Chairman Luo's words had given
"Handle it however you see fit. Just watch what you say — don't go too extreme. Getting them to come visit would be ideal, but if it doesn't work out, that's fine too."
"I don't really care about the rest, but that influencer Liu Gang — I'm definitely dragging him over here. That guy talks through his hat, and I'm willing to bet Virtual Future Park has been paying him handsomely." Chen Ge wasn't the type to hold grudges, but the other party's behavior genuinely rubbed him the wrong way.
"Kill the chicken to scare the monkey — not bad. That influencer is already a hot topic. If he actually shows up, it'll satisfy a lot of netizens' curiosity. But the real question is: how are you going to trick him into coming?" Chairman Luo had other matters to attend to, so he hurriedly said a few more words and hung up.
Chen Ge replayed the conversation with Chairman Luo in his mind, thought it over for a while, then logged into his short video platform account. He was going to go head-to-head with Liu Gang.
He opened the livestream feature on the short video platform. The instant he tapped the camera icon, the live viewer count jumped from zero to over five hundred, and with every refresh, the number in the chat room multiplied.
Since his account had been unbanned, this was the first time he'd used the livestream function.
He'd used to livestream to promote his haunted house, but now that the haunted house already had plenty of buzz, livestreaming and making short videos had become more of a personal hobby for Chen Ge.
"Long time no see, everyone." Chen Ge pressed his lips together — he felt like he'd said that line to someone before.
After a quick greeting to his viewers, Chen Ge got straight to the point and called out the influencer Liu Gang by name.
At first, he simply laid out the facts and reasoned things through: Liu Gang himself had never been to Hanjiang, so how could he possibly know the real situation at New Century Paradise? He couldn't be held accountable for a single word he'd said.
Most of the users following Chen Ge's short video account were people who enjoyed his videos or had actually visited the haunted house. So on Chen Ge's end, the bullet comments were flooded with messages cheering him on.
But before long, a different voice began appearing in the chat — accounts accusing Chen Ge of being an unscrupulous businessman, claiming he deceived visitors and engaged in malicious marketing.
"People come to my haunted house for thrills. If my haunted house wasn't scary, then sure, you could say I'm deceiving visitors. But every single person who's been to my haunted house says it's great — the word-of-mouth is excellent. What exactly makes you think I'm scamming people?" Chen Ge's argument had a slight flaw — anyone who secretly thought otherwise wouldn't have gotten the chance to say it after actually visiting: "Is it that my haunted house can't scare you? Or that forty yuan per ticket is too expensive? My haunted house has been open in Hanjiang for ten years, and in all that time I've only raised prices once. The word 'conscience' might as well be written on my face. What grounds do you have to call me unscrupulous?"
Whether it was price or quality, Chen Ge's haunted house was truly a one-of-a-kind presence across the entire internet.
"Boss Chen, that Liu Gang just posted a video on his social media platform! Jabbering on and on — basically saying he's seen through all your tricks. He's smeared you hard." Some bullet comments from viewers who just wanted to stir things up played both sides, feeding information back and forth.
"He did?" Chen Ge's own phone was running the livestream, so he quietly flipped open the comic book and communicated with Old Bai, who was still instructing the new recruits, signaling him to call Zhang Jingjiu over.
Ten minutes later, Zhang Jingjiu walked into the employee break room, still wearing his makeup, phone in hand.
Chen Ge used his phone to watch the video Liu Gang had posted. The guy had gotten his hands on some haunted house material from who knows where and was ranting about it nonstop. One photo from the Zombie Resurrection Night scene had been featured on the video's thumbnail, with a line of text slapped underneath — "This is it? No wonder he's only dared to raise prices once in ten years."
The social media platform where the video was posted was Liu Gang's home turf — he had millions of followers there. The few netizens who tried to speak up for Chen Ge were instantly drowned out. Mockery and sarcasm were everywhere, and more and more uninformed onlookers were being swept up by the narrative.
There were plenty of visitors who had been to the haunted house, and plenty who supported Chen Ge, but on Liu Gang's own platform, where he controlled the comments and banned dissenting voices, anyone trying to help Chen Ge was completely powerless.