Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 62 Let's Make Some News
Chongqing Daily.

It's supposed to be a Party newspaper, but no, it's too serious, I can't handle it.

Morning Post, Evening Post, Times, Business Daily…

...

When Chen Xuebing returned to the village from the town, he brought with him seven or eight local newspapers.

Actually, when he came in a hurry yesterday and told Ren Kaiping that it would be best to resolve the issue before the end of the year, it was half true and half false.

It really needs to be resolved before the end of the year.

But it wasn't to give the town government room to maneuver and claim funds; he wasn't that naive. He never thought the money could be obtained through normal channels.

During this period before the Lunar New Year, governments at all levels have been working to maintain stability.

We are currently in a period of heightened social contradictions. From this time onwards, every year around the Lunar New Year, officials at all levels are on edge, and no one wants any major news to happen under their jurisdiction.

Development is considered a political achievement, and so is stability.

This topic is not suitable for deep thinking. In short, excessive efforts to maintain stability are also a manifestation of some people's excessive insecurity.

The town received payment for road repairs, but the road wasn't repaired; this might be something to be ashamed of.

If you want what others don't want, you must make good use of this time.

These days there's no such thing as independent media; his only helper is probably the newspapers.

He had already planned it out before he came: his budget was between 15,000 and 20,000 yuan, which he would either give to the town or spend on newspapers.

However, Chongqing is a municipality directly under the central government, which is too high a level for major newspapers with high visibility to report on such "trivial matters".

The only way to lure people over is to find a pretext that suits their tastes.

A newspaper needs to be influential, have an impressive name, but not be too formal.

He looked through each version, searching for a suitable subject matter.

He turned to the Times, and a headline caught his eye.

The Chongqing Zombie Boy Incident.

The title is alarming.

An eight-year-old boy suddenly fainted during class. When he woke up, he was jumping and walking around like a zombie, saying that he was Zuo Zongtang and wanted to drink blood.

As a result, an anti-fraud organization went there, and the truth was quickly exposed: the boy was a left-behind child whose grandfather had passed away. When his parents returned home, they found that his grades were not good and they started to manipulate him, so he pretended to be a zombie to gain their affection.

Tsk tsk.

This kind of thing actually got a special section dedicated to social issues.

It's a newspaper of a high enough caliber, published by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

It’s you.

Screenwriter Chen was determined to create an even more bizarre story than this.

"Dog bites man is not news, man bites dog is news."

Using this as a methodology, Chen Xuebing immediately thought of "Approaching Science".

After thinking for a while, Chen Xuebing left the room and went downstairs. He saw Wu Jiuhong washing vegetables and Chen Qiming, a mischievous six-year-old boy playing with a group of children in the yard, wiping his snot on half of his sleeve.

It's not easy for the proprietress to keep this business afloat.

Chen Qiming is already six years old; it's time for him to do something for the family.

Chen Xuebing smiled, a smile that suggested he was happy to help others.

"The boss lady."

Wu Jiuhong turned around.

Chen Xuebing smiled and said, "I'll arrange a job for your kid, five hundred yuan. Want to do it?"

"five hundred?!"

A glint of light flashed in Wu Jiuhong's eyes.

……

That evening, on the 800-meter road to the construction site, a woman's heart-wrenching screams suddenly erupted.

"Child! What's wrong with you!"

Then a little boy started crying.

A farm tricycle hurriedly carried Chen Xuebing and the boy towards the town.

That evening, a doctor at the town clinic accepted a red envelope and then, completely bewildered, bandaged the head of a boy whose skull was covered in pig's blood.

While the bandaging was being done, a photo studio owner even came to the scene with a digital camera.

……

The next day, Wu Jiuhong took her child to the market in town, and the news spread.

There are wild men in the mountains near Furong Village, and they throw stones at the children.

That evening, another child from Furong Village was taken to the town clinic. It was the same doctor, and the same 200 yuan red envelope.

……

Now, more people on the street are talking about it.

They say two of the kids have been hurt.

Wu Jiuhong was selling fish on the street with her child, whose head was covered in bandages. She talked about the wild man in the mountains in the village, and soon a group of people gathered.

