Chapter 54

A freezing winter night. After work, lying in a warm bed—what’s the thing you want to reach for the most? Your spouse? No! Your phone, of course!

At 10 p.m., countless night owls were still immersed in the joys of the digital world when suddenly, an explosive trending topic shot to the top of the hot search rankings at lightning speed!

#Breaking! Actor Song Xinghe □□#

Song Xinghe? Wasn’t he that young idol who had recently left their company?

Wei Sheng had seen his profile in the company database before—sharp brows, striking eyes, a textbook definition of handsome. He might not be an unrivaled beauty, but even in the entertainment industry, where good looks were everywhere, he was the kind of guy who could turn heads at first glance.

With those looks, he needed to pay for that kind of service?

Wei Sheng couldn’t wrap his head around it and, without hesitation, clicked into the trending topic to eat some melons.

He used his newly registered gossip account.

As soon as he entered, the comment section was already a battlefield between Song Xinghe’s fans and haters.

Fans: “Lady, if you’re not fully awake, go back to sleep. In your dreams, anything is possible. Our Xinghe is way better looking than you—how dare you even imagine he’d pay to sleep with you?”

Haters: “What if your dear Xinghe gege just has a weird taste?”

Fans: “LOL! No pics, no proof! You think a simple bank transfer screenshot is enough to smear our Xinghe? I could Photoshop 800 of those in a day!”

Haters: “Then why did your Xinghe gege randomly send a 6,000 yuan red envelope to a call girl? Is he doing charity work now?”

Haters: “You haven’t seen the full story. The escort spilled the details herself—she and Song Xinghe’s assistant agreed on 8,000 for the night, with the possibility of extra tips for good service. But after sleeping with her, Song Xinghe complained about her skills, said she had a plastic surgery face, pulled up his pants, and tried to haggle. In the end, he only paid 6,000…”

Holy shit.

A superstar making millions a day, haggling over a few thousand yuan for escort fees?

Now this was a juicy scandal.

Wei Sheng eagerly scrolled down—only for the topic to suddenly disappear.

When he refreshed the page, huh? Why was the top trending spot suddenly taken over by his own name?

Wei Sheng froze for a moment, his expression turning into that classic “old man on the subway looking at his phone” meme.

What the hell?

Were netizens’ tastes this mild now?

Why was the far more explosive #Song Xinghe □□# kicked off the top spot, while #Wei Sheng’s Wild Square Dance on Set# had skyrocketed to number one?

…Could it be that Zhou Mingxing bought him a trending spot?

Wei Sheng immediately called Zhou Mingxing, only to be met with the most dramatic eye-roll in history.

“Did you leave your brain in the luggage compartment when you got off the plane?”

“This is obviously Song Xinghe’s team buying a hot search and using you as a shield to bury their scandal. Just ignore it and pretend you don’t know.”

“Oh, and by the way, expect a wave of haters cursing you out online for ‘buying’ a hot search. Don’t check your phone—just focus on filming. If it gets too much, give me your Weibo account, and I’ll handle it—”

“Ah? The signal’s kinda bad here, President Zhou. If there’s nothing urgent, I’m hanging up now~” Wei Sheng swiftly ended the call.

Was he joking? A social media account was basically a modern person’s underwear!

Who would go outside without underwear?

No matter what, even if the world was ending, Wei Sheng’s first priority would be wiping his phone clean!

Otherwise, he’d be terrified that some post-apocalyptic survivor might pick up his phone, unlock it, and—

Nope! Dying wasn’t scary. Dying of social embarrassment was the real nightmare!

After hanging up, Wei Sheng checked the real-time trending list again. Sure enough, Zhou Mingxing was right. A bunch of random trending topics had suddenly popped up.

#Yang Xuan Gained Weight#

#Sun Lili’s 10 Consecutive Defeats in Honor of Kings#

#Mountain Path Crew’s Hilarious On-Set Dance Battle#

#Tang Yanyan Got Rejected by a Puppy#

…What kind of nonsense was this?

Clicking into his own “sudden hot search #1” topic, sure enough, people were already flaming him.

