Chapter 18.1: A Flood of Viral Traffic
For Sun Quanyou, this was the darkest day of his life.
He had committed every kind of evil. He was an outlaw through and through. He accepted the risks of the life he had chosen, and from the day he entered the trade, he had known exactly what sort of business he was in.
Because of that profession, he had severed all ties with his relatives, friends, parents, wife, and children. But he’d also been fortunate. He had built an efficient operation for abducting, transporting, transferring, guarding, and selling victims. After every job, he’d move to a different province, evading police investigations time and again.
This time, the buyer wanted one boy and one girl.
In a remote village, he had tricked a chubby little boy as easily as if it were a game, then abducted a young girl. His brothers joked about the old children’s song, “The Little Girl Picking Mushrooms.” Once they drove deep into the mountains, they could even cook themselves some wild game.
On top of that, they’d also landed a prime “yellow merchandise” in Xihai—a girl they’d spent a very long time gro*ming. Her online boyfriend had accepted money to lure her out, get her drunk, and drug her. An unmarried “yellow merchandise” like her was top-quality stock: whether sold as a bride in some remote mountain village or, more safely, smuggled across the border into one of the scam compounds, she’d fetch an excellent price.
It had been a trip full of rich rewards.
Sure, this was the kind of work that could cost them their heads. But with a truck full of brothers who shared the same “career,” he often felt like one of history’s great outlaws—a heroic figure with countless comrades at his side…
They would often chat about the newly built Western-style houses back in their hometowns, about the children studying there. His younger brother Qiangyou’s son had excellent grades. Maybe the boy would even get into Tsinghua University.
That smug sense of satisfaction lasted right up until they encountered the woman riding an electric scooter—the kind they called a “tall mule” in their own jargon.
Only then did it occur to him that he might never live to see his nephew get into Tsinghua.
Because your uncle here was already “dead at Peking University.”
He had never found the sound of police sirens so beautiful. The sight of the five-pointed star on the police insignia nearly moved him to tears.
But even the police couldn’t protect him…
He’d thought that getting beaten until his face “burst into blossoms” would be the end of it. Yet after the police arrived, some crazed woman who came out of nowhere still managed to dump a bucket of excrement all over his head and face.
At the thought of it, overwhelmed by his disappointment in the police, Sun Quanyou couldn’t help but break down into muffled sobs.
“Don’t stop now.” A police officer outside the interrogation room set down his pen and impatiently tapped the table. “Keep talking. Your little brother has already confessed everything—the white merchandise means married women, yellow merchandise means unmarried women, and those kidnapped dark merchandise too. Don’t try any tricks.”
“Beat me to death then!”
Knowing the police couldn’t simply beat a suspect, Sun Quanyou became even more brazen.
The officer taking the statement had long since reached the limit of his patience with this foul-mouthed scumbag. If not for the body camera recording everything, he’d have loved to rough him up back in the patrol car. He shot to his feet, pointed his baton at Sun Quanyou, and barked,
“Don’t think I don’t dare hit you!”
“Civilized interrogation. No hitting suspects.” Ji Gang patted his colleague on the shoulder, then leisurely pulled out a photograph.
“This your house back in your hometown?”
Sun Quanyou’s eyes nearly split with rage.
“What are you trying to do?! My family doesn’t know anything about this! They have nothing to do with me!”
“This isn’t your house anymore,” Ji Gang said patiently. “It’s a criminal hideout.”
“If you don’t explain your entire trafficking operation from beginning to end, we’ll investigate every inch of that little house. You understand? We have to wipe out every trace of this criminal network. When we’re done, even your son’s classmates will know their classmate’s father is a human trafficker. So what exactly are you panicking about?”
“I won’t accept this! I won’t accept this!”
Tears streamed down Sun Quanyou’s face.
He had no cards left to play—but he simply couldn’t swallow this humiliation.
“I admit I lost fair and square, but I still won’t accept it! That man and woman—they’re monsters wearing human skin! You need to get Bureau 749 to arrest them! You can’t let them keep running wild! Today they dare beat people; tomorrow they’ll dare eat people!!”
After finishing her statement with the accompanying police officers, Xiang Yu happened to pass by the interrogation room.
She glanced inside—and unexpectedly stumbled upon such an entertaining scene.
“Boss Xiang, we’re really sorry for delaying your business,” the officer beside her said apologetically.
Finding the situation amusing, Xiang Yu suddenly turned toward Sun Quanyou and pulled a grotesque face at him—crossing her eyes, sticking out her tongue, and opening her mouth wide like a man-eating ghost.
“Ahhh!!!”
Sun Quanyou let out a shrill scream of terror.
“She’s revealed her true form! She’s revealed her true form!!!”
The young police officer accompanying Xiang Yu looked into the interrogation room in confusion, picked up his radio, and said,
“Request a psychiatric consultation. Increase the voltage.”
