This Girl Forced to Become an Entertainment Company Boss

Chapter 23

When they used to gather together, those two rarely talked about their own affairs to accommodate Jiang Juyou, who was far removed from their circle, because Jiang Juyou wouldn't understand. But now things were different - it seemed Jiang Juyou could speak even more knowledgeably than them.

"It depends on whether you want to become famous or if you truly enjoy acting. If you really like acting, you might want to temporarily give up commercial films and switch to art house films instead."

"Find roles that fit your image. Art house directors prefer actors who aren't too different from their characters, so you'd be better off gaining experience there first."

"Once you've built up some skills, you can return to commercial films starting with small roles."

"If you want to start earning money and increasing your commercial value, you'll need to put more effort into your appearance. But it's best not to get any fillers or surgery - just lose some more weight and take better care of your skin. You can start by taking on some minor roles, which will make it easier to promote yourself when the show airs."

After Jiang Juyou finished analyzing her sister's potential career path, she noticed the other two staring at her with slightly slack jaws and dazed expressions.

Jiang Tang put down her chopsticks, abandoning her meal, and exclaimed dramatically: "My goodness, what on earth have you been through these past two months?"

Jiang Liuxing also marveled, "To think that my second sister used to not even know who the top celebrities were... Work really does change a person beyond recognition. I guess I'd better apply for graduate school after all."

Jiang Juyou had just told them that she had joined a new company, where initially it was just her and the boss. The boss was a rich second-generation heir who later found it too troublesome and handed over management of the company to her.

This story would be far-fetched in any other industry, but in the entertainment world, anything was possible. So the other two believed it.

Jiang Juyou had gone from having no interest in the entertainment industry to becoming an executive producer, which must have taken considerable effort.

Hearing her sisters speak like this, Jiang Juyou was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion. She wrapped her arms around the two of them in a friendly gesture, putting on the verge of tears, and wailed dramatically, "You have no idea what I've been through these past two months!"

She wanted to pour out her woes, but there were so many hardships she'd endured that she didn't know where to begin.

"Knock knock-" The waiter delivering food knocked on the door outside.

The three sisters who had been hugging immediately sat up straight, acting as if nothing had happened.

Indeed, there was a reason they could be sisters without fighting.

None of them were quite normal.

-

On a beautiful sunny morning, Jiang Tang had just finished negotiating her contract termination with the company and walked out feeling light and free.

However, those who managed to terminate their contracts peacefully like her were in the minority. Several others planned to sue the company, claiming it had failed to release albums as stipulated in their contracts, wasting their youth.

They had wanted Jiang Tang to join them, but she had already found her next opportunity, so naturally had no time to get involved.

To be honest, Jiang Tang felt that having food and accommodation provided in a place like Beijing, along with a monthly salary of over 4,000 yuan, was already quite good. She even thought the company was admirable for being honest and letting them go early. There were plenty of companies in the entertainment industry that would drain people dry.

But she wouldn't criticize her teammates either, because those were indeed losses they had suffered.

She returned to the dormitory to pack her things, planning to move out. Jiang Juyou couldn't provide accommodation right away, so she would have to stay with Jiang Liuxing for now.

Jiang Liuxing had a studio, and since school hadn't started yet, she was living there. Jiang Tang could squeeze in with her for the time being.

After exiting the elevator, Jiang Tang rummaged in her bag for her keys. When she opened the door and entered, she saw that the suitcases that should have been in the bedroom had been piled up in the living room. One snakeskin bag hadn't even been zipped up, with clothes spilling out onto the floor.

"..."

She took a moment to compose herself, saying nothing, and simply went over to put the clothes back in the bag.

All the bedroom doors were closed, so Jiang Tang didn't go in. She just sat on a suitcase, having called for a van to take all her things to Jiang Liuxing's place.

As she waited, she could hear laughter coming from the bedrooms.

"Sigh..." Jiang Tang let out a long breath, tilting her head back to look at the ceiling.

Meanwhile, Jiang Liuxing, who was tidying up the bedroom in her studio, looked around at her handiwork with satisfaction.

She had rented an empty villa, which offered better value for money than an office building or regular apartment. Plus, it was unfurnished, so she had invested in some basic painting and renovations herself, making it even cheaper.

The office spaces were on the first and second floors, while Jiang Liuxing lived in the basement. The basement wasn't very large, with about half of it taken up by the garage. The remaining two rooms were just right for her and her sister to have one each. Jiang Tang could come in directly through the garage, and there was even a car she could use if needed.

This room had been empty before, filled with Jiang Liuxing's deliveries. She had spent all of yesterday cleaning it out, and early this morning she'd gone to IKEA to buy things for her sister. She had only just finished now.

Because it was underground, the air didn't circulate well, so Jiang Liuxing had bought an air purifier. But that was one she'd bought before; the one she'd ordered this morning hadn't arrived yet, so she put her own in her sister's room for now.

Finally able to sit down and rest, Jiang Liuxing sent a message to the group chat: "I've finished tidying up. Sis, when will you get here?"

"Jiang Tang Will Definitely Be Famous Next Year: Just got in the car, probably about an hour and a half."

"Liuxing is the Purple Forbidden Star: OK, let me know when you're close."

At the same time, Jiang Juyou was in a conference room having a meeting with her employees.

The performance department had confirmed two shows, one at the end of October two months from now, and one in early November. They only needed to report progress on subsequent ones.

The main topic today was various marketing strategies for the next public performance. She had discussed it with the marketing department last week, and they were now implementing it.

"In terms of app marketing, our idea is to mainly promote collection and distribution of items. The domestic entertainment circle is dominated by actors, while the idol circle is more active with overseas groups, which has attracted a large number of fans domestically as well. So promoting this aspect would be more suitable."

"Combined with the ideas you proposed last week, we can organize an event. As for implementing album sales, we're pushing forward on that front and will report back to you when there are updates on the status."

Jiang Juyou nodded after listening, then turned to look at the new talent department, waiting for them to speak.

"...Regarding the trainees, we recorded videos last Friday and have divided them into classes based on the current situation of the trainees. Here's the list."

"Eight new trainees joined this week, bringing the total number of trainees to twenty..."

In the early stages, most of the trainees were from Beijing. Even after many others joined later, over half of the trainees were still from Beijing.

Jiang Juyou looked at the list, getting a general understanding of how the classes were divided. She touched her eyebrow, calculating the performance time if all these people went on stage, then frowned slightly after finishing her calculations.

"Tell the trainees that the number of group stages remains unchanged. Solo stages will be determined based on the preliminary check two weeks from now. There's a quota of seven people, meaning out of twenty trainees, only seven will be able to showcase solo stages. Tell them to practice hard. Anyone who ranks at the bottom three times in a row will have their contract terminated."

At the mention of contract termination, everyone in the room looked at her with furrowed brows.

Jiang Juyou always smiled at the employees, appearing to have a gentle personality. But when it came to the trainees, she was like a vicious wolf, extremely fierce.

Those seated at the scene were all worried for the trainees. It was really too harsh.

"Alright, that's all for today's meeting... Oh right, tell HR to headhunt an artist manager to join us." Jiang Juyou said as she prepared to stand up. The others all looked at her, momentarily frozen in place.

Previously, the company hadn't signed any artists, so there was no talent management department. Now, hearing the boss say this, it seemed the company was about to have its own artists soon.

The employees exchanged glances, slightly excited.

-

To understand the fate of ordinary people, just look at the commuters on the subway.

Every time Jiang Juyou rode the subway, she felt like a worker ant in an ant colony. She lived not to realize her own dreams, but to realize someone else's dreams. Going in and out of the subway early morning and late night, earning that meager salary just to survive.

Especially since this subway line was heading towards their school, Jiang Juyou's mood became even worse.

The three great tribulations of her life: returning to school, make-up classes, and going back to work.

After exiting the subway station, a blast of hot air hit her face. Jiang Juyou closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "...Why do we still have mandatory courses in senior year?"

She trudged towards the school with heavy steps, but after a few paces, she started running. "Ahhh! I'm going to be late!"

Jiang Juyou ran towards the teaching building with her backpack on, cursing as she ran, "Why doesn't this stupid school allow shared bikes on campus?!"

Until yesterday, she had been the capable executive producer at her company, but today she was reduced to a miserable senior returning to school, and even worse, the kind of weak college student who could barely run a few steps without feeling like she might die.

In this scorching heat, she was panting heavily when she suddenly stopped in front of an advertisement board, taking a couple of steps back.

"Galaxy Random Dance Event..." Jiang Juyou was surprised to see her company's advertisement at her school. She vaguely remembered hearing about it during a recent meeting - apparently, due to budget constraints, they could only do offline promotions.

Jiang Juyou wiped the sweat from her forehead, then realized, "Isn't that today?"

The second public performance was scheduled for this afternoon. Jiang Juyou had classes in the morning, so she'd have to rush back right after her class ended.

Thinking about this, Jiang Juyou was once again reminded of why she was at school, "Ahh! Now I'm really going to be late!"

In university classrooms, it's not uncommon for students to arrive just in time. As Jiang Juyou went upstairs, she saw a crowd of people waiting for the elevator. Afraid of being late, she had no choice but to dash to the stairs and climb up quickly.

Halfway up, she ran into a familiar face.

"Hey! Jiegeng!" Only her roommates called her by that nickname.

The one calling her was Jiang Juyou's bunk mate, Liu Yue. Like Jiang Juyou, she had a backpack on, but she was carrying her books in her arms.

Seeing Jiang Juyou dripping with sweat, Liu Yue held out her small fan to her, "Don't rush, it's okay if you're late. A lot of people took the day off and didn't come."

Hearing this, Jiang Juyou, still panting, asked, "...We can do that?"

"No, you'll lose participation points," Liu Yue said as they walked together, then added, "I'm not confident about the final exam later, so I can only rely on participation points to save me. That's why I didn't dare to skip."

After hearing this, Jiang Juyou's enthusiasm deflated, "Forget it, I'm not confident either."

