Super Rich: It all started when I met a young woman in a sleeper car.

"This isn't over," Chen Xun said. "We need to find out who's behind this."

After he said that, the store was silent for a few seconds.

Li Qian nodded: "We definitely need to investigate, but how? Those are all alt accounts on the forum, and their IPs have probably been blocked."

"Ask someone who knows about this." Chen Xun took out his phone and scrolled through his contacts.

His finger paused on a name.

Zhao Hai.

He was that hoodlum who tried to curry favor with him and had a rather complicated social network.

Chen Xun frowned, but still dialed the number.

The phone rang several times before I answered it.

"Hey? Boss Chen?" Zhao Hai's voice carried a hint of ingratiation. "What brings you to call me today? What can I do for you?"

"I have a question for you," Chen Xun said, getting straight to the point. "Who usually takes on those jobs on local forums, hiring online trolls to post smear campaigns against people?"

Zhao Hai hissed on the other end of the phone.

"Boss Chen, what's wrong...? You've run into trouble?"

"Stop talking nonsense, just say it if you know."

"I know, I know," Zhao Hai quickly replied. "I actually know a bit about this. There are mainly two companies doing this locally. One is called 'Langchao Media,' which is larger and charges more. The other is called 'Xunxing Marketing,' a smaller company. The boss's surname is Wu. They take on all kinds of jobs, and the prices are cheaper, but they're not exactly clean."

"Xunxing Marketing," Chen Xun repeated. "Do you have the address?"

"Yes, yes, I'll send it to you on WeChat. It's a small office rented in an office building in the old town." Zhao Hai paused, "Boss Chen, do you need my help? I've had drinks with Boss Wu twice, so we're fairly familiar."

"No need," Chen Xun said. "Just send me the address."

After hanging up the phone, I quickly received a location notification on WeChat.

Chen Xun turned his phone screen towards the three women.

"Found it, a company called 'Xunxing Marketing'. Zhao Hai said their boss's surname is Wu, and they'll take on any dirty work."

Yang Xiaotao came over to take a look: "Wow, brother, you have such a wide network of connections, you even know people like this."

Lin Xinyue asked with some concern, "Chen Xun, are you going to find them? Won't it be dangerous?"

"If we don't confront them, are we just going to wait for them to smear us again?" Chen Xun put away his phone. "This time it was forum trolls, next time it might be food safety rumors. We have to nip it in the bud."

Li Qian had been silent until now, then she spoke up: "I agree to investigate. But if we go directly to their door to confront them, they definitely won't admit it. And it's easy to alert them."

Chen Xun looked at her: "So what do you think?"

"Pretend to be customers," Li Qian said decisively. "Just say we want to promote a new brand and need to do some 'reputation maintenance' to find out what they're up to and see if we can get any information out of them."

Chen Xun's eyes lit up.

That's a good idea.

"Okay." He made the decision. "I'll go and meet this Boss Wu tomorrow."

【Ding. 】

[The host has been detected actively investigating potential business threats and developing targeted strategies.]

[This investment has been deemed a valid risk control measure.]

[Triggering a small rebate: 15,000 yuan.]

[The money has arrived.]

The system notification sound reassured Chen Xun a bit more.

It seems the system supports him doing this.

Lin Xinyue was still a little worried: "Chen Xun, why don't I go with you? It'll be good for two people to look after each other."

"No need," Chen Xun shook his head. "Having too many people will only make things more suspicious. I'll go alone, pretending to be a small-time boss trying to pull off some shady business; that'll be more believable."

He glanced at the time: "That's all for today. Xiao Tao, keep an eye on the feedback from the online activities. Xin Yue, double-check the costs. Li Qian, if you have any friends in the media, try subtly asking if anyone has heard of 'Xunxing Marketing'."

All three women nodded.

Yang Xiaotao pumped her fist: "Go, big brother! Get them to tell us, then we'll give them a good thrashing!"

Lin Xinyue sighed: "Be careful."

Li Qian hummed in agreement and took out her phone to start scrolling through her contacts.

The next morning, Chen Xun found the somewhat old office building in the old city, following the address given by Zhao Hai.

"Xunxing Marketing" is located on the seventh floor in a small office.

When Chen Xun pushed the door open, there were only two people inside.

A young man wearing glasses sat in front of a computer, his fingers flying across the keyboard, with several chat windows open on the screen at the same time.

The other was a slightly overweight middle-aged man who was leaning back in his chair making a phone call, speaking in a very aggressive tone.

"Mr. Wang, it's not that I'm criticizing you, but without the money, it's very difficult for us to get things done... Yes, we need more money; the cost of deleting posts is high now..."

When the middle-aged man saw Chen Xun come in, he said to the person on the other end of the phone, "I'll call you back later," and then hung up.

He sized up Chen Xun, a smile spreading across his face: "Boss, you want us to do your promotion?"

Chen Xun deliberately wore an ordinary polo shirt today and carried a briefcase with no particular brand, making him look like someone who runs a small business.

"You must be Boss Wu?" Chen Xun walked over with a smile, offering him a cigarette. "A friend recommended you. He said you guys do a good job."

Boss Wu took the cigarette, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Which friend?"

"Zhao Hai, Brother Hai," Chen Xun said.

Boss Wu said "Oh," and his expression relaxed a bit: "A friend of Brother Hai, have a seat."

Chen Xun sat down opposite him.

Mr. Wu poured him a glass of water: "What's your name, sir? What kind of business do you run?"

"My surname is Chen, I run a restaurant, I just opened a small shop." Chen Xun took a sip of water, looking a little worried. "Business is tough, the competition is too fierce. I heard that you, Boss Wu, could help with some 'reputation optimization'?"

