Starting from a Fake University-Chapter 1575 - 831: Crackdown on the Dark Side? Netizens’ Eyes Are Sharp!_2

Chapter 1575: Chapter 831: Crackdown on the Dark Side? Netizens’ Eyes Are Sharp!_2

This kind of thing, Q Entertainment Media Group has done it more than once before, they’re practically experts at it—this is their bread and butter.

Sure enough.

Starting the afternoon after The Legend of Fairy Sword premiered, negative reviews about the show began gradually appearing online. Not only that, the rating on Douban, which had initially surpassed 200,000 votes and reached an impressive high of 9.1, suddenly got 150,000 more votes in just one afternoon, but the score began to drop.

Among these 150,000 new Douban reviews, some were five-star ratings, a small portion gave four stars—after all, not every viewer thinks The Legend of Fairy Sword is a flawless masterpiece. Douban users are generally pretty grounded—even for a legendary drama or a god-tier movie, it’s impossible for it to get exclusively five-star ratings.

But that afternoon, the influx of one-star and two-star ratings suddenly shot up. In fact, calling it "shot up" doesn’t do it justice. What happened was an outright explosion.

Before this, there might have been just a tiny fraction of one-star or two-star reviews on Douban—possibly because The Legend of Fairy Sword didn’t align with their particular tastes or they felt cheated after paying to watch it. Such users feeling dissatisfied and leaving a one- or two-star review is understandable. After all, this is an extremely small minority, and their low ratings didn’t really affect the show’s overall reputation.

But this time.

The one-star and two-star ratings on Douban skyrocketed directly from a mere few hundred to tens of thousands, even into the tens of thousands.

Soon, some sharp-eyed netizens and viewers started to catch on.

"Why are so many people suddenly giving one-star ratings?"

"Malicious low ratings?"

"Who’s behind this malicious tanking campaign?"

"Damn, why is the score dropping?"

"It’s gone down from 9.1 to 8.9 now—what’s going on?"

"Could it be that the plot is falling apart later in the drama?"

"I’ve been watching all along and finished all 34 episodes of The Legend of Fairy Sword already! No spoilers, but this drama is truly excellent!"

"I suspect someone is tanking the scores on purpose to smear The Legend of Fairy Sword."

"Guys, we can’t let such a great domestic Xianxia drama get ruined by some bad actors!"

"I think this show is likely to become a classic! Even a 9.3 wouldn’t be excessive—how has it dropped from 9.1 to 8.9? That’s just unreasonable!"

Netizens were well aware that it was rare for such a quality domestic drama to emerge. If this masterpiece were to be sabotaged by competitors, what hope would the domestic entertainment industry have in the future?

If things kept going this way, who would dare to produce high-quality TV shows anymore? Everyone might as well just churn out trash for easy cash, and the audience would have nothing of substance left to watch.

So, the netizens took matters into their own hands, rallying together to boost The Legend of Fairy Sword’s momentum.

Meanwhile, back at Mist City Arts and Science University.

Ding Yue was still basking in the excitement of The Legend of Fairy Sword’s overwhelmingly successful launch. He was already beginning to plan a celebration party for the cast and production team of The Legend of Fairy Sword.

After all, whether it was Mist City Arts and Science University or any other project under Feiyue Group, whenever a major success occurred, Ding Yue would typically organize a celebratory banquet.

It was also an opportunity to hand out bonuses to the cast and production crew of The Legend of Fairy Sword.

Ding Yue had learned that this drama only had a production cost of a few tens of million yuan. But now, with its current success, The Legend of Fairy Sword had already sold over 300 million yuan, approaching 400 million. As its positive word-of-mouth continued spreading, future sales were bound to grow even further—not to mention the additional revenue generated by the show’s surrounding merchandise and the immense buzz it created.

All in all, The Legend of Fairy Sword was bound to make a few hundred million yuan in net profits. This kind of success was owed to the tireless work of the cast and production crew, so naturally, they deserved a reward.

However, just as Ding Yue was mentally planning this celebratory banquet, his secretary Wen Ruohan suddenly came to him with unexpected news.

"Principal Ding, The Legend of Fairy Sword’s score has dropped! It’s now down to 8.8!"

"What?"

Ding Yue froze upon hearing this.

How was this possible?

The score had been steadily climbing—it had even reached 9.1. How could it suddenly drop, and so drastically, from 9.1 to 8.8? That’s a drop of 0.3 points—this couldn’t be normal.

The first thought that crossed Ding Yue’s mind was whether the later episodes of The Legend of Fairy Sword weren’t up to par, leading to a decline in its reputation. Since if he did the math, viewers who kept up with the show would have reached the final episodes of The Legend of Fairy Sword by now.

But Ding Yue was watching the show, too—he hadn’t noticed anything off from beginning to end. Although the ending had a bit of that "bittersweet" tone, it wasn’t sudden or misplaced. Instead, it elevated the love story between Li Xiaoyao and Zhao Ling’er to a whole new height.

This kind of storyline couldn’t possibly cause The Legend of Fairy Sword’s Douban score to plummet so heavily—from 9.1 to 8.8. Something else must be at play here.

Could someone be deliberately trying to stir things up?

Ding Yue immediately turned to his secretary Wen Ruohan and asked, "What’s really going on here?"

After asking, Ding Yue had Big White open the Douban app. He was determined to see for himself what was causing this sudden drop in The Legend of Fairy Sword’s score.

Looking at the Douban app, aside from the numerous five-star ratings, one-star ratings had suddenly become conspicuously abundant.

"Big White, check what’s going on with those one-star ratings."

Ding Yue was too furious to scroll through the app manually. He directly projected the page and had Big White operate the Douban app.

Having access to an AI assistant like this really was a game-changer.

"Principal, over 80% of these one-star ratings only contain comments like ’not good.’" Big White analyzed the data from the one-star comments and reported the findings to its owner.

"That’s absurd! There’s no way so many people would leave such simple comments. Even if you think it’s ’not good,’ you should at least provide a reasonable explanation," Ding Yue retorted, shaking his head before his gaze hardened. "Something fishy is definitely going on—could someone be targeting The Legend of Fairy Sword?"

"Principal Ding, that’s not entirely impossible," Wen Ruohan nodded in agreement.

"Then who could it be?"

Ding Yue pondered the question. In truth, he already had a list of suspects in mind.

Within the country, who held a grudge against Feiyue Media?

Whose interests were threatened by the explosive success of The Legend of Fairy Sword?

And, who might’ve been offended recently by The Legend of Fairy Sword?

Once these questions were considered together, the answer was almost obvious. Ding Yue felt like he might as well rename himself Sherlock Holmes.

But suspicion alone wasn’t enough; evidence was needed. Only once they had evidence could they retaliate against this malicious attempt to tarnish The Legend of Fairy Sword and tank its ratings.

"Xiao Wen, contact Miss An and the team. Have them reach out to Douban—it’s clear that something’s off with these reviews. Ask Douban to investigate this." Ding Yue instructed his secretary Wen Ruohan.

"Got it, Principal Ding!"

Wen Ruohan, seeing that Principal Ding had a plan, responded with enthusiasm.

Wen Ruohan was also a fan of The Legend of Fairy Sword. As an audience member herself, she didn’t want such an excellent Xianxia drama to be ruined by malicious low ratings.

The truth had to be uncovered—she had to find out who was acting like a rat in the shadows!