Starting from a Bar to Sign Internet Celebrities

Upon hearing this, Chen Jincheng basically understood. This was probably the work of Zhou Huapeng from Si Rui, and his objective was self-evident.

He wanted to cover up the current Hanfu incident, to keep it from getting any more attention—or more specifically, to keep the higher-ups from noticing.

This sort of thing was common. Especially after Tiao Yin became the leader in the short-video industry, the platform had often been used to manufacture viral incidents to cover up other matters.

For instance, there was that one "god," that one security guard, and most famously, a certain "talented" individual. Just as another story was about to break, that "talented" person blew up overnight. Many people attacked him, saying he didn’t deserve to be famous. They were jealous, especially some content creators who, green with envy, posted video after video about him.

But that was precisely the desired effect. It made everyone focus their attention on being jealous of, commenting on, and roasting that "talented" person.

Sure enough, no one paid attention to the original incident anymore.

He pulled out his phone and looked up the news about Li Xiaolu. You could criticize her morals and her character, but you had to admit, back in 2018 her looks were absolutely stunning. More importantly, many who had seen the leaked video had to concede that it was enough to get anyone hot and bothered. Her voice was just that captivating.

It also made a lot of men envy that hip-hop singer.

She was also the one who single-handedly turned phrases like "washing your hair" and "getting your hair done" into taboos. It got to the point where many women were afraid to even say them at the salon.

She was the one who taught everyone that "washing your hair" could also refer to washing one’s "little head," and "getting your hair done" didn’t necessarily mean the hair on your head—it could mean *sitting on hair* instead.

In his past life, people had said her scandal was manufactured to cover up something else. It seemed the same was happening again in this world.

’This also shows that plenty of bigwigs in the entertainment industry knew about her situation and were ready to use her as a scapegoat at a moment’s notice. It just goes to show you should live with integrity and not have a messy private life. Everyone should learn from me. Being single is so much better.’

「On the other side.」

Zhou Huapeng brought a young starlet to a hotel. After a round of fooling around, he received a report. He went online to check the buzz generated by the two celebrities’ affair and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

This was exactly the good news he wanted to hear.

With these two unlucky souls taking the fall, he arranged to buy some trending spots on social media. By morning, everyone would be talking about "washing hair" and "getting your hair done."

Once this incident blew over, he’d find another chance to deal with Chen Jincheng. ’Since he couldn’t destroy me, I’ll definitely destroy him.’

With that thought, Zhou Huapeng went back to messing around with the starlet.

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

「The next day.」

He was jolted awake by a series of urgent rings. He had been up too late with the starlet and was dead to the world. After all, the pressure from the Hanfu incident had been immense. Now that the matter was about to be over, he’d naturally needed to blow off some steam.

He groggily answered the phone, then suddenly shot bolt upright. "What do you mean? Didn’t we use two scapegoats to cover it up? How could this be happening?"

He was dumbfounded. ’Was Li Xiaolu not sensational enough? Why are Chen Jincheng and the Hanfu incident still at the top of the trending list this morning?’

He was in no mood to sleep anymore. He scrambled out of bed, threw on his clothes, and rushed to the office. On the way, he learned what had happened.

Something he could never have imagined had occurred. An official state newspaper had actually published Chen Jincheng’s quote about the cultural inheritance of Hanfu and praised it highly.

When the higher-ups give their approval, it’s as good as having the emperor’s favor. All other hot topics would have to make way, because this was a matter of political correctness.

’Who could have predicted this would happen? Chen Jincheng’s luck is just too damn good!’

When Zhou Huapeng arrived at the company, he was met by his dejected-looking assistant and the others involved.

It was truly disheartening. They had done everything they were supposed to do, yet such an unexpected turn of events occurred.

Seeing him arrive, the assistant immediately said, "President Zhou, the situation is really bad. If we can’t make this news die down, we’re truly finished. Our only hope is to get Chen Jincheng to cooperate by claiming it was all a publicity stunt, shifting the public’s focus once more."

"Then make him cooperate," Zhou Huapeng said, his face cold and grim.

"After everything that’s happened, how could he possibly cooperate?" The assistant shook his head. ’Forget Chen Jincheng, anyone in his shoes would be dying to destroy us right now. Why would he ever cooperate?’

Zhou Huapeng said coldly, "He’ll cooperate whether he wants to or not. If the legitimate approach doesn’t work, we’ll use some off-the-books tactics. Everyone’s afraid of dying. No matter how unwilling someone is, they’re still terrified of desperate men showing up at their door."

"Don’t forget what we do in the shadows. Since he’s pushing us to play dirty, we might as well grant his wish."

"Go contact our people. Tell them there’s work to be done."

The assistant understood what that meant.

Being in their line of business, it was natural to keep people on the payroll who could help with... irregular matters.

However, the assistant still offered a word of caution. "President Zhou, that Chen Jincheng seems to be a very skilled fighter. He easily defeated an amateur Jeet Kune Do practitioner in the ring. And that video of him kicking the sword was unbelievable. If we’re really forced to take extreme measures, we should tell our people to be careful."

Zhou Huapeng laughed. "The ring is the ring, and reality is reality. No matter how good he is in a fight, can he stop a desperate man with a weapon? Besides, I’ve seen that video. That Piaoxiang Yuan guy is just a contemptible clown."