Published at 10th of July 2026 6:50 am

Chapter 3833: We Might Not Be Effective

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"That is a pretty good idea."

Yan Ci looked at Lin Yi with a smile. "Now it all depends on Director Lin’s pulling power."

"What pulling power?"

"With Lingyun Group leading the investment, other companies will more or less give some face and follow in, which is a win–win solution and doesn’t cash in on your reputation."

Hearing Yan Ci’s suggestion, Lin Yi thought it over carefully. It really was a good idea.

"Your Lingyun Group seems to have some business in mobile phones too, right? But it’s always been lukewarm. You could use this opportunity to really promote it."

"That’s actually a good idea. I’ll talk to Old Qi about it when the time comes."

Holding Lin Yi’s phone, Yan Ci examined it carefully and said:

"I’m actually quite familiar with a few people on this list. I can reach out through personal connections for you, and the price can be a lot cheaper."

"Don’t burn your personal favors. We’ll pay normally; business is business. Otherwise those become favors owed, and you’ll have to pay them back someday."

"If we do it that way, your eight million is really going to be tight."

"Anyway, we just can’t lose face."

"Relax, with me here, I definitely won’t let Director Lin’s face fall to the ground."

"You keep the list for now. Don’t contact them yet. I’ll go in when they can’t handle it, otherwise we’ll end up duplicating efforts."

"Okay."

After finishing the serious talk, the two of them went back to their meal.

After dinner, under Yan Ci’s strong insistence, the two of them had a round in the office, then left feeling very satisfied.

When he got home, he played with Little Nuonuo for a while, then chatted with Ning Che for a bit to get an update on the Central Guards Brigade, and then Lin Yi went to bed.

The next morning, Lin Yi went to work as usual.

Although he had found a third civil dispute, according to the previous plan they wouldn’t shoot today, so he just slacked off in the office.

But Lin Yi wasn’t idle either; he kept communicating with Zhao Jing about the show.

By the end of the day, the rough outline and framework of the show had already been sketched out.

What was left was to refine the details.

Lin Yi checked the backend data. The video about Chuangrong had gone viral. There were more than six thousand comments, and the follower count was close to twenty thousand.

Seeing numbers like that, Lin Yi did feel a sense of accomplishment.

The slacking-off day ended, and then came the weekend break.

When he went back to work again, Lin Yi and Zhao Yuhuan resumed shooting and contacted the parties involved in advance.

The other side was a noodle shop owner, and they agreed to meet at his shop.

"Lin Bro, in this case, if the kid’s parents play dumb, will filing a lawsuit actually work?"

"It might work, but it might not."

"What do you mean? There are still people who dare defy the will of the law?"

"That’s you being young," Lin Yi said with a smile.

"There’s basically no need for a trial in this kind of case. The kid’s parents will definitely lose and be ordered to compensate. But if they just say they don’t have money, what can you do?"

"Wouldn’t that make them deadbeats?"

"Yeah, but so what if they’re deadbeats? Is it going to stop them from eating and sleeping?" Lin Yi said:

"And the tricky part here is that there are many people involved. It’s hard to get them all on the same page."

"Lin Bro, you’ve completely lost me."

"The car owners are asking for two hundred thousand in repair costs, to be split among six families—just over thirty thousand each. Say one family thinks it’s not worth getting the label of deadbeat over thirty thousand and is willing to pay. Can you guarantee the other five agree? The hard part of this problem is getting all six to cough up money!"

"I get what you mean now. This feels like a huge workload. We’re going to have to deal with six people," Zhao Yuhuan said.

"If they don’t want to be interviewed, we might not even get to see them."

"Yeah, this is a tough mission. We have to take it seriously."

"Mm-hmm."

Before long, Lin Yi drove to the noodle shop of the party involved.

"Hi there, what would you like to eat?"

As soon as they walked in, a young man greeted them enthusiastically.

"Hello, we’re reporters from the radio station. My name is Lin Yi, and this is my colleague, Zhao Yuhuan. The day before yesterday someone messaged us saying his car got scratched. Is Feng Zhengxiang here?"

"I’m Feng Zhengxiang. You finally made it."

They shook hands, and Feng Zhengxiang led them to some chairs, then handed each of them a bottle of mineral water.

"These last few days have been driving me crazy. I call them every day, and they just say kids don’t know any better and that I’m petty, completely unreasonable. I really don’t know what to do anymore."

"To put it bluntly, they’re just playing dead and have no intention of paying."

"I wouldn’t say they’re refusing to pay at all. They said each family is willing to give five hundred yuan and call it done. You should’ve seen their faces—like I was extorting them."

"Do you have their contact information? Do you know their home addresses?"

"I’ve dug all that up."

Feng Zhengxiang was very meticulous. He had compiled a table with their phone numbers and home addresses, and even listed some of their jobs.

"It’s all here. I originally wanted a bit of compensation for emotional distress. Now I’d be over the moon if they just covered the repair costs."

"Do you have photos of the car? I want to see what it looks like now."

"I do."

Feng Zhengxiang took out his phone and pulled up photos of the damage.

Lin Yi looked closely. The scratches on the side were indeed quite serious, and several cars had obvious dents. Asking for a total of two hundred thousand in compensation wasn’t excessive.

"When you talked to them, did things go smoothly? Did they stall you, or just not pick up the phone?"

"At first their attitude was fine. They were willing to come out and talk. Now it’s hard to see them at all. Sometimes they don’t even answer calls."

"Have you called the police?"

"I have, but all they can do is mediate. They can’t solve the core problem. Plus those women keep crying poor. In the end the police couldn’t do anything either and told us to go through the courts. If you hadn’t come, I really would’ve filed a lawsuit."

"In this situation, a lawsuit might not help either. Even if you win, if they don’t pay and just become deadbeats, there’s nothing you can do."

"My wife says the same. And filing a lawsuit means spending a lot of time collecting evidence and running back and forth to court. We’re just ordinary people; we really don’t have that kind of energy. I haven’t slept well for days. If I have to pay this much out of pocket, I just can’t afford it."

"I’ve basically got the picture. We’ll first get in touch with these people, and we’ll contact you once there’s any progress."

"Okay, okay, thank you so much."

After finishing their business, the two of them left and went back to the car.

"Lin Bro, do you think we can persuade them by leveraging our identity as journalists?"

"Not necessarily. If even the police can’t get through to them, our status is even less likely to work."

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