If waking up one morning to discover that she had transmigrated into this era was no longer surprising, then Shu Yu’s reaction upon realizing that she had transmigrated into a novel could certainly be considered perfectly normal.
She calmly accepted the reality that she had transmigrated and immediately began adapting to her brand-new identity.
It was a seemingly cliché novel about a true heiress and a fake heiress. Her identity was that of the fake heiress who had been mistakenly switched at birth and raised by the wrong family. After the truth about the two heiresses came to light, she remained in the Shu family as the older sister, while the real heiress, Shu Ling, was brought back as the younger sister.
Since the original owner’s biological parents were no longer around, both sisters of the Shu family had been raised as their biological daughters, and their relationship was hardly any different from that of actual sisters.
This was an entertainment industry novel, and the fake heiress sister, who usually did nothing productive, had an extremely low presence in the story. Most of the time, whenever the author suddenly remembered her, she would be dragged out to serve as a contrast whenever her younger sister needed to be portrayed as hardworking and diligent.
No one knew what the fake heiress sister did in her spare time.
The author herself might not even have known.
The author had even gotten her name wrong more than twice in the novel.
Normally, a cannon-fodder character like her would not have any particularly special identity. As long as she clung to her younger sister’s coattails and muddled through life in this world, everything would be fine.
But…
Shu Yu looked at her phone.
The work records inside revealed that her identity was apparently not quite as ordinary as it seemed.
The two entries—“Public Opinion Incident Handling Records,” which she submitted three or four times every month, and “Public Opinion Case Analysis and Summary”—were clearly not tasks an ordinary person would be expected to complete.
So she turned on her computer and discovered that the original owner had a special notebook specifically for work. Inside was a dedicated folder packed with records of public opinion incidents handled across various regions of H Country.
Most of these cases were social incidents.
In short, they had absolutely nothing to do with the entertainment industry.
Although she had no idea how the original owner had died or how she herself had transmigrated here, things seemed to be a little more complicated than she had imagined.
At the very least, she probably wasn’t an ordinary fake heiress.
Shu Yu spent a full three days after transmigrating sorting through her memories and figuring out exactly what kind of work she did.
After going through everything, she began to suspect that the original owner had probably worked so many late nights and overtime shifts that she had died from overwork.
Three days later, she stepped out of her family villa for the first time.
Before she left, her mother, dressed like a proper wealthy lady, asked worriedly, “Xiaoyu, is your work still that busy? You’ve only been back for a few days. How come you’re already taking your laptop out again?”
“Mom, that’s just how my job is. I’m never really free.” Shu Yu gave her a tired smile before carrying her laptop bag out the door.
She needed somewhere to calm down.
She randomly picked a milk tea shop, put down her laptop, ordered a cup of milk tea, and worked up the courage to face the work she needed to deal with.
After taking three deep breaths, she pushed the overly sweet milk tea aside and opened her Weibo account.
The original owner’s public identity was that of a verified science popularization blogger with four million followers, so her Weibo account was always rather lively.
The 99+ notifications and private messages nearly blinded her.
After taking a quick look and confirming there was nothing urgent or anyone asking for help, she rubbed her temples and opened the day’s trending searches.
That was right.
This was her main job.
Following trending topics in real time every day and constantly monitoring the latest public opinion trends sounded rather impressive.
In reality, it was just high-intensity internet browsing and scrolling through Weibo.
“God, please help me. I’ve only just transmigrated. I don’t want to work overtime on a Saturday.”
Shu Yu made one last desperate plea.
After several rounds of filtering, the current Weibo trending searches were actually rather boring. Once she skillfully eliminated the pointless celebrity gossip and drama promotions, there wasn’t much useful information left.
But that didn’t mean the small amount of information remaining contained nothing worth paying attention to.
Although Weibo was no longer as prosperous as it once had been after being challenged by short-video platforms, a careful observer could still discover that a large number of public opinion incidents continued to originate here.
When she reached the twenty-eighth trending topic, Shu Yu suddenly felt her heart tighten.
“Fifteen-year-old female student jumps from a building after leaving the teacher’s office?!”
She hurriedly adjusted her glasses and checked the keywords on the trending topic again.
Thanks to the professional instincts ingrained in the original owner’s body, Shu Yu quickly extracted three keywords from the trending topic.
“Female student.”
“Teacher.”
“Jumped from a building.”
