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

Chapter 253 Was I being too obvious? (6k views, please subscribe)

Lee Yong-jin is extremely frustrated right now. Dongda University's firewall is really not very good. How did they see the online public opinion dynamics from Silla so quickly?

Looking at the message from Lü Yao, and recalling the outrageous comments her compatriots had made online, Li Rongzhen felt incredibly ashamed.

It's like the awkward feeling of having your good-for-nothing relative suddenly poop in front of a very important guest.

After feeling embarrassed for a moment, Li Rongzhen picked up her phone and replied: "I apologize for making you laugh. Due to the reasons of education and national conditions, my country has long adopted some very bad education methods. If any of my remarks made you uncomfortable, I apologize on your behalf and hope you can understand."

"Furthermore, these remarks were not made by my own will, and I hope you will forgive me, President Lü."

Seeing the very serious message from Li Rongzhen, Lü Yao was delighted.

It seems that the comments circulating on Silla's website really made Lee Yong-jin feel very embarrassed, so much so that when Lü Yao sent her the message, she was completely flustered and sent herself such a long text message.

Lu Yao replied, "Don't worry, I understand. The stronger the reaction from your netizens, the better the expected results will be. This is also part of the plan."

Lee Rongzhen breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the message. In fact, she had anticipated the reaction to her post in Silla, but because this matter involved the emotions of the people of both sides, Lee Rongzhen was not sure how to gauge Lü Yao's mindset.

Even if Lü Yao didn't care at first, when such emotions got involved, unexpected variables could still easily occur.

However, seeing Lü Yao's response now, Li Rongzhen is finally a little relieved. Hopefully, in the future, this young CEO Lü from Shangnan can remain so calm and rational.

After a brief chat with Li Rongzhen, Lü Yao put away his phone and stopped paying attention to online updates.

In this incident, Lü Yao also did not intend to speak out, but he had already assigned his online army the next task: to synchronize the public opinion situation in Silla with that in China, so that Chinese netizens could see just how incredible the Silla netizens were.

He did this partly to create the impression that they really had a bad falling out with Li Rongzhen, and partly to teach those fan leaders on Weibo a lesson.

Among these people who make a living in the internet industry, quite a few are incredibly audacious.

Do you really think that just because Lü Yao is Xiao Huijun's boss, you can bully him at will?

The day after Li Rongzhen visited Lü Yao's company, online public opinion continued to ferment. In order to cooperate with this wave of public opinion, Li Rongzhen went to Shangnan Airport early in the morning and took her private plane to leave the country.

However, an unexpected situation arose outside of this operation, which neither Lü Yao nor Li Rongzhen had anticipated.

That is, Yunnan Pharmaceutical, which was about to reach an agreement with Li Rongzhen and agree to her acquiring shares, suddenly issued a statement amid this wave of public opinion, stating that they would suspend their cooperation with the pharmaceutical and medical beauty technology company under Li Rongzhen's name.

According to the official announcement from Diannan Pharmaceutical, the two parties failed to reach an agreement on their ideas during communication.

However, at this critical juncture, Diannan Pharmaceutical's actions are hard not to remind people of the recent online public opinion storm, given the strong opinions that Chinese netizens have towards the netizens in Silla.

Yunnan Pharmaceutical is currently undergoing a major transformation, a transformation with its ups and downs, but also containing enormous potential profits.

Yunnan Pharmaceutical was originally willing to cooperate with Li Rongzhen because of the international funds she held. However, now that Li Rongzhen has suddenly made such a big fuss, Yunnan Pharmaceutical immediately backed down. Those who have already entered the game and those who are still observing all want to kick out Li Rongzhen, this unstable factor.

Rong Nianqing was the first to know this news, even before Li Rongzhen, who had already returned to Silla.

Then Rong Nianqing immediately shared this news with Lü Yao, asking him to appease Li Rongzhen.

Lu Yao readily agreed, which was actually an opportunity given to him by Rong Nianqing to get closer to that side.

Sure enough, after contacting Li Rongzhen, she generously said, "It's okay, this was actually within my expectations."

Diannan Pharmaceutical's capital pool is still too small, and the interests and energy it can leverage are also very limited. Now that it has a better resource like Shangnan Rong Nianqing, it doesn't matter if Diannan Pharmaceutical doesn't cooperate.

Even if Diannan Pharmaceutical doesn't issue an announcement, she will eventually terminate her cooperation with Diannan Pharmaceutical. It's just that the current situation is a win-win situation for everyone.

After finishing their business, Lü Yao asked, "How is everything back in Silla?"

Although they didn't meet often, their few meetings and phone calls made them feel like old friends who had known each other for years.

