Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 306 Makes sense, right?

The next day was April Fool's Day.

Wang Fei arrived at the hotel early in the morning to help with the arrangements. It's fortunate that she was there in Hong Kong Island; otherwise, let alone a press conference, they wouldn't have been able to even find someone to set up a stage and move the table to the street corner.

After all, Zhang Yan had arranged with Leader Lin beforehand to have the inspection team pretend not to know about the press conference—since no one in the entire hotel spoke Mandarin, it was normal for the inspection team to be out of touch with the news, wasn't it?

Compared to Wang Fei's eagerness, Gong Li seemed somewhat uneasy. She was both curious about what Zhang Yan would say and worried that Zhang Yan might say something that would anger the people of Hong Kong.

After all, Zhang Yan could just walk away afterward, while she still had to continue making a living in Hong Kong.

The most composed person was none other than Chen Hong. She even seemed more confident than Zhang Yan. After all, she had known him for so many years and had never seen her man suffer any loss.

The press conference is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m.

At 8 o'clock, Wang Fei's assistant, who had been waiting outside, rushed over excitedly to say that not only had many media people come to the street corner, but also a lot of people had spontaneously gathered, and they had almost blocked the road.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yan pressed further, "Were there any police officers involved in maintaining order?"

"A group of traffic police did come, but none of them came near the tables and chairs we had set up."

"Traffic police?"

It seems the Westerners are happy to see someone stirring things up at the press conference.

With his assistant gathering more information and reporting back, Zhang Yan, leaning on a large umbrella, began to ponder how to make a strong first impression when he made his entrance, ideally in a reasonable and legal way to deter those who might try to cause trouble.

Seeing this, Gong Li whispered a reminder: "I advise you to take it easy, in case you incite public anger and get attacked..."

She was stopped by Chen Hong halfway through her sentence.

Chen Hong asked with a smile, "Darling, when you go on stage to give your speech, would it be more appropriate for us to stand next to you, or stay a little further away?"

"Let's go a little further, but not too far."

Zhang Yan patted the umbrella in his hand and said, "I heard that throwing dirty things is quite popular in Hong Kong. Be careful not to get caught in the crossfire."

Gong Li couldn't help but shake her head upon hearing this. It seemed that Zhang Yan was determined to say something that would stir up emotions in Hong Kong.

Instead of offering advice, Chen Hong seemed to be adding fuel to the fire.

As for Wang Fei...

That's simply a case of wanting nothing more than to stir up trouble.

Just then, the assistant, who had just left, rushed in in a panic, shouting, "Something terrible has happened! Someone has splashed red paint on the table we set up!"

"what?!"

"really?!"

The first was Gong Li's somewhat panicked voice, while the second was Zhang Yan's somewhat surprised voice.

surprise?

Gong Li looked at Zhang Yan in astonishment, wondering what made him so happy.

"Hahaha~"

But then Zhang Yan laughed heartily, stood up, picked up his umbrella, and strode downstairs.

The three women followed behind her and discovered that after Zhang Yan went downstairs, she did not go out directly, but instead ran straight to the hotel's kitchen.

Just as the three women were about to follow them inside, Zhang Yan came out, carrying a Western-style kitchen knife.

Gong Li was startled and quickly stepped in front of them, saying, "Don't be impulsive! The person who threw the paint has probably already run away, and you won't be able to catch them!"

"Why would I arrest him? I'd be grateful to him."

Zhang Yan twirled his sword and laughed, "I'm very calm right now, and I'm not impulsive at all—get out of the way, I'm in a hurry. You'll know what's going on when we get there."

His current state certainly doesn't seem like he's been traumatized, but the fact that he rushed over with a knife as soon as he heard someone had splashed paint doesn't seem like he was calm at all.

Gong Li was hesitating whether to believe him or not when Chen Hong and Wang Fei pulled her aside.

Then Zhang Yan, holding a knife in one hand and an umbrella in the other, strolled out of the hotel.

Helpless, Gong Li could only follow Chen Hong and Wang Fei out.

As soon as Zhang Yan stepped out of the hotel, he was spotted by paparazzi and protesters waiting at the door, and several screams and the sound of camera shutters rang out at the same time.

Zhang Yanchong and his men smiled slightly and walked unhurriedly toward the intersection. Wherever they passed, it was as if Moses parted the Sea, and everyone, regardless of age or gender, fled in panic.

until……

"Stop, don't move!"

