C124
by UntamedS#Jiang Yu’s trending topic# quickly took over the top ten trending searches, squeezing into the top five positions with sheer force among a crowd of popular searches.
While Jiang Yu was still in the car on his way home, he received a life-threatening phone call from Ling Xia.
Of course, the call immediately turned into a round of scolding. Jiang Yu thought he could endure three minutes of her anger, but in less than a minute, he was defeated and quickly hung up the phone.
Ling Xia, sitting in the car, turned pale with anger, and slammed her hand on the steering wheel, fuming: “This little brat, one day he’s going to make me so mad that I’ll have a stroke, and when that happens, he’ll have to take care of me for the rest of my life.”
She quickly began to calm herself down with some motivational words, “Don’t get angry, don’t get angry, getting angry causes fine lines. Eye cream is expensive, masks are expensive. This isn’t a big deal. A slip of the finger will just get a trending topic, and people’s interest will die down soon…”
After muttering for about three minutes, Ling Xia finally managed to calm down.
At that moment, Jiang Yu posted a Weibo message: [My finger slipped.]
Ling Xia’s eyes twitched, and she sat in the car doing deep-breathing exercises like yoga while muttering again: “Don’t get angry, don’t get angry, don’t get angry, eye cream 1288, eye serum 1688, lifting and firming masks 120 per sheet…” She suddenly flew into a rage again, “Jiang Yu, you better not make me catch you…”
Then Jiang Yu’s message came through: [Sister Ling, I’ve posted on Weibo to clarify.]
Before Ling Xia could reply in fury, another message came in quickly: [But looking at the comments, did I do something wrong again?]
Ling Xia grabbed her phone and quickly typed a reply: “Are you brain-dead…”
Before she could finish typing the angry message, Jiang Yu sent another message, this time with a picture of a magazine featuring the latest LV collection: [Sister Ling, I think this bag in the magazine suits your style perfectly. I’ve already placed an order for it, bought all three colors.]
Ling Xia’s face immediately lit up with a smile. She deleted the angry message, word by word, and retyped: [This is LV’s latest fall collection, do you think three colors are too many?]
Jiang Yu: [Not too many, different outfits need different bags to match. It’s a pity there are only three colors. If there were more, it would be perfect.]
Ling Xia: [My little Yu is so considerate. You go ahead and rest now, leave this small matter to Sister Ling to handle.]
It had to be said, after two years of working with Ling Xia, Jiang Yu had learned very well how to pacify his manager.
However, while he was skilled at soothing his manager, he wasn’t as good at handling his fans.
Jiang Yu had originally posted the Weibo to explain his slip of the finger, but things didn’t go as he had hoped.
Qingmei: We’re not done here, stay tuned for the next chapter! You’re still online eating popcorn while they fight? Unacceptable.
Xiao Fei Xiang: You used to record shows together as friends. Why are you silent now, eating popcorn instead of speaking up? Can’t accept it.
CP Fans: We’re trying to mediate here, but the fans of both brothers are too busy to even take care of their own mess. You want to stir the pot? Unacceptable.
The already heated battle between the fans of the three groups now turned some of the anger toward Jiang Yu.
Of course, Jiang Yu’s own fans rushed to defend him, and what started as a chaotic fan war caused by capitalist manipulation turned into a four-way battle.
Jiang Yu successfully accelerated the fan conflict beyond expectations by a simple slip of the finger.
#Jiang Yu Caught Online#
This hashtag, thanks to sheer strength, managed to push aside his previous trending topic and soared from fifth place to number one.
Just as a new round of fandom war was about to erupt—
At that moment, Shen Qingran also liked a comment criticizing himself, then quickly unliked it.
Shortly after, he posted on Weibo:
[Caught something from someone… accidental like.]
Netizens: “????? Are you two sitting together gossiping? Even your accidental likes are synchronized?”
Qingmei: “…Ge, was that a slip of the finger too?”
And it didn’t stop there—Shi Fei over on his side also accidentally liked a post and then unliked it.
Netizens: “Say no more. We get it. Another accidental melon-eating moment.”
Xiao Fei Xiang: “What is this chaos again?”
Shi Fei also posted on Weibo:
[Accidental like.]
