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

Thursday, 10:00 AM.

Park Hyatt Beijing, third-floor banquet hall.

The "2017 China New Consumption & New Retail Leaders Summit" is being held here.

Seated in the audience were executives from major e-commerce platforms, top investors, and fashion bloggers with tens of millions of followers.

They were dressed in well-tailored, bespoke suits, holding champagne glasses, and exchanging business cards with elegance.

On the big screen, the PPT was exquisitely designed, with keywords such as "consumption upgrade", "rise of the middle class", "carefully selected" and "affordable luxury".

"...It took us ten years to make Chinese consumers understand what quality is."

On the stage, a man wearing gold-rimmed glasses and with slicked-back hair was giving a speech.

He is Sun Zhiyong, the vice president of a well-known boutique e-commerce company.

"We educate our users to drink New Zealand milk, eat Thai jasmine rice, and use Egyptian long-staple cotton towels. This is progress in civilization and progress in business."

At this point, Sun Zhiyong paused, a mocking smile playing on his lips.

He took a net bag from under the podium.

Inside were several red apples of varying sizes, covered in dirt and speckled with spots.

It's the kind that's sold through group buying.

"However, a countercurrent has recently emerged in the industry."

Sun Zhiyong was carrying that net bag as if he were showing off a bag of biological weapons.

"Some platforms, under the guise of 'helping farmers,' exploit human greed and sell this kind of thing that should be in juice factories or feed troughs to consumers."

A low chuckle rippled through the audience.

"9.9 yuan, what an attractive price."

Sun Zhiyong shook his head and sighed.

"But this is not only an insult to consumers, but also a destruction of China's supply chain. If we allow bad money to drive out good and allow this kind of garbage to occupy the market, then the 'quality e-commerce' barriers that we have built up over the past ten years will collapse overnight."

"Friends, this is not innovation."

Sun Zhiyong threw the bag of apples heavily into the trash can next to him.

A muffled thud.

"This is a step backward."

"This has brought China's internet back to the agricultural era."

Swish swish swish—

The applause of the audience was thunderous.

The clinking of champagne glasses echoed throughout the room.

At this moment, this group of elites who held the power of discourse reached a tacit consensus:

Group buying is their common enemy, a vulgar and malignant tumor that must be removed.

……

……

Meanwhile, on the Internet.

A frenzy of "aestheticizing ugliness" is brewing.

After clips of Sun Zhiyong's speech were uploaded, they quickly went viral on Weibo and WeChat Moments.

Those urban white-collar workers who usually post photos of afternoon tea and gym workouts seem to have found a new source of superiority.

The #UglyAppleChallenge# has become a trending topic.

Someone specifically spent 9.9 yuan to place an order, not to eat, but to take a picture.

In the photo, an apple with black spots is placed on an exquisite marble tabletop, next to a cup of Starbucks.

The caption is:

"This is the legendary apple that helps farmers? I'm terrified! It looks poisonous. I threw it in the trash right away. Everyone, please don't be greedy for small gains."

The comments section under these kinds of posts is full of agreement:

"Oh my god, it looks disgusting."

"Is Weiguang crazy? They dare to sell something like this?"

"I feel bad about wasting that 9.9 yuan; it could buy half a cup of milk tea."

"Lin Che is insulting our intelligence."

Some "enthusiastic" science bloggers even published long articles analyzing: "Why do spotted apples contain carcinogenic aflatoxin?"

Although there was no scientific basis, the number of reposts instantly exceeded 10,000, driven by panic.

In just a few hours, public opinion shifted from "helping farmers" to "fraud".

The customer service hotline at Weiguang's headquarters was overwhelmed with calls.

A flood of refund requests poured into the back-end system.

The reasons section was filled with: "The goods are not as described", "Junk products", "Disgusting to look at".

……

……

Luochuan, Shaanxi.

Noon.

The sunlight here isn't as gentle as in the banquet halls of Beijing.

It blazes directly overhead, making your skin sting.

The wind carried yellow dust, making it impossible to open one's eyes.

In the orchard.

County Chief Zhang squatted on the ground, looking at the comments on his phone, his hands trembling violently.

"Carcinogenic...feed..."

This man, who usually perseveres no matter how difficult things get, had tears in his eyes at this moment.

"These are all rumors! The spots were caused by tree branches and hail; once the skin is peeled off, the meat inside is all healthy! How could it cause cancer? How could it be pig swill?"

He suddenly stood up, grabbed an apple, and without washing it, took a big bite, crunching loudly as if he were chewing up those vicious words.

