Chapter 218: Reversing Public Opinion

Chen Jiajun summoned the Yicheng Seven Freaks, Ceng Ziwei, Xu Ke, Huang Baiming, and others back, and also had Jing Kun return immediately.

Chen Jiajun took his seat at the head of the table, looked around, and said, "The filming progress of 【Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing】 cannot stop. Tell me, what are your thoughts?"

"Ada, why don't we find a few brothers and set fire to those few newspapers and magazines that are reporting nonsense. Especially that Feilao Li, f*** his mother! A traitor!"

As he spoke, Jing Kun was burning with rage, his face flushed red; if a woman were present, he would likely have needed to vent his frustration on the spot.

"Hey! Our status is different now, don't be so impulsive."

Chen Jiajun smiled and tossed a cigar over to him.

"Mr. Chen, why don't we have the film crew go to Taiwan first to complete the filming? Once we finish the plot over there in Taiwan, things here in Hong Kong will basically have calmed down."

Director Yu provided a feasible plan.

"That works." Chen Jiajun thought the same, and he nodded in satisfaction.

Huang Baiming, as the screenwriter for 【Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing】, spoke up: "Sir Chen, this is what I think. This scandal is both a crisis and an opportunity for our film. As long as we operate it cleverly, we might be able to elevate Zhao Yazhi's image even further."

In fact, as early as the day before yesterday, when Chen Jiajun had Old Yu inform Huang Hanwei about this matter, Chen Jiajun had already considered the relevant issues and had perfect measures in place.

"Hmm, go on."

Huang Baiming said: "I have looked at Zhao Yazhi's work schedule for the past year or two; she has been very diligent. Let alone having an affair, she hasn't even had time for normal social interactions.

I believe Zhao Yazhi is innocent. Besides, everyone knows what kind of person Sir Chen is; what Sir Chen said back then was nothing more than a joke."

Ceng Ziwei also nodded: "It's just that people outside took it seriously. Brother Jun's character and integrity are absolutely beyond reproach!"

Huang Baiming continued: "Right, we can completely contact a newspaper to conduct an exclusive interview with Zhao Yazhi, and by the way, we can also turn the tables on them.

In addition, we must resort to the law and sue those newspapers and magazines in court.

Sir Chen, you are a philanthropist stamped by the England royal family. That Banana Daily actually said you came from a background as a gangster; it is complete nonsense."

"Right, people outside all know that our Sir Chen is a philanthropist. If we sue, we'll sue them until they lose their pants!" Ceng Ziwei also said with a straight face.

"Fine, Huang Baiming, you come out with me in a moment."

Huang Baiming's strategy happened to be exactly what Chen Jiajun was thinking, and Chen Jiajun nodded in approval.

Half an hour later.

A Mercedes-Benz Pullman extended bulletproof car pulled up at the Huang Dawen Law Firm in Central.

"Yongyu, notify the Zhongba Group and the Sunshine Bus Group that starting today, all our bus stops are to remove 【Banana Daily】."

Chen Jiajun leaned back in his boss chair. Although he didn't have any magazines or newspapers on hand now, don't forget that he controlled the largest newspaper and magazine platform in all of Hong Kong.

With one word, one thousand stops would have to remove 【Banana Daily】.

"What reason should we give for refusing 【Banana Daily】?" Lu Yongyu asked.

"No reason. My name, Sir Chen, is the reason."

"Sir Chen." Just after hanging up the phone, Huang Dawen stepped into the Mercedes-Benz, sat opposite Chen Jiajun, and opened the relevant folder:

"Regarding the defamation case against Zhao Yazhi and you, Sir Chen, according to what our law firm has collected, there are a full thirty newspapers and magazines that will become the targets of our lawsuit, among which the most serious is Banana Daily."

"For the minor offenses, we only need the other party to apologize on the front page. We must sue Banana Daily until it goes bankrupt. Kill the chicken to scare the monkey."

Huang Dawen rubbed his hands excitedly. Ever since he started following Chen Jiajun, he hadn't handled a lawsuit in a long time, and his hands were a bit itchy.

"How can 'killing the chicken to scare the monkey' be enough? I have to sue every single newspaper!"

Chen Jiajun shook his head, a murderous look appearing on his face.

Before they knew it, the motorcade had arrived at Luyu Tea House.

Inside the largest luxury private room at Luyu Tea House, the Zha FIT Ren of 【Oriental Daily News】, Oriental Ma, had already been waiting there.

"This is the screenwriter of my company, Huang Baiming, and this is Lawyer Huang Dawen. The person sitting in front of you is the editor-in-chief of 【Oriental Daily News】."

Chen Jiajun took the menu and sat down.

"Hello, Editor-in-Chief Ma."

"Hello, Mr. Ma."

Huang Baiming hurriedly greeted him with trepidation, while Huang Dawen appeared composed.

"Hey, don't be so formal. I like dealing with you lawyers and intellectuals. Come, have a cigar, have a cigar!"

Ma Chengkun waved his hands repeatedly, appearing approachable.

