Chapter 1 Slightly Searching Online

After searching online for a bit, Pei Qian discovered that quite a few film critics had already written reviews of *A Beautiful Tomorrow*.

This was reasonable; after all, there weren't any good movies being released recently, so these film critics were eagerly waiting. When they saw a movie with such high screening numbers, they would definitely go and watch it.

Pei Qian entered the keywords for *A Beautiful Tomorrow* and scanned the titles one by one.

*The Triple Meaning of "A Beautiful Tomorrow"*

This one was no good at a glance.

*What Exactly Will Consumerism Bring Us?*

This one definitely wouldn't work either.

*The Dark Side of Technology in the Eyes of a Pessimist*

Still no good!

Pei Qian looked at several reviews in a row and directly passed them based on the titles.

From the keywords in these titles, such as "triple meaning," "dark side of technology," and "consumerism," he could imagine what the content of the review would be!

He didn't even need to pay them; these people were already over-interpreting!

"What are you film critics thinking about all day long!"

"More deep meanings, more pessimism, can't you analyze the superficial meanings of this film? Can't you analyze its toxicity???"

Pei Qian was speechless and continued his tireless search.

He was looking for comments that were clearly bashing the movie and had a relatively high number of likes and replies.

Only after such comments were reversed would it be obvious enough to make the audience clearly realize that the movie had hired shills!

After flipping through two or three pages, he still didn't find any comments of much value.

Pei Qian had to filter the ratings, sorting them from low to high, starting with one-star reviews.

Sure enough, this style was much more normal.

*A Failed Work Lacking Imagination*

*Illogical and Full of Loopholes*

*Suitable for Young People to Watch, Can't Watch for More Than Ten Minutes*

*Giving It One Star Just Because of Lu Zhiyao!*

Pei Qian nodded in satisfaction. Yes, this was the style it should have been!

It was a pity that there were too few such reviews, and there weren't many comments either. It seemed that everyone was quietly giving it a thumbs down without even having the desire to argue with these review authors.

Pei Qian randomly clicked on a few and found that they didn't quite meet his requirements.

Review authors who blindly gave one star generally had a very strong subjective bias. They often couldn't see the forest for the trees, and would blindly give one star if they saw anything that didn't suit their liking. Naturally, the content of their reviews was also full of prejudice.

Such reviews were mostly just venting emotions and were unlikely to guide other viewers.

Too low-level, no good.

These people clearly didn't have much culture. Even if he paid them, they definitely wouldn't be able to write reviews that could spark debate. They would only be drowned in the sea of five-star reviews, unable to make any waves.

The audience wouldn't even realize that this review author had changed their review.

Pei Qian thought for a while and decided to look for three-star reviews.

This time, the style finally met Pei Qian's liking!

*Pseudo-Profound*

*Does It Seem Like Everyone Is Too Embarrassed to Say It's Not Good? Then Let Me Be the Child Who Exposes the Emperor's New Clothes*

*Too Many Flaws, Forcibly Creating Tragedy by Depicting Two Useless People*

Looking at the titles of these comments, Pei Qian had only one feeling: they were deeply in line with his heart!

Moreover, there were many more dissenting voices below these comments, with hundreds of likes and hundreds of dislikes. Obviously, these review authors had good visibility, and the things they wrote were inherently controversial.

"Not bad, these are all good seedlings. I'll pick one from them first, and if it doesn't work, I'll just switch!"

Pei Qian first clicked on the first review, the one who wanted to be "the child who exposes the emperor's new clothes."

"There seems to be a chorus of praise on Weibo, touting it as something miraculous. I initially went to see it with a very serious and reverent attitude, but I was greatly disappointed."

"After watching this movie, I only have one feeling: does the emperor use a golden hoe to farm?"

"Technology is so advanced, yet the lower-class people are still eating subsidized meals and can't even skip ads? They even make people from different classes go out at different times? Too unreasonable!"

"And there are all kinds of ads added to the movie. Adding ads is one thing, but the audience has to watch the ads with the protagonist, are you kidding me!"

"Isn't the synopsis of this story just a cliché story of a loser getting cheated on? If this was written in a novel, it would be scolded to death, but when it's made into a movie, it suddenly becomes deeply meaningful? Are you all schizophrenic?"

Pei Qian nodded frequently as he read.

Of course, Pei Qian didn't agree with what he was saying, he just felt like he had found the right person.

Clearly, this was a person who stubbornly lived in his own world, in short, the kind of person who believed that "this world must operate in the way I say it should, otherwise something is wrong."

Also known as a "setting warrior."

The setting of the world in the movie was that "even if technology is advanced, the lives of the lower-class people may not necessarily improve." All the stories revolved around this basic setting, but he had to come up and argue with this setting, saying that the setting itself was unreasonable, thereby feeling that the entire movie looked awkward.

"Well, not bad, has character, I like it!"

"If this kind of person praises it awkwardly, it should also be very controversial!"

This author's online name was very low-key, called "Qian Mou." His personal homepage had contact information, so Pei Qian contacted him without much effort.

"Hello, I'm the investor in *A Beautiful Tomorrow*. I hope you can change that review, from three stars to five stars, and rewrite all the content. Of course, we will provide a revision fee of 1000 yuan."

