Chapter 69 It's pretty unlucky for a champion of justice to be stuck with an artist like this...

As soon as the trending topic appeared, Zhou Qixue's reputation began to collapse rapidly. Not only were there bored bystanders who came to watch the drama, but also drama fans and CP fans who were full of anger and had nowhere to vent their anger. Yesterday, they criticized Ye Jingyu all night because of a report, saying that she flipped the table in advance and did not consider the drama. As a result, Zhou Qixue's matter was exposed today, making them look like fools before.

The reason why the drama starring Ye Jingyu and Zhou Qixue became popular so quickly is largely due to their on-screen couple. The plot was not cheesy, the couple was easy to ship, and the actors themselves were very active in promoting the show. With the help of self-promoting content creators on Bilibili, more and more people flocked to ship the couple. It can be said that after the drama became popular, a large part of its success was supported by the couple's fans.

Data is the most direct indicator. Generally, episodes with more screen time for the male and female leads will have significantly higher viewership, while episodes with more screen time for other characters will have fewer viewership. However, episodes where the relationship between the male and female leads has a major breakthrough will have exceptionally high viewership and a very high rerun rate.

This drama was originally bought to promote the male lead Zhou Qixue and the new female lead. However, after it aired, the outcome was completely different from what the investors expected. Zhou Qixue did become popular, but the majority of his popularity came from his on-screen couple with the female lead. Viewers only wanted to see the two of them together and didn't care about Zhou Qixue personally. As for the new female lead, she was completely ignored.

The upcoming episodes have all been edited and cannot be changed at the last minute, otherwise they would have to be submitted for review again. The investors can only grit their teeth and broadcast the episodes that they have altered, accepting the complaints from the drama fans, but they are unwilling to give up this wave of popularity. So they can only try to find clips of the male and female leads together in the master tapes.

Unfortunately, Zhou Qixue did not promote his work at all after filming ended. The production team searched through the master tapes but only found a pitiful little bit of footage. They then tried to package it up, added some ambiguous filters and some recently popular background music, and released short videos to gain traffic.

Unaware of the background, drama fans and CP fans, under the production team's influence, genuinely believed that the male and female leads had a good relationship. Later, the male lead, Zhou Qixue, also began to actively promote the CP, while the female lead, Ye Jingyu, although not as enthusiastic as Zhou Qixue, also participated in the promotion.

The staff from the production team and the platform also like to express their opinions on the CP (couple pairing) on ​​their private accounts, implying to CP fans that Ye Jingyu and Zhou Qixue are real.

With the entire production team pushing for a romantic pairing, it's hard for fans of that pairing not to be swayed.

Zhou Qixue was previously known as the "Master Chef of the Entertainment Industry" or "Number One Chef in the Entertainment Industry" in the TV drama group "Neiyu Shenghua Group" because he was very good at cooking. In recent years, whether it was ancient or modern dramas, the male and female leads would basically cooperate to create a CP (couple pairing). After all, as long as it can make the drama popular, what is a little sacrifice?

People love watching sweet dramas because they love seeing their favorite couples being all lovey-dovey and affectionate. But it's hard not to get hooked on a couple. Even though everyone initially says they only ship the characters in the drama, it's hard not to get carried away with the actors themselves as they get more into it.

After all, they had been on set for several months, had such a deep emotional connection, and their interactions in the drama were so intimate. They were both good-looking young men and women, so it was normal for them to develop feelings for each other after spending so much time together. It's not uncommon for feelings to develop on set.

So even with the obstruction of a large number of solo fans and rational CP fans, countless obsessed CP fans still flocked to ship real-person CPs.

At first, the male and female leads of idol dramas didn't promote themselves so much; at most, they would just cooperate on promotional activities. But since the focus of idol dramas shifted to the on-screen couples, the promotional efforts have become much more intense than before.

However, the actors who play the male and female leads in idol dramas are mostly very young, new generation artists with many male and female fans, so they inevitably have to restrain themselves when they are working. Some even have a "fear of men" or "fear of women" persona.

Against this backdrop, actors who are willing to cooperate openly and generously in their work receive high praise. Zhou Qixue is one of them. When the drama first aired, he wasn't very famous yet, but his fan base consisted mostly of female fans. Under these circumstances, he still chose to work hard to promote his on-screen couple, providing them with content every day. It's hard not to like him because of this.

It can be said that his pairing with Ye Jingyu wasn't initially that popular; it only gained some popularity thanks to that content creator, and it was far from becoming mainstream. However, the production team seized this crucial moment and realized that the key to their success lay in the pairing. So, Zhou Qixue's team immediately jumped on the bandwagon and began to aggressively promote the pairing. Whether in interviews related to the drama or not, he would mention Ye Jingyu every now and then, creating the illusion that the two had a very good relationship, and even implying that they were dating and had been dating for a long time.

