Chapter 071: Tao Tao the Internet Celebrity
At 10:50am, the Public Relations Department made a post on Mei Wei’s official blog, issuing a statement that the “company is conducting an internal investigation into Liu Qi”. However, this move did nothing to reduce everyone’s anger. When the netizens saw the official post, they became even angrier.
At lunch time, the head of the finance department hurried to report to Chief Qin. As of 12 noon, Mei Wei’s stock price had dropped by three points. It was their guess that this was due to public opinion and Chief Liu’s scandal.
Mei Wei’s market value on the S Stock Exchange was about 3 billion. If it continues to fall in the afternoon, it may directly trigger the trading halt limit.
In the afternoon, Chief Qin convened a meeting with the public relations department to understand the direction of the matter.
At the meeting, some people proposed to dig out, expose and even fabricate some of Tao Tao’s private scandals — for example, renting a room with more than one man, sending suggestive text messages to different people in order to nab online endorsement deals with big name brands, etc. — in order to temporarily redirect the firepower of the netizens.
Qi Yu watched with detached eyes. Although he sighed inwardly, he did not speak out to stop it.
Because the response of the public relations department was consistent with what they had expected at the time. It also coincided with what Reporter Yang’s people had to do in the second step of their plan. Only that the goals of the two parties were different. The people in the company want to sacrifice Tao Tao to protect Mei Wei, but Reporter Yang wanted to drive Tao Tao into a corner so that she would disclose some of the information they want.
Yes, since receiving Qi Yu’s instructions last night, Reporter Yang’s people had begun to gradually guide the netizens to guess the true identity of the blurred out internet celebrity, trying to put pressure on the other party.
Right now, Qiu Rusong was being chased and blamed by his father. He had his hands full managing his own affairs. He might not have the mind to care about Tao Tao’s fate. When the time comes, Reporter Yang’s people would privately contact that internet celebrity and threaten the other party with “exposing more evidence”, which would force Tao Tao to take the initiative to tell more about the truth behind the matter.
By the time the work day ended, the netizens lived up to expectations and sussed out the identity of the internet celebrity. The tag #Tao Tao Homewrecker# was trending on Weibo at 17:48 in the evening.
The netizens flooded Tao Tao’s Weibo homepage and her Mou Tao live broadcast room. They wantonly hurled abuse at her. Mei Wei’s public relations department added fuel to the fire by having a few media accounts fabricate some negative news about Tao Tao.
Just when Qi Yu thought things would proceed in an orderly manner according to their plan, Reporter Yang sent him a message saying that they couldn’t contact Tao Tao.
Qi Yu was taken aback, and sent a reply: “Did she go into hiding because there was too much abuse online?”
In fact, seeing those insults, even Qi Yu found it somewhat unbearable. Although this girl had some problems, she wasn’t guilty to the point where she deserved to be exposed to the ridicule of the entire internet. Those who used various conditions to lure her into providing inappropriate services was more deserving of the abuse. It was a pity that these people were still hiding behind the scenes.
Reporter Yang said, “The people on my side have been trying to contact her on your behalf since 11 o’clock last night. But they haven’t been able to. We called her company and couldn’t get through either. My guess is that she’s already seen the situation on Weibo and has turned on airplane mode. We contacted her assistant at noon today. Her assistant said that she answered the phone after the live broadcast last night and then went out in a hurry. She said that a private car came to pick Tao Tao up. But she didn’t say where she was going and her phone has been turned off since then.”
Qi Yu thought to himself, was it possible that Qiu Rusong’s people had moved ahead of them?
If this were the case, then things weren’t going to be easy to handle.
Reporter Yang said, “I’ll monitor the situation on the Internet. If Tao Tao can’t be contacted, I’ll start the backup plan.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Qi Yu: “En, okay.”
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Hl Te rjlv “YB” jcv jrxfv Qjcu Zfcu ab vglnf tlw atfgf.
The two met at the Japanese restaurant at the upper levels of Feng Mao. This store was famous for its Kobe beef. The restaurant did next day fly-ins of fresh beef from the source. Many diners from outside the city would come here specifically to seek out this restaurant.
As soon as the two met, Qi Yu asked him, “Haven’t you already resigned? Why do you still have to work overtime?”
Fu Yansheng narrowed his eyes at him, as though Qi Yu had asked some naive question again. “The company’s projects won’t stop just because I want to resign. I have to help the manager who took over my position to understand the situation for the projects that I was supposed to be responsible for. Yesterday, I asked for a day off to go to the Si Yuan Group’s strategy meeting with you. All my subordinates were waiting for my instructions.”
