Perfect Superstar

Chapter 156 -Crowdfunding

The guqinplayer is very beautiful. She is wearing a white cheongsam with blue floralpatterns, which outlines her graceful figure. The icy and snow-white skin ispicturesque. The whole person seems to be like a blue and white porcelainwashed by kiln fire, shining with a soft light that can’t be ignored, elegant, gentleand free from dust. (TN: She was wearing something like this: Here)

Such anoutstanding figure, Lu Chen recognized her at a glance - Su Daiwan!

Su Daiwan isa native of Taipei, Taiwan. She was once very popular on the island in the past.At the age of 19, she made her debut and won the island’s biggest entertainmentaward. With her natural voice and outstanding appearance and temperament, shebecame a rising star.

At the ageof 21, Su Daiwan released her debut album “XiaoxueChuqing“. At the same time, she pushed her singing career to the peakand was regarded as the future Heavenly Queen of the singing world. (TN: XiaoxueChuqing (小雪初晴) can be translated as "Snow starts to clear up")

However, toeveryone’s surprise, just two years after her debut, when her stardom wasshining brilliantly, Su Daiwan suddenly left the pop music world anddisappeared from the eyes of the public.

Apart from afew insiders, no one knows why Su Daiwan gave up her career. There were manyrumors at that time. Some said that Su Daiwan became a concubine of a rich andpowerful person, some said that she was suffering from an incurable disease,and some said that she had renounced the world to become a monk.

However, nomatter how many rumors were heard from the outside world, Su Daiwan didn’t haveany response. Five or six years have passed, perhaps there are only a fewdie-hard fans who still remember her.

In the Inspurblog, there is Su Daiwan’s fan group V, which has tens of thousands of followers.

Lu Chennever dreamed that Su Daiwan was Li Mubai’s third sister-in-law!

The reasonwhy Lu Chen knows Su Daiwan so well was because his first girlfriend was aloyal fan of Su Daiwan. There were posters of Su Daiwan in her boudoir, and herdrawers were filled with various album versions of the album "Xiaoxue Chuqing".

Lu Chenstill remembers the scene when his first girlfriend leaned against his arms andsang the song “Love Snow” in his ear. The sour and astringent taste beganto spread in his heart, and for a moment, he was infatuated.

“LoveSnow” is the main song of “Xiaoxue Chuqing”, the most movinglove song in the whole album.

The sound ofthe guqin lingers in the air, and the music came to an end. Old friend is stillthere, and the past time can’t be traced back!

“Mubai.Is this your friend?”

A gentlevoice made Lu Chen wake up instantly.

Lu Chencouldn’t help turning his head and his gaze coincided with Li Mubai’s bigbrother.

Li Mubai’s bigbrother should be at the age of 30. He has sword like eyebrows, profound facialfeatures, and an indescribably elegant temperament. He wore a set of antique whitegown that look incomparably harmonious on him, just like the characters in abook.

His gaze isquiet, with a little curiosity, which unconsciously made people have afavorable impression on him.

A gentlemanlike jade!

Lu Chenimmediately thought of an adjective that was best suited the other party.

Such acharacter really matches Su Daiwan!

However...

Lu Chencouldn’t help looking at Li Mubai again and wanted to ask him - is he reallyyour biological big brother?

Li Mubaireached out and put his arm around Lu Chen’s shoulder and said, “Yes, heis Lu Chen, my best friend!”

Best friend?

Hearingthis, Lu Chen couldn’t help but be stupefied, but he remained calm on thesurface. He said with a slight bow, “Hello, Brother Li. I’ve come to visitat night. Please forgive me for taking the liberty.”

Big BrotherLi Mubai smiled and said, “You are Mubai’s friend, and that’s a guest ofthe house. Don’t be too formal. I’m Mubai’s big brother Li Murong. Come and havea sit with us.”

Li Mubaipulled Lu Chen, and the two sat down at the tea table.

At this time,Su Daiwan came over and picked up the teapot to make tea for Li Mubai first. Hermovements were like flowing water, elegant and skillful, pleasing to the eyes.

Li Mubaipicked up the teacup and smelled it, and showed an exaggerated expression:“Third sister-in-law, the tea you brew is fragrant, and the dishes youcook are more delicious. I want to live in your house every day. It’s a pitythat big brother is not willing!”

Su Daiwan chuckledand said, “That’s a nice thing to say. You really want to come and livehere, but your big brother won’t let you live here?”

Li Mubaismiled and said, “He, he will drive me out of here in half a day!”

He asked LiMurong, “Don’t you think so, Big Brother?”

Li Murongshook his head speechless. There was obviously nothing he could do about hisrogue brother.

Su Daiwan brewedanother cup for Lu Chen.

Lu Chenhurriedly said, “Thank you, Su... Ms. Su.”

Su Daiwansmiled and said, “You’re welcome. Just call me third sister-in-law like Mubai.”

Her gentleand kind smile relaxed Lu Chen’s taut heartstrings. He said, “Third sister-in-law,my former girlfriend likes you best. She was sad for a long time after youretired.”

Seeing SuDaiwan, Lu Chen remembered the past and couldn’t help saying it.

Su Daiwanput down the teapot and sat down beside Li Murong. She said with a smile,“if you see her again, apologize for me.”

Lu Chensmiled bitterly.

Su Daiwanturned to look at her husband and said, “In fact, you should blame him.It’s all his fault!”

Although shesaid it in a rebuking tone, the tenderness in her eyes seems to be overflowing.

Like this,it was Li Murong’s turn to smile bitterly and raise his hand in surrender.

Li Mubaitook the opportunity to say, “Big brother, about Brother Chen’s matter,can help him?”

Li Murong showedneither approval nor disapproval. He asked Lu Chen, “Can you talk aboutyour project first?”

