Chapter 61: Trending Search

The next morning, as soon as the Federation citizens woke up, they were greeted by a new set of trending topics.

#Mid-July, the Ghost Gate Opens?#
#Do the deceased truly exist in another form?#
#Popular science on ancient wedding and marriage customs#
#When the suona sounds, you are either ascending to heaven or attending a wedding#

[What the hell? The top searches are occupied by this female again. Who on earth is blindly hyping up this low-tier female?]
[Hilarity ensues. Is everything she says necessarily the truth? Where is the proof?]
[I don't know about the rest, but I know about mid-July. My elders have a rule that every year on this day, we must return home early. I didn't understand why our ancestors passed down such a saying in the past, but now I do.]
[What kind of instrument is a suona? @AncientCultureResearchInstitute What on earth have you people been researching all these years?]
[I used to follow the crowd and scold Jiang Qin for being illiterate, but now it's our turn to be laughed at.]
[It's just that @AncientCultureResearchInstitute hasn't worked hard enough.]
[You guys need to go listen to this song. Such a unique style, the eerie atmosphere is maxed out! Especially when that instrumental music kicks in midway, I always feel like for a split second, I'm looking at a mourning hall instead of a wedding hall.]
[I listened to it too, that part features the suona.]
[So annoying, trivial matters are pushed to the hot searches every single day. How much money was poured into this? Can you stop pushing this kind of person to me? I'd rather look at trending topics about our Federal soldiers.]
……

There were all sorts of comments. More of them expressed skepticism—wondering how a female born on a barren planet could possibly possess so much knowledge of ancient culture.

Jiang Qin's background had been leaked last time, and everyone knew who her biological relatives were. Perhaps her father’s side, the Qi family, might have some well-preserved ancient texts, but it was obvious she had never been in contact with them.

So where on earth did she get all that ancient cultural knowledge?

Others were simply annoyed that a low-ranking female kept making the trending lists just to attract attention.

Those who liked Jiang Qin were still in the minority. Most people favored singers from the Empire, so they inevitably harbored some hostility toward her recent high profile.

Fandoms hated betrayal the most. In their view, anyone who suddenly stopped liking the Empire's singers and switched to supporting Jiang Qin was a traitor.

Therefore, whenever someone promoted Jiang Qin's songs in the chat groups, they would be attacked.

This resulted in a large group of people holding deep hostility toward her, feeling that she was stealing fans from their own idols.

***

In the Jiang Qin fan group.

Wen Xueli woke up early in the morning and listened to the new song. Before she even had the chance to replay it, she was summoned by the group members to go into battle.

She simply could not tolerate anyone questioning Jiang Qin.

Such a pathetic girl.

Her biological father died young, her biological mother abandoned her, and she was abducted right at birth. She should have been a wealthy heiress, but instead, she ended up as an undocumented person on a barren planet.

She finally found a job, but before she could work for more than a few days, she was framed for plagiarism and kidnapped by space pirates—never knowing a moment of peace.

On the Star Network, people were still constantly blackening her name. Thank goodness the young girl didn't like browsing the web, otherwise, how heartbroken she would be.

Moreover, Jiang Qin was petite and delicate. Every time she worked, even with makeup on, one could tell how pale her complexion was.

At a glance, it was obvious she had poor health, likely a lingering physical defect from her past. Deficiencies during such a developmental stage were nowhere near easy to make up for later in life.

Despite all this, she remained so optimistic and hardworking, persisting in her work every day. Even when she was recruited at a high salary by an entertainment company, she never abandoned the bar owner who had helped her during her lowest point.

How could they slander such a wonderful girl!

What if her background was poor? It wasn't as if she wanted to be stolen and dumped on a barren star. If anyone was to blame, it should be those out-of-their-minds space pirates.

Besides Wen Xueli, Wen Jiaqi was also in this group. Although she had been frightened last night, it didn't prevent her from loving the new song.

So she too woke up early, skipping breakfast, and immediately began arguing with the internet trolls online.

Then there was He Zhuoqun. To him, Jiang Qin was the person willing to extend a helping hand when he was completely out of options.

Although the song hadn't been released yet and he didn't know if he could carve out a new path of survival relying on "The Nameless", this did not diminish his gratitude toward Jiang Qin.

Accustomed to forbearance, he transformed into an online machine gun for the very first time. No joke, he could curse a hundred words per minute!

The three of them could be said to be the most active members in the Jiang Qin fan group, so the group owner even assigned them managerial positions.

As for the group owner, she rarely spoke in the group. But everyone knew she was likely a female from a high-ranking planet, and very wealthy. Because that innate, effortless aura of arrogance was not something an ordinary female could possess.

Jiang Qin, who had stayed up late, hadn't woken up yet, so she remained completely unaware that she had such a fiercely combat-ready group of fans. Relying entirely on flame wars, they had managed to argue these trending topics right up to the top of the hot search lists.

***

Awakening from unconsciousness, Ning Feiyu had spent the entire night excavating and reviewing the videos of Jiang Qin scattered across the Star Network, right after brutally beating up his friend.

By the time dawn approached, he had already downloaded all of Jiang Qin's songs, lying down to play them on an endless loop.

To his absolute astonishment, he actually fell asleep while listening. Normally, listening to those other songs only made him increasingly restless and unable to sleep.

Yet, listening to Jiang Qin's songs brought a profound calmness to his mind—so much so that he felt they were too pleasant to fall asleep to, wishing instead to hum along to a few lines.

Yet, he had drifted off to sleep without even realizing it.

Upon waking up and logging onto the Star Network, he clicked into the trending searches, only to find that the top-ranked threads were all viciously insulting Jiang Qin.

They scolded her for pretending to understand things she didn't, fabricating ancient history out of her own rich imagination.

Others cursed her for putting on an act.

Clearly just an uneducated female who wrote a few bizarre lyrics to scam fans, she dared to touch upon ancient culture just for a gimmick.

Some even insulted her for having inferior genes.

In short, these haters had managed to compile a list of ten major sins against Jiang Qin.

Being quite cautious, Ning Feiyu did not rashly post anything to support Jiang Qin. Although he liked her work, he valued a person's moral character even more. If the person he publicly supported turned out to have poor character, it would easily mislead his own fans.

Therefore, he was exceptionally prudent when voicing his opinion.

He usually just cursed people out anyway, but this was the first person he was actually preparing to praise. To ensure there were no unexpected hitches, he contacted someone to investigate Jiang Qin's background.

Half an hour later, a file was sent to his account.

The Federation maintained strict privacy regarding the profiles of females, but since Jiang Qin's life trajectory had already been exposed previously, it was quite easy to check.

Aside from her first eighteen years on the barren star, which lacked fine details, the rest was basically public knowledge within the Federation.

The more Ning Feiyu read, the tighter his brow furrowed, especially upon reading the oral accounts of Jiang Qin's rough experiences on the barren planet.