When Lu Xingyan first heard the absurd rumor about his college entrance exam results being fake, he subconsciously found it amusing. Even when Li Chengfan sent him posts from school, he didn’t take it seriously.
Honestly, terms like “posting” now sound quite dated. Posting on the homepage of Mingli would go for days without a single new post, and the thread about him using his family’s wealth and power to manipulate the college entrance exam only had about ten replies.
At that time, he was still annoyed, struggling whether to shamelessly buy a ticket to Paris and chase after himself, or to cold war with Shen Xingruo for a while and not bother with these baseless rumors at all.
But unexpectedly, that evening Wang Youfu contacted him and brought up the matter.
—It turns out there are idiots, openly reporting his manipulation of the college entrance exam.
At the same time, the headline news on the social section was the jumping incident at Jinsheng International Mall, a property under Jinsheng Real Estate!
Previously, Jinsheng had invested heavily in building Jinsheng International Mall in Xingcheng. On the opening day, the place was vandalized.
A sixteen-year-old high school student caught cheating and too afraid to go to school, impulsively jumped from the atrium of the mall and died on the spot, even injuring innocent bystanders.
At that time, this incident attracted a lot of attention, especially because a popular young celebrity was invited to the opening ceremony. The fans of the celebrity’s mother and girlfriend thought their darling had been frightened, and they criticized Jinsheng for inadequate railing inspection and security measures, making it the number one trending topic.
Fortunately, Jinsheng’s PR team was on point and responded promptly.
Although foot traffic at the mall was sparse for quite sometime after the opening, it didn’t fundamentally harm the mall.
Nowadays, Jinsheng International Mall is the leader among high-end malls in Xingcheng.
But unexpectedly—
Someone jumped from the mall again!
And this time, it was a former employee of Jinsheng.
This incident happened several days ago. The person jumped on their own accord, and no one could stop them. Moreover, jumping off a building wasn’t exactly rare these days, so apart from a few local news reports in Xingcheng, the matter didn’t spread further.
For some reason, a minor incident that wasn’t taken seriously within Jinsheng suddenly received several press releases and bought multiple headlines in the social section.
Following closely behind this quietly trending news was the revelation of a second-generation rich kid manipulating the college entrance exam, transforming from a playboy to a top student, who turned out to be the son of the chairman of Jinsheng Group!
Initially, the PR department of Jinsheng thought this wave of headlines was inexplicable and suspicious. With just a little inquiry, they found out that the hand behind these press releases and headlines was the longstanding rival of Jinsheng in the real estate industry.
But just because someone jumped off a building, helped to distribute so many press releases, and bought so many headlines wouldn’t have any impact on Jinsheng.
However, after combining it with the subsequent trending news, they realized belatedly that the former incident was merely an appetizer served by the rival, setting the stage for the latter.
The son of the chairman of Jinsheng Group.
Operational manipulation in the college entrance examination.
Every word hits the public’s hot buttons.
After hitting the hot spot, this piece of news quickly spread in all directions at an astonishing speed.
In just a few hours, major portals successively reposted it, and forums and social media platforms erupted with high-frequency discussions about the news!
This was the first climax of the event.
Because as fast as the news spread, it disappeared even faster.
Late that night, the related news mysteriously disappeared without a trace. The next morning, anyone trying to discuss it would find their posts inexplicably ending up in the recycle bin as soon as they were posted.
The onlookers understood all at once.
The background of Jinsheng is truly unfathomable.
Blocking the news had nothing to do with Jinsheng; it was all the doing of Lu Xingyan’s grandfather.
Lu Xingyan’s grandfather, Lu Yanzhi, came from a military background. He retired some time ago and has been living comfortably in the imperial capital for the past few years.
Lu Yanzhi and his son, Lu Shan, have never gotten along. When they were both strong-willed, they couldn’t stand each other, but as they got older, their relationship gradually eased.
However, Lu Yanzhi never interfered in Lu Shan’s business affairs. Even if Jinsheng went bankrupt, he wouldn’t furrow his brow.
But this time, when their business rivalry dragged his beloved grandson into it, he couldn’t sit still anymore.
With his iron-fisted approach, which he had always employed in military and political matters, and being unaware of the changing times, he became furious. Without even informing Lu Shan, he issued a blanket ban.
Regardless of right or wrong, everything was banned first, and then they could sort it out later.
Once something was banned, it stayed banned.
But Lu Shan ended up in the hospital due to anger.
He argued fiercely with Lu Yanzhi over the phone from the hospital, without either of them being surprised, and the argument went on for a hundred and eighty rounds.
Finally, it ends with Lu Yanzhi’s blunt threat: “If it weren’t for the fact that your life can still earn money for my grandson, you think I’d bother with you? Let me tell you, if you mess with my grandson, I’ll mess with you.”
The lifting of the news ban was sudden, and as expected, public opinion exploded:
a. “Jinsheng is daring, even daring to censor news. This won’t hold, they must be planning an exit strategy.”
b. “This society is so corrupt now. With money and power, you can get into any school. We commoners are just like leeks, waiting to be harvested.”
c. “I used to think the college entrance exam was the only fair test in life. It’s too naive. It turns out it’s not.”
d. “People who barely scraped into a top university through endless nights of study see others playing around every day and still getting in. It’s surreal. I’m not surprised by any news anymore.”
e. “I’m just waiting for Jinsheng’s retribution. Eventually, this kind of social scum will take over and ruin the company.”
f. “You’re too young upstairs. Have you heard of a profession called a professional manager? And they make more money in a lifetime just from interest than you ever will.”
g. “The upstairs comment is too real and makes me uncomfortable. Reported.”