The Martial Artist Turned Movie Mogul-Chapter 20 - 19. You are both naughty and mischievous

Chapter 20: 19. You are both naughty and mischievous.

Chapter 20: 19. You are both naughty and mischievous.

The next day was sunny and bright.

Sister Luo safely delivered Tang Shu to the program team and then found a spot to select scripts for her own artists.

“Happy Together” had just been broadcast, and after fermenting over a night, Tang Shu’s Weibo followers had already surpassed the one million mark.

At first, Sister Luo was so excited she couldn’t sleep, refreshing the follower count every hour until she almost became numb to the increases.

“Out of all the newcomers I’ve had, this is the first one who can gain followers without me lifting a finger. It feels… bittersweet!”

Sister Luo’s feelings were complicated.

Firstly, she was happy that her artist could completely handle the netizens, but on the other hand, she felt her role as an agent was becoming useless.

“Why do I feel like I’m a bit redundant?”

It must be an illusion, definitely an illusion!

Leaning back in her chair, Sister Luo flipped through the script, planning to make use of the discerning eye that she had developed over many years as a seasoned agent.

The ringtone of her phone sounded. She glanced at it and saw it was Xiao Li, her assistant from the company, and she already had an inkling of what it was about.

“Hello?”

“Sister Luo, Tang Shu’s followers…”

“I know, they’ve already broken through the one million mark.”

“You know already? This is such a joyous occasion!!!”

Sister Luo, with her panda eyes, moved the phone away from her ear a bit when she heard Xiao Li’s excited voice.

“Calm down, calm down, why get so excited over something so trivial—”

“Ouch, for a complete newcomer to hit one million followers in a month, that’s the pace of blowing up, sister!”

Many of her old fans had turned into real fans, and a lot of new netizens started paying attention to her after the show. The remaining part came from over at Zhang Yilin’s side.

Overall, the variety show had been a success.

Finger tightening on the script she was holding, Sister Luo mused to herself that she must not lose her cool in front of her junior.

“Oh, wouldn’t it be against all reason if the people I set my eyes on didn’t get popular?”

“…You’re absolutely right.”

Xiao Li on the other end of the phone twitched his mouth, looking up strangely at Starshine Media, where the whole team only amounted to a handful of people, and begrudgingly complimented her.

“By the way, sister, Tang Shu’s momentum is very high right now, with three trending searches mentioning her. Since the followers have broken through the one million mark, shouldn’t we give out some benefits?”

“That’s settled then. After this outdoor adventure variety show is done shooting, we’ll arrange a photo shoot for her.”

Follow current novels on freewebnσvel.cѳm.

“Alright, sister.”

After hanging up with her assistant, Sister Luo instantly became enthusiastic, picked up her phone, and opened the trending searches.

Hot Search Number One: [Zhang Yilin’s Public Image Collapses]

Hot Search Number Two: [Zhang Yilin Rustically Happy]

Hot Search Number Three: [Mu Ziwei Absent from Drama Promotion]

…

Hot Search Number Nine: [Phosphate Fans Beg Tang Shu to Promote Their Idol]

Hot Search Eleven: [Lin Yiyi’s On and Off-Screen Contrast]

Hot Search Twelve: [Tang Shu’s Artistry]

…

Luo Lin looked at the first three and couldn’t help but exclaim with a mix of envy and delight, “Big stars really are big stars, monopolizing the trending searches is truly a matter of minutes for them.”

But while she was envious, she actually felt very excited. After all, two of Zhang Yilin’s trending searches were related to Tang Shu.

The word “rustically happy” had even originated from Tang Shu’s own mouth.

No longer interested in the script, Sister Luo amusingly crossed her legs, opened each trending search to read further, and laughed to herself.

Netizens were also very creative. In just one night, they produced countless memes.

There was a GIF of Zhang Yilin running all over the place, with the caption: “Let’s be rustic together.”

Very cocky attitude.

There was a Tang Shu unimpressed expression, with the caption: “Sheer disdain.”

With a domineering presence, she posted, “Don’t worry, sis will take you flying!”

Some mischievous netizens even captured a baffled look on Tang Shu’s face, captioning it, “How brazen!”

Even Sister Luo got a kick out of the netizens’ joy.

“Wow, this generation of netizens is too formidable, huh?”

Some people are shameless!

Some people are naughty!

And you all are both shameless and naughty!

***

In the Imperial Capital, a certain villa.

Mu Ziwei woke up as usual and went to check the trending searches, but her pretty face instantly fell when she repeatedly saw Tang Shu’s name.

“This newcomer… is quite interesting.”

The articles those big Vs wrote last night about her being oppressed by a newcomer ended up ranking only in the twenties or thirties on the trending searches?

Is it because her traffic isn’t good enough?

Impossible!

Mu Ziwei instinctively disbelieved it, sure that someone was manipulating things behind the scenes.

Instead of the plot moving in the direction she had steered it, it had actually served as a stepping stone for this newcomer. Her status as a top star relegated to a supporting role was downright preposterous.

Thinking this, Mu Ziwei’s expression turned sour, her lips pressed tightly together.

She opened her Weibo, only to see many of her long-time fans still asking questions in the comments.

[Weiwei, what’s the deal with that Tang Shu? Did she really have you replaced because she has a strong backer?]

[I’m curious too, this girl isn’t what we thought she was. I’m actually kind of tempted to stan her!]

[Goddess, please come out and say something, Tang Shu is about to be cleared of all blame!]

[Weiwei, we believe in you, it must be the pressure from the capitalists. How could someone with your status lose to a pure newcomer?]

[Is this Tang Shu trying to establish a persona, suppressing our Weiwei behind the scenes while appearing so innocent publicly?]

Mu Ziwei didn’t respond to the fans’ messages, instead she immediately called her agent from her contacts list.

“Hello, Brother Zheng—”

“Ziwei, tell me.”

“What happened to the articles we sent out yesterday? Were they suppressed by someone?”

“…” The person on the other end was silent for a moment, “Ziwei, this newcomer named Tang Shu is quite fierce. Her performance on the show was very surprising.”

“So, you’re saying the articles weren’t suppressed? Impossible!”

She’s just a newcomer; how much traffic could she possibly have!

And it’s not like she hasn’t been on variety shows before. She had been to “Happy Together” more than once and never trended because of it.

Knowing Mu Ziwei’s temperament, her agent Wang Zheng patiently explained.

“Her pairing with Zhang Yilin in the variety show is very popular with fans. You might not be aware since you didn’t watch the show, but Yilin’s ability to dominate the top two spots on the trending searches was also partly her doing.”

However, Mu Ziwei’s focus wasn’t on that, but elsewhere.

“So you’re saying, this Tang Shu has no backing?”

“…It seems not. I just inquired about it, and the person responsible for her is Luo Lin. Luo Lin, after leaving her previous company, partnered up with a friend to start a small company called Starshine Media, and Tang Shu is a newcomer at Starshine.”

“Luo Lin, that old rival of yours?”

“Yes, her.”

Mu Ziwei laughed, “An out-of-date agent, a little company with no background, what’s there to be afraid of? Brother Zheng, don’t you want to stand up for yourself?”

The other end of the phone fell silent again for a while before finally uttering a question.

“What do you want to do?”

Not long after, unbeknownst to the public, a new trending search mysteriously landed on Weibo.

With an unbelievable number of clicks, it slowly started climbing up from the bottom.