Chapter 66 - 65: Is It Too Late to Change Agents Now?
"KEITH ZANE!! I’M NOT DONE WITH YOU!!!!"
Yvonne Lowell paused on her way downstairs when she heard the shout, but then continued to the dining room as if nothing had happened. "Morning, big bro."
"Morning. Hurry up and eat." Caleb Lowell ladled a bowl of millet porridge for her.
[Here we go, here we go~]
[Have to drag myself out of bed on a Saturday just to see my girl’s stunning face!!]
[What’s Lowell yelling about?]
[Was that him?? I thought someone was slaughtering a pig in the kitchen.]
[Who cares? Not important. As long as we have big bro and sis to watch, it’s all good.]
[Exactly. See? Sis is just sitting there, totally unfazed.]
[Where are the third brother and the youngest? Still sleeping?]
...
A moment later, Harrison Lowell came downstairs, a resentful look on his face.
"Bro, is it too late for me to get a new manager?"
"Reason?"
"I asked him to wake me up, and he just yanked me straight out of bed!"
Harrison Lowell treated the steamed bun in his hand like it was Keith Zane, taking a vicious bite.
"Seems like a pretty effective method to me," Caleb Lowell said coolly, his eyes not leaving his computer screen.
"Who wakes someone up like that?! I fell right on the floor! My butt is killing me!"
Yvonne Lowell shot a look at Keith Zane, who was standing to the side, then lightly kicked Caleb Lowell under the table.
"If you want a new one, then get a new one. Since Keith Zane is so incompetent, I’ll just fire him," Caleb Lowell said, catching on and playing along.
Harrison Lowell was taken aback by his words. "Uh, well, you don’t have to fire him. It’s not that serious."
"Aren’t you dissatisfied with him? I’m already being generous by not blacklisting him in the industry. Go to the company later and pick a new manager for yourself."
Yvonne Lowell turned to look at Keith Zane. "Brother Donovan, ever consider jumping ship to Pluto? I’ll offer you double the salary, and you can take your pick of our artists to manage."
"Miss Lowell, are you serious?!"
Although Keith Zane was just playing along with the act, he was genuinely tempted.
"Wait, I..." Harrison Lowell started to say, but he was cut off.
Yvonne Lowell raised an eyebrow. "Of course. You can start as soon as you’ve completed the handover with my second brother’s new manager."
"I accept! Thank you, Miss Lowell!"
"Hold on, hold on! I don’t agree! Did any of you ask for my opinion?!" Harrison Lowell interjected.
Yvonne Lowell looked at him teasingly. "Weren’t you the one who said you wanted a new manager?"
"So what if I don’t want to change anymore? Is that a problem?" Harrison Lowell retorted, stubbornly defiant even though he was in the wrong.
"But most of the artists in Pluto’s entertainment division are top-tier stars who work directly with Hollywood."
"I... I may be an A-lister, but I’ve filmed in Hollywood before, okay?!"
Keith Zane chimed in weakly from the side, "But Miss Lowell offered me double the salary..."
"It’s just double, right? I’ll give you double too! You’re forbidden from jumping ship!"
Yvonne Lowell smiled slyly. "You’re really giving him double salary? Don’t back out now. We have a huge audience as witnesses."
"Fine!" Harrison Lowell said through gritted teeth.
"Done. Keith Zane’s salary is doubled from now on. We’ll deduct it from your dividends," Caleb Lowell said with a raised eyebrow.
"Thank you, Boss! Thank you, Miss Lowell!" Keith Zane was overjoyed.
[LMAO I’m dead...]
[If I hadn’t seen sis’s little gesture just now, I would’ve thought big bro was a real Boss Skinner.]
[I’m crying, she’s a real one. Fighting for her manager’s benefits at the expense of her own brother...]
[I think Brother Donovan was seriously considering jumping ship for a second there, hahaha. His eyes totally lit up.]
