15: Chapter 15 Live Stream Reversal

On the Huya livestreaming platform, the livestream room ID was a string of consecutive digits.

The streamer, Xue'er, was one of the top three female streamers on Huya, with a fanbase in the tens of millions. Her usual content consisted of singing and chatting, with the occasional game played.

Today, she had changed her livestream room title to: "Douyin owes money and refuses to pay; they must give an explanation today."

Less than ten minutes after she went live, the number of online viewers had already exceeded 150,000.

Xue'er sat in front of the camera, wearing a white lace top with her long hair draped over her shoulders.

Her expression was a carefully cultivated look of grievance and righteous indignation.

"Babies, I'm not here today for any other reason than to seek justice."

She picked up her phone, opened the Douyin backend interface, and waved it at the camera.

However, because her movements were too fast,

not many people managed to see her Douyin backend clearly.

"Look, this is my Douyin backend. Operations told me that because my videos became popular, I'd receive cash incentives."

"I've been filming for two months, and the backend shows that my pending incentive payments are nearly 100,000 yuan."

As she spoke, Xue'er glanced down at the Douyin backend.

The data panel clearly displayed a line of numbers.

It showed the pending incentive amount, followed by a gray button.

The button read "Withdraw," but its color was dimmed, making it impossible to click.

Looking at this button, Xue'er forced out two tears, her voice taking on a tearful tone.

"Douyin is just too hateful."

"Almost 100,000 yuan in incentives, and I can't withdraw it."

"I called customer service, and they just told me to wait. They couldn't even explain exactly how long I'd have to wait."

"While 100,000 yuan isn't much to me, what about other small creators? They are waiting for this money to eat and pay their rent."

Although negative articles about Douyin were already all over the internet, Xue'er clearly wanted to add fuel to the fire.

Currently, the two largest livestreaming platforms in Daxia—one acquired by Penguin and the other with Penguin as its largest shareholder—

had both instructed their streamers to smear Douyin.

The viewers who came to watch Xue'er were mostly fans who liked her.

So, watching Xue'er's tear-streaked face,

the rhythm of the bullet comments was instantly swayed by her.

"Douyin is going too far!"

"If you can't afford it, don't bother with creator incentives."

"Everyone, let's help the streamer and leave bad reviews!"

"Support Xue'er! Boycott Douyin!"

"A trash company that owes money and refuses to pay!"

"Babies, go to the major app stores and leave bad reviews for Douyin to help all the creators who are owed wages seek justice."

Xue'er's voice carried a righteous tremor.

The bullet comments responded in unison.

However, at this moment, some more rational bullet comments appeared.

"But talk is cheap; surely Douyin isn't that shady, right?"

"Exactly, I don't really believe it either."

Naturally, Xue'er saw these comments.

"Just wait, I'll connect my phone to the computer right now to show you."

She connected her phone to the computer and opened screen mirroring, revealing her phone interface on the screen.

The next moment,

Xue'er opened Douyin and went straight to the backend interface.

"Look, I really can't click 'Withdraw'."

But as soon as Xue'er finished that sentence, she noticed something was wrong. The bullet comments were flooding with question marks, and Xue'er looked down.

Without her knowing when it happened,

the gray "Withdraw" button on the Douyin backend interface on the screen had suddenly changed from gray to bright orange.

Xue'er's expression froze.

Her fingers hovered over the mouse, motionless.

Her eyes stared at the pop-up on the screen, and the carefully maintained look of grievance and indignation on her face began to crack.

The tone of the bullet comments began to shift.

"?"

"Didn't you just say you couldn't withdraw?"

"Isn't it possible to withdraw now?"

"Streamer, go ahead and click it."

"Are you just going to lie with your mouth open? That's really inappropriate."

"No, isn't the word 'Withdraw' right there in front of you?"

"Streamer, hurry up. I want to see if Douyin really is shady about creator incentives."

Xue'er was in a tough spot.

On the screen, the withdrawal button below the pending incentive amount was blindingly bright.

The bullet comments were scrolling faster and faster; if she didn't click it, everyone would think she was guilty.

"Douyin definitely won't actually pay out; they aren't that generous. This must be a lie!"

Gritting her teeth, she moved the mouse to the "Withdraw" button and clicked.

A confirmation box popped up on the screen.

"Are you sure you want to withdraw all current pending incentive payments?"

She clicked confirm.

The next moment, a new system notification appeared on the interface.

"System Notification: Respected user, the Douyin creator incentive settlement rules have been updated."

"The original quarterly settlement cycle has been adjusted to instant settlement. All of your currently pending incentive payments are now open for withdrawal. After clicking, please wait for the system to process the transfer. Thank you for your support and understanding."

Seeing this line of text, Xue'er's face changed instantly.

You have to understand,

she had never mentioned the fact that Douyin used a quarterly settlement cycle from the very beginning; she absolutely could not let her fans know.

She hurriedly closed the notification.

But it was already too late.

The bullet comments completely exploded.

"Quarterly settlement? Douyin has only been online for two months; it's not even time yet."

"Didn't the streamer just say they owed money? Is this what you call owing money?"

