After receiving Lin Feng’s instructions, Lin Xiaoman immediately contacted a young streamer she knew from the platform.
These streamers, who were against the platform’s underhanded rules, had now gathered together.
They had even formed a small organization.
However, after joining, Lin Xiaoman discovered that most of these streamers had between five hundred thousand and one million followers.
Lin Xiaoman realized she was actually the streamer with the most followers in the group.
Once Lin Xiaoman joined and everyone had greeted her, they too realized she seemed to be the one with the highest follower count.
"Xiaoman, did you get hit with unfair commission rates too?"
the gaming streamer who had invited her to the group asked.
When Lin Xiaoman explained her situation, the group chat immediately exploded.
"I’ve figured it out. It looks like they pull all sorts of weird deductions on anyone with more than half a million followers!"
"The management of this platform is disgusting!"
"A while ago, Sister Mei and the others went to demand an explanation, and the company’s response was basically, ’If you want to stream, stream. If not, then get lost!’"
Lin Xiaoman was a bit stunned when she read that.
’I didn’t expect the platform’s attitude to be so hostile.’
This made Lin Xiaoman feel an even deeper disgust for the platform’s management.
Remembering Lin Feng’s instructions, Lin Xiaoman sent a message to the group:
"I’ve heard some of the older streamers talk about this. They protested too, but in the end, they just swallowed their anger because of the platform’s attitude and the pressures of life."
"They’re probably acting so brazenly because of these past examples. They’re betting that we’ll eventually just give up and go quiet!"
Lin Xiaoman was speaking the truth, but she also intended to rile everyone up and escalate the situation.
Sure enough, after Lin Xiaoman said her piece, the group chat exploded like hot oil hit by water.
In the end, after a unanimous discussion, everyone decided they absolutely could not back down on this matter.
During the course of the conversation, Lin Xiaoman gradually became their spokesperson.
For one, it was because she had the largest follower base.
Her follower count was already approaching two million.
For another, it was because she had information from Lin Feng.
This allowed her to speak with a great deal of confidence.
"Why don’t we do this? Tomorrow, we’ll follow Xiaoman to the platform’s headquarters and demand an explanation."
"If they don’t give us a reasonable explanation, we’ll stop uploading videos!"
Seeing everyone’s suggestions in the chat, Lin Xiaoman thought this was indeed a good plan.
After all, whether they were live-streaming or uploading videos, they were just letting the platform profit off them for cheap.
It was better to just stop streaming altogether.
It would be a strategic play against the platform.
Lin Xiaoman thought for a moment, then sent another message to the group:
"I don’t think we should limit this to just our group. If we’re going to do something, we need to make it big!"
"Everyone in this group should be participating in this protest."
"We all have some influence on this platform, so why not upload a video explaining the situation?"
"At the same time, we can tell our fans that we’re not being unprofessional. We’re truly being forced into this, which is why we’ve chosen to fight back this way!"
As soon as Lin Xiaoman proposed this idea, everyone agreed.
"I think that’s a great idea. Besides, don’t we want to blow this up?"
"This way, we can also give the platform a taste of our power right from the start!"
Sister Mei, who had led the previous effort to confront the company, replied.
Everyone had now basically reached a consensus.
The next step was for everyone to post explanations on their own accounts as they had just agreed.
They also had to head to the platform’s headquarters tomorrow at the agreed-upon time.
Lin Xiaoman also took screenshots of the relevant chat logs and sent them to Lin Feng.
Lin Feng, in turn, forwarded the time and location of the planned protest by the Douhu Platform streamers to Vice President Li.
"We need to make good use of this incident to deal a blow to Douhu Platform."
"And speed up the pace of the acquisition."
In addition to the screenshots, Vice President Li also received Lin Feng’s latest instructions.
After getting the specific time and details, Vice President Li didn’t waste a moment.
He had accumulated a great deal of connections back when he worked at Yang Tianming’s company.
It could be said that a talented individual like Vice President Li, with experience working at a large corporation, would be highly sought after anywhere.
He would never have to worry about finding a new employer if he decided to leave.
This was precisely because of the vast network of contacts they possessed.
These resources were the most valuable assets for people like Vice President Li.
So, to handle this matter, Vice President Li simply made a few phone calls and then waited for the show to begin.
Meanwhile, when Sun Qing returned to the Douhu Platform headquarters, his expression was incredibly foul.
He happened to run into Zhang Lan, the head of the Operations Department.
The president of Douhu Platform, Jin Taian, was Sun Qing’s brother-in-law.
And this department head, Zhang Lan, was Jin Taian’s sworn sister.
Sun Qing had always felt that the relationship between Zhang Lan and Jin Taian wasn’t entirely proper.
Therefore, he often targeted Zhang Lan at the company.
In fact, the management at Douhu Platform had long been divided into two factions.
One was the faction of relatives from Jin Taian’s wife’s side, naturally led by Sun Qing.
The other was the faction formed by relatives from Jin Taian’s own family.
This clearly showed just how chaotic the company’s management truly was.
It was blatant nepotism.
Zhang Lan saw Sun Qing enter the company with a sullen expression.
A warm smile immediately spread across her face. "Well, if it isn’t our Vice President Sun, back already?"
"From the look on your face, the contract negotiations must have gone well. I wonder how much business you’ll be bringing the company this time!"