"I heard the baby crying, and when I went there, a dark shadow flashed across the mountain, like a monkey! It was huge!"

"He even tried to throw a rock at me!"

"I grabbed the child and ran! But the road was full of loose rocks, and I slipped and fell, almost falling into a ravine!"

"Hey, that road used to be fine, but the bridge repairers ran over it two years ago and damaged it. They paid the town a sum of money in compensation, but the town still hasn't fixed it!"

"Those kids who go to middle school walk that awful road every day and often fall down!"

When Wu Jiuhong had nothing else to do, she even promoted Chen Xuebing.

Of course, Sister Wu didn't know what "not believing rumors and not spreading rumors" meant.

@SisterWuOnlyRecognizesMoney

And is this a rumor? No, it's not a rumor at all!

Chen Xuebing was very satisfied with Sister Wu's boldness and decided to assign her an even more challenging task.

……

Early on the third day, Chen Xuebing led Wu Jiuhong to the county's petition office to familiarize themselves with the area. After glancing at the duty roster of leaders on the wall of the lobby and giving her some instructions, he took the shuttle bus directly back to the city. These days, it takes courage to go and expose something in a newspaper.

Because you need to find people and conduct interviews, they may not report according to your wishes, or they may not report at all. So you search for a long time with righteous indignation, wasting time and money, only to find that they don't care about your feelings at all, which makes you even more resentful.

Therefore, when many people encounter injustice, their thinking starts with a pessimistic outlook and they give up.

Because of a strong subjective dependence or a negative and pessimistic attitude towards life, people lack the ability to think proactively and actively.

This is called mental inertia.

Chen Xuebing comes from the era of self-media where everyone could create a big news story, so he doesn't have so many mental blocks.

Hiring a reporter to go directly to their door won't work; people in this industry are very wary, and confronting them could easily ruin the deal.

The best way is through introductions from acquaintances.

He knew his uncle had some connections in the newspaper industry, but he was his aunt's classmate. He didn't intend to give his aunt another reason to manipulate him, so he gave up on that line of work.

Secondly, you can call the landline number provided by the newspaper for breaking the news; there is usually a reporter on duty at the phone.

Furthermore, these days newspapers also have official websites with phone numbers listed.

If that still doesn't work, you can only use a search engine to find information such as "XX newspaper," "reporter," and "contact information."

Chen Xuebing went down the list step by step, spending more than two hours on it, but he wasn't very interested in any of them. He made seven or eight phone calls and finally got in touch with a reporter who spoke with him for more than five minutes and was willing to meet with him.

……

At 7 p.m., 200 meters downstairs from the newspaper office, in a coffee shop.

Chen Xuebing waited for an hour or so, and it was too embarrassing to call and urge him again. He was about to ask someone to find Yu Yi to see if he had a relative in the propaganda department when a young man in his twenties finally came in from outside. He looked around and then walked straight to Chen Xuebing's table.

"Sorry, I was called to a meeting at the last minute! ...This is Qin Hai, you're the one who was looking for me, right?"

As the young man spoke, he glanced at Chen Xuebing's black leather jacket, the sign of the rendezvous they had agreed upon over the phone.

Chen Xuebing also sized up the newcomer. He had his hair parted in a 3/7 ratio, wore glasses, a shirt over a sweater, and a white coat. He looked refined and gentle, and his family should be well-off.

He was a little disappointed.

He looks too young; I wonder if he'll be able to impress people when he goes down there.

But he didn't show it on his face. He smiled, stood up, and shook hands with Qin Hai: "Hello, hello, Reporter Qin! You must be very busy with this job, right?"

"Busy doing nothing, that's why there's so much to do!" Qin Hai sat down and went straight to the point: "You brought all the photos, right?"

“I brought them, they’re all of the injured children, but I didn’t get any photos of the wild man!” Chen Xuebing took out an envelope and pulled out the photos inside.

"Hey, there's no such thing as a wild man. If there were, your area would have been infamous by now. It's probably just some wild monkey or something, or maybe it's just human doing something. If there were a wild man, that area would have been protected long ago. We've seen this kind of thing a lot."

