49. Accepting Sponsorships

Little Bai said she wanted to climb the tree. It was not a question, nor an imperative sentence, but a simple statement. As soon as she finished speaking, she hugged the tree trunk and prepared to climb.

She meant business and was definitely not just messing around.

Seeing her use both hands and feet to scramble upward, Zhang Tan thought that although she wasn't quite a little monkey, she could certainly give a baby monkey a run for its money. Her movements were nimble, showing she had plenty of practice.

"Is that a good idea, Little Bai? It's very dangerous," Zhang Tan said, strongly tempted to just pull her down. But knowing her domineering and cute-boss personality, she would undoubtedly throw a tantrum and might even end up biting him again.

"This is my strong suit, you see. Having claws makes it not dangerous at all," Little Bai puffed and panted.

"Why on earth do you want to climb the tree?" Zhang Tan asked, looking at her at eye level since she had already climbed up to that height.

"Just for fun, you see."

That meant she simply wanted to climb the tree for no other reason. Her heart's desire guided her actions. She was embarking on a journey that started simply because she felt like climbing a tree.

"This really isn't a good idea, Little Bai. It's getting dark, trees are dangerous, and besides, you're going to get your clothes dirty again." Zhang Tan was already getting ready to intervene and bring Little Bai down, as this child was slipping beyond his control.

"Rubbish! There's no danger in the tree. Big Uncle, come on up together!"

Instead of stopping, the domineering little boss even tried to recruit him.

Seeing that she was about to succeed in climbing the tree, Zhang Tan decisively took action and snatched her down.

"What? What are you doing?! Don't touch me!"

Little Bai waved her hands and kicked her feet, extremely unhappy that all her hard work had gone to waste.

She glared fiercely at Zhang Tan, looking as if she were ready to pounce and tear into him at any moment.

Unable to help himself, Zhang Tan placed his briefcase in front of his chest—better than nothing to ward off the little puppy.

"Stop trying to climb trees, it's very dangerous. You're still a little kid."

Little Bai was furious, glaring at him. "You're making me so mad I could burst into ghost-fire! Get away from me!"

Zhang Tan wasn't angry at all. He chuckled and said, "Don't be mad, don't be mad. Want to come over to my place to watch cartoons? I have Little Bear drinks waiting for you, too."

Upon hearing this, Little Bai wavered a bit. She wasn't as angry anymore, but... she shook her head in refusal.

"What? You don't like watching cartoons?"

"I do."

"Then you don't like drinking Little Bear drinks?"

"I do, you see."

"Then why are you shaking your head?"

"Little Bear drinks taste good, but I don't have any money. What's the use of that?"

"I'll treat you. It's free."

Little Bai shook her head in silence, shuffled back over to the tree, and prepared to climb it once more.

Zhang Tan blocked her path. "Stop climbing trees. I'll take you to drink Little Bear drinks and watch cartoons. Doesn't that sound great?"

Little Bai bypassed him and said irritably, "What's so great about it? I told you I have no money, no money at all! Drinking for free when you have no money is just talking nonsense!"

***

So fierce. Even offering to treat her to drinks made her mad. She was so hard to handle. Seeing her climbing the tree again, Zhang Tan went back to call Teacher Liu.

Teacher Liu was about to shout a warning from afar to stop her, but Zhang Tan hurriedly intercepted her, saying, "Careful, you might scare her and make her fall."

"Emm, that's true."

Teacher Liu hurried over, but Little Bai had already spotted her and mustered all her strength to speed up. *Climb fast, climb fast, climb high so Teacher Liu can't catch me!* But she was still a step too slow. She was caught by Teacher Liu, scooped up, and forcibly ordered back to the classroom.

Little Bai hummed and grunted as she was escorted away. Zhang Tan watched her and Teacher Liu's figures retreat, feeling a slight sense of accomplishment. After all, he had prevented a potential accident.

Back at home, Zhang Tan washed up, feeling much refreshed. Just as he curled up on the sofa ready to watch a movie, he suddenly remembered that his official WeChat account hadn't been updated for many days.

"People are probably cursing me out by now."

Opening the Xiliu Video website, the account icon in the top right corner showed over 50 unread messages. Opening them, they were all urging him to update and asking why he had stopped posting.

"Huh?"

Zhang Tan noticed one message with unusual content.

"I am Li Rui, the planning manager of Yonglong Entertainment. I'd like to discuss a collaboration with you. If interested, please add my WeChat..."

Yonglong Entertainment? Planning manager? Zhang Tan pondered for a moment, not rushing to make a decision, and continued browsing the rest of the direct messages. After reading them all, he reopened this particular message. If it wasn't a scam, then they probably wanted to place an advertisement with him.

