How A Ride-Hailing Driver Comes To Dominate The World? [EN]: Chapter 297

Taking Down Weibo and Douyin: Mastering Online Discourse

Yang Chen instinctively thought the groom should discuss it with the bride. After all, they were already there to pick her up, and any problem that wasn’t unbearable could be negotiated.

“Sigh…” The groom sighed and immediately started complaining to Yang Chen.

In short, they had agreed on a bride price of 180,000 yuan, with the boarding and alighting gifts being casual, but at least around 8,888 yuan.

Adding in the three gold items, diamond ring, betrothal gifts, wedding banquet, etc., the groom’s family had barely enough money left after buying the house. They had to borrow over 100,000 yuan from relatives and friends to barely make ends meet.

But today, when the groom arrived to pick up the bride, the mother-in-law suddenly changed her tune and demanded an additional 100,000 yuan as a bride price, or else he wouldn’t be allowed to take the bride away.

The elders from the groom’s side had been negotiating with the bride’s parents for over an hour, but they wouldn’t budge on a single penny. They insisted on adding 100,000 yuan.

The reason was that the bride’s younger brother’s girlfriend had received an additional 100,000 yuan in bride price, and since they didn’t have the money, they had to ask the son-in-law for an extra 100,000 yuan.

This infuriated the groom. That’s why he called a car, preparing to leave, not pick up the bride, and call off the wedding.

The most terrifying thing was that the bride not only didn’t think her parents were being unreasonable but instead blamed the groom for being inconsiderate and not loving her enough.

After listening to the groom’s story, Yang Chen said, “Brother, you’re doing the right thing. If you give them this 100,000 yuan today, you can forget about having a good life for the rest of your days. They’ll make you responsible for any difficulties they face, and if you don’t comply, they’ll have their daughter divorce you. By then, it won’t be so easy to get a divorce, and you’ll have to give her half of your assets.”

Groom: “That’s exactly what I thought. It’s better to cut my losses now! Drive!”

Yang Chen nodded and immediately reversed the car, bypassing the bride and leaving.

The bride chased after them for a few steps, shouting, “Don’t go! Come back! I won’t add it anymore, okay? We can discuss it! Come back!”

It was terrifying. From the bride’s words, it was clear that she agreed with her parents’ behavior of adding to the bride price on the wedding day.

Once the bride price is agreed upon, you must never add to it, not even a dime, because that shows a lack of sincerity.

Any groom with a bit of backbone would call off the wedding because it’s not about the money, but it foreshadows that the bride’s family will have you under their thumb in the future.

As long as they need you for something, they’ll use this method to force you if you dare not agree.

To keep the family together, you’ll definitely compromise in the end.

Usually, in this kind of situation, the bride’s heart is with her parents. She’ll think her parents did the right thing, which is the scariest thing.

They hadn’t driven far when the groom received a call from his father.

Groom: “Dad.”

Father: “You get your ass back here right now! When we were discussing the wedding, I told you that her family wasn’t good, and you should reconsider, but you wouldn’t listen. Now that all the relatives and friends are here, you dare to run? You chose this yourself, so you’ll have to kneel and finish the wedding for me! I can’t afford to lose face like this! I never expected you to earn me any respect in my life, but you can’t make me lose so much face in front of all our relatives and friends!”

Groom: “But they want to add 100,000 yuan to the bride price. We don’t have that much money!”

Father: “I’ve already sent your uncle and the others over to see if they can negotiate.

You get back here now, you hear me?”

Groom: “Dad, I regret it, I…”

Father: “Regret my ass! Why didn’t you regret it when I told you to think carefully? Ever since you refused to retake the college entrance exam to get into a better university, I’ve told you many times that you have to finish the path you chose, even if you have to kneel. Your parents can’t help you forever. You never listen to me, always thinking I’m talking nonsense! Fine, I can overlook those things. But I must be serious with you about this matter today! If you make me lose face in front of all our relatives and friends today, I’m not done with you!”

Groom: “I understand.”

