CH 9

Song Fangba had been busier than usual lately, paying close attention to both the matters online and his incredibly uncooperative artist.

Three days ago, Mu Yuxing’s fans had started attacking [ignorant little girl], and he had been active in the forefront so as to keep ahead of the rumours.

Before Tao Feng had stepped in, this had just been a small-scale battle between fans.

He held his phone close to his face as he followed the drama.

He had taken a look earlier at the photos [Fully Automatic Green Tea Machine] had taken, and he had to admit they were really amazing.

As a life assistant, or as he liked to phrase it, a nanny, he endured Yu Youzhi’s torment every day. Initially, he had also admired his boss’s face, but now even the thought of it caused him severe disgust.

But when he clicked on the photos of this unknown fan, he was bewitched and even had to stop so as to not bend himself. He was still as straight as an iron pole!

But waking up from the momentary spell, he quickly became curious about this fan.

Which little fan took these, why haven’t I heard of her before?

Using his trumpet account, Song Fangba went to mix in the fan circle and quickly got his answer. 

[Manman! Manman took the pictures and retouched them herself; she just never sent them out! I thought it was a pity because they were so beautiful, so I let her post them!]

Hearing the name, Song Fangba was stunned.

Manman? Manman! Yu Beiman!

That was the girl in the bunny tutu Yu Youzhi noticed last time, and she even enticed him to think about those unspoken rules for the first time!

He was currently sitting in the car with mobile phone in his hand while Yu Youzhi took advantage of a short break to catch a nap. Because of his shock at this reveal, though; he accidentally dropped his phone on the ground.

This movement woke the man dozing on the side, who frowned with still sleepy eyes, “Brother Song, what are you doing?”

Panicking from the sudden question, Song Fangba subconsciously began to conceal this matter from his artist, “That, um…Nothing! I just dropped my phone, you, you…go back to sleep.”

As the fan war escalated in the evening, it threatened to even become a public relations accident. 

The public relations department of Orange Heart Entertainment, that is, Yu Youzhi’s affiliated company, had already begun to pay attention to this matter.

In a war between fan groups, it’s never easy for celebrities to express their position publicly. Instead, it is common for the public relations department to secretly guide and develop in beneficial directions.

But all this had nothing to do with Song Fangba; as a life assistant, all he had to do was bury his head in the sand and follow instructions to the letter.

But he was still worried.

Catching that his mood was off, Yu Youzhi went over to look him straight in the eyes, “Brother Song, are you hiding something from me?”

Immediate denial came forth from his lips, “No, no! Absolutely not! I would never!”

“Brother Song, if you’re like this then I’ll be sad. I don’t want to have to deduct your bonus for this month…”

Song Fangba was so angry that he refuted his words without thinking, “Then don’t deduct!”

Revealing his true personality, Yu Youzhi gave him a smile befitting for a slave owner, “And once I deduct your bonus, I will have to deduct your salary. And once your salary has been deducted, the only thing I’ll have left to hold over you is next month’s salary. What do you think, would it work?”

Glaring at his cruel boss, Song Fangba was furious, “Bastard! Just watch, sooner or later I’ll resign from this job!”

“Brother Song, we have a contract. If you really want to resign, I can bring it out for you to look at? I remember the liquidated damages for breaking the contract early is one million.”

Song Fangba was suddenly at a loss for words.

At this moment, his phone chimed with a Weibo notification, and Song Fangba glanced at it to find that [Fully Automatic Green Tea Machine] had sent out a reply!

Wanting to know what’s going on, Yu Youzhi snatched his phone directly.

“Don’t, don’t look at my phone!” Song Fangba looked at Yu Youzhi with some guilt, “Youzhi, don’t worry about this…”

“Hmph!” Yu Youzhi snorted as he held Song Fangba’s phone. He finished reading the short essay in mere minutes and burst out laughing, “This blogger’s attitude is really two faced, I like her character!” Staring at his little assistant, Yu Youzhi asked with some interest, “Brother Song, do you know who this fan is?”

“I, I…”

“Brother Song, if you don’t tell me the truth, I really will deduct your bonus.” Yu Youzhi’s expression was calm as he threatened the other man indifferently.

Song Fangba sighed as he finally gave up resistance, “She’s the one you wanted to sleep with that day….”

Yu Youzhi raised his eyebrows in confusion, “Who in the world did I want to sleep with?”

“…The one who wore a rabbit tutu at the fan meeting.”

“…” He was left speechless for a moment by his assistant’s miraculous ability to create something from nothing, “When did I ever say I wanted to sleep with him? I’m not a pervert; why would my interest be associated with something like that?…But this blogger is actually him?” As he spoke, he smiled again, “This person is far more interesting than I had imagined.”

Hearing this, Song Fangba looked at him contemptuously. Glaring, he couldn’t hold back his scathing remark, “Look at how you’re acting and tell me again you don’t want to sleep with her.”

“…In my opinion, Brother Song, you are also a very interesting person.” Seeing he wouldn’t be able to clear up the messy thoughts of his assistant, Yu Youzhi simply changed the subject, “Brother Song, please call the boss for me. I want to talk to him about this matter and our movements in supporting it.”

On the other side, Tao Feng was staring blankly at the Weibo screen.

In the past two days, he had sent several private messages to [Fully Automatic Green Tea Machine] and had gone through multiple attitude readjustments in the process. In the beginning, he was still reluctantly polite, but by now, he had come to be unable to hide his irritation.

