Can human memory be tampered with?
'CyberpunkIn 'Cyberpunk 2077,' Arasaka Corporation took two atomic bombs while researching the Relic chip for memory modification;During the Cold War, the US launched'Midnight Climax' project recruited street women to administer drugs to subjects, and the entire programturned into Impact training.
But now it seems, the most likely to succeed is probably the Chinesea large-scale social experiment currently underway on the internet. People throughthe effect of 'collective consciousness' and the catalysis of the 'Mandela Effect' led more and more people to believe: there was a fragmentation grenade prone to leaking mines, who was once the king of the entertainment industry.
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Wang Long, hailing from Yunnan, is known as'Top Grenade Star.' His tight-fitting yet loose-exposing black vest from a 10-yuan store exuded Wei-Jin elegance, while theStickygreasy, knotted side-swept bangs, whichcosplayed as a fragmentation grenadeHis explosive and flammable look led search engines to mistake him for the human incarnation of the Bomb Devil.
ButUnlike his distinctive style, Wang Long's personal account was extremely casual, posting content comparable to the Moments of a middle-aged single man. Sometimes, it was daily life full of rustic charm'carrying bricks, mixing concrete, driving donkeys, slaughtering pigs, cooking.' Sometimes, it was just Wang's soulful gaze; he turned onlevel-10 beauty filter, shaking his chest and exposing cleavage, every gesture exuded a wild restlessness of his inner id, chilling all straight men who watched.
But data is cold; for a year600videos dropped, Wang Long didn't make even a ripple on the internet. Finally,During a split-personality live mic connectionAfter a PK battle, Wang Long's main Kuaishou account and his alt account reached a reconciliation, and 'Wang's TV' temporarily stopped updating.
However,600 videos is no small number; as long as they remain in the algorithm'sWeavingweb channels, there will always be lucky guys who hit the jackpot, causing those who might still be watching beauty streamers to have their pupils quake in shock. When aA 200-jin giant, cigarette dangling from his mouth, sweating profusely with a twitching amplitude even more grotesque than Eve's buttocks in 'Stellar Blade'—if I hadn't told you he was kneading dough for cooking, who wouldn't feel parched, sweaty, and gasp in shock?
For a moment, I recalled the recently withdrawn film 'Wuthering Heights,' which was marketed as China's first erotic film viewable in cinemas. I was skeptical at first. Because the eroticism in the film was merely metaphorical: filming panting, suffocation, fingers stirring egg whites, and bursts of blood on the bed.
However, after witnessing Wang Long's girl-picking techniques that were consistent with the movie yet struck the soul more directly, I understood. So,Erotic descriptions can indeed be played this way; Western directors just didn't get the point. Instead, what Wang Long displayed was truly the essence of 'Wuthering Heights' male leadthe kind of barbarian wildness unique to 'Heathcliff.'
I don't know why it's censored; maybe they were afraid the reviewers couldn't handle it
Naturally, Wang Long quickly gained a fanbase of appearance-focused fans. Among them, a 'Honor of Kings' streamer was the most famous; he once used one of Wang Long'schanged his 'dominant sitting pose' into a game avatar, looking for rooms to team up, hoping to use Wang's looks to pick up girls.
However, Wang Long'sthe temperament of 'serious yet slightly careless, pretentious yet somewhat carefree' is, was still too aggressive. As a result, that streamer suffered thirteen consecutive kicks. It turns out, they once said Ding Zhen had a romantic wildness untouched by worldly affairs, but when faced with a real savage, they were all eager to avoid him.
So, where exactly does Wang Long fall short compared to Ding Zhen?
Is it about looks? No, it's about fat.
Just as obesity is a symbol of poverty in the US, when I watched Wang Long's videos, I saw him taking care of his mother at night and doing farm work, carrying bricks, and mixing concrete during the day. His diet inevitably consisted of high-calorie, heavy-salt, and heavy-oil laborer food, leading to a distorted physique. He could onlyrelying on that trendy hairstyle to maintain his last bit of image management. But soon someone discovered'My bro's foundation is really good,' so some people compared Huang Zitao, one of EXO's four returnees, with Wang Long,looked surprisingly like biological brothers.
