The richest man started taking advantage of loopholes after joining Alibaba.

Tuesday, 3 p.m.

Beijing, Xicheng District, a ministry building.

When Lin Che walked out of that solemn iron gate, the file folder in his hand was heavy.

"Boss, did...did you really get it?"

Shen Nan stood by the car, looking at the document in Lin Che's hand, and swallowed hard.

He knew what was inside—it wasn't just an agreement; it was a powerful tool.

Lin Che opened the car door, sat in the back seat, and tossed the file folder to Shen Nan.

"Open it and take a look."

Shen Nan carefully bypassed the white line and pulled out the document inside.

This is an "Approval for the Pilot Project of 'Internet + Targeted Poverty Alleviation' for Luochuan Apples".

The document was stamped with three bright red circular official seals: the county government, the municipal poverty alleviation office, and the relevant provincial guidance unit.

That red was blindingly bright.

"With this," Lin Che said calmly as he fastened his seatbelt, "Weiguang Group Buying will no longer be a simple e-commerce project."

"It is a political task."

"Shen Nan, go back to the company and send a letter to Shenzhen."

……

……

Microlight Technology, Operations Center.

The atmosphere was as tense as defusing a bomb that was about to explode.

On the large screen, the background review system of [Weiguang Group Buying] displayed a glaring red warning.

That's the error code returned by the WeChat API: Error 40029 - Suspected misleading sharing, the link has been blocked.

Just as Shen Nan predicted, the "Strictest Crackdown Announcement" released on WeChat last night was not just for show.

The group-buying link of Weiguang was just put into a few internal test groups, but it only lasted for 15 seconds before being automatically blocked by WeChat's "Fire Eye" system.

"It's sealed off."

The CTO was sweating profusely. "WeChat has upgraded its algorithm this time. It not only blocks domain names, but also identifies images with specific keywords. Words like 'cut a price,' 'group buying,' and 'get it for free' are all sensitive words."

The conference room was filled with wails.

Without WeChat's social traffic, group buying would be a stillborn project.

"What's the panic?"

Lin Che pushed open the door and entered.

He slammed the file folder onto the very center of the conference table.

"Revise the copy."

Lin Che took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, walked to the whiteboard, and erased the "explosive fonts" and "promotional slogans" that the design team had been so proud of.

"Delete all the phrases like '9.9 shipping included,' 'Come and cut the price,' and 'Limited-time offer.'"

Zhao Pu (Brand Director) was stunned: "President Lin, if we delete these, how will we stimulate users to click? Isn't e-commerce all about these kinds of keywords?"

"It used to be."

Lin Che picked up a red marker.

"But from today onwards, we're not selling apples."

"What we sell is 'goodwill'."

He wrote a new title on the whiteboard:

[Help us! 20 tons of apples are unsold in Luochuan, and an elderly farmer is crying in his orchard...]

"Zhao Pu, remove all those heavily edited close-up photos of Apple products and replace them with new ones."

"Change to what?"

"Take the one I took in the orchard the other day." Lin Che took out his phone and pulled up a photo. "This one, with rotten fruit all over the ground and the old man squatting in the corner wiping away tears. No editing, no filters, just that grainy texture, that sense of despair."

"Then paste the scanned copy of this document at the very bottom of the image."

Lin Che pointed to the official document on the table.

"Especially those three official seals, they need to be high-definition, large, and placed where the user's finger can definitely reach them."

Zhao Pu looked at the photo filled with the smell of earth and the image of suffering, and then at the bright red official seal.

As a GG (Girl), he suddenly felt a chill.

This is definitely not a promotion.

This is a dimensional attack on human nature.

On one hand, there is compassion; on the other hand, there is official endorsement.

"Revise the copy again," Lin Che continued, "Change 'Invite Friends to Group Buy' to 'Charity Relay for Farmers,' and change 'Successful Group Buy' to 'Successful Assistance.'"

"To package commercial activities as philanthropic activities."

Lin Che threw down his pen and looked around at everyone.

"Now, let's finish this new landing page. In half an hour, I'm going to write a letter to Ma Huateng personally."

……

……

28th floor, Tencent Building, Shenzhen.

WeChat Security Risk Control Center.

This is where the WeChat empire's "secret police" are located, handling hundreds of millions of illegal links, fraudulent messages, and marketing harassment every day.

Department head Zhang Lei was staring at the data reports on the screen.

Since the announcement was released last night, marketing accounts across the internet have been in dire straits, and the interception rate of inducements to share has increased by 300%.

"Boss, there's something going on."

An auditor suddenly raised their hand, "Weiguang has submitted a new link again. The system still identifies it as 'group buying inducement' and automatically blocks it, but..."

