Chapter 1

Fighting is an entertainment activity suitable for all ages.

You can fight everywhere in life, with anyone. You can fight because of interests, because of conflicts, because of boredom, or even just because you want to fight.

In most cases, Jiang Qi was just a spectator watching the fight.

When Jiang Qi was a child and the Internet was not very developed, if you wanted to watch a fight, you had to rely on luck and see if the people around you were willing to participate in this entertainment activity.

It depends on whether the vendors in the vegetable market are shortchanging each other and are caught on the spot and seen by Qiao Huifang or Jiang Xiaohong who happen to go to the vegetable market to buy vegetables. It depends on whether there are conflicts between classmates, between parents, or between teachers at school.

At that time, quarrels were still a relatively rare thing.

Face-to-face fights are usually not too intense, as people have to consider their reputations. Small fights in secret are unknown to the onlookers, so they usually don't cause any waves.

But it’s different now. With the development of the Internet, as long as you want, you can join the fight anytime and anywhere on Weibo and other platforms that like to fight and have a hearty fight.

Jiang Qi has seen a lot of quarrels over the years, thanks to Jiang Bing and Jiang Wanwan, two top surfers who love to eat melons. He has also learned a lot about the big and small undercurrents in the entertainment industry, and he has learned a lot about the quarrels that you can't understand if you don't listen to the explanation. He can be considered a half-tantrum expert.

The half-expert in quarreling never expected that he would be the protagonist in the local quarrel in December.

After seeing the group message, Jiang Qi thought he would be just a mere spectator.

After reading the entire article, Jiang Qi was surprised to find that he was the protagonist!

"[Ru Meng] closed down, the first victim of vicious competition has appeared! How long will the chaos in the script-killing industry continue?" This soft article mentioned the names of two script-killing stores from beginning to end.

One is the bankrupt Rumeng Immersive Mystery Detective Museum.

Another one is the Galaxy Script Society.

This article is not long, the writing is not very good, and the popularity is very average. It is obvious that Boss Zhen has no money left to buy promotion, but the content is extremely disgusting.

This article portrays several script shops, led by Xinghe Script Society, as a malignant tumor of the industry invaded by capital. It just stops short of saying by name that Jiang Qi and others used their influence to form cliques and monopolize the market, leaving no room for other small shops to survive. It almost wants to put all the blame for the bankruptcy of [Rumeng] on Jiang Qi and others.

Jiang Qi almost vomited blood when he saw that he had suddenly become a bully, a capitalist, and a powerful person.

"What a mess of shit!" Jiang Qi cursed, "Why do you only scold me and not Yan Huaiyou and JC?"

"There are only five rooms in my store. Is the script-killing market in Xuncheng dead? My store with only five rooms can drive other stores out of business." Jiang Qi felt that he had been wronged but had nowhere to complain.

[Ru Meng] Although he had never heard of this store before, he knew a lot about how a newly opened store could go bankrupt.

There are only a few reasons: the boss is a novice and doesn't know how to run a business, the clerks are just slackers who want to get by, the location is bad, the luck is bad, the timing is wrong, and there are too many competitors.

No matter how you put the blame on someone, it shouldn't be put on him!

But sometimes many things just don't make sense at all.

No one knew what Boss Zhen was thinking, but he probably thought Yan Huaiyou was too rich to be messed with, and that Xinghe Script Agency was small but famous, and that the boss was an outsider who didn't care about the business, so he could be treated as a soft persimmon and stepped on, so he went straight for Jiang Qi.

Jiang Qi, who has seen countless gossips, knows that facing such inexplicable quarrels, the best solution is to ignore them.

Boss Zhen is basically in a losing situation. He is now like a piece of candy, relying on the fact that he is barefoot and is not afraid of those who wear shoes. He knows he can't win but he still wants to disgust you.

Jiang Qi finally understood how Jiang Jun and Cao Luoping felt when Boss Zhen followed them and bought and snatched books.

"I don't quite understand. What does the closure of Rumeng have to do with us? I've never heard of this store before. What's the point of writing this article?" Liu Lan finished reading the entire article while eating noodles. He almost lost his appetite. "Isn't this just crazy? Is this just looking for trouble?"

"No one reads this kind of weird little article. Look, it only has more than 100 views in total. We probably read them all. Just ignore it." Beiru, who is very experienced in quarreling, said, "Some people are like this. The more you pay attention to them, the more excited they are. Believe it or not, if we use the customer service number to post on WeChat Moments or somewhere to criticize this article, it will become popular immediately. If you ignore him, he will be even more upset."

"But I feel bad about being smeared by others for no reason." Cai Min said angrily, "It's really disgusting."

"It's okay." Jiang Qi comforted him. He was no longer angry now. "Yan Huaiyou's army will throw the dirty water back."

