Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

Ni Bingyan was joining her film crew in just two days. After she repeatedly promised to stay holed up at home until then, Wei Shuojie finally relaxed. She planned to take her son for a swim at the pool over the weekend.

But she had only been relaxing for half a day when she got a message from the PR department: ”Your Bingbing is trending again!”

Wei Shuojie felt her world go dark. She immediately jumped on Weibo to see what was happening.

She saw that three topics—#NiBingyanIsSoDownToEarth, #NiBingyanLookingForDog, and #WangcaiIsLost—had already climbed to the sixth, seventh, and eighth spots.

She clicked the topic, which led her to the official Weibo account. She saw the lost dog notice was posted at 10:45 AM. A glance at the clock showed it was now just 11:30 AM.

’This traffic, this popularity, it’s insane!’

’She’s a natural trending topic magnet. It’s more mystical than metaphysics.’

Other celebrities’ PR teams were all about creating hype, no holds barred. As long as it generated heat, they would publicize anything and everything. But her PR work was about suppressing the hype, tamping down topics that could attract negative attention.

If a person trends too often, the public gets tired of it. Wei Shuojie’s main goal was to control that frequency.

Wei Shuojie was very good at this.

A large part of why netizens liked Ni Bingyan now was because they wanted to see what bizarre thing would happen to her next.

And it seemed she’d given them exactly what they were waiting for.

On a perfectly good weekend, with no work or classes, people were just enjoying themselves when suddenly, all the major platforms began pushing notifications—

[SHOCKING! This actress is secretly...]

[LMAO! An N-surnamed actress actually did this...]

...

It was as if all the online content writers graduated from the same class; each title was more eye-catching than the last.

Seeing these, few people who were bored to tears could resist clicking in to take a look.

In the fan group of nearly three thousand people, now renamed the ”Iron Triangle Fan Club,” a fan first posted a link, then started sending voice messages:

”Holy crap! Bingbing went to the market to buy rice and lost her dog, and now she’s posting on Weibo asking netizens to help her find it? I know I should feel bad for her, but why do I find this so hilarious? I must have no sympathy!”

Soon, someone else chimed in:

”Hahaha! Allow me to start with a laugh!”

”There are so many things to roast about this, I don’t even know where to start. Hahaha!”

”Look at the poor thing, she’s so desperate she’s posting on Weibo. Any folks in Beijing? Since it’s the weekend and you’re free, hurry up and go help her look!”

”Seriously, our Bingbing looks so much like a goddess, so proper, but why do I always feel like she’s surrounded by a comedian’s aura? So many things that happen to her just make me want to laugh my head off!”

”It’s confirmed, she’s a comedian. I counted, and almost every so often, she gets laughed onto the trending list for a tour!”

”Help! I can’t stop laughing!”

”Stop chatting, stop chatting, let’s think of a way to help her find the dog! Poor Wangcai. I just finished looking at the photo album. Bingbing really loves her, she must be heartbroken right now.”

Sharing a secret and having crowdfunded a variety show together, the members of this fan group got along exceptionally well. They found typing too slow for daily chats and opted for voice messages instead.

As the group chatted, some who lived nearby actually went out to help look for the dog.

Meanwhile, under Ni Bingyan’s Weibo post, all sorts of comments with pictures started to appear:

[I just saw Wangcai under the footbridge on Xingfu Road listening to an old man play the erhu, and she didn’t even pay! Unfortunately, I saw the Weibo post too late. When I went back to look, she was already gone. WangcaiListeningToErhu.JPG]

[I was just eating noodles at Sister Zhang’s Noodle House on Chunhui Road. Poor Wangcai must have been hungry. The owner cooked her a bowl of noodles, and she ate it all up. But when she tried to tie her up with a rope, she ran away. Oh man! I didn’t even know it was Wangcai! When did she get a new haircut? ┭┮﹏┭┮ If I had known, I would have caught her for you. WangcaiEatingNoodles.JPG]

[I just came out of the theater and saw a dog sniffing flowers. I thought it was cute and took a picture, but I didn’t realize it was Wangcai. ┭┮﹏┭┮ Same story, when I went back to look, she was gone. WangcaiSniffingFlowers.JPG]

...

As the popularity soared and the topic continued to ferment, all sorts of news began to pour in. Ni Bingyan drove her Volkswagen all over the city, but every time she arrived at a location and asked around, she would hear someone say:

”Oh, that dog? It’s a real looker. Someone already picked it up!”

But when she asked who picked it up, no one could say for sure.

She rushed to four or five different places in a row, but still couldn’t find her dog.

New sightings kept coming in on Weibo, with locations jumping from the east side of the city to the west. If it weren’t for the photos proving it was Wangcai, and that Wangcai was always running free, Ni Bingyan would have suspected someone had caught her dog and was deliberately sending her on a wild goose chase for fun.

When they first went out, Wangcai was sleek and glossy, wearing an exquisite collar and a beautiful hairdo, looking like a Little Fairy. But by a little after five o’clock, the photos showed her looking filthy, staring pitifully at a trash can.

Ni Bingyan’s heart was about to break. But before she could continue chasing down the reported sightings, Sang Yuan called:

”Something this big happened, and you didn’t even call me? You should go home first. I’ll go out and look. If you keep searching, the people trying to ’run into’ you are going to cause traffic jams.”

Ni Bingyan pulled out her phone and did a quick search, only to find that he was right. People were using the reported sightings to get ahead of her and block her way.

Photos of her frantically driving her Volkswagen around the city looking for her dog were everywhere.

Some people were even placing bets on where she would go next.

Even people who weren’t her fans were joining in just because the whole affair was so amusing.

It was a rare, nationwide spectacle!

’I really just want to find my dog! Ugh! I already feel terrible for taking up public resources, and now there’s a risk of causing chaos. I need to make up for it quickly.’

Ni Bingyan sighed, silently deleted the lost dog notice, and posted a new apology on Weibo:

[My sincerest apologies. I was too anxious and didn’t think things through, taking up too many public resources. If you have any leads, please send me a private message. Please don’t chase after me anymore. It’s getting dark soon, and it’s not safe for minors to be out alone. Large gatherings also pose a safety risk. I’m begging you!]

Then, before she even finished dinner, she was trending again—for her apology.

”This world is so surreal.”

Ni Bingyan was on the verge of tears.

’It’s almost ten o’clock. How can Wangcai run for so long?’

’Doesn’t she get tired?’

Wangcai would like to state that she was, in fact, not tired, because she had spent most of the day riding in cars.

Sometimes a passerby would try to take her home, and she’d follow them to hitch a ride. But the moment they tried to put a leash on her, she’d throw a fit and run away. Other times, when she got tired of walking, she’d scour the streets for a small tricycle or a pickup truck, jump on when no one was looking, and be miles away in the blink of an eye.

In truth, she was also very scared. But she was a quiet dog who liked to use her brain. When she couldn’t find her way home, her first instinct was to search everywhere for something familiar.

A dog’s brain is simple; it doesn’t understand things like probability. It just stubbornly roamed the city, trying its luck.

Finally, she caught a familiar human scent. She leaped out from behind a trash can and clamped her jaw onto the person’s pant leg!