“Have you figured it out yet? Where did the little girl in the trunk come from?” Xiang Yu asked with a smile as she handed over the belt she was holding. “If he won’t talk, just scare him with the belt.”
“We’ve already contacted her friend,” the officer replied with a sigh. “She’s a student at the neighboring Academy of Fine Arts. Her family situation is… complicated. Her father died in a car accident when she was little. Her mother remarried and moved overseas. She said over the phone that she doesn’t plan on coming back. The girl’s already an adult.”
Xiang Yu nodded.
Since she was legally an adult, her future was ultimately her own choice. There wasn’t much anyone else could do.
The young officer escorted her to the entrance before lowering his voice.
“The Sun brothers hate you with a passion. One of the traffickers you punched still hasn’t woken up. The doctor says he may have suffered brain damage…”
He quickly added,
“All of us think he deserved every bit of it! The chief said that defending yourself against such violent and heinous criminals doesn’t carry major legal liability. But if they try to file a civil lawsuit, you might have to go through the process and pay some compensation. As for opening a criminal case…” He grinned. “Well, according to all our body cameras, it was clearly the entire village that beat them up. We definitely won’t single out and detain any individual.”
It was exactly the reassurance Xiang Yu needed.
Smiling, she thanked him and firmly shook hands with the enthusiastic young officers.
“This has to be a huge case you’ve cracked. I’m going to have a commendation banner made for your station.”
“What are you saying, Boss Xiang?” the young officer laughed. “Where are you headed next? I’m going back to Hama Village for follow-up interviews anyway, so I can give you a ride on the way.”
“I still have business to take care of in the city,” Xiang Yu replied.
She still had to sign a traffic-promotion contract, so she spared no effort in advertising Hama Valley Hot Springs.
“Hama Valley Hot Springs is really nice. You should go soak there over the weekend.”
After saying goodbye to the police, she received a call from Liu Bo.
“Boss! Boss! Where are you?” Liu Bo panted on the other end of the line. “Our front desk suddenly got a ton of phone calls asking where you are.”
Puzzled, Xiang Yu instinctively glanced over her shoulder.
“I’m at the police station.”
“Oh, that’s what I told them,” Liu Bo answered honestly. “I said you’d been taken away by the police.”
“…”
“Never mind, never mind! Business is way better than yesterday. We’ve got customers coming in!”
Click.
He hung up before she could say another word.
Holding her phone, Xiang Yu felt both bewildered and oddly comforted.
Maybe this is the blessing I earned from doing a good deed today.
She had originally wanted to ask how Shen Jiu was doing and whether he was adjusting well.
To be honest, the man he had punched with a single blow still hadn’t regained consciousness. Thinking back to her earlier joke about hiring him to stand beside the entrance as a stone guardian lion, it suddenly seemed incredibly fitting. It made her want to assign him to security even more…
Just as the system had indicated, regardless of whether the injured veterans could adapt to service or technical jobs, they were genuine combat specialists—battle-hardened former soldiers.
And if all the disabled employees she recruited were this formidable…
Then she’d end up with the strongest disabled security team in the world.
At first glance they would look old, weak, sick, or disabled.
In reality, they’d be an elite squad of security guards.
It gave off the feeling of Shaolin masters living incognito among ordinary people.
The thought of “pretending to be weak while hiding overwhelming strength” filled Xiang Yu with excitement.
After bidding the police officers farewell, she hailed a taxi and headed for the media company’s office building.
Perhaps it was just her imagination, but everyone in the building—the KOLs and influencers in particular—seemed intensely curious about her. As she walked through the halls, people kept turning their heads to stare.
She had made an appointment in advance.
However, instead of the Ms. Hu she’d been told would receive her online, the receptionist escorted her directly to the manager’s office.
The middle-aged manager, dressed in the standard sales uniform of a suit and tie, with a noticeably thinning hairline, greeted her with extraordinary enthusiasm. The smile on his weathered face was so broad that it was practically folding into wrinkles.
He personally pulled out a chair for her, then hurried off to pour water and make tea before returning to lean forward attentively, wearing the eager expression of someone determined to please.
“Ms. Xiang! You’re finally here! Please, have a seat. Have some water.”
“You want to create your own social media account, right? Let me tell you—this is the perfect opportunity! We need to launch it immediately! Right now! While this wave of traffic is still hot! I’ve been pacing around my office wondering why you hadn’t arrived yet!”
He rubbed the few remaining strands of hair on top of his head, opened the contract in front of Xiang Yu, and forced out a fawning smile.
“I’ll give you our very best terms. The highest revenue-sharing ratio. The best promotional resources. The highest-quality sponsorship deals. Official exposure opportunities through the platform. Professional operations staff to help optimize your content…”
“You haven’t registered an account yet? Oh! I actually have a name you can use. It’s factual, funny, and exactly the kind of thing young people love!”
