Today, a confession by this former Xiaohongshu chief expert has swept timelines in a flood.

Simply put:
Jiang Dong, hired in 2018, led a team, with a promise of 860k shares of options.
Right when there were 8 days left until his two-year probation period ended, the company fired him—he got none of the option, not a single dollar’s worth.
This is why it has triggered such a huge reaction, because it precisely hit the pain points of office workers:
Ding-the-timer layoffs.
You say it’s a coincidence?
Exactly 192 hours before the 50% options were about to be granted, his labor contract was terminated.
The odds of that are probably lower than winning the lottery.
In his post, Jiang Dong raised four questions, and each goes straight to the heart of the matter.
Especially the questions about related parties between domestic and overseas entities, the legal effect of the founder’s signature, and whether an official email is trustworthy.
This is actually a common issue among many internet companies preparing to go public.
When issuing options, they say everyone is partners and they talk about dreams and the future;
but when it comes time to cash in, legal starts discussing the corporate structure, jurisdiction, and the evidence chain.
In this kind of game, employees are always at a disadvantage.
You think you’ve been handed a ticket to financial freedom, but in reality it might just be an experience voucher with an expiration date that can be cut down at any time.
Now Xiaohongshu hasn’t listed yet, and internal option disputes like this are popping up frequently—this is definitely a blow for future recruitment of top-tier talent.
After all, no one wants to work their tail off for two years only to end up with nothing because of a sudden layoff in the final days.
The takeaway for everyone from this is:
Before the option agreement truly lands, those numbers signed on paper are really just numbers.
When the company starts playing word games like “I don’t know the emails I sent,” as for the so-called corporate culture—呵呵.