Starting from a Bar to Sign Internet Celebrities

When Chen Jincheng saw the paid trolls, he couldn’t help but laugh. "So these are the tactics of the showbiz world? Fast and decisive, I see."

’Still,’ he thought, ’I’d like to see how their army of paid trolls, however large, stacks up against my clipping group.’

The reporters who posted these videos didn’t have many fans on Tiao Yin; their stats were entirely propped up by paid trolls. His clipping group, on the other hand, was a different story. Every member had numerous accounts, each with a large following.

Take Yijin, for example. With the inside information Chen Jincheng provided, he never failed to capitalize on the latest hot topic for a surge in traffic. And then there were the two original "Number One Hunk of Jiangnan" accounts. Even though Yijin had returned the nickname, the followers remained—both accounts had over a million fans each.

Yijin’s studio now managed hundreds of accounts, each with a sizable following.

And combined, the members of the clipping group controlled thousands, even tens of thousands, of such accounts. It was no exaggeration to call them a veritable army.

When it came to waging an online war, unleashing this group was far more effective than hiring paid trolls. Crucially, their clipping accounts could also draw in more new fans, and their methods were infinitely more sophisticated.

Just as Chen Jincheng was mulling this over, his phone rang. It was Yijin.

He answered the call, and Yijin’s furious voice erupted from the speaker. "Brother Cheng, have you seen the news online? It’s outrageous! Okay, so what they’re saying is technically true, but posting it just to smear you? That’s not okay!"

"I’ve already collected the data with everyone in the clipping group. We’ve proved those guys are paid trolls. We even know which agencies they belong to! The same accounts are spamming the exact same comments across multiple videos. Do they think we’re idiots?"

"And they’re probably just trying to create a diversion, right? This has to be connected to Eldest Young Master Wang calling those people out over the Hanfu incident."

"Brother Cheng, just sit back and watch. It doesn’t matter who’s behind this. Just wait and see what I and the boys can do. We’d be ashamed of ourselves if we didn’t absolutely crush them."

Yijin’s voice was filled with righteous indignation, but he was also speaking the truth. As members of Brother Cheng’s clipping group, they had all made a fortune thanks to him.

When artists from Second-Life Star did product promotions, the group’s promotional clips could include affiliate links, which earned them a hefty sum.

Take the current Hanfu promotion, for example. By including the affiliate links for the outfits worn by the four girls, they could earn a commission of several dozen yuan for each Hanfu sold, even with a price tag of over 400 yuan. Almost everyone managed to sell at least a few.

For his studio’s hundreds of accounts, each one sold two or three pieces on average. Some even sold the premium 3,000-yuan sets, which brought in an even larger commission. It was no problem to earn over a hundred thousand yuan in a single promotional wave.

Crucially, once an account gained a following, it could also be used for some lower-level monetization gigs.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

And all of this was thanks to Brother Cheng. Anyone who went against Brother Cheng was going against them. And no matter who it was, they would take them down.

"Alright. Handle it as you see fit," Chen Jincheng said with a chuckle, hearing Yijin’s words.

This was precisely why he had brought the clipping groups into his fold from the very beginning, even having Sister Hong encourage more accounts to join them.

They really were capable of exerting immense influence.

It wasn’t surprising that Yijin and his crew could unearth evidence against the paid trolls and even pinpoint which agencies were behind the operation.

After all, most people who made clip compilations were fairly knowledgeable about computers and the internet. Some were even tech-savvy specialists, like Yijin himself, who had been a total tech geek before moving to Coastal City.

Since Yijin and the clipping group had taken charge of the situation and already knew what triggered it, he decided to let them handle it.

’I tried to explain, but they wouldn’t listen and insisted on targeting me. Fine. Let’s blow this whole thing wide open and see who suffers in the end.’

’Besides,’ he thought, ’since this is happening anyway, I need to figure out how to maximize my own gains and channel all this attention toward the Hanfu promenade.’

But before that, he pulled up Eldest Young Master Wang on WeChat and sent him a single word: "Fuck."

He followed that up with a middle-finger emoji.

’This whole mess is his fault. I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t chew him out a little.’

