Chapter Fifty-Nine

  That day, Li Jin drove the car directly back home. The next day at the company, he found out that everyone had been making noise until after 4 am, and there were three stacks of empty wine bottles. Everyone was drunk, and no one remembered who they were, let alone where Li Jin went. Li Jin's first reaction was to ask who paid the bill, because this celebration banquet was also included in the budget. Bei Fuming had been forced to drink for a whole night, and his originally round body looked even more like a ball. When he heard the question, he barely lifted his three-inch-thick eyelids and replied:

  "Director Ji."

  Having money is really having money.

  Li Jin looked at the bill which was as long as his arm in astonishment.

  SG company acted swiftly, and within a week, the streets were filled with SG's new season advertisements. Walking in the subway, one glance up and you'd see not Shu Mu's smile with a hint of disdain, but Luo Fei rubbing his hair, giving a warm and endearing smile that makes you want to hug him tightly and give him two kisses. Even some websites conducted a public survey, saying that now the entertainment circle is dominated by young idols, representing the arrival of a new era of male beauty, and asked everyone to vote for the most popular four young idols in the entertainment circle. Luo Fei successfully topped the list and even attended the results announcement ceremony, answering questions from netizens online. It's said that the website's traffic exploded that day, far surpassing the previous visits of the heavenly kings and queens.

  Rumors are many when one is popular, but Li Jin has always been careful to maintain Luo Fei's image. Moreover, he hasn't been in the industry for long, so there isn't much material for paparazzi to grab onto. The rumors about his backstage fights were old news from years ago, and even if they were dug up again, they wouldn't cause a stir. The media did dig up that one time when Luo Fei and Shu Mu had an encounter at the backstage of an event, where Shu Mu was being aggressive towards him. Originally, the report was true, saying that Shu Mu was making things difficult for Luo Fei's manager, which led to Luo Fei being humiliated. However, as the news was re-posted and edited with added sensationalism, it slowly became distorted into Shu Mu directly bullying Luo Fei in front of foreign friends, causing him to lose face. Anyway, Shu Mu has a lot of black history, and for every person in the industry who praises his noble character, there are just as many people who hate him so much their teeth ache. At one point, public opinion was almost entirely against him, condemning the "king" for having a big temper and being unaccommodating to junior artists.

  As for how much Li Jin contributed to this, even Qin Yige couldn't figure it out.

  But public opinion is just that, and brain-dead fans have never cared who was right or wrong. Ruo Fei openly going against Shu Mu like this has provoked the ire of a group of brain-dead fans from Shu's family. On a certain day, Ruo Fei's fan site was mysteriously hacked, with the server crashing entirely. Although it was restored to normal after a night of emergency repairs, all the data from when the site was first built was destroyed in an instant. Afterwards, while Shu's brain-dead fans were celebrating, they also simultaneously exploded Ruo Fei's Tieba and homepage, and even plotted to hack into Xingyin's official website.

  Then at some dawn, the official website of Shu Mu fans was hacked.

  Lu Fei's fan base is no less diverse than Shu Mu's, ranging from rock music-loving manic youth to white-collar female elites who love watching Lu Fei smile with his lips pursed on stage, and even middle school girls who scream at the sight of Lu Fei and Qi Yichen together. It's a veritable smorgasbord of fans. So, picking out one or two exceptional hackers from this crowd is as easy as pie. Moreover, since the other side made the first move, the fans are filled with righteous indignation and have joined forces in an extraordinary display of unity. While Shu Mu's official website was still down, the Baidu Tieba and company homepage had already been hacked, and even the Wikipedia entry had been altered.

  Xiao Pu, as a newcomer to the entertainment company, was shocked and felt enlightened. Shu Mu, who had been popular for ten years, was being blackened by the official website and exploded on the forum? He went to find Li Jin with the intention of "this is a good opportunity to learn knowledge, I want to ask Brother Li about his opinion on this matter". Before entering the door, he heard the following conversation coming from inside:

  Li Jin: "The current leader of the fan club responsible for Bao Ba is doing a good job, let's give him a 30% raise as a bonus."