The smile onhis face was still gentle, but there was a trace of sharpness in his eyes,which has the astute insight into the world!

If peoplewith evil intentions in their hearts are stared at like this, they are bound tofeel guilty.

But Lu Chenwas very calm: “Okay!”

He had comeprepared. He brought with him a copy of the project.

Lu Chen tookout the copy and handed it to Li Murong.

Li Murongwas a little surprised. He didn’t expect that Lu Chen was so well prepared. Hetook over the paper and began to read it carefully.

This projectthat Lu Chen wants to do has been brewing for a long time. Simply put, it is afundraising platform - online crowdfunding!

Hisinspiration came from the dream world.

The dreamworld also has a huge Internet industry, which is not much different from the developmentof this world. A lot of things also have counterparts, such as QQ to Feixun,WeChat to Fetion, Alipay to Yifubao and so on.¹

In China, sevenInternet giants firmly control most of the network resources and wealth.

Lu Chen’smajor at his university is computer application. He was well aware that thedifficulty of starting a business on the Internet today is far from comparableto that in the period of rapid development in the past. Without abundant fundsand excellent ideas, trading rashly into this fiercely competitive Red Sea,99.99% of the result is dying without any burial ground. (TN: Businesswise) (TN:“Red Sea” refers to known, highly competitive market.)

Therefore,after acquiring the memory in the dream world, he focused on making moneythrough original works and singing, and didn’t want to struggle in the ITindustry.

However,when Lu Chen decided to produce and release his first album, this inspirationwas touched!

As anindependent artist, the biggest difficulty Lu Chen faces is that it may be easyto produce and release albums without the support of entertainment agencies,but it is undoubtedly even more difficult not to lose money or even make aprofit.

Lu Chendidn’t want to lose money, so he thought of the advantages he had - his morethan a million fans!

So how can hemake the most of this advantage to boost album sales?

Crowdfundingplatform is undoubtedly the best solution!

Theso-called crowdfunding refers to the mode of raising project funds fromnetizens in the form of group purchase + pre-purchase. It makes use of thecharacteristics of the Internet and SNS communication, so that smallbusinesses, artists or individuals can show their ideas to the public, gaineveryone’s attention and support, and then obtain the financial assistance needed.

Comparedwith the traditional financing methods, crowdfunding is more open, and theability to obtain funds is no longer based on the commercial value of theproject as the only criterion. As long as it’s a project that netizens like,the first fund for the start of the project can be obtained throughcrowdfunding, which provides unlimited possibilities for more small-scalebusiness or creative people.

For example,an independent artist like Lu Chen.

In thisworld, the original prototype of crowdfunding has long existed, but there isnot a real Internet crowdfunding platform.

Like a smallgold mine waiting to be mined.

When thisinspiration was touched, Lu Chen keenly felt that this was an excellentopportunity for his career to obtain greater development opportunities, and heimmediately began to prepare for it.

The Chineseand English domain names of “crowdfunding”, “zhongchou” and“crowdfunding” have all been successfully registered by Lu Chen. Inaddition, Lu Chen purchased an independent server with high-bandwidth from afamous Internet service provider, and worked with Chen Xiang to build thewebsite. (TN: The first "crowdfunding" was in Chinese characters "众筹",while "Zhongchou" and the second "crowdfunding" was in English.)

Thestructure of the crowdfunding platform is actually very simple. Afterregistration and filing, apply the ready-made website template, add thecorresponding functions, and then connect to Yifubao and online banking, and acomplete online crowdfunding will be completely declared.

With the memoriesfrom the dream to provide reference, Lu Chen didn’t spend too much time andenergy in this regard.

As long ashe is willing, the online crowdfunding can be put into operation at any time.

But there isa big problem.

From atechnical point of view alone, the crowdfunding platform doesn’t have anydifficulties. It is just like an ordinary personal website, and anyone who haslearned how to make a website can easily handle it.

The key iscreativity!

How can LuChen ensure that his idea will not be plagiarized, imitated or even embezzledby others?

It is necessaryto mention a bill that is commonly used internationally and domestically, thatis, the Commercial Creative Copyright Protection Act!

The CommercialCreative Copyright Protection Act was first enacted in 2005.

It was aperiod of rapid development of the Internet in China, and it was also a periodof brutal and violent expansion of the giants. Many promising small companies, underthe attack of these giants, either closed down or were embezzled. It was achaotic scene.

The mosttypical example is an interactive game called “Thumb Elf”. The ShiningElf Company that it belongs to quickly became popular and made a lot of money.

However, theShining Elf Company didn’t last long. QQ Games targeted this piece of fat meat,and soon launched the same “Thumb Playing Elf” with the same model.With more sophisticated production and a large user base, it quickly defeatedthe “Thumb Elf”.

The ShiningElf Company, a promising game company, never recovered, and finally came to asad end.

And similarexamples are numerous in that period!

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TN: Just someclarifications as I’ve also been confused since the first time I encounteredthis. I just found out that I have been translating QQ and WeChat wrong. I havejust been following the previous translation of it. It should have been Feixun forQQ and Feiton for WeChat. Author didn’t clarify this when he first used this.He only clarified this in this chapter.

One morething, QQ music was supposed to be WeChat Music, but I found that there no suchthing as WeChat Music, and WeChat uses QQ music to share music. So, I have beenusing QQ music since.

But I willstill be using QQ or WeChat as to not create confusion and I’ve been used tousing these words. Just remember, in Lu Chen’s world QQ is Feixun and WeChat isFeiton.

So, I hope that readers will understand that there will be mistakes and mistranslations as I’m just machine translating it. Thanks for your understanding. Although, this will not greatly affect the story as the only mistake were the names.¹