In an instant, countless related terms flashed through her mind.
And all of them ultimately converged into two words—
Education.
There were countless incidents of students jumping from buildings every year, with all sorts of complicated reasons behind them. Yet only a tiny fraction ever made it onto the trending searches.
Once a topic like this appeared on the trending list, and especially when…
Shu Yu refreshed the page.
The trending topic had shot from twenty-eighth place to seventeenth.
Sure enough, its ranking was skyrocketing.
She clicked into it to read the detailed description.
Just as she had expected, the media had already pushed the narrative into full swing.
“…”
Great.
On the third day after transmigrating, she had officially started working.
Other people transmigrated into true heiresses or fake heiresses and at least got to enjoy two days of a wealthy lifestyle.
What was this?
She had transmigrated into another world only to start serving the people?
Forget it.
This was her actual job. Even if she didn’t want to do it, she had no choice.
Shu Yu let out a sigh before sorting through the work process stored in the original owner’s memories.
First, she had to take full responsibility for the case.
Of course, the world she had lived in before transmigrating did not have such a department. The author of this novel had never mentioned it either.
But this was, after all, a real world. Anything could happen.
After H Country had nearly lost the entire public opinion battlefield due to being battered by a series of public opinion wars, the leaders at the top had learned their lesson the hard way. They had specifically gathered a group of people with certain “special talents” and formed a department known as the Public Opinion Response Department.
The head of the department was only in his twenties, and they had been given the authority to take over public opinion cases from different regions and handle them entirely on their own.
As a seasoned office worker, Shu Yu skillfully made a WeChat call and immediately hung up the moment the other party answered.
Then she sent over a screenshot of the trending topic.
“Xiao Cai, go and get this case transferred to us.”
Shu Yu sent the message to Xiao Cai, the department secretary, on WeChat.
It was a little trick specifically designed for socially anxious people: a way to make sure the other person saw the message immediately without having to explain everything over the phone.
Three seconds later, Xiao Cai replied with a sticker indicating that he had received it.
At the same time, a message suddenly popped up in a WeChat group named “Stop Calling, I Surrender.”
Shu Yu opened it and saw that someone named Xiao Que had forwarded the same news article she had just read.
After searching through the original owner’s memories, Shu Yu quickly learned a little about Xiao Que.
He was one of the core members of the Public Opinion Response Department. His public identity was that of an editor at a relatively unknown magazine. He was twenty-seven years old and had recently been suffering from hair loss because of excessive overtime.
Taking advantage of the news Xiao Que had forwarded, she naturally @mentioned everyone in the group.
Shu Yu: Comrades, time to work!!!
On that Saturday morning, she let out a sorrowful cry in the work group.
Half an hour later, four dispirited people appeared in the conference room of the Public Opinion Response Department.
Feng Tang yawned as she tossed her phone aside.
Shu Yu identified her from the original owner’s memories.
This core member was twenty-five years old, and her public identity was that of a low-tier female idol who had barely managed to make a name for herself in the entertainment industry.
Xiao Que, whose hairline was already showing signs of retreat, had arrived relatively early. At this moment, he was holding a cup of strong tea and looking at Shu Yu.
“Another public opinion case related to education?”
Before Shu Yu could answer, Xiao Cai walked in carrying a stack of documents.
After seeing her, he said, “Sister Shu, the case documents have been sent over. Part of the procedure is still being processed.”
A round-faced girl raised her head, her face full of confusion.
“They transferred it that quickly?”
Shu Yu looked over and realized that the person speaking was Lu Anran, twenty-six years old, whose public identity was that of someone working in the self-media industry.
In short, everyone in their department was unusually young.
As for what Lu Anran found strange, Shu Yu also thought it was rather odd.
Normally, the local authorities did not work on Saturdays. Even if they were forcibly called in to hand over a case, they would usually drag their feet and do it reluctantly.
After Xiao Cai put down the documents, he explained, “I heard they got burned badly by public opinion the last time, so when they found out we intended to take over this case, they practically wanted to fly over immediately to hand it over.”
“Good grief, that’s some impressive speed when it comes to passing the buck.”
Feng Tang reluctantly perked herself up. As she flipped through the documents, she asked, “What’s the situation online right now?”
Shu Yu finished setting up the computer for screen projection and pointed at the trending topic, whose ranking was still climbing.
“It’s currently fifth. I estimate it’ll stay around here for a while. Anran, how are things on your platforms?”
Lu Anran hugged her laptop, skillfully monitoring the data from several other self-media platforms before saying, “Nothing yet. They started from a single platform, so I estimate it won’t really gain traction on my side until tonight.”
“Xiao Que, did you get the official account? Put out a standard response first and see how the comments react.”
Shu Yu had quickly adapted to her job and was assigning tasks in a clear and orderly manner.
Xiao Que’s fingers flew across the keyboard. Before long, he had written a very standard official announcement template.
“‘The incident has been transferred to the police for investigation. We will follow up on the specific circumstances in a timely manner.’ Should we just post this standard response?”
After writing it, he was clearly not satisfied.
“They managed to buy the trending topic up to this position so quickly. The paid posters must already be prepared as well. If we put out a standard response just to test the waters, there’s a chance we’ll end up being one step slower than them.”
“The situation is more complicated than that. The surveillance footage is still being retrieved. From the information we currently have, the cameras in the teachers’ office most likely didn’t capture anything, so it’ll be difficult to use video footage as evidence.”
Shu Yu frowned as she continued, “And this girl jumped from the building in the evening. It’s only been a little over two hours. The forensic report isn’t even out yet. If we respond directly now, it’ll be easy for the other side to find loopholes.”
Xiao Que thought about it and decided that she had a point.
So he quickly sent out the standard response.
Lu Anran’s eyes remained fixed on the comment section. For now, she hadn’t noticed anyone particularly unusual.
“Everything’s normal for now. Should we head over there immediately?”
She looked up and asked.
This time, she didn’t get an answer from Shu Yu.
Instead, Xiao Cai’s voice came from the office.
“The tickets are booked. Three hours from now. Hurry up and pack your things!”
Great.
On the third day after transmigrating, she had directly scored herself an out-of-town business trip.
Shu Yu angrily poked at her phone case.
Who could have imagined this?
Her true heiress younger sister was a top influencer, while she was an overworked office drone whose job was to serve the people.
On the way to the airport, Shu Yu kept an eye on the development of public opinion under the trending topic while also taking a look at the trending searches in the entertainment section concerning her younger sister.
As expected, Shu Ling had been dragged onto the trending searches again for getting criticized.
Making a living in the entertainment industry was not easy these days.
Add the fact that you were a woman, and the difficulty doubled.
Add the fact that you came from a background as an internet influencer, and the difficulty went straight through the roof.
Unfortunately, Shu Ling was a female celebrity who had risen to fame as an internet influencer.
Although she worked extremely hard, could sing, dance, act, had great variety-show skills, and was completely willing to let loose on camera, she still got criticized every single day.
Getting dragged onto the trending searches for being criticized was practically a routine occurrence.
Shu Yu sighed, feeling that her true heiress younger sister really wasn’t having an easy time in the novel either.
So she clicked into the trending topic to take a look.
She discovered that Shu Ling was being criticized this time simply because she had exchanged a few more words than necessary with a top male celebrity on a variety show.
Shu Yu: …
How was it that things like this were the same no matter which world you were in?
Just as she arrived at the airport, she saw a WeChat message from Shu Ling.
“Sis, why am I getting criticized again? QAQ.”
Shu Yu really wanted to tell her that those bored fans simply couldn’t stand seeing a woman, but obviously, that wouldn’t be much of a comfort to Shu Ling.
“Why don’t you start a live stream and clarify things?” she suggested. “You’re already getting criticized anyway. You might as well take advantage of the trending topic and get some attention.”
“But I really don’t want to take the route of becoming famous for all the wrong reasons.”
Shu Ling sounded rather helpless.
“Although it seems like I’m already sprinting down that road.”
Sure enough, celebrities seemed to have an extremely clear understanding of their own situations.
And Shu Yu knew very well that even if Shu Ling tried every possible way to clarify things, the other side’s fans would only insult her even more aggressively.
That was simply how public opinion on the internet worked.
Whoever had more fans was the one who was right.
“Have your team buy a trending topic for you.”
After thinking for a moment, Shu Yu still came up with a solution.
“Your family background has been well protected by the family all this time, so no one has exposed it yet. This time, find a few marketing accounts with large followings and reveal your identity as the heiress of the Shu Consortium.”
Shu Ling immediately called her on WeChat, clearly unable to understand why Shu Yu wanted her to do this.
