This director is vindictive.

Chapter 419 A Comeback Through Tanking, Withdrawal from the Competition Leads to Godhood
With the casting process for the male and female leads completed, the film adaptation of "The Last Transfer in the Northern Desert of the Tang Dynasty" is essentially halfway done.

The sheer number of votes across the two rounds combined demonstrates just how popular it is.

His colleagues were moved to tears.

The key point is that Chen Mo really didn't spend any money this time! He got it all for free, but the results were amazing.

However, what they didn't know was that Chen Mo had thought it might have some effect, but he never expected it to be so outrageous by such a twist of fate.

Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until at least next year to see this movie.

For the celebrities, although most of them did not get a role in this wave, they are not at a loss.

For example, Zhou Bo in the first round was ultimately defeated by Zhang Yi and failed to achieve a grassroots comeback.

But he was also a big winner, suddenly becoming a wildly popular internet celebrity from an unknown actor.

Although he didn't get the role of the veteran in the film adaptation of "The Last Transfer in the Northern Desert of the Tang Dynasty," he became famous during this period and received numerous film offers.

Without the buzz generated by this event, he would still be just a minor actor playing small supporting roles.

Others also gained something, although not as much as Zhou Bo, who became famous overnight. They still made a considerable contribution.

Recently, there has been a significant increase in the number of brands seeking their endorsement deals, and their fees for commercial performance collaborations have also risen accordingly.

As for the female celebrities, the competition has reached a fever pitch, but strangely enough, nobody seems to care who will get the role, not even the actors themselves.

It's all Zhang Yuqi's fault for starting such a bad trend. She started by lying down and giving up, and it spread like a virus. Not only did the other three candidates follow suit, but they also started competing to see who could lie down and give up. As a result, what they did before became the scraps, while the creative ways of giving up became the most popular.

The key point is that all four female celebrities have publicly stated that they are resigned to their fate, and that it's up to everyone to decide who wins and who loses in the end.

Anyway, the main point is just this: whatever makes you happy!
But ironically, this is precisely why it remains so popular.

The final number of voters was an astonishing 100 million.

The voting results also presented a rather dramatic turn of events.

Zhang Yuqi initially received the fewest votes because she couldn't compete with those who were naturally gifted in singing and dancing, and those who were also far superior in language skills. This allowed her to completely unleash her potential.

As a result, this act of lying down and giving up sparked a phenomenal trend of "lying down and giving up," and she was even dubbed the "Queen of Lying Down" by many netizens!
Although the other three candidates followed suit and gave up, acting as if they didn't care what happened, they were, after all, just latecomers and imitators.

As a result, Zhang Yuqi's popularity inexplicably surged, and then she staged a dramatic comeback at the last moment.

She went from last place to first place, and most dramatically, her total number of votes was only tens of thousands more than Tong Liya's.

Tens of thousands of votes might be a big difference in some other events, but for the hundreds of millions of votes cast, it is a very, very small difference, and can be said to be negligible.

After the results were announced, on the night Zhang Yuqi won the championship, Weibo's servers crashed for several minutes due to the overwhelming response from netizens before they were restored.

#Zhang Yuqi, the champion of tanking#
#A 3-vote gap, what happened to fairness and impartiality?#
#Zhang Yuqi lying down with a crown!#
Such a dramatic vote count naturally led many people to suspect that there might be some kind of rigged outcome.

After all, this is just too bizarre and outlandish.

"Tens of millions of votes, and the result was only 3 votes short. This is too fake!"

"If you can't handle the game, don't play! Just pre-select the winners, why not? Aren't you just treating everyone like fools?"

"Heh, after all that throwing, I got nothing!"

Controversy arose immediately.

Many people started making sarcastic and sarcastic remarks on Weibo.

Although many netizens commented, "While the vote count is dramatic, the popularity did surge after Zhang Yuqi started to give up and slack off, so although it seems a bit bizarre, it's not impossible!"

"Heh, so this is a rigged election? Then you might as well just have Zhang Yuqi withdraw from the race. If Chen Mo really wanted to select Zhang Yuqi, would he go to all this trouble? There are still 3 votes left, and you all think it's outrageous. If Chen Mo really wanted to rig the election, would he make it this obvious?"

"Anyway, I gave all my votes to Zhang Yuqi every day. There's no other reason than that she genuinely gives up and doesn't care, unlike the other candidates who just follow the crowd!"

For a time, the two sides were arguing fiercely.

Chen Mo never expected this result. After all, the process was too outrageous. It would be a miracle if he had thought of it!

On the contrary, Zhang Yuqi was stunned when she saw that she had made a comeback and reached the top. Then she laughed exaggeratedly and triumphantly.

Zhang Yuqi was lounging on the sofa with her legs crossed, swiping her phone screen with her fingertips. The screen was filled with trending topics like #LayingDownQueen#.

"Hahaha! What do you mean? I already told you, I can easily win her over with just a little twist. Now what do you say?" Zhang Yuqi said smugly to Chen Mo.

