Ch3 - Demon Band Manager

Nowadays, there were more and more people using online streaming platforms. This had quite a big impact on traditional television.

Online streaming platforms had produced various competition shows which did quite well, so as the previous king of ratings, Dongcheng TV station was not to be outdone, and had planned a competition show of its own.

To build hype for ‘Birth of an Idol’, the TV station did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to get big-name artists onto the show as mentors.

Never mind the rest, just the name ‘Ji Xiunian’ would be enough to catch everyone’s attention.

Ji Xiunian had debuted for ten years and was always diligently filming. He rarely participated in variety shows. Rumour had it that the show’s producer was an old friend of his, and had called in a favour to get him on.

The reason why he became a mentor didn’t matter. What was important was that this gave Lu Xu a very good opportunity.

Lu Xu had just been thinking of how he could get close to Ji Xiunian. Now he had an idea—

He would audition for the show. As long as he could get into the program, he would naturally be able to get in touch with Ji Xiunian.

So, the problem he was facing now was how he could audition. From the program description, they were selecting trainees from all over the country. If he wanted to get in, he would need at least an agency to back him up.

Upon thinking of this, Lu Xu immediately phoned HQ. “Hey, boss. I received the task. There’s a small problem. I need support from the organisation.”

The one who was addressed as leader was the head of the Grim Reaper Bureau. He spoke and acted quickly and diligently. Upon hearing Lu Xu’s words, he replied, “Speak.”

Lu Xu described his plan briefly, his finger scrolling through the details in Ji Xiunian’s profile. “I need a management agency to operate, one that works together with Dongcheng TV.”

“Okay.” The other end replied with one word before hanging up the phone.

Lu Xu knew very well what the Head’s personality was like. He raised a hand to rub his chin, his mouth curving up in a smile. This matter was settled.

As predicted, not even a minute after the phone call had ended, the Head sent him a message with an address attached at the bottom. “I contacted the Demon Supervision Office and arranged an agency for you. You can go over to them tomorrow.”

Yao Guai Entertainment.

Interesting.

**

Before 8 o’clock, Lu Xu had packed his things, put on a baseball cap, and headed out the door.

For the sake of work, Lu Xu had rented a place at Garden Unit within the 2nd Ring Road. Transportation was extremely convenient. The train and bus stations were just downstairs. Under the scorching sun, it was so hot that the greenery on either side of the road had changed colours, and it was busy and bustling all around.

It was unusually hot today.

Lu Xu raised his head towards the sky, and he couldn’t help thinking about why.

His footsteps were quick and light as he descended the stairs. He felt a cooling sensation only when he entered the train station.

At every interval in the tunnel, there was an ad on the wall. Amongst all the advertisements, there were even two fan support signs. Lu Xu’s gaze swept across them and thought that it must be for an artist who just debuted.

One thing Dongcheng never lacked was people.

It was peak hour for the working class now, and the waiting area for the train was filled with people. Lu Xu put on his headphones and stood in the middle of the throng of people queuing up, quietly keeping his distance away from others.

His looks stood out from the masses. His skin was pale and glowing. Even if he was just standing there casually at the side, people would inevitably steal glances at him.

“Ready, one two three.”

Two girls stood not too far away, one of them with her back to Lu Xu, swaying her skirt. The other girl was holding her phone up, ready to take a picture. At first glance, she seemed to be taking a picture of her friend, but in reality, the camera’s lens was entirely focused on Lu Xu.

“OK!” Seeing the train pulling into the station, the girl who took the picture gestured towards her friend. The two of them squeezed into the train car and put their heads together, their eyes curving into happy crescents as they looked through their photo album.

The young boy in the picture had a face right out of a manhua. His white t-shirt complemented his grey overalls. His legs were so long. He was initially focused on waiting for the train, and his side profile was beautiful. They didn’t know whether it was unintentional or if he meant to do it, but during the last two seconds of the video, the boy seemed to notice something and looked in their direction. The girl’s hands even shook twice when she realised her secret photo-taking had been discovered. However, he had just smiled and raised his eyebrows. It was so beautiful it made their hearts tremble.

“Aaaaaaaaa!!!”

“So handsome!”

The two girls had to cover their mouths to suppress their urges to scream.

They originally just filmed for a bit from the back. They had never thought that this person had a face favoured by the gods, and that even when they casually just filmed, it would look like a poster.

“I like him the more I look at him, I really want his contact!”

“Me too!”

The two of them were on the same wavelength. They held hands and prepared to go to the neighbouring car to find him, but they circled around the place a few times without managing to find that person despite clearly seeing him get on.

One of the girls was disappointed. “That’s so strange. How did he disappear?”

The other girl was thoughtful. “Let’s post the video online. Maybe we can find him then?”

Very quickly, the two girls posted the video up on Mouyin, and even specially selected a music track that was used for confessions.

[Hammer Sister: A little brother I saw at the train station. He’s definitely the boy of my heart. There were too many people in the station at the time so I couldn’t get his contact details in time. Maybe you know him?]

As an otaku dancer, the girl’s account had a few thousand followers. But because no one really interacted with each other, her highest rated content only had about 20,000 likes.

