Chapter 158

In the livestream chat, many fans were saying they’d never tried this brand of sanitary pads. Wei Sheng immediately had someone bring over the brand’s representative and asked if they had any trial packs they could put on the shelf.

“Huh? Teacher Wei, how did you know we had trial packs?” Jiang Xinyue looked at Wei Sheng with starry eyes, full of admiration. As expected of her idol—he seemed to know everything!

Wei Sheng shot her a look that said, “Are you sure you’re not a fake fan?”

“Oh, right! I remember now—Teacher Wei, your grandpa used to run a supermarket, didn’t he? You probably saw brands sending trial packs to the store all the time,” Jiang Xinyue said, suddenly enlightened.

Marketing tactics haven’t changed much over the years.

Back in the days when brick-and-mortar stores reigned supreme, manufacturers would often send trial packs to shops to promote their products, especially for personal items like sanitary pads and diapers. Since many people were wary of allergic reactions, they tended to stick with familiar brands and rarely risked trying something new. That’s why new brands would flood stores with trial packs during their launch phase.

Now that online shopping has taken over, “free trials” or “pay shipping only” promotions are everywhere. These deals have even become a major way for bargain hunters to save money and stock up on household essentials.

Wei Sheng knew about all this because, as a kid, he often helped his grandpa at the store and saw him handing out trial packs to neighbors.

With Jiang Xinyue, the boss herself, on board, Wei Sheng quickly secured 5,000 “9.9 yuan free-shipping trial packs.” Each pack included five night-use pads, five day-use pads, and ten pantyliners. After accounting for shipping, the company was actually losing money on each pack. But if the campaign brought in even a few hundred repeat customers, it would be worth it.

More importantly, spending just tens of thousands of yuan to advertise in Wei Sheng’s livestream? That was a steal.

Sure enough, the trial packs sold out in less than a minute. This time, many of Wei Sheng’s fans actually managed to grab some. After all, for just 9.9 yuan, it was a no-brainer. Even if they didn’t need them, they could use them as shoe inserts—nothing would go to waste.

Nowadays, even the cheapest shoe inserts cost at least a yuan!

Zhou Mingxing had guessed right—Wei Sheng was going for the “quietly make a fortune” route. In just one night, the first episode of his “Weekend Flash Sale” featured twelve products and raked in nearly 4.5 million yuan in total sales.

Zhou Mingxing was secretly stunned. No wonder the kid had so decisively given up competing for top-tier brand endorsements. Compared to the cutthroat world of A-list endorsements, livestreaming was ridiculously easy money.

But he also knew that Wei Sheng hadn’t actually made any profit from this stream. He didn’t charge slotting fees or take commissions. All the money he could’ve earned had been used to offer discounts to fans. No wonder even people who weren’t originally fans were pretending to be just to score deals… Ahem! Even Zhou Mingxing had grabbed a big bag of pear syrup candy.

It wasn’t until he became a parent that Zhou Mingxing realized keeping a child healthy wasn’t just about feeding and clothing them. Take that pear syrup candy, for example—when kids spend too long in air conditioning and start to cough, giving them a couple of sticks can quickly ease the symptoms. That way, it doesn’t escalate into something serious that requires a hospital visit.

Zhou Mingxing hadn’t even known what pear syrup candy was until Hu Qianqian gave him a pack for Yinuo. That’s when he discovered such a magical thing existed.

Since then, the Zhou household had accumulated all sorts of odd items: pear syrup candy, autumn pear loquat syrup, montmorillonite powder…

After the livestream ended, just as the industry was starting to think Wei Sheng had fallen so low he was now selling sanitary pads—and was surely done for—a press release about a film’s launch ceremony suddenly brought him back into the spotlight.

*New Song of Sending Off the Lover?* What the heck was that?

Forget the post-90s and 2000s generation—even many born in the 80s had never heard of *Song of Sending Off the Lover*.

Curious netizens couldn’t help but look it up. One by one, they came back floored.

Who would’ve thought that such a cheesy title belonged to a film directed decades ago by a now-deceased legendary director?

And the leads? Back in their day, they were absolute top-tier stars, wildly popular. Rumor had it the male lead was so handsome that once, someone recognized him in a public restroom and he nearly got mobbed.