After saying so, he started ordering. He only wanted a portion of their signature Kobe beef and two portions of chatzuke. He didn’t order any alcohol. Looked like he was in a rush. After ordering, he looked at Qi Yu and asked, “Why, are you so upset that I’m working overtime?”
Qi Yu tilted his head. “I’ve already started paying your wages, and you’re still working for others. Am I not allowed to feel a bit of a loss?”
“You can…” Fu Yansheng smiled faintly, “After dinner, would you like to go to my office and sit for a while? You can watch me work overtime.”
Qi Yu instinctively blurted out, “Why would I want to watch you work overtime?” But after thinking about it, he has never been to Fu Yansheng’s company. He really was a bit curious and watching the other work, made him sound like he a “supervisor”. It seemed kind of appealing, so he changed his tune and said, “Okay, I’ve got nothing to do anyway…”
When he said the last part, his expression and tone seemed like he was indulging a girlfriend who was acting spoiled with him; his tone of helplessness carried with it a hint of joy.
Fu Yansheng chuckled and asked, “By the way, what’s the situation with Mei Wei? I was busy the whole day and I didn’t have time to watch it closely.”
“It’s going well.” Qi Yu told Fu Yansheng of what happened after he went to the company today, including Chief Qin’s attitude and the way the PR department responded. “It’s just that Reporter Yang called me at noon and said that Tao Tao couldn’t be reached. …” He glanced at his phone, “And my dad hasn’t called me back since last night.”
Qi Yuancheng hasn’t contacted him for a long time. Qi Yu kept worrying that he might have provoked some trouble that couldn’t be cleaned up because he insisted on going at it his own way.
Fu Yansheng comforted him and said, “Don’t worry, it’s a good thing that your dad hasn’t contacted you.”
Qi Yu: “Why?”
Fu Yansheng: “Only minority shareholders were in that secret shareholder meeting you mentioned last time, right?”
Qi Yu: “En, the group’s major shareholders like Uncle Si and Uncle Wang didn’t come.”
Fu Yansheng: “That’s right. Originally, Mei Wei’s major shareholders wouldn’t pay attention to financial issues that aren’t particularly conspicuous. Didn’t even your dad say at first that he didn’t want to investigate? Now that Liu Qi’s scandal has broken out, the people above would have definitely taken notice. Your dad is probably also busy meeting with the people above. The group has group-level concerns and discussion procedures. Now, even if your dad and Mei Wei’s shareholders want to protect the Qiu Family, they may not be able to.”
After listening to Fu Yansheng’s explanation, Qi Yu felt a little relieved.
After dinner, Qi Yu followed Fu Yansheng to his company. Mingtai Securities was on the 39th floor of Feng Mao Building. The two of them went downstairs and Fu Yansheng took Qi Yu to the company’s front desk for guest registration.
“Let me register for you.” Fu Yansheng directly took a pen and wrote his name and identity on the register. Qi Yu saw that the other party marked him down as the “Deputy GM, Science and Technology Development Department, Si Yuan Group”.
Qi Yu: “…”
The meeting just finished yesterday and you’re already using it today?
After that, Fu Yansheng took Qi Yu into the IBD department.
It was already eight o’clock in the evening but the department office was still brightly lit. Looking around, 70 to 80% of the seats were actually still occupied. All of them were working diligently.
Qi Yu asked in a low voice, “Why are there so many people working overtime?”
Fu Yansheng smiled and said, “This is normal for investment banks.”
On the way, they ran into a few female employees who upon seeing Fu Yansheng respectfully called him “Chief Fu”. But then they looked curiously at Qi Yu behind Fu Yansheng and different expressions stole over their faces.
Qi Yu had already grown used to other people gawking at him. Without the slightest glance anywhere else, he followed Fu Yansheng into the other party’s private office.
The room was very big. It was divided into two areas. One was Fu Yansheng’s office area. There was a solid wood desk across the center with two iMacs on the table and various documents stacked on the side. The other half was the reception area which had a sofa seat and a small round table.
Qi Yu stood in the reception area and looked around. Worrying about the confidentiality of Fu Yansheng’s work, he didn’t go too far in.
“What would you like to drink?”Fu Yansheng leaned over, grabbing Qi Yu’s wrist and pulling him to himself.
