Abstract Art Award Winner

However, for some fans, even the official announcement couldn't stop them, since many people believe there is survivor bias.

They believed they were doing the right thing, and that they had done similar things many times before. Some were simply young and had been led astray by the prevailing sentiment, fearing nothing and no one.

For them, this was a battle for honor.

Weibo acted swiftly, even though their consistent philosophy is to never learn from mistakes. This time they were warned, but they will likely repeat the same tricks in a while.

As one of the largest public social media platforms in China, every battle between celebrities and their fans is a battle for daily active users and traffic.

They must maintain their commercial viability.

So this time, they also cooperated by banning some users who violated the rules.

Because of the rampant cyberbullying, the authorities have launched another "clean-up" campaign, resulting in the banning of a large number of accounts. Although many people believe that capital has intervened, it is clear to everyone that these fans have gone too far.

Meanwhile, due to this cleanup campaign and numerous reports, a number of votes for many artists on the list have been removed.

Weibo responded that many fans were suspected of illegally manipulating votes.

However, most of the lost votes came from lower-level artists, and Zhou Le was not significantly affected.

"Why? Our brother lost so many votes, but Zhou Le didn't lose any? Is this some kind of favoritism?"

"Sisters, go report him again. I don't believe he can stay so arrogant forever."

"Our votes were cast one by one, so why should they steal our votes?"

When Zhou Le saw these comments, he just wanted to laugh, because he had received confirmation that none of the votes that could be removed were unjust.

He even obtained the evidence of those internal vote-rigging activities.

Tencent also notified the artists separately.

Furthermore, New Classics Media also contacted Tencent Pictures.

They wanted to invite Zhou Le and Xiao Zhan to appear on a variety show together to mitigate some of the negative impact.

“We actually recommend that you go, since everyone’s goal in coming out is to make money, and there’s no need to offend people over these things.”

A senior executive from Tencent Pictures responsible for artist management contacted Zhou Le and said...

"President Meng, it's not that I don't want to go, it's just that you know my public image. If you really want to clear up the misunderstanding, just ask them to restrain their fans."

The problem isn't with me. If I were to appear on the same variety show as him to mitigate the impact and put on a show of harmony, the consequences would probably only be worse.

And my fans and business ventures will definitely be affected as well.

Zhou Le declined the invitation to collaborate.

joke!

Su Yingxia had already summarized and explained to him the attitudes of his people and the attitudes of the other side over the past few days.

Neither their own fans nor those esports enthusiasts did anything too outrageous. Even the so-called cyberbullying that could be traced back to its origin was orchestrated by those people themselves.

These things might be incomprehensible to the average person, but for Zhou Le, finding clues from IP addresses is an incredibly simple matter.

At this critical juncture, Zhou Le had originally planned to handle the situation quietly, but since Tencent Pictures had spoken up, he had to give them some face.

But on that very day, Zhou Le suddenly received a call from Su Yingxia.

"Brother Le, I have something to tell you. Cai Xukun wants to talk to you about it."

"Let's chat? Sure, how about meeting in person? He'll treat us?"

"Oh, no, I just wanted to call you to clear up any misunderstandings."

"Sure, but why go through all this trouble when you can just call directly?"

"Haha, maybe they're just a little afraid of you, after all, you have a good reputation."

A few minutes after Zhou Le agreed, Cai Xukun called.

The content wasn't complicated; it mainly consisted of an apology for some irrational behavior by his fans, which he himself didn't mean.

And afterwards he would post a Weibo message to match.

They also mentioned Zhou Le's videos on Douyin and said they could make a video together with Zhou Le sometime in the future.

"It's okay, don't bother with the video. My videos are usually quite abstract, and they're probably not quite the same as your style. Anyway, let's just talk this out."

Of course, Cai Xukun really didn't want to be enemies with Zhou Le because Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo's paths conflicted with his, but Zhou Le had no conflict with him at all, so they couldn't really be considered enemies.

Even if Zhou Le's career collapses one day, some of his fans will not side with Cai Xukun.

Therefore, Cai Xukun believes that even if the collaboration fails due to different approaches, everyone can still chat via live stream on Douyin.

Zhou Le did a search.

"That's fine, but what would you like to talk about then?"

"Teacher Zhou, actually I've always followed the path of being both controversial and popular, with some being the haters and others being the die-hard fans."

When talking about Xiao Heizi, Cai Xukun even chuckled to himself.

"I was hoping that Brother Le could give me some advice from up there."

"You're putting yourself in such a low position? You debuted earlier than me."

"No, no, I was actually learning more before, but especially online, Teacher Zhou, you have much more experience than me."

"That's fine with me."

"Okay, how about tonight? I'll do a live stream tonight."

"Okay, you can contact me then, but I tend to say whatever comes to mind, so you'd better be prepared."

"fine."

After reaching an agreement, Zhou Le didn't think too much about it. As for his current issues, the authorities had already spoken out for him, so he didn't need to worry about anything else.

Later that evening, Zhou Le also started a live stream on Douyin.

"Here he comes." "Brother Le, long time no see."

"You still remember you have this account? You've made money and forgotten about your poor buddies?"

Looking at these comments, Zhou Le smiled and said, "Of course not. The most important thing in life is not to forget your roots. A brother is always a brother. It's just that I've been a bit busy lately."

"But I came up here today partly to see everyone, and partly because I had arranged to do a live stream with a guest. Can you guess who it is?"

After the question was asked, the audience naturally started guessing. With over 100,000 people in the live stream, some were bound to guess correctly, but most were just trying to be funny.

Nazha and Xiao Zhan appeared most frequently.

"You'll all find out soon enough, but this is just a brief chat."

