Chapter 29: You Have Had Enough, and I Am Tired

"How many bosses have I had to entertain for you? How many business deals were only signed because of my reputation? If it weren't for the sake of our child, do you think the Zhou family would have ever allowed you to drift through the entertainment industry so freely?

Hiding everywhere, skulking in the shadows, pretending to be innocent. How many times have you been home in the last two years? Does your son even recognize you as his father? Zhou Yifan, do you have any conscience at all?"

"Our marriage was always a transaction. Without this child, do you think you would have become an A-list actress? It’s been years; you’ve had enough, and I’m exhausted."

Zhou Yifan finally seemed to lose his patience. "I don’t have time to make a scene with you in public. If the paparazzi catch us, neither of us will have a good outcome."

Shaking Ai Lian off, Zhou Yifan strode toward the iron door of the fire exit. He pulled out his phone, scrolled through it with palpable irritation, and finally made a call. "Get to the fourteenth-floor hallway of the hotel immediately and take your sister away!"

Beyond the heavy iron door, only Ai Lian’s hysterical voice echoed.

"ZHOU! YI! FAN! Don’t you dare regret this!!!"

***

The hustle and bustle of Yellow Lantern put immense pressure on Cocoon.

The platform's daily active user count had risen slightly compared to normal days, as many "borderline" influencers seized the opportunity to attract new attention. In terms of user spending power, Cocoon was far inferior to Yellow Lantern, but today was the exception; with the number of online streamers on Yellow Lantern plummeting, Cocoon proactively directed traffic toward the dance category, hoping to retain a few passersby.

The seed streamers of Group One, like Menglu, who relied on her looks and physique, naturally wouldn't miss this wave of traffic. Even Sun Yali and Lu Xiaotong started livestreams, wearing uncharacteristically revealing clothes.

Only Lin Ke continued to post her short videos as usual. She seemed to mention nothing, yet her words felt pointed:

"The Thirty-Six Stratagems have always prioritized winning the heart. What you think is a beauty in your arms, a delicate body laid bare, is actually that which you could never attain, now striking you right between the eyes. A honey trap doesn't have to be a beauty, doesn't have to be a woman, and sometimes, it doesn't even have to be human."

This line wasn't even her original thought; it was a snippet lifted from a review of a globally popular hit drama. Fortunately, none of Lin Ke's content was particularly original to begin with. The comment section was as lively as ever; nobody cared where the lines came from.

"This is why I’d rather go hungry than stop tipping streamers. She looks exactly like my first love. Everything I once begged for and couldn't have, I can now get just by sending a 'Carnival' gift and calling her 'honey'."

"Well said! Who cares if the streamer is using beauty filters? As long as she looks gorgeous and is willing to cheer me up, I’d give her my life."

"Coco, if you’re willing to show a little skin for your bro, I’ll send you a Carnival too!"

"Exactly! Don't just post selfies of your face. Show us your whole body! I remember you used to dance."

"You’re all idiots. Haven't you noticed how different the software homepage is today? There are too many people selling sex, and all the content I usually like is gone. The streamer is mocking the platform!"

"Hahaha, daring to scold the hand that feeds them? Maybe she’s mocking the bosses! Coco, get behind me! Don't get exposed!"

The comment section was teeming with real people. The mischief-makers who didn't care much for the "borderline" content gathered back in Coco's comments, and finally, someone remembered the real point:

"Stop messing around! Let's write the story!"

The mischief-makers regained the upper hand, once again tossing in one sentence each, piecing together a fantastical story. But this time, the top-level comment thread pulled ahead significantly, as one passerby killed the competition with a single line:

"If a honey trap isn't even human, then what is it?"

"It is the object of one's youth that could not be attained; it is regret, it is longing, it is hope, and it is the feeling of wanting to possess something once more."

It was a legendary moment.

With just those two short lines, the "class" of the entire post was elevated infinitely. Many web novelists from the female-oriented channels flocked to the scene. Tonight, the top comment section was filled with desolate beauty, elegant phrasing, and plots so heartbreakingly rich they were tragic.

"The second stage of the first phase of the Hundred Butterflies Cloud Rise competition has ended. In this month, you have all undergone a qualitative change. The overall performance of our Group One has steadily improved. This is partly due to the special support the company provides to seed candidates, but it is equally inseparable from your own hard work."

Perhaps because it was the end of the year and the holidays were approaching, the supervisor, Ice, wore a rare look of approval.

The first phase of the competition was only 50 days long, and with the schedule now half over, the data for several streamer accounts had seen significant improvement.

"For the second stage, the first place in Group One is Menglu. Congratulations to Menglu for breaking into the top ten of the Hundred Butterflies Cloud Rise total popularity rankings. She is truly worthy of the title 'seed'."

In the previous stage, Menglu had ranked 17th overall and first in Group One, earning not only praise but also a bonus of ten thousand yuan. Now, the company's attention on her only continued to grow, and her results naturally improved steadily.

"Menglu's completion rate remains at about 75%, which is an excellent result. The engagement rate has dropped slightly to 12.3%, but overall, it is stable."

Menglu's videos were full of subtle tricks; high-energy movements were always placed in the latter half. In particular, shots of her long legs stepping out of a car were scrutinized by countless fans, who watched them repeatedly just to catch a split-second glimpse of a potential wardrobe malfunction.

Beyond that, occasionally revealing the outline of her apartment complex in the background or the car models in the nearby parking lot was enough to keep fans discussing in the comments.

"Second place in the overall ranking is Coco."

Ice looked at Lin Ke with admiration once again, as if looking at her own daughter who had scored 600 on the college entrance exam.

"In the previous stage, although Coco made great progress, her data was very uneven. Now, in just one month, Lin Ke has successfully solidified a considerable portion of her casual followers."

The streamers on both sides of the long table had mixed expressions. It was one thing for Menglu to be above them, but now even Lin Ke had flown up the branches to become a phoenix.

Lin Ke's total popularity ranking was now 51st!

In just two weeks, she had surged from the bottom of the rankings into the qualifying zone for the first phase!

Ice did not stint on praise. "Coco's current popularity model is something Cocoon has never seen before. She has opened up a 'chain-story' mode in the field of social emotion, which has greatly increased user participation."

On the big screen, Ice switched the PowerPoint slide to show a complex network of account relationships.

"With Coco as the center, four highly active streamers maintain daily connections. Additionally, over a dozen high-level streamers frequently interact in her comment section and carry over her content to create secondary works. All of this is spontaneous behavior led by the content of Coco's account, without any proactive manipulation from the platform."

Perhaps because of the massive traffic push on Lin Ke's account, many streamers wanted to ride her coattails, or perhaps her video content was truly that good—the comment section simply had so much valuable material.

At the very least, many streamers had now discovered that as long as they created content related to Lin Ke's account, they could achieve impressive data.