561: Chapter 561 The Writers' Association's Contingency Plan

The office was quiet for a few seconds.

Before Zhou Wenyuan could speak, the phone on the desk suddenly vibrated, and a video call request from "Tao Zhiyan" popped up on the screen.

He glanced at it and pressed the speakerphone.

A face full of fury appeared on the screen.

He was sitting in the Shaanxi Writers Association office, his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows, clutching a printed data briefing that he had crumpled in his grip.

"Old Zhou!"

Tao Zhiyan's voice came through the speakers, full of vigor, carrying the irrepressible anger of a Northwest man.

"I just finished reading the abnormal interaction briefing that the organizing committee sent to the Provincial Writers Associations!"

"Huanyu Publishing Group's behavior this time is simply disgraceful!"

The marker in He Yuanda's hand paused in mid-air, his gaze instinctively turning toward Zhou Wenyuan.

Tao Zhiyan's voice echoed in the office.

"Over three thousand abnormal accounts, for more than four hours, all leaving negative reviews under the works of those kids in the Program."

"If the abnormal interaction briefing the organizing committee publicly sent to the Provincial Writers Associations is this ugly, your headquarters backend must be even clearer about it."

Saying this, he pulled his chair forward and brought his entire face closer to the camera.

"There's another trace on the public page."

"After that same batch of accounts finished spamming negative feedback in the Program's work section, they appeared on the work pages of several other Huanyu Publishing Group authors, concentrating on likes, bookmarks, and short comments."

"If Yuanda is with you, have him pull the backend data and verify it."

He Yuanda was taken aback.

Tao Zhiyan slammed his hand on the desk.

"Our provincial technical team only captured the public pages and checked today's distribution of abnormal interactions."

"Out of the seven thousand-plus public abnormal interaction samples, nearly thirty percent of the likes and positive short comments landed on the pages of three other competing authors under Huanyu Publishing Group!"

"What they are protecting is Huanyu Publishing Group's entire competition chain!"

He Yuanda's expression changed.

He quickly returned to the console and pulled up the behavior distribution map of the matrix accounts.

Sure enough.

Those accounts that concentrated on attacking the Program's works, after posting negative comments, twenty-eight percent of them had bookmarked, liked, and left positive short comments on the pages of three other contestants under Huanyu Publishing Group during the same period.

The operation paths were deliberately dispersed; looking at any single account, it wasn't obvious, but when aggregated, those three orange areas on the distribution heat map, along with Shen Jiangping's red area, almost formed a complete offensive and defensive system.

The other end of the line was quiet for a moment, then Tao Zhiyan sneered.

"See that?"

"One path attacks others' works to suppress their reputation, and the other path boosts data for their own people. They're working both ends."

He leaned his chair back, his voice dropping, but every word was emphasized heavily.

"Chairman Zhou, I suggest the Writers Association issue an official announcement immediately."

He stared at the camera.

"Suspend the evaluation qualifications for all competition pages strongly associated with this batch of abnormal matrices, and review them one by one!"

As these words fell in the office, He Yuanda instinctively looked at Zhou Wenyuan.

Tao Zhiyan continued:

"The ironclad proof is right here—IP attribution, device fingerprints, and behavioral clustering all match up. If this kind of thing isn't handled, the decades-old reputation of the Kunpeng Award will be a joke."

His volume rose again.

"I, Tao Zhiyan, speak harshly, but who among you doesn't know the truth? If this bunch doesn't pay the price this time, they will only become more unscrupulous next time. While the public open day hasn't ended yet, make the situation clear and clear them out!"

On the video screen, Tao Zhiyan's breathing was visibly heavy.

He tossed the crumpled data briefing to the side of the desk, braced his hands on the desktop, and waited for Zhou Wenyuan's response.

The office was quiet once again.

He Yuanda stood by the console, his gaze scanning back and forth between Tao Zhiyan and Zhou Wenyuan twice.

Just then, a slow and steady voice came from not far away.

"Old Tao, drink some water first."

Gu Changfeng, who had been listening in from the side, finally spoke.

He was sitting by the window, with the thermos cup that had been with him for over a decade beside him.

He had been invited to attend the review meeting and had barely opened his mouth from the start of the report until now.

Tao Zhiyan glared at him on the screen.

"Gu Taiji, you're here too? What is it, trying to smooth things over again?"

Gu Changfeng didn't mind the appellation.

He put down his teacup, the sound of the cup bottom touching the desk very light.

"I'm not trying to smooth things over."

He said.

"What I mean is, there's no rush for the Writers Association to bring down the axe itself right now."

Tao Zhiyan frowned.

Gu Changfeng gently flicked the rim of his cup with his finger.

"What you just said, about canceling qualifications and issuing announcements, sounds satisfying. But have you thought about the consequences of doing that?"

Tao Zhiyan didn't respond.

Gu Changfeng continued:

"If the Writers Association handles the competition qualifications directly now, the first thing the outside world will fixate on will likely become 'The evaluation hasn't ended yet, and the organizers have already stepped into the ring'."

