Night fell, and the city's neon lights began to flicker on, like fantastical brushstrokes painting a brilliant, colorful scroll against the darkness. The young women on the streets seemed to have become a little more beautiful, a little sexier.
Chen Jincheng headed toward the Extreme Bar, running various searches on his phone. He wanted to learn more about the current state of Tiao Yin.
Due to the differences in cultural development, the content on Tiao Yin was vastly different from what he remembered from his past life.
His current plan was simple: if he ran into any of the long-legged beauties who had been famous in his past life, he'd sign them on the spot. If not, he'd just rely on a proven formula.
If he found someone who had been famous in his past life, it would be perfect if the Life Simulation Game gave him two more Internet Celebrity Debut Cards.
Regardless, he had to recruit some long-legged talent, and fast!
It took him a dozen or so minutes to reach the street where the Extreme Bar was located. He found it odd that there wasn't a single snack shop nearby, especially since the bar's own chef didn't start work this early.
In his past life, there were always snack shops near nightclubs, and they specialized in opening after midnight.
Most people would grab a late-night snack after a night of partying at the bar. Whether they were with a girl they'd brought along or one they'd met inside, getting food afterward was a way to seal the social deal, satisfy physical cravings, and participate in a social ritual.
But here, next to the Extreme Bar, there were no snack shops, not even a single late-night street vendor.
'So, have the people of this world not realized this gold mine yet, or has no one in the vicinity of my bar caught on?'
As he turned onto the street, Chen Jincheng immediately spotted the big new sign for the Extreme Bar hanging on the outside of the Jingyuan Building.
It made the bar much more conspicuous. It was impossible for anyone coming down the street to miss it.
When Chen Jincheng got back to the bar, the so-called beauties—whose looks were rather underwhelming—were rehearsing again.
They were working hard, but in a world where looks were everything, their efforts were largely pointless.
That was why the whole group of them dancing their hearts out was less effective than Jiang Xiaobai casually swaying a couple of times at the DJ booth.
Beauty is justice.
Chen Jincheng suddenly noticed that Elephant had already brought seven girls into the bar. They were sitting in a corner watching the other girls rehearse, and when they saw him arrive, they instinctively stood up and looked his way.
Seeing them here so early, he guessed their reason for coming and gave Elephant a smiling wave.
Elephant immediately jogged over, grinning. "Bro, you're here! I've been waiting for you."
"Spit it out. What's up?" Chen Jincheng asked, already knowing the answer.
"Bro, it's Jingjing and Little Demon... they want to work at the bar. And... I want to, too!" Elephant said, looking a little sheepish.
"Follow me to my office," Chen Jincheng said, turning and heading that way.
Elephant quickly ushered the seven girls after him.
Once they were in the office and he had taken a seat, Elephant had the seven girls line up in front of him.
He, in turn, scanned his eyes over the seven girls, from their faces to their chests, waists, and legs.
The seven of them were quite attractive. The key was their youth; that was their biggest advantage.
'When I start producing videos in bulk later, I can give them a chance too. See if any of them have potential.'
The seven girls were also sizing up Chen Jincheng, and they seemed a little excited to see him. They had all seen the video for "Trajectory."
"Are you all of legal age?" Chen Jincheng asked. He was worried a couple of them might be minors.
"Bro, don't worry. The youngest one just turned eighteen," Elephant immediately assured him, taking out their ID cards and handing them to Chen Jincheng.
Chen Jincheng took the IDs and glanced through them. Then he called Wang Yuan over, handed her the cards, and said, "Get them onboarded. Also, give Elephant the title of Floor Supervisor."
"Understood, Boss!" Wang Yuan nodded, then motioned for Elephant and the seven girls to follow her out.
Chen Jincheng sat down and started playing the Life Simulation Game in his mind, but he hadn't received any rewards since getting "Trajectory."
He didn't stop playing until he got a message from Sister Hong telling him it was time to start his livestream. He had come up empty again.
He set up his phone on its stand and had just opened his stream when the viewer count started to climb rapidly, faster than ever before:
"Cheng, glad to see you didn't get banned! I was worried!"
"I thought we weren't getting any treats, but then you dropped a bombshell! That video of Xiaobai has me completely captivated."
"Cheng, you've got a great eye for clothes!"
"Cheng should buy all of Xiaobai's outfits from now on!"
"..."
Clearly, his fan-bros had all seen the video on their feeds and were waiting for him to go live.
He played along, "Glad you all liked it. I'll always make sure to give my bros plenty of treats. And hey, just between us, I actually bought two outfits for Xiaobai at that store!"
"666"
"666"
"..."
After the flurry of excitement, Chen Jincheng noticed a comment from a long-time fan: "Cheng, I met another beautiful girl recently. How do I pursue her?"
He usually answered questions from fans he recognized. But this question was so dumb that he answered, exasperated, "Bro, you've been watching my streams for this long and you're still asking me how to pursue a beautiful girl? Obviously, you don't pursue her. First, you get to know her best friend. Maybe her best friend is even prettier. And her best friend has her own best friends..."
Boosted by the popularity of the day's video, the live viewer count quickly broke 10,000. As time went on, it climbed to 15,000, setting a new record.
Just as the stream was in full swing, the office door was pushed open. A girl in an apron stormed in, shouting angrily, "The boss! Where's the boss?"