After chatting for more than ten minutes, Cai Xukun also came online and quickly connected with Zhou Le via voice chat.

"Hello, Brother Le."

Cai Xukun took the initiative to greet him because he was a little younger than Zhou Le.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, they first chatted about the internet memes.

"Actually, there are quite a lot of those people. I don't know if it's big data or what, but I often see them on my feed."

"Actually, I also enjoy watching it, but I usually watch it on a secondary account. In this respect, I am learning from you, Brother Le, because I see that you often use your own memes, and your fans always send you your memes."

"Yeah, let them play if they want. I'd be happy to be their electronic cricket. After all, we're brothers, and we're different. I have more male fans."

"Haha, after all, we take different paths, but Brother Le, you actually have quite a few female fans."

"Hey, we're all brothers. Female fans are treated the same as male fans, there's no difference."

"As for me, what kind of path do you think I should take now?"

"You debuted as a singer and dancer, so you definitely have no problem with your professional skills. I don't actually know much about this area, but if I had to say something, I would suggest that you release as many songs as possible that can influence the public."

I'm a straightforward person. Even before we did this live stream today, I listened to some of your songs. Many of them are indeed well-produced, but you still need to have some songs that can break out of your niche.

Furthermore, celebrities who are popular online should exercise self-discipline and avoid doing things they shouldn't.

"really."

The two chatted briefly before ending the call.

Zhou Le didn't really know much about Cai Xukun, and that was all he could say. Whether or not he listened was another matter.

Afterwards, Zhou Le continued playing the game, chatting with fans and answering questions in the live chat.

"Actually, being a traffic star is a different path from my own. Although I could do it with my face, there's no need for it."

I still prefer to let my work speak for itself. That was true before, and it will definitely be true in the future. Whether it's a film I invest in or one I participate in filming, there's no need for everyone to rush to the theater to see it. You can wait and see how it's received. If you think it's worth it, then we can spend money. If you don't find it interesting, there's no need to go to the theater just for me and suffer the ordeal.

When Zhou Le said this, his fans all expressed that since Zhou Le finally released a new work, they would definitely support him.

"Don't say that. Nobody's money comes from thin air. Even 'Ne Zha,' which was released in July this year, is not going to satisfy everyone's tastes, although it is doing quite well at the box office."

I don't recommend going to see a movie just to boost its box office, unless you genuinely like it, in which case we can discuss it separately.

If you feel something is wrong, you can criticize it. If you see people on some platforms giving bad reviews or posting warnings, there's no need to argue. Everyone has freedom of speech.

Of course, I'm a participant, so I'll definitely promote it. Every movie needs promotion, because making a movie is a commercial activity. However, if I actually go to the theater and don't like it, I certainly won't give a refund.

Soon after, fans asked if Zhou Le would hold a prize draw to celebrate if he won first place this time, perhaps giving away a few phones or something.

After all, winning a car or something like that has become popular on TikTok.

"Oh, that's unnecessary. It's not that I'm stingy, but those cars they're giving away cost 20,000 or 30,000 each, which is more than enough for us."

Even if you draw hundreds of phones at once, most people will definitely not win. Those who don't win will think there's something fishy going on. In the past, people drew phones because of endorsements, and they had to go through this process.

Moreover, since everyone casts their votes, I also receive a corresponding income. So I plan to set aside this income separately and add some of it to do charity work.

I have enough money from other sources to live on, and I never intended to pursue this career path in the first place. I am in my current position entirely thanks to everyone's support.

But sometimes, when doing charity work, too much publicity makes it seem like you're just after fame, while not publicizing it risks being misled. So, we'll create a separate website and hire a team to handle this professionally. We'll also make the details public, and we welcome everyone's oversight. But by oversight, I mean just checking it out when you have time, or if someone knowledgeable takes a look. No need for publicity; we'll keep it to ourselves.

"Brother Le, do you usually watch TV series or anime? Do you have any good ones to share with everyone?"

"Of course I'll watch the shows. I've watched most of the popular ones on the market right now, such as the newly released shows like 'Story of Yanxi Palace,' 'All Is Well,' and 'A Little Reunion.'"

After all, people in this industry have to study market trends. As for movies, I've seen most of the ones that have received good reviews.

I don't watch many anime, but sometimes when I can't sleep at night, I might watch shows like "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" or "Boonie Bears." Actually, if you get into it, it's quite interesting.

Other foreign shows include *Game of Thrones*, *Breaking Bad*, *Better Call Saul*, and *The Wire*, which I recently started watching.

Zhou Le recommended a whole bunch of them.

Zhou Le continued his live stream for over two hours before finally logging off.

He had just logged off when Su Yingxia suddenly called.

"Brother Le, are you done with your live stream?"

"It's all done, what happened?"

"Actually, I should have told you tomorrow, but I was afraid you might have other things to do tomorrow, so I'll tell you in advance. It's already December, and the promotion for 'Joy of Life' may continue until next year."

There are variety shows and interviews. On the other hand, there are still a few rehearsals for the Spring Festival Gala. But since Guo Qiling has already been in contact with Saito Asuka, their contract has been signed and they have also communicated with Bilibili. Saito Asuka will be on Bilibili's New Year's Eve Gala.

So Bilibili's intention is to invite you to collaborate with Saito Asuka again this year.

"I'm going to work with her, when do they start recording?"

"It should be the 16th, there are only ten days left now."

"Is it still possible to make it in time?"

"I think it's worth going, Brother Le. Bilibili is very popular right now, and their program schedule is to start with a drum performance and then sing a song together."

They'll handle the lyrics and music, and if you're willing to go, they can arrange the best time slot for you. (End of Chapter)