After going through the contract details with Su Yue, Lin Feng decided to let them be so they could get to know each other better.
They would be working together from now on, so it would be best if they got along.
...
The door clicked shut behind him.
Su Yue looked at Mengqi nervously.
The situation was a little awkward now that Lin Feng wasn't here.
She got up and moved to pick up the cups on the table.
"Do you love him?"
Su Yue almost dropped what she was holding.
After stabilizing herself, she turned to Mengqi.
"What's your deal?"
Mengqi just looked at her.
Su Yue fixed her hair and looked to the side.
"Yeah. What of it?"
She wondered if Mengqi was interested in Lin Feng too.
"That won't do."
Mengqi sighed.
"What do you mean by that?"
Mengqi leaned back.
"Let me tell you the truth about this industry. While it looks attractive on the surface, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. While talent is a huge part of an idol's career, another part is farming parasocials. And even if you're not actively farming them, these things come up automatically."
She met Su Yue's eyes.
"As an idol, you have to remain pure in the eyes of your fans. So if you really want to do this, you have to give up on those feelings."
Her gaze sharpened.
"Otherwise, you might as well just give up now."
She stared at Su Yue intensely, making her uncomfortable.
"So, what is it going to be?"
"I'm sure you also to an extent know what goes on in this industry. If you do, then you couldn't have agreed just because you like Lin Feng. It's weird to agree to something like this so quickly just because you have feelings for someone. Unrequited ones, might I add."
"So which is it?" Mengqi pressed. "Is your other reason stronger than your feelings for Lin Feng? Can you give that up over a man who might never even look your way outside of business?"
Su Yue didn't answer.
Mengqi continued.
"You're just a little girl. If you think this is a game, just give up now. You can't always have what you want."
"Gosh, stop! I get it already."
Mengqi looked at her.
Su Yue clenched her fists.
"It's true. I also have my own reasons for doing this."
I have to do this for my father. For my family.
While she liked Lin Feng, if she had to choose...
Her expression hardened with determination.
Mengqi was taken aback.
This girl...
She watched her closely…then she let out a small sigh.
She decided to back down for now.
She raised her hands placatingly.
"Don't take it to heart. I was just testing if you had the right mindset."
She paused.
"You don't have to give up on your feelings entirely. You just need good timing."
She explained.
"You can't date him if you're an active idol - at least not openly. But if you get what you want and retire... you can do whatever you want."
Su Yue's expression softened with relief.
Mengqi observed her.
She exhaled.
This girl seems to have quite the range of emotions.
While she didn't fully approve of what she was saying, she had to back down a little.
If Su Yue were to give up her feelings because of an ultimatum, she would always see Mengqi as the one who wronged her.
And besides, emotional stability was also important. If she performed while feeling wronged, she might not give it her all - and their agency might collapse before it even began.
She sighed internally.
Not dating was also part of the old industry I was hoping to abolish.
Maybe I should rethink the new industry.
…
Lin Feng sat in his office.
Yu Shen sat opposite him.
After leaving Su Yue's place, Yu Shen had requested they meet up, and Lin Feng had invited him here. With how much their business was growing, talking in public places was no longer an option.
Yu Shen produced some documents and passed them across the desk.
"I wanted to talk about last week's performance."
Lin Feng nodded and took the papers.
Yu Shen began his report.
"The previous week was great for us. We started off with ¥40,000 AUM the week before, and last week ended with over ¥300,000."
He adjusted his glasses.
"We saw explosive growth at the start thanks to Moon Fairy's sponsorship deal. Towards the latter half of the week though, this went down a little as we weren't reaching as many unique viewers."
He continued.
"But now it's showing signs of turning around. The first investors have seen incredible gains and are spreading the platform through word of mouth. This in turn pushes the site itself in analytics and helps it rank higher in search engines, generating some organic traffic here and there."
He flipped to the next page.
"As for our earnings, they weren't the best, but there's potential."
He explained.
"Our earning model is 10% performance fees. For every profit someone makes, we take 10%. The other component is management fees at 0.5%. This is an annual fee but charged daily."
He pointed at the numbers.
"So it's 0.5% divided by the number of trading days in a year - which for us is all year round. Dividing by 365 days, we get roughly 0.001%. We charge this daily and it's to the whole amount in the platform, not just profits. That, in addition to our performance fees, makes up our earnings."
He took a breath.
"So counting from day one..."
He ran through the numbers.
"Day one of trading was Monday. We had pretty good luck and made a 1.05% profit. From that profit, we took 10%, bringing in ¥42 for the company. As for management fees, it was just a few cents."
"Day two was almost a 90% drop from day one. We made a 0.1% profit. From it, 10% was ¥4."
"Wednesday was when the over ¥100,000 from new investors entered the pool. Luck was on our side that day, and we earned 0.73%. Due to the large amount of funds in the pool, the fund's slice was ¥113. And for the first time, management fees brought in something tangible - ¥1."
"Thursday, we took another slight dip. Earned 0.29%, getting ¥64 for Tianji and ¥2 from management fees."
"Friday, we got back up a little. Earned 0.49%, bringing ¥137 and another ¥2 from management. While all this was going on, new money was also being added to the pool, so it contributed a lot. There was also the profit people were making that was compounding if left alone."