  Bei Fengming: "No problem, but let him bring someone to blow up the post about Laughing Teacher too. Laughing Teacher is a judge and has strong fan mobilization power, I've already made arrangements, at that time just say it's done by Su Mu fans."

  Li Jin: "That's no match for Yichen's fans, who are all rock 'n' roll rebels with a stronger killing power."

  Bei Feng said: "Alright, by the way, that hacker we found last time was pretty good. Let's keep in touch, we might need him again for Black Heaven's official website."

  "What did you say?"

  Xiao Pu looked through the gap in the door and saw Li Jin sitting on the sofa reading documents, while Bei Fengming was leaning against his leg playing games with an iPad.

  He deeply felt that there were still too many things he needed to learn...

  Afterwards, Bai Fu explained to him that a newcomer with popularity but not enough attention and fame, the best way is to tie his name with the most popular one. This method of tying together, for female celebrities, is a scandal, while for male celebrities, it's either a mentorship or a sworn enemy.

  "Of course, rumors aren't impossible," said Bai Fuming, scratching his own thick layer of ear fat, "but Shu Mu is He Ershao's person, everyone knows that."

  Moreover, it's impossible to carry each other, Shu Mu and He Shi are on good terms, Qin Yi Ge is a good friend of Li Yi Heng, as long as they don't get their nerves crossed, neither will carry the other, so they can only be sworn enemies. However, being the arch-nemesis of the most popular person is very dangerous, if successful, it's a huge sensation, but if not, it's a crushing defeat that you can't recover from for this lifetime. So far, there are few examples of success, and even fewer people who can grasp the degree just right.

  "But with you here, brother, we don't have to worry." Bei Fuming finished cleaning his ears and walked away.

  But being in the eye of the storm, Li Jin didn't feel relaxed at all. Even if their side had a well-planned and meticulous plan, they couldn't withstand the counterattack from Shu Mu's side, which made it difficult to defend against. However, nowadays Shu Mu has gone downhill, with a public relations team and brokerage team that lack strength, relying solely on his previous reputation, he can hold on for a while, but not forever. Sometimes Li Jin would steal a glance amidst his busy schedule and couldn't help but think, why did Shu Mu think that without him in the brokerage team, there would be no impact?

  In the end, it didn't matter who won or lost. What was important was that Luo Fei had only been in the industry for less than half a year and hadn't even finished one competition, let alone released any music or movies, but he had already accumulated a large following and attention. He successfully jumped to second-tier star status.

  Li Jin also took advantage of this opportunity to actively contact the editor-in-chief of COSA, one of the four major fashion magazines in China. After being rejected three times by the editor-in-chief at Milan Fashion Week, Li Jin finally managed to catch up with him at the airport. Three days later, the editor's assistant called Li Jin to discuss an exclusive interview with Luo Fei and even accepted his proposal for Luo Fei and Qi Yichen to appear on the cover of COSA Men together.

  It's worth noting that it's rare for a contestant from a talent show to appear on the cover of a fashion magazine, especially since COSA Men is currently competing with another men's fashion magazine for the top spot in domestic male readership. Li Jin's victory was hard-won and significant.

  The public's attention is limited, and even the hottest news can't stay hot forever. After a week of media coverage and fan wars, the first encounter between Luo Fei and Shu Mu finally came to an end. The spotlight began to shift to other areas, and fans were exhausted, so they decided to take a break and prepare for the next battle.

  Li Jin stood in front of the office window on the twelfth floor, looking down. The sky was gloomy, as if it had wrapped the entire city in a dense gray blanket that didn't let any air through, with an ominous and murderous atmosphere like a stormy mountain rain about to arrive.

  With Shi Mu's temper, he would never let it end with just a blacked-out official website and an exploded post bar after being used and slandered like that.

  He must be brewing a more sinister revenge method.

  Never mind, come on anyway——

  Li Jin pulled up the curtains, picked up the documents on the table with one hand, and turned around to leave.

  You make way for me, and I'll follow through.