She didn’t even know what she had said wrong. These people were hurling abuse at her again, saying all kinds of nasty things. Never having been wronged before, she completely lost her patience. In a moment of impulse, she picked up her phone and started typing a reply in the owners’ group chat, venting all the grievances and dissatisfaction that had been building up over the past few days.
"I’ve already apologized, what more do you want from me?"
"Your houses have cracks. Doesn’t mine have the same issue?"
"Do you think I wanted the building to end up like this?"
"When something went wrong, you all blamed me. You didn’t even investigate, just said I caused it by knocking down a load-bearing wall. Why couldn’t it be a quality issue with the building itself?"
"You don’t dare confront the developers, so you keep targeting me for abuse, thinking I’m a weak woman who’s easy to bully, right?"
"It’s been two days. You’ve been cursing me out in this group for two whole days. I’ve been afraid to even look at the group chat these past two days..."
"Besides, the house is mine. I have 120 square meters of space. Is it wrong to knock down a wall?"
"I didn’t touch the common areas..."
Her fingers flew across the keyboard, typing at an incredible speed. She let out all the frustration she had endured over the past two days. In her words, she positioned herself as the victim, incessantly complaining about the other owners and accusing them of being unreasonable.
This scene once again angered all the owners. One after another, comments popped up, quickly drowning out her defense.
"The guilty one complains first! You knock down a load-bearing wall and you still think you’re in the right?"
"So what if I cursed you? Let me tell you, because of you, my whole family is homeless. If this were ten years ago, with my temper, I would’ve hammered you by now!"
"Exactly, if I didn’t have a wife and kids, for someone like you, I’d beat you up every time I saw you!"
"Who even knocks down a load-bearing wall? Have you ever been to school?"
"..."
The owners, fueled by rage, displayed a surprisingly fierce fighting spirit. Once again they harshly berated Ouyang Qian, leaving her trembling all over and retreating into a shell on the spot. To face off against hundreds... she didn’t have that kind of fighting power.
「Near the Yuefu Jiangnan District.」
In a hotel room, Qing Lan, who had been lying on the bed resting, was silently watching the verbal battle in the owners’ group chat. The owner of apartment 401 finally showed up. She gave a half-hearted apology, and then all the owners found their target, continuously blaming her. As a battle-hardened professional troll, she, of course, couldn’t resist and joined the crowd in condemning the owner of apartment 401. Caught up in this kind of situation, meeting this kind of person, nobody could stay calm.
And after their accusations and collective tirade, the owner of apartment 401 reacted with a long stream of messages, expressing how incredibly wronged she felt. The result, of course, was that they verbally beat her into a shutdown. She didn’t show up again.
Cursing someone out feels really good... After joining the other owners in their tirade, Qing Lan took a deep breath. She felt as if all her pent-up frustration had been released, exhilarated.No wonder there are so many trolls online. Cursing truly brings a pleasurable release to the soul.
However, after recalling several cases from Qin Mu’s videos, her heart sank with a pang of apprehension. She quickly picked up her phone and sent a message to Qin Mu, inquiring about the possible consequences of this cursing incident.
"Up, the owner of 401 just showed up, and we had a go at her with insults. Is there a chance she could counter-sue us?"
In the past, she would have never considered this question. But since becoming a fan of Qin Mu, she has been exposed to a much broader ’worldview.’ The actions of Qin Mu... have reshaped her understanding. Many behaviors in everyday life carry ’risks.’
Fortunately, ten minutes later, Qin Mu sent her a reply. In his response, Qin Mu considered the consequences of insulting someone in a group chat from an extremely professional standpoint.
"You all cursed in the owners’ group chat, not on social media or in a public setting, so she can’t sue for ’invasion of reputation rights’ or ’defamation’."
"Insults in a group chat can be classified as verbal abuse and insults. At most, she could sue for a ’general reputation rights dispute,’ constituting a civil wrongdoing."
"Such civil cases can be attended or ignored. Even if you lose, the most that can be demanded is an apology. You wouldn’t even need to pay compensation."
Situations like this, which do not constitute online dissemination and do not extensively violate someone else’s reputation rights, are generally classified as verbal disputes, just like verbal conflicts in everyday behavior. Even if she sues, the claims section could only demand an "apology." In that case, just saying sorry would suffice. Moreover, given the defensible nature of the cursing, there’s a high likelihood that a court wouldn’t even accept the case. Beyond legal concerns, consideration is often given to common human emotions. After all, it’s not expected that the owners act like saints, refraining from any foul language when their homes have been ruined.
So you’re saying... we can curse as much as we like? Qing Lan blinked her eyes. After reading Qin Mu’s professional analysis, she felt immensely reassured. Having a reliable "friend," she now felt more confident about cursing people out.
After about fifteen seconds, Qin Mu replied, "Although you can curse, be mindful of the extent. Don’t let it become severe or cause a negative impact."
There are many situations that can be considered severe. For instance, forcing the victim to crawl under one’s crotch in public, tearing off the victim’s clothes in public, smearing the victim’s face with black ink, hanging broken shoes around their neck, or defaming the victim by throwing dirty water on them.