There is a plot in the movie "Exile" where the foursome, Wu Zhenyu, Anthony Wong, Zhang Yaoyang and Lin Xue, gave up an opportunity to "obtain" a ton of gold because of the wrong choice of the head or tail of a coin. Even in the plot, these four handsome men who can bend people don't even know how much "a ton of gold" is, but they also know clearly what they have lost - probably a rare opportunity for the underworld to achieve a class jump.

Therefore, Teacher Fei Xue, who had always been famous both inside and outside the country for his "Cantonese charm" such as "Duelei Lou Mou", was forced to become a bad poet after that, constantly questioning his soul - how many dreams are there in a ton? How much is a ton of love? How much is a ton of hard work?


We can interpret this plot from many angles, but for today's article, we can choose the most popular one - when the number of money reaches a certain level, whether it is gained or lost, it will destroy the thing called "normal" in your perception.


The story we are going to tell today is about an ordinary person and his "abnormal" 35 million.

Recently, a Douyin celebrity named "Ling Dale" exposed his income during a live broadcast. He said that he, who is only 23 years old, has been selling goods for seven months and has made a total of 35 million yuan, an average of 5 million yuan per month. This year he also bought a luxury house worth 11 million yuan. The live broadcast screen recording, which lasts no more than 20 seconds, is simply a wonderful slice of the magical Internet in recent times.


The reason why this paragraph became a topic is entirely because a young man who was driving screws in a factory and washing his hair in a hair salon a few years ago received an income that destroyed his cognition, but he only relied on selling snacks on Douyin. For the vast majority of people who regard wealth and freedom as their life goal, this is an astronomical figure—even the stars they have seen since childhood may not reach this magnitude.


Even if you know that a small half or even a large half of his income has to be paid in taxes, and even if you know that more than 10 million of his 35 million are costs, this income figure is still enough to break through most people's view of money - after all, I usually feel that I can conquer the world if I have 500 yuan left in my pocket at the end of a month. I really can't imagine what a life of earning 5 million a month will look like, and I won't really plow the land with a golden hoe.

Therefore, some people were so disgusted by this that they separated from their walls, some were so curious that little yellow chickens were crawling all over their bodies, some were so hateful that they began to denounce the era of capital and traffic, and some people left an Internet-style "read" - like after a quick glance. Life and death, men and women, sensuality, dogs and horses, all are different due to the gap, but generally they all have a melancholy feeling of "after dreaming of gold and dreaming of yellow beams".


But this is actually an interesting and boring topic. However, the interesting part is actually the person "Ling Dale", which we will talk about soon; the boring part is the 35 million, which we will talk about later.

Ling Dale is an ordinary person. A few years ago, he worked in a factory as a screwdriver, sold milk tea and washed people's hair. He earned an average monthly salary of no more than 3,000 yuan, and ate fried rice with eggs of no more than 10 yuan a meal. He was young and had no hope. He was a standard discarded child of the times, just like raw materials that would be crushed by social progress.


But because of the emergence of the Internet—or, in other words, the emergence of short video platforms—he had an unusual opportunity.

In a previous article, I said that the short video platform allows all aphasic people to join hands in ushering in an upper-class transition in the right to speak. After it thrives, the lens of the Internet will be aimed at the broader public. Obviously, it will not only aim at the scrap heap of the world, but also at the feed port of social factories, and will continue to cycle along with this process.

It is on this channel that Lingdale has moved towards another production line in the Internet era - a production line that is more Internet-like and more absurd. Because of a comment saying that he looked like the idol star "Lu Han", he began to imitate a person he might not have known much about before - you know, both his life and the lives of the fans of the person he imitated may be a little far away from him.


Being a copycat star is an interesting path. Perhaps the production capacity of idols in the entertainment industry is indeed insufficient, and hungry fans need more meal replacements to achieve nutritional balance. Or perhaps in this era where everything can be eliminated through entertainment, copycat celebrities are also a way to eliminate entertainment with more extreme entertainment.

We can often see "imitation shows" becoming a fixed repertoire of variety shows, and we can see "Little Ma Yun" reach the pinnacle of alternative life with "imitation shows".