The two of them slowly climbed up, and when they found the classroom, they discovered that the teacher hadn't arrived yet. Jiang Juyou let out a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness."

The other two girls from their dorm had already arrived and saved them seats. They waved at Jiang Juyou, "Jiegeng! Over here!"

Before the two could even sit down, the other two suggested, "Let's get together later, it's been so long since we've seen each other."

"Sure!" Liu Yue agreed readily, but added, "I have something at 2 PM though, so I can only have lunch."

"Let's just eat at the school cafeteria, we both have things in the afternoon too... I want to eat spicy pot."

"I want to eat skewers from the third floor."

"It's so hot, who wants to eat skewers?!"

Jiang Juyou raised her hand and said, "I can't, sisters. I have to rush back to the company right after class."

"Didn't you take the day off?"

"...I did."

"Don't tell me your company only allowed you to take three hours off?"

"What a terrible company!"

After complaining, they said, "Alright, we'll meet up next time. Today it'll just be us three."

Returning to campus as a working professional isn't as simple as it seems. During class, Jiang Juyou had to keep lowering her head to reply to messages. Fortunately, even when the teacher noticed, they didn't say anything, allowing her to endure one class in the air-conditioned room.

After class, Jiang Juyou left immediately. The other three didn't even have a chance to say goodbye before she had disappeared.

"Do you know where Jiegeng works?"

"No idea, she's never mentioned it."

"Alright, I'll chat with her privately later. If her company isn't good, let's get her to come work with us. At least she could slack off a bit."

At this point, Liu Yue had packed up her bag and stood up. The other two shifted their attention to her, "Hey! What are you doing after lunch? Are you going back to work too?"

"I'm not working. The internship certificate was arranged by my family. There's a random dance event in the afternoon that I want to check out." Liu Yue held her bag protectively; it contained her camera, and she couldn't risk it getting bumped or knocked.

"Where?"

Their dorm consisted of three fangirls and one ordinary person surviving in the entertainment circle.

Jiang Juyou's older sister and younger sister were an artist and a fan site admin respectively. In their dorm, her bunkmate was a fan of international groups, while the other two followed domestic celebrities. Her previous life could be described as passing through the entire world of domestic entertainment.

Liu Yue was the one who followed international artists. During the summer break, she had been abroad attending concerts, visiting seven or eight countries. If it weren't for the start of the semester, she wouldn't have come back.

The other two followed domestic celebrities, but mainly through screens, rarely attending offline events.

"It's here..." Liu Yue took out her phone to show them the address.

The other two looked and laughed, "What a coincidence!"

The address showed the three characters for Galaxy, which was also where they were planning to go.

-

As the performance time approached, it wasn't just the trainees who were anxious and nervous, but also Jiang Juyou.

She hadn't slept well the night before, and today she had been rushing back and forth. Before the performance even started, she was already at her limit.

Feeling a bit hypoglycemic, Jiang Juyou was replenishing her sugar levels backstage at the venue. Several department heads were also sitting together, discussing the commotion in the building next door.

Li Yao handed her phone to Jiang Juyou, showing her, "I just took this next door. There are quite a lot of people."

"Of course, just look at how hard we worked on the promotions," Zhao Xu boasted a bit.

If you can't lead a team, you end up having to do everything yourself. After the company got on track, Jiang Juyou gradually delegated her tasks to others. For this second public performance marketing, she proposed a plan and left the implementation to her subordinates.

While the marketing department was brainstorming promotional strategies, the A&R department also provided significant help.

The layout of the Galaxy building was such that the first to third floors were connected, allowing people to see the activities on the first floor from above, but the fourth floor was enclosed like the fifth floor.

The first floor had been set up as a suitable venue for random dance events. The second floor was for selling domestic and international albums and merchandise. The third floor had been set up as a pop-up store.

This idea came from Zhao Xu. She had contacted the Beijing fan club of a top domestic celebrity to set up a photo spot for fans. It was filled with characters the male superstar had played, and to make it easier for fans to take photos, they even made 3D chibi versions of the characters. They even had staff members walking around the third floor in mascot costumes.

The fourth floor was another plan. The contact person was Yang Siyu, who reached out to some well-connected international fan site admins and organized an exhibition in their name on the fourth floor. She also contacted major domestic fan forums for promotion.

Basically, each floor had its own event, so it would be strange if they didn't attract a crowd.

When Jiang Juyou assigned this task, the three of them immediately understood her intention.

To be honest, there's only a limited number of fans online, with the only real divide being between domestic and international entertainment circles. Within these two circles, most people have more than one favorite, not to mention numerous casual interests.

Although the circles are different, fans share a common characteristic: they love to make friends. Just open the Weibo of any fan, and you'll find they have many mutually following fan circle friends.

This was their target.

Jiang Juyou had the same idea. One goal was to promote the Galaxy World app, and the other was to promote the trainees.

At this time, many employees in Galaxy mall were wearing uniforms, introducing the Weibo repost lottery for free purchases and the app download lottery for free purchases to surrounding fans, while also sneaking in promotions for the 5 PM performance next door.

The staff member explained, "...One more thing, after you leave the mall, if you walk left along the building, you'll see a concert venue. There's a free public performance you can watch there. The performance starts at 5 PM. If you're interested, you can take a look while the random dance event hasn't started yet."

This kind of viral promotion spread like a virus, generating much more exposure than simply doing giveaways on Weibo. Their Weibo friend circles were all real people after all.

Of course, all the free gift activities so far were just side events. The main goal was still the afternoon performance.

After watching the video, Jiang Juyou waved over to a staff member nearby. "For today's afternoon performance, you don't need to be as strict. As long as people aren't too blatantly holding up their phones to film, just let it go."

The plan was good, but whether things would go according to her wishes was another matter entirely.

For the first performance, she had felt no pressure - after all, it couldn't possibly be that bad. But this time was different. Any lack of progress would be seen as a step backwards.

Her current mood was no less anxious than the trainees waiting backstage before their first performance. She felt so nervous she could throw up at any moment.

The others sitting on the couch with her seemed much more relaxed. They were chatting and laughing, even trying to comfort Jiang Juyou.

At this moment, Jiang Juyou only wished she was just a regular employee. If only she was working for someone else, it wouldn't matter if things went well or poorly. She could just collect her monthly salary and be done with it.

"Hah..." She was getting more and more anxious the more she thought about it.

Over there, the random dance activity was scheduled to start at 3 PM. After lunchtime, more and more people began gathering at the venue.

Liu Yue and her two friends who had rushed over from school were also at the scene, though they were currently on the second floor.

"There are quite a lot of people."

"These random dance events always draw big crowds, especially on a Friday."

"But wouldn't there be even more people on Saturday or Sunday?"

"Of course, I wonder why they chose to do it on a Friday."

The two of them leaned against the railing, watching the big screen hanging in the distance that was playing music videos. Beside them, Liu Yue sat in a chair, taking out two talisman cards and starting to pray.

The other two were fans of actors and hadn't seen this kind of scene much before. Besides Liu Yue, there were some other fans at the venue. They were all like Liu Yue, holding the albums they had just bought with a somewhat superstitious air.

"Please, even if it's not my bias, at least don't let me draw the one from that company that can't sell albums," Liu Yue finished her prayer and reverently took out a plastic knife to cut open the album packaging.

The two leaning on the railing turned to watch her.

After flipping to the photocard, Liu Yue didn't rush to look at it. Instead, she placed it face down on the table and tapped it with the talisman card, continuing to mutter under her breath.

The two standing there commented loud enough for Liu Yue to hear: "Who says C-ent fans are crazy? Looks like everyone's just as bad."

"Lol, can you pray to the Virgin Mary and Guanyin Bodhisattva at the same time?"

"Is there any point in praying now? Tapping it won't change what the photocard looks like."

"It's probably just for peace of mind."

"Lower your voice, she might hear us."

Liu Yue opened her eyes. "...I already heard you."

The two burst out laughing and urged her on, "Hurry and open it!"

Taking a deep breath, Liu Yue flipped over the card. "...Ahhhhhhh fuck!"

Bad news: It wasn't her bias, but her rival group.

Good news: The rival group's card was very expensive.

The two chatty C-ent fans crowded around again, rubbing salt in Liu Yue's wound.

"Who's this?"

"He's pretty good looking."

"He looks so familiar, feel like I've seen him somewhere before."

"Judging by her expression, it's probably not her bias."

"Could it be from a rival group?"

"Oh I remember now, the table next door just bought one of these for 120 yuan."

Liu Yue closed her eyes: "..."

She quickly packed up her things, trying to change the subject from the photocard. "Let's go, I heard there's a pop-up store for a top C-ent star upstairs." She shouldered her bag, ready to leave.

The two behind her each chimed in:

"That's my rival group."

"That's my least favorite group."

Liu Yue: "..."

The two of them came up and put their arms around Liu Yue. "But we can go to the fifth floor. I heard it's really cheap up there. We'll come back down with you at 3 to watch the random dance, but remember you have to come with us to see the performance at 5!"

What else could Liu Yue say? They had already planned out her whole afternoon schedule. :)

Unlike those random events held in shopping malls, this place was a true haven for fan culture. There were no clueless passersby or disruptive children. Here, if you looked carefully, you could tell people's fan allegiances just from how they dressed. This feeling of being surrounded by like-minded people gave the fans who came to participate an extraordinary sense of satisfaction.

As it neared 3 PM, the first floor was already packed. Staff members were checking equipment, and a ring of people stood around the cordoned-off area. There were even people leaning over the railings to watch from the upper floors.

The big screen hanging between the second and third floors was still playing music videos. Everyone looked up watching, and when one song ended, a sudden countdown began: "3! 2! 1!"

The unexpected start elicited cheers. When the music began, people immediately rushed towards the center, with many joining in to sing along.

The atmosphere of youthful abandon was truly wonderful. After each song ended, the crowd would cheer and applaud.

Liu Yue's roommate standing next to her urged, "Why don't you go down there?"

Liu Yue: "...You're only just now realizing I have no coordination?"