He hung up the phone after saying that.

The bride’s family probably knew they could take advantage of the groom’s father’s temper, so they dared to add 100,000 yuan at the last minute.

The groom took a deep breath and said, “Master, let’s go back.”

Yang Chen: “Huh? Really? You’re still going through with this?”

Groom: “All the relatives and friends are here. My dad has been a respectable man his whole life, and I don’t want him to lose all his face in his old age. Let’s go back.”

Yang Chen shook his head helplessly and turned the car around.

With all the relatives and friends present, but no bride, it would indeed be a great loss of face. People would talk about it for the rest of their lives, and someone with a weak mental state might not be able to handle it, and someone with a bad temper might just end their life.

So, the groom’s father’s actions can’t be said to be definitely right, but they definitely can’t be said to be wrong.

A person lives for face. After being respectable for most of his life, he definitely couldn’t handle losing all his face at once.

Yang Chen took the groom back, intending to leave this unlucky place immediately.

But then the bride’s brother brought people and surrounded his car.

The bride’s younger brother pointed at Yang Chen arrogantly and cursed, “Do you have any morals? They’re just having a lovers’ quarrel. They can discuss it and get over it. Why did you take the groom away?”

Yang Chen couldn’t stand men who lacked backbone or were being oppressed.

He was already full of anger, and this jerk dared to come up and curse at him, so how could he let it go easily?

Yang Chen immediately got out of the car and shouted, “What? You’re raising the price on the wedding day, and you still have the nerve to show your face? If I were you, I’d just kill myself. All the relatives and friends are here, and the groom came to pick up the bride, and you’re adding 100,000 yuan at the last minute. Is that something a human would do? Forget about getting married, even in business, the most taboo thing is to raise prices at the last minute. And you, the groom is a man, and you’re a man too. If you can’t afford the bride price, you’re going to make your brother-in-law pay for it, right? If you were a real man, you wouldn’t disregard your sister and brother-in-law’s happiness and add this 100,000 yuan at the last minute. You’re all shameless, and you still have the nerve to talk about me, a ride-hailing driver who’s just following the rules?”

The bride’s younger brother was furious and raised his hand to hit Yang Chen.

At this moment, the bodyguards rushed up and threw the bride’s younger brother aside.

Five strong men stood in front of Yang Chen, so there was no need to fear even if the bride’s family had more people.

“Damn, this ride-hailing driver even has bodyguards with him?”

“Is he really a ride-hailing driver?”

“No wonder he dared to meddle in other people’s business. It turns out he has bodyguards protecting him.”

“Damn, are ride-hailing drivers so arrogant these days? They even have bodyguards? Bipi [likely a ride-hailing app] is so thoughtful. I’ll join Bipi later. This sense of security is too good.”

…

The groom quickly said, “Alright, let him go. He didn’t do anything wrong. Why are you stopping him?”

The bride immediately said, “How did he not do anything wrong? If he had any tact, shouldn’t he have refused to drive us?”

Groom: “If your family had any tact, would you be adding to the bride price at the last minute? Let him go! Let him leave!”

Bride: “What’s wrong with you? Who are you making that face at? If you don’t want to get married, then leave. Why did you come back?”

Damn, Yang Chen couldn’t stand it anymore. If he kept watching, he would die of anger. It was so frustrating to be a man.

Under the protection of the bodyguards, Yang Chen drove away from this unlucky place.

After encountering such a thing, there was no way he could be in a good mood for the rest of the day.

However, something even worse happened to Yang Chen.

Damn it, that account actually gave him a bad review. Although he couldn’t be sure if it was the groom or if the bride forced him to do it, they still gave it.

“Garbage driver, you have no tact at all. You’re just trying to earn a few bucks for your coffin, and you have no morals. You’re shameless.”

It was obvious that the bride took the groom’s phone and gave the review.

Damn, if people have no shame, they’re really invincible.

Yang Chen didn’t bother to argue with such people, but what did he, a ride-hailing driver, do wrong?

