Since we are both reborn, of course I would choose the rich woman!

Chapter 244 The Penguin Admits Defeat (6k views, please subscribe)

Lu Yao did not inform Zhu Junyan in advance about his actions tonight, so Zhu Junyan's surprise and shock behind the camera were genuine.

This genuine emotional outpouring led viewers in the live stream to believe that this was a stunt orchestrated by Lü Yao himself.

And this does indeed fit Lü Yao's character.

But Lü Yao is no longer the Lü Yao of the past. He was a prominent figure in Shangnan, and his actions tonight were a complete downgrade, shattering the high-class image he had gradually built up over time.

Soul! Fly! Spirit! Scatter!
But this so-called "high-end successful person" persona was never what Lü Yao wanted; it was something that netizens naturally added to him based on his image.

Because Lü Yao rose to prominence so quickly, coupled with his handsome and sophisticated image, and the excellent style of every press conference he has held so far, Lü Yao has gradually become synonymous with "high-end, classy, ​​and classy," and a walking embodiment of "brand luxury."

Just like Wang Yaoqing and Zhang Chenguang in the film and television industry, even if these two actors play a beggar and only hold a broken bowl in their hand, you will feel that they are very likely to be blessed with destiny and rule the world in the next episode.

There's a real story behind this "wealthy and noble appearance".

Lü Yao's appearance also reflects this kind of temperament, so after years of marketing, Lü Yao's persona has become increasingly sophisticated. On Xiaohongshu, which is still a niche app, Lü Yao's outfits and speech are even used as case studies for analysis. Some bloggers have even started selling courses and making money by analyzing Lü Yao's outfits and image.

This is not a good thing.

Now and in the future, many grassroots internet bloggers are pursuing a high-end style, but this will only widen the gap between bloggers and netizens.

One of the most famous examples is probably the "founder of Wanxue" on Weibo. This Weibo influencer, who came from a very ordinary background but had a unique aesthetic sense and was good at marketing himself, failed because of this.

Her path to success was remarkably similar to Lü Yao's. After gaining a large following on the internet, she didn't think about monetizing it; instead, she was determined to enter the world of high-end circles.

Finally?

It seems she got what she wanted.

But the world of high-end circles seems to be completely different from what she imagined, or rather, the towering tree she's clinging to isn't quite right.

In short, ten years later, this former founder of Wanxue has been reduced to renting a villa to do live-streaming e-commerce, and can only afford to furnish a small room in the villa... It's a pity that she has long missed her golden period of monetization.

If she were to start a makeup and styling livestream at the peak of her popularity and then sell cosmetics, given her status as the founder of Wanxue, she would undoubtedly have a place in the cosmetics livestreaming industry.

Like Wan Nai, there are many others who missed out on the internet age, as well as a whole host of celebrities in the entertainment industry.

They've been put on too high a pedestal.

Unable to lower themselves to participate in the massive battle for internet traffic, they have gradually been abandoned by the traffic.

With so many clear examples before him, Lü Yao certainly wouldn't make the same mistake again.

At the beginning, he had nothing, so he went all out and quickly gained popularity by relying on his bad reputation. He also allowed netizens to keep praising him. But now he owns multiple companies and has a certain foundation. Under these circumstances, he certainly will not allow himself to be imprisoned by layers of gold leaf into a shiny but clumsy and rigid golden statue.

His kneeling tonight not only boosted internet traffic.

This also shattered his golden image on the internet.

He is proving to netizens through his actions that Lü Yao is still the same Lü Yao, the shameless and unscrupulous Lü Yao.

Lu Yao's kneeling did indeed generate a huge amount of traffic, just as he had hoped.

The moment he knelt before the camera, the dazzling halo and radiant golden body that had been surrounding him shattered, and the golden fragments that flew out like gold leaf and sparks quickly danced and spread across the internet.

Everyone is discussing Lü Yao's incredibly smooth and natural sliding knee.

