Guo Huai quickly spent 2,000 on Dou+, then waited for the video to gain traction.
In just a few minutes, he noticed a flood of notifications for likes and comments pouring in. The likes were increasing far faster than he'd expected, and his follower count was climbing right along with them.
"This is working surprisingly well." Excitement showed on Guo Huai's face.
At this rate, spending 2,000 yuan was going to get him on the trending page.
Lin Chunlan was keeping an eye on the video too. As the likes continued to rise, a smug look spread across her face.
He'd embarrassed her in front of so many people. Now she was going to make sure his resort couldn't stay in business.
Once its reputation was ruined, who would still go there?
Meanwhile.
Qin Lin watched as the 10,000 he'd spent on Dou+ started paying off and pushing his video toward the trending page. A pleased expression crossed his face.
The more attention it got, the better.
There was one more thing he needed to do: make sure nothing went wrong when the story blew up and made the trending page. No unexpected reversal could be allowed.
But as the video began gaining traction, he received three calls—from Gao Yaoyao, Master Lin, and Chen Dabe at the resort.
He'd just reassured the three of them when Qin Ren called.
Qin Lin had been about to get in touch with him anyway, so he immediately answered.
"Linzi, why did Guo Huai post a video about your resort on Douyin? What happened?" Qin Ren asked, his voice full of concern. They were both in Youcheng, so of course he knew who ran that media account.
Guo Huai had been among the first in Youcheng to start running a self-media account. He'd been doing it for three years, and his account was fairly well known around the city.
Their studio had started a self-media account too, but it didn't have many followers. Most were just their old customers and acquaintances.
Qin Lin smiled as he explained, "I ran into someone unreasonable. Hey, Daren, since you work in advertising and planning, can you find me some online shills?"
"Sure," Qin Ren replied. "You want them to explain what happened?"
Qin Lin chuckled. "No. I want them to trash me—especially the plant in the video. The nastier the insults, the better."
"Got it. I'll take care of it." Qin Ren didn't refuse. But after hanging up, he looked at Chen Shengfei in the video, puzzled. If Linzi wanted to hire shills to attack himself—and had specifically asked them to target this man—there had to be a reason.
"Hu Fei, can you find out who this guy is?" Qin Ren asked a partner sitting nearby. Hu Fei had studied computer technology, so digging up information online wouldn't be difficult for him.
Hu Fei watched the video and nodded.
He'd seen it already and knew Qin Ren wanted to help his friend. They didn't mind helping, though. Filming a promotional video for Qin Lin had brought their company's media account more followers too. That promotional video could even serve as their calling card.
Hu Fei tapped away at the computer for a while, then suddenly blurted out, "Holy crap..."
"What is it?" Qin Ren asked.
"Look for yourself. This guy's a plant? What was Guo Huai thinking?" Hu Fei pointed at Chen Shengfei's photo on the computer. "He's the chairman of Blue Sea Group! How could he possibly be a plant? Does Guo Huai have no brains? One word from this guy, and the account he's spent three years building could be finished."
Now Qin Ren understood why Qin Lin had wanted shills to attack himself—and specifically to target Chen Shengfei. He immediately turned to Guo Zhen and said, "Contact the shills. Have them go after Qin Lin, especially Chen Shengfei. And tag the group's official account while you're at it."
Hu Fei stared at Qin Ren in disbelief. "Holy crap, you're trying to destroy Guo Huai? I like it, though. I've been sick of that guy for ages. He's always strutting around, showing off and hitting on women. We can ride the wave too and advertise our studio while we're at it!"
Qin Ren nodded. "Once this video's had all night to spread, we'll post one of our own tomorrow revealing Chen Shengfei's real identity. We'll back Linzi up and ride the wave too."
Before long, they'd found their shills, who flooded into the comments on Guo Huai's video. That only made it look like the video was getting more and more popular.
The insults multiplied too. With the shills steering the conversation, most of them began targeting Chen Shengfei, the man in the video.
