Midnight.
As the suggestive news from earlier in the day fermented, the online flame wars continued.
Cai Kun and Wang Luyao's fans were still unaware that their idols had been apprehended.
At this moment, they were using Gao Fei's past negative information to launch all sorts of personal attacks against him.
Blackmail like being a delinquent, violating school rules, and skipping classes was once again dug up and posted online.
Gao Fei's fans, however, were not to be outdone.
Cai Kun's million-dollar autotune, live lip-syncing, and purchasing fake data to boost charts were all listed online one by one.
Wang Luyao's green-screen incidents, her lines of "123456," and malicious box-office manipulation were also posted on various platforms.
The fans of both sides were truly engaged in a heated battle.
As the verbal sparring continued to escalate,
Cai Kun and Wang Luyao's fans were discussing their next plan against Gao Fei in a large group chat.
"Gao Fei is hiding in the military camp and won't come out, and there's no social media account for him online. The Kyoto Military Region has cut off communications. What should be our next move against him?"
"Why don't we go directly to Kyoto University and unfurl banners to protest? Ruin his reputation and make him unable to show his face at school."
"Gao Fei isn't even at school, so going there won't have much of an impact. I know where the Kyoto Military Sub-district is. Let's go there and stake him out. As soon as he dares to show up, we'll make him pay dearly for Kun Kun and Yao Yao!"
"I think that's a good idea, I second it!"
Fans with gold badges in the group chat enthusiastically agreed to stake out Gao Fei outside the military sub-district.
After discussing the plan, the fans started to @ the group owner and administrators, as a large operation would require financial support from them.
However, after a round of @ mentions, the group owner and administrators seemed to have vanished, remaining silent for a long time.
"Where is our group owner, Sister E? Why isn't she speaking? Is she asleep?"
"That's unlikely. Sister E was online half an hour ago. Even if she were asleep, the administrators wouldn't all be asleep!"
"Could it be that they have an even better plan to deal with Gao Fei?"
Just as the fans in the group were still typing, everyone was suddenly muted.
In a high-end residential area in Shenzhen, Longguo.
A young girl in the third year of junior high hid under her covers, constantly refreshing her messages. Seeing the group muted, she was very confused.
"Everything was fine just now, why was I muted?"
The girl exited the group, preparing to continue her fight online.
At the same time, she discovered that her account had been banned!
"What's going on?"
As the girl was racking her brain for answers, her parents' surprised voices suddenly came from outside the room.
"What? You're saying my daughter made harassing calls to the Kyoto Military Sub-district?"
"Impossible, I, as her mother, am in charge of my daughter's phone. Except for weekends, she can't use her phone!"
The commotion outside made the girl instantly nervous.
*Clang!*
The bedroom door was pushed open.
A young woman lifted the covers, but her daughter was already asleep.
Just as she was about to question the arriving police officers, the leading officer dialed a phone number, and the quiet bedroom was filled with the sound of a vibrating phone.
Instantly, the young woman's face turned pale, while her husband awkwardly explained that he had just bought the phone for their daughter.
After showing his badge, the lead police officer stated directly, "Both of you, your daughter is a minor and requires guardians to accompany her. Please bring your phone and your child, and follow us to the station."
At this very moment, similar scenes were unfolding in many regions of Longguo.
The people who were incited to make harassing calls were mostly underage students, as well as some high school and university students.
The perpetrators of the 385 harassing calls were all brought to the police station that night for criticism and education.
Midnight thirty.
The official Weibo account of the Kyoto Municipal Public Security Bureau suddenly issued a statement online.
"Today, our bureau received a report of harassing phone calls being made to the Kyoto Military Sub-district. After investigation, it has been confirmed that artist Cai XX (male, 25 years old) and Wang XXyao (female, 23 years old) instigated their fans to cyberbully Mr. Gao Fei, who was undergoing military training at the Kyoto Military Sub-district. The police have now apprehended Cai XX and Wang XXyao. After interrogation, the aforementioned individuals confessed to their illegal acts and have been administratively detained by the police departments of Haicheng and Hangcheng. They will be transferred to the Kyoto Public Security Bureau the next day for criminal investigation."
The release of the statement did not immediately cause a major stir.
However, as the Song Association forwarded the statement, condemning some singers for lacking virtue and talent and inciting their fans, and announced Cai Kun's expulsion from its membership,
Following the Song Association's statement, the Performing Arts Association also quickly issued a statement.
It condemned the current young artists for not focusing on their acting skills but instead being obsessed with traffic and hype, and also announced that association member Wang Luyao had been expelled from its membership.
The statement from the Kyoto Public Security Bureau.
The swift move by the two associations to distance themselves.
Left the fans who were still arguing online utterly stunned.
At noon, they had seen their idols rehearsing dance routines in practice rooms and filming in film bases.
Now, only a few hours later, their idols had instigated fans and been arrested.
Moreover, what shocked ordinary fans the most was that someone had made harassing calls to the Kyoto Military Sub-district in an attempt to target Gao Fei.
Gao Fei's fans were equally shocked that someone would make harassing calls to a military sub-district over a sky-high song commission.
This had truly blown up!
A moment later, official Weibo accounts of police departments across the country simultaneously went online and published announcements.
