HDIEUMDBTSB Chapter 59: The Change of Weibo Dominance

 Volume Two: The Road to Winning Fans

Chapter Nine: The Change of Weibo Dominance

"Xiao Yao, Xiao Yao, did you unfollow the Orange?"

"What?"

"I'm asking if you unfollowed Chuzhi. He used to be your idol, right? I remember you followed him very early on, didn't you?"

The above conversation took place in the staff dormitory, not the student dormitory, but the staff dormitory of the Chinese restaurant next door. Although it's called a dormitory, it's actually a three-bedroom apartment in an old residential community, with three bunk beds in each bedroom.

"Qin Jie, I don't follow stars anymore, now I just want to make money, men and idols are not important." The speakers were Qin Jie and Xiao Yao. The former is twenty-four or twenty-five years old and has been working in the Chinese restaurant for three years. Although she is not the oldest among the service staff, she is the head waitress.

In small and medium-sized Chinese restaurants, being a head waitress doesn't mean less work, sometimes even more, and the reward is two to three hundred yuan more than ordinary staff every month.

Xiao Yao just turned twenty and has only been working in the Chinese restaurant for half a year. The reason why the two are so familiar is because they are fellow villagers.

"You don't follow stars anymore? Didn't you just buy the collector's edition album of Li Xingwei? It costs two to three hundred for one." Qin Jie retorted immediately.

"Wei Wei's songs are really good, very talented, and different from Chuzhi, who only has a pretty face." Xiao Yao retorted immediately.

Qin Jie said, "You change your words so quickly. I remember you used to say you loved the Orange the most, and your favorite fruit was also oranges."

"People always mature. I've passed the stage of just looking at appearance." Xiao Yao said firmly.

"I'm not familiar with Li Xingwei, I feel Chuzhi is quite good." Qin Jie said.

Huh? Did she take the wrong medicine?

Xiao Yao felt strange. When they talked about Chuzhi before, Qin Jie's exact words were: "If a man is only famous for his looks, what's the difference between him and a prostitute?"

"I'm not interested in fan circles." Qin Jie said, "I just saw a video on Douyin where Chuzhi thanked his fans. I remember you followed him quite early on, even if you unfollowed, you're still part of the vine pattern."

What's she saying? Xiao Yao couldn't understand why. She hadn't been surfing the internet just now; she had been playing games and getting a high score.

"Chuzhi thanked his fans who had supported him before, and printed the names of over twenty million fans on the walls of the practice room. You play on Weibo, if your name hasn't been changed, it should be there." Qin Jie said. "I just feel like, Chuzhi may not be great at singing, but he's a nice person, he knows how to be grateful. I'm not a fan, but I'm starting to like him a bit."

The vine pattern made up of over twenty million IDs was imprinted in her mind, and the star clusters on the ceiling were dazzling.

"I'll take a look." Xiao Yao lowered her head and opened Weibo. Three of the top five trending topics were #Claiming Nicknames#, #Jiu Ge, I'm back#, and #Fan Appreciation Ceiling#.

Then she clicked on the live broadcast clips reposted by the self-media, and understood what the vine pattern was.

The live broadcast in the practice room couldn't be seen in full, and the reposts were divided into sections, making Xiao Yao feel a bit frustrated. She opened the app in a hurry, and she still had the Mango TV app, even though it was showing the behind-the-scenes footage now, there were exciting clips to watch below, even though this was a privilege for members, Xiao Yao was already one.

The vine pattern made up of over twenty million IDs imprinted in her mind, and the star clusters on the ceiling were dazzling.

"Life is like a train journey to the grave, there will be many stops along the way, and it's hard for anyone to accompany you from beginning to end. When the person who accompanied you gets off the train, even if you feel reluctant, you should be grateful and wave goodbye."

"I will always remember that over eight million fans on Weibo never left me, they gave me trust, and they were the starry sky that supported me through the toughest roads."

...

Xiao Yao switched back to her Weibo page, where she followed more than seventy people, including: Eat a Big Orange. The reason she didn't unfollow was not because of "never leaving me, giving me trust," but simply because she forgot, in fact, she also unfollowed when the scandal broke out.

Even though it was past one in the morning, the live broadcast room was still lively. Little fruits were searching for their IDs in the behind-the-scenes footage and pictures. Mango TV was very thoughtful, using medium-format cameras and 180mm macro lenses to take pictures of the walls and ceiling, a total of five.

