Rebirth 04: Starting from Taking an Unconventional Approach

Han Fei and Lu Hai returned to the publishing house. The sunlight no longer shone on the buildings, plunging the entire city into the tranquility of the afternoon. They looked through all the offices, but they were all empty. Finally, they found someone in the conference room on the third floor; Zhang Ruiyi was having a meeting with everyone.

"What kind of meeting is it?" Han Fei asked.

"Let's learn from this experience," Zhang Ruiyi said. "Your performance at the briefing and when facing Yang Zheng was textbook-perfect for dealing with the media, so I've developed a standard response template. Look."

Han Fei took the notebook Zhang Ruiyi handed him. Inside were written: Han Fei's Ten Principles for Media Response. Below were ten short phrases, such as: do not deny contact, do not reveal details, respond to criticism with "feelings" rather than "refutations," do not argue about definitions, argue for facts, transform criticism into tolerance, and use stories instead of preaching...

Further down, there are taboo words and their corresponding replacements, such as replacing "that's confidential" with "there's no information to disclose at the moment," and replacing "we have no comment" with "we'd rather focus our energy on our own affairs," and so on. She even compiled a collection of catchy phrases, such as "We plant trees, they cut them down."

Han Fei laughed heartily: "Not bad, I've only just returned and you've already summarized the methodology. Well done."

"I've also finalized the press release. There's a full version and a condensed version for different media outlets to refer to, and I'll fax them out shortly."

"Impressive." Lu Hai clicked his tongue. "President, you're the kind of person who can patch up a hole in the sky with ease, and Rui Yi is the kind of person who can write a textbook on how to patch up the sky. As for me? I almost got tricked into revealing information just by going to Guangdong. One of you is a strategic nuclear weapon, and the other is a combat command system. I'm at best... just someone who carries ammunition boxes, and I almost lost the ammunition boxes."

"It takes strength to carry ammunition boxes," Han Fei said, putting his hand on his shoulder. "Hurry up and book your plane tickets to Guangdong to sign the formal cooperation contract."

"Alright, boss, this time I'm back with the contract in hand, and the ammunition box is tucked away!"

"How's the hiring going?"

"I'm starting to see some progress," Lu Hai said. "I've contacted two people. One can do the initial review of one-sentence submissions, and the other has business development experience. Their resumes seem pretty good to them. They can come for interviews tomorrow or the day after. Which day is convenient for you? I'll schedule it for them right away."

"Tomorrow or the day after is fine, it depends on their schedule. What about Wen Jie?"

"I've got some leads on my side too," Wen Jie said. "My classmate has agreed to come over. He'll be able to hand over his current tasks in the next couple of days and start remote integration next week. He'll be fine with the backend and operations. I've also found two suitable candidates in our classmate group for frontend and data. One is a web developer who previously worked at an e-commerce company and has a lot of experience in page interaction. The other is a data ETL specialist. Although he doesn't have a background in user profiling, he has a solid foundation and learns quickly. I've arranged for them to come to the publishing house for an in-person meeting this Friday afternoon. You can take a look then, and if you think they're suitable, you can keep them."

Han Fei nodded: "Okay. There's one more thing. Lu Hai is going to Guangdong tomorrow, and we need someone to go to Zhejiang Province to bid..."

"I'll go, President."

Han Fei turned his head and saw that it was Zhou Tao who was speaking.

"Although my hometown is not in this region," Zhou Tao said, "I specifically studied the folk literature of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces during my university years, so I am quite familiar with the cultural tone there. Moreover, I had contact with many authors and manuscripts from Zhejiang Province when I interned at Mengya magazine, so I know how to incorporate regional elements into stories like ours. Lu Hai has already been to Guangdong, so he is familiar with the process. It's perfect for me to go to Zhejiang Province to give it a try, which will save you the trouble of arranging someone else to familiarize themselves with the process from scratch. I guarantee there won't be any mistakes."

"Okay, Zhou Tao, it's good that you took the initiative to step forward. You mentioned your strengths, which are indeed useful. Although you're a newcomer, this is a test of your trust. We've emphasized the precautions many times already. Go and exchange experiences with Lu Hai again, book your plane tickets in advance, and leave tomorrow."

Zhou Tao smiled and said, "I understand, President."

"Alright." Han Fei glanced at his watch. "You can continue the meeting."

"Where are you going?" Zhang Ruiyi asked.

Han Fei rubbed his neck: "Let's go mining."

......

Although the duty room of Sheshan Post Office is small, its exterior is very modern and the surrounding environment is pleasant, which is quite unexpected.

Han Fei parked his car under a large willow tree, picked up a brown paper envelope, and walked towards the duty room next to the gate, noticing several postal tricycles parked in front of the post office.

Behind the window was a wrinkled, white face that cast an inquiring glance at Han Fei.

"My name is Han Fei, from Qingniao Publishing House. I'm here to wait for Sun Jianguo, the deliveryman, who said he'd be passing by," Han Fei said.

"Oh? What happened?" the old man said in a hoarse voice.

"Nothing happened," Han Fei replied directly, shaking his head. "May I come in?"

"Come in." The old man opened the door and stepped aside to invite him inside. Han Fei stepped inside. Besides the smell of incense, there was also a pungent smell of tobacco.

The old man led him into the lounge. Han Fei ducked into the low doorway, bending his knees just in time, because the floor inside was twenty centimeters lower than outside. After Han Fei's eyes adjusted to the darkness, he found that the lounge was empty, containing only a bed, a three-drawer table, a chair, and an electric fan.

"Wait here," the old man said. "Would you like some water?"

A cockroach peeked out its antennae from a crack in the wall behind the old man.

Han Fei felt uneasy and cleared his throat: "No need, thank you, sir."

The old man muttered a few words and dragged himself away.

Thirteen minutes later, Sun Jianguo appeared.

"President Han," Sun Jianguo said, shaking Han Fei's hand, "Boss Zhou just called me to say you were coming today. I thought he was joking."

"It's my luck that Brother Sun agreed to see me," Han Fei said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "A few days ago in Songjiang, if you hadn't shown up in time, Boss Zhou's two hundred pounds of meat would have been in for a rough time."

"I just shouted it out. But Boss Zhou, he's got guts. There aren't many people like him these days."

"That's right, otherwise I wouldn't have met such a benefactor as Brother Sun," Han Fei said with a smile.

"What kind of benefactor am I?" Sun Jianguo laughed loudly, shaking his head. "I heard you guys settled Qian Youde's matter?"

"It's settled. He will never touch Bluebird magazine again, nor will he ever touch any stalls related to Bluebird again."