Chapter 43: Choosing the Strategy with the Maximum Traffic

"Did you read the book?"

"I did, but..." Zhang Lingye glanced around and instinctively lowered his voice. "Do we really have to talk about this here?"

Outside the recording studio door sat two worn-out little plastic stools. The two of them sat close together, having no intention of going inside, nor acting like they were just taking a temporary break.

They didn't dare to speak loudly either. Instead, they occasionally raised their heads to glance at a figure appearing around the corner, and then pretended to look around at other places, masking the guilt of stakeout behavior.

"Yu Wei should be coming to record a song!"

Qi Yuan lowered his gaze to the figure reflected on the floor and muttered to himself, "That song called *Red Bean* should be a crucial step in fulfilling his ambition."

Zhang Lingye had no idea how to respond to this, so he simply opened his phone on silent and scrolled through short videos.

"Didn't you read the book? Do you have any thoughts?"

Seeing him stay silent, Qi Yuan directly pressed the question.

"Uh... how should I put it? Aside from the gimmick of original works, it's pretty ordinary." Zhang Lingye was blunt; even though he treated Yu Wei as a buddy, he had no qualms about speaking his mind.

"The beginning was pretty thrilling. When I reached around chapter twenty and he sang to the blind little girl, I couldn't hold it together. Isn't *Hearing the Rain* a love song? Isn't it a bit illegal to sing that to a little girl?"

"——?!"

Hearing this, Qi Yuan frowned in slight bewilderment. Thinking about it that way, it did seem a bit...

No, Yu Wei must have had a deeper meaning in writing it like that.

"Your perspective is still too superficial. I said last time that Yu Wei's book is a mirror reflecting the monsters of the entertainment industry, and now it's coming true."

Zhang Lingye gave a light cough, looking somewhat acquiescent.

The very fact that he came today already proved his stance. He still deeply doubted Qi Yuan's words, but some parts were still worth referencing.

Take this *Red Bean* incident for example. For Yu Wei to suddenly write an internet-famous song into his novel was indeed hard to explain through mere interest.

Perhaps he really did intend to shake up the entertainment industry...

Zhang Lingye felt like he had lost his mind, actually believing Qi Yuan's nonsense. According to him, this time was going to be an epic battle.

Although Yu Wei was skilled at writing songs, winning with flying colors would still be a difficult task, not to mention that his opponent was a million-follower internet celebrity on a short-video platform. If a real dispute broke out, it wouldn't be easy to clean up.

One thing had to be clarified: Qi Yuan came today to sound out Yu Wei, but Zhang Lingye was purely concerned about his friend and wanted to see if there was anything he could do to help.

As for why they didn't just ask directly, that was Qi Yuan's idea—running into each other by chance would make it look less deliberate.

But was this really considered a chance encounter...?

Zhang Lingye instinctively moved his stool backward. For some reason, he suddenly felt a bit awkward. Weren't they acting a bit foolish by doing this?

"What if he doesn't come?"

"Keep waiting. If he doesn't come today, he'll definitely come tomorrow."

***

"Oh, you all, greetings, Master Beijinger."

Yu Wei had just noticed that the IP address of Qi Luo'an, who had returned home for the summer vacation, had changed to Beijing. He should have thought of it sooner—her grandmother worked at the National Theatre, so being in Beijing made sense.

"Cut the authentic slang. What made you decide to bombard internet celebrity songs?"

As a reader of entertainment fiction, Qi Luo'an looked at Yu Wei in a new light. This kid always managed to pull some fresh stunts for his novels.

Web novel authors could lack skill, but they couldn't lack gimmicks. Yu Wei had the absolute right to speak on this matter; every single move of his was beyond her expectations.

Doing reverse plagiarizing, beating reality with a novel—could a normal author pull off such a stunt?

"I'm just thinking of the readers. If I keep writing original works and pulling them out, people will definitely get tired of it after too many times."

Wasn't he writing like this just to give book fans a sense of novelty and immersion? For now, aside from the domestic server readers spontaneously volunteering to fight, everything else seemed fine...

With *Scarlet* as a reference point, one had to admit that everyone's reading experience had improved significantly, right?

"You're right, but I read your book. The vocabulary is precise, the writing flows smoothly, and the prose is top-notch. It's a celestial-grade masterpiece! Hold your ground and don't collapse, and this book will definitely reach Platinum!"

Qi Luo'an had no need to interfere with Yu Wei's choices. Besides, she had great confidence in this guy's creative ability; he wasn't going to crash and burn.

Winning is easy, but winning across the board is hard.