"Holy crap, did this guy have no parents, or what? He's acting as a plant for some guy forcing people to buy his stuff."
"I bet he can't earn a cent, so his wife's cheating on him. He'll do anything for money."
"What a show-off. Says he'll buy it all, but who doesn't know he's a plant?"
"While he's busy acting as a plant, his wife must be selling herself at home, right?"
"..."
It was as if everyone was freely exercising their sense of justice, posting what they thought were righteous yet vicious comments about Chen Shengfei.
They had no idea that they'd already become pawns, manipulated by someone else.
Time passed.
The next day arrived in no time.
In a luxurious villa in the city, Chen Shengfei stretched languidly, feeling thoroughly refreshed. His wife, Tang Wan, was already up and getting dressed. When she saw him rise, her cheeks flushed as she said, "Honey, did you eat something last night? You were even more amazing than usual!"
"Really?" Chen Shengfei laughed and pulled his wife into his arms. She was already in her thirties, but she had money to take good care of herself and was at her most alluring.
Besides, he'd woken up feeling refreshed today, without the usual limp, drained feeling he got after his wife wore him out.
"Hmph!" Tang Wan gave him a coy look, sounding satisfied. "You seriously didn't notice last night?"
That reminded him of something. Didn't okra supposedly help with that?
Thinking about it, Chen Shengfei said to his wife, "Ask the housekeeper to make me some of the okra I brought home."
He suspected there was something special about that okra. Last night, he'd been focused on eating the fish and hadn't paid much attention to it.
Tang Wan had been very satisfied the night before, so she was more than happy to indulge her husband's small request first thing in the morning. She even went to prepare the okra herself.
Chen Shengfei went downstairs and ate some of the okra he'd brought back. Before long, surprise showed on his face: that warm sensation around his waist had returned.
So the okra really was connected to it?
What a good thing!
At 400 yuan a pound, it was absolutely worth it.
Even if it cost 1,000 yuan a pound, he wouldn't care. What could be more important than seeing his wife look at him with satisfaction?
In a cheerful mood, Chen Shengfei went to the group's headquarters. But as soon as he entered his office, his secretary hurried over with a report. "Chairman, someone on Mouyin is attacking you!"
"???" Chen Shengfei frowned. Which competitor was pulling this kind of underhanded stunt now?
But the moment he took the phone and watched the video, he was stunned. It was about what had happened at Boss Qin's resort.
The day before, the other man had called him a plant, but he hadn't felt like wasting his time on someone so insignificant.
That didn't mean the man could make a scene in front of him—especially when the comments were even dragging his wife into it. Was he supposed to tolerate that?
"Have the company's legal team send Douyin a lawyer's letter!" Chen Shengfei said calmly. Then he paid it no further attention. Compared with the company's major affairs, this really wasn't a big deal.
"Understood!" His secretary withdrew respectfully and headed for the company's legal department.
Youcheng.
Guo Huai got up early and opened Douyin on his phone to check his video. He found that it had already passed 300,000 likes, and the number was still rising.
He was incredibly excited.
He'd really gone viral! His followers had surged too, nearing 300,000. If things kept going like this and he gave them another push, he might even break 500,000.
Guo Huai knew exactly what it took for a self-media account to gain followers quickly: a viral video. That was the way to get into the platform's official traffic pool.
Sure enough, social issues like this were what people cared about most.
Guo Huai smugly scrolled through some videos and noticed other creators were already trying to ride the wave. That was a good sign—it meant the video had made it into the traffic pool, so his follower count would keep rising.
Then he came across a video from a studio. The person who'd posted it was someone he knew—Hu Fei from Youcheng.
They'd met at a gathering of Youcheng's self-media creators. Hu Fei's studio ran a self-media account for advertising, but it was nothing special. When Hu Fei had tried to show off in front of a woman, Guo Huai had put him in his place.
"This guy's trying to ride the wave too!" Guo Huai sneered. But as the video played, its contents made his face change instantly.
Before you continue