Some people lamented:

"Is this guy really shameless? I could never do something like that in my entire life."

"So he's General Manager Lü, while you're just so-and-so."

"I can only say one thing: I'm totally impressed!"

Some people ridiculed:

"He's just a clown trying to attract attention. He's used these kinds of methods since he rose to power. It's disgusting."

"If you have money, why are you still doing this? Don't go overboard with the show."

"I'm ashamed for him!"

Some fans also praised:
"[Crying][Crying] I spend so much money on other streamers and all I get in return is a 'thank you, big brother,' but Mr. Lü is willing to humble himself and kowtow to me! He's like a brother to me!"

"Even though Mr. Lü drives a luxury car, he still calls me 'brother,' but you, my brother, won't even call me 'godfather.'"

"A man's knees are worth gold; now is the time to cash in! Mr. Lü is awesome!"

His kneeling in front of the camera caused a stir on the internet that was more effective than millions or tens of millions of dollars in advertising fees. It made players of the Guang'an system and fans of Lü Yao think that this guy was really shameless... But this guy is also really good at making friends.

After leaving the photography base, Lü Yao looked at the surging public opinion online, and the hashtag #LüYaoSlideKneeling# which had climbed to the top ten of Weibo's trending topics in just a few tens of minutes, and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

This is a pool of traffic he has gained by exchanging the starlight and golden light he has accumulated over the years, so this tactic can only be used once.

Zhu Junyan, who was also sitting in the car, saw that Lü Yao was still laughing. He scratched his still numb scalp and said, "Master, why are you still laughing? You're... being too reckless."

Lu Yao put away his phone and laughed, "What's there to be reckless about? A large part of my success was built on the help of netizens. Isn't it good to get closer to them now?"

The internet is inherently designed to narrow the gap between ordinary people and high-net-worth individuals.

This is the fundamental reason why traffic stars can make a living from traffic in the Internet age, but many of them are prone to their image collapsing after jumping too high.

Why?

Because of the sense of distance, and because the persona that is put on is too fake, it is too easy to collapse, while those personas that are more down-to-earth are often more solid.

Simultaneously.

This is also a signal—Lu Yao has never been a rule-abiding person. He dares to think about many things that others dare not think about, and he dares to do many things that others dare not do.

If you can't see this signal tonight, then his actions tonight are just a target he deliberately threw out, and it's a matter of who will fall for it.

Although he and Zhu Junyan were nominally master and apprentice, Lü Yao still explained the underlying logic behind his actions to Zhu Junyan very clearly. Zhu Junyan was indeed a bit confused, not expecting that such a simple act of kneeling could have so many interpretations.

However, he was still quite resistant to such behavior, and he knew that he simply couldn't pull off this kind of routine, and even if he did, he would never achieve the same effect as Lü Yao.

"It's truly fitting that he calls me 'Master'."

Zhu Junyan sighed inwardly, realizing that this was something he truly couldn't learn.

The act of kneeling represents so much in the cultural context of Tokyo University. Whether it's a man or a woman, there are actually very few people in their lives who can kneel. Nowadays, even emperors are not worthy of making ordinary Tokyo University students kneel.

It's like when someone traveling abroad encountered a king's procession, and all the foreigners knelt down except for the students from the University of Tokyo who weren't. A few years ago, this behavior would have been criticized by some pro-foreigners as disrespectful to local culture. But as the students from the University of Tokyo have become more confident, netizens say—

“It’s a new era now, and the king of this tiny state really doesn’t need to kneel down to us anymore.”

Therefore, to this day, people from Dongda University do not kneel to anyone or anything except for gods, Buddhas, and their closest relatives and elders. In fact, the act of kneeling and worshiping is considered extremely insulting.

Especially for scions like Zhu Junyan, who come from high-ranking families, their ambitions are even higher.

But it was precisely by utilizing the cultural connotations inherent in the act of "kneeling" that Lü Yao was able to leverage such a large amount of internet traffic, just like the strategist who took matters into his own hands, bet on netizens' rebellious psychology, and demanded that his mother kneel down with her child to raise money for medical expenses.