The movie "Chasing Shadows", which includes more than a dozen copycat stars such as Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Jay Chou, Andy Lau, Nicholas Tse, and Ren Xianqi, I would like to call it a world-class intangible cultural heritage

Based on this set of logic, after a psychological struggle that was neither complex nor lengthy, "Ling Dale" briefly disappeared from the Internet, and "Lu Ha" made his "grand debut."

Since this is a general logic, it is naturally not just "Luha" that can be applied to the era of short video rush. After a "Golden Wind and Jade Dew" match with "Huang Zicheng", a new copycat idol group "ESO" with the two of them as the team appeared on the earth, and brought a small earthquake to the domestic entertainment industry at that time.


"Lu Ha", "Huang Zicheng", "Yi Yang Dry Cleaning", "Lin Junjue" and "Wang Erbo", although I don't know that the "E" in the name of this group is not pronounced, but this lineup is indeed as important as the original version for the "underground idol world". For a long time, Internet clowns such as "copycat stars" mostly work alone. They can gather into groups, probably thanks to the openness of the Internet.


But what has to be admitted is that the comedy effect of "ESO" after forming a group is indeed top-notch. Not only did the main members suspend their activities less than a month after their debut because they had to take the driver's license exam, but they also had the ultimate show effect of all members coming together to return to the live broadcast in a shocking night of great joy and sorrow, and they were expelled by the urban management.


Picture source: Station B@超model野子_

In comparison, the humility and introversion and low professional level of all members of "ESO" during activities are simply irrelevant. All their abstract daily operations are just condiments for their self-awareness of Internet clowns.


"ESO" member Huang Zicheng

In the age of abstraction, whether it can be done, how well it can be done, and how much work can be done directly determines the life cycle of Internet clowns. This production line has extraordinary output with the support of a huge base and solidified classes. The number of monsters produced every year is enough to circle the earth three times.

Just in Changsha, where the "ESO" event is held, there are already strong competitors such as "TS Tiantuan" and "Bulletproof Girls". However, "ESO" still stood out in the end, relying on its ability to complement the current internal entertainment. The members of "ESO" are well aware of their own nature, but they know it more deeply than many people. This is probably due to the honesty and fearlessness of young people. They really run themselves as an idol boy band.


What's darkly humorous is that they actually managed it.

"ESO" not only has its own fan CALL group, but also has its own support club. Every time it is broadcast on the street, it can be surrounded by three floors inside and three floors outside. After the performance, you can also enjoy the enthusiastic service of fans "chasing for ten miles". Most fans know that the essence of their support behavior is to promote the monkey show, but "who said the monkey showman is not an artist"?

Adhering to the principle of "allowing some artists to get rich first", "Monkey King ESO" successfully created a storm, which caused ripples in domestic entertainment at that time. Whether it was "Huang Zicheng quit ESO" or "Cai Zekun joined ESO", they were all trending on Weibo for a while. They released a single, shot a MV, and were even invited to record a variety show. The "underground copycat group" grew stronger and stronger, piercing the surface of the earth and blooming, enjoying the "spring breeze and rain".


It's a pity that the wind on the surface was still a bit strong, and the delicate flowers were blown away. After all, their variety shows never saw the light of day, and the "artists" collapsed before they could get rich first. In August last year, this grand monkey show came to an abrupt end. As the main members changed their names and quit the group, "ESO" finally disappeared, leaving only some residual sounds of "creating a little bit of fame".


Among all the people in "ESO", Ling Dale was probably the most sober person. The unsustainable situation at that time made him the first person to leave "ESO" and change his online name from "Luha" back to "Ling Dale". The words "It's boring to be fake" when leaving, and the words "It's time to end this farce" left in the teammates' video, seem to be able to hear the true strength of young people.


At this point, the most interesting part of the whole story is over. Many readers may have discovered that there is no figure of 35 million in this story. This is indeed the case, because this story belongs to "Lu Ha", not "Ling Da Le". After leaving "ESO", Ling Dale had the opportunity to change back to his real name and start to stretch himself in a real sense.

