I'm reborn and I'm an international student again?

At this moment, Chen Xi, far to the north, is visiting rural areas.

Huahetong has numerous projects, each operated by several companies. Without visiting in person, it's impossible to understand the actual situation.

"President Chen, as of now, Jiajiatong has over 1.3 million users, making it the world's largest satellite broadcasting system in terms of user scale and the absolute mainstream in the rural market," subordinate Jiang Yu reported excitedly.

Jiajiatong is a television coverage project jointly developed by Huahetong and Optoelectronic Systems. Its core objective is to solve the problem of "not being able to see or not being able to watch television well" in rural areas. It mainly serves remote mountainous areas, pastoral areas, forest areas and islands where cable television is not available or where wireless signal coverage is blind.

Despite the rapid spread of the internet, with some wealthier villages now having internet access, "Every Household Connected" remains the preferred choice for many rural families. The reason is simple: watching television is free.

In the early stages of promotion, users were quite resistant, and many refused even when it was offered for free. However, with the cooperation of village officials and the occasional gifts from Huahetong, the equipment was eventually successfully installed in households.

Consider this: with 1.3 million users, Huatong has already profited handsomely from customized set-top boxes and subsidies alone, not even including revenue from advertising and TV shopping.

"What do you think of users' opinions on Jiajiatong?" Chen Xi asked casually.

"Of course, it received rave reviews!" Jiang Yu replied without hesitation.

How was this conclusion reached?

"Based on statistics from user survey reports."

"The survey report shows a positive review rate of over 98%... Don't you find such a high number strange?" Chen Xi smiled.

Jiang Yu wasn't the head of the television project; he was just a recent returnee from studying abroad, new to Huatong, and still somewhat clueless about the situation in China. But he wasn't stupid; he immediately realized, "President Chen, are you saying this data... is inflated?"

"It's hard to say, I'll have to see it for myself. But in all my years, I haven't seen many products with such a high genuine positive review rate." Chen Xi waved his hand and continued walking forward.

Upon arriving at a house, after exchanging a few pleasantries, Jiang Yu presented the gifts he had brought. The host immediately beamed and welcomed them into the house.

"We're from the supply and marketing cooperative; we're here to find out what's going on," Chen Xi said, concealing his true identity.

"Boss, have some tea. We don't have much to offer you at home." The middle-aged man smiled and handed over a cup of freshly brewed tea.

"Fellow villager, how's life now compared to before?" Chen Xi asked, taking a sip of tea.

"It's alright," the man replied vaguely.

Chen Xi nodded.

I'm too young; I don't look like a high-ranking leader. If it were someone older, they'd probably just say, "I'm very happy!"

"What is your family's main source of income? Is the money enough?" Chen Xi continued to ask.

“We farm a little land, and our child works in the city. The two of us have to give him some money every year, it’s not enough. Housing prices in the city are so high, our child wants to stay there to get married, I asked him to come back, but he thinks there’s no development in the countryside…” The man handed Chen Xi a cigarette, lit it for him, and lit one for himself, his tone full of confusion.

"Didn't the supply and marketing cooperatives and Huahetong launch new agricultural projects? Logically, their income should have increased." Chen Xi slowly got to the point.

"Income has increased a bit, but not by much. Expenses, on the other hand, have increased considerably..."

"How do you say this?"

"The scientific production methods you're using only work for people with a lot of land, that is, for large urban companies to lease land and scale up production. For small farmers like us, whose land is tiny, how much change can improving production efficiency make? We're still idle when we should be..." The man exhaled a puff of smoke.

Chen Xi understood this.

The situation in China differs from that in the West. The large-scale, sparsely populated farm model of the United States is highly likely to cause conflict in China. This is why he partnered with Feng Yun to launch Hippo Supermarket, attempting to increase the purchase price of agricultural products.

"Now that the purchase price has increased, you should be making more money than before, right?"

