Chapter 7, 400,000 words! Hesitate for five minutes, regret for a whole day.
After confirming that she couldn't get her agent's permission to transfer money to Shi Yao, Fang Xuran forced herself to turn off the tablet's sound, lock the screen, and toss it aside.
There was nothing he could do, because he felt guilty.
Although his agent and assistant often scolded him for being stupid, saying that he always made the same mistake again and again, and that he could be fooled by all sorts of online scams.
But Shi Yao is really sincere!
This must have hurt someone, sigh.
He avoided turning on his tablet again, as if trying to escape. He went back to bed, activated the voice assistant in the room, randomly picked a movie to watch, and watched it until late at night. Then his manager, Brother Zheng, burst into the room.
"Why didn't you answer the phone!" Brother Zheng ran so fast that his clothes were disheveled, and he was panting heavily. He looked at Fang Xuran, who was already sleeping sprawled out on the bed, and was furious.
Fang Xuran got out of bed looking bewildered, her soft curly hair sticking up like a sea urchin from static electricity. She asked groggily, "What happened?"
Zheng Ge was amused by his behavior. As the Jiang Chuan incident escalated, he decided to take this opportunity to have his studio issue a clarification statement, along with a previously prepared audio recording of a school teacher's testimony.
At first, things were fine. Fans unconditionally believed that their idol was innocent and quickly controlled the comments and posted messages to defend Fang Xuran on the public platform.
However, this generation of netizens is not easily fooled. In the past, the trick of clarifying and making official announcements amidst the chaos worked very well. Now, there are bored bystanders who are watching closely to see if anyone is trying to take advantage of the situation. And then, by sheer bad luck, they caught Fang Xuran.
Without surveillance footage to corroborate the evidence, only the teacher's recording, the evidence was already insufficient. If it had been released at a normal time, netizens might have let it go. However, Zheng Ge deliberately wanted Jiang Chuan to draw attention to the matter, and netizens immediately felt that Fang Xuran was guilty. If she was really innocent, why didn't she just clarify the situation openly?
What's worse, Jiang Chuan later rose to the top of a new trending topic, and for some reason the profile picture was a photo of Fang Xuran. This gave Jiang Chuan's fans a handle to use against him, and they started posting everywhere saying that Jiang Chuan's incident was orchestrated by Fang Xuran's team in order to push Jiang Chuan out of the spotlight and draw attention to him so that Fang Xuran could extricate herself.
Netizens were confused and didn't care about the fans fighting. In their eyes, the fact that these two were fighting like this meant that there was solid evidence of cheating, so they might as well just criticize them together!
So, before Fang Xuran could even recover for half a day, the square was flooded with comments again. Even the clarification Weibo post from her studio couldn't hold onto the comments section, and the Weibo hot search was completely split between Fang Xuran and Jiang Chuan.
Fang Xuran's agent was woken up in the middle of the night by staff who monitor public opinion in real time, and his scalp immediately tingled. The situation was even worse than before. Fang Xuran not only had the serious crime of cheating, but also the added charges of feeling guilty and deliberately framing his classmates.
Although the evidence against Jiang Chuan is so solid that it's virtually impossible to clear his name, the fact that their fans are fighting now only reinforces Fang Xuran's "cheating scandal" label.
What's worse is that Fang Xuran himself can't be contacted. The entire studio has made dozens of voice calls to him on WeChat, but he hasn't answered. Knowing how easily this kid can break down, Brother Zheng prayed all the way here, and he was almost ready to write an obituary. Seeing this idiot looking completely bewildered, he was both annoyed and amused.
"It's nothing. I was worried something was wrong since you weren't answering your phone." After thinking for a moment, Brother Zheng decided not to tell Fang Xuran anything. It was fine to let this idiot stay clueless.
They snatched the phone from the other person's hand.
