To boost the valuation of Hongcha App before the next round of financing, He Wenjie hired a team of internet trolls to scour the web for controversial photos and pictures of topical public figures. He ran them all through the Hongcha program for comparison, highlighted the problematic areas, and began churning out sensationalized web articles filled with biased insinuations. To pay these trolls, He Wenjie's gold bars had been dwindling like running water over the past couple of days. He had already become quite a well-known figure in the gold jewelry trade; whereas he used to hoard gold bars, nowadays he had to sell off a batch every few days, leading many to assume he had developed some terrible, forbidden addiction.
Despite scattering money on such a massive scale, He Wenjie's efforts yielded a rich harvest. He had already accumulated a mountain of these smear pieces, though he hadn't published a single one yet. He Wenjie was waiting—waiting for the right catalyst, an opportunity to thrust Hongcha into the public eye. Once that chance arrived, he would unleash all these articles onto the internet simultaneously, creating an explosive sensation. When that happened, Hongcha would have no trouble finding investors, and the money he had previously invested would be returned manifold.
He Wenjie's luck was remarkably good; shortly after he finished preparing the materials, the exact opportunity he wanted presented itself. Jiang Xiaoguo was away on a business trip that day and w…
Chapter 588