Nike's Counterattack, Shameless Business War!

The brief yet powerful speech once again ignited the entire venue's passion.

The applause went on and on.

Yet at the very height of this capital feast, a long-brewing crisis was quietly closing in.

That evening, at an IPO celebration reception held in a luxurious top-floor hotel in Manhattan, the room glittered with elegant guests and clinking glasses. As the undisputed star of the night, Li Fei chatted and laughed with business titans and social elites from every field.

David Falk, meanwhile, fluttered tirelessly through the crowd like a butterfly, savoring the pinnacle of his career. Suddenly, his personal assistant hurried over, pushing through the guests with a grave expression and handing him a phone.

"David, something's happened."

Falk frowned and took the phone. On the screen was an emergency news alert CNN had just released.

The headline was shocking—<The Shadow Beneath the Champion's Halo: Li-Fly Brand Accused of Serious Labor Rights Violations at Southeast Asian Contract Factory!>

The report was highly inflammatory. Accompanied by several deliberately dark and blurry photographs that nevertheless clearly showed overcrowded worker dormitories and primitive working conditions, it claimed that a Li-Fly contract factory in a Southeast Asian country was a "sweatshop," guilty of forced overtime, wage withholding, harsh working conditions, and a series of other violations.

Falk's heart sank.

He immediately realized this was no accident. Releasing such news on the day of the IPO, at its most glorious moment, had only one purpose—an attack.

Almost simultaneously, news channels on major television networks such as ABC and Fox News began breaking into their programming with the story. On television, so-called "human rights activists" passionately denounced the company before the cameras, while several "factory workers" with blurred faces tearfully recounted their "miserable experiences" in the local language.

"They treat us like machines! We work more