In the evening, Lin Yao was the only one left in Lingyun Industry again, and she was busy organizing the day's work.
Lin Yao had developed a habit during her time at Tianfeng Company. She would record all the main points of her daily work, and make it into an EXCEL document. On the one hand, she could check for potential errors, and on the other hand, it was also a convenient way for her to follow her work progress.
Because of this, she was able to complete most of her work in half an hour while making almost no mistakes.
While Lin Yao was in the middle of updating the excel sheet, Jiang Mingshu made an anxious call and asked, "Have you been on the Hang City Forum today?"
Lin Yao had logged onto the forum early in the morning and replied to some posts, but she didn't constantly pay attention to every single activity on the Hang City Forum, like Jiang Mingshu did, so she asked nonchalantly, "What happened?"
"Today Xiaoyu's group went to the singles forum to irrigate, then many people followed suit, and the entire singles forum became a mess. Many people got their IDs blocked by Little Guliang." Jiang Mingshu rambled on dramatically, "My Goodness! How can you not know that such a huge thing has happened?"
"Really?" Lin Yao really didn't think that it was that big of a deal. As she looked over the excel sheet she had just uploaded, she said, "Then I'll check it out later." She just planned on taking a look.
After all, it was only a few days until the Hang Citynight Masquerade, and she didn't want to be out of touch with what was happening on the forum.
Jiang Mingshu urged her impatiently, "Then hurry up."
Lin Yao knew what she meant. If she was too late, she'd miss the show.
When Lin Yao logged onto the Hang City Forum, she discovered that the singles forum no longer had the mass of irrigation posts that Jiang Mingshu mentioned. However, many netizens had made posts condemning those netizens that irrigated, or were showing their official support and praise for Little Guliang blocking their IDs. Support...Nonetheless, she was one step too late and missed the show.
Of course, Lin Yao wouldn't condemn the netizens who posted unscrupulously, nor would she try to kiss up to Little Guliang like the others. She was more concerned about the smurfing accounts she used in her trials... Will they be blocked as well?
Lin Yao tried to log on to one of the accounts, and fortunately, her account was fine.
Several seconds later, the singles forum section was fired up again.
***
Hot Pot Is Too Hot: Hey hey ((٩(//̀Д/ ́/)۶)) Is it just me seeing things or is there actually an ID with the status of "World Peace". When did the Hang City Forum have this sort of status title?
Fate's Smurf: ("▔□▔) Good lord, this ID has only been registered for just over a month, but already has 88W+ points, and is almost catching up with the moderator. An irrigator, he's definitely an irrigator! Why hasn't this maniac had his ID blocked yet?
Long Time No See Vest: World peace... The status title is quite deep, could it be the moderator's other account?
Long Time No See Vest: I heard that the moderator can change the number of points directly from the settings.
Age Like Songs: Stop trying to divert attention, irrigators!
Age Like Songs: We should continue to discuss the issue of irrigation posts. I think this kind of behavior should warrant getting their IDs blocked every time they do it.
Lifelong Love For Her: The forum belongs to all of us, so you can't just do whatever you want.
Hot Pot Is Too Hot: (￢_￢) Damnit, what did I do to deserve all of you coming down on me like this?
Hot Pot Is Too Hot: Besides, what sort of place is Hang City Forum?
Hot Pot Is Too Hot: Is it really necessary to have so many rules?
Hot Pot Is Too Hot: (/ﾟДﾟ)/In short, I'm dissatisfied to the hundredth, thousandth, and millionth degree!
Fate's Smurf: (,,•́.•̀,,) The thing is that we aren't trying to cause trouble, and the ones trying to cause trouble don't even belong to the singles forum. I'm just ticked off because why didn't those troublemakers get their IDs blocked, and onlookers like us got our IDs blocks instead?
Hot Pot Is Too Hot: Comrade, you're right on point!
Little Guliang: How come you're so self-righteous after irrigating?
Hot Pot Is Too Hot: Scared the crap out of me, I gotta go ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(;￣◇￣)┘
Long Time No See Vest: I've gotta run as well.
Little Guliang: This time it's just a warning, you guys can wait for the ID to recover automatically after 24 hours.
Hot Pot Is Too Hot: Wah ah ah ≥▽≤ my fragile heart has been greatly traumatized, please comfort me ~ I request a hug ~
Lifelong Love For Her: Sorry, only my wife can hug me!
Fate's Smurf: (︶︹︺) please move aside, you're getting in the way of our emotional exchange with the leader.
Hot Pot Is Too Hot: (•ิ_•ิ) Little Guliang also belongs to all of us!