"But what? So what if they intercepted it?" Zhang Lei said impatiently. "The higher-ups have instructed that Weiguang is the number one monitoring target. Lin Che is a cunning guy, especially with that group-buying thing, which is clearly disrupting the WeChat Moments ecosystem."

"No, boss, you'd better come and take a look." The auditor's voice was hesitant. "This time, they sent not only an appeal email, but also... an official letter to PONY (Ma Huateng) and the general office."

Zhang Lei frowned and slid over in his chair.

On the screen was an official letter so formal it was outrageous.

Heading: Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems Co., Ltd. / Dear Mr. Ma Huateng

The content did not include any plea for leniency, nor did it explain any technical details.

Only a few short, powerful, and politically significant paragraphs:

"...In response to the national call for 'targeted poverty alleviation,' Weiguang Technology, in conjunction with the Luochuan County People's Government of Shaanxi Province, launched the 'Weiguang Helping Farmers' special campaign, aiming to solve the problem of unsold agricultural products in impoverished areas through internet technology..."

"...The project has been approved by the provincial, municipal and county governments (see Appendix 1)."

"...If your company's WeChat platform blocks this agricultural assistance project due to 'algorithm error,' it will not only cause tens of thousands of tons of agricultural products to rot, but may also be seen as a passive resistance to the national poverty alleviation strategy."

"...This letter is to inform you. Copies have been sent to: Information Center of the Ministry of Agriculture, Social Poverty Alleviation Department of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, and Department of Commerce of Shaanxi Province."

Upon seeing the "CC" list, Zhang Lei broke out in a cold sweat.

This is hardly an appeal letter.

This is essentially a "political ultimatum".

If WeChat really blocks this link, tomorrow's headline might be: "Tencent obstructs poverty alleviation with various excuses, leaving Luochuan fruit farmers with nothing."

This is a burden that Zhang Lei, not to mention Ma Huateng, cannot bear.

"Boss... this..." The reviewer's fingers hovered over the keyboard, afraid to move. "Should we still block it?"

Zhang Lei stared intently at the attachment with the red stamp on the screen.

He could tell that Weiguang was "selling dog meat under the guise of mutton".

Essentially, it's still group buying, still inducing sharing.

But that "sheepskin" was golden.

Who dares to expose this?

Zhang Lei took a deep breath, picked up the red phone on the table, and dialed the internal line of the General Office.

Five minutes later.

The phone hangs up.

Zhang Lei slumped into a chair, as if he had just finished running a marathon.

"Release them."

He uttered two words weakly.

"Manually add to the whitelist, and allow all links with this 'help farmers' tag to pass through, so as not to let the algorithm block them."

"But boss, if we open this door, what will happen to them in the future..."

"Do as I say!" Zhang Lei roared. "Do you want the company to be on the news broadcast's criticism list?!"

……

……

Beijing, Microlight Technology.

Shen Nan kept staring at the computer screen, and the coffee in his hand had long since gone cold.

Sudden.

"It's been cheated on!"

The CTO exclaimed in surprise, his voice cracking, "The API is working! WeChat's blocking has been lifted! Our domain is on the whitelist!"

wow——

A long-suppressed cheer erupted from the entire operations center.

That was the ecstatic joy of surviving a catastrophe.

Lin Che stood by the window, looking at the hazy Beijing skyline outside.

He did not cheer.

This was within his expectations.

To do business in China, you must understand two sets of logic: one is commercial logic, and the other is political logic.

When business logic fails, political logic becomes the best icebreaker.

"President Lin."

Shen Nan ran over excitedly, "The passage is open now, shall we start deploying?"

Lin Che turned around.

His gaze passed through the cheering crowd and landed on a fat man in a gray hoodie in the corner.

That's Fatty Wang.

The earliest veteran of Weiguang's ground promotion is also the "group owner and commander-in-chief" who currently controls 20000 WeChat red envelope groups accumulated from the micro-group buying era.

Those are two hundred million dormant users.

It refers to 200 million elderly people and young people in small towns who are extremely price-sensitive and enjoy "grabbing red envelopes".

"Fatty."

Lin Che's voice wasn't loud, but it pierced through the noisy crowd.

"Here." Fatty Wang stood up, his face trembling with all his fat.

"ignition."

Lin Che uttered two words.

"Throw this spark into the pyre of those two hundred million people."

"Tell them that with just a few clicks, for only 9.9 yuan, they can save their fellow villagers and even get to eat apples."

"yes!"

Fatty Wang nodded emphatically and then pressed the Enter key on the keyboard.

The message was instantly distributed to hundreds of "group admins" across the country.

One minute later.

In China's third- and fourth-tier cities, countless mobile phone screens that are ringing with "ding-dong" sounds are displaying that link that is both tragic and extremely tempting.

A storm powerful enough to upend the landscape of Chinese e-commerce.

got windy.