Starting from a Bar to Sign Internet Celebrities-Chapter 101 - 99: Big Event and Good News

Chen Jincheng was completely dumbfounded. Staring at Sister Feiye in astonishment, he asked, "Um, did you choose wrong?"

Everyone from Second-Life Star instinctively looked at her. After all, she had been so certain that Ah Hao was finished. Why the 180-degree turn in her choice?

Sister Feiye looked at Chen Jincheng with a bright smile. "I didn’t choose wrong. For one, your friend got into trouble, yet you remained so calm. For another, your attitude is so confident. I have reason to suspect this ’Peeping-Tom-gate’ and your ’Scandal-gate’ are part of the same publicity stunt. So I figured I’d take a chance!"

Chen Jincheng looked at Sister Feiye and said, "You’re gambling!"

"Aren’t we already making a bet?" Sister Feiye shot back.

"You won!" Chen Jincheng admitted readily.

He was finally starting to understand why she had become such a major influencer. Compared to girls like Jiang Xiaobai and Yinyin, there was a clear gap in their essential qualities.

Seeing her gamble had truly paid off, Sister Feiye’s curiosity was piqued even more. ’How on earth did Ah Hao convince the police to cooperate with his publicity stunt?’

If the police weren’t cooperating, he couldn’t have just hired actors and posted it online. That would be a far more serious matter. It wouldn’t be a question of his career being over; he’d be doing jail time.

But this was a topic best left untouched, not one to be elaborated upon, so Chen Jincheng said nothing more.

This only made Sister Feiye all the more curious. Even after the dinner party ended and she got to her reserved hotel, she continued to follow the matter closely.

However, with the release of the video showing Ah Hao’s "capture," the commentary bloggers on Tiao Yin swarmed, rushing to publish videos denouncing him.

It was as if they had the police’s endorsement, giving them free rein to act without restraint.

To be honest, the influencers on Tiao Yin who create legitimate content had no love for these commentary bloggers who just piggybacked on trending topics for clout.

These bloggers weren’t paragons of virtue themselves; in fact, many had their own sordid histories. Yet they spent their days perched on a moral high ground, acting as self-appointed judges. They would critique and comment on every online incident, but when it came down to it, they were just stoking negative emotions among netizens for the sole purpose of gaining followers.

Take this incident with Ah Hao, for example. By denouncing him, they could stir up the emotions of the netizens already trashing him, make those netizens feel their arguments were valid, and thereby gain more followers.

But a lot of the time, these people would flame the wrong person and pick the wrong side, yet they would still manage to lead the charge in an online dogpile. When proven wrong, they would simply delete their videos and play dead. They wouldn’t even post an apology, just wait for the whole thing to blow over before coming out to cause more trouble.

Like this time, they started their attacks without knowing the truth. Once the situation was reversed, they were guaranteed to delete their videos and play dead again.

Even if people went to their accounts to comment and demand an apology, they would just use their ultimate technique: deleting the comments.

As long as all those comments were deleted, it was as if the whole thing had never happened.

Simply put, these people were just keyboard warriors, but ten times worse.

「The next day.」

Sister Feiye woke up early and immediately took out her phone, logging into Tiao Yin to check on the situation.

And today’s Tiao Yin trending list was buzzing with activity.

1. "Man Arrested at Home by Police for Exposing Ah Hao and Promoting Porn Sites, Faces Potential 5-Year Prison Sentence!"

2. ...

3. "Major Reversal in Ah Hao Incident, Helped Police Crack a Major Case"

4. "Rare Total Lunar Eclipse Occurred in the Early Morning"

5. "Chen Jincheng Films Socket Ad, Endorsed by Lei Xiaojun"

6. ...

7. ...

9. "A Girl’s Wedding Dress Video Ends 9-Year Relationship"

...

Sure enough, two of the day’s top 10 trending topics were about Ah Hao, showing just how much buzz there was.

She also finally understood why Chen Jincheng was so confident Ah Hao wouldn’t be finished. Being secretly filmed while he was single was a different matter entirely; everyone expressed that they could understand.

The key was that he had not only reported the incident to the police, helping them apprehend an entire criminal network and shut down numerous pornographic sites, but he had also filmed a video with the police to help with a PSA about anti-peeping laws. In an instant, he not only had the police’s endorsement, but public opinion had also completely flipped.

But that photo from last night was damn misleading; it looked just like an arrest. However, the police had already clarified that it was just a simple group photo.

"’Note to self: if I ever get a photo op with the police, I’m definitely not standing in the middle,’ Sister Feiye muttered to herself. ’Otherwise, a simple group photo looks like a large-scale arrest scene.’"

However, what surprised her even more was the number one trending topic, which had stolen the show.

Honestly, Ah Hao really had the person who exposed him to thank for this wave of popularity.

Without that person’s exposé, he wouldn’t have his current level of fame. Plus, the guy was going to be locked up for five years for it. He was practically a saint.

However, this topic was able to take the number one spot in large part because it was politically correct, counting as a promotion of the rule of law.

On a deeper level, this was also a warning from Tiao Yin to everyone.

For scandals like "Scandal-gate" and "Peeping-Tom-gate," how could Tiao Yin not see that the people involved, Chen Jincheng and Lin Hao, were adding fuel to the fire?

Although this kind of publicity stunt was common in the influencer world and hadn’t crossed any lines, it wasn’t good for the platform to be filled with such vulgar incidents all day. It projected a negative image. So, it was the right time to give everyone a rap on the knuckles.

Therefore, Chen Jincheng’s "Scandal-gate" and Ah Hao’s "Peeping-Tom-gate" had feasted on all the traffic they could get. If anyone tried to imitate them from now on, what awaited them wouldn’t be traffic, but Tiao Yin’s already-prepared "little black room."

She was extremely sensitive to these kinds of platform-level shifts; it was one of the reasons she had made it to where she was today.

Next, she clicked on the news about Chen Jincheng’s ad for the power strip. As expected, it had blown up. It already had over four million likes and would likely break five million before noon.

However, she quickly noticed something was wrong. On the advertising leaderboard, Chen Jincheng’s ad revenue had reached three million, putting it on par with Yinyin’s ad.

’Wasn’t it 2.5 million?’

’An extra one million likes meant another 500,000 in ad revenue.’

She realized that the rate offered by Rice Power Strips must have been even higher.

It wasn’t just her; everyone following the matter saw it too. This made them all realize one thing: if this power strip ad broke five million likes, Chen Jincheng’s single ad would once again surpass Sister Feiye.

"Damn, Chen Jincheng is still a beast. First he had one of his girls knock Sister Feiye off the top of the leaderboard, and now he’s about to do it himself."

"Sister Feiye has, like, nine ads on the chart, but it’s just embarrassing compared to Second-Life Star."

"Haha, two of the top three are from Second-Life Star, and each of them only has one ad up. Sister Feiye’s nine ads probably can’t even compete."

"If Jiang Xiaobai’s ad got on the list too, it would be insane." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"Compared to Second-Life Star, Sister Feiye really does look like a buffoon!"

"..."

Seeing herself being ridiculed by the masses again, Sister Feiye wasn’t as angry as before. Once this collaboration with Second-Life Star was done, she would add their MCN tag to her profile and blind these people with the news.

Apparently, she hadn’t even realized that she had already subconsciously assumed the collaboration with Second-Life Star would be a success.

Unlike everyone else, when Chen Jincheng saw the day’s trending list, his eyes landed on the topic: "A Girl’s Wedding Dress Video Ends 9-Year Relationship."

Because this was the "July 26th Wedding Crashing Incident" that had happened in 2018 in his previous world!

The catalyst was a girl posting a video in a wedding dress, announcing she was marrying someone she’d just met the next day. She said she was posting the video to end her nine-year relationship with her boyfriend. The boyfriend, unwilling to accept it, then declared he would crash the girl’s wedding to win her back.

This prompted countless enthusiastic Tiao Yin users to offer their help, vowing to help the boyfriend crash the wedding.

