After sending off his sister, that demanding figure, Jiang Zhu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Although he had managed to fool his sister for the time being, to avoid her making a surprise return, he went back to his rental apartment first.
Originally, seeing his bank account balance break six figures today, he planned to give himself a day off.
But the news Jiang He brought left him no mood to rest.
Even now, his path to earning money was still long and arduous.
Although the current speed of earning had met his expectations, and if he continued steadily, he could achieve financial freedom within a decade… but ten years might be too late for the current Jiang Zhu.
Lin Ciwei couldn’t wait that long for him.
At present, the speed of earning was indeed steadily increasing, and with live streaming tips and yesterday’s collaboration with Chiyun to siphon some traffic, the monthly income figures should look decent.
But relying solely on such unstable income from tips was far from meeting Jiang Zhu’s expectations—it might be more today and less tomorrow—so he had to think of a stable method.
For example, live streaming product promotions like Chiyun did.
But honestly, although Feng Ling’s current scale was already increasing not slowly, and she had absorbed a large number of fans from Chiyun through their collaboration, she was still far from the point where brands would come knocking on her door for endorsements.
At least, he hadn’t seen any yet.
But as for proactively seeking sponsors, honestly he thought it was unrealistic, since he didn’t know which brands were willing to have Feng Ling endorse them.
Then the alternative was to maintain the status quo, continue collaborating with Chiyun, and wait for the fan count to increase until a brand was willing to approach her.
However, Jiang Zhu was naturally not patient.
He did have an idea…
After a bit of thought, Jiang Zhu quickly came up with a plan to combine offline merchandise sales with online live streaming.
‘Since there’s no sponsorship, I can just produce and sell it myself—just endorse my own merchandise.’
‘But setting a clear price isn’t good. Lian Ge might be watching closely, and I might get caught red-handed.’
So Jiang Zhu thought he could give them away in the name of giving back to fans, announcing that big spenders who tipped beyond a certain amount in the live stream would receive a thank-you gift carefully prepared by Feng Ling, and the rest would be randomly given to lucky viewers from the comments.
That way, in name, he wasn’t selling anything.
It was just fans voluntarily tipping, and out of gratitude, he was giving back a little token.
Since Lian Ge had no objection to live streaming tips, she probably couldn’t find fault with this.
This could both stimulate tipping and increase fan loyalty, while also proving his commercial value to brands.
‘But for something like this, if I just write postcards like before, that would be too stingy. I need to customize something decent.’
After thinking it over, Jiang Zhu settled on a mug printed with Feng Ling’s avatar.
After all, mugs had low cost and high practicality.
Fans could use them every day, deepening their loyalty to Feng Ling with every sip of water…
With such a cute Feng Ling staring at them, could they resist tipping some money to show their allegiance?
Also, the Magic Girl Association itself was non-profit and didn’t produce any official merchandise, so all Magical Girl-related products on the market were bootlegs.
If a Magical Girl directly sued these manufacturers and demanded compensation, that would also be a business opportunity.
But as a Magical Girl, suing small manufacturers would obviously damage her image too much.
Just like before Magical Girls appeared, many celebrities and even companies would send cease and desist letters to some people.
On the surface, they were protecting their interests, but in reality, it hurt their own image, making them seem petty and intolerant.
But thinking the other way, instead of suing bootleg manufacturers, it was better to cooperate with them directly.
He would approach as the legitimate licensor and collaborate with upstream manufacturers.
The condition was that the manufacturer would provide him with custom products at a low price or even for free, and he would give them the title of “Feng Ling Official Licensed Product.”
But in an environment full of bootlegs, a mere licensing name might not significantly increase sales.
Moreover, there were plenty of Magical Girls.
In Haicheng alone, where Feng Ling was based, there were seven Magical Girls.
Nationwide, there were over a thousand Magical Girls, and Feng Ling was an utterly unknown junior among them.
But for the manufacturer, it was at least a positive boost and still valuable.
Plus, what he was asking for wasn’t much.
Compared to directly demanding a large profit share, this pragmatic cooperation method was obviously easier to accept.
And if the first batch of mugs received good feedback, Feng Ling could later agree to gradually deepen the cooperation, launching co-branded and limited editions, widening this path.
A mutually beneficial arrangement should be something someone would be willing to cooperate on.
With that thought, Jiang Zhu immediately closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
A green light flashed over his body.
When he opened his eyes again, he had transformed back into the Magical Girl Feng Ling.
Feng Ling opened her phone and started searching for merchandise related to herself.
The search results showed a huge array, from keychains costing a few yuan to pillows costing several hundred yuan, with no low sales numbers.
Feng Ling scrolled through these product pages, unsure whether she was happy or not.
People wanting to bootleg meant there was demand, but seeing others make money using her name still made her a bit resentful.
Her fingers swiped across the screen a few times, and she opened a shop that looked decently made.
This store had made mug merchandise for several Magical Girls, and they looked good.
Feng Ling then traced back to the upstream manufacturer of this shop, found their business number, and dialed.
As soon as the call connected, Feng Ling quickly said, “Hello, I’m the Magical Girl Feng Ling.”
The other party thought Feng Ling had come to demand an explanation, but Feng Ling immediately followed up to dispel their doubts:
“I want to discuss cooperation and licensing with you.”
Feng Ling poured out her ideas in as professional a tone as possible, about official licensing, about low-cost custom mugs, about the mutually beneficial cooperation model.
The other side probably never expected a Magical Girl to personally reach out.
It took them quite a while to digest this sudden proposal, and then they said in a fluster:
“Please wait a moment. I, I need to inform our boss about this. We need to discuss it further…”
“Okay, I’ll wait for your news.”
Feng Ling played on her phone and waited less than ten minutes before the phone rang again.
The voice on the other end had changed.
It seemed the factory manager himself had come to negotiate:
“Miss Feng Ling, I’m truly sorry to have kept you waiting. Regarding the licensing matter you mentioned, we are very interested. Very interested indeed.”
The manager spoke very quickly, as if afraid the opportunity would slip away if he spoke slowly.
“We’ve always wanted to produce officially licensed Magical Girl merchandise, but no Magical Girl has ever contacted us before. It’s our honor that you’ve chosen our factory.”
“So?”
Feng Ling didn’t want to hear these polite formalities.
She only wanted to hear the concrete result.
“We will first give you the two thousand custom mugs you mentioned for free as a sign of our sincerity in cooperation. Miss Feng Ling, rest assured, we will ensure the quality is well controlled. Your fans will not be disappointed.”
“And if you have other merchandise you want to produce in the future, we can cooperate at any time. We can discuss the price and cooperation format later.”
“Mm-hmm, the sincerity is decent…”
After receiving such a promise, she confirmed the details of the custom design and delivery time with the manager, exchanged contact information, and politely ended the call.
‘It seems the name of a Magical Girl is far more useful than I imagined.’
Feng Ling began to wonder if she had been too conservative and whether she should have asked for more directly.
‘But since the first round of cooperation went so smoothly, asking for more later shouldn’t be too hard.’