Do your family members know how bad you are at singing?

The efficiency of a headhunting firm rises and falls with the price the client is willing to pay.

Li Daniu wanted to make money, so naturally he would not begrudge a little fee for a recruiter. Thus, when his follower count climbed to three and a half million, he received dozens of resumes.

Some of those resumes belonged to people between jobs; others came from those still employed. But the headhunting firm had made itself clear: whichever candidate Li Daniu chose, they could arrange an interview. Whether it led anywhere was not their concern.

After all, an employer has the right to choose employees, and employees have the right to choose employers.

Having browsed through the resumes sent by the headhunters, Li Daniu was stunned by the glittering credentials on each page. These were all unmistakably top-tier earners. Compared with the Li Daniu of old, who could only be an ordinary worker even in a shell company, these people’s positions and salaries were beyond imagination.

Yet now it was Li Daniu who was the one choosing among them.

“System, I thank your ancestors for eight generations.”

“The tone of your remark is more insulting than complimentary.”

...

Li Daniu did not lack strategic direction, nor creativity, nor resources. So he did not need creative talent, nor talent whose brilliance outweighed discipline.

What Li Daniu wanted was the kind of subordinate who could faithfully carry out the tasks he assigned, and who could notice the details Li Daniu himself would overlook.

So after screening out a portion of the resumes, Li Daniu began contacting candidates for interviews simply according to how close their addresses were to his own.

As for interviewing, Li Daniu had only ever been on the other side of the table. His experience as the interviewer was close to zero.

Still, a full stomach breeds confidence. The current Li Daniu had no reason to be timid.

The interviews took three days in all, and during that time Li Daniu also enjoyed the authority of a boss choosing his own staff.

Over those three days, besides interviewing, he kept a close eye on his Eye Book account.

Ever since he posted those two updates, his follower count had shot past four million by that very night. Then, the next day, the online media’s frenzied coverage of the two posts ignited a fresh wave of attention.

More followers meant more reports, and more reports meant more trouble.

Li Daniu was quite unfortunately dragged into the swirl by his newly added fans.

It began when a singer with eight million followers on Eye Book reposted Li Daniu’s second status and commented: “Just look at the bank deposits and you know how greedy a ruler is in a dictatorship. What is most lamentable is that this money was actually used to build a flashy, hollow airport instead of truly being spent on the people.”

Tuvalu was too small; apart from Li Daniu himself, there were virtually no secrets in the whole country.

Everyone could look up Tuvalu’s annual fiscal income. Everyone knew that Li Daniu’s ring was mortgaged to the New Zealand government as collateral for a loan used to purchase the Auckland Islands. So everyone was curious how Li Daniu could possibly possess so much cash.

There were all kinds of opinions online. The most fiercely debated claim was that it was inheritance left to Li Daniu by the old king. After all, the old king had ruled Tuvalu for thirty or forty years; two billion U.S. dollars was a lot, but for the head of a nation, it was not entirely inconceivable.

The argument centered mainly on the fact that Tuvalu was known as one of the least developed countries in the world.

One side believed that, in a place where the people lived in extreme poverty, the king had nevertheless amassed such vast wealth, proving just how greedy the old king had been.

The other side argued that even if the money had been gathered by the old king through ruthless exploitation, it had nothing to do with Li Daniu. He had merely inherited it; he had not himself stripped the country bare. Besides, Li Daniu was now willing to put this money toward Tuvalu’s development, which showed his character.

This dispute reached a fever pitch after the singer posted that status. Netizens split into three camps: one camp kept attacking the old king without pause, another turned its fire on Li Daniu, saying he should truly spend the money on the people instead of pursuing empty image projects.

The final camp was the smallest. Because of the ring, they chose to wait for Li Daniu’s explanation before the truth came out.

Before posting proof of his bank balance, Li Daniu had not thought that far ahead. He was not some all-seeing strategist who could predict every turn. The reason he posted the proof was simply to tell others that not only did he intend to build the airport everyone thought was excessive, he also had the means to do it.

He had not expected it to trigger such a massive argument online.

As for Li Daniu himself, he actually did not want to explain why he had so much money, because the origin of this fortune was, in truth, somewhat murky. He could not explain where the batch of diamonds he had sold had come from.

But when he noticed that his followers were beginning to drop because of the controversy, he could not sit still.

Losing followers was not, in itself, a huge matter. What he could not ignore was the reason for the loss: people were doubting his character.

When a public figure’s character comes under suspicion, and he loses the attention of his followers, that public figure is left with nothing.

Although Li Daniu was unlike other public figures and did not live off his followers, they would play a very important role in his future plans. So Li Daniu decided he had to settle the matter.

After much thought, he still could not figure out how to explain the origin of all those diamonds, each one superb, with not a few pink and blue stones among them; otherwise they would not have fetched such an astonishing price.

At that moment, Li Daniu truly wished his intelligence could be raised just a little higher.

“System, can’t you be like those other systems and give me something like attribute points? I could boost my intelligence, or maybe get a function to summon a strategist.”

“No. Also, you should be reminded that solving some problems requires not intelligence, but emotional intelligence.”

Choked by the system’s retort, Li Daniu gave up on outside help and began relying on the wisdom of an ordinary man.

He had Burns compile Tuvalu’s royal income and expenditure records for these years and send them over. Li Daniu took screenshots, uploaded them to his Eye Book status, and wrote:

“Please do not insult a king who ran himself to death for Tuvalu and never enjoyed a single day of comfort. If you have any issue, come at me.”

Li Daniu still could not bring himself to call a stranger his father, especially an outsider. After all, he was a man born and raised in China.

His screenshots detailed in full the Tuvalu royal family’s income and expenses over the years: five hundred thousand dollars a year in royal funds, most of which had been spent on the old king’s food, clothing, housing, and travel as he traveled from country to country on Tuvalu’s behalf, fighting for its future.

Judging from those expenses alone, no one would ever believe this was the lifestyle of a head of state.

After this update was posted, many netizens stopped criticizing the old king. Although a small number still insisted the data was fake, that was no longer a serious concern, because the spending records could be verified. It would be easy to check when and in which country he had stayed in what grade of hotel.

When a king, while attending a United Nations conference, stayed in a place resembling a budget motel, what more was there to say?

And Li Daniu’s line, “If you have any issue, come at me,” instantly became an internet catchphrase.

Seeing that many people’s new posts were using that same phrase, Li Daniu realized what to write for his second status. This time, when he posted, he even tagged the singer who had attacked him.

“Just to make this clear: this money has nothing to do with Tuvalu; it concerns only me personally. As for why I have so much of it, take a guess. And as for that singer who cannot even sing properly, your singing is so bad—do your family members know?”

Could an internet catchphrase from his former world conquer American netizens? Li Daniu did not know. He simply wanted to muddy the waters. Once the waters were muddied, he would have ways to divert the netizens’ attention with other matters.