Those few photos acted like a lit match to dry tinder.
Suddenly, a flood of people who knew Yao Ge appeared on the forum.
“I can vouch for this—definitely Yao Ge. I saw him a few times at school. He’s pretty famous, right? I even tried greeting him, but he probably thought he was too awesome, so he ignored me.”
“Me too! I didn’t dare say before, figured he was a cool big shot—fine to stay aloof—but now thinking carefully, maybe there’s a problem.”
“What problem? I don’t buy it that he’s this amazing, winning every competition he enters. Didn’t his teachers help him?”
“Not necessarily. So many awards. Honestly, I’m curious—any chance of inside help? Some of Yao Ge’s work seems ordinary to me, don’t get why people hype him up.”
“True. His designs match his personality. About those awards… emmm, can’t really say.”
Can’t really say? You mean spin the IP and post these again?
Fan Qing checked the IP addresses.
As expected—all from the same bot network.
He had the IPs and posts meticulously recorded.
As for a counterattack? Not yet.
This was just the appetizer—the real moves hadn’t been played. Why rush?
Still… Fan Qing picked up the phone.
Might as well bother Yao Ge a bit, and remind him not to let these voices affect him.
Yao Ge shivered instinctively when he got the call.
After a moment of hesitation, he steeled himself and picked up the phone.
“Manager Fan?”
Fan Qing raised an eyebrow.
Was his voice really that shaky? A little over the top, maybe… Did he look that intimidating?
Still, that wasn’t a bad thing. Fan Qing softened his tone slightly.
“Relax, I’m not calling about your orders.”
Yao Ge didn’t relax at all—instead, he tensed up a bit.
“Then why are you calling me?”
Fan Qing tapped the desk lightly. Good. He’d learned to stay alert.
“No big deal. Just wanted to let you know, like I predicted, your old classmate has indeed made a move.”
Yao Ge’s wary expression gradually eased.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it?”
Hearing this tone, Fan Qing suddenly thought maybe the call was overkill. Perhaps it did more harm than good, making Yao Ge more anxious than necessary.
After giving a few instructions, he calmly hung up.
It was a pleasant little surprise, wasn’t it?
Yao Ge scratched his head. Good, good—it wasn’t about orders.
Wait, what did Manager Fan just say?
He froze for a moment, then quietly bent over to work.
Well, since it wasn’t about orders, it probably wasn’t anything important.
Yao Ge didn’t pay it much mind, while Fan Qing quietly guided the situation.
Soon enough, the news reached the designer circles.
Someone with broad connections naturally made a call to the old man.
The old man wasn’t upset.
He asked immediately what the caller thought about the situation.
The man, a graduate of four or five years now, had seen enough of the world to know its ways. He shook his head slightly.
“This is clearly someone jealous of Yao Ge, trying to stir trouble and smear your name. And looking at who’s behind it, they clearly have no skill, otherwise they wouldn’t dare speak this way.”
Who was the old man?
First in character, second in talent—he couldn’t tolerate nonsense.
“You’re lucky that’s all you’ve got going for you,” he snorted.
But he wasn’t fully satisfied.
“Kids these days—blind and, seemingly, full of water in the head. If Yao Ge had no character or talent, why would I care about helping him? What would I gain? These rumors have no logic, and yet so many people believe them—ridiculous.”
He paused, then added with a sigh:
“Good thing he wasn’t my student, or I’d be furious.”
The man stayed silent.
One couldn’t be sure. Even if not the old man’s own disciple, he likely had taught him at some point.
After a brief conversation and realizing Yao Ge had backing, the man calmed down.
He had his own network, and after sending word within it, the others naturally coordinated.
This created an unusual phenomenon.
The post got reposted, and yes, the insults persisted.
But for those paying attention, most of the notable names didn’t respond.
The ones complaining were mostly people struggling to get recognition.
Even so, it ended up trending.
Fan Qing, seeing this, couldn’t help but marvel.
A masterstroke—from planning to posting to hiring bots.
And if you buy a trending spot, you still need bots to control comments afterward. That costs a lot.
He opened the trending page.
As expected, the bots acted convincingly.
“I read through it, and it’s immersive—I’m starting to get angry. Yao Ge is so disgusting! And his teacher too, isn’t this unfair to the other students? Why does only Yao Ge get special treatment? Other students count for nothing? I can’t believe in this day and age there are people scheming like this, it’s awful.”
