79: Whose complaint letter?

Predicted popularity and current popularity.

"These are the data performances of those four celebrity guests in their past variety shows. Even if it was rated as the worst show on the internet, the popularity they brought back then was still higher than our current Program Production Crew's."

Qu Lang's eyes widened in disbelief upon hearing Cheng Yan's words.

"Impossible. Everything is going so normally for us. How can this be?"

Cheng Yan gave a bitter smile, lit a cigarette, and put it in his mouth.

"It's not just that. We've already received a complaint from a talent agency. If the Program Production Crew doesn't improve the current situation, their guest will have no choice but to withdraw."

Qu Lang looked shocked, unable to understand why a variety show that seemed to be going smoothly would end up like this.

Then he gave an indifferent smile.

"Who is it? If they're not satisfied, they can just leave. Anyway, we have so many names on our backup list~"

"They're gone..."

"What's gone?" Qu Lang asked curiously.

"All the names on the backup list are gone."

"??? Weren't there so many just a while ago?" Qu Lang was full of questions.

"Yeah, they've all canceled their applications in the last few days. I called a few of them, and they all said they have other schedules."

Qu Lang felt like his brain couldn't keep up, so he waved his hand.

"Don't wait for me to ask. Just tell me why it's like this and what it has to do with Xiao Fan."

Cheng Yan sighed and sat down at the table.

"At the start, Gao Xiaofan exploited a loophole in the mission and set up the other guests on the first day. We were very happy to see that, and the other guests were quite cooperative. Some of them even knew about it at the time~"

"Because of the hype. Even before the show started, Xiao Fan had hype. The guests also hoped for some gimmicks right at the start to create a sense of conflict and anticipation for their fans. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Seeing Qu Lang nod, Cheng Yan continued.

"Sometimes, when these guests suffer a setback, it's very likely they're just faking it. It's for their fans, you know? Only with a bit of a spark can hype be generated. Fans will then look forward to their favorite person making a comeback and slapping the other's face, right?"

Qu Lang seemed to understand a bit.

"So Gao Xiaofan got the hype on the first day, and those guests were just waiting for the second or third day to get it back from him. By then, everything they lost would return, maybe even more. In novels, isn't it normal for an old monster to hunt the protagonist only to be killed and drop loot? It's the same logic~"

"But none of us expected Gao Xiaofan to directly exchange for a fishing rod, become self-sufficient, and stop playing with them~ He just took the fans and hype he gathered on the first day and ran away~"

"Want to slap his face? Reclaim their dignity? Gao Xiaofan just picks up his rod and leaves, giving the other guests no chance. Unless you also exchange for a fishing rod to go fishing, there's no chance to slap his face."

Hearing this, Qu Lang reached out to interrupt Cheng Yan's rant and said.

"I understand what you're saying, but why should our Program Production Crew care about that? As long as the show has popularity, isn't that enough?"

Cheng Yan sighed. "The Program Production Crew's popularity is declining..."

As the general director, Qu Lang basically didn't look at these figures, focusing mainly on keeping the show running. Hearing this, he found it hard to believe.

"Xiao Fan's livestream room has such high popularity, over 60 million."

Cheng Yan covered his head. "Mi Mi, Reba, Hua Hua, Han Han—the combined worst past data for these four people was already 90 million."

"It's true that Xiao Fan's livestream room has high popularity, but look at how dismal the other livestream rooms are."

Qu Lang turned his head and carefully scanned them one by one, becoming more and more bewildered as he went down the list.

Reba: 5.62 million popularity.

Hua Hua: 2.09 million popularity.

Mi Mi: 1.88 million popularity.

Han Han: 150,000 popularity.

Liu Yunning: 60,000 popularity.

Cheng Seventeen: 20,000 popularity.

Exploding Watermelon: 4,236 popularity.

4,236??? It's freaking precise down to the single digits???

Qu Lang turned his head in shock to look at Cheng Yan behind him, hoping for an answer.

"Actually, we aren't sure either. We even asked some fans who stopped watching the show, and they couldn't explain why~"

"It wasn't until more and more people gave up on our variety show and started complaining online that we understood why this was happening."

Cheng Yan took out his phone and pushed it toward Qu Lang.

Qu Lang leaned over to take a look; he was initially delighted, but then became speechless.

"Show Water Bright Mountain is actually quite good, but for some reason, after watching for two days, I feel like Hua Hua isn't my type anymore."

"The show has such a great concept, but it gets more and more boring the more I watch it, and I don't know why."

Cheng Yan took back his phone and smiled.

"See? There's nothing wrong with the show. The problem lies with these guests. Why do fans worship celebrities?"

"It's because they think you're awesome—they think your singing is awesome, you're incredibly handsome, you're charismatic, and you're elegant and dignified."

"But now? On the first day, they were treated like fools. On the second day, they went to work in the fields and couldn't reclaim their dignity. What day is it now?"

"The singers are working in the fields every day. The two beautiful internet celebrities look like ghosts every day now~"

"They originally planned to harvest Xiao Fan's fans and use Xiao Fan as a stepping stone, but they ended up getting cut themselves."

"Back when Xiao Fan was about to head out, the Program Production Crew already knew something was wrong and immediately performed a version update. This included the earnings and distributing pads to narrow the gap and retain fans. You know about this, right?"

Seeing Qu Lang nod, Cheng Yan extinguished his cigarette and continued.

"But then what happened? Gao Xiaofan caught a fifty-pound Bighead Carp. How can you compete with that? He even did it with flair, using a shovel to smack it onto the shore~"

Qu Lang rubbed his head, feeling something was off.

"Then why do those guests still pay to come over and eat? If they don't eat, won't Gao Xiaofan have no income?"

Cheng Yan smiled.

"That's why I say we tech guys aren't suited for mind games. I only understood it after reading the complaint letter."

"These guests are all shrewd. Do you think they only went there because they were greedy for food?"

"The more I think about it now, the more interesting I find these guests. Do you know what the most common content in Hua Hua and Han Han's livestream rooms is?"

"‘Hua Hua, you should just eat by yourself. Why bring Cheng Seventeen along? It's a waste of money.’"

"Do you know what that means? They're building a persona! A generous persona! In our backstage, we've heard Cheng Seventeen whispering more than once that she wouldn't go to eat because she's being bashed online now."

"Another point is, undeniably, the biggest source of hype in the Program Production Crew is Gao Xiaofan. So these guests have no choice now but to force themselves to leech off him~"

Qu Lang listened to Cheng Yan's words with wide eyes and an expression of disbelief.

"Don't believe it? Guess whose complaint letter this is?"