Therefore, is it possible that Wang Long is a Korean entertainment star who returned to China?
A fantasy proposed for fun, yet it explained all the doubts.
Why did EXO stop updating their domestic Weibo after 2019?Why are Huang Zitao, Lu Han, Feng Renji, and Zhang Yixing calledEXO's Four Heavenly Kings returning home,but the fifth person was never seen? Why did Wang Long, a rural guy, have a trendy Korean hairstyle, and was also good at flirting,and confident? WhyEXO'sZhang Yixing, who had a 'King' tattooed on his neck?
The answerbecame obvious,'King' refers to Wang.
Netizens proposed that Wang Long was the fifth member of the Four Heavenly Kings,EXO boy band once had a King.
Internet convention: There are five members in the Four Heavenly Kings
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It is rumored that Wang went to the countryside to teach arts after retiring from entertainment, and there was an explosiveThe VCR was dug up to corroborate this history. In the video, Wang, calling out to exchange for fine wine, gavebelow stage'Wang's Baptism.' The children watching below were the younger generation of mainland China's entertainment industry, the 'Three Little Ones.' After watching, they decided to form a group and debut, later inheriting Wang's singing skills, dancing abilities, and smoking habit respectively.
It is reported thatEXO has a widely circulated group photo, but the composition of this photo was criticized for lacking a center position, making it appear quite eerie. Therefore,Some concluded that this photo had been edited, and that central position originally belonged toEXO's original leader—Wang Long, also known as W-King.
According to AI memories, Wang was the 13th member shelved by a Korean company. He served as the main dancer and team leader within the group and was supposed to become Asia's Michael Jackson. However, dissatisfied with the discrimination against Chinese members by Koreans, he stood up for his compatriots and offended Korean chaebols. As a result, he was shelved by capital forces and had to return to Yunnan to live in seclusion, burdened with huge breach-of-contract penalties.
An even crazier version revealed that Wang's conflict with Korean entertainment oligarchs was not only due to their discrimination against Chinese people but also creative differences. Wang's untamed wildness,destined him to appreciate the tough-guy aesthetics of Jiang Wen's films more. Therefore, the boy band style he pursued must reference Eddie Peng's film image: shirtless and open, revealing'Piggy Cat.'
But regardless of the version, the storyline of Wang being shelved by Korean entertainment has been set. Just like the incident that once shook the entire ChineseThe event that shook theA-SOULincident, the trigger's'JialeCarol' once had the most money-making popularity in the whole group, but now few remember who she is—an highly influential idol suddenly disappearing from public memory, theoreticallythere is such a possibility.
Thus, following this script structure, national producers began deconstructingidol industry. Relying onWith the support of AI technology, materials including variety show appearances, entertainment headlines, and graduation press conferences were 'dug up,' and the unofficial secrets of that spacetime, detailsgradually became clear.
As a result, Wang's cheap black vest later became a bestseller on Pinduoduo, Douyin,Verified accounts labeled as musicians began appearing on NetEase Cloud Music, whereposted suspected solo albums that were shelved, as if such a King really existed.
Later, a batch of comic-style short films emerged online, some romantic, some about rising from adversity. My favorite one first depicted a female executive wavering between promotion and staying true to herself. Then, she accidentally encountered the former Wang at a pig slaughter stall. At that moment, his weathered and bloated image left her in disbelief. As her former idol, Wang neither confirmed nor denied his past identity but gently hinted that fans should follow their hearts, ultimately touching the executive and preventing her from going astray.
As the Korean drama tune played, she remembered why she saved even her lunch money to buy tickets to see Wang's live performance during her school daysLive, because looks decay over time, but a person's charisma remains unchanged. In her memories, she was preciselyInspired by him, she fought her way out in Korea's brutal exam-oriented education system.And this,Isn't this the very meaning of an idol's existence? To help fans who like them become better versions of themselves.
As the creative relay reached its climax, more and more bloggers came forward'Recalling the Past': She said she once attempted suicide due to depression, but Wang gave her the courage to live on; she said she was once cynical and disappointed with the world, but Wang lit the lamp on her path forward, telling her that external material desires cannot change a person's true nature.