Lü Yao leaned back comfortably in his seat and let out a long sigh.

Now, who cares that he threw away that paper envelope?

……

After Lü Yao's kneeling incident ignited his own fan base and the Guang'an faction's fans, discussions about Lü Yao quickly spread beyond their immediate circle.

Gan Xiaoxi, who was browsing her phone at home after work, quickly came across Lü Yao's online activities. She immediately sat up straight from lying on the sofa, holding her phone.

"Dude! You're playing this game?"

Gan Xiaoxi immediately forwarded the message to their group chat: "Look, look! Lü Yao is up to something online again!"

The small group that Gan Xiaoxi forwarded the message to included Rong Nianqing, Jian Xiaojie, and Wang Shu, forming a small circle of just the two of them. Lü Yao was not included.

After the message was forwarded to the WeChat group, Rong Nianqing was the first to respond: "[wiping sweat][wiping sweat] What's going on? There are too many words."

Yes, the fact that there are too many words to read is a major characteristic of the internet at this time.

Gan Xiaoxi explained succinctly: "Zhu Junyan took Lü Yao's live streaming phone to do a live stream, and then Lü Yao heard that a fan had given him a pretty big gift, and then he smoothly knelt down."

Rong Nianqing: "..."

She actually sent an ellipsis to the group. Given her style of doing things and her way of thinking, she certainly couldn't understand why Lü Yao would do such a thing. Now that he has such a status and position, is it necessary for him to resort to such petty tricks?

That's too lowbrow.

For once, Rong Nianqing felt a slight sense of... embarrassment from Lü Yao's actions.

It's perfectly normal for Rong Nianqing to have such thoughts and feelings because she got too close to Lü Yao and devoted too much attention to him.

Soon, Jian Xiaojie in the group sent an emoji saying, "[Smirking] Don't you think it's a bit embarrassing for this guy to do this?" Rong Nianqing retorted, "It's not that it's embarrassing, it's just... I think it's really unnecessary. Especially since I see that the online opinion against him seems to be spontaneously improving lately."

Jian Xiaojie said in the group: "If I were you, I would be glad that this guy is on our side. If he were our opponent... I really don't know what he would do to deal with us. Now such a good reputation is ruined just like that. Even on my side, this kind of person is considered ruthless."

Rong Nianqing thought about it and it seemed to make sense.

Although Lü Yao has always been involved in marketing and generating traffic, he seems to be heading in the direction of ruining his internet reputation, and he doesn't care if netizens use the most vicious language to ridicule him.

Recently, because he started a game company and held a few good press conferences, his public image has improved somewhat. But this guy turned around and smashed his internet persona to pieces.

"This guy really goes all out in making fun of himself."

Jian Xiaojie continued in the group: "I bet there will be a lot of articles online after tonight commenting on this hot topic. Lu Yao's opponents will definitely not be idle either; they've probably already typed out half of their impassioned articles."

Gan Xiaoxi: "[Question] Is this what Lü Yao wanted?"

Jian Xiaojie replied with a smile, "Probably. With such good bait placed here, even I would be tempted to take a bite."

Although Rong Nianqing and Gan Xiaoxi were in different places, they both touched their chins at the same time, becoming somewhat expectant.

Jian Xiaojie's guess was correct, but she did not expect that the bait Lu Yao had released this time would actually catch a fish that was not small.

Around midnight, Wang Xingyu, head of Tencent's Weibo business within Tencent's social media group, was the first to release a passionate and eloquent commentary.

This article takes a very unique angle.

He stated clearly at the outset that Lü Yao's actions were nothing but sensationalism, a pretentious and exaggerated show. His behavior was a disgrace to his own character, a corruption of the internet atmosphere, and a distortion of the internet ecosystem.

