Chapter 140: Unmoved as a Mountain [Bonus Chapter 5]

Huang He, how can you be so shameless, you faceless bitch! Bitch!" Hearing the furious voice echoing from Little Ma's office, nearby employees merely shook their heads helplessly and walked away, seemingly long accustomed to such scenes.

Had this happened half a year ago, it undoubtedly would have sparked intense discussion throughout the company. After all, our Little Ma was renowned for his pleasant disposition and gentle demeanor; no matter what happened, he never seemed to get angry, let alone curse with such raw fluency.

However, ever since the emergence of OO and Huang He, they had grown thoroughly used to the enraged version of Little Ma.

It seemed Huang He had managed to provoke our Little Ma once again today.

Little Ma's venting did not last very long. Being a fundamentally gentle person at heart, he understood all too well that venting solved nothing and that he needed to focus on finding a practical solution to the problem.

If the QQ-Lianzhong platform had been under the direct control of Tenda's headquarters, Little Ma would have summoned the entire technical department for an emergency meeting right then and there.

As things stood, however, Little Ma had no choice but to make yet another phone call to Bao Yueqiao, demanding that all those spam-posting accounts be banned immediately.

"Chairman, it's not that I don't want to ban them, but it's simply impossible to keep up!" Bao Yueqiao said with considerable helplessness over the phone. "You have no idea. The moment I ban one account on my end, ten new accounts are created to spam advertisements. As soon as these accounts log into the game, they immediately buy a loudspeaker, start spamming directly, buy another one, and spam again."

"By the time our employees manage to ban the account, the cost to them is at most one yuan for the loudspeaker, and immediately the next account pops up."

"What's more, it's not just one account doing this; there are nearly ten accounts simultaneously spamming advertisements across the entire game. I assigned two employees specifically to ban these accounts, but their manual pace can't keep up with how fast those accounts are created. It looks as though they are using custom-written script programs, operating at incredible speed. Our employees, on the other hand, are doing it manually—one of our workers even ended up with stiff fingers from clicking so much," Bao Yueqiao explained.

"And these people keep spamming day and night. I've had to arrange for staff to work overtime through the night as well. It's simply..."

"Can't you use a script to ban these accounts as well?" Little Ma asked.

"Well, yes, I actually have people writing a script right now. We just finished one, but after testing it, we found it prone to false positives—it ended up banning accounts that were posting normal messages as well. Those happen to be legitimate paying users, and we certainly can't afford to offend them. Therefore, until we can figure out a way to develop a more precise banning program, we still have to rely on manual bans!" Bao Yueqiao said. "Besides, this work is actually quite meaningless because we only find out an account is a spam bot after it has already posted. The comment sections are inevitably going to be occupied by these ads anyway; relying on bans alone isn't going to solve anything!"

"Right, I think so too!" Little Ma said. "That's why I have a better idea: we can directly block certain keywords, such as 'OO' and 'No VIPs'. If you set these keywords as blocked terms and filter them out directly in the world channel so they cannot be posted, wouldn't that work wonderfully?"

"True! Why didn't I think of that method?" Bao Yueqiao said with a sudden realization. "Chairman, rest assured, I will arrange for people to work on a patch right away and strive to launch the keyword-blocking feature within three days!"

"It's going to take three days?" Little Ma was stunned. "You're telling me such a simple feature will take three days? Are you joking with me?"

"Chairman, you aren't entirely familiar with the situation here. The programmer who was responsible for developing this program has already resigned. Although I've had someone else take over his code, it takes time and a process to become familiar with it, otherwise, they simply wouldn't know where to start!" Bao Yueqiao replied.

"He resigned? How long ago did he resign?"

"Not too long ago, about a month ago," Bao Yueqiao said.

"Resigned a month ago? That means this chat feature was completed at least a month ago. Why on earth did you drag your feet until now to launch it?" Little Ma was even more baffled.

"Well, there's been quite a lot going on this past month. With so many things piling up, a lot of tasks had to be delayed. Otherwise, how could I possibly have that much energy to spare!" Bao Yueqiao said.

"Then why did this programmer resign? Can you still reach him? If possible, we could invite him back, or pay him separately, to get the keyword-blocking system developed as soon as possible!" Little Ma urged.

"That's probably not going to work. I heard he has already left Beijing. I'm not entirely sure where he is now; he has completely cut off contact with us, and there's simply no way to find him," Bao Yueqiao's words made Little Ma's anger flare up all over again.

"How about this: I'll have the technical department on my end help you out. If we push it, we can have the blocking program finished for you by tomorrow," Little Ma offered.

"There's no need to trouble the brothers at headquarters for that. I'd feel terrible about it. We can handle it ourselves, so Chairman, you don't need to worry," Bao Yueqiao declined once more.