The girl in the apron was dragging another girl behind her—it was one of the ones Elephant had brought, Jingjing, he thought her name was.
Elephant and two of the other new girls hurried in after them, looking worried.
Jingjing tried to pull her hand away. "Sis, I'm an adult now! Can you please stop controlling my life? I don't want to go run a street stall with you!"
The girl in the apron was furious. "Jingjing, even if you don't want to run the stall, working in a bar is out of the question! What kind of shady place is this? If Yaoyao hadn't told me you were working here, would I still have been completely in the dark?"
"That traitor, Yaoyao!" Jingjing was clearly furious as well.
The moment Chen Jincheng saw this, he knew there was trouble. It was a common scene in the bar business—a girl gets a job, her family disapproves, and they show up to drag her home by force.
The girl in the apron couldn't have been much older than Jingjing. But when Chen Jincheng saw her, his eyes lit up. A title that could make countless young men lose their minds popped into his head: 'Working Hard at a Street Stall to Save for My Dowry!'
His mind was usually preoccupied with long-legged beauties; he rarely paid attention to lifestyle-type content creators. The Street Vendor Girl was one of the few exceptions. In his past life, he had once seen a beautiful girl running a stall after a night out at a bar, only to later find out she was a famous influencer.
This type of influencer wasn't just beautiful, with a great figure and a sweet voice. They used a gimmick like, 'Working hard at my stall to save for a dowry, ready to dote on my future boyfriend.' This could make countless men and boys go absolutely wild, even fantasizing about winning her over.
The Street Vendor Girl archetype had produced quite a few influencers with over a million followers, and even a couple with several million. It sparked a trend of beautiful girls rushing to set up their own street stalls, all hoping to be the next big thing.
Unfortunately, they didn't realize that the popular Street Vendor Girl influencers all had corporate backing or were being promoted by major players. Moreover, each successful one had a unique aura—either squeaky clean and pure, or provocative to the extreme, constantly giving out "treats" to their audience.
Just like that one big-chested influencer who amassed nearly four million followers.
The appeal made men obsessed in one of two ways: either they wanted to marry her and take her home, or they thought one night with her would be absolutely incredible.
Based on his experience from having seen countless long-legged beauties, this girl seemed very similar to the most famous Street Vendor Girl from his past life. She had that unique aura, like a Bai Yueguang type appearing right before his eyes.
It was just that this Girl's appearance needed to be polished up and properly packaged.
The Girl from his past life, after enough hype and marketing, had eventually quit the internet and married into a wealthy family.
'Just think,' he mused, 'a girl like a Bai Yueguang, working hard to save up her own dowry... even the scions of wealthy families would fall for that, to say nothing of ordinary guys. She's probably their ideal type.'
This was the kind of person who was born for it. As long as she found the right path, she could achieve just by standing there what other girls couldn't, no matter how hard they tried.
Most importantly, this particular niche hadn't been developed yet on this world's Tiao Yin.
'So, it's worth a shot.'
'It would be a low-effort venture anyway. For this type of influencer, as long as I drive some traffic her way, I won't need to do any elaborate planning. Before she gets popular, all she has to do is run her stall.'
'Once her popularity takes off, she'll get appearance fees from food festivals, restaurants, food courts... anyone holding an event. Not to mention she can take on advertisements.'
'Besides, with a solid fan base, it'll be easy for her to pivot into other content niches.'
The stream's chat lit up. Just from the sounds of the argument, the audience could figure out what was happening. Even if they'd never been to a bar, they'd seen scenes like this in movies and on TV.
Chen Jincheng, however, simply turned his camera to face the girl in the apron and Jingjing. This was shaping up to be great content.
Seeing that the two sisters were about to start arguing again, he quickly stood up, walked over to the girl in the apron, and said, "Hello, my name is Chen Jincheng. I'm the owner of this bar."
"Huh?" The girl in the apron had been focused entirely on her sister and hadn't noticed him. Now that she looked at Chen Jincheng, she was clearly taken aback. "Um... are you the guy from the internet who sang 'Trajectory'?"
She had just seen his video on her feed today. She thought his version of "Trajectory" was beautiful, and more importantly, he was handsome—not at all inferior to those celebrities.
She'd even liked the video. She never expected to run into him under these circumstances.
"That's me," Chen Jincheng said, feigning ignorance. "Can you tell me what's going on?" He could feel the girl's anger instantly dissipate.
'This must be the benefit of being handsome and famous.'
"Oh, um... my name is Zhu Ling..." The girl in the apron seemed to have lost all her aggressive momentum and was even a little nervous. "Um, my sister is still young. Working in a bar isn't right for her. I want to take her home. Can you... fire her? She only just signed the contract, anyway!"
"Of course," Chen Jincheng agreed with a gentle smile. "A younger sister should listen to her big sister."
"Really?" Zhu Ling's face lit up with joy as she thanked him. "Thank you, thank you so much! You're a good person!"
"Don't mention it." Chen Jincheng smiled, then his tone shifted. "However, I'd like to offer *you* a job at my company."
"Huh???" Zhu Ling was completely dumbfounded.
Watching this unfold, the audience in the chat immediately started spamming "666."
"That's our Cheng for you! So unexpected!"
"A good person for letting the sister go? Nah, he's just got his eyes on the older one."
"..."