Chapter 222: How Could He Bite the Hand That Feeds Him!
The next morning.
Pei Qian slept until he woke up naturally. When he checked the clock after getting out of bed, it was already past 10 a.m.
After washing up, he casually threw together some brunch. While eating, he scrolled on his phone to see if there were any new anime releases.
But that casual scroll nearly knocked him off his chair.
The "Hardcore Review" account had exploded with notifications!
Pei Qian blinked in confusion. On closer look—his latest video had climbed onto the trending list in the digital section! Views, bullet comments, and replies were leagues beyond what he saw yesterday.
"What the heck? Wasn't it a ghost town last night?"
"What happened?"
He was baffled.
His first thought: Oh no, the video went viral again, that's bad news!
But then he realized—wait. This wasn't made with system funds. This was paid out of his own pocket!
All the incentive money earned belonged to him alone. That was good news—nothing to worry about!
The more viral it got, the more he earned.
Pei Qian instantly cheered up and tapped open the comments section.
"Do you get paid to trash Shenhua phones?"
"Same shtick as Little Fox Reviews, a foreign shill."
"Sigh~ This just proves domestic phone quality is still lacking. Look at that back cover—shatters at a touch."
"The internal layout's a mess too. Cost-cutting small workshop, confirmed."
"How can you blame the phone's quality? Go watch the UP's previous video—Pineapple phones cracked even faster!"
"Heads up, folks—don't get misled. This UP isn't targeting Shenhua. They already did a Pineapple phone episode before this."
"Feels like this is being spun on purpose. I mean, the UP didn't even criticize the Shenhua phone—it's just their usual hardcore routine."
Pei Qian scrolled through several threads, dazed.
'What the hell? How did this turn into a battlefield?'
Sure enough, the video's popularity wasn't from organic growth—it was fueled by endless bickering.
Some bashed Shenhua phones, others pushed back, some went full sarcastic mode. In short, the comments section was absolute chaos.
Pei Qian had no real preference between brands, nor did he care about fan wars. But after digging a little, he traced the source of all this drama.
The earliest repost had come from a big UP host called "Little Fox Reviews." Their single, misleading caption was enough to make people misunderstand the whole video. Plenty of viewers piled in without even watching, flaming away and dragging him into the crossfire.
Pei Qian clicked into this UP's profile and skimmed it.
It looked like a normal review show on the surface, but the faint smell of "sponsorship money" was everywhere.
"Hah, this one knows how to stir the pot. A real talent."
"Fine, let's jot this name down in the little notebook."
"Maybe I'll have use for him later."
Pei Qian mentally bookmarked the media outlet. Professional hatchet men like that, willing to do dirty jobs for cash, could come in handy.
He didn't worry too much though. Bad buzz was still buzz!
Let people flame each other. He didn't care about the comment section anyway. As long as he kept pumping out videos, the channel's heat would climb.
Even if no one tipped or donated coins, ad payouts from views alone would add up. Not much, but still decent pocket money.
And since this episode's entire budget came courtesy of President Lin, Pei Qian was in the green regardless.
"Perfect! While everyone's all fired up, let's drop the MSC episode too."
"Three flagships in a row—heat's guaranteed to explode!"
. . .
Meanwhile…
On the other side, Hu Xiao was busy orchestrating his fans and "enthusiastic netizens" to keep the flame war alive.
After all, he couldn't personally wade in—too damaging to his public image.
But of course, Hu Xiao still had to throw in a bit of passive-aggressive snark.
"Don't know why people in the comments are getting so worked up."
"I only reposted the video for fun—why are so many taking it so seriously? Do they have persecution complexes?"
"Honestly, I just thought the video was interesting. Even with such brute-force testing, you can see things like structural strength, quality of components, and internal design."
"It's not that Shenhua phones are bad, but compared to foreign giants like MSC, there's still room for improvement."
"Take the back cover, for example. I wouldn't say it's cutting corners, but it clearly lacks durability. A couple knocks and it cracks. If this were an MSC phone, that kind of issue would be almost impossible."
"And if you look at the internal layout and material choices, the gap is obvious. Shenhua is cheaper than the overseas flagships for a reason—"
After venting, Hu Xiao felt completely refreshed.
Ahh~ being sarcastic really was satisfying.
He posted the status, strolled around his living room, snacked on some fruit, and leisurely waited for the responses to roll in.
Half an hour later, he returned to his desk, opened the comments—
—and immediately frowned. Something felt off.
"LOL, the timing couldn't be better!"
"Posted that status only to get slapped in the face seconds later?"
"MSC's flagship is even worse than Shenhua's. It broke on first impact!"
"This is hilarious. You were hyping up MSC, but turns out this UP treats everyone equally—three phones, three episodes. Bet you didn't see that coming!"
Hu Xiao was stunned.
Wait, what?
He quickly clicked into Hardcore Review's uploads. Sure enough—just two or three minutes after he'd posted his sarcastic jab, the guy had dropped a brand-new video:
"Hardcore Review, Episode 3: MSC-B90".
The format was exactly the same—waterproof performance, drop resistance, strike resistance, disassembly—
And to Hu Xiao's disbelief, the MSC-B90 actually performed worse than Shenhua's!
The water test was the first stumble. Same as before, the phone went into water while powered on. At first, it seemed fine—but when the UP tested it further, the sound output was muffled, and the touchscreen lagged. Clearly, there was water damage!
The UP didn't dwell on it, but the barrage of comments sure did.
Then came the drop test and the hammer-to-back-cover test—MSC fared worse than Shenhua!
And when cracked open, the internals were… messy. Some would say "complex and intricate," others would call it "poorly arranged." Either way, it didn't look impressive.
The fatal blow, though, was the back cover.
Shenhua's took three or four solid hammer strikes before showing cracks. MSC's? One hit, and a gap appeared. Two hits, and it popped right open!
Back cover hardness depended on materials, sure, but in practical terms—stronger meant better protection.
And Hu Xiao… had just mocked Shenhua's back cover for being fragile compared to MSC's.
The instant slap in the face left him dizzy.
As a reviewer, he knew neither phone had been on the market long. Professional labs wouldn't dream of testing like this. Even teardown reviews used heat guns and precise tools, not violent hammer swings.
So when he casually dissed Shenhua's durability, how was he supposed to predict some crazy UP would immediately upload the perfect counterexample?
And it wasn't even aimed at him!
The timing was just a cosmic coincidence.
Two minutes after he'd mocked Shenhua, the Hardcore channel dropped MSC's failfest.
Hu Xiao nearly spat blood.
"This damn Hardcore Reviewer—how could he bite the hand that feeds him?!"
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