Chapter 24

The post wasn't hard to read, so everyone got it — Sang Ying was digging up old receipts. A direct callout. A full-on face-off.

Users with fuzzy memories started pulling up the 'compare results' thread.

Wait, it's coming back...

It's ALL coming back!

Golden Legend — the box office disaster that couldn't crack 200 million no matter how long it ran. The spark that sent Sang Ying charging into Domestic Entertainment in the first place.

A flop that didn't recoup a cent. Couldn't even cover the cast's salaries. Pulled from theaters in disgrace. Huang Yunwen's big Domestic Entertainment vanity project.

Back then most people were just there for the celebrity meltdown. Then everyone forgot about it.

Makes sense — Sang Ying had pulled so many moves since then, it was a blur. But today...

Back to basics, huh.

The chaos-loving, gasoline-pouring, 'I'm online for the drama' crowd mobilized instantly.

On one side, they were copy-pasting Y03's post into forums, dropping comments like 'thank god Domestic Entertainment has someone this unhinged.'

On the other side, they were boldly tagging the other main character directly in Y03's comment section.

·

Meanwhile, Y03 was in the comment section acting like they owned the place.

User A: ['...hold on, are you seriously about to compare this to Huang Yunwen's new project?!']

Y03: ['Correct, there's a prize. DM me your address, I'll send a little gift.']

User B: ['Aurora Entertainment only has one drama finished right now, right? The Favored One? The Diary vs. The Favored One?']

Y03: ['Fair matchup, right? Both idol dramas. [copy]/DM me your address, I'll send a little gift.']

User C: ['A gift?']

Y03: ['Six-piece electronics bundle. Laptop, phone, tablet... I forgot the rest. Six items total, that's the vibe.']

User D: ['WAIT so if you reply to me I get a gift?!']

Y03: ['Yep.']

User E: ['I follow you and I think you're chaotic but you know your limits — going after Huang Yunwen is fine, no complaints. But why drag The Diary into it? That whole cast isn't just Huang Yunwen. Other people poured their hearts into it too...']

Y03: ['Sounds reasonable but actually isn't. The second I 'declare war,' that's at least five guaranteed trending topics — I'm literally driving traffic to their side. They should be paying me marketing fees honestly — ! Wuwu, my sincerity is being trampled (crying) (fake) (don't send me your address, you're not getting a gift)']

User F: ['What if The Diary is actually better though? Sang Ying would've shot herself in the foot. Not scared?']

Y03: ['That's literally for the audience to decide. Oh wait, let me drive more traffic — @TheFavoredOne_RemakeOfficial']

User G: ['People online act like they hate the rich but nobody's more of a bootlicker than netizens. Look at this comment section, practically begging to kiss someone's feet. Got time to be a cyber-simp online but are you that devoted to your own parents...?']

That comment blew up.

The people roasting it and the people defending it were going at it hard in the nested replies.

The comment itself had barely 20 likes — but the nested thread hit a wild 67 replies.

The roasters thought the whole thing was bizarre. You're online and somehow your parents got dragged into it?

'Every time someone posts about a cat or dog, suddenly it's about missing your parents' — already ridiculous enough. But this circus wasn't done. A new lesson had been added to the curriculum —

Every time a billionaire shows up, suddenly it's about your parents?!

You drop one comment and now you're a bootlicker? The bar is underground.

The defenders had their own whole theory — that regular people were basically providing emotional labor for the rich.

The billionaire gets a little ego boost, tosses out a bit of cash, and ordinary people come running like puppies. Zero dignity.

Sang Ying was lying on the couch reading that comment, phone held up in front of her face, one foot dangling off the edge.

Her mouth curved.

— Anyone who knew Sang Ying well would've recognized that look. Something bad was about to happen.

Sang Ying typed out a reply, then Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V — copy-pasted it to every single user who'd pushed back against that commenter.

['YT just dropped a new car, pretty cute — consider it a gift from me, say hi to your parents for me~']

YT is a foreign auto brand. One of the benchmarks of the industry.

Their SUV line is the most iconic. This year they dropped a new mid-size SUV — gorgeous paint, premium finish.

Bare price: 300,000 yuan.

Then she replied to the original commenter: ['You can simp for me and get money — what do you get for simping for your bros? (finger guns)']

Netizens: '...'

WAIT WHAT?!

Hilarious. Devastating. But also heartbreaking, because...

I picked the wrong side!

Let me simp, please, let me simp, I'm begging — I want a free car too. Or even the six-piece bundle, that works!!

Sang Ying dropped a bomb in the comments and walked away, scrolling on through the section.

The moment that post went live, the comment section exploded like fireworks. Every metric was climbing by the tens of thousands — practically by the second.

As a metaphor...

Picture the kind of explosion where someone's screaming, 'Servers, please hold on — !'

·

The Diary production set.

The Diary had finished filming before airing, so its promo timeline was longer than The Favored One's. And as luck would have it...

The timing lined up perfectly.

The vibe was a little weird.

So... what now?

One thing Domestic Entertainment never gets right — news travels way too fast. Everyone knew, but since they were coworkers, they had to act like nothing happened.

Dramas airing back-to-back in the same window always get compared. Normal.

But this was the first time they'd been...

Put on blast like this.

Honestly, everyone except Huang Yunwen was lowkey thrilled — because The Diary was trending.

That Sang Ying wasn't wrong. In this era, traffic is everything in an industry that runs on exposure.

All this noise meant viewers — whether they were watching out of genuine interest or just to compare — would still be clicking.

Only thing is, it was kind of brutal for Huang Yunwen...

Everyone knew about the drama from before. Almost no secrets in this industry. All you could do was sigh — fans really did cause this mess.

Just grind through it.

If Huang Yunwen could outlast it, that's a win.

If not...

