Chapter 41

At the stroke of midnight, the clock chimed.

The votes were finalized, and Zhang Ye's story was shockingly at the top.

Not only were the mushroom fan club members and onlookers stunned, but even the veteran children's literature authors who had been in the field for years were left speechless. Even Zhang Ye himself was at a loss for a long time, with only one thought in his mind: This can't be possible, when did I have so many hardcore fans?

He knew his own worth well. Although he had written a few poems and a supernatural novel, he wasn't a big name yet, not to the point where people would immediately recognize his work, like how they would recognize a film by Andy Lau or a song by him. Some authors' works were also famous, but when asked who the author was, many people wouldn't remember. The same went for Zhang Ye; many people who had read his works only remembered the titles, and only a few knew his name as the creator!

But what about this crowd of fans?

How did they manage to crush the mushroom fan club in the blink of an eye, leaving them speechless?

This was in their cultural domain! The mushroom fan club belonged to one of the major figures in children's literature! How did it feel like Zhang Ye was fighting on his own turf?

This shouldn't be the case, there must be a reason!

Check the comments...

Scroll through Weibo...

Soon, Zhang Ye finally found the reason. It turned out that most of these people weren't his fans, at least 80% of them weren't. They hadn't read "Ghost Blows Out the Light" or his poems. The common point was that they had all participated in or witnessed the "Insult Gate" incident a few days ago. Of course, there were also his hardcore fans, like the one who initiated the call, "Zhang Ye Fan 1." The others were almost all there to join the fun—bored and looking for something to do, they all gathered to cause trouble. They were a group of people who thrived on chaos and were extremely bored. Since the "Insult Gate" incident had only happened a few days ago, the aftereffects of Zhang Ye's dominance were still fresh, and the water army (internet trolls) were very impressed by him. Therefore, today, under the leadership of some hardcore fans, they mobilized a large number of water army to vote crazily. It felt similar to the "Help Wang Feng Get on the Headlines" phenomenon in his world, purely for the sake of causing a commotion!

With the victory, the water army began to boast and show off everywhere!

"First place!"

"Great job, everyone!"

"Haha! Everyone is awesome!"

"Ten thousand votes! Ten thousand votes! How crazy is that!"

"Where are the mushroom fan club members? Where are you? Weren't you boasting about scaring us? It looks like you're the ones who are scared speechless!"

"Do you know how many fans Zhang Ye has? Dare to look down on us?"

"Smiling without a word, mushroom fan club, you're too naive!"

"Accusing Teacher Zhang Ye of vote manipulation? Then you're the ones who are desperately trying to manipulate votes? How funny! Does Teacher Zhang Ye need to manipulate votes? Do we need to? We just vote once each! We don't need to manipulate votes to crush you! We treat our friends with good meat and good wine, and we are always ready to face our enemies without hesitation! Today, we give you Teacher Zhang Ye's inspiring words—'I bought a watch last year!'"

"This is a memorable battle! Let's record this historic moment! We have once again followed Teacher Zhang Ye to create a miracle!"

"So satisfying! So exciting!"

"Is Teacher Zhang Ye still around?"

"We have already breached the enemy's walls, we have already sounded the victory horn, Teacher Zhang, please say a few words to the brothers!"

Zhang Ye was somewhat amused and moved, truly not expecting so many people to come to his aid. He immediately left a comment in the "Little Bunny" comment section, as everyone had supported him so much, he couldn't remain silent, "Thank you all for your help, comrades, you've worked hard!"

The replies below were neatly lined up!

"For the people!"

"For the people +1!"

"For the people +723!"

A single comment quickly garnered over eight hundred replies, all saying the same thing!

What a scene! What a momentum! Many neutral onlookers were moved to excitement, with such a water army, one could conquer the world... cough, cough, except that this group of water army was really too casual. In the end, they didn't even know who Zhang Ye was, how could they have such a large water army to support him!

Zhang Ye Fan 1 disbanded the crowd, "Mission accomplished! Water army, stand down! Thanks for your efforts, brothers!"

They came quickly and left quickly, like a swarm of wasps that sting whoever they don't like, coming and going as they pleased!

