"Using my photos for advertising?"
After hearing what Liu Rulan said, Xiao He felt like darkness was closing in on him.
This situation originated from the character setting of Mo Tun—a villain who constantly chewed betel nuts.
Actually, most people now know that this stuff is extremely harmful, and many people who eat it end up with squared, rugged facial structures. In cases like Mo Tun who consumed it so intensely, he definitely wouldn't be good-looking. It was purely because Xiao He himself was handsome that he managed to carry "Mo Tun's" appearance.
In other words, Mo Tun's good looks weren't part of the story's setting—he was only handsome because Xiao He was handsome.
Yet precisely because of this situation, those merchants had revived like dying embers, actually using his photos and related videos as gimmicks to promote that eating betel nuts was like smoking—a symbol of showing charm and masculinity!
Want to become as handsome as Mo Tun? Come take a bite of our fruit! This is the true mark of a real man!
Even now, if you opened shopping apps on several platforms and searched for related betel nut keywords, the first thing that popped up was the image of Mo Tun standing on a boat eating this stuff!
Xiao He looked at his phone, his face dark as he kept scrolling down, only to find it laughable how these merchants were acting so shameless. Their covers were almost all him, making it seem like he'd become the national betel nut spokesperson!
The related search terms were firmly bound to him!
This was something he absolutely shouldn't touch, and they shouldn't be dragging him into this mess!
"We've already negotiated with these merchants," Liu Rulan said solemnly. "But you know these merchants—if they're doing this, they must have thick enough skin. We warned several shops, and after taking down the related links, they immediately replaced them with new links. Although they didn't add your portrait again, the product names still read 'Mo Tun Same Style'."
Xiao He: "..."
My native language is speechlessness.
"We're currently collecting evidence," Liu Rulan said. "The studio has hired the best legal team to handle this matter, but to be honest, the numbers are huge and they move very quickly. Once there's a problem, they evade responsibility by changing links, closing shops, and other methods. The operating entities behind multiple shops also require platform cooperation for investigation. Even if infringement is confirmed, their compensation costs are very low, while our side needs to expend tremendous effort and cost."
There was no way around it—trying to protect rights on the internet was still very difficult right now, even if you were a celebrity.
Even someone as capable as Liu Rulan could only hire professional teams to handle this kind of thing—there were no other choices.
Encountering this situation, you could only feel completely disgusted.
"This is truly despicable!"
Xiao He couldn't help but curse under his breath.
"As public figures, this kind of situation is indeed hard to avoid," Liu Rulan sighed. "And actually, your situation is considered relatively good."
At least Xiao He was currently featured in shops on legitimate platforms, not somewhere else... Some less fortunate female celebrities had their portraits infringed upon and displayed in places that weren't so simple.
That was truly disgusting, and the cost of protecting rights was extremely high, often resulting in fruitless investigations in the end.
"This kind of thing actually happens to many people in the industry—it's a relatively normal phenomenon. It's just that this situation is particularly excessive. But it's also perfect timing—your career is developing better and better, and just the few people in the studio probably aren't enough to handle many of your online matters now. Taking this opportunity, I plan to establish a separate legal team specifically to help you handle online public opinion and other contract dispute issues."
Previously, Liu Rulan had always hired lawyer friends she knew from before—essentially external personnel of the studio—and would consult those lawyers whenever situations arose.
But now Xiao He was developing too quickly, and the car accident incident from some time ago had kept everyone extremely busy. Liu Rulan felt it was time to cultivate a professional legal team belonging to their own studio.
The only headache was that among the lawyers Liu Rulan currently knew, there really weren't any suitable ones. The lawyer who had been handling their studio's cases had already aligned with other major companies, and Liu Rulan basically couldn't poach him. The others she knew were either too expensive or their positions were too secure—their small studio couldn't poach them either. So this idea had been temporarily shelved before.
But this rights protection battle would likely be a long-term campaign, so this team should be put on the agenda.
Although Xiao He felt he could solve this current situation using his hacking skills, considering future work processes, he also agreed with Liu Rulan's idea.
"Perfect timing—"
Xiao He took a bank card out of his computer bag.
"I made some small profits recently—I'll hand it over to Sister Liu."
Whether for random investments or maintaining the team, Xiao He trusted that Liu Rulan could manage it well for him.
Liu Rulan was somewhat surprised: "Where did you get this?"
Xiao He tapped on the computer on his desk: "Earned it using this."
Although Xiao He was currently still researching more complex AI algorithms, picking up other less useful things to sell could still earn him some small profits.
Liu Rulan looked at the bank card with extremely complicated feelings.
She had known before that Xiao He's computer skills were quite good.
But she never imagined Xiao He could earn money so crazily using this skill!
All this busy work—might as well have Xiao He become a programmer instead. He had the talent and could earn more too...
Then Liu Rulan quickly shook her head, throwing those thoughts out of her mind.
She was Xiao He's agent! How could she have such unambitious ideas!
Then Liu Rulan's eyes burned with fierce fighting spirit.
Her own artist could earn money so well—she couldn't fall behind either!
So Liu Rulan left again with heroic strides and high morale.
Xiao He scratched his head: "Why does it feel like Sister Liu got serious?"
Was it just his imagination?
He shook his head and opened his computer to start investigating the matter Liu Rulan mentioned.
This kind of thing was actually quite easy to investigate, but what surprised Xiao He was that although the shops and links on these platforms appeared diverse and different on the surface, after his traceback investigation, he discovered that most of these shops came from just a few major bosses—specifically, the company owners of several famous brands in this type of fruit business.
How to put it... probably it meant that while these platform shops seemed completely unrelated, with different identity information and related materials left when signing with the platform, the actual operation method was managed uniformly by the same boss. Even the customer service was purely outsourced. Only the merchants who truly controlled this production line were the ultimate big bosses.
They appeared to be different brands, but their actual suppliers were all the same—they just differentiated by the quality level of the fruits.
—In other words, this shameless behavior that seemed to involve many people, giving a sense of "law doesn't punish the masses," actually involved bosses whose numbers could be counted on one hand.
Xiao He was truly amused and angered by this.
He now genuinely admired these online shop operators—cunning rabbits only had three burrows, but these guys had even more tricks up their sleeves. They changed shops very frequently—opening one shop to make some money, then immediately switching to another shop to continue earning. No single shop was intended to last too long anyway. Since this business still had certain controversies currently, this promotional method was essentially about grabbing whatever benefits they could.
By the time Sister Liu and the others collected evidence and before they could do anything to these guys, they might have already closed their shops and run away.
And because the shop owner information was nominal, if they wanted to sue, they could only sue a nominal person, never reaching the actual bosses.
The waters here ran deep indeed—