"It was only at the beginning. Now they're waging some kind of price war. A bunch of companies are coming to the village to buy vegetables, each trying to lower the price, like they've all agreed on it. There are so many names I can't even remember them all, like 'Vegetable Buying Network,' 'Everyday Vegetable Sales'... They also say that our vegetables need to be transported to factories for processing, and that the cost of building factories is high. City people think vegetables are too expensive, so they can only sell them by lowering the price. They also try to fool me by saying that low prices aren't a problem, as long as the volume is large, we can still make money, it's called 'small profits but quick turnover'... But I only produce that much in a year, where am I going to get that much volume?" The man sighed.

He told the truth.

When a lucrative opportunity arises, all businesses rush in, and the competition spreads from cities to rural areas.

"Then you just said the expenses were high..." Chen Xi pressed.

Logically speaking, stimulating rural consumption is part of the national strategy, which seems to make no mistake.

"The expenses are high, but they are all useless and mandatory expenses."

"for example?"

“For example, this set-top box!” The man stood up, walked to the television, and pointed to a small silver box.

"Isn't this free?" Chen Xi asked, puzzled.

"At first they didn't charge me! Then they said they'd replace my set-top box and even help me make money. Now I still have to pay broadband fees every month, and I can't even stop it..." The man became more and more angry as he spoke.

His words left Chen Xi confused.

Huatong's set-top box connects to a satellite, so what does that have to do with broadband fees?
Seeing that Chen Xi didn't understand, the man explained, "At first, Huatong came to install the Jiajiatong set-top box and satellite dish for us for free. Later, another group of people came and said that the satellite dish on the roof emitted radiation. They talked to me about environmental protection, saying that the radiation was not only harmful to people, but also to crops and poultry. I said I wouldn't change it, but they tried to persuade me again, saying that I could make money by changing to a new set-top box. I asked how, and they said it was a one-time investment with lifetime benefits, that I could earn money by watching videos, or that I could get a money-making mining machine for my home. They even talked about blockchain mining and edge computing... In short, I didn't understand any of it." My son works in the city, and he said people there are making a lot of money playing with cryptocurrency, so I believed him. After the installation was finished, they asked me for an installation fee. At first, I didn't want to pay, but the people from Huatong said this thing could generate money in the future, and told me to think long-term and not to lose money for a small gain, since I could earn it back in a few days anyway. Who knew that six months later, the broadband company came to my door saying I was in arrears. I was confused; my family doesn't even have internet, so where did the broadband come from? Finally, I realized that this thing is connected to the internet! Now I want to cancel the broadband, but the broadband company won't let me, saying I signed a contract..."

Although the man's words were incoherent, Chen Xi understood them. It was definitely someone in the company abusing their position for personal gain, or someone impersonating Huahetong to commit fraud.

There are many set-top box companies on the market, and many of them make money by using deceptive tactics. Blockchain mining, edge computing, CDN bandwidth sharing, AI data training, home cloud nodes... he is no stranger to these terms.

The sales pitch typically goes something like this: "Our set-top box is a small server that can utilize your home's idle broadband and storage to provide computing power for internet companies, thereby generating continuous revenue."

Then, the platform displays daily earnings growth to users through the app or backend, creating the illusion that it's truly possible to make money. Simultaneously, it encourages users to recruit others, promising high commissions and team rewards, forming a typical pyramid scheme structure. Initially, to gain trust, the platform will release small withdrawals on time, funded by new users' purchases. Once user growth slows and new funds cannot cover the withdrawal needs of older users, the platform will delay using excuses like system upgrades and channel maintenance, ultimately absconding with the money, and the app will become inaccessible.

As for mining, the box might actually be running some kind of blockchain program, but it's usually mining worthless cryptocurrencies or contributing CDN traffic. The value generated by home bandwidth and computing power is negligible, perhaps only a few cents a day, far exceeding the electricity costs and hardware wear and tear. Providing CDN or computing power to illegal overseas platforms could also pose cybersecurity risks and even facilitate the spread of illegal content. In short, installing this thing basically makes you a sucker.

After understanding the situation, Chen Xi came out of the house and stood by the field looking at the satellite dish on the roof: "If this thing really emits radiation, the Starlink project should just be abandoned."

“President Chen, there are so many problems here. It seems that all those investigation reports are fabricated,” Jiang Yu said.

