YuanKuang and Light

The Goose Factory's public relations department naturally monitored this matter. As Jenny read her subordinate's email, she thought, Is this your method? It's not that great.

Lei Jun has a lot of traffic, and his image is relatively positive, but the problem is he also has many opponents. Many netizens who dislike Xiaomi and try to link Xiaomi with him, from belittling Xiaomi to belittling him personally, are trying to do just that.

Lei Jun cannot rely on his own credibility to turn this situation around.

"What benefits did they give Lei Jun? Could it be that Lei Jun took over Kuala Lumpur Affairs 2 from them?" Jenny was completely baffled.

Actually, it was nothing much. Lei Jun, through guarantees, loans, and investments, gave a total of 250 million to Chen Yuanguang and Lin Jia. Because there was an investment component, the return is difficult to calculate.

Lei Jun's Weibo was like a signal. That evening, the Gates Foundation issued a statement, roughly stating that their Global Health Project had indeed invited Chen Yuanguang, offering him the position of Chief Scientist with an annual salary of 5 million US dollars.

Then Bill Gates retweeted the tweet and commented: "The person you were commenting on before was YuanKuang Chen. Yesterday, he called and asked me to help him explain, and only then did I realize he was facing widespread questioning in China's public opinion sphere. I didn't know that YuanKuang Chen was Light Chen. Light Chen's position and salary were personally approved by me. His outstanding contributions in the fields of chemistry and biology are evident to all. The Gates Foundation needs such talent. Yesterday, I invited him again on the phone, and we are still waiting for his reply."

Lei Jun's words couldn't settle the matter, but Gates could, and the official reply from the Gates Foundation could.

The situation instantly reversed. All the abusive and questioning comments under Chen Yuanguang's Weibo were drowned out by the "?" of the onlookers.

"?"

"Speak up!"

"Is it still ridiculous?"

"Just because you can't do it doesn't mean others can't"

Then some comments supporting him were pushed to the front, and the number of comments exceeded 200,000, which was simply exaggerated.

"Holy crap, God of Light!"

"Origin God, activate!"

"This is too awesome. We're all studying chemistry, biology, and materials science, why do they only give 3,500 domestically!"

"Five million, US dollars, annual salary, I don't quite recognize these words anymore."

"This should be the highest salary ever, and it's cash without stock options."

Lei Jun also followed up with a Weibo post: "Didn't lie to everyone, did I? I saw the invitation letter signed by Mr. Gates himself for my junior brother, and I even took a photo."

The picture Lei Jun used in this Weibo post cleverly used the Xiaomi phone's camera logo.

Top marketing masters will not miss any detail in life that can be marketed.

Lei Jun appropriately rode the wave of popularity. The Goose Factory Pictures side was numb. "Light, YuanKuang, we were completely screwed by the netizens' translation!" Guo Wei was speechless.

After the replies from the Gates Foundation and Gates himself were brought back to China, he immediately went to check the replies from Chinese netizens under the previous tweet. Then he found that these netizens used the screenshot translation function that came with their phones, directly translating Yuan Guang into YuanKuang.

However, Chen Yuanguang's name on his Google Scholar homepage and in published papers was Light Chen.

Only then did he realize, damn, putting YuanKuang up there, the Gates Foundation would have no idea who this was.

Now they were completely screwed.

Around nine in the evening, everyone in the Goose Factory Pictures conference room was silent. Guo Wei was flipping through his phone, watching the silent netizens rush the netizens who had previously abused and questioned Chen Yuanguang, and watching netizens flock to Zhifei Biological's Weibo to mock them as clowns.

He was thinking, Maybe we are the clowns too. Chen Yuanguang had the offer all along and didn't show it. He probably thinks we, who packaged and sold him Kuala Lumpur Affairs 2, are also clowns.

Jenny said weakly, "It's all my fault. I didn't think of this. I'll go explain to Mark. David, have the legal team check the contract we signed with Lin Jia and their film investment company again for any loopholes. Even if there's just a tiny point we can leverage, summarize and note it down."

Jenny knew she had completely lost this round, utterly defeated. The complete reversal of public opinion, Chen Yuanguang's soaring reputation, and the imminent release of Kuala Lumpur Affairs 2 – everything indicated that the box office for Kuala Lumpur Affairs would only be higher than the first installment.

With Director Guo Fan and Chen Yuanguang's original work, the quality was guaranteed. The marketing had unexpected traffic. Anyone could turn it into a hit.

Not to mention, now the entire investment belonged to Chen Yuanguang and Lin Jia. Chen Yuanguang would only promote it more vigorously.

Jenny was starting to doubt her life. She couldn't even outmaneuver a student who hadn't even graduated yet. No, it's not my problem. Who could have imagined the Gates Foundation actually gave him a $5 million annual salary? I've never heard of that. It's a completely unconventional event.

"Jenny, you should transfer departments. I know this isn't your fault, but I'm not the only one who makes decisions internally. Selling this series for 280 million is probably the worst deal Goose Factory Pictures has ever made. I can't protect you." Mark's cold words sent a chill down Jenny's spine. Transferring departments was even worse than being fired; it was a disguised dismissal.

Sometimes, facts are the best weapon. With the facts laid bare, no matter how much netizens and various big influencers disbelieved it, they had to admit that Chen Yuanguang receiving a $5 million annual salary offer was real.

The instant reversal of public opinion turned many people into clowns and gave the media endless topics of conversation.

"A $5 million annual salary isn't the highest salary in China, nor is it the highest salary a Chinese person has ever received. Many people in sports and executives have higher salaries than this, but this is definitely the highest campus recruitment offer salary in China."

"I used to envy the salary levels of the Cosmic Machine majors. Now I don't. With the case of the God of Light before us, I believe there will be a way out for biology, chemistry, environment, and materials science."

"Oh, come on. The Origin God case is the only one in so many years. Computer science majors get offers of five or six hundred thousand annual salary every year in bulk."

"Will the Origin God join the Gates Foundation? If it were me, I'd definitely be tempted."

"Probably. Bill Gates is so sincere, and this treatment is top-notch."

With everything settled, Chen Yuanguang prepared to take the contract he held to get a loan, then open a company and build a laboratory in Caohejing.

Lin Jia, on the other hand, waited for the movie to be released. She felt she was still too green and had no room to fight back against an old fox like Lei Jun in negotiations.

They sought out Lei Jun because they wanted a guarantee, asking Lei Jun to help with a 250 million yuan guarantee. The money earned from the guarantee had an upper limit, at most 1.5% per year, which was 4.2 million.

Lei Jun's Xiaomi Finance had a guarantee license. It was equivalent to Lin Jia and the others borrowing money from the bank, and then Xiaomi Finance providing the guarantee. With Xiaomi Finance providing the guarantee, during the virus epidemic, the state required banks to release funds, and the bank interest rate was at most 4%.

The total capital cost, including the guarantee and loan interest rates, could be controlled at around 6%.