And yet, the other party didn’t reply even once.

“What’s the matter with this girl?! How dare she ignore me like this?!”

He drank a large glass of water, but nothing could suppress the anger burning in his heart.

During this period, he had been watching the trends on the internet closely.

His fans had increased by another fifty thousand, breaking through one hundred seventy thousand.

And the speed wasn’t decreasing!

However, at this moment, the fans were beginning to sing to a different tune.

It was just a few small bloggers, around ten to twenty thousand at first, who began to explore a few different opinions weakly. They were nothing compared to the rest of his followers, but their words were still spreading ripples as they landed.

Netizen A: [I’m not a professional photographer, but why do I feel that the pictures taken by Yu Youzhi’s little fan are better than those taken by Teacher Tao Feng?]

And once the ripples began to spread, there was no way to slow them.

Netizen B: [Actually, I also have this feeling, I just never dared to say it before.]

Netizen C: [Teacher Tao Feng’s photos are works of art, but it’s a pity that I just can’t appreciate it. I much prefer the fan’s works over his.]

Netizen D: [To be honest, I really don’t like Tao Feng’s photos at all.]

A few hours later, a professional photographer commented on [Fully Automatic Green Tea Machine], not to clear the water, but rather to muddy it up even further.

[I don’t deny the professional level of the photographer Tao Feng, but from the perspective of commercial photography—or even from the general public, I must say that the photos taken by the fan are more immediately appealing. It sounds a bit vague to say this, but her photos seem to be more spiritual; they touch me somewhere that Tao Feng is unable to reach, which is why I prefer them.]

Finally, in the late evening, Martha Magazine stopped pretending to be dead as they stepped out on Weibo.

[We may be the leaders in fashion, but we are also constantly reflecting, reminding ourselves to be on the lookout for a true, unique sense of beauty.]

Below, they posted a collection of Tao Feng’s most recent photos and some fan photos from [Fully Automatic Green Tea Machine] side by side.

Seeing this post, Tao Feng’s heart skipped a beat.

Even Martha Magazine wouldn’t take his side?

At the same time, the fan support groups of Yu Youzhi and Mu Yuxing stepped forward to hold in their members’ behaviour.

They began to call on everyone to chase their idols rationally, focus on what they believe, and not what marketing accounts direct them to.

Directly calling [ignorant little girl] a black fan, netizens began to step up and apologise for her rash actions. Everyone seemed to sincerely hope for this matter to settle down as soon as possible.

The bloody storm was contained in just a few hours.

The hot searches died down, and the turmoil subsided.

While updating Weibo, Tao Feng clenched his teeth as he downed several more glasses of water in anger.

The more he saw, the angrier he became.

Biting the bullet, he took out yet another sum of money to persuade the marketing account to fan some more fire, trying to overwhelm the netizens who had inexplicably changed their minds.

But this time, out of the ten he contacted, three of them refused to cooperate.

He immediately felt something was wrong; someone must be intentionally getting in his way.

This kind of petty fan war, public relations would not be able to end it so quickly. Could it be…[Fully Automatic Green Tea Machine] must have done it?!

No wonder his Weibo response was so crazy, even with him only having a few thousand fans as support.

But since that must be the case, then who is she?

He couldn’t have been so unlucky to have kicked an iron board, right?!

Just as Tao Feng was dwelling on his confusion, he received a call from the editor-in-chief of Martha Magazine.

After hanging up the line, his face grew uglier than one would think was possible, alternating between different shades of purple and red.

Martha Magazine had actually dared to refuse their future cooperation! His deal was cancelled!

Why?!

Why was his luck so different after just one night?!

Obviously, everything had been going so well for him at the beginning, but by the end, he was being forced to admit defeat to a nobody. How did it all go so wrong?

Coincidence? Never— nothing in this world was ever a genuine coincidence.

If Mu Yuxing or Yu Youzhi’s public relations had intervened, then he could have stepped down graciously. It would be understandable for him to not have the forces to fight against them; he was just a single photographer after all.

But at this moment, Tao Feng seemed to be in a trance as his thoughts raced, trying to tackle the puzzle of just who [Fully Automatic Green Tea Machine] really was. 

Two days ago, he was still laughing at this layman for not being worthy of discussing skill sets with him. Today, he was standing on the sidelines as he once again took the initiative to send a private message and reach out as a loser.

This would be the tenth one.

[Photographer Tao Feng: Did you buy those marketing accounts on the internet? It must have cost a lot of money, right? Are you doing all this just to deal with me?]

[Photographer Tao Feng: Who are you? Are you really just a little fan?]

[Photographer Tao Feng: Are you trying to disgust me on purpose?]

[Photographer Tao Feng: Do you have connections on Martha Magazine’s side? Otherwise, why would they not want me, a genius, and terminate the contract so suddenly? It must have been you!]

[Photographer Tao Feng: Can you say something?]

[Photographer Tao Feng: Can you say something?]

[Photographer Tao Feng: Can you say something?]

[Photographer Tao Feng: Are you blind?]

[Photographer Tao Feng: Why aren’t you replying to me?! I have already gone as far as sending you messages on my own initiative! I didn’t insult you, either! How can you act as if you hadn’t seen any of them?! How?!!]

[Photographer Tao Feng: …]

For a solid week, Tao Feng watched his phone screen every day, waiting for even a single response from the other.

Of course, there was no response to be found.

But that didn’t matter because from then on, Tao Feng held a grudge against this stranger he had never even spoken to.