Targeted public opinion

Meng Yihe remained silent for a few seconds, and finally, she loosened her clenched fingers slightly, avoiding Cui Yu's gaze, thus accepting the "absolute protection order" in a silent manner.

Upon seeing this, Cui Yu's tense expression eased slightly.

He immediately took out his phone, his tone regaining its composure: "Zhao Lei, notify the core team that there will be an emergency meeting in the first conference room in ten minutes. Also, contact the head of our security consultant team in Linnan Province immediately. I need to get the latest information on the scene and a possible risk assessment as quickly as possible."

In the emergency conference room on the top floor of Starworld headquarters.

The core team—Zhao Lei, Lin Xueyue, Wu Hao, Xu Rui, and others—were all present, each with an unprecedentedly serious expression.

Cui Yu and Meng Yihe sat side by side in the main seat.

Cui Yu controlled the pace of the meeting, speaking quickly and clearly, and assigned tasks: "Zhao Lei, you will personally lead a team to fly to Linnan Provincial Capital immediately, representing only myself, to visit several key figures." He named several people and their positions, all of whom were influential figures in Linnan.

“Bring copies of all the evidence we have that can prove Dingsheng’s unfair competition and that the whistleblower letter was a complete fabrication. Be humble and make your demands clear.”

"Understood, Director Cui!" Zhao Lei immediately jotted down the key points.

“Lin Xueyue,” Cui Yu turned to her, “you are in charge of the public opinion front. Immediately prepare a strongly worded official statement with clear evidence, and at the same time prepare relevant technical materials and data. Contact all media outlets with whom you have good cooperation and release it as soon as possible. In addition, organize a technical team to conduct a round of science popularization live broadcasts on official platforms, using professional knowledge to refute rumors. Be assertive and let the facts speak for themselves.”

"Yes!" Lin Xueyue nodded emphatically.

"Wu Hao, Xu Rui," Cui Yu said, looking at the heads of operations and strategy. "Your task is to maintain internal stability and mitigate technical losses. At the same time, reassess the project timeline and prepare contingency plans."

"Received!" the two replied in unison.

Cui Yu did not take over everything just because he "protected" Meng Yihe at headquarters. On the contrary, at every key decision point, he would naturally turn his head and whisper to ask Meng Yihe for his opinion.

All instructions were quickly approved or slightly adjusted by Meng Yihe before being clearly issued by Cui Yu to the specific person in charge.

After the meeting, everyone accepted their orders and left in a hurry.

Only Cui Yu and Meng Yihe remained in the office.

A sense of fatigue crept in. Cui Yu loosened his tie, leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and rubbed his temples.

Meng Yihe looked at Cui Yu, then silently picked up a bottle of mineral water, unscrewed it, and gently placed it on the table in front of Cui Yu.

Cui Yu opened his eyes, saw the bottle of water, paused for a moment, and then a faint smile appeared on his lips.

"Thank you." He picked up his water bottle, took a sip, and then looked at Meng Yihe, his tone softening. "Was there anything I missed or anything you felt was inappropriate in the arrangements just now?"

Meng Yihe shook her head: "Very thorough. Should I speak to Director Wang in advance about things in the provincial capital? He had a good impression of the technical team I brought during the previous inspection."

He offered to use his network of connections.

Cui Yu's eyes brightened slightly, and he smiled, "Okay, it's most appropriate for you to make this call, but," he added, changing his tone, "just use the office's encrypted line. Don't mention any specific troubles, just catch up and express your concern for the project's progress."

Cui Yu continued to carefully filter out any factors that might pose a potential risk to Meng Yihe.

Meng Yihe glanced at him and nodded: "I know my limits."

For the next few days, the core floors of the headquarters building remained brightly lit.

Cui Yu and Meng Yihe entered a kind of wartime state, spending most of their time sharing Cui Yu's larger office for easy communication.

Cui Yu is mainly responsible for external communication, resource allocation, and strategic direction, much like a commander sitting firmly in the central command tent.

One conference call after another, he navigated the complexities of life with high-ranking officials in Linan Province, media moguls, and even higher-level regulatory bodies. His tone shifted between humble and assertive, demonstrating masterful use of language and negotiation skills.

Meng Yihe was the technical core of the entire operation. He was almost always on those screens, processing massive amounts of information at lightning speed.