Fang Xuran pinpointed the location on Weibo and, upon seeing the frenzy on the trending topics list, inexplicably calmed down. Under her manager's somewhat alarmed gaze, she looked up and complained in a resentful tone, "I told you I should transfer the money to her, but you wouldn't let me. She even specifically reminded me that this matter wasn't over yet. How can you be so stingy..."
Zheng Ge is having a headache. What good celebrity's first thought when they see themselves trending on negative topics is that they didn't transfer money to scammers!
This time, Fang Xuran ignored his advice and picked up the tablet again to send a message to Shi Yaokuang. When she didn't respond, she guessed that Shi Yaokuang was probably sleeping, and then she put down the tablet and started to persuade her manager.
Zheng Ge initially didn't believe it, but after seeing the timeline of the chat history between the two on Fang Xuran's tablet, he fell silent again.
Is it really such a coincidence?
How about... we give it a try?
The thought startled him; how had he become just as gullible as Fang Xuran?
But... there's no other way right now, is there?
So, under Fang Xuran's patient persuasion, Zheng Ge inexplicably took out Fang Xuran's phone and returned it to him, and even added Shi Yao as a friend on his own phone.
After doing all this, he suddenly felt a little guilty and didn't even dare to look at the studio's messages, as if he had betrayed the organization.
It was still early before they had to get up, and the two of them were anxious but there was nothing they could do. So Fang Xuran pulled out a movie and watched it absentmindedly while glancing at her phone every now and then, hoping that it would get light soon.
...
Shi Yao started working overtime as soon as she got up, but she had no complaints. This was about making money, and she loved making money the most, especially when it meant making double the money.
Looking at Fang Xuran's profile picture, she sighed in a very good mood. Sigh, there are always people who worry that she doesn't earn enough.
[Shi Yao: I've seen the trending topics. Your situation is much more complicated than last night, and the price will be much higher. Are you sure you want to place an order?]
Fang Xuran: I want it! How much, sis?
[Shi Yao: 40w]
[Fang Xuran: ??? Why is it so much more expensive? Wasn't it 100,000 yesterday?]
While chewing on a straw, Shi Yao slowly typed on the screen: [The 100,000 figure refers to yesterday's situation, not today's. Time is money, you know? You guys caused the situation to worsen due to your own procrastination, and now I have to clean up your mess. I'm already being very generous by only charging double.]
Fang Xuran replied timidly from the other end: [Sis, 400,000 is four times...]
Although he's not good at math, he can still understand simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division!
[Shi Yao: I know, 200,000 is the base price, and another 200,000 is the confidentiality fee, for a total of 400,000]
[Fang Xuran: A confidentiality fee?]
Shi Yao, without changing her expression, spouted nonsense at the screen: "[Do you know how many people have come to me asking about this matter since yesterday afternoon? I haven't told a single one of them, and I won't tell a single one of them. As long as you pay the 200,000 yuan confidentiality fee, I absolutely won't budge no matter who comes. I guarantee your safety.]"
While Fang Xuran and Shi Yao were chatting, the manager kept staring at his screen. When he saw this sentence, he almost jumped up again: "You, you, you still say she's not extorting money!"
Although Fang Xuran also felt that something was strange, she still took the initiative to persuade her agent: "What she said is not wrong. If you want to keep it a secret, you have to pay people. We do the same thing all the time. Besides, it can be completely resolved with only 400,000. The team you hired would have charged several times that price."
"...Fine." Brother Zheng would never admit that he only agreed because he was desperate.
Fang Xuran: Send me your card number, I'll transfer the money to you.
Upon receiving the 400,000 yuan, Shi Yao beamed and immediately replied: 【Received, boss, just wait!】
The claim that the difficulty had doubled was just her way of fooling Fang Xuran. The most difficult steps were all completed last night; today was just the final touch.
Fang Xuran's most pressing task right now is to change netizens' opinions of him. It's true that he clarified things, it's also true that he tried to take advantage of Jiang Chuan's loopholes, and it's also true that Jiang Chuan revealed this matter to protect him.
