Starting from a Bar to Sign Internet Celebrities

Chapter 124 - 121: Let’s Show Everyone the Gap Between an Influencer and a Star

On the Hot Topics list, her "Must Love" was already in the top 20.

This was all because her real-name report against Second-Life Star had previously hit the top three on the Hot Topics list, giving her this boost in popularity.

Now this Chen Jincheng had started a livestream to announce he was releasing the song "Can’t Help Falling in Love." On what grounds was his "Can’t Help Falling in Love" ranking higher on the Hot Topics list than her "Must Love"?

And how had it already broken into the top 15 in such a short time?

Even if his "Can’t Help Falling in Love" was riding the coattails of her "Must Love" and getting the same amount of attention, it was still just piggybacking on her popularity. It shouldn’t be more popular than hers.

Unwilling to accept it, she clicked on both hot topics to investigate and quickly discovered the reason.

The number of related videos for his hot topic was immeasurably greater than hers. Scrolling down, she couldn’t see the end of the list.

’How could an internet influencer have so many people making video clips? It’s way more than for an actual celebrity like me!’

Moreover, many of his related videos had an enormous number of likes.

"Chen Jincheng, Pissed at Li Yueling for Reporting the Girl by His Side, Decides to Go Head-to-Head with Her!"

"Hearing Li Yueling’s Song is Called ’Must Love,’ the Ancestral Master Wrote ’Can’t Help Falling in Love’ for Jiang Xiaobai!"

"Annoyed with Li Yueling, Chen Jincheng Wrote a Song on the Spot to Challenge Her!"

Li Yueling’s expression grew darker and darker as she watched these highly-liked videos.

’These people are insulting me.’

’Writing a song on the spot to battle her?’

’Do these people think Chen Jincheng is some kind of musical genius?’

’How arrogant!’

But her face immediately grew even gloomier. The hot topic for "Can’t Help Falling in Love" had just risen another two spots, and the likes on those videos were climbing higher by the minute.

’Damn it all.’

Just then, her sister’s phone rang. After answering, she frowned and said, "Sis, that was Tiao Yin. They want us to sign an electronic contract to sync our song’s sales data from Penguin Music. They’ve probably contacted Chen Jincheng too. It seems they want you two to have a face-off."

"What does Tiao Yin mean by this?" Li Yueling was even more vexed by the news. "Don’t tell me Tiao Yin actually thinks a song Chen Jincheng wrote on the spot is qualified to compete with mine? This is an insult!"

Her sister quickly reminded her, "Sis, Tiao Yin is definitely going to be a mainstream platform in the future. We can’t afford to offend them."

Hearing this, Li Yueling said viciously, "Sign with them. Since it’s come to this, it’s the perfect chance to let everyone see just how big the gap is between an internet influencer’s song and mine."

...

「Second-Life Star.」

Chen Jincheng, for his part, was also keeping an eye on the Hot Topics list.

Naturally, he saw that the hot topic for "Can’t Help Falling in Love" had surpassed Li Yueling’s "Must Love."

This was all thanks to Yijin’s clip accounts.

The power of the clipping team was once again on full display.

Furthermore, based on the hype Sister Hong was creating, Li Yueling was bound to be thoroughly embarrassed.

After all, a meticulously prepared song was about to lose to one written on the fly.

Sister Hong hurried into the office and reported, "Tiao Yin has contacted us. They want to sync our sales data from Penguin Music. I expect that tomorrow, they’ll update and display the sales status of your song alongside Li Yueling’s and Li Cheng’s to have you all PK."

"Let’s sign. Tiao Yin clearly wants to use Li Yueling to generate buzz and attract the entertainment industry," Chen Jincheng said, fully aware of Tiao Yin’s objective.

However, for him and Xiaobai, this was a guaranteed win.

The clearer the data comparison, the better the promotion for the song "Can’t Help Falling in Love."

Sister Hong nodded and continued, "There’s one more thing. Because sales for your previous two songs, ’Trajectory’ and ’Girl,’ have both surpassed one million, Penguin Music has offered us a supplementary contract. After ’Can’t Help Falling in Love’ is uploaded tomorrow, as long as it also breaks one million in sales, they’ll increase our profit share by 5%."

This was definitely good news for Chen Jincheng.

The contracts signed with Penguin Music for "Trajectory" and "Girl" were for a unit price of 3 Yuan.

It wasn’t surprising that these two songs had sold over a million copies. "Trajectory" in particular was a song released by that Chairman Zhou in his previous life. If it didn’t have quality, he wouldn’t have included it in his album.

Just like that, the two songs generated another 6 million in sales revenue. With a 40% share, that was 2.4 million.

After taxes, it would be 1.92 million.

Of course, there would likely be some subsequent sales as well.