Although she had no idea what he was rambling about, Xiang Yu found her curiosity piqued.
“Oh? What name?”
“Master Xiang, the Spinning Top King!”
Xiang Yu: “…”
Manager Wang kept chattering away.
“You should register this account! I know what creators worry about most is account ownership. During our partnership, the account will technically belong to the company—but that’s only so our professional operations team can manage it properly. Once our cooperation ends, we’ll help you transfer everything back. We’re a major company; we wouldn’t risk our reputation over something like that!”
“Now, take a look at this customized content strategy we’ve prepared for you. First of all, spinning-top demonstrations are naturally perfect for short-form videos. We’ll hire a few actors, and every day you’ll perform one set of your Lightning Five-Hit Whirlwind Combo!”
“Then the actors will spin around you—rotating on their own axes while orbiting around you at the same time! Like little planets revolving around the sun! We’ll set up the stage lighting to look like The Four Little Swans! They’ll gracefully dance circles around you…”
He became more animated the longer he talked, clearly convinced he was describing the next viral sensation. Meanwhile, Xiang Yu sat there in complete silence, wondering whether she’d accidentally walked into a comedy sketch instead of a marketing agency.
Xiang Yu: “…”
“And monetization doesn’t have to rely only on sponsorships!” Manager Wang continued enthusiastically. “You can also take on disciples! While I was waiting for you, I’d already planned everything out. We’ll divide them into Outer Disciples and Inner Disciples. Do you know the genius behind that?”
With a blank expression, Xiang Yu replied,
“No.”
Despite his age, Manager Wang was thoroughly versed in internet marketing. Seeing her puzzled look, he couldn’t help feeling a little smug.
“The Outer Disciples get a Martial Arts Secret Manual for ¥3.90. We’re not making money from that—it’s purely to drive traffic. We just charge enough to cover shipping.”
“Then the Inner Disciples can officially study under you! You’ll record exclusive tutorial videos breaking down your spinning-top techniques and personally teach your secret moves.”
“Once an Inner Disciple passes the assessment and posts a demonstration video that gets over 10,000 likes, they’ll be promoted to a True Disciple!”
“That’s how we successfully incubate a Spinning-Top IP!”
Xiang Yu: “…”
“This is an untapped market! In the martial arts content niche, people are already doing swords, spears, staffs, halberds—you name it. But spinning tops? That’s a completely blue ocean!”
Manager Wang was getting carried away by his own sales pitch. Looking at Xiang Yu with the proud expression of someone who believed he had discovered a hidden prodigy, he asked,
“What about that handsome guy from your sect? The one who’s your fellow disciple. Is he interested in signing with us? His staff techniques are excellent, but more importantly…” He lowered his voice as if revealing a trade secret. “His looks are outstanding. He’s exactly the kind of talent our company likes to sign.”
“Stop. Stop.”
Xiang Yu finally couldn’t take it anymore.
“Where’s the Ms. Hu I made the appointment with? I’m not here to open a social media account. I’m here to buy advertising.”
If she still couldn’t tell that something strange was going on, she had no business running a tourist attraction.
Right in front of the manager, she took out her phone.
A local news notification immediately popped up.
“Please help save the hot spring owner who acted bravely. She may be facing jail time.”
“I’m the person who filmed the video, just an ordinary tourist. Earlier this morning, the owner of a humble hot spring gave us a breathtaking, life-or-death rescue. Yet at this very moment, this hero who courageously stepped forward is sitting alone in the cold interrogation room of a police station…”
Xiang Yu stared at the sensational opening in utter disbelief.
But that was only the beginning.
“At seven o’clock this morning, I arrived early at Hama Valley Glacier Hot Springs as a travel-review blogger. A classmate had recommended the place to me. To be honest, I’d visited Hama Valley before to gather material, so I already knew there were hot springs here and had mentally prepared myself for the environment. I didn’t really believe my classmate’s claims about how elegant and spotless it was.
“But the moment I crossed the Cangjiang River and entered Hama Valley, I immediately felt that something was different. The roads were paved with bluestone, the air was fresh, and because I wanted to shoot outdoor footage, I arrived at the resort at seven in the morning.
“The owner hadn’t opened for business yet, so I called to wake her up. Not only did she show not the slightest trace of impatience, she immediately arranged for one of her employees to come open the door for me.
“Once inside, I was genuinely surprised. The décor was tasteful, the place was so clean you could walk around barefoot, and everything had clearly been disinfected. It was obvious the owner had put a tremendous amount of care into running this hot spring.”
Attached photos: Lobby.jpg · Hot Spring Pool.jpg · Rock Garden Corridor.jpg · Interior.gif
“Up to this point, everything had been relaxing and enjoyable. I was even admiring the handsome employee at the hot spring…
“Then the owner said a couple of words before suddenly shouting that there was a fire and speeding away on an electric scooter. At the time, I had absolutely no idea she was riding off alone to confront a gang of human traffickers.