"Then why did you come?" Her roommate's head tilted in confusion.

Liu Yue answered: "Just to soak in the atmosphere!" She turned to look at the person next to her, "Don't you think the atmosphere here is great? It makes me feel so much better."

The other person nodded, "That's true."

Even though the two C-ent fans hadn't heard most of these songs before, they still stayed to watch with Liu Yue for a long time. The screen would also show music videos, and the two of them were like curious children, asking the name of every good-looking person they saw.

When it came time for this year's hit song, whether on the ground floor or upper levels, everyone burst into a massive singalong. The atmosphere reached its peak.

The two who had originally just come to keep Liu Yue company also started swaying to the music, their playlists growing richer in the process.

Meanwhile, backstage at the venue, final rehearsals were underway. No one had organized it, but as soon as school let out, the trainees had rushed over and gathered in the practice room of their own accord. Gao Xiayu was calling out the beat, fine-tuning their dance moves.

The solo stage lineup for the second public performance wasn't much different from the first. The only change was that last time anyone who could participate did, while this time it was based on rankings. Only the trainees ranked 1st to 7th could perform their solo stages.

Gao Xiayu was 7th, with even Ye Xing ranked ahead of him.

"Ye Xing, your angle is wrong. Open your arms more." Gao Xiayu said coldly, looking at Ye Xing.

Ye Xing, who had been called out, nervously rubbed his fingertips, then adjusted his pose as instructed. He also said, "Sorry."

When they moved on to the next move, Ye Xing was called out again.

"Ye Xing, straighten your arms. If you can't straighten them it looks really bad on camera."

Ye Xing explained: "I did straighten them, it's because of the clothes." He was wearing a baggy long-sleeved shirt today, and the sleeves bunched up, making it hard to see his movements clearly.

After hearing the explanation, Gao Xiayu said nothing and continued calling out the beat. But Ye Xing was singled out yet again.

"Ye Xing, don't just fling your arms out when you swing them. You need to hit a pose at the end. Your muscle control is terrible."

"I'm sorry..."

There were so many trainees present, and aside from Chi Qiao and Gao Xiayu who had good muscle control, the others were all more or less the same. Even an idiot could tell Gao Xiayu was targeting Ye Xing.

But the others just glanced back at Ye Xing without saying anything.

This time the group performance was divided into several small teams. Their team had five people, with Gao Xiayu as the leader in charge of choreography and formations.

Apart from the two lines Ye Xing sang in the center, he spent the rest of the time in the corner.

Everyone could see what was going on, but they couldn't say it was wrong, because Ye Xing's skills really weren't up to par.

A week ago during the preliminary check, just like at the actual performance, they didn't give feedback right away. Instead, they had the trainees wait in another room while the producers and teachers stayed behind to discuss who would get to perform solos.

While waiting, the trainees speculated among themselves.

"If they're only letting seven people perform, does that mean there will only be seven debut spots?"

"It's very likely."

"I don't think I'll make it this time. I messed up one move earlier."

"Don't even mention it, I just cracked on a high note."

Ye Xing, whose performance wasn't particularly impressive, felt he had no hope this time. So he sat in the corner, quietly waiting for the staff to come and announce the results.

About twenty minutes later, a staff member came to announce the results, even posting the rankings from this evaluation.

But there was one that didn't match the previously announced results - it was Ye Xing's ranking.

"Sister, is this a mistake? Ye Xing was sixth, but here he's ranked eleventh," Chen Wu asked, pointing at the list. The other trainees also looked over.

The staff member shook her head, "No mistake, this was the decision after the teachers discussed." She then turned to Ye Xing, "Ye Xing, come with me for a moment, the producer wants to talk to you."

Ye Xing, whose name was called, felt as if he was being pointed at by multiple swords. Even taking a step forward was worrisome.

The others watched Ye Xing walk out, falling silent one by one. Chi Qiao, who usually got along well with Ye Xing, looked at the expressions of the others and felt his heart sink. He sensed that Ye Xing's days ahead wouldn't be easy.

This was Ye Xing's first time going upstairs. He followed behind the staff member, quietly inquiring, "...Sister, do you know why they called me?"

The person in front turned back, "I don't know." After saying this, she turned back and whispered to Ye Xing, "But Producer Jiang's expression didn't look good."

Hearing this, Ye Xing started crying internally.

Oh no, he was so scared. He had started trembling when a group of people met the producer, how was he going to handle it alone?

After going upstairs, the staff member in front knocked on the door, "Producer Jiang, Ye Xing is here."

"Let him in." A familiar voice came from inside, and Ye Xing's hair stood on end when he heard it.

After the door opened, there was no one at the desk. Ye Xing turned his head and saw Jiang Juyou sitting at the low tea table. She pointed with her chin to the side, "Sit."

"Hello, teacher!" Ye Xing bowed politely in greeting first.

Jiang Juyou nodded and said again, "Sit down."

It seemed all conversations started the same way. After Ye Xing sat down, Jiang Juyou across from him asked, "Do you know why I called you here?"

He hesitantly nodded, and Jiang Juyou across from him smiled, raising one eyebrow, "Then tell me."

"...Because my skills are too poor." Ye Xing was afraid of the head producer, so he didn't even dare to make eye contact with her.

Jiang Juyou, sitting there, crossed her legs and sighed slightly, "Actually, your skills aren't so poor as to rank at the bottom. Among so many trainees, you're about in the middle."

"The rankings have been announced, right?"

"Yes, they have."

Jiang Juyou folded her arms and leaned back on the sofa, "My idea was to go by the rankings, but the other department heads and teachers all strongly advocated for you to be included. They feel that appearance is also a kind of skill, which I can't deny. Even the entertainment industry operates on this principle - as long as you look good, you don't have to worry about not having work, let alone fans."

"The number of debut spots hasn't been decided yet. You're currently ranked eleventh. If I decide on a nine-member group, you could make it if you work hard. But what if I decide on a seven-member group? Or a five-member group?"

"Who's in the top five now?" Jiang Juyou thought for a moment and listed the names, "Yao Shuo, Pei Luming, Chi Qiao, Chen Wu, Wang Silu."

She asked, "Pretty boys always get criticized. Do you think, setting aside your looks, based on skill alone, you could push any of these five out?"

Ye Xing pressed his lips together without speaking. Jiang Juyou didn't push him, but continued, "Do you think your competition is just these five? There's also Gao Xiayu, who has the strongest ambition. He only ranked lower this time because his string broke. If he hadn't made that mistake, he'd be in the top three."

"Then there's Yang Yuzhen, who's younger than you. He learns extremely fast, comes from a background in children's theater, and like you, knew nothing when he first entered the company. He even has to take time out every week to rehearse plays. Even so, he ranked tenth this time, ahead of you."

"I didn't call you here just to tell you how many people are better than you, but to let you know that with so many better than you, the other teachers still insisted on choosing you against all odds."

Jiang Juyou's tone became serious at this point, her expression earnest and her speech slow, "I hope you can live up to the teachers' affirmation. I hope even more that when people mention you, it's not just the 'good-looking' label, because being good-looking isn't even that rare in the entertainment industry."

She paused, then continued, "...You all go back to the dorms by yourselves after classes, right? You're not in the same dorm as Gao Xiayu, nor in the same class. I guess you don't know, he hasn't really gone back to the dorm for a month. He washes up in the bathroom and sleeps in the vocal room, just covering himself with a jacket at night."

"I really don't want to compare you all, but reality is cruel. If you can't match up to him, you won't have a chance to debut."

Finally, Jiang Juyou said, "If you don't have talent, then you should work harder. If they practice for four extra hours, you should practice for eight."

Softening her voice, Jiang Juyou asked, "Do you understand?"

"I understand, thank you, teacher," Ye Xing nodded solemnly.

Jiang Juyou nodded, "Alright, you can go back now."

"...Goodbye, teacher."

"Mm, goodbye."

After leaving the office, Ye Xing leaned against the wall and let out a long breath. He felt his back, which was completely covered in sweat.

Returning to the practice room, the other trainees had already started practicing. Ye Xing also found a corner, put on his headphones, and began practicing dance.

Not long after, Chi Qiao and Yao Shuo from the neighboring class came over. Seeing that Ye Xing had returned, they approached and asked, "Quick, quick, what did the producer call you up for?"

Ye Xing's expression wasn't great, "...Got scolded." He kept it vague, not wanting to say too much.

After hearing this, Yao Shuo patted his shoulder, "It's okay, we've all been through it."

Chi Qiao's expression wasn't much better either, "Sigh... I was ranked second last time, but now these kids are too scary."

This time, Pei Luming suddenly rose up. He wasn't very eye-catching in the first public performance, but this time was different. He chose a high-difficulty song and performed it perfectly, suddenly jumping to second place, only 0.5 points behind Yao Shuo.

Equally fierce was Gao Xiayu, except that during the pre-check for this performance, his instrument broke on the last note, so his ranking wasn't high. But ignoring the error part, his performance this time was equally eye-catching.

Everyone was growing, and because of this brutal system, everyone was growing rapidly. Stagnation meant falling behind.

One hour before the public performance.

All the trainees had finished their makeup and were resting backstage. Ye Xing was alone in the vocal room, wearing headphones and practicing singing.

The staff backstage were all busy and had no time to manage these kids.

Chen Wu glanced at Gao Xiayu, then at the other trainees who were watching for cues. He quietly changed positions, sitting next to Gao Xiayu.

"...Do you hate Ye Xing?" he asked in a low voice.

But Yang Yuzhen, sitting opposite, still heard. He widened his eyes in disbelief, not understanding why he would ask such a question. To save his life, Yang Yuzhen got up and changed positions, moving away from this area.

After hearing this, Gao Xiayu turned his head to look at Chen Wu, wanting to explain something. Finally, he sighed first, "...No, I also know that appearance is part of one's skills."

Chen Wu continued to probe, "Then why do you target him? It makes the atmosphere in the practice room bad too."

Yang Yuzhen, cursing his too-good ears, moved positions again. Honestly, Chen Wu should be a war correspondent, he's too good at this.

