Chapter 223: Scandals One After Another
“Yoyo Entertainment! We never have to serve you, this spoiled princess, again! Yoyo Entertainment agreed to let us start independent projects and unleash our creativity!”
Now that they had a new backer, all the staff felt like they could finally stand tall.
Fat Black Cat (Heimao Pangpang) felt uneasy. Even though she believed her success was all her own doing, she also knew that if so many people quit at once and her studio came to a halt, it could genuinely destroy her career.
Compared to the mass resignation, Chef Liu’s little scandal seemed trivial.
“The non-compete agreement…” Fat Black Cat started.
“To hell with your non-compete agreement! If you don’t compensate for the broken cup, we’ll sue you. Let’s see who will be more embarrassed then!”
Fat Black Cat thought of Xu Yoyo’s reputation. The whole internet knew she had spent tens of millions even before Song Zhibai became popular, and even hired a nanny to take care of stray cats and dogs at her villa in the capital.
She was a filthy rich heiress.
If Xu Yoyo’s legal team promised to sue her over a broken cup, it might really escalate to court.
Fat Black Cat, being a public figure, couldn’t afford such a scandal. Gritting her teeth, she said, “It’s just a broken cup, isn’t it? You’re making a mountain out of a molehill. I’ll pay whatever it costs.”
Encouraged by the others, the staff member whose cup was broken stepped forward and opened a QR code for payment.
The group no longer paid any attention to Fat Black Cat and efficiently packed up their belongings.
“The legal team said, considering how high rent is in Shanghai, the company arranged for staff dorms—everyone gets a single room with a private bathroom. The conditions are amazing.”
“They even said, since we’re leaving on short notice, each of us will receive 10,000 yuan to cover moving costs and transportation. We have three days to return our current rental homes and wrap up personal matters.”
Xu Yoyo’s generous offer left these inexperienced staffers in awe, and even Fat Black Cat was secretly stunned.
Fat Black Cat thought it over but couldn’t bear the idea of her studio becoming an empty shell. She offered, “If you’re willing to stay, I’ll give you a 50% raise.”
But no one even looked at her, busy packing up their desks.
“I heard the new office is in the best CBD building in Shanghai. Each workstation is big enough to ride a horse on, and they’re equipped with the latest computers.”
Just hearing about it made everyone eager to start their new jobs.
Fat Black Cat glanced at her studio’s cramped desks and the old computers that often froze. Inwardly, she cursed Xu Yoyo eight hundred times, but still tried to save the situation: “We’ve worked together for so long and know each other well. Changing environments is bound to be unsettling. How about this: I’ll give you an 80% raise. How about it?”
Everyone just scoffed. Even with an 80% raise, their salaries would still be less than 10,000 yuan, a far cry from what Xu Yoyo was offering. It was like tossing scraps to beggars.
Seeing that no amount of coaxing worked, Fat Black Cat’s spoiled princess temper flared up again. She snarled, “Ungrateful bastards! Just wait—I’ll enforce the non-compete clause and see if you can still get hired! You’ll regret it!”
All she got in response were their retreating backs.
Meanwhile, Xu Yoyo was listening to Xie Ran’s report over the phone.
“This move might seem a little ruthless, but after evaluating their team, it’s clear that Fat Black Cat’s success was largely due to them. They crafted scripts tailored perfectly to her personality. You could say the team contributed at least 80% to her success,” Xie Ran explained.
Unlike Fat Black Cat, who took all the credit for herself, Xie Ran genuinely recognized the team’s abilities.
“I offered them generous terms. I’m not planning for them to keep building internet celebrities. I want them to have creative freedom,” Xie Ran said, outlining his plans.
Xu Yoyo didn’t care much about the details—if something could be solved with money, it was a small issue to her. Still, she asked casually, “Everyone agreed to jump ship? Is Fat Black Cat really that unbearable?”
Worried that Xu Yoyo might think the team was disloyal, Xie Ran quickly explained, “Boss, can you imagine them earning only six to seven thousand yuan a month, including bonuses? They had to pay for rent and utilities themselves, and on top of their busy jobs, they had to babysit a boss with a glass heart and princess syndrome.”
Xu Yoyo was shocked: “Such a strong team got paid so little? Fat Black Cat is that stingy?”
Xie Ran said, “Six to seven thousand is the best case. If they annoyed her or upset her mood, their bonuses would be deducted, and they might only end up with four to five thousand.”
Although Xu Yoyo was now a capitalist, she had once been a struggling worker herself. Thinking about how miserable that situation was, she couldn’t help but sympathize: “Our company isn’t short of money. As long as they perform well, feel free to give them raises.”
Hearing this, Xie Ran couldn’t help but smile. He knew Xu Yoyo wasn’t like those stingy capitalists who suddenly struck it rich. She might lack some professional knowledge, but she truly knew how to win people’s hearts.
With everyone quitting, Fat Black Cat’s studio’s official Weibo was left unmanaged, and no one was there to calm the fans. The fans, already agitated by the Chef Liu incident, quickly spiraled into chaos.
Her manager cousin hadn’t expected that a simple one-week vacation would lead to such a catastrophe.
He had brushed off the news over the phone, but when he arrived at the studio and found even the receptionist gone and the small two-story building completely empty, he was dumbfounded.
“Why couldn’t you keep even a single person?” the cousin-manager demanded.
After Fat Black Cat rose to fame, her temper worsened. Instead of reflecting, she blamed her cousin: “Why did you have to take a vacation at such a critical time?”
Cousin: “What about the non-compete agreements? What did Xu Yoyo’s legal team say?”
Fat Black Cat: “It’s your fault for constantly squeezing the employees. If we had paid them more from the start, none of this would have happened.”
Cousin: “Hurry up and start spinning the narrative online. Even if we can’t get them back, we have to smear Xu Yoyo. We can’t let this loss go unanswered!”
Despite blaming each other, the siblings eventually reached a consensus: they couldn’t swallow this humiliation.
Just as Xu Yoyo was about to leave for Shanghai, she saw her name trending online.
“Poaching illegally?” Xu Yoyo raised an eyebrow, then quickly dismissed it. With Xie Ran handling things, there was no way she would get dragged through the mud for nothing.
Sure enough, before she even landed, the internet narrative flipped.
“A Job Paying 4-5k a Month Still Needs a Non-Compete? Is Fat Black Cat a Cute Little Princess or a Ruthless Capitalist?”
Just like Chef Liu, Fat Black Cat’s downfall began with an exposé post.
