Starting from a Bar to Sign Internet Celebrities-Chapter 110 - 108: The Tragic Female Influencer from the Past Life
Lin Hao hung up without a second thought, but Liu Xian’s composure shattered the moment he heard his words.
’Are you kidding me? Chen Jincheng planned this too?’
The Tiao Yin managers standing around were utterly shocked.
’Seriously, is it impossible for Tiao Yin’s advertising module to avoid Second-Life Star?’
’How could this 10 million ad be connected to Second-Life Star too?’
Just then, Han Shangyou’s voice rang out. "President Liu, you’ve worked hard on Tiao Yin’s advertising module recently and made significant contributions. Therefore, Volcano needs a capable director. I will propose to headquarters that you be transferred there and promoted to that position."
Clearly, given the current situation, the stubborn Liu Xian had become an obstacle to the company’s strategy.
"Ah..." Hearing this news so suddenly, Liu Xian was completely stunned.
What was Volcano Video? It was a short video sharing app that ByteDance had created in the beginning. To be precise, many of its functions were similar to Tiao Yin.
With Tiao Yin’s current level of development, Volcano had become a neglected afterthought—a place to be put out to pasture.
The previous president, for example, had been transferred to Volcano because of a strategic error, which was what had opened up the position for President Han to be brought in.
He had no desire to go be some director at Volcano. It was a dead-end career move.
...
Meanwhile, things at Second-Life Star were incredibly lively.
After Sister Feiye signed the contract, Sister Hong gathered all the employees and signed female artists in the main hall. She enthusiastically introduced Sister Feiye to the whole company. "Starting today, Sister Feiye will officially be joining us at Second-Life Star. Let’s give her a warm welcome!"
"Sister Hong, you can just call me Feiyue from now on," Sister Feiye said with a beaming smile.
After all, now that she had joined the company and Sister Hong was her superior, it was no longer appropriate to be called "Sister Feiye."
She understood this point clearly.
Hearing Sister Hong’s announcement, the others immediately broke into enthusiastic applause.
Having such a major influencer join the company was definitely a huge boon.
The clever ones immediately went up to take photos with Sister Feiye, or to grab a selfie.
Posting a video with the caption, "Welcoming Sister Feiye to Second-Life Star," would bring in a wave of traffic.
Only Jiang Xiaobai and Yinyin’s applause was somewhat reluctant. They both felt a looming sense of crisis.
They had seen her "Romance Playbook" livestream with their boss—she had actually kissed him right on screen.
They had never enjoyed such a privilege during their own livestreams.
The fan accounts that post edited clips, in particular, used to just debate which of the two of them had a more effective "Romance Playbook" with the boss.
But now, everyone was saying Sister Feiye was a better match and wanted to see the push-and-pull between her and the boss continue.
Moreover, they no longer had to compete for the position of Second-Life Star’s top female influencer. A new top dog had just been dropped in from above.
In his office, Chen Jincheng was already on his computer, reviewing applications from prospective female talent.
In addition to the profiles of nightclub girls sent over by Wang Yuan, there were also applications from ordinary women who had responded to Sister Hong’s public recruitment notice.
As Second-Life Star began to operate smoothly, beyond just recruiting nightclub girls to increase their roster of streamers, the company also needed to diversify. They needed all sorts of influencers. Thus, Sister Hong’s external recruitment efforts had also brought in applications from ordinary girls and female university students.
There were a great many girls who wanted to become influencers.
As for Sister Feiye, once the contract was signed, he handed off all the subsequent arrangements to Sister Hong.
Sister Feiye had her own team. Even though she signed with Second-Life Star, her daily video production and operations would still be handled by them.
Of course, Second-Life Star was now obligated to provide her with good concepts for her videos.
There was also the matter of advertisements. Any future ad deals Sister Feiye accepted would be sent to Second-Life Star for review, primarily by Chen Jincheng. According to their contract, Second-Life Star had to plan at least one standard ad for her per month and produce at least one special advertising collaboration for her within the year.
"Momo... How is this silly girl here too?" Chen Jincheng’s face was a mask of surprise as he looked at one of the applications.
’So this girl exists in this world too? And she’s applying to Second-Life Star, of all places.’
The key thing was, in 2018, she was only sixteen. The photo on her application exuded a tender, girlish innocence.
’At this point in time, this silly girl must be just like countless other ordinary girls, just discovering Tiao Yin and plunging headfirst into it with dreams of becoming an influencer, right?’
Chen Jincheng knew the story all too well. For a worldly old fox with money and status, toying with a nineteen-year-old girl was just too easy.
Especially when the girl had been screwed over by her previous agency, was a million yuan in debt, and had all her savings taken by her parents to buy a house for her younger brother.
So, the stories about being plied with alcohol and then being semi-coerced were probably true.
And it would have been simple to string her along afterward with empty promises like "I’ll divorce my wife and marry you."
Naturally, the things this silly girl did in the end out of desperation truly demonstrated what it meant to be brainless.
