Ch 14: Those who wronged me are now begging me for mercy

Let’s Go! I’ll Take You to Conquer the Online World

Rong Ziyin hesitated a bit. Based on past experience, he knew that a ten-pull would likely yield nothing. But since he had once miraculously pulled a frozen belt fish with a single draw, he figured a ten-pull might be worth trying.

Sensing his thoughts, the system tried to dissuade him, “Why not wait and save up for twenty pulls? You still have unsold salted duck eggs, after all!”

After thinking it over, Rong Ziyin agreed, “That could work. There’s no rush.”

So, after a brief discussion, Rong Ziyin decided to save up for a twenty-pull instead. After all, drawing for items was just a small diversion; his real priority was finding a way to cover the publishing fees and review costs for his paper.

As the saying goes, even a hero can be stumped by money. Rong Ziyin was short by a full 20,000 yuan.

“Ugh!” The system sighed heavily, feeling quite frustrated. It couldn’t exactly expect Rong Ziyin to earn 20,000 yuan just by selling salted duck eggs—such a thing was nothing short of a fairy tale.

But then again, Rong Ziyin’s biggest asset right now was probably his status as a licensed veterinarian.

However, in rural areas, unlike in cities, veterinary clinics typically charge much lower fees. Rong Ziyin only earned 3.50 yuan for neutering a pig. Even if he castrated all the pigs in the surrounding ten villages, it wouldn’t be enough.

There was simply no viable source of income.

But Rong Ziyin wasn’t in a rush. He asked the system, “In the Heavenly Dao system, I noticed there’s not only a lottery system but also an exchange system. What can be exchanged in that system?”

“A lot!” The system thought for a moment, “But there are level restrictions. Generally speaking, anything that can be drawn can also be exchanged.”

“So, I haven’t unlocked it yet?”

“Right, your total accumulated coin value isn’t enough. You’re still short by 900,000. Once you reach the total accumulation, the system will upgrade to the second stage. At that stage, every multi-pull will guarantee at least one R-grade item, and all N-grade items can be exchanged for coins in the exchange.”

“Are there any particularly valuable N-grade items?”

“There sure are!” The system was still bitter. It had seen N-grade items like gold, silver, and diamonds in the pool, but Rong Ziyin kept drawing salted duck eggs and salted fish, which was the most frustrating part.

Rong Ziyin sighed in relief, “That’s good. I’ve found a way to fund the paper.”

The system took a moment to process before realizing that Rong Ziyin was talking about unlocking the exchange system and directly exchanging coins for valuable items.

But 900,000 coins were still needed! How could that possibly be achieved quickly?

“Actually, it’s not that hard.” Rong Ziyin couldn’t help but smile. Since coin value is derived from people’s or animals’ emotions, where would have the most people?

“The internet!” The system also became excited.

The internet was full of people, and netizens, hidden behind their screens, were especially wild. Rong Ziyin didn’t even need to do much—just a few comments under posts about trending celebrities would probably get him enough coins in no time.

But what the system didn’t expect was that Rong Ziyin didn’t open Weibo; he opened Zhihu instead.

(T/N: Zhihu is a popular Chinese question-and-answer (Q&A) platform, similar to Quora. It allows users to ask questions, share knowledge, and provide answers on a wide range of topics. Users can upvote or downvote answers, and popular content often rises to prominence within the community.)

Was he planning to make a splash in Zhihu’s entertainment section? The system wondered.

But then it watched as Rong Ziyin registered an account, navigated to the agriculture section, and quickly wrote up the following highly specialized posts:

• “How to Get Your Sow Pregnant Quickly”
• “Half-Year Pig Rearing—All for Nothing if You Choose the Wrong Piglets”
• “A 50-Gram Difference at Birth Means a 500-Gram Difference at Weaning, a 500-Gram Difference at Weaning Means a 5-Kilogram Difference in Market Weight—How to Properly Rear Piglets”

The system was utterly deflated: “Master Host, I don’t think anyone’s going to read these.” Meanwhile, it pulled up the top ten trending Zhihu posts for Rong Ziyin to see.

At the top were posts about celebrity gossip or major social issues.

After some thought, Rong Ziyin agreed that the system had a point. He scrolled through Zhihu’s trending topics and finally had an idea. He promptly wrote a new post title, perfectly in line with the style of self-media:

“The Rich Young Master Who Tried to Force Himself on Me, Failed, and Then Blackened, Trapping Me in Debt…”

The system was silent for a long time, then finally said, “Master Host, I think going to Weibo and bashing celebrities would make money faster.”

Rong Ziyin immediately rejected the idea, “No, the coin value will come eventually, but there’s no need to insult innocent people.”

From Rong Ziyin’s perspective, writing educational posts on agricultural and livestock forums and earning gratitude was a reward for his hard work. Writing witty posts that entertained people and made them laugh was also a skill. But insulting celebrities was just too low.

After all, without any personal grudges or real knowledge of them, it wasn’t right to criticize others recklessly. Even if someone was a public figure, Rong Ziyin believed he had no right to judge them arbitrarily.

Moreover, in today’s society, people have high expectations for moral conduct. If a celebrity really had issues, the public would naturally criticize them. But if they didn’t, then there was no need for someone like Rong Ziyin—who didn’t follow the entertainment industry or know the facts—to start pointing fingers.

Being human means having the ability to control your words; if someone can’t even do that, then what’s the difference between a person and a dog? No, even dogs know when to stay quiet.

This was a fundamental principle for Rong Ziyin, and he was particularly stubborn about it.

The system, persuaded by his reasoning, fell silent.

However, no matter how strong your principles are, it doesn’t help if no one reads your posts. On a platform like Zhihu, with millions of users and countless posts being published daily, only the most bizarre or contentious ones tend to reach the top—those related to public hot topics or major social issues.