Gao Xiayu fiddled with the headphones in his hand, glancing up at another spot, "If I target him, then no one else dares to cause him trouble."

Chen Wu followed his gaze and understood.

The stereotype is that women are jealous, but in reality, men are more prone to envy, especially towards good-looking people.

With so many male trainees in the company, especially with a competitive system, there's bound to be a lot of targeting and clashes behind the scenes, but everyone keeps it under wraps.

At first, Gao Xiayu was indeed a bit disgruntled, but the circle he was about to enter wasn't one that only looked at ability. Arguing about those things would be useless, so he might as well quickly improve his skills and truly become indispensable to the group.

On the other side, someone must have gossiped quickly about Gao Xiayu's earlier targeting of Ye Xing, as Chi Qiao and Yao Shuo immediately got up to find Ye Xing.

Ye Xing wasn't in the waiting room, so he must be in the practice room. When the two opened the door to the vocal room, he was indeed inside, wearing headphones and practicing singing.

Seeing them suddenly open the door with serious expressions, Ye Xing thought he had missed the opening time and was startled. He quickly checked the time, "You scared me to death."

"Are you okay?" Chi Qiao asked with a frown.

Ye Xing didn't understand, "...What would be wrong with me?"

"I just heard from people in your group that Gao Xiayu was targeting you," Yao Shuo replied.

Ye Xing thought for a moment, "Not really... I asked him to be stricter with me."

The two standing there: "..."

Ye Xing continued to explain: "...The elimination system is about to start, and I don't want to be eliminated. That would be too embarrassing."

He lowered his head and fiddled with his headphones, "So I told Gao Xiayu not to go easy on me and to strictly point out my problems. Only by knowing where the problems are can I improve."

After hearing this, the two sighed, "Really, at first I also thought about practicing casually, but now it's truly become a matter of self-esteem. My self-esteem won't allow me to drop out of the top three now." It was Chi Qiao who spoke.

Yao Shuo listened with an exasperated expression, "Then should I not allow myself to drop down?"

"No way, if you don't drop down, how can I move up?"

"Get lost!"

At this moment, someone called from outside: "Twenty minutes before start--"

Ye Xing hurriedly got up, "Let's go, let's go, quickly. If we're late again, we'll be scolded." He said, pushing the two out.

The two moved even faster than him, and started sprinting as soon as they left the door.

Outside, the audience was also entering. Jiang Juyou was sitting backstage and glanced at the backend of the APP. Today, nearly 400 positions were locked. Although it was an improvement, it was far from what Jiang Juyou had expected.

Today, just the ground floor activities next door had over 400 people, not to mention those browsing upstairs. The cafe on the fifth floor was even briefly full. Today, the neighboring building was estimated to have a foot traffic of nearly a thousand, while this side had less than 400.

It was indeed difficult being in a different circle.

Jiang Juyou gave instructions again, "Don't monitor too strictly today, but don't be too lax either."

She had to implement Plan B.

This time, only the inner field positions were opened. After the audience entered, they sat sparsely. But unlike last time, some people brought light boards in.

Li Yao was watching the entrance situation on the backstage monitor screen and immediately saw the eye-catching [Ye Xing]. He couldn't help but exclaim, "This is indeed the domestic entertainment industry!"

The backstage urgently broadcast a message prohibiting the display of light boards. Staff immediately went to remind people that light boards were not allowed to be displayed, and if they were unwilling to put them away, they would have to be asked to leave.

Because of this, there was quite a commotion outside for a while. Everyone didn't understand why light boards weren't allowed.

The girl with the light board was very stubborn, shouting that other places allowed them, why couldn't they. After a long fuss, she still refused to put it away or leave. In the end, she was carried out by security.

Other spectators who watched this drama silently touched the cameras in their bags.

"..."

They hadn't expected that people would really be asked to leave. In the domestic entertainment industry, which company doesn't just say it for show? Some companies even encourage bringing light boards. They really didn't expect that when they said it wasn't allowed here, it really wasn't allowed.

Several familiar fan site administrators exchanged glances and pushed their cameras further into their bags.

Just before the start, like last time, a group of people came out from backstage and walked towards the stands. However, unlike last time, many people wore hats, and the one sitting in the middle even wore a mask.

Liu Yue sat with her roommate and withdrew her gaze, sighing again, "This is really the first time in my life I've seen a concert where you can still leisurely choose seats an hour before it starts."

"It's not really a concert, it's a public performance, said to be a month-end evaluation stage for trainees," her roommate explained.

Liu Yue was familiar with the term "month-end evaluation," which was a term that came back from abroad. Hearing this, Liu Yue's expectations weren't as high. Since it wasn't a concert, the stage effects probably wouldn't be as good.

Seeing that it hadn't started yet, she curiously asked, "Have you been here before?"

"No, this is the first time. I saw other people recommending it online, and I happened to have free time, so I came to take a look. It's quite novel, seeing this kind of thing for the first time."

"Yeah, I find it quite novel too." Liu Yue said as she looked again at the small card she had just gotten from the storage locker.

Having been abroad for two months, she didn't know that small cards had evolved to this extent. The more she looked, the more amazing it seemed. How did they manage to do this?

Equally amazing were those people who drew these cards from the small card gashapon machines.

There was a row of gashapon machines selling albums on the second floor. After buying coins, you could draw a gashapon. Those with good luck could draw their bias, those with bad luck drew one of these trainees.

Everyone who drew a trainee had the same reaction, "...What's this?"

Then they would run to find staff, demanding an explanation. After that, the staff would perform the 108th demonstration of covering the small card, followed by the 108th "Wow--"

Those who found it novel would keep the small card, those who didn't like it would ask the staff to exchange the card. Of course, the staff would exchange it for them.

But in the end, the majority of people kept the small card. It's just that when they asked around who this was, no one could answer. In the end, they got the answer in the card release super topic.

"So it's a boy group from the domestic entertainment industry?"

"Is their group called Random?"

"I think I've seen them on TikTok before. So now someone can make this technology?"

"This is the company's proprietary technology."

"Damn, such a beautiful small card and it's not my bias!"

"Want to collect it? Will you buy it?"

"Can we pre-order?"

"Sisters, this small card is still on sale. You can just go buy it directly! Sisters in Beijing can go to the site to get it for free, but if you buy it separately, it's 70 yuan for a set. This time there are 20 cards in a set."

"Ahhhh why didn't you say where to buy it!"

"Sorry, sorry, it's in the Galaxy World, it's an APP. Hurry up, the quantity seems to be limited. Last time there were only 500 sets."

"Damn, sold out."

"Then I'll buy it secondhand, name your price, no high prices please."

Meanwhile, the public performance officially began. Among the audience for this performance, not many were here for the second time, probably only about fifty people. The rest were all first-timers. They weren't even familiar with the people, some just learned about this performance while participating in activities next door, and thinking they still had plenty of time, they came over.

The performance process was the same as the first time. The trainees went on stage one by one for self-introduction according to their ranking.

The first to come up was Yao Shuo. This time there was no VCR, but a direct close-up, and the top of the big screen even displayed a crown, with the ranking beside it: 1

Yao Shuo's few fans in the audience immediately realized what this score meant and excitedly shouted loudly, "Ahhhh Yao Shuo--"

After standing still, Yao Shuo also picked up the microphone and introduced himself: "Hello everyone, I'm Yao Shuo, I've been training for three months."

Hearing this, Liu Yue raised one eyebrow, "Such a new little chick."

When the trainees came on stage later, the ranking was displayed at the top of the big screen. People who were slow to react also knew what this meant. Ye Xing was the sixth to take the stage, and the ranking above his head was also six. Ye Xing had the most fans in the audience, all of them screaming loudly.

Liu Yue watched and criticized, "Come on, they already have fans?" She looked at the big screen, and after seeing the face clearly, her momentum immediately weakened, "He deserves it."

Fangirls might change their bias or their ult, but they will never change their preferences. A main vocal fan will always be a main vocal fan no matter how many groups they switch to, just like Liu Yue, this visual fan. No matter how many biases she changes, she always chases the visual of the group.

After seeing Ye Xing's face clearly, Liu Yue raised her hand and apologized, "I'm sorry, my voice was a bit loud just now."

The two roommates beside her gave her a glance.

She also noticed that the fans sitting in front of her were Ye Xing's, as they had just been cheering very loudly. So the outgoing Liu Yue went up and tapped one of them on the shoulder, "Hi, do they have an official website? This is my first time here, and I think I've developed a crush on the most handsome one."

Hearing this, several people immediately pulled out their phones, "Yes, yes! You're talking about Ye Xing, right? I'll find it for you!"

Unlike last time, the solo stage started first, with Gao Xiayu remaining on stage.

This order was decided by their own drawing of lots, and Gao Xiayu had drawn the first performance. The staff quickly brought out a standing microphone and an electric guitar. The appearance of the electric guitar caused a stir in the audience.

"Hello, teachers. My name is Gao Xiayu, and I'll be performing a song called 'THE LONELIEST'." After saying this, he signaled to the side of the stage.

An ethereal sound rang out as Gao Xiayu stood in front of the mic, singing in a low voice while casually plucking the electric guitar. His voice was on the lower side, carrying a sense of having weathered many storms. Gao Xiayu liked to draw out his notes when singing, and this lazy style of singing fit the atmosphere of the song even more.

The chorus part of this song had relatively high notes, requiring him to open his mouth wide, all while playing the guitar. Just during the chorus, he amazed the audience below. By the time the guitar solo part came, the audience had turned into an ocean of screams, with various exclamations mixed together. Many audience members who had been there before were trying hard to remember his first performance, and some even wondered why they hadn't noticed him before.

Liu Yue was the one who was truly shocked. Perhaps due to prejudice, she thought there weren't many talented performers in the Chinese entertainment industry, because the few top stars she knew of sang just okay: their notes were either muffled in their mouths or they couldn't sing loudly.

Because she watched with prejudice, she had no expectations. And it was precisely this lack of expectation that gave Liu Yue goosebumps. The live sound effects shook her to her core, leaving her sitting in her seat with her mouth open, forgetting to close it.

