Chapter One Hundred and Sixty: Holding One’s Head High (1/2)
After the Autumn Releases Conference, many of YL’s official forums had fallen silent. But on Xiao Yu’s second day at the office, YL published the details of the mystery designer’s identity, his old job as SI’s chief designer FISH, his position as the top disciple of SI’s previous chief designer, and the astounding contract YL had offered him. At the same time, Yan Jin’s official spokesperson released the results of the car accident, emphasizing three times that there were no injuries and that it was simply an accident. Finally, they mischievously denied any accusations of using this incident to force the mystery designer to join YL.
Under the post, many people shared their skeptical thoughts.
“I’m just pretending I believe this.”
“You’ve won such an asset but you’re still pretending?”
“Enjoy your fun while you can.”
While YL’s new chief designer rushed around busily, designer forums were filled with inside scoops, conjectures, and news. It was the second time since the Autumn Release Conference that the forum exploded with activity because of the mystery designer.
FISH is Mr. Mystery! Xiao Yu is the mystery designer! YL welcomed him in right after SI fired him!
The dramatic storyline that even TV shows couldn’t compare with shocked industry insiders to no end and filled them with pity. As for the outsiders that avidly followed the latest news, they couldn’t care less about SI’s misfortune or YL’s fortune. They treated it as entertainment. The twists and turns of such a storyline would always attract many followers. The topic of “the mystery designer’s professional career” quickly became a topic of mealtime conversations and media coverage. There were even publishers that wanted Xiao Yu to write a book. If it wasn’t for Yan Jin protectively blocking these requests, Xiao Yu didn’t know for how long they would chase him around.
As opposed to the actual facts of what had happened, most people preferred the gossip and conspiracy theories. Compared to technical posts or official news, random posts such as these had the highest click rate:
“Here’s what really happened between FISH and SI.”
“Was it planned all along or a coincidence? Let’s analyze this fantastic story together.”
“【 Repost ](Yan-God short novel) Let’s work together to get our homes back!”
Xiao Yu was a frequent visitor to the forum. He didn’t just have a single account either; some were for posting analysis while others were for vote brigading. A while back, his primary account had received so many scolding private messages that he couldn’t log on to it, so he had created another account on the forum. Now that the messages to his main account had stopped, Xiao Yu happily logged onto his officially verified account as FISH. He returned to a thread that had been drowned out by newer topics that criticized him for his “sinister intentions”. Under each post, he replied with a sneering smiley face.
On that day, the atmosphere of the forum was full of “crying.jpg”, “kneel down before God”, and “Mom is asking why I’m kneeling before the forum.”
Those that enjoyed stirring up controversy even went back to find the old anti-Xiao Yu conspiracy posts from high-profile bloggers to seriously analyze how hard their faces had been slapped.
Those bloggers: “……”
We’re innocent, okay? You might not believe it, but we were hired as “internet ghostwriters” by Yan Jin!
After Yan Jin had suddenly betrayed them in pursuit of his lover, they were left tragically abandoned with their faces completely swollen.
It was important to note that after the car accident, most people had felt that it was simply an accident at first. The only reason that the public opinion had turned against Xiao Yu was because several reputable celebrities had come forward to give their testimony against him.
These people were the successful elites in every industry, but because their leader had suddenly changed his mind, they were now labeled as the shameful “villains”.
While their situation was already quite miserable, it was even worse for the bandwagoners who had understood neither the laws nor the entire story. Xiao Yu gave each of their posts a smiley face which was shortly followed by a deluge of people tagging the author of the post to mock them. It was a very atypical day in the forum. All of the bandwagoners’ secondary accounts that had been used to sway public opinion were tagged an extreme number of times. It was a rare sight.
The YL employees that had originally condemned Xiao Yu were forced to come crawling back to him for mercy. When they weren’t repenting for their sins, they were exaggeratedly praising Xiao Yu.
No one in Heaven nor Earth can surpass you! You are unparallelled in both past and future!
They really were quite shameless.
But the worst was reserved for those SI employees that had continued to kick Xiao Yu after he had already been beaten down. On the day that Xiao Yu had been fired from SI, the forum was filled with new information threads entirely from SI employees. The netizens that enjoyed causing drama revived many of these long dead threads to the front page.
“Hahahaha, do your faces hurt?”
“You guys thought you were kicking FISH out. Little did you guys know, he was the one leaving you guys!”
“We’ve returned to where it all happened. How does it feel now, knowing that you guys gave up the mystery designer?”
“Everyone who’s mocking SI, get lost! I’ll go first…”
“It’s the drama of the year.”