Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 386 The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea, Each Displaying Their Unique Abilities.

Cao Zhengze is not tall, but he has a big head and a very simple appearance.

But this is just a disguise. People with this kind of appearance, as long as their IQ reaches a certain level, are born to be the sixth man.

"Have a seat," Cheng Yi said, gesturing for Cao Zhengze to sit down. "Have you read the articles in the Beijing Daily that criticized me?"

“I’ve seen it.” Cao Zhengze nodded and said, “There are many posts about this on Tianya Community now, but opinions are mixed. Some people say that the Beijing Daily dares to tell the truth, while others say that the Beijing Daily is just creating a gimmick to attract attention.”

Cao Zhengze quickly asked again, "President Cheng, how do you plan to handle this matter?"

"Of course we're going to fight!" Cheng Yi glared and said, "Otherwise, what's the point of me raising you? You've been training for a thousand days to use your troops for one. Now you need to show me the results of these three months of training."

Cao Zhengze quickly replied, "No problem, I'll organize people to launch a counterattack on Tianya Community right away."

"What Tianya Community?" Cheng Yi said, "You don't really think I'm doing this to get revenge on them, do you?"

Cao Zhengze's small eyes darted around, and he exclaimed in surprise, "I understand! You're planning to hype up our school's intranet technology!"

“You’re not stupid. If you can’t even grasp this, then you should pack your bags and go home.” Cheng Yi said, “This opportunity is too rare. We must seize it and create as much buzz as possible. These days, if you want to attract public attention, you have to provoke conflict. You remember this clearly: the confrontation with the Beijing Daily must be a back-and-forth battle. We must drag this out as long as possible.”

"No problem," Cao Zhengze quickly replied, then asked with some concern, "President Cheng, if this matter really blows up, how will you handle it?"

"You don't need to worry about how I handle this. Just do your best," Cheng Yi said. "Remember, you have to make this a big deal, attract the attention of national media, and then build up a trending topic on Renren.com."

Cao Zhengze nodded and said, "I understand. I will organize people to start the counterattack immediately."

"Yes, I've already spoken to the Jingzhou Daily about print media. They'll help us publish articles to fight back. If you need print media coverage, you can contact Mr. Zhao from Toutiao," Cheng Yi said. "Right now, you have three swords at your disposal: the tech news section on Renren.com, the Toutiao forum, and the Jingzhou Daily. Do a good job of that."

"I will do my best!" Cao Zhengze assured him repeatedly.

Cao Zhengze spent four years in university publicity work, more than a year as a moderator on Tianya Community, plus more than three months of intensive training in online trolling.

He is now considered one of the first generation of internet troll leaders.

"Then you go ahead and get busy," Cheng Yi said.

Cao Zheng left in a hurry, and Cheng Yi immediately made another phone call to those small newspapers in Handong Province that would do anything for money.

Cao Zhengze's abilities are beyond doubt, but he is too young and has not yet experienced a real battle. Cheng Yi cannot entrust this matter entirely to Cao Zhengze.

Trust and blind trust are two different things.

The size of the lotus leaf determines the size of the rice dumpling. All Cao Zhengze can do now is stir up public opinion on the internet, nothing more.

To generate buzz, the assistance of print media is still needed, and these small newspapers in Handong Province become the best choice.

These small workshops are incredibly resourceful; as long as the money is right, there's almost nothing they wouldn't dare to write.

A sponsorship fee of one or two hundred thousand yuan is enough for them to shout "godfather!"

After their battle with the Handong Commercial Daily, these small newspapers held Cheng Yi in the highest esteem.

Upon receiving Cheng Yi's call and hearing that there were benefits to be gained, they pounded their chests in delight.

As soon as the phone call ended, they organized their editors to launch an attack on the Beijing Daily.

This is the battle among intellectuals, a war without gunpowder.

This kind of war is the most terrifying.

It's so terrible that no relevant department dares to utter a word.

The higher the leader's position, the more afraid they are of these people who wield the pen, so as long as it's something within the cultural circle, even if it's just empty talk, no department will ever stand up to criticize them.

For intellectuals to make pronouncements is like for ordinary people to throw out excrement.

Anyone who steps forward at this time will get covered in shit.

If you're lucky, you can wash off the smell in three to five days.

Those who are unlucky... will become the next Chen Shimei, whose legacy will never be erased.

The characteristics of literati are that they are petty and vengeful. If you offend them, they are even willing to spend several years writing a book, making their enemy the protagonist, and then secretly storing it away, waiting for it to be unearthed by later generations thousands of years later, so that their enemy can be nailed to the pillar of shame.