"Grandma used to say, there is no inherent victory in the world; victory lies between the strokes of the brush. The characters for 'death' (亡), 'mouth' (口), 'month' (月), 'cowrie' (贝), and 'ordinary' (凡) combine to spell out the strategies: 'death' represents a sense of crisis, 'mouth' is communication skills, 'month' is time, '贝' is money, and 'ordinary' is an ordinary mindset."

"You don't lack any of the others, but isn't your sense of crisis a bit lacking?"

As expected of a young lady from a prestigious family, the way she spoke was simply different.

Yu Wei actually understood the logic. Writing about real-life songs easily offended people, but isn't an entertainment-industry novel about the entertainment circle? How can the plot move forward if you don't offend anyone?

Besides, in the plot, he didn't entirely dismiss other people's songs; in fact, there was mostly praise. As for the music competition segment, it was purely a matter of the matching mechanism.

"The song is already written, and I'll go record it the day after tomorrow."

Originally, Yu Wei had intended to record the song earlier, but he hadn't expected his assistant to find a place so quickly. Today he had to pack his luggage, and tomorrow he would move.

"You really are as prolific as a sow."

It had only been a few days since he finished shooting the short film, and he had already written a new song so quickly. Was he giving birth to a litter of piglets here...?

Qi Luo'an had no doubt about the quality of his songs; she was mainly worried about external factors, since human hearts are unpredictable.

"On the bright side, me writing about them also brings them traffic. They aren't getting the short end of the stick."

What Yu Wei said wasn't false. Those viral internet songs relied mostly on luck, and the online singers who wrote them would gradually become the tears of an era.

Take this song *Crimson* for example. It was certainly popular when it was trending, but now hardly anyone mentioned it. Yu Wei's move actually gave her a helping hand.

Yu Wei's actions didn't really offend many people. Those internet songs were already controversial enough; one more critic didn't make a difference, and writing about them this way actually brought them popularity.

Anyone who truly understood the internet would be secretly thrilled.

"The worst part is right here."

Even ordinary listeners could comment however they wanted, but precisely because Yu Wei came with his own traffic, this matter became tricky. People are greedy, not to mention self-media that cares only about traffic.

"This is different from an author giving you a chapter shoutout. If you give a fellow author a shoutout, they'll thank you for giving them a hand, but if you give traffic to self-media, they'll only think it's not enough."

Yu Wei's move did bring popularity to the other party, but anyone who made a living on the internet wasn't stupid. They knew the difference between being full for one meal and being full forever.

She wasn't afraid of someone understanding the internet; she was afraid of someone understanding it too well!

"The novel's popularity is temporary. I'm afraid she'll be insatiable and feed on negative traffic, ending up truly locking horns with you."

Qi Luo'an's words made a certain amount of sense. Yu Wei's novel did bring Chen Chen a new wave of popularity, but if she just kept it to herself secretly, that popularity would come and go quickly.

If she wanted to turn temporary traffic into a long-term meal ticket, the best way was to seize the opportunity and take the "infamous-yet-popular" route. Even if Yu Wei's new song slapped her in the face later on, she would still cash in on the traffic.

Opening a live stream and getting cursed at could still earn her a fortune...

"I'm just afraid she understands the internet too well."

Yu Wei had experienced this himself. In reality, many internet clowns and mad dogs put on an act; they were quite normal in private, and making a living by being cursed at was their bread and butter.

There were also many internet influencers whose public fallout and backstabbing were actually scripted. Making money wasn't shameful, and creating drama brought traffic.

If she truly understood the internet inside out, she really might stir up trouble. No matter what she thought in her heart, on the surface she would definitely resist to the bitter end.

Fast-forward to: "The villain Yu Wei has lost his conscience, and I will coexist with *Scarlet*!"

Yu Wei was very familiar with this routine—a common fodder-villain plot in entertainment novels. After a few doses of righteous sanction, they would quiet down.

He just didn't know how well this internet-famous female singer named Chen Chen actually understood the internet...

He instinctively opened the short video app and searched for Chen Chen's account. The resulting account completely dumbfounded Yu Wei.

Chen Chen (Disciple of Yu Wei).

"6."

They were still wondering whether she would take the infamous route and resist stubbornly to the end, but they hadn't expected there to be such a high-end operation of reaping traffic without firing a single shot.

He had underestimated her. This couldn't be flamed; she was a true master.

In Yu Wei's original preset, singers written into the book would generally respond in one of four ways.

Those with bad tempers would hit back directly; those with good tempers would just smile and let it go; those with stature would gracefully admit defeat; and those chasing hype would resist to the end.

Qi Luo'an was worried about the fourth tier, but this person was on the fifth tier. Having wandered in obscurity for half her life without meeting a true master, she now bowed to address him as her mentor since he didn't cast her aside.

This was someone who truly understood the internet...

She chose the strategy that yielded the maximum amount of traffic!