Qin Hai smiled and pointed it out, then picked up the photo and glanced at him.

Chen Xuebing feigned surprise: "Oh, I thought it was a real savage! I saw your report a few days ago about a zombie boy! Will you report on this one?"

"Not necessarily. It's just that we've reported on this topic recently, so repeating this kind of content might not be appealing to readers. Now that it's almost the end of the year, we've been focusing more on social and livelihood issues lately... After the New Year, this kind of news would be good. We could even do an in-depth investigation, go up the mountain to verify it, or something like that."

Regarding social and livelihood issues, Qin Hai only casually mentioned it once.

Chen Xuebing, however, firmly grasped the information.

"People's livelihood? This child tripped and fell while running, and his mother also tripped on the bad road and almost fell down the mountain. Does that count?"

Qin Hai frowned: "Bad road? Slipped? What do you mean?"

"Here's the thing, last year Furong Village built a bridge, which damaged the road, and they had to pay the town about 20 yuan in compensation..."

Chen Xuebing began to speak slowly.

"...That road was a path from the foot of the mountain to the school on the mountain. The children on the other side of the bridge had to walk that road to get to school. It was a steep slope with a big bend, which was very unsafe."

What he said was mostly true, but he was trying to force the issue onto the children. There weren't many children coming from the other side of the bridge to go to school; most of the people on that road were villagers.

However, to gain social attention, having children involved naturally increases the level of attention.

Qin Hai's expression grew increasingly solemn.

"Is the news true?"

Chen Xuebing nodded: "It's true, you'll see for yourself."

"Who are you? Are you also from Furong Village?" Qin Hai continued to ask.

"No, I'm building a sewage treatment plant over there. Our construction site is right next to the road."

"Oh..." Qin Hai smiled, "You came here for this, right? Is this road affecting your construction?"

Chen Xuebing certainly couldn't admit it, otherwise the other party would be doing him a favor.

“No! We can just pave the road with gravel so cars can pass. The problem is people. The child’s mother is our landlady! She broke her leg and wanted the town to cover her medical expenses, but the town won’t help. She even wants to go to the county’s petition office! Everyone wants the town to repair the road, and it would be best to add a railing along the roadside! I’m back in the city, and someone asked me to handle this matter, so I’m just helping out!”

"Oh..." Qin Hai nodded slowly, stroking his chin as he fell into thought.

Chen Xuebing noticed that the other party didn't seem to suspect anything and asked:

"Reporter Qin... Can we report this? It might offend the town."

As soon as he finished speaking, Qin Hai looked up, slammed his hand on the table, his eyes gleaming, and his face full of righteous indignation.

“What are you saying? Report it! You absolutely have to report it! Let me tell you, I'm not afraid! We journalists are here to report these kinds of things! Don't worry, even if it offends the town government, or even if the county government is inactive, we'll still report it! ... I just... need to discuss sending a car with my superiors, since it's quite a long distance! Don't worry about this, as long as what you're saying is true, I'll definitely follow up and report to the end!”

Seeing his fearless, "I'll tear the sky apart and show you" attitude, Chen Xuebing felt a little uneasy.

This reporter is a bit dim-witted.

He didn't know why he kept running into these upright people lately.
Is it due to the times?

The key point is that he went to threaten the town government, not to bring it down!
These days, journalists are the uncrowned kings.

It's almost the end of the year again.

Chongqing is still a municipality directly under the central government, with a very high overall level. If the municipal newspaper were to expose the true situation in the towns under its jurisdiction, it might really mean a complete overhaul of the leadership. Neither the new leaders nor the ones who have left can afford to treat them well.

"Um... Reporter Qin, if I may ask, how long have you been a reporter?"

"Two years? What happened?"

Chen Xuebing sighed.

No wonder.

"Uh... I mean, if you want to report this, you still need to ask your boss for permission, right? Sending a car also requires your boss's approval."

"Hmm..." Qin Hai hesitated for a moment, then stood up: "Wait for me a moment. Our leaders are working overtime tonight. I need to ask for instructions and report to them. I'll be right back."

Chen Xuebing immediately stood up.

"I'll go with you! I know the situation better!"

(End of this chapter)