“Emmm, Yao Ge looks so messy—so different from the designers I know. From work, I’ve seen a few well-known designers, very fashionable, unique. What does Yao Ge have?”
“Yue… what is this Yao Ge? Such a person, and he still wins awards? I don’t get it. Kind of feel bad for the classmate who worked hard on the reunion. The event looked so nice, then this person shows up… emmm. But the classmate and the girl next to him look good together—wish them well!”
The last comment was planted by Fan Qing’s team.
They couldn’t let the other side just fire shots without showing their own hand.
With Fan Qing’s guidance, the conversation slowly shifted.
People began to sympathize with Zhang Fu, even paying attention to his achievements.
“The netizens this time are smart,” Fan Qing said, smiling widely.
He didn’t believe Zhang Fu would stay calm now.
Indeed, Zhang Fu panicked.
He hadn’t expected the tide to turn against him.
Sure, he had designed to this level—but only under the scheme of planting false impressions about Yao Ge!
Then he’d planned to claim that even if a student’s grades weren’t great, they could still succeed.
And then pretend to sigh over the woman who once liked Yao Ge—thankfully she made the right choice—and finally announce their wedding to everyone’s blessing.
That was his carefully written script.
He was about to be exposed—but not now!
Zhang Fu’s anxiety spiked, his eyes reddening as he hurriedly contacted the hired bots.
This absolutely could not go wrong. That woman had only seen Yao Ge once, and yet she had already begun to waver. And after giving him that cold shoulder that day, she actually went and told her father about it!
Damn it—he’d just been a little angry, how could she not accommodate him?
He was the future head of the family!
Though frantic, Zhang Fu understood one thing:
He and that woman were technically married, but the banquet hadn’t been held, and he hadn’t yet extracted all he could from her father. He could not let her truly change her mind now.
At the very least, he needed to secure a big profit first!
Clenching his teeth, Zhang Fu agreed to the bots’ request for extra payment.
Once he succeeded, he would recover this money from both the woman and her father!
After the money was received, the bots immediately went to work.
They started surfacing massively, even fabricating stories of several talented classmates whose rightful opportunities had supposedly been taken by well-connected peers, leaving them in bad situations now.
Two of them, in particular, were women with sweet and appealing appearances, whose photos were even posted publicly.
Immediately, many men’s protective instincts flared, and they launched attacks against Yao Ge.
Some even turned their attacks toward the exposed competition organizers.
But many of those contests were international, and the domestic ones were backed by powerful connections, so these attacks barely made a dent.
Many simply watched the chaos as if it were a spectacle.
“Yao Ge has no talent? He relies on teachers?”
Those who had actually seen Yao Ge’s publicly available works—and those of his mentor—would never say such things.
Some seasoned insiders just poured themselves a cup of tea and settled in to watch.
This little circus was quite entertaining, wasn’t it?
That was enough.
Fan Qing, meanwhile, sipped his tea, watching the show and occasionally moving pieces on the board. He thought: the situation had fermented just as he wanted.
Whether it was the outcome Zhang Fu desired? Who cared?
Public opinion gradually spread, and the moment Fan Qing had been waiting for arrived.
The Lunar New Year Gala on Weibo—the red carpet debut of Jian Feiyang.
Unexpectedly, the surprise he had prepared for Yao Ge hadn’t yet appeared. Instead, Yao Ge had prepared a surprise for him.
Yao Ge brought Jian Feiyang to try on his outfit, then quietly pulled Fan Qing aside and handed him a paper bag.
Fan Qing slowly typed a question mark.
What was this?
Yao Ge cleared his throat lightly.
“New Year’s is coming, so this is a gift for you, Manager Fan.”
A gift?
Fan Qing was about to open it when Yao Ge, blushing, pressed his hands over it.
He glanced at Jian Feiyang, still changing clothes, and whispered,
“Maybe… maybe, Manager Fan, you can look at it at home?”
So mysterious…
But if it couldn’t be seen by Jian Feiyang, perhaps it was something that would make him very pleased?
Curiosity piqued, Fan Qing sent Jian Feiyang off after his fitting, then returned home with the bag.
As soon as he entered, he eagerly dug out the gift from Yao Ge.
Opening it, Fan Qing paused slightly.
Instinctively, he held it against his body and clicked it into place.
The door swung open.
“Ah Qing, I’m back—”
Nie Luo froze in place.
Fan Qing looked up at him instinctively.
At that moment, Nie Luo felt something snap inside his head.
Fan Qing was holding a red wedding dress.