543: Chapter 543 The Gentle Trap of the Universe

The post on Huanyu Publishing Group's official Microblogging platform account was published at exactly 10:00 AM, two days before the public open day.

When Chen Jiahao swiped across it, he froze for a few seconds.

"That's strange."

He held his phone up in front of Lin Que, his tone full of disbelief.

"Master Que, look, Huanyu Publishing Group isn't being passive-aggressive for once."

The entire post was full of praise.

It praised the Qinglan Student for being willing to step out of the classroom,

praised them for spending a month diving into the Gobi Desert, urban villages, and old factory districts, and praised such a creative attitude as commendable.

The attached images were nine real photographs: the wind and sand of the Gobi, the narrow alleys of urban villages, and the rusted iron gates of old factory districts.

Every single one matched the places the students had actually visited.

The comments below were also full of warmth.

"Huanyu Publishing Group has really broadened its horizons."

"Supporting young people in going to the grassroots level; this attitude is alright."

"So these Qinglan kids really did go and endure hardships. I'm a fan now."

Chen Jiahao stared intently at the post.

"Did they have a change of heart?"

Xu Changge turned around from his desk, glanced at the post twice, but didn't respond to Chen Jiahao.

He sat back down, opened his laptop, and pulled up the public opinion records he had been saving over the past few days.

"Don't get happy too soon."

Xu Changge's fingers slid across the trackpad.

"I'm afraid this is just the prelude to the storm."

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Que's phone buzzed.

In the main Program group chat, Tang He dumped a series of screenshots.

Several popular posts on literary forums had almost all been bumped up within two days.

The posting accounts had different avatars, professional-looking bios,

had been registered for over three years, and their past posts were all serious literary discussions.

The content of the posts also looked objective.

"This batch of Qinglan Student went on a field trip for a month, which is commendable. However, short-term experience and long-term accumulation are ultimately two different things."

"Going to the grassroots is a good thing, but can one month really write out the roots of the grassroots? I reserve my opinion."

"Rational discussion: Where is the ceiling for youth literature? Taking Qinglan works as an example."

Every single one didn't contain a single dirty word, and every single one was phrased impeccably.

But after reading through them, only two judgments remained in the readers' minds:

The Qinglan Student had too shallow a foundation; a short-term field trip couldn't support a true grassroots narrative.

Chen Jiahao stared at these posts, the smile on his face slowly fading.

"This, combined with that post Huanyu Publishing Group made earlier praising them..."

"It's all part of the same scheme."

Xu Changge finished his sentence for him.

"First, use the official account to adopt a high stance and establish the idea that 'we are very objective'."

"Then, have these high-authority accounts come out, posing as passersby, to plant seeds of doubt in everyone's minds."

He clicked on the homepage of one of the accounts and scrolled down.

"Look, this account has only posted serious book reviews for the past three months; its credibility is very high."

"When an ordinary reader sees it, they'll think this is someone who knows their stuff, and that what they say carries weight."

Lin Que held his water cup without speaking, only taking screenshots of those accounts' homepages one by one and throwing them into the same folder.

He recognized this tactic.

In his past life, when dealing with publicity teams, he had seen too many similar processes:

First raise your stance, then plant preconceptions, and finally wait for the target to walk into the public opinion trap themselves.

What's truly vicious is often these high-authority accounts that put on a cloak of objectivity and slowly stuff preconceptions into the readers' minds.

...

Sure enough.

At 12:00 PM, Shen Jiangping's long article was posted right on time.

The title was grand.

"Young Authors, Don't Be in Such a Rush to Leave Readers Behind."

Reading through the whole thing, the stance was extremely righteous.

He first praised the Qinglan Project as a good thing, praised the young people for their courage, and praised this batch of newcomers for their sharp spirit.

But halfway through the praise, his tone began to shift.

"Courage is commendable, but courage cannot replace accumulation."

"A one-month field trip might capture the skin of life, but it may not necessarily capture the roots of life."

"Our generation was polished page by page alongside our readers."

"Writing that hasn't undergone long-term market testing inevitably carries a tone of narcissism."

He didn't name names, but as soon as the words "narcissism" came out,

the comment section quickly flooded with "Recommended Students" and "Qinglan Project," making the target sufficiently obvious.

Chen Jiahao was so angry his hands were shaking.

"He took eight turns just to end up insulting people."

