Chapter 141: Am I That Scary? (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

There are some internet celebrities who seem to know everything.

They express this or that opinion on every industry; they know astronomy above and geography below—it's what you call erudite.

Originally, you would think these people really know their stuff, until the things they talk about involve your own industry...

And then you will discover that these people, they really don't know.

Sun Pengxing doesn't know what to do now; he prided himself on being a big shot in a well-known investment bank, but now he is being called ignorant.

Along with this, many people have started to doubt his professionalism.

Setting a Persona is a shortcut to fame; it's not just internet celebrities who set a persona, stars do it too, and they even set personas that seem extremely absurd to outsiders.

Such as drinking n cups of milk tea a day without gaining weight, being allergic to pork... turning red the moment they touch pork, and all sorts of other bizarre personas.

By comparison, personas like being a good man, a good wife, or a virtuous mother are already child's play.

However, when you set a persona, the faster you get famous, the more miserable you will fall when the backlash comes.

Previously, he was immersed in the joy of becoming famous and the arrogance that people believed whatever he posted.

Now that the wind has suddenly changed direction, Sun Pengxing thought of that video by A Yi he had watched before.

In fact, he had only watched one episode in its entirety; for the rest, he just glanced at the titles and then looked at the comments.

The other party's fans always teased that the other party was a District Bully, and also said that the other party liked to be pedantic and would send people to the Public Security Bureau at the drop of a hat.

Thinking of how many people in the comment section told him to watch one of the videos, saying he would understand after watching it, Sun Pengxing hesitated, then decided to take a look!

He heard that the content of that video was about sending a certain female internet celebrity to prison; it was easy to find, as it belonged to the ones with relatively high view counts among A Yi's videos.

He found it quickly, opened it, and played it.

Twenty minutes later...

Cold sweat broke out on Sun Pengxing's forehead; he suddenly discovered that his own actions seemed somewhat similar to the other party's behavior!

No, he couldn't say similar; it seemed they were exactly the same...

Because looking at the current situation, that Up Master really wasn't engaged in Money Laundering.

Then in that case...

Sun Pengxing felt more and more cold sweat; if he hadn't seen it wrong, that Ling Jie was eventually sentenced to prison!

In fact, not only was she sentenced, she was directly banned by the platform, and in the end, there was also the associated Civil Compensation.

No, Sun Pengxing couldn't help it; he felt his heart pounding wildly. If the other party filed that Criminal Private Prosecution like before, then he...

Apologize—this was the method Sun Pengxing quickly thought of.

First delete the videos, then apologize; then, since I've already deleted the videos, you surely can't still sue me.

Thinking this in his heart, Sun Pengxing hurriedly began to operate; soon, both videos were deleted, and he hurriedly began to write an apology letter.

Whether there was sincerity or not, Sun Pengxing believed he was now full of sincerity.

He hadn't noticed some key information before and had rashly released the videos, causing trouble for A Yi; he now expressed his apologies.

That was roughly the content; of course, the specific version was certainly longer than this.

Pusa Xiong had really been exerting his power as a Keyboard Warrior to the fullest during this period.

Someone actually said A Yi was engaged in Money Laundering, and not only did they say it, they even called it a reasonable inference without any evidence.

Consequently, Pusa Xiong began a great online war against all kinds of heroes, good men, monsters, and demons.

He couldn't speak loudly in reality, but surely he could online!

As a result, after arguing back and forth, he discovered that you simply cannot win an argument online.

Of course, what Pusa Xiong didn't know was that you can't win an argument in reality either...

Because to win against others, you must first be reasonable, but since people are already arguing with you, who would listen to you be reasonable?

Thus, when arguing in reality, either both sides are cowards, or they will soon start fighting while arguing...

The other party was repeating the same circular arguments; with no other choice, Pusa Xiong started copying and pasting one sentence.

"I suggest you go watch A Yi's episode number 【X】 video."

No matter what others said, he only used this one sentence.

Then today, logging into his account as usual, Pusa Xiong intended to continue with the guy he had been bickering with for half the day yesterday.

The other party must be a die-hard fan, thinking this Up Master really knows everything.

They kept saying, you don't know these things at all, you don't understand at all...

As a result, just as he was preparing to reply, he found he couldn't find it.

It wasn't just that the comment thread couldn't be found; those two videos were also gone...

Replacing them was an apology letter, an apology letter full of sincerity.

After reading it casually, Pusa Xiong suddenly felt, your fans are still fighting hard, and you've already apologized?

You should at least stand your ground!

