Sprout

As a website that specialized in movie and television review, Sprout had quite a long history. Apart from its original function, which was to review movies and TV works, the website developed the rating system in 2004.

It was the first domestic website that had incorporated a rating system from its users. After 10 years, Sprout's ratings had gained recognition of the industry.

The website had left the impression on most people as a reliable rating website.

Because of that impression, more and more movie and television viewers had started to choose what they wanted to watch based on the ratings on Sprout.

Pan Qiliang was one of them.

As a customer service specialist for a high-end robot manufacturer, Pan Qiliang had a rather tedious job description.

The so-called "specialist" was no more than a customer service clerk who picked up phone calls and answered emails.

Unlike customer service of other companies, as a manufacturer specialized in high-end industrial robots, Pan Qiliang's company had a customer base that mainly consisted of major tycoon manufacturers.

When such companies wanted to make a purchase, a petty customer service guy like Pan Qiliang wouldn't be important enough to handle the deal. Instead, his colleagues of the marketing department would take care of it.

Then, there came the question. Exactly what kind of customers would Pan Qiliang serve?

Idiotic customers who had found the company through internet, of course!

Every single day, a lot of phone calls would be made to the company from individual users.

Most of the time, they were just some idle people over the internet who had no intention of purchasing anything, who only wanted to ask around…

"The robots of your company look so smart. Can they finish my homework for me?"

"I'm sorry, but they can't!"

"Why don't I see your official online store on Taobao? You don't even give out vouchers. How are you going to sell anything?"

Pan Qiliang didn't know what to say.

That was his daily job.

The company probably knew that these people wouldn't buy their high-end industrial robots that were sold at a minimum price of 550,000, but they couldn't just ignore all the inquiries, which was why Pan Qiliang's post was created.

Luckily, only so many people had nothing better to do and so far, he hadn't received more than 8 prank calls per day.

Most of the time, Pan Qiliang spent his working hours watching TV series on his computer to pass the time.

Wouldn't his wages get deducted for slacking off during working hours?

That would never happen!

Organizational wise, Pan Qiliang belonged to the marketing department. As the name suggested, almost everyone from this department was out there, going about soliciting business deals. The clerical workers were the only ones left behind in the office.

And they were watching TV series as well, so his secret was safe with them.

His first thought was to open Sprout.

Normally, once he opened the front page of Sprout, he would click "new releases", then "sort by ratings from the highest to the lowest". Most of the time, he would be able to find something he liked.

But today, all he saw were costume dramas.

Pan Qiliang was disappointed. It wasn't that he had anything against costume dramas — he enjoyed annual hit historical TV series like the Qin Empire — but all those shows about how women competed for the emperor's favor in his harem really weren't his cup of tea.

It had nothing to do with the historical time the series was set in; he just couldn't stand those women.

What was wrong with modern life? Why would someone want to transmigrate to the feudal time and compete with the official wife as a concubine until she became the wife herself? He just couldn't understand it!

Scrolling down the page, Pan Qiliang decided to look past the first few series that had high ratings but not to his liking. He wanted to see if he could find some good modern dramas with slightly lower ratings.

Well…

His right hand froze when he was still scrolling down. Pan Qiliang stared at Blazing Teens, whose rating had reached 8.6, and couldn't remember what he was doing a moment ago.

What had happened?

He saw the rating of this show yesterday and it had only risen from 4.1 to 4.5!

Even the positive media coverage and the popularity couldn't explain the sudden rise in the rating.

Pan Qiliang had heard about this show because of his son.

His son, Pan Da, was a fifth grade student of a public primary school in Zhonghai.

Starting a while back, his son became infatuated with this toy called "yo-yo", which he wouldn't part with. After asking his son, Pan Qiliang was told that it was the toy from Blazing Teens.

That was how he knew about the show.

At first, he thought about watching it, so that he could find out what was so amazing about this show that had smittened his son. However, he gave up on that idea when he learned that it was only rated 4.1 on Sprout.

What a rubbish show!

Most of the time, anything rated below 5 on Sprout could be considered rubbish.

The users had come to that conclusion after many viewers learned it the hard way.

Pan Qiliang had no plan of watching the show after seeing the 4.1 rating. Naturally, the sudden rise in the rate intrigued him.

Bewildered, he clicked open the comment section of Blazing Teens on Sprout.

He then saw that almost all the newest posts had given the show 10 points.

"Full marks for Li Fay! [10]!"

"It's Lee Fei, not Li Fay! You've spelled it wrong. [10]"

"It's Li Fei! Don't you guys read the subtitles? [10]"

"I love it! But the yo-yos are so expensive~ [10]"

"I'm the king of yo-yo of No. 1 Zhonghai Primary School. Challenge me, I dare you! [10]"

"Tch! Wang Jiaming, shut up already! You don't even know how to do 'fire and wind spin'! [10]"

What…

Pan Qiliang was baffled. Why did these comments sound so weird?

He was rendered speechless when he clicked open the information page of a user who had just given the show 10 points.

ID: *tears de youth √

Age: 108

Address: Mars

Signature: Yo-yo is more than a sport, it's a lifestyle!

I give up, thought Pan Qiliang.

He wasn't the only one who had figured out who these users were.

After the unexpected rise in Blazing Teens' ratings, more than one person had noticed the sudden increase in the rating users.

Only over a million people had rated the show at first, but in a matter of days, that number had increased to over 3 million.

As a result, the average rating rose to 8.6 almost overnight!

The users of Sprout realized in astonishment that a website that they deemed as "niche" and "professional" actually had a lot of adolescent users.

One of those accounts had been registered for over 5 years!

As astonished as they were, the "professional" users also felt as if their "shrine" had been violated.

This was supposed to be an objective and professional rating website. These kids had no place here.

Many took actions spontaneously, giving Blazing Teens 1 point, even if they had never watched the show.

And they had their own manifestations.

"Make Sprout clean again! [1]"

"We refuse to be infantilized! Primary school students aren't qualified to rate a show! [1]"

"Here's my 1 point. Go back to primary school. [1]"

"What a crappy show. I couldn't even make it to the second episode. [1]"

They even wondered why 1 was the lowest rating, but not 0.

They took it very hard.