Seeing the water army disband and go to sleep, the mushroom fan club actually had someone jump out again, running to the website's complaint section to report Zhang Ye's fairy tale.

Mushroom Club Hero: "Report! 'Little Bunny' is vote manipulation!"

Mushroom Club 77: "Tens of thousands of votes in four hours! How is that possible! The manipulation is too obvious!"

QWYUE33: "I think it looks like manipulated results too. Others took weeks to get tens of thousands of votes, and they were all master-level authors in the industry. How can a broadcasting host, who writes ghost stories, write such a good fairy tale? How can so many people vote for him? It's not realistic!"

Suddenly, Little Red Mushroom's account also appeared in the complaint section, the real person showing up, clearly not accepting the second-place result. This time, the writing contest was different from other contests; there was no second or third place, no royalties, no trophies. Only the first place would be promoted by the Beijing education department in kindergartens and primary schools. The second place was completely useless!

Little Red Mushroom posted: "Has anyone checked the authenticity of the votes? I believe many authors in the industry cannot accept this result, right? 'Little Bunny' has an abnormal increase in votes!"

One of the top authors in the children's literature field spoke up, and other fairy tale authors participating in the contest also joined in to question Zhang Ye's votes!

"Are the technical staff off duty?"

"How can such obvious vote manipulation not be seen?"

"Is there any fairness, justice, and transparency left?"

A website administrator ID replied, "The technical team is handling it, please wait. If there is any vote manipulation, the technical team will block the votes!"

After about ten minutes, the results were out!

First place in the writing contest: "Little Bunny." Author: Zhang Ye. Final vote count: 45,871! Zhang Ye's vote count remained unchanged, exactly the same as the midnight tally. On the contrary, the second place, Little Red Mushroom's story, dropped from 37,212 to 35,399! The technical team deducted 2,000 votes from her!

The results were out, and there was a moment of silence!

It turned out there was no cheating! This story was really that amazing! Did it really get over 40,000 votes in four hours?

Everyone was surprised, but no one questioned the authenticity of Zhang Ye's votes anymore. Even without the support of the water army, after deducting the votes manipulated by Little Red Mushroom's fans, Zhang Ye still won first place, with no water at all!

Of course, it couldn't be said that way. If the water army hadn't pushed Zhang Ye to first place, and Zhang Ye had reported Little Red Mushroom's vote manipulation as second place, the website might not have accepted it.

The adorable water army really helped Zhang Ye a lot!

Zhang Ye was moved and grateful for a while, then suddenly remembered he had something important to do. He quickly added a note to his story's introduction: "This version of the story is a silent text version, not the complete 'Little Bunny.' Tomorrow at noon, the Beijing Radio Station's Cultural Frequency 'Old and Young Story Time' will broadcast the complete audio version read by me. At that time, the songs in the story will also be presented to you. Please stay tuned."

"Really, there are songs? I thought it was just text!"

"I've noted the time, I'll definitely listen on time!"

"Haha, I'm waiting for the song. I'll let my colleagues know too."

"I'm just wondering, why can't some people stand to see others succeed? If you're not as good, admit it. Who says only industry insiders can write good stories? Who says authors who write ghost stories can't write good fairy tales? I suggest those teachers who reported Teacher Zhang Ye take a humble and learning attitude to read 'Little Bunny.' From the perspective of not opening the door to strangers and the underlying meaning, Teacher Zhang's fairy tale surpasses all of you. It's well-deserved! My child is even asking me to memorize 'Little Bunny' and tell it to her every day! The child has already given the answer!"

"Agreed!"

"Sigh, new talent always faces skepticism from the old guard!"

"I can't stand it anymore. The mushroom fan club's initial boasting was very unpleasant. Bullying the small with the large? Ha, they got a good slap in the face! Zhang Ye? This teacher is interesting, I've already followed his Weibo, I really like his fairy tale."

"Shake hands!"

"Love Zhang Ye's story! Casual fan turned loyal fan!"

Zhang Ye's fame saw a small but significant increase. More people learned about his story and him through this event!

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