Chapter 140: On the Importance of Personal Branding

Anyone who has done after-sales work knows that it is not much different from buying things.

The seller asks for an exorbitant price, and the buyer counters with a low offer.

That is why we call it negotiation; both sides gradually move closer to find a price that is mutually acceptable.

Actually, in the current situation, it is often easier to seek Legal Aid online than at a physical store...

Of course, this is not a universal phenomenon.

Anyway, outrageous things happen every year.

Today had already taken up a lot of time, and with the added hassle of bickering with Manager Gu, it was indeed getting late.

Zhou Yi planned to go home to eat something and then continue to enjoy the battle situation online.

As it turned out, just after getting into a taxi, he received a call from Lawyer Fang.

Why would Lawyer Fang call out of the blue? Could it be that there is progress on the platform cases?

In fact, for those cases involving the platform, they all indicated they would Appeal in court after the First Instance ended.

Curious, he answered the phone, and Zhou Yi laughed: "Lawyer Fang, is there something you need? Are you planning to treat me to a meal?"

"Oh, a meal? I don't have time lately. I just wanted to ask you, do you have a Criminal Case involving a Private Prosecution recently?"

"Oh my, Lawyer Fang, you are quite well-informed. I do have such a case. Someone posted a video online saying I was involved in Money Laundering. I thought you were so busy lately, so I went to Zhou Xinran."

"Lawyer Fang, do you think Zhou Xinran is unsuitable?"

Suitable? Of course she is suitable; Zhou Xinran has been learning from him for a while now.

Lawyer Fang also felt his phone call was inexplicable. Of course she was suitable; Zhou Yi's video last time could almost be called a step-by-step textbook.

This feeling was very strange. In the past, for all of Zhou Yi's cases, regardless of size, he would look for him, whether for consultation or Litigation.

But now, he went to Zhou Xinran for consultation and for Litigation, which made Lawyer Fang feel something was not quite right.

It is like when you often bring breakfast to your goddess, every single day, and then suddenly one day you stop; your goddess would also find it strange.

"Oh, right, Lawyer Fang, regarding my car issue, I suppose I will have to file a Lawsuit."

"Fine, see you at Lao Difang tomorrow!"

Putting down the phone, hmm, the feeling is right.

All the way home, dinner was still the pig's trotter rice from outside the Small Residential District.

Pig's trotter in the bowl cures hunger, finish eating and go home to play with the wife... oh, he has no wife, then never mind.

Time quickly arrived at the afternoon of the next day, at the Lao Difang cafe.

Lawyer Fang was the same as always, only Zhou Yi noticed that the other party's hair seemed to have thinned a bit more, and that aura of a powerhouse had increased a bit more.

"It's not that I'm complaining, Zhou Yi, but the people and things you encounter are quite outrageous. If it weren't for our Jingzhou just being rated as a civilized demonstration city, I would have almost thought this was the place with the worst public security in the whole country."

After listening to Zhou Yi's account, Lawyer Fang laughed there.

"The situation with this Four S Store is the same as the account platform you encountered before. Don't worry, it will basically be Mediation; they don't want to blow things out of proportion either."

"However, besides filing a Lawsuit, you can actually complain to the Manufacturer and the Consumer Association."

"But since you want to file a Lawsuit, then let's file it. I will go handle it today!"

Complaining to the Manufacturer, Zhou Yi had indeed never tried, and as for the Consumer Association... he, Zhou Mouren, didn't even know which way their door opened.

Lawyer Fang was as reliable as ever; this case didn't even count as a minor matter for him.

After finishing the business, they chatted about that Lawyer Wang Daoren from before.

"Don't even mention it. I don't know what's wrong with him, using Risk Agency in a Criminal Case; it's amazing he could even think of that." Lawyer Fang shook his head directly when mentioning this name.

"He was suspended for a month last time for illegal practice, and he's offending again this time."

"You don't know, Wu Tao's family complained directly to the Judicial Bureau and the Lawyers Association, making all sorts of scenes, saying the other party only takes money and doesn't do the work..."

"I reckon he's going to be made an example of."

Lawyer Fang was also helpless. If he himself walked the straight path, it would be fine, and if others complained, it would also be fine, but if he didn't walk the straight path and still got complained about...

Just thinking about it feels miserable...

After chatting about some random things, the two signed the contract and went their separate ways.

It's just that Zhou Yi didn't plan to go back now; it would be boring to go back, so he took a taxi directly to the Company.

The General Manager expressed great joy at the arrival of this President Zhou. Boss, this is your business after all; you should at least come and take a look.

It was still a round of inspection, nothing to say; the Company was already on the right track, and the Employees were very motivated.

As for the reason, the reason is simple: Zhou Mouren only takes 10% of the dividends he is entitled to, and the rest is all invested back into the Company.

This portion of money is not a small amount, and a part of it was set aside by Zhou Yi as bonuses for the Employees.

