Chapter 365: Chapter 261: Comic-Con Invitation, Did the Company Buy Us Fans?_2

“She’s such a big star; I doubt she would resort to such tactics. If she really wanted to participate, wouldn’t her studio just send over a collaboration document for us to approve?”

“With a name as big as hers, we can’t even get major Singers to attend. But if we actually manage to get involved with Diva Xu, we might end up benefiting from it. Why not try inviting her?”

As soon as he said this, the others fell silent, some even looked surprised.

“HISS. If you hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t have noticed. Could it really be a newbie under Diva Xu’s banner?”

“If that’s the case, it wouldn’t be wrong to try inviting them…”

“But how? Everything has been arranged in advance for the show. What do we do if we invite them now?”

“That’s no problem. Our event isn’t some official program where we have to be strict with the timing. Our attendees are here to have fun, so being a bit early or late doesn’t really matter…”

In the end, after much discussion, they decided to give it a try, reasoning that one more Singer onstage wouldn’t be an issue. They might even be able to leverage Diva Xu’s fame, which could greatly increase the influence of this comic festival.

The studio, naturally, had no idea that a suggestion from a netizen was causing the comic festival staff to scratch their heads. But since Mengmeng had pinned that comment, it showed she was genuinely considering the idea, even if she couldn’t make the decision on her own. So, she reported the matter to Yiyi, letting her make the decision.

Yiyi had no idea if it was feasible, so she turned to Chu Tian to discuss it.

“Yiyi, you’re going to be someone who can stand on your own two feet in the future. As an agent, the most important thing is making decisions—knowing what to accept and what to reject. Take this event, for example. It’s high-profile and has little negative press. It’s a high-quality opportunity. And Li Guang is new to the scene; if he could get involved in this kind of event, that would be a good thing.”

Although Chu Tian had never been an agent, in his previous life, he had seen enough while following his agent around, so he didn’t mind sharing some insights when the opportunity arose.

“So, you mean we should accept it?” Yiyi asked.

Chu Tian shook his head and said, “’Accept’ might be a bit premature since they haven’t even invited us yet. But we can try to make contact. It might just work out.”

Deep down, Chu Tian felt there was a high chance of success. After all, the anime subculture, no matter how you looked at it, was still a niche community. It didn’t have nearly the reach of a mainstream singer like Xu Qingqiu. With Xu Qingqiu’s reputation, they would at the very least be taken seriously, and the Queen’s name could significantly increase the chances of success.

It wasn’t wrong to think they’d be riding on Xu Qingqiu’s coattails; in fact, that was precisely the situation. Since she had started to recruit new talent into her studio, it was an inevitable process for them to climb the ladder using her fame. This, too, was a resource—a path all companies have taken.

Even worse scenarios existed. When big companies or large investors wanted to push new talents, it was common to see big stars bring newbies onto small, insignificant shows. Now, with Xu Qingqiu not stepping forward personally, merely using her name was already quite restrained. This was also Chu Tian’s way of respecting Xu Qingqiu’s reputation; he wouldn’t push it too far.

Other companies might not do the same. Those Kings and Queens whose fame was fading or whose commercial value was declining were the most tragic. All too often, they found themselves thrown out by their companies to serve as stepping stones for others.

“Okay then,” Yiyi said, “I’ll send them an expression of interest in collaboration and see what they think?”

“Sounds good. Go ahead with it,” Chu Tian replied.

As Yiyi reached out to the organizers of the comic festival, Li Guang sat in the lounge, lost in thought.

“I was wondering where you’d gone. What are you doing here? Feeling down?” Yang Lin, who had come out to get some water, saw Li Guang sitting motionless on the sofa and approached him with concern.

“Ah? No… I’m just…” Li Guang opened his mouth, unsure of what to say. After a moment’s hesitation, he suddenly raised his phone to show Yang Lin, saying, “Sister Lin, do you think this is real?”

“What’s real or not?” Yang Lin, holding her water glass, twisted her body to lean over and look at the screen, only to see Li Guang’s personal Weibo page.

