America's Greatest Villain: I Defeat Magic with Magic

Compared to the previous video released by "Street Video Notes", this short film shot by Anna, a freshman at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, represents a qualitative leap in professionalism.

She cleverly employed a purely documentary-style objective narrative approach, combined with a professional mirrorless camera's large aperture lens and post-production portrait color grading, to make Lisa, whose skin was already fair, appear as pure and radiant as an angel.

More importantly, Lisa in the photos isn't just standing there posing awkwardly.

She actively participated in the entire charity event, not only helping to pack meals but also personally handing out steaming hot fried chicken to the homeless.

Although Lisa is at a rebellious age, she is still kind at heart.

After the initial tension, the sympathy and shock in her eyes when facing those ragged old people could not be faked by acting skills.

The appearance of this young girl has added a touch of human tenderness and hope to the originally dull public welfare theme, which is completely different from the similar show videos in the past that were filled with rigid preaching or high-sounding rhetoric.

Furthermore, since the video itself contained no commercial elements, it precisely hit the sweet spot of "universal values" that the American public loves most, and it was quickly shared by some local non-profit organizations.

Following this, various small media outlets, social media platforms, and even USC's non-profit organizations also shared and reposted this positive video.

In just a few hours, the number of followers of Street Video Notes surged from over a thousand to tens of thousands.

With the full release of this "Hot Food Care" video, the huge controversy on the USC campus community forum about "why Rongding Pavilion became an off-campus cooperation pilot" quickly dissipated.

Even though a few conspiracy theorists still believe that Rongdingge is "putting on a show," the fresh fried chicken, squid, and other ingredients used in the cooking in the video cannot be faked.

Su Nian, who meticulously prepares fried chicken and grilled squid, and Zhou Xingye, who stir-fries pot after pot of fried rice, both represent real labor costs.

In other words, Rongdingge is investing real money in public welfare, so the accusation of "profiteering" is completely untenable.

The students who had been the most vocal critics on the forum quickly deleted their posts, feeling guilty.

Even those who are stubborn can only argue that their initial intentions were good, and that they were simply trying to make the school's review process more transparent.

As for the environmental activists who had originally clamored to hold up signs and protest at the entrance of Rongding Pavilion, they have completely fallen silent and tacitly stopped talking about the matter in various groups.

After realizing that Rongding Pavilion was genuinely doing charity work, many of the remaining students even inquired about how to join the restaurant.

Some of them just wanted to earn some credits, while others wanted to work off-campus to earn money. But quite a few of them genuinely wanted to engage in public service.

Although American society is divided into social classes, there are still some idealists among college students who have not experienced the harsh realities of society.

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The video's viral success did not put Chen Yuan at ease; that very night, he began compiling report materials for the "Southern District Homeless Hot Food Care Project."

Although the original intention of doing charity work was simply to help Su Nian get rid of the label of "working illegally".

However, judging from feedback on the internet and student communities, charity and public welfare are indeed the ultimate political correctness in American society.

No wonder the villains in movies and TV dramas often like to cloak themselves in a guise of public welfare and charity, because it is indeed effective in the context of capitalism.

Helping the homeless is inherently a morally superior act.

Moreover, the fact that this matter was spearheaded by a minority like Chen Yuan perfectly aligns with the grand narrative of "multi-ethnic integration into the community" that Los Angeles City Hall has been vigorously promoting in recent years.

This means that continuing to oppose Rongding Pavilion becoming a "cooperative pilot" for USC is tantamount to openly opposing a great philanthropic cause and making an enemy of the goodwill of the entire community.

In other words, Chen Yuan's "Southern District Homeless Hot Food Care Project" is not only a public welfare project, but also a nearly flawless public image project.

The key to this project was Liszt's daughter, the charity activist Lisa.

Under Anna's guidance, Lisa's pure image naturally captivated people.

If she becomes the "gentle face" of this project, the overall promotional effect of the plan will definitely be multiplied.

If we can smoothly package Lisa as a charity girl in Los Angeles, not only will she soon receive an invitation from a top high school, but Rongdingge will also gain a solid protective shield in this win-win process!

[Ding! Detected that the host has successfully manipulated public opinion through visual storytelling, significantly reversing public sentiment on campus and in the community, and laying the foundation for a positive public image for subsequent exchanges of benefits. Reward: 100 Villain Points!]

The following Sunday, Chen Yuan spent the entire day completing the preliminary business plan for the "South District Homeless Hot Food Care Project," and then handed it over to Su Nian for revision and polishing.

The core of the entire plan is to create an independent community public welfare brand based in the South District, centered around Su Nian's "Streetscape Image Notes".

Lisa, the charity activist, is the specially invited spokesperson. After all, she still needs to focus on her studies and only needs to make an occasional appearance at a major event each month.

The form of public welfare, like this trial, involves the team personally cooking on-site in grassroots communities one or two weekends each month to provide hot meals for the homeless.

Chen Yuan may need to bear the initial costs of purchasing ingredients and labor himself.

But as he told Sister Soto, if it's just simple fried food, fried rice, and hot soup, the cost isn't actually that high.

Moreover, once a public welfare brand is established, it can easily attract generous corporate sponsorships. At that time, Chen Yuan will not only not need to spend a penny of his own money, but he can even extract a considerable "operation and management fee" from it.

Of course, the most ideal sponsor is undoubtedly the University of Southern California, Rongding Pavilion's "partner".

After all, USC itself has various large and small non-profit organizations, whose funding sources are mostly alumni donations or government-funded education grants.

It would be best if Rongding Pavilion could also get a share of the profits.

Therefore, once the plan was completed, Chen Yuan immediately sent it to Vivian via email.

If the vice president of the USC student council is willing to endorse the plan, then it's like half the battle is won.

Unexpectedly, just a few minutes later, Chen Yuan received a reply from Vivian, but the content surprised him:

"I watched the video. I heard that the cute little girl is the daughter of a Los Angeles Police Department patrol officer?"

Given Vivian's status, finding out Lisa's background wouldn't be difficult. Chen Yuan simply hadn't expected Vivian's focus to be on her.

However, there was nothing to hide about this matter, so he revealed his plan to cooperate deeply with Officer Lister, using the opportunity to enhance his daughter's college application resume in exchange for the latter providing security protection for Rongding Pavilion.

This was originally a normal exchange of benefits.

Unexpectedly, Vivian's second reply came even faster, but the email contained only three words:

"Not enough!"

Chen Yuan stared at the brief words on the screen, his brows furrowed, truly baffled.

What exactly does this woman mean?