Boss Wu smiled, a knowing smile on his face.

"Boss Chen is a shrewd man. 'Reputation optimization,' to put it bluntly, is about praising yourself and putting down others. Right?"

Chen Xun nodded: "Yes. Especially when it comes to stepping on others, is there any... quick and effective way?"

Boss Wu leaned forward and lowered his voice: "That depends on how bad you want to be. Mild is just finding someone to post negative reviews on forums and review websites, saying things like poor hygiene or bad service. Moderate is making up stories, like finding hair in the food or getting an upset stomach. Severe is..."

He paused, looking at Chen Xun.

Chen Xun asked cooperatively, "How about severe cases?"

"Then we'll have to do something drastic," said Mr. Wu. "For example, we could hire a few 'customers' to cause trouble at the store, film it, and post it online. Or we could report them for failing fire safety or hygiene standards. If we want to go even further, we could spread food safety rumors, saying they used gutter oil or expired ingredients. Once those spread, the store is basically finished."

Chen Xun sneered inwardly, but pretended to be interested on the surface.

"And the price?"

"It depends on what level you want to go through." Boss Wu took out his phone and opened a price list. "Light package, starting from five thousand. Moderate, fifteen thousand to thirty thousand. Heavy, the price is negotiable, but it will definitely not be less than fifty thousand."

Chen Xun looked at the price list, which blatantly listed items such as "negative review bombardment", "story fabrication" and "malicious reporting".

He took out his phone, pretending to take notes, but actually secretly pressed the record button.

"Boss Wu, your services... are quite comprehensive," Chen Xun said. "How's business lately?"

"Not bad." Boss Wu leaned back in his chair, a little smug. "Especially with a lot of orders from the food and beverage industry. I just got an order a few days ago for a newly opened instant noodle shop."

Chen Xun's heart skipped a beat.

Instant noodle shop?

He asked casually, "Oh? Which instant noodle shop? I also work in the food service industry; I might have heard of it."

"That new one that just opened over at MixC World, what's it called... what's it called again?" Boss Wu scratched his head and called out to the young man with glasses, "Xiao Zhang, what's the name of that instant noodle shop's order from a few days ago?"

Without turning his head, Xiao Zhang said, "'Searching for the taste of instant noodles'."

Mr. Wu slapped his thigh: "That's right, 'Seeking Flavors Instant Noodles'. I don't know who that boss offended, but someone paid us to smear them on the local forum, saying they're exploiting nostalgia and ripping people off."

Chen Xun tapped his fingers lightly on his knee.

really.

He continued, "How's the order going? Is it effective?"

"It's alright," said Boss Wu. "I posted about twenty posts and got about fifty alternate accounts to comment. It was going quite well at first, but that other shop reacted quickly and immediately started some kind of story collection event, which turned the tide again."

He was a little annoyed: "Damn, people these days are getting smarter and smarter. But that boss paid me off quickly, and the final payment has already been settled."

Chen Xun took a deep breath.

Here comes the key question.

"Boss Wu, could you tell me who asked you to do this job?" Chen asked. "I'm afraid of accidentally offending some big shot, so I want to avoid trouble."

Boss Wu glanced at Chen Xun and smiled, "Boss Chen, this isn't the rule. In our line of work, we have to protect our clients' privacy."

Chen Xun took an envelope out of his briefcase and pushed it in front of Boss Wu.

"It's just a small token of my appreciation. I just want to know if it's competition from other companies, or something else, so I can have a better understanding."

Mr. Wu glanced at the thickness of the envelope and estimated that there were at least two or three thousand inside.

He hesitated for a moment, then put the envelope into the drawer.

"Alright, for Hai-ge's sake," Boss Wu lowered his voice. "He's the owner of a beverage shop, surnamed Zheng. His shop is right next to that instant noodle shop, and he's been losing a lot of business. He's unhappy about it, so he came to us to try and ruin that instant noodle shop's reputation."

Boss Zheng.

Beverage shop.

Chen Xun immediately pictured the fancy-decorated beverage shop next door that was always having promotions.

It was him.

"Thank you, Mr. Wu." Chen Xun stood up. "Let's stop here for today. I'll go back and think about it."

"No problem, no problem." Boss Wu also stood up and warmly saw him out. "Boss Chen, feel free to contact me anytime you've made up your mind. I guarantee I'll take care of it perfectly."

Chen Xun walked out of the office building, stood by the roadside, and lit a cigarette.

He took out his phone and stopped recording.

Then I sent a WeChat message to Li Qian.

"Found it. It's Mr. Zheng from the beverage shop next door who paid for online trolls."

Li Qian quickly replied: "Did you get the evidence?"

Chen Xun sent the audio file over.

"There's a recording, and Mr. Wu himself admitted it. That's enough."

Li Qian replied with an "OK" emoji.

Then another message came: "What are you planning to do? Call the police directly, or contact the Industry and Commerce Bureau?"

Chen Xun exhaled a puff of smoke.

He remembered that Mr. Zheng, who had come over to greet him insincerely before, saying something about "neighbors looking out for each other."

So they resorted to these underhanded tricks behind the scenes.

"Let's try diplomacy first, then force," Chen Xun typed. "I'll arrange a talk with him. If we can't reach an agreement, then I'll hand these things over to the police and the Industry and Commerce Bureau."

"Do you need me to come with you?"

"No need," Chen Xun replied. "I can go by myself."

He put away his phone and threw the cigarette butt into the trash can.

She had already figured out how to have a "good chat" with that Mr. Zheng.