"This is just the beginning, there are still so many projects we haven't looked at yet," Chen Xi said, pursing his lips.

Half an hour later, in front of a self-service water vending machine.

Chen Xi and Jiang Yu changed their clothes and came over carrying two large buckets of water.

A small stool was placed in front of the water vending machine, where a water manager was playing on his phone. This was a spot that Chen Xi had specially chosen for inspection.

"Fetch more water today, there are quite a few people coming to the house." Jiang Yu put down the water bucket and cleared his throat.

"Yes, let's make a few more dishes tonight," Chen Xi agreed.

"Fetch water? I've never seen you two before." The water manager glanced at them.

"I just got back from the city, and it's almost Chinese New Year," Chen Xi casually made up an excuse.

"Oh, do you know how to use the machine? Insert the water card first, then scan the code." The housekeeper pointed to the screen, his attention still on his phone.

Chen Xi was about to take out the water card he had prepared, but then stopped: "Scan the code? Scan what code?"

"Just do as I say," the butler replied impatiently, while playing on his phone.

Chen Xi gave him a wink. Jiang Yu took the water card, inserted it into the slot, and then took out his phone to scan the QR code on the machine.

An advertisement immediately popped up on the screen with a countdown timer.

"Damn it, I've already paid for this and I still have to watch ads?" Jiang Yu couldn't help but complain.

Chen Xi took a closer look and saw that it was indeed the case. According to the original design, inserting a card would dispense water, and the advertisement would only play automatically on the device screen.

"Why are there still ads after the countdown is over? ... What the hell? Why is it automatically downloading software for me? What kind of loan app is this? What the hell is going on!" Jiang Yu cursed as a series of subsequent actions caused him to react with anger.

"What's going on?" Chen Xi turned to the water housekeeper.

"How would I know? That's just how it's done." The other person didn't even look up.

A few seconds later, he kindly added, "Don't delete those apps. If you delete them, you'll have to reinstall them every time you need water, wasting your data."

"..."

Chen Xi and Jiang Yu exchanged a glance.

That evening, the two returned to the hotel.

Jiang Yu, who had been holding it in the whole way, finally couldn't help but speak up: "This is outrageous! What a mess this public welfare project has been made of!"

Seeing his sullen expression, Chen Xi smiled and lit a cigarette.

This kid reminds him of himself in his past life.

When I first returned to China, I was full of enthusiasm and couldn't tolerate any flaws.

Images from that year involuntarily surfaced in my mind:
In the conference room of Huahetong Company, the young Chen Xi, with a stern face, looked at the group of old foxes in front of him: "Are you kidding me? I came back to China to do something real, to lead everyone to prosperity and development. You actually want me to do lending? I'll be damned..."

……

"President Chen, why aren't you angry at all?" Jiang Yu was even more confused when he saw Chen Xi just smiling.

"Angry? I'm already full of anger, but what's the use of just being angry? We need to solve the problem." Chen Xi exhaled a puff of smoke, his tone calm.
"Then we should root out these parasites in the company one by one. Those who need to be reported to the police should be reported, and those who need to be fired should be fired!"

"Good idea. But how exactly do we do it? In the current situation, I'm afraid everyone in the company is trying to skim off the top. You saw it today, even the lowest-ranking water machine operator is getting a cut. Have you thought about how deep the water runs in management?" Chen Xi nodded and handed him a cigarette.

Jiang Yu took the cigarette, pondered for a moment, and said, "Don't alert them yet. Find a group of honest new recruits and start the investigation from within. Once the evidence is conclusive, take down the top management first, and then thoroughly reorganize the middle and lower levels."

"Hmm, that's a good idea. Then I'll leave this to you." Chen Xi smiled and suddenly patted his shoulder.

"Me?" Jiang Yu was stunned, pointing at himself.

“Yes, you said it yourself: honest and a new employee. I think you fit both of those criteria quite well.” Chen Xi’s smile was filled with earnest expectation.

Jiang Yu opened his mouth, unsure what to say for a moment, only feeling a heavy weight on his shoulders. (End of Chapter)