「Meanwhile」 Eldest Young Master Wang was having dinner with a director. It was Rao Zhi. Preparations for the show *Thirty Only* were complete, and they were about to call the cast to the set.

He was there, of course, for Lin Gou.

As an investor, he had already secured a spot for Lin Gou in the cast and was now hoping the director would look out for him a little.

Even without this dinner, the director would have had to take care of someone placed by an investor. But making the effort to dine with him personally created a different kind of goodwill.

He understood such social niceties. Having invested the last of his money into several series at once, he naturally needed to cultivate good relationships with the directors.

When he suddenly received a message from Mr. Chen, he checked it immediately. Then he froze.

"Wang, what is it?" Lin Gou asked, noticing his reaction.

With an awkward expression, Eldest Young Master Wang said, "Mr. Chen just suddenly reamed me out... and he seems really pissed off..."

"Could it be about what’s happening online?" Lin Gou chimed in. "There are a lot of people slandering Mr. Chen right now, saying his personal life is a mess, that he sleeps with all the Miss Chengs to cast them."

"Huh?" the Internet Celebrity Young Master said, completely baffled. "What’s the big deal? Why would they need to slander him for that? Isn’t that just a fact?"

Sun Yifan, the girl he’d been pursuing, had become one of the man’s Miss Chengs. God knows how many times he’d screwed her.

’If you’re going to smear him for *that*, you might as well claim he has a small dick.’

Lin Gou reminded him, "It’s a fact, yes, but people outside the influencer world probably don’t know. They wouldn’t deign to even glance at an internet celebrity."

"If Mr. Cheng hadn’t acquired LeTV Film and Television, they probably wouldn’t have given Mr. Chen a second look, and they certainly wouldn’t understand the prestige behind his title as the ’Internet’s Number One Scumbag.’"

The Internet Celebrity Young Master paused at his words, then immediately pulled out his phone to check. A moment later, his brow furrowed. "Why are they in such a rush? There’s definitely something more going on here. It looks like that director’s exposé..."

As the scion of a major, wealthy family, he could easily see the underlying currents of such matters. He took out his phone and dialed his mother’s number.

He knew he had likely caused trouble for Mr. Chen.

But he wasn’t one to run from his problems.

’I’ll deal with this first, then go and apologize to Mr. Chen.’

While his father’s side of the family was facing financial difficulties, his mother’s family was completely unaffected. In fact, his mother’s side was their family’s true safety net.

It would be no problem for his mother’s family to contact a certain department or write a letter of complaint.

...

「Shanghai.」

In the chairman’s office of the Si Rui Film and Television Group, Zhou Huapeng was watching a video. It was the interview footage sent back by the reporters.

The video clearly showed Chen Jincheng having the Miss Chengs kiss his cheeks one by one.

After watching, Zhou Huapeng sneered and gave his orders. "This Chen Jincheng is too arrogant. The buzz around this is biggest on Tiao Yin right now, correct? Have the reporters post the video there. The headline will be: ’Chen Jincheng Has No Moral Compass, Forces All Miss Chengs Into Public Displays of Intimacy.’ After that, have the paid trolls steer the narrative. I want you to monitor this whole process."

The assistant beside him nodded and immediately relayed the instructions. A short while later, the interview video about Chen Jincheng went live.

Following Zhou Huapeng’s orders, the assistant began monitoring the video as soon as it was posted under the headline, "Chen Jincheng Has No Moral Compass, Forces All Miss Chengs Into Public Displays of Intimacy."

It was undeniable that the topic was trending heavily on Tiao Yin. The moment the reporters posted the videos, views and likes began to flood in.

However, as he read the comments appearing on the videos, the assistant immediately sensed that something was wrong.

He hurried to report to Zhou Huapeng. "President Zhou, something’s not right."

"What is it?" Zhou Huapeng asked, frowning.

The assistant immediately handed over his phone. "President Zhou, you should see the comments on the videos. I think Tiao Yin’s users might have a warped sense of morality."

Zhou Huapeng grew even more confused. He took the phone and started watching the video himself.

The moment he saw the comments, he was completely floored.

’What the hell?’