Wang Xingyu's scathing critique positioned Lü Yao as a disgrace to entrepreneurs, making them ashamed to associate with him.

This long commentary has been published. Relying on the hot topic of the Lü Yao incident, Wang Xingyu's own network of contacts, and the secret traffic purchases by other peers, Wang Xingyu's article has begun to spread rapidly on media platforms such as Tencent Weibo, Sina Weibo, and NetEase News.

Strangely, the most popular WeChat official account under the Tencent umbrella has remained silent.

Even though many public account bloggers followed up with posts mocking and analyzing the situation, they still failed to gain much traffic.

It is clear that the criticism of Lü Yao has been throttled.

As an employee of Tencent, Wang Xingyu certainly knew what this meant, and his face turned pale immediately.

So shortly after posting, he started messaging his boss to ask what was going on, but his boss didn't reply.

In an instant, the feeling of being abandoned began to spread wildly in Wang Xingyu's heart.

why?
Why is this happening!

Did he do something wrong?
But this is clearly an opportunity.

Wang Xingyu arrived at the Penguin campus the next day with trepidation. Shortly after arriving at his workstation, he was summoned to the office of the big boss of the social media group.

Mr. Tang, the head of the social networking business group, is a middle-aged man who looks refined and wears round black-rimmed glasses. When Wang Xingyu came over, he said with a smile, "You're here. Please have a seat."

Wang Xingyu nervously sat down in the reception area. President Tang poured him a glass of water, and Wang Xingyu stood up and bowed as he took the glass.

Mr. Tang then sat down and said with a smile, "Don't be nervous. I also read the article you posted online last night. It had a great impact and spread widely. It's clear you put your heart into it."

Wang Xingyu felt a little more confident: "Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Tang. I just did something insignificant."

Mr. Tang chuckled and said, "It's clear you're very good at identifying trending topics. From now on, you'll be in charge of the content for 'Daily Highlights'."

Tiantian Kandian is also a business under the Social Networking Business Group. It is a value-added service that is attached to QQ, but it is not as big as Penguin Weibo and has fewer resources. Its daily work is to push small advertisements through QQ Kandian. The potential for business content development and the achievements it can create are very average.

Therefore, this job assignment is essentially a demotion, which means that he has no possibility of climbing the ranks.

When his labor contract expires, he will still be among the group of people who are laid off.

Wang Xingyu, who had just calmed down for a moment, was stunned. He opened his mouth and asked, "But President Tang..."

Mr. Tang smiled and waved his hand: "This position is more suitable for you, and it allows you to better utilize your strengths."

Hearing what Mr. Tang said, Wang Xingyu, instead of being driven to the brink, felt a surge of courage. He raised his head and looked firmly at Mr. Tang: "Mr. Tang, I don't understand. My article clearly received a great response, and many people online agree with my views. Shang Nan Lü Yao's self-degrading behavior can bring him to rock bottom! With this wave of public opinion, even if we can't revive the increasingly sluggish Tencent Weibo, we can at least deal a heavy blow to Lü Yao and improve Tencent's image."

Listening to Wang Xingyu's impassioned speech, Mr. Tang was somewhat speechless.

This person has been working at Tencent for almost three years. He has good business and management skills and is also daring and hardworking. But this time, he failed because of his daring and hardworking nature.

The rank of that Mr. Lü from Shangnan is clearly beyond his level to compete with. The reason why Tencent smeared Mr. Lü earlier was because that incident was indeed accidental, and they could manipulate things to cause Mr. Lü some trouble.

At their level and that of General Manager Lü, there are endless meetings, countless documents to read, and all sorts of things coming in like snowflakes every day.

In this situation, even if it's just causing him some trouble or making him make a slight mistake when handling certain matters, they'll still benefit.

Lu Yaogang and Rong Nianqing used a similar strategy when they started Huasheng Life together.

This tactic may seem useless, but it is actually quite lethal.

