Chapter Fifty-Seven: What’s With the Newcomers These Days?

“Then this matter will be handled by Manager Han. Give him a platinum contract right away!” After tossing the responsibility to Han Yinglan, the middle-aged man, Yuan Feng, slapped the table and made his decision. He was certain that such generous terms would leave the other party with no reason to refuse.

“A platinum contract?”

“General Manager Yuan, isn’t that a little too much? We could start with a guarantee and see how things go.”

“This could easily make a newcomer arrogant. That’s not a good thing.”

“Exactly. We’d have a hard time explaining this to our other platinum stars.”

The senior executives murmured among themselves. The platinum contract was the highest-level agreement on the Stardust platform. Even Huang Ying, at her peak, had only received it after a period of steady streaming and confirmed popularity. To offer such a contract to a newcomer from the outset was unheard of in the company.

Han Yinglan was equally shocked. She had only planned a standard agreement, never expecting General Manager Yuan to be so bold. If the candidate failed to meet expectations during their streams, the pressure would fall squarely on Yuan Feng’s shoulders.

“All right, that’s settled for now. Are there any other departments with reports?” Yuan Feng knew this move was risky, but if this person had the potential to revitalize the declining Stardust platform, why not take the chance?

“The new star in the music section, Luo Shui Tianyi, has gained more than two million followers with just one music video, and the number is still climbing. I believe she has tremendous potential,” reported Zhao Hong, the head of the music department, standing to address Yuan Feng. The music section had long wished for a newcomer worth recommending.

“Two million fans? That fast?”

“Has she released any other works in the past two weeks?”

“If it’s not a cover, original music needs inspiration and time, doesn’t it?”

If not for the previous viral video that reached ten million views, there might have been skepticism. But with the music department head’s endorsement, there was no room for doubt. After all, the music section’s revenue from rewards had always been the most unpredictable, rising and falling sharply. It wasn’t for lack of talent, but the best had long been poached by the parent company, Xingyu Entertainment. In fact, many current stars had started out as content creators.

To put it bluntly, the Stardust streaming platform was created to help Xingyu Entertainment discover and cultivate new talent.

“Well, if you think she has potential, sign her ahead of time.” Yuan Feng had already taken on enormous risk; one more or less wouldn’t matter now.

“But—”

“Don’t tell me you can’t reach her!” Yuan Feng eyed Zhao Hong’s hesitation with growing unease. Surely it wasn’t possible that every newcomer was this hard to reach. Were the new talents so arrogant that even a giant like Stardust could be ignored?

“We’ve sent the message, but there’s been no reply,” Zhao Hong admitted, embarrassed. Strictly speaking, it was his own oversight, but who could have predicted someone would ignore even the platform’s official system messages?

“Newcomers these days think they’re untouchable the moment they have a bit of talent.”

“I told you this attitude is dangerous. Would it really matter if we lost a few of these newcomers?”

“Exactly. Maybe we should just give them the cold shoulder.”

With these incidents piling up, the executives—who were usually courted by all—no longer felt obliged to be lenient. When had they ever needed to beg creators to sign before?

“Enough! If they’re talented and can bring profit to the company, it’s our job to recruit them. The Black Flag platform is aggressively poaching right now, so all department heads need to stay vigilant. Don’t let our competitors win,” Yuan Feng warned the executives, who were already calling for these newcomers to be abandoned. Stardust’s decade-long dominance had made many of its leaders complacent, and in recent quarters, not a single top creator had switched from another platform. It was a dangerous sign—the reason why the platform had stagnated with no strong new talent emerging.

Stardust’s pillars had not changed in ten years. How could its top position be maintained that way? What Yuan Feng wanted was new blood—vitality!

He sighed quietly. If he didn’t find a way to change this situation, his days as general manager were numbered.

“Manager Wu, has Qiushui Han signed yet?” Skipping over those who couldn’t be contacted, Yuan Feng turned to the glamorous woman beside him.

“She hasn’t.”

“Don’t tell me she’s vanished too!” Qiushui Han’s contact information was clearly listed, and it wasn’t the first attempt to reach her. Had she disappeared all of a sudden?

“No, we can reach her, but she turned us down.” Wu Qing, the glamorous woman, looked helpless. She had already offered the highest-level contract, only to be rejected.

“Refused?” Even Yuan Feng’s patience was wearing thin. What was wrong with the world today? People were turning down free money.

It was a platinum contract, and he’d taken a serious risk to offer it—only to be rejected? Yuan Feng suddenly wondered if he was out of step with the times. Were there really people who didn’t care about money?

Meanwhile, in Qingshui City Hospital, Luo Song stood grim-faced before his two sons, Luo Shen and Luo Yuan, both battered and bruised.

“What on earth happened? Weren’t you supposed to be following Luo Chen?”

“Dad, you were definitely misled. Luo Chen doesn’t have any backers. He just wanders around or goes to school—he’s got it easy.”

“That’s right. We slipped up and got spotted, and he called in a gang to beat us up.”

The two brothers, Luo Shen and Luo Yuan, had planned to use Li Fei’s influence to teach Luo Chen a lesson. They’d scraped together an electric bike as payment for Li Fei, only to be roughed up by Li Fei’s men, as if they had insulted their boss. The brothers still couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong.

Was there something wrong with offering an electric bike?

Thank you to reader Qing Yi for a reward of 4,000 Qidian coins! Applause. Thanks to reader Senluo Ye Ke for another 1,000 Qidian coins! Applause. Thanks to reader German Orthopedist for a reward of 100 Qidian coins! Applause.