Lee Yong-jin used a sigh in her message: "Sigh, I just got back and trouble has already come knocking. My brother has already initiated a shareholders' meeting and made a statement to the media, trying to force me to relinquish some important positions on the grounds of 'undermining collective cooperation.'"

Lu Yao sent a message asking, "Don't hesitate to let me know if you need any help."

Lee Yong-jin sent an emoji: "[Smiling face] I will."

Lu Yao chuckled when he saw Li Rongzhen's message; she certainly wasn't being polite.

For the next two days, Lü Yao kept a close eye on the financial and online news in Silla. Lee Yong-jin's popularity there was indeed quite high, as there was a lot of content about her online in Silla.

Some people are still discussing the possibility that she might be bullied at Dongdaemun University, while others are discussing Lee Yong-jin's future within the Samsung Group, whether she is really undermining the collective cooperation of the Samsung Group, and whether, as Samsung Group officially stated, she is going to introduce external capital to fight against her own company.

It's strange, really, because Silla's current predicament stems from the Samsung Group, yet their feelings toward the Samsung Group are exceptionally complicated.

In fact, Tokyo University also has this kind of complex feeling towards large corporations, but it was not obvious in 2015. After 2020, the tearing apart of the stance and cognition of most ordinary people will create a very magical reality.

In short.

With these complex emotions at play, many people on Shilla's side were paying close attention to what was happening within the Samsung Group, while also waiting for Lee Yong-jin's response.

In fact, Lee Yong-jin's decision to go abroad to seek external resources and assistance was very displeasing. Not only were many senior executives within the Samsung Group dissatisfied, but even many blood relatives within the Lee family of Samsung were very unhappy with Lee Yong-jin's actions.

To put it bluntly, Li Rongzhen's actions were akin to "inviting a wolf into the house," a move that would shatter the interests of everyone in the group, all so that she could secure her own foothold within the company.

But she's a woman!
Why bother with all this?

In the minds of many Silla people, especially the men in these chaebol families, this was simply outrageous and a disgrace to their ancestors' legacy.

In fact, Lee Yong-jin's personal abilities are significantly stronger than Lee Jae-young's. Lee Jae-young ostensibly gained control of the Samsung Group, but the subsequent "Samsung spontaneous combustion incident," the "bribery scandal," and many other "disgusting incidents in the entertainment industry" were all related to Samsung.

These incidents all demonstrate Lee Jae-yong's deficiencies in management skills.

Of course, after getting in touch with Li Rongzhen, Lü Yao suspected that Li Rongzhen was also behind it all.

Take the battery spontaneous combustion incident, for example. It happened almost simultaneously with Li Zai Rong's arrest, making it hard not to draw some conclusions.

If Lü Yao's guess is true, it means that Lee Yong-jin actually controls many powerful departments related to Samsung Electronics. It may not be obvious on the surface, but he must have done a lot of things behind the scenes.

The internal departmental silos and factional infighting at Samsung Electronics continued even a decade later. Although there were no more extreme cases of batteries spontaneously combusting, Samsung phones were still controlled by their own people regarding memory and panels.

The funniest thing is the domestic review bloggers. Samsung is clearly being held back by its own people from increasing the amount of RAM, but these phone reviewers insist that 8GB is enough.

Because Lu Yao and Li Rongzhen deliberately exposed the matter, the issue of Li Rongzhen seeking external capital assistance escalated within the Silla and Samsung Groups.

Lu Yao even heard in the country that Samsung had held an internal inquiry meeting regarding Lee Yong-jin.

Meanwhile, negative comments about Lee Yong-jin are also increasing online.

People from Silla who held very "male-centric" views and had a serious sense of "male chauvinism" questioned Yi Yong-jin online, asking her why she betrayed her family and even her country.

Despite being from such a small place, these Silla people have quite the temper and arrogance.

But all of this was within Li Rongzhen's expectations.

Four days after returning to Korea, Lee Yong-jin held a press conference.

Lu Yao also watched the live broadcast of Li Rongzhen's press conference online. Under the spotlight of numerous flashes, Li Rongzhen's already fair face became even paler, and her delicate and mature features appeared particularly haggard.

However, when facing the camera, her face was more resolute and heroic than when she was in Shangnan.

Even when faced with numerous questions from reporters, she answered them fluently and readily.

At the press conference, Lee Yong-jin responded: "My reason for going abroad to seek cooperation with external capital has nothing to do with betraying my family, and the idea of ​​betraying my country is even more absurd."

"The world economy today emphasizes global cooperation and global division of labor. Our country is also a link in the global division of labor. Every country has something we can learn from. My trip abroad this time is precisely to make Samsung Group more international, more inclusive and open."

