Chapter 24
The curtain of night quietly descended on the largest city in the north, the capital.
The lights that illuminated the city lit up. At first they were like little stars but, very quickly, transformed into glorious blanket of light.The vehicles on the wide roads were like an unending stream. People who just got off work hurriedly rushed back to their homes like a cycle that once again returns to the start.
In the basement room of Jingming Community Building 7, Lu Chen swallowed the last mouthful of his egg fried rice and tapped a button on his phone, again.
Thank god, he managed to get through this time!
Chen Jianhao’s voice was transmitted over the phone. "Little Lu? My phone died earlier. Did you have something that you needed from me?"
Lu Chen hurriedly wiped a rice grain near his mouth and spoke, "Boss, I have some matters to complete tonight, so I would like to ask for a leave. Is it possible?"
"Take a leave?"
Chen Jianhao was clearly distracted before he replied shortly after, "a break won’t be a problem. Is the matter urgent?"
"A little..."
"Boss, is there a problem at the bar?" Lu Chen was very susceptible and could hear that there was something wrong with Chen Jianhao’s tone. It wasn’t an angry or a dissatisfied tone but instead, a tone that made him seem a bit annoyed.
Chen Jianhao was a great boss and Lu Chen didn’t want the other party to think that he was cocky just for having some abilities.
The reason why Lu Chen requested a leave was because he had come to a decision regarding Whale TV’s contract. They had straightforwardly agreed to the two requests he made and crafted a tailor-made contract especially for him.
After confirming the electronic contract, Lu Chen just needed to print three hard copies of the contract and mail one to Deep Sea City by tomorrow.
Coral Fish had impatiently created an anchor account along with a broadcasting room for him already and he would be starting his first official broadcast tonight at 8 PM. Furthermore, he would receive a new anchor recommendation on their main page.
8 PM-12 PM was the internet broadcasting prime time but Lu Chen’s performance time slot at Forget Worries Bar was coincidentally during the same period. Since he wasn’t able to split himself into two people, he could only request a leave for tonight from Chen Jianhao.
As for solving the conflicts between the timing, Lu Chen had a couple ideas but, as of now, the time wasn’t ripe yet. Therefore, he could only find ways to stagger the time slots for the time being and try to balance both parties as much as possible.
"There’s not really a problem..."
Chen Jianhao laughed, "in fact, this should be considered a good thing. A few people in the industry have heard about you and wanted to head over tonight to watch your performance. Since you have some matters, it’ll be fine to change it to tomorrow."
Although the circle of bars in Houhai couldn’t be said to be big, it wasn’t small either. Everyone was trying to earn their keep around here and many of the bosses had great relations with each other. Their contracted singers would often perform at each other’s bar or sit and mingle about.
Chen Jianhao’s personal connections were very strong and had numerous friends in the circle. Therefore, someone must have heard that there was an outstanding singer with original compositions in his bar, so he called several people to come over.
The news in Houhai circulated rapidly. If Lu Chen truly had a well-deserved reputation, naturally, there would be people inviting him to perform.
If a bar only had the same few faces, regardless of how much the sequence changed, it wouldn’t be easy for them to do business.
Lu Chen also knew that it was a good thing and he hurriedly replied, "Ok Boss, I’ll definitely be on time tomorrow night!"
"Alright..."
Chen Jianhao continued saying, "Little Lu, you will have a promising future if you do a good job. If you encounter any problems, don’t keep them to yourself. If I’m able to help, I will certainly help you."
Chen Jianhao was somewhat aware of Lu Chen’s family circumstances and knew that Lu Chen had always been working hard.
"Thank you, Boss!" Lu Chen gratefully replied.
After hanging up, Lu Chen opened Whale TV’s main page and logged in.
His ID didn’t change in Whale TV so it was still Lu Fei.
The live broadcast interface of Whale TV and StarryLive was virtually the same, therefore Lu Chen, who already had experience in broadcasting, managed to grasp the majority of the features in a few minutes.
Although Lu Fei’s live broadcasting room had yet to begin broadcasting, after being created two hours prior, the number of followers was constantly increasing. It increased from 0 to 100, then, the numbers broke through 500 in a spurt of energy.
After the number of followers exceeded 500, the speed slowed down considerably.
This sort of situation was common. Because he was suddenly shut out by StarryLive, the 10,000+ followers weren’t brought over to Whale TV. If it weren’t due to the Star Circle and QQ group created by ProphetEmperorLiBai, most likely the situation would be much worse as he would have to start everything from zero!