A brief, impromptu meeting to discuss strategies for countering negative public opinion.

Xu Rui passionately elaborated on his meticulously prepared "cultural empowerment counterattack" plan, attempting to overwhelm his competitors from the perspective of brand value and industry responsibility, speaking with great enthusiasm.

Wu Hao frowned as he listened and couldn't help but interrupt him.

"Xu Rui, can you please put away your 'powered by love' theory? The key now is to show the market and regulators hard data and facts! Instead of all your sentimentality, you should calculate how much ROI we'll lose if the project is delayed by even one day!"

Xu Rui immediately retorted: "Wu Hao! That's pure utilitarianism! Brand image and value recognition are the real long-term competitive advantages! You don't understand!"

“I don’t understand? All I know is that if we don’t get the data straight and shut down the rumors, we won’t have a long-term future!” Wu Hao refused to back down.

The two were about to start arguing.

Without even looking up, Cui Yu, sitting in the main seat, quickly browsed through the public opinion report that Lin Xueyue had just sent, and casually said, "Extract the core spirit of Xu Rui's plan and incorporate it into the first draft of the statement summary, no more than two hundred words. Wu Hao, make the loss estimate you calculated into the simplest chart and attach it to the appendix at the end of the statement."

The seemingly opposing views of the two individuals were integrated into a more complete solution.

Xu Rui and Wu Hao were both speechless. They glared at each other but didn't say anything more, instead lowering their heads to quickly revise their parts.

After a while, Wu Hao seemed to encounter a data problem: "There's still a problem with the data matching; it just doesn't match up..."

Although Xu Rui had just been arguing with him, he subconsciously glanced at his screen and suddenly said, "Did you forget to filter out the redundant test data generated during last month's system maintenance? That part of the data has a different identifier."

Wu Hao was taken aback, then quickly fiddled with the controls for a few moments before realizing, "Oh! Right! I forgot about that! Thanks!"

Xu Rui snorted and raised his chin with a hint of smugness.

When the night is deep and quiet, only Cui Yu and Meng Yihe are usually left in the office. Cui Yu will forcibly stop working and push the late-night snacks brought by his assistant in front of Meng Yihe.

"Eat something, your stomach can't take any more trouble."

Sometimes it's warm porridge, sometimes it's light noodles.

Meng Yihe would initially refuse, but under Cui Yu's gaze, she would eventually silently accept the food and slowly finish it.

Thanks to the combined efforts of Cui Yu and Meng Yihe, and the tireless work of the entire team, the crisis at the Linnan project is finally showing signs of abating.

The dawn of victory is faintly in sight.

The official investigation team's attitude has become more objective, and public opinion has begun to shift in favor of Xinghuan's strong and well-founded counterattack. Significant progress has also been made in the data recovery work.

Just as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the most difficult phase was over, an undercurrent was quietly spreading through shady channels. It began in anonymous workplace gossip forums and small social media circles, with some veiled posts appearing.

Let's expose the "dark history" of the cold-faced director at a top tech company.

"I heard that the data from a certain bigwig surnamed M's early projects is so clean it's like it's been washed? Those in the know, please answer."

"A Rational Discussion: Is an Extremely Cold and Obsessive Personality a Mental Illness? Does It Affect Decision-Making?"

These posts were vague and did not name names, but the identifiable tags they used were enough for people in the industry to immediately identify Meng Yihe.

The so-called "dirt" inside doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

Most of them are conjectures such as "I heard it from a friend" or "it is said that back then", lacking any substantial evidence. However, their insidiousness lies in deliberately guiding readers to associate them with sensitive areas such as academic misconduct and psychological defects.

Cui Yu's surveillance network detected these weak but malicious signals almost immediately.

In the office.

Cui Yu stared at the public opinion briefing compiled by Lin Xueyue on the tablet screen, his eyes cold and a hint of undisguised contempt curling at the corner of his lips.

It's obvious who did it.

"Heh." Cui Yu chuckled and casually placed the tablet on the table.

"Ji Nan is really getting worse as she gets older; she even resorts to such underhanded methods." Cui Yu looked up at Meng Yihe, who was sitting opposite him, focused on analyzing the latest data report, and said with a hint of reassurance in her tone.

"A few mad dogs are barking online, their content is low-class and ridiculous, they won't cause any trouble. I've already asked my legal and public relations departments to handle it, they'll shut them down soon. You don't need to worry about this, don't let this trash affect your mood."

