Xiang Qingwei's post was swiftly taken down after only a day as if it had never existed at all.
Xiang Qingwei didn't pay much attention to these things, as she had more pressing matters to attend to.
The marketing team reported to her continuously, and she would receive messages from the group chat almost instantly upon opening her phone.
The data they provided her with wasn't limited to Ning Yang's; she also received updates on the other ninety-nine contestants, including their follower counts and engagement rates after each photo shoot.
Yao Yuan already had a fan base, and his Weibo account had millions of followers even without the boost from the show.
Among all the contestants, he had the most followers, and with his exceptional physical condition, his promotional photos were eye-catching as well, naturally garnering the most engagement.
There were also three internet celebrities in the mix. Because the photos on their Weibo accounts were vastly different from the promotional photos, discussions, and roasts raged between their fans and detractors.
After Yao Yuan came Ning Yang. By midnight, his follower count had already broken past one hundred thousand, and his name trended on social media. As a complete outsider, no dirt could be dug up about him, which piqued people's curiosity even further.
Numerous threads had already been created about him on Douban, all with positive feedback—except for one, which a curious soul had started by comparing Ning Yang to Ling Jiayi due to Xiang Qingwei's involvement. This comparison had displeased Ling Jiayi's fans.
Even though the fan circles were different, as long as there was even a tiny overlap, fans would fight until the sky turned black.
This was unavoidable.
Xiang Qingwei slept at 3 A.M. and woke up at 8 the next morning. After a quick wash, she turned on her computer and logged into WeChat. Several members of her publicity team stayed up all night sorting data, only managing to sleep a few hours from 5 to 6 A.M.
Xiang Qingwei glanced over the data report compiled by her team.
TR Video would release promotional self-introduction videos from the contestants throughout the day, ten at a time.
Yao Yuan unsurprisingly made the first batch.
Yao Yuan was simply too strong; the other talent agencies wanted their own trainees to avoid direct confrontation with him.
Vivian had been hesitant, worried that Yao Yuan would outshine Ning Yang. After all, Ning Yang's temperament was more reserved.
But Xiang Qingwei decisively placed Ning Yang in the Starting lineup, successfully convincing both the program's production team and Miss K to secure his spot.
Regardless of how well yesterday's promotional photos had been shot, people suspected that the program's editors had cherry-picked the best shots, making them essentially fake. However, it was impossible to edit a video.
Furthermore, some contestants who looked good in still photos exposed many flaws when they moved.
The first set of promotional videos immediately sparked a lively discussion online once released.
Ning Yang's popularity, unexpectedly, even surpassed Yao Yuan's in a short span of time.
This was within Xiang Qingwei's expectations.
Unlike Yao Yuan, a renowned professional, Ning Yang was an absolute rookie; he had never appeared in public before and thus possessed an air of mystery. To the public, he was fresh and curious, and they couldn't help but want to know more about him.
This was what constituted "popularity."
In the promotional video, many contestants revealed their shortcomings in terms of stage presence, but Ning Yang's promotional video instead garnered him a wave of fans.
It wasn't only because his video looked better than his static photos; whether it was his face, figure, or demeanor, all were at the topmost level.
It was also because of the polite and humble attitude he displayed in the short interview segment in the video, his unhurried speech, and his clear and pleasant voice, which all garnered him much favor from the masses.
After the promotional video was released, Ning Yang's Weibo followers increased at a faster rate than Yao Yuan's.
By 9 P.M., within a full twelve hours, Ning Yang had amassed over four hundred thousand followers, a gain of three hundred thousand.
Yao Yuan, on the other hand, gained fewer than twenty thousand followers throughout the entire day.
By midnight.
After several rounds of promotional pushes by his team, Ning Yang had firmly outranked Yao Yuan in all data categories.
After seeing the data they sent to her, Xiang Qingwei sent a handful of large red envelopes to encourage them.
Amidst the chorus of "Thank you, Xiang-zizi!" in the group chat,
Xiang Qingwei closed her laptop, sat on her chair, and stretched her arms, releasing a long yawn. She rotated her stiff shoulders and neck, then walked toward the liquor cabinet, pouring herself a glass of red wine.
Carefully, she carried the wine to the balcony, where a light rain shower had cooled the city earlier in the day. Even the night breeze was refreshing. Leaning against the railing, Xiang Qingwei took a sip of the red wine, smiling as she watched the lights beneath her feet. The boiling blood inside her gradually calmed.
But this was only the beginning. The war without smoke would continue for another three months. This wasn't merely a battle between contestants, but also a battle between the teams supporting them from behind.
And today, she won the first victory.
The corners of Xiang Qingwei's lips curled slightly upward. A war without smoke or blood could be just as brutal, thrilling, and full of adrenaline as any physical confrontation. In this war, the stakes weren't merely an individual's life, but their destiny.
Fu Yanbo was right; Xiang Qingwei was born to do this job. She enjoyed this feeling and was entranced by it.
Xiang Qingwei only discovered the new message in her phone when she checked it before bed.
Someone had transferred fifty thousand yuan into her account this morning.
Whoever it was, she knew without having to ask.
Xiang Qingwei cursed, then turned off her phone and went to sleep.
