Starting from a Bar to Sign Internet Celebrities

Early that morning, the news of the official state newspaper praising Chen Jincheng reached a wide audience, shocking many people.

’Seriously, is Chen Jincheng the chosen one?’

’His luck is just too good.’

Everyone knew that for a public figure, being praised by the higher-ups meant gaining their favor. For a time, at least until the Hanfu promotion proved successful, this was like gaining a layer of invincibility.

As soon as the news started trending that morning, all the paid trolls who had been smearing and slandering Chen Jincheng rushed to delete their posts.

This was because Chen Jincheng’s promotion of Hanfu culture had now become politically correct.

Naturally, most people thought this was just Chen Jincheng’s luck, but one person believed it was anything but luck: Lei Xiaojun.

During the financing round, he had carefully reviewed President Chen’s project plans. He knew that the Hanfu promotion was based on a government document about cultural heritage. Therefore, he believed President Chen must have intentionally made that statement, the one with such great vision, specifically to align with the government’s cultural heritage directive.

Clearly, he had achieved his goal.

President Chen’s words had impressed him so much that he made a mental note to learn from them. ’In the future, when I promote a project, I need to make it sound grand like that. It really shows vision.’

He’d heard about the sleazy dealings in the entertainment industry, of course. When he saw the online slander and exposés targeting President Chen, he had been ready to step in and help. To his surprise, it turned out President Chen didn’t need his help at all.

’President Chen’s abilities are just too formidable. It’s like he has everything under control.’

Having such a capable partner naturally put him in a great mood.

Previously, the four Hanfu items sold via video had generated total sales exceeding 500 million. With a 50% profit margin, that was 250 million in profit.

’Once these next twenty-plus designs are released, what will the sales numbers look like?’

He grew more and more grateful that he had invested in Second-Life Star. He had a feeling that the 3 billion investment in the film and Hanfu divisions would be recouped quickly. ’A return on investment this fast... Those other guys will probably be green with envy, right?’

This also made him look forward even more to the short-form drama platform President Chen had mentioned. After all, among all of President Chen’s funded projects, that one was supposed to be the most profitable.

So, he entered the company building in a very pleasant mood. When Wei Yuan came in and saw him, he said with a smile, "President Lei, you really have a unique eye for things. If I’d known, I would have invested in Second-Life Star with you."

He naturally knew why President Lei was so happy.

President Chen’s Hanfu promotion had been praised by the higher-ups. A project with this kind of official backing was bound to go smoothly. And sure enough, every online platform had been buzzing about it since first thing in the morning.

"Haha, I always say you should invest in people. I have great faith in President Chen as a person," Lei Xiaojun said, not hiding his admiration in the slightest.

「On the other side.」

Piaoxiang Yuan had also seen the news about Chen Jincheng, of course.

He had been having a miserable time lately. He’d been beaten badly by Chen Jincheng, but the key thing was that running away by rolling off the stage was too humiliating. Many people were mocking him, and his follower count was constantly dropping.

He originally had 1.5 million followers, but now he was down to just over 700,000.

Fortunately, the hype around Chen Jincheng and the Hanfu incident was so huge that no one was paying attention to him anymore. Otherwise, even more people would surely be cursing him out.

But seeing Chen Jincheng’s current, red-hot popularity, he was extremely envious.

’Chen Jincheng fought dirty! He said we were just putting on a show for clout, but then he ambushed me! I have to expose him and ride this wave of publicity.’

With that thought, he hurried over to his wife and said, "Honey, help me film a video. I’m going to expose Chen Jincheng!"

His wife nodded and took out her phone, starting to film him.

Piaoxiang Yuan immediately faced the camera and said, "I’m here today to accuse Chen Jincheng! He’s shameless! There’s no one more despicable than him! He was the one who invited me to stage a fight for publicity, but then he backstabbed me! He violated our agreement and hit me for real, leaving me completely unprepared. For such a huge influencer to do something like this..."

After filming the video, he immediately took the phone to review it, very satisfied with his own sorrowful performance.

「Just then.」

A knock sounded at the door.

Confused, Piaoxiang Yuan went to open the door, only to find two fierce and menacing-looking men standing outside.

One of them was even holding a phone, filming inside.

"Who are you?" Piaoxiang Yuan asked, looking at the two men with confusion. He sensed something was wrong.

"Fight me!" one of the men said coldly, staring at Piaoxiang Yuan. "I’ll give you ten seconds to prepare. 10, 9, 8, 7..."

Seeing this, Piaoxiang Yuan didn’t even wait for the man to count down to 1 before throwing a punch at him.

But his sneak attack was dodged. Then, a heavy fist came at him, smashing into his eye socket.

In that instant, he felt as if his eye was about to explode. The pain made him drop to his knees. "Spare me! Spare me! I’ll never dare to provoke Chen Jincheng again! Tell him for me, I’ll never do it again!"

He thought the two men had been sent by Chen Jincheng to teach him a lesson.

The two menacing men shot him a disdainful look and walked right out.

Once they were outside the building, one of them spoke to the phone, "President Zhou, you saw that. The guy is just a pathetic clown. Leopard can take him out with one punch. Don’t worry, we can handle that Chen Jincheng."

A solemn reminder came from the other side of the phone: "You two need to hurry to Coastal City and meet up with the other two. We’ll be counting on you when the time comes. Otherwise, all of us are done for."

"Don’t worry. If he really tries to push us to the brink, we’re not just pushovers," the man said before hanging up the video call.𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