Chapter 164: Astonishing Buzz—An Unintended Success?

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Wang Dagang watched Leng Yan begin his performance in the video.

Then he read the caption above it:

“A new song created by Bai Ling!”

Wang Dagang was momentarily stunned. Then the singing reached his ears.

As line after line of lyrics appeared on the screen, he failed at first to grasp their meaning.

But when he connected them with the various remarks circulating online, he suddenly understood.

“Fuck! Bai Ling is dissing me!”

“Damn it!”

“How dare she?”

“She’s gone too far!”

“Where’s my lawyer’s letter?”

His assistant’s voice came through the phone.

“Director Wang, something really serious has happened.”

“The song was only just released, and Leng Yan put it out through a short-video platform.”

“But it has already taken over every trending search!”

“Every single one! Including the controversy from before, and everything connected to it!”

Wang Dagang’s hand, reaching for the lawyer’s letter, froze at once.

An expression of disbelief appeared on his face.

“How is that possible? It’s only a song, and she’s only a singer. How could she possibly take things this far?”

“I don’t believe it!”

As a director, Wang Dagang considered himself to be standing at the pinnacle of the entertainment industry.

After all, he made films.

People like him had never taken singers or television producers seriously.

What kind of status did they have? How could they presume to challenge him?

But even people of their stature—

No.

Even the most celebrated directors in the industry, the venerable veterans whom Wang Dagang himself greeted with a smile—

could not simply make one move and have it explode across the trending searches, occupying the rankings outright.

That was practically inconceivable.

For something like that to happen, the incident had to possess an extraordinarily broad influence.

How had Bai Ling managed it?

Very soon, however, he figured it out.

“It must be because of the withdrawal controversy a few days ago, combined with what happened this time. That’s why it created such a huge wave of attention and discussion!”

He ground his teeth in fury.

Without hesitation, he opened the trending searches to see for himself.

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There was no need to search. The moment he opened the webpage, a flood of notifications appeared.

As soon as he searched for related topics, an overwhelming number of posts came into view.

“Bai Ling’s new song—the lyrics are incredible!”

“This is what an effective counterattack looks like. A textbook example.”

“The power of a singer must not be underestimated.”

“Wang Dagang never imagined he would kick an iron plate and end up provoking Bai Ling.”

“The entire internet is waiting for Wang Dagang to apologize.”

“Why is Wang Dagang so arrogant? An in-depth look at the darkness of the entertainment industry…”

“Bullying others with his power and arguing by force—what gives Wang Dagang the right to be a director?”

Looking at the headlines and trending topics of every size, he saw that more than twenty of the top thirty entries were related to the matter.

What was more, they had all shot up the rankings in less than half an hour, pushing down major news concerning other celebrities.

The only things still clinging to the list were several shocking social incidents and a report about an artist injuring a finger while filming.

The latter was obviously manufactured traffic.

And beneath the trending topics related to Bai Ling’s new song, it clearly would not last much longer.

The artist’s management company was probably furious.

They had finally paid to push the story onto the trending list, only to watch it tumble back down like this?

But Wang Dagang had no attention to spare for such matters.

All he knew was that public opinion had completely slipped beyond his control.

He immediately said to his assistant, “Get the public-relations department to suppress it!”

“This must be fabricated traffic. Bai Ling was holding back a major move—she wants to ruin me!”

“Fine. I really did underestimate her.”

“Damn it!”

His assistant gave a bitter smile.

“Director Wang, the more troublesome part is that these don’t seem to be paid accounts.”

“We tried reporting the hired internet trolls, but it had no effect. And even if we wanted to suppress the story, the amount of money it would cost… might be rather substantial.”

“They’re all real people?” Wang Dagang’s expression darkened.

He began scratching his head in agitation. Paying for this could easily cost tens of millions.

Was it worth spending tens of millions just to calm this storm?

And even if they managed to suppress it for the moment, they could not control what happened afterward.

Whether Bai Ling had acted deliberately or not, Wang Dagang could already feel the pain in his wallet.

“There’s no other way. Suppress it!”

“No matter how much it costs, push it down!”

People in the entertainment industry lived by their reputation.

At the very least, he could not allow his public image to collapse completely.

Even Wang Dagang had to guard against a wave of public opinion sweeping across the entire internet.

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Clearly, tonight would be a sleepless one for him.

Bai Ling, meanwhile, had never expected the system to take the initiative to deliver a reward in the middle of the night.

“Host, you helped Leng Yan write a song, successfully igniting a wave of public discussion across the entire internet. Rewards are being issued…”

“Congratulations, Host. You have received one Potential Detector, with ten uses available!”

“Congratulations, Host. Your overall singing ability has increased by ten points!”

“Congratulations, Host. You have received five hours of usage time for the Dimensional Karaoke Room!”

Bai Ling got out of bed and went online.

A dozen minutes later, an inscrutable expression appeared on her face.

“Damn, I only sent Leng Yan a song. I originally planned to have him release it after appearing on the show Guess Who I Am.”

“I didn’t expect him to move so quickly, or to cause such a huge commotion.”

“Good heavens, look at those trending searches shooting upward. One topic drops, and another immediately takes its place.”

“I wonder if my follower count has gone up.”

When she checked, it had indeed increased.

She had already crossed the threshold of ten million followers.

Afterward, when she withdrew from the competition, some followers had left while others had joined.

Taken together, the result had been an increase of more than a million.

Tonight, building on that foundation, she had gained another million followers in barely half an hour.

And the number was still climbing.

At this rate, it would not be long before her total follower count reached fifteen million.

By the standards used for other celebrities, which included bots and inactive accounts, Bai Ling’s follower count could even rival that of the so-called stars with fifty million followers.

She was no longer merely a top-tier celebrity.

She was approaching the upper ranks of the top tier, infinitely close to the territory occupied by the so-called Best Actor, Best Actress, and superstar legends.

Of course, that referred only to her current level of attention, not to a permanent state.

Even so, Bai Ling was already very satisfied with what she had achieved.

Most celebrities could increase their follower counts only through a handful of rare opportunities.

Bai Ling, however, had one wave after another. She had never stopped.

The feeling of seeing her popularity rise every time was simply exhilarating.

Bai Ling glanced at her messages. Leng Yan had sent her a smiling dog-head emoji.

Laughing, Bai Ling replied, “Now that’s a case of planting willows without meaning to and ending up with shade. Young Master Leng, if I have a new song next time, I’ll consider you first again.”

Afterward, Bai Ling replied to messages from several other acquaintances.

Only then did she turn her attention to the system’s rewards.

(End of Chapter)