Taking advantage of the variety show’s official apology on Weibo, marketing accounts began to seize the opportunity. Especially a batch of marketing accounts under a certain film company, eager to meet their KPIs and curry favor with their superiors, started a series of shameless operations.
These included, but were not limited to, blaming the incomplete automatic expansion system on Jiang Liyue and portraying him as an artist who only gains popularity through his looks.
Under the trending topic #JiangLiyueVarietyShowDebutCrashed#, a bunch of clueless onlookers and haters gathered.
“What is this? I come in and this is what I see?”
“What crashed? Can someone explain what’s going on?”
“JLY’s scandals are as numerous as ever. Even as a passerby, I feel this person is done for.”
“Are you brainwashed? You’re falling right into the professional haters’ trap. The more scandals, the more it shows this is their daily operation.”
“Someone who gets it. The popular Weibo posts under this trending topic, go check them out.”
“Don’t you think Jiang Liyue’s fans are brainless? Don’t they know rushing in all at once will cause a lag?”
“Uh… as if you wouldn’t squeeze in to watch an LPL live stream.”
“Hilarious, it’s clearly the variety show’s problem. What are the marketing accounts trying to do?”
“Can’t even catch up with the hot stuff.”
“JLY really needs a break, the hype is too high.”
The reason why the trending topic under Jiang Liyue’s scandal was mostly filled with marketing accounts, water armies, and passersby was because Jiang Liyue’s real fans were too busy trying to squeeze into the live stream.
A bunch of girlfriend fans and mom fans were crying and staring at their computer screens, unwilling to exit.
Except for those in Jiang Liyue’s big fan groups and the Anti-Black Group. They were well-trained and knew where Jiang Liyue’s scandals usually originated from, but today’s situation was indeed beyond their expectations.
Liu Ningyu, a member of the Anti-Black Group, immediately turned to the group chat upon seeing the trending scandal, her slender fingers flying over her phone screen. In no time, a detailed anti-black tutorial that even a grandma could follow was posted in the group.
Zhou Xiaoan, not part of the Anti-Black Group but a big fan group member, immediately rallied her sisters to gather in the plaza through her fan account.
Their top-notch PR operations, combined with the famous anti-black capabilities of Jiang Liyue’s fans, quickly changed the direction under the trending scandal.
“Please, everyone, boost the official apology Weibo.”
“Up, up!”
“Sending you up!”
“Even the official account can’t handle it better than the marketing accounts.”
The variety show’s apology Weibo quickly topped the hot topics, surpassing the brainwashing posts of the marketing accounts.
“Our brother is truly popular!”
“Sisters, hurry and report, stop messing around, or we won’t get front-row seats when the live stream opens again!”
“DDDD!”
*
At Fangce Entertainment’s PR department, a young man and a curly-haired, scruffy middle-aged man were passionately discussing the situation’s development.
“Damn! Are these fans really brainless…” The middle-aged man was furious, as they hadn’t met their KPIs this month and were relying on this scandal to save them.
“We started preparing early in the morning, how come we still haven’t won?” The young man scratched his head, puzzled.
Then the young man offered his guess, “Is it because we have too few people? Look at those fans, they’re terrifying. We applied for more water army slots, why haven’t they been approved?”
The curly-haired man was annoyed when talking about the water army, “Do you think water armies are free? Do you think funding is easy to get now? Haven’t you heard about the funding issues and the conflict with the variety show’s director recently?”
“Huh? I haven’t heard about that. Tell me more.”
“You don’t know? I thought it was a company secret. Oh, right, you’re new here. Our company invested heavily in training an artist a few years ago, supposedly grooming them to superstar standards.”
The young man looked gossip-hungry, as such stories usually come with a huge twist.
The curly-haired man lit a cigarette, mumbling, “I haven’t seen this artist much, but they seem promising, like Jiang Liyue, someone who can live off their looks. They were secretly trained for a year, joined a film crew last year, and this year was supposed to be their breakout moment, but then a scandal broke out.”
The young man said, “Isn’t it normal for artists to have scandals? Which artist isn’t surrounded by scandals?”
The curly-haired man took a deep drag, exhaling smoke rings, “The problem is this scandal is too…” He didn’t know how to express it.
“Too what?” The young man asked eagerly.
“Well, it came out that when he was ten, he killed his parents and younger sister…”
“Holy crap!” The young man frowned, horrified, “A murderer! How did he do it at such a young age?”
“Not sure, but once this news broke, whether true or not, he can’t appear anytime soon. The investments in films and TV dramas went down the drain. You think the higher-ups aren’t anxious? They tried to negotiate for less investment with the variety show. Who knew that Qian Da had a temper, and they parted ways, leading to the current situation.”
“Tsk tsk tsk…” The young man sighed, then glanced at the comments under their marketing account, which had turned into a battlefield.
“No matter how angry you are, you can’t blame me. We’re just earning a living. Ultimately, the fault lies with the variety show.” The young man said angrily.
This indeed was a broadcasting accident. The artists participating in the show were only responsible for performing and providing emotional value to the audience, not organizing. The real blame lay with the show’s organizers, while the marketing accounts merely misled the public with incorrect thinking directions.
In the villa, the first floor was in chaos since the broadcast began. The director’s team was under low pressure, and the subordinates were trying to minimize their presence. The cybersecurity department was passionately typing away on their keyboards.
Qian Da clutched the variety show script tightly, yelling into the walkie-talkie, “Cybersecurity! I give you five minutes to solve this!”
Soon, a slightly disadvantaged voice came through the walkie-talkie, “Director Qian, please give us more time, there are too many people in the live stream… Expanding the bandwidth isn’t something that can be done quickly.”
“What are the contingency plans for? To wipe your ass?”
Director Qian said before turning off the walkie-talkie.
The congestion in the live stream and the chaos on the first floor of the villa didn’t affect the artists on the second and third floors at all.
They had been informed that they didn’t need to go downstairs for recording today and would directly live stream in the holographic world.
On the second floor, there were two rooms, [Ruyi] and [Yuanyang], for the father-daughter duo of Teacher Wu Xingbai and the plastic couple.
On the third floor, Zhao Chenxing and his group stayed in [Wuxin], next door was an empty room [Jieyuan], and down the long corridor was Zhan Wen’s group’s room [Xiaoyao].
The empty room was supposedly arranged for guest stars, waiting for the heat to rise later, like Jiang Taigong fishing, waiting for willing participants.
Teacher Wu Xingbai was old and woke up early, and his daughter Bai Yanran, a seasoned corporate slave, naturally got up early too. After getting up, the father and daughter were silent until it was almost time to enter the game room. Teacher Bai Runzhi finally said, “Daughter, how do we get in?”
Bai Yanran rolled her eyes secretly and said unceremoniously, “Figure it out yourself, do you think I know?”
But being young and an English major, she quickly figured out how to operate the holographic pod by looking at the English button names. She didn’t bother with her father, pressed a button, and the pod door popped open.
Bai Runzhi watched closely, as his daughter neither hid nor rushed. Both of them got into the pod and lay down.
The couple’s room didn’t need to be watched. Both young people adhered to the “if the moon doesn’t sleep, I don’t sleep” health philosophy, naturally still sound asleep at this time.
The show’s script was tricky, stating that the live stream would start at 10 AM, but the recording time was vaguely written as “morning.”
The two young people, seeing “morning,” even thanked the show for understanding that young people stay up late and wake up late.
They planned to enter after 10:30.
The two in the Xiaoyao room entered right on time but were a bit at a loss with the all-English holographic pod. In the end, Zhan Wen took out his phone and searched for translations one by one, finally figuring out how to use the high-tech device.
Once they entered the virtual space, they waited for the machine to scan their body data.
Then came the real feeling of weightlessness.
Soon, it was like experiencing a high-altitude parachute jump, landing in the central square by the Seine Riverside.
*
At this moment, in the [Wuxin] room, Jiang Liyue sat silently by Zhao Chenxing’s bed, watching Zhao Chenxing’s sleeping face, as if pondering something.
Jiang Liyue woke up early, seemingly needing little sleep, feeling that four hours a day was enough to recharge him for a new day.
After getting up and washing, he went to Zhao Chenxing’s room. As soon as he entered, he was hit by the chilling air inside.
He looked at the air conditioner display, which read “15°C.”
The air conditioning blanket and winter quilts stored in the cabinet were all taken out by someone and tightly wrapped around themselves. Anyone would think they were in the Arctic, with no heating, relying on these items to survive the winter.
…
He quietly went over to adjust the air conditioner higher. Zhao Chenxing had this habit since childhood and never changed despite being told.
Zhao Chenxing not only liked to blow air conditioning while covered in quilts but also enjoyed eating ice cream and frozen fruits in the middle of winter with the heater on.
Jiang Liyue didn’t know what he was thinking, as time ticked by, Zhao Chenxing, due to the increased air conditioning, kicked off the quilt, rolled out of the cocoon, and turned over, pressing down on the air conditioning blanket.
Of course, he also pressed down on Jiang Liyue’s arm.
Jiang Liyue was puzzled as to why his arm was under Zhao Chenxing’s arm.
What was he doing just now?
Before he could figure it out, Zhao Chenxing seemed to feel the uncomfortable sensation under his arm, mumbled, and opened his eyes, “Hmm?”
The room wasn’t very bright, the blackout curtains were somewhat effective, but not entirely.
The dazzling sunlight filtered through the curtains’ light yellow patterns, casting a faint yellow hue in the bedroom.
Jiang Liyue’s hair in front of his forehead moved without wind, perhaps due to his own body’s trembling. He didn’t know, he only felt that the thing bouncing in his chest seemed to be reaching its limit.
Too fast…
Through the dim yellow light, Zhao Chenxing saw someone sitting by his bed, squinting his eyes, and asked in confusion, “Why are you in my room?”