Therefore, the battle between Beijing Daily and Xiaonei.com Technology escalated into a fierce one from the very beginning, with all government departments remaining silent.

Both sides have the support of print and internet media. On the side of Beijing Daily, there are NetEase, Tencent, and hundreds of print media outlets. On the side of Xiaonei.com, there are Xinlang, Sohu, Toutiao, Xiaonei.com, and a small workshop newspaper led by the "Master of Thirty-Six Caves and Master of Seventy-Two Islands".

At first, the two sides argued in a literary style, but gradually, they probably felt that nitpicking was too brain-draining and seriously affected the output speed of the manuscript. So after arguing for more than ten days, they went all out and started talking like idiots. It's true that nothing beats a madman.

In particular, the small workshop newspaper led by the "Thirty-Six Cave Masters and Seventy-Two Island Masters" was even more ruthless and aggressive, combining classic Chinese culture to push this matter to one climax after another.

As the literary debate intensified, the senior management of the Beijing Daily suddenly discovered that the newspaper's sales had nearly tripled, and the newspaper had even become so scarce that many newspaper vendors from other places were waiting outside their printing plant.

Even worse, pirated copies of their Beijing Daily appeared in other provinces...

The emergence of pirated newspapers made the senior executives of the Beijing Daily quite ecstatic.

Their original sales volume of 28 was artificially inflated to 51, and they sold as many as they could. It was common for newspapers to be snapped up by out-of-town merchants as soon as they left the printing plant.

There are too many onlookers, and not enough newspapers.

However, the senior management of the Beijing Daily were not blinded by joy. They were well aware that the newspaper's sales were related to the confrontation between traditional and internet media, and that their newspaper sales would return to normal once the conflict ended.

Therefore, they reached an internal agreement to take a slow and gradual approach to dealing with the campus network technology.

Their consensus coincided with Cheng Yi's.

This created a very strange situation: both sides were genuinely enraged, yet both were remarkably restrained. It seemed like acting, yet it didn't.

These subtle changes are invisible to ordinary people; they are simply enjoying the spectacle. However, many media professionals have noticed the problem.

They increasingly felt that these two companies were 'fixing' the game.

In just half a month, driven by the three major portal websites and hundreds of print media, Xiaonei.com's registered users increased by more than 20 million, and its daily active users reached more than 3 million, which is almost comparable to Tencent, a second-tier internet company.

The hot topics section of Renren.com's technology section attracts millions of viewers daily because it frequently features controversial posts that they find entertaining.

Meanwhile, the preliminary selection process at 1225 universities has entered a fierce stage.

The first step is an internal selection process within each university. Each university will elect one campus beauty and one campus hunk to enter the national preliminary round, making the competition for these campus beauties and hunks extremely fierce.

The level of competition at Handong University, for example, exceeded Cheng Yi's expectations.

Cheng Yi thought that students from prestigious universities might not be very interested in this kind of competition, but he was wrong. After studying for so many years, can't they indulge themselves a little? Besides, if the campus beauty comes from another college, wouldn't our college's teachers and students lose face?

Wherever there are men, there will always be that damned competitive spirit.

Each college at Handong University nominated a number of people. Taking the Computer Science College of Handong University, which has fewer women than men, as an example, five people were nominated just for the title of "campus beauty". Lin Qingyin was originally among the nominees, but Cheng Yi used behind-the-scenes manipulation to cancel her nomination.

The five nominees from the School of Computer Science at Handong University include one freshman, one sophomore, two juniors, and one senior.

Yang Lei, a sophomore in Cheng Yi's class, is a second-year student.

The one with the best qualifications was Zhong Xin, nominated by Lin Sipeng, the chairman of the Computer Science Student Union.

Zhong Xin is the class beauty in Lin Sipeng's class. She is indeed very eye-catching. If Lin Qingyin is 100 points, Yang Lei can get 60 points, and Zhong Xin can get 61 points.

Unfortunately, the computer science department has a hard time producing high-quality female students.

Perhaps the Computer Science department also realized this cruel problem, and with no other choice, they could only try to win over the school's most handsome guy.

If the Computer Science Department could produce a campus heartthrob, the chances of finding a partner for all the male students in the department would be greatly enhanced.

To encourage participation, the External Relations Department of the School of Computer Science has taken special steps to guide the male students to actively participate.

In fact, there was no need for the external relations department to appeal. Those boys who were slightly confident had already submitted their application forms. Even Cheng Yi, driven by vanity, secretly signed up and used underhanded tactics to get 2000 more votes for himself.

