Chapter 438: Pure Newbie

Before she went live, her boss had laid it all out for her. As long as a man is willing to spend money on you, once he spends that first cent, he’ll likely spend a second. Be bold, don’t be afraid to chat. It’s not the small spenders you need to worry about, it’s the ones who won’t part with a single dime.

Her first-ever customer had arrived, so unexpectedly. Donna Thorne felt a surge of excitement.

While pretending to look at the screen, she glanced at the cue cards in her boss’s hands out of the corner of her eye and spoke in a gentle voice.

"Thank you for the rocket, sir. I’m a new streamer, yes, this is my first time going live tonight. I can’t believe I ran into you already. It must be fate."

When he heard she was new and that he’d run into her on her very first stream, it was as if he’d discovered some pure and innocent beauty. He was absolutely ecstatic.

"Really? What a coincidence! It seems we were destined to meet. Where are you from?"

Donna told the truth. What followed was the basic routine of getting to know someone: answering where she was from, where she graduated, how many people were in her family, what music she liked, and what her hobbies were.

Although the number of viewers in the stream slowly grew to over a dozen, Donna only chatted with him.

The man seemed to get a great sense of accomplishment from having the other guys watch the streamer talk only to him. He would occasionally send her more small gifts, and the stream went very smoothly.

After nearly four hours, her boss signaled for Donna to knock over her phone stand and end the stream.

And so, just as the man was rambling on, the screen went black. The stream was cut off.

Her boss hurried over. "You can’t reveal everything at once. You have to cut it off right when he’s getting hooked. That’s what will keep him thinking about you. Alright, you’re done for today. Excellent performance. Such great results on your first day—you have a promising future. I can see you being the next one to make twenty million. So? Have you made your decision? If you have, we’ll meet tomorrow at 6 PM sharp."

Donna didn’t rush to answer him, asking instead how much she had received in gifts.

Her boss said it was over a thousand. After the platform’s cut, they would split the remainder fifty-fifty, leaving Donna with nearly 400 yuan.

A base salary of 5,000, plus a 400 yuan commission... Donna couldn’t believe it. Earning this much on her first day of work... ’I’m really going to get rich!’

"Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow at 6 PM sharp."

Donna packed her things to leave. The boss sat on the desk, snickering as he showed her his phone.

"Look, you’ve already got messages in your private inbox. Several people are asking why you suddenly disconnected mid-stream and if you’re coming back on later."

Donna thought she needed to reply and reached for the phone, but her boss locked the screen.

"Don’t reply. You still haven’t grasped how men think. The more you ignore them, the more eager they get. Since you’ve decided to work here, come shoot a video with me. We’ll film an ’after work’ vlog for you."

At eleven o’clock at night in Veridia, though the city was still glittering with lights, most people were already at home, getting ready for bed.

The boss chose a quiet street to film a "hard-working girl" vlog for her.

Only then did Donna realize how fake everything on the internet was.

She often came across influencers who filmed from the moment they opened their eyes in the morning. It turned out their entire day—eating, dressing, living—was all staged in different rooms within the same company.

She rode a shared bike on the street for a bit, changed the time on her phone to 12:00 AM, and went into a room at the company. It was simple, but decorated in a very girly style.

She washed her face, brushed her teeth, changed into her pajamas, and set the time on her phone to past 1:00 AM. A hard day’s work was finally over.

In reality, the entire shoot took no more than twenty minutes.

Her boss drove her home. "Alright, I’ll go back and edit the video. I’ll schedule it to post at 2:00 AM, then it’s time for bed. Follow this account. When you wake up tomorrow morning, you can admire your results."

If he hadn’t said that, she might have been fine. But now, Donna was filled with curiosity and anticipation about her results. She couldn’t sleep at all when she got home.

She finally made it to 2:00 AM, and the video was posted.

Less than two minutes later, a comment appeared.

BoundlessSkies: "No wonder you suddenly dropped offline. So it was your first day, you must still be learning the ropes. You work so hard. [Heart]"

From his familiar tone, Donna instantly knew this was the man who had sent her gifts tonight. Overcome with curiosity, she clicked on his profile.

His profile showed he was from a poor province and was forty-eight years old. Although he hadn’t posted any content himself, he didn’t know how to hide his "following" and "followers" lists.

Clicking into them, she could tell from the people he followed and who followed him that his standard of living and spending level were both on the lower end.

In other words, he was very likely just an ordinary, middle-aged migrant worker.

Donna’s expectations for him instantly vanished.

’A guy like that might drop a big sum once or twice, but he has a family to support. There’s no way he can spend money on me regularly.’

He was just hoping that by making one or two big donations, he could win a streamer’s favor and achieve some ulterior motive.

The mere thought of it made Donna feel sick to her stomach.

She thought about many things that night and barely slept a wink.

The next morning, she clicked on the video again to check.

She had gained over three hundred followers, more than a thousand likes, and dozens of comments.

But without exception, they were all middle-aged male fans.

Just as Donna was feeling discouraged and wondering if she should continue, her boss called, his voice filled with excitement.

"Donna, are you awake? Did you see the video I posted last night? The results are great, aren’t you happy?"

Donna asked him how he could tell the results were great. Her boss said,

"Do you know the saying about an old house catching fire? In this virtual world, besides the very young, who do you think has the greatest emotional needs? It’s these middle-aged and older bachelors."

"Once their emotional needs are met, even if they don’t have money, they’ll sell everything they own to spend it on you. You’ve only done one stream and posted one video—I didn’t spend a single dime promoting it—and you’ve already gotten these results. Doesn’t that prove my point?"

Donna still couldn’t bring herself to be happy.

Coaxing this type of man to spend money on her filled her with a sense of shame and guilt.

’I have no intention of ever meeting them in person. How is this any different from scamming them?’

"How can you call it a scam?"

Her boss said, "Open the app and see how many people are in this line of work. If you don’t do it, tens of thousands of others will. Is what they’re doing also a scam? If this is a scam, why don’t the platforms stop it? Why don’t the authorities regulate it?"

"If you could sing or dance, if you had some other talent to make money with, then you’d have the right to be picky and say things like that. But look at yourself. You don’t know how to do anything, yet you’re complaining that the men spending money on you aren’t young or handsome enough? Lady, the sun is up. Go look in a mirror and get a reality check, will you?"

Donna had to admit that while his words were harsh, he had a point.

’I have no skills, yet I want to make big money. On what grounds?’

"I heard that after you take people’s gifts, you have to meet them in private. I..."

The boss cut her off. "Whoa, whoa, stop. So that’s what you’re worried about? That’s not going to happen. Like I said, we’re a legitimate studio... Just focus on working for now. If it ever gets to the point where a meeting is necessary, I have strategies for that. We’ll take it one step at a time. Don’t rush things."