Aftersound

Lin Yuan's interview was broadcast live, unedited.

Soon, he was trending.

His interview video was edited by some with ulterior motives into various memes and GTF GIFs, which, besides being used to cater to the 'ghost animal' culture, were also used to prove the fact that Tesla was 'cutting leeks' (profiteering).

Especially those who disliked Tesla, it was as if they had gotten hold of leverage, promoting everywhere—'Look, even Tesla's own technical executive admitted to cutting leeks.'

Even many domestic New Energy car manufacturers came to join the fun, seemingly fanning the flames.

"A certain brand has so blatantly admitted to cutting leeks, what reason do you still have to buy its cars?"

"Not only do they take your money, but they also call you an idiot... I advise everyone not to be masochistic..."

"Everyone should be sober now, right...?"

.

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Lin Yuan once again felt the terror of online trolls.

His remarks about Tesla cutting leeks quickly became a hot topic, exploited by various parties.

Lin Yuan could only smile wryly. However, he did not intend to respond, because it was enough for those people to be happy.

If he responded, they would have succeeded.

Most people who buy Tesla are aware of its inherent high premium, and in fact, a large number of goods in commercial society have high premiums.

As long as a product has something unique, someone will pay for the high premium.

When Lin Yuan admitted that Tesla was cutting leeks, he also implicitly praised the pioneering spirit that Tesla represents. Before competitors can overwhelmingly surpass Tesla, this pioneering spirit is the greatest source of emotional value.

Although many people will not agree, there will never be a shortage of people willing to pay for it.

In fact, many people know that Tesla's best advertisement is every rocket launch by SpaceX.

General emotional value creates a sense of identity for consumers, but a higher emotional value makes consumers realize that they are participating in something great.

Therefore, Tesla's sales were not affected at all by Lin Yuan's remarks.

Tesla's new Model Y had just been launched, and it quickly capitalized on this wave of traffic. Tesla added a slogan to the new Model Y's ordering page—'We are always pioneers.'

Lin Yuan admired Musk's ability to show off, because his process of showing off never relied on creating new vocabulary or shouting; it was all about 'just do it.'

Lin Yuan's interview caused a stir in the automotive industry, making a large number of domestic car manufacturers lament the invincibility of 'first-mover advantage.' It also attracted enough attention for Tesla's takeout service.

After all, being infamous is still being famous.

Although many people online furiously criticized Tesla for not being content with cutting leeks in the automotive industry and now wanting to cut leeks in the takeout industry, more people held different views. It was still that saying—Tesla doesn't like to rip off the poor for a few cents, so they were happy to see it, letting the struggle come more fiercely.

With the boost from this popularity, Lin Yuan's persona as 'Little Musk' became increasingly three-dimensional. Because people felt that he was also a tech-obsessed genius, like Musk, who naturally attracted traffic—liking to use technological innovation as a gimmick and being stingy with advertising fees.

And Lin Yuan himself chose to settle down and work amidst the clamor.

He did not covet the traffic, because he knew very well why the traffic gathered around him. As long as there were continuous explosive outputs, traffic would come running on its own.

Lin Yuan focused his energy on connecting to merchants' monitoring systems. He needed to continuously feed these images to the computing power system, and then rely on the system to train an AI model that could manage food safety through video images.

This was not difficult for the system; the difficulty was how to force this AI model into the existing AI theories of the real world.

It was still that saying: the biggest trouble for a cheater is not how to cheat, but the aftermath of cheating. Lin Yuan needed to cheat without being discovered by others.

For this reason, Lin Yuan was very troubled, and he had to mysteriously introduce the concept of Feng Shui AI.

Mainly, he didn't understand quantum mechanics, otherwise he would have stuffed it into the quantum mechanics mold. He is now 'when in doubt, AI Feng Shui.'

Anyway, Feng Shui is mysteriously profound, so if something is hard to explain, just put it in there.

—

While Lin Yuan was busy, an unexpected thing happened.

One day, he suddenly received a call from an unknown number.

Lin Yuan initially didn't answer, but the other party then called every hour, so Lin Yuan answered out of curiosity.

His old mobile number had been voluntarily abandoned due to being leaked by classmates, and now not many people knew his new mobile number, so he wasn't worried about it being a nuisance call.

"Hello, Mr. Lin, I'm a fan of yours, and I'd like to chat with you when you're available."

Lin Yuan was startled, because how could a fan know his phone number? He had only given this number to people around him and those he needed to contact for work.

Logically, no fan should know it.

Lin Yuan's mind raced. His family members would not casually disclose his phone number.

"I'm available to talk now, what do you want to say?" Lin Yuan didn't refuse the other party; he used a probing tactic.

"What I'm about to say might be sensitive, Mr. Lin, are you really convenient to talk?"

"I'm sure I'm very convenient."

"Actually, I'm from XX Human Resources, and a big shot in the domestic internet field highly appreciates you and hopes we can help connect you..."

Lin Yuan's mind buzzed, and he quickly understood: this was a headhunter trying to poach him.

Then, the people who leaked his phone number were most likely those from work. After all, everyone is out to work, and if a headhunting agency offers a high price, it's just a phone number, what can't be sold?

"May I know which big shot?"

"I can't disclose that here. I first need to confirm Mr. Lin's willingness. Can we arrange a time to meet in person?"

Lin Yuan was very curious, so he followed the other party's suggestion and actually met in person.

Of course, he had already told Musk beforehand; he was just curious to see who the big shot behind it was.

Musk was so bored that he insisted on betting with him, guessing it was the one from Coarse Grain Factory. The stake was: the loser had to run naked in the street.

Lin Yuan could only guess it wasn't the one from Coarse Grain Factory, and the stake he demanded was to add turn signal stalks to Tesla's subsequent models.

Unexpectedly, Musk actually agreed.

One must know that, from the surface of this bet, Lin Yuan's chances of winning were clearly much higher.

Lin Yuan roughly guessed: Musk must be confident.

Sure enough, in a quiet business coffee shop on a peaceful afternoon, Lei Zi from Coarse Grain Factory met Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan then understood that the online rumors about Lei Zi visiting factories to poach an entire team seemed to have a high degree of credibility.

Lei Zi praised Lin Yuan effusively right from the start, then directly got to the point, "You're underutilized doing takeout. I highly value your control over traffic and your understanding of the consumption psychology of high-end crowds. Join our automotive department; we desperately need talent like you."