Zhang Tan opened his account, "Breathtaking," which had already reached 160,000 followers and held a certain advertising value. Most importantly, it was a professional film and television account, and the other party claimed to be Yonglong Entertainment—judging by the name, it should be a film and television company.

When he registered his account and stayed up late making videos to build it up, it was precisely for the sake of taking on advertisements. Now, he had finally waited for one.

Zhang Tan first searched for Yonglong Entertainment online. Results popped up immediately; it was indeed a real company. Logging onto their official website, he found it was quite large in scale, with businesses spanning both movies and television dramas. Checking their list of released works, he had seen one and heard of two others.

This was a legitimate company with genuine strength.

Zhang Tan applied to add Li Rui on WeChat, and in less than a minute, the request was accepted.

"Hello, are you the creator of 'Breathtaking'? I'm Li Rui, planning manager at Yonglong Entertainment."

Zhang Tan didn't reply immediately. Instead, he clicked on the other person's Moments and saw many posts related to movies and television, and even photos with celebrities.

Although he knew that if the other person were a scammer, their Moments would definitely be meticulously packaged with no flaws visible, Zhang Tan still couldn't help but be willing to trust them a little more.

"Manager Li, hello. My name is Zhang Tan. You were looking for me?"

The other party stated their purpose concisely and clearly, aligning with what Zhang Tan had guessed: they wanted to place an advertisement on his official account.

"Is Mr. Zhang available for a phone call? Let's discuss the details."

Zhang Tan took the initiative to start a voice call, and judging by the voice, the other party wasn't very old.

A dozen minutes later, the two finished their conversation and agreed to meet at a cafe on West Chang'an Street at 7:00 PM tomorrow evening.

Specifically, Yonglong Entertainment had produced a movie that was releasing soon and was currently carrying out promotional activities. They had taken a liking to Zhang Tan's platform.

Zhang Tan went online and looked up the movie Li Rui mentioned, *Tomorrow's You*, a youth romance film. The production company was indeed Yonglong Entertainment, boasting an investment of 80 million, with quite famous lead actors and a well-known director.

There was no use overthinking how tomorrow's meeting would turn out. Zhang Tan closed the webpage and prepared to work on a new video. Regardless of whether today's ad deal would succeed or not, it at least proved that as long as one had followers, advertisers would come knocking. The financial future was bright.

Just as a fired-up Zhang Tan was busy working, the doorbell rang.

Little Bai?

The person most likely to knock on his door at night was undoubtedly Little Bai.

***

Opening the door and looking down, sure enough, it was Little Bai.

"Big Uncle, give you some french fries."

She handed over a small paper bag containing a handful of little french fries.

"For me? Ah, thank you."

He breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. He had been worried Little Bai was coming to pick a fight, especially since he had snitched on her to Teacher Liu.

Seeing Little Bai return good for evil, Zhang Tan became much more enthusiastic.

"Come on in, come on in, sit down for a bit. What's this? Where did you get these?"

Didn't she say she had no money?

Little Bai didn't come in; instead, she shoved the french fries into Zhang Tan's hands.

"Chengcheng's old man gave them."

"Ah? Old man?" Zhang Tan asked in surprise. Seeing Little Bai give him that "you're so silly" look again, he quickly switched to using his broken Sichuan-accented Mandarin to ask: "What does this mean, you see~~"

Perhaps the broken Sichuan accent shortened the distance between them, as Little Bai giggled and said it meant father.

Father? I thought it meant some weird uncle!

"Did Chengcheng's father just send these over?"

Little Bai nodded and said yes. Meng Chengcheng's father had just picked up the little kids and left behind the french fries and chicken wings he had bought.

"We ate the chicken wings," Little Bai confessed honestly, meaning that he shouldn't even think about the chicken wings—there was none left for him.

The french fries were the ones she had saved, otherwise Zhang Tan wouldn't even have gotten a share.

Zhang Tan checked the time: it was 10:00 PM. Meng Chengcheng's father had come quite early tonight; usually, he didn't get off work until after 11:00.

"Have you eaten? You should eat them yourself," Zhang Tan said.

Upon hearing this, Little Bai's little face showed a hint of displeasure. She waved her hand and said, "I gave them to you to eat, so just eat them. Why are you talking so much nonsense?"

"I'll eat them, of course I'll eat them. I love french fries."

Little Bai immediately cheered up and spun around Zhang Tan's feet.

Who knew what that meant? Just one of her many perplexing behaviors.

"Eat them slowly, you see. I'm leaving, bye~~~"

"Come in and sit for a while."

Zhang Tan didn't even dare mention Little Bear drinks to her anymore, worried it would produce the exact opposite effect.

"Bye~~"

Little Bai waved her little hand dashingly and left without leaving behind a single cloud.