“However, Brother Xiao, you don’t need to worry too much.”

Xiao Chen made another turn in the conversation.

“Sister Liu has already handled most of it.”

“Huh?”

Xiao He was really about to be suffocated by Xiao Chen’s dramatic pauses.

If there weren’t so many people around watching, he wanted to punch Xiao Chen on the top of his head.

“Sister Liu has already handled most of it?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“How did she handle it?”

Xiao He was somewhat confused.

“Sister Liu said that since getting on the Hot Search has its price, she absolutely refuses to spend extra money to remove the Hot Search.”

“…So she?”

“So Sister Liu also bought Hot Search spots for our opponents.” Xiao Chen said quietly, “Several key creative personnel from ‘Silent Search’ are now also on high-ranking Hot Search spots.”

Xiao He was puzzled, not understanding what kind of move Liu Rulan was making: “What kind of strategy is this?”

“Forget it—” Xiao He spread his hands and asked, “Where’s my phone? I’ll go check it out myself first.”

Xiao Chen immediately handed the phone to Xiao He.

Xiao He opened his phone to check.

At this moment, Weibo Hot Search was incredibly lively, with the top spot clearly showing Liu Zehang and his name, while the second spot followed closely behind, displaying Feng Zhengyang and Chen Yulin’s names.

Xiao He clicked in and was stunned by Liu Rulan’s clever maneuver.

[Feng Zhengyang investigated for wife murder, preparing to flee]

[Chen Yulin’s accidental hand slip creates new glory, Tong Junhui endures humiliation silently, will the battle for lead roles in Silent Search begin soon?]

[Silent Search screenwriter suspected of being a plagiarism dog]

Xiao He: …

Wait, why are these Hot Search topics getting more and more abstract?

But upon careful thought, their damaging information was indeed fake, while these people’s damaging information was genuinely substantiated.

However, Xiao He still didn’t understand Sister Liu’s move.

He thought Sister Liu would find ways to remove or suppress the Hot Search, but instead, what did it mean to hang together with their damaging information in the second spot?

Xiao He scrolled down and then saw new Hot Search terms—

[Kick out malicious competition, don’t treat netizens as fools]

Xiao He: ?

He felt like he was using question marks more and more frequently today.

[I’m really fed up, if you want to promote your movies then promote them properly! If you two sides have the ability, compete on movie quality and box office results! Using such fake damaging information to suppress your opponents, I’ve really seen it all now.]

[Indeed, at first glance I really thought Xiao He and Liu Zehang had reputation collapses, but upon closer look I realized it was malicious competition between opponents, which made me laugh in frustration.]

[@SilentSearchOfficial @LawofTheJungleOfficial, have you two gone crazy? Can’t you properly promote your own movies? Why must you tear down each other’s actors? Are you really using us fans as weapons?]

[I think we should @ the platforms instead. Being able to hang these two Hot Search topics together is truly like the left and right brains fighting each other. Clearly the platforms took money from both sides, wanting to profit from both, they’re really shameless beyond measure.]

[Is no one really going to do anything about this? Just letting these fake materials hang on the Hot Search?]

[These damaging information pieces are so fake they make my vision go dark, without any evidence or solid proof, all just rumors. I really don’t know what the ‘Silent Search’ side was thinking. Has movie promotion now stopped relying on quality, stopped relying on actors’ performances, and relies entirely on buying damaging Hot Search spots for opponents?]

[What do you mean? Didn’t you see several key creative personnel from Silent Search also hanging in high positions? Why not say Law of the Jungle started it first?]

[Let me share a little-known fact: today is Law of the Jungle’s first day of preview screenings. Originally, ‘Law of the Jungle’ related terms should have been actively promoted, but instead their actors suddenly dropped into high-ranking damaging information Hot Search spots. Who started this? So hard to guess, huh.]

