Yu Xiaxing opened the breakdown of her score.
The financial health category was indeed nothing to write home about. Looks like sabotaging the operating costs had been the right move. She’d keep it up next round.
The stakeholder satisfaction category was a little too high. She’d have to work harder to torment them.
The main issue was the social reputation and brand influence category—in other words, public opinion. She had actually received a perfect score!!!
She’d thought Fifth Brother had scored the highest in public opinion. Why was it her?
She clicked open the detailed public-opinion report.
It contained data gathered by the public-opinion monitoring system, along with a brief analysis.
Keyword cloud: #SaintVirtueAcademyBeautyDreamTeam#, #AdolescentFrustrationEducation#, #TheCafeteriaEveryoneWants#, #EliteSchool#, #YuXiaxing#
Public-opinion sentiment analysis: 68% positive, 25% neutral, 7% negative.
The data curve peaked on Wednesday, when the beauty dream team made its first appearance. By the next day, it had dropped dramatically.
But over the weekend, the curve had risen again.
Yu Xiaxing felt that something was off. News died so quickly these days. Usually, after a peak, there wouldn’t be any buzz left after a day or two.
She hadn’t done anything over the weekend, either. So how had there suddenly been two peaks?
She searched online.
She quickly found an account called Little Wu the Security Guard’s Daily Life.
What?!
Yu Xiaxing’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.
770,000 followers?
With that many followers, he was practically a minor celebrity!
And he even had a whole network of accounts. He’d called on a bunch of friends with fifty thousand to a hundred thousand followers of their own to promote the school together!
Yu Xiaxing clicked in to look at the comments.
“Is this school hiring? I don’t even need a salary. Just feed me! [doge]”
“Am I the only one who noticed that every time he opens a car door for a parent, he puts his hand over the roof so they don’t bump their heads? The emotional support is off the charts! Are there any kids willing to let me adopt them? I’ll drive you to school—I want to experience this so badly!”
“What is the entertainment industry even casting these days? There are so many hidden gems among ordinary people!”
“It’s all just for show, isn’t it? Private schools pull flashy stunts like this just to charge more tuition.”
“Why are you so bitter? At my school, the principal embezzled all the money. In summer, his office air-conditioning was turned down so low it felt like the South Pole. At least this school’s board director is putting real money into improving the students’ experience!”
“Haha, the whole school is full of idiots, and they’re hoping to strike it lucky with stuff like this? With students that terrible, what difference does it make? Their college entrance exam results are still the worst in the entire city.”
“I heard this school is brutal about evening study sessions, but its academic results are still—[facepalm laughing]…”
Yu Xiaxing read through the comments one by one.
There was envy, praise, doubt, and mockery.
She didn’t want to contribute any traffic to the account, so she hurriedly locked her phone.
The beauty dream team had been personally selected by her. At the time, she’d only thought they would spark controversy!
Who could have known one of them would come with his own built-in traffic—and willingly praise the school online?
Beauty had led her astray!
The first thing she’d do when she got to school tomorrow was tell Little Wu to stop posting… No, that warning wouldn’t be enough.
She would use her authority as a board director to issue an announcement forbidding everyone from posting anything!
Then she would find a way to burn through the newly acquired five million yuan as quickly as possible!
—
Monday.
At six in the morning, Little Wu the Security Guard arrived at work ahead of schedule.
Standing before the spotless appearance mirror, he carefully adjusted his shoulder insignia and the brim of his cap, making sure he looked as handsome as possible. He planned to shoot some more footage today.
Little Wu raised his phone, opened the familiar short-video app, and prepared to log into his account and post a good-morning vlog.
He entered his username and password.
Login failed.
He paused, thinking he must have typed something wrong, and carefully entered them again.
Login failed.
He frowned and switched to login by text-message verification.
Incorrect verification code.
His heart sank. He immediately tapped “Recover Password” and entered the phone number linked to the account.
This account does not exist or has been frozen.
Little Wu’s face slowly turned pale.
He hurriedly searched for “Little Wu the Security Guard’s Daily Life.”
