Chapter 41: Skepticism from All Sides

At this moment, Huang Dongsheng, an internal medicine intern doctor at Dragon Country Harmony Hospital who was watching the live stream, burst into loud laughter.

"This is utterly absurd. A diet pill that can cure fatty liver and gastroenteritis? If there were such a miracle medicine, you folks would be rolling in wealth," Huang Dongsheng said with a smile.

Right at that moment, Fat Di took out her medical examination reports, scans, and other documents, displaying them in front of the camera for everyone to see.

"These are the scans and reports I took half a year ago, and these are the ones I just took today. I had them done at the First People's Hospital, which is authoritative enough, right?" Fat Di said with a smile.

The live stream chat was flooded with comments.

"Holy shit!"

"There are actually medical reports!"

"Are there any friends here who know how to read scans? Check if these images match the written report."

"I cross-referenced them with my own medical records, and this handwriting really belongs to Director Liu Jianxin from the Jiangcheng First People's Hospital. The signature is identical too."

"Could this diet pill really be this magical?"

"Could it be that even the chief physician of the People's Hospital has been bought off?"

......

As an internal medicine intern at Harmony Hospital, Huang Dongsheng knew how to read medical scans, and he could confirm that what the images depicted matched the text reports.

"No way? Is this medicine really that miraculous? Am I, my goodness, supposed to doubt my own education? This is unscientific!" Huang Dongsheng muttered to himself.

Can things rewarded by a system be explained by existing science?

Huang Dongsheng hurriedly called his mentor, Cheng Daoming, a doctoral supervisor at Dragon Country Harmony Medical University and chief internal medicine physician at Dragon Country Harmony Hospital, and detailed everything happening in the live stream.

Cheng Daoming immediately said, "Impossible! How could such a medicine exist? Nowadays, celebrities and online influencers will say anything to boost sales. Wasn't it just recently that those substandard meat products and fake liquor scandals were exposed? These people simply need a lesson; lock them all up in prison and they will quiet down."

Huang Dongsheng quickly replied, "But Director Liu Jianxin from the Jiangcheng First People's Hospital wouldn't ruin his own future to help them fake this, right?"

That actually made some sense. After a moment of thought, Cheng Daoming said, "Here is what we'll do: order some to be shipped back later, and I'll reimburse you. We will test the effects ourselves. If the medicine is truly this magical and has no side effects, we should immediately contact Sihai Group to discuss cooperation and prescribe this type of medicine to our patients in the future."

Huang Dongsheng nodded and said, "Understood. Let's see if they put them up for sale. If they sell, I'll order a batch back."

......

Li Chenghao, a researcher at a Dragon Country pharmaceutical company who was also watching the broadcast, wore a look of utter shock. He hurriedly stood up and shouted, "Team leader! Team leader, come here quickly!"

Dr. Huang Jianjun, the team leader, hurried over and asked anxiously, "What is it? What happened?"

Pointing at his phone, Li Chenghao said, "Look, look! Dilireba has produced medical examination reports proving that Sihai Slimming Pills not only have weight-loss effects, but also treat mild fatty liver and gastroenteritis, regulate intestinal flora, and clear blood vessels."

Huang Jianjun looked shocked and said, "What? How is that possible?"

Huang Jianjun eagerly leaned over the phone, carefully examining the scans and reports displayed by Fat Di and Chen Xi. After a long while, he slowly straightened up.

"No wonder she said it promotes metabolism to lose weight... But how could researchers at Sihai Healthcare possibly possess such a high level of expertise? Little Huang, order some of these over later so we can study them thoroughly. If their diet pills are truly this miraculous, we will have no choice but to drop our current project and exit the weight-loss product arena entirely," Huang Jianjun said with a grave expression.

Li Chenghao nodded and said, "Alright, I'll order a few boxes for research later."

......

Fat Di finished her live-streaming task, waved with a smile, and said, "That concludes our sharing for today. I have to film tomorrow morning, so I need to set off for the set right now. Goodbye, darlings in the chat room!"

Chen Xi smiled and said, "Thank you, Miss Di, for coming to our broadcast room to share your weight-loss experience. I hope we have a pleasant cooperation in the future."

Fat Di smiled, nodded, waved at the camera, and walked away.

Letting out a long breath as she ran out of the studio, Fat Di asked, "Director Yang, did I perform all right? I didn't make any major mistakes, did I?"

Yang Chen smiled and handed her a bouquet of flowers, praising her, "You performed exceptionally well. Hurry off now, don't delay the film shooting. You've worked hard; at the movie's celebration banquet, I will definitely toast you personally."

Thrilled, Fat Di bowed deeply to Yang Chen and said, "As long as Director Yang is satisfied! I wouldn't dare let you toast me; I'll be the one to toast you then. I'll get going now, goodbye Director Yang, goodbye everyone."

Clutching the bouquet, Fat Di hurried off with her assistant.

Celebrities were always like this—finishing one scheduled appearance only to rush to the next.

Yang Chen said to Chang Sheng, "President Chang, tell the operations team to release a thousand boxes. Those people intending to debunk us for false advertising will definitely buy them, and we'll rely on them to build our first wave of word-of-mouth reputation."

"And the price?" Chang Sheng asked.

