On a suburban mountaintop in Z City, the provincial capital of H Province, a detached villa was brightly lit.
In the study on the second floor, smoke billowed.
Du Zhi leaned back in his executive chair, his feet resting on the desk. He held a cigar in one hand, took a puff, closed his eyes to savor it, and then exhaled a long smoke ring.
Du Liu, seated opposite him at the desk, was filled with trepidation. His elder brother had summoned him from downstairs. Upon arrival, his brother had said nothing but had thrown a file onto the desk and told him to look at it.
"Big Brother... Beijing isn't under my jurisdiction..."
"Crash!"
The entire folder was swept off the desk by Du Zhi with a slap, hitting the floor-to-ceiling window of the study. Then, with a "crack," it slid to the floor.
Du Zhi suddenly sat up straight in his executive chair, pointing his cigar-holding finger at Du Liu and questioning, "Du Liu, I told you to collect your dividends in peace. You're certainly at peace now, aren't you? So at peace that you don't even know the old man from the Meili brand is shipping his goods to Beijing? Or do you know and you think it's none of your business?"
"No! Big Brother, I really don't!"
Du Zhi snorted coldly, leaned back into his executive chair, and exhaled a smoke ring, saying, "To prevent you from thinking I'm suppressing you, I'll give you another chance. Get these Meili and Meimei brands out of the Beijing market. Can you do it?"
Du Liu quickly straightened his back and nodded repeatedly.
"After the New Year, I'll have people report to the supermarkets!"
Hearing this, Du Zhi couldn't help but roll his eyes.
"After the New Year, after the New Year. By then, they'll have established a foothold!"
"Yes! I... I'll have people do it today!" Du Liu said, then quickly forced a smile and praised, "By the way, I heard that nephew is going to have his college entrance exams next year. According to Big Sister-in-law, he came in first in the entire school on the final exams. Big Brother is indeed Big Brother; even his children are so smart!"
Du Zhi looked at his younger brother, who was already of a certain age, yet still so awkward at flattery. He couldn't help but sigh and waved his hand.
"You may go. After you go out, tell Du Ze to come up."
"Alright, then Big Brother, I'll be going down?"
"Mm."
-
On the morning of the twenty-ninth of the twelfth lunar month, Liu Chen woke up to find a QQ message from Yu Bing.
"Boss, a group of people on Weibo have suddenly started saying that our Meimei sausages have quality issues and are causing stomach problems."
"Boss, this group of people are now successively leaving comments under popular Weibo posts mentioning our Meimei sausages, and they are also liking each other's comments."
"Boss, the police announcement is out."
Liu Chen's interest was piqued only upon seeing the last sentence. She opened the Weibo app. Without even searching, the very first post refreshed on her homepage was an announcement from the C City Public Security Bureau.
"Suspect Hu Mou, following investigation, violated the victim's will and forced her to have sexual relations with others... sentenced to two years imprisonment." kuAiδugg
The announcement was clearly written, and bore a red seal.
Instantly, the tide of public opinion on the internet turned, just as Liu Chen had predicted, like a large ship making an abrupt about-face.
The netizens who had been at the helm, steering the ship, were flung overboard and slapped soundly.
"Holy crap, holy crap. I saw this news, and then I looked at the comments people left under Hu Qian's Weibo before, they're really not human..."
"When they were chasing and biting like mad dogs back then, I said to calm down, wait for official confirmation, but I was still cursed at."
"To the person above, do you really think those people are brainless? They were just paid to do it (not)."
This Weibo post had been published ten minutes ago, but there were already over three hundred comments below it. Liu Chen surmised that with this news, those accounts that had previously claimed to have diarrhea from eating Meimei sausages would likely quiet down for a while.
After all, she was someone who could even turn in her own father. In the eyes of outsiders, this should be considered a righteous act of putting family above the law.
Liu Chen searched for Weibo posts related to Meimei sausages and scrolled down according to the publication time. Indeed, after the official announcement, there wasn't a single Weibo post about getting diarrhea from eating Meimei sausages.
However, there was no way to guard against a thief for a thousand days. She should think of a way to teach the true employers behind the online trolls who had been slandering her during this period a lesson.
While Liu Chen was contemplating, a new wave of voluntary apologies began to appear online. Of course, the apologies were directed at both Liu Chen and Hu Qian.
Compared to the emotional intensity of their previous criticisms, the netizens who had been led astray and angrily commented were remarkably concise in their apologies.
"Sorry."
Three words and a period, as if with this phrase, their previous words could simply dissipate into the air like sand in their hands.
Despite thinking this, Liu Chen, after a moment of contemplation, rose and sat down at her computer desk. She already had a plan to deal with those who wanted to stir up trouble and frame her.
First, she opened a folder named "Product Photos" on her D drive and uploaded nine pictures to Weibo. She then wrote at the top:
"In one's life, one always encounters many voices. They are noisy, and sometimes, you are swept along by these voices. You think this voice is the voice of your heart. Eat a Meimei sausage, ask the voice in your heart, and it's another beautiful day today!"
At this critical juncture, Liu Chen's Weibo was being closely watched by many people. As soon as this post was published, it was immediately reposted and commented on.
Having done all this, Liu Chen closed Weibo and went downstairs to check on her mother.
Meanwhile, the internet, because of her Weibo post, began a new round of discussion.
"What does Senior Sister mean by this? Does she think everyone was deceived by someone with ulterior motives and led astray? She doesn't blame us?"
"This is getting interesting. Who exactly was trying to manipulate Senior Scholar Liu? Senior Scholar Liu is just a student, who could she possibly be getting in the way of?"
"You guys are overthinking things..."
"..."
Seeing these reactions, Liu Chen nodded while drinking an iced cola. Sometimes, the success of online trolls was simply due to netizens' careless attitude towards information online.
Now that she had planted a seed of doubt in the minds of netizens, the difficulty of using the same online troll tactics in the future would increase, and her counterattacks would be simpler.
Having experienced several rounds of online troll wars in later generations, Liu Chen was not afraid of this 1.0 version of online trolls.
Just as Liu Chen was feeling smug about her little trick, she received a QQ message from Ren Yu. Upon opening it, she saw screenshots of chat records and bank transfer records between Du Liu and the leader of the trolls!
Ren Yu had also thoughtfully labeled Du Liu's identity.
He was the younger brother of the chairman of Sanhui Group and currently served as a consultant in the procurement department of Sanhui Group, having previously been the general manager of the procurement department.
Liu Chen raised an eyebrow.
"Thanks."