“One moment it was smoke and flames, an all-out fandom war. The next, we get this comedy act. As a bystander, I truly don’t know what to say anymore.”
“Hahahahahahaha why is this so funny to me? I’m reasonably convinced the three of them are sitting together gossiping and ‘slipping’.”
“Why are you guys even fighting? While you’re here battling it out, they’re probably playing cards together.”
“Let’s all disperse—these three clearly get along well. No need to keep fighting. Don’t let instigators use us.”
“They’re all talented singers. Whoever wins awards isn’t up to us, it’s up to the judges.”
“All three fanbases used to get along. This sudden fight is confusing. Let’s call it off.”
“Three people slipping at the same time? This is clearly a coordinated signal—they want fans to stop fighting.”
“Got it, brother. We’ll stop. If you’re out here personally trying to calm things down, how can we still act immature?”
“Three people all slipped? I have a wild theory…”
“Sis upstairs, go ahead and spill it. Better yet, write it in 200,000 words.”
Originally, all three fandoms had a good number of rational fans. The fight only escalated because antis stirred the pot.
Now that the idols themselves had all “accidentally” liked posts and stepped in, how could the battle fans keep fighting? Fighting now would be like going against their own idols.
Adding to that, Shen Qingran, along with Ling Xia and Song Yiyuan, all sent their PR teams to control the narrative online. The issue quickly calmed down.
Especially Song Yiyuan, who had just outsourced to a new PR team—this incident was their trial run, and clearly, it worked well. The team proved strong.
Tang Kun, even after everything died down, still didn’t understand.
In cases like this, even if everyone knew it’s the antis causing drama, the real idols usually didn’t step in. But not only did these three show up, they did so harmoniously and all at once. It went completely against the standard “celebrity feud” rules.
Just as confused was one of the “main leads” of the situation— Jiang Yu himself.
He had actually slipped while gossiping, but what about Shen Qingran and Shifu?
Some of those public comments that shifted the tone did look a little suspicious—they were possibly planted.
Could it be that Shifu used the situation to his advantage and resolved the issue?
If so… didn’t that mean he accidentally helped his Shifu?
Jiang Yu, now excited, called Shi Fei, hoping for praise—
Only to be hit with devastating news:
“Jiang Yu, you still have time to gossip? Sounds like you’re not getting enough test papers. From now on, two practice sheets a day.”
Jiang Yu wanted to cry.
This… this wasn’t the ending he hoped for.
…………
Shi Fei was sitting at home when he saw the tide of public opinion online begin to shift in a better direction. He rolled his neck and muttered to himself—
“There really isn’t a single peaceful day, huh.”
Just then, a message notification popped up on his phone from Penguin [TN: a messaging app]. It was from his editor, Changsheng.
Just as he was about to reply, the screen flashed and Song Yiyuan’s avatar appeared—he was calling.
Shi Fei swiped up to answer.
On the other end, Song Yiyuan’s slightly excited voice came through:
“Xiao Fei Fei, how was the effect of the comment control just now? Pretty good, right?”
Shi Fei was surprised.
“Wait—you were behind that?”
He knew Shen Qingran and Ling Xia’s PR teams had already stepped in. With them working together, there wasn’t much that couldn’t be handled. He didn’t expect Song Yiyuan had gotten involved too.
“If not me, then who else?” Song Yiyuan said proudly.
“I just hired a PR team—they’re pretty well-known in the industry. Look, it only took them less than an hour to suppress the whole online storm.”
He added with a touch of amazement:
“I didn’t even expect them to work that fast. I thought it would take at least three hours.”
Shi Fei, blunt as ever, exposed the truth:
“That’s because it wasn’t just you. Shen Qingran and Jiang Yu’s PR teams jumped in too.”
“…Really? I thought it was all my team’s doing.” Song Yiyuan sounded a little conflicted.
“So we didn’t get a proper test of their abilities after all.”
To be fair, Song Yiyuan had put a lot of thought into helping Shi Fei find a reliable PR team.
For a celebrity, a good team could determine how well they handled crises in the future.
Shi Fei’s tone turned more serious:
“Don’t worry, we’ll have a chance to test them soon.”
He walked toward his room while rolling his neck and added:
“Remember the plan we made when we first started?”
