Chapter 19: PS-Chapter 19 Ban!
"Lu Chen, hello!"
On the phone, a warm greeting came through: "Long time no see! How have you been recently?"
Lu Chen's memory was instantly triggered, and a familiar face appeared in his mind.
He immediately responded with a smile, "Hello, Great Class Leader Cao. What made you think of calling me all of a sudden? Were you missing me?"
On the other end of the line, Cao Xiuzhu's cheerful laughter rang out.
The caller was Cao Xiuzhu, the class leader from Lu Chen's Computer Science class at Jianghai University.
In university, there were always fewer female students in the Computer Science department. Cao Xiuzhu had been the class leader for four years. Although she was not exceptionally beautiful, she was warm and outgoing and had good relationships with her classmates.
Besides their friendly relationship, Cao Xiuzhu had another connection with Lu Chen— his ex-girlfriend was introduced to him by Cao Xiuzhu. Their breakup had made her feel guilty for quite a while.
"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"
Cao Xiuzhu said, "My boyfriend is right next to me! He asked me to say hi to you and to ask when you're coming back. By the way, you haven't been active in the group lately. Are you still in Capital City?"
Cao Xiuzhu's boyfriend was also Lu Chen's classmate and a frequent basketball buddy.
"I'm still in Capital City and have been silently lurking in the group," Lu Chen replied. "I've been hesitant to speak up because you two are always flaunting your love. I'll be back at the beginning of next month."
Lu Chen was graduating next month. He had accumulated enough credits and was going back to collect his diploma and attend the graduation ceremony.
"Lu Chen, you've picked up the gift of gab in Capital City!" Cao Xiuzhu teased. "Now, I have an important task for you. For the graduation ceremony party on June 9th, you need to prepare a performance to represent our class. And it must win an award!"
"Prepare a performance for the graduation party?" Lu Chen was taken aback. "With so many people in the class, why does it fall to me?"
He had performed on behalf of the class before, but a graduation ceremony party was different— it was a once-in-a-lifetime event!
Cao Xiuzhu replied helplessly, "You know, when it comes to games, everyone is a hero, but on stage, they all turn into softies. So, it's up to you!"
"And they all say you, Lu Chen, can sing and play the guitar and you're handsome. If you don't do it, who will?"
"Is this now my fault?" Lu Chen wondered, not sure how to respond. After a moment, he said, "Alright, Great Class Leader Cao, I'll definitely follow your orders, but I have a small condition."
Cao Xiuzhu asked curiously, "What condition?"
Lu Chen said, "There were many photos taken during last year's field trip. I need all the photos of the girls, both individual and group shots!"
"What?" Cao Xiuzhu became cautious and questioned sternly, "What are you planning?"
As a member of the Jianghai Student Union, getting the photos wasn't a problem, but Lu Chen's motives seemed suspicious!
Lu Chen chuckled, "Great Class Leader since you've insisted that I need to win an award, I have to prepare well, right? I need these photos to make an MV. It'll look better on the stage during the performance."
"Oh, I see now. That's a good idea!" Cao Xiuzhu said, a bit embarrassed. "I'll head to the office later and get them packed and sent to you."
She was straightforward and didn't overthink things.
"Okay."
After chatting for a bit longer, they ended the call.
Lu Chen left his small apartment and went out to have a hearty meal, filling his stomach before returning.
In the afternoon, he continued his work, managing to organize twenty complete songs.
This efficiency was quite high, but these songs were the ones Lu Chen was most familiar with, so rewriting them was easy. The later ones would likely be increasingly difficult and time-consuming.
For now, having twenty excellent pieces was more than enough. He wasn't going to release them all at once but planned to explore the value of each song thoroughly.
This was the only way to honor these pop classics from his dream world!
Among the twenty songs, Lu Chen sent five to the Great China Music Library for copyright registration.
It wasn't that he didn't want to register all of them, but he couldn't afford to waste money on the small balance in his account.
Each song's copyright query and registration fee was 600 yuan, so registering five songs cost 3,000 yuan. If it weren't for the recent earnings from Daylily Bar and online live-streaming tips, he wouldn't have been able to afford it.
He grumbled about the Great China Music Library's high fees as he opened StarryLive to exchange some money from his account to cover his immediate needs.
Just as he opened the online streaming platform, a prominent notification popped up.
"Hello, Lu Fei host! You've met the signing requirements. Please click to contact the administrator. Thank you for your cooperation."
What?
Lu Chen was both surprised and delighted. It was only now that he noticed his StarryLive follower count had reached 10,142!
The signing requirement for StarryLive was 10,000 followers. Last night, when he ended his live streaming, his follower count was only around 7,000. Now, it had surged to over 10,000!
However, Lu Chen wasn't too shocked this time, as he knew the increase in followers was likely due to the efforts of the "Lu family army," led by the prophetic Li Bai, who had promoted him and helped him meet the signing requirements ahead of time.
Feeling touched and excited, Lu Chen clicked on the administrator prompt and immediately opened the chat interface.
The chat panel showed the dialogue ID as "Super Admin 002."
Lu Chen: "Hello, Administrator."
Super Admin 002: "Hello, are you here for the signing?"
Lu Chen: "Yes. What are the next steps?"
Super Admin 002: "I will first send you the electronic contract. Please review it."
Super Admin 002: "If everything is fine, you just need to print it out, sign it, and then mail it back to us."
Lu Chen: "Okay."
Super Admin 002 sent Lu Chen a document, which he opened and began to review.
This was the third contract Lu Chen had reviewed in the past few days.
As he continued reading, he grew increasingly disheartened.
The contract, besides the standard terms for hosts, was at least 70% similar to the new artist contract Su Qingmei had given him. It felt like it was a reprocessed version of the new artist contract, with terms regarding creation rights, portrait rights, and breach of contract— only the contract period had been changed from 10 years to 5 years!
The world of contracts was as grim as ever!
Lu Chen couldn't help but smile wryly. He had hoped that signing with StarryLive would bring higher earnings and more opportunities, not expecting to make a fortune, just enough to make a decent living.
It seemed he had been too naive.
Super Admin 002: "Have you finished reviewing the contract? Confirm it quickly, as I need to file it."
Lu Chen thought for a moment and replied, "Can this contract be modified? Specifically, I'm concerned about the creation rights."
If they agreed to modify the copyright terms, Lu Chen could accept the other stringent clauses, as StarryLive was a profit-oriented platform, and seeking profit was understandable.
Super Admin 002: "Modify? You're thinking too much. All our host contracts are the same. It's not possible to make individual changes just for you. You either sign it or not, it's that simple!"
The tone was extremely domineering, familiar to Lu Chen.
All hosts have the same contract?
That was a huge joke. How could contracts for top stars and unknown artists be the same?
It was obvious that couldn't be the case!
The attitude of Super Admin 002 was not only rigid and cold but also treated Lu Chen as if he were a beginner who could be easily deceived.
Suppressing his anger, Lu Chen replied, "I'll think about it some more. I won't sign it for now. Thank you."
Reluctantly, Lu Chen didn't want to fall out with the super admin, as he still needed the platform to earn money. He politely declined, knowing that not signing the contract would just mean missing out on earnings and site recommendations.
Regardless, he was not going to give away his original works' copyrights for nothing!
Super Admin 002: "Whatever!"
The conversation ended abruptly.
Lu Chen shook his head helplessly, feeling somewhat frustrated.
The next moment, a chilling prompt on his computer screen almost made him lose his temper entirely.
''System Notification: Lu Fei's Live Streaming has been temporarily suspended for violating regulations. Please contact the administrator if you have any questions.''
Banned!
(The End of This Chapter)
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