Chapter 54: Second Update

Chapter 54 [Second Update] The move happened pretty suddenly.

Because Sang Ying suddenly — Aurora Entertainment was renting space in the Huajing building.

Ever since Xi Xingfa went full 'creep mode' — or maybe just showed his true colors — Sang Ying stopped talking to him.

But the Xi family was getting antsy.

No face-to-face meetings, but they kept reaching out through every channel possible, sending gifts.

The projects Xi Xingfa had invested in that were tied to Sang Ying?

Not only did he not pull out — he doubled down, hoping to keep the friendship alive.

And Sang Ying?

Honestly, it hadn't bothered her at first.

But being constantly 'reminded' of it started to get under her skin.

Around that time, Yin Rong suggested that since the company had scaled up several times over, maybe they should lease a couple more floors for expansion.

Sang Ying had a new idea — nah, forget leasing.

Just buy a whole building outright.

So the search for a new place began.

'New' is relative, though.

If you're building from scratch, you've got to wait for construction, then renovation, then ventilation, then move-in — that's a whole lifetime away.

A finished building is way better.

Ready to go.

Of course, there's never going to be a perfectly renovated, brand-new, fully vacant building just sitting there waiting.

So Sang Ying set realistic expectations — didn't need to hit every condition perfectly.

As long as the building was relatively new and had enough space for the headcount, it'd work.

Other companies already in the building?

Fine, that's negotiable.

With the right compensation offer, there'd always be room to talk about breaking leases. · Yi Xiaonan almost clocked in late again.

She was rushing to work but the traffic lights were brutally long — not gonna make it!

Once she hit the check-in radius, she yanked open the app and scanned her face as fast as humanly possible.

Thank god for HR.

Two-hundred-meter check-in radius.

She definitely couldn't just not go up to the office — today was Monday, and both the department head and the big bosses were all in.

Yi Xiaonan fixed her hair in the blurry elevator reflection, and the moment the doors opened, she walked straight into a cluster of executives.

Terrible luck — !

Yi Xiaonan's face went a little red.

She finally made it to her desk, and the moment she sat down, Liu Jie from next over leaned in with this conspiratorial look on her face, whispering that the bosses were in a great mood today.

Good for them.

Just don't get caught slipping.

Sure enough — every single leader had this glowing, beaming look on their face.

Why though?

No idea.

Yi Xiaonan sighed and opened her computer to start retouching.

In an ad agency split across design, production, account management, and publishing — design was the department getting hit hardest by AI.

That department.

Management, trying to keep up with the times, had told everyone to learn AI tools.

Let AI handle what it could, humans handle what it couldn't — saves time, boosts efficiency.

The company was well-known in the industry, and even clients had started making that specific ask.

Because half-AI pricing was way lower than fully hand-crafted work.

But honestly — the stuff AI generated always had this greasy, uncanny quality that was just uncomfortable to look at.

Not like the clients cared.

No choice but to follow the brief.

Once she got into the work, Yi Xiaonan forgot all about it.

Like, what was she supposed to do — curse the bosses for having a good day?

Then an unexpected piece of news dropped — the company had been acquired.

By Aurora Entertainment.

Yi Xiaonan's eyes nearly popped out of her head.

Before she could even process that, an even bigger bombshell hit.

The building the company was in — plus the one right next to it — the pair known as the 'Baijing Financial Twin Towers' had been bought outright by one person.

The person who bought the Twin Towers: the head of Aurora Entertainment.

Boss Sang.

Yi Xiaonan: '...Am I still on this earth?' She watched Liu Jie practically vibrating with excitement and swallowed hard.

There's more, isn't there.

Each wave bigger than the last?!

Liu Jie kept going — apparently Boss Sang had gone through every company in the building, cherry-picked the useful ones, and acquired them.

The rest got generous buyout packages and were told to relocate.

Anyone who didn't agree could stay until their lease ran out.

But basically everyone agreed.

'Xiaonan, just think — how much would you even have to offer for all those companies downstairs to pack up and leave?

Ugh, rich people are on a whole other level!' Yi Xiaonan blinked: '...' She knew Aurora Entertainment.

Ad agencies had crossover with the entertainment world all the time — celebrity campaigns, drama posters, all of it.

Was that why Boss Sang had her company in his sights?

She knew about the pipeline Aurora Entertainment was building — acquiring an ad company made total sense.

Her coworkers all thought she didn't care about entertainment industry stuff.

In reality, she'd been a veteran lurker on every major forum for years.

Ahem.

Life gets boring, okay?

You gotta find something fun!

But... wait.

This is actually happening?!

She'd been on forums discussing Aurora Entertainment from every angle, and now it felt like the gossip had landed directly on her head.

Yi Xiaonan remembered — she'd been curious about Aurora Entertainment's employee benefits on those forums.

Heard it was good, but it was always just 'heard' — no actual Aurora Entertainment employee had ever come forward to confirm.

Now she could find out for herself?!

But... would the acquired company be managed separately from HQ, or folded into the same system?

The announcement came down fast — unified management under Aurora Entertainment's standards.

A new employee handbook was distributed.

Yi Xiaonan didn't think much of it at first, figured it'd be the same old boilerplate her previous company had.

She glanced at it and nearly choked.

First she checked the hours: a familiar range — 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

Seven hours.

Looked chill on paper, but nobody could ever guarantee whether overtime was expected or not.

Don't get your hopes up.

What made her actually lose it was the next line — in winter, work hours shift back by one hour.

Clock in at 10 AM.

She needed this — !

Anyone who's survived a winter knows the struggle.

Never fully awake, frozen hands and feet, bundled in a puffer coat trying to catch the early bus.

Period leave for women.