The bride’s family was so shameless, and they even scolded him for being immoral. If he didn’t teach them a lesson, they wouldn’t know how disgusting their behavior was.

At this moment, the system issued a reminder.

“Congratulations, Master, for receiving a bad review. The system rewards you with 30% equity in Weibo [a popular Chinese microblogging website], making you the largest shareholder of the company. Relevant materials will be delivered to your door tomorrow morning. Please pay attention to check them.”

The main online public opinion battlegrounds in Dragon Country [a common nickname for China] are Weibo and Douyin [a popular Chinese short video platform, known internationally as TikTok].

Yang Chen becoming the largest shareholder of Weibo was equivalent to controlling half of the public opinion battlefield in Dragon Country.

So, although Weibo’s market value was only a few billion US dollars, the value of this 30% equity was no lower than the equity of companies like Yida Group.

However, although Yang Chen was now the largest shareholder, he didn’t have the controlling stake.

Sina held 28% of the equity, Ali Baba held 20% of the equity, and Ali Baba’s voting rights were given to Sina. Adding in the relevant individual shareholdings, Sina roughly controlled 52% of the voting rights, so Sina was the controlling shareholder.

After a while, the system issued another reminder.

“Detected that the host has received a complaint, triggering a critical reward. The system rewards the host with 30% equity in ByteDance Group. To help the host avoid unnecessary sensations, the system has helped the host hide his identity by indirectly holding shares through the registration of multiple companies. Relevant materials will be delivered together tomorrow morning. Please pay attention to check them.”

ByteDance Group is the parent company of Douyin. After many rounds of financing, President Zhang Xiaoming’s shareholding ratio was still as high as 98%.

Why was this?

This was the dual-class share structure often used by internet companies. In short, investors obtained equity, but they only had the right to dividends, not the right to vote.

So, legally speaking,

Zhang Xiaoming still held 98% of the equity.

But!

The 30% equity that the system rewarded to Yang Chen was not a dual-class share structure, but equity with the right to dividends and voting rights.

So why was Zhang Xiaoming willing to give up so many voting rights to Yang Chen?

Of course, it was because the system gave him too much, and he couldn’t refuse.

In the year-end rich list rankings, Zhang Xiaoming would become the richest man in Dragon Country history with a total asset of at least 700 billion.

But don’t think he had so much money and seemed to have gotten a great deal.

Everyone should understand a principle.

When a child has 10 yuan, their parents won’t care about them, and they can spend it however they want.

But when a child has 100 yuan, their parents will tell them not to buy things randomly.

When a child has 10,000 yuan, their parents will take it away under the pretext of helping them keep it safe.

So, it’s hard to say whether Zhang Xiaoming gained or lost by getting so much money.

But for Yang Chen, he definitely made a killing.

Controlling the two major public opinion strongholds of Weibo and Douyin, as long as he didn’t rebel, he could let whoever he wanted speak, and if he didn’t want someone to speak, they couldn’t make a sound online.

This was something that even the two Mas [likely referring to Jack Ma of Alibaba and Pony Ma of Tencent], or even Zhang Xiaoming himself, couldn’t do.

Although Ali Baba held Weibo equity, it couldn’t control Weibo, let alone Douyin.

Zhang Xiaoming could control Douyin, but he couldn’t control Weibo.

Only Yang Chen could control both Weibo and Douyin at the same time. This was what made him more powerful than other big shots.

You should know that in today’s internet age, if you can’t speak online, no matter how much injustice you suffer, you can only endure it.

Many times, even the progress of legal construction needs to be promoted by online public opinion.

For example, the case of Brother Long being killed in self-defense was only made possible by the efforts of the majority of netizens, who turned the victim into a self-defense counterattack. Otherwise, based on his actions of chasing and hacking with a knife, he would not have met the legal definition of self-defense at the time. It was also because of that case that the legal provisions on self-defense became much more lenient, no longer requiring one to be almost beaten to death before being allowed to resist.

So, there’s no need to elaborate on how powerful these two rewards were.

