The netizens were all stunned.
This time, they had truly wronged Jiang Ling.
An Qiuyan, who was closely following the developments, turned green when she saw the crew releasing the video footage of her and Jiang Ling's acting showdown.
After all her efforts to finally crush that wretched Jiang Ling, having this video broadcast to the entire internet would be like telling everyone that her acting was inferior to Jiang Ling, a washed-up star.
She was furious!
Ever since the incident blew up on the trending topics, Jiang Ling and Sister Sa had been closely monitoring the situation's reversal.
From the release of the maliciously edited video, to the silence of the "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils" crew, which led to endless speculation among netizens, conjuring up various industry conspiracies and dirty deals.
Then came the support from director Da Huzzi, Gao Biao, Xie Yuxin, and others, who denounced the unscrupulous marketing accounts.
Finally, the crew, unable to withstand the public pressure, released the on-site video, clarifying the truth and putting an end to it all.
What a dramatic reversal!
Not to mention the netizens who were merely spectating, even Sister Sa was dizzy from all the twists and turns.
Jiang Ling explained the situation to Sister Sa, and only then did she grasp it.
"So, that unscrupulous marketing account was secretly bought off by the crew?" Sister Sa exclaimed.
"Precisely. The entire incident, from beginning to end, was orchestrated and plotted by the crew. I, as well as An Qiuyan, were merely pawns in their scheme to create buzz for the new drama," Jiang Ling said coldly.
Entertainment for the sake of death, traffic above all else.
Nowadays, for a drama to become popular, quality alone is not enough; it also needs buzz.
To generate topics and buzz, one must create sensational and eye-catching content.
As a popular star boycotted by the entire internet, although times had changed and she was now an abandoned pawn by the capital, her popularity had not diminished. There were still plenty of haters and trolls ready to attack her.
Being infamous was still being famous. It would be a waste not to leverage such popularity.
While An Qiuyan's popularity and buzz might not match Jiang Ling's, she was still very much in the spotlight.
Her status as the current girlfriend of the Shen family's eldest young master, compared to Jiang Ling, the ex-girlfriend, was enough to make many naive netizens imagine a dramatic catfight for the man, a clash of women.
With the release of the on-site video, the situation completely reversed.
The netizens who felt deceived were furious, and they flooded the marketing account, unleashing wave after wave of vulgar insults.
The person in charge of the marketing account couldn't handle it and simply played dead.
Some netizens then flocked to An Qiuyan's Weibo, accusing her of maliciously distorting facts.
Seeing this, An Qiuyan immediately put on a sweet innocent act and said, "I never said Jiang Ling bullied me. There are always villains who want to harm me. I was referring to that maliciously edited, unscrupulous marketing account. Don't wrongly accuse good people!"
Hearing this, although the netizens were extremely angry, they could not refute her.
Indeed, from the very beginning, An Qiuyan had never mentioned Jiang Ling's name.
That "villains want to harm me" meme could be interpreted as Jiang Ling using her influence to steal her role, or it could be interpreted as her being set up by the unscrupulous marketing account!
This whole dramatic affair lasted for three days.
The new version of "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils" also reached an unprecedented level of popularity.
Seizing the momentum, the crew consecutively released several stills of Jiang Ling as Tianshan Tonglao.
These stills not only featured the most beautiful Tonglao look as posted by the marketing account, but also her as an eight or nine-year-old child, a beautiful middle-aged woman in her thirties or forties, an old woman in her sixties or seventies, and a wizened elder with white hair in her nineties.