A Three-Hundred-Million-Yuan Signing Fee

Li Na stopped in her tracks and turned toward the voice—her direct supervisor, content operations director Zhou Jianming.

Zhou Jianming was in his early forties, with a bald crown and a beer belly. He leaned back in his office chair, smiling at her. His sleazy gaze made her stomach turn.

"Mr. Zhou, I have an urgent matter to report." Li Na suppressed her disgust and tried to keep her tone professional.

"What is it? Let's hear it." Zhou Jianming rose leisurely and walked over, leaning close to look at her tablet. "Oh, this streamer's numbers look pretty good. How many followers?"

"Seventy million."

Zhou Jianming's smile froze.

"How many?"

"Seventy million," Li Na repeated, enunciating every word. "And she hasn't signed with anyone."

The flesh on Zhou Jianming's face twitched. He gave two dry chuckles. "Seventy million? Are you kidding me? Since Doule launched, our most-followed streamer has only had fifty-something million. Where did seventy million come from?"

"See for yourself." Li Na handed him the tablet.

Zhou Jianming took it and squinted at the screen for a while. His expression gradually changed.

On the screen, the follower count clearly read: 70,234,567.

Seventy million, two hundred and thirty thousand.

He swiped across the screen and saw the concurrent viewers: 1.37 million. Total gifts: 5.27 million yuan. Trending topics: three in the top ten.

His face darkened completely.

"When... when did this happen?" Even his voice trembled.

"Over the past few days," Li Na said. "Mr. Zhou, I mentioned this streamer to you before. She only had a hundred thousand followers then, and I recommended offering her our top-tier contract. You said..."

She paused and looked at Zhou Jianming. "You said streams like hers were just riding a wave of hype and would fade quickly, so there was no need to waste resources."

Zhou Jianming's face turned a deep, purplish red.

Of course he remembered.

Half a month earlier, Li Na had brought him the stream's data, saying the streamer was growing rapidly and recommending they sign her early to lock her in. At the time, he had been furious that Li Na had rejected his "kind intentions," so he had shot the proposal down without a second thought.

"I've seen plenty of streams like this. Three days of hype, and a couple of days later, nobody watches anymore. Sign her? Why? It'd be a waste of contract resources!"

Those had been his exact words.

Now, that stream with its "three days of hype" had seventy million followers, over a million concurrent viewers, and dominated the trending charts.

And he had personally rejected the chance to sign her.

"Mr. Zhou, what do we do now?" Li Na looked at him, a barely perceptible flicker of satisfaction in her eyes.

Zhou Jianming wiped the sweat from his forehead and forced himself to remain calm. "Well... this situation is complicated. I'll look into it first. Go back to work and wait for my instructions."

"Mr. Zhou, this can't wait." Li Na's tone hardened. "She's one of the biggest streamers on the entire internet now. How many platforms do you think are watching her? Huya, Kuaishou, Video Channel—which of them isn't waiting to pounce? If we don't act now, someone else will snap her up!"

Zhou Jianming's expression grew uglier. "I said I'd look into it first! Don't you understand plain language?"

Li Na looked at him, stayed silent for two seconds, then suddenly smiled.

"All right, Mr. Zhou. Take your time. I'm going to the restroom."

She turned and left without a moment's hesitation.

But she wasn't heading toward the restroom.

She was heading toward the president's office.

Three minutes later, Li Na stood outside the president's office, took a deep breath, and knocked.

"Come in."

She opened the door and entered.

Doule's president, Zhang Weimin, sat behind his desk, reading documents. He looked slightly surprised to see her. "Li Na? Is something wrong?"

Li Na stepped forward and set the tablet in front of him.

"Mr. Zhang, there's an urgent matter you need to see."

Zhang Weimin picked up the tablet, glanced at it, then looked again before abruptly sitting bolt upright.

"Seventy million followers? Unsigned?" His voice shot up an octave. "What's going on?"

Li Na took a deep breath and explained everything from the beginning.

She started with discovering the stream half a month earlier, then described how Zhou Jianming had rejected her recommendation to sign the streamer, and how the stream had exploded over the past two days, dominating the trending charts as its follower count skyrocketed...

She embellished nothing. She simply stated the facts.

But that was enough.

Zhang Weimin's expression grew darker and darker. By the time she finished, he slapped the tablet onto the desk with a smack, stood up, and began pacing around the office.

"Zhou Jianming... Zhou Jianming..." He repeated the name through gritted teeth. "We found her half a month ago, and he wouldn't sign her? She has seventy million followers now, and he still won't sign her? Has he lost his mind?"

Li Na remained silent.

Zhang Weimin walked to the window and looked out at the city skyline, taking several deep breaths as he struggled to calm himself.

After a long while, he turned to Li Na. "Li Na, effective today, you'll replace Zhou Jianming as general manager of content operations."

Li Na froze. "Mr. Zhang..."

"Don't say anything." Zhang Weimin waved a hand. "I'll deal with Zhou Jianming. Right now, you have only one task—"

He fixed his eyes on Li Na and stressed each word:

"Sign this streamer, whatever it takes."

Li Na's heart raced. "Mr. Zhang, the signing fee..."

"Three hundred million." Zhang Weimin's tone left no room for argument. "A three-year exclusive contract, with a signing fee of three hundred million yuan. On top of that, traffic support, priority resources, a dedicated operations team—whatever she wants, give it to her. In short, she must stay with Doule."

Three hundred million.

Li Na sucked in a sharp breath.

The highest signing fee in Doule's history had been eighty million yuan. Three hundred million was more than triple that.

"Mr. Zhang, that figure..."

"I know it's high," Zhang Weimin interrupted. "But you need to understand what a top streamer with seventy million followers—and still growing rapidly—means. It means millions of views every day. It means buzz across the entire internet. It means a nightmare for our competitors."

He paused, his gaze intent. "Besides, there's someone even more important behind this streamer—that Chen Hao. If we can keep him here too, forget three hundred million. Even three billion would be worth it."

Li Na was silent for a moment, then nodded firmly. "I understand. Mr. Zhang, I'll get on it right away."

"Go." Zhang Weimin waved her away. "Remember, whatever it takes."

Li Na turned and left.

Zhang Weimin watched her retreating figure, then looked out the window again and muttered, "Zhou Jianming, you bastard. You nearly ruined my money tree..."

"Yes, Mr. Zhao! I'll take care of it right away!" Li Na took the letter of intent Zhang Weimin had signed and hurried out of the office. As she stepped through the door, she came face-to-face with Zhou Jianming, who was rushing over in a panic.

Zhou Jianming had just received a demotion notice from HR and was utterly stunned. His hair was disheveled, his face deathly pale. When he saw Li Na, he immediately lunged forward to grab her arm, his tone pleading and frantic.

"Li Na! Li Na, please put in a good word for me! I was wrong! I shouldn't have rejected your report! Ask Mr. Zhang to take it back! I can't be demoted!"

Li Na stepped aside in disgust, avoiding him. Her gaze was icy, her tone filled with undisguised contempt. "Zhou Jianming, you've held me down for two years, and your shortsightedness has jeopardized a major opportunity for the company. You deserve all of this. From now on, I'm your superior. You'd better behave."

With that, Li Na stopped looking at his paper-white face and walked straight into the elevator, leaving Zhou Jianming slumped in the hallway, ashen-faced and so full of regret that he wanted to slap himself.