Chapter 185 - 138: The Playbook
Chen Lin switched back to the WeChat group chat.
Huang Yiyi: [The article’s logic is very clear, and its arguments are quite deceptive. The author is a professional.]
Yunqing: [This is definitely a hit piece that Yang Han paid for, right?!]
[I just checked Weibo, and a bunch of bloggers are already reposting it!]
Seeing Yunqing’s message, Chen Lin opened Weibo.
He didn’t even have to search. His main feed was already populated with several related posts.
Sure enough, quite a few "small V" bloggers, with follower counts ranging from tens of thousands to over a hundred thousand, had reposted the Official Account article.
One of the IDs, in particular, looked familiar.
[Big Spitting Mushroom].
Chen Lin remembered. This was the same account that had tried to stir up drama online and clean up Yang Han’s image last time, only to get completely flamed by netizens.
When these bloggers reposted the article, they often added a seemingly objective and neutral comment.
"Rational voices shouldn’t be drowned out. Let’s hear another perspective."
"The third point in this article is truly worth pondering. We shouldn’t let women’s contributions be habitually overlooked in the academic narrative."
Chen Lin scrolled down and clicked directly into the article’s comment section.
If the article itself could be said to be wearing a cloak of objectivity, then the comments section was a blatant festival of malice.
[LMAO, does anyone really believe a liberal arts student became a math god in three months? This is more absurd than the academic power-fantasy novels I read last year.
I’m calling it right now, there’s no way he wrote this paper! It’s highly likely Yannan University, for the sake of hype, snatched the first author credit from some female student and gave it to him! Just waiting for the young lady who got her credit stolen to come out and expose him!]
[I think this Chen Lin guy is incredibly manipulative. If you go back and review the video of the modeling competition, he didn’t go on stage at first. He deliberately sent Shen Yan. What was he waiting for? He was waiting for someone to raise doubts, wasn’t he? When Yang Han questioned them out of academic rigor, it was exactly what he wanted!
He goes up, saves the day perfectly, and makes a name for himself by stepping on Yang Han. But that’s not enough. Before leaving the stage, he deliberately lands another blow, demanding an apology—a classic case of kicking someone while they’re down! This whole combo, playing the victim while being the aggressor, makes him a textbook ’green tea’ man!]
[Exactly! And aren’t there rumors online about Chen Lin and Shen Yan? I heard from my friend at Yannan University that Chen Lin is just paying Shen Yan an intern’s salary and working her to the bone at his company, 996 every day. If that’s not PUA, what is?]
[Look at Chen Lin’s Yanhai Company, all three employees are gorgeous women. You’re telling me Chen Lin didn’t have any ulterior motives when he was hiring? Who’d believe that?!]
...
...
All sorts of bizarre and outlandish claims assaulted him from angles he could never have imagined.
Looking at these comments, Chen Lin wasn’t angry. Instead, he found them somewhat amusing.
He was reminded of when he still lived in dorm room 406, when Fatty Zhao would lie in bed, scrolling through his phone and explaining the classic tactics used by "Weibo boxers" to stir up drama.
According to Fatty Zhao, the extremist accounts that were always on the offensive online, cursing all men with the most vicious language in every single Weibo post, actually had very limited influence.
Because their statements were so anti-intellectual, any normal person could tell at a glance that they were unhinged. Forget men; even most women would feel a visceral discomfort and subconsciously keep their distance.
The truly dangerous ones were a different breed.
They cloaked themselves in a gentle, intellectual persona and never posted extremist views.
They would repost articles that seemed objective and neutral but were actually loaded with hidden agendas, smuggling in just a small dose of a pro-female stance.
This would attract a large number of casual followers who agreed with their views to click into the comment section.
And in that comment section, the radical, seemingly indignant comments pushed to the top were often from their own alternate accounts, or they were upvoted to the top by core fans from their private groups to control the narrative.
It was a two-way filtering process, like boiling a frog in slowly warming water.
Normal people who saw these radical comments might feel uncomfortable at first and just scroll past.
But the fans who were filtered through, the ones with a stronger sense of identification, would see it more and more, and their tolerance for it would grow.
𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
Then, the rhetoric from these alternate accounts would become increasingly radical, escalating from malicious speculation to outright fabrication, crossing one line after another.
Just like what was happening now.
Chen Lin scrolled down, sorting by time, and sure enough, he could still find some normal comments defending him, some of which seemed to be from Yannan University students.
But these comments sank like stones in the ocean, not even making a ripple. They had very few likes or replies and were quickly buried.
He exited Weibo and switched back to the "Yanhai Startup Squad" group chat.
Sun Yu: [Boss, this is tricky. The article itself doesn’t attack you directly, and those bloggers are just reposting to stir the pot. Even if we take action, they can claim complete deniability.]
Sun Yu’s analysis was spot-on. Before Chen Lin could reply, a new message popped up. It was from Shen Yan, who hadn’t said anything yet.
Shen Yan: [Should I post on Weibo to clarify that you didn’t PUA me or exploit me at work? I haven’t really used my Weibo account, so I don’t know if anyone will see it.]
Chen Lin stared at Shen Yan’s message, stunned for a moment, before an understanding smile uncontrollably touched his lips.
’Not bad, Shen Tongxue.’
’Only clarifying that there’s no PUA or exploitation, but not clarifying whether we’re a couple, huh?’
Before he could reply, Yunqing’s message popped up right after, filled with an urgent, insistent tone.
Yunqing: [@Shen Yan Don’t you dare! If you go out and clarify things now, setting aside whether it would even work, even if netizens saw it, that mob would just see you as a traitor to the female cause, turn their guns on you, and start cyberbullying you instead!]
Reading Yunqing’s analysis, Chen Lin felt a chill and immediately realized the severity of the problem. He quickly sent a message in the group.
Chen Lin: [@Shen Yan Yunqing is right. Don’t do anything rash. Just leave this to me.]
Just then, Huang Yiyi, who had been silent the whole time, finally spoke up. Her analysis was as professional and calm as ever.
Huang Yiyi: [President Chen, I recommend we give this the cold shoulder. The people orchestrating this are likely trying to bait you into responding, so they can completely shift the topic from an academic dispute to a battle of the sexes. Once it gets to that point, it will be difficult for the university to officially intervene, and you’ll be left to face the full force of online public opinion alone, which would be very disadvantageous.]
Huang Yiyi: [My suggestion is to have the university issue an official, formal response that addresses only the two core issues: your academic ability and the paper’s authorship. As for the rest of it, to be blunt, it’s all baseless speculation. As long as you don’t respond, the hype will die down quickly.]
Chen Lin read Huang Yiyi’s two messages and nodded to himself.
’This is a solid plan.’
He immediately made a decision in the group chat: [We’ll do as Assistant Huang says. Everyone, stay calm and carry on. Just work as usual for the next few days and don’t worry about what’s happening online.]