As he hit the send button, Director Zhang felt a surge of panic in his heart.

He always felt as if he had done something irrevocable.

He glanced at the Weibo post, carefully read it, and then felt that the front part was fine, but the last two sentences seemed "a bit" "too" harsh...

At a time when he was already in the eye of the storm, making such remarks seemed inappropriate.

He hesitated over whether to delete the post and repost it.

But as his hand lingered, he felt that doing so would make him appear too cowardly.

Moreover, in the age of the internet, with his number of followers, his post had probably been seen or screenshot within seconds of posting.

If he were to delete it and then repost it, it could cause even more unnecessary trouble.

Additionally, he was indeed harboring a feeling of deep frustration.

Although the last two sentences had been impulsive, they were genuinely reflective of his inner thoughts.

Over the past two days, he had re-watched the movie he had made; he thought it was good and saw no issues.

It had flavor, depth, and expression.

If the audience couldn't appreciate such a film, he genuinely felt the problem lay with the audience.

So, after hesitating for a long while and realizing more than a minute had passed, he embraced the mindset of "what's done is done; no point fussing over it anymore" and ultimately gave up the idea of deleting the post.

Sometimes, a moment's thought is just like that.

A task might be done or not, but human inertia tends to maintain the status quo without change.

Thus, under these circumstances, Director Zhang's Weibo post was seen by an increasing number of people paying attention to the matter.

Never mind the stakeholders involved, just mentioning the netizens who were initially watching, they all exploded in anger.

One film, I say I don't like it, you say you like it.

At most, that's a matter of preference.

But to say that disliking the film equates to having a problem, that's starting to target individuals personally and make sweeping generalizations.

Director Zhang wasn't some official, so the netizens did not hold back, and they immediately started to fiercely comment under his Weibo.

Even some ordinary onlookers who were just "eating popcorn" felt it was too much and joined the discussion.

"Geez, it's the first time I feel sad for the 'movie-going audience.' Spending dozens of bucks to see a movie in the cinema, watching a bad film, expressing a few opinions afterward, and then being called trash. Isn't that magical?"

"Bad movies scamming money is real, but good movies make money too. If the box office and reviews are poor, blame the audience?"

"The audience is trash? Are you sure it's not your movie that's trash? You want to convey something, then convey it clearly. If your artistic level isn't capable of moving people, why blame it on this generation of viewers?"

"We watch a movie to find a place for dates, or support a beloved celebrity, or just to have some leisure time. And you blame us for this? If you want to express yourself, don't screen it publicly. Simply participate in art awards, wouldn't that suffice?"

If we say that last time, due to differing opinions, most comments were of little substance,

This time, due to the controversial nature of the topic, most comments under the Weibo began to reason and express their opinions more substantively.

Moreover, perhaps driven by this atmosphere, even the comments under the celebrities supporting Director Zhang started to feature more substantive mockery and commentary,

"To be honest, looking at your Weibo feels sad. Hundreds of celebrities showing subservience, what for? Just to cling to Director Zhang's influence? Is fooling yourselves fun?"

"Is it that hard to admit that this movie is bad? Who can always produce masterpieces? Director Zhang made a bad film, we criticize it, it doesn't mean we won't watch his next one. But what you're doing is truly disgusting."

"I thought you were actors, celebrities, but you're just performers."

There were also those who went to Director Zhang's Weibo to comment on this matter,

"So many celebrities reposting and groveling doesn't show your power but only your inner fragility. It turns out even such a big director can be so insecure, needing celebrities to manipulate the situation."

"Forcefully making black look white, aren't you thinking too highly of yourself? A bad film is a bad film, are you creating a modern version of 'The Emperor's New Clothes'?"

If previous insults and criticisms indeed influenced the atmosphere under these director's and celebrities' posts, giving a legitimate reason to delete them, then the current substantive discussion was, in principle, not a violation.

But the arrogant directors and celebrities didn't care about that.

In their view, anyone who wasn't supporting or praising them needed to be deleted.

Therefore, seeing the heated comments section under Director Zhang's Weibo being active again, their staff prepared to start deleting posts once more.

However, what surprised them this time,

Previously, they could delete a Weibo post with a simple click, but this time, no matter how they clicked, they couldn't delete it.

It was as if there was a bug in the system, or...Weibo itself wasn't allowing deletions.

Thus, those celebrities and directors with inextricable links to Weibo had all their calls directed to Weibo's headquarters, asking what was happening.

...

Meanwhile... in Tiandu, at the Weibo headquarters.

Department of Public Opinion Review.

There was a confrontation taking place.

The two parties in the standoff were the department's deputy director and Zhao Ying.

The deputy director of the Department of Public Opinion Review was a woman in her forties with a somewhat fierce appearance.

She squinted and looked at Zhao Ying, her voice cold as she questioned, "Mr. Zhao instructed the tech department to temporarily shut down the deletion interface; what does this mean?"

Zhao Ying looked at her, serious yet somewhat naïve, and said, "Their deletions are too arbitrary. The comments didn't violate any rules. Yet, they want to delete them."

The woman stared back, unapologetically stating, "That is for our department to consider. If there's an issue, you can discuss it with me. You can't just shut down access like this; isn't that overstepping your bounds?"

Seeing the two arguing, quite a few in the department sneaked glances at them.

Zhao Ying, having just graduated, had never encountered such a situation.

