Oops, you know what? On May 10th, the official Weibo of Gree Group suddenly issued a brief statement, which looked particularly shocking: "Let me tell you bad news, our Gree's former much-anticipated 'successor' Meng Yutong has now left the company!" Meng Yutong, the little girl who was regarded as the "successor" by our chairman Dong Mingchi, chose to give up this place that made her popular overnight and embarked on an unknown path.
In the face of various questions from netizens, the staff inside Gree seemed to be used to this kind of thing, and just replied lightly: "The flow of personnel is normal." "However, judging from Gree's previous actions, Meng Yutong's departure is not just a simple personnel change.
Just the day before they responded to the news of Meng Yutong's resignation, Gree Group was very busy, and hurriedly registered a bunch of trademarks related to Meng Yutong, such as "Pearl Yutong", "Yutong", etc., and even the original "Yutong Pearl" live broadcast room was immediately changed to "Gree Pearl", all of which seemed so hurried and cautious, as if it was deliberately keeping a distance from Meng Yutong, an employee who had left.
There is another thing that makes people laugh and cry, just two days before Gree officially announced Meng Yutong's resignation, Meng Yutong actually posted on social media: "It's best to rely on yourself, don't always think about relying on others."
This sounds a little angry, as if she is secretly sarcastic about her former boss Gree and her boss Dong Mingzhu.
However, Meng Yutong may also feel that what he said was too much, so he immediately deleted the news. Then she posted a video, saying that she "has graduated from Gree", and the words she said a few days ago were just a little bit of her own insight, and it had nothing to do with Gree.
But, can she really make people believe it when she explains it like this?
If you want to understand the story of Meng Yutong and Dong Mingzhu, we have to go back to 2021, when Meng Yutong had just graduated from Zhejiang University, and she was only 22 years old that year. As an excellent student, she not only has good academic performance, but also looks beautiful, she already has a certain popularity when she was in school, and often participates in various variety shows, such as "One Stop to the End", "Magical Chinese Characters" and the like.
And in the variety show called "We Are New to the Workplace", Dong Mingzhu, as the "boss", suddenly took a fancy to Meng Yutong, a young girl. Compared with the shy and introverted appearance of other interns, Meng Yutong gives people the feeling of being lively and cheerful, confident and generous, and dares to look directly into the eyes of Dong Mingzhu, the "big boss".
Dong Mingzhu admired Meng Yutong's fearlessness and confidence very much, and when the show was recorded, she did not hide her admiration and kept praising Meng Yutong.
What's more, what is even more surprising is that after the show ended, Dong Mingzhu actually extended an olive branch to Meng Yutong and invited her to join the Gree team.
For Meng Yutong, who has just entered the workplace, this is undoubtedly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Not only can she get an enviable job, but she can also take this opportunity to learn from Dong Mingzhu, a "mentor", get in touch with various industry elites, and learn from their valuable experience.
It can be said that Meng Yutong's life has undergone earth-shaking changes since that moment.
With the support of Dong Mingzhu, Meng Yutong successfully entered Gree Company and spent a glorious time there. As Dong Mingzhu's personal assistant, her daily task is to accompany Dong Mingzhu and help her deal with all kinds of things.
Arranging itineraries, hosting guests, handling emails, and more are all part of her day-to-day work, but what makes it more challenging is that she's also responsible for more complex tasks such as organizing meetings and developing marketing strategies.
Judging from the work photos shared by Meng Yutong on social networks, her work pressure is really high. She once revealed that she often had to work more than 20 hours straight, sometimes even "without a break for two months".
This kind of work intensity, even in the Internet industry, which has been criticized by people, is unimaginable.
The people around her were worried about her, afraid that her work at such an intense intensity would affect her health. Sure enough, Meng Yutong himself has expressed his fatigue many times on social media, and even joked that he is "challenging the limits of human beings".
Despite the intense pressure at work, Meng Yutong is still actively trying new things. With the rise of e-commerce live broadcast, Gree Company specially opened a "Yutong Mingzhu Selection" live broadcast room for her, and Dong Mingzhu even went into battle in person to conduct a live broadcast with her, apparently wanting to make "Meng Yutong IP" a hot topic.
