After chatting with Liu Zixi, Zhou Wang made another call to Lin Ran. As soon as Lin Ran heard it, she immediately turned around to verify with the operations department.
"Mr. Zhou, after our technical analysis, some IDs indeed match some water army accounts that are often active on Douyin. They’re mostly private accounts. We can confirm that someone is behind this, but it will take a bit more time to trace the specific IP addresses..."
"No need to check, I have a pretty good idea who it is."
Zhou Wang interrupted her directly when he heard this, "You don’t need to worry about it. I’ll handle it myself."
Lin Ran didn’t ask further questions. After she responded, Zhou Wang hung up the phone.
There really wasn’t much need to investigate. Of course, many people knew Zhou Wang, and now that he had become successful, those classmates who had had conflicts with him inevitably felt jealous. But most of these people would at most express their envy online; it was rare for someone to actually hire water armies specifically to smear Zhou Wang.
So Zhou Wang directly locked onto Lu Chen as the most likely suspect.
After a brief contemplation, Zhou Wang stood up and went directly to Jiang Qingkui’s room.
Jiang Qingkui lived in a secondary bedroom on the second floor. Although it was a secondary bedroom, it was still a suite, and outside was where she usually worked.
Approaching the desk, Zhou Wang flipped through briefly, found a folder right next to the iMAC at the most conspicuous spot. It was the personal file on Lu Chen that Jiang Qingkui had asked Ni Hong for before leaving Cai University that day.
Zhou Wang opened it to confirm, then pulled out his phone and made a call.
"Hello, Mr. Zhou, what a surprise for you to call me!"
On the other end of the line came a hearty laugh.
"Mr. Lu, do you have time tomorrow night? Let’s have dinner together."
"If Mr. Zhou has requested, I have to make time even if I don’t have any. I’ve been waiting for Mr. Zhou to invite me for a meal for a long time. So, don’t worry about anything, Mr. Zhou, leave it to me to arrange!"
On the other end, Lu Conglin immediately agreed, taking full responsibility and saying he wouldn’t let Zhou Wang intervene.
On Wednesday, September 4, 2024, the temperature was 16~26°C, with a light breeze, and the weather was slightly overcast.
After waking up, Zhou Wang went to the gym as usual to lift weights. Half an hour later, a slightly out-of-breath Zhou Wang came to the living room, took a large gulp from a chilled bottle of Eastern Leaf handed to him by Chen Mei, and instantly felt refreshed.
At Zhou Wang’s request, the living room and the e-sports room were specially equipped with water dispensers featuring full compression cooling mechanisms, but instead of water, they were filled with green tea-flavored Eastern Leaf.
After falling in love with this sugar-free tea drink, because Farmer’s Three Punch lacked insight and delayed releasing bulk packs of Eastern Leaf, Zhou Wang could only manually achieve "sugar-free tea freedom."
Interestingly, Zhou Wang recalled that he had tried this drink once long ago when Farmer’s Three Punch first released it, and he remembered it being quite unpleasant.
He didn’t know when he accidentally tried it again later, only to realize that this drink was genuinely thirst-quenching, and unwittingly, he fell in love with it.
As soon as Zhou Wang set down the cup, Chen Mei promptly handed a cigarette to Zhou Wang’s mouth and lit it for him.
"Mr. Zhou, Yun Rou and Yun Lan have arrived, you see..."
Zhou Wang nodded, instructing Chen Mei to bring them in.
Moments later, Yun Rou and Yun Lan followed Chen Mei, who had gone out and returned, into the living room.
Today, they were dressed quite formally, in well-fitted small suits. Their luggage was left in the garden, and after greeting Zhou Wang, the two girls sat nervously in the living room.
The reason was simple... they were here today for an "interview."
Each girl had different feelings.
For Yun Lan, who had just turned 19, she felt more excitement and anticipation.
Born in a rural part of Sichuan, she dropped out after high school and entered this line of work through the introduction of a relative in human resources. Because of her excellent appearance, she was spotted by the manager of Jade Palace right from the start, and after two months of training, officially became a high-end SPA technician at Jade Palace.
Strictly speaking, she was still in her internship period, and Zhou Wang was the third client she had interacted with, also the first male client considered an exception.
She still remembered the manager’s stern tone, which had made Yun Lan quite anxious about what would happen if this client tried to take advantage of her.
Fortunately, she was with the experienced Yun Rou, which gave Yun Lan a bit of courage.
Before coming to serve Zhou Wang at home, Yun Lan never imagined there were people living in such big houses.
Not only was it big, but the luxury of the decor and the high-end furniture were, to Yun Lan, no different from the legendary palace... yes, with her level of Chinese, she couldn’t think of a better adjective.
And when she saw Zhou Wang in person, Yun Lan completely forgot her previous resistance. In a daze, she followed Yun Rou to provide a more intimate SPA service for Zhou Wang.
Although Yun Rou personally handled the vital procedures, Yun Lan was still inadvertently taken advantage of by Zhou Wang.
Yet Yun Lan found she couldn’t muster any resistance at all, and even after her previous visits, she subconsciously looked forward to the next time...
And today, if she could satisfy Mr. Zhou, she could continue living in such a big house and only needed to serve Zhou Wang.
To Yun Lan, it was something she would find quite amazing.