Chapter 183 - 120: It’s All About Interests

Chapter 183: Chapter 120: It’s All About Interests

’So much for being calm and clear-headed. Look at this senior brother, a law student, completely hooked by Senior Sister Lin in just two sentences. He just kept chattering on about school, completely lost in his own world.’

Zhang Lin could tell that Senior Sister Lin was losing interest.

’So it seemed this senior brother had lost completely, right from their first meeting.’

’But with the way Senior Sister Lin handled him so smoothly, a constant smile on her face, no one would ever guess she was just going through the motions. This senior brother was under the perfect misapprehension.’

Halfway through the meal, Lin Muxue’s phone rang. After answering, she abruptly stood up and said, "Something’s come up at the operations department, I have to go right now. And President Zhang, please stop by the operations department later. We’ve started on the moisturizing cream plan, and it’s a good time to report to you."

With that, she hurried off.

Zhang Lin understood. ’She just wanted an excuse to leave and not have to deal with him anymore.’

Chen Xin, however, was beaming. "Junior Brother, it looks like Muxue has a pretty good impression of me! We really hit it off just now!"

"Good luck, Senior Brother!" Zhang Lin could only offer a word of encouragement to this senior brother who was clearly head over heels.

After the meal, he took his senior brother back to the campground and then headed to the operations department himself.

When he saw Senior Sister Lin Muxue, he thought she might give him a hard time about the dinner, but instead, she launched straight into her report. "President Zhang, the plan for the moisturizing cream is ready. Step one is to have lucky visitors participate in a trial. We’ll let them experience the effects of our moisturizing cream, which will help get our name out there."

"Of course, relying on visitors alone won’t be enough. So, I’ve used the farm’s official account to invite a lot of beauty and skincare bloggers to try it out. We don’t have to pay them; after all, our farm has enough buzz that we can leverage it for a collaboration!"

"Will relying on buzz alone be enough?" Zhang Lin was surprised. In his mind, you’d have to pay bloggers like that at least something.

Lin Muxue explained, "Li Yuan Farm has enough buzz right now that when we send out invitations, plenty of bloggers will agree to collaborate just for the exposure. But don’t get too excited, President Zhang. Some of the more professional or niche bloggers are very protective of their reputations. They won’t collaborate purely for the buzz. Take cosmetics bloggers, for example."

"They build their brands on professionalism and quality, so not just any product will meet their standards. They won’t collaborate for exposure, and even if you offer them money, they might not agree. They’re afraid of damaging their brand."

"For a farm to be making moisturizing cream is like an elementary schooler trying to build a rocket. It’s likely that a lot of the bloggers we invited are looking down on us, or even mocking us for not knowing our place."

"However, I’m actually hoping some hot-headed blogger posts a video trashing us. We could ride that wave of controversy to get everyone curious. We could even generate our own negative press and then completely turn the tables with our product’s results. I just wonder if we’ll find such a ’Good Samaritan’ willing to help us out."

"If we can’t find one, we can always pay a ’Good Samaritan’ to trash us," Zhang Lin added, understanding his senior sister’s strategy. He realized that if they were dragged through the mud and torn to shreds, the subsequent reversal would be incredibly impactful. It could propel their product to the very top, maybe even build a whole brand out of the controversy!

Just as Lin Muxue predicted, among the many bloggers who received an invitation, those who declined sent a polite refusal, while others simply ignored the message altogether.

And indeed, quite a few of them were complaining about Li Yuan Farm.

This was exactly the case at Lili Fragrance Studio. A woman with immaculate makeup scoffed when she was informed of the invitation. "This Li Yuan Farm has some buzz, sure, but aren’t they all about farming and landscaping? What are they thinking, trying to make moisturizing cream?"

She was Zhao Lili, the blogger behind Lili Fragrance.

She was utterly dismissive of Li Yuan Farm’s invitation. She was a high-end blogger who attended exclusive product trials for brands like Lancome and L’Oreal.

Her planner, who was standing nearby, immediately chimed in. "A lot of the moisturizing creams online these days are homemade concoctions. There are plenty of domestic brands with no real reputation. Li Yuan Farm is probably just trying to diversify using the same kind of crude methods. That’s why they want to invite bloggers over to generate some hype. They must have invited a lot of people besides us."

"Forget it. Just ignore them," Zhao Lili said, shaking her head. "Associating with a product made with such crude methods would cheapen our brand. If the product turns out to be actual garbage, we could become a laughingstock!"

The planner, however, countered, "Lili, you’re right, there’s no reason to actually go to the trial. But Li Yuan Farm has a massive amount of buzz right now, and we can use that. The International Fashion Convention for Cosmetics Bloggers is in a month, and the only reason your application was rejected was because your follower count is too low. If you tear down Li Yuan Farm this time, you could attract a huge amount of traffic. It might just be enough to get you over the threshold."

"Wouldn’t that be wrong?" Zhao Lili said with a frown. "After all, we have no grudge against Li Yuan Farm. It seems a bit shameless."

The planner tried to persuade her. "But if you get into that convention, your status will be on a whole new level. Besides, a crudely made moisturizing cream from Li Yuan Farm is doomed to fail. It would be a waste not to capitalize on their buzz. And we don’t have to be too harsh about it. We can do it subtly, so Li Yuan Farm won’t even have grounds to complain."

"Fine. Draw up a plan," Zhao Lili finally conceded.

She had no personal grudge against Li Yuan Farm. In fact, she really liked their various projects and had even thought about visiting for fun sometime.

But liking them was pointless. Sometimes, personal gain was what mattered most. She currently had 4.5 million followers, which wasn’t enough. If she could get a quick boost to 5 million, for the benefit and the buzz it would bring, then she had to do what she had to do, even if it meant going against her conscience.

After all, this was an adult’s world.

’Li Yuan Farm’s moisturizing cream is going to flop anyway,’ she thought. ’Might as well let me get some followers out of it and secure my ticket to the International Fashion Convention for Cosmetics Bloggers.’