Fu Yanbo couldn't sleep. He waited all day but didn't receive a single message or phone call from Xiang Qingwei.
If fifty thousand yuan were tossed into a pond, at least there would be some splashing sounds. But tossing it to Xiang Qingwei yielded not even a ripple.
One week after the initial evaluation, the contestants of Super Idol began their reevaluation.
Xiang Qingwei didn't have time to attend the event, but she learned of the class rankings from a small director she'd befriended while watching the initial recording.
A Class remained with nine members, but the roster had undergone significant changes. Only three original A Class members remained: Ning Yang, Yao Yuan, and a personal trainee. Meanwhile, Tan Yi, who had been mistakenly placed in B Class due to a scoring error, unsurprisingly moved up to A-Class.
Using the contestant profiles, Xiang Qingwei compiled a list of the top twenty competitors, over half of whom had moved up to B Class or higher.
These twenty competitors were the ones she'd identified as having the greatest overall strength based on the data she'd collected beforehand; all of them had the potential to threaten Ning Yang's position.
After the second evaluation, Xiang Qingwei added a few more artists to her list and removed a few.
Sunday arrived quickly.
Xiang Qingwei had spent the entire week working late into the night, so he took advantage of his rare day off to sleep in. When he finally answered Fang Xingzhi's call, he was still half-asleep, and only remembered it was Sunday after a few moments of disoriented thought.
Upon hearing Xiang Qingwei's clearly sleepy voice, Fang Xingzhi couldn't help but chuckle softly. "Are you sleeping?"
"Ah, sorry, I forgot." Xiang Qingwei sat up from his bed, his hair a mess, and squinted blearily. "I haven't slept well these past few days, so I'm catching up on my sleep. What time is it?"
"It's 3 P.M. I was worried you might forget, so I gave you a call to remind you. Did I wake you up?"
Fang Xingzhi's deep and warm voice washed over Xiang Qingwei, its sound mesmerizing and electrifying.
Xiang Qingwei felt an itch in his ears and reached up to scratch them.
Fang Xingzhi's voice carried an undertone of laughter. "Then I'll hang up first; you can still sleep for another two hours."
Xiang Qingwei nodded, then realized Fang Xingzhi couldn't see him, so he said goodbye.
Fang Xingzhi hung up.
Xiang Qingwei held the phone, and then collapsed back onto his bed. Though he was still sleepy, it was difficult for him to fall back asleep, so he lay quietly in his room, thinking.
Despite all his contemplation, he still couldn't figure out exactly what Fang Xingzhi meant by asking to meet him for dinner.
If he had a good impression of her, why hadn't he contacted her after their first blind date? Xiang Qingwei guessed that perhaps he'd been forced into the date by his elders as well.
When they met on the plane, Xiang Qingwei felt they had a good conversation, but it was more along the lines of mutual admiration.
The third time they met in the S City restaurant, he had walked away without so much as a greeting.
At the fourth encounter at the banquet, he had been far colder than the previous two times.
But if he had no interest, why would he invite her out for dinner? Someone like Fang Xingzhi could have any date he wanted; why did he ask her out?
Wasn't this an intentional step toward developing a relationship?
Xiang Qingwei opened her eyes. Could it be that his heroic rescue last time had sparked some feelings?
Lying on the bed, she let her mind wander until two hours later when she finally got up to wash and put on makeup.
Just as she finished her makeup and was about to change her clothes, Fang Xingzhi called.
"Wake up?"
"Getting ready to change. What time did you make the reservation?" Xiang Qingwei pulled open the curtains and noticed it was raining outside. It had been raining for a whole week already.
"Falling at six-thirty," Fang Xingzhi replied.
"Send me the address of the restaurant. I'll be heading out soon," Xiang Qingwei said.
"No need, just get ready and wait at home. I'll pick you up," Fang Xingzhi replied.
Xiang Qingwei was taken aback. "Ah? How do you know where I live?"
Fang Xingzhi was silent for a moment. "Isn't that the same place I took you last time?"
Xiang Qingwei immediately felt flustered. "Ah, sorry, I fell asleep and forgot that you took me there last time. Okay, I'll wait for you then."
Fang Xingzhi's voice carried a smile. "Mm."
After hanging up, Xiang Qingwei stood in the wardrobe room, unsure of what she should wear. She suddenly realized that, despite everything that had happened, a man as charming and handsome as Fang Xingzhi indeed held a certain appeal to her.
Upon receiving Fang Xingzhi's call, Xiang Qingwei stepped into the elevator, subconsciously checking her reflection in the mirrored walls. She noticed a faint smile resting on her lips, her eyes glistening slightly.
Outside, the fine drizzle continued to fall. Xiang Qingwei opened her umbrella and walked toward the gate of her residential area.
From afar, she spotted Fang Xingzhi's car parked outside.
As if he had also seen her, Fang Xingzhi stepped out of his car, holding his umbrella, and walked toward her through the rain.
The two of them walked toward each other, step by step, holding their umbrellas and splashing through the rain puddles on the ground, under the drizzle of this summer day.
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The entire book has been translated, with a total of 414K words and more than 1,200 pages.
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