Each photo could be enlarged to clearly see the IDs, and many little fruits downloaded the pictures, cropped out the ones with their nicknames, and used them as their phone wallpapers.

Those who found them spread the word in the comments section, and it can be imagined that their circle of friends would also post:

"Haha, I claimed my vine ID, love Jiu Ge, it's worth it."

"To hurt the Orange, you have to get past me, this little sapling!"

"I am an orange tree."

"I will become the guiding star shining on Jiu Ge's path forward!"

...

It took Xiao Yao over ten minutes to find her nickname, "Yao Yao in the Sky," on the star cluster in the ceiling photo. More precious than the vine pattern, when she watched the replay of the program, at the moment when the lights were turned off, the over eight million names on the ceiling turned into a sky full of stars. It was clear to her that one of those stars was hers. She was overwhelmed with emotion all over her body.

"I still love oranges the most. My favorite idol is still the Orange!"

Xiao Yao wasn't alone in this sentiment. Among the over eight million fans, aside from the cases where one user has multiple accounts, there were those who had silently supported, trusted, and supported the Orange. But there were also cases like Xiao Yao's, who had simply forgotten to unfollow or didn't use Weibo much anymore, so it didn't matter who they followed.

Finding their names in the starry sky pattern made them even more devoted, feeling that this was the proper way to honor their IDs on the ceiling. Together with the silently supportive fans, they became extremely loyal, feeling a strong sense of responsibility. Once a person feels responsible, it's quite frightening.

Even though Chuzhi currently didn't have the comment function enabled on Weibo, he still managed to push two related super topics into the top five trending topics, which was a terrifying sight.

Originally, Wu Tang was number one in terms of Weibo super topics and various data, but today, the position of Weibo hegemon changed hands.

Wu Tang's brokerage company manages the Weibo fans themselves, quite professionally. But even so, they couldn't compete with the rampant growth of the little fruits. You could say it's infuriating.

On another note, the staff of the program didn't return to their hotel until around 1:20.

"[Speechless, everyone.]"

Pang Pu saw Xiao Guo's message in the colleagues' group chat, but because it was a bit late, no one responded, so he asked privately on WeChat.

"What happened?"

It's not that Pang Pu cared so much, mainly because Xiao Guo was following the B team's shoot in Seoul, which was a place he wanted to go to, so he was particularly curious about what had happened.

Xiao Guo: "[Are the staff around H country's stars idiots? Clearly Zheng Min'an's itinerary changed and didn't return to Seoul, yet they insisted we wait. We waited for several hours for nothing, and they blamed it on our program team's communication issues. I'm so fed up with this Husky.]"

Xiao Guo: "[H country's stars are truly busy. They might be in Thailand, Vietnam, or the Philippines, but there's no way they're in Seoul. We waited for two days and still didn't see Zheng Min'an.]"

Xiao Guo: "[Can't make it big. YG Entertainment is really meticulous. They want to make money, but it feels like they don't care about the Chinese market. It's tough. Today I only had a piece of bread, but when I got back to the hotel, I was too tired to eat anything.]"

Three consecutive complaints, Pang Pu felt the resentment from his colleague. The time difference between H country and China is about an hour, so it's around 2:00 am there, and they haven't even had a proper meal yet. It's really miserable.

Hahaha— for some reason, there was a kind of gloating feeling. Pang Pu's first reaction was, fortunately, he didn't go.

Xiao Guo: "[Lao Pang, how's it going on your end? Is the little fresh meat's temper okay?]"

Regaining his composure, he couldn't show too much joy when friends were in trouble. Pang Pu replied: "[Chuzhi is doing fine, how should I put it, he's quite easygoing, has emotional intelligence and tactics. When he saw us staying up late, he even sent us chrysanthemum and wolfberry tea. He also ordered takeout, taking care of us quite well. He tried to order takeout for us twice in two days, but was politely refused by our director.]"

Xiao Guo: "[Fuck! I envy you so much. Here I am not even seeing Zheng Min'an.]"

"[Hang in there, H country stars have high ratings and lots of red envelopes afterwards.]"

Pang Pu typed this to comfort him, but in fact, with the news of the practice room breaking today, the popularity had far exceeded that of the H country stars. To be more blunt, his bonus wouldn't be less.

Xiao Guo: "[Now I envy you, Lao Pang. Why did I come with the program team to Seoul to suffer?]" 

Seeing this message, for some reason, Pang Pu's favorability towards Chuzhi soared once again. Earlier, it was quite easygoing, now it's very easygoing.


NEXT