"We've eaten this our whole lives! If it were poisonous, I'd be dead long ago!"

But his angry voice could not be heard.

In that online world built on algorithms, traffic, and the power of elite discourse, the voices of farmers are weak and folded.

Lin Che sat on a broken wooden box next to him.

He was adjusting a mobile phone mounted on a tripod.

The signal is not very good, and the picture is a bit choppy.

Shen Nan stood to the side, holding up a reflector, his expression grave.

"Boss, the public relations department just called."

"They say that Sun Zhiyong's speech video has been shared too many times, and now the whole internet is criticizing us. Investors are also panicking and asking us if we should suspend group buying, issue an apology statement first, and suppress this wave of public opinion."

"Apologize?"

Lin Che adjusted the lens focus without turning his head.

"What did we do wrong?"

"Was it not shipped? Or is the apple really defective?"

Shen Nan was speechless: "But...everyone says it's garbage..."

"Everyone?"

Lin Che turned his head, his eyes as cold as ice.

"Who are 'everyone'?"

"Is it that CEO Sun who drinks champagne in a five-star hotel? Or those so-called middle-class people who haven't even bought anything but are just following trends on their keyboards?"

Lin Che stood up and patted the dirt off his pants.

He walked over to County Chief Zhang and picked out the ugliest one from the pile of apples that had been deemed "unqualified".

The fruit was misshapen and cracked, with a brown rust mark on its surface, a trace of being kissed by wind and frost.

"County Magistrate, please stop crying."

Lin Che's voice was soft, yet it carried a reassuring power.

"Didn't they say this was garbage?"

"Didn't they say this was pig swill?"

"So today, I will eat this 'pig swill' in front of all the Chinese people."

Lin Che glanced at his watch.

12:30.

It is the peak time for office workers to scroll through their phones during lunch break, and also the time when that monster called "public opinion" is most thirsty.

"Shen Nan, turn on the machine."

"Push the live stream to the homepage of the Weiguang APP. The title should be—"

Lin Che paused for a second, his gaze passing through the orchard, as if he could see the magnificent banquet hall a thousand miles away.

"I'm eating garbage."

……

……

Beijing, Weiguang Headquarters.

The technical department received the instructions.

The homepage of the Weiguang APP, which was originally showing "beautiful women dancing" and "funny jokes" in rotation, suddenly went black for a second.

Followed by.

An image without filters, and even somewhat overexposed, forced its way into the view of hundreds of millions of users.

No beauty filters.

There are no supplementary lights.

The background is a bare expanse of fruit trees and endless yellow dust.

The wind was very strong, howling loudly, even drowning out the sound of talking.

In front of the camera, Lin Che was wearing a black windbreaker covered in dust, his hair was messy from the wind, and he hadn't shaved.

If you don't look closely, no one would recognize that this is the internet tycoon with a net worth of billions.

The number of viewers in the live stream instantly skyrocketed.

10 million... 50 million... 200 million...

Everyone flocked in expecting to see a joke, watch the excitement, or even start a tirade.

The barrage of comments was dense and filled with hostility:

"Is this the conman boss?"

"Give me my money back! You garbage Apple!"

"This is pig feed, Mr. Sun is right!"

"Let's see how you wash it!"

Lin Che didn't read the comments.

He sat there on the edge of the field, with County Magistrate Zhang, who was still wiping away tears, and several bewildered old farmers behind him.

"Hello everyone, I'm Lin Che."

His voice was transmitted through the electricity to countless mobile phones.

"Someone just sent me a video saying I'm selling garbage and insulting the intelligence of Chinese consumers."

Lin Che looked down at the ugly apple in his hand.

Under high-definition lenses, every scar, spot, and speck of dust on it is clearly visible.

"It is indeed quite ugly."

Lin Che smiled, a hint of roguishness in his smile.

"Compared to those waxed, plastic-red apples in the supermarket, it really looks like garbage."

As he spoke, he pulled a fruit knife from his pocket.

It wasn't one of those fancy peelers, but a folding knife that an old farmer used, polished to a shine.

The blade flashed a cold light in the sunlight.

The insults in the live chat grew even louder:

"He admitted it! He admitted he's trash!"

"What are you trying to do? If you cut it open, it'll be full of worms, right?"

"Disgusting, shut down the broadcast immediately!"

Lin Che ignored the commotion.

He simply held the apple quietly, without peeling it, washing it, or even removing the mud spots from it.

He held the apple to his mouth.

He opened his mouth.