***
When Lin Yao saw those posts, she remembered that every time she logged on to the singles forum with her smurfing account, her account ID would appear on the visitor list above, and it would only disappear after a few minutes.
That amount of time was enough to attract the suspicion of people such as Hot Pot Is Too Hot. They'd even checked the data of her smurfing account, and at the moment they were probably itching to find out the real identity of the person behind the account.
Lin Yao felt slightly ashamed at how careless she had been. She shouldn't have logged on to the singles forum with her smurfing account.
Lin Yao decided to use these smurfing accounts as little as possible, or not at all, in the future.
Out of fear that some netizens would locate her by IP address, Lin Yao didn't log on to Hang City Forum again.
By 7:30 pm, Lin Yao had not only finished all her work but also over-achieved the daily self-study tasks she set for herself.
After Lin Yao finished packing her belongings and was ready to go home, Jiang Mingshu called again.
"Uh~ are you still in the office?"
Lin Yao confirmed with a murmur and asked, "What's wrong?"
Jiang Mingshu snorted with displeasure. "Then why didn't you log on to the forum. I sent you so many private messages and you ignored them."
Hang City Forum...
"I did log on." Lin Yao paused. "I logged off after I realized that the show was over. Did something happen after that?"
"With Little Guliang there, what could happen on the singles forum?" Jiang Mingshu grumbled with dissatisfaction, "I actually had something to tell you, but you just ignored me~! Wasted my time~, hurt my feelings ~and wasted my emojis~"
"What did you want to tell me?" Lin Yao said uneasily. "I'm going home now, and my computer's turned off."
Jiang Mingshu was a straightforward person, so she couldn't hold in the spoiler for long. "The thing is~, I got...ahem, I prepared your costumes and props for the masquerade for you. Hurry up and come over to see whether or not they fit you~"
"Really?" Lin Yao was caught off guard a little. "Didn't I already tell you that I don't need them anymore. I went to Huanbei Market last week…"
"Oh Please, do you think you're attending some sort of school dance?" Jiang Mingshu suddenly raised her voice. "We're going to the Hang Citynight masquerade. How can you wear clothes and props you bought at Huanbei Market?"
Lin Yao wanted to say that she also bought a mask and a wig, which were very formal for her.
Jiang Mingshu continued to brainwash her. "You have to know that we haven't been students for a long time, so don't dress like a schoolgirl. You should see how different I am from you."
They were indeed different, but she didn't have any compliments for Jiang Mingshu's fashion taste.
Lin Yao opened her mouth but decided not to hurt her feelings since Jiang Mingshu had good intentions nonetheless.
"That's fine, how much did you spend, I'll reimburse you." If it didn't work out, she could always just use the costumes she bought from Huanbei Market.
"Look at what you're saying, how can good friends talk about money?" Jiang Mingshu's tone was saucy and insolent. "You just get over here quick and try on the clothes!"
Lin Yao was amused, and tried to mimic Jiang Mingshu's tone by saying, "My dear friend, you sound very~saucy~huh~."
"Well~of~course~I~do!" Jiang Mingshu laughed then said in a mock scolding tone, "Stop speaking nonsense, and get over here quickly!"
Lin Yao followed Miss Jiang's instructions and rushed to Yanzhili neighborhood where, together, they tried on the prop costume that was, allegedly, one of the discarded clothing samples from Orlando's dressing room.
It was very late by the time she returned to Chaoyang neighborhood after trying on her clothes, so naturally, she didn't pay any more attention to what had happened on the Hang City forum.
The next morning, she discovered that Hang City Forum had apparently disappeared!
Only after asking around did Lin Yao realize that the chaos on Hang City Forum didn't end when Little Guliang started blocking IDs en mass. It was just the beginning of the storm.
Yesterday evening, after several moderators of the Hang City Forum went offline, the netizens in the Events section and Love Life section began to go rogue, and they started irrigating and posting like crazy.
As a result of this incident, first, the server for the Hang City Forum froze, and then the website crashed.
After 24 hours, the Hang City Forum reopened, and from then on a new restriction was put in place: the same ID or the same IP address could only send one post every three minutes.
After this rule, even the usual speed posting and replying would be greatly affected, let alone irrigating.
From this day forward, the speed at which all the IDs in the forum upgraded was considerably hampered.
It was no big deal for Lin Yao since her ID, Peaches Aren't Naughty, already had a high score anyway, but for many other netizens, this new rule was unbearable.
This night was later quipped as the the "Last Carnival Night" by the netizens of Hang City Forum.