Paid.

Yi Xiaonan was shook.

It was only one day, sure, but that was still leave...

The first day of your cycle is always the worst — you just have to white-knuckle through it until it eases up.

Then there was a gender-neutral 'I'm just not feeling it today' leave.

For everyone, regardless of gender.

Parents with kids had leave too.

Also one day.

This one had a full official name that was both extremely long and extremely funny: the 'I need to go deal with a minor incident my kid had at school today' leave.

All the standard leave types — wedding leave, maternity leave, sick leave, personal leave — were spelled out clearly, no vague language.

Overtime pay breakdown was also right there to read.

Not only was there overtime pay, dinner was covered, and a ride home was included.

Those hours would also factor into the year-end bonus calculation.

Monthly salary paid by the 5th of the following month, no later than the 10th.

Yi Xiaonan's mouth moved: 'What the...' This had to be a dying office worker's hallucination.

More likely she'd just lost her mind from overworking.

How could there be this much leave?

They already had full weekends off!

Yi Xiaonan snapped to attention, a thought clicking into place — ...So that's why no one online was out here bragging about Aurora Entertainment's benefits.

Like, you couldn't find a single Aurora Entertainment employee anywhere on the internet.

Of course.

With perks like these, the moment word got out, people would be clawing over each other to apply.

Yi Xiaonan felt like her brain was about to overheat.

Too much to process.

Was this what it felt like when the universe just drops something good in your lap?

She felt like she was floating.

This was almost too human-centered?

It was like Boss Sang had personally experienced working a job, having a period, and raising a kid — every single angle covered, nothing overlooked. · Sang Ying had worked jobs.

No period.

No kids.

But growing up, half the people she saw every day at home had periods.

There were four people in the family, after all.

Sang Ying had run errands for both Liu Ping and Sang Ying's sister — buying pads, the whole deal.

The two of them had completely different experiences with their cycles.

Liu Ping barely noticed hers, but Sang Ying's sister had it rough.

Passed out multiple times.

Fainted from the pain on the school track.

Fainted in the bathroom at home.

Nearly gave Sang Ying — who'd been impatiently knocking on the door — a heart attack.

Sang Ying's sister tried Western medicine, tried herbal remedies, nothing really worked.

Later, once Sang Ying had the means, she took her to a private hospital.

The symptoms could only be managed, not cured — every cycle, she was completely wrecked.

Last time Sang Ying had been half-dead at home with a bad cold, she'd looked just as destroyed.

That's what made Sang Ying's sister flash back to her own period days.

So that leave — Sang Ying added it in deliberately, still a little haunted by the memory.

Please don't faint in the office .JPG.

It's not worth losing one workday over.

As for the other leave types — just stuff Sang Ying picked up from being an employee, a kid, a student.

She'd thought it through early, and she was generous about it.

What Sang Ying didn't know was that the news had gotten out.

Her image had shifted — or rather, evolved from its previous form.

She'd gone from 'gold standard of Domestic Entertainment,' 'Sang Ying's productions respect the source material,' and 'the one swimming against the current in Domestic Entertainment' — to 'actually a decent human being running a company.' · [Garden Group | Thread: People in the group were curious about Aurora Entertainment's (jgyl) benefits — now that we know, we're not happy about it] ———— [OP] Same.

Why can't I stumble into a company like this? [Reply 3] Are these benefits actually real...?

Period leave + emotional health leave + 10 AM winter clock-in...

My company docks pay for sick days, and I've clearly been wasting my loyalty on the wrong place. [Reply 5] Are they hiring rn?

I'm sending my resume immediately. 985 grad, design major, five years of experience, fluent in PS/AI/AE, willing to walk through fire for Boss Sang, willing to commit crimes [Reply 9] Uh... the crime part is a bit much.

But I can't lie, my eyes are literally leaking lemon juice rn, these benefits have me so jealous... [Reply 14] 'I need to go deal with a minor incident my kid had at school today' leave... that name has Green Leaf written all over it, you can just tell.

Does Green Leaf have kids?

So relatable... [Reply 16] Don't spread rumors about Green Leaf!

The fact that she built a company like this — I'm genuinely going to be obsessed, this is what a truly human-centered company looks like... [Reply 18] My last job also called itself 'human-centered,' said no forced overtime — then just made us take the work home instead.

Lol. [Reply 23] For that period leave alone, I'm buying an Aurora Entertainment movie ticket next time.

People who don't get cramps probably can't understand the pain.

Every month on day one I'm just white-knuckling it on painkillers, face completely drained.

And my manager asked if I'd been up late binge-watching dramas because I had dark circles.

I wasn't watching anything. [Reply 28] I mentioned before that there were never any Aurora Entertainment employees leaking stuff in the industry.

Now I get it — if you bragged about it, everyone would rush to apply.

If everyone rushed to apply, it'd get competitive.

If it got competitive, it'd be over. [Reply 31] Being able to stay in bed one extra hour on a winter morning — I run cold, I genuinely need this. [Reply 34] Every other acquisition comes with layoffs, pay cuts, cost-cutting.

This one?

Acquires a company and immediately upgrades everyone's benefits.

Honestly jealous of those people who randomly got a glow-up just by being in the right building.

That's happiness knocking on your door. [Reply 38] Reverse psychology?

No — just rich and unbothered. [Reply 41] 'Rich and unbothered' is too reductive.

They actually treat their employees like human beings. [Reply 45] I used to blacklist companies that pushed 996, wouldn't buy their products.

Now I know where my money's going.

I'll actually click on Aurora Entertainment's stuff from now on.

Boss Sang is that girl... [Reply 49] Isn't it 'sensible'? [Reply 52] It's a meme, babe!