Can following the rules be called rebirth?

Chapter 303, Section 301: Outwardly compliant but inwardly defiant
Is this price a lot?

"of course!"

Du Jianuo leaned closer to the man, her silk nightgown neckline opening and revealing a glimpse of her skin. She seemed oblivious, only lowering her voice and exhaling softly.

"Data traffic isn't expensive these days."

As a popular live streamer, Uno is very clear about the current market price.

"A typical game download and valid registration only costs twenty or thirty yuan."

"If an e-commerce platform can offer fifty yuan for attracting new users, that's considered generous."

"Their offer is more than ten times the industry average!"

"And I heard from the girls in the small group that now it's not just me, but almost every streamer with a bit of traffic, regardless of size, whether it's the gaming section, the entertainment section or the outdoor section, has been ripped off by them with their pricing."

"Even WeChat public account writers and Weibo big V's, as long as they can bring in effective users, they will accept them all."

"That's it"

Zhou Mingyuan smiled and resumed his finger movements, slowly tracing the skin of his senior's calf.

"Nono, what do you think?"

"Well, to be honest, this price is quite tempting."

Du Jianuo pursed her lips and confessed.

"But I'm not stupid, I definitely know something's not right!"

"So I need to ask for your opinion."

"What do you think is wrong?"

Zhou Mingyuan pressed for an answer.

"Actually, I can't explain it either. I just find it strange. The people who come to talk to them are very good at expressing themselves. For example, they say they are regulated by the local government or have state-owned enterprise shareholding backgrounds. It sounds impressive and very legitimate and reliable."

"Besides, for us streamers, it's just a matter of a sentence or a link, right?"

Du Jianuo blinked, her eyes sparkling.

"By the way, they will also issue official documents and copies of their business licenses."

Is it legitimate and reliable?

Zhou Mingyuan rolled his eyes with a half-smile.

"Nono, look, this should be clear if you think about it. If their platform is really that profitable, with profits high enough to support such high customer acquisition costs..."

"Why are these people spending money like crazy, constantly buying users everywhere?"

"Eight hundred yuan per effective user, that cost doesn't make normal business sense. What are they after? Are they doing charity?"

"Uh"

Du Jianuo shook her head: "I don't know either."

"To put it simply, these are not legitimate investment exchanges at all; they are casinos disguised as legitimate financial institutions."

"Online casinos".

Zhou Mingyuan made a definitive statement.

"Are there still legal casinos?"

The senior student, upon first hearing this unfamiliar term, instinctively widened her eyes.

"What they usually do is something like spot deferred delivery and spot repurchase, which are essentially variations of futures trading. Moreover, the platform can completely manipulate prices, and they are playing virtual trading platforms that are not connected to the real market."

The well-informed lawyer, Zhou, began to explain the facts.

“Those so-called analysts and teachers inside will analyze the international situation and K-line trends for you in special group chats or software every day, leading a large group of retail investors to open high leverage and buy long or short.”

His palms moved upwards along the lines of his thighs, past the edge of his nightgown, the warmth of his palms penetrating the silk and reaching his skin.

Do you know the essence of this model?

The man continued.

"It's just a gamble that's destined to be manipulated."

"Retail investors are betting against the platform; how can you compete with them?"

"The platform is both the referee who sets the rules and the player who can directly intervene and change the outcome of the game."

"They can see all users' positions, stop-loss and take-profit points, and can even arbitrarily modify quotes in the background to create artificial price spikes and margin calls."

"This"

Du Jianuo became increasingly alarmed as she listened, gasping for breath. Her body involuntarily wanted to lean closer to the back of the sofa, but he held her firmly within a small space.

She pressed down on the large hand that was moving across her leg, her fingertips tightening.

"So you mean that users who registered through my link might get scammed?"

"More than that."

Zhou Mingyuan turned his head to look at the dark night sky outside the window, his voice calm.

"You're attracted by the platform's high interest rates, but the platform is after your principal."

"I estimate that the average lifespan of a platform like this is three to six months."

"All the money a new user invests will be wiped out by the various traps designed by the platform."

"what?"

Du Jianuo couldn't help but raise her voice: "All the money is gone?"

