novelraw Chapter 166: Been Played
Chapter 166: Been Played
The post grew longer and longer, and the discussion got more and more heated.
Although their communities were different, the central theme for both was food. Many fans in Jiang Jiujiu’s circle also followed the Federation Food Circle, so there wasn’t a huge divide between them. As a result, the incident quickly blew up within Juju’s community.
And once it blew up, all hell broke loose.
[Who is this two-faced hack?]
[They acted like a total moron asking all those questions in our community, but suddenly they’re so slick with their words somewhere else?]
[This person is just a hater! ’A million will teach bad values’? What an idiot!]
Would someone with only a million to their name spend a million so casually?
This is someone with hundreds of billions just spending a million like it’s pocket change, okay?!
[Their tone is so inflammatory, and they’re saying Juju isn’t worth it?]
How could the fans stand to see their Princess be wronged like this? Organized by one of the original posters, they all proudly declared their allegiance and marched into battle!
Jiang Qiuqiu’s fans quickly swarmed the Federation Food Circle.
At first, the young fans were civil.
They wanted to reason with the members of the older community.
But as is often the case in arguments, everyone swiftly abandoned the art of civil discourse.
[Heh, so you’re one of that streamer’s fans?]
[Please don’t use that tone. And don’t try to stir up drama. Our Juju is an excellent streamer.]
[It’s because kids like you get duped into spending money on her that these toxic trends are encouraged!]
[???]
[What do you mean, ’toxic trends’? What part is toxic?! And I’m spending my own money.]
[Your own money? Oh, your profile says you’re only 23. So you’ve earned some money after graduating? Have you shown any respect to your parents? Bought them anything? They worked so hard to raise you, and instead of giving back to them, you’re wasting your money on some streamer. And you have the nerve to talk here?]
[How do you know I haven’t bought them anything?]
[Heh.]
It was already a free-for-all, and no one’s tone was particularly pleasant to begin with. With a few people fanning the flames, the resolution to ’be reasonable and don’t resort to insults’ that everyone had before they charged in quickly became empty words.
A full-blown flame war was ignited.
You insulted my parents, so I insulted your entire family.
You asked what school I graduated from to end up as such a loser, so I asked with a mouth that foul how you’d ever get married—you’ll probably be single for life.
The back-and-forth insults bumped the thread straight into the ’trending’ section of the Federation Food forum, where it stayed pinned at the very top for over an hour.
Things had blown way out of proportion.
As more and more fans learned what was happening, someone told Terry. Terry was still trying to process the news when Wanxing, who had just gotten out of school, tagged Meimei and Jiang Qiuqiu’s operations team in the admin group chat.
Wanxing: Something’s not right.
Wanxing: The way this whole thing has played out is wrong.
Wanxing: @Meimei, Sister Mingmei, we have a situation. Are you there?
Terry: ???
Wanxing: @Terry, pull everyone from our community back first. I suspect this isn’t just a normal flame war.
Terry: ?
Wanxing: We’re being played.
Wanxing had previously studied many case studies on promotional campaigns in the live-streaming world in order to orchestrate a big push for Jiang Qiuqiu, so she felt something was off the moment she heard about the incident.
Wanxing: I suspect that both our community and the one next door have been infiltrated by a large number of paid trolls.
Terry: Paid trolls?
Meimei came online just then. She had just finished a meeting with Little President Qian.
After reading through the thread Terry had forwarded and getting the full story, she agreed, "There are definitely signs of paid trolls. Get our fans to pull back, now."
The team’s reaction was actually quite fast, but because the argument between Jiang Qiuqiu’s fans and some of the 40-something-year-old members of the Federation Food Circle had gotten so heated, too many people had already jumped into the fray.
Trying to call a halt to it now was simply impossible.