Chapter 378

"How much longer?" Ai Wei asks, pouting, "I feel like my neck is about to break..."

"Almost there, just a little bit more." As Luo Quan speaks, she applies the false eyelashes, then takes a step back and says excitedly: "Mission accomplished!"

Su Yu and Lan Xuan immediately crowd around to view the masterpiece after the boss has been busy for so long.

"Boss, your skills are not bad! You've caught up to a professional makeup artist. Why do you never wear makeup usually?" After seeing Ai Wei's makeup, Su Yu asks Luo Quan in confusion.

Luo Quan puts the cosmetics away: "Mainly because I find it troublesome, and secondly, I feel there's no real necessity."

"Quick, let me see the mirror!" Ai Wei is actually wearing makeup for the first time, and she is eager to see what she has turned into.

"Hmm..." Looking at herself in the mirror, Ai Wei reveals a look of surprise while also feeling a bit strange.

"It looks good, but the dark circles are a bit too big, making it look like I stay up late every day and don't get enough sleep." Ai Wei pouts and complains while looking at her two panda eyes in the mirror.

Luo Quan corrects her immediately: "This is called smoky makeup; this is the effect we want. This way, it better displays your personality, and you can leave a deep impression at first glance!"

Hearing Luo Quan say this, Ai Wei looks at it carefully a few more times and finds that this makeup is actually quite good. It has more character than ordinary makeup, isn't as garish as those heavy looks, and has quite good layering.

The most important point is that this makeup compensates for the small shortcoming of Asians having facial features that aren't deep or three-dimensional enough, and it is full of a mysterious, hazy aura.

However, this kind of makeup always feels a bit flamboyant, and it doesn't seem very suitable for wearing out on the street.

"Take your guitar and come with me to take some photos first." Luo Quan picks up her phone and turns to go upstairs.

Before releasing Ai Wei's album, we definitely need to market it first and create some buzz.

Applying smoky makeup here is also intended to establish a persona for her as a girl with personality.

If we were following the marketing methods in Japan, we would generally release a few shots of her back first to whet everyone's appetite, just like when Luo Quan first debuted.

But this time, it's her turn to be the boss, and she doesn't intend to use that method.

Ai Wei's image is so good that we can just release front-facing photos to attract fans; there's no need to go through these roundabout ways.

As for taking photos, Luo Quan is not a professional, so she can only rely on her intuition to have Ai Wei hold the guitar and pose for a few shots, making sure the expressions and movements are cool to highlight her characteristics.

"Is this enough?" Ai Wei asks hesitantly after taking the photos.

According to Luo Quan's requirements, she has been improving her singing and playing techniques during this period, making progress every day, and her inner confidence has been growing day by day.

But when the day of her debut actually arrived, she couldn't help but panic involuntarily.

Luo Quan takes in Ai Wei's nervous appearance with sweat on the tip of her nose and says with a smile: "Are you nervous?"

"A little." Ai Wei nods in admission, though it's not just a little—she is extremely nervous!

Luo Quan pats Ai Wei on the shoulder: "It's very normal. When I debuted, I was about the same as you are now, worrying about gains and losses, constantly thinking about whether I could become popular, and I didn't sleep well for several nights."

"Everything is difficult at the beginning. Having chosen this path, you will face this day sooner or later. At least for now, you still have me, someone who has been through it, to rely on."

"Thank you, Boss, I definitely won't embarrass the company!" Ai Wei clenches her fists to cheer herself up.

Although she says that, Ai Wei still goes back to her room to adjust her emotions. Facing a major life event is indeed not something that can be easily overcome; it requires a process.

Here, Luo Quan posts Ai Wei's photos on Twitter to create some buzz for her first.

She has already signed a record contract with Sony, with Seifert personally planning the promotion and providing sufficient resources of all kinds.

Although Ai Wei is a complete newcomer at Universal, once they heard she is an artist from Luo Quan's company and that the lead song of her debut album is also handled by Luo Quan, there were absolutely no problems.

In the eyes of Universal's managers, given Luo Quan's creative level, even an unremarkable ordinary person could become a huge hit after singing her songs.

Not to mention a singer like Ai Wei, who has an outstanding appearance and is professionally qualified.