Soon, the waiter brought over some desserts and tea.

Chen Jiajun picked up an egg tart and asked while eating: "You've heard about Zhao Yazhi's matter, right?"

"I've heard. A Jun, there are no outsiders here. Tell me the honest truth, has Zhao Yazhi been kept by you?"

Ma Chengkun leaned forward slightly and lowered his voice to ask.

"Kept your mother. Am I that kind of person? By the way, I brought you here today because I want your Oriental Daily News to do some reverse reporting."

"For the sake of you, Dalao Jun, this matter is on me." Ma Chengkun patted his chest.

Chen Jiajun said: "It's beneficial for Oriental Daily News. In two days, when this news is hyped up, all the media's reporting direction will be the same, and readers will have long since grown tired of it. If Oriental Daily News suddenly comes out to clarify the facts at this time and produces strong evidence proving their innocence, wouldn't that be more likely to attract the readers' attention?"

"A Jun, do you have the evidence in your hands?" Ma Chengkun asked eagerly.

Chen Jiajun looked at Huang Baiming. Huang Baiming took over the conversation and said: "Mr. Ma, the evidence is not with us. Even Zhao Yazhi herself would find it hard to prove her own innocence. But you can have your staff go and interview the various film crews Zhao Yazhi has worked with over the past few years. If you send people to ask around, you'll know how busy she has been these past few years."

"A Kun, what we mean is this..."

After Huang Baiming finished speaking, Chen Jiajun perfected the plan.

Having experienced the information explosion era of his past life, Chen Jiajun knew that the best way for a public figure to refute rumors is never to argue with the rumor-mongers, but to throw out another topic.

What Chen Jiajun wanted to do was very simple: use this matter to package Zhao Yazhi's image in an all-around way, and in coordination with the publicity from 【Oriental Daily News】, build Zhao Yazhi into a synonym for an elegant, virtuous, gentle, and independent woman.

In this way, the public would naturally selectively reject and forget her negative news.

After perfecting the plan, the group chatted for a few more minutes before dispersing to take action.

The next day.

Zhao Yazhi was brought to the Oriental Press Group building by Chen Jiajun, confused: "A Jun, why did you bring me here?"

"Snap."

Chen Jiajun snapped his fingers.

The black cloth was pulled away, and Zhang Shuping, the chief designer of Guojun Garment Factory, along with Deng Yongqiang, appeared before their eyes with their arms crossed.

On both sides was a row of high-end women's clothing, and next to it was a small alley filled with dazzling jewelry; the brilliant, eye-catching light made Zhao Yazhi lose herself for a moment—there is no woman who does not love these things.

"This is Justice of the Peace Deng Yongqiang. He is the General Manager of the Bar Group, though he is a hands-off manager. He has now established a traditional clothing brand named SHANGHAITANG, with a store opened in Central."

"This is Zhang Shuping, the chief designer of our Guojun Garment Factory."

Chen Jiajun smiled as he introduced Deng Yongqiang and Zhang Shuping.

"Mr. Deng, Mr. Zhang." Zhao Yazhi greeted the two of them.

"Feng Chengcheng, I know you."

Deng Yongqiang shook Zhao Yazhi's hand with extreme gentlemanliness and called out the name of Zhao Yazhi's character in *Shanghai Bund*.

While the few were chatting, Ma Chengkun brought two makeup artists and two hairstylists into the studio.

Having Deng Yongqiang and Zhang Shuping serve as stylists for Zhao Yazhi could not be more appropriate.

Of course, the main stylist was still Chen Jiajun; he possessed an advanced eye and would provide guidance to Deng Yongqiang and Zhang Shuping from time to time.

About an hour later, Zhao Yazhi's first look was finally finished. With the evening gown, necklace, ring, hairstyle, and makeup all paired together, Zhao Yazhi, who had originally been wearing jeans and radiating a youthful aura, immediately transformed into a mature, charming, gentle, and elegant noblewoman.

Zhang Shuping, Deng Yongqiang, and the makeup artists were stunned by Zhao Yazhi's new look and were full of admiration for Chen Jiajun's styling design ability.

Actually, how could Chen Jiajun design any looks?

It was just that he had frequented bars too much in his past life, so his taste had naturally become refined.

After finishing his guest stint as a stylist, Chen Jiajun took on the role of photographer, directing the lighting technicians to set up the background boards and adjust the lights.

Although Chen Jiajun had not played with photography in any serious way, that did not mean he did not know how. With his keen judgment of light and shadow, combined with some celebrity photos from his past life, he was definitely doing better than many professional flat-lay photographers of the present.

After a set of evening gown photos was finished, Chen Jiajun had the hairstylist redo the hair and changed her into an outfit for a modern professional woman.

After shooting for a whole day, the group had taken four sets of photos for Zhao Yazhi: evening wear, loungewear, professional wear, and cheongsam.

After they were developed, Chen Jiajun took the photos to Ma Chengkun's office, threw them onto his desk, and smiled: "Take a look, how are they?"

