novelraw Chapter 187 : Massive Follower Loss
Chapter 187 : Massive Follower Loss
The tide will eventually recede someday. The storm of public opinion about the two came quickly and left just as fast. When people discovered that the wind had changed direction, the entire public opinion had already undergone a complete 180-degree reversal from when it first erupted. Of course, Bei Yaoluo's brief two sentences played an indispensable role in this.
Seeing the rhythm finally stabilize, Xifeng's anxious heart finally settled down. Although she had made the brave decision to come out of the closet following Bei Yaoyue's lead, she had been restless the entire time. To put it bluntly, this was a huge gamble. If they won, they could appear openly in front of others from now on without having to hide anymore. If they lost, they would naturally have to bear the consequences of failure—being reviled like rats crossing the street.
Although the situation had once developed in a direction that made her despair, fortunately, they had ultimately achieved victory.
Actually, this matter was simple when you thought about it simply. After all, most normal people were busy with their own lives—who had so much free time to worry about others' lives? What did other people's sisterly romance have to do with them? Just watch the drama for entertainment, then go back to moving bricks or writing code as usual.
So the people who really had a negative impact on public opinion about the two from the beginning were actually only three types—mindless haters who had achieved nothing in real life and could only find a sense of existence online by attacking everyone they saw, competitor trolls, and the two's anti-fans.
Excluding these three groups, the remaining people basically just grabbed a small stool to sit on the side and eat melon. When they were full or the melon wasn't sweet, they'd just leave directly, rarely expressing any of their own opinions. Therefore, those who actually made statements online were just the three types mentioned above. Because everyone else chose silence, it created the false impression that the entire internet was opposing and condemning the two.
When Bei Yaoluo personally stepped forward to support the two, those willing to support them finally found their organization. Only then did they stand up and bravely speak for the two, completely defeating what wasn't even a large condemnation force to begin with.
Although the two had won, they were also badly wounded in this struggle.
Xifeng's follower count dropped from 1.2 million to 950,000, and Bei Yaoyue also lost about 20%. This was just in one afternoon—the speed of the drop was unbelievable.
Opening QQ, the notification showed a red dot with a number as high as 80-something. Xifeng clicked it open to find that most were messages about fan group members leaving the groups.
Her gaze inevitably dimmed considerably. Xifeng knew in her heart that this was completely unavoidable. Just because some people could accept it didn't mean everyone could. There were plenty of people who couldn't understand sisterly romance, so unfollowing and leaving groups was reasonable.
Xifeng clicked on the group information and found that the previously full 2000-member group only had about 1700 people left. Looking carefully, she discovered that even two administrators had left.
The group was still arguing fiercely. Some anti-fans or fans-turned-haters who hadn't left yet kept making excessive comments, enraging everyone and causing them to attack en masse with fierce verbal criticism. Such arguments often escalated to personal attacks and even personal insults, ultimately earning a ban from administrators.
But soon, the next person would jump out and start attacking without following procedure, only to be kicked again after a few exchanges...
This scene kept repeating endlessly, barely stopping for a moment.
Unable to bear it anymore, Xifeng directly enabled group-wide muting, using violent means to strip everyone of their right to speak. She had wanted to type something to dissuade these people, but then thought that text wasn't expressive enough at times like this, so she pressed the voice button and said in a low voice: "I'm really sorry that this happened. I know some of you might find it hard to accept, might find it disgusting... All I can say is, I'm sorry.
"People cannot truly understand each other. Everyone has their own thoughts. I can understand some of your feelings of disliking me, and I respect your right to dislike me. Therefore, I also hope you can respect me.
"If my situation has caused trauma to your hearts, I apologize to everyone here. Then... please quietly leave on your own and don't affect the other people in the group anymore."
After sending this message, Xifeng didn't lift the group-wide muting. She wanted to ensure that people who opened the group later could also hear this message. The few administrators who chose to stay were also tactful enough not to speak, leaving Xifeng's voice message at the top of the latest messages.
Exiting her fan group, Xifeng browsed through her other groups and found basically similar situations, but she really didn't have the energy to intervene in every single group.
The most explosive might be Class 102's group chat, which was truly as lively as could be. By comparison, Xifeng could imagine what Bei Yaoyue's Class 101 group looked like.
Never mind the shock that their sisterly romance being exposed would cause their classmates—just their online identities were already unbelievable to those high school students who were still studying. They could even write a novel called "About How My Female Classmate's Girlfriend is a Million-Follower Yuri Doujin Artist."
The internet was still the internet. No matter how explosive public opinion became, its impact on reality was ultimately limited. What affected the two most was actually their classmates' attitudes. Xifeng nervously scrolled up through hundreds of messages and was surprised to find that not a single classmate showed obvious disgust or aversion.
But thinking about it carefully, Xifeng felt relieved. This was Tianshui No. 1 High School after all, and specifically the highly capable Class 102. Anyone who could enter here definitely wouldn't have too low an IQ, and their educational level was among the top nationwide. With normal brains and education levels, naturally they would say normal things.
Why were there so many internet warriors and contrarians online? Because going online required no barriers—those uneducated, ill-mannered people could communicate directly with you, and even more terrifyingly, the proportion of such people wasn't small.
Xifeng remembered seeing a statistic before: only 41% of people in China had high school education, and less than 4% had bachelor's degrees—much lower numbers than most people perceived. This was because most people's social circles consisted of people at similar levels, and due to survivorship bias, it created the illusion that "almost everyone has a high school education."
Generally speaking, the probability of internet warriors and contrarians appearing among people with lower education levels was naturally much higher than among highly educated groups.