However, as a newcomer to the live broadcast industry, Meng Yutong does not seem to be able to cope with this new job challenge perfectly. In order to attract more audiences, she even shouted loudly, performed hard, sang and danced during the live broadcast, and even had an amazing record of continuous live broadcast for more than ten hours.
Meng Yutong did his best, but the results were not ideal - the number of viewers and sales performance did not meet Dong Mingzhu's expectations
When Dong Mingzhu announced in a high-profile manner that he intended to cultivate Meng Yutong as the "second Dong Mingzhu" like himself, doubts from the outside world have risen one after another.
The first to stand up and question it was Li Guoqing, the founder of Dangdang.com. He expressed disdain for Dong Mingzhu's remarks, bluntly saying that this was just a hype method and could not be maintained for a long time.
Li Guoqing pointed out that it takes at least 8 years to train an intern to become a managerial talent, and it needs to be rotated in at least three different departments.
As expected, when Gree officially announced the news of Meng Yutong's resignation, Li Guoqing once again posted an article to prove that his original judgment was completely correct. He believes that Dong Mingzhu's "reuse" of Meng Yutong has another purpose, not really valuing her talent, but hoping to use Meng Yutong's popularity and influence in the variety show circle to open up new business opportunities for Gree.
Once Meng Yutong's role as a "traffic password" no longer plays a role, Dong Mingzhu will naturally give her up without hesitation. Li Guoqing's words undoubtedly touched the deep sore spot in Dong Mingzhu's heart.
In addition to Li Guoqing, many netizens also questioned the relationship between Dong Mingzhu and Meng Yutong. Some people believe that Dong Mingzhu's frequent participation in variety shows, advertising, and live broadcasts are actually trying to build his own "traffic empire".
And Meng Yutong is just a "chess piece" she uses to expand her business territory.
When this chess piece makes a wrong move and loses its value, Dong Mingzhu will naturally discard it mercilessly, just like any failed "investment".
In fact, long before Gree officially announced the news of Meng Yutong's departure, there were many signs that she was gradually moving away from Gree.
First of all, the most intuitive thing we saw was that Meng Yutong's previous live broadcast work with goods was suddenly stopped. Although Dong Mingzhu had high hopes for Meng Yutong in the past, and gave her a lot of support in the live broadcast room of "Yutong Mingzhu Selection", but now if you look for it again, you can no longer see Meng Yutong's shadow.
This is equivalent to a strong signal released by Gree, telling everyone that they may have to give up Meng Yutong.
Then, just two days before Gree publicly admitted that Meng Yutong had resigned, Meng Yutong also posted a text on social media saying that "relying on others is never as good as relying on yourself", from which you can feel that she seems to be a little angry or unwilling.
Many netizens feel that this sentence is actually satirizing Gree and Dong Mingzhu.
There is another thing that can prove everyone's conjecture even more, that is, Meng Yutong revealed shortly after announcing her departure that she had begun to prepare for the graduate school entrance examination and was ready to return to school again.
This shows that she was prepared before leaving Gree, found a way out for herself, and even thought about the future development direction.
So, when Gree officially announced the news of Meng Yutong's resignation at the end, this result was not surprising. Meng Yutong must also know that he has no future in Gree, so he can only choose other paths and start a new life.
Meng Yutong's departure is like losing an important chess piece for Dong Mingzhu. Although some people doubt whether Dong Mingzhu had ulterior motives for reusing Meng Yutong at the beginning, it cannot be denied that Meng Yutong did bring high attention and influence to Gree.
If this "traffic password" is lost, it will definitely be a huge loss for Gree.
Therefore, after Meng Yutong's resignation, Gree is trying to find a new direction of development, hoping to change the situation of declining performance caused by "Yinlong loss". This time, Dong Mingzhu had to be more careful in selecting and using his "chess pieces" to avoid making mistakes again.
As for Meng Yutong, although she left Gree, the popularity and work experience that Gree brought to her will definitely become an advantage for her future development. Regardless of whether she eventually goes back to school or signs with an internet celebrity agency, her experience at Gree will bring her more opportunities.