Investment Cashback, Billionaire God [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 5: Signed Female Idol

Chapter 5: Signed Female Idol

At 2 PM in the afternoon, in the atrium of a large shopping mall not far from them, an underground idol group was taking a break between performances.

The girls wore thin performance outfits. Even in the perpetually climate-controlled mall, the large exposed areas of their skin couldn’t escape the creeping chill.

The Star Federation’s holographic technology was highly advanced. Fans could experience the feeling of sitting right beside their idols through virtual screens, making it rare for celebrities to insist on offline events anymore.

But this clearly didn’t apply to the ITOUCH girl group.

After nearly six months of operation, their fan group had only managed to accumulate about four hundred member’s total. They couldn’t generate any online revenue, and even music festivals wouldn’t invite such an unknown group.

Strictly speaking, they couldn’t even be considered a proper girl group – at best, they were part-time dancers who performed at various venues to boost shopping mall traffic.

None of them had signed employment contracts with their “manager.” Such crude operations didn’t require contracts anyway.

This so-called manager was more like a labor broker. After receiving payment from merchants, he would split 50% of the earnings equally five ways among the girls.

Tong Qinglu had only joined ITOUCH six months ago. Her relationship with the other members remained cool and distant, the atmosphere never quite harmonious.

She understood their attitude – after she joined, everyone’s share per performance became smaller. No one would be happy about that.

She had been secretly attending auditions for other idol projects. If better opportunities arose, Tong Qinglu didn’t want to stay here either.

But she seemed cursed with bad luck. The two talent agencies she’d previously signed with had both gone bankrupt in succession. When she moved to the third company, she was immediately shelved for two years, wasting her prime idol years.

Dragging on like this, she had passed twenty-six. Major recruitment projects would toss her resume in the trash after one glance at her age.

Seven years since debut, four different groups, clearly not for lack of effort, yet always missing that final breakthrough, never achieving any notable success after all these years.

Perhaps she was just born unluckier than others – after all, who else would encounter the rare misfortune of two companies going bankrupt?

Tong Qinglu nervously tugged at her overly short skirt, sighing softly when she saw another failed audition notification on her Light Brain.

“Girls, time to get on stage.” The male broker’s hand was about to pat Tong Qinglu’s shoulder, but she subtly dodged it.

As upbeat music filled the venue, she followed her teammates onto the stage with energetic steps.

About a hundred curious onlookers gradually raised their devices in the mall atrium. Some held up terminals to record, while a shorter girl in front carried an actual camera.

Not many people used cameras these days. Curious, Tong Qinglu glanced at the lens a couple more times, maintaining her sweet professional smile.

The dream imagery overlapped with reality. Qin Yi saw Tong Qinglu’s face through the viewfinder and gently pursed her lips.

With a silent “boom,” something seemed to explode along the trajectory of their intersecting gazes.

The dream scenes receded further away, becoming so distant she almost doubted whether the classroom dream had been an illusion. But the real-life beauty crit suddenly felt intensely close, the other’s fragrance almost brushing against her face.

“Hey, big boss, don’t you think she’s so beautiful she doesn’t even seem to be on the same layer as everyone else?”

“…It’s strange how someone this pretty isn’t famous yet.” Qin Yi muttered to herself while continuously clicking her camera shutter.

Actually, it wasn’t strange at all.

Fang Zhuo stood with arms crossed in the crowd, quietly watching the performance of several girls on stage. If not for human intervention, Tong Qinglu should have been discovered by a major director two years ago. She would have skyrocketed to fame through a family-themed TV drama, becoming one of the Four Divine Faces among the new generation of young actresses and the newest queen of trending topics.

Her inability to break through after all these years in this obscure group was closely linked to Ruan Zihan’s deliberate suppression.

The major director who originally brought her into the industry was the lead actor in the fifth chapter of “Radiance” and was now signed under Ruan Zihan’s talent agency.

Since that director had been signed by Ruan, Tong Qinglu’s original opportunity disappeared, and even Qin Yi who should have followed her onto the set for photography had her life trajectory altered.

Before coming here, Fang Zhuo had briefly checked on StarNet and found that all the actors the director had promoted in the original storyline had now vanished without trace. Some had been disfigured by plastic surgery, others had become depressed and gained weight their career paths all plunged into darkness.

He suspected Ruan Zihan might have some psychological issues, always doing these stupid things that harmed others without benefiting himself.

“Sister, look at these photos I just took of you.” As soon as the stage performance ended, Qin Yi proactively approached Tong Qinglu.

“You’re so beautiful. I feel like I’ve seen you in my dreams you seem so familiar and dear to me at first sight.”

Tong Qinglu shyly said thank you.

The signing process went unusually smoothly. Fang Zhuo barely spoke from beginning to end, while Qin Yi chattered away explaining the contract terms to the other party. She even thoughtfully showed Giant Entertainment’s industry certification card and extravagantly praised the company.

[System Notification: Detected all investment slots being filled for the first time. Conditions met. Unlocking [Loyalty] attribute in [Perspective Mode]. Host can now view others’ loyalty levels through this mode. Go try it out!]

[[Loyalty] Note: This attribute may fluctuate based on others’ status. When the value is ≥8, there’s a chance to trigger rebate crits.]

[Investment Target Slot 4: Tong Qinglu]

[Intelligence: 5][Stamina: 3][Appearance: 9][EQ: 4][Loyalty: 8]

[Initial Value Assessment: 7800]

The moment the system notification popped up, Fang Zhuo briefly shook hands with Tong Qinglu.