Even the supporting cast went on to become major celebrities in the Chinese entertainment industry. One village girl who only had a brief cameo? She’s now an internationally renowned actress. Talk about impressive.

So with such a legendary director and cast, why on earth would they cast a washed-up minor celebrity who sells sanitary pads as the male lead? It made no sense!

Even Wei Sheng’s own fans were stunned when they saw the news. They thought it must be someone with the same name. But when they clicked in and saw the launch ceremony photos—there he was, their Teacher Wei, standing front and center, surrounded by the cast.

Seriously? You landed such a massive production, and you still chose to go sell sanitary pads?

Not that there’s anything wrong with selling sanitary pads, but aren’t celebrities all about status and image these days? A rising near-first-tier idol going off to sell sanitary pads? And not even a well-known brand? *Xinyue Jiaren*? What kind of brand is that? Never even heard of it!

If it hadn’t been for *New Song of Sending Off the Lover*, Wei Sheng’s rivals would’ve already moved on. No one wants to waste money attacking a has-been who’s resorted to selling sanitary pads—he posed no threat.

But now, out of nowhere, Wei Sheng had quietly landed a role in such a high-profile project?

His rivals were furious. The day the production made its official announcement, a film critic immediately stepped forward to scold director Chen Shu, warning him to “protect his reputation” and not tarnish a classic by casting some no-name traffic star.

Almost like it was coordinated, a “concerned netizen” posted a side-by-side comparison: a screenshot of Wei Sheng selling sanitary pads in his livestream, next to a still of the original male lead from *Song of Sending Off the Lover*. The caption claimed that compared to the noble and virtuous actors of the past, a livestreamer like Wei Sheng who was “cashing in on garbage” had no business playing the lead in *New Song of Sending Off the Lover*.

Director Chen Shu, however, didn’t care in the slightest about the online criticism. In fact, the more they cursed him, the more delighted he seemed.

Great! Let them keep cursing for a few more days. If they can keep it up until the movie premieres, we might even get some free publicity out of it.

But then again, since most of the online backlash was aimed at Wei Sheng, Chen Shu thought it over and decided to call him in. He asked if Wei Sheng wanted the production team to step in and clarify things—like how their film wasn’t a remake of the old *Song of Sending Off the Lover*, and how the character Wei Sheng played had nothing in common with the veteran actor from the original. It might be a bit of a spoiler, but what if Wei Sheng didn’t like being the target of all that hate?

To his surprise, when Wei Sheng heard how many people were bashing him—and that most of it was focused on the Xinyue Jiaren sanitary pads he endorsed—he didn’t get angry at all. On the contrary, he looked like he’d just won the lottery. “That’s amazing! I thought I was really done for. It’s been ages since I had haters come at me in such a big wave!”

Chen Shu: “…”

He was more confused than ever by today’s young people. Since when did getting mobbed by haters become something to be proud of?

In truth, if it had been any other celebrity, having this many haters would be a nightmare. They’d probably have to spend a fortune every year just on PR damage control.

But unfortunately for the trolls, they’d picked the wrong target—Wei Sheng.

Wei Sheng had been racking his brain trying to figure out how to promote Xinyue Jiaren, a niche sanitary pad brand. Relying on free samples and word-of-mouth was just too slow. But now, his beloved little haters had once again delivered him a flood of traffic worth millions.

Overjoyed, Wei Sheng immediately had his studio release more screenshots from his livestream, especially the part where he introduced the sanitary pads. Not just images—there were video clips too.

In no time, his haters were all over it, sharing the content like crazy and successfully pushing the hashtag #WeiShengXinyueJiaren to the trending list.

People who didn’t know better might’ve thought Wei Sheng had just given birth. After all, “Xinyue Jiaren” sounded suspiciously like the name of a postpartum care center. Ahem.

But this time, Zhou Mingxing didn’t stop him. Not only did he not intervene, he even gave things a little nudge from behind the scenes. Taking advantage of the rising search volume for “Xinyue Jiaren,” he pushed the hashtag #WhatIsXinyueJiaren onto the trending list too.

Jiang Xinyue never imagined that overnight, the search and traffic volume for their online store would surpass the entire previous year.

