Chapter 141 Another Wave

Storms in the online world often strike suddenly when people are at their peak.

While Xia Linxing was quietly preparing for the finals, late one night, a topic suddenly climbed up the trending search list.

“#Star Journey Sets Sail for the Royal Family#”

Night owls who stayed up late at night saw this new trending search. Even if they had not watched the show at all, when they saw the two meaningful words "royal family", they all became interested and clicked on it.

The person who posted this entry is an entertainment marketing account with over 100,000 followers:

"Don't you all find it strange? On a popular talent show right now, there's a certain trainee who can't sing or dance, and even broke his voice during his first performance, unable to hit the high notes. Yet, he's made it all the way to the finals! Especially since this trainee is an 'individual' trainee... wow, what a strong background this person must have!"

In the comments below, the water army that was prepared from the beginning sang the same tune:

"Finally someone has asked this question! I've been wanting to ask this for a long time. How did xlx survive until now with such poor business skills?"

"What else can I do? Of course it's marketing! Haven't you seen how many times he's been on trending searches since joining the program?"

"Of course I'll sell (CP)! Just look at the CP topic list, xlx alone has so many..."

"Sure enough, it's good to have money at home!"

"I specifically looked at someone's online voting records. Every time, when they're eliminated, xlx always becomes a trending search, and then his votes increase rapidly, just enough to qualify... Tsk, tsk, tsk, it's always so coincidental. Who would believe there's no trickery?!"

"The production team must have been bribed... Don't you think xlx gets a lot of screen time? From the very first episode, xlx has had more screen time than any other trainee... He clearly doesn't have anything to show off in either singing or dancing, yet the production team keeps giving him screen time. Other trainees who are better at singing and dancing than him had their screen time cut. Doesn't that speak volumes?"

"What's xlx's family background? Can anyone dig it out?"

"I'm so fed up with these young masters from wealthy families. Instead of spending their money at home, they insist on becoming royalty and taking away the resources of ordinary people!"

"In that case, shouldn't we check xlx's vote count? Some people might be using buying trending searches as a cover-up, using the traffic generated by trending searches to conceal the fact they're manipulating votes?"

"No one can sing or dance, so they can only hype up couples and buy trending searches to gain traffic..."

…

With this marketing account leading the way, other marketing accounts have emerged one after another like mushrooms after rain.

Although it is not known whether it was a marketing account matrix prepared from the beginning, or they simply saw the traffic and wanted to share it, but with the participation of these marketing accounts, the popularity of this hot search written as "皇族" and pronounced as "夏琳星" quickly climbed.

More and more passers-by who were unaware of the truth flocked into the entry.

Many passersby didn't even watch the show, and didn't know who the ambiguous "xlx" in these comments was, but they instinctively disliked the "royal family", especially after reading the descriptions in the comments, they confirmed that "rich young masters used money to squeeze the living space of ordinary trainees", and they all felt disgusted.

"Who is this 'xlx' you're talking about?"

"Exactly. You've already revealed everything here. Can you please stop being a riddler?! I was planning to go, but after watching for so long, I can't figure out which show or trainee you're talking about..."

"To those who don't know, please give me the direction [link]..."

…

By the time Xie Tinglan woke up the next day and noticed the surprise on the hot search, "#星路启航皇族#" had already climbed into the top ten.

The Entry Square has also become more lively.

There were fans of other trainees who came to watch the fun, and some fans of trainees who had been eliminated who saw the trending searches and agreed with the views of the trending searches. They felt that it was because of Xia Linxing's existence that the brothers they supported were eliminated. So they took advantage of Xia Linxing's royal family as an excuse to step on Xia Linxing unscrupulously and speak up for their eliminated brothers.

In the chaos, Xia Linxing's fans were pitifully squeezed in to refute the rumors, but unfortunately, in front of the huge army of netizens, not only did no one read their refutations, but they were scolded back by other fans or passers-by.

"Should we take action?"

Fang Xuyang saw this early in the morning and immediately called Xie Tinglan. He had noticed Xie Tinglan's change in attitude towards Xia Linxing from the previous incidents. Although he was very curious about the reason, Boss Xie refused to tell him. Fang Xuyang had no choice but to give up and send the information he had found to Xie Tinglan.