Back then, Song Yiyuan had thought Shi Fei was daydreaming when he said he wanted to knock Tang Kun off his king-of-the-hill pedestal.
Now… he was actually starting to get a little excited.
Even so, he still didn’t quite know what Shi Fei’s full plan was.
Shi Fei explained:
“Tang Kun likes to hire paid commenters to stir things up, right? His new album’s dropping soon. When the time comes, let’s help him promote it a bit.”
“Killing with kindness isn’t something only he knows how to do. We’ll use his own tricks against him.”
Song Yiyuan instantly got it, and with a wicked little chuckle, said:
“You’re so young, how do you come up with so many evil ideas? Leave it to me. I’ll handle it.”
Shi Fei opened his laptop, logged into his Penguin account, and said while typing:
“Did you book the recording studio for me yet?”
Song Yiyuan confirmed it, and Shi Fei replied:
“Alright, I’ve got something else to do. Hanging up now.”
After the call ended, he clicked on the blinking message from Editor Changsheng.
The editor had sent over a dozen messages, the gist of which was:
Some companies were interested in buying the film/TV rights to Shi Fei’s novel.
He listed out the companies involved.
Shi Fei set the phone aside and placed his fingers on the keyboard.
[Flightless Bird]: “You already know the choice I’ll make—why bother asking?”
Changsheng:
“You think I want to ask? The higher-ups at the site want their cut from the rights sale. They made me ask. But honestly, it’s not just that. I mentioned your conditions to them last time—one company actually hinted they might be open to it. I think they might say yes.”
Shi Fei smirked and typed quickly:
[Flightless Bird]:
“If they really agree to those terms, of course I won’t pass up the money. But you didn’t message me just for some ‘maybe’ info, did you?”
Changsheng:
“You are the most careless author I’ve ever met. Do you seriously think that once your novel is uploaded, your job is done? That you can just sit back, do nothing, and wait for your monthly royalties?”
Flightless Bird:
“What else would I think?”
Changsheng:
“You’re gonna be the death of me, I swear. I’m messaging you to let you know that your novel King of Ten Thousand Annihilations has attracted interest from multiple publishers. Do you have a preference? A lot of overseas publishers have also reached out.”
Flightless Bird:
“No preference. Just go with the same few as before. Same terms as last time—if they agree, sign the contract.”
Changsheng:
“I knew you’d say that. Alright, I’ll go respond to them.”
—
Shi Fei’s novel wasn’t just a bestseller in the domestic market—it was a hit overseas too. His previous two works had already been licensed to international publishers.
Since those collaborations went smoothly, there was no need to constantly switch partners.
Meanwhile, after five consecutive days of working late into the night, Shi Fei finally finished recording all versions of his new song for three different countries.
Thankfully, the entire process was handled by him alone. If anyone else had been in charge, it would’ve taken much longer—just memorizing the lyrics would’ve taken five days.
On the other hand, Tang Kun hadn’t been idle either.
To hype up his soon-to-be-released album, he did several interviews and even held a rare “down-to-earth” livestream, urging fans to support his new record.
Three days before release, he began the pre-sale.
When the pre-sale ended, on August 15, Tang Kun’s new album officially launched. Aside from Penguin Music, it dropped on almost all major platforms.
This time, his company went all-out with the marketing campaign—
They spared no expense, aiming to break into the international market.
Homepage banners on major music sites, trending topics on Weibo, giant billboards in major cities, even video ads plastered on subways—they pulled out all the stops.
Two of the album’s tracks were also chosen as the theme songs for two upcoming hit movies releasing next month.
Even the album name was ambitious: “New Journey.”
Tang Kun had invested heavily in this project—not just domestically, but especially in the overseas promotion.
He pulled strings, spent big money, and bought his way into a few key international promotional channels.
His goal was clear:
Break into the international music scene, and solidify his position as a top-tier pop king on a global scale.
What he never saw coming was—
On the exact same day his album officially launched…
Shi Fei’s new single “18” —in three different international versions —also dropped.
Simultaneously.
TN:
I’ll update again in a few hours 😁
Thank you so much for this chapter ^u^. I always enjoy reading your translations. Take your time and don’t overwork yourself. Make sure to look after yourself. I will never complain about more to read though >.<