So, she momentarily scratched her head in confusion, then naively asked, "Then... if I talked to you about it, would you shut down their access?"

The woman firmly responded, "No, because from my perspective, their actions are reasonable. We shouldn't restrict these celebrities' and directors' ability to delete comments."

"Our traffic is significantly generated by them."

"The negative comments about them are also because they are on Weibo."

"If we can't offer them privileges, driving them away to other platforms, the traffic would follow."

"So, we must give them the liberty to act capriciously."

Unconvinced by the woman's explanation, Zhao Ying only heard the initial part about "not restricting."

She pouted slightly, then muttered to herself, "That's a bit tricky."

"You don't want to shut it."

"I want to shut it."

"You say I don't have the authority to shut it, then..."

At this, her eyes brightened suddenly, and she rummaged in her pocket, pulling out a work ID, and said, "Oh right. Besides being a director, I recently also took on the role of a corporate supervisor."

"I remember Lao Cao saying I could oversee the operations of various departments in the company and could halt them if there were issues."

"Can I use it for this?"

As she spoke, her large eyes innocently looked at the woman, flickering slightly.

The woman's expression froze.

She almost thought Zhao Ying was feigning ignorance.

After all, according to the company regulations and the authority of a supervisor, she indeed had the right to halt the function.

But...

The woman looked at Zhao Ying and said irritably, "Even if you are a supervisor, you still have to report this to the chairman and the headquarters!"

"When the time comes, the company won't agree with your whimsical ideas either!"

"This group of celebrities are our most vital and important resources. We can't afford to lose them."

Zhao Ying nonchalantly responded, "No problem. Chen Yan said, if we lose them, we can create another batch. The entertainment industry would be much cleaner."

"Don't worry."

The woman: ...

The woman felt like she was dealing with a fool.

Who's Chen Yan?

You believe just because he said so?

Lose these celebrities and create another batch?

Who does he think he is? A god of the entertainment industry?

After mentally ranting for a bit, the woman slightly hesitated: but... the name does sound familiar somehow.

She thought a bit harder, then her pupils dilated slightly:

Isn't Chen Yan the company's new shareholder? That young, wealthy mogul?

He said that?

The woman recalled Chen Yan's business empire, suddenly feeling a chill run down her spine, as someone who had managed Weibo reviews and public sentiment for many years, she guessed at some possibilities.

Meanwhile, Zhao Ying kept chattering by her side, "Chen Yan said he phoned Lao Cao, told me to just go ahead with it, not to worry."

"So, you don't need to worry either."

The woman's thoughts returned, her eyes complex as she glanced at Zhao Ying: I'm not worried! I'm trying to sing a different tune here!

Thinking back to the several celebrity calls she had just handled, and then considering that young tycoon far away on Qin Island, but rapidly gaining a reputation nationwide, she rationally decided to turn off her phone...

...

Meanwhile, in the office of the Old Wave's chairman.

Lao Cao, referred to as Cao Weiguo, was on the phone with Chen Yan.

In recent days, due to the feud between Lu Man and Director Zhang, Old Wave's most essential asset, Weibo traffic, had skyrocketed, something Cao Weiguo was quite aware of.

As the situation heated up today and the traffic increased further, he was secretly pleased, considering his decision to bring Chen Yan "into the fold" a wise move.

Suddenly, during this moment, he received a report from the president of Weibo.

It mentioned Zhao Ying contacting the tech department and directly shutting down the celebrities' ability to delete comments.

The tech department, knowing Zhao Ying's exceptional status and fearing it might be a directive from the higher-ups, complied with her requests.

After completing the task, they immediately reported to the president of Weibo.

The president of Weibo, uncertain, thus contacted Cao Weiguo.

Cao Weiguo was initially prepared to scold Zhao Ying for causing trouble.

After all, as the deputy director mentioned, these celebrities were Weibo's most important and valuable assets.

Losing them could indeed cause significant damage.

However, before he could say anything, he received a text from Chen Yan.

In the text, Chen Yan mentioned that he had discussed the matter with Zhao Ying and would call Cao Weiguo shortly.

Cao Weiguo had studied and understood Chen Yan for a long time.

He always thought Chen Yan was a remarkable person.

Studying his background, one would find he seemed to have an uncanny ability to turn bad situations into good ones, and his insights were incredibly accurate, almost like a chosen one.

That feeling, he had seen it in several top entrepreneurs who had reached the pinnacle of success.

That's why he had confidently jumped onto Chen Yan's bandwagon.

Now, given that his future "big leg" had sent him a text, Cao Weiguo felt it was both sensible and proper to temporarily accept the situation and wait for Chen Yan's response.

Thinking this, he hinted to the president of Weibo to hold off for now, awaiting his further instructions.

The president of Weibo immediately understood his intentions, so he explained to the tech department to shut down the site-wide comment deletion feature, citing "network fluctuations and malfunctions in Weibo servers causing anomalies in the comment function across the site."

After hanging up, Cao Weiguo patiently waited for Chen Yan's response.

While waiting, he sipped tea and browsed Weibo, keeping an eye on the unfolding events.

After reading through the feed twice and seeing nothing new, he pulled down the top of the screen to refresh.

As he did, a new Weibo post appeared in front of him.

Curious, he clicked in to take a look. Then upon reading it, he spat out his tea in shock, staring agape at the content of the post.

After a moment, he licked his lips, his voice quivering slightly, "This has blown up, it's really blown up now..."

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