Now that he had received the rewards, he had to use them quickly.

Yang Chen opened Weibo and Douyin and searched for the keywords “groom running away in a car,” and he actually found relevant videos.

“Damn, people these days really have to film everything and post it online. Well, you guys are doing it right, saving me from having to let the Shield Security Group take action,” Yang Chen said to himself.

Yang Chen called Yu Shishi and instructed, “Shishi, check the contact information of the board secretaries of Weibo and ByteDance Group, call them, and order them to notify the Weibo and Douyin operations to add traffic promotion to the news and videos of ‘Bride Temporarily Adding 100,000 Yuan to Bride Price, Groom Running Away in a Car,’ the hotter the better.”

Yu Shishi: “Then I don’t need to talk to the two board secretaries, I can just buy trending searches, right?”

Yang Chen: “No, I just acquired equity in Weibo and ByteDance Group. If I still have to spend money to buy trending searches for this kind of thing, then didn’t I waste money acquiring the equity?”

Yu Shishi: “Ah? Mr., you also acquired the equity of Douyin’s parent company? How could Zhang Xiaoming be willing to sell it?”

Yang Chen: “I acquired it at twice the premium. How could he not sell it? He might not be able to earn that much money in his entire life. How could he not do it?”

This reason was really simple and crude, leaving people speechless.

Yu Shishi: “Mr., you’re really amazing. I understand, I’ll contact them immediately and have them give us free trending searches. Hehe…”

Yang Chen: “Okay. Hurry up and do it, I need to drive.”

Yu Shishi: “Okay, I’ll do it right away.”

Having power was great for getting things done. It wasn’t even lunchtime yet, and the news of “Bride Temporarily Adding 100,000 Yuan to Bride Price, Groom Running Away in a Car” had spread all over Weibo and Douyin.

At this time, the wedding banquet of the couple was in progress, and the guests quickly started discussing it when they saw the overwhelming news online.

“Old Zhang has been respectable his whole life, but he didn’t expect to be taken advantage of when marrying his daughter-in-law.”

“Haha… This is really too embarrassing. He agreed to add 100,000 yuan at the last minute. Tsk tsk tsk…”

“If it were me, even if my son remained single for the rest of his life, I would never agree to this marriage. It’s as if my son can’t find a wife. It’s too weak.”

“The bride’s family is not good people! They even add to the agreed-upon bride price on the day of the wedding. As expected, birds of a feather flock together. They’re a perfect match.”

…

Soon, the groom and bride’s families saw the online public opinion.

The groom’s father had been respectable his whole life, how could he endure such gazes and ridicule from his relatives and friends? He fainted on the spot.

The bride’s parents’ behavior of temporarily adding 100,000 yuan to the bride price further angered the majority of netizens. The family’s Douyin and other accounts were all exposed, and countless netizens rushed in to insult them in various ways.

The wedding banquet hadn’t even finished serving all the dishes before the groom helplessly announced its end.

Were they pitiful?

Not at all!

If the groom had any integrity, he would not have allowed the bride to give Yang Chen a complaint and a bad review.

If the bride had even a little bit of integrity, she would never have allowed her parents to add to the bride price at the last minute and blame Yang Chen, an innocent outsider.

If the groom’s father had a little bit of backbone, if he had just a little bit more love for his son, he shouldn’t have forced his son to go back and continue picking up the bride.

The bride’s parents were even less pitiful. They were the instigators of this incident. It was their greed that led to the current situation by temporarily adding 100,000 yuan to the price.

So, none of these two families were innocent.

As some guests said, birds of a feather flock together. These two families were a perfect match!

…

After three o’clock in the afternoon, Lin Shuying, whom he hadn’t seen for a long time, called Yang Chen.

Lin Shuying: “Brother Chen, are you free tonight? My sister and I are inviting you to a bar. We’re so annoyed by work that if we don’t relax, our bodies and minds will collapse.”

Yang Chen: “Tonight? Which bar are we going to?”

Lin Shuying: “Let’s go to TAX-A bar.”