It was obvious that this was a premeditated incident to slander Xia Linxing.

Fang Xuyang initially thought that this was revenge from Media Asia Starlight. After all, they had just attacked the top star of Media Asia Starlight and their trainees not long ago. It was normal for them to be retaliated after being discovered by Media Asia Starlight.

After checking, it turned out that Media Asia was still overwhelmed with the issue of Zeng Han having to pay the penalty for breach of contract for the endorsement, and they had no time to spare.

Good news: it wasn’t Media Asia’s fault.

Bad news: It might as well have been done by Media Asia.

If it's the latter, they at least have a clear direction for investigation.

"The program team also contacted us..."

Whenever Xia Linxing got into trouble, it was Xie Tinglan who helped take people to the hospital for treatment. The production team gradually discovered the relationship between the two. So when the production team called him tentatively, Fang Xuyang also casually revealed that the Xie and Xia families had known each other for a long time.

Xie Tinglan said, "Hmm?" "What did the production team say?"

Fang Xuyang: "Just asking what we plan to do next, the production team can cooperate with us (to clarify)."

Because when the director and producer of the program saw this trending search, they were super angry! After all, if they really had the royal family, it would be fine, but the problem is that they didn’t!

They work so diligently on the show, they don't even try to sell couples (fan submissions don't count!), and they haven't even falsified the vote counts backstage (they have no control over whether the trainees or agencies do it themselves)! And yet, they're still accused of making dirty money and forcing the royal family to prosper!

Heaven and earth, conscience!

They gave Xia Linxing shots purely because Xia Linxing was really a hot topic and could easily become a hot topic to attract traffic to the program team.

This free traffic, which they don’t have to spend any money on, is delivered right under their noses. Are they supposed to pretend they don’t see it?!

After all, it’s free traffic, so don’t miss it!

At most, they just made the same mistake that all production crews in the world tend to make (being jealous of traffic)...

Aside from a minor manipulation in the first episode where they took some material out of context, they never used editing techniques to create buzz again! What an honest production team they are!

The world misunderstands them a lot!

Therefore, the program crew was even more eager to clarify the matter than the person involved, Xia Linxing himself, and called Fang Xuyang early in the morning.

Xie Tinglan pondered for a moment, then shook his head, "Wait a minute..."

He still didn't know the purpose of the person behind this. And, if he guessed correctly, based on his experience, this current trending search should only be an "appetizer".

And just as Xie Tinglan guessed, before the truth of this black trending search was fully revealed, another piece of news was revealed in the middle of the night a few days later.

"#Xia Linxing and Chen Sibai quarreled and fought on the stairs#"

The message was posted by another marketing account that accepts submissions:

"[Submission] New gossip about that trainee named X who's been trending on trending searches lately..."

"Disclaimer: This blog serves only as a platform for submissions. All content is posted anonymously by netizens. The contributor's work identity has been confirmed to be genuine, but the authenticity of the incident is up to you to judge for yourself. This blog is not responsible for the content of the submissions (life-saving dog head.jpg) ~"

"The following is the content of the submission——"

"Hello blogger, I'm a staff member of the recently popular talent show, XTQH. [Attached is a photo of my work badge]."

"That trainee named X who's been rumored to have a strong backstage background online, his personality is completely different from what he portrays on the show!"

"From now on, I will call him 'Young Master'..."

"Everyone knows the young master's family is rich, and yes, he does have a bit of a sassy temper... He's not the shy persona he plays on the show at all; his true personality is quite nasty!"

"He always looks down on others and speaks to the staff in an arrogant and bossy manner!"

"He even spoke to the trainees with this arrogant attitude!"

"For example, when he first joined the production team, a trainee named S happened to be walking up the stairs with a trainee named L, who he was very close to. They accidentally blocked the young master's path. The young master arrogantly told the trainees named S and L to get out of the way and make way for him to pass."

"Trainee L is known for his hot temper and definitely disagreed. Then our young master started fighting on the stairs, trying to push the person away."