They stated that for the fans who made harassing calls, criticisms and education had been given to minors and students.
For those who were eighteen years old and above, they had been criticized and given a five-day administrative detention.
At this point, everyone realized the extent of the impact of that day's verbal battle; it could be considered a major event in the entire Longguo entertainment industry.
The fans of both sides stopped their online arguments and fell completely silent.
After the police quelled the online conflict, a social media account named 'Yuan Fei Studio' posted online.
"Hello everyone, this is Mr. Gao Fei's studio account, which has been verified by the platform.
Due to Mr. Gao Fei's military training, he is temporarily unable to appear in person. His acting lawyer, Zeng Keming, will be temporarily managing the account.
Following the malicious framing and slander today, Lawyer Zeng has reported the matter to the local authorities and will be filing a criminal lawsuit on behalf of Mr. Gao Fei against the framers and slanderers."
After the post, the studio account also released a video.
The video was a recording of a phone call between Gao Fei and Wang Zhisheng, the owner of Cool Shadow Media.
Only a small number of people noticed the content released by the new account.
However, as the official Weibo account of the Fengyun Municipal Public Security Bureau reposted it, it immediately attracted netizens' attention.
Within half an hour, the account's follower count exceeded two million.
The studio and the call recording also directly became a trending topic.
After listening to the video recording, everyone finally understood the entire truth of the matter.
It turned out that Gao Fei had not requested a sky-high song commission; rather, the other party had offered him a high price of ten million yuan to commission a song.
Unfortunately, Gao Fei did not value money as much as he valued their skills, and thus refused the commission.
Cai Kun's singing level and Wang Luyao's acting skills were such that anyone with eyes and ears could tell their quality.
Now that the truth was revealed, the fans of the two idols fell silent, while Gao Fei's fans became smug.
"See? I knew it. Gao Fei isn't someone who gets blinded by money. How could he possibly ask for an exorbitant price of one hundred million per song!"
"They were also saying Gao Fei was making unreasonable demands, but it was they who were trying to commission a song at a sky-high price. This counter-framing tactic is brilliant."
"Gao Fei, keep up your arrogance. With your skills, you don't need these talentless vases to highlight you. We're waiting for your true personality to emerge!"
"We hope Gao Fei's acting lawyer sues those who framed him fiercely. Even if he demands one hundred million in damages, netizens will see it and won't blame him!"
Gao Fei's fans were very satisfied with his refusal to bow to high prices, but they were also confused as to why Cool Shadow Media hadn't come forward to help clear his name after such a long time.
Just as netizens were preparing to explode, Cool Shadow Media immediately issued a statement, apologizing for the company employee's mistake in not clarifying the matter for Mr. Gao in a timely manner.
However, immediately after Cool Shadow Media's statement, Yuan Fei Studio also posted.
"Hello everyone, I am still Mr. Gao's acting lawyer, Zeng Keming.
After my conversation with Mr. Gao, he will be releasing new songs at the end of the year. If there are any commercial cooperation opportunities, please contact me temporarily. I will promptly relay them to Mr. Gao."
This post directly indicated that they would no longer be associated with Cool Shadow Media in the future.
Concurrently, within minutes of the post, many media and music companies had contacted Zeng Keming, expressing their interest in discussing cooperation.
And Cool Shadow Media, due to Wang Zhisheng's scheming, was completely excluded.
That night, after Cai Kun and Wang Luyao were both arrested, all of their works were taken down from the internet, and even their social media accounts were banned.
The two were completely blacklisted, and their careers were over.
Although the online battle had subsided, the real-world battle had just begun.
...
Kyoto City.
After accepting an interview with reporters from the General Military Command, Gao Fei, accompanied by Battalion Commander Huang, left the military region and went to the Kyoto Police Station.
As one of the victims of the harassing incident, he also had to provide a statement.
After giving his statement, he and Battalion Commander Huang went to the temporarily established investigation team's office.
In the office, Company Commander Wu, Yao Qiang, and others had already arrived.
Before coming to the police station, Gao Fei had learned from Battalion Commander Huang that
Today's harassing incident involved the presence of spies and was not a minor disturbance.
Based on the chat records extracted from each fan group and screenshots of inflammatory comments online,
After joint research by the police and the military, the group owners and administrators who incited fans, as well as users who posted inflammatory comments online, were suspected of being spies.
The fans who were incited to make harassing calls had now been apprehended.
However, the IP addresses of the three group owners and six administrators could not be traced to this day.
Furthermore, after technical tracking by the military and police departments,
Users who posted inflammatory comments online had repeatedly, in areas with military garrisons, hired individuals from various university websites to help them take photos of the outskirts of military regions.
Such actions directly proved that the other party was a spy.
After all, such incidents were not uncommon in reality.
Gao Fei looked at the busy people in the office and then at Yao Qiang, who was browsing comments online.
"Brother Yao, are those users still untraceable? Could they be overseas?"
"Those people are in Longguo!"
Yao Qiang looked at the computer and explained, "The two technical departments tracked them to four major cities: Kyoto, Haicheng, Shenzhen, and Lancheng.
However, as the tracking continued, the technical departments were unable to break through the other party's firewall and could only determine the general location within those four major cities."