The two actor fans beside her weren't much better off. This was their first time watching a live performance. They had attended a few grand ceremonies before, but as those in the know understand, nine out of ten performances there are lip-synced. They had never followed any singers, so naturally, they had never been to a concert.

This opening solo stage left people dumbfounded, making them full of anticipation for the following stages.

In the last section, which was another chorus, Gao Xiayu directly raised the key, singing so intensely that the veins on his neck stood out.

Looking at the fully engrossed audience below, it was clear that his decision was undoubtedly correct. Several fan photographers who were hiding even started recording his direct shot with their cameras.

When they drew lots for the order earlier, it was done after the pre-check was completed.

Gao Xiayu, who drew the first spot, had no reaction, but the other six people tensed up. They had all seen his rehearsal performance earlier, and every teacher had given high praise. Even with points deducted for stage mistakes, his score was still high enough to squeeze into the top seven, which shows how terrifying his performance was.

The reality was that during the formal performance, Gao Xiayu not only didn't make any mistakes but performed even better. The guitar solo section directly ignited the atmosphere.

Due to practicing hard for a month, Gao Xiayu had also lost quite a bit of weight. He was wearing a white shirt, with the wind machine below the stage blowing, as if blowing away his melancholy.

The lights shone on him, with the screen showing his close-up. His slightly long hair covered his brows and eyes, but this made him look even more decadent, fitting the atmosphere of the song even more.

After he finished his stage, the applause from below lasted for a long time. Even appearance-focused people like Liu Yue were convinced.

Having real talent is indeed very charming.

Yao Shuo, who came up next, felt a lot of pressure. During regular practice, the teachers liked to compare him with Gao Xiayu. In previous practices and performances, Gao Xiayu was indeed slightly inferior to him, but he didn't have any weak areas. Now that Gao Xiayu had grown rapidly, Yao Shuo's first place might really be in jeopardy.

In previous performances, Yao Shuo always tended to showcase his vocal abilities. This time, he chose a stage with a bit of dance. Originally, he was very confident, but after seeing Gao Xiayu's stage, Yao Shuo felt a tightness in his heart.

This time, he was done for.

In these competitive stages, everyone always likes to choose songs with high notes to show off their abilities. The songs chosen by the people who came up later were increasingly intense, but the effect was not ideal. Even Jiang Juyou became somewhat aesthetically fatigued by the high notes.

Looking at the whole performance, only four people left an impression. Gao Xiayu who opened the show, Yao Shuo who came second, Ye Xing with his usual stunning looks, and Pei Luming who performed well at the beginning but cracked on the high notes later.

Jiang Juyou, sitting in the audience, had a terribly sour face. If it weren't for the fact that their parents were sitting in the audience, Jiang Juyou might have started scolding right then and there.

She had originally hoped to use today's performance for some marketing, and had even thought of a title: "Shattering the Chinese Entertainment Industry". Now, she could only let the industry off the hook this time and shatter it next time.

After watching the performance, Jiang Juyou was so angry her blood pressure rose, and now she felt a bit dizzy.

The people sitting around her had quite good impressions though. Li Yao even praised their rapidly improving skills. Zhao Xu, not understanding why she was so angry, tried to comfort her: "Be content, they've only been practicing for three months. It's already quite good that people who started with untrained voices can now hit high notes."

"Other trainees just go to survival shows to experience the competition. But here, you have them in survival mode every day, and the rules change every month."

"Really, I think they're already doing very well. Look at Ye Xing, when he first came, what did he know? He would go off-key as soon as the notes got a bit high. Now he can even steadily sing through small high notes. If he were outside, wouldn't he be praised as a visual main vocalist?"

The three of them each said a word of comfort to Jiang Juyou, who finally felt a bit better sitting there.

Yes, their growth has already been very fast. It was her who had too high expectations.

Jiang Juyou, supporting herself on the chair to stand up, was preparing to walk backstage. As she was going down the stairs, she suddenly made eye contact with several people coming up from afar. Those three people were also staring at her, albeit with uncertainty in their eyes.

Jiang Juyou quickly shifted her gaze.

How come her three roommates were here? But their presence here seemed quite reasonable too.

Liu Yue even turned back to look again, then turned back to ask the other two, "Hiss... why do I feel like that looked so much like Juyou?"

"The clothes look the same too. Isn't that what Juyou was wearing today?"

"Even the shoes are the same."

By the time the three of them turned back to confirm again, that group of people had already entered the backstage area. Liu Yue withdrew her gaze, "We'll just send a message to ask later."

On the other side, after entering, Jiang Juyou started to comfort her little heart. Her mood had been on a rollercoaster today, a few more ups and downs and she'd be ready to meet her parents.

A staff member came to notify her, "Producer Jiang, the trainees are already waiting in the practice room."

Jiang Juyou remembered this and waved her hand, "The performance was a mess, what's there to comment on? Just dismiss them."

Liu Jiajia, who had come along, heard this and sighed, "Alright then, you go back first. I'll go for a bit. Haven't you not been resting well recently? Hurry back and rest."

With her saying this, Jiang Juyou felt even weaker, wanting nothing more than to collapse onto her bed right now.

In the practice room, all the trainees were standing straight, waiting for the executive producer to come. The door of the practice room was frosted glass, allowing them to see the silhouettes outside. When everyone saw someone approaching, they immediately tensed up.

The first to enter was Liu Jiajia, the head of the New Talent Department. Upon seeing her, everyone immediately bowed and greeted, "Hello, Teacher—"

Only Liu Jiajia had entered, with no one else following behind her.

Liu Jiajia was holding an iPad, the one Jiang Juyou had just used, which still had some of her brief comments from watching the performance. "Producer Jiang said your performance was too poor, she doesn't want to come."

How the trainees have grown is actually under Liu Jiajia's management. Saying that the trainees performed poorly is actually saying that their New Talent Department's management is lax.

She sat down on the sofa, putting the iPad aside. Her cold face looked exactly like the executive producer's.

"I won't say much more. You all know how you performed today. Tomorrow morning will be the same - mutual critiques and error-spotting. The performance rankings will be out before noon. This is the first time we're releasing rankings. In future rankings, anyone who places last three times in a row, or shows no growth for three consecutive times, will have to say goodbye to this place."

"Some of you may think you did well today because most people performed without major mistakes and completed their routines safely. But you need to understand, when everyone performs adequately, that's not excellence - it's mediocrity, lack of highlights, forgettable performances."

"That's all for today. Go rest, and remember to arrive on time tomorrow morning."

Liu Jiajia never wasted words with them. She finished speaking and left, pointing at the iPad on the sofa before going, "There are brief comments from Jiang Juyou on your performances. Look through them yourselves and return it to the office when you're done."

"Goodbye, teacher." The group of youngsters bowed again.

They stared at the door, and only when it closed did they rush towards the sofa.

Chen Wu was the first to grab the iPad. As soon as he opened it, he saw his profile page, and it was like a critical hit -

Written in red pen above the table:

"?"

"Song choice mediocre."

"Appearance seems cumbersome... lose 6-7kg."

"English pronunciation average, sounds terrible."

"Weak core strength in dance."

Besides the written words, there were red lines drawn, and their tables even showed their recent academic grades from school.

Chen Wu saw a long red line drawn next to his grades, with a question mark above it.

"..."

Not only Chen Wu fell silent, but the others did too. They hadn't expected there to be so much written content on the tables.

Height and weight were basics, but they truly hadn't anticipated that even how many points they scored in their school subjects would be part of the critique.

Wang Silu patted his friend's shoulder after looking, "Bro, you seriously got 33 in Physics?"

Gao Xiayu couldn't help saying, "...33 is a bit too low, can you even get into high school?"

Yang Yuzhen also leaned over to take a look, "Brother, your subject imbalance is too extreme, full marks in Math but 33 in Physics?"

Chen Wu, who was being critiqued, now wished he could find a hole to crawl into. He hadn't felt so embarrassed when the results came out, but for some reason, he felt extremely ashamed now.

"It's not... it's just that Physics class is always the first period after lunch, and I'm basically too sleepy to open my eyes then, so I haven't really listened much." Chen Wu tried to defend himself.

There were brief comments for other people after that, and everyone was eager to see, so they didn't dwell on Chen Wu for long.

As they continued reading, everyone noticed a pattern - the evaluations for trainees from out of town were generally higher than those for Beijing trainees, but there was a reason for this.

Take Wu Zheyu who lives in Tianjin, for example. After becoming a trainee, he basically lives here, but for school, he takes the high-speed rail back, which takes over an hour, and then comes back by high-speed rail after school every afternoon.

Those from even further away, like those living in Chengdu, only come to practice on weekends, arriving Friday night and returning on Sunday.

But their high evaluations aren't because Jiang Juyou gave them sympathy points, rather because their abilities are inherently strong, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to stay.

The chief producer's comments were brief, but every sentence was on point. For instance, Gao Xiayu's stage performance seemed perfect to them, but Jiang Juyou still left a few comments.

"Jaw issue, needs dental correction."

"Costume choice: zero points."

"Performance faltered in the latter half, high notes sounded strained."

"Deliberately lowered voice causing unclear pronunciation."

"Poor camera sense, unable to capture camera attention."

"Hair too long, looks awful."

"..."

After reading through together, everyone silently looked at Gao Xiayu.

Chen Wu was the first to break the silence, scratching his head and saying, "As expected of the chief producer, I hadn't thought of any of these." He then looked at Gao Xiayu and said seriously, "Bro, you really should cut your hair!"

Yang Yuzhen, standing next to him, closed his eyes. It was truly exasperating how he always ended up next to Chen Wu.

The focus of attention, Gao Xiayu, took a deep breath, then softened his expression and said, "Everyone take a photo of your own issues. Once that's done, I'll go return the iPad, and then we can all disperse and go rest."

"Wait, let me get my phone!"

"Chi Qiao, help me take a photo, send it to me later!"

"OK!"

