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Chapter 1146: Chapter 104: Fraud Comes to Tang Qing
Hong Kong.
Secret News Newspaper.
Seeing Sina, Sohu, and several other major media speak out,
They all started speaking in favor of Tang Qing, which made editor Lu Feng a bit disappointed. He thought this was Tang Qing’s "Public Relation crisis management," but regardless of whether it was or not, the heat of the topic was now difficult to follow.
"Beep beep beep."
The phone rang at this moment.
"Mm-hm, okay, I’ll be right there."
He hung up the phone.
Lu Feng stood up and went to the office of the chief editor, Fan Ming.
"Chief editor, did you want to see me?"
"Sit," said Fan Ming.
Lu Feng sat down.
"How is the news on Tang Qing coming along?" Fan Ming asked.
"I think we can’t keep up. He has already initiated crisis Public Relations. I didn’t expect his second uncle to be so wealthy, a distributor of fruit wine, and many people are praising Tang Kai for giving back to his hometown," Lu Feng said.
"What should we do then?" Fan Ming counter-questioned.
Lu Feng didn’t understand for a moment and asked in confusion, "What else can we do?"
"Have you forgotten what mainly contributes to the sales of our newspaper?" Fan Ming asked with a smile.
"Gossip, scandal, large-scale exposure," Lu Feng blurted out three keywords. These were the survival rules of the commercial citizen papers of Hong Kong, and the newspaper inevitably filled itself with some violent and explicit pictures, among other things.
Fan Ming clapped his hands.
"That’s right. I think there is still a lot more to dig into regarding Tang Qing."
"You mean..." Lu Feng was beginning to understand.
Fan Ming got to the point, "Right, Tang Qing lives a secluded life and is also very young, far in the inland areas, so it’s hard for us to get news about him. Look, you can hardly find any photos or records of him attending events online."
He paused a moment.
Then he continued, "Since we don’t have any candid photos of his life, then we need to come up with our own solution."
"Understood, whatever you say, I will do," Lu Feng said happily.
"Here, take a look at these, and write something up. At least we still have some heat to ride on for the next few days," Fan Ming handed over some photos.
Lu Feng took the photos.
His eyes lit up.
"Alright." Lu Feng returned to his office in high spirits, holding the photos.
...
Sanya.
Tang Qing and Lin Jiaxue were out at sea enjoying themselves.
The water here was clear, away from the shipping lanes.
"Jiaxue, come on in!" From the water not far from the yacht, Tang Qing, treading water, called out to Lin Jiaxue on the deck.
"Okay."
Saying this,
Lin Jiaxue, wearing a swimsuit, plunged into the crystalline blue water and swam over to Tang Qing. Swimming in the ocean felt more comfortable to Tang Qing than a pool, which seemed to lack a certain sensation.
Lin Jiaxue swam up to Tang Qing.
Her head had just surfaced—
Tang Qing embraced her.
And kissed her for over a minute.
Lin Jiaxue had already learned how to hold her breath, and could persist for an hour, "Tangtang, do you think there might be sharks here?" The sea offered freedom, yet it also tended to make people feel insecure.
People like to scare themselves.
"Don’t worry, I’ll protect you," Tang Qing laughed.
Sharks?
It wasn’t impossible, but encountering him, they only had one fate—to become dead fish. He could take them out in minutes. It was because Tang Qing was there that he felt safe letting Lin Jiaxue in the water; otherwise, if he wasn’t close by, the female bodyguard would have prevented it.
"Mm." With Tang Qing’s reassurance, Lin Jiaxue felt at peace.
The seawater was a bit cool, feeling the warmth in his arms; if Tang Qing hadn’t thought it "indecent," he would have wanted to try something right then and there.
Just at this moment.
A fighter on the boat waved to Tang Qing.
"Jiaxue, let’s head back first, there’s a phone call." They were nearly thirty kilometers away from the coastline, beyond the range of base station coverage, without any operator signals. However, Tang Qing’s mobile phone didn’t rely on those base stations.
Back on the boat.
"Mom, what’s up?" Tang Qing took the call.