Once the call connected, Shu Ling’s voice quickly came through.
“Sis, why do you want me to expose my identity? I didn’t want to rely on my family’s influence to get ahead in the industry in the first place.”
“You don’t want to get bullied into depression, do you? Then when it comes to the family’s identity, you need to use it when necessary.”
Shu Yu sighed and began explaining.
“In the domestic entertainment industry, looking down on those below you while fawning over those above you is common. Having a rich second-generation persona isn’t necessarily a bad thing for you. Although your image of coming from an ordinary background and working hard to make it on your own attracted some fans, people have also been spreading rumors about you behind your back these past few years, saying you slept your way to the top and relied on your father to get resources. Given your situation now, having the image of a wealthy heiress isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”
“That does seem to make sense.”
Shu Ling gradually understood.
“But I’m an actress now. Shouldn’t ability be the most important thing?”
“Ability is just an added advantage once you already have popularity. It may sound unpleasant to say, but that’s the reality.”
Sometimes, Shu Yu felt that Shu Ling was still too naïve.
“A good public image is enough to shield you from most of the abuse, especially the insults related to money. You should know which ones I’m talking about.”
Shu Ling fell silent.
The crude insults and slut-shaming were what she had heard most often throughout her three years since debuting.
She thought she had gotten used to them.
But when Shu Yu said it out loud, she still felt a tightness in her chest.
“I suddenly feel like the entertainment industry is really meaningless.”
Shu Ling’s voice was very soft.
“I might as well have listened to Dad and gone abroad to study, then come home and properly work at the family company.”
It sounded a little like humblebragging, but Shu Yu knew that this was genuinely what Shu Ling had been thinking lately.
No matter how hard she worked or how far she managed to go, there was still criticism coming from every direction.
It was not easy for her to bear.
“Have your team do what I said first. And remember to prepare the copy for the true-and-fake heiress situation as well. Once we stir this up, it’ll have plenty of talking points and could help create a victim image for you, winning sympathy from passersby.”
Shu Yu wasn’t worried that she would suffer any consequences from this.
In fact, as a science popularization blogger, her current traffic was far too low. Using this wave of attention to increase her visibility would also help her with her work later.
According to the original novel, Shu Ling’s public opinion had suddenly turned around after her identity was exposed.
Previously, Shu Yu had thought that the exposure of her identity had been an accident.
But now that she thought about it, perhaps the original owner had actually been the one behind it in the novel as well.
Feng Tang raised her head after seeing Shu Yu hang up the call and came over to ask, “Were you helping your younger sister deal with another public opinion issue?”
“Yeah. The criticism she’s been getting lately has been getting increasingly severe.”
Shu Yu glanced at the tablet in Feng Tang’s hands.
“Any new developments?”
“Of course. Some familiar narratives have already started circulating.”
Feng Tang waved the tablet at her.
“The messaging this time is remarkably consistent. They’re all using phrases like ‘my friend’ and ‘my relative,’ claiming that the female student was assaulted by the male teacher.”
“The other side is experienced. Those are exactly the kinds of keywords that attract the most attention.”
Shu Yu glanced at several highly-liked comments.
“Contact the forensic team over there and have them determine during the autopsy whether she was assaulted. Whether it’s true or not, we need to respond as quickly as possible. Otherwise, once public opinion starts snowballing, it’ll become difficult to deal with. Users on many platforms don’t even read clarifications or debunking statements.”
Once certain rumors were debunked too late, after the peak of public attention had already passed, it was easy for people to automatically accept those rumors as the truth.
After all, while they had been paying continuous attention to the incident, they had not received enough credible information disproving the rumors.
Once that happened, repeatedly debunking the rumors afterward would be of little use.
If the incident really involved assault, then they had to confirm it immediately and inform the public that a case would be filed and dealt with strictly according to the law.
If there was no evidence of assault, then the rumor had to be debunked as quickly as possible to prevent the teacher involved from being maliciously doxxed and having their normal life disrupted because of false claims.
Either way, they needed to issue a clear response while public sentiment was still running high.
Otherwise, it would seriously damage the already precarious public trust.
Xiao Que urged the forensic team again.
When he looked up, he realized it was already time to board the plane.
Author’s Note:
I feel like I should explain this. The book title is mainly like this to get through the review process, because the subject matter is relatively sensitive…