Star Sky Technology began to take action.
Precisely speaking, Star Sky Technology wasn’t the one taking action, it was the Ministry of State Security.
After a three-day investigation, they had collected evidence such as bank records, communication chat records, web browsing data, etc. The investigation team quickly gathered enough intelligence to form a case.
Yang Feifei was on the way home after work when an undercover agent found Yang Feifei and invited her to the office. He asked her to have a chat.
“What do you want?”
The man claimed to be an undercover national security personnel, so Yang Feifei was frightened.
On one hand, she was scared of authority, and on the other hand, she knew she was guilty.
However, because the agent was overly polite, she thought that the department did not actually have enough evidence to arrest her. She pretended to not know what was going on.
“Don’t be nervous, we’re just having a chat,” the agent sitting across from her said. He knew she was pretending to be dumb, so he smiled and said, “If you’re innocent, you have nothing to worry about.”
Yang Feifei said, “What is that supposed to mean? Of course I’m innocent!”
“Of course, your rights are protected by the law, but that’s under the premise that you’re innocent. Then, Miss Yang, I would like to ask about the blogs on your personal Weibo account. Where you make claims such as ‘the Star Sky Technology experiment is inhumane’, ‘the state is behind the evil experiments’, and that ‘the Phantom system will damage your brain’… Are these legitimate claims?”
“Is there a problem?” Yang Feifei moved around in her chair and said nervously, “Doesn’t matter if they’re legitimate, they’re how I feel. Do I not have freedom of speech?”
“Freedom of speech doesn’t protect you against libel and slander. You have the right to speak, but Star Sky Technology has the right to protect their reputation. From what we know, after the closed beta testing, Star Sky Technology arranged a medical examination for you, and everything was normal. You also signed the medical report, am I correct?”
Yang Feifei’s heart dropped, and she quickly explained, “Back then, I felt normal, but after I got home, things changed—”
The agent said, “You had hallucinations?”
Yang Feifei nodded and said, “Correct.”
The agent smiled and said, “But you’re still going to work?”
Yang Feifei: “I’m just a normal citizen, I need money to live.”
The agent smiled.
“So you think you’re a normal citizen. But what I find interesting is that, Star Sky Technology has already offered to pay 100,000 yuan as a settlement compensation. But you still refused and insisted on going forward with the lawsuit. You published false information on the Internet, making yourself out to be a victim. You defamed the corporate image of Star Sky Technology.
“That’s not something a normal person would do.”
Yang Feifei nervously said, “Why not! I-I just want to be heard!”
The agent ignored her and continued, “After Star Sky Technology cooperated with us, we recognized that something was quite unusual.
“Then, we investigated your accounts and found some interesting things. A huge amount of foreign money was transferred to your account from an unknown source.”
He waved the document in his hand and said, “What’s more interesting is that the overseas account that provided you with the funds is a famous overseas anti-China organization. We have been targeting them for a long time, and the organization is called NED. Let’s just say it’s not a charity.”
Yang Feifei’s face completely changed.
She clearly underestimated the influence of Star Sky Technology. She didn’t think the state would take this so seriously.
In her mind, all she did was sue a technology company. Even though this was a powerful company, she didn’t expect this at all.
The Ministry of State Security was investigating her, and she was terrified.
“I-I confess, someone found me and they said they would get me justice. Then they said they would pay me, I’m sorry, okay?”
The younger policeman who was sitting beside them smiled and spoke.
“If sorry is all it takes, what’s the point of policemen?”
Yang Feifei was about to cry, and she wanted to kill herself.
She was involved with overseas anti-China organizations; this was not just a white-collar crime anymore.
Even if she wasn’t charged with espionage, she could go into jail for a long time.
“I’ll… I’ll give the money back!”
“This is not a negotiation, that’s for the judge to decide,” the agent said in a serious manner. “But if you cooperate with us, you can redeem yourself.”
Yang Feifei immediately spoke.
“I agree! I’ll do anything!”
The agent sighed and spoke to her in a serious tone.
“Use your Weibo account to publicly admit that you were bought out, and clarify the rumors.
“We will work with Star Sky Technology. If things go well, they might not sue you.
“As for your illegal gains, we will confiscate them.”
…
In fact, Chen Yushan had already prepared a response plan before the release of the Phantom system.
After all, if Star Sky Technology wanted to separate the virtual reality network from the Internet, they were inevitably going to get backlashes.
Chen Yushan saw this coming.
Once they made a critical technology breakthrough with the Phantom system or show that the Phantom system had commercialization value, foreign countries would definitely try to label it as “illegal” and “evil”, in hopes of buying time for their own technology companies to catch up.
Star Sky Technology wasn’t in a hurry. They weighed factors such as risk and profit, taking into account the future economic market. Penetrating the American market was relatively low on their list of priorities.
There was no way other companies and countries could develop a virtual reality system that was comparable to Phantom, at least within the next few years.
Therefore, Chen Yushan wasn’t worried.
Star Sky Technology wasn’t worried either.
The ones worrying were the people that couldn’t get their hands on the technology, or the ones waiting to get this technology…
Jinling high-tech zone.
Chen Yushan was sitting inside the CEO office when she received a call from the Ministry of State Security.
“Ms. Yang has withdrawn her case and agreed to cooperate with us. She will repair her stupid mistakes.”
Even though Chen Yushan expected this to happen, she still felt relieved.
“I don’t get it, why would someone do something this stupid?”
“It is a million dollars, USD. Most people would be tempted. Speaking of which, do you plan on countersuing her?”
Chen Yushan thought for a second and said, “She has already paid for her mistake. I think there’s no need for that. I’m sure the state will make a fair decision.”
The agent from the Ministry of State Security nodded.
“… This was our advice as well. If you sue her for compensation, she won’t be able to pay any fines. Also, we need her to cooperate with the follow-up investigation.”
Chen Yushan smiled and said, “Yeah, thank you, guys.”
“You’re welcome.
“We are honored to serve the country and bring justice!”
…
The so-called victim, Yang Feifei, voluntarily admitted on her social media that she had fabricated some facts. She even attached evidence of her bribery records, totally changing the public opinion. People’s unwarranted panic over the Phantom system turned into a discussion on the organizations behind all of this.
After Yang Feifei issued an apology, she knew people would attack her. Thus she quickly deleted her Weibo account.
As for Star Sky Technology, they said that since Miss Yang recognized her mistake, they would not countersue her.
The turmoil of public opinion finally came to an end.
As for the international public discussions…
Star Sky Technology never took them so seriously.
They didn’t need to care about the international market just yet.
Also, they weren’t the ones that should be worried.
Because, there was a product launch conference going on at the Shanghai International Convention and Exhibition Center, with more than 500 companies attending…