These things are all true, but there is no solid evidence chain to prove that they are related. Next, we just need to dissect these things one by one and let netizens know that Jiang Chuan is Jiang Chuan and Fang Xuran is Fang Xuran.
Fang Xuran didn't push Jiang Chuan forward to clear his name; on the contrary, Jiang Chuan was the unlucky one who took the fall.
Shi Yao glanced at the trending topics. Jiang Chuan's team was quite clever. Yesterday's sudden revelation that he had taken a vacancy for someone else must have caught them off guard. But the fact that they were able to react in such a short time and quickly find the incriminating evidence she left behind and use it against her showed that his team was not to be underestimated.
But I'm sorry, that's not some kind of leverage, it's a trap.
As the final work officially began, Shi Yao straightened up slightly and started switching between several software programs.
The incriminating evidence she left behind was Fang Xuran's photo in the trending search profile picture. When she reported the situation to Fang Xuran yesterday, that trending search hadn't risen yet, so the other side didn't notice it. However, the preparations for that trending search had already been completed. After Fang Xuran disappeared, she used her account to boost several organic trending topics and edited the new trending search terms into popular blog posts that were already on the trending search list. As more and more passersby clicked on them, the trending search naturally rose.
Actually, the issue of trending topic profile pictures is easy to resolve. It's determined by the person who initially created the topic, and can be changed once a host is assigned to the trending topic.
Shi Yao specifically picked out one of her 150 ordinary, active accounts that had reached level 10 in the Jiang Chuan super topic, bought a membership for the account, hid all the previous Weibo content, and then spammed Fang Xuran on the homepage to create the illusion of being a fan of Fang Xuran. Finally, she created a trending topic and changed part of her profile picture to a photo of Fang Xuran.
That trending topic is still at a high position. Fang Xuran's fans and Jiang Chuan's fans have made this their main battleground, fighting fiercely and accusing each other of deliberately smearing the other.
The trending profile picture hasn't even been changed yet because she used her million-follower verified marketing account to take over the host's spot yesterday, and Fang Xuran's fans wanted to change it but couldn't.
Shi Yao logged onto Weibo to check yesterday's results and was surprised to find that all five of her million-follower accounts had changed from yellow V to orange V, which showed how much reading she had done yesterday. She checked the backend data and realized that she was not far from getting a red V.
She was even happier, and the sharing program would also allow her to earn a lot.
She switched to the account of the trending topic host and prepared the copy.
[@OrangeEatingGossipDaily: I was busy yesterday and couldn't log into Weibo. I only found my private messages were flooded when I logged in today. I'm not too clear about the profile picture issue. I didn't choose the initial profile picture, and I'm not a fan of Fang Xuran. It was another netizen who changed the profile picture. If you're curious, you can click into the trending topics to see the past hosts. The profile picture has been changed now, so you don't need to send private messages anymore.]
After the trending topic image was debated for a long time, and even the marketing account itself stepped in to explain, fans from both sides quickly rushed over, found the history host's account, and saw that the homepage was full of Fang Xuran's traces, and Jiang's fans instantly felt relieved.
[As expected, this was all orchestrated by Fang's fans themselves. They didn't clean up their mess properly and left themselves with evidence.]
[To whitewash their idol, they drag innocent people down with them; Fang's fans are truly a cancer in the fandom.]
Fang Xuran's fans did panic for a moment, but his fan circle was very mature, and judging fan affiliation was a piece of cake. Soon, someone with sharp eyes noticed something was wrong.
This account has reached level 10 in the Jiang Chuan super topic check-in! The dozens of posts about Fang Xuran on the homepage were all posted within the same day yesterday.
Soon, Fang Xuran's most ardent fans had compiled screenshot evidence and text, and five minutes later, a fresh and exciting long Weibo post titled "Catching the Black Haters" was published.