Qi Yu immediately guessed what Fu Yansheng wanted to do and reminded him in a low voice, “Hey, this is your office…”
“I know.” Fu Yansheng seemed to seize any opportunity to execute the stipulations of their contract. He simply touched Qi Yu’s face lightly. “I have tea here. Would you like some?”
Qi Yu calmed the beating of his heart. Pretending to be calm, he said, “Ok, I’ll have some.”
“Sit down first, I’ll prepare it for you.” Fu Yansheng pointed to the sofa.
However, after just a few seconds after Qi Yu sat down, Reporter Yang called him.
“Qi Yu, you should quickly look at the news on the Internet now.” The other party’s voice was a little hurried.
“What happened?” Qi Yu asked.
“A well-known short video big V on Weibo that released a video titled ‘Exclusive Interview with the Female Internet Celebrity of the Liu Qi Incident”. None of my people made this video… I’ve sent you the link on WeChat. Please check it out first.”
Qi Yu hurriedly agreed. He hung up the phone and clicked on WeChat.
The link sent him to Weibo. The big V that Reporter Yang mentioned was Pineapple Video.
Qi Yu clicked play. The video showed only a black background and subtitles. There was no picture. After a brief introduction, the interviewer’s voice appeared.
The interviewer was a man. “Netizens have accused you of having an affair with Mei Wei’s married executive, Liu Qi. They say you’re his mistress. Is this true?”
The internet celebrity’s voice had been altered. She could be heard crying and saying, “It’s not an affair, it’s just a service. Mei Wei’s Chief X always said that as long as I can make Chief Liu and the others happy, I can get Mei Wei’s online live broadcast endorsement contract. I asked my fellow sisters in the same line of work and they said this was an unwritten rule in the industry. It was the same for everyone so I agreed…”
The man asked, “You said ‘Chief Liu and the others’, so Chief Liu isn’t the only one?”
The female internet celebrity said, “En, I’m mainly asked to accompany them to meals. If they have special requirements, we discuss it separately…”
The man asked, “How many people in Mei Wei have asked you for special services?”
Female internet celebrity: “There are only two, Chief X and Chief Liu. Chief X also asked me to recommend good-looking sisters to be models for a Mei Wei imitation store. If the service is good, I will be given a commission…but I’ve never taken it even once. I just wanted to find jobs for my sisters so they could earn some money…”
The man asked in reply, “A Mei Wei imitation store?”
Anonymous female Internet celebrity: “It’s XX. It seems that Chief X set it up outside the company. I don’t know much either. The price is much cheaper than Mei Wei, but the styles of the clothes are similar. He also said that this brand would someday replace Mei Wei…”
…
The audio was only one and a half minutes long but the exposed information was like a stone that stirred up thousands of waves — The “extramarital affair” incident turned into an “unspoken erotic transaction”. And there was even breaking news of an executive who opened their own imitation brand store!
————
【Little Theater】
Fu Yansheng: Would you like to sit in my office for a while?
Qi Yu (indulging expression): Since you want me to accompany you so much, I’ll accompany you.
Fu Yansheng (helpless expression): Ai, you’re so clingy. You’ve already gained an advantage and you’re still showing off…
Translator’s notes:
Completely unrelated to the story and even BL in general, but any Vtuber fans out there? If there are, I just want to say — Luxiem.
From the frying pan into the fire
Thank you for the chapter ❣️
wow so straight into the storm this early???
(not following too deep, only watched some of the fun clips of NijiID hehe)
It’s time to get in deep! No…not really. Their streams are loooooooooonnnnggg. So, clips are the way to go, really. I mostly just put them in the background. I just them hilarious. Mika’s the only one of know from NijiID.
ah we’re the same. and I’m not gamer too, so i only enjoy free talk session while doing homework, take it like it’s radio station lol. Mika is funny, i still remember her story of 8yrs crush failed that shook me between sad and laugh xD
OMG YES MORE LUXIEM FANS! I love all the boys TTvTT
I knew luxiem from my friend, she told me all about them 😁
Thank you for the translations.
And yes — Luxiem! But also I watch a lot of VUPs/Chinese Vtubers, both within and outside of the Nijisanji sphere!
Thanks for the chapter ^_^
thanks for the chapter!
I’ve been trying to get into vtuber lately yeah and out of luxiem I only know Vox and Luca but im mostly following holostar and uproar!
Thanks for the chapter <333
The crew that approached Taotao, recorded, and publicized this.. possibly Qi papa’s another team ma? >< Uwww.. So excited to know
I like them too.. slap to subscribe after they pass at my yt short.. :” and get me crazy for 3 days, Lmao
POOOGGGG