-

Always living underground, relying solely on the lamps at the head and foot of the bed for light, Jiang Tang sometimes lost track of day and night after a while. She had just woken up, hugging her blanket as she turned over, looked at her phone, and saw it was already past 6 PM.

"...I'm so hungry." She rubbed her eyes and turned on the bedside lamp.

Just then, Jiang Liuxing's call came through, "...Sis, do you want to eat crayfish?"

"Yes."

"OK, I'll buy some! I'm just at the entrance of the complex, I'll be back soon!"

Jiang Tang looked at the time again, then said to the phone, "Your second sister should be off work, right? Ask if she's coming over?"

"I just asked her, they have a performance today, they're very busy, so they won't be coming. I was supposed to go too, but my flight landed at 4:30 PM, there was no way I could make it in time." After asking, Jiang Liuxing remembered something else and asked, "Did you go?"

Lying on the bed, Jiang Tang yawned and rubbed her eyes, "No, I only fell asleep at 10 AM and just woke up now... I originally wanted to hold out, watch the performance and then come back to sleep, but in the end, I couldn't stay awake."

"Alright then, you'd better get up and freshen up. I'll head back once the food is ready here!"

"OK, bye."

After hanging up, Jiang Liuxing looked at the barbecue shop's signboard again. She was just passing by near the complex and thought of buying some crayfish to eat at home.

While waiting, Jiang Liuxing glanced at her WeChat. It was full again after not checking for just ten minutes.

Their work group was discussing today's hot topics, it seemed they hadn't gotten off work either. Jiang Liuxing immediately waved to the shop again, "Boss, six more portions of crayfish, and three portions of fried pancakes... and grab a handful of barbecued meat as you see fit. We're about a dozen girls eating. I'll bring the skewers back tomorrow. Do you need a deposit?"

The boss standing at the door directly said, "No need for a deposit, just remember to bring them back!"

"Alright, thanks, boss!"

Jiang Liuxing looked back at the work group.

"There was a random dance event today, the atmosphere was so lively, I wish I could have gone!"

"My friend went today, said the on-site vibe was awesome! So jealous!"

"Got any videos? Let me post one."

"Dream on! If anyone's posting, it's me. I still need a few more posts for today!"

"...Why don't you all open Douyin and take a look? Marketing accounts have already posted about it, and it's blown up. With over 110,000 likes, the views must be in the millions, right?"

"Tsk, honestly, I don't know what's been going on these past few days, I can't even catch a break to eat shit while it's hot."

"You're disgusting!"

"Didn't know you had that kind of fetish."

"Get lost, it's just a figure of speech! Recently, all the themes I want to post about have already been posted by others, or people copy mine but get better data."

"Then copy them back, your friend should have videos from new angles."

"Oh right!"

"So can you come out of the toilet now? You've been squatting for half an hour, right!"

"Poop King."

After reading through, Jiang Liuxing thought about first taking a round on Douyin to see what the current hot topics were, when she saw the previously calmed group chat becoming lively again.

"Galaxy Galaxy Galaxy! I've been surrounded by these words all day, feels like all the star-chasers in Beijing went to Galaxy today. Open Weibo, it's there; open Xiaohongshu, it's there; open Douyin, it's there; open WeChat, it's still there!"

"Galaxy? What event is the yogurt brand holding?"

"Tsk, that's Anmushi!"

"Then is it Aranya's sister community?"

"It's really frustrating, even if you mainly do drama promotions, you shouldn't be this out of touch, right?"

"What's the matter? So what is it?"

"It's a bit complicated. There's a company that has its own concert venue and mall called Galaxy, and their company's trainees perform for free at Galaxy every month. Today was one of those days, and coincidentally, the mall also had an event, so they clashed."

"Today??? I thought it was tomorrow! Ahhhhh! My beautiful little card!"

"It's already sold out, forget about it. But there are people selling cards on the Galaxy app, you could try to snag one there."

"I still don't really understand."

"If you don't get it, you don't get it, you rusty-brained fool!"

"..."

"I'm back after posting the video~"

"Feels like it's going to blow up. It got 700 likes in just one minute after posting."

"Then I'll make a video of their performance today. My Moments feed is full of videos."

Seeing this message, Jiang Liuxing frowned. She vaguely remembered that place was quite strict, so she switched to the group chat with the fan site admins and found everyone was still discussing today's performance.

This group had over 40 people. Today, except for those like Jiang Liuxing who couldn't make it in time, everyone went.

The group was flooded with various videos and photos, all secretly taken while they were watching. Since they were taken in secret, the angles and clarity weren't great.

"Look at this one, it's hilarious. When I was about to press the shutter, a staff member came over, and I quickly covered the camera with my clothes in a panic."

"I was afraid they'd check bags at the entrance, so I wore a long dress today and strapped the camera to my leg to bring it in. Turns out they didn't check bags after all."

"A few of us were secretly hiding in the stands, with the company executives in the distance. It was terrifying, we were so scared they'd turn around."

"There weren't many staff patrolling today. If there were more, none of us would have gotten away with it."

"I didn't see that really strict staff member from last time. Last time, I raised my phone 8 times and got caught 8 times. This time was better, about half and half."

"Is Yao Shuo's fan site admin in our group? I'm really curious, what did they use to take photos? I barely dared to take out my camera today, those two staff members kept circling around me."

"It was taken with a phone."

"Oh my god, I knew it was you! Piggy!"

"So it was Piggy Baby. I know which phone it is now, I'm going to order one right away."

-

After work hours, the venue quieted down. When Jiang Juyou lay in bed, she could no longer hear that rumbling sound. But once it got quiet, she couldn't fall asleep, and it was easy to let her mind wander.

Today's performance didn't go as she had expected. The attendance wasn't ideal either, and there wasn't much money left. Jiang Juyou's anxiety peaked.

The real entertainment circle was those people on the hot search lists, those in popular TV dramas, and especially those on variety shows. The rest could at best be considered high-paid freelancers.

Since the end of June this year, she had been bravely venturing into the entertainment industry. After three months, she was still in the danger zone. Forget about entering the safe central area, she hadn't even made it into the circle yet.

None of the daily happenings in the entertainment world included them.

"The more I think about it, the more depressed I get... How on earth did those people become famous?" Jiang Juyou now reflected that she had really chosen the wrong track. If she had known, she would have chosen to be an actress.

Right now, she felt as stifled as if she had stuffed ten sweet potatoes in her mouth at once. Or was her policy really wrong? Should she have encouraged filming and used that for marketing?

Even if she wanted to be a ruthless capitalist, she needed people to exploit, right? Now there was no one, nothing could get started, everything was tied up.

The more Jiang Juyou thought about it, the more anxious she became. She angrily threw a series of punches on the bed, kicking her summer quilt onto the floor. After her outburst, she reached for her phone, planning to look at some cat and dog videos to calm her mood. As soon as she opened her phone, she saw all kinds of drama promotions and marketing.

"..."

Jiang Juyou gritted her teeth and said, "When I have money, I'm going to market until you all curse me for being a marketing expert!"

If only the company had money.

A pop-up notification appeared at the top of her phone screen. It was a message from Jiang Liuxing.

"Liuxing is Ziweixing: Who did your company outsource PR to?"

"Uh..." Jiang Juyou thought for a moment. They hadn't signed with anyone.

So far, there wasn't much that needed marketing, and even if there was, the marketing department handled it themselves. She hadn't seen them collaborate with any marketing accounts. If they had, today's event wouldn't have attracted so few people.

Jiang Juyou answered truthfully: "I don't think we've signed with anyone..."

The other side immediately replied: "Then why not sign with us? We can help promote your future performances."

With such good talent available right beside her, why didn't Jiang Juyou use it? Was it because she didn't want to?

"Juzu's Grocery Store: Our company doesn't have much money right now, we're constantly operating at a loss."

"Liuxing is Ziweixing: You're already losing money, what's a little more?"

"Juzu's Grocery Store: We really can't afford it... We only have enough left for employee salaries."

"Liuxing is Ziweixing: [Running away.jpg] Why aren't you running now? If you wait any longer, you won't even be able to pay salaries."

"Juzu's Grocery Store: ...Can't run."

"Liuxing is Ziweixing: ?"

"Juzu's Grocery Store: Anyway, I just can't run. But if you can change the payment schedule to once every six months, we could do it. We'll have money in our account in a few months."

"Liuxing is Ziweixing: Six months is too long, there's no guarantee. What if your company goes bankrupt later and we can't get our money?"

In Jiang Liuxing's view, even though her sister was the executive producer, she was still just an employee. She didn't understand why she was so emotionally invested. Now that the company was in financial trouble, she still wanted to stay there.

Could she be one of those legendary corporate slaves?

"Juzu's Grocery Store: Then how about settling accounts every three months?"

"Liuxing is Ziweixing: ...Alright, for your sake, we'll settle every three months. But if your company really can't hold on, you must tell me, okay? I need to get our money back!"

"Juzu's Grocery Store: Thanks, sis!"

Just as Jiang Juyou was about to send her the WeChat contact of the marketing department staff, she saw Jiang Liuxing send her a link.

"..."

She pasted the link into TikTok and immediately saw the video.

"Why didn't you Beijing people invite me to the event!!! Don't tell me all the Beijing fans gathered at Galaxy today--"

"First floor has a random dance event! Second floor is selling album cards, third floor is Baize Hui's pop-up event, fourth floor is top fan site admin Sister Li's exhibition. How could you not invite me to such an interesting event!"

Jiang Juyou hadn't gone there today and didn't know the specific situation. This was her first time seeing the full picture. There were many more people than in the video Li Yao had shown her. Looking from bottom to top, people were standing all along the railings.

The perspective of this video was truly stunning.

"Wow..."

Saying this, Jiang Juyou opened the comments section.

"It's okay, they didn't invite me either [smile]"

"Ahhh what is this! Why wasn't I invited?"

"I'm about to be drowned by Beijing people in the comments."

