Seeing Bravery with a Fork

Chapter 43: Witnessing Bravery

July 6th, early morning.

The marketing article Cheng Yun had asked Yu Dian to write the morning before yesterday was finished. To Cheng Yun's surprise, she had written it very well. Not only did it incorporate all the points he had mentioned, but her writing skill was far stronger than he had imagined!

The soft article was titled "How Long Has It Been Since You Last Rested Properly?". The title was average, but it was very suitable for promotion. It didn't mention Anju Hotel at all, focusing instead on the relationship between people's sleep quality, physical health, and mental state. It also thoughtfully guided people on what kind of hotels to choose when staying away from home to get better rest... Of course, every criterion listed in the article perfectly matched Anju Hotel's conditions.

Cheng Yun felt that with a little effort, this soft article could even become a viral sensation on QQ Zone or WeChat Moments. The seasoned approach it displayed made him suspect that this young lady might have done some part-time work writing similar soft articles when she was poor.

* "Perhaps she's still doing that kind of work now, tapping away on her laptop every day..."

Cheng Yun shook his head and uploaded the article to the hotel's official WeChat Moments, then pushed it out on the official account. He also checked the follower count—

Well, there were exactly five!

One was Yu Dian, one was himself, one was Cheng Yan, and the other two were likely two of those junior sisters.

"This won't do either. And WeChat official accounts develop too slowly in the early stages. Although the official WeChat can handle some publicity and fan acquisition, we still need long-term accumulation and regular releases of attractive content to keep the follower count growing," Cheng Yun mused. He then opened the Baidu Tieba forums for Jinguan City and Yizhou University, preparing to post something that wouldn't be easily deleted.

His accounts weren't new, and although their levels weren't high—he'd only browsed a few times—it still gave him some convenience. It wasn't as easy for them to delete advertisements.

He had a lot of experience with this kind of thing, having done a lot of it during his university days...

As long as he paid attention to his wording and avoided sensitive terms, it wouldn't be easily auto-deleted. But he had to be careful not to make it sound like spam.

Suddenly, Cheng Yun froze, "Huh?"

He actually saw a post about Anju Hotel in the Yizhou University Tieba forum, and it was posted by an ancient water god account with level fourteen!

Cheng Yun looked closely. The post had quite a few replies and was ranked quite high, likely due to the ancient water god's considerable influence. He felt that part of the reason it hadn't been deleted by the forum administrator was "the water god's face."

The posting account was named "Ci Ci Er San" and had a pink female avatar.

The post title was also quite catchy—

Shocking! What Made a Dorm Full of Tomboy Girls Risk It All and Book a Room Together?

The poster was obvious.

Cheng Yun was both amused and speechless. He hadn't expected those girls to actually give him some publicity! However, he couldn't figure out whether the girl's motive for posting was to promote him, to gain post count, or simply to be funny.

Clicking on it, the content was roughly as follows: Because the air conditioning in a certain dorm broke and the evil school authorities were slow to send someone to fix it, these poor girls had no choice but to risk getting caught and team up to book a room to study. Unexpectedly, they stumbled upon a great place for studying, dating, and... well, even after going once, the six of them couldn't resist going a second time...

The promotion was quite obvious by this point, but no administrator had yet stepped in to delete her post. Instead, Cheng Yun saw several accounts with administrator tags replying below.

After reading over a hundred floors of nonsense, jokes, and casual chat, he couldn't help but shake his head, admitting he couldn't keep up with the minds of these young people.

Around ten o'clock, Zhou Jiaxing came by again.

He represented the Criminal Police team and presented a banner inscribed with "Witnessing Bravery." He didn't specify whether it was for Heroine Yin or Cheng Yun, but Cheng Yun knew his place.

After a few polite words, he left.

The incident with the Black man was not publicly reported, and even the public outcry caused by the Yizhou University student's suicide by hanging stopped at the university gates. Cheng Yun glanced at it while browsing Tieba; the incident was quite popular on the forum, but most people seemed to believe she committed suicide due to pregnancy and abandonment, and that the university authorities had suppressed the matter to protect their reputation.

But it was clear that the Yizhou University authorities weren't the ones pulling the strings.

When Zhou Jiaxing arrived, Cheng Yun asked a few questions, but Zhou Jiaxing didn't answer. He didn't know what had happened to the Black man.

As noon approached, Yu Dian, who had been holed up in her room doing who-knows-what, came downstairs.

"Perfect timing. I just posted what you wrote on WeChat and the official account this morning. Did you see it? How was the layout and the pictures?" Cheng Yun said with a smile.

"I saw it," Yu Dian nodded shyly. "The pictures were great, and the layout was good, but..."

"But what?"

"But most people nowadays read things on their phones, so the line spacing and paragraph spacing could be more distinct. That way, it's less tiring to look at on a phone screen," Yu Dian said, blushing. She immediately waved her hand, "I'm just saying, it's fine if you don't set it up like that."

"Then I'll change it!" Cheng Yun quickly replied.

