Chapter 601 - 430: The Tragedy of Car-Sharing! 599 Yuan? The Industry’s Battle Royale is About to Begin

Wang Zihao was seething with anger, but he knew that no matter how capable he was, he couldn’t fight a single government document.

He then updated Hu Weiyi and Chen Yansen on the situation in Yanjing.

"Got it. Expansion is the priority for now. Secure the North China Market as quickly as possible," Chen Yansen said nonchalantly, not dwelling on the issue.

’If they’re not going to play by the rules, then I don’t have to be polite either.’

That same afternoon, Little Yellow Bike’s operations within Huian Province were halted by the local Market Supervision Association. They were given a choice: get out of Huian or implement a deposit-free feature.

Anyone with eyes could see this was just Chen Yansen’s counterattack.

When Chang Wei got the news, his face went pale. He had assumed Chen Yansen wouldn’t dare to resist, but who knew the guy would be so brazen, delivering his payback almost instantly.

At that thought, his face hardened. He pulled out his phone, intending to strike at Cloud Speed Express’s business through the transportation sector.

But to his surprise, his family connections failed him this time.

Zheng Shengyu of the General Postal Association had his secretary issue a warning: anyone who caused trouble for Cloud Speed Express was making an enemy of him.

No shit!

Right now, the national daily volume of express deliveries was as high as 28 million parcels. Cloud Speed accounted for half of that, with over a hundred thousand couriers under its banner, all of whom had social security contributions.

If Cloud Speed fell into chaos, the entire express delivery industry would be shaken.

In his view, Chang Wei’s actions were the height of foolishness.

Cheng Wei felt a surge of anger watching this unfold. He’d never seen a businessman so willing to flout the rules.

For businessmen, a fair business environment is paramount.

Chang Wei’s actions caused dissatisfaction among the local internet entrepreneurs in Yanjing.

As a result, the next morning, not even a full day later, the Yanjing Transportation Association withdrew the rectification notice.

At the same time, the Huian Market Supervision Association also withdrew its ’deposit-free’ requirement for Little Yellow Bike.

The whole process seemed as calm as still water, but beneath the surface, the waves were raging.

Meng Yuanzhi, Zheng Shengyu, and the people backing Chang Wei entered the fray one after another. After some brief probing, they all pulled back.

Chang Wei was called home, and after getting a severe scolding, he instantly became much more restrained.

But he was still not convinced. The petty moves stopped, but he accelerated his expansion speed in the East China, Central China, and Southern China regions.

When Cheng Wei saw that the two sides had calmed down, he breathed a sigh of relief. He had been terrified their fight would end up sacrificing DiDi Bike on the altar.

Fortunately, the storm came quickly, and left even faster.

Normally, Chen Yansen and Senlian Capital kept a low profile, looking harmless.

It was only through this incident that their domestic peers got a glimpse of his extensive network of connections.

...

...

At 11:00 AM on June 7th, a piece of news about a shared car shot to the top of the trending lists. The reason was that someone using a Tuge shared car discovered a fresh pile of human feces in the back seat.

This user, fighting back disgust, took a photo and immediately posted it online.

Because it was so bizarre, it was quickly reposted by major news websites and independent media outlets.

"It wasn’t me, I was working overtime!"

"Not me either, I was ordering takeout."

"Sorry, I really couldn’t hold it in that day."

"Dude upstairs, are you for real?"

"Just imagine it: you’ve got explosive diarrhea, the floodgates are about to burst, and suddenly you see a shared car. You scan the code, open the door, close the door... those four seats start to look more and more like four toilets. So let me ask you, would you rather shit your pants or shit in the car?"

"No way, dude, was it really you? You’re disgusting!"

"Tuge Shared Cars: Why is this happening to me!"

"The young person’s first mobile toilet!"

In just half an hour, the netizen who confessed to unloading in the car had gained fifty to sixty thousand followers on Weibo.

Although most netizens didn’t believe him, thinking he was just trolling.

But ten minutes later, the person posted a Douyin video link. After clicking on it, tens of thousands of netizens started sharing it.

"Dude, you’re a legend! You actually did it!"

"Warning! This video has a strong smell. Watch with caution!"

"I don’t believe it. Would he actually dare to do it?"

This Douyin video quickly went viral!

In reality, this blogger wasn’t the one who had defecated in the Tuge shared car, but he had a quick mind and immediately smelled a business opportunity.

Not only did he change his Weibo nickname to "Shit Brother," but he also found a scrapped car and filmed a re-enactment video of himself taking a dump in a "shared car."

To avoid being sued by Tuge, he deliberately added a disclaimer in the top-left corner of the video: "For entertainment purposes only. No actual defecation occurred."

But the netizens didn’t care about that at all and frantically kept tagging Tuge’s official account.

When Wang Fengli, the CEO of Tuge Shared Cars, saw the Weibo post, his vision went black. Without a moment’s delay, he immediately summoned the company’s legal team to send the guy a cease and desist letter.

He knew perfectly well that once users started associating ’Tuge is a mobile public toilet’ with his brand, the product would be finished.

’And this bastard is even making videos encouraging others to do it!’

Eight hours later, Shit Brother had gained 110,000 followers on Weibo and over 170,000 fans on Douyin.

Seeing there was profit to be made, many people jumped on the bandwagon and started imitating him. The smart ones found a scrapped car, while the not-so-bright ones actually rented a Tuge shared car and climbed inside.

For a while, the whole vibe of Douyin’s short videos changed.

After careful consideration, the director of the content moderation department decided against a blanket ban. They only took down some of the most "raw" videos but kept most of the related content online.

This was because, during this period, Douyin had gained over 600,000 new users.

It had become the biggest beneficiary of this whole fiasco!

The next morning, on June 8th, the Qingcheng D2 SE version quietly appeared on the homepages of Orange Mall and Pinbei’s "Ten Billion Subsidy" program, without any pre-launch press conference hype.

4.5-inch IPS touchscreen, MediaTek dual-core 1.3GHz processor, 512MB RAM plus 4GB ROM memory configuration, 1.3-megapixel front camera, 5-megapixel rear camera, 1500mAh removable battery, and running on the Aurora Future OS.

Single speaker, Micro-USB port, 3.5mm headphone jack, no gyroscope or Guangxian sensor.

The system was deeply streamlined and included a senior mode (with enlarged fonts and a simplified home screen).

The shortcomings were obvious: the camera lacked autofocus, only had the most basic CMOS sensor, and the screen resolution was not high.

But it only sold for 599 yuan!

Free shipping!

The page displayed a pre-sale link, with the earliest shipping time being one week later. It was available in black and white.

Many netizens flocked to Wang Teng’s Weibo to ask questions.

"My good boy, is this phone any good?"

"Fess up, is this just a rehash of the Orange D1?"

"599 yuan is too expensive. Drop it by another 100! President Wang, I’m a college student."

A short while later, Wang Teng officially replied: "See you tomorrow at 10 AM on Penguin, Youku, and YY Live. Besides the Qingcheng D2 SE, there’s another new product I’ll be introducing to everyone."

When Lu Hongbo heard the news, he panicked on the spot!