Chen Ge first glanced at the photo. The woman who had copied Ye Xiaoxin's style looked like a total sweetheart — dressed in an adorable outfit, a completely different vibe from the short-haired Ye Xiaoxin.
He swiped through the screenshots, and when he reached the second one, he couldn't keep his composure.
The seemingly well-behaved woman in the photos was secretly stirring up trouble behind the scenes. Every single review Ye Xiaoxin posted on the platform could be seen connected to her.
The effect on Chen Ge's haunted house review was particularly notable. The score had started at 9.7, but within a week it had been dragged down to 8.9. In the end, it was only the haunted house's genuinely solid quality and the sheer volume of positive reviews that kept the score pinned at 8.9 despite the army of paid negative reviews flooding in.
Looking at the other screenshots, this woman was badmouthing haunted houses left and right while propping up the ones she reviewed. Most critically, a whole crowd of people had been fooled by her looks and were furiously liking and supporting her.
A quick comparison made it obvious: most of the haunted houses on her homepage had ratings above nine, yet the comments were universally negative — terrible, garbage — and she hadn't adjusted a single score.
By contrast, on Ye Xiaoxin's side, the highest rating was Chen Ge's haunted house, and the second-highest barely reached six.
"You can feud with Ye Xiaoxin all you want — that's none of my business. But you padded bad reviews on mine, so now I'm going to get my fair share of justice. Otherwise I'd be doing a disservice to my hardworking staff." Chen Ge noted the woman's username and committed her face to memory.
There were many screenshots. Apart from this woman, others had been stirring up drama on forums and message boards, seemingly trying to deliberately redirect public sentiment toward New Century Paradise. It felt like there was an ulterior motive behind all of it.
"I should probably discuss this with Director Luo. After all, the haunted house is the park's flagship attraction now. If its rating drops, the park's image will take a hit too."
Sitting by the entrance, watching visitors nervously enter the attraction and then stumble out with wobbly legs and terrified screams, gave Chen Ge a deep sense of accomplishment.
Earlier, Chen Ge had been shouting outside that the three-star scenario Living Coffin Village was open for a limited time. But many of today's visitors were seasoned haunt-goers, and before entering a haunted house they would always check online reviews first.
In most people's minds, a three-star scenario was already the level of a place where living humans had no business going.
Around noon, just as Chen Ge had dozed off sitting by the entrance, Uncle Xu shook him awake.
"What's up, Uncle?"
Uncle Xu coughed twice and gestured: "These visitors want to challenge that new scenario you mentioned."
"Environment: mediocre, barely a four. Staff: slacking off, sleeping on the job — two points." Five visitors stood at the haunted house entrance — three men and two women. One of the women was typing away on her phone.
When Chen Ge saw her face, he blinked in surprise, then instinctively put on a smile: "Welcome! No one's tried the new scenario yet, so you're really in luck."
"It's too late to change your attitude now. What I want to see is your haunted house for what it really is." The woman looked up. Her face was on the cute side, but her voice was rather rough, making it clear she was considerably older than she looked.
"Aren't you here to visit?" Chen Ge feigned ignorance with a confused look.
"You can call me Cassie. I'm a professional haunted house reviewer with millions of followers online. If I think your haunted house is good and put it front and center on my page, your visitor numbers could increase by at least a third." The woman was clearly proud of herself. "But that's only if I think it's worth it. Your current performance is... underwhelming."
Chen Ge couldn't be bothered to listen to her rambling: "Do you have a Chinese name? Something more down-to-earth, like Iron Pillar or Dog Egg?"
The woman's face lengthened instantly, but she didn't lose her temper at Chen Ge. She had always maintained the persona she'd fabricated in front of her friends.
Before she could speak, the two men beside her stepped forward when they saw she'd been slighted. One had dyed-blond hair with earrings and a nose stud — a rather alternative look. The other was dressed more normally but was tall, close to six foot three.
"All right, since you're here, you're all visitors. Let's not waste time — sign the liability waiver and let's get started.