Cui Yu's first reaction was to isolate Meng Yihe, to prevent these filthy things from contaminating her.

Meng Yihe looked up from the screen, his brows furrowing almost imperceptibly. He had actually noticed his assistant quickly closing a webpage with an odd look in his eyes during the break, and he already had a guess. Hearing Cui Yu's words now confirmed it.

"About me?" Meng Yihe asked, her voice calm and devoid of emotion.

“Hmm.” Cui Yu observed his expression and added, “Some baseless slanders have already been dealt with.”

Meng Yihe's face showed an expression of absurdity: "Boring."

He commented, then lowered his head and refocused his attention on the data on the screen, as if he really didn't care about these rumors at all.

His reaction was actually within Cui Yu's expectations.

Meng Yihe is such a person.

They are strong-willed and confident, with absolute certainty about their professional abilities and moral integrity, and they disdain such low-level slander.

Looking at his aloof yet focused demeanor, Cui Yu felt the anger that had been stirred up by the rumors dissipate slightly.

However, he underestimated Ji Nan's disgusting nature and the uncontrollability of the spread of rumors.

Although Starworld's public relations department reacted quickly, deleting a large number of posts and issuing a stern lawyer's letter warning, curbing the large-scale spread of rumors in the open, these dark things are like cockroaches; once they appear, they are difficult to completely eradicate.

They moved to more secluded corners and became the subject of gossip among people.

"Hey, do you think someone like President Meng might actually have something going on... otherwise why would he be so cold?"

"I heard that when his project won the award, some competitors questioned the data, but nothing came of it later..."

"She's very capable, but with that kind of personality, she probably doesn't have many friends, right? Does she really have some kind of psychological problem?"

These whispers wouldn't cause Meng Yihe any real harm, but they buzzed around like flies. More importantly, they began to subtly influence how some uninformed outside collaborators viewed Meng Yihe.

Cui Yu keenly noticed this change.

During a video conference with a potential partner, the other party's representative made several tentative mentions of "team stability" and "the personal reputation of senior executives."

Although the wording was euphemistic, the intention was clear.

After the meeting, Cui Yu's face darkened. He turned off the camera and unconsciously tapped his fingers on the table.

Cui Yu knew that Ji Nan had partially achieved her goal.

She didn't expect to deliver a fatal blow with these rumors; she was just planting seeds of trouble, trying to gradually erode Meng Yihe's reputation, shake the outside world's trust in him, and ultimately affect Xinghuan's project.

He could easily extinguish the open flame, but he could hardly eliminate the smoke and dust in the shadows.

This annoyed him.

He picked up the internal phone and called Lin Xueyue, his voice icy: "The previous lawyer's letter wasn't strong enough. Find a few of the most vocal anonymous accounts, and by whatever means necessary, find them and make an example of them. Also, prepare a more detailed and positive publicity document about all of Director Meng's academic and professional achievements. I want everyone to see clearly what true strength and innocence are."

His methods began to shift from simple defense to more aggressive maintenance.

The first wave of baseless rumors was swiftly suppressed by Cui Yu.

Although the whispers in the shadows could not be completely eliminated, the open turmoil seemed to have subsided for the time being.

However, this calm did not last long.

After failing to strike once, Ji Nan immediately adjusted his strategy. He realized that to truly defeat the "Starry Twins," he had to target their core strength.

Several influential financial investigative media outlets received an anonymous "whistleblower email" almost simultaneously. The email contained several meticulously forged email screenshots and blurry screenshots of bank transaction records.

The screenshots show that Meng Yihe had close email correspondence with an expert who was controversial at the time but was later proven to have committed academic fraud and was expelled from the industry during a key award-winning project several years ago. Another vague transaction record suggests that Meng Yihe received several consulting fees from unknown sources at that time.

The forgery techniques are so sophisticated that it is almost impossible to immediately distinguish between genuine and fake without careful examination by a top-notch technical team.

These words were far more damaging than the previous character attacks, directly shaking the very foundation of Meng Yihe's position—his professionalism and innocence.

office.

When Cui Yu saw the briefing that Lin Xueyue had sent again, which included pictures of "evidence," the atmosphere around him instantly turned cold, and his eyes became as cold as the Siberian permafrost.