Chapter 1
"Instructor: I'll repeat it again. Find a place where you can intern with all the necessary documents and get an internship certificate. Don't come and ask me if it's okay to intern at the kindergarten downstairs from your house!"
Jiang Juyou stared at the message just sent by the instructor in the group chat, feeling even more despair in her heart.
As a graduate in Ideological and Political Education, there were hardly any career prospects apart from taking civil service exams or pursuing academic research. But Jiang Juyou was never good at studying, and it took her a lot of effort just to get into this major.
She didn't want to take the civil service exams or pursue academia, let alone further studies. So her only option was to find a job, and she also needed the mandatory internship certificate required by the university. However, as someone who came from another province to study here, it was incredibly difficult for her to find a job that could sustain herself.
Jiang Juyou switched to a job search app and closed her eyes in pain as she looked at the list of internship opportunities.
"Internship position available, monthly salary 1500, internship certificate provided, proficient in office software required."
"Internship position available, 9 to 5 schedule, monthly salary 1800, internship certificate provided. Exceptional interns may be offered a permanent position with negotiable salary."
"Internship position available, monthly salary 2000, internship certificate provided, willingness to work overtime and ability to handle stress required."
This was the downside of studying liberal arts. Even in the capital city, the salaries were abysmally low. Jiang Juyou regretted for the ten thousandth time why she had chosen liberal arts and forced herself into this major.
She sighed and scrolled down with her finger.
"Internship position available, 9 to 5 schedule, weekends off, social insurance and housing fund contributions after regularization, internship period monthly salary 8500, free meals and accommodation provided, salary negotiable after regularization, requirements: strong ability to handle stress."
"...Are they trying to steal someone's kidneys?" Jiang Juyou muttered, but her hand, driven by her own thoughts, clicked on that job posting.
There was no other way. This offer was just too attractive for a college student.
It was like a trap designed specifically for college students.
After clicking on it, the webpage was slightly different from other job postings because both the company and position were anonymous, giving it more of an organized crime vibe.
Jiang Juyou tilted her head, and though her rational side told her something was off, she still went ahead and submitted her resume.
It didn't matter anyway. She didn't want to live anymore.
A few years ago, her parents died in a car accident, leaving only the three sisters behind. Unfortunately, her parents were the ones at fault, so they not only had to handle the funeral arrangements but also had to borrow money for compensation. The only house they owned was sold off, and they still owed a significant amount of money.
When they grew a bit older and entered high school, the three of them made a pact to take care of all the expenses themselves and repay the debt together.
Jiang Tang's older sister, Jiang Tang, passed the entrance exam for a second-tier university but dropped out halfway to become a small idol. It didn't seem like a normal job to anyone, as they provided food and accommodation, with a base salary of 3,500 RMB per month. The company's boss was a fan of another group member and started the company to promote that female idol. Jiang Tang and the others were just incidental. After the female idol joined their company, she initially pursued solo activities but later transitioned to acting after releasing a few albums. They were considered a second-generation group and a product of the company's attempt to fill the gap in the idol market.
After joining the company, Jiang Tang trained for nearly half a year and nervously received her monthly salary of 3,500 RMB. Eventually, she realized that the company didn't involve them in any illegal activities, which put her mind at ease.
However, Jiang Tang had complained to Jiang Juyou many times, saying that their company seemed more like a money laundering operation.
Jiang Juyou was the middle sister, with a younger sister who had just turned eighteen after recently taking the college entrance exam. Despite her young age, she was the most promising among the three sisters, mainly due to her ability to make money.
Jiang Liuxing, the youngest sister, was a fan manager. Although she was only eighteen, she had been a fan for ten years and became a fan manager since the eighth grade. Her initial capital came from her two older sisters, and she purchased photos through proxy buyers, following online tutorials to edit the pictures.
Coincidentally, she didn't have much money at the time and bought photos of the second male lead in a TV drama. She intended to practice editing skills but unexpectedly, after the drama aired, the second male lead gained more popularity than the two main actors, and as the only dedicated fan manager, her fan base increased by nearly twenty thousand within a week.
Jiang Liuxing cried and exclaimed, "Damn, I can finally start making money."
She packaged the remaining edited photos along with a few popular ones, creating a photobook priced at 98 RMB. Tearfully, she made a profit of 60 RMB per book and sold nearly three thousand copies. This marked the beginning of her journey as a fan manager, where she pursued many male celebrities.
