?Chapter 38: Episode 38: It’s No Fun When Allies Get Involved Chapter 38: Episode 38: It’s No Fun When Allies Get Involved He Tong racked his brain but couldn’t figure out how he had become the target of an internet backlash.
However, with his personality, he was definitely not the type to just let it go.
At this time, he couldn’t ask for help using his real ID, so he registered several new forum accounts and QQ numbers, hoping to contact the people who were posting his dark history on the forums.
What he didn’t know was that the person he was contacting happened to be Cui Hu, the roommate of Senior Yang.
To hide his identity, He Tong used Mi Lu’s high-quality cosplaying photos as his profile picture, and he also posted some of her pictures in his social space.
Of course, the profile pictures for the newly registered IDs on the forums were also of Mi Lu.
Believing he had covered all his tracks, he sent a private message to Cui Hu on the forum, “Hey big shot, could you help me dig up information on this person?”
He Tong sent Li Ranxu’s photo to Cui Hu, hoping that with his help, he could figure out the name and details of the person.
When Cui Hu saw that the person seeking his help was using a beautiful woman’s photo as an avatar, he didn’t think much and agreed: “A beautiful lady asking for help? I will definitely help you out! I’ll start looking into this person right away.”
Seeing the reply from Cui Hu and that he was mistaken as a woman, He Tong couldn’t help but beam with joy: “Thank you so much!”
“No big deal. May I ask for more details about this person? If it’s just this one picture, I’m afraid…” Although it wasn’t impossible to find out who someone was with just one picture, Cui Hu, still being an apprentice of Senior Yang, didn’t have the skills to track someone down to a low-profile extent based solely on a not-so-clear photo. sea??h thё n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
When He Tong saw Cui Hu’s inquiry, he realized that he had only met Li Ranxu once and didn’t even know who he was, what he did, let alone his name.
Who could he ask? Now that things had escalated to this point, who could he possibly turn to?
Although He Tong felt that Li Ranxu looked very familiar, he was the type of person who couldn’t remember men’s faces well, so he had absolutely no recollection of where he might have seen him before.
“Well, I’m asking because I don’t know the specifics, which is why I wanted to ask you guys, the experts in human-flesh searches,” He Tong replied, with an added expression of innocence.
“I’ll try my best…” Cui Hu didn’t dare to make any promises, with only a cropped photo that seemed to be taken from a group picture and no other information whatsoever, how was he supposed to find this person?
Cui Hu was really struggling…
Having no choice, he had to seek help from his true mastermind roommate, Senior Yang: “Senior, there’s work to be done!”
“When will you learn to be independent? You always come to me for help…” Senior Yang said disapprovingly.
“Hehe…” Cui Hu chuckled embarrassingly, “Didn’t notice, you’re chatting with a lady. Did I interrupt your chat?”
“Cut the crap… what’s the job? How much does it pay?” Knowing Cui Hu, Senior Yang figured it must be a tough case that he couldn’t handle alone; otherwise, he wouldn’t be asking for help.
“No, no… talking about money ruins friendships. It’s like… practice for me?” Cui Hu continued to evade the issue, “A girl on the forum wants to find someone with a photo.”
“Good grief, just one photo? And then find the person? And no other information at all?” Senior Yang looked at Cui Hu incredulously, “Tiger, Tiger, you’re really bold! Fine, give me the photo. It’s a good chance for me to practice…”
The project team that Senior Yang was about to join at Microsoft was working on image recognition tools; if he could practice with this photo, maybe he could ask for a higher price once he got there.
However, when he saw the photo that Tiger had sent him, he felt deflated.
“I was preparing to practice, and you send me a photo of someone I know! What the heck am I supposed to practice on?” Brother Yang said irritably.
“What? What? What? Someone familiar?” Cui Hu was filled with question marks, thinking the world was too small. Could this really be happening?
“Yes! That’s Xiaojing’s dorm’s leading playboy, Li Ranxu. The guy is incredibly handsome, but he’s said to be a real Casanova. However, when I graduated, I heard he had undergone brain surgery, and after he returned to school, he became much more subdued,” Brother Yang said with disdain, “Hey? By the way, who asked you to check this guy out?”
“A great beauty from the forum!” Cui Hu couldn’t wait to show He Tong’s alternate identity to Brother Yang.
“Are you stupid?” reclining in his swivel chair, Brother Yang cursed Cui Hu out of the blue.
“Brother? What did I do to deserve you scolding me?” Cui Hu was completely confused.
“You judge by a forum avatar that it’s a female? Is this your first day on the internet?” At this moment, Brother Yang very much wished he could deny that Cui Hu was his apprentice.
“Uh… Ah…” Cui Hu suddenly realized that he might have fallen back into his old habit of getting infatuated upon seeing a beautiful avatar.
“Oh, what am I going to do with you…” Brother Yang directly logged into Cui Hu’s forum account and used a plugin he had written to check the IP address of the person who sent the private message.
“Brother, this person couldn’t really be the famous internet figure Y, could they?” Cui Hu asked, his voice trembling.
“If it were Y, that would be fine, this person is scum!” After recognizing the all-too-familiar IP address, Brother Yang sneered, “You don’t need to worry about this anymore…”
“Oh, okay…” Disheartened, Cui Hu went back to his own room.
If Brother Yang said to leave it alone, then he would completely stop interfering.
When would such a person ever learn? Brother Yang thought with a mixture of laughter and tears. They’re all men, yet some can learn from their mistakes while others never change their stubborn ways, do they?
So, Brother Yang sent He Tong this message, ‘Hey beauty, we’ve checked the guy out. He’s the He Tong that’s being called out in this post, a jerk who’s been stepping out on multiple women!’
He Tong, upon seeing this message, was so angry she was about to explode, ‘You’re the jerk! If you’re willing to help, then help. If not, why insult someone?’
Oh, getting feisty now, are we? Yawning, Brother Yang crossed his legs and settled into his chair, ‘Kid, you couldn’t have just started using the internet today, could you? Your IP address hasn’t changed; do you really think the title of a flesh-searching expert is for nothing?’
‘You! You’re actually monitoring my computer! That’s illegal!’ He Tong blurted out in anger.
“You can only blame your own lack of attention to protecting your computer’s privacy. I’ve got plenty of records of you visiting inappropriate websites. If you don’t want them to be made public, well, you know what to do, right?” Brother Yang sent just a few screenshots symbolically.
He Tong immediately backed down, fully recognizing his opponent’s strength and his own weakness.
Although unhappy about giving up on Yao Shanshan, he couldn’t just “hang himself on a single tree.” With no other choice, he deleted various contact methods and decided to temporarily step back from the cosplaying community and look for a job.
Although Mi Lu also got some flak because of her relationship with He Tong,
she couldn’t care less about online criticism. The moment she cut ties with He Tong, she got involved with the organizer of a cos event, which secured her livelihood in Beijing for a short time.
As for 51buy, the forum’s biggest winner, although its popularity surged, the active section wasn’t the “What to Buy Today” section Zhou Xueyin had hoped for.
A few people were still trying to figure out how to divert traffic…