The couple's hashtag topped the charts for nearly three weeks, and the atmosphere within the hashtag became increasingly frenzied. The culprit behind this situation was clearly Zhou Qixue, who relentlessly brainwashed everyone about how close he and Ye Jingyu were and that they were actually secretly dating. This was essentially creating a breeding ground for those who shipped this couple.

Outsiders might not be fooled and might immediately think that Zhou Qixue is overdoing it. The more exaggerated the way they promote the couple, the more it proves that the couple is fake. However, the fans who are already involved in the couple might not realize this, or even if they do, they might choose to play dumb. After all, they have already become fans of this couple and have been shipping them for so long. If they say it's fake now, the sunk costs would be too high.

Zhou Qixue has been persistently maintaining the CP fans and building a good image in their hearts, laying the groundwork for the subsequent purification battle. Under his guidance, the CP fans have indeed become increasingly dissatisfied with Ye Jingyu, and biased comments frequently appear in the super topic. CP fans are very particular about being impartial, and sometimes they can even fight over this issue. However, the CP super topic of these two people does not care about this issue at all, and there are many people who openly show favoritism.

This situation was exactly what Zhou Qixue wanted. He wished all the CP fans would become his fans. As for Ye Jingyu, she was just a tool for him to increase his popularity. If it weren't for the fact that he could only get attention by being associated with her during the show's run, he would have kicked her far away long ago.

Ye Jingyu's participation in the flight variety show is a turning point for Zhou Qixue's team. They need a reason for CP fans to openly criticize Ye Jingyu. There were some biased comments in the super topic before, but it was impossible to say it openly. At most, they would talk about it in a small circle. This incident brings this behavior into the open and makes it reasonable.

Previously, some CP fan leaders, who claimed to be rational CP fans, blocked people from criticizing Ye Jingyu, saying that it was putting one down to promote the other, and that if you love a CP, you should like both of them. So those fans who were already biased dared not openly express their dissatisfaction.

But after last night's trending topic, the fig leaf in the CP super topic was completely removed, and the moderator of the super topic even took the lead in condemning Ye Jingyu's behavior. The entire super topic was indignant, and it seemed that everyone was turning against Ye Jingyu and supporting Zhou Qixue.

A small number of rational CP fans sensed something was wrong. After all, this happened too suddenly, and it quickly became a trending topic in just over ten minutes, with discussions exploding instantly. Ye Jingyu is quite popular recently, but not to this extent. Especially since the cause of this incident was just a small report, and even the actual clips haven't been released yet, the drama has already started. It's obvious that someone is deliberately stirring things up behind the scenes.

However, Zhou Qixue's team had been laying the groundwork for a long time, and had long been a fan leader in the CP fan circle. Under their deliberate guidance, they successfully swayed most of the angry CP fans and directly convicted Ye Jingyu.

Zhou Qixue's team must have had a great time last night. Things are progressing even more smoothly than they expected, and the direction of development is steadily moving forward as they planned in advance. After this incident, Ye Jingyu will be completely kicked out of the purification battlefield. CP fans will be extremely disappointed in her, and even if they don't want to become fans of Zhou Qixue himself, they won't choose to follow her.

But what they didn't expect was that while Ye Jingyu's situation didn't improve, they themselves ran into trouble first.

The paparazzi's revelations were so explosive and sudden that Zhou Qixue's studio didn't even have time to react at first.

They didn't take the post that was sending a message seriously. After all, Gun Bro wasn't a very famous paparazzi, and Zhou Qixue himself was always very discreet and cautious. So even though they realized that the post was a message to them, they didn't try to communicate with the other side.

They certainly know they can avoid being exposed by paying hush money, but they don't want to do that. There's nothing to expose, so why bother keeping quiet?

Who knew that they would be stunned after the news came out? Zhou Qixue's team has more than a dozen people, all of whom work for him alone. Such a setup is undoubtedly very luxurious for a new artist who has not yet fully entered the first-tier traffic. It can be seen that the company values ​​him highly.

The reason for such a luxurious setup is that Zhou Qixue himself comes from a very good background. Although his parents are not in the industry, they are connected to it and have some political connections. He was parachuted into the company before he even graduated. As soon as he signed the contract, the boss assigned him to the best team, treating him like the future heir of the company. The team members always fawned over him.

Zhou Qixue dislikes socializing, not only with his colleagues on set, but also with his team members. Apart from his agent and personal assistant, the others in his team rarely speak to him. He is usually very taciturn and always has a long face when he is not working. The ordinary staff members in his team are also afraid to talk to him.