At least, right now, he already possessed numerous true fans.
While keeping the main page for the live broadcasting room opened, Lu Chen opened Whale TV’s forum and entered "Fish Nest".
Fish Nest was actually a fan group, similar to Star Circle in StarryLive. Fans who lurked in Fish Nest would call themselves Fish Fans. The forum was the most lively place in the website other than the live broadcasting rooms.
Lu Family Army’s Fish Nest and Lu Fei’s live broadcasting room was established at the same time. Relying on the QQ group members’ vigorous propaganda, there were currently over 300+ Fish Fans within the Fish Nest.
Although it was a newly established circle, the activity level of the members were very high. In just an hour or two, there were 100+ posts and 700+ replies. Lu Chen’s live broadcast video in StarryLive was still stickied atop the forum.
The Fish Nest forum moderators’ title was Nest Head and there were two right now, ProphetEmperorLiBai and Lu Chen respectively.
Lu Chen found it interesting, therefore, he used the identify as Nest Head to post and send his greetings.
His post immediately attracted numerous replies by the current Fish Fans who were online.
"General Lu Fei has appeared. When are you starting the broadcast? I can’t wait!"
"8 PM! 8 PM! 8 PM! Important things must be repeated thrice!"
"I want to hear Cinderella, it’s really a pleasant song. I love the anchor’s performance and you’re really very handsome."
"That’s our General Lu, obviously he’s handsome. Speaking of which, the one above me is really a female?"
"This lady here has never hidden her true name!"
"Can I ask for a date with you..."
Soon, the replies went off-topic and the place was bustling with noise. Excitement and replies flooded the new post.
Bang! Bang!
Just when Lu Chen was happily conversing with everyone, he suddenly heard a knock on his door.
He didn’t even turn around and said, "come in, the door isn’t locked!"
Lu Chen didn’t even have to see to know that Li Feiyu was the one outside as he was long familiar with his door-knocking style.
"Superstar, something big has happened!"
Li Feiyu opened the door and walked in while shouting, "our live broadcasting room has been sealed!"
Lu Chen turned around and smiled, "didn’t you check out QQ? I fell out with StarryLive due to contract problems and they sealed my live broadcasting room along with the account. Right now I’ve already signed a contract with Whale TV, take a look."
He showed his computer screen with the anchor interface of Whale TV to Li Feiyu.
"Well, shyt!"
Brother Fei was dumbstruck, "I didn’t check QQ today and never knew such a major incident happened. Tell me quickly, what exactly is going on?"
Lu Chen could only reiterate the entire incident to Li Feiyu.
After Li Feiyu listened to the entire story, he felt indignant at the injustices faced by Lu Chen and fiercely slapped his thigh while cursing, "StarryLive is being really sh*tty, those f*ckers are really too much. Speaking of which, did you cash in the donated StarCredits?"
"I haven’t..."
Lu Chen shook his head with a bitter smile and answered, "I basically didn’t even have the time. They sealed my account in an instant."
"Damn! What the fu*k! Fu*king motherf*ckers!"
Li Feiyu was even angrier than Lu Chen. "Are you saying that so many StarCredits have been fed to dogs?"
If it was in the past when Lu Chen lost 1,000+ RMB, he would definitely feel heart pain and get angry as well.
However, after switching over to Whale TV, his contract fees were 50,000 RMB. Therefore, his current attitude was rather indifferent.
"We won’t allow them to take advantage of us. If they do not refund the sealed account donation, naturally someone will sue them!"
ProphetEmperorLiBai had mentioned this in the group chat, that he wanted StarryLive to spit out everything they ate!
"I guess that’s the only option we can take right now..."
Li Feiyu depressingly replied, "luckily your abilities are good enough. StarryLive will never be able to seal you."
"Although Whale TV is not as great right now, it is still a well-known brand and they have quite a number of members."
"You don’t need to say anything anymore. Little Lu, if you need my help, feel free to ask!"
Lu Chen had already heard the same thing once today but he was still touched. "Alright!"
Both of them were friends who knew each other for a long time, thus, polite greetings need not be spoken.
Li Feiyu scratched his head and spoke, "then I’ll go get my dinner first and wait for your live broadcast tonight. I’ll be supporting you right next door!"
After Li Feiyu left, Lu Chen continued to chat with his fans in Fish Nest and QQ group chat.
As the time passed, Lu Chen began to feel nervous.
The feeling he currently felt was similar to his feelings during junior high school when he had asked a female student to meet beside the small forest!