"1,288 per box," Yang Chen replied.

Chang Sheng looked utterly shocked, nearly blurting out that this was daylight robbery.

Since this diet pill had no research and development costs—only raw material and processing expenses—even with small-scale production, the cost per box was under fifty yuan. In the future, mass production would reduce costs even further. Yet Yang Chen intended to price it at 1,288 yuan per box, which was even more lucrative than selling illicit drugs.

"Director Yang, we're currently strapped for cash. Shouldn't we go with small profits and quick turnover?" Chang Sheng suggested.

Yang Chen smiled and replied, "Why pursue small profits and quick turnover with a product only we possess? Once our diet pills gain international recognition, I'm going to sell them to foreigners for 1,288 eagle coins a box."

"Ah? I thought selling drugs was lucrative, but compared to our product, they're nothing," Chang Sheng said with a smile.

"Those Caucasians rapidly gain weight after turning thirty, and some even suffer from obesity-related diseases. If one to three boxes of Sihai Slimming Pills can free them from these troubles, will they think 1,288 eagle coins a box is expensive? My vision has never been limited to the domestic market; making money off foreigners is the real skill. Put them on the shelves immediately, and then have Chen Xi end the stream. Whether they buy or not doesn't matter; once the reputation from those debunkers spreads, the slimming pills will inevitably be snapped up like crazy," Yang Chen declared.

Chang Sheng nodded and immediately instructed the operations team to list a thousand boxes at the price of 1,288.

Seeing the listing notification on the teleprompter, Chen Xi immediately smiled and said, "We are temporarily releasing one thousand boxes. Interested darlings can go ahead and place their orders to try them out."

The chat room exploded.

"Holy shit! 1,288 a box? Why don't you guys just go rob a bank!"

"You clearly have the capability to rob people, yet you still go through the trouble of making up stories to hand us a box of diet pills of unknown origin."

"I know your Sihai Group is short on cash, but you shouldn't abandon all your principles like this! I refuse to believe anyone will actually buy this; not even Dilireba's fans could be such fools."

......

"We've placed the product in the showcase window. Buy it if you need it, and don't buy it if you don't. I'm ending the stream now, good night darlings," Chen Xi said with a smile before logging off the broadcast.

There was zero need right now to waste breath "begging" them to buy—begging wouldn't work anyway. Once the reputation was established, there would be no need to beg them to buy either, because they would scramble to purchase it on their own accord.

Yang Chen handed Chen Xi a bouquet of flowers and smiled, saying, "You've worked hard, well done. Don't stream starting tomorrow; let's patiently wait for the first wave of word-of-mouth to develop."

Chen Xi nodded happily and said, "Mm, understood. Thank you for the flowers, Director Yang."

......

Meanwhile, the anti-counterfeiting internet celebrity "Heart Flying Fast" was live-streaming and selling goods, while the chat window was dominated by demands for him to expose Sihai Slimming Pills.

"Brother Fei, Sihai Group is selling diet pills, and they're publicly advertising that not only do they cause weight loss, but they also cure fatty liver and gastroenteritis, regulate intestinal flora, and clear blood vessels. This is outright lying, go expose them right now!"

"Brother Fei, go take down Sihai Slimming Pills, we can't let them harm people!"

"1,288 for a box of diet pills, even robbers aren't this ruthless! Begging Brother Fei to go debunk them and teach them how to be decent human beings."

......

After reading the chat, Heart Flying Fast laughed and said, "There are streamers this bold? 1,288 for a box of diet pills, and they even dare to advertise all these bizarre effects? Isn't this pure fraud, my friends? This isn't a diet pill, my friends, this is a financial investment product! Let me go check it out."

Heart Flying Fast immediately led his fans over to Sihai Healthcare's showcase window to check out the situation with the slimming pills. After looking it over, he burst out laughing and said, "Friends, isn't this a textbook financial product? I'll buy 10 boxes first to test them out. As soon as I have the results, I'll let everyone know immediately, and then you guys can rush to buy this financial product. Getting triple refunds—I'm counting on this to have a happy new year."

Heart Flying Fast actually bought 10 boxes, and some bolder fans placed orders right along with him.

"Placing an order with Brother Fei! My expectations aren't high, just looking to make enough for some cigarette money."

"As expected of Brother Fei, I didn't even realize this was a financial product."

"I missed out on Lion's sugar-water bird's nest, I can't miss out on Sihai's slimming pills."

......

On the other side, Wang Dahai, renowned as the "Number One Anti-Counterfeiter of Dragon Country," was also live-streaming. Having seen the reminders in his chat, he clicked open Sihai Healthcare's showcase window to inspect the slimming pills.

"1,288 a box, not cheap at all. Over 300 boxes have already been sold, looks like everyone's here to buy financial products. I'll buy 10 boxes to test out as well, and see if it's really as powerful as they advertise," Wang Dahai said with a smile.

Since the number one anti-counterfeiter had made his move, those streamers who used debunking as a gimmick to make money naturally wouldn't miss out on this wave of traffic.

Tietou Debunks, Four-Eyes Debunks, Rampant Debunks, B-University Debunks...

It seemed as though overnight, the anti-counterfeiting influencers ushered in a gluttonous feast entirely their own.