Chapter 25: Official Release

Lin Xiyue had been a little nervous at first.

But she soon realized that the so-called “thousands of eyes watching” were nothing more than numbers on the livestream counter.

There weren’t any real people staring at her—so what was there to be afraid of?

Her past-life advantage as a veteran netizen immediately began to shine.
Whether it was humor, timing, or overall entertainment value, she was miles ahead of this era.
Between singing practice, she interacted with the scrolling comments effortlessly.

“‘Streamer, how old are you?’ Forty, divorced, raising a kid on my own. The one next to me is my daughter.”
“‘Where do you go to school?’ Don’t ask—your dear streamer currently has no school to attend~”
“‘You sing so well, ever thought about debuting?’ Preparing! Remember to follow my LoveSignal account~”
“‘Little sis is so pretty, why is your skin so good?’ My mom made it~”
“‘Streamer, add me as a friend?’ Social anxiety. If I add strangers, I’ll die on the spot~”
“‘Streamer, selling worn clothes?’ Mods, ban this guy! Mods??!”

This livestreaming style gave viewers a sense of instant novelty—a kind of closeness they had never experienced before.

The lively, adorable, down-to-earth Lin Xiyue felt just like that mischievous girl next door… or even a playful daughter.
She completely lacked the icy, unapproachable aura of traditional idols.

Watching these two girls grow and improve day by day in real time—viewers practically felt like they were “raising a daughter” or “raising a little sister.”

Even those idols who branded themselves as “girl-next-door” could never offer this level of genuine closeness.

Of course, it wasn’t that other streamers couldn’t do it.
But they were grassroots internet personalities.
Being humble and approachable was expected.

Lin Xiyue, however, was still considered a traditional idol.
And yet she behaved like this.
That contrast was the real charm.

At the same time, she wielded her most powerful weapon—clip editing.

Not everyone had blocks of free time to sit in a livestream and “raise daughters.”
So every night after the stream ended, instead of rushing home, she stayed at the company to edit her own VODs.
And she knew exactly how to cater to different audience groups.

Hilarious mistakes were for the comedy lovers.
Whispered chats were for those curious about an idol’s daily life.
The occasional ambiguous interaction with Xia Jinnian was for the CP shippers.
Daily progress and improvement were for the serious viewers.
And her cutest, fluffiest moments were for the “doting parent” crowd…

From a single recording, she could cut dozens of short clips with different themes and styles.
Then she would post them across various platforms using multiple alt accounts and request a bit of algorithmic push.

Her popularity was already quite high.
With the platform’s initial recommendations, these highlight clips exploded in no time—views and engagement skyrocketing—pulling in waves of new viewers.

Content creators on those platforms smelled the opportunity.
They discovered that clipping Lin Xiyue’s streams came with built-in traffic.
So they all jumped in, producing a flood of clips.
At that point, Lin Xiyue didn’t even need to lift a finger anymore—she could simply enjoy the results.

With this snowball effect, peak concurrent viewers in her and Xia Jinnian’s livestream even surpassed two hundred thousand.

In this era, livestream platforms still displayed real numbers—not fake “popularity values.”
Two hundred thousand real viewers was downright terrifying.

During this entire process, the most shocked person was actually Xu Wei.
Under her daughter’s chain of operations, Lin Entertainment had spent barely any marketing budget—yet gained an overwhelming wave of attention.

The sharpness and precision of every decision…
It was nothing like what a girl of her age should be capable of.
It made Xu Wei endlessly grateful she had allowed Lin Xiyue to join the company as a producer.

And under this soaring momentum, the single Stardust Rain finally released one week later.
It was both the debut song of Lin Xiyue and Xia Jinnian, and their entry piece for the “Voice Toward the Future” competition.

Seeing their brand-new StardustNet profiles, and the status of Stardust Rain change from “Unreleased” to “Released,” the two girls were filled with emotion.

From the initial audition,
to convincing Xia’s mother,
to training relentlessly,
to burning their brains for marketing…
No one could count how much effort they had poured into taking this very first step of their idol journey.

“How is it? Nervous?”

Xu Wei smiled at the two of them.
Because StardustNet only compiled sales numbers the following day, the entire rest of today was destined to be spent in uncertainty.

But Xu Wei herself wasn’t nervous.
With her years of experience, a song of this quality, paired with their weeks of training, and boosted by such massive initial attention—its sales absolutely wouldn’t be low.
In fact, they might even rival the numbers they would’ve gotten if Zhou Li sang it.

Speaking of which—
after Lin Xiyue’s duet video boosted the song’s popularity, Zhou Li had approached Xu Wei again.
Her attitude was gentler this time, even offering compromises—such as doing a duet with Lin Xiyue, or signing a stricter contract with Lin Entertainment.

But Xu Wei rejected her without hesitation.

Back then, when they invited her to audition, she acted like a diva.
When she saw a high score, she threatened to terminate her contract.
Now that everything had progressed this far, she wanted a slice of the pie?

Someone like that staying in Lin Entertainment would only cause problems.
And she didn’t deserve to sing this painstakingly crafted song.

“All right, I’ll give you two the day off tomorrow. Best friends should go out shopping or something—consider it a performance bonus.”

Xu Wei walked away with a smile, leaving those words behind.

“Our sales… shouldn’t… be that bad, right?”

Xia Jinnian shrank her neck nervously.
She knew exactly how hard she had worked, how many resources Lin Entertainment had invested.
If the single’s sales tanked, it would shatter her confidence.

“It won’t. Relax. Trust me~”

Lin Xiyue reached over and squeezed Xia Jinnian’s hand lightly—her habitual way of encouraging her.

“Our goal is the stars and the open sea.
A tiny hurdle like this won’t stop us—”

**************************

Piggy Music Headquarters

At the same time, the experts responsible for scoring entries in the “Voice Toward the Future” competition had just arrived at work.

They weren’t exactly enthusiastic.
After all, rookie submissions varied wildly in quality—some could even be classified as psychological damage.

“What’s the next track?”

“Professor Zhang, it’s the recently popular YanzhiNet Best Newcomer—Lin Xiyue and Xia Jinnian’s submission, Stardust Rain.”

“Play it.
Let’s see how capable this little girl who’s so fond of online marketing really is—”

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