Zhou Yi, who was taking a walk downstairs in the Small Residential District, saw the message from Yuan Jie, then clicked it open and saw this apology letter.

"He actually apologized? I haven't even made a move yet!"

Zhou Cainiao should have already started the procedure on his end, because this is a Criminal Private Prosecution, so for some information that cannot be collected, such as the other party's identity, there is no need to ask the Court for an Investigation Warrant.

In situations like this, one can ask the Public Security Bureau to assist in the investigation.

However, the other party's current reaction gave Zhou Yi quite the feeling of "I haven't even exerted my strength yet, and you've already fallen."

Looking at his private messages again, sure enough, that Up Master inside was already contacting him.

The other party's behavior wasn't that serious if you called it serious; they were just like a clown, immediately countered by public opinion.

It wasn't like Ling Jie, who treated several warnings as wind past the ear.

So under these circumstances, Zhou Yi replied to the message.

The message was very simple: I have already started the Criminal Private Prosecution procedure; if you want Mediation, you must accept my conditions.

The conditions are about the same as those I originally offered Ling Jie: withdraw from the internet and pay compensation; these are the most important ones.

As for the others, I haven't thought of them yet.

If the other party agrees, then we have something to talk about; if they don't agree, then they can just go inside and receive some education.

The message was sent, and the other party replied very quickly.

I don't know what they were scared by, but they agreed to all of Zhou Yi's conditions in a rush.

"Regardless of withdrawing from the internet or compensation, whatever you say, I will do; I only ask that you do not file a Lawsuit against me..."

Look at how scared they are. Zhou Mouren touched his chin. Am I that scary?

It was just that during the chat, Zhou Yi quickly discovered one thing.

"You are only twenty this year? Graduated from middle school? Then how come you said you graduated from a prestigious university and even worked at some big investment bank..."

Zhou Yi was stunned. He had previously watched other videos posted by this person, and among some of the so-called "insider industry secrets," there were quite a lot of comments.

Because of these videos, many people regarded them as the gold standard, thinking this was a badass figure like some kind of legend.

They explained those profound industry secrets in such a simple and easy-to-understand way.

It turned out that this person was only twenty... and a middle school graduate.

After asking, I found out that these so-called industry secrets were all seen on major websites when those "insiders" were bragging.

They couldn't understand the profound ones, so they just took some teasing content and made it into videos, but they didn't expect that many people would actually believe it...

It's simply speechless. Zhou Yi thought for a moment and added a clause to the Mediation conditions, requiring the other party to publicly disclose information such as their educational background and age.

Including that their previous videos were all seen online, and they didn't know any insider secrets at all.

Actually, these two things don't necessarily represent anything; a high educational background doesn't necessarily mean much, and being older doesn't necessarily mean much either.

But an educational background serves as an endorsement; people generally believe that if someone graduated from a prestigious university, they must be cultured.

If someone is older, their experience is naturally rich.

The key is that the other party's personal introduction was too misleading...

Looking at the reply in front of him, Sun Pengxing was a bit hesitant. If these things were really made public, he would become a laughingstock on the internet.

That would truly be a case of everyone shouting to beat him.

But thinking about it, he had already agreed to withdraw from the internet and not be an Up Master in the future, so it seemed his reputation didn't matter anymore.

On one side is reputation, on the other is going to jail; this doesn't seem to require any struggle.

Thus, Sun Pengxing quickly made a reply: "Whatever you say, I will listen to you."

Speaking like this, even if Zhou Mouren wanted to be pedantic, he couldn't say anything more. After all, he wasn't a pervert who only felt comfortable after seeing the other party go inside.

After replying and obtaining the other party's contact information and similar details, Zhou Yi dialed Zhou Xinran's phone number.

"Lawyer Zhou, are you busy?"

Inside the Law Firm, Zhou Xinran, who had been running around for two days, smiled: "Oh, it's fine. Mr. Zhou, tell me, what's wrong? Is there some new situation?"

During this period, she could be said to have racked her brains for this case.

Zhou Xinran is not Fang Dazhuang.

The gap between lawyers has never been just a difference in professional level; this difference is reflected in every aspect.

But being busy or tired doesn't matter. For Zhou Xinran, being able to independently complete a case and let the opposing lawyer experience what she felt at the time is her pursuit.

Then Zhou Xinran heard Zhou Yi's words.

"Oh, Lawyer Zhou, let me tell you, for that case of ours, the other party has already contacted me and said they agree to Mediation."

It was as if a bolt from the blue had struck the top of Zhou Xinran's head. Looking at the case files in her hand and the carefully prepared statements, Zhou Xinran was a bit at a loss.