"What do you want to do?!" Cantonese and Mandarin rang out simultaneously, and then more than a dozen men in suits jumped out from the roadside. The first few cautiously lifted their shirts, revealing .38 sniper rifles on their belts.

The leader flashed his badge and said in fluent Mandarin, "Police, we suspect you of attempting to commit assault. Please put down your weapon and take over our questioning and investigation!"

I knew there couldn't possibly be no police around here.

"Hurt someone?"

Zhang Yan looked at the knife in his hand, then pointed to the table in front of him with his umbrella and said, "Someone sprayed paint on my table, so it's reasonable for me to bring a knife to scrape it off, right?"

"Uh~"

The lead officer paused for a moment, but quickly straightened his face and said, "If it really was just to scratch paint, there was no need to parade around with a knife like this!"

Zhang Yan looked at the knife in his hand again and suddenly realized, "Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot that there are more triads in Hong Kong, and they are more sensitive to this kind of thing."

As he spoke, he turned the knife upside down and threw it into the umbrella, then shrugged at the officer while holding the umbrella and said, "Is that alright now?"

"This……"

"If you're worried, you can stay by my side and be ready to help at any time."

As Zhang Yan spoke, he continued walking forward on his own.

"Inspector Wong?"

The police officers at the front all looked at the leader, and after a moment of hesitation, Inspector Wong waved his hand to signal them to let them pass.

Seeing Zhang Yan walk through the police without hesitation, Inspector Huang gritted his teeth and beckoned to his men, "Let's go, follow him!"

"But didn't the higher-ups say we shouldn't get involved..."

"If he really uses a knife and causes a death, can you take responsibility?!"

Inspector Wong glared at his subordinate with a displeased expression. If he could, he wouldn't want to appear in front of the media with Zhang Yan.

The problem is that he had already shown his identification, and if he just sat by and watched Zhang Yan commit some kind of murder, he wouldn't be able to withstand the public outcry alone.

So a dozen or so policemen had no choice but to reluctantly follow Zhang Yan around, as if they were escorting him.

Upon seeing this scene, the colonists who had initially wanted to make their presence known by standing on the roadside all fell silent.

And so, Zhang Yan arrived at the open-air press conference without incident. Standing on the platform, which was only a little over a foot high, he looked at the table splattered with red paint and shook his head slightly with regret, saying, "It's a pity it's not blood."

What the hell? !
The officer behind him, Wong Sir, twitched his face and even began to wonder if this 'mainland boy' was crazy.

At this moment, Zhang Yan turned around and asked, "Now I can scrape the paint with a knife, right? That should be fine, right?"

"Sure, but you'd better be careful."

As he spoke, Inspector Wong signaled to his men to be on high alert to prevent Zhang Yan from suddenly going berserk and harming civilians.

When Zhang Yan took out a knife from his umbrella, as expected, there was a brief commotion. The reporters present took out their cameras to take pictures and loudly asked Zhang Yan what he was trying to do.

But they were all shouting in Cantonese, and Zhang Yanquan pretended not to hear them, and started to carefully scrape the paint.

After a period of chaos, someone finally asked in Mandarin, "Mr. Zhang, what exactly are you doing?!"

Zhang Yan stopped what he was doing, looked up at the man, and said, "What else could it be but scratching paint? Otherwise, would I kill someone with a knife?"

As he spoke, he lowered his head again and continued scraping the paint.

When everyone saw that he had answered the question, they excitedly asked him a barrage of questions. Soon they realized that Zhang Yan could only answer questions in Mandarin, and his answers were all rather casual.

Seeing that they couldn't get anything useful out of him, some of the bolder ones went closer to the table and peered over to see what Zhang Yan was up to.

Zhang Yan was carefully using a knife to scrape away the red paint and the white paint underneath, revealing the yellow wood inside.

As he made his cuts, several palm-sized patterns quickly appeared on the table.

"This is……"

The reporter's eyes widened, as if he wanted to shout, but Zhang Yan quickly made a shushing gesture, sped up the final few cuts, and then signaled for the reporter to leave the podium.

After the daring reporter took two steps back, Zhang Yan grabbed the bottom of the table with both hands, then suddenly flipped it over, revealing the bright red tabletop and five bright orange stars to the audience.

When the five-star red flag suddenly appeared on the stage, the surrounding spectators immediately erupted in uproar.

哚~
At this moment, Zhang Yan inserted the kitchen knife into the gap on the side of the table, which immediately quieted down the noise.

Then he straightened up, looked around, and smiled, saying, "Alright, the press conference can begin."

(End of this chapter)