You're Strong But Now You're Mine
Chapter 130 - 129 I Am the Snowflake at the Forefront

Chapter 130: Chapter 129 I Am the Snowflake at the Forefront

"Why reply like this?"

Le Yu raised the draft in his hand and couldn’t help but laugh.

Qing Lan’s face turned slightly red: "I think this question is hard to answer. Instead of debating the style and scale of the pictures with them, it’s better to define their behavior as discriminating against women. That way, I can take the moral side and counterattack..."

Le Yu looked at Qing Lan with newfound respect.

Savage!

She actually grasped the core of arguing—labeling!

No matter the situation, just slap a label on them, then attack from the moral high ground. This way, their mindset shifts from ’criticism’ to ’explanation’—and as everyone knows, the side that explains is always the weaker side.

When you’re explaining, the onlookers will think you actually did something wrong.

The real party that needs to explain here is the newspaper, yet Qing Lan turned ’explanation’ into ’criticism’, flipped the offensive, and even if readers don’t agree with the newspaper’s view, they might not agree with the critics either. As long as readers choose to remain neutral, the matter will quickly blow over—everyone’s busy working, reading the newspaper is just for fun, who has time to argue!

In this case, Le Yu also knows it’s the newspaper at fault. Putting high-resolution racy images on the cover to stimulate consumption and attract readers is essentially unfair market competition, and even though Dongyang is commercially open, it’s not open to the extent of putting pictures in newspapers—people think newspapers are still relatively serious media, a place for intellectual and court officials to speak.

You dare put pictures?

Dishonor, dishonor!

Yet, there’s no rule prohibiting pictures in newspapers.

It’s thanks to Jing Zhengwei’s connections that the Youth Daily can do this—sigh, these capitalists are colluding, government-business collusion, and the Governor’s office just turns a blind eye because Youth Daily is run by the Jing Family, watching it publish such dishonorable newspapers without upholding social morals!

Despite being a beneficiary this time, it doesn’t stop Le Yu from criticizing the Jing Family and the Governor’s office.

"Actually, you can just ignore them." Le Yu said casually: "Only a very small minority has opinions on this—their attitude has zero impact on our sales. Paying attention to them is just wasting your time."

Qing Lan: "So... I just ignore it?"

"No," Le Yu shook his head: "You still need to reply to them."

Qing Lan tilted her head, eyes staring intently at Le Yu.

When she tilts her head, it’s not because she thinks she has a problem, but because she thinks the idiot talking to her has one.

What do you mean, you tell me to ignore it but still want me to reply!

Yet Le Yu changed the subject: "Besides that, what are the other key criticisms in readers’ letters?"

"Hmm... also, they think our ’weird news’ is too absurd, they hope we provide evidence; they feel ’inspirational stories’ aren’t detailed enough, they want more specifics; and think ’Future Echoes’ is poorly written..."

"What!?" Le Yu slammed the table: "Dare criticize me, he knows nothing!"

Qing Lan softly explained: "He doesn’t know you wrote it..."

"I don’t care, bring his letter over, watch me roast him!"

Qing Lan pulled out a draft and handed it to Le Yu. Le Yu angrily took it and scrutinized it, his furious expression suddenly froze, then gradually turning embarrassed, finally dumbfounded. Qing Lan found it particularly amusing.

She heard Le Yu muttering something like ’you know nothing about foreshadowing’, ’as long as grammar’s fine’, ’writing skill’, ’characterization’, feeling the office was filled with a joyful atmosphere.

"...Forget it, I’ll counter him point by point later." Le Yu calmly put down the letter, saying: "Let’s talk about other people’s complaints first."

"Actually, rebuffing them is simple, you just need one key point—calling them broke losers."

"Huh?" Qing Lan looked stunned: "Broke... loser?"

"Yes, broke loser." Le Yu said: "For example, this person saying our cover is unhealthy and dishonorable, you reply: ’This style and dressing is very normal in our high society, girls love it. You feel it’s dishonorable because your status isn’t high enough, can’t squeeze into high society, and can’t marry a beautiful wife, resulting in such a misunderstanding, go earn some money.’"

"For the person saying ’weird news’ is too absurd, you reply: ’How many places have you been, how well-traveled are you, to say this is too absurd, that is too fake? Us rich people have traveled far and wide, to Scandinavia, across Skyrim, basked on southern islands’ beaches, watched auroras in northern snowy mountains. You think it’s absurd because you’re narrow-minded, go out and see the world.’"

"For saying ’inspirational stories’ lack detail, you say: ’Lazy people need even feeding for each bite. Wise and brave merchants have already spotted opportunities in inspirational stories. While you’re questioning the lack of details, others are already on the road to success, that’s why you’re so poor!’"

"Hmm, roughly like that. You just extend the sentences a bit, but of course, don’t be as arrogant as me, be polite."

Le Yu spread his hands: "Basically, just focus on this point: anyone criticizing us is poor, narrow-minded, lazy, greedy, stuck in Xuanzhu County, hasn’t seen much, and reply focusing on these traits."