"You, taking so many days off for yourself and not coming to see us. By the way, what were you doing just now that it took you so long to answer my call?" Mother Tang asked.
"I was just swimming," said Tang Qing. "Luckily, I’m planning to go back to Qingyan City tomorrow. Since my second uncle is back, I might as well visit too."
Mother Tang said happily, "That’s great, what time is your flight?"
"I’ll arrive at four thirty in the afternoon."
"Good, and don’t bother bringing anything, your return is all that matters."
"Alright then."
Tang Qing hung up the phone.
His vacation.
It had to be extended at least until early November, waiting for the journalists and classmates’ fervor to fade. With a good fifteen to twenty days, it’d be nice to take a trip back to Qingyan City, especially since his second uncle was there.
He glanced at his mobile phone again.
There were over sixty missed calls, from several different numbers. Tang Qing couldn’t help but chuckle. These guys really were persistent, and he had no idea where they got the nerve.
Tang Qing set his mobile phone on the table.
"Tangtang, why are there so many missed calls? Is there some kind of emergency?" Lin Jiaxue noticed the numbers highlighted in red at a glance.
"To them, it is an emergency," Tang Qing said with a laugh.
"Someone you know?" asked Lin Jiaxue.
Tang Qing shook his head. "Don’t know them."
"Oh," Lin Jiaxue had thought they might be calls from journalists.
They were just about to have dinner.
But suddenly, Tang Qing was in the mood for some fun.
"Jiaxue, want to see something fun?" Tang Qing said mysteriously.
"What?"
"Hehe, it’s these people. Let me see... Yeah, this one." Saying so, Tang Qing dialed back one of the missed numbers. In his past life, he’d often seen others do this.
Even though many of the stories on the internet were fake, it didn’t stop people from getting a kick out of them.
The phone rang six times.
Then someone picked up.
It was a woman’s voice, sobbing and a little hoarse.
"Wuwuwu, Tang Qing, you finally decided to answer my call. Wuwuwuwu..."
Lin Jiaxue looked at Tang Qing with confusion.
To an outsider, this situation would definitely suggest: a hit and run.
But Lin Jiaxue trusted Tang Qing.
Tang Qing shushed her.
"Who is this?"
The crying on the other end stopped, and the voice came through choked up, "It’s your high school classmate Yao Lu. Can’t you even recognize my voice?"
"What’s up?"
With that question, the sobs couldn’t be contained any longer, "Sniff... My father is sick, and we’re short on money for the surgery... I was hoping to borrow some from you. Don’t worry, I’ll pay you back."
"Is that so, how unfortunate. How much do you need?" asked Tang Qing.
"Not much, it’s just a drop in the bucket for you, I guess sixty thousand should cover it." Her tone contained obvious delight, and her voice even... wavered.
"Sixty thousand? Is that enough?" Tang Qing asked.
"It should be. If it’s not, I’ll figure something out."
"Indeed, sixty thousand isn’t much, but wait, I heard your father died in your first year of high school." Tang Qing pretended to be surprised.
"It’s my stepfather who is sick."
Tang Qing snickered to himself, seeing she hadn’t done her homework well, but was quick to respond, so he added, "Stepfather? Oops, I think I got it wrong; it wasn’t your father who died."
"My father died last year, and my mom remarried."
Quick on the uptake, she was.
"I see... Goodbye."
Upon hearing that,
Tang Qing hung up straightaway.
Lin Jiaxue wore a puzzled look, "Tangtang, what..."
She wanted to ask why he didn’t help her out.
Tang Qing explained, "Yao Lu’s dad is alive and healthy. She claims he’s dead. With these unknown calls, I usually have someone look into them. I found out that cell phone had been lost, so Yao Lu got a new number—this was confirmed with her."
"So, that person was a swindler," realized Lin Jiaxue, understanding Tang Qing wasn’t being cold-hearted.
Tang Qing nodded, "Yeah, maybe Yao Lu let something slip and the phone was stolen—it’s also possible." Tang Qing was resigned to the situation—these fraud calls were even reaching him.
Too bad.
They had picked the wrong target.
