Chapter 61: The Painter

  Sun Renchao is the founder of Clement Paper Products Company, he has been in the United States for 46 years, starting from a small workshop, after decades of hard work, now he has to sell his life's work to Jestar, it's naturally very reluctant.

  These two days, Jie brought the whole company, including the affiliated factories and other places, to take a look around. Looking at the trees that were planted when the company was first founded, now grown into towering trees, but having to give up this foundation he had built, although it was a decision made long ago, Sun Renchao still found it hard to say out loud.

  So the contract was delayed until the last minute before the mainland talks were held.

  Jester, who has been accompanying each other for two days and is a bit annoyed, also warned the other party to either sign the contract as soon as possible or break up.

  So, despite feeling extremely reluctant in his heart, Sun Renchao still agreed to sign the contract.

  "Xiao Jie, I'm also your elder now. Tell me one thing, what do you want to buy this paper mill for?" Sun Renchao stroked the trunk of a tree he had planted himself in the factory area, and after a long silence, asked Jester a question.

  Jester hesitated for a moment before speaking, "It's also a printed card game. I can't reveal the specifics, but it's not poker anymore. It's a new card game that I just came up with."

  Upon hearing Jester's reply, a hint of a smile appeared on Sun Renchao's pale face. He nodded and said with a tone of gratitude: "As long as it doesn't get demolished, that's all I can ask for. In my entire life, I've only managed to accomplish this much. If it weren't for that son of mine, there's no way I would have sold out the life's work of my generation."

  Jie Si didn't respond, Sun Ren Chao just continued talking to himself, "Once I've finished dealing with these trivial matters, I'll decide to settle down on the mainland..."

  Actually, Jester didn't finish what he was saying. He meant to continue making cards, but he never said not to dismantle the card factory.

  Jestar ultimately signed an agreement with Sun Renyao in the name of Windy Games to complete this acquisition, acquiring all the shares of Clement Paper Card Company for a total price of $4 million.

  The company's employees are still quite sensitive about changing bosses, after all, this enterprise was built up bit by bit by Sun Renchao.

  Moreover, the company's employees are also worried, after all, they have been suspended for half a month. The several best-selling poker cards in the factory were sold out earlier, and most people don't think highly of the new boss, thinking that he is just a scapegoat found by the old boss.

  There have been many signs of a large number of employees planning to quit their jobs.

  This is a situation that Jester did not want to see, and the main reason he was willing to buy Clement Paper Products Company was that they had sales channels covering the entire western United States, central United States, and even some in the eastern United States. However, for fast-moving consumer goods like playing cards, the sales channel is actually in the hands of the salesmen. If a large number of salesmen leave their jobs, even if this channel is not completely cut off, it will still be severely damaged.

  Fortunately, the majority of employees at Clements were Chinese, and the main sales channels also followed Sun Renchao when he left. The Chinese are more nostalgic, and after some white and black employees had submitted their resignation requests, they just waited to see what the new boss would do.

  In fact, the playing card printing industry is a low-tech industry that relies heavily on sales skills to sell as much as possible, so these people also think that if the new boss still wants to continue making playing cards, they will definitely be reused.

  To be honest, it's really hard for Chinese people to find a job in the US nowadays. Most of them still have to go through Chinese associations to work for Chinese companies, and even then, it's difficult to find one that matches their current qualifications.

  Jester didn't want to see these seasoned salesmen leave, especially those who had previously performed well. So he immediately announced that Clements would continue to be in the card business, but not with the old poker cards, rather a new, original card game that had never been seen on the market before.

  As for what type of card game it is, Jester didn't say clearly due to hesitation in design and reasons for secrecy.

  Because the card's appearance design work has not yet started, it cannot start immediately. However, Jester also promised that within a month, normal work will definitely resume, and during this one-month suspension, wages will still be paid.

  What Jester said is also nonsense, a large part of the printing workers are white and black people, these people do not have as many worries as Chinese people, when Clement Company stopped production, a large number of them resigned, but at that time Sun Renyuan really did not have the ability to pay off their wages, so they gave up.