And the sales for "Can’t Help Falling in Love" would definitely be far more than just a million.

In his past life, the album featuring this song had sold over 5 million copies in mainland China alone. And that was back in ’06, when you could only buy physical copies from brick-and-mortar stores, and the album wasn’t cheap.

In the current internet age, with the single priced at just 3 Yuan, the sales volume would absolutely multiply many times over.

What’s more, he had his game-like attributes. With the "Sweetness +100%" effect, this song’s impact would be countless times stronger than the one from his past life.

Chen Jincheng quickly signed the contract from Tiao Yin to sync the data.

「Noon.」

After a simple lunch, he took Jiang Xiaobai and Yinyin to the bar to prepare for shooting the video and recording the song.

Lao Chen had already taken some people to set up the bar. For recording a song, the big screen was a must for displaying large-print lyrics.

The lighting also needed to be adjusted.

"Lao Chen, how are the preparations coming along?" Chen Jincheng asked directly upon seeing him.

"We can start anytime," Lao Chen replied immediately.

"Then let’s start. We’ll record Yinyin’s dance video first," Chen Jincheng instructed, then turned to Yinyin and asked, "No problem?"

"Mhm!" Yinyin nodded.

Truthfully, she was a little envious that the boss had written a song for Jiang Xiaobai.

’The boss is too good to Jiang Xiaobai.’

However, she also knew she couldn’t sing, so her feelings were limited to just envy.

Besides, the boss had also specifically choreographed this "Big Pendulum" dance for her. Thinking about it, she was content.

Jiang Xiaobai had been looking at the sheet music for "Can’t Help Falling in Love" the whole way over.

Having studied music and dance, this was naturally not a difficult task for her.

Seeing that they were filming Yinyin’s video first, she took the sheet music and sat down in a corner.

Yinyin’s shoot was also straightforward. She had long since mastered the "Big Pendulum" dance. To the dynamic beat of the music, her performance of the "Big Pendulum" became increasingly sexy, her "big pendulums" more and more captivating.

When Sister Hong and Lao Chen heard Yinyin’s new dance was called the "Big Pendulum," they knew it was definitely going to be another suggestive one.

Now, after watching the girl dance, they could only sigh. ’Just as we expected.’

Her "big pendulums" were only covered with pasties. As they shook and swayed with the dance, although not as shocking as the Shaking Bear Dance, the overall visual appeal was not much less. Crucially, this dance didn’t violate any platform rules.

’The boss is really a genius in this area. It’s like he’s studied the girl’s big pendulums inside and out, hasn’t he?’

’Seriously, there’s no other scum man like him.’

"Yinyin, that was a great performance. The shoot went very well." Sister Hong couldn’t help but praise her after reviewing the footage. "Dance this more often on your stream from now on. It will be a huge help to your broadcasts."

"Okay, Sister Hong!" Yinyin nodded.

Sister Hong then said to Chen Jincheng, "Yinyin’s video is great. It would be best to upload it now to ride Li Yueling’s popularity. We can add a title like, ’Go ahead and report me, my assets are bigger than yours anyway.’ That will attract a lot of heat."

"Li Yueling will be furious with Yinyin. She’s so flat!" Chen Jincheng chuckled. Sister Hong was indeed a master of this kind of hype.

At that time, countless people would surely go mock Li Yueling for being flat-chested. When her song failed on top of that, she would probably cough up blood in anger and become a complete pathetic clown.

After the girl’s video was finished, Chen Jincheng turned to Jiang Xiaobai. "Xiaobai, how are your preparations?"

Sister Hong and Lao Chen also looked over, as this was now the top priority.

"Cheng, I’ve already memorized it," Jiang Xiaobai said immediately.

"Then let’s begin!" Chen Jincheng nodded, led the girl onto the stage by the hand, took the offered microphone, and gave Lao Chen a nod.

With a wave from Lao Chen, the instrumental track for "Can’t Help Falling in Love" began to play.

At the same time, a notification from the game system sounded in Chen Jincheng’s mind:

[This song is bound to duet partner Jiang Xiaobai. The girl’s emotions have been stirred, triggering special attribute effect: Sweetness +100%!]

Almost simultaneously, Jiang Xiaobai was clearly affected. Her gaze toward Chen Jincheng instantly became brimming with affection, full of adoration and shyness, and her face held an expression of indescribable sweetness.

Lao Chen and Sister Hong, who were watching the feed from behind the camera, felt their scalps tingle when they saw the change in Jiang Xiaobai’s eyes and expression.

Truly, in the instant the music started, her gaze and expression transformed. It created a strange resonance, letting anyone see with a single glance that she loved the man before her—loved him very, very much.

Not even an award-winning actress possessed such terrifying facial-acting skills. This alone would add so much color to the song!

’This girl is amazing!’