novelraw Chapter 494 - 188: The Moved Zhong Tingyue, Li Yuan’s Ruthless Counterattack_4
Chapter 494 - 188: The Moved Zhong Tingyue, Li Yuan’s Ruthless Counterattack_4
His time was precious.
By the time he returned to the dormitory, Liu Jia, Wu Hao, Yi Jing, and the others had already gone to class. Li Yuan sent a message to Liu Jia.
"Liu Jia, if the teacher calls roll in class later, answer for me!"
As for whether it worked or not, he couldn’t care less.
Li Yuan opened his laptop, logged onto Qiandu Tieba, and searched for news about himself. Instantly, numerous posts popped up. These idle folks stirring up rumors and trouble made him grit his teeth in frustration.
Li Yuan picked up his phone and dialed Hu Zhenqiang’s number. Soon, Hu Zhenqiang’s somewhat weary voice came through the line. For the past several days, in order to accelerate the development of "Honor of Kings"—a potentially epoch-making game—he had been working overtime late into the night, solving various problems that arose.
This was a man with genuine skills, grand ambitions, and dreams. Li Yuan held great respect and trust for Hu Zhenqiang, his senior from the Computer Science Department at Daxia University.
"Director Li, do you need something?" Hu Zhenqiang asked curiously.
"Yes. Have the newly hired legal, website operations, and maintenance personnel all arrived?"
"Director Li, they’ve arrived. As you requested, Group Leader Lin, Group Leader Xie, and I conducted the initial interviews. Out of twenty-five candidates, we selected eight. All of them have several years of work experience and outstanding individual abilities. They are at the company now, waiting for you to conduct the second round of interviews."
Li Yuan nodded. "Alright, I’ll head over in a bit to test their abilities. Please notify them."
"Understood, Director Li. I’ll notify them right away!" Hu Zhenqiang replied.
Li Yuan didn’t leave immediately. He checked the time; it was 8:15 AM. After a moment of thought, he went online and searched for the musical rhythms of the horse-head fiddle and tutorials for singing with a guitar. After searching for over ten minutes, he finally found a video with a fairly complete tutorial that was very similar to the song in his memory.
Li Yuan took his guitar down from the wall. Following the rhythm in the video, he gently strummed, quickly finding the right feel.
This is almost it. The rhythm and tune are pretty much perfect. With a slight adjustment, I’ll capture that feeling...
Li Yuan downloaded the video to his MP4 player, slung the guitar case over his shoulder, and left the dormitory.
...
More than ten minutes later, Li Yuan arrived at the company. Upon seeing him, Hu Zhenqiang quickly stood up to report, "Director Li, everyone is here, waiting in the conference room."
Li Yuan nodded. "Bring me the résumés of these eight people, and have them come to my office one by one. I’ll interview them personally."
"Yes, Director Li. Please wait a moment," Hu Zhenqiang responded.
...
Interviewing had become routine for Li Yuan. After more than a month of running his startup, and through constant learning and adaptation, he had grown familiar with the company’s internal structure, website operations, and other matters.
The eight people he was recruiting were all experienced veterans over thirty-five. They belonged to a high-risk demographic often dismissed in the job market—people who had elders to support and children to raise.
Li Yuan went through the résumés, interviewing the candidates one by one. All eight who had been selected were quite outstanding. As for their reasons for leaving their previous jobs, the stories were all largely the same: they were essentially forced out.
In summary, it was the global economic crisis that caused a downturn in the internet industry. As a result, people like them, who neither held core company technology nor were willing to grovel and ingratiate themselves, were forced to resign for various reasons.
In his office, Li Yuan was conducting the final interview of the day.
The candidate was a middle-aged man who was not very tall, barely over 1.6 meters. He had ordinary looks, dark skin, and was severely overweight.
Li Yuan held his résumé and asked, "Your name is Tan Zhonghua. You minored in law and have some knowledge of legal affairs?"
Tan Zhonghua looked nervous. He sat up straight, showing no disrespect for Li Yuan despite his youth. This was a rare opportunity with a high salary.
"Director Li, my second major in university was law, so I know a little about legal affairs."
Li Yuan nodded. "I have a problem I’d like you to handle."
Hearing Li Yuan assign a task right off the bat, Tan Zhonghua was momentarily stunned, not quite understanding Li Yuan’s approach, but he quickly nodded.
"Director Li, please go ahead!"
Li Yuan briefly explained the situation on Qiandu Tieba.
"What’s your solution for those who are damaging my reputation by spreading slanderous rumors?"
Tan Zhonghua immediately understood what Li Yuan intended to do. This sort of thing was common, especially in the entertainment industry. However, most celebrities wouldn’t engage, figuring that the more discussion, the better; after all, even negative publicity was still publicity.
After a moment’s thought, Tan Zhonghua immediately offered his suggestions. "Director Li, this is simple. We contact the people who made the posts and issue a warning. If they don’t comply, we can sue them directly...
"Since you aren’t in the entertainment industry and have no direct competitors, most of the people stirring up trouble are likely Daxia University students. When they hear they could be sued for rumor-mongering and slander, they’ll most likely delete their posts. Even if they’re unwilling, we can genuinely sue them according to the law. They can’t afford the legal battle...
"I think, when necessary, we should make an example of a few of the more malicious ones and proceed with litigation immediately. The online posts haven’t been deleted, so we have clear evidence."
After listening to Tan Zhonghua’s analysis and proposed course of action, Li Yuan was quite satisfied. He strongly agreed with the idea of making an example of someone to warn others.
Now that I’ve calmed down after this relationship crisis, I can feel that someone was stoking the flames from behind. A few of the IDs in those posts belong to the same person, who kept trying to steer online public opinion and incite a mob of netizens to attack me online... I already have a good guess as to who these instigators are. It’s either someone with a grudge against me or someone who secretly sees me as a rival and wants to ruin my reputation. Thinking of the guy who passionately confessed to Zhong Tingyue downstairs that night, I’ve already made my decision...
Li Yuan looked at Tan Zhonghua with a stern expression. "Alright, I’m entrusting this matter to you. That includes eliminating the posts on other websites as well. Find a couple of people who are deliberately driving the narrative and make an example of them. Show them how troublesome a lawsuit can be."
Tan Zhonghua was startled, then a wave of delight washed over him. Does this mean I’m hired?
His voice immediately filled with excitement as he pledged his loyalty. "Director Li, please rest assured, I will handle it perfectly."
Li Yuan smiled. "Don’t worry about any special expenses required to handle this. I’ll have the finance department give you an advance. Any other reasonable costs will be fully reimbursed by the company."
"I have only one request: handle this matter well, find the few culprits behind this, make an example of them, and make them pay the price."
Tan Zhonghua’s expression was invigorated. This was his boss’s vote of confidence. He immediately made a solemn vow, "Director Li, you can count on me. I guarantee I will complete the mission."
After Tan Zhonghua left, Li Yuan called Lin Yuwei, Xie Zheng, Hu Zhenqiang, and the others together for a meeting to discuss the official launch of the Zhihu website, scheduled for the next day.