Chapter 58: Starlight Live!

He wanted to build a pure and innocent girl group centered around Qiao Xinxin. But in the entire company, aside from Qiao Xinxin herself, no one else matched her in age, looks, or talent. After seeing the stunning Miao Tiantian today, he began to think about poaching her. If he could bring Miao Tiantian under his wing, it would undoubtedly elevate the company’s performance to a new level.

He downloaded the Starlight Live app and registered a new account under the nickname “Richest Mortal.” Before long, he found Miao Tiantian’s streaming room.

“Welcome, new viewers! You can request any song you’d like to hear…”

“The host is from the School of Media, I can sing any song—even English ones! Thanks for following, send a little gift if you’d like!”

Lin Fan watched for a while and noticed Miao Tiantian’s streaming skills weren’t very polished; her interactions with the audience were formulaic and overly polite, unlike experienced streamers who could chat easily with their viewers. After all, Miao Tiantian was a newly signed host with fewer than thirty thousand followers. Still, her chat was full of freeloading viewers.

During the stream, Lin Fan noticed several uncomfortable messages in the chat:

[FateU521: Host, can you sing “The Moon Represents My Heart”? I really like you. If only my girlfriend were as pretty as you.]

[VarietyMaster: Where are you, pretty host? Can we meet offline?]

[AnonymousID: Hey, you up there, stop talking nonsense! If you don’t send gifts, you don’t get to request songs from the host. Toads shouldn’t dream of eating swan meat!]

Lin Fan also saw that there was a super moderator in the chat who would immediately block or even ban these sorts of freeloaders or those making inappropriate comments.

In other words, to request a song from the host, you had to send gifts—at least ten yuan to start with.

He checked the moderator’s profile, which showed they only followed Miao Tiantian.

It didn’t take much guessing to figure out that this moderator was probably Miao Tiantian’s boyfriend.

To test whether Miao Tiantian was just putting on an act—whether she was a two-faced schemer—Lin Fan sent a gift worth one hundred yuan.

“Thank you so much, Richest Mortal, for your gift!”

“I wonder what song you’d like to hear?”

Seeing Lin Fan’s generous gift, Miao Tiantian immediately perked up, a bright smile lighting up her face.

Sensing an opportunity, Lin Fan sent a message:

“Miss Host, I recently went through a breakup. Could you sing ‘Mice Love Rice’ for me?”

Upon seeing the message, Miao Tiantian paused, then took on a serious tone: “Don’t be sad, Richest Mortal. If you don’t like your current situation, you can always find someone new. I’ll sing ‘Mice Love Rice’ just for you—hope it cheers you up…”

Hearing this, Lin Fan nodded in satisfaction. He hadn’t expected Miao Tiantian to be so empathetic and good at comforting people.

Compared to the veteran hosts his company had hired, whose interactions with viewers felt formulaic and cold, Miao Tiantian was much warmer and more considerate.

After she finished singing, Lin Fan made another request.

“Miss Host, can you dance for us? Do you know the ‘Wiping Windows’ dance?”

“I do know that dance, but my clothes are a bit tight right now—it might not be appropriate. I might need to change first…” Miao Tiantian replied in a coquettish tone.

The subtext was clear: if Lin Fan sent more gifts, she’d consider it.

But Lin Fan was no novice—he immediately caught on to her meaning.

However, he deliberately played dumb to test her further. “Can’t you dance as you are? If not, never mind. I’ll just go to another stream and watch a different host.”

Miao Tiantian clearly panicked when she saw his message.

Lin Fan was the top gifter in the past half hour; no one else had sent more than a hundred yuan.

Other viewers jumped in as well:

[AnonymousID: Richest Mortal, if you want the host to dance, send more gifts! Don’t just talk big!]

[AYongNeverGivesUp: Exactly! No freeloaders here. I sent fifty before and only got one song. If you want a dance, you need to send at least another hundred!]

Even the super moderator commented: “Send a gift first, then the host will perform. If you become a VIP, you can join our group…”

Lin Fan chuckled.

He hadn’t expected Miao Tiantian to have so many die-hard fans already—a testament to the power of good looks these days.

Still, he didn’t like the moderator’s tone.

It felt as if, without sending gifts, you didn’t deserve to see Miao Tiantian sing or dance.

The moderator had just banned more than ten freeloaders in a row.

Clearly, he wanted to purify the fanbase, bringing high-spending viewers into their group while ignoring those who only tipped a few dozen yuan.

With that in mind, Lin Fan sent a domineering message:

“Money is no issue for me. If the host does the ‘Wiping Windows’ dance for me, I’ll send a rocket!”

Seeing this, Miao Tiantian raised her eyebrows.

“If you keep your word, Richest Mortal, I’ll change right away…”

“If I lie, I’m a little puppy!” Lin Fan replied with a mischievous emoji.

Without another word, Miao Tiantian went off to change clothes.

At that moment, the moderator directly tagged him:

“Richest Mortal, why not send the rocket first? The host needs time to change—she can dance longer for you after.”

“Let her dance first. Money’s not an issue for me! What, afraid I’ll just freeload?” Lin Fan replied with another annoyed emoji.

After sending the message, he had another thought and asked: “The moderator and host have couple avatars—do you live together? Are you two dating?”

“Why do you need to know?” came the reply.

Lin Fan immediately voiced his displeasure.

[Richest Mortal: I just went through a breakup, only to find out the host already has a boyfriend. Well, I’m out. Goodbye!]

No sooner had he sent the message than he found himself blacklisted by the moderator.

Other viewers instantly began to hurl insults and criticism:

[AnonymousID: Another freeloader! So sick of these throwaway accounts—where do all these fools come from?]

[CoolBabyMM: Our sweet Tiantian would never dance for just any loser. So full of himself! There are so many idiots these days. Next time, just ban them instantly!]

[DivineZhugeLiang: I’ve tipped over three hundred and still haven’t gotten a dance from Tiantian. Boohoo…]

Reading these messages, Lin Fan felt a wave of annoyance.

He hadn’t expected Miao Tiantian’s boyfriend to be so snobbish, only caring about big spenders and immediately blacklisting anyone who dared make a request without tipping.

While filtering fans was understandable, Miao Tiantian wasn’t yet a top streamer with a million followers—doing this so early was simply foolish.

“It’s obvious her boyfriend has a strong need for control, which will only hold her back. If I want to bring her into my company, I’ll have to make sure she breaks up with him first…”

“Let me go to other streams and make a splash, see how they both react…”