Tong Qinglu felt so excited her fingertips turned cold. Though she didn’t know how this talent agency had discovered her, she had a premonition that this would be her one-and-only chance to turn her life around.

When she returned to the backstage dressing room to pack her things, the long-standing gloom that had perpetually clouded her face completely vanished. With refreshed spirits, she cheerfully stuffed all her clothes and cosmetics into her suitcase.

“Oh my, gorgeous, giving up on life?” The male agent sneered sarcastically when he saw this.

“We still have another show this afternoon not coming?”

Tong Qinglu, having had enough of his harassment, coldly replied, “I won’t be coming back anymore. I’ve signed with a new company.”

The man cleared his throat and spat a mouthful of phlegm by the door, grinning as he said, “Don’t be like that. Do me a favor I’ll take you perfume shopping. Didn’t you just post yesterday saying you wanted LM’s new release?”

He then handed her a bag containing lipstick. She had never accepted such gifts before, but fearing she might offend the labor agency and lose her place in the group, she had always politely declined. Now that she was leaving anyway, she didn’t care about burning bridges.

She snatched the bag and slammed it onto the dressing table, dragging her suitcase to the door. “Let me repeat: I don’t want your gifts. I’ve signed with another agency. My friend is waiting outside, so stop bothering me.”

The man chuckled softly. “What company would ever sign you?”

“Giant Entertainment.”

The dressing room erupted in even louder laughter. The man doubled over, howling, “Hahaha, stop joking! Never heard of it must be some shady outfit. Don’t get scammed, sweetheart.”

“No worries if you haven’t heard of them before. You will soon.”

Tong Qinglu lifted her chin and shut the door on his mocking, disdainful gaze.

That evening, the account “Ayitodaynopics” posted a set of photos.

The background was still the same shopping mall, but edited to resemble a grand stage setup. In the images, blue-purple spotlights filtered through the girl’s hair, her face silhouetted against the light, yet her features were rendered with startling perfection.

Her large almond-shaped eyes, sharp chin, and gaze that seemed to perpetually hold a glimmer of moisture no matter how dynamic her poses, her expression never faltered.

The center photo was particularly striking: her eyes met the lens with just the right naturalness, creating a breathtaking sense of direct eye contact through the image.

The account, with over two hundred thousand followers, immediately drew a flood of genuine comments as soon as the nine photos went live.

[!! What kind of divine beauty is this? Does a face like this even exist IRL? OP, you never over-edit Ayii, have you forgotten your roots!]

[Bounty across the whole StarNet who is this sister in the photos? When did the palace get a new resident? I had no idea! If anyone finds out, please tell me.]

[Doesn’t look over-edited at all. Zoom in and you can even see her pores clearly. The stage outfit looks a bit like an idol’s maybe cosplay?]

[Ahhhh my love for my wife is like secretly shitting your pants in winter: everyone can see it, but only I know how warm it is inside my trousers so heavy, so comforting. So gorgeous, my new wife hehehehe]

[Some agency needs to sign her ASAP. It’d be a crime against nature not to put this face in dramas I’m ready to spend money!]

[There’s a thread on the forums digging into it it’s Tong Qinglu from ITOUCH, almost 27 this year… Kinda old, not betting on her.]

[What’s ITOUCH?]

[An indie group with no registered capital and no registered agency flopped to the core.]

[Cross-posting from the forums Tong Qinglu debuted seven years ago through an offline audition. Her first group was NIX under Starlight Entertainment, which went bankrupt the following year.

After that, she signed with Domain Media, which formed a traditional-style girl group around her. It operated for less than six months before the company’s funding chain broke and they filed for bankruptcy.]

After going bankrupt, Yingying signed her, but Tong seemed to have a terrible temper and clashed with her teammates. Three years later, she paid a penalty fee and left the group; only after that did she go to ITOUCH]

[…An absolutely unlucky saintly physique, she should find a master to take a look]

[No wonder her face is so stunning but she hasn’t become popular all these years. Begging my boss to sign her, performing rituals wishing for our company to go bankrupt]

The popularity of this blog post far exceeded Qin Yi’s expectations. Within just three hours of posting, it quickly gained tens of thousands of likes and reposts. That very night, it freshly appeared on the main website’s trending list and soon became the post with the highest engagement on her homepage.

When she woke up the next morning, her private messages were flooded with hundreds of messages from talent scouts, all frantically asking for Tong Qinglu’s contact information and latest updates. Her own T-account had also gained over fifty thousand followers.

Qin Yi felt a sense of shared pride and took screenshots of these messages to send to Director Fang: [Big spender, when are you planning to have the beauty star in a drama?]

[Wait a bit longer, the current heat isn’t enough yet]

Qin Yi stuck out her tongue: [You’re not satisfied with this level of heat? Even rising starlets didn’t have this much buzz before their debut, right?]

Fang Zhuo lightly tapped his fingers on the armrest. What he was actually waiting for wasn’t just the heat he wanted to see what kind of reaction Ruan Zihan would have.

Before officially bringing Tong Qinglu into the production team, the other side would probably be unable to resist making some moves.

The system displayed a new achievement notification: [Congratulations, Host! Achievement unlocked: ‘Related discussions about signed artist surpass 500,000’]

[Current company reputation value: 8]

[Conditions met. Forum and live streaming features in social section have been unlocked. You can now communicate with rebate system operators from other dimensions through the forum]

[Current live streaming level: Lv0]

[Accumulated Points: 0]

Unexpectedly, the system even had an embedded forum. Fang Zhuo immediately clicked to enter.

Author’s note:

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