Qing Lan instinctively nodded, after a while couldn’t help but ask: "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why... respond with the premise that ’the complainant is poor’? Do you think all complainants are poor?"

"You still don’t understand." Le Yu laughed, "Didn’t I just say? The people who complain to us are a very small minority, and their opinions are irrelevant to us. It doesn’t matter whether they are poor or not."

Qing Lan tilted his head again, looking at Le Yu with a puzzled expression.

"Don’t forget, the newspaper’s target is the entire readership, and what kind of people are our readers?" Le Yu laughed, "They are poor people."

"When we insult these people for being too poor to get married, they feel like we’re insulting themselves."

"When we insult these people for being so poor they can only stay in Xuanzhu County, they feel like we’re insulting themselves."

"When we insult these people for being poor, lazy, and stupid, they feel like we’re insulting themselves."

Qing Lan was shocked, "But... aren’t the poor our readers? If you insult them like this, won’t it affect the newspaper’s sales?"

"No, instead it will boost the newspaper’s sales!" Le Yu laughed, "Of course, more and more people will complain to the newspaper, and then we will pick a few representative ones, accuse them of being poor and continue insulting them in the newspaper. The cycle repeats, and the number of people watching our verbal battles will only increase, not decrease!"

"This is called—provoking battles!"

"When you see two people arguing on the street, do you stop to listen? If someone is insulting women on the street, don’t you feel furious?"

"People are empathetic. When they see someone being insulted shares similar traits with themselves, they feel empathetic!"

"The more fiercely we argue, the better the newspaper’s sales will be, and the more people will gather to watch!"

It’s like Weibo headlines, why do Weibo headline hotspots often trigger controversies and heated debates? It’s actually the other way around, it’s the ones that trigger controversies and heated debates that become headline hotspots!

Qing Lan took a sip of coconut milk, spending a good while digesting Le Yu’s theory, and muttered, "But like this... is it really okay?"

Le Yu: "What’s the problem?"

"If the readers get angry, won’t they look for ways to vent, and won’t the newspaper office be—"

"So you have to pay attention to the art of language." Le Yu said softly, "When responding, you must always express your stance."

"Your stance is not the newspaper office, but the upper-class social circle composed of ’rich merchants’, ’wealthy people’, and ’officials’. You are speaking on behalf of this class, and you have to let the readers constantly notice, the ones living a superior life, free of worries, surrounded by luxury, reside in the inner city, and are those upper-class people."

"It’s not the newspaper office looking down on the poor, it’s the upper-class people looking down on the poor."

"Of course, I will also hire more guards to protect the newspaper office, ensuring nothing unexpected happens there." Le Yu said, "I will let them know, even if they want to vent their hatred, the newspaper office is definitely a hard nut to crack. The power of the upper class is not something mere ants can shake."

Qing Lan was silent for a while, quietly watching Le Yu, and suddenly said, "But in this way... everyone will hate all the upper-class people."

"What’s wrong with them hating the upper-class people?" Le Yu laughed, "Don’t you hate the upper-class people? Why did you become a servant? Because you were sold to an upper-class person’s shop, spent many years being packaged as a commodity, just to be sold at a high price to another upper-class person... You didn’t even have the chance to refuse being a slave, don’t you hate it?"

At this point, Le Yu’s plan had already shown its intentions.

Accelerationism!

No matter the consequences, divert all conflicts and issues to class antagonism. He wants to let everyone know how severe the current wealth disparity is—in this era of insufficient information flow, the poor have little sense of the lives of the rich, ’the emperor’s golden hoe’ is not just a joke, but a true mindset for many people.

Le Yu didn’t know how much longer he could live—being Jing Zhengwei was indeed very dangerous—the only thing he could do was to try to wake the populace.

To let them understand the injustice of the world, the class divide, that they have only one way out, and that being a lapdog for capitalists has no future.

Provoke battles, then accelerate everything!

Let the storm that is destined to erupt arrive faster, more violently!

"But..." Qing Lan blinked, avoiding Le Yu’s gaze, "Not all people in the upper class are bad..."

Le Yu shook his head, "But even the kindest of the upper class have servants to serve them, have shops to sell goods, have workers to produce. They do not engage in production themselves, yet they seize the production profits of others."

"One upper-class person living, occupies the survival resources of dozens or even hundreds of people, can you understand? Every day people die of hunger in the outer city, while a few big restaurants in the inner city waste leftover food—of course, there are also many who survive on that leftover food."

"In this era of scarce productivity, the mere existence of the upper class is already..."

"What about you, sir?"

Facing Qing Lan’s sudden question, Le Yu was slightly taken aback, then couldn’t help but laugh, "Me?"

But Qing Lan’s expression seemed very serious, and Le Yu put away his smile, stretched lazily, "How should I say this... Me, ah..."

"When an avalanche comes, every snowflake dares to brave the journey... and I am the leading snowflake at the forefront."