"Where is this? Where is this? Where is this? Please tell me, it's very important to me [smile]"

"The futuristic wasteland-style cafe that's been popular on Xiaohongshu these past few days is here, on the fifth floor. It's always fully booked [smile]"

"There's also a free concert to watch next door!!!"

"Hold on, have I been expelled from Beijing citizenship? How could you all play without me?"

"Ahhh I was at the scene!!! The atmosphere on the first floor was super good!!!! Everyone come play next time, the staff said it's once a month! Fixed schedule!"

"I've scrolled for half the day and no one has mentioned the address."

At this point, Jiang Juyou realized that this video had quite a lot of comments. She looked at the likes again and found it had already surpassed 200,000.

She felt like she could do this after all.

The saying "don't put all your eggs in one basket" was indeed correct. If one doesn't take off, at least there's another one.

Jiang Juyou felt she could barely control her smile now. What was this about a very popular cafe on Xiaohongshu? Just a moment ago she was complaining that no one cared, and now she discovered that the fire had already been lit, albeit small.

Remembering this, Jiang Juyou went to check the income situation of the cafe and found that there had indeed been steady revenue, and it was quite considerable.

Because the prices were low, most people ordered many different items. Plus, with many people coming to take photos, the overtime fees were also high. On a good day, the daily turnover could even reach 10,000 yuan.

"I really didn't expect this... We opened an entertainment company, but the most profitable thing is the cafe."

But at least there was income now, and Jiang Juyou was already very satisfied.

She returned to WeChat, informed the marketing department about the situation, and then sent over the WeChat ID of her sister's contact person.

"Shooting Star is Polaris: We'll help promote Galaxy for you these next few days. As for the trainees' performance, we can only gradually build momentum. They have too little exposure, and even if videos leak out, they only circulate among their fans. Moreover, this type of performance is very limited - only fans in Beijing can attend. Fans from other regions can't really connect with it, so you might need to adjust your strategy."

Jiang Liuxing immediately pointed out their current problems. They wanted to cultivate a fan base by showcasing trainees early, but the circle couldn't expand, and there were no famous seniors to lead them. They could only hype themselves up, and the issues they faced were numerous.

"Pomelo General Store: Thanks in advance!"

"Pomelo General Store: We'll adjust our strategy later."

-

"@Today's Horoscope|Lucky: 【Site Opening Announcement】"

"#YeXing# I checked today's horoscope before leaving home, and it said 'lucky,' so that must be why I happened to meet you."

"-Opening Gifts-"

"100 yuan x 301"

"1000 yuan x 31"

"Front row tickets to your bias's concert x 31"

"Offline or online fan signing event with your bias x 31"

"-Please share widely, we want more people to know Ye Xing-"

The images accompanying this Weibo post were mostly official photos, with only one taken by a fan site admin. It was placed in the most prominent position in the center, completely different from the green grass and blue sky in the other photos.

In the central photo, Ye Xing was gripping a standing microphone, eyes closed, immersed in the music. The overhead light shining down on him seemed to give him a halo, making it impossible to look away from his face.

Ye Xing's super topic only had a few dozen fans, and it might not see a new Weibo post for hours.

The appearance of this post directly stunned the fans who came to check in. At first, everyone was just happy that Ye Xing had a new fan site, but after reading the content, they couldn't stay calm.

"?"

"Did you accidentally add an extra 3, admin?"

"Even without the 3, it's still mind-blowing!!!!"

"That's a lot of money..."

"Is Ye Xing only attracting rich female fans?"

"Where did you steal this money from, can you take me with you?"

"When I open a fan site, I'll raffle: 100 yuan split among 1000 people."

After the comment section finished joking around, the reposts started to get lively. Fans from both domestic and international entertainment circles achieved great unity at this moment, all crowding over to witness this spectacle.

"Huh?"

"Yes, yes, yes, please everyone like Ye Xing more, I'm begging you, pick me for the raffle!"

"You guys in C-ent... [dumbfounded]"

"Who exactly am I struggling for?!!"

"Has the starting point for raffles become 100 now?"

"Coming to be a denominator."

"Who is this in C-ent? Someone who looks like this can't possibly be unknown, right?"

"Coming to broaden my horizons."

"I know it's impossible for me to win, but I still want to repost, just in case."

"I've been spammed by this Weibo, was about to curse, but then I saw the raffle contents. Sorry, I was too loud."

"Just based on this face, he could secure a top-tier celebrity spot."

"Fourteen years old!!!! My goodness!"

In just a short hour, this Weibo post had over six thousand reposts, and the rate of increase afterwards was even faster. With just a casual refresh, the number of reposts would increase by a thousand.

Before long, the Weibo homepage of internet users was filled with this post.

The fan site admin added more to the raffle in the comments.

"Thank you all for reposting, please pay more attention to our Ye Xing. He's fourteen this year, 175cm tall (and still growing...). He's a public trainee from Random Entertainment, has been training for three months, and will have a free performance in Beijing on the 31st of next month, Saturday. You can choose seats on the Galaxy World app! Sisters in Beijing can go watch, there will also be photo cards given at the performance. If anyone doesn't want Ye Xing's photo card, you can sell it to me! 200 yuan each! Repost this and another 1031 sisters will be chosen to each get a milk tea!"

"Thank you all! Next month's performance happens to be on Ye Xing's birthday. I'm also hiring 131 sisters in Beijing to do a birthday support with me. Nothing much, just shout 'Happy Birthday' with me after Ye Xing's performance ends. 500 yuan for one day! If there are sisters who are really willing to come, please bring your seat reservation screenshot to sign up with me. See you then!"

"I'm definitely earning that 700."

"5 PM on Saturday, October 31st, right? Seat selected, see you then!"

"Once again, I hate that I'm not in Beijing!"

"Beijing, huh? I'll take the high-speed rail over. I just love watching performances [like]"

"My goodness! Ye Xing's moms, don't love him too much!"

"Dizzy from all this money... really dizzy!"

"Even if I have to sit on a hard seat for ten hours, I'm going!!!!"

"As a college student, I'm all about being enthusiastic. Wait for me then!"

"Why can't there be one more rich person in this world - me?!"

"Wow, over 70,000 reposts... Random Entertainment, come and kowtow to Ye Xing's moms."

When Jiang Juyou woke up the next morning, she found her phone inundated with unread messages. Usually, she would wake up slowly, but today she was startled awake as soon as she got her phone.

Jiang Juyou quickly sat up, rubbing her eyes. Several department heads had sent her messages, the large group on the social app had already chatted thousands of times, and on WeChat, both her older and younger sisters had sent many messages. Jiang Juyou hadn't looked yet, but cold sweat had already broken out.

She hurriedly opened the link, praying while it was loading that it wasn't news about one of the trainees having a scandal.

But after thinking about it, she felt it wasn't right. How could her trainees have a scandal? They didn't even have a reputation to ruin.

When the loading finished, Jiang Juyou finally saw the content. She clicked once, and it jumped to the app interface, where the content was displayed in full.

"...210,000 reposts?" Jiang Juyou just roughly scanned the content, which seemed no different from previous fan site opening announcements, and the accompanying images were about the same. Why were there so many reposts?

She looked at the content carefully again, and when she understood, she drew in a sharp breath.

"..."

Indeed, there are so many rich people, why couldn't she be one of them?

Jiang Juyou strongly related to everything posted in the comments section. She liked each one, "Really dizzy from all this money... so much money."

After lamenting, she started to criticize herself, "Every time it goes viral, it's so inexplicable..."

After saying this, she suddenly sat up straight on the bed and actually kowtowed twice to her phone.

Yesterday she was still worrying about not having any marketing points, and now hadn't a marketing point just arrived?

Jiang Liuxing was even more on the ball. After getting to work today, she immediately had people make a video, planning to post it after lunch time.

Jiang Juyou picked up her phone again, held it to her chest, took a deep breath, and said, "Jiang Juyou, your days of hardship are about to end."

-

In the entertainment circle, major events emerge endlessly every day. As long as it provides entertainment for everyone, it's called a major event, let alone such a big commotion last night. How could the marketing accounts pretend they didn't see it?

After exploding on Weibo last night, it was moved to Douyin by marketing accounts today, causing another round of explosion.

But it has to be said, this raffle is really attractive, especially those two comments in the comment section about hiring people and buying photo cards, which attracted countless people to sincerely ask about the specific operation.

Usually, for concert seats, you can still slowly choose seats right before it starts, but today was different. The seats had already been fully booked.

Most people only learned about this company in Beijing because of that Weibo post, and it took them a while to realize that all the viral things recently were from the same company.

To catch up those who went to bed early last night, some marketing accounts took a different approach, setting the video content as a timeline, explaining it to everyone.

"The frosted heat-sensitive cards that went viral on Douyin last month were from this company. The futuristic decoration and low-priced drinks that went viral on Xiaohongshu at the beginning of the month were from this company. The offline event that all Beijing fan girls attended yesterday, which went viral, was also from this company. The fan site opening gifts that went viral on Weibo last night were still from this company!"

"The frosted heat-sensitive cards were given out at Ye Xing and other trainees' performance. The coffee shop is right above the building where all Beijing fan girls went to attend the event. The venue for the trainee performance is right next to the building with the coffee shop, less than 200 meters away!"

"This company really goes viral in completely unrelated ways!"

"There's one more thing you're missing - their company's app has been really popular lately. It's super convenient for generating cards, you can create item lists with just one click and trade right on the platform."

"Wow, I've seen all of those trending. Their company really has one hit after another, with no connection between them."

"Wait, the frosted heat-sensitive cards are from their company too?"

"What's even funnier is that after going viral so many times, people are only just realizing it today."

"I don't know whether to call their company lucky or unlucky at this point."

"Who would have thought? What normal company opens a coffee shop?"

"That coffee shop is genuinely popular though. So many people fly in specifically to take photos and check in there. The shop even had to start charging for overtime to prevent people from occupying seats too long, but those photo-takers still stay for entire afternoons."

"Ahhh! There are no seats left to choose from! I just lost 700 yuan!"