If you simply look at the cause and effect, then this group of past events is indeed of no use to Ling Dalue. At least it will not be the source of the 35 million. What "Luha" brought to Ling Dale was more of an opportunity to move from one production line to another, a stepping stone called "traffic", but this only allowed him to avoid the fate of being immediately swept into the corner of the Internet. The two production lines had completely different requirements for raw materials, so he was destined to start over.


At first he tried to act ugly and live broadcast in a very un-idol-like way.

For us spectators, what connects these two stories is the extreme lifespan of human beings approaching 130 years old, and the nonsense that "the Internet makes everything possible."

Ling Dale, who started to turn around the track, was not used to the life of selling goods at first. Although singing, dancing and selling goods are often bundled together in live broadcasts, they are two different things after all. The audience will not be willing to buy two milk dates from you just because you can do Thomas, not to mention that Ling Dale's singing and dancing are not enough to make money from performing arts.


Looking back over the past seven months, Ling Dale has become the number one live-streamer on Douyin, and you may be a little disappointed to find that the secret of his success is full of personal efforts and the circumstances brought about by the limelight.

When faced with insults, he relented. When faced with all customers, he always called out "brothers and sisters" with a well-behaved and humble attitude. When faced with selling products, he embraced a "masochistic" attitude that was no different from Li Jiaqi trying on lipstick. He constantly switched between introducing products and stuffing food into his mouth. Among all his products, one of the best-selling series is "Milk Dates", with more than 170,000 orders sold now. However, due to his exaggerated live broadcast method, some fans jokingly claimed that he had eaten at least 100,000 packages of the 170,000 orders he sold.


It has been just over a year since he left the group "ESO" in August last year. "Ling Dale" has completely integrated into his identity as a goods anchor, and has done a very good job. He has more than 6 million Douyin fans, and the goods gang is often ranked among the top three. In recent times, it has become common for each live broadcast to have more than 100,000 views. After he revealed his income, this number once reached 200,000.


Today, there is not much trace of "Lu Ha" in him. He has become a completely self-reliant anchor who seizes the opportunities of the times and achieves success.

Moreover, to a certain extent, he actively leads to quite positive values.

Even after he became rich and powerful, he still maintained a humble and well-behaved attitude towards others, and would also take the initiative to send gifts to other anchors on Douyin who raised money for medical treatment.


In the event of natural or man-made disasters, large sums of money can be donated for disaster relief.


When he encounters a sudden large amount of reward from the audience, he will carefully advise fans not to give him gifts. He does not make a living from this.


This is where the second half of the story gets boring.

Ling Dale's 35 million is not a continuation of the grand performance of "ESO", and there is not much fun behind it to explore. He is a survivor who walked down the production line with countless casualties - many of his teammates in "ESO" also embarked on this path, but basically without exception became one of the eliminated numbers - except for the one who joined his company.

This is a very common story about God’s reward for hard work and the fate of the times. If you look for any success textbook, you can find two baskets of this kind of story, enough to cover the wall of your toilet. Even among a large number of similar stories, Ling Dalue is considered to be one who has performed quite well. At least he has the reality to ask you, "You are 23 years old and I gave you 5 million a month. Will you be able to do it?"


If there's anything really uncomfortable about this story, it's probably the issue of redistribution.


According to the "2022-2023 Live Broadcast and Short Video Industry Development Report" released by the China Performance Industry Association, as of 2022, the cumulative number of domestic live broadcast accounts has exceeded 150 million. The income of this group of anchors has shown an extreme polarization trend. Those with incomes above 100,000 account for only 0.4%, and those with incomes below 5,000 account for 95.2%.


Source: "2022-2023 Live Broadcast and Short Video Industry Development Report"

This has gone far beyond the level of "one general's success and the death of thousands of bones". It is no exaggeration to say that it is a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood.

In the exaggerated structure of winner-take-all, whether one can come out is like a lottery-like process. What's even more egregious is that it's actually difficult for you to judge how much individual effort plays into the lot-drawing process.

The reason why Ling Dale's income suddenly became public knowledge is probably because most of the people who had drawn the lot before didn't understand the problem themselves, so they simply kept silent.

And he accidentally said a little more.