It was the wee hours of the morning in Hua Country.
Logically speaking, late at night, there should not be many netizens online, and the hot search rankings on Weibo should be relatively stable.
But you can't account for Cheng Daqi hiring an army of paid posters, a move so cunning that only those in the know would understand.
Where shadowy troops tread, hot search rankings soar aggressively.
Hiring a mercenary army is a gray area; in Hua Country, being a paid poster is illegal, but hiring one is not.
This is determined by market conditions and demands, as there is an exceptionally nuanced category within the paid poster services: the public sector business, where many governmental departments also wish to engage in hot searches and trends.
Weibo, as a mature commercial platform, is well aware of the existence of these mercenary armies, but for commercial reasons, it takes what seems to be an aggressive stance against them, which in reality is somewhat passive.
