Rebirth 04: Starting from Taking an Unconventional Approach

On Tuesday, Han Fei spent almost the entire morning on the phone.

He contacted the other three media outlets besides the *Xinmin Evening News* to confirm their attendance. Then he called Section Chief Jiang to inquire whether the materials had been forwarded. Ten minutes after Section Chief Jiang hung up, Han Fei received confirmation calls from both the Anti-Pornography and Anti-Illegal Publications Office and the Cultural Enforcement Bureau.

At 10:25 a.m., Fang Jing called to tell him that the bidding results for Guangdong would be announced the next morning, while the bidding announcement for Zhejiang Province would be released on Thursday morning. The scoring criteria and implicit thresholds were basically the same as those for Guangdong, but one or two additional requirements reflecting the local cultural characteristics of Zhejiang Province would be added to enhance the authenticity of the procedural justice. She also reminded him to prepare his bid documents in advance.

Fang Jing didn't mention the specific time for the Guangdong bidding results to be announced, but Han Fei felt this was crucial for tomorrow's media briefing. However, he didn't want to press Fang Jing for an answer, as it would inevitably lead to explaining his urgency. He didn't want Fang Jing to know he was involved in a lawsuit and was even planning to use China Mobile's name to bolster his credibility. Therefore, Han Fei could only secretly hope the results would be announced before 10 AM.

At 2 PM, Han Fei, Zhang Ruiyi, and Lu Hai arrived at the Shanghai Cultural and Commercial Building to familiarize themselves with the venue and prepare for a simple rehearsal. A manager greeted them.

Han Fei stepped into the conference room and saw that the floor was covered with a dark blue flame-retardant carpet, and there was nothing on the walls.

The room contained only a long conference table with a dozen or so black folding chairs. At the end of the table was a small podium with a whiteboard and a 42-inch plasma TV.

"You can connect a laptop to the TV; the VGA cable is over here," the manager said, bending down to pull a cable from under the TV cabinet. "The speakers are built-in; the volume isn't loud, but it's enough for a conference room with twenty or thirty people."

The three nodded absentmindedly; none of them showed any interest in the television set. They had neither a PowerPoint presentation nor any intention of showing the photos.

Han Fei walked to the window. Outside was one of the many plazas in the HP district, its open space used as a parking lot. He drew the blinds, plunging the room into darkness.

"What's wrong?" Lu Hai asked.

Han Fei walked to the door, turned on the light, and the cold blue light of the fluorescent lamp illuminated the square space.

"I'm just testing how the lighting is here," Han Fei said. "Tomorrow morning at ten o'clock, natural light will come in from the east. If we open the blinds, the sunlight will be so bright that the people at the table won't be able to see anything."

Zhang Ruiyi, Lu Hai, and the supervisor all looked at him blankly.

"Hey, President," Lu Hai said, "what's wrong with you today? Even though you usually organize things step by step, today you're focusing on things like lights and blinds. Are you...are you nervous?"

Han Fei cleared his throat: "Nervous? What's there to be nervous about in an explanation?"

"I can testify!" Zhang Ruiyi raised her hand. "You're not nervous, you're just deducing."

"What are you deducing?" Lu Hai asked.

"Uh... because the reporters coming tomorrow have even sharper eyes. So we need to consider how the reporters sitting in that spot will view him, how they will ask questions, and how they will interpret what he says."

"Yes," Han Fei nodded, "Ruiyi is right. We need to make sure there are no mistakes in any details. Where should the registration desk be set up?"

The supervisor led them to the reception area. It turned out the so-called reception area was just a small space of less than ten square meters at the end of a corridor, with a long table covered with a white tablecloth. Opposite the reception area was a door with a light blue plastic nameplate that read: Interview Room.

Han Fei stepped inside and glanced around. It was a simple little room with a small round table and two chairs. There were power outlets and a network cable port on the wall. The window faced the inner courtyard, providing soft, diffused light.

"How's the soundproofing here?"

"There's soundproofing material in the walls, so you can barely hear anything outside when the door is closed," the manager said. "We've had quite a few publishers conduct post-book launch interviews with us before, and the feedback has been pretty good."

"President, I have a question," Lu Hai said as he walked in. "I just walked back and forth in the hallway twice, simulating the reporters' entry route. I was wondering, if a reporter arrives and barges straight into the conference room without signing in, should I stop them or not?"

"We won't stop you," Han Fei said. "Just sit behind the registration desk, nod, smile, and hand out materials. If a reporter doesn't take them, just leave them on the table. Don't make it seem like we're conducting some kind of censorship."

"Understood, remain neither humble nor arrogant."

They walked around the conference room and reception area twice more to familiarize themselves with the route and directions.

Han Fei glanced at his watch: "That's about enough. Let's go through the procedures."

......

Han Fei adjusted the microphone in front of him and scanned the four reporters below the stage. Whispers rippled through the crowd, but everyone's eyes were fixed on the podium, afraid of missing a single word. Han Fei roughly determined their identities from the sign-in sheet handed in by Lu Hai and their seating positions. From left to right, they were Editor Zhou from *Xinmin Evening News*, a reporter from *Wenhui Daily*, and a reporter from *Longguo News and Publishing Daily*; on the far right was Yang Zheng, a reporter from *Xinmin Morning Post*.

Han Fei had to admit that Yang Zheng's appearance was completely unexpected. When he heard Yang Zheng's voice on the phone before, Han Fei thought he would be a passionate young man like Lu Hai and Wen Jie. However, he had a lion's nose, thinning hair, and a small mustache on his lip, a style that had long since fallen out of fashion with Hitler's death.

Han Fei cleared his throat. Everyone was present. He allowed the four reporters to place their microphones, connected to recording equipment, on the podium. His cell phone, which was currently on a call with Zhang Ruiyi, also sat on the podium. He was confident about this briefing, not only because the four reporters were looking at him expectantly, but also because just an hour earlier, Guangdong Mobile had released the bidding results. Qingniao Reading, unsurprisingly, had won by a wide margin, ranking first in overall score, far ahead of second place.

"Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to come. First of all, let me clarify that today's meeting is just a small-scale background communication. Qingniao has recently encountered some issues, and we feel it is necessary to have a face-to-face discussion with our journalist friends who are concerned about the order of the cultural market, to lay out the facts and evidence on the table. If you find what you hear valuable and worth reporting, we will fully cooperate; if you feel it is inappropriate, that's perfectly fine too. Let's treat this as an industry exchange. If you originally had more important work to do today, I apologize."

Han Fei gave a wry smile, and upon hearing the laughter of several reporters, he realized that he had been forgiven.