At this moment, on the real-time trending area, some were the online crazed fans of Du Jinghuai, while others were paid internet trolls.
Li Jing’s newly registered Weibo username was “Earn Some Money then Run.” Because it was clearly a fresh, newly registered account, clean and with a high weight, it was easily added into a group by the internet troll friends.
More internet trolls were diligently exchanging brainwashing packages and directing comment control.
Earn Some Money then Run: [Wow, it’s so lively!]
Today I Also Hit a Wall: [Sister, your ID is so purposeful.]
Earn Some Money then Run: [It’s okay, it’s okay.]
Soon, the group administrator appeared.
xx1ee: [Fifty cents for each comment, just post it, 10 comments are enough.]
Earn Some Money then Run: [This is too good!]
Under her trending topic, for every insult they hurled at Li Jing, they received half a yuan, which also went into her account. Li Jing looked at the thousand-person internet troll group, as if she were looking at a group of slaves working for her.
So the more they insulted, the more Li Jing earned, and the more the male leads felt she was pitiful and miserable, a perfect cycle.
Earn Some Money then Run: [Who wouldn’t take this money, they’re stupid!]
Earn Some Money then Run: [Charge! My people!!!]
In the thousand-person group, everyone saw her blatant username and felt her spirited fighting spirit. For a moment, the internet trolls were all greatly encouraged.
Earn some money then run, charge!carpreads.pages.dev
Li Jing leisurely leaned back on the sofa bed, thinking to herself, “Luxury suites are just so good, sleeping is so comfortable.”
By the second half of the night, the traffic gradually slowed down.
Because Du Jinghuai did not come forward to respond to the matter, his fans began to brainwash themselves, saying it was just a misunderstanding, that their idol couldn’t possibly be interested in a working girl. The public’s attention also gradually dispersed, and the comment control* kpi was not easy to complete.
TN: fans controlling the direction of socmed comments through centralized likes/retweets/etc.
The paid internet trolls were tired.
Actually, after insulting her again and again, they found that this ordinary person was quite pitiful. There was no real evidence to discredit her, and looking at her background that was dug up, she was actually an adopted orphan.
The time she gave Du Jinghuai the cake was because she was working at the cake shop. In a way, it was… quite sad.
But when they were about to stop, there was always a passionate voice popping up in the group.
Earn Some Money then Run: [My people, keep charging!]
Earn Some Money then Run: [Are you guys resting? If you don’t take this money, I will. Fight till dawn.]
Human nature was like that. If everyone stop, then fine. But once someone got caught up, the wheel would keep rolling forward.
So the thousand-person internet troll army worked for another half a night.
When dawn broke, Li Jing yawned and woke up.
The group was completely wiped out.
Not only this group, but also many other internet trolls joined in, and Ye Yan had made her a lot of money this time.
An average of 400 comments per person, Li Jing earned 660,000 yuan overnight.
Awesome awesome awesome, so touched.
[Earn Some Money then Run] little sister happily left the group.
She thought, with her earning power, she could show off her wealth to a certain silver-haired handsome guy next time.
In the future, she would go to the beach villa with the rich sisters to spend her old age, be neighbors with the highest Main God in the Transmigration Bureau, why would she even work for the Transmigration Bureau?
Hee hee.
Li Jing went to the front desk of the internet cafe to pay the bill and then walked out.
Her backend account had another entry.
From Male Lead Number One.
Fu Lingchu had someone locate Li Jing’s phone, spending a few thousand yuan.
The money was a small matter, but the information it revealed was important. It seemed that Fu Lingchu had also been emotionally torn last night. On the one hand, he realized that he was paying too much attention to the substitute, but on the other hand, he couldn’t control himself, so now he finally came to find her.
Li Jing looked around and found a direction, then went there with ease.
Before going offline, she searched for nearby bridge underpasses.
She wanted to make sure that when the male leads found her, they would see the pitiful and miserable scene she had imagined.
System: “As expected of you!” She can always sell misery from a fresh and unique perspective.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, President Fu is also on the way.” Li Jing said modestly.
Now that her little flip phone could be located, the next step for Fu Lingchu would be to listen in on her phone. The stronger Fu Lingchu’s desire for control, the more he was losing his mind, which was a good sign.
But for a strong and self-respecting little white flower, especially when she had been attacked online and left with nothing left to her name, this kind of control would be unbearable!
So—
When Li Jing stood under the bridge underpass, she watched with a gloomy face the man getting out of the Maybach, dressed in a suit, as always, elegant and extraordinary.
The stark contrast in that moment made her face a mixture of embarrassment and shame, her voice trembling.
“Fu Lingchu,” she glared at him fiercely, “Can you stay out of my life?”
Fu Lingchu’s dark eyes were fixed on her.