  This time, these people saw that there was a substitute to take over, and immediately continued to ask for resignation. For these frontline workers' resignations, Gerst didn't care much. Whoever wanted to resign, whether white, black or Chinese, he approved them all, with full compensation of wages and unemployment benefits. In his mind, he even had no intention of keeping the printing factory running in the long run.

  In his future vision, Clement's American company would only be responsible for the design and sales of cards, while moving the production manufacturing with low technical content to places with lower labor costs, such as the mainland that is currently being opened up.

  The labor cost in the US is really too high now. A person's monthly salary can hire a whole workshop of workers on the mainland.

  And the quality of production will not be worse than in the United States.

  Who would want to be in manufacturing in America with such a labor cost comparison?

  Qin Danyu is the only artist left at Clements Playing Card Company, with the others having resigned previously.

  He is not Chinese but an overseas Chinese.

  He lived in a cowshed during the ten-year catastrophe, wore an iron hat and paraded through the streets. He was once a student at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, studied figure painting with famous masters when he was young, and learned oil painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. After graduation, he could have stayed in school, but because of his bad background, he suffered during the catastrophe. After the catastrophe ended, he returned to school and applied for a quota to study abroad.

  After arriving in the United States, he further studied at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for two years, mastering both Eastern and Western painting techniques. He excelled at portrait painting and, after experiencing America's prosperity, did not want to return to the backward mainland. Instead, he preferred to work as an undocumented immigrant, drawing illustrations for tourists in some squares, earning a meager living with US dollars, and living a life worse than that of pigs and dogs. Despite this, he was unwilling to return to his homeland to take up the respected professor position that had been promised to him by his alma mater.

  His life might have just drifted on like that until he was deported back to his home country by immigration authorities for overstaying, but it's also a turn of fortune.

  Two years ago, Sun Renchao coincidentally met Qin Danyu who was painting for someone. He also came from a scholarly family and saw that Qin's painting skills were extraordinary. As it happened, his own company lacked a painter, so after understanding Qin's experience, he helped him solve the identity problem and gave him a job.

  So Qin Duan Yu was extremely grateful to Sun Ren Chao, and even when Clement Paper Company was in its most difficult time, he never had the thought of leaving.

  In recent years, his illustrated playing cards have sold well and he has gained some reputation in the industry. Therefore, before Clement decided to sell, several similar manufacturers had approached him, hoping he could go over, but Qin Duanyu had rejected them all.

  Jester couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Qin Duan Yu. He had learned from Sun Ren Chao that this talented painter was only thirty-seven years old, but looking at his already gray temples and sunken eye sockets, if Jester hadn't known his exact age, he would have thought the man was over fifty years old.

  "I like your character illustrations."

  Jest held a stack of drawing paper in his hand, on which were portraits of people, all famous figures from the American Civil War era, each with their own characteristics and styles, without any similarity. This was Clement's previous release of a poker game with the theme of the Civil War, which opened up the market instantly after its release.

  Qin Duan Yu just smiled and didn't say anything, but a hint of pride still flashed in his eyes. This was indeed a work he took great pride in, after all, this product had once earned Clement Company a lot of money and was one of the company's main products.

  Jester didn't think much of it, he took out a draft paper that he had written long ago, which was filled with names, all from ancient Europe. He handed the draft paper to Qin Danyu and smiled, saying: "Take a look at these people, do you know them?"

  Qin Duan Yu took the manuscript with some curiosity, looked at the content on it, and after a moment, his eyebrows furrowed. He read from the first name to the last name on the manuscript before taking a deep breath and putting it back on the table.

  Then he shook his head and said, "I can only say that I know most of them. When I was at New York University, I was very interested in European history, and I studied the history of Charlemagne's period and got a degree. These seem to be celebrities from that time, and some only exist in legends and stories. However, there is very little historical material from Europe during that period, and even fewer names have been left behind. Those that I have never heard of before, I think may be fabricated."

  Jester smiled in satisfaction after hearing the reply, and he didn't say any more unnecessary words. Instead, he said directly: "I want you to draw character illustrations of these people. For ordinary people who are familiar with them, draw them in a way that fits their image in the minds of ordinary people. For those fictional ones that only exist in stories, just let your imagination run wild, but make sure they have distinctive features and don't look the same."