And once someone raised doubts in the comments section, they would receivethe response of 'capital is making moves' instantly became a boomerang of shadow-banning and comment control in the entertainment industry, hitting the heads of those skeptics. The setting in the story that Wang was shelved by capital became an unfalsifiable conspiracy theory armor, deflecting all serious doubts.
As a result, a timeline that never existed began to be etched into public memory.More and more passersby began to doubt, experience memory confusion, and even believe that there really was an idol named Wang, who was onceEXO's leader, who was shelved for confronting Korean chaebols.
Shortly after, aThe debunking statement from 'EXO-M Official Weibo', spread online, making some core fans clap and cheer, justEven Weibo's built-inAI robotRobert, also with a sentencethe comment that "rewriting memory is more despicable than rewriting DNA," accusing AI content of creating evil deeds.
But ironically, as mentioned earlier,EXO's domestic Weibo account had already ceased operations in 2019, and this debunking statement was actually AI-generated—fans used rumor-spreading tactics to debunk rumors, making it even harder to distinguish whether there ever wasthis wayaKing?
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Interestingly, not all K-pop fans had a stress reaction to this star-making frenzy. Some accepted Wang's image calmly, not viewing it as a smear against boy bands, but rather treating his stories as a form of praise forEXO members.
Psychologically speaking, I think on one hand, people indeed participate in and create Wang's stories for fun, including satire and malice towards the entertainment industry assembly line. But on the other hand, creators inevitably inject their personal biases into the process, projecting a certain collective consciousness onto Wang, turning him into the perfect idol in the public's mind.
Truth is indeed important, but there is also a view that:Fans chase idols to watch them achieve their dreams. So, compared to the reality of "dead Wu provides evidence," but rather Wang's backbone in not bowing to the powerful in the story makes him more qualified to be the "cyber avatar" fans aspire to.
He is talented yet willing to stand up against unfair treatment from big companies on his own behalf,Sociology suggests that idols are an ideal self-projection for fans; thus, people insist on Wang's existence because he allows them to see their ideal selves.
I can't remember if it was "LEGAL HIGH"> or some other Japanese drama, where a cleaning lady complains that the idol industry is shameless, with pretty young girls promising to work twice as hard and lying about bringing dreams to poor, ugly otaku. The lady finds it baffling, seeing no logical connection between fans and idols from two different worlds, unless an ugly old hag like her could also become a star—that would be the gentle healing of an idol, proving that all dreams are possible.
The cynical screenwriter probably didn't expect that the middle-aged woman's fantasy would actuallyrealized in 2026. A chubby and greasy village guy truly, empowered by AI from nationwide producers,becoming a top-tier celebrity frequently trending on social media.
But if you've seen Wang Long's account, you'll find that his popularity isn't entirely coincidental.
After the initial wave of ugliness-worship and abstract absurdity faded, I found myself easily influenced by his attitude towards life. Because he shows care and patience towards elders, diligence and energy in construction work, and his skillful cooking of hearty dishes showcases his culinary talent, making his four characteristic smiles appear charmingly rogue, bright and free-spirited, highlighting a sense of"serious yet slightly casual, pretentious yet somewhat carefree".
If this isn't enough to qualify him as an idol, then another old photo dug up corroboratesthe eye of the "nationwide producers." In the photo, Wang's youthful good looks seem to have walked out of a mangaSosuke Aizen or Ku·Churin, but just like someA former EXO member who had already entered [prison/institution] suffered a decline in looks due to diet,Catalyzed by a laborer's diet, the handsome guy gaining100 jin (50 kg) is quite reasonable.
Following the logic of the old internet, Wang Long, this unpolished gem marinated in gutter oil, would probably bepicked up by an MCN agency, deeply processed by professional marketers, and then becoming another star in the live-streaming sales field. Next, his mother could get a betterlife, and he will entertain the public with another performance of building up and then tearing down a god, only to be replaced by more lively influencers and forgotten in a corner.
However, before all this happened, he was just holding back tears, sporting a grenade hairstyle, in a livestream room with only a few hundred viewers,advising viewers not to be deceived and to follow stars cautiously:"YouThe Wang of the past is dead. The Wang of the past is dead."