"As long as it can enhance Samsung Group's international standing and create more jobs for our country, I don't care what kind of criticism I personally endure. But I cannot tolerate my ambitions being slandered by a group of arrogant internal competitors and a group of stupid internal parasites."

When Li Rongzhen said these words, her gentle and sweet tone revealed an unprecedented firmness.

Through the barrage of comments that kept refreshing in the live stream, Lü Yao knew that Li Rongzhen's performance was a great success. It had reversed the negative reviews she had received on the Silla online community and made the netizens who had previously criticized and attacked her feel ashamed.

But Lee Yong-jin's performance wasn't over yet.

Because Lu Yao and his group, who were supposed to be her scapegoats, haven't shown up yet. After Li Rongzhen finished speaking, she continued, "Although I am very eager to promote Samsung Group, I still cannot tolerate the unequal cooperation proposals put forward by external capital."

As she spoke, she took out the contract that Rong Nianqing had prepared for her.

"I will disclose the specific contents of this contract on my personal account later, and everyone can check it out for themselves to see just how outrageous this contract is."

"Of course, I did not agree to this contract. This is the fundamental reason why my relationship with Dongda Capital ended on bad terms."

At this point, Li Rongzhen stood up in front of the camera and solemnly declared, as if taking an oath: "I solemnly swear that I will never betray my family, nor will I betray my country. I will only burn everything for my family, for my country, and for all those who support me."

"I sincerely hope that everyone can have a wonderful and proud life."

Lee Yong-jin's speech deeply moved many women in Silla who looked up to her, and they wished they could become her absolute loyalists, clearing all obstacles in her path.

Some netizens who were initially skeptical were now swayed and left messages in the live stream and online communities:

"How could our President Lee Yong-jin betray us? She has always been such an outstanding person. She is a resilient woman who, although she looks gentle, would never compromise."

"If President Lee Yong-jin becomes the owner of Samsung, our lives might really get better."

"Long live President Lee Yong-jin!!"

It's not surprising that the people of Silla would have such thoughts. There's a saying that has been circulating among the people of Silla: "Death, taxes, and the Three Stars are the three things that the people of Silla cannot escape in their lives."

Even if the person in charge of Silla wants to take power, Samsung is an entity that cannot be bypassed.

Therefore, the owner of Samsung Group can also be considered the uncrowned king of Silla.

Compared to Lee Jae-young, Lee Yong-jin, who is beautiful, has a sweet voice, is good at marketing, and is also very capable, might be a good choice to become the new head of the Samsung Group.

Don't underestimate the opinions of most Silla employees on this matter. This is a force that can truly influence the personnel appointments and removals at the top of the Samsung Group. Because Silla is so small, and in the information age, information spreads so quickly, it's easy for an information deluge to form and impact the company's operations.

This characteristic gradually evolved into what is known as "petition".

Lee Yong-jin's actions garnered her a lot of goodwill online in Shilla, and this shift in public opinion made Lee Jae-young's faction at Samsung Group feel disgusted, as they realized they were also part of Lee Yong-jin's plan.

Especially when they saw all the praise and comments online, the people in Lee Jae-yong's faction felt like they had swallowed a green-headed fly!
"You've all been lied to!"

"That woman has a heart of a serpent beneath her glamorous exterior."

This is what most members of Lee Jae-young's faction think.

However, faced with the growing public outcry against Lee Yong-jin, Samsung Group had no choice but to withdraw the charges against her and rescind its decision to remove her from her positions within key Samsung subsidiaries.

As for the idea of ​​Lee Yong-jin taking the helm of the Samsung Group, don't even think about it.

The group's control cannot be achieved by simply inciting ordinary people to shout a few words; it requires real money to accomplish these things.

To facilitate the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, Lee Jae-young spent tens of billions of Silla won. At the same time, he spent countless amounts of money and effort to win over centrists, bribe dissidents, and open up media channels and foreign capital.

Now Li Rongzhen is just putting on a show in front of the camera and saying a few polite words. Do you think he'll give up this huge business empire?
It's simply wishful thinking.

Amid this wave of public opinion, Lee Jae-young not only did not accept Lee Yong-jin, but instead intensified his efforts to purge Lee Yong-jin's close associates from Samsung's strategy department, while also eliminating Lee Yong-jin's influence within Samsung C&T.

Just two days after the press conference, Lee Jae-young, relying on his control over Samsung C&T, replaced Choi Jin-sung, the original CEO of Samsung C&T, with his confidant Park Sang-jin.

At this time, Lee Yong-jin had no better way to deal with the aggressive Lee Jae-yong. The situation was in Lee Jae-yong's hands, and Lee Yong-jin's resistance was so weak because of her father's previous favoritism.

However, in order to give Shangnan's allies confidence, Li Rongzhen still requested that Shangnan hold a video conference.