  When he saw Qin Duan Yu nodding his head and simply saying that there was no problem, Jester also felt at ease.

  He saw from the poker illustration with the theme of the North and South War that Qin Duan Yu was indeed extremely talented in designing character images, so he suddenly wanted to hand over this job to him. Originally, he wanted to assign the task of character illustration to those painters at Huo Xing Entertainment.

  However, thinking of Mars Entertainment's recent heavy workload, he casually asked about the level of the original painters in Sun Renchao's company.

  It never occurred to him that Sun Renchao would be slightly complacent, facing Jester and saying: "I am also a book fragrance door, I was young and learned about Dan Qing, my company has a painter named Qin Danyu from China, the level is very high, in my opinion, at least it's a self-made person."

  Then he sighed and said, "If it were in the past, a painter of his level would definitely be a master of his generation."

  It was because of Sun Renchao's praise that Jester became curious, and he first found Qin Danyu's original illustration manuscript, which made him feel that the other party was a rare talent, so there was a previous conversation.

  However, Jester's time was tight and he hoped that the first edition of his card game, which he named "World Turbulence", could be officially released within a month. So he asked Qin Duanyu how long it would take to complete the character illustrations.

  "Three months." Qin Duan Yu was very concise in his words. Facing Jester's question, he still gave a simple answer as before.

  Jester also knew that it would take a lot of time to complete these dozens of colorful characters, but he still didn't give up and continued to ask: "Can't you just speed it up a bit? Like in a month?"

  "Haha." Qin Duan Yu looked at Jester with a surprised glance, then chuckled and replied simply, "Do you think painting is like steaming buns, where one can steam a whole pot at once?"

  Seeing the disappointed look on Jester's face, Qin Dianyu also furrowed his brow and thought for a moment before saying: "If Mr. can match me with a few suitable assistants, it's not impossible to complete within a month..."

  "What!" This time, Jester's face finally showed an extremely surprised expression, and he asked incredulously, "Did Mr. Qin mean that one person can complete it within three months?"

  "Yes." Qin Duan Yu still just nodded slightly.

  Within three months, one person completed dozens of character settings with vastly different styles, both male and female. Such a feat left Jester somewhat incredulous.

  He himself has done original drawings for games, especially character images. An artist is inevitably influenced by his previous works, especially when it comes to characters. As a result, many artists' character designs, despite having different faces, still show many similarities in details. This is something that can't be hidden from many people's eyes.

  However, Jester suddenly thought of the poker card illustrations he had carefully looked at earlier. Each character surprisingly had its own characteristics. Even with his half-baked painter level, it seemed that each image was created separately, and no similarities could be seen between each character.

  Just this one work alone is enough for Qin Danyu, the painter, to live up to Sun Renhe's evaluation of him as a first-rate master.

  So, Jester didn't doubt anymore and asked directly: "Mr. Qin, is it hard to find the assistant you want?"

  "Not hard to find."

  Qin Duan nodded slightly and after he finished speaking, a hint of bitter smile appeared on his face.

  "Mr. Li, actually there are many artists like me who came from mainland China to study in the US and didn't want to go back after graduation. However, these people aren't as lucky as I am, getting help from a noble person and finding a job that they're somewhat satisfied with. The vast majority of them, just like me a few years ago, have to work under the table at restaurants or draw portraits for tourists in crowded areas just to make ends meet. These people were all top-notch artists back home, their skills no worse than mine, but unexpectedly, after coming here, they can only do these humiliating jobs."

  Jester nodded, and these things were also rumored in his previous life.

  At this time, America is both heaven and hell.

  But that's not his business, it's their own will to stay in the US and live a miserable life. He simply said: "Then let Mr. Qin go find them, their treatment will be the same as before, according to the treatment of Clement Company's painters, I only require one thing, within a month, I want to see this character's illustration."

  Qin Duan nodded and simply said four words.

  "No problem."

  It's not easy to finally get into the author area...