Jiang Chuan's fans had only been on a winning streak for less than ten minutes when Fang Xuran's fans discovered that the trending topic profile picture was actually a fake Jiang Chuan fan disguised as a Fang fan, immediately putting them back in a completely unfavorable position.
Shi Yao smiled with relief when she saw her fans following her lead. She then used her own account to cooperate. Five minutes later, the original poster of the gossip group who had first posted the exposé posted a new self-proof. The anonymous contributor proved that he was indeed a candidate who had taken the CCTV audition and was not anyone's fan.
This self-certification was not fabricated by her, but was kindly provided by a fellow examinee in the same examination room after she posted the exposé yesterday. There was no particular reason; they just couldn't stand the fact that the "Celestial Dragons" were monopolizing the available spots.
The classmate who initially spoke up for Fang Xuran to prove her innocence also posted on Weibo again, saying that only a few classes knew about the power outage in the examination room, which means that the people who knew about the lack of surveillance must be students from the Capital Academy of Drama.
Fang Xuran and Jiang Chuan are roommates. Fang Xuran had made a joke about it in the dorm group chat that day because of the power outage, and who knew that someone would remember it.
Immediately afterwards, a new batch of marketing accounts jumped in, with their copywriting implying that someone had indeed deliberately pushed Jiang Chuan and Fang Xuran to take the fall, but the unlucky one who took the fall was not Jiang Chuan, but Fang Xuran.
Jiang Chuan's successful landing was only a matter of the last two weeks, while Fang Xuran's final exams were almost two months ago. Such a clear time difference is obviously something that someone is deliberately taking advantage of.
The fact that there was no such precise information as a power outage in the examination room, and that the person who had this intention came from nearby, is quite obvious.
Only Jiang Chuan met both conditions: knowing that Fang Xuran had a power outage during the exam and having recently violated regulations to gain admission to university.
The truth is obvious: the person who deliberately orchestrated this incident, using someone close to him as a shield, was not Fang Xuran, but Jiang Chuan.
Fang Xuran was the innocent, unlucky one.
Fang Xuran's fans were very cooperative, perhaps because they had been feeling frustrated for a long time. They were incredibly responsive and had solid evidence in hand. Whether it was questions from passersby or deliberate mudslinging by rival fans, they handled everything neatly and quickly cleaned up the plaza.
The Central Theater has been under pressure since yesterday due to a series of reports questioning its credibility. It has now issued an announcement and apology statement.
The announcement essentially confirmed that Jiang Chuan had manipulated the process of reserving positions in advance, dismissed the relevant personnel, and stated that the exams would be restarted after a thorough internal investigation.
With strong evidence from multiple sources, Jiang Chuan was powerless to reverse the situation, and Fang Xuran was finally cleared of the blame.
Shi Yao looked smugly at her bunch of accounts that had just been upgraded to red V, and estimated how much money she could make from this wave of traffic.
After ending the conversation with Shi Yao, Fang Xuran immediately switched to Weibo. He hadn't dared to watch what the other party was doing yesterday, but today he was determined to take a closer look.
Their manager was also secretly craning his neck to look, and the two of them became more and more dumbfounded as they looked.
The problem that had been bothering them for so long was solved just like that?
So easy?
At the same time, a chat box pops up at the top of the phone:
[Shi Yao: It's all sorted out. Go issue a clarification statement.]
[Shi Yao: Don't use the studio's account, use your own. Don't let your studio write the copy, write it yourself, just be a little silly.]
[Shi Yao: Submit your manuscript for review after you finish writing it]
Fang Xuran touched the tip of her nose. What do you mean by "a little stupid"?
He's very smart, okay?
A note from the author:
Sister Shi [Sunglasses]: I will make sure that everyone who doesn't place their order in time learns a lesson.
Xiao Fang [heartbroken]: I remember, the child really remembers.
On a side note, this newbie author is begging for some nutrient solution! Are there any kind angels willing to give a tiny bit as a reward? I'll give you a cute little something (starry eyes).
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