Li Jing’s skin was pale and transparent like paper, with faint blue under her bright eyes, making her look even more fragile and desperate.
She hadn’t slept all night. Fu Lingchu made a judgment.
—Indeed. She was making money all night.
Fu Lingchu, with his heavy aura, stepped on the dirty ground under the bridge underpass with his expensive leather shoes, walking towards her: “Come with me.”
“Come with you?”
Li Jing laughed in a broken way: “Why should I go with you? Don’t you know? All this started when I met you!”
—Nothing wrong with that statement, as the male lead number one, Fu Lingchu was indeed the first to inflict physical and mental abuse, this blame was rightfully placed on him.
Fu Lingchu felt an indescribable bitterness in his heart, but also a secret sense of satisfaction. Because she was overwhelmed by fate and wanted to hide and lick her wounds, but in the end, she could only be found by him and held in his palm.
His expression was still mocking, but he didn’t know his voice had softened.
“Where else can you go, Li Jing?” Fu Lingchu asked softly, “The whole country knows your name, your face, where can you hide?”
Besides me, who else can take you away?
Li Jing smiled, tears slowly soaking her eyelids.
—Of course, it’s the male lead number two!
The system’s prompt had already sounded, and Li Jing heard Feng Ce’s irritable and cold voice as expected.
“Li Jing, come back to school with me!”
Fu Lingchu’s feeling of control was doused with a bucket of cold water.
Feng Ce was already extremely impatient. He had broken his phone yesterday and couldn’t find Li Jing’s whereabouts. Fortunately, Fu Lingchu was a bigger target, and this old cunning bastard was indeed faster than him in finding her.
Feng Ce frowned, looked at the terrible environment of the bridge underpass, and then at Li Jing’s haggard face, he couldn’t help but scold: “Are you sick? You stayed here all night?”
Li Jing’s thin and frail body flinched slightly, her nose letting out a soft sniffle.
Fu Lingchu and Feng Ce both stopped.
She was so fragile, yet so stubborn.
She would rather hide under the bridge underpass alone than ask for help from either of them.
“I’m not going with you,” Li Jing bit her lip, shaking her head, acting like a little white flower, backing away step by step, “Have you seen those comments? Go and see, they’re all the same, you’re all the same…”
Tens of thousands of Weibo posts, countless insults and rumors—Li Jing had personally supervised the fermentation all night, she had to let the male leads feel it.
After all, now male lead number one’s favorability was 38%, male lead number two’s favorability was 42%, with this hormone level, not getting worked up would be a sin, even ghosts wouldn’t believe it.
Li Jing turned around sadly, Fu Lingchu reached out to stop her: “Let’s talk about it when we get back—”
“No!—”
The girl’s voice was so sharp for the first time, like a sharp knife cutting through the heart, the blood that spurted out was the crystal tears at the corner of her eyes.
Li Jing: “How’s my acting?”
System: “Freaking amazing?!”
Fu Lingchu and Feng Ce were completely stunned.
In the end, they just watched that thin figure, slowly fading away, getting smaller and smaller.
Yesterday, all the brainwashing packages that the paid trolls had mass-distributed were still circulating online. A simple search for Li Jing’s name would reveal a flood of insults and ridicule.
Fu Lingchu took the laptop handed to him by his assistant in the car and browsed through a few pages.
[“Selling herself”, “She’ll do anything for money”, “Kneeling to the rich”]…
Those words were incredibly harsh.
Fu Lingchu knew better than anyone that Li Jing wasn’t like that.
On the other side, Feng Ce was also browsing those comments on his phone.
Then—that phone was also smashed.
They all knew what kind of tragic yet self-reliant person Li Jing was, someone who considered money as dirt.
But they didn’t do anything, instead, they allowed this violence to happen—just to protect Ye Yan.
Li Jing walked and asked the system, “So you know what they’ll do?”
In the original plot, the male leads didn’t have much sympathy for the substitute’s situation, and even this kind of melodramatic plotline was just a necessary part of the old-fashioned melodramatic novel.
But now the male leads’ favorability towards Li Jing was far higher than in the original plot, and even their feelings for the substitute had a lot of complex content.
The system asked humbly, “What will they do?”
“You haven’t grasped my spirit yet?” Li Jing shook her head, “Of course, it’s to spend more money and get my name off the trending searches!”
Ye Yan was responsible for smashing it up, and the male leads were responsible for taking it down.
One plot point, making money from two angles.
Who’s happy, she doesn’t say ^_^
System: “……You’re amazing!!!”
Li Jing pressed down her hat and walked slowly and methodically on the road.
“Then now, let’s reverse the male lead’s third storyline.” She secretly curled her lips.
As the instigator of Li Jing’s online attack, Du Jinghuai’s feelings were more complex than Fu Lingchu and Feng Ce.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have directly increased his favorability by 7% last night.
