16: Chapter 16 is now available on Weikan.

Su Xiaomo sat at the desk by her bed, with a CET-6 practice paper spread out in front of her.

But she couldn't focus her attention at all.

The other three girls in the dormitory were crowded around the desk opposite her, with a mobile phone mounted on a tripod, filming a video towards the camera.

Zhang Wen was wearing a newly bought floral dress, making various exaggerated expressions at the phone's front-facing camera.

The other two roommates were helping—one was adjusting the lighting, and the other was checking the angles for her.

They had been filming since noon, had changed into three different outfits, and had shot at least a dozen clips.

"This one is good; this angle makes me look slimmer."

Zhang Wen reviewed the video they had just filmed and nodded in satisfaction.

"Once Weikan goes live, I'll post it directly. It's bound to go viral."

"I heard that the first batch of creators to join will get traffic support and can be featured directly on the recommendation slots."

"Yes, yes, exactly. Zhang Wen, you already have tens of thousands of followers on other platforms, and you're so pretty. You'll definitely make a lot of money then."

Another roommate chimed in from the side, her tone filled with envy.

"What kind of future does Douyin have now? I heard they can't even pay their creators anymore. So many people are terminating their contracts these past few days."

"Anyway, Weikan is backed by Tencent, so it definitely won't be bad."

Zhang Wen turned her head to look at Su Xiaomo while removing her makeup.

"Xiaomo, are you really not going to Weikan?"

Her tone was like someone trying to persuade a person walking in the rain who refused to open an umbrella even though they were about to get soaked.

"I heard the first batch of creators to join Weikan will get a signing bonus. With your follower count, you could at least get a few tens of thousands. How much did you actually make after filming on Douyin for two months? Probably just a few thousand, right? You might as well come with us to Weikan; we still have recommendation slots available."

"Yeah, Xiaomo, wasn't that transformation video of yours quite popular? You should take advantage of the current hype and switch platforms quickly."

The other roommate also chimed in.

"Once this opportunity passes, it's gone for good. Weikan goes live tomorrow."

Su Xiaomo's pen paused on the exam paper, and she looked up and shook her head.

"Douyin has already paid us."

The dormitory went quiet for a moment.

Zhang Wen pursed her lips.

"So what if they paid you now? Weikan is backed by Tencent."

"Think about the scale of Tencent. A single pop-up window can reach tens of millions of users. How can Douyin compare to that? Once Weikan goes live, Douyin definitely won't stand a chance."

"If you stay now just for that little incentive, won't it be an even bigger loss when the platform is gone later?"

Su Xiaomo turned a page of her English practice paper and didn't respond.

She looked down at the English words on the paper, but her mind wasn't on reading comprehension.

She was thinking about the night she had just posted that transformation video.

She had returned from the library, hidden under her quilt, and secretly opened Douyin; the notification bar in the background was popping with little red dots.

1,300 views, over 200 likes.

Those complimentary comments were the gentlest words she had ever heard in her life.

The next day, that video was shared to Weibo and hit the trending list. A girl at school recognized her in the cafeteria and said, "You're that girl who does transformations on Douyin, right? You film really well."

That was the first time she had seen affirmation in someone else's eyes.

What she didn't tell her roommates was that just this afternoon, 20,000 yuan had been deposited into her bank account.

That was the creator incentive payment Douyin had paid her in advance, which was more than what she earned from tutoring for a whole year.

She had already transferred a portion of the money to her mother back home, and the rest was saved for next semester's tuition.

"Fine, stay if you want to."

Seeing that she wouldn't speak, Zhang Wen couldn't be bothered to persuade her further and continued scrolling through the video footage on her phone.

"Anyway, after Weikan goes live tomorrow, we won't be people on the same platform anymore."

Su Xiaomo's hand holding the pen paused for a moment, then she continued to lower her head and write.

The tip of her pen scratched across the paper, making a rustling sound.

...

These storms had all occurred within a week.

Over the course of the week, Douyin had experienced round after round of public opinion warfare.

Merchants were poached, and the number of signed contracts dropped from over three hundred to less than fifty within a week.

Creators backstabbed them; seven influential creators simultaneously accused Douyin of withholding wages on Weibo, triggering a wave of negative reviews across the entire internet.

They were bombarded with negative trending searches; on the busiest day, three negative topics related to Douyin were hanging on the trending list simultaneously.

But every single time, Qin Mo made the most direct counterattack.

He settled all incentive payments for the first batch of creators in advance, paying out three million in one go, directly filling the information gap caused by the quarterly settlement time lag.

He sued the breaching streamers, using the black-and-white terms of the contracts to dismantle the "victim of withheld wages" persona and reveal the truth of "breaching the contract first and then biting back."

Taking advantage of Xue'er's livestreaming failure, he projected the entire withdrawal process in front of over a hundred thousand people, letting everyone see with their own eyes that Douyin didn't owe anyone a single cent.

Every one of his responses had only one core logic.

No debating, no explaining, just doing one thing: proving the facts to everyone.

The netizens' emotions were like riding a roller coaster.

From the anger of "Douyin is withholding wages," to the reversal of "So you were the ones who breached the contract first," and then to the shock of "Douyin paid all the money in advance."

Throughout this week, the term "Short Video" reached an unprecedented level of discussion across the entire internet.

Everyone was discussing Douyin, discussing Weikan, and discussing which of the two pieces of software would survive in the end.

However.

In the eyes of most netizens, the only reason Douyin had so much attention now was because it was the only Short Video software on the market.

Once Tencent enters the field.

No matter how bad Tencent's reputation was, it would be able to use its own scale to utterly defeat Douyin.

Therefore, even though many netizens supported Douyin, they all felt that it would be very difficult for Douyin to beat Weikan.

People inside Tencent were even already popping champagne.

Everyone was waiting.

Waiting for the day Weikan officially went live.

And as the last day passed.

December 1st, midnight.

Weikan officially went live.