His team, or rather the entire company, knew he had a girlfriend outside the entertainment industry. However, everyone in the company signed a confidentiality agreement upon joining, so there was no need to worry about it being leaked. Zhou Qixue didn't intend to hide this from them and even proactively asked his staff to help him conceal his girlfriend. Considering the future development of their relationship, the staff were very cooperative.

The RV was indeed provided to facilitate Zhou Qixue's dating life. His manager even objected to this at first. Zhou Qixue's manager is a very experienced senior agent who has managed many well-known artists before managing Zhou Qixue, including top male stars. It's inevitable that celebrities will have some quirks or become arrogant after they become famous, and the staff are used to it. However, it's a bit too much to ask everyone to help hide his sister-in-law before he even became famous.

But to everyone's surprise, the agent's objections were useless. The higher-ups waved their hands and approved all of Zhou Qixue's requests, and even told the agent that they should try their best to meet whatever Zhou Qixue asked for.

After this incident, everyone in the team became much more obedient, and no one would think of arguing with or disobeying Zhou Qixue anymore. His background was probably much deeper than they had imagined.

Fortunately, Zhou Qixue's temper wasn't too strange. The only unusual request he made was to help hide his sister-in-law, so the staff turned a blind eye and complied.

But no one expected that Zhou Qixue's "girlfriend" was actually a man!

After Zhou Qixue debuted, he joined four different production teams. Each team brought a motorhome to hide his girlfriend. The staff in the team were experienced in this, but none of them had ever had close contact with Zhou Qixue's girlfriend. Zhou Qixue seemed to be very reluctant to do so. After the motorhome was parked at the film set, even the driver was not allowed to stay in the vehicle. He hid his girlfriend very well.

Therefore, the team members only knew that the artist they were managing had a non-celebrity partner, but they were unaware of the specific identity.

The person Zhou Qixue brought to the film set was rather thin, with fair skin and medium-length hair. He always wore a mask and hat when he occasionally bumped into the staff, so it's no wonder the staff didn't know his gender.

What's even more surprising is that Zhou Qixue didn't just date one person; his partners even knew each other!

When they saw the trending topic, Zhou Qixue's team was full of questions. They knew that their artist was in a relationship, and they had even prepared a public relations plan. Although Zhou Qixue had always been very careful, there are no secrets that stay hidden forever. Once something is done, it will leave a trace, and it was only a matter of time before it was exposed.

They had already planned their public relations strategy for clarifying the situation. The biggest criticism of Zhou Qixue for always being in a relationship is that he deceived his fans. He has been a single boyfriend since his debut, but he has been in relationships all along, which is very unfriendly to his female fans. However, putting that aside, he is very devoted to his relationships. He has never changed partners since before his debut. Compared with other celebrities in the industry who have had scandals, this can even be considered an advantage.

It may be difficult to win back fans who have been deceived and hurt, but if this is handled well, it can even attract a wave of new fans.

The team members had a very positive idea: if Zhou Qixue were to be accidentally exposed, they would just go with the flow, openly admit to being in a relationship, and generously garner praise. They could abandon the "single boyfriend" persona and replace it with a new one of "reliable and responsible."

But who would have thought that Zhou Qixue could surprise everyone again, as she doesn't follow the usual dating formula and is dating men, and not just one!

This left them with no way to immediately address the issue through public relations.

As soon as the trending topic appeared, Zhou Qixue's agent's phone was immediately ringing off the hook. Every staff member on the team was asking him what to do, and the company's senior management was also calling to question the situation.

The agent had no idea what was going on. Zhou Qixue hadn't told him any of this. When he saw the trending topic, he almost fainted. All the contingency plans he had prepared in advance were wasted. As a veteran agent with more than 20 years of experience, he hadn't felt this helpless in a long time.

The worst part is that they still can't get in touch with Zhou Qixue. They've made countless calls, but no one answers; he's obviously on silent mode.

All the staff in the team rushed to the company for an emergency meeting. Even if they rushed to Zhou Qixue's house, it wouldn't do any good. Finding out the situation wouldn't help their public relations at all; at most, it would only cause them more trouble.

The trending topic's popularity skyrocketed, quickly reaching a "viral" level. Correspondingly, Ye Jingyu's search terms were rapidly declining, and the hot topics on major platforms shifted to Zhou Qixue. Clearly, the speed at which this matter spread was beyond their control.

Some people tried to contact Weibo directly to remove the trending topic, since their company is a yearly subscriber and contributes a significant amount of money annually to buy and remove trending topics. However, this time they were refused, with the platform stating bluntly:

Normally, people can easily remove or buy trending topics because those topics are usually not very popular, so buying or removing them temporarily won't have much of an impact. But today, the popularity of Zhou Qixue's case has clearly reached the point of going viral, so if it's suddenly removed, anyone can notice it immediately.

