The call came from the Propaganda Department, and they had both Liu Zhizhong and Yang Bingbing stumped.
The other party highly praised the company's work efficiency and outstanding task completion progress, stating that after tonight's news broadcast, a critical livelihood program—"Hotspot Interview"—would feature Mr. L's latest work "The Heroic and Generous Against the Wind and Rain!" in full content. They hoped the company would authorize the free online electronic rights immediately and initiate the related trending pushes right away.
Liu Zhizhong had never imagined that he would make it onto Yang Ma's radar. He thought his popularity and influence were about to wane, but instead, the opposite happened.
Now what? The heaviest hitter in state media had taken note. Was he about to trend again? Was it time to continue monetizing the traffic?
Life is sometimes —plans and expectations often can't keep up with the unpredictable!
Yang Bingbing gave a wry smile and said, "Zhizhong, is this the effect we wanted?"
Liu Zhizhong replied, "This isn't the effect I wanted…"
"You're going to trend again, official-style."
Liu Zhizhong shook his head and sighed.
Ever seen someone who didn't want to trend after they did?
Ever seen someone trending more and still sighing with sorrow?
Ever seen someone who doesn't even want to make more money after trending? ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵※𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮※𝓷𝓮𝓽
Well, you've seen it today!
Yang Bingbing was at a loss. Even the company's operations team could not hurry to criticize and educate, but it didn't seem right to blame these subordinates and colleagues either, did it? They didn't understand politics; they couldn't grasp the thoughts of an officialdom marvel like Liu Zhizhong, and that sort of thing couldn't be stated openly.
Yang Bingbing could only immediately open the electronic authorization contract, quickly fill it out, stamp it, and complete the procedures.
Then, she swiftly ordered the deputy head of operations to continue promoting Mr. L. The main message was: Mr. L's latest work will be featured in full content on the national station's "Hotspot Interview" tonight.
This was going to be good…
Once the related operation entries were pushed, in less than half an hour, they rocketed to the top of the trending charts, number one on the hot search list.
However, Yang Bingbing's instruction to the operations team was that if any negative trending topics about Mr. L popped up, they weren't to brush them off this time; they were not to control it at all.
The deputy head of operations was puzzled and asked why they wouldn't control it, as it would have a very detrimental effect on Mr. L's brand influence.
Yang Bingbing said that wasn't the case; perhaps positive energy on one side and negative hot topics on the other could offset each other and keep Mr. L trending continuously.
Wow, such a move almost caused the internet to lose complete control, but Liu Zhizhong's popularity remained sky-high.
The top ten trending topics were basically all related to him for a long time, while other negative societal hot topics were suppressed decisively.
The spectators, the netizens who love a spectacle, began to forget a lot and became more and more familiar with Mr. L.
At the same time, Mr. L's short video platform's showcase sales continually soared, breaking the record with a daily turnover of 500 billion, intensely hot. Because it had incorporated additional links... Ah, sometimes for profit, it's necessary to expand traffic, crazily absorb and crazily 'harvest the leeks'!
This kind of traffic economy was completely incomparable to any traditional e-commerce events like 618; those promotions didn't stand a chance.
Even because of this, a former e-commerce mogul—of course, he had already settled overseas, bought many overseas properties, and pursued investments abroad—commented: The new economy's surging trend is mighty; ride with it and prosper, oppose it and perish; Mr. L far surpasses us back in the day.
Then, just with that comment, it briefly rose to third on the hot search list, only to be pushed down afterward. Netizens berated him as a traitor; he wasn't even worthy to carry Mr. L's shoes!
Another e-commerce mogul, who seemed to have regained freedom recently and wasn't being tricked by swindlers, actually tagged the former mogul saying, "Say less!"
Just these four words also hit the third spot on the hot search list for a while but were quickly taken down.
"Say less," became the hot phrase of the day.
There was a moniker: "Mr. National Hotspot," now exploding across the internet and reaching third on the trending list. How vast is Liu Zhizhong's online influence now?
But this wasn't a glory for Liu Zhizhong; it was distressing to him.
On the top of the whirlwind, pigs could fly, but once the whirlwind passed, the fatter the pig, the more tragic the fall, and the more meat to be butchered.
The more he wanted to escape this whirlwind, the more he was pushed to the crest of the wave, at the mercy of others, powerless and manipulated.
He also saw a lot of charged comments that made it to the trending searches, such as:
"A complete Song Jiang! Yang Ma's new favorite, Mr. L!"
"No L under Iron Fist!"
"Mr. L, your soul is wounded!"
"Say what you're told, the sensible child will be fed, Yang Ma loves you!"
Anyway, after leaving President Yang Bingbing's office that day, Liu Zhizhong switched off his phone—three phones, all turned off!
He no longer felt like making the rounds with gifts; he wanted a brief escape, to be cut off from the world, unreachable.
He simply returned to the villa that Feng Xiaoyue had granted him usage rights to, stayed there, quietly sat by the window, with clear tea, simple food, until the "Hotspot Interview" program finished in the evening. Only then did he give a faint smile and calmly stood up.
Emotion management complete, adjustments made, to hell with it, I'm going to get sick!
Before falling sick, best to sleep first, get a good night's sleep.