"Isn't that a bit too exaggerated?"

"How could they all be gone?"

"No wonder they dared to spend so much money on promotion."

The scene described by Zhou Mingyuan was far too explicit and bloody.

The senior student prided herself on having seen a lot of the world, but the fact that these underground black and gray industries had surfaced in a novel way through the internet still exceeded all her imagination.

"In finance, sometimes a single wrong decision can lead to ruin."

Zhou Mingyuan spread his hands: "High-frequency trading generates high transaction fees, spreads, and the inevitable repeated liquidation caused by platform price manipulation."

"There are too many reasons."

"You might even end up owing money to the platform because of leverage."

"What the platform needs to do is to keep adding new consumables like adding firewood to a furnace, which is why they are buying users everywhere like crazy, regardless of cost."

"It doesn't matter if the cost per user is high. As long as that user eventually loses five thousand, ten thousand, or even more, it's a sure-fire way for the platform to make a profit."

Ultimately, this is a cold arithmetic problem.

"."

Du Jianuo stopped talking.

She could almost see the users behind countless computer and mobile phone screens.

Those people might be her livestream fans or ordinary wage earners, harboring dreams of making money easily. Encouraged by legitimate exchanges and experts, they repeatedly invested their savings, leveraged their investments, and then watched helplessly as their account numbers vanished amidst violent fluctuations, ultimately ending up with nothing.

She almost became a key link in this bloody chain, responsible for attracting traffic.

"I'm going!"

"You really can't accept that!"

Du Jianuo's throat was a little dry, with a belated sense of shock.

What if they lose money and come back to me for it?

"what."

Zhou Mingyuan sneered. "Looking for you?"

"The consequences of this are serious, and of course, they'll be looking for more than just you."

"Then who else is there?"

Du Jianuo looked up at his face, which was so close to hers.

At this moment, Zhou Mingyuan's face was adorned with a cold and clear expression that seemed to see through the vicissitudes of life and the essence of rules.

At times like these, sweet words are more attractive to her than romantic words, mixed with an indescribable and wonderful sense of security.

"If the bubble is blown too big, it will always burst."

"Think about it, if the platform is just trying to make money off others, what will happen when batches of retail investors lose everything and go bankrupt?"

"More and more people are going to local governments, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission to hold sit-ins with banners and kneel down to complain. This kind of large-scale and systemic financial fraud will seriously threaten social stability and financial security."

"Not to mention the impact on the entire live streaming industry."

Zhou Mingyuan paused for a moment, then leaned down, his forehead gently touching hers, their noses brushing against each other, their breaths mingling, their posture intimate, yet his words were icy cold.

"The iron fist of regulation will strike without mercy."

"In the face of the overall situation of maintaining stability and preventing systemic financial risks, everything is vulnerable."

"."

Du Jianuo was held in Zhou Mingyuan's arms, feeling the warmth emanating from his body.

Since resuming her live streams on Douyu, this is the first time she has experienced the biting chill of the real world.

My heart started racing, and a strange emotion surged in my chest.

In fact, Zhou Mingyuan's words were already quite tactful.

There used to be a large number of online precious metals exchanges in China, especially starting to emerge at the end of 2014, with nearly 70 established across the country. Most of them were backed by local governments, and some were even affiliated with certain social organizations.

These precious metal exchanges are essentially online casinos, where various "teachers" guide retail investors to engage in leveraged trading. On average, a new batch of users will lose all their money within 3-6 months.

Therefore, these precious metals exchanges are constantly spending money online to buy registered users and replenish their supplies.

Around the end of 2016, things started to get tense.

As a large number of retail investors suffered losses on the platform, groups of people went to petition and hold up banners, which immediately attracted the wrath of the authorities.

By 2017, a comprehensive review of the cleanup and rectification of various trading venues was launched. With a single document, nearly seventy precious metals and commodity exchanges across the country, regardless of their previous prestige or powerful background, were ordered to close down and cease operations within a specified period.

Overnight, this industry, which had once raked in hundreds of billions or even more in money, collapsed and disappeared without a trace.

All that remains is a mess, countless broken families, and some victims who are still running around seeking help in vain.

