Chapter 677: Acting Disrespectfully Despite One's Age

And this is a massive group, the lowest invisible tier — there are plenty of stay-at-home moms, and plenty of people who can't get by, don't want to work in factories, so they try making money online and scrape out a living off Weibo income.

Of course some people do earn high incomes here, it's just that right now this group is still very small.

No wonder Chang'e Technology has been losing money all along — ordinary people and companies can't pull this off, the costs are huge, it needs sustained, continuous investment.

The moment you stop investing, the platform dies on the spot, because without new content there won't be any traffic.

"Chang'e Technology is a platform, a pure content platform, and what we've always been doing is letting more people earn money through what happens around them, through their skills, through the content they produce.

Whether it's livestreaming, filming funny short videos, or ghost-edits, music, commentary, lifestyle, novels — you can earn money here and find your own lane and positioning.

And what's Chang'e Technology's strategy? We don't expect every section to make money — as long as two or three main sections can make money, that's enough, that's our strategy.

Redistributing surplus money to the lowest ordinary people through internet Big Data — I think this is the greatest charity, not donating your own money."

Fang Hong paused when he got to this point.

The government officials in the front rows started clapping — *clap clap clap! * — and everyone else followed suit.

No one rebutted at this moment — he'd hit right on what the leaders wanted to hear, because this approach is far more meaningful than Cao Telei's way; you simply don't know where his money ends up.

At least Wangyi and people in society don't know, but the money the Principal scatters through content really does reach ordinary people's hands.

Jack Ma's expression grew somewhat solemn — this model gave him a sense of crisis, because it would generate endlessly cycling content, and every kind of content could find its own specific audience.

In that case, as long as the algorithm is used well, it would accumulate infinite cycling traffic, and traffic could find what it wants to see here.

Liu Tianxian's expression held a sense of pride — she had always known what her man wanted to do.

"Another reason I won't do charity the way Old Cao does is that I think it's a waste. I'll invest the money into more meaningful undertakings — exploring Artificial Intelligence, exploring future space technology — that's what can truly change humanity's fate."

Fang Hong stopped when he got to this point, no longer debating with Cao Telei — their outlooks were simply different.

The two men's ages differed by forty or fifty years; how could they possibly share a contemporary way of thinking?

"Your thinking isn't wrong either — there are thousands of paths to charity, it's just that yours is too dangerous. The costs stay high, and it's easy to cause a funding break." Cao Telei said this only after a pause.

In his heart, though, he actually quite approved of Fang Hong's approach.

"I'd like to ask you a personal question — what do you usually like to do?" Fang Hong said.

"I usually like to play golf." Cao Telei didn't know what he meant, but answered honestly anyway.

Fang Hong asked again: "Do you take your wife along to play?"

"No, my wife doesn't play — I take other people's wives to play." The moment Cao Telei said this—

An awkward burst of laughter immediately went through the room — this man really dared to say anything, held nothing back.

"Well, this is where I'm different from you. Whether my wife can do it or not, whether she has this hobby or not, I'll take her to experience it, teach her how to do it.

If she really doesn't like it, then I'll let her go do whatever she likes more.

I run my business the same way — I teach people how to do it, create conditions for them, create platforms, use my own advantages and technology to lead others to prosperity, to realize their own value.

Not 'you can't, so I won't bring you along' — it's not like that. Isn't our common prosperity precisely about bringing along those who aren't rich, those with weaker ability to survive?"

Fang Hong didn't mock Lao Cao for taking or not taking other people's wives — he laid out his own philosophy.

These words inevitably made some people in the room think — the rich getting rich first and pulling the rest along; the Principal's approach had a certain resonance with that.

And this is also something the higher-ups have been exploring all along.

Isn't the fight against poverty precisely about not giving up on any single poor person?

Liu Tianxian pressed her palms together, recalling how this man had always taken her along to film, taught her to act — even when she didn't know or understand, he'd patiently explain.

She also recalled how this man had always helped the people around him grow. Yu Xian couldn't act at the very beginning — he was a total rookie — it was Fang Hong who kept him by his side, gave him a chance to practice, went to the United States with him to make his way, and only then did he have what he has today.

Chen Zhixi was the same — at first she just followed Fang Hong around executing things, from using Wang Laoer to stir up hype, then using feminism for Boxing, all as an executor, and now she's gradually grown into the CEO of Yutu who can hold her own.

Wang Ran, Guo Fan, Wen Muye and the rest were all the same — at first they were just dipping their toes into film directing, and slowly he brought them all along to grow.

