Chapter 51

The next evening, Xiaobai still wore that red Zhonghua jacket. Unlike yesterday, the sleeves were rolled up, but even so, the little one's forehead was still sweating from the heat. With her love for running around, she quickly went from being as fragrant as Chengcheng to being stinky.

To prevent further stink, she could only stay in the classroom, sitting under the air conditioner to read picture books, or play games and sing songs with other children. Playing soccer was out of the question, which was a real pity.

The sun had not yet set, and the summer evening was filled with a sky of rosy clouds. The golden sunset spread out, and the Little Red Horse Academy was surrounded by dense forests, with tree shadows swaying. Unknown little birds chirped from the leaves, and everything was beautiful, perfect for children to run around and laugh.

However, Xiaobai could only stay obediently at home, running to find Zhang Tan, but no one answered the door, and he hadn't returned yet.

After work, Zhang Tan, as agreed, met Li Rui from Yonglong Entertainment at a coffee shop on West Chang'an Street.

He arrived 10 minutes early, just found a seat, when a young man approached and asked, "Are you Mr. Zhang Tan?"

Zhang Tan sized up the man, who looked no more than 30 years old, with an ordinary appearance and wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses, carrying a black leather bag.

He stood up, "That's me. Are you Manager Li?"

"Yes, yes, I'm Li Rui. Hello, Mr. Zhang."

Zhang Tan invited him to sit down.

"Young Mr. Zhang, you look so young, and your videos are great..."

Zhang Tan ordered two cups of coffee and discussed the collaboration with Li Rui.

The other party didn't beat around the bush and directly quoted a price, asking Zhang Tan to create a pre-roll ad for five consecutive episodes, offering 30,000 yuan in ad fees.

Although Zhang Tan hadn't taken on ads before, he had done some research and had an idea of what to expect. Li Rui's quote was relatively fair, but not particularly high.

After some negotiation, they finally agreed on a pre-roll ad for five consecutive episodes, with an ad fee of 40,000 yuan.

The pre-roll ad was for the promotion of the movie "Tomorrow's You," which was about to be released, coinciding with the latter half of the summer season.

Li Rui took out a contract from his briefcase and signed it with Zhang Tan on the spot, then left.

A pre-roll ad is one form of advertising, among many others, such as post-roll ads, or creating a special video for "Tomorrow's You" as a form of indirect advertising.

However, Zhang Tan was self-aware; he was just a small YouTuber, and ad agencies wouldn't take him too seriously. It was already good to have ads to take on.

Relatively speaking, Li Rui's quote was quite sincere.

If the five episodes of the ad performed well, there might be further collaboration.

The other party would pay 30,000 yuan upfront, and the remaining 20,000 yuan would be paid after the five episodes were completed.

The other party also had a requirement: the five episodes must be updated within half a month.

Zhang Tan now averaged one episode every three days. Recently, due to the "Unlucky Bear" project, his schedule had been delayed, but now it wasn't a problem. The scriptwriting was on track, and with five people working together, he didn't have to rack his brains alone, ensuring he had time to work on the ads.

Because he had earned money, Zhang Tan specially bought another box of bear drinks. When he returned to the urban village and parked his car, he met Huang Meimei coming home.

The girl was dressed formally, in a lady's suit and a pencil skirt.

She first greeted Zhang Tan, then her gaze dropped to the bear drinks he was carrying, seeing a huge, shamefully cute bear.

Huang Meimei immediately showed a look of disdain, and Zhang Tan seemed to hear a strange "Ew~".

"Stopped drinking alcohol and switched to bear drinks?" Huang Meimei asked.

"Occasionally, mainly for the kids," Zhang Tan explained.

"Oh—"

Oh, what a load of nonsense. Can't adult men drink bear drinks?

"Xiaobai likes to drink them."

"Xiaobai?" Huang Meimei was surprised, then pouted, thinking he didn't know. Zhang Tan and Xiaobai didn't get along from the first meeting, and Zhang Tan had even been bitten by Xiaobai. Would he buy bear drinks for Xiaobai?

Seeing her expression, Zhang Tan realized that after buying children's socks and now bear drinks, he was probably seen as a half-pervert by Huang Meimei.

He didn't bother to explain: "Let's go."

Tap, tap, tap~

Huang Meimei, in her high heels, followed him, asking curiously, "Zhang Tan, guess who I met today?"

"Who?"

"Guess."

"Me."

"Huh?"

"Didn't you just meet me?"

"Boring!"

Seeing that Zhang Tan really wasn't interested in guessing, she had to disappointingly reveal, "Tang Yu."

Tang Yu? Zhang Tan thought for a moment, remembering this person who had sent him several messages and called him, but he had only replied to a few messages and never answered the calls.

"What happened? Remembered? She was your ex-girlfriend, right?" Huang Meimei asked curiously.

Zhang Tan simply said, "You said ex-girlfriend, so what's there to talk about? Stop being nosy. Bye, oh, and a small suggestion, don't wear that short skirt, it makes your butt look huge."

Huang Meimei stood there, tilting her head to try to see her own butt, but could only see a little bit.

It did seem to look quite big.

She caught up to Zhang Tan and said, "A big butt looks good."

"Ew—" Zhang Tan said in disgust, "It looks too sexy."

"Zhang! Tan—"

Zhang Tan had already quickly walked away.

Back at the academy, he saw a bunch of children chattering and playing games in the classroom. Although he didn't find Xiaobai, she was among them, as he could hear her Sichuan-accented voice calling out loudly.

When Zhang Tan got home, he opened the box of bear drinks and put them in the fridge, took a shower, changed clothes, and sat back at his desk to work on the video. Pressure brings motivation; otherwise, he might have delayed it again.

At 10:30 PM, he turned off his computer, went downstairs for a walk, and checked on Xiaobai, but learned that she was already asleep.

Without Xiaobai, the first floor was empty, with the children either picked up or sleeping upstairs.

As Zhang Tan walked around the courtyard, a chubby man appeared, his yellowed white shirt stretched tight, almost bursting. The shirt was clearly too small.

"Hello, Mr. Zhang."

Zhang Tan recognized him as Meng Chengcheng's father, Meng Guangxin.

"Hello, coming to pick up Chengcheng? You're earlier than usual today."

"Finished work early, so I came earlier."

"Are you on night shift?"

"Night shift? No, I work from 9 to 5, hehe."

That must be some crazy overtime, not 996, but 007.

Zhang Tan smiled and changed the subject, "Chengcheng is sleeping, go take a look."

"Okay, see you, Mr. Zhang."

"See you."

Zhang Tan watched him enter the building, noticing that his back was drenched in sweat, sticking to his body.

Soon, Meng Guangxin carried Chengcheng out. The little girl was wearing a beautiful princess dress, snuggled in her father's arms like a little kitten, sleeping soundly.

Zhang Tan, of course, knew about this princess dress. Everyone in the Little Red Horse Academy, both teachers and children, knew about it. On the first day Meng Chengcheng wore it, she was surrounded by everyone, with the girls envying her and the boys thinking she looked beautiful, and the teachers praising her for being so cute.

The shy Meng Chengcheng had a rosy face, her eyes sparkling, and she smelled sweet, like a blooming little melon.

Meng Guangxin smiled silently at Zhang Tan, carrying Meng Chengcheng, and slowly left the academy.