Chapter 8:
Meanwhile. On the other side. Douyin Headquarters.
Operations Director Yi Hui's eyes nearly popped out of her head in shock.
She had just given Tang Yu and Hu Tao a homepage recommendation push— and they immediately went offline right after.
This left her completely baffled.
You have to understand, a homepage recommendation brings in massive traffic. It's no exaggeration to say: as long as your content isn't terrible, gaining tens or even hundreds of thousands of followers from one push is common.
Yet such a golden opportunity—and Tang Yu and Hu Tao didn't seize it at all.
Yi Hui was no rookie. After a quick analysis, she figured out exactly why they didn't cherish the recommendation.
They simply had no idea they'd been featured!
This realization sparked a little idea in her mind.
The reason this stream blew up wasn't Tang Yu—it was clearly Hu Tao in his room.
If she wanted to sign someone, it would naturally be Hu Tao. Tang Yu? Optional—take him or leave him.
Suppressing her thoughts for now, she pulled up the backend data from Tang Yu's earlier stream.
One look and she was stunned!
The stats showed: at the very start of the stream, popularity was under 1,000 viewers. But after going live, it skyrocketed to hundreds of thousands, with 50,000 new followers gained.
And the follower growth was still climbing—even though they were offline now.
Most terrifying of all was the monetization power.
According to the data, the total gifts received this stream were close to one million yuan.
Even more shocking: the gifting enthusiasm was insane. On average, 5 out of every 10 viewers sent at least one gift.
Among them were plenty of "iron roosters" (stingy viewers who usually watch for free and never spend). But this time, even those iron roosters sent gifts.
Of course, most were small—one or two yuan trinkets. But the fact remained: this room could pluck wool even from iron roosters.
Viewer retention was equally terrifying— a staggering 60%.
Retention measures how many people stay from start to finish. It's the clearest indicator of a streamer's true loyal fanbase.
In all her years in the industry, Yi Hui had never seen retention this high.
Even when the big celebrity Da Mimi was invited to stream last time, retention barely hit 50%.
A massive A-list star… outperformed by a 2D girl?
Unbelievable.
Back then, the platform had promoted Da Mimi everywhere. She herself had called on fans via Weibo to come support. Only then did she achieve those numbers.
In comparison, Tang Yu and Hu Tao basically went live naked—no promotion, no existing fanbase. Yet they surpassed Da Mimi's stats… and even had a whale open Emperor privilege to guard the room.
This was straight-up protagonist treatment.
After the initial shock, Yi Hui already had a plan in mind.
She had to sign Hu Tao—no matter what.
Act on it immediately. She quickly drafted an application and emailed it straight to Douyin's CEO.
A potential gem like this wasn't something a mere operations director could decide alone.
The signing bonus alone would likely be eight figures. And Douyin's streamer contracts were tiered:
From lowest to highest: A-sign, B-sign, C-sign, D-sign, S-sign, SS-sign, SSS-sign.
The first four tiers came with a guaranteed base salary—mostly for filler streamers who didn't generate much revenue. They were signed just to pad the platform's numbers.
S-sign and SS-sign were for mid-to-high-tier streamers. Signing bonuses started at seven figures.
As for SSS-sign? Reserved for top-tier pillars only. The entire Douyin platform had only a handful who qualified— like Dai Xiaomei, Da Ma Hou, Xu Xu Baby, etc.
Yi Hui's authority only extended to signing S-sign and below.
That was the main reason she had to email the CEO.
In her heart, Hu Tao was worth at least SS-sign. Maybe even SSS-sign wouldn't be overkill.
While Yi Hui was lost in thought, her computer dinged—an email reply notification.
She hurriedly opened it.
The message was short. Just one line:
Sign immediately. Offer SSS-sign.
Yi Hui stared at the words, mouth agape.
She never expected the CEO to greenlight an SSS-sign for a complete newbie.
But it aligned perfectly with what she had hoped.
Yi Hui knew: once they signed Hu Tao and pushed recommendations, it was only a matter of time—within a month, Douyin would have a brand-new top-tier streamer.
Back to Tang Yu and Hu Tao. Right now, the two were happily munching on barbecue.
Hu Tao held a big chicken leg in her left hand and a sausage in her right—attacking from both sides, mouth shiny with oil. She ate with pure delight.
In Teyvat, she had never tasted anything this delicious.
Seeing her like this, Tang Yu shook his head gently. He looked at her and smiled: "You… slow down. You look like a refugee right now."
Hu Tao's small mouth was stuffed full. She couldn't reply—just squinted her eyes happily at him, making funny faces.
At that moment, Tang Yu's phone rang. He pulled it out—unknown number. He immediately hung up.
Scam calls were everywhere these days—he wasn't risking it.
But right after hanging up, the phone rang again. Same number!
He hung up again. This time he thought: if you call a third time, I'll pick up.
As if the caller heard his thoughts, after two rejections, it rang a third time.
This time, Tang Yu answered.
"Hello? Is this Mr. Tang Yu?" A pleasant female voice came through the moment it connected.
Tang Yu frowned. Scammers these days were getting way too advanced. They even had his real name and number.
"Yes," Tang Yu said casually while eating an oyster.
"I'm Yi Hui, Operations Director at Douyin. I got your number from the registration info you filled out." Yi Hui continued: "May I ask if your partner Hu Tao is available?"
Hearing this, Tang Yu frowned and glanced at Hu Tao.
"She…"
He was just about to say "she's here," when his phone vibrated—battery dead. It shut off automatically.
On the other end, Yi Hui heard the busy tone and felt a surge of unease.
Why did he hang up? He must have guessed she was calling about signing Hu Tao.
After thinking for a moment, she decided: fine, she'd offer Tang Yu a D-sign to keep him happy.
But when she called back, it went straight to "phone turned off."
Yi Hui was speechless. Looked like signing Hu Tao wasn't going to be as simple as she thought!
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