The reason it is only a small part is because you have to proceed step by step.

Anyone who has done a little management or studied a little management science knows that you cannot give all the benefits at once.

This time you give a reward of one hundred, they might be very happy, but next time if you only give one hundred again, they will be unhappy.

However, even this portion of the bonus is much higher than other companies; after all, this is equivalent to the Company Chairman barely making any money.

This Company is solely owned by Zhou Yi.

Since we are out here working, let's not talk about empty things. If you work for me, you can make big money; at your previous company, you could only eat the boss's empty promises. Which one would you choose?

Consequently, during this period, many people simply brought their clients over directly.

Although it is not comparable to the situation where President Pei's Tenda employees secretly work overtime, at the very least, for now, the Employees' overtime is truly voluntary.

So to tell the truth, it feels like having him there doesn't make much of a difference, and missing him doesn't make much of a difference either.

After the inspection, he returned to his office to start drinking tea and incidentally check the battle situation online.

After all, yesterday, it felt like everyone suddenly had malice toward him, and many people were frantically posting comments.

As it turned out, just after opening his phone, he saw a push notification.

"Shocking! Young man sues 106 people at once, suspected of Money Laundering!"

What the... I'm already suspected of Money Laundering? I just sent a Manager from an S Shop to prison, and it's already escalated to this point?

It's truly absurd; Zhou Yi had originally expected to see headlines like "A Certain Handsome Young Man Sues 106 People at Once."

Thinking about it again, on the internet nowadays, news is all about timeliness.

For the same piece of news, if you are the first to post it, everyone will say you're awesome.

But if others have already posted it for a long time and you only post it then, the result is a bunch of jerks making all sorts of memes in your comment section.

Things like "Are you a guy or a girl, are you surfing the net too" and other inexplicable nonsense...

So, Zhou Yi opened his Bilibili, and unsurprisingly, his private messages and comment section had already exploded!

It could be said that Zhou Mouren, a small internet celebrity, had inexplicably become the center of public opinion in the circle.

In fact, many people think that if a video has a lot of views, then this internet celebrity must be very famous and known by everyone.

However, that's not necessarily true; for those who don't use sites like Bilibili or Douyin, they really don't know who he is.

What, are there still people who don't scroll through videos these days?

The answer is that there really are, and many!

This is the issue of being inside or outside the circle; people who read web novels feel a certain book is extremely, extremely popular, as if the whole country knows about it, but in reality, it's just popular within that circle.

And now, within the circle, Zhou Mouren has become a target for others' traffic, such as this "Bilibili Sherlock Holmes" whose popularity exploded because he tried to take down Zhou Yi.

Never mind what the name is like, the person's takedown video was certainly dramatic and passionate, it's just that there was no evidence.

Just like many novels, after finishing it, you feel like you haven't read anything at all.

Right now, the comments questioning him are simply terrifyingly numerous, and the core meaning is only one: hurry up and prove you aren't Money Laundering.

How many bowls of noodles did you eat?

One bowl!

People are saying you ate two bowls!

Do you have proof?

No, but people said it, so you have to prove that you only ate one bowl of noodles!

Let's take a look at that Up Master, oh my, the output is quite good.

In just one night, they actually made another video!

The title is: In the Name of Being Serious, Committing the Act of Money Laundering!

This time the other party learned their lesson, starting right off by saying everything is based on reasonable speculation...

Well, fine, speculation can lead to a conviction; Zhou Mouren hasn't read many novels, but it seems Sherlock Holmes couldn't convict people through deduction either.

Looking at the comment section again, after excluding all the various sycophantic comments, there are also some very professional ones.

For example, this person named "Dalao Qiu Ge" replied:

"Just scrolled onto this video, I just want to say, even if an Up Master is trying to take someone down, it has to be reasonable; there are too many unreasonable things in your speculation."

"Why Money Launder? Because black money is basically cash that cannot enter legal accounts through normal means; this is the most basic knowledge of Money Laundering."

"But... I watched that A Yi's videos, and he always transfers money directly; he has never used cash..."

"This money is already in his legal account, and then he launders it, and after laundering, it goes back into his legal account. I don't know what the point of this is; is he doing charity for the vulnerable group known as the bank?"

I have to say, letting the bullets fly for a while is truly a good thing.

As time passes, when you detach yourself from that kind of emotion, you will realize, eh, these things like Small Essays have too many loopholes!

Zhou Yi continued browsing, and comments from professionals like this kept increasing.

And it wasn't just Bilibili; even Zhihu had many professional answers.

After all, in the eyes of professionals, such a video could almost be said to be rubbing their intelligence on the ground.

Since when did Money Laundering become like this? How come we didn't know?

Money Laundering by filing a Lawsuit and buying a Company?

That's just absurd, okay? Account to account—do you think the regulatory agencies are just sitting around doing nothing? Who uses such a simple method for Money Laundering...