Yang Chen: “Okay, 9:00 PM tonight, we’ll meet at the entrance of TAX-A.”

Since Yang Chen forced the Lin family to hand over power to the Lin sisters, these two sisters have indeed been very hardworking and have done very well. The various industries invested by the Lin family have developed well.

From taking over the Lin family last November to now, eight months have passed. The two sisters have not had any entertainment activities, and their bodies and minds have been under tremendous torment. They can’t handle it without relaxing.

At 8:50 PM, Yang Chen and the Lin sisters met at the entrance of the bar.

The two were wearing white T-shirts and denim shorts, which perfectly highlighted their beautiful figures.

Lin Anxiang: “Brother Chen, long time no see, you’ve become even more handsome.”

Yang Chen: “I’m okay, I’ve always been like this. You two have become even more beautiful.”

Lin Shuying: “Hehe… You just know how to make people happy. Let’s go in quickly, I want to dance, I want to drink, I want to indulge, I want to release the power within me.”

Yang Chen: “Look at how suffocated the child is. If you don’t relax, you’re going to explode.”

Lin Shuying: “That’s right. I haven’t been out for entertainment in more than half a year. Tell me how uncomfortable that is.”

The three walked and talked, entering the bar.

Yang Chen had to drive, so he didn’t drink.

But the Lin sisters were like wild horses that had broken free, running wild, drinking, dancing, shouting, it seemed that they had been holding back for a long time and now wanted to release it all at once.

Yang Chen crossed his legs and played with his phone.

Having just obtained equity in Weibo, Yang Chen naturally wanted to see what Weibo was like now.

As soon as he logged into Weibo, he saw the system’s push of Wang Nianming’s Weibo post.

“Wu Yun, you damn bitch, I won’t kill you, you’re lucky! Whoever is friends with Wu Yun is my enemy, Wang Nianming!”

This bear child [a term for a mischievous or troublesome child], why is he being so unbridled on Weibo again.

Who is this Wu Yun?

How could she make Wang Nianming so angry?

Yang Chen clicked on the comments and roughly understood what happened.

In short, Wang Nianming took his friends to Sanya [a popular resort city in China] to celebrate his birthday, and one of them was an internet celebrity named Wu Yun.

The internet celebrity named Wu Yun wanted to leave after eating and drinking for free, and Wang Nianming scolded her for not understanding the rules of the game.

They were probably both drunk, so Wu Yun started arguing with Wang Nianming, and in the end, they both started fighting.

Wang Nianming had never suffered such anger, so after sobering up, he posted this Weibo post, wanting to use his connections to block Wu Yun.

However, Wang Nianming is a very controversial person.

Many people admire his life, admire his upright views, and dare to say and do what he wants.

But there are also many people who think he is just a spoiled brat. Without his father, he would be nothing.

Moreover, the number of people holding these two views is about the same, which can be described as mixed reputation.

In this case, Wang Nianming’s Weibo post undoubtedly brought him tremendous negative public opinion pressure.

As a result, many people in the comments section seized this opportunity to scold him for bullying others.

Some even said they would boycott Yida Plaza, Yida Cinema, etc.

Whether it was a coincidence or really affected, Yida Film’s stock price fell by 5% when the market closed today.

Yang Chen frowned. This was not good. A drop in the stock price meant that Yang Chen’s wealth was also being lost.

Don’t look down on just 5%, but that meant Yang Chen lost about 100 million.

“Damn, it’s okay for you to show off, but you can’t make me lose money! I’ve told you and your father many times to be low-key in the future and not to cause trouble online, but you just won’t listen, will you? It seems like you need to be taught a lesson!” Yang Chen muttered in a low voice.

Speak of the devil.

At this moment, Wang Nianming came with a group of friends.

He didn’t know what he said to the waiter, but a few seconds later, the DJ shouted, “Everyone, Young Master Wang is here! Free beer tonight, Young Master Wang is paying! Applause!”

The scene immediately became lively, and the atmosphere was instantly pushed to a high point.