Chapter 106: Chapter 95: You’re busy, you need to focus on military affairs...
Closing his notebook, Chu Bamboo stretched and complained to himself, ’So much for what Zhang Hai said before—that as long as I was in the church and it hadn’t collapsed, nothing major would go wrong!
’He says one thing, and the very next moment, reality slaps him in the face, huh?
’Could it be that Zhang Hai has the potential to be a jinx?’
Chu Bamboo locked the notebook in a cabinet. After a moment’s hesitation, he opened the laptop he hadn’t used in a long time and began typing with a solemn expression.
Seven o’clock came quickly.
Since it required no thought at all, Chu Bamboo managed to write twenty thousand words in just half an hour.
Flexing his wrists, Chu Bamboo mused, ’I should be able to hammer out the entirety of *Star Sea* in the next couple of days! It’s just...’
Chu Bamboo was conflicted. For one, he didn’t know where to send it. A web novel platform? The style of *Star Sea* didn’t seem to fit.
For another, if he published it here in the Divine Continent, would it even get popular?
Chu Bamboo knew very well that the reason *Star Sea* had become a massive hit was most likely due to James Raven’s own special status—
As the founder, former president, and chief scientist of the Celestial Net Group, a brilliant mathematician, and a two-time Nobel Prize winner, he had even led the Celestial Net Group to re-industrialize the North American Region and bring about its renewed prosperity!
He naturally commanded a massive following. He was, by default, one of the most dazzling entrepreneurs in Europe and America, if not the entire world!
Any book he published, no matter how bad, was guaranteed to sell at least a few million copies.
Of course, with over two hundred million copies sold, *Star Sea* had clearly proven its quality was enough for a global hit... you can’t reach that kind of phenomenal success on name recognition alone!
However...
’Surely I don’t have to wait until Z Company takes off before using a similar method to make *Star Sea* a bestseller, right?’ Chu Bamboo didn’t know what expression to wear. He was just a nobody right now. If he really had to grind it out for that long, what would be the point?
Ah, forget it. I’ll just write for now.
Chu Bamboo slapped his cheeks. He’d just have to see if he could get some inspiration from ’the other side’ when the time came.
He’d just let his good buddy from the other timeline figure it out for him!
...
「Noon.」
"’Counselor? I’m here! Yes, I’m free this afternoon.’ Chu Bamboo held the phone in one hand while wagging a finger at Lin Xia with the other, signaling for him to be quiet. ’Mhm, you already worked things out? I’m going to the music teachers’ college near our school? Didn’t you say our university has all the recording equipment and facilities we need?’"
"’Ah... no, I’m not going there to learn! Okay, okay, I’m actually confident, I really don’t need professional training... Right, you don’t need to say any more. I get it!’ Chu Bamboo was exasperated. ’Since you’ve already talked to them and worked everything out... I’ll just go. I get it. I won’t suddenly change my mind and make you cancel, leaving them high and dry. That’s fine.’"
Chu Bamboo hung up, picked up his chopsticks, and glanced at Lin Xia. "Going to keep eating?"
As was customary, it was Lin Xia’s treat today.
Come to think of it, Lin Xia looked much more normal today, Chu Bamboo silently noted. ’He still has dark circles, but at least he’s not as frenetic as before, when he looked like he was about to drop dead at any second.’
"’Recording?’ Lin Xia froze for a second before it dawned on him. ’Dude,’ he said, shocked, ’are you really going to become a singer and an internet celebrity?’"
Even though Lin Xia had shown Chu Bamboo the life plan from his notebook, he never actually expected him to go through with it. He was mostly joking at the time!
But... you’re actually serious?!!
"’I’ll give it all a shot. It’s only for half a day, anyway.’ Chu Bamboo was noncommittal, treating it as nothing more than an exploratory move."
He had no plans to actively manage an online presence or to continue singing in the future. He would just use this half-day to record all the songs and instrumental pieces he could, and then upload them all at once.
The next step was to see if the Douyin algorithm and the "invisible hand of the market" that Ha Sheng mentioned could truly make top-tier songs go viral without any promotion.
After hearing Chu Bamboo’s plan, Lin Xia’s eye twitched. "Dude, this is the information age! Even the best products need marketing. If you just dump everything online at once..."
"’Okay, fine,’ Lin Xia said, frantically pulling at his hair. ’As long as the data isn’t deleted, maybe it’ll go viral one day in the distant future. But you told me you need money *now*... This plan is just...!’"
"’Then what?’ Chu Bamboo shot Lin Xia a sideways glance. ’Am I supposed to actually try to become some kind of megastar?’"
’Is he kidding me? I can’t even be bothered to start building up a career as a sports superstar—and in terms of status, a sports star, especially a track and field champion, is leagues above a singer!’
"’Here’s an idea.’ After a moment’s thought, Lin Xia came to a decision. ’Let me manage your Douyin, Music Cloud, and Weibo accounts! Don’t worry. I can’t guarantee you’ll blow up, but it’ll definitely be much better than you doing nothing!’"
"’Yeah, when it comes to this stuff, I’ve got a ton of confidence!’ Lin Xia said with a toothy grin, flashing a hand gesture that would make any man on the Peninsula furious."
"?"
"’Check it out!’ Seeing Chu Bamboo’s confusion, Lin Xia grinned, whipped out his phone, opened up an account, and waved it in front of him."
"’Douyin, fifty-eight thousand followers?’ A flicker of surprise went through Chu Bamboo. After a moment, he said, ’I thought all those plans you cooked up were just on a whim. I never thought you’d actually go through with them...’"
Chu Bamboo made a mental note of the account name, planning to look it up later and see what kind of shenanigans his good buddy was up to. ’Mhm, I just hope that when I check it out, I don’t see any hand-waving dances, societal shuffles, or that kind of top-tier cringe!’
’Ugh, no, wait. If I do see it, that’s not really a problem, is it?’ Chu Bamboo’s mind suddenly did a one-eighty. ’It’s not me doing the cringey dances. It’s my buddy... which means, naturally, I should save it. For future blackmail material, of course!’
"’You’ve got it all wrong!’ Naturally, Lin Xia had no idea what was going through Chu Bamboo’s head. He shook his head with a cryptic expression. ’I gained those fifty-thousand-plus followers in just the last two or three days!’"
"!!!" Chu Bamboo was stunned.
"’The secret to gaining followers is to use the persona of a lottery winner to pull in traffic, then solidify that traffic with the image of a genius teenage stock god who never loses a trade!’ Lin Xia ticked off the points on his fingers, speaking with total confidence. ’You have no idea how well these two personas work together... Look, I just refreshed, and I’m already up to sixty thousand followers!’"
Chu Bamboo was speechless. "...Holy crap. You really know how to play the game."
Lin Xia’s expression grew serious again. He looked directly into Chu Bamboo’s eyes and said, enunciating each word, "In this era, promotion and traffic are everything! Your way... it’s not going to work..."
"’Besides, I told you before. You’re busy with important things. Leave tedious stuff like this to me! In the future, if there’s anything else you don’t want to deal with, you can just let me know.’"
"’After all, I’ll help you with absolutely anything I can.’ Lin Xia’s tone was cheerful. He was in a great mood; his biggest fear had been that, in the future, he wouldn’t be able to help Chu Bamboo. So he didn’t see this as a hassle at all. On the contrary, he felt more motivated than ever."
He said, "You’ve got a lot on your plate. You need to focus your energy on military—Ahem! I mean, on saving the world!"
Chu Bamboo fell into a brief silence. He narrowed his eyes, sizing up Lin Xia... ’Where did that Zhejiang Province Yu Yin come from?’