"Isn't it possible to withdraw? What happened to Douyin owing money and not paying? And Douyin even did it a month early!"

"Hahahaha, a live car crash!"

"Turns out she was just acting. Hilarious."

"Unfollowing, unfollowing. What a lying streamer."

"Weren't you acting all righteous just a moment ago when you told all your fans to leave bad reviews?"

"Deliberately hiding the quarterly settlement information just to stir up trouble?"

Xue'er's expression became extremely ugly.

She opened her mouth, but before she could think of how to salvage the situation, another message popped up on her phone screen.

It was a text message from the Inspur Technology Legal Department.

"Ms. Jiang Xue, our company has formally filed a civil lawsuit through the judicial system."

"The 'Douyin Exclusive Creator Entry Agreement' you signed with our company clearly stipulates that during the contract period, you may not sign with or publish content on other similar Short Video platforms."

"We suspect that you have already signed with Weikan, which constitutes a substantive breach of the aforementioned agreement."

"Please cooperate with our investigation to confirm whether you have breached the contract."

"If you have already signed with Weikan, our company now, in accordance with the agreement terms, requires you to bear the corresponding liability for breach of contract. Relevant legal documents have been sent to your registered address."

Although Inspur Technology did not have substantive evidence that Jiang Xue had signed with Weikan, the fact that she had suddenly deleted all her Douyin videos and was smearing them online made it almost certain that she had defected to Weikan.

Although the text message only mentioned suspicion,

Xue'er's hand holding the phone began to shake.

All the viewers in the livestream room saw this scene.

The bullet comments were completely out of control.

"What? What? She signed an exclusive with Douyin? And then she ran off to Weikan and breached the contract?"

"I don't think there's any need to suspect. The streamer's reaction makes it 100% certain she signed with Weikan."

"So she breached the contract first, and then turned around and accused Douyin of owing money?"

"This is just too disgusting."

"A moment ago you told everyone to leave bad reviews, but it turns out you influencers signed contracts first, and then deliberately stirred up trouble by hiding the news about the quarterly settlement?"

"I was wondering why this smear campaign was so coordinated; it turns out it was all planned."

"Boycott Xue'er!"

"Xue'er, get out of Huya!"

Xue'er's mouth opened and closed, closed and opened, but in the end, she couldn't say a word.

She reached out to touch the mouse, wanting to turn off the screen mirroring, but her hand was shaking so violently that the mouse slid off the table.

The bullet comments kept scrolling, and not only did the number of online viewers not drop, but a large batch of onlookers poured in as the news spread externally.

The number of online viewers jumped from 150,000 to 200,000 and was still climbing.

In the end, Xue'er only managed to squeeze out a few words.

"Today… today I'm ending the stream."

The livestream screen went black.

The bullet comments didn't stop, continuing to scroll across the black screen for a full five minutes.

In less than an hour, the recording of Xue'er's livestream had been clipped from start to finish and uploaded to Weibo, Bilibili, Douyin, and Tieba.

Inspur Technology invested a small amount of traffic to promote it, but the sheer amount of information and the intensity of the reversal in the video itself were enough to push it onto the hot search list within half an hour.

The trending topic was titled "Xue'er Livestream Car Crash."

Clicking into the topic, the comment section under the video with the highest view count was filled with nothing but insults.

"The entire livestream was screen-mirrored; the facts don't need to be refuted."

"So it wasn't that Douyin wouldn't pay; it's that the settlement cycle hadn't arrived yet. This group of influencers couldn't wait to jump ship and then wanted to bite back."

"Penguin's move this time is too disgusting—first poaching people, then making them stir up trouble, only for it to backfire."

"Everyone who just left a one-star bad review for Douyin, come out and apologize."

"So Penguin has been playing dirty from start to finish? Poaching manufacturers and forcing them to choose sides, poaching creators and making them bite back—now it's all exposed."

Immediately after, that same afternoon, thousands of Douyin creators received a notification simultaneously.

It wasn't an email or a text message; it was a direct deposit into their bank cards and Alipay accounts.

The full amount of their Douyin creator incentives had arrived 30 days early.

Someone posted a video on Douyin, showing the text message of the bank deposit, with a caption that only had one sentence:

"It arrived. Douyin didn't owe me a single cent."

The comment section of this video became a large-scale apology scene.

"Who was just scolding Douyin for owing wages?"

"Sorry, I just followed the crowd and scolded them."

"Where are the haters? Come out and walk a few steps."

"So, from start to finish, it was Penguin making trouble? You poached their people and still wanted them to take the blame?"

"This time I'm standing with Douyin. They were splashed with dirty water for a week, but the moment they spoke up, it was definitive proof."

All the dirty water failed in the face of the deposit notifications.

Inside Penguin, they hadn't expected Qin Mo to be so decisive.

He took two-thirds of the funds on Douyin's books and paid them out to the creators.

In this way, if Douyin didn't have new advertisers joining afterward, bankruptcy was almost the only possibility.

And,

although the wage arrears incident had been reversed at this moment, not many people believed that Douyin would be a match for Weikan.

Everyone felt that even if Penguin and Weikan were shameless, the day Weikan launched would be the countdown to Douyin's death.