Moreover, other trending topics on the platform still maintain the rule that they can be artificially boosted. The Zhou Qixue incident has such a large amount of traffic that even if the platform removes it, with so many netizens searching and clicking on it, his related terms will rise back up. Unless Zhou Qixue's company can pay to remove it as soon as it rises up, it is impossible to directly remove the trending topic.

The team understood what the platform meant: the platform can provide services for a fee, but it won't only provide services for you. Providing payment is just breaking one rule, not breaking all of them.

For example, removing trending topics is itself a violation of the rules, so they will not continue to do things like reducing artificial search popularity or removing natural trending topics.

Although they wanted to curse the platform for being cunning, the agent had to admit that the extent to which Zhou Qixue's incident had gone viral was beyond what they could simply cover up by removing it from the trending topics.

Moreover, he wasn't just trending on one platform; he was at the top of every platform, dominating the trending topics on major social media platforms, to the point that his team couldn't keep up with the demand.

As Zhou Qixue's personal account, studio account, and even the staff's private accounts were bombarded by fans, the team members looked at each other in bewilderment, unable to find a way to deal with it.

After the meeting began, the office was quiet for a full three minutes before the agent cleared his throat and began assigning tasks to everyone.

After all, they still cooperate with so many marketing companies; they can't just lie down and take the beating.

Everyone else was assigned to contact their previous partners, while the agent himself went to contact the paparazzi. This matter started with this person; only by solving the source could they solve the others. Otherwise, they would have just cleaned up the mess only to have another paparazzi appear, making the solution pointless.

The paparazzi gun guy's homepage is very new. Before this exposé of Zhou Qixue, he had only posted two exposés in total, with a one-month interval between each post. The subjects of the exposés were all minor celebrities who were not very famous. Therefore, he did not have much traffic before, and netizens would not include him in their lists of paparazzi.

But after exposing Zhou Qixue this time, this "Gun Bro" is likely to be hailed as a legend. No one can deny the value of his revelations; he released photos, videos, and audio all at once, effectively silencing those stubborn fans. His writing style is also incredibly irritating, making you want to punch him but unable to do anything about it.

The agent clicked on Gun Bro's profile and found that this paparazzi, who had just appeared out of nowhere today, didn't even have a contact email address. He was extremely arrogant and aloof. His clean profile seemed to be saying something else entirely: he doesn't accept any private settlements and doesn't need to consider hush money.

This was the first time he had encountered paparazzi like this. In the past, whether the paparazzi were famous or unknown, they would all proactively contact the artist's team before officially exposing the story to ask if they needed to settle it privately. After all, the paparazzi's constant pursuit of artists was not simply out of curiosity or a love of gossip, nor was it because they were bursting with a sense of justice and wanted to expose the true face of unethical artists to netizens.

Constantly chasing private individuals is exhausting and can even pose personal risks. If powerful corporations find out, one's life could be in danger. Not to mention, this behavior itself is despicable. The only reason paparazzi keep following people is for one purpose: money.

Everyone knows that celebrities make a lot of money, and domestic celebrities make even more money easily. Not to mention the top stars, even some third- or fourth-tier or even eighteenth-tier artists can earn far more in fees for a single appearance or filming session than the average person earns.

Celebrities are not short of money, but they are afraid of losing their fame. It can be said that a celebrity's earning power is directly proportional to their fame and popularity. The more famous an artist is, the more they care about their reputation and the more easily they are threatened by paparazzi.

After all, if the news gets out, the celebrity will fall from grace. Fans will leave, no one will buy into their projects, and they won't be able to make money as easily as before.

It's easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. Once you've enjoyed those luxurious days, it's hard to go back to a normal life.

The paparazzi industry has basically reached a balance with celebrities. After all, one is in it for money and the other for fame. If money can solve the problem and they can make even more money afterward, why not?

But this paparazzi, who seemed to appear out of nowhere, didn't seem to want the money. He neither contacted them privately beforehand to ask for hush money nor even left his contact information.

After much deliberation, the agent could only choose the most basic method of sourcing goods.

Send me a private message directly.

He opened the private message section. On Weibo, if the two parties don't follow each other, they can only send one private message. He spent a long time editing in the chat box, finally condensing what he wanted to say into a paragraph, clicked send, and then began to nervously wait for the other party's reply.

Five minutes later, the other party replied. After seeing the new message, he was slightly stunned.

[@GunBrotherV in the Circle: No contact information will be added; I'm just acting as a champion of justice. Thank you~]

Author's Note: Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2024-07-27 23:57:40 and 2024-07-28 23:55:00!

Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: Watermelon Peach Ice 40 bottles; Yongye 20 bottles; Beizhi.Sake~, Aqi w 10 bottles; That Year Puppet 3 bottles; I'm Not Sleepy When I Sleep 1 bottle;

Thank you so much for your support, I will continue to work hard!