She began to ponder a question: how big is the universe, and does time have an end...

"Hello, Lawyer Zhou, are you listening? Hello?"

"Ah, yes, yes, yes, it's to have a Mediation, right? But... but Mr. Zhou, why did it suddenly go to Mediation?"

Zhou Xinran reacted and, after hesitating for a moment, asked anyway.

Now it was Zhou Yi's turn to be suspicious.

"Lawyer Zhou, the other party is mediating; aren't you happy? I will definitely pay the Lawyer Fee as agreed..."

Here is a point to remember: a contract is a contract. If the originally signed contract has an agreement stating how the Lawyer Fee will be handled after Mediation, then follow that agreement.

If there is no agreement, it is generally handled according to the entire lawsuit, meaning if the Mediation is successful, the Lawyer Fee remains the Lawyer Fee.

So Zhou Yi didn't understand: with the Mediation successful, it means the other party can do less work and still get the money, so why would she be unhappy?

"No, no, I am very happy, Mr. Zhou, I am really happy... Then please send me an email with the specific Mediation situation..."

"Because the Case Filing has already been done, it is best to have the other party come over."

Mediation certainly requires a Mediation agreement. In the case of a Case Filing, it is more reliable to go through the Court's Mediation.

Hanging up the phone, Zhou Xinran looked at the city outside the window, feeling very lost. That's right, she had clearly earned money easily, so why was she still unhappy?

Zhou Yi was equally puzzled on his end. Previously, this Zhou Xinran was quite normal; why did she feel a bit strange now?

Forget it, don't think about it. The task progress for the video theft incident was stuck at ninety-five percent and wouldn't go up no matter what.

Zhou Yi thought for a long time and guessed it was probably because the platform still hadn't apologized.

There's no other way; he has to wait. From the end of the First Instance to the Second Instance verdict, it also takes time.

Two days later, at the Guangming District Court, Zhou Yi met this Up Master named "Bilibili Sherlock Holmes."

Just as he had thought, the other party was very young.

The judge in charge of the Mediation looked at Zhou Yi; he looked familiar, very familiar.

There aren't many Criminal Private Prosecution cases seen in grassroots Courts.

It could even be said to be extremely rare; very few people choose this method.

And this person here, just in the first half of this year, has contributed two cases. He has a premonition that there shouldn't be fewer in the future...

Yes, it seems the previous Intellectual Property Rights infringement case was also related to him, which made the judge feel that this comrade is truly too supportive of the work of our grassroots Court.

It's just that he comes a bit too often, making everyone unable to stand the overtime...

No choice, the grassroots Court is really short-staffed.

Before the comrade judge could even begin, Sun Pengxing could no longer help but start apologizing.

"Brother Zhou, really Brother Zhou, it's my fault. I'll admit to whatever you say, but can we, can we please hurry up..."

In his twenty years of life, this was his first time entering a Court, and it was even related to a Criminal Case, which made Sun Pengxing feel his calves trembling.

When he received the call from Zhou Xinran saying that the Case Filing had been completed and he needed to come to Jingzhou, he was so scared he nearly couldn't catch his breath.

Going to jail, it usually feels so far removed from our lives, just like, just like a conceptual term.

Suddenly being told that one might go to jail, that kind of feeling is simply impossible for a person to accept.

The comrade judge in the middle looked left and right; it's this simple?

I haven't even asked anything yet, and it's already going to be resolved?

Yes, it is that fast. After emphasizing the principle of voluntariness to Sun Pengxing once more, the judge had nothing left to say.

Mediation is originally based on both parties agreeing and not violating the law, so since they have now reached a consensus, then that's that.

The Mediation agreement was quickly produced, both sides signed to confirm, and Sun Pengxing could not wait to start the transfer.

Regarding the mental distress of Zhou Yi, the compensation is five thousand yuan.

"Brother Zhou, the compensation money has already been transferred to you. Also, I can send out the video regarding the apology and explanation today. How does that look?"

This attitude was absurdly proactive; Zhou Mouren naturally didn't say anything like "I still prefer the way you were unruly..."

Only Zhou Xinran stood by Zhou Yi's side, feeling as if she had just been a bystander; the thick stack of case files in her bag hadn't been used...

First, two chapters to wet the throat. I actually took a day off yesterday, which is simply unforgivable, so I got up at six this morning to write, and with my lunch break added in, these eight thousand words are posted first. I'll continue to quench your thirst later! Let's get to work!

(End of chapter)