As a result, after Rong Ziyin posted his educational articles, they quickly sank without a trace.

The system was troubled, “Master Host, what do we do now?”

Rong Ziyin was also at a loss. Just then, he noticed a prompt on Zhihu.

You are invited to answer.

Zhihu has a feature that recommends questions for users to answer based on the topics they’ve posted about. For Rong Ziyin, several questions popped up, most related to livestock, but a few were about relationships.

Rong Ziyin stared at these questions, suddenly thinking that answering them might be a way to earn some gratitude points. After all, helping others solve their problems could be rewarding, even if it was a slow process. He figured he could make up for speed with diligence.

Unfortunately, Rong Ziyin forgot that in some areas, he was exceptionally blunt. His answers might not be what people were hoping to hear.

Zhihu: What’s the relationship like between a guy and a girl who’ve been playing PUBG together and ranking up for a long time?

Rong Ziyin: Thanks for the invitation. They’ll both go bald.

Zhihu: I’m mentoring a girl in King of Glory, but she keeps missing her skills as Da Qiao. What should I do?

Rong Ziyin: Thanks for the invitation. I’m too bad to be mentoring anyone.

Zhihu: My wife is very beautiful, but after marriage, I find myself suddenly feeling extremely tired of looking at her face.

Rong Ziyin: Thanks for the invitation. Spend a night with a boar, that should fix it.

The system was completely floored by Rong Ziyin’s responses and was left speechless.

But Rong Ziyin was just getting into it. For him, these questions were straightforward!

Later, he even actively sought out popular questions, especially in the relationship section, carefully reading them and giving thoughtful responses. He was on a roll and might have kept going if the village head hadn’t come running to tell him there was an urgent matter to attend to.

Meanwhile, back on Zhihu, after half an hour, Rong Ziyin had gotten back to work, but several of the users whose questions he had answered were left fuming.

Take the first question about the guy and girl playing PUBG together—the person who asked it had been looking to boast about their online romance. Instead, they were hit with Rong Ziyin’s blunt “bald” comment, leaving them stuck with a reply that was both accurate and frustrating.

The second person had wanted to complain about a girl being bad at the game, but the conversation quickly turned into everyone laughing at how he couldn’t carry the game, making him look foolish.

And the third person, who had just been venting online for fun, found themselves stuck with the image of spending the night with a boar, completely losing any romantic notions. The direction of the post was entirely derailed by Rong Ziyin’s comment.

As for the other questions, they followed a similar pattern.

Zhihu’s recommendation system was on a schedule, and Rong Ziyin’s highly active afternoon, combined with his uniquely straightforward answers, quickly piqued the curiosity of many users.

The original posters, still reeling from Rong Ziyin’s responses, clicked on his profile to see what kind of content he usually engaged with.

The first post they saw was titled, “How to Get Your Sow Pregnant Quickly.”

What the hell is this?

After scrolling for a while, they found a post that seemed more relevant to humans, only to be met with the title, “The Rich Young Master Who Tried to Force Himself on Me, Failed, and Then Blackened, Trapping Me in Debt…”

What the hell is this? A modern urban Mary Sue fairytale?

Many couldn’t help but mock it, but after clicking in, they were surprised to find that Rong Ziyin’s writing was actually pretty good.

It wasn’t the usual story of a humble girl being forcibly pursued by a rich, domineering CEO, with a twisted love-hate relationship that ends in a sappy happy ending.

Instead, it was the story of a scholar outsmarting a rich kid, staying true to his principles, defying authority, and using every resource at his disposal to carve out a path to survival.

It was surprisingly satisfying.

Despite Rong Ziyin’s simple language, his narrative was well-crafted, logically sound, and his concise storytelling pulled readers in, making them empathize with the protagonist’s journey.

When the plot reached the point where the protagonist loses his chance to continue his studies due to a courtroom defeat and is forced to work in a small village, readers were left on the edge of their seats.

So… what happened next?

Did he pay back the debt?

Did he take down the rich kid?

Yes, everyone was eagerly awaiting the conclusion. However, when they scrolled down, they found that there was no more to the story!

“Damn, I already took my pants off, and this is what I get?”

(T/N: The Chinese slang “I already took my pants off” is an internet meme used humorously to express disappointment or frustration, especially when something anticipated doesn’t happen or when the situation takes an unexpected turn.)

“Seriously, what’s going on? Come back and finish the story!”

“I’ve read so much nonsense on Zhihu, but this is the one that actually got me invested! Author, please come back and finish the plot!”

As time went on, more and more people started leaving comments under Rong Ziyin’s post about the rich kid. Eventually, it even made it to the trending list!

And as the post became more popular, more and more people fell into the trap.

Typically, the more people read a self-reported story on Zhihu, the more motivated the author becomes to keep writing. But Rong Ziyin did the exact opposite. He wrote a lot when no one was reading, but now that everyone was begging for more, he was nowhere to be found.

The most frustrating part was that people had been waiting all afternoon for hours, but Rong Ziyin never returned to continue the story. His Zhihu account had no new activity.

So… had the story been abandoned?

The anticipation quickly turned into resentment. A group of dedicated readers who had been refreshing the post over and over transformed from excited fans into resentful lovers scorned by a playboy.

The resentment points shot up—10,000, 20,000… 100,000…

The coins Rong Ziyin was earning on the forum rapidly surpassed the 100,000 mark.

The system was almost terrified, but Rong Ziyin didn’t have time to worry about that.

At the moment, he was on the highway leading from the county town to Yanjing, helping the local police… capture a group of wild boars on the loose.

The largest boar among them had the words “Shameless scoundrels, bow down to me!” written on its forehead.

🍉🫐🍇🍒🥝