"That's exactly what makes it brilliant."

Xu Changge's tone was very flat.

"He doesn't scold; he 'laments'."

"He laments that you are young, laments that you are shallow, laments that you don't understand the market."

"After reading it, readers will only think he is a generous senior worrying on our behalf."

At 1:30 PM, Chu Pengshu's long academic review followed right on time, like a second main act that had been rehearsed in advance.

This piece was much harsher.

It began by citing several literary theory terms, from "the presence of experience" to "the ethical dilemma of grassroots narrative,"

and in five thousand words, it did only one thing:

nail the Qinglan Project's field trip as "tourist-style writing."

"True grassroots writing requires long-term immersion and requires the creator to maintain sufficient reverence for the fate of their subjects."

"Short-term entry often only allows one to see the suffering on the surface."

"When a creator enters as a short-term visitor and leaves as an examiner,"

"the so-called field trip easily slides into 'consumerist field trips'."

"I have no intention of denying the efforts of the Qinglan Student, but judging solely from the creative path of short-term field trips,"

"the texts they are about to present will likely find it hard to completely avoid the problem of lacking substance."

This article didn't have a single dirty word; it was full of sophisticated terminology.

But precisely because it was sophisticated, its lethality was even greater.

This article aimed at the judges, the commentary circle, and those deep readers who would seriously finish reading the works.

It wanted to install a pair of colored glasses in everyone's minds before they even opened the Qinglan works.

Xu Changge finished reading and closed his laptop.

"This is what's truly deadly."

He looked at Lin Que.

"Shen Jiangping is responsible for stepping on our reputation, and Chu Pengshu is responsible for setting the standards. One soft, one hard."

"Shen Jiangping makes our persona into 'arrogant kids,' while Chu Pengshu nails the ruler of judgment onto the wall in advance."

"By the time the works are open, many people will have already completed a pre-reading trial in their minds before even turning the first page."

Lin Que put down his water cup.

"They are fighting for the 'first impression'."

The group chat was already exploding by now.

Under the bios of several students, a batch of simplistic praise flooded in.

"This batch of geniuses from the Fu Zhi Yao Competition is the answer to the youth literary scene; the older generation should step aside!"

"The Program has already won; those who question them just can't stand seeing newcomers rise up."

...

The rhetoric was excessively uniform.

Chen Jiahao looked at these "compliments" and got even angrier.

"They deliberately made these statements so extreme, just waiting for passersby to feel repulsed."

Lin Que spat out two words.

"The repost chains overlap, the active times overlap, and even the first few accounts to like the posts are the same."

"This batch of praising accounts and that batch of 'objective discussion' accounts basically come from the same pool."

Sure enough, not long after, Shen Jiangping threw another short update onto the forum.

"Some things, I originally didn't want to say."

"A certain university's recommended student—quite famous, and even more capable."

"I heard that in order to compete for the ranking, they even invited fans from the Web Novel Circle."

"With such a display, us so-called seniors have truly had our eyes opened."

"A word of advice: rules are meant to be followed, not to be exploited."

This update didn't name names, but the five words "a certain university's recommended student,"

at this critical juncture, everyone knew exactly who it was referring to.

Chu Pengshu immediately followed up with a short review, elevating "the erosion of literary judging credibility by data manipulation" to another theoretical height.

The two pieces, one after the other, combined with that batch of high-authority accounts frantically reposting,

in less than half an hour, completely dominated the hot searches of the entire literary circle.

Finally, the trend of public opinion began to skew.

"Recommended students play these games too? He's lost all face for Qingbei."

"Inviting Web Novel Circle fans to boost a literary award—that's really ugly behavior."

"One moment shouting about doing pure literature, the next secretly boosting votes—double standards."

Some people didn't buy it.

"Where's the evidence? Just by relying on 'Shen the Nutjob' being sarcastic twice, and a bad-review reviewer using a few terms, you're convicting them?"

"Dream Weaver's post clearly stated opposition to vote boosting; how did it become him vote boosting in your version?"

"Use your brains; the main text hasn't even been opened yet, what votes are you boosting? Boosting for nothing?"

But Chu Pengshu's theory was too easy to use,

those following the trend only needed to repeat "consumerist field trips" and "data manipulation" to make themselves seem knowledgeable.

Thirty Qinglan Student were firmly pushed to the forefront of the storm.