She deliberately read the netizens' comments praising her for "taking slacking off to an art form" with exaggerated intonation, and at the end, she even winked at Chen Mo: "See? The eyes of the masses are discerning!"

What could Chen Mo say? He could only give her a thumbs up. But staring at the 3-vote gap in the backend data, his temples throbbed.

He rubbed his temples and sighed, "Now the whole internet is accusing me of rigging the deal, and even conspiracy theories like 'Chen Mo flooded the server with votes overnight' are emerging..."

Before he could finish speaking, Yang Mi called, immediately teasing him: "Director Chen, next time you're going to pre-select someone, remember to move the decimal point four places to the right. This year's netizens are too good at math. Hahaha!"

Yang Mi knew, of course, that Chen Mo would never do such a thing, but sometimes reality is just that surreal.

Yang Mi was just gloating.

Zhang Yuqi sat down instead, chuckling, "How about we just forget about it? I don't have time to get involved in the film's preparation!"

Chen Mo shook his head and said, "No need. You can't explain to those who are prejudiced, and those who believe will believe without explanation."

Although some people questioned him, Chen Mo didn't really take it to heart. It was a bit of a hassle, but in reality, do people really not understand this kind of thing?

No, those who questioned it also understood that even if Chen Mo wanted to pre-select someone, he couldn't have done it so blatantly, with more than 3 votes.

But they just wanted to question it, they just wanted to say it was a cover-up.

There's no other reason than that it's a topic, or some haters, anything that can get them to criticize Chen Mo.

Although Tong Liya and the others all said that this time, although there were some surprises, it was fair and just, and there was no shady dealings.

But just as Chen Mo said before, those who believe don't need an explanation, and those who don't believe won't be convinced no matter what!
What Chen Mo didn't expect was that the topic would escalate so much.

Chen Mo initially didn't want to pay much attention, but Zhang Yuqi wouldn't stand for it.

Seeing the escalating controversy surrounding the "behind-the-scenes manipulation" online, she suddenly slammed her phone onto the sofa, then stepped barefoot onto it, shouting, "Chen Mo, get out of the way! These people deserve to be taught a lesson!"

Then he took the phone and handed it to Chen Mo.

"Can you record a video for me?"

"What do you want to do?" Although Chen Mo was somewhat surprised, he still took the phone, turned on the recording function, and pointed it at her.

"Hello everyone, I am Zhang Yuqi. This result is indeed a bit beyond my expectations. To be honest, I never intended to play this role in the first place. I was just filling in the numbers, you know?"
And to put it bluntly, if I really wanted to act, what business would it be of anyone else?

Anyone can see that if it were really a conspiracy, would it really only be 3 votes?
First of all, I would like to thank the netizens who voted for me. To be honest, at the beginning, I was at the bottom of the votes, which made me really depressed, so I gave up.

I never expected you guys to put me at the top of the list.

Secondly, do you think I can't afford to lose? Look at the voting curve, even though I was just slacking off, my votes surpassed Dilraba and Gulnazar on the third day, second only to Tong Liya! Why didn't anyone jump out and say there was a conspiracy back then?

"Stop the criticism! I'm not acting anymore. I promised to be the queen of giving up, and I'm going to give up to the very end! So, I'm quitting!"

Zhang Yuqi's video immediately caused a huge uproar online upon its release. Her straightforward and outspoken attitude, along with her declaration of "I'm not acting anymore," instantly reversed public opinion. Most netizens were won over by her candid personality and left messages of support.

"Sister Qi is so cool! She's the real queen of giving up, she even dares to throw away a role she's already got!"

"Aren't those who accused him of rigging the deal getting slapped in the face? He wouldn't even bother with that, okay? He's not short of resources at all. If he really wanted to act, would Chen Mo refuse?"

"From today onwards, Zhang Yuqi is my internet mouth double! She'll take care of anyone who disagrees!"

Although most people know that the so-called behind-the-scenes manipulation is basically impossible.

But haters are haters because they don't care about the truth; they just want to criticize.

"Hehe, you acted quite well, playing the retreat-as-advance tactic skillfully, but in the end you still ended up liking it, didn't you?"

"Have you finished writing the team's PR statement? First, establish a 'high-minded' persona, and then 'reluctantly' take on roles after the storm has passed. It's the same old routine."

"A perfect vote curve looks fake; this 'technical adjustment' was really well done!"

"Tong Liya lost unfairly; someone else took advantage of the situation by using a 'crazy persona'!"

"True personality? Clearly a lack of professionalism! Did all the other candidates' dance training go to waste?"

Even more outrageous is the direct escalation of the issue to a political level.

"The official media just praised 'lying down is for running,' and she's already quitting? Is she deliberately going against the grain?"

"I suggest banning this kind of 'negative idol' who is leading young people astray!"

Chen Mo wasn't so polite to those who were clearly just trying to criticize for the sake of criticizing.

Making an example of someone is always effective!

(End of this chapter)