A Storm of Public Opinion

Ye Qingpu sensed that something was terribly wrong.

He had truly begun to grow attached to Pei Jiaqian's gentleness.

That made him somewhat uneasy.

He was not sure whether he could pick it up and let it go again.

He wanted to be a little selfish.

After breakfast, Pei Jiaqian drove him to the company.

Only after being pulled into some lovey-dovey affection in the car was Ye Qingpu reluctantly let go.

He took the elevator upstairs. He was walking too quickly to notice the employees whispering among themselves.

It was not until he sat at his desk that he belatedly buried his face in it, his cheeks flushing. "Bad thing..." Ye Qingpu muttered softly.

"Boss... something happened!"

His assistant suddenly knocked and entered the office, placing the iPad in his hands before Ye Qingpu.

Ye Qingpu put on his glasses, and his expression changed the instant he saw the video's contents.

The news headline prominently featured the scene of him and Pei Jiaqian in the underground parking garage the previous night.

The filming angle was rather malicious. After several rounds of editing, the part involving the ring made it look as though he had grabbed Pei Jiaqian's hand, sniffed it, and kissed it.

"Can you find out who released the video?"

An awkward look surfaced on Ye Qingpu's face. This secretly filmed video had successfully portrayed him as someone with somewhat perverse behavior. It seemed the other party was coming for him.

"They concealed themselves very well. The video has been reposted many times, and with the public opinion manipulation, we can no longer trace its original source."

His assistant looked troubled.

"Then throw money at it and bury it."

Ye Qingpu rubbed between his brows.

"The other party clearly planned this in advance. Combined with how provocative the headline is, it will probably be difficult to take it down."

Leaning back in his chair, Ye Qingpu fell into thought.

Of course. The headline was certainly eye-catching—

#Harbor City's Richest Man Ye Qingpu Caught Harassing Deputy Mayor's Son-in-Law

Three selling points: richest man, deputy mayor, and harassment.

The headline named him outright. Its target was unmistakable.

Ye Qingpu knew he had landed himself in no small amount of trouble. After forcing himself to calm down, he mixed two packets of medicine into his thermos.

He already had too many troubles; one or two more made no difference. He would take some medicine first to settle his nerves.

"Boss, should we hold a press conference?"

His assistant asked, concern visible on his face. After all, this involved people of power and influence.

"Rushing to clarify things now would only make it look confirmed." Holding his thermos, Ye Qingpu stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows on the eighty-eighth floor.

After a long silence, he turned around.

"Throw money at it. Make the trending topics #YeQingpuSuspectedOfTaxEvasion, #YeQingpuSuspectedOfIllegalMarketing, and #YeQingpuConfirmedToHaveImproperConductAsABeta. Hire paid commenters and operators, and push those topics up for me."

"Boss, this... You only just cleared yourself of the suspicions from the last time you were framed... Aren't you drawing public attention to yourself again...?" His assistant looked conflicted.

"Precisely because of the last wave of attention, the public will understand that this is a targeted incident. Trending topics about me repeatedly reaching the hot searches will, on the one hand, divert the public's attention from the incident to me personally. On the other, it will encourage the media to dredge up old cases, follow my trail, dig out more people connected to me, and drag as many people into this as possible. That way, the public's attention will be scattered."

Ye Qingpu's tone was calm.

Right now, the enemy was hidden while he was exposed. All he could do was trip up a few people and drag more of them into the mess. Then, once he threw out several topics containing half-truths and half-lies, the public would naturally suffer information fatigue after consuming too much gossip and would have no energy left to care what was true or false. Once the public opinion storm passed, he could spend money to push a few topics clearing his name.

When all was said and done, it was just money. The one thing Ye Qingpu lacked least was money.

As for the deputy mayor, it did not matter whether he offended him or not. Ye Qingpu had to gather as much attention onto himself as possible...

Seeing the faint smile at the corner of his boss's mouth, the assistant could not help feeling a chill run down his back. When all was said and done, his boss was a businessman who had spent many years fighting his way through the business world. Though his sharp edge had dulled considerably lately, he had still climbed up step by step from the bottom.

As the representatives of self-interest, businessmen were highly dependent on society. A qualified businessman used tangible or intangible personal or social resources to gain profits and achieve his own objectives.

Ye Qingpu understood the public's criticisms, and he made excellent use of that fact to excuse himself.

The moment those topics were forced onto the hot searches, the name Ye Qingpu was pushed into the eye of the storm.

Over the next two days, he was swamped. On one hand, he had to avoid appearing before the media; on the other, he had to steady the stubborn old men on the board. He also had to make a point of telling Pei Jiaqian not to show his face before the media.

Still, he was not overly worried about Pei Jiaqian. He was clever, and with the identities of CR Group's young heir and the deputy mayor's son-in-law, the media would not dare attack him lightly. Ye Qingpu was grateful that Pei Jiaqian was being portrayed as the victim in this public opinion storm. Otherwise, with how much he loved acting spoiled, he might end up whining miserably from feeling wronged.

With heavy dark circles under his eyes, Ye Qingpu sprawled against his office chair and played an offline game with one finger.

"Boss."

His assistant rushed in carrying documents.

"Speak."

Ye Qingpu could not be bothered to look up. His rimless glasses sat crookedly on the bridge of his nose.

"The situation has been fermenting for three days. That video's popularity remains high, and an anonymous ID has released surveillance footage from two months ago showing the mayor's secretary taking Young Master Pei away from your home."

Hearing this, Ye Qingpu froze slightly. Two months ago? The time he had conducted that experiment and tormented Pei Jiaqian until he was covered in bruises, while Pei Jiaqian himself had somehow found it enjoyable?

"And then?"

"We traced the ID and found that... the footage was originally released online from inside CR Group."

As he spoke, the assistant silently swallowed. Anyone with eyes could see that his boss had drawn the storm toward himself, openly and secretly protecting Young Master Pei, only for that company to stab them in the back.

Ye Qingpu sighed. It was an expected move, but the other party adding fuel to the fire put him in a difficult position.

"Boss, are you going to come forward and clarify? Our company's stock price has fallen two percentage points. The board is getting restless and keeps demanding to see you."

"Tch." Ye Qingpu sneered. Looking at his lost offline game, he paid to revive and said leisurely, "What, we only lost two billion in three days? When I pushed the PEG valuation of the subsidiary branches to nearly a hundred billion in four quarters, why didn't those old bastards bark then? Send them a message. I, Ye Qingpu, don't keep useless loafers who only know how to bark. Whoever wants to be the first bird can get the hell out. I don't give a fuck whether they're on the board or just nobodies."

"And those people clamoring to withdraw their investments, tell them to get as far away as they can. Put the ones yelling the loudest on the blacklist and never work with them again. The liquid funds in my hands are worth more than their companies' market value. They drank a little dog piss and got all high and mighty. I'll make them understand that half of Harbor City fucking bears the Ye name."

His tone was neither hurried nor harsh. Though his words were full of profanity, he sounded utterly composed.

The assistant nodded awkwardly, holding his tablet as though he wanted to speak but hesitated.

"What else?"

Ye Qingpu glanced at him.

"Um... CR Group's latest announcement says that Young Master Pei will marry the deputy mayor's son in the near future..."

Ye Qingpu's hand trembled, and he pressed the jump button. The game failed once more.

No emotion showed on his face. He merely responded softly, but his trembling hand could no longer clear that offline game no matter what he did.