"Okay."

"Did you write soft articles before?"

"Before... I did," Yu Dian hesitated. "When I was in university, I didn't have any living expenses, so I'd join all sorts of groups to find part-time jobs. Writing soft articles was one of the highest-paying and easiest ways to earn money. A few articles would cover my living expenses for the month... Ah, I don't mean that. I haven't done that part-time job for a very, very long time. This time, I was just bored and wrote it casually, so..."

Seeing her inexplicably flustered look, like a small animal uneasy in a new environment, Cheng Yun couldn't help but smile, "No wonder you write so well! It's top-notch!"

"No, no, it's because Boss Cheng planned it so well. You told me what to write, so if I still couldn't write it well, I'd be... terrible."

"Well, thank you then."

"You're welcome."

"I might need to trouble you again in the future!"

"It's okay... I'm quite free anyway."

Not long after, Heroine Yin, who had stayed up all night watching TV and stubbornly refused to admit it, also came down. She yawned while rubbing her sore eyes. Dark circles seemed like something that wouldn't appear on her kind of creature, but her eyes were red.

"Huh? Haven't you eaten lunch yet?" She looked at Cheng Yun blankly, blinked a few times, then turned to go back upstairs. "I'll come down later then."

"Stop!" Cheng Yun called out sternly.

"Huh? Station Master, what's wrong?" Heroine Yin turned around, looking at him confusedly.

"There's a banner here. The Criminal Investigation team just delivered it. It's for you." Cheng Yun picked up the banner from the table and looked at Heroine Yin. "Look at you. The TV isn't going anywhere. Take care of your eyesight."

"Those officers even gave me a banner? What banner?" Heroine Yin came down the stairs again, taking the banner and looking at the four large characters on it—

"See... Fork... Brave... Act..." Thanks to Old Mage's awesomeness, she could now recognize Chinese characters. But recognizing them didn't mean she understood their meaning, so she was still confused, turning the banner over and over, muttering, "What do these words mean? What is 'see fork brave act'? Hey, are these officers subtly insulting me!"

"Fork your sister!" Cheng Yun couldn't help but curse. "I told you watching TV would strain your eyes! You didn't believe me!"

"Isn't this 'see fork brave act'!" Heroine Yin felt wronged, having been scolded for no reason.

"Um..." Yu Dian reminded weakly from the side, "It's 'see righteousness, brave act'."

"Oh! See righteousness, brave act! No wonder it sounded wrong when I read it!" Heroine Yin suddenly understood, instantly grasping the meaning of the four characters, then becoming a little dazed.

"See righteousness, brave act..." Heroine Yin murmured, then grinned.

She was a martial world person herself. To put it nicely, she was the opposite of those official officers, like the imperial court's hunting dogs. To put it bluntly, in the eyes of officials or the upper class, they were just a bunch of fighters who only knew how to fight. Those who were doing well were called masters, had a famous title, and those with power at least held positions like sect leader or gang leader. Lower-class martial world people were simply thugs, and eight or nine times out of ten, they were unstable elements of society.

Officials looked down on them, and ordinary people dared not interact with them much. The righteous sects had relatively more rules. The most reputation-conscious were the escort agencies, but they weren't considered a prominent profession... In short, they had no social status.

It only looked glorious!

Heroine Yin really couldn't imagine that after just one casual act, she had actually caused a group of seemingly high-ranking officers to specially send a banner of commendation and thanks!

It was the first time in her life.

How strange.

Just as Heroine Yin was carefully looking at the two small vertical characters on either side of the large characters 'See Righteousness, Brave Act', Cheng Yan appeared from nowhere and said, "What? They only sent a banner, no bonus or anything?"

"Huh?" Heroine Yin was stunned for a moment, staring intently at Cheng Yan. "There's a bonus?"

"Generally, there is, but it's very little, just a token gesture," Cheng Yan said calmly. "At most a few hundred yuan."

"It's okay, it's okay, I don't mind if it's little... What!? A few hundred yuan!" Heroine Yin froze, swallowed, and thought about how many bowls of beef noodles that would be, enough to eat for half a month!

She immediately turned around, facing Cheng Yun, rubbing her hands together and hesitantly saying, "Um, Station Master, my bonus, did you forget..."

"No," Cheng Yun shook his head. "There was none at all."

"Huh?" Heroine Yin's expression stiffened.

"There really wasn't any."

"Didn't you say there was a bonus?"

"Maybe the Criminal Police detachment and the police station are different?"

"Those damned officers, they must have pocketed my bonus! Next time I see them..." Heroine Yin clenched her fists, exuding a sharp killing intent.

"Alright, that's enough. Who cares about a few hundred yuan these days? Maybe the Criminal Police detachment never even set up a fund for 'see righteousness, brave act'," Cheng Yun rolled his eyes. "How about this, to compensate you, I'll stew some beef for you at noon today!"

"Okay," Heroine Yin said dejectedly.

But then again, having beef to eat didn't seem so bad!