This Star Only Wants More Money - Chapter 28

Translator: Diviner

One day quickly passed.

After finalizing the contract and sending it to the chubby assistant, Xu Feng leisurely browsed videos without paying any attention to his social media accounts.

Normally, to avoid a celebrity posting inappropriate remarks that could cause a scandal, an official social media account of a celebrity is managed by an operations team. Any post or opinion must be scrutinized thoroughly. The idea that the person speaking on a celebrity’s account may not be the celebrity themselves isn’t entirely a joke.

However, since the system acts as his personal manager, many functions are missing.

Xu Feng decided it wasn’t worth the effort—if he did nothing, he would never make a mistake.

Plus, he didn’t have to deal with the bombardment of messages that Lin Shenghuan had mentioned.

Xu Feng logged out of his social media accounts and switched to his banking app to check his balance.

“Counting the graduation gala performance, I currently have only over 10,000 yuan in cash on hand. But considering the expected income from several songs over the next three months, I’ve earned roughly 300,000 yuan in total recently. The future income from song copyrights should remain stable for a while, which is definitely better than starting from scratch.”

Xu Feng took stock of his assets and swiped away a job advertisement notification on a job-seeking app.

Lately, many push notifications for job ads and videos on his phone were about job hunting, income disputes, and the diminishing number of job opportunities, reflecting how hard it was becoming to find work.

While fiddling with his phone, the system notification popped up in his peripheral vision.

[Cheng Zhao has hired the host to perform at the Luohe University graduation gala for a cash price of 46,817.57 yuan. The performance effect must match the price of the commission.]

[Based on the commission amount, the host gains a +65 buff to singing ability and a +60 buff to all instrument performance abilities.]

Cheng Zhao had already signed the contract.

“A performance matching the commission amount… Unlike previous clients who had specific requirements, this time they simply offered the highest price they could for me to perform, turning it into this objective. That’s not too bad,” Xu Feng chuckled as he skimmed the commission notice. “I can draw another song.”

“After hitting the 100,000-point guarantee last time, things should go more smoothly this time, right?”

Xu Feng muttered to himself and, like before, opened the lottery page, chose the song library draw, and eagerly awaited the results.

Soon, the system notification arrived.

[Draw successful. This draw cost 100,000 points, resulting in the song “Once You”. Remaining points: 50,200.]

“This song… isn’t exactly a golden legend,” Xu Feng objectively evaluated, “but the lyrics and style do fit the graduation theme, so completing the commission shouldn’t be an issue.”

“The only problem is, why does it cost 100,000 points every time to draw a song? Twice in a row I’ve hit the minimum. Is my luck really that bad?”

“How about you publish the odds of winning?”

After complaining about his luck, Xu Feng stood up, grabbed an instrument from his rented room, and began practicing seriously to brush up on his basic skill proficiency.

Xu Feng could clearly feel that once a skill proficiency exceeded 10, the ability improvement speed slowed down considerably with his current level of practice.

The cheap rental apartment had poor soundproofing, and the people living there were a mixed bunch. Just because he was playing during the day didn’t mean it wouldn’t disturb others who were sleeping.

Whether it was practicing singing or playing instruments, it was hard to go all out.

Once he had saved enough money, he would consider moving to a place with better living conditions.

While roughly planning his future, Xu Feng’s phone rang unexpectedly, interrupting his progress in brushing up his skills.

“Seriously…” Xu Feng put down his instrument and frowned. “More and more strange people are calling me these days.”

Usually, people he knew wouldn’t call him directly unless it was urgent.

Maybe “Tomorrow’s God of Song” had sold all his personal information behind his back.

Picking up the call, Xu Feng said emotionlessly, “Hello? Who is this?”

“Hello, is this Mr. Xu Feng?” An unfamiliar female voice came from the other end of the line. “I’m from Shanhe Entertainment…”

Xu Feng, not even bothering to listen, interrupted directly, “No, thanks, I don’t need it.”

As he was about to hang up, the person on the other end sensed it and quickly raised her voice, “Wait a minute! Can you just give me a second?”

“It’s a waste to debut ‘The Wind Rises’ at a campus gala performance. We still have a few days left. We could first optimize the song’s commercial value without affecting your school performance!”

Huh?! What?

That was a lot of information to take in.

Xu Feng’s finger, which was hovering over the hang-up button, paused. He asked curiously, “Who told you I was going to perform ‘The Wind Rises’ at the graduation gala?”

Xu Feng didn’t mind if this news was spread, since he hadn’t put it under a confidentiality clause. But he was still curious why the news had spread so wildly.

Xu Feng remembered only mentioning that he would perform a new song, never specifying which song it would be.

“It’s all over the internet now,” the person on the other end replied, relieved that Xu Feng hadn’t hung up. She quickly continued with her pitch, “Trust me, our company will tailor a song launch plan specifically for you. As long as nothing goes wrong, you’ll earn at least 300,000. You come with a track record and popularity, so we won’t ask for a high commission share…”

“With your looks, the high online buzz, and at least two notable works, you only need a bit of personal branding to become a stable top-tier star!”

Her tone had a hint of excitement, not just trying to sell Xu Feng dreams—someone with the looks to pursue an idol career, a high level of singing and creative ability, a decent academic background to use as a selling point, and a ton of recent online discussion, but without a signed contract, was a top-tier catch.

Although Xu Feng had offended the “Tomorrow’s God of Song” program group, which would mean higher publicity costs, his huge commercial value was still worth the risk for many talent agencies that weren’t afraid of the program group.

Moreover, Xu Feng had just slapped the program group in the face, proving his strength and value.

Otherwise, agencies would have been in touch right after the show, not just now.

If an agency was calling now, it meant that at least some people believed that signing Xu Feng had a good chance of being more profitable than the losses from offending the “Singer Tomorrow” program group!

However, Xu Feng frowned deeply—if the price was right, he didn’t mind establishing a short-term contract with an agency like Lin Shenghuan.

But…

300,000?

If the system took 90%, wouldn’t he only have 30,000 left?

What could he do with that little money?

It would be better to wait three months and see.

Plus, there would surely be more agencies willing to sign him in the future, so there was no rush to make a decision now.

The only thing was, he would need to change his phone number… otherwise, all these spam calls would drive him mad.

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity for a response, the person on the other end sensed that Xu Feng might be considering the offer, and eagerly asked, “So, what do you think?”

After carefully considering, Xu Feng listened to everything, and after she had finished speaking, he repeated his earlier answer, “No, thanks, I don’t need it.”

The other side: “…”

Politely ending the call, Xu Feng opened his mobile app to see how several major social platforms were spreading such ridiculous rumors.

While switching apps, he suddenly noticed a familiar yet unexpected message at the top of his WeChat message list.

“It’s actually from my old counselor?”