Time was tight and the task was heavy, so Pei Qian didn't plan to be too polite and went straight to the point.

Soon, Qian Mou replied.

"Only change the rating, not the review, one thousand yuan, acceptable."

Pei Qian couldn't help but smile after reading this reply.

Yo, this young man still has principles.

But Pei Qian definitely had to get him to change the review. If he didn't praise it awkwardly, how could he arouse the disgust of other viewers, how could he provoke a war of words?

So Pei Qian was also very straightforward: "Two thousand."

Qian Mou hesitated for a while: "The review will be my own free rein, you can't interfere too much."

Free rein? That wouldn't do.

If the praise wasn't awkward enough, how could it arouse the disgust of other viewers?

If your review was instantly drowned in the sea of five-star reviews, wouldn't my money be wasted?

Although spending the system's money for nothing sounded like a good thing, it wouldn't achieve Pei Qian's goal.

Pei Qian directly abandoned those empty and meaningless words: "Three thousand."

Qian Mou: "Okay, you say how to change it."

Pei Qian smiled. It seemed that this was indeed a film critic with firm principles, and it took two price increases to change his opinion.

Pei Qian considered his wording slightly.

"Praise it hard, praise enough to reach a thousand words, and you must find an angle that no one has ever praised before, the more tricky and subtle the angle, the better."

Qian Mou hesitated again: "There are already many reviews, it's very difficult to find an angle that no one has ever praised before, even if you find it, it will seem particularly forced and make people feel disgusted."

Very forced?

Make people feel disgusted?

That's right, that's what I want!

Young man, you have very accurately grasped my intention!

Qian Mou's words were exactly what Pei Qian wanted.

But Pei Qian couldn't make it clear, so he could only reply: "It's okay."

Qian Mou: "Sorry, I think it matters, this request is very difficult for me..."

Pei Qian: "Four thousand."

Qian Mou: "I don't mean that, it's not a matter of money, the main thing is that this matter itself is difficult..."

Pei Qian: "Five thousand."

Qian Mou: "I'll go to the cinema again to watch it again, and submit the manuscript before tonight."

After getting Qian Mou settled, Pei Qian felt that he was still a little uneasy.

It seemed a bit like a lone tree couldn't support the forest.

He had to find some shills to cooperate with him.

Pei Qian found "Xiao Hu Reviews" again, preparing to buy some shills to cooperate.

How could passersby know that this movie had bought shills if he didn't really buy shills?

"Brother, get some more shills. Go online and find reviews of *A Beautiful Tomorrow*, and frantically like all the good reviews that have *tricky angles*!"

Pei Qian couldn't explicitly say to look for those awkwardly praising reviews, so he could only change his wording and emphasize "tricky angles."

Anything with tricky angles must be a serious over-interpretation, which was about the same as awkward praise.

Before long, Hu Xiao replied.

"No problem."

Pei Qian was just about to talk about the specific price, but he didn't expect the other party to send another message.

"We've been working together for so long, we can be considered to have some friendship. There's something else I'll tell you in confidence. Other shills seem to have received the task of smearing your movie. If you're willing to spend some money, I can help you settle this."

Huh?

Pei Qian was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed.

There was such a good thing?

"Who?" Pei Qian asked immediately.

Hu Xiao: "Sorry, I can't reveal this, it's the rule of our industry."

Pei Qian was a little regretful that he couldn't find out the name of this kind person.

He guessed it should be the investors of other movies, right?

The movies currently being released were in competition. *A Beautiful Tomorrow*'s current occupancy rate and word-of-mouth were good, and tomorrow's screenings might be even higher than today.

This would obviously squeeze out a lot of screenings for other movies. That domestic romance drama and domestic big IP movie both had sufficient motivation to hire shills to smear *A Beautiful Tomorrow*.

Anyway, he didn't care who this kind person was, he would just keep this gratitude in his heart.

As for spending money to settle this?

Pei Qian had nothing better to do than to do that!

"No need, they can smear theirs, you can like yours, they won't affect each other."

Hu Xiao: "Well, it's good that you have this confidence. In short, if you feel like you can't hold on, tell me again, and we can still salvage it."

Can't hold on? Salvage it?

No, no, no, there won't be a situation where I can't hold on!

The more they smear it, the happier I am!

If possible, Pei Qian would even want to spend his own money to hire shills to smear it. Now that someone was coming to donate money to do good deeds, it was simply like sending charcoal in the snow!

Pei Qian told Hu Xiao a few words, asking his shills to frantically like those "tricky angle" reviews, giving passersby the impression that "the people who like this movie are all extreme fans, and their over-interpretation is serious."

This group of mindless praise would achieve the effect of "one fan topping ten haters." If the competitors then sent out a large number of shills to awkwardly smear it, the internal and external cooperation would be twice the result with half the effort?

After explaining everything clearly, Pei Qian packed up the takeout he had eaten and put it outside the door, and then...

He went back to bed.

He decided to disappear and not go to the company for the next two days!

As long as he went to the company, many people would definitely congratulate him on the movie, just thinking about it made him feel despair.

He might as well stay at home and have some peace and quiet.