When Zhao Xiaodao grew up, even if he broke away from Yutu to set up his own studio, Fang Hong didn't stop him.

Chen Sicheng even encouraged him to strike out on his own.

Cao Telei fell silent — indeed the two men's philosophies weren't quite the same, and he couldn't say the Principal was wrong.

"General Manager Lao Wang, do you think what the Principal just said makes sense?" Host Li Nan pointed the spearhead at Lao Wang Zong, calling him out to speak.

Cao Telei had already stepped down from the field, so someone had to be next.

"Said it quite well — every enterprise has its own way of surviving, every person has their own understanding of charity, they're all right!"

Lao Wang Zong's fence-sitting endorsement of both sides' approaches felt rather pointless.

Jack Ma saw Lao Wang Zong wasn't cutting it, and prepared to pick up the microphone and speak — he'd have a go at the Principal himself.

Yet Lao Wang Zong spoke again: "I think the Principal has slightly switched the concept. What he calls driving ordinary people to earn money through content, and putting more money into future fields — that's switching the concept.

Don't those content creators put in labor? Don't they drive traffic? They must, otherwise their content wouldn't be watched, and being watched must also bring ads to the platform.

What I want to say is — since others have put in labor, put in their skills, and brought benefits to the platform, that's not charity, that's business.

And how to run that business is a matter the platform has to consider for long-term development — it can't be lumped together with charity."

His words immediately discounted the weight of everything Fang Hong had said — he was quite sharp.

Those listening also felt it made a lot of sense — if the Principal's thing counts as charity, then hiring people to work also counts as charity.

You go to work, put in labor, I pay you — that's it, so the Principal switched the concept.

"Including investing in future fields — that's not charity either, that's investment. How can investment count as charity? If it does, then we're doing charity every day.

I think the Principal really — he just doesn't want to do charity and that's that, yet he insists on going around in such a big circle to argue that not doing charity is right."

Lao Wang Zong's tone had a certain humor to it, making the audience in the room laugh despite themselves.

"Oh, General Manager Lao Wang has really misunderstood my meaning. I never said any of that was charity — I only said that if I had surplus money, I'd invest it that way."

Fang Hong shook his head, hinting that Lao Wang Zong couldn't follow the conversation, then went on: "Just like you taking loan money to buy, buy, buy all over the world — buying theater chains, buying film companies — has meaning. I just feel my money spent that way also has plenty of meaning."

These words somewhat dug up Lao Wang Zong's old background — saying he took the bank's money overseas to buy blindly.

Xiao Wang in the audience, watching his smug look, wished he could go up and beat the man up, while everyone else watched with great interest.

This time the Principal was at it again, locking horns with Lao Wang Zong.

Lao Wang Zong opened by saying Fang Hong's charity was fake, that he was twisting concepts; the Principal shot back that Lao Wang Zong's own work wasn't as meaningful or high-end as his own.

"When I first started meeting the Principal, his career had just taken off. Back then it was 'Wang Zong, Wang Zong' we called him, calling him so warmly and affectionately. I had one of my subordinates go to him to get a little something done, and he went running to do it eagerly, and it was done very well — I was very satisfied."

The subordinate Lao Wang Zong mentioned was Ceng Maojun. He took the microphone, glanced at Fang Hong, and continued: "Now he's gotten brazen — legs crossed, eyes full of contempt, the corner of his mouth cocked up. He looks exactly like the kind of street thug we'd see out on the road.

People say the older you get, the more respect you earn. With me, the older I get, the less respect I get."

This was saying that Fang Hong used to be a clown he couldn't even get a meeting with — a huge gap — and now that he'd risen up, he looked down on people with dog eyes, and that he didn't respect his elders.

So the Principal had a past like this, had once sucked up to someone. Everyone at the scene watched with smiles to see how the Principal would respond.

Liu Tianxian was also watching with a worried look in her eyes.

"I just thought too well of you. I assumed an elder ought to be respected. As a younger generation, I called you warmly and affectionately, did things for you — at the time I even felt honored.

But now it's been turned into me being disrespectful, being belittled. I took the loss and got no credit for it. The ancients said it perfectly — 'If you want to condemn a man, you need never worry about lacking a charge.' Luckily I'm more mature now. I know not every elder is worth respecting — some are simply unworthy of their age."

Fang Hong's words drew a burst of laughter from everyone present — the insults in that line were vicious.

But the two of them were equally matched; both were hurling pretty vicious insults.

The Principal's mind still worked fast — his response was decent. These two had really started going at each other, after all, there was already a grudge between them.

(End of chapter)