“Is this your Weibo account? You’ve got so many followers already? Not bad, Guang. I didn’t realize you were kind of a micro-celebrity.” Yang Lin gazed at the more than 70,000 followers displayed on the main page and cracked a small joke.

But Li Guang didn’t find it funny at all. He forced a smile, then said uncertainly, “Actually, when I got the account this morning, it only had 78 followers… Sister Lin, do you think the company bought followers for me? How did it increase by so much in one day?”

78? 73,000? Yang Lin’s face showed a complex expression as she glanced between the homepage and Li Guang.

“Are you sure you only had 78 followers this morning?”

Li Guang nodded emphatically, his head bobbing like a rattle drum, as he asserted confidently, “I’m sure! The first thing I did when I got the account this morning was to check it with my alt account, and there really were only 78 followers. One of them was me.”

“It was only 78 this morning, and by the afternoon, it turned into 73,000…” Yang Lin murmured to herself, which made Li Guang even more anxious.

“Sister Lin, do you think the company bought zombie followers for me? Won’t people find out about this?”

No wonder Li Guang was worried. So many people got exposed these days for buying followers. He feared he might meet the same fate. If people found out, wouldn’t it be a complete social death? Having never experienced such things, it was only natural for him, debuting as an artist for the first time, to be apprehensive.

Yang Lin, snapping back to reality, looked at Li Guang with envy and said helplessly, “Are you silly? How could the company possibly buy them!”

Actually, she wasn’t sure herself. But based on her years of experience navigating society, she felt it was highly unlikely the company had bought them. What company would be that brain-dead? If you had a base of several million followers, buying a few would be one thing; an increase of ten or twenty thousand a day wouldn’t be noticeable. But this kid started with only 78 followers and suddenly got over 70,000? Isn’t that as obvious as lice on a bald head? If they really did that, they’d be blasted on the trending searches by the next day. It’s like they don’t consider the fans’ intelligence at all. Although negative publicity is still publicity, who would want to start their career with notoriety before even debuting? Therefore, it most likely wasn’t bought. But if it wasn’t bought, then it was truly terrifying. Gaining over 70,000 followers in a single day? Are you kidding me? How incredibly popular would you have to be for that?

Before Yang Lin could even finish speaking, Li Guang casually refreshed the page, his face becoming even more speechless.

“Sis… Sister Lin… It’s 80,000 now…”

Listening to Li Guang’s almost tearful words, Yang Lin nearly dropped the water glass she was holding.

What the hell, it’s still increasing? What did the company do? He hasn’t even debuted yet! How could he have so many followers? Could they actually be bought zombie followers?

Even Yang Lin started to feel uncertain, mainly because she couldn’t figure out what the company was up to.

“What are you two up to? Flirting? This is the office.”

As the two exchanged bewildered looks, an untimely voice rang out.

“Sun Jian, are you looking for death? If you don’t want that damn mouth of yours, just say the word, and I’ll happily tear it apart for you,” Yang Lin retorted.

“No, no, no, Sister Lin, I was wrong! I talk too much.” Seeing Yang Lin about to explode, Sun Jian, who had just come in, hastily admitted his mistake.

Behind them, Chen Feng watched with a grin, clearly enjoying Sun Jian’s misfortune. Someone dared to provoke Yang Lin? That was like an old man seeking longevity by eating arsenic—he was tired of living!

“What are you two doing? Just standing there, not moving or talking?”

After Sun Jian admitted his fault and fell silent, Chen Feng quickly stepped in to change the subject. A warning was enough. As Yang Lin’s partner, he was also afraid that if she got genuinely angry, it would strain their working relationship.

Yang Lin didn’t speak immediately. She looked at Li Guang, seeking his opinion. When he nodded, she then said, “Guang is about to debut. This morning, the staff gave him his Weibo account details. Back then, it had only 78 followers.”

She paused briefly, looked at Li Guang again, then continued, “He told me earlier that his followers had surpassed 70,000, and just now, after refreshing, it’s reached 80,000.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep