Chapter 15: Down and Out
After the video was released, it seemed to disappear into thin air without causing any waves.
When he sent another message, he saw a red exclamation mark.
He was directly blocked by the marketing account!
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[So what if he hit someone? If it were me, I’d beat him up even worse!]
[ Exactly! Why didn’t he beat that scum to death? And why does he pretend to be weak? Even with mosaic covering the faces of the fans who were set up, I can still feel their sadness. Who does Zhan Yunqi think he is? Acting all saintly and righteous!]
[ Zhan Yunqi, with his hypocritical and weird demeanor, talking about kneeling down and licking shoes. Damn him..]
[ I’ve always said that good-looking people can’t be bad people.]
For a while, those who had watched the video rushed to Zhan Yunqi’s Weibo to condemn him.
Many of Zhan Yunqi’s fans, upon seeing this, did not respond immediately and only left a few scattered symbols.
They couldn’t speak.
How could they?
To please Young Master Lu, Zhan Yunqi had pushed away his true fans and even made them apologize on their knees. But they were also Zhan Yunqi’s fans. If he could treat that fan like this today, would he treat them the same in the future?
This speculation left a deep imprint in the hearts of every Zhan Yunqi fan.
Soon after, Zhan Yunqi’s fan club issued a statement: “Parting on good terms.”
And then he deactivated his Weibo account.
As Zhan Yunqi was about to make a statement, his fans flooded into his Weibo with great momentum.
[He always had a cold face when receiving us before. I thought it was because he was tired from the long journey. Turns out, he just didn’t want to see us.]
[ Damn it… My mindset just collapsed. I can’t believe I even helped you scold Lou Ting. You shameless hypocrite, I hope you die!]
[ Damn it, damn it, damn it! This is enough! Come out and apologize!!!]
At the same time, the director of “Youth Returns,” Fang Huandong, also stepped forward to condemn Zhan Yunqi.
Fang Huandong’s Verified Account: In light of Mr. Zhan’s unwarranted provocation during the program recording and his deliberate release of malicious video content online to harm others, after internal discussions, the program team has decided to terminate our cooperation with Zhan Yunqi and will select another artist with both character and talent to participate in our program.
Once this Weibo was posted, an uproar erupted among the masses.
Finding an artist with both character and talent? Wasn’t this indirectly saying that Zhan Yunqi lacks these qualities?
This heavy accusation was enough to crush Zhan Yunqi!
For a while, public opinion online pointed directly at Zhan Yunqi.
Ironically, it was Zhan Yunqi’s fans who were at the forefront.
No need for nonsense!
They had become fans of an artist with questionable character, and it was embarrassing to even mention it!
Others who wanted to scold him should step aside and let us, the victims, go first.
Zhan Yunqi’s fans were not lacking in combativeness, and they showed no mercy when tearing him apart.
They had plenty of incriminating photos of Zhan Yunqi, but they didn’t dare believe them when they liked him. Instead, they helped conceal them. But now… hehe!
In no time, various well-founded accusations against Zhan Yunqi spread all over the internet.
Apart from the few marketing accounts Zhan Yunqi had enlisted, all the other marketing accounts reposted the content.
This made those few marketing accounts seem very conspicuous.
In the era of big data, everyone knows what marketing accounts were for. People follow them just for fun, but if they didn’t take advantage of such a massive trend, then there was obviously a problem.
So, two hours after the incident exploded, Lou Ting posted a screenshot of himself being blocked by a marketing account.
Lou Ting’s Verified Account: “Is it because I didn’t pay them?” with a nine-grid image.
Fans: “???”
Blocked by a marketing account? Fans expressed that they had never seen such a peculiar situation before.
[@Zhan Yunqi, weren’t you just in the operating room? When the doctor was cutting your abdomen, were you buying marketing accounts on your phone?]
[This hypocritical white lotus is still leading us to scold Lou Ting!]
[It’s about to explode! This bastard actually took me for a fool! You’re done for, you’ll die tonight!]
[#Zhan Yunqi’s Funeral#]
[I used to get angry when I was accused of being a water army, but now it seems like I really am one, and for free?! @Zhan Yunqi, hurry up and pay your father’s salary!]
…
Various messages converged, and Zhan Yunqi became the target of intense criticism.
It wasn’t limited to Weibo alone. Push notifications from major browsers, game news recommendations, and forum discussions all exceeded 999+.
Zhan Yunqi became famous.
He became famous in the true sense, beyond his circle.
However, despite this major event, Zhan Yunqi remained silent.
As quiet as a chicken.
Even his manager didn’t release any statements, and the public relations team seemed nonexistent.
On the entire internet, there wasn’t a single person speaking up for Zhan Yunqi.
Passersby all accused Zhan Yunqi of being despicable and only knowing how to do evil things.
Lou Ting’s fans felt sorry for him being cyberbullied and vented their anger by criticizing Zhan Yunqi.
As for Zhan Yunqi’s fans… they were even more ruthless in their criticism than Lou Ting’s fans.
This had become more than just a conflict between idols. Fans had invested so much in supporting Zhan Yunqi, so what would he do to compensate them?!
In no time, Zhan Yunqi became the target of public outrage.
Lou Ting remained online throughout the entire incident, observing the shift in public opinion.
It was a little after 6 a.m. and now it was just past 9 a.m., a span of three hours.
In just a short three hours, a complete turnaround had occurred.
With a bottle of milk and a piece of bread, Lou Ting easily turned the tables against the wind.
Lou Ting stood up, stretched his muscles, tossed the packaging into the trash can, and looked up to see Yu Senze walking in with a small blue head of hair.
Yu Senze walked slowly, taking deliberate steps, and lazily approached Lou Ting. He greeted him, “Good morning.” His speech lacked energy, and he even sneezed at the end.
“It’s not morning anymore,” Lou Ting said. “Didn’t we agree to meet at 7 o’clock?”
He continued scrolling through Weibo while waiting for the others, but surprisingly, no one showed up for a long time.
Yu Senze rubbed his eyes and said, “We initially agreed on 7 o’clock, but then the actor and the others couldn’t wake up early, plus the hotel they’re staying at is far away, so the time was changed.”
After thinking for a moment, Yu Senze added, “They also don’t like the stylist from the production team, so they’re waiting until they finish the styling before coming.”
So… it would be good if they could gather by 2 p.m. in the afternoon.
As they were talking, two more people entered.
One of them was delighted to see Lou Ting and walked over with a smile, saying, “Nice to meet you, I’m Ji Huan, a professional singer. Your counterattack on the internet was brilliant, handsome.”
Lou Ting replied, “Thank you.”
Ji Huan waved his hand and said, “Oh, no need to thank me. Hey, Zhan Yunqi has ruined the careers of so many newcomers without background support through public opinion. His reputation in the industry is terrible.”
And this time, another news about him trending wasn’t surprising to them at all.
It was regrettable that Lou Ting, who had risen to fame through the first episode of the show, was now being pulled down after such a short time. They didn’t have any personal conflict with Zhan Yunqi, but they simply felt sorry for Lou Ting as an individual.
However, it turned out that Lou Ting wasn’t one to passively accept his fate.
When the video was released, they were all shocked. After all, the production team would definitely choose to offend Lou Ting rather than directly confront Zhan Yunqi, who had backstage support. Therefore, it was impossible for the director to give that video to Lou Ting.
In other words, Lou Ting had recorded the entire process right from the beginning.
But even when he was being heavily criticized and even blocked at the door, he didn’t release the video. He intentionally waited for the situation to escalate and for everyone to vilify him before releasing the video.
Slap in the face! Those fans who initially joined in criticizing Lou Ting while supporting Zhan Yunqi were probably regretting it now!
Ji Huan said, “My manager even told me to learn from you more.”
After all, Lou Ting didn’t even have a reliable team behind him. This counterattack was carried out by him alone.
Lou Ting replied, “Ji Ge has a professional PR team. What I did was just a small matter.”
After all, Ji Huan was a senior, so Lou Ting wanted to be more humble.
Ji Huan shook his head with a smile. “You’re being too modest.”
While they were talking, the director entered from outside.
He glanced at the people in the room and noticed that out of the twenty contestants, only five had arrived. But the director, with his wealth of experience, remained unfazed.
…Panicking wouldn’t help either. Those who didn’t show up were big-name stars who couldn’t be provoked easily.
Fang Huandong said, “It’s getting late. Let’s go to the training room first. The teacher is waiting for everyone inside.”
“Okay.”
—
When Zhan Yunqi received a call from his manager saying that everything was going wrong, he had just finished a full-body massage and was lying on the couch with a face mask on.
At this moment, the transparent silk mask was half hanging off his face, and he tightly gripped his phone, his eyes wide open, staring at the virtual screen in front of him. Bloodshot eyes filled with resentment as he read one comment after another.
Had these fans gone crazy?!
How dare they join forces with Lou Ting and insult me!
On what grounds?
I am the real victim here!
Why are you treating me like this?!
Lou Ting brought this upon himself. Even if I let him apologize to me, it would be an enormous act of forgiveness. Yet, you people dare to say such things about me. Who do you think they are?!
What’s wrong with using marketing tactics? What’s wrong with setting the tone? Lou Ting has no power or influence, so he deserves to be crushed like an ant by me!
Who gave you permission to resist!
These thoughts kept swirling in Zhān Yúnqī’s mind. His face turned red with anger, and he clenched his teeth. With trembling fingers, he opened his Weibo input box, intending to clarify that the content of that video was fake, fabricated by Lou Ting to maliciously defame him.
However… as soon as he opened the input box, a prompt appeared: [Your account has been deactivated].
Deactivated?!
In a panic, Zhān Yúnqī hurriedly opened his Weibo profile, only to find that his account with millions of followers has turned into garbled text, and all his Weibo posts have been wiped clean. What was even more disgusting was that the comment section under his Weibo posts was still filled with insults!
The comments that insulted him were still there, but he himself couldn’t do anything about it!
Zhān Yúnqī suddenly realized that this was no ordinary war of public opinion. In a state of anxiety, he picked up his phone and called Qián Zǒng.
After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, someone finally answered the phone. Zhān Yúnqī, in a flustered state, says, “Brother Qián, Brother Qián, I’ve been set up by someone! Lou Ting, that despicable person, deliberately plotted against me. You must…”
There was a burst of noise from the other end of the phone, followed by a stern shout, “You piece of trash! How the hell did you offend Hè Yúnzhōu?! If this affects my business, I’ll drag you to the Ocean Star and fill it up!”
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