Therefore, Universal Music agreed very readily to invest a large amount of promotional resources for Ai Wei, even under the condition of only signing a record contract.

Of course, a part of the credit for this also goes to Seifert; after all, there are connections involved.

The promotion won't start until December, so Luo Quan takes the first step here, using her own Twitter, which has tens of millions of followers, to promote her.

"Introducing a newcomer from my company to everyone; she's a great beauty." After typing the text, Luo Quan merges the photos taken just now and clicks send.

Although Luo Quan posts updates on Twitter less frequently compared to Bilibili, because this is almost the only channel for foreign fans to learn about Luo Quan's daily life, both the number of followers and fan activity are quite high.

Coupled with the fact that her joint performance with Leon yesterday is sweeping and harvesting traffic and heat worldwide, her every move at this moment can be said to be the focus of everyone's attention.

The tweet was just posted, and in less than three minutes, the comments broke two thousand; in ten minutes, it broke ten thousand, and it even made it to the tail end of the trending topics in the Asian region.

An ordinary tweet being able to make it to the trending topics is not very common, even for Luo Quan; it can only be said that yesterday's performance was truly too successful.

And at this moment, the comment section of the tweet is also quite lively.

Although everyone is a bit disappointed that they couldn't see Luo Quan's selfies or Luo Quan-brand chicken soup for the soul, they are pleasantly surprised to see a new face this time:

"Luo Quan's company? When did Luo Quan have a company?"

"It's an entertainment company Luo Quan registered herself in China. I heard there are currently five artists, but I only know three so far; this should be the fourth."

"The artists in Luo Quan's company all have top-tier looks. Although this girl's makeup is a bit alternative, she's also very beautiful!"

"I really love this kind of cool girl; she's completely my type~~~"

"A girl with a lot of personality, her expression is quite arrogant!"

"This is an electric guitar in her hand, right? Is she into rock?"

"With this makeup, I guess it's either metal or punk. It's rare to see Chinese girls interested in these things."

"This is the coolest Chinese girl I've ever seen. Sorry, Luo Quan, I can only reject your love."

"Does your family know your delusions are this severe?"

"Luo Quan is clearly mine!"

"Draw your gun, I want to duel you!"

……………………

From a preliminary look, the acceptance of Ai Wei by Luo Quan's fans is quite high.

It's mainly because Ai Wei has a solid foundation, and coupled with her alternative makeup, prominent personality, and love for rock, she immediately distinguishes herself from those other garish and cheap-looking people. She is highly recognizable and easily arouses the interest and favor of most people.

Of course, there must also be a considerable part of this due to Luo Quan. "Love me, love my dog" isn't just talk. As an artist in Luo Quan's company, and now being promoted by her using her own Twitter, as long as Ai Wei isn't particularly bizarre, it's not difficult to gain everyone's favor.

It mainly depends on the public opinion after a few days, once more people are paying attention.

Media and marketing accounts are probably already noticing her, and related articles and analyses will likely come out soon. While gaining popularity, challenges will also follow one after another.

Whether it's the idle onlookers or peers with a sense of crisis, they will immediately search for all information related to Ai Wei online.

From her student records before getting into Shangyi to the various comments she has posted on online accounts, as long as there is a trace left, it won't be long before it's dug up.

Perhaps it will become her dark history, or perhaps it can become proof of her innocence.

But before this, Luo Quan carefully asked Ai Wei about her past words and deeds in reality and online, having Ai Wei recall everything in detail.

Basically, there are no problems.

Although her parents are divorced, Ai Wei's parents are quite sensible, and the difficult growing environment has also shaped her simple and strong character.

Not only that, in the absence of family affection, she maintains an optimistic and positive attitude toward the future. She has always been very cheerful at school and has quite good relationships with her classmates.

As for online, although Ai Wei has had a five-year-old account on Douban, she has mostly been lurking. She has basically never been to "toilets" like the Goose Group. Usually, she just keeps her head down and scrolls through posts, or reads book and movie reviews.

Like Luo Quan, she belongs to the relatively "salted fish" type.

In short, Ai Wei's resume basically has no black spots.

Even when she is sometimes in low spirits and laments the injustice of fate, she uses her own works to express it. If someone really wants to attack her, I'm afraid they'll have to look into those songs of hers that haven't been released yet.