The top accusations? That he had spent a fortune buying hot search spots to market himself.

Once again, Wei Sheng’s face took on that classic “old man on the subway” meme.

Did people not realize what kind of background he came from?

Buying a hot search cost more than his grandpa’s convenience store made in a year! What kind of family could afford to throw money around like that?

Luckily, the gossip community still had some rational minds.

“LMAO! This is textbook industry damage control. Guys, stay up tonight—we’re about to witness a major scandal unfold! Any time a bunch of weird hot search terms suddenly appear, it’s always a cover-up for something big!”

“Feeling bad for Song Xinghe’s fans. This is the prelude to a career-destroying scandal. First, a leak. Then, a buried hot search. I bet a pack of spicy chips that the next step will be an official statement—only to be immediately debunked with photo evidence from the escort.”

“I’m too old to stay up for this. The entertainment industry’s PR playbook is way too predictable. Gonna sleep now—someone wake me up when the escort posts the receipts.”

The more Wei Sheng read, the funnier it got.

So, Song Xinghe’s team spent all that money to suppress the trending topic for nothing?

Sure, the direct trending tag got nuked, but the gossip crowd had simply moved to other topics—

And they were still watching the scandal just the same.

Checking the time, it wasn’t even midnight yet. Wei Sheng got up, splashed his face with cold water, and pulled out a set of civil service exam practice papers from his bag.

Director Li had instructed him: to fully portray Yang Fan’s struggle after becoming a poverty alleviation official and his tireless efforts to help Huang Family Fortress, he needed to stay up late for days, get bloodshot eyes, and stop shaving. Only then would he truly look the part of a grassroots official working himself to the bone.

At the same time, countless netizens and fans accidentally clicked into the top trending post—only to be greeted by Wei Sheng’s insanely cursed square dance routine.

Fans: “Is it too late to pretend we don’t know this idiot?”

Netizens: “Damn this melody! Why can’t I stop watching once I click in?”

Especially those with elderly family members or kids at home.

The moment Little Apple’s ridiculously catchy tune blasted from their phones, their loved ones immediately crowded around, eyes practically glued to the screen.

Late at night, and the kid is still playing on his phone? Of course, I have to scold him.

…What? He’s watching a square dance video? Wait a minute! Replay that for me! That was a great routine! Hurry up and download it for me—I’m taking it to share with my friends tomorrow!

And just like that, inexplicably, the next morning, Wei Sheng woke up to find his Weibo followers had increased by tens of thousands.

By the afternoon and evening, the growth rate skyrocketed. Even a bunch of elderly grandpas and grandmas started following him, asking if he could start an account on Douyin because they didn’t use Weibo often and couldn’t find his videos. But they really wanted to learn square dancing from him…

Within just 48 hours, Wei Sheng found himself making that same “old man on the subway looking at his phone” expression—for the third time.

But, requests from fans had to be fulfilled, especially when those fans were grandparents.

Back when Wei Sheng was in college, every winter and summer break, he’d get dragged by the neighborhood’s older folks—grandpas, grandmas, uncles, and aunties—to help with all sorts of phone-related issues.

Modern smartphones are really not senior-friendly.

Wei Sheng had helped many elders in the neighborhood before. Some had just bought a new phone, only to find it lagging terribly within a few days. When Wei Sheng checked, good grief—

Over a hundred apps had been “mysteriously installed” and were all running at the same time!

Honestly, the only reason the phone was lagging was sheer luck. If it hadn’t, just the data charges alone each month would have cost them a fortune!

Most seniors switch to smartphones mainly for video calls, so they can see their children and grandchildren who live far away. That, and watching short videos. Wei Sheng helped them uninstall all the unnecessary apps, and their phones instantly ran smoother.

After checking in with Zhou Mingxing, letting him know he was starting a Douyin account, Zhou even praised his business sense, telling him to post updates often and engage with fans.

Less than an hour later, Zhou Mingxing received a recommended Douyin video link.

