Dai Chenglan had not come to persuade He Zhen. She had come to warn him.
Could it be that Dai Chenglan had finally seen the light and realised that standing on the same side as Sara Zhuo was wrong?
He Zhen did not think so.
His mother was still the same mother. She had simply seen Sara Zhuo’s side losing ground and now wanted to mend relations with Xie Qian.
Changing sides midway like this was worse than holding a firm position from start to finish. At least then He Zhen could believe that Dai Chenglan’s close ties with Sara Zhuo were truly based on friendship. As it was now, it was ridiculous. Dai Chenglan might as well declare outright, “I choose friends only for their usefulness!”
His experience of striking out on his own had matured He Zhen considerably. Dai Chenglan could not change his views, and he had given up trying to change hers.
“Thank you.”
He Zhen expressed his gratitude.
Dai Chenglan was still waiting for his next reaction. When He Zhen said nothing more, she grew anxious. “You know the situation now. How do you plan to handle it?”
He Zhen smiled but remained silent. Dai Chenglan quickly caught on: he had a plan but did not intend to share it with her?
She had come with good intentions to tip him off, yet her son did not trust her. Dai Chenglan was furious.
“Fine, fine, do whatever you want. I wash my hands of it!”
Dai Chenglan struggled to maintain her elegance, but her taut features and rigidly straight back betrayed her anger.
She picked up her bag and left.
As an onlooker, Pang Jinglong could clearly see how tense the mother-and-son pair were.
Dai Chenglan had been thoroughly enraged by He Zhen.
Pang Jinglong, however, had no time to worry about Dai Chenglan’s feelings. He was more concerned with the news she had brought. “They really did dig it up!”
“If they dug it up, so be it. It was never a fact that could be hidden.”
He Zhen was not worried.
In truth, whether Dai Chenglan had come to warn him or not, He Zhen had long been mentally prepared.
If they could not even uncover this much, He Zhen would have found it strange.
He Zhen’s calm steadied Pang Jinglong. A gleeful, almost schadenfreude expression appeared on Pang Jinglong’s face. “They must think they have grasped the handle to turn defeat into victory! Too bad… heh heh!”
Too bad Zhao Dong and the others would not have time to use this point to attack Wen Ying.
Pang Jinglong did not want anyone using Wen Ying’s shareholding to attack her, and He Zhen would never allow it either.
Besides Pang Jinglong and He Zhen, there was Xie Qian, who had been overseeing everything from the start.
Allowing Wen Ying and Zhao Qian to make their bet had already been Xie Qian’s limit. He would never permit Zhao Dong’s side to step on Wen Ying to reverse public opinion.
…
Sure enough, before Zhao Dong and his people could finish fabricating Wen Ying’s “evidence”, Hunan Provincial TV struck first by broadcasting evidence against Silan.
Hunan Provincial TV had a programme that focused on current news hotspots and social issues affecting people’s lives.
In the past, whenever Silan wanted airtime on a Hunan Provincial TV programme, it was charged by the second. Zhao Dong had to spend huge sums buying advertising slots.
This time, Hunan Provincial TV gave Silan ample prominence. In the episode broadcast that evening, the “Silan rights-protection incident” occupied a full twenty minutes, and they did not charge Zhao Dong a single penny!
The entire programme lasted only thirty minutes. For Silan to take up two-thirds of it showed extraordinary favour.
Over this period, rights-protection incidents from all over the country had provided the programme team with abundant material. Zhao Dong could arrange reporters to film secretly and edit maliciously to sway public opinion. Why could Director Fan not do the same?
Director Fan did not even deign to compete with Zhao Dong.
“With that little skill he wants to play at public opinion warfare?”
Director Fan looked down on Zhao Dong’s tactics.
To put it bluntly, when Director Fan had been assigned to the television station, Zhao Dong had probably only just begun learning to read.
To uncover the truth in news, unconventional filming methods were often necessary. Director Fan saw nothing wrong with it.
In any case, once the programme aired, the station’s phone lines were inundated.
Many affected Silan consumers called to thank Hunan Provincial TV.
For some time, the victims had been fighting for their rights.
At first, even their online posts were deleted. Later, when beauty influencers stepped forward, Silan could no longer keep up with deleting their posts.
Then the bestselling author “Fish Swimming Upstream” reposted on his blog and made a bet with the sister of Silan’s boss. Finally, the rights-protection incident drew wider attention.
By that stage, even if Silan wanted to delete the victims’ posts, they could not. More and more people online were discussing the matter. Silan could no longer cover the sky with one hand.
The story appeared online, in newspapers, and on other television stations. Hunan Provincial TV was not the first to cover it. But while other stations focused on it mainly because of the bet between Wen Ying and Zhao Qian, only Hunan Provincial TV zeroed in on the origin and essence of the incident: Silan’s products had caused allergies in so many consumers. Their safety was clearly compromised.
How could such products remain on the market?
Why were beauty salons and plastic surgery hospitals vigorously recommending them?
Beyond allergies, did Silan’s products have other, even more serious safety issues?
How did Silan intend to respond to consumers’ rights-protection efforts?
Deleting posts, avoiding communication with victims, creating distractions to shift public attention: none of these responses showed brand responsibility and all violated the Consumer Rights Protection Law.
“When problems arise, instead of examining one’s own faults, casually latching onto a celebrity for hype: the problem will not be solved.”
The news report on the “Silan rights-protection incident” ended with an image of a red, swollen, peeling face and that one sentence.
The programme team also emphasised that they would continue to follow the story and provide further reports.
The episode produced an enormous impact as soon as it aired.
In 2008, the public still relied mainly on television news for information.
People might doubt the truth of online news, but news on television was surely true.
If television news reported that Silan’s products caused facial damage, how could it be false?
That evening, Zhao Dong and Zhuo Chen were busily fabricating evidence against Wen Ying. Both were very pleased with the “little essay” they had put together.
Then the Hunan Provincial TV programme aired.
Had Zhao Dong and Zhuo Chen not been young and free of conditions like high blood pressure, at least one of them might have fainted on the spot.
“I bought advertising on Hunan Provincial TV…”
Veins bulged on Zhao Dong’s forehead. “They cannot treat a client like this!”
Money spent made one God.
As God, surely one deserved some privileges?
Did Hunan Provincial TV no longer want to do business?
This twenty-minute report could not have been produced in a day or two. Throughout the entire production period, Hunan Provincial TV had not breathed a word to Zhao Dong.
Even if the station insisted on broadcasting the programme, a vague hint beforehand would have spared Silan such passivity.
Now, of all times, Zhao Dong remembered that as a paying client he should receive preferential treatment.
Yet Zhao Dong never considered that the consumers who had bought Silan products also deserved protection of their rights.