In short, some very "criminal" comments appeared quickly, and professionals with nothing better to do analyzed it one after another from the perspectives of rationality, legality, and operational feasibility.

For example, buying a Company—if one wanted to Money Launder through such a method, how many procedures would be needed at the very least...

This made Zhou Yi, who had originally planned to post an update, suddenly happy; it seems there are still sensible people on the internet these days.

And relatively speaking, the emotions triggered by the other party this time couldn't compare to Ling Jie's "I was a victim of Cyber Violence" video.

Once that video came out, Zhou Yi was truly besieged from all sides, and all kinds of comments came flooding in like a tsunami.

They even got his phone number and would just curse wildly the moment he picked up.

It was only because he, Zhou Mouren, was "cheating" and had a thick skin; if it were someone else, they might not have fared well amidst that kind of overwhelming Cyber Violence.

Never underestimate Cyber Violence; it's not just cursing a few times online, it's an influence that affects every aspect of life.

It even directly interferes with your personal life!

But thinking about it carefully, it seems normal; for many people, how could Money Laundering be as attractive as words like "Cyber Violence," "Depression," and "Gender Conflict"?

Even if there was a rhythm at the beginning, once many professionals stood up to analyze it, that rhythm became like duckweed without roots.

Unlike depression, which professionals have no way to analyze...

Zhou Mouren, bored, continued to wander around the Company; no matter what kind of Lawsuit it is, time is one of the most basic costs.

Time did pass quickly; one day, two days, Zhou Yi would check the comment section every day, and the trend online changed very quickly.

At the very beginning, that Up Master called "Bilibili Sherlock Holmes" would personally jump into the fray to Debate.

For example, saying this isn't defamation, this is called reasonable speculation, speculation based on basic reality.

Then he would say he wasn't trying to incite Cyber Violence, he just wanted the Up Master A Yi to provide an explanation; as long as he explained, he would delete the video immediately.

Later on, everyone wasn't stupid; after reading the professional analyses, they all understood that if this could be Money Laundering, it only meant that the Up Master was "cheating."

Consequently, this takedown Up Master doesn't even dare to show his face now.

In Lian City, Sun Pengxing was looking at the comment section.

He had not expected things to develop to this point either.

Sun Pengxing is very young, only twenty years old this year, dropped out of middle school, and has done everything: car repair Apprentice, barber Apprentice, chef Apprentice... many things.

But he couldn't succeed at any of them.

He would always feel tired after not working for long, and he couldn't make big money.

Then he thought about becoming an internet celebrity; coincidentally, Bilibili has this trend of "exposing people," and if one can pull down those famous Up Masters, that means traffic.

Of course, today's internet society is truly very complex; you have no idea what many so-called big Up Masters were like before they became famous.

Just like that Top 100 Up Master list, is that called the Top 100? That's called the... list of shills.

Of course, you don't know what they are like after they become famous either; all you know is the person created in those videos.

Plus, young people often talk trash online; unfortunately, they forget that the internet has a memory.

So under these circumstances, believe it or not, Sun Pengxing actually succeeded in "exposing" people a few times.

Not only did the other party fall from grace, but he also gained a lot of traffic, so he made up his mind to walk this path.

Anyway, there is no need to actually produce solid proof; as long as you say a few things using ambiguous words, there are plenty of people who will attack the other party.

Then, by packaging himself with a persona of being highly educated and experienced, basically, people will believe whatever he says.

In his personal bio, he claims to be a graduate of a prestigious university, currently picking up scraps in the financial industry.

Of course, which university he graduated from is unknown, and which impressive institution in the financial industry he is in is unknown.

Moreover, he often makes targeted "popular science" videos, explaining certain industries and telling everyone about the inside stories of the industry...

Under this combination of tactics, the other party basically has no power to fight back, because they really did those things...

He just didn't expect that this time, the "exposing" would actually run into trouble.

At the time, after watching the video by that Up Master A Yi, he felt that the opportunity had arrived.

The other party's behavior was unreasonable no matter how you looked at it; after searching on Baidu overnight, he learned that this kind of unreasonable spending behavior could possibly be Money Laundering.

So, taking advantage of the peak popularity of the other party's video release, he directly posted his first video; he didn't expect the response to be so high!

Although there was a counterattack from the other party's fans, it was completely useless.

Those people were still the same as before, forwarding his video in all sorts of ways after watching it.

The popularity was terrifyingly high!

As a result, he didn't expect that after only a few days, the tide would turn sharply.

Thanks to Scroll Master, King92. Life Winner, Nahu Bukai, Grand, Bai Feibai, Book Friend 2021, E'en O Ha, Book Friend 2020, Nameless Without Sorrow, Fat Cat Story, Snow Under the Cold Night, Su Ye You Xuan, Person Who Works at Night, Xie Yu, Wo Si, Hai Zi, Perish If Not Mad, I Am Naughty, Marshmallow Oath, Fuluomeng, thank you to these brothers for the tips, thank you.

(End of this chapter)