For her parents, being able to "sell" her for another 600,000 was probably considered a gain.
To put it simply, she was a girl born into a family that heavily favored sons over daughters. She received little affection at home, entered the workforce at a young age, and saw Tiao Yin as a way to become an influencer and change her life, even signing with an agency.
Thanks to her stunning looks, she gained several million fans and earned a decent amount of money, which she dutifully entrusted to her parents for safekeeping.
But just as things were going smoothly, she was suddenly shafted by her agency and left with a one-million-yuan debt. To make matters worse, her parents backstabbed her, taking her savings to buy a house for her brother and leaving her with no way to pay it off.
In that situation, when a very successful man she had once helped offered to repay her kindness by having her join his company, she would of course have accepted.
Who would have thought that after a few drinks, the man would "repay her kindness" by "gifting her a few hundred million," and everyone knows what happened after that.
Simply put, it was a tragedy born from her dysfunctional family, compounded by meeting the wrong kind of man.
Chen Jincheng gazed at Momo’s application, lost in thought.
He had previously helped Rice Universal Sockets with an ad, pushing their sales beyond what they had been in the other world. That kind of change gave him an inexplicable sense of accomplishment.
Now, looking at this young woman, he suddenly wanted to see if a person’s fate could be different in a different environment.
With that thought, Chen Jincheng clicked "Accept."
Just then, Sister Hong came in from outside and handed him a stack of documents. "Take a look at these proposals. See if there’s anything you think we can use."
Chen Jincheng took them and saw they were proposals from the new planning department. After all, since he’d hired them, it was time for them to prove their worth.
There were seven proposals in total. He looked through them one by one; they were all pretty mediocre, with nothing particularly brilliant. Still, they were definitely better than what an average person could come up with on their own.
"Aren’t there still a bunch of girls at the bar we haven’t signed yet? Sign some and assign them to the planning department to practice on," Chen Jincheng said after a moment of thought. ’It’s unrealistic to expect the new planning department to come up with brilliant ideas right away. They don’t have the experience.’
Besides, when it came to grasping the current trends on Tiao Yin, very few content planners could claim to be 100% experienced anyway.
While these proposals weren’t amazing, they were certainly good enough for filming new talent. It would be good practice.
"Okay, I’ll arrange it," Sister Hong nodded.
Chen Jincheng thought for another moment before adding, "Notify the video department to go to the bar this afternoon and shoot a video for Cen Ning."
Now that Jiang Xiaobai and Yinyin had surpassed three million followers, they were spending less and less time at the bar. It was time to build up a new in-house influencer. He had wanted to promote Cen Ning before, but something had come up. Now that he had a moment, he could finally move forward with it.
After agreeing, Sister Hong left the office.
Just then, Chen Jincheng’s phone rang. It was a call from none other than that "Crying Bud," Chen Xiaoying. ’She must be back from her trip,’ he thought. ’What a coincidence.’
This was the perfect time to use those two Internet Celebrity Debut Cards.
He answered the call. "What’s up? Back from your trip? So, when are you coming by my company to sign a contract?"
Chen Xiaoying’s hesitant voice came through the phone. "Um, I think being an influencer would be fun, but... would signing with your company mean a contract for more than five years?"
"That’s standard for any company," Chen Jincheng said frankly.
"Ah, that long!" Crying Bud sounded even more troubled. "Um, I think I have to apologize... That’s too long, and my family won’t agree. More importantly, my brother went ahead and hired a film crew for me. He wants me to film at our own bar."
"I see. Well, that’s fine. You can’t just have a falling out with your family, after all." Chen Jincheng hadn’t expected this outcome.
But it didn’t really matter. Her not joining wasn’t much of a loss to him. She was the one losing out.
Just because she had become an influencer in his past life didn’t guarantee she’d succeed in this one. After all, the influencer-photographer who filmed her in that other world didn’t exist here. Without him, it was impossible for her to have blown up so suddenly.
Besides, it wasn’t as if he was worried about an Internet Celebrity Debut Card going to waste. Even if many of the influencers from the other world didn’t exist here, there were still plenty of others to be found.
He wasn’t hurting for this one loss.
On the other end, after Chen Xiaoying hung up, she looked at her brother who had just walked in and said resignedly, "I’ve already rejected Chen Jincheng. Are you satisfied now?"
Chen Long said with a broad grin, "Little sister, joining a scumbag’s company like that would be bad for your reputation anyway. Besides, the team I found for you isn’t bad at all. We’ll go to the bar this afternoon and shoot your first video. I guarantee I’ll make you more popular than Jiang Xiaobai and Yinyin."
"I hope so," Chen Xiaoying sighed, not saying anything more.
But Chen Long was supremely confident. "Don’t worry. Anything Chen Jincheng can do, your brother can do too. You can trust your own brother more than some outsider. Once you get famous, you’ll also attract customers to my bar. That’s how we’ll be able to compete with Extreme Bar for the title of King of the Feifuxing Road Nightlife Scene."