[Well, yeah. They’re all top-tier megastars... even I’m tempted.]
[LMAO, Old Man Lowell is all bark and no bite.]
[It must be pretty great working for bosses like them, huh?]
[I think so too. That’s why I just submitted my resume to the Lowell Group and Pluto, hehehe.]
[Hey, don’t keep all the good stuff for yourself! I’m gonna go look too!]
It finally dawned on Harrison Lowell. "Oh, so you three were setting me up?!"
"I just thought it must be tough being your manager, Brother Donovan, so I wanted to get him a little something extra," Yvonne Lowell said with an innocent shrug.
"Hey, you! I’m the one who pays your salary, and you’re thanking *them*?!" Harrison Lowell glared at Keith Zane.
Keith Zane rubbed his nose awkwardly. "Well, it is all thanks to them, isn’t it?"
...
After hanging up on the director yet again, the cameraman felt a headache coming on as he watched the siblings on the couch, each completely absorbed in their own activities.
The other livestreams were all frantically manufacturing drama to boost their ratings.
But this group? They were all just lazing about, acting as if the cameras in their house didn’t even exist.
’This is *Happy Family*, not *The Slacker Family*!’
’They really don’t treat the audience like strangers, do they? The main selling point is just being "real," is that it?!’
’A *truly* real reality show, huh?’
And yet, viewership wasn’t just holding steady, it was growing...
The Lowell Siblings: But we’re perfectly happy just like this.
"Um, everyone... don’t you usually have any activities you do at home on the weekends?" the cameraman asked weakly.
Harrison Lowell was in the middle of a game, his fingers flying across the controller, but he still spared the cameraman a glance. "Oh, we’re hardly ever home on weekends."
The cameraman’s expression twitched. "Then maybe you could choose to go out? To a party, or on an outing, or something?"
Yancy Lowell pushed up his glasses and stated calmly, "We don’t really go out together."
"Besides, isn’t this a home-based variety show? Most of the cameras are in the house, so why would we go out?" Adrian Lowell added, looking up from the blueprint he was holding. "It wouldn’t be right to make you film an empty house, would it?"
The cameraman: ’...Is that really the point?!’
[Bonnie, it’s a show about the family *unit*, you don’t literally have to stay in the house!!]
[Uhh, but now that he mentions it, he’s not exactly wrong, is he?]
[LMAO, the director is facing his career’s first Waterloo.]
[Director: This cast is too rebellious. I can’t manage them at all, hahaha.]
[This is actually kind of nice. I’ve learned that rich people also spend their weekends being couch potatoes, just like me.]
[Yeah, I’m doing homework while I watch them. I can keep up with my studies and the show at the same time.]
[But I also want to see how rich people spend their free time...]
[They’re so damn harmonious. One’s working, one’s gaming, one’s studying, and there are even two of them building with LEGOs on the side.]
"Nola, can you take a look? Is my application okay like this?" Yancy Lowell handed his laptop to Yvonne Lowell.
Yvonne Lowell glanced at the section for academic achievements. It was a long, packed list of national and even international awards.
’Tsk, tsk, the world of an academic prodigy is truly terrifying...’
"Didn’t you participate in the IMO? I remember that. You can add that award, too."
"Huh? I can list that one? I thought I could only include achievements from college," Yancy Lowell said, scratching his head.
"You were the only gold medalist with a perfect score that year. At just twelve years old, you won the special prize that’s only been awarded once in the last decade. You don’t just add it; you put it right at the very top."
Yancy Lowell was stunned for a moment. "But after the competition, a lot of schools invited me to enroll without taking the entrance exams. The only one that didn’t was Loster. I just assumed they didn’t care about that award."
Yvonne Lowell chuckled. "That’s because Loster has never offered admissions exemptions. Besides, that bunch is proud as can be. They were just waiting for you to apply on your own, but then you never did for your undergrad."
"So I missed my chance?!" Yancy Lowell shot to his feet.