A car came from afar at the end of the road, finally stopping in front of Li Jing.
The car window, covered with anti-peeping frosted paper, slowly rolled down, revealing Du Jinghuai’s fair and melancholic face, and his cold eyes with a hint of complexity.
“Get in.”
In front of Du Jinghuai, there was no need for the stubborn resistance routine, playing the victim was the top priority.
Li Jing lowered her head, silent for a moment before getting into the car.
She used body language to clearly express what it meant to be “heartbroken,” like a little cat drenched in the rain, pitifully curled up in the back seat.
Beside her, Du Jinghuai slightly turned his head, his gaze falling on her.
A moment of silence.
In the car, alone.
Private space.
Hmm, a good time to brush up on plot points.
Li Jing instantly got into character, her long eyelashes fluttering, fluttering until her eyes were filled with broken tears, and she was about to slowly raise her eyes, “I…”
But before she could finish, a faint and distant voice came from her ear.
“About to cry cry cry?”
Li Jing paused, then realized that this was coming from the system.
Cry cry.
This word, she had just used it when she teased Lu Mian yesterday—
Li Jing’s peripheral vision shifted slightly, and she saw the figure in the driver’s seat.
The silver hair fluttered gently.
The driver just now was obviously not him.
Was this because she was alone with the Acting Emperor that he came to supervise?
“Teach—er—Lu—” Li Jing smiled, a sly gleam in her eyes, “Have you been appearing too frequently lately?”
Hmm.
Lu Mian didn’t answer.
Li Jing lowered her eyes, although a little joy arose in her heart, she quickly adjusted her emotions to the right atmosphere.
Even because someone was watching, she needed to focus more on showcasing her skills—
Step one, visual impact!
Du Jinghuai’s gaze remained on Li Jing.
To be precise, it was on her hat brim.
After a night of attacks, the girl was like a startled bird, deeply lowering her hat brim wherever she went, afraid to reveal her beautiful face.
Du Jinghuai could tell that she was wearing the same employee uniform from yesterday, and she hadn’t even dared to go back to the school dormitory to change clothes.
And her life was so impoverished, where did she spend the whole night in fear?
Pity.
Du Jinghuai felt pity for a lower life form.
—Du Jinghuai’s favorability +1%
“Sorry, I dragged you into this,” Du Jinghuai said lightly.
As the most eloquent of the three male leads, apologizing wasn’t difficult for Du Jinghuai. And an apology from the high and mighty Acting Emperor was enough to make the original owner overwhelmed with gratitude.
But Li Jing wanted to make him obsessed.
Only when all three male leads enter the race can the real battleground begin!
Step two - empathize with him!
“It’s okay—” Li Jing said with a well-timed nasal tone.
This was obviously a lie.
Du Jinghuai’s expression didn’t change. He wasn’t moved by this kind of weakling’s bravado.
“Because we—” Li Jing finally looked up, her sparkling tears making her look pitifully vulnerable, “we all have things we want to protect—”
This universal line √ works everywhere.
Du Jinghuai’s clear, melancholic pupils suddenly trembled slightly.
That face, identical to Ye Yan’s, was drooping with tears before him, uttering the words in his heart.
Protect her.
—Du Jinghuai’s favorability +2%
Li Jing: Good, 15% √
The strings in his heart were gently plucked, and the aura around Du Jinghuai changed noticeably.
Because the space in the car was small, it felt like the temperature was subtly rising.
Then, a gust of wind like alpine ice and snow blew in from somewhere.
One gust after another.
Li Jing hugged her thin arms tightly.
The final step, play the victim.
“Let’s go,” Du Jinghuai spoke, “I… will take you back.”
The girl’s bright eyes were lost, and she asked hesitantly, “Back to where…?”
She had no home, and she didn’t dare go back to school.
Wherever she went, people would recognize her.
Li Jing wiped away the tears from the corner of her eyes, lifting her clear eyes that had been washed clean: “I just want to go to one place.”
Someone’s cold, magnetic voice cut in: “Going on a date?”
And Du Jinghuai looked down at her: “You tell me.”
Li Jing said sadly, “Take me… to the orphanage where I lived as a child.”
Lu Mian: “…uh.”
Du Jinghuai was stunned.
In that moment, a certain indescribable emotion, accumulated step by step, pushed forward, and he looked at Li Jing, like a shadow under the bright moonlight, making people instinctively reach out—
To grasp a clean, untainted—
“They’re having a charity sale soon, can I invite you to attend?”
Lu Mian’s fingers, which had just been raised, dropped back down.
Li Jing’s clean, untainted gaze was impossible to refuse.
“In my name…”
Lu Mian: “Pfft.”
Author Note:
Li Jing said to the silver-haired handsome guy: “Sister is rich, come and hug hug.”
The silver-haired handsome guy: =3=