Usually, she followed their public schedules and went to the airport to pick them up. As for activities related to TV dramas, she always hired proxy photographers and bought photo sets.
She didn't use all the money she earned to pay off the family's debt but kept it in her account. She repaid the debts on time and in installments. Her two sisters didn't ask her to selflessly contribute the money but instead encouraged her to keep more for herself because both of them lived in the capital city and couldn't take care of her, who was still in their hometown.
Compared to her sisters, Jiang Juyou faced a much more challenging path to pay off her debts. After entering high school, she not only had to find ways to earn her own tuition and living expenses but also repay her share of the debt. That period was truly difficult for her. After entering university, she had more opportunities to make money. She tried part-time jobs at various places near her school just to barely sustain her own expenses.
During her time in school, at least she had access to cheap cafeterias and dormitories. Now that graduation was approaching, she had to face the high cost of living in the city. Jiang Juyou truly felt that she was barely surviving.
"Ding—"
Just when she was feeling down and contemplating finding a place to bury herself, her phone chimed with a message notification.
"Are you available for an interview today?"
Jiang Juyou was almost startled when she saw this message, but then she remembered it was from that "Gā Yāozi" person.
After a brief moment of excitement, Jiang Juyou carefully reviewed the job posting again. Finally, she sighed and said, "Well, it can't be any harder than it is now, can it?"
"Jiang Juyou: Is it possible to have an interview? But I wanted to ask, is this some kind of illegal company?"
"Anonymous: Haha, why would it be?"
"..."
It seemed more likely.
"Anonymous: If you're worried, we can have an online interview. When would be convenient for you?"
Jiang Juyou's thoughts were wavering back and forth. On one hand, she felt like it wasn't a legitimate company, but on the other hand, what if she got lucky like her sister? What would she do then?
She looked at the message from the other side and hesitated for a moment.
"Jiang Juyou: I'm available now."
If it were a legitimate company, she would have chosen tomorrow for the interview so she could go back and prepare. But with this company, she wanted to take a surprise look and see if they would panic upon receiving her message.
To her surprise, after she sent her message, they didn't reply but instead called her directly on video.
It caught Jiang Juyou off guard.
After accepting the invitation for the online interview, her face appeared on the screen. Everything happened so suddenly that Jiang Juyou didn't have time to think about how they managed to make the video call or why their company could remain anonymous.
Only her face was on the screen; the other side didn't turn on the camera, but she could hear a voice saying, "Hello, let me introduce our company to you first. We are a newly established entertainment agency. For the internship period, the monthly salary is 8,500 yuan, including meals and accommodation. We can provide internship certificates, and the salary after regularization can be negotiated. Are you clear about all of this?"
Jiang Juyou looked at the slightly distorted expression on the screen and replied, "...I'm clear."
Her initial doubts began to fade away. Since it was related to the entertainment industry, some of the previous conditions seemed reasonable.
Jiang Juyou glanced at the black screen on the other side and cautiously asked again, "...Are you sure this isn't some kind of scam?"
"Haha, why would it be?" that somewhat cold voice replied. "If you're really concerned, you can come and see for yourself."
"When would be convenient for me to come and see?" she inquired.
"If you agree to the internship, you can sign the contract now. Once it's confirmed, I'll send you the address."
Jiang Juyou couldn't help but close her eyes. It sounded more and more like a scam the more she heard, but when someone is desperate, they're willing to believe anything. After some internal struggle, Jiang Juyou made up her mind and gritted her teeth, "Alright, I'll sign."
If she really got scammed or deceived, then her sister and little sister would have to work hard to repay the debt. But if it turned out to be real, she would be overjoyed.
With the mindset of a gambler, Jiang Juyou ended the video call and received the document sent by the other party, carefully reading through it.
The document was nothing special, just a typical contract with terms that seemed overly fair, even to the point of being too generous. Jiang Juyou had never even heard of the six social insurance and housing fund benefits before. She had to look it up to find out what the additional benefit was.
However, she also noticed that the column for the company name on the document was empty, which made her suspicion lean towards it being a scam company.
Nevertheless, Jiang Juyou gathered her courage and reluctantly signed her name on the electronic contract. After all, she hadn't sent it yet; she was just playing around with the signature.
Almost simultaneously, she heard a voice in her mind—
"Ding—"
"Welcome to the Entertainment Company Operations Manual."
"What the heck?!" Jiang Juyou was so startled that she covered her head.
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