Ma Chengkun could not take his eyes off them after just one glance; these ahead-of-their-time photos were truly stunning. Ma Chengkun had seen many beauties, but these photos of Zhao Yazhi gave him the feeling of seeing a fairy.

"A Jun, as a brother, let me ask you: can I pursue Miss Zhao Yazhi? I am also a single man, and I don't care that she has had a few kids!"

Ma Chengkun swallowed hard, but upon seeing the knife-sharp gaze Chen Jiajun sent his way, Ma Chengkun immediately said: "Cough, cough, damn! You should have said so earlier! No wonder I saw you were so invested."

Chen Jiajun nodded with satisfaction and asked: "Is the magazine side ready?"

Ma Chengkun put away the photos and said: "It's been ready for a long time, just waiting for your photos."

Early in the morning.

Huang Baiming was pulled out of bed by his wife.

After washing up, Huang Baiming sat at the dining table eating morning tea and flipping through the newspaper.

When Huang Baiming turned to the middle, he abruptly stopped his movements.

【Female star marries into a wealthy family, does she really fly up to the branch to become a Phoenix?】

Nowadays, Hong Kong newspapers did not yet have a dedicated entertainment section; the entertainment section belonged to one of the pages of the supplement. Besides this, the supplement also included the *Horse Racing Classic*, essays, sports, gossip, and so on.

The *Oriental Daily News* finally began to take action; the Oriental Press Group moved this report to the first page of the supplement, a page with a very high level of attention.

However, this report did not directly defend Zhao Yazhi, but instead narrated the grievances Zhao Yazhi had suffered after marriage, and finally cited the unhappy marriages of other stars who had married into wealthy families.

Then it began to discuss whether it is a good thing or a bad thing for a female star to marry into a wealthy family, and what details a female star from a commoner background should pay attention to after marrying into a wealthy family...

The report was jointly planned and executed by Huang Baiming and others from Hongxing Film, along with the editors of the Oriental Press Group. The most brilliant part was that the angle of this report was different from the reports of all other media.

Although the *Oriental Daily News* did not clarify for Zhao Yazhi, the effect received was more effective than directly refuting the rumors.

After staging the bitter drama of a female star marrying into a wealthy family, the *Oriental Daily News* struck again the next day. A combination of punches was thrown, embellishing the entire scandal from beginning to end, and citing a large amount of evidence to pour the entire cause of the matter onto the heads of Huang Yuanshen and Huang Hanwei.

Because the first day's report had already attracted many readers, even more people paid attention to the second day's report, and the truth of the scandal spread rapidly throughout Hong Kong.

In just two days, the *Oriental Daily News* used two reports to reverse Zhao Yazhi's unfavorable image, while Huang Yuanshen was thoroughly blackened, and along with him, Huang Hanwei became a bad man who bullied his wife.

Of course, there were still people who held a skeptical attitude toward these two reports; after all, the *Oriental Daily News* was known among the people as a "tabloid," and its reputation had always been poor. If these two reports had been articles from *Ming Pao*, they would definitely have been more convincing.

However, in the following few days, all the parties involved did not respond to this report, and even Huang Yuanshen stayed at home and did not go out, seemingly tacitly acknowledging some of the details reported by the *Oriental Daily News*.

Huang Yuanshen's lack of response finally made readers believe the report from the *Oriental Daily News*.

Of course, Huang Yuanshen could not respond to anything, because the facts were just like that; the report in the *Oriental Daily News* was already eight or nine parts accurate.

And Zhao Yazhi's Huang Hanwei, after seeing the lengthy reports, was regretting it so much that his guts were turning green at this very moment.

This man is just cheap; before Zhao Yazhi had conflicts with him, he was afraid every day that Zhao Yazhi would go out and show her face.

After calming down for a few days and seeing the related reports, Huang Hanwei wanted to win Zhao Yazhi back again; after all, who wouldn't feel honored to have such a wife?

Next came the *Oriental Daily News*'s barrage, one manifesto every day, going one by one to denounce those media outlets that had once severely criticized Zhao Yazhi.

Regarding the critical articles of the *Oriental Daily News*, people in the industry could only respond with a bitter smile...

You damn *Oriental Daily News*, you actually still have the qualifications to criticize others.

But one had to admit that the *Oriental Daily News*'s continuous week of reporting attracted the eyes of countless readers, and its sales surged from 150,000 to a staggering 170,000 copies, almost reaching the former sales record for Hong Kong newspapers—180,000 copies.

And with such a series of reports coming out, the focus of the Hong Kong public had been completely diverted, from the criticism of the scandal to the discussion of female stars marrying into wealthy families, to the criticism of the two bad men Huang Yuanshen and Huang Hanwei, and finally, it simply became the *Oriental Daily News* fighting alone against the crowd, playing a war of words with more than a dozen other publications.

For a time, the Hong Kong media circle was extremely lively. While the Hong Kong media circle was embroiled in a war of words, a magazine named *Fashion Oriental* quietly made its debut.

(End of this chapter)