In the video, Wei Sheng was dressed in a fresh blue-and-white tracksuit with a baseball cap—he looked like a trendy, cool young man. But the moment the background music started, boom! His idol image shattered completely.

“You are my little apple~ No matter how much I love you, it’s never enough~”

With the ridiculously catchy beat of Little Apple playing, Zhou Mingxing actually watched the entire clip from start to finish—stunned.

Seriously? Is this a new viral formula?

What baffled him even more was that this absurdly goofy, old-school-styled short video account gained over 500,000 followers in just a few days!

And this was with zero promotional support from the company—utterly ridiculous!

The marketing team even suggested asking some of the company’s influencers, who had millions of Douyin followers, to help boost Wei Sheng’s new account.

But Zhou Mingxing just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Yet, despite all odds, Wei Sheng had somehow attracted a massive fanbase of middle-aged and elderly followers with his sheer goofball energy.

Who knows what went wrong in his brain, but he actually insisted on live-streaming for an hour every night—teaching grandpas and grandmas how to do square dancing!

Wait—grandpas and grandmas?

Zhou Mingxing quickly made a call and pulled up the recent re-broadcast ratings for Back to Hometown with My Bros Season 1.

Looking at the numbers, which were just as high as the original premiere, he fell into momentary silence.

So… the real key to success in the entertainment industry now… is grandparents?

And to make things even more absurd, after half a month of Douyin live streams teaching seniors how to square dance, Wei Sheng’s follower count broke a million—and he somehow landed an invitation to a national TV variety show!

“Oh? Really? Hahaha~ Well, Wei Sheng is indeed very respectful to the elderly. The neighborhood uncles and aunties all adore him. Alright, that’s settled then. The drama doesn’t have much left to shoot, so scheduling a variety show appearance won’t be a problem.”

Hanging up the phone, Zhou Mingxing felt like he had used up his entire lifetime’s worth of disbelief on Wei Sheng.

What the hell?

Other celebrities go through endless networking, drinking, and groveling just to maybe get a chance at a national TV appearance.

And yet, here’s Wei Sheng, simply teaching a bunch of seniors to square dance on his phone—and national TV reached out to him first?!

And it wasn’t even the usual condescending, “You must accommodate our schedule” type of approach. They were polite and even willing to work around his availability…

So respectful? Could it be…?

Zhou Mingxing quickly opened Douyin, searched for Wei Sheng’s account, and checked the comment section.

The top three most-liked comments made his back stiffen.

Comment 1: “Such a fine young man! Does he have a girlfriend? ” (💐😊)

Comment 2: “This kid dances with such energy! Unlike those flimsy, spineless dancers all over my phone nowadays.”

Comment 3: “Why isn’t he a guest at the Dance Competition? He dances way better than the actual guests!”

Holy crap! The mystery of the national TV invite was solved right there.

Clicking into the profile of the commenter who wrote Comment 3, Zhou Mingxing found that it belonged to a retired senior producer from a major national TV variety show.

Then, he checked the replies under Comment 1.

Even someone as experienced as Zhou Mingxing couldn’t help but be stunned by the sheer extravagance in the comment section.

Under the “Does he have a girlfriend?” comment, there were over a hundred replies—all parents trying to set their daughters up with him!

One had eight demolition apartments in Beijing.

Another owned ten school district apartments in Shanghai.

One raised dozens of acres of hairy crabs in Yangcheng Lake.

Another had thousands of sheep in Inner Mongolia…

Wei Sheng could not be allowed to manage his own social media accounts any longer!

If he kept dancing, pretty soon, all the wealthy elites from across the country would be fighting over him as a son-in-law!

If Wei Sheng actually gave in to temptation and married into a rich family, then wasn’t Zhou Mingxing’s years of managing him just wasted?!

Who would’ve thought—

In today’s entertainment industry, a manager’s job isn’t just stopping female artists from falling for “love brain” and ruining their careers by getting married and having kids too soon.

Now, they also have to stop male artists from succumbing to the temptation of marrying into wealth…

He’s really having a hard time o(╥﹏╥)o

(End of this chapter)