The legal department didn't have time to fill it in before the process was completed, and Mr. Gong signed it."

Attorney Chen took the book, flipped through two pages, and his expression changed.

He had worked in Sohu's legal department for three years and had seen many non-standard agreements, but this was the first time he had ever seen a contract that skipped the intellectual property clause altogether.

"Team Leader Ren, this might require—"

"What do we need? A supplementary agreement?" Ren Pingsheng leaned back in his chair. "A supplementary agreement requires mutual consent."

Attorney Chen closed the folder and stood up. "I'll go back and report to my superiors."

"Hard."

Attorney Chen left. Da Peng pretended to be looking at the screen, but his eyes kept glancing at Attorney Chen's disappearing figure at the end of the corridor.

"What will Alex do if he goes back and tells him?"

"What can he do? The agreement is in black and white, and Gong Yu's signature is on it. If he wants to overturn this case, he's essentially negating the former COO's decision, and Deng Ye will be the first to disagree."

Dapeng gasped.

"Did you deliberately not sign it back then?"

"It's not that I didn't sign it, it's just that Mr. Gong's procedures weren't completed in time." Ren Pingsheng paused, "But after I discovered this loophole, I chose not to remind anyone."

Dapeng turned to look at him, his gaze complex.

"You were planning to run away from the very beginning."

"It's not called running away, it's called a strategic shift."

That evening, Ren Pingsheng wrote five resignation letters in his rented room.

My own, Da Peng's, Sister Zhao's, Luo Hongming's, and Liu Hao's.

Bai Ke and Xiao Ai are interns sent by the school. They don't need to go through the resignation process, and their contracts will automatically end when they expire.

Zhang Yibo is an external editor on a project-based contract, and is therefore not bound by any restrictions.

Seven people, all clean and tidy.

At 2 PM the next day, Ren Pingsheng pressed the send button.

Five resignation emails arrived simultaneously in the HR department and Deng Ye's inbox.

The emails were extremely brief, formatted uniformly, and gave the same reason: personal reasons.

Fifteen minutes later, Alex rushed into the office area.

His face was flushed red, and he was clutching a printed email in his hand; the paper was crumpled.

"Ren Pingsheng!"

Ren Pingsheng was tidying up his workstation.

He didn't have many personal belongings: a cup, two books, and a portable hard drive. He packed them into his backpack and zipped it up.

"You think you can just hand in your resignation and leave?" Alex walked up to him, his voice loud enough to be heard throughout the entire floor. "What about your projects? What about the clients you were working with? You've poached the company's employees—"

"They resigned voluntarily; I didn't poach them."

"Bullshit! Five people submitting their resignations at the same time? Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Resignation is a legal right of employees. Article 37 of the Labor Contract Law requires 30 days' written notice."

"Don't give me that legal stuff!" Alex slammed the paper on the table. "Don't think I don't know you've been running a lousy company on the side. You've been using Sohu's resources to start your own business. What's that called? That's embezzlement!"