This is a man's competitive spirit. No matter how ugly a guy is, the first thing he'll say when talking about his past is: "I was the school heartthrob in high school."

A high school with 999 boys must have at least 999 heartthrobs.

Even though Cheng Yi gained 2000 votes despite the disdain of Zhou Hui and other technical staff, he still failed to break through the encirclement and ultimately fell on the road to the top eight in the School of Computer Science, becoming the 15th on the list of the school's most handsome students.

There was no way around it; those campus heartthrob candidates were too competitive. Take Fei Zhengyu, for example. This guy actually bought a huge styrofoam box and placed it at the entrance of the college's teaching building. Inside the box were two quilts, and inside the quilts were popsicles. Whoever voted for him on the school's intranet, he would give them a popsicle on the spot.

A three-cent popsicle could be exchanged for a full five tickets.

Lin Sipeng went even further, directly using his power as the student council president to mobilize various departments of the student council to help him garner votes in class groups. He even created a so-called "gratitude list" that recorded all those who voted for him and updated it in real time according to the number of votes, somewhat similar to the "big brother ranking" on Douyin and Kuaishou. Cheng Yi was impressed and exclaimed that he was an expert.

The battle for the most handsome guy in the Computer Science Department has truly reached the point where everyone is using their unique talents.

This battle also became the biggest failure in Cheng Yi's glorious life.

Cheng Yi wanted to use underhanded tactics to boost his score, hoping to at least make it into the top four and save face, but his suggestion was firmly rejected by Zhou Hui and the other technical staff.

Upon hearing the news that Cheng Yi had made it into the top 16 of the academy's most handsome men, Lin Qingyin quickly shared the news with Jiang Yuxi, causing Jiang Yuxi to smile broadly during her live stream.

Lin Qingyin originally wanted to share her joy with Jiang Yuxi. In her opinion, Cheng Yi's entry into the top 16 was already quite impressive, considering that there were several hundred students in the School of Computer Science.

However, in the eyes of Jiang Yuxi, who ranked seventh on the list of campus beauties at Handong University of Finance and Economics, Cheng Yi was an utter failure.

Ranked 15th on the college's list of most handsome guys? That's about the same as the title of one of the top ten most handsome men in Shagou Village, Dongcang County, isn't it?
The competition between the campus beauties and campus hunks at Handong University is just a small microcosm. At this time, all 1225 universities across the country are embroiled in this competition. With the addition of the Beijing Daily and Xiaonei.com Technology to attract attention and generate buzz, it is clear that this event has entered its peak period.

Cheng Yi seized a great opportunity this time, right when the new students were starting school. This period is also a special time when various entertainment programs on campus explode, such as welcome parties and club performances. Universities are going all out to organize entertainment programs to help new students adapt to university life as soon as possible and to create a joyful atmosphere on campus.

This campus beauty and hunk contest perfectly meets the university's need for entertainment.

With most universities remaining tacitly in favor, some college leaders could no longer resist and personally intervened.

They can't compete with them academically, but can they really lose in terms of looks?

If their university produces one of the top ten most handsome or beautiful students, will they still need to painstakingly write next year's admission brochure?

Even if their university produces a student who is among the top ten in the National Mathematical Olympiad, their appeal to young people is probably not as reliable as that of the top ten campus beauties.

Moreover! It's common knowledge that girls who aren't academically gifted are usually quite pretty.

In this kind of competition, the advantage lies with me.

With leaders from several colleges and universities personally stepping in to support the competition, leaders from other colleges couldn't sit still any longer.

Suddenly, apart from those prestigious universities, almost all colleges and universities personally stepped in to help with the promotion, showing a strong determination to win.

Cheng Yi has been very tired these past few days. The defeat in this competition has left him somewhat disheartened.

As a candidate for president of the student union at Handong University, he thought he would become the pride of the computer science department. He never expected that his status as a candidate for student union president was not even as valuable as the old popsicle in Fei Zhengyu's foam box.

These college students are so materialistic.

As soon as Cheng Yi returned to his office at Momo Group, he was greeted by the sound of fireworks and applause.

Du Yusheng and the others rushed out from the corridors on both sides, shouting loudly, "Congratulations, President Cheng!"

Soon, Zhang Lingyu and Su Duo unfurled a newly printed banner that read: Congratulations to President Cheng for almost making it into the top eight of the Computer Science Department's Campus Heartthrob Ranking!
(End of this chapter)