Zhang Heying had already realized that he was about to face disaster—and not just any disaster, but a colossal one!
When Lin You first stirred up public opinion on the internet, the department had discussed countermeasures.
The options were nothing more than downplaying the issue, diverting attention, or outright denial.
But when reporting to the boss, the newly appointed successor—young and hot-headed—wore an unmistakable look of displeasure.
Zhang Heying could understand. After all, it was the boss who had stood on stage during the press conference, only to be publicly berated by an unknown college student in front of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of viewers. It was a humiliating blow to his pride.
Feeling resentful was only natural.
Thinking to curry favor with the new boss, Zhang Heying proposed a rather ruthless countermeasure:
“We can go on the offensive instead of playing defense—attack and smear this college student in reverse. As long as we steer public opinion to make everyone believe Lin You is a ‘bad person,’ then no matter what he says, it’ll be seen as lies or ulterior motives!”
Unsurprisingly, the boss was extremely pleased with this plan and immediately approved it, even allocating additional budget to the PR department.
With these funds, Zhang Heying instructed his subordinates to hire paid trolls at any cost while leveraging his connections to bribe media outlets into publishing slanted articles to manipulate public sentiment.
In the end, he succeeded in reversing the narrative in an astonishingly short time: NetDragon became the victim, while Lin You was painted as a scheming villain who maliciously slandered a national tech enterprise for personal gain.
Yes, even during crisis management, Zhang Heying didn’t forget to slap the lofty label of “national tech enterprise” onto NetDragon—a company that made games and VR consoles.
He even smugly lectured his subordinates: “Crisis management isn’t just about danger—it’s also an opportunity!”
Thanks to these maneuvers, he quickly won the new boss’s favor, rising from a relatively marginal role to one of increasing importance.
But now, with Lin You’s video released, netizens would immediately think: This guy’s a genius! Everything he said before must be true! His opponents must be rotten to the core! Internet users were nothing if not black-and-white.
And so, NetDragon was about to face a backlash ten, a hundred times worse!
The joy they once took in manipulating public opinion would now turn into bitter consequences. A storm was coming for NetDragon! The new boss’s ambitious IPO plans could already be declared dead in the water.
So, who would take the fall?
Of course, it would be Zhang Heying! Who else could it be?
As if that weren’t enough, just as he was rushing back to the office, a traffic officer knocked on his car window.
“Hello, you’ve parked illegally. Please show me your driver’s license and vehicle registration.”
He could only bark into the department group chat via voice message: “All employees, return to the office for overtime!” while obediently handing over his documents and saying in a polite tone, “Here you go, officer.”
At that moment, there was someone else just as distraught as him.
Zhao Lì.
“Fake! It has to be fake! This is impossible!”
Over the past few days, he had frequently shared news articles attacking Lin You in the group chat, always adding comments in a faux-sympathetic tone:
“The public opinion situation isn’t looking good for Lin You!”
“People’s impression of him is already set. Even if he really made new optimizations to the device, hardly anyone would notice. There’s no changing public perception now!”
“To achieve an epoch-making breakthrough in VR equipment in just a week—Lin’s talent is truly admirable. Too bad public opinion is already set in stone. What a shame, what a shame!”
His classmates were sick of his gloating, but they couldn’t find a way to refute him, so they simply avoided looking.
But now, the outcome had defied all expectations. While everyone was stunned by Lin You’s abilities, that didn’t stop them from tagging Zhao Lì in the group.
“@Zhao Lì, Young Master Zhao, come out and meet your idol!”
“@Zhao Lì, Zhao Lì, your most admired classmate Lin has completed his device breakthrough. Shouldn’t you go support him?”
“@Zhao Lì, too scared to show up now? Don’t be a coward!”
“Whenever Zhao Lì appeared in the group, all the chatting classmates would look at him and laugh. Some would call out, ‘Zhao Lì, you’ve been slapped in the face again!’ He wouldn’t respond. Then they’d shout again, ‘You must’ve gotten owned again!’ At this, Zhao Lì’s face would turn red, the veins on his forehead bulging, as he argued, ‘Scientific research—can that even count as getting owned?’ Then he’d mutter some incomprehensible phrases like ‘if I didn’t see it, it doesn’t count’ or ‘surrender means half-loss,’ which only made everyone laugh harder. The group was filled with a lively, cheerful atmosphere.”
Being roasted with this level of scripture left Zhao Lì humiliated, but he could only pretend not to see it, grinding his teeth in frustration.
After venting their spite, the classmates began tagging Lin You instead.
“@Lin You, Lin You, Lin You! Come out and meet your fans!”
“@Lin You, are you sure you’re not an alien in disguise? Virtual reality, consciousness immersion—what kind of god-tier invention is this?!”
Lin You had already poured his drink into the sink and was lurking in the group, watching the chaos unfold.
—Originally, he’d planned to pour it on the ground as a tribute to his pitiful past self.
But since that would mean having to mop later, he’d opted for the sink instead.
Well… the sentiment was what mattered.
Seeing classmates start to suspect he was an alien, he felt he had to show himself—who knew what wild theories they’d come up with next?
“Hey everyone, is this my Fan Group No. 1?”
His classmates played along enthusiastically.
“That’s right, you’ve come to the right place!”
“We’re all your fans!”
“I hereby announce the official founding of the Lin You Global Fan Club! Fly high, YouYou! iU will always be with you!”
Lin You immediately leaned back in tactical retreat. What the hell?
And the worst part? All these “fans” were male classmates—not a single girl among them!
“Where are the fan moderators? Get my anti-fans out of here first.”
Zhao Lì, silently lurking, felt a jolt of panic: Wait, is ‘anti-fan’ referring to me? Is he joking? Surely no one would actually kick me out?
The class monitor stared at the message, momentarily tempted. Zhao Lì had been annoying everyone for ages.
Fortunately, the homeroom teacher chose that moment to speak up, saving Zhao Lì from being booted from the group.
“Lin You, is this what you meant by ‘a minor improvement’? Or do we have slightly different understandings of the word ‘minor’…”
Not satisfied with just that, the teacher even screenshotted and reposted Lin You’s earlier claim about “a little tweak.”
Before Lin You could respond, his classmates jumped in.
“Yep, just a tiny improvement.”
“Fingertip universe.jpg”
“Ah, that…” Lin You improvised an excuse. “You know how research is. Sometimes inspiration strikes, and you just can’t stop it.”
…
Faced with such shameless reasoning, the group fell into brief silence.
“What kind of humblebrag is this?!”
“Are you the Grandmaster of Versailles Literature?”
“When Master Lin retired from the humblebragging circle, I was firmly against it.”
Clearly, his classmates were thrilled that someone from their class had made such a world-shaking invention. The group chat buzzed nonstop.
Until Zhao Lì reappeared, sharing a Lingxi post:
“Genius or Fraud: Can a college student who’s never set foot in a lab really create an invention that shocks the world?”
“Lin You, are you sure you didn’t fake this? If you did, you should come clean now. The fallout would be too severe otherwise.”
“???”
“???”
“???”
A flood of question marks filled the chat.
They weren’t questioning because they had doubts—they were questioning because Zhao Lì clearly had issues!
(End of Chapter)