Rebirth 04: Starting from Taking an Unconventional Approach

"Yes, that's the right line of thinking." Chen Jianguo nodded. "In all my years in publishing, I've seen too many people get themselves into trouble because of arguments with reporters. Reporters make a living with their pens; if you argue with them, they get material to write about. If you don't argue, they have nothing to write about."

"But what if..." Cheng Xu said, "What if the reporter asks a question we don't know or aren't sure about, and it's not written in the manual?"

"To be honest," Zhang Ruiyi said.

"to be honest?"

"Yes. Just say, 'I'm not quite sure about this, I need to verify it, and someone will reply later.' That's the truth. No need to guess, no need to make things up, and no need to improvise. Then you can bring these questions back to me. I will judge whether to answer them and how to answer them in the future. This is actually what I'm going to talk about next. I have listed thirty-five questions in the manual, but the actual situations we encounter are definitely more than that. So when you bring me these questions, I will compile and update the manual. This way, the manual will become thicker and thicker, and our defenses will become stronger and stronger. What you need to do is protect yourselves, don't let reporters trick you into talking, don't discuss data at the dinner table, and don't say things like 'Our president has met with people from Tencent' or 'China Mobile headquarters is very supportive of us' when chatting or drinking with friends, because these words will appear in the reporters' press releases the next day."

Zhang Meimei immediately nodded in agreement: "Ruiyi is right. I've seen a lot of things go wrong because of what you say. There was a magazine called Brothers magazine once, and because an editor bragged to his friends at a dinner party that 'we're going to have a big story in the next issue,' it turned out that a friend of that friend worked for another magazine, and the story was copied the next day."

"This rule really needs to be established," Chen Jianguo said. "We've come this far with great difficulty, and we can't let it all be ruined by our words."

Zhang Ruiyi nodded, glanced at Han Fei, and smiled with satisfaction: "We've come this far because of every article, every user, and every magazine we've sold. These are the foundation. The media is like a window; you can't open it randomly, but you can't close it completely either. If you open it correctly, the sunlight will shine in, making the room bright. If you open it incorrectly, the wind and rain will come in too."

"Well said." Han Fei straightened up from the wall and glanced at his watch. "I agree with everything Ruiyi said."

He walked to the table and received nods and smiles from the crowd, realizing that Zhang Ruiyi's words had been accepted.

"Of course," Han Fei said, "it's not that we don't trust you, it's just that our current situation can't afford any unnecessary words. After all, no one can say for sure how many eyes will be watching us in the future. Especially giants like Tencent, if they don't know our strength, they can't make a decision to go all out. Every extra word we say gives them another data point. Every word we say less gives them more hesitation. Information is both a weapon and a target for us. How to use it, and when to use it, will be decided by Rui Yi, our Director of Media Affairs."

A round of applause followed.

Han Fei saw that Zhang Ruiyi's face was beaming with hope.

Zhang Meimei picked up two booklets: "I'll make a few copies and distribute them to everyone. People like me and Teacher Chen are getting old and our memories aren't good, so we need to take them back and look through them several times."

......

Chen Zhengyuan sat in the airplane seat of China Southern Airlines in China, enjoying the cool leather surface that touched his neck, back and forearms. He only enjoyed it for three seconds before continuing to ponder deeply.

Below the plane, the Pearl River Estuary was a mix of yellow and green, and the Humen Bridge shimmered in the evening sunlight, like a scar across a bruise. The flight attendant announced that the plane would be landing at Hongqiao Airport, and Chen Zhengyuan began preparations for landing.

He had never been particularly fond of flying, and in recent years had become extremely fearful. Wang Yu once asked him what he was afraid of. "Plane crashes, death, what else?" he replied. Wang Yu told him that the probability of dying in a plane crash is one in thirty million. He thanked her for providing this information and said he was no longer afraid.

Chen Zhengyuan took a deep breath, listening to the changing sounds of the engine. Why do people become more afraid of death as they get older? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Wang Yu. The woman he once dominated, now climbed to the top by stepping on his shoulders. Chen Zhengyuan only regretted giving Wang Yu the opportunity to get involved in that project; otherwise, how could she have exposed Qingniao and written such a ridiculous report?

And then there's Ding Lei, saying things like "content is life." Damn it, why didn't he say that when he was making a living through SP interfaces?

Six years, six years and four months at NetEase, and he was sent back to start all over again just because he misjudged a project? If the company hadn't cut Wen Jie's project, if he hadn't sent Wang Yu to investigate Qingniao, if he had taken those briefings seriously earlier, would things have been different?

Chen Zhengyuan shivered. He wondered to himself, could this sentimental mood be another sign that he was getting old? Bullshit! Isn't it? What kind of self-deceiving thought is this? Damn it, stop acting like an old woman!

The captain seemed to be accelerating. Chen Zhengyuan imagined the plane suddenly pulling up, because the captain suddenly saw Sheshan appear directly in front of the cockpit. Then, the air under the wings of the China Southern Airlines plane seemed to disappear abruptly, and Chen Zhengyuan felt his stomach almost jump out of his mouth. He groaned loudly, and then the plane bounced up like a rubber ball. The captain explained over the intercom that the plane had encountered turbulence, repeating it again in English.

Chen Zhengyuan had once read in a book that a person cannot live without feeling fear. He gripped the armrests of his chair tightly, trying to find comfort in those words.

Three months. He knew perfectly well that Ding Lei wasn't offering him an opportunity, but rather a respectable "death sentence reprieve." Three months, three million in revenue, no extra budget, no permanent positions—it was practically an impossible task. But he had to accept; not accepting meant being completely out of the game. Choosing to retire early to the game division was tantamount to admitting his end was over. But he wasn't finished yet!

Han Fei, it's all because of Han Fei. That little thing, Qingniao. How much of Qingniao's success was just luck? Can their methods really be replicated? He repeatedly analyzed the *Xinmin Evening News* report, trying to find flaws. But he found nothing. No problem, he still had a trump card.

Chen Zhengyuan closed his eyes. A beautiful face was imprinted on his retina. Gentle, bright.

The tires hit the bottom. Chen Zhengyuan was certain he was one of the lucky ones in that plane crash.