Gu Changfeng's speaking pace was slow, as if reasoning with someone.

"People outside will first see one thing: the public open day hasn't ended, yet the organizers have changed the competition qualifications ahead of time."

"No matter how well-justified the reason is, this action itself will be used against us. When Huanyu Publishing Group turns around and cries foul, claiming the Writers Association is suppressing private publishing, which way do you think public opinion will lean?"

Tao Zhiyan's mouth opened, then closed again.

Gu Changfeng picked up his teacup and slowly turned it half a circle.

"Furthermore, you saw it yourself just now. The matrix on Huanyu Publishing Group's side stopped at 4:23 PM."

He Yuanda nodded instinctively:

"Yes, after 4:23 PM, new abnormal activity dropped to zero, and several groups of high-frequency accounts went dormant simultaneously."

Tao Zhiyan kept a straight face and didn't make a sound.

Gu Changfeng placed the teacup back on the desk.

"It means someone inside Huanyu Publishing Group hit the brakes. It's damage control, and it's also a form of distancing."

"The moment the matrix stopped, Huanyu Publishing Group was already preparing for the worst. They know better than you to what extent it would be exposed if they continued."

He paused.

"Old Tao, think about it. How many hours has that creative discussion piece by Shen Jiangping been out?"

"Five hours."

He Yuanda added from the side.

"Five hours."

Gu Changfeng repeated.

"The click count has indeed been boosted. But what about the completion rate? It dropped from thirty-three to twenty-five, and it's still falling."

His finger tapped lightly on the desk.

"The creative discussion brings people in, but if the main text can't keep them, the readers will cast their own votes. You don't need the Writers Association to step in and kick people out. The readers are already doing that for you."

Tao Zhiyan stared at the screen, the rise and fall of his chest gradually calming down.

Gu Changfeng continued:

"Shen Jiangping's current predicament is that he is being backlashed by his own creative discussion. The more people who come in, the more who discover that the main text can't live up to the expectations. This snowball will just keep rolling and getting bigger on its own."

"If you step in to ban him now, you're actually giving him the steps. He can claim he's a victim being suppressed by the Writers Association, and the problems with his main text will be shifted entirely onto systemic injustice."

"But what if you don't take action?"

Gu Changfeng looked at Tao Zhiyan.

"He can only watch helplessly as his completion rate drops day by day, and the clustering in the comment section rolls day by day toward the direction of 'the creative discussion is better than the main text'. In the end, when the judges open the backend, this set of data is the first thing they will see."

"No one needs to pass judgment for him. Whether the main text can hold up or not, the backend curves will provide the answer themselves."

Tao Zhiyan leaned back in his chair and tapped his fingers on the desk twice.

"What about Chu Pengshu? His long article is still hanging on the forum homepage, trying to stir up a narrative in the direction of 'the Program lacks structure'."

Gu Changfeng laughed.

"Old Tao, do you think those old gentlemen on the Kunpeng Award judging panel need Chu Pengshu to teach them how to judge whether an article has structure?"

Tao Zhiyan's expression relaxed a bit.

Gu Changfeng spread his hands.

"Chu Pengshu put the ruler on the judges' table in advance, forcing the judges to score according to his standards. Do you think Chairman Xue would let an outside critic set the tone for him?"

He stopped there and didn't elaborate further.

The office was quiet for a few seconds.

Tao Zhiyan was silent on the screen for a moment, then finally let out a snort through his nose.

"Fine, I'll take your word for it. But if after three days, the data for those kids in the Program has been suppressed, you, Gu Taiji, will have to explain it to me personally."

Gu Changfeng waved his hand with a smile.

"It won't be suppressed."

He said with certainty.

"Have you seen the retention curve for 'qin opera'? From the first chapter to the last, less than a quarter of the readers left halfway through. How many times has a curve like this appeared in the twenty years of Kunpeng Award entries?"

Tao Zhiyan didn't speak, but the anger on his face had dissipated for the most part.

Gu Changfeng turned his gaze to the main seat.

"Vice Chairman Zhou, I've finished sharing my opinion."

At the head of the long table, Zhou Wenyuan had not interjected from beginning to end.

His gaze had been fixed on the big screen, on those two side-by-side data curves.

The completion rate of "qin opera" was still rising.

He Yuanda and Gu Changfeng both looked at him simultaneously.

Tao Zhiyan on the video screen also stopped and waited.

Zhou Wenyuan picked up his thermos and took a sip.

Then he put the cup back on the desk, his voice very flat.

"Yuanda."

"Yes."

"You asked me just now whether the Technical Department should intervene directly."

He Yuanda stood up straight.

Zhou Wenyuan looked at him, his tone without any fluctuation.

"I'll tell you one thing."

"Huanyu Publishing Group's matrix, IP attribution, behavioral clustering, and even whether they would stop, and whether they would change tactics after stopping."

Zhou Wenyuan's finger tapped lightly on the thermos.

"These things were all in our contingency plan from the very beginning."