Chen Jincheng woke up. He grabbed his phone and saw it was already 1 PM.
The morning had passed in a blur.
But there was no helping it. They'd left the bar after 2 AM, gotten a room by almost 3, and after fooling around for a bit, hadn't gotten to sleep until after 4.
So, their schedule had just been shifted.
His movements stirred Jiang Xiaobai. She woke with a soft murmur. "What time is it?"
"A little past one," Chen Jincheng replied, already checking the status of his video on his phone.
His video for "Trajectory" had surpassed a million likes, but its growth had slowed considerably. It wasn't that "Trajectory" was losing steam. In fact, as the song's popularity soared, a string of other internet celebrities had started covering it.
When he opened the "Trajectory" topic, the feed was so flooded with cover videos he couldn't scroll to the end.
What's more, the most-liked video wasn't even his original. "Trajectory" covers by an influencer with 15 million followers and another with 8 million had already surpassed his own video in likes.
The reason, ultimately, was that his own follower count was too small.
So, seeing covers get more likes than his original, it was impossible not to feel a bit salty. He could only console himself with the fact that they had to pay him a 50-yuan usage fee. If they used the song for a commercial performance, they'd have to pay an additional copyright fee.
Besides, they were also boosting the overall popularity of "Trajectory." The hotter the song got, the more money Tiao Yin would have to offer when they came to him for licensing rights. 'They can forget about trying to fob me off with a few hundred thousand.'
To put it simply, he hadn't licensed the song to Tiao Yin for free public use. He had only signed up for a paid electronic license that users had to apply for individually. Therefore, regular Tiao Yin users couldn't use his song as background music for their videos for free; doing so would be a violation.
Regular users were Tiao Yin's bread and butter, so the platform had no choice but to fork over the money on their behalf. Any popular original song could basically earn this licensing fee from Tiao Yin.
Once Tiao Yin paid the fee, its regular users could then use the song for free.
Of course, the price wouldn't be too high, and nobody dared to haggle. If you did, you might get the money, but if the platform got annoyed and throttled your traffic, it wouldn't be worth the trouble.
However, influencers still had to pay to use the backing track or perform the song on a livestream, as their videos were made to generate profit. But even if it was just a 50-yuan usage fee, every little bit added up. After all, with countless influencers out there, they all jumped on whatever was trending.
Today, Tiao Yin was sure to be flooded with "Trajectory" covers.
He then checked on Jiang Xiaobai's video. It already had over 1.3 million likes, and her follower count had risen to 400,000. It would probably continue to climb.
Gaining 400,000 followers from a single video was a feat countless influencers could only dream of. For most people, it was the stuff of legends.
And Jiang Xiaobai had done it all thanks to the effect of a single Internet Celebrity Debut Card.
She could make one more video with that effect.
But once the Debut Card's effect was gone, she'd have to rely on her own skills. 'I still need to have her master that enrapturing expression, her signature move.'
Next, Chen Jincheng checked the video he'd made of Zhu Ling. It only had 210,000 likes, but that was expected. He had just casually filmed a clip and added a single line.
Still, it was enough to serve its purpose of driving some initial traffic to Zhu Ling's page.
He clicked on Zhu Ling's profile. Sure enough, her own video had a decent number of likes—200,000—and she'd gained 80,000 followers. Clearly, his initial traffic boost had helped her video break out of the initial traffic pool and start gaining traction.
He figured a lot of guys were smitten by the line, "Working hard at my stall to save up a dowry for my future guy..."
The two worlds might be different, but some things that touched a nerve in the soul had the same effect. Human emotions and desires were universal.
Still, he was a little dissatisfied. The results didn't match what had happened in his past life. Even with the same strategy, and after he drove traffic to her, the effect was only half as strong.
…
Once they were dressed, Chen Jincheng opened his phone and handed it to Jiang Xiaobai, playing a video he'd recorded the previous night. "Take a look at this expression. Learn it. I want you to use it during this afternoon's shoot."
"You're serious?" Jiang Xiaobai asked, stunned for a moment as she watched the video on the phone.
"Of course I'm serious. Did you think I was joking at the bar?" Chen Jincheng said earnestly. "Trust me, this will be your signature move. You have a natural talent for this kind of expression."
'???' Jiang Xiaobai was speechless. 'What does he mean, I have a talent for this kind of expression? He makes it sound like I'm some kind of vixen.'
But then she started to feel embarrassed. Yesterday, she'd mistaken his words for a hint, thinking she'd seen through his game, and had eagerly dragged him here.
'So, I'm the Joker again?'
However, when it came to navigating the internet, she still trusted Scumbag Cheng.
He'd bought her a custom-picked outfit, engineered all this hype, and a single video had gained her 400,000 followers.
'She knew it wasn't just because she was naturally beautiful and destined for fame.'
'After all, she'd been on Tiao Yin long enough and made enough videos to know how things worked. Lots of girls from her school were on the app. The campus belle from the neighboring department was prettier than her, posted videos daily, and worked her tail off, but she still only had a little over 8,000 followers after more than a year.'
'All of this was thanks to Scumbag Cheng.'
So, she obediently took the phone and began to study the video.
Watching her study it, Chen Jincheng quickly realized why no one else could replicate her enrapturing expression.
It was her eyes. With that expression, her gaze was utterly seductive.
It was like one of those gifted Sacred Bodies you read about in novels.
When Chen Jincheng saw Jiang Xiaobai master her signature move, that enrapturing expression, in such a short time, he was even more impressed.
'Talent is talent!'