Random Entertainment, which was just a small-time player in the entertainment industry yesterday, suddenly became a hot commodity today. Every platform was posting about them, and marketing accounts were getting great engagement numbers just by posting data, so they kept posting more and more.

So much that Random Entertainment was pushed onto the trending topics list.

13. Random Entertainment trainee Ye Xing

19. Random Entertainment

Jiang Juyou was in a daze. It had gone viral too suddenly, too nonsensically, it made her want to cry!

Clicking into the trending topic, it was full of fans from various circles teasing, asking Random Entertainment to quickly "ship" Ye Xing and his fans. In the past, if Jiang Juyou saw comments like these, she would have rolled her eyes, but today - she actually did it.

"Thank you to the fans who spent money, you really shouldn't have!"

"Thanks to the netizens who clicked in! Much appreciated for adding fuel to the trending topic!"

"Really, thank you! Oh my, thank you so much!"

With Random Entertainment getting attention, the person at the center of it all, Ye Xing, was certainly not going to have small amounts of attention either. His super topic, which originally didn't even have 100 points, now had 3,000 followers when checked today.

Inside, it was unprecedentedly lively, full of people asking for recommendations. But where could they ask? Even the oldest fans were only two months old, and the fan club hadn't even managed to inquire much information from the company's training department. They could only silently repost the official Weibo posts from the company.

It wasn't just the company benefiting from this Ye Xing boom, but also the other public trainees.

All the trainees' updates were posted on one account, so if you wanted to see Ye Xing, you'd inevitably notice the other trainees. Pei Luming, who ranked second in looks, became the second person everyone paid attention to.

Large numbers of passersby flooded into this account. Weibo posts that used to only get a few hundred or thousand views skyrocketed overnight. The latest Weibo about Ye Xing was his first public practice stage, posted just last week, and this post had been reposted nearly a thousand times.

In the reposts and comments, people had already started labeling him.

"Visual main vocalist Ye Xing."

"Damn, I thought he was just a pretty face, didn't expect his skills to be so good!"

"His voice is amazing, such a bass!"

"Is there a performance stage? I want to see!"

"Destined to be a top star."

"Where love begins."

"He can even play the piano! It's a shame he didn't play during the performance!"

As that initial Weibo post went viral, Ye Xing's video was also reposted. In it, he sat quietly in the center of the practice room playing an electronic keyboard, singing as he played. This image attracted quite a few young girls.

Soon, which school Ye Xing attended, which grade and class he was in, were all dug up by people. Someone even found his grades from last semester.

"He's even a top student... How can he be so perfect?"

"If he were a bit taller, he'd be a hexagonal warrior."

"Our Ye Xing is still growing! He was 174cm last month, now he's 175cm!"

"His family background is also very good, both his parents are lawyers."

"No wonder, he has a kind of noble aura about him."

"Is this what a person carefully crafted by God looks like?"

Those moving even faster had already started reposting Ye Xing's work arrival photo from this morning.

In the photo, Ye Xing wore a white short-sleeved shirt and simple gray cotton sweatpants. Because of the hot weather, he had jogged all the way, and a few strands of hair on his forehead were damp. His cheeks were pink, and when captured by the camera, he looked at the lens in surprise. This startled look further touched the hearts of his motherly fans.

This sudden surge of attention was unexpected for the company. A staff member from the new talent group even went to the back door to count the number of fans waiting there - there were already more than twenty. She immediately went back to report this to the group leader. After Liu Jiajia found out, she immediately called a meeting. For safety considerations, she required staff to pick up and drop off trainees for work from now on.

And the protagonist at the center of this event, Ye Xing, was still in a daze about the current situation.

He only found out what was happening online when he received a call from a classmate after waking up this morning. He even missed his departure time because he was hiding in the bathroom looking at his phone, which made him late.

After entering the practice room, his brothers didn't let him off either and started teasing him.

"Ooooh - big star!"

"Bro, did you know you're famous?"

"If you're a good brother, can you treat me to McDonald's for lunch?"

"Brrrrrrrro -"

The practice room was full of howls and screams. When the neighboring room heard this commotion, they knew Ye Xing had arrived, and everyone rushed over to see.

Because of Ye Xing's situation, nobody was in the mood to practice this morning. After arriving, they were all scrolling on their phones and even took quite a few screenshots to show Ye Xing.

More than twenty young men gathered together, looking even more excited than Ye Xing himself. This noise quickly attracted the attention of the female staff member on duty in the neighboring office.

"Bang bang bang -"

The door was knocked hard a few times, and the noisy trainees inside finally stopped, turning one by one to look at the door.

"What's going on, did you all get a day off this morning?" That female staff member's expression was as cold as if she didn't know what had happened this morning. One of the bolder trainees raised his hand and said, "Sister, Ye Xing is trending."

"What does him trending have to do with you?" The staff member at the door continued, "Instead of cheering about this, why don't you think about what you're going to do when Director Jiang comes down later."

After saying this, she looked at the time, "Director Jiang will come down at 11:30, and at that time, you should be waiting in this classroom with your mutual evaluations. It's already 10:20 now, I wonder how you're going to watch a one-and-a-half-hour performance in time."

"Hurry up and watch, and keep it quiet, understand?"

The trainees replied in unison: "Understood -"

After closing the door, everyone looked at each other, then started whispering again, the murmuring sound irritating to hear.

Gao Xiayu frowned and said, "What's going on, didn't you hear when I said to keep it quiet?" After it got a bit quieter, he went to get the computer to play the video, but the talking started again. "If anyone keeps talking, they can leave. Don't waste my time!"

Only then did the practice room fall completely silent.

When the screen started showing yesterday's performance, everyone's attention was finally drawn back. They sat quietly on the floor, taking notes.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Jiang Juyou had finished washing up and was walking towards the office while on a call with her sisters. It was Saturday, so there was no one upstairs, and she didn't need to deliberately lower her voice. "...I was almost scared to death when I woke up this morning, I thought something terrible had happened."

Jiang Tang on the other end of the computer exclaimed, "This doesn't count as something big? If this happened to me, I'd laugh until I was oxygen-deprived."

"Oh come on, I obviously meant something bad, and what good thing could I think of? Our company hasn't done anything recently, so my first reaction was naturally that someone got into trouble." Jiang Juyou laughed after saying this, "After thinking that, I stunned myself. There I was worrying about a scandal, then suddenly remembered our company doesn't have any reputation to ruin."

Jiang Liuxing was busy editing videos on her end. This morning's surge in popularity owed no small part to her fanning the flames. The videos with the highest views were all from their studio.

Her responses were sporadic, "...How can you say there's no reputation to ruin? Big sis at least has a few fans, and those few fans' lives are still lives."

Jiang Tang: "..."

After entering the office, Jiang Juyou suddenly remembered something. "Oh, right, sis, our company's agent is already in place, and she's even a big shot. The day before yesterday, she told me there were a few small roles you could audition for... Oh no! I forgot to pass along your WeChat contact!" Jiang Juyou was scrolling through WeChat as she spoke, intending to send a message to the agent, only to realize the agent had asked for the artist's contact information, which she had forgotten in her busy state.

Jiang Tang fell silent again: "..."

"Alright, alright, I'll send it to you. Go ahead and add her. That agent is really influential, big enough to bring artists directly onto projects," Jiang Juyou said as she sat down at her desk.

On the other end of the phone, the two heard something different. "She invested a billion?"

"Wow, she's really loaded!"

"No, no, it's that she had conditions. Our HR went to headhunt her. At the time, she seemed to be having issues with her previous company, so we seized the opportunity, but it cost us a pretty penny."

"Her condition was that she wanted to bring an artist with her."

Upon hearing this, the tone on the other end of the line immediately heightened.

"It's not some legal trouble celebrity, is it?"

"You better be careful. Don't sign just anyone. Compliant artists like your sister here are hard to come by."

Jiang Juyou opened her email and glanced at the artist's resume. "No, it's just that she hasn't been active for seven years, and her reputation wasn't great before. But I've looked into it, and the issues are completely trivial."

"For example?"

Jiang Juyou thought about the information she had found and listed: "Dating during her rise to fame at nineteen... wearing a bikini... smoking... skipping exams... retaking exams... hiring a ghostwriter for her thesis. Oh! The ghostwriting and smoking rumors were false, but netizens didn't believe it."

"The main issue is that she debuted as a child star and was known as a prodigy. She got into the Central Academy of Drama at sixteen, so the public had high expectations for her. But that was the social climate back then. After news broke about her dating, she became a target for criticism, and then she retreated from the public eye."

Listening on the phone, Jiang Liuxing frowned, "So what if she smokes? Are women not allowed to smoke? They're so controlling, those stupid netizens."

"Exactly, what else would you wear at the beach if not a bikini? Are they crazy?" Jiang Tang also sounded angry.

Jiang Juyou looked up and said, "So now our company has two artists, both female actresses. Sis, she's even the same age as you!"

"After all that talk, you still haven't mentioned her name," Jiang Tang reminded her.

"Her name is Zhai Ke'er."

"Holy crap, is it really Zhai Ke'er?" Jiang Tang's emotions became excited. "She was the top young actress of our generation! I loved the TV dramas she starred in when I was little. The three of us even watched them together!"

Jiang Liuxing reminded her, "Sis, can you think about our age difference for a second? When you were little, was I even old enough to remember anything?"

Jiang Tang: "..."

"Alright, let's wrap this up. I'm busy," Jiang Liuxing was occupied with photo editing and didn't have time for them. After saying goodbye, she hung up the phone.

Jiang Juyou also had work to do, so she said to her sister, "Okay, sis, make sure to contact the agent. If you have any problems, just give me a call."

"Okay, thanks!"

After hanging up, Jiang Juyou glanced at her computer screen again, which still displayed the news articles she had searched earlier.

She closed the page and checked the time, realizing it was almost 11:30. Remembering she needed to go downstairs, Jiang Juyou shut down her computer and grabbed her phone, ready to leave.

At that moment, the system suddenly spoke:

"Ding―"

"Task completed!"

"Ding―"

"Task completed!"