“The employee who stayed behind was also incredibly kind. He told me to go ahead and enjoy the hot spring while he loaded hoses and water onto a vehicle to help fight the fire.
“Of course I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing! So I followed them to the scene. What happened there was exactly what everyone has seen in my livestream recording.
“Although many people are joking that the star of the video possesses peerless martial arts, I must stress that this was an extremely serious incident. The owner of the hot spring was risking her life fighting dangerous criminals. Please don’t reduce this grave event to mere entertainment!”
“The grieving mother in the video, the furious villagers, and Boss Xiang and her employees throwing themselves into danger were all deeply moving. As for the human traffickers who have destroyed countless families—they deserve to be hacked into a thousand pieces and cast into the eighteenth level of hell! There was even another woman hidden inside the trunk of their vehicle! Thank goodness the police arrived in time. Otherwise, the victims’ chances of survival would have been slim.
“But what truly infuriates me is that this courageous hot spring owner was ultimately the one taken away in a police car. She has no powerful local clan backing her. She looks about my age. If the traffickers suffered serious injuries at the hands of the villagers, will she—the one who first sounded the alarm—end up bearing all the consequences?
“I didn’t see some Spinning Top King.’ What I saw was a clever and courageous young woman. I also saw every employee of Hama Valley Tianbai Mountain Glacier Park Hot Springs joining the rescue. Before I left, I repeatedly confirmed with the manager that the man who rushed forward despite limping was also one of their employees. He even has an official disability certificate, and he was injured as well. I didn’t see him afterward, so I assume he went to the hospital on his own.
“Finally, I call on everyone to pay attention to this horrific crime. Please show your support for the owner of the hot spring. If you live nearby, consider visiting the hot spring. I’ve also uploaded the environmental footage I filmed earlier on my homepage.
“I can say with complete confidence that she is a sincere, kind-hearted business owner who runs her business with genuine care. If the hot spring reaches its maximum capacity because of everyone’s support, I hope you’ll all be understanding. We cannot allow people who act courageously to end up shedding both sweat and tears!”
The comment section had already exploded to nearly 100,000 comments.
“This made me cry. Way to go, Spinning Top King!”
“No more words needed. I checked—Hama Valley is only 200 kilometers from me. Taking my wife and kids there this weekend to show our support.”
“That handsome guy is actually disabled…? That’s practically a medical miracle. Human traffickers, take a good look at yourselves—even someone who needs a disability certificate got so angry he stood up to beat you.”
“Death penalty for human traffickers!!!”
“Turns out it’s real. With fighting skills like those, these two masters could start livestreaming and make a fortune. That’s genuine kung fu.”
“They’re probably from Shaolin. Those kicks looked kind of familiar.”
“If you can’t make the trip, at least leave them a five-star review on Dianping. The place just opened and doesn’t even have a single review yet.”
“What heroes. The boss charged in first, and not a single employee backed down.”
“If what happened in the video is real, it’s terrifying. There were that many people tied up inside one van…”
“If you have daughters, tell them to stay away from vans parked by the roadside. Broad daylight, in the middle of the day, and traffickers are still this brazen.”
“I’m driving over for a soak right now. Don’t any of you beat me to it!”
“Too late, brother. I just called the front desk. They said every hot spring pool is packed with people and told me to come another day.”
“A boss like this deserves to make a fortune!”
“Checked out the blogger’s page. The place actually looks great. Looks like I’ve found somewhere to spend my annual leave.”
These were the ordinary people’s simple, instinctive sense of justice.
Looking at the flood of impassioned comments—and at the Xihai Public Security Bureau, which had somehow become collateral damage in the discussion—Xiang Yu didn’t know how to react.
So this was what happened when you added just a little artistic embellishment.
A few vivid, believable details—like mentioning Shen Jiu’s disability certificate—made the whole story feel all the more authentic and emotionally compelling.
That’s how you stir people’s emotions. It’s all in the details.
Her hands trembled slightly as she hurriedly opened the Hama Green app.
[Received 50 satisfied customers. Lifespan +5 days.]
[Hot Spring Exposure +1,000. Lifespan +5 days.]
[Received 100 satisfied customers. Lifespan +5 days.]
[Hot Spring Exposure +2,000. Lifespan +10 days.]
[Received 150 satisfied customers. Lifespan +5 days.]
[…]
Amid the avalanche of glowing reviews, Xiang Yu could barely keep up with the flood of system notifications.
<< _ >>
**TN
(This is a Chinese internet joke. “北大死了” (běidà sǐ le, “died at Peking University”) is a pun on “被打死了” (bèi dǎ sǐ le), meaning “beaten to death.”)