[Hehe, sorry, but I really can’t figure out why Law of the Jungle would choose to hang Silent Search on high-ranking Hot Search spots today. Today is their preview screening day – if they’re not hanging their own related promotions but instead hanging their competitors, then their promotion team must have eaten too many mushrooms.]

[Okay, aside from Silent Search buying damaging information about Liu Zehang and Xiao He, isn’t Law of the Jungle also at fault? They also bought Hot Search spots later! They also spread rumor-based damaging information!]

[Hey, don’t talk nonsense. The damaging information in the top spot is indeed ridiculously fake. Liu Zehang already clarified it before, and Xiao He’s side also released a statement clarifying about half an hour ago. Meanwhile, your side’s second spot Hot Search topics, the more I look at them, the more substantiated they seem? Shouldn’t you guys learn to come out and clarify?]

[@OfficialMedia @OfficialCyberPolice @ShanghaiPolice @…, aren’t any of you going to do anything? Malicious rumor-spreading competition during movie promotion period, platforms not doing their job and profiting from both sides, Hot Search becoming a tool for capital battles that can be arbitrarily manipulated – what credibility will these platforms and Hot Search have in the future?]

[As the saying goes, everyone knows exactly what kind of platform this is. We stopped falling for your tricks long ago, don’t really treat netizens as fools.]

Netizens and the platform could be said to have accumulated grievances for a long time, and this incident was practically mocking them to their faces. Netizens’ attention wasn’t really on the Hot Search topics themselves anymore, but rather using this Hot Search incident to debate platform issues and the problem of malicious competition between the two movies.

In the end, the situation indeed became too big. To prevent public opinion from further deteriorating, or possibly because official authorities received reports and issued warnings, the platform proactively removed the relevant Hot Search topics and set up related silencing measures, preventing netizens from mentioning keywords related to maliciously hanging damaging information Hot Search topics, malicious competition between the two movies, and a series of other related terms.

The Hot Search chart seemed to return to peace.

Even the comment sections were cleared with one click, as if nothing had happened at all.

A complex public opinion storm vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Xiao He watched this dumbfounded.

“So, so this is how it’s resolved?”

This actually works?

Xiao He, who had always used hacker methods to handle things roughly, was impressed by Liu Rulan’s genius problem-solving approach.

Since you want to mess with us, I’ll make sure everyone knows about it, and even make the middleman suffer a hidden loss, forcing them to step in and stop this farce.

Moreover, compared to their rumor-based Hot Search topics, their side had merely brought up these people’s previously suppressed damaging Hot Search topics again.

If this were really investigated, it couldn’t be blamed on them – they were just telling the truth, not spreading rumors.

However, the only thing that worried Xiao He was: wouldn’t this offend the platform side?

After all, even the platform got dragged into the criticism together, and they were forced to step in and suppress both sides’ Hot Search topics… What if they give them trouble in the future?

Just then, Liu Rulan, who had finished handling everything, walked over from the control area backstage.

Seeing the phone in Xiao He’s hand, she raised an eyebrow slightly: “I suppose you’ve understood the situation pretty well by now. This matter can be considered smoothly passed over. Once this batch of audience members leaves, we’ll normally push the Hot Search topics we prepared in advance, then normally promote the ‘Law of the Jungle’ preview screening results on the platform. Everything continues as usual.”

Xiao He nodded, also asking his question: “Sister Liu, we made this situation so ugly and forced the platform to proactively remove the Hot Search topics – won’t this offend them…”

Liu Rulan chuckled: “They already took money from both our sides, and they won’t refund it. Many netizens got to eat the melon during that time, the platform earned traffic and money, and our movie promotion will continue sending them money and traffic. Would they really refuse to do business with us?”

Xiao He: … Wow, that makes so much sense.

“Negative popularity is still popularity. This applies to celebrities and artists, and it applies to them as well.” Liu Rulan patted Xiao He’s shoulder and said meaningfully, “Businesspeople, making money – it’s not shameful.”

Xiao He: “…I’ve learned something.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep