"But Brother Xiao, you don't need to worry too much."
Xiao Chen took another turn.
"Sister Liu has almost finished dealing with it."
"Um?"
Xiao He was practically suffocating from Xiao Chen's heavy breathing.
If there weren't so many people around, he would have liked to punch Xiao Chen on the head.
"Has Sister Liu almost finished handling it?"
"Um."
How did she handle it?
Xiao He was somewhat puzzled.
"Sister Liu said that since there is a price to be on the trending topics list, she is determined not to spend more money to remove it from the list."
"...So she?"
"So Sister Liu also bought the trending searches for her rivals," Xiao Chen whispered. "The main creative team members of 'Silent Search' are also trending at a high position right now."
Xiao He was puzzled, not understanding what Liu Rulan was doing: "What kind of fighting style is this?"
“Never mind—” Xiao He spread his hands and asked, “Where’s my phone? I’ll go up and check it myself first.”
Xiao Chen immediately handed the phone to Xiao He.
Xiao He opened his phone to check.
At this moment, Weibo's trending topics are incredibly lively. The top spot is occupied by Liu Zehang and his name, while the second spot is closely followed by Feng Zhengyang and Chen Yulin.
Xiao He clicked in and was taken aback by Liu Rulan's bizarre actions.
【Feng Zhengyang is under investigation for murdering his wife and is preparing to flee】
【Chen Yulin, the king of slip-ups, achieves another brilliant performance; Tong Junhui swallows his anger; is the battle for top billing about to begin?】
【The screenwriter, Mo Xun, is suspected of plagiarism.】
Xiao He: ...
No, these trending topics are getting more and more abstract.
However, upon closer examination, their alleged scandals are indeed false, while the scandals of these individuals are quite real.
But Xiao He still didn't understand Sister Liu's move.
He thought Sister Liu would try to remove or suppress the trending topic, but what does it mean that it's stuck at number two on the list along with their scandals?
Xiao He scrolled down and saw new trending topics—
【Malicious competition is driving things forward; don't treat netizens like fools】
Xiao He: ?
He felt he was asking himself more and more questions today.
【I'm truly speechless. If you're going to promote a movie, fine, but if you two are so capable, compare the quality and box office performance of your films! Using such fabricated dirt to suppress your rivals is truly eye-opening.】
【Indeed, at first glance I really thought Xiao He and Liu Zehang's relationship had fallen apart, but upon closer inspection I realized it was just malicious competition between rivals, which made me both angry and amused.】
【@MoXunOfficial @JungleLawOfficial, have you two gone mad? Can't you just focus on promoting your own movies? Why do you have to attack each other's actors? Are you really using us fans as pawns?】
【I think we should tag the platform. Putting these two trending topics together is like a battle of wits; it's obvious the platform got paid by both sides and is trying to have it all. They're really pushing their luck.】
【Is nobody going to do anything about this? Are they just going to let these fake stories stay trending?】
【These accusations are so fake they're unbelievable. There's no evidence or solid proof; they're all just rumors. I really don't know what the producers ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ of "The Silent Search" are thinking. Has film promotion stopped relying on quality and acting skills and started solely on buying negative trending topics from rivals?】
【What do you mean? Didn't you see that several key members of the Moxun team are also listed in high positions? Why not say it's the law of the jungle that started the trouble?】
【Here's a little-known fact: today is the first day of the preview screenings of "Law of the Jungle," which should have been a time for active promotion of related hashtags. However, instead, their actors have suddenly become a hot topic on social media for their alleged scandals. Who started this? It's hard to guess.】
【Haha, sorry, but I really can't understand why Jungle Law chose to put "Silent Search" on the top trending searches today. Today is their preview screening; instead of promoting their own content, they're promoting your competitor. Their PR team must have eaten too many mushrooms.】
【Okay, so aside from Mo Xun buying dirt on Liu Zehang and Xiao He, isn't the Law of the Jungle side also at fault? They also bought trending topics! They also spread rumors and dirt on others!】
【Hey, don't talk nonsense. The accusations against the top-ranked list are ridiculously false. Liu Zehang already clarified them, and Xiao He also released a statement clarifying the situation more than half an hour ago. On the contrary, the second-ranked trending topic on your side seems to have solid evidence to me. Aren't you guys going to come out and clarify things?】
【@Official media @Official cyber police @Shanghai police @...aren't you all doing anything about this? Malicious rumors and competition during movie promotion, platforms doing nothing while profiting from both sides, trending topics becoming tools for capital maneuvering—what credibility can these platforms and trending topics possibly have left?】
【Like I said, everyone knows what kind of platform this is, and we haven't fallen for your tricks for a long time. Don't treat netizens like fools.】
The grudges between netizens and the platform can be said to have been brewing for a long time, and this incident is almost a direct mockery. Netizens' attention is not on the trending topics themselves, but on the platform issues and the issue of malicious competition between the two movies.
Ultimately, the matter escalated too much. To prevent further deterioration of public opinion, and possibly due to an official warning, the platform proactively removed the relevant trending topics and implemented a ban to prevent netizens from mentioning related keywords such as maliciously posting negative news, malicious competition between the two films, etc.
The trending topics list seems to have returned to calm.
Even the comments section was cleared with a single click, as if nothing had happened.
A complex media storm vanished in the blink of an eye.
Xiao He was dumbfounded.
"So, that's how it was solved?"
This works?
Xiao He, who had always resorted to hacking techniques to deal with things crudely, was impressed by Liu Rulan's genius-level problem-solving approach.
Since you're going to mess with us, I'll make a big scene so that everyone knows about it, and then make the middlemen suffer in silence, forcing them to step in and stop this farce.
Moreover, compared to the fabricated trending topics over there, what they're doing here is simply bringing back the negative trending topics that these people had previously suppressed.
If we really investigate this, we can't blame them; they were just telling the truth and didn't spread rumors.
However, Xiao He's only concern was whether doing this would offend the platform.
After all, the platform was also criticized along with them, and they were forced to take action to suppress the trending topics on both sides... What if they make things difficult for them in the future?
Liu Rulan, who had just finished dealing with everything, walked over from the backstage control area.
Seeing the phone in Xiao He's hand, she raised an eyebrow slightly: "I suppose you already know enough about the matter. This matter can be considered to have been successfully resolved. After this group of viewers leaves, we will push the trending topics that we prepared in advance as usual, and then promote the preview results of 'Law of the Jungle' on the platform as usual. Everything will proceed as normal."
Xiao He nodded, then asked his own question: "Sister Liu, we made such a scene, forcing the platform to remove the trending topic. Won't that offend them?"
Liu Rulan chuckled: "They already took money from both sides, and they're not going to refund it. Many netizens got their hands on the drama at that time, and the platform made money from traffic. We'll continue to send them money and traffic for our movie promotion. Are they going to stop doing business with us?"
Xiao He: ...Frog fun, that makes a lot of sense.
"Being infamous is still being famous. This applies to celebrities and them alike." Liu Rulan patted Xiao He on the shoulder and said earnestly, "Businessmen are here to make money. It's not shameful."
Xiao He: "...I've learned something."