"Our Operations Department is going to be busy again. At the annual meeting, you’ll have to put in a good word for our department, won’t you, Vice President Sun!"
Zhang Lan’s passive-aggressive tone instantly set off Sun Qing’s temper.
Sun Qing stared at Zhang Lan with a vicious look. "If the company goes under, you won’t be able to skim any more profits off the top, will you?"
"I don’t know what you have to be so happy about."
"At the end of the day, it’s not your family’s company. Just a sworn sister, so of course you’re short-sighted."
"No wonder your department had the worst performance at last year’s mid-year review!"
Of course, Zhang Lan was well aware of Sun Qing’s background.
The two of them despised each other.
Zhang Lan looked down on Sun Qing, seeing him as nothing more than a petty thug who had coasted into his current position thanks to his sister’s connections.
Sun Qing, likewise, looked down on Zhang Lan.
He thought she was just a woman who used her body to get ahead.
And on top of that, she was incompetent.
Yet she had somehow been placed in charge of a good department.
Now that the two were facing off, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.
Seeing that things were getting ugly, a nearby assistant had already slipped away unnoticed.
He headed straight for the president’s office.
Although the two of them were always at odds, they had never openly insulted each other so blatantly before.
When Jin Taian learned that his brother-in-law and his sworn sister were fighting, he got a massive headache.
’Can’t these two just give it a rest? We’re all working for the same company, so why must they always be at each other’s throats?’
Although Jin Taian was grumbling to himself, he still went out to find them.
When the two of them saw Jin Taian approaching, they both immediately dropped their arrogant attitudes.
In truth, Sun Qing had deliberately tried to start a fight with Zhang Lan the moment he saw her.
The collaboration with Vice President Li had fallen through, and although it was Vice President Li who had suddenly backed out, the fact remained that no deal had been made.
If one were to really scrutinize the matter, it really was Sun Qing who had failed to handle it properly.
By causing such a scene, Jin Taian would have a harder time reprimanding him.
Sun Qing could even paint himself as someone who was exhausting himself for the company’s sake.
Don’t be fooled by Sun Qing’s thuggish origins.
His mind was quite sharp.
Sure enough, using this as a pretext, Sun Qing explained with a grim face how Vice President Li had backed out of the deal.
Jin Taian just frowned slightly but didn’t say anything else.
"If the deal fell through, it fell through. Them wanting us to sell the platform is just wishful thinking!"
"Without this investment firm, there will be others. You don’t need to be so anxious."
"We can just take our time looking. Worst case, we can contact some of those smaller investment firms from before."
"The smaller they are, the easier they are to work with, anyway."
Jin Taian didn’t seem to take the matter with Vice President Li to heart.
He actually thought the same as Sun Qing: if this company wasn’t an option, there would be others.
There was no need to get hung up on a single option.
Hearing Jin Taian’s words, Sun Qing let out a long sigh of relief inwardly.
However, Vice President Li’s attitude had left Sun Qing feeling extremely displeased.
So, Sun Qing was even plotting in his head that after the platform’s investment issues were resolved, he would have to find a way to make some trouble for Vice President Li.
He couldn’t let someone like Vice President Li have an easy time.
After returning to his office, Sun Qing briefly asked about the protesting streamers.
"Have those people made any more moves?"
Sun Qing’s assistant had been handling the matter of the protesting streamers.
So he was very clear on the situation’s progress.
"Those streamers have all gone back for now. We haven’t heard anything else so far."
As he said this, the assistant’s expression revealed a hint of contempt.
"These people won’t amount to anything. They’re probably just like the old streamers from before. Once this is over, they won’t cause any more trouble."
"If they try to stir up trouble again, we’ll just restrict their traffic like we always do."
This was Sun Qing and his group’s old trick.
In any case, the streamers they chose to target were ones whose fanbases consisted mostly of Douhu Platform users.
Streamers like that were easy to control.
Moreover, for these streamers, the Douhu Platform was their main source of income.
Throttling their traffic was equivalent to cutting their income in half.
The older streamers from before had given in for this very reason.
After all, compared to having their income cut in half, the current issue was just an extra ten percent commission.
It was precisely because this method had worked in the past that Sun Qing and his men were so confident.
They figured that if they just gave these streamers a hard time, they would fall in line.
What Sun Qing and his men didn’t know, however, was that the new generation of young streamers was not like the previous ones who would just swallow their grievances.
In this day and age, young people possessed a kind of fearless audacity.
They wouldn’t easily yield to unfair rules.
Sun Qing listened to his assistant’s report and nodded faintly.
"The company is trying to negotiate some investment contracts right now. Keep this situation suppressed. Don’t let these people cause a scene."
"If it comes to it, just start throttling their traffic now."
"Give them a taste of our power first, lest these young people forget their place!"
After receiving Sun Qing’s instructions, the assistant immediately notified the agency department.
First, he had the agents responsible for these streamers try to talk some sense into them, and then he had their traffic cut in half.
The streamers could, of course, feel the sudden, unexplained traffic throttling.
However, they already had a plan in mind.
So, as previously agreed, the streamers just went through the motions with their agents, while at the same time turning the whole affair into a video.
Now, they were just waiting for the agreed-upon time to release everything all at once.
Some streamers even took screenshots of their backend data showing their traffic suddenly being cut in half and prepared to post those as well.
This was all the most compelling evidence, directly exposing the live-streaming platform’s unfair practices.

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