Still, her feelings were mixed. On the one hand, she was thrilled that the brand she’d poured her heart into was finally gaining attention. On the other hand, as a fan, she was worried that Wei Sheng might get dragged down by their small, obscure brand.

After all, most of the online chatter was still negative. Some people had even dug up old news articles about “cheap sanitary pads causing gynecological issues” and pasted screenshots of their store alongside them. To the uninformed, it looked like their products had serious quality problems.

In reality, the reason Wei Sheng chose their brand wasn’t just because of the pretty packaging. It was because Jiang Xinyue had provided detailed product testing reports—some of which even outperformed the big-name brands in key areas.

Of course, there was also a reason they couldn’t advertise: Jiang Xinyue’s company had once been a second-tier subcontractor for a well-known international sanitary pad brand. Without that background, she wouldn’t have had the confidence to approach one of Wei Sheng’s streamers for a partnership.

But just because she believed in her product didn’t mean the internet would.

“President Jiang, would you be willing to take this opportunity to share your brand’s story with the public? I think now might be the perfect time,” Wei Sheng said, seeking her out.

Jiang Xinyue’s heart skipped a beat. Her eyes lit up like a hundred-watt bulb.

She hadn’t expected Wei Sheng to remember the idealistic brand story she’d once told him.

That night, while still buried in filming with the crew, Wei Sheng suddenly dropped a post on Weibo—a short livestream announcement:

“Tomorrow night at 8 p.m., ‘Weekend Story Time.’ Want to hear the story of me and Xinyue Jiaren? See you at eight!”

Holy crap! The air of flirtation was thick. Gossip bloggers, always quick to jump to conclusions, immediately went wild. A fresh-faced idol and a beautiful lady? Was Wei Sheng about to go public with a relationship? Damn! How did none of the paparazzi catch wind of this? Useless!

Before the next night’s livestream even began, Wei Sheng had already hit the trending list again—for free.

Seeing the “Wei Sheng Officially Announces Relationship” hashtag sitting proudly on the second row of the trending page, Zhou Mingxing was completely numb.

He knew perfectly well that Wei Sheng didn’t have any “relationship” to announce. But using a fake romance to pave the way for a brand? Wasn’t he worried about it backfiring?

“What’s there to be afraid of? Didn’t you see my adorable little haters calling me ‘Women’s Best Friend’? I *am* Women’s Best Friend! So what if I help out a female entrepreneur?” Wei Sheng was completely unfazed and even tried to calm Zhou Mingxing down.

“Think about it. Why do those gossip sites get away with walking all over celebrities? It’s because celebrities care about their image, and the gossip sites don’t. But me? I’m different. I’m the Faceless Monster! Hahaha!” Wei Sheng laughed wildly on the other end of the phone.

Zhou Mingxing: “…”

Jiang Xinyue, meanwhile, was nearly scared to death. People had dug up her personal information through the company’s business registration. She wasn’t bad-looking, and she had some money—now the rumors about her and Wei Sheng were even more believable.

To make things worse, even in the fan groups, plenty of fans had bought into the story. Countless girls were tagging her like crazy—not to curse her out, but to ask when she and Wei Sheng were getting married. Could they get an invite to the wedding? Sure, they couldn’t have their idol, but drinking at his wedding would still be worth it.

A few female fans who were on friendly terms with Jiang Xinyue even messaged her privately, asking if she needed bridesmaids. If she did, they’d start dieting immediately…

Jiang Xinyue, face full of despair, rushed to explain to Wei Sheng that the rumors hadn’t come from her. Wei Sheng just smiled and nodded. “Relax! We’ll clear things up at the end of the livestream. Everyone will believe it.”

Jiang Xinyue: “…” Why did she get the feeling that Wei Sheng had done this on purpose?

Of course he had. Without the fake romance, how else would the livestream shoot straight into the top ten the moment it started?

Jiang Xinyue had every reason to believe that, at that very moment, every paparazzo on the internet was camped out in their livestream room.

(End of this chapter)

———

Pear syrup candy → sweet lozenge that soothes throat and cough.

Autumn pear loquat syrup → herbal cough syrup for throat, lungs, and dryness.

Montmorillonite powder → oral medicine for diarrhea and stomach issues.