After thinking for a while, the man lowered his head and finally kissed her lips.

After the light kiss ended, Zhou Mingyuan looked at her watery eyes and said with a smile.

"So, Nono, look."

"We absolutely cannot get involved in this matter."

"Once the bomb explodes, we will definitely be implicated when it comes time to settle accounts."

"Uh-huh."

Du Jianuo wrapped her arms around the man's neck and mumbled something indistinctly.

"Luckily, I listened."

"Just listen to me."

Zhou Mingyuan nodded, his large hand slipping inside her loose nightgown, tracing her waistline repeatedly.

"I think top streamers with a bit of long-term vision would probably avoid these pitfalls."

"For the vast majority of ordinary people who lack professional knowledge and self-control, any so-called investment tool with high leverage should be regarded as a dangerous monster and avoided at all costs."

"Even in the seemingly legitimate futures market, it's a hellish place where retail investors have a slim chance of survival, let alone something like this that was destined to be a scam from the very beginning."

The conversation about new business deals did not make the atmosphere in the room become oppressive.

On the contrary, the close physical contact between the two, as well as the resonance and clash of their understandings, gave rise to a unique kind of ambiguity.

The interplay of rational inquiry and sensory stimulation creates an addictive catalyst.

Du Jianuo seemed to be completely aroused by the sense of power behind his calm analysis. Like a nimble water snake, she broke free from his restraints and pushed him down onto the soft sofa cushions, straddling him. Her nightgown was rolled up to her thighs, revealing a large expanse of snow-white skin.

She leaned down, her long hair falling down, the ends brushing against his cheek, carrying a moist fragrance, and whispered in his ear.

"Hey, hey, hey!"

Her fingers unbuttoned his shirt slowly and deliberately.

"Let me tell you."

"Although I didn't take this order, someone in the company might be interested."

"Should we hold a meeting later to discuss this?"

Du Jianuo truly lives up to her reputation as the queen of problem solvers.

Her perspective has long since transcended her own 6610, encompassing the entire company, the entire media, and the entire future development.

Immediately, she jumped out of her own mindset and realized that someone might ignore the risks and continue installing it.

That makes sense.

These days, who would turn down money?
"Isn't President Zhou being overly cautious?"

"So many people have accepted orders from trading platforms, and they're all responsible for their own profits and losses. What does that have to do with us streamers?"

"The bold get rich, the timid starve! If we don't make this money, someone else will!"

"Stop it, even Boss Zhou said it won't work, the operations team won't even give us a call."

"Aren't these private messages all sent to personal email addresses?"

"And if you do it yourself, can the boss keep an eye on you 24/7?"

"No, please."

The next morning, Jieyou Media.

Despite Zhou Mingyuan's extremely serious tone during an internal company meeting, highlighting the potential policy and reputational risks associated with such financial advertisements and advising everyone not to accept orders.

But money still has a powerful enough magic.

After holding a meeting, more and more streamers began to understand the prices of merchant orders on the trading platform.

Discussions immediately erupted.

The psychological gap and temptation are especially strong when seeing other small guilds or even some individual streamers easily earn months' worth of advertising fees simply by linking to XX Commodity Exchange Center a few times or unintentionally mentioning the name of a certain platform during their live streams.
It's like the devil is clawing at your heart from behind.

Money!

This is money you can earn just by talking or clicking a mouse!
Faced with enormous profits, risks seem so pale and powerless.

In the time it takes to drink a few cups of tea, some of the livestreamers had already secretly started to have designs on the project.

Unlike Du Jianuo, these types of livestreamers have not accumulated enough capital and fame to be able to relatively calmly resist the temptation of quick money.

For ordinary people, an advertising fee of this price is enough to instantly elevate their quality of life by several notches.

Cracks thus quietly formed within Jieyou Media.

Some anchors, such as Du Jianuo, chose to believe Zhou Mingyuan's judgment.

Or rather, they are instinctively wary of these huge advertising fees from dubious sources.

Meanwhile, another group of people began to outwardly comply but inwardly defy the rules, secretly making business contacts with those exchanges.

(End of this chapter)