"But fortunately, evil has its consequences, and in the end it was the young master who fell down the stairs himself."

"Because this incident happened relatively early, before the show started, not many people knew about it. It was later suppressed by the production team and people were not allowed to discuss it. However, if you go to the hospital and check the medical records, you should be able to find the young master's medical records, which can prove that what I said is true!"

"And the young master's backers are really powerful. Even after what happened, this trainee surnamed S was still forced to hype up the young master as a couple... and was even forced to pretend to be close to the young master in front of the camera [shakes head pitifully][shakes head pitifully][shakes head pitifully]..."

As soon as this news was released, it immediately became a hot search topic due to heated discussions:

"Is this true? When the costume incident happened, didn't many staff members come out to defend xlx? I thought xlx had a good relationship with the staff..."

"That definitely cost money! And at that time, the staff only came out to help prove the clothes, and didn't say that they had a close relationship with xlx..."

"No, the trainee surnamed S is too pitiful... Thinking about the overwhelming CP hot searches before, I think the trainee surnamed S would be disgusted to death when he saw it..."

"Wait, how come you all know who the other victim is?"

"Trainee S is close to trainee L and is also hyping up a couple with xlx—isn't that obvious?"

"Pushing on the stairs? Are you really not afraid of anything happening?"

"This could be considered murder, right?! What if the other person was really pushed down by xlx?! Although the reality is that xlx got what he deserved, we can't ignore xlx's malicious intentions from the beginning!"

"@星路启航@星路启航@星路启航, is this true? Come out and respond! Stop playing dead!"

"Oh my god! I was saying that Xiaobai always had a weird expression when he was with xlx. So that's what's going on! I was saying that the production team deliberately hyped up that bullshit CP. Xiaobai could have been the only one who was beautiful, but those CP-crazed people insisted that it was real! I feel sick for Xiaobai just thinking about it!"

"No... why are you all so convinced? This is a marketing account, and the authenticity of the post hasn't been verified. Do I just need to get a photo of my work ID and start making up stories?"

"The contributors have said that you can go to the hospital to check the medical records. How can it be a rumor?"

…

Seeing the fierce arguments in the comments and the rising popularity of the hot searches, Cheng Xuezhou in front of the computer screen finally smiled for the first time in these days.

After being eliminated, Cheng Xuezhou was completely left alone by the company, which made Cheng Xuezhou very unwilling.

The reason he was eliminated was all because of Xia Linxing! Xia Linxing not only took away the songs and attention that should have belonged to him, but also, in order to retaliate against him, deliberately released negative information about him before the fourth public performance, affecting his reputation and lowering his vote count. She also deliberately affected his mentality during the performance, causing him to perform poorly in the fourth public performance and unfortunately be eliminated.

So after being eliminated, the unwilling Cheng Xuezhou planned to drag Xia Linxing down with him. However, his company was currently busy with Zeng Han's affairs and could not be relied upon, so when some kind-hearted person on the Internet started a group attack on Xia Linxing, Cheng Xuezhou followed suit.

He found a photo with a staff member from the photos he had taken before, took a screenshot of the work ID hanging on the other person's chest, then blurred the picture, pretended to be a staff member, and submitted it to the marketing account.

Cheng Xuezhou was not worried at all that the forgery would be exposed. After all, the work permit was real, the scuffle between Xia Linxing and Shen Sibai on the stairs was real, and Xia Linxing's final admission to the hospital was even more real... He just made up a little bit of a reason for the quarrel between the two.

Who made Shen Sibai keep his mouth shut and not share with them what happened at that time? So he could only speculate on his own~

Anyway, Shen Sibai is probably busy with the finals now and has no time to pay attention to what is happening online, so he doesn't have to worry that he will suddenly appear to help Xia Linxing clarify.

By the time Shen Sibai and the others found out, Xia Linxing's wind assessment plan was already irreversible.

Cheng Xuezhou curled up the corners of his mouth at the screen.

Who made Xia Linxing go all out to kill him and make him a trending topic of "personality collapse"...

Since that’s the case, he also wants Xia Linxing to taste the same feeling as him!