After the video was posted, comments began sporadically appearing below—

[Nation’s Top-tier Retired Drum-playing Feudal Officer: Heavens, this little brother is too good-looking!]

[Coming Old Brother: What do you want me to say, you didn’t want it when it was in front of your face, and now you want your internet friends to look for a needle in a haystack]

[I Definitely Won’t Let My Other Boyfriends Find Out About You: Oh my god, that’s one hell of a face, I’ll camp online for a little brother’s contact information]

[Give Ollie: He smiled at the camera at the end. Let’s leave, there’s no doubt he likes you]

[Give One Nest giao: If these two don’t get to know each other I’ll livestream myself gnawing on the wall]

…

In just a few minutes, the number of likes had surpassed a hundred, and the number of comments kept climbing up.

[Hammer Sister: Really don’t know him, and didn’t want to bother little brother, just want to tell him I really like him]

In even less time than it took to reply to a message, once the page was refreshed, the number of likes had surpassed a thousand. After clicking on the views, they had actually surpassed sixty thousand.

The two girls looked at each other, blinking in excitement—

This video was going viral!

**

At that time, Lu Xu didn’t yet know he was on the hot searches list.

Yao Guai Entertainment was only three subway stops from his house. Lu Xu pushed the door open and walked to the front desk, politely greeting, “Hello.”

The front desk receptionist had been dozing off; when she heard the noise of movement and opened her eyes, she saw a handsome young man standing in front of her. The receptionist had seen many good-looking demons at the company before, but she thought this little brother was extremely good-looking. He was even comparable to the nine-tailed foxes and mermaids.

More importantly, she couldn’t smell the scent of her own kind from this handsome guy.

It was rare for a genuine human being to come to the company. The receptionist looked at Lu Xu as if she was looking at a treasure, a bright smile on her face as she asked warmly, “Hello, do you have an appointment?”

Lu Xu nodded. “A friend of mine made the appointment for me, my name is Lu Xu.”

“All right, please wait a moment.” The receptionist made a call to the office and reported Lu Xu’s name before getting up to guide the way. “I’ll take you to Director Bai’s office.”

“Thanks for your trouble.” Lu Xu followed the receptionist. Even though he saw her tail swishing behind her, he didn’t say anything and his expression remained as calm as ever.

On his way through the company building, Lu Xu met a janitor who was a dung beetle spirit, an octopus-spirit operator, and a few small clerks with long horns and grass growing on their heads.

Yao Guai Entertainment Company did indeed deserve its name.

“Director Bai, Mr. Lu has arrived.”

“Come in.”

The front desk receptionist smiled at Lu Xu, then reluctantly went back to her work station.

When Lu Xu pushed the door open to enter, Director Bai had already gotten up to welcome him. “Hello Lu Xu, I am Bai Ze.”

Bai Ze was very tall, around 187cm. He had the standard proportions of a model and handsome features, he could have been an artist under some company to the eyes of those who did not know better. He wore a well-tailored suit, and beneath his gold-rimmed glasses was a pair of clear, sharp eyes.

From the moment Lu Xu entered through the door, Bai Ze had already looked him over. Not a ghost nor a demon, looking exactly like a human at first glance.

When the other side had called and said they wanted to add a person, Bai Ze had some misgivings at first.

The reason the three realms could co-exist peacefully in the world was naturally because of the indispensable management of each realm’s department.

People were different from demons, so they naturally belonged to different departments.

Humans had special state services when alive and underworld government services after they died. Demons had a different system; as long as they legally transformed into spirits, they were under the jurisdiction of the Demon Supervision Office. Those who obtained a license to become spirits used various identities to stay in the mortal realm and had already fully adapted to living with humans.

In order to maintain basic survival, demons who had become spirits entered industries based on their own interests and expertise, excelling in different fields. Among them, many demons walked the path of becoming entertainers based on their outstanding looks. In order to manage them, demon management companies were created.

As the owner of a demon management company, Bai Ze was familiar with each demon’s characteristics and designed their images based on their talents. He had supported many popular artists.

He had beautiful nine-tailed foxes selling beauty products on screen, merpeople with beautiful voices had been promoted as singing kings.

Because of his outstanding abilities, there were many who wanted to send people to his side. Although there was no lack of extraordinary appearances among them, Bai Ze always rejected those without much character.

The Grim Reaper Bureau had requested him to send this employee to the audition. Bai Ze had told them the situation very clearly then—he could get him through the door, but whether he could stay in the competition or even debut depended entirely on his own abilities.

There were many talented entertainers in the mortal realm. Even if ghosts and demons wanted to become famous, they need to possess the capabilities to do so.

In the moment before Lu Xu walked through the door, Bai Ze was still thinking, if his conditions weren’t right then he would have to make it clear beforehand. After all, this involved the cooperation between two organizations, and he didn’t want them to come to blows over something like this.

But the moment he laid his eyes on Lu Xu, the light within his eyes suddenly ignited—this grim reaper had potential!

Looking at Bai Ze’s extended hand, Lu Xu raised his eyebrows and shook it. “Hello Director Bai, I’m Lu Xu.”