But most people would not write articles in this way. This method is inefficient and has a low cost-effectiveness. Yan Huaiyou does not like it. He prefers a simple and crude way of spreading rumors.

From the moment Boss Zhen started throwing dirty water and spreading rumors on TV, the tone of this fierce battle was set.

Spreading rumors.

It's just a competition of who can spread rumors better.

Both sides are very cruel, it just depends on who is more cruel.

The normal employees here are still feeling indignant, while the abnormal employees on the other side have not yet figured out the situation.

"So now we are divided into two factions, competing with each other for business. If the other side cannot win the competition, they will write articles in the newspapers to slander and curse us, right?" Wang Xinghua asked.

"Almost. You can understand it that way. It's just that the newspaper over there is not very good. You can think of it as a third-rate tabloid that no one reads." Jiang Qi said.

Wang Xinghua nodded and said in a low voice without caring at all, "This is normal. Every year, my father's troupe would quarrel with other hostile troupes in the newspaper. Sometimes, when my father's ghostwriters can't keep up, I will help write. Boss, do you need my help writing?"

"If you understand the situation, you can help write it."

"What do you want to know? Are they the slanderous rumors?" Wang Xinghua opened her eyes in confusion, not understanding what was so difficult about it. She counted on her fingers for Jiang Qi, "Criticizing the other party for their rotten products, high prices, and fraud. Gossip, making up a few illegitimate children, saying they are colluding with officials, taking human lives lightly, cheating people, selling inferior goods as good ones, withholding wages, and making false propaganda. No matter if there are any, as long as you write all these, you will definitely get a few of them."

Jiang Qi: ...

You are really cruel!

"Erya, what kind of situation is it in your family where people spread rumors and curse at each other in order to steal business?" Wang Xinghua asked curiously.

Wang Erya thought for a moment and said, "I'm not very clear, but I remember when I was a child, someone in the village next door spread a rumor that a girl from a certain family had an affair with someone else, which led to the sister being divorced by her husband's family and eventually she hanged herself."

Jiang Qi gasped in shock: "And then what? Didn't the sister's family go to the government to sue the person who spread the rumor?"

Wang Erya shook her head. "It's too expensive to go to the government office. That sister's mother went to the rumormonger's home with a sickle and cut off her head. The government was going to arrest her, but before the government office came, there was a locust plague. Many families sold their children, wives, and children. That mother was sold, and the government office didn't bother to do anything about it."

“That’s when I was sold.”

Jiang Qi: ...

Sorry to bother you.

I forgot that you are not a society ruled by law.

Old John was shocked: (°ー°〃)

"Uncle Huang, have you ever encountered a similar situation before?" Jiang Qi chose to ask Huang Fugui, who had actually done business.

Huang Fugui fell into deep thought.

After a long while, he slowly said, "Maybe it's because I'm a peddler, the business disputes I encountered before basically all escalated to the point of hiring a killer to kill someone."

"When peddlers traveled all over the country to sell goods in various villages, even in the villages in the mountains, it was common for them to encounter robbers. Some were real bandits, some were villagers pretending to be bandits, and some peddlers would even cooperate with local bandits, deliberately luring some foreign or less knowledgeable peddlers to sell goods in remote villages, and then let the bandits kill them to silence them."

"I haven't heard much about rumors, but there have been cases in our town where foreign merchants and local merchants had quarrels and threw mud at each other, saying that the other's goods had problems."

Jiang Qi immediately became alert, this situation is almost the same!

"Then what?"

"Then the guys from both sides got into a fight, and three or four of them died. The local merchant bribed the county government to detain the foreign merchant, and I heard that they spent a lot of money to get him out."

Jiang Qi: ...

He knew that he shouldn't have too much hope in feudal society.

In a sense, because of the background of the original era in which they live, all of his employees who do not want a salary are ruthless people except old John.

Each one is very cruel.

Old John silently brought his noodles and sat down at the table diagonally opposite to Beru and the others.

"Hey, Mr. John, why are you sitting here? Have you finished eating the braised dishes over there?"

"It's windy over there, I came over to calm down." said Old John.

After listening to the other two people's experiences, Wang Xinghua felt that her method was pretty good. At least no one died. She said excitedly, "Boss, do you need me to help you write an article to fight back?"

"You have to believe me, I write really good articles on this subject, even my dad has praised me for it!"

Jiang Qi said that it was not that he did not believe in Wang Xinghua's talent, he was just a little worried about himself going in.

After all, Yan Huaiyou was just spreading rumors to lead the trend, but Wang Xinghua was really spreading rumors.

The special punishment.

"No." Jiang Qi smiled bitterly, "I'll buy two law books someday. Xinghua, you should read them carefully."

"Ah?" Wang Xinghua didn't understand.

"I'm still young and don't want to go in."