Actually, Luo Quan didn't need to worry about these problems at all. A potential stock that can be spotted by the system wouldn't have any major problems to begin with.

Like that Fan Ying, although his talent in rap was visible to the naked eye, the system never mentioned him once from beginning to end.

Later, facts also proved that this Fan Ying indeed had some flaws in his character.

Unfortunately, the system has only provided Luo Quan with two potential stocks so far.

The company's framework can be considered to have taken shape, but both its fame and strength can only be called third-rate. It relies entirely on her, the boss, to support it, and the road to development can be described as long and arduous.

But just like what she said to Ai Wei before, everything is difficult at the beginning...

"Everyone, a friendly reminder: the scene in a moment will be very blinding, it's best to put on sunglasses first." Just after lunch in the afternoon, Luo Quan holds a square box with quite exquisite workmanship and says mysteriously.

The diamond ring she entrusted Johansen to buy has finally arrived. Including tariffs, it cost nearly 37 million US dollars, comparable to a Veneno!

Lan Xuan says excitedly: "The express delivery that just arrived is this thing, right? Open it quickly and see what it is!"

Girls seem to be born with an intuition for gemstones. Although it hasn't been opened yet, everyone knows what is inside.

"Ta-da!" Luo Quan opens the box, revealing the diamonds embedded in the black soft cotton inside.

Red diamonds, pink diamonds, blue diamonds... countless diamonds reflect each other, and the dazzling light flashes past everyone's eyes, stunning everything.

"Oh my god!" Lan Xuan has never seen such an outrageous diamond ring and only feels dizzy.

Su Yu quickly holds onto the chair to sit down and sighs: "Such a big diamond ring, so many diamonds, how much must it be worth?"

"About 240 million RMB." Luo Quan says truthfully.

Actually, the value of this ring is definitely far more than 240 million, but because Johansen wanted to make a friend, he sold this thing, which would never appear on the market, to her.

Ai Wei reveals a wry smile: "I always thought my salary of one million a year was a huge sum of money, but it turns out this one ring is worth 240 million. I would have to work for 240 years without eating or drinking to save enough; it's really too scary."

Su Yu also nods, deeply agreeing.

"Perspective!" Luo Quan places the diamond ring on the table, puts one hand on Su Yu's shoulder and the other on Ai Wei's, "You are the artists of my company, big stars destined to become popular all over the world in the future. By then, won't a mere 240 million be something you can earn in the blink of an eye?!"

Ai Wei shakes her head repeatedly: "I can't imagine such a picture at all. There's too much money, and I don't have a concrete concept of it."

Luo Quan takes out the diamond ring and puts it on her finger: "Read more urban novels about wealthy prodigies, and you will find that money is actually just a number. What truly has value is your work. Once you have work, won't money come to you just by reaching out? Applause, please!"

The three women clap their hands blankly, but they still cannot understand the feeling Luo Quan is talking about.

After all, they are only girls in their early twenties. Lan Xuan and Su Yu are slightly better and have an understanding of an artist's ability to attract money, while Ai Wei has absolutely no idea how much money she can earn in the future.

"Of course, I'm not instilling the concept that money is everything into you!" Seeing that everyone's expressions are off, Luo Quan immediately begins her earnest instruction: "What I want to say is that making money is the simplest thing for us in the future. Having this ability, there's no need to value money too much and lose the big for the small."

"We can choose to spend money in some more meaningful places."

Su Yu says timidly: "For example... buying a diamond ring?"

Luo Quan's face darkens: "I'm talking about doing charity. You only see me spending 240 million to buy a diamond ring, but you didn't see me donating even more money to the impoverished population of our country."

The three women look at each other: "We haven't heard the media mention it? Is it the time of the crowdfunding?"

Luo Quan is taken aback: "Uh... it seems it wasn't disclosed to the media, but you just need to know that the money I donate is only more, not less, than the money I spend on luxury goods."

"The so-called 'If only I could have a mansion of a thousand rooms, to shelter all the cold scholars of the world and make them beam with joy'—although I don't have the great realization of Du Zimei, at least I am striving to develop in that direction."

The three women suddenly realize: "Understood, we should both enjoy ourselves and be happy to do charity, right?"

"Exactly." Luo Quan nods with a smile, and the brilliant flower on her hand seems even more dazzling.