It was unknown if the wedding-crashing attempt succeeded, but rumor had it that Tiao Yin users dispatched a land, sea, and air force for the event: 96 airplanes, 9 helicopters, over 100 Audis, 2 rockets, 4 Mercedes G-Wagens, 15 Ferrari 458s, 2 Porsche 918s, 10 Bentley Mulsannes, 45 high-speed trains, and 50 taxis were all sent to crash the wedding.

Furthermore, 99% of the people crashed the wrong wedding, turning the whole thing into a massive disruption. It was later said that most of the brides whose weddings were wrongly crashed ended up getting divorced.

Because of this, some people later claimed the entire wedding-crashing incident had been a conspiracy of some sort.

’I can’t believe the wedding crashing incident is happening in this world, too.’

’Tiao Yin is going to be wild today.’

Unlike others, Chen Jincheng felt a strange sense of nostalgic familiarity with this major event from his memories.

Then, he also checked the news about Lin Hao and himself.

Lin Hao had successfully captured the public’s attention. Now it was up to him to absorb and retain all that traffic. Chen Jincheng didn’t need to teach him how; the man had been in the internet game longer than he had and was proficient in the basic strategies.

As for his own ad video, it should break five million likes this morning. Whether it could go on to break six million would depend on if the great wedding-crashing incident exploded in popularity as it had in his previous life. Otherwise, once the "wedding-crashing battle anthem" dropped, his own trending video, which was nearing the end of its cycle, would surely be crushed in the face of such a massive event.

In his previous world, that battle anthem had exploded in popularity, sweeping across Tiao Yin for three days straight. Countless copycat videos broke a million likes, followed by hundreds more that got several hundred thousand likes each. It became a terrifyingly massive public trend.

He subconsciously considered whether he could piggyback on the trend, but on second thought, it was best not to get involved in such a public incident. The event was later publicly criticized by the official People’s Daily.

He then called Sister Feiye. Since their ad collaboration was confirmed, he wanted to meet up as soon as possible, finalize the filming location, and get the video shot.

Time passed.

At just past 10:00 AM, Chen Jincheng’s power strip ad video finally broke five million likes. On the advertising leaderboard, its sales revenue updated to four million, knocking Sister Feiye off the top spot.

At Tiao Yin, Liu Xian naturally received the news at once.

Seeing the incredible performance of Chen Jincheng’s ad, he sighed helplessly. There was truly nothing he could do!

But now, things were getting a little awkward.

Fortunately, the settlement deadline for the first week of the advertising leaderboard hadn’t passed yet, so Sister Feiye still had a chance. He had no choice but to give her a call.

In Coastal City, Sister Feiye was standing at the base of a Western-style clock tower. It was surrounded by a vast, specially landscaped lawn, and the environment was excellent.

Beside her, of course, was Chen Jincheng, and members of the Second-Life Star team were scouting the surrounding area.

This was one of the potential ad locations they were scouting. In fact, it was the best of the three they had considered, so they would likely decide to film here.

Her phone suddenly rang. Seeing the call was from Tiao Yin, she turned to Chen Jincheng and said, "I need to take this call!"

"Okay," Chen Jincheng nodded.

Only then did Sister Feiye answer the call, saying cheerfully into the phone, "Hello, President Liu. What can I do for you?"

Liu Xian got straight to the point. "Sister Feiye, I assume you know you’ve been knocked off the top of the advertising leaderboard by Second-Life Star? Chen Jincheng’s ad has already surpassed five million likes."

"I hadn’t noticed. I’ve been busy scouting filming locations all morning." Sister Feiye subconsciously glanced at Chen Jincheng, though she wasn’t particularly surprised. After all, she had already known his ad would break five million.

Hearing this, Liu Xian quickly asked, "You’re shooting a new ad?"

Sister Feiye smiled and said, "That’s right. This one will be a Second-Life Star-style ad."

"That’s fantastic!" Hearing this, Liu Xian’s eyes instantly lit up.

A Second-Life Star-style ad had a guaranteed base revenue of 500,000. With that alone, Sister Feiye’s total sales would put her back on top of the leaderboard. If the video was a success, she could pull away from Second-Life Star for good.

Sister Feiye’s regular ads were already the most profitable, and now she was also going to shoot this kind of high-quality ad. Second-Life Star’s shine was about to be completely overshadowed.

’This is great news!’