Chapter 2097: Su Xinghui Accepts Interviews

On this day, Su Xinghui accepted interviews from several media outlets in his office, including those from Jingcheng, Hujiang, Jiangcheng, and Yangcheng.

The reporters from these media outlets were very interested in such a young county magistrate as Su Xinghui; such a young magistrate was highly topical, and setting other things aside, it was of no small help to the sales of their newspapers and periodicals.

In particular, some of the actions taken by this magistrate since he entered politics a few years ago were extremely controversial, especially this time when Chen Changqiao and others raised banners at the gate of the Jiangyou Provincial Government, with the banners reading that Su Xinghui solicited bribes; this matter was even more topical.

Generally speaking, cadres like this rarely accept media interviews publicly, and even if some leading cadres do accept media interviews, it is by their own arrangement for the purpose of publicity; it was even more difficult for Su Xinghui to be able to publicly accept media interviews after negative news about him had emerged.

The reporters from these media outlets asked Su Xinghui many questions, some about Su Xinghui's work, some about Su Xinghui's life, and of course, some questions were very sharp, relating to the recent negative rumors and the matter of him being investigated by the Provincial Party Committee.

Su Xinghui answered the reporters' questions one by one; no matter what sharp questions these reporters asked, he would answer them head-on and never evade them. His speech and demeanor impressed these reporters, and the reporters also had a very good impression of him.

Originally, some of these reporters had been invited to Jiangyou Province by Chen Changqiao and the others, but later, Yu Ruizhi and the others used their own connections to have these media outlets report positively on Su Xinghui. They had originally thought that Su Xinghui was a person who relied on connections and was not a good cadre, but after interviewing him in person, they felt that Su Xinghui's explanation was more credible than Chen Changqiao's.

Since Su Xinghui dared to answer their questions head-on and dared to let them conduct interviews at will throughout Chongjin County, this proved that Su Xinghui had nothing to hide.

There were also some reporters invited by He Jianpeng and Lu Xiaoya, and they, of course, were even more inclined to speak well of Su Xinghui.

Of course, on this day, Su Xinghui also met Jiang Chaoyang, who had naturally come at the invitation of Lu Xiaoya; he had received a call from Lu Xiaoya yesterday and had rushed over from Jiangcheng today.

As soon as he saw Su Xinghui, Jiang Chaoyang smiled and said, "My great Magistrate Su, it seems you've been backstabbed by others again this time!"

Su Xinghui smiled and said, "Senior Brother Jiang, are you here to make fun of me this time?"

Jiang Chaoyang said, "What kind of talk is that? You're almost like a younger brother to me; would I make fun of you? Today I'll do an exclusive interview with you to properly clear the grievances you've been suffering."

Su Xinghui said, "Senior Brother Jiang, do you really believe that I've been wronged?"

Jiang Chaoyang said, "I understand your character; you couldn't possibly do that kind of thing. Besides, you're a wealthy man now; would you solicit a bribe for 100,000 yuan? I wouldn't believe that even if I were beaten to death. The person who fabricated this lie doesn't understand you at all, and they're also too stupid."

Su Xinghui nodded and said, "Fine, today I'll accept your exclusive interview, and tonight you're coming to my house for a drink."

Jiang Chaoyang smiled and said, "Fine, we didn't get to have a proper drink during the New Year, so tonight we must have a good one."

Jiang Chaoyang then conducted an exclusive interview with him in Su Xinghui's office, and he prepared to write a proper feature report for him, to be published on a full page in the Jiangcheng Metropolitan Daily.

On this day, there also came a guest Su Xinghui had not expected, and this guest was Hou Wenchang.

Hou Wenchang's Hanhai Net was now one of the portals with the highest click-through rates in China, and their other businesses were also doing quite well; the application software they developed was now very popular in the market, with a large cumulative number of users, and it had become one of the most well-known companies in China's IT industry.

Precisely because of this, Hou Wenchang was very busy every day, busy to the point of being overwhelmed. He would occasionally call Su Xinghui to exchange ideas with him, but this was his first time coming to Chongjin County.

Su Xinghui was very surprised to see Hou Wenchang, and he said, "Wenchang, you busy man, how do you have time to come here to see me today?"

Hou Wenchang said, "Magistrate Su, something happened here, so I had to come no matter how busy I was."

Su Xinghui said, "How did you know something happened here?"

Hou Wenchang said, "It's already been making a huge stir on the internet; you didn't know yet?"

Su Xinghui was stunned for a moment; he really didn't know about this. He was also busy to the point of being overwhelmed every day, and he rarely went online now.

When it came down to it, the computer speed was too slow, and the internet speed was also too slow, simply at a snail's pace, which made Su Xinghui, who was accustomed to the computer and internet speeds of over a decade later, very unaccustomed to using it. Moreover, the web interfaces and internet habits of today were vastly different from those over a decade later, and he was also very unaccustomed to them, so he simply rarely went online.

These days he had encountered this kind of situation, which made him even less in the mood to go online, so he didn't know what had been said on the internet these past few days, because few of his friends went online either.

Su Xinghui said, "Are there reports on the internet too?"

Hou Wenchang said, "Several portals are making a huge stir about it. I don't know how many internet trolls are posting about this matter; they've simply portrayed you as a heinous corrupt official, and you actually didn't know?"

Su Xinghui shook his head and said, "Sigh, when would I have time to go online? I estimate that few people in our county even know how to go online, so isn't it normal that I didn't know?"

In this era, not many people in the interior were very knowledgeable about the internet, so not many people paid attention to it, but in fact, the netizens of this era were growing vigorously, the number of netizens was increasing day by day, and quite a few trolls and internet trolls had appeared on the internet.

Hou Wenchang said, "Then open the computer and take a look now."

There was a computer on Su Xinghui's desk, but there was no broadband yet, and it required dial-up access, so he usually only used it to process some documents and materials; the cost of dial-up access was too high, as it was calculated by the minute.

Su Xinghui then turned on the computer, dialed in, and opened the web pages of several portals. Under Hou Wenchang's guidance, he entered several forums and indeed saw many posts. In these posts, Su Xinghui was portrayed as a heinous corrupt official, and below them, quite a few netizens who didn't know the truth were following the trend and bashing Su Xinghui. Inside, there were also some people who were clearly internet trolls leading the rhythm, and the posts were extremely heated.

Of course, there were also some netizens who spoke up for Su Xinghui, but they were isolated and helpless; as soon as their follow-up posts were issued, they were drowned out by overwhelming abuse.

In this era, there were no control measures on the internet, and some websites, in order to attract click-through rates, did not take any measures against those netizens who used abusive language. They cursed in filthy ways, and no one cared, making Su Xinghui shake his head repeatedly.

Hou Wenchang said, "Can't bear to look anymore, right?"