Ready for Promotion

Lin Chang's eyes darkened with intensity.

"Fine, fine. So they chose to air 'Chinese Paladin,' did they? Huh, Lake TV—hope they don’t regret this."

His voice was icy as he ordered, "Contact Zhejiang TV. Tell them 'Celestial Love' will air on their network."

The two stations were direct competitors.

Once 'Celestial Love' became a smash hit, Lake TV’s audience would inevitably flock to Zhejiang TV.

And from now on, all their company’s dramas would exclusively air there.

He’d make Lake TV rue the day they crossed him.

"Dad, I’ll arrange it immediately," Lin Qingwan nodded, though an inexplicable unease gnawed at her. Something felt off about this.

Meanwhile, Wang Ba had been staking out the Lin Group headquarters, waiting for Lin Li to show himself. But since returning from abroad, Lin Li hadn’t stepped foot outside the family estate.

Wang Ba frowned.

This wouldn’t do. He needed to find a way inside.

If the gang had business requiring his presence—like capturing Lin Li—and he missed it? That’d be a colossal blunder.

But how?

He rubbed his chin, deep in thought.

Just then, two Lin family employees passed by, gossiping.

"Lately, the young master keeps having nightmares about people trying to harm him. He’s refused to leave the house, even when Madam insists."

"Pfft, since when do dreams mean anything? He can’t hide forever."

"Not forever. I heard he’s planning to hire elite bodyguards. Once that’s done, he’ll probably venture out again."

Bodyguards?

Wang Ba’s eyes lit up.

Now that was his specialty.

He immediately rallied a few gang brothers to pose as candidates for the job.

Meanwhile, 'Celestial Love' and three other dramas from Sky Screen Group had all premiered.

Lin Chang stared at the screen, disbelief etched on his face.

Central TV!

They’d secured a slot on Central TV!

His fists clenched.

What connections did Lin Xuan even have?

A wave of dread washed over him—until he checked the ratings. Relief followed.

No matter what tricks Lin Xuan pulled, none of his shows could outperform 'Celestial Love.'

And just as Lin Chang predicted, Sky Screen’s three dramas initially trailed far behind in viewership.

Lin Xuan smirked. "Now that the plots are hitting their stride, it’s time to go all-out on promotion."

He instructed Lei Hui to flood their own platform, TigerTone, with edited promotional clips, pushing them to every user. With their in-house platform, traffic costs were irrelevant.

"Boss," Lei Hui called to confirm, "Should we buy trending spots on Weibo too?"

Lin Xuan scoffed. "Why waste money?"

"Huh?" Lei Hui blinked. "But you said we’d promote there. No paid hot searches, no visibility?"

Lin Xuan’s smirk widened. "I said we’d trend without spending a dime."

A few keystrokes were all it took. Money? Please.

Lei Hui: "…"

Was that even possible?

"Just watch," Lin Xuan replied.

Curiosity piqued, Lei Hui refreshed Weibo obsessively.

Within three minutes, the top ten trends were dominated by:

#ThreeKingdoms

#MySheepishStar

#ChinesePaladin

Lei Hui gaped.

It actually worked?

But… how?

His confusion mirrored Weibo’s tech team’s panic.

A staffer burst into the supervisor’s office. "Sir, we’ve been hacked—again!"

"WHAT?!"

The supervisor spat out his water.

"By whom?!"

They’d recently upgraded their firewall. Months without breaches had lulled him into false security.

"No traces, same as before. The hacker only forced these three drama tags into the top trends. We can’t remove them," the technician reported.

The supervisor checked his phone.

"#ChinesePaladin, #MySheepishStar, #ThreeKingdoms." His brow furrowed. "They hacked us just to trend shows?"

The technique felt eerily familiar.

"Sir, all three belong to Sky Screen Group. PalmNovel—their subsidiary—hosts the original works," the technician added.

"Sky Screen… Lin Xuan’s company?" the supervisor realized.

"Correct."

"It’s him!"

Now he suspected the firewall hadn’t kept Lin Xuan out these past months—Lin Xuan simply hadn’t bothered to hack in.

Defeated, the supervisor escalated it to the CEO.

The CEO, opting for diplomacy, dialed Lei Hui.

"Director Lei," he greeted smoothly, "I’m Weibo’s General Manager."

"Hello," Lei Hui replied, wary. Their companies had no prior dealings. Why the sudden outreach?