During this video conference, Li Rongzhen surprisingly communicated with Lü Yao and Rong Nianqing in somewhat broken Chinese.

During the video conference, Lee Yong-jin stated, "The Book of Changes at Dongda University says: 'A wise man keeps his talents with him, waiting for the right time to act.' It also contains the strategic thought of 'yielding to achieve advancement, retreating to advance.' Currently, Lee Jae-yong, relying on my father's wishes and the inclinations of various factions within the group, has gained the upper hand. This is his advantage, but also his disadvantage."

"From now on, he will be in the open, and I will be in the dark. We will have more room to maneuver and more opportunities to take action."

For those unfamiliar with Lee Yong-jin, they might easily mistake her for someone who is just spouting empty words.

Rong Nianqing felt the same way, so she wanted to ask Li Rongzhen if there was a clear and specific plan for the future.

But Lü Yao gave Rong Nianqing a wink.

Upon receiving the signal, Rong Nianqing opened her mouth, but ultimately changed her words to praise, "President Li, your Chinese has improved a lot."

Li Rongzhen laughed and said, "You flatter me. Actually, I did use a little cheating."

As she spoke, she pulled a hidden earpiece out of her ear: "This is a real-time voice translator developed by Samsung Electronics. With its help, I can barely communicate with you in Chinese."

Lu Yao was somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected that such a high-end product existed.

However, judging from the thing in Li Rongzhen's palm, it clearly looks like a prototype. Perhaps, out of the camera's view, a group of people are constantly debugging and optimizing this product.

It's unclear whether Li Rongzhen was deliberately showing off her skills to attract their attention and keep them from easily breaking free.

Lee Yong-jin put the translator back into her ear and said in her not-so-fluent Chinese, "Of course, I will continue to learn Chinese. Before long, I will probably be able to communicate fluently with you without the help of the device."

Chinese is very difficult to learn.

Although many place names and even ancient books in Silla were written in Chinese characters, even Silla's own scholars could not understand them and had to hire scholars from Dongdaemun to help them translate them.

And Chinese itself is quite difficult to learn...

But Rong Nianqing still expressed her expectations for this matter.

After the two sides had finished their conversation, Lee Yong-jin looked at Lu Yao in the video conference and said in a kind and gentle voice, "President Lee, when are you coming to Shilla? I'll arrange your schedule."

Lu Yao waved his hand and smiled, "No need, I have my own arrangements here. I will try to contact you after I settle down over there."

Li Rongzhen's gentle and beautiful face showed anticipation: "Then I will wait for good news."

After finishing her video call with Li Rongzhen, Rong Nianqing gently pushed Herman Miller's office chair in the conference room, and it silently and smoothly turned towards Lü Yao: "You trust this President Li a lot."

Lu Yao was a little confused: "I don't believe her, I believe her ambition. She's not the kind of woman who's content with just that little bit of assets."

Moreover, Lee Yong-jin's abilities are even stronger than Lee Jae-yong's.

But Lü Yao quickly realized what was going on and said confidently, "Besides, whether she wants to exert her influence later on is not up to her."

Rong Nianqing said with a half-smile, "Oh? Tell me about it."

Lu Yao replied, "We've spent so much manpower, cultivated so many relationships, and made so many arrangements. The real initiative is no longer in her hands, but rather—"

"It's in your hands, General Manager Rong."

It's like being draped in the imperial robe in ancient times. Whether you did it intentionally or unintentionally, if your men draped the imperial robe over you, and you dared to back down and say you wouldn't do it, you'd be a loyal subject, forced to retreat outside the city and wait for the emperor's apology...

Then your brothers will not only help you put on the yellow robe, but if necessary, they can also skin you alive and use your skin to make straw effigy for the sacrifice to the heavens.

If you don't want to wear this yellow robe, there are plenty of others who will!
After hearing Lü Yao's explanation, Rong Nianqing couldn't help but laugh. She glanced at Lü Yao with a hint of personal resentment and said, "You!"

However, she quickly became frank: "But you guessed right. I was really afraid that you would be captivated by the glamorous world over there and not want to come back."

Although Lu Yao's main focus wasn't on helping her in the past, they were all in Shangnan and were basically together.

It's like the time when Guan Yu surrendered to Cao Cao. Although Guan Yu obeyed orders but not proclamations, at least he had an SSR-level general by his side who could occasionally help him mow down enemies.

But now...

Knowing that his elder brother Liu Bei was still alive, and that he was about to leave, Rong Nianqing was quite conflicted, unsure if he would return for dinner.

Unexpectedly, Lü Yao saw right through her dilemma.

Rong Nianqing felt a little annoyed.

Was I being too obvious?
(End of this chapter)