Chapter Forty-Two: The Navy
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The old man continued cursing. Dou Peng drew breath, ready to argue back, then suddenly remembered that his camera was still running and forced himself to stop.
You were the ones ordering food delivery, and you were also the ones refusing to let delivery riders inside.
You were the ones complaining that deliveries were too slow, and you were still the ones complaining when we did everything possible to save time!
You had all the arguments your way!
Dou Peng seethed with indignation as the quarrel ahead grew louder.
“Move along! Don’t crowd around here and disrupt the normal lives of our residents! Go stand to one side and wait for your customer to come collect the order. This is the residents’ lobby.”
“Why are you shoving me? I’m warning you, keep your hands off me! I’ve called the police!”
“A good dog doesn’t block the road. Can you stop making a nuisance of yourself?”
“Who are you calling a dog?”
Seeing the confrontation ahead growing increasingly heated, Dou Peng suddenly took out his phone and scrolled through WeChat.
A month ago, when he had signed with that wretched Breaking Cocoon, he seemed to have been added to a group. They had said that if anything unexpected happened, he should post it there and someone would drive traffic to it.
Wasn’t this exactly the moment he needed them?
When he had first started posting the hardships delivery riders faced online, Dou Peng had not done it for money!
He had done it for justice!
He would start a livestream. He would upload this video. He would let netizens across the country decide who was in the right!
The entire Breaking Cocoon operations department convened an emergency meeting.
Every task at hand was temporarily suspended, and all the employees in the office gathered in the conference room.
“An emergency situation. A dispute between a delivery rider and residential property management has now escalated into a mass confrontation. We have a streamer on the scene recording the entire incident. We already have the initiative on this major story.”
Social-media platforms did not possess the qualifications to gather and edit news, but when it came to spreading news of social incidents, those so-called professional reporters could not possibly compete with them.
Selina did not even turn on her computer. She simply planted both hands on the table and began directing the operation with crisp efficiency.
“Team One, contact the streamer Dou Peng immediately. See whether we can establish a remote connection with him. Time is popularity, and popularity is life. We have to seize every minute and every second.
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“Do everything you can to transmit the footage in real time. Bring the content team over to edit on-site and push it straight onto the platform’s trending list.”
“Team Two, contact all our delivery-rider streamers in this district and see whether anyone else nearby can get there. It doesn’t matter if they aren’t delivery riders—as long as they’re our streamers, they can go there and ride the wave.
“Tell them not to worry about their orders timing out. As long as they reach the scene and start livestreaming, each of them can claim a two-hundred-yuan hot-topic bonus.
“At the same time, contact the content team and have our contracted streamers cut and rebroadcast clips to build momentum around the topic.
“Pay particular attention to trending angles. If there’s anything involving the wealth gap or discrimination against delivery riders, cut it out immediately. But be careful not to show government personnel on camera.”
“Team Three, start drawing up a traffic-pushing plan right now. For every related category—not only delivery riders, but domestic disputes, conflicts, social incidents, anything even remotely connected—work it in.
“Coordinate with the technology department and change the traffic-allocation method. Everything is to give this priority. A mass confrontation in a major city like Jincheng is top-tier news.
“If they end up fighting at the scene, we’ll have caught a mass incident the likes of which comes only once in a decade!”
The assignments were issued at lightning speed. Each time Selina finished planning one team’s operation, she immediately dismissed that team.
Everyone moved with ruthless efficiency. Not a single person complained. They all understood that if they caught this wave of attention, everyone would receive bonuses and commissions.
The conference room gradually emptied, and only then did Selina finally turn to Team Four.
“As usual, start mobilizing people. We can raise the price a little—two yuan per post, settled in cash the same day. Get everyone in the groups moving.
“Don’t let them improvise entirely. We’ll prepare the first batch of content ourselves, then have them post it through their accounts—use the higher-level accounts first. Build the momentum, stir up the opposing camps, then buy massive quantities at fifty cents a post. Accept everyone who comes.”
“All right, Director. What should we choose as the central point of conflict?”
“Do I have to teach you everything?”
Selina was genuinely exasperated. “On this side, list more incidents involving delivery riders hitting people, running red lights, and causing accidents! On the other side, list more examples of wealthy people discriminating against delivery riders—refusing to let them in and forcing them to run themselves ragged until they miss their deadlines. Make the positions clear. Let each side say its own piece.”
“Understood. Should we also mention the platforms exploiting the riders?”
“Mention my ass!”
Even Selina’s impeccable self-control could not stop her from swearing. It was completely at odds with her appearance.
“Can’t you tell who’s paying us? Our delivery-rider category lives off the platforms’ advertising budgets! You want to dump filth on the platforms? Did the platforms make them fight? Get moving!”
The employee who had asked the question grew slightly tense. “All right, Selina. We’ll post it now. But many of our astroturfing groups are made up of university students, and it may be class time right now.”
“People are more active during class time! Hurry up!”
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Messages were already pouring into Selina’s phone. With an unexpected incident like this, whoever seized the first opening would capture all the initial traffic.
By the time the other short-video platforms entered the fray, Breaking Cocoon would have already consumed every last drop of the attention. An opportunity dropped from the heavens had to be seized.
“You keep posting. I’m going to find two more astroturfing groups.”
Online astroturfing was illegal. Selina knew that.
But this was the sort of thing they had no choice but to do with their feet planted on the edge of a cliff.
Long before she became operations director, President Wang had repeatedly emphasized at company-wide meetings the importance of community users and the many benefits of getting netizens to speak collectively according to their direction.
Selina was the only one who understood what he really wanted.
Of course, she might not have been the only person who understood. She was simply the only one who ultimately acted—and the only one who did it effectively.
Wang Tianxia had merely felt that they needed astroturfers to inflate their numbers, and Breaking Cocoon had bought plenty of such data before.
But Selina, who was still only a junior employee at the time, had taken a different route. She contacted several university student societies that offered part-time work and built her own astroturfing army.
University students—the finest modern-day exploited labor force—were the only group in society capable of displaying astonishing initiative for the sake of a few coins.
At first, their “part-time work” had not involved any sort of gray area.
An app would be sent to the group. Everyone would register under their real names, and once registration was completed, they would receive a two-yuan red packet as a referral bonus. If they brought in a new user, the newcomer would receive two yuan and the referrer one.
Given university students’ formidable social skills, it was perfectly ordinary for one person to earn a hundred or so yuan a day.
After registering new users, they would log in each day to complete the activity requirements. Fifteen minutes online, more than three comments, and a daily check-in would earn them another yuan.
There was nothing remotely related to astroturfing in that. It was simply how everyone used referral apps.
Once they had downloaded the app, they would check in for themselves while continuing to recruit new users and earn money. Hardly anyone deleted it after downloading.
Two weeks later, the activity rewards were canceled, and Selina began posting commenting tasks in the groups. She would send a video link and ask everyone to watch it before leaving “their own genuine comments.”
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