Feng, I'm really sorry

Capital City, a recording studio.

"If one day, I quietly leave."

"Please bury me, in this spring."

"Springtime~~~~~"

"OK, that was good. Let's leave this song there for now. Everyone, take a break." Wang Feng smiled at the band members, then picked up the bottle of mineral water beside him and took a drink.

"Brother Feng, let's run through 'Let's Rock Together' again in a bit and see if it needs rearranging."

The bassist, Yazi, suddenly spoke up from nearby. Wang Feng nodded. "Mm... sure! Last time we played it onstage, it didn't seem to hit hard enough. Let's go through it again and see what the problem is."

As he spoke, he glanced at the other members. Seeing that no one objected, he smiled and said, "You've all been working hard lately. Dinner's on me tonight. Name whatever you want."

"Hot pot... We've been running all over the place for the past couple of weeks. My mouth's gone completely tasteless," said the drummer, Beibei, first.

"Hot pot sounds great. I've been craving beef and lamb," the guitarist, Old Xiong, chimed in.

"And let's get some roast duck to go with it."

"I'm craving skewers..."

Everyone chimed in with ideas for how to get Brother Feng to treat them to a feast that night. Just then, someone knocked on the door, and a man wearing glasses walked in.

Wang Feng turned and saw his assistant, Xiao Gao. Seeing how hurried he looked, he asked in confusion, "Xiao Gao, what's going on?"

"Brother Feng... I think we've been caught in a collision." Xiao Gao hurried over to Wang Feng.

"Hm?" Wang Feng looked puzzled. Xiao Gao held out the tablet in his hand and pointed at the screen. "Our trending topic's been pushed down. We'd planned to keep it at number one for a couple of hours, but another trending topic suddenly popped up and collided with ours."

Wang Feng's brow furrowed slightly as he studied the trending list on the screen.

At the top was "Bilibili Viral Gag Video," followed by "Photos from a Certain Actress's Set Leaked" in second place and "Estee Lauder New Product Launch" in third. His own "Wang Feng World Tour Concert" was only in fourth.

"Only fourth? I told you we should wait another couple of days before starting the promotion. The Bin City concert isn't for another week or so." Wang Feng sounded a little helpless, though he'd more or less been expecting this. Every time he started trending, it seemed like some mysterious force was out to block him.

This hadn't happened just once or twice. Since last year, there had been too many instances to count on both hands. There was something downright eerie about it.

Brother Feng's bad luck was truly incurable. Every time he was about to hit the headlines, some inexplicably huge news story would push him out. It had never failed, from last year until now.

Why was it so hard to make the headlines? It was as if some mysterious force were working against him. Every time he made the trending list, an even more explosive story would knock him off.

This time, they'd thought they had it in the bag. They were promoting the next concert, but, as luck would have it, they'd collided with Brother Xian, who was about to "make his debut."

Who the hell was this?!

What was Bilibili? What did "gag video" even mean?

Was someone deliberately targeting him?

Brother Feng was annoyed, simmering with frustration and unable to let it out. He clicked on the trending topic and took a look. The other person wasn't a celebrity or a famous figure, so how had he managed to push Wang Feng down?

"Brother Feng, I checked earlier. There wasn't any major news expected these days, so we started promoting the concert." Xiao Gao looked crestfallen. "Who knew this guy would come out of nowhere and catch us completely off guard?"

"Uh... Who's this... guy?"

"I don't know. I don't understand Bilibili either." Xiao Gao refreshed the trending list and pointed it out to Wang Feng. "Look, Brother Feng. This guy has another trending topic too: 'Bincheng Big Eater.' It's already at number eight. They're probably getting ready to replace the topic above it."

"Oh? What's going on?"

"Brother Feng, can't you tell? They bought their way onto the list. They're manufacturing a trending topic. I just checked, and it's all paid accounts." Xiao Gao paused, then said regretfully, "Brother Feng, we might not make number one today. I wasn't as prepared as they were... They must've spent a fortune. I only have a dozen or so influencers reposting it. I can't compete with them."

"Uh... You can't really be blamed." Brother Feng didn't know what else to say. He patted Xiao Gao on the shoulder and tried to reassure him. "Nobody can predict an accident. Haven't we had enough unexpected mishaps these past two years? No matter how well we prepare, things still happen. Forget it. The concert isn't urgent anyway. We'll wait a couple of days."

"That's all we can do, Brother Feng. We're leaving for Bin City on Thursday, so we still have plenty of time. I'll go talk it over with Xiao Yang and the others now, and we can promote it again later."

"Mm, do whatever you think is best."

Xiao Gao left the recording studio. Wang Feng sighed, then turned to the others and called out, "Tonight, you're all drinking with me. No one leaves until they're drunk."

At that, everyone started cheering. Brother Feng was going to drink until he dropped tonight.

Presidential Suite, Grand Hyatt Hotel.

After getting a spa treatment, Li Xian had taken a shower. He'd asked Lin Yuan to arrange some food and drinks, then rested for a while in the living room.

Lazily curled up on the sofa, he took out his phone and logged into Weibo. The second wave had begun, and his post proving his innocence had already drawn plenty of comments. Everything was going according to plan.

He glanced at the trending list. It hadn't changed much from before.

But Brother Feng's trending topic seemed to have vanished. He scrolled down, and Brother Feng had fallen to number seventeen.

This was so awkward. He really felt bad.

He was just messing around. He hadn't actually meant to take anyone's spot.

He'd spent hundreds of thousands, maybe even over a million. Couldn't he at least stay up there a little longer?

Li Xian pursed his lips and muttered to himself.

"Brother Feng, I really didn't do it on purpose!"

Pushing Brother Feng down had been entirely unintentional on Li Xian's part.

It was just collateral damage. Brother Feng wouldn't hold it against him. He was a magnanimous man.

P.S. This chapter was blocked, and a large section was deleted. I could cry. It was originally 2,500 words, but they cut 700 before letting it through.