Just like in League of Legends, even though it's just a game and you know your teammates are deliberately trying to mess with you and ruin your mentality, you still get angry because of their intentional behavior, which leads to poor performance or you just giving up.

Last time, so many competitors joined forces; they were just playing mind games.

Moreover, last time, multiple companies in the industry acted together, and everyone was just subtly manipulating the traffic; no one made their moves public.

But this time, Tencent actually produced a genius who used his own account to launch a scathing attack on that Mr. Lü from Shangnan. Couldn't they see through such an obvious bait? Even if you want to stir up trouble, don't use your own account.

Does your real account represent yourself?

You represent penguins!

Mr. Tang's smile faded, and he said softly, "Take my advice and go back and delete that long article as soon as possible. It may not be of any use... but you can bet that Mr. Lü won't hold it against you."

Wang Xingyu wanted to say something, but President Tang raised his hand to interrupt him, saying, "If you don't understand, go back and think about it slowly."

However, Mr. Tang estimated that given Mr. Nan Xiaolu's personality, he probably wouldn't give Wang Xingyu a chance to turn things around.

as predicted.

When Wang Xingyu returned to his office and opened his blog, he found that his long, scathing critique, which he had posted on Tencent Weibo and Sina Weibo, had been reposted and commented on by Xiao Lü, the CEO of Shangnan.

Lü Yao's repost and comment consisted of only one sentence:
"I understand now. The whole thing is that it's shameful and despicable for me to be a fan of someone, so what you're saying, this Tencent executive, is that my fans aren't worthy?"

The moment Wang Xingyu saw Lü Yao's repost and comment, his face turned pale instantly!

He was so angry he was on the verge of a breakdown!

He immediately raised his hand to the keyboard, ready to defend himself, but when he tried to organize his thoughts and come up with some explanation, his mind went blank.

This is a fucking trap!
If he argues that Lü Yao's fans are a good match, then Lü Yao's retort, "If the fans are a good match, what's wrong with me shipping them?", would immediately kill him. Moreover, this argument contradicts his previous lengthy and scathing critique, making his incoherent and contradictory views seem like a result of internal conflict.

If he insists that "that's right, he's not worthy," he'll offend too many people.

Since we're all in the internet industry, it's easy to guess what will happen if we offend netizens.

Whether he chooses "Yes" or "No," even the "or" in between makes him seem very Arnold-like...

So after struggling for a long time in front of the computer, Wang Xingyu shakily clicked the mouse and deleted the long article he had passionately written the night before.

At that moment, he understood why President Tang had sighed.

But just as Mr. Tang had predicted, Lü Yao had no intention of letting him go.

Lu Yao then posted a screenshot, which was clearly the article he had already deleted. He captioned the screenshot on Weibo: "Dear, given your damage to my and my company's image, I will be taking legal action."

"I, Lü Yao, will challenge Pizza Hut!"

Upon seeing Lü Yao's Weibo post, Wang Xingyu felt a wave of darkness wash over him, and he felt all the strength in his body rapidly draining away.

Now he finally understands why his Weibo posts received so many reposts and views.

This wave of schemes wasn't just orchestrated by Mr. Lü from Shangnan, but also by other industry players.

When he excitedly revealed his weakness, his peers, who had been lurking in the shadows, immediately began to flatter him, hoping that Shangnan would fight with Tencent!
Soon, Lü Yao's lawsuit was published.

However, this wave of lawsuits is not targeting Wang Xingyu, but the entire Tencent. Lü Yao directly characterized this incident as a smear and defamation against him and his companies by Tencent, and demanded compensation from Tencent.

Shortly after Lü Yao posted on Weibo, Tencent's Social Networking Group immediately issued a statement declaring that this was the personal behavior of a company employee and had nothing to do with the company, essentially putting on a smooth non-stick pan performance.

Although the penguin uses a skill to make it unselectable.

However, the fact that Tencent, which has always been virtually invincible in legal matters, is currently "unselectable" has made netizens realize—

The penguin backed down.

(End of this chapter)