"Then let's do this: before the keyword-blocking feature is ready, simply shut down the world channel first. Once the blocking system is complete, we can turn it back on. How about that?" Little Ma said, forcing himself to remain patient.

"Chairman, it seems you still don't quite understand our product and our users!" Bao Yueqiao argued. "The world channel is already open, and our mega-loudspeakers have already been sold. It's not just these spam bots—many VIP members have also topped up and purchased mega-loudspeakers. If we ban it now, wouldn't that break the hearts of these VIP members and make us look untrustworthy?"

"Furthermore, shutting it down outright would imply that we're afraid of these small bots. That would be far too humiliating. Anyway, it's only three days, which isn't very long. Waiting a bit longer won't hurt!" Bao Yueqiao said.

"President Bao, we lost 30,000 active users in just two days! Three days from now, the lost users could easily reach over 100,000. Do you not care about any of this?!" Little Ma roared.

"How could it possibly reach an exaggerated figure of 100,000? These ads have already been running for three days; anyone who was going to see them has already seen them, and anyone who was going to leave has pretty much already left. The remaining three days won't have any major impact, so you can rest easy!" Bao Yueqiao said.

"I cannot rest easy! President Bao, listen to me, this will have massive repercussions. All you need to do is listen to my instructions..."

"Ah, I'm terribly sorry, leaders from the tax department have arrived to inspect our company. Please excuse me, I must attend to them. So sorry!" With that, Bao Yueqiao actually hung up the phone directly, leaving Little Ma holding the receiver with a face as red as a volcano.

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"Chairman, won't there be any trouble if you talk back to the people over there like that?" Bao Yueqiao's secretary asked with some apprehension after the call ended.

"What kind of trouble could there possibly be?"

"Chairman, you sold off all your equity, and moreover, the other side holds a 60% controlling stake. Even if they decide to squeeze you out, there's nothing you can do about it!" the secretary said anxiously.

Prior to Tenda's acquisition, the equity of Lianzhong World was held 66.7% by Haihong Holdings, 20% by Bao Yueqiao, and the remaining 13.3% by two other founders.

During this acquisition, however, Bao Yueqiao persuaded Haihong Holdings to sell only 30% of their shares, while the other two founders sold 10%. As for himself, he sold off all 20% of his shares in one go, exchanging them for 60 million RMB in cash. Consequently, Bao Yueqiao could now be described as rolling in wealth.

However, lacking equity support within the company, Bao Yueqiao now relied entirely on Tenda's backing to secure his position as chairman. Therefore, if Tenda wanted to push him out, it would truly be a matter of just a single word from Little Ma.

"Let Little Ma try and fire me if he has the guts!" Bao Yueqiao sneered, speaking with immense pride and confidence. "If I leave for even a single day, the entire Lianzhong operation will grind to a halt. The 300 million RMB he spent would just buy him an empty shell. He doesn't have the guts! No, even if I gave him a hundred guts, he wouldn't dare do such a thing!"

"Besides, I'd practically welcome him firing me! I've got tens of millions of RMB in my hands right now. All I'd need to do is round up all the employees in the company, walk out, and create a brand new Lianzhong World right on the spot. I'd still hold 100% of the equity, and then I could flip it and sell it for a few hundred million more."

"To be honest, if Little Ma has any backbone at all, he should hurry up and fire me. If it weren't for this damned five-year contract restricting me, I would have set up on my own long ago!" Bao Yueqiao said triumphantly. Ever since Lianzhong World was bought for 300 million, his head had completely swollen with arrogance, attributing all the credit to himself and believing that if he struck out on his own, he could easily build another 300-million-yuan company.

So what Bao Yueqiao said was not entirely untrue: he genuinely harbored the intention of leaving to start his own venture. Little Ma had foreseen this at the time and had insisted on a clause during contract signing: unless Tenda granted approval, Bao Yueqiao was required to work at the company for a full five years, or else pay a hefty penalty. That was the only reason Bao Yueqiao had been unable to leave.

"But Chairman, those ads are genuinely driving away our users. Aren't you worried at all?" the secretary asked anxiously.

"Well, although many active users have indeed left, it doesn't matter. Look at this data: all of our VIP members are still here, not a single one has left, and we even added over a thousand new VIP members today!" Bao Yueqiao said with a smile.

"In fact, from my perspective, these ads might not even be a bad thing. Those fellows who can be driven away by advertisements are simply penniless deadbeats with no intention of ever paying a cent. Not only do they stay here without paying, but they also hog our servers and bandwidth—they're complete trash. It's better that they left; it even saves us quite a bit of trouble."

"Conversely, these ads can't drive away users who are willing to pay for membership. After all, they've already paid their money, so how could they possibly be willing to leave?" Bao Yueqiao's face radiated with perceived wisdom.