The account was still there. The profile picture hadn’t changed—it was still a side view of him in his security uniform.
But beneath the three most recent videos, the previously clean comment sections now contained several advertisements posted from his own account:
“Thanks to Tree-Chopping Legend Mobile for sponsoring this episode! Click the link to download and receive a free SSR character!”
“Get the same uniform shirt here ↓↓↓”
“Want a physique like Little Wu’s? DM me to find out which weight-loss pills Little Wu has been taking!”
A new line had also appeared in the account bio:
“For business inquiries, contact Manager Yang: 138XXXXXXXX.”
Little Wu immediately called his former employer.
“Manager Yang, I already quit. Why did you take over my personal account too?”
Manager Yang sounded as if this were only natural. “The company took it back. What? Didn’t you read the contract? All social-media accounts you operated during your contract term, whether personal accounts or accounts assigned by the company, belong to the company. We own both the accounts and the operating rights!”
Little Wu summoned up his courage and tried to threaten him. “I’m warning you, all the followers on my personal account followed me because of me. Once they realize someone else has taken over, they won’t keep following!”
Manager Yang burst out laughing. “Ignorance really is frightening. Do you know how advanced AI is these days?”
“Oh, right. To save you the trouble of suing us and wasting your time, let me remind you of something else. The contract also states that while you’re working as an influencer for our company, the rights to your image belong to us for life, and we can use it however we please!”
“We can even use AI-generated videos of you to keep updating the account. After all, there aren’t any laws regulating AI yet!”
“You…”
It was true that Little Wu had dropped out of high school and didn’t understand much about contracts.
He felt miserable. He had posted those videos purely to promote the school he loved, hoping it could hang on a little longer. He had never intended to accept advertisements.
But the moment those people took over the account, they had started accepting all kinds of ads!
Little Wu gritted his teeth and cursed, “So many students follow this account now. Can children use those things you’re advertising? Mobile games, weight-loss pills—what if someone takes that fake medicine?”
Manager Yang scoffed. “That’s none of your business. From now on, we’ll be posting uniform try-on videos and suggestive jokes, too. You just worry about being a security guard!”
With that, he hung up before Little Wu could respond.
Little Wu stood blankly at the school gate, phone still in hand.
He looked at the fruits of his own labor, taken away by someone else in an instant. He looked at the blatantly fake-medicine advertisements as well, yet all he could do was rage helplessly.
Little Wu didn’t smile brightly that day.
He remained miserable until nine in the morning.
Yu Xiaxing arrived at work.
A short while later, a message appeared in Saint Virtue Academy’s internal work group.
It was a new school rule set by the board director that day.
“All employees are prohibited from posting footage of the school’s interior or clear, front-facing images of students…”
“Using school-related content to place advertisements, attract traffic, or make a profit is strictly forbidden…”
“Previously posted videos are also subject to review. If the relevant videos are not deleted, the Yu Group will immediately mobilize its legal team…”
Little Wu stared at the message in excitement.
He didn’t mind not posting videos himself.
After reading the board director’s regulations, he genuinely felt that filming could easily capture students, which wasn’t appropriate.
But he also didn’t want someone else using the account to make money!
He immediately sent his account information to Board Director Yu’s assistant.
Little Wu: “Assistant Lu, this account used an AI-generated image of me to impersonate me and post school videos. It’s even running ads for fake medicine!”
Lu Yanzhao: “Understood.”
Before half an hour had passed, Little Wu’s account was deleted!
I knew it!
The Yu Corporation’s legal team was known as the “Beishan Pizza Hut”—once that name was invoked, there was hardly any need to take the matter all the way to court!
Hmph. Manager Yang had actually tried to intimidate him just now by claiming that he didn’t understand the law. And look at him now—he’d obediently deleted the account, hadn’t he?
Little Wu’s heart felt warm.
My current company stood up to my former company for me!
Here, even as an employee, he was treated like a person worth protecting!
Little Wu had already been fond of Board Director Yu. Now, that fondness had been transformed into something closer to reverence for a god.