Also fine.

Whether Huang Yunwen got dragged or The Diary got dragged — none of it mattered in the end. What everyone actually watched for was whether the ratings hit their targets.

Even if audiences were dunking on it while watching, that was fine. As long as investors kept buying ads and the platform was grinning ear to ear.

Huang Yunwen's private dressing room.

The air was frozen solid.

The makeup artist was carefully touching up his face, movements feather-light. The only sounds were the hum of the fan and the soft pat of hands on skin.

Huang Yunwen had already blown up once. Now he sat there looking perfectly composed — except for his fingers wrapped around his phone, knuckles white.

Huang Yunwen's Agent was scrolling through her phone. The top ten trending topics were almost all connected to this mess —

#SangYingSendsOut39NewCars#

#TheFavoredOneDropsAirDate#

#TheFavoredOneVsTheDiaryArena#

#SangYingRepliesInComments#

#HuangYunwenStopHidingAtHomeIKnowYou'reThere#

#SimpForMeAndGetMoney#

...

Huang Yunwen's Agent closed her eyes for a moment.

All the trending topics tied to that person combined had broken 10 billion total reads. Discussion count in the millions, still climbing.

Nobody could pretend this wasn't blowing up.

First time...

A promo campaign quite like this one.

Hongming Platform had already sent word — don't play dead, Huang Yunwen. Post something. Play along with Sang Ying's hype cycle.

When Huang Yunwen first heard that, he lost it.

Play along?!

That Sang person had literally gone and pledged loyalty to Yuanshang TV, and Hongming was acting like they'd been hexed — still hadn't flipped on her?!

Huang Yunwen's Agent had explained it though. Having the same platform as an enemy was worse.

If The Favored One performed better, the platform would hand it all the prime ad slots and pull The Diary's. That would look even worse.

This way, with the Arena matchup framed like this, The Diary was guaranteed to be Hongming TV's top push.

Huang Yunwen stared at Huang Yunwen's Agent for a long moment. It felt absurd. Was she really sure The Diary would lose to the other side?

But — he had to admit she was right.

This way there was a floor.

And besides — The Diary's content would not lose to The Favored One.

If Yao Yingbo had directed it, with his obsession over visual aesthetics, there was a chance of getting outplayed. But Yao Yingbo wasn't the one directing.

Huang Yunwen had looked it up. The Favored One's director was some nobody with a string of flops.

The Favored One was pre-chewed gum. The plot was the same old recycled stuff. Could production design alone carry it?

And besides...

The Favored One was web-only. No broadcast channel.

You couldn't even fill out a full comparison chart. The TV ratings column would just be blank.

— The classic fan-circle and data-circle move: pull up a little comparison table, line up all the metrics side by side, clean and brutal.

The Diary had Hongming streaming and a primetime slot on Linjiang Satellite TV.

National TV ratings, city-group ratings, Kuyun real-time data — just those three dimensions alone could generate three or four separate trend lines.

The Favored One didn't even qualify to play.

Huang Yunwen thought it through, felt his chest loosen, and asked Huang Yunwen's Agent: 'That draft — is it ready?'

Huang Yunwen's Agent handed him a glass of water.

'Still being written. Don't you want it to be solid? We need to come across as reasonable and composed — tell them to polish it a few more times.'

Did the platform want a response?

Of course they did.

Otherwise they'd use the next drama's casting as leverage — Huang Yunwen had quietly built up a real resentment toward the platform without even noticing.

The response post, designed to ride the hype, couldn't be too aggressive — after all, he'd been in the wrong originally. But it couldn't be too soft either, or he'd look like he was folding.

He needed to find the balance between 'I'm taking the challenge' and 'unbothered and dignified.'

A classy little hype grab.

And it had to establish a persona.

Obviously that kind of high-bar post wasn't something Huang Yunwen could write himself. He needed outside help — and he wasn't getting it for free, he was paying.

There were cultural media companies that did exactly this. Not just ghostwriting for celebrities, but for influencers too.

Money talks, they'll take the job.

Basic trend-riding copy ran eight thousand steps. Anything needing 'fine-tuning' doubled that. Final payment adjusted based on how well it performed.

Huang Yunwen's Agent reached out to one of the well-regarded 'old-school' firms in Wangjing.

They promised 'three drafts delivered,' rush order same day, plus ten thousand extra.

Huang Yunwen's Agent said no problem.

Once the draft was in hand, they set it to go live around 1:30 AM.

Not Huang Yunwen's choice — he'd consulted a professional PR team.

Reasoning: 'Late-night posts hit harder emotionally. Avoids the peak-traffic information overload. And most importantly — it looks like you stayed up writing it.'

Huang Yunwen thought that made sense. Good plan. So he told his assistant to post it at that time.

— His Weibo was managed by his assistant anyway. Even the fan-club check-in tasks were handled by the assistant.

In the early hours of the morning, Huang Yunwen's Weibo account went live with a new post.

Before the main crowd of spectators could even arrive, it was deleted in under a minute — then Huang Yunwen's account posted a new one.

Everyone hadn't even processed it yet. They looked first.

['——

Haven't said this much on Weibo in a while. Figured I'd say a few words.

First — thank you to everyone paying attention.

The Diary is the project I've poured the most into.

From the first day of filming to the wrap, the whole crew pulled all-nighters. Director Chen Siyuan obsessed over every single shot. The cast brought their A-game. Cinematography, lighting, sound, even the set crew — everyone gave everything.

That kind of effort getting seen by this many people — good reviews or bad — that's my luck.

About Sang Ying's post — I saw it. Honestly, my first reaction was confusion.

I don't have a personal relationship with Sang Ying. Golden Legend was a long time ago.

That project didn't perform well. That's a fact. I've never avoided it — and it weighed on me for a long time.

...'