Chapter 113 Let the Bullets Fly a Little Longer
A soft massage bed, warm essential oils, and a drowsy aromatherapy scent filling the air.
Ruan Yao lay on the bed, feeling like a lump of dough being kneaded, every muscle relaxing, so comfortable that even her toes curled up.
The professional therapist applied pressure with just the right amount of lightness and heaviness, gently pressing on her neck and shoulders, which had been tense all morning.
She buried her face in the soft towel, and the thoughts in her mind about the project, data, and launch were gradually dispelled by the warm fragrance.
Huo Yanzhi is right.
When you're on vacation, you should act like you're on vacation.
Work is never-ending, but every moment spent together is incredibly precious.
She was thinking in a daze, and the corners of her lips unconsciously curved up.
"I'm going to the restroom."
Huo Yanzhi's voice rang in my ears.
Ruan Yao grunted an "Mmm," not even bothering to lift her eyelids, and waved her hand to indicate that she understood.
The footsteps faded away, and the door was gently closed.
Huo Yanzhi walked into the adjacent lounge and locked the door behind him.
He took out the miniature Bluetooth headset from his pocket, put it on, and connected it to his already silent phone. The screen lit up instantly, and Huo Jing's video call request popped up immediately.
He answered the call, and Huo Jing's anxious face immediately appeared on the screen.
“Creative Toys has gone mad.” Huo Jing’s voice was low, but she spoke very quickly, revealing immense pressure. “They not only plagiarized, but also bribed online trolls. Now all social media platforms are accusing us of ‘opportunistic marketing’ by using similar designs to piggyback on the popularity of their new products.”
"Lexingdao's official website server was maliciously attacked and temporarily paralyzed. Our pre-launch topic square was completely disrupted, filled with smear articles and negative comments, and our reputation has collapsed!"
Huo Yanzhi listened expressionlessly, his slender fingers swiping across the screen as he watched the real-time public opinion monitoring data sent by Qin Feng. The red curve representing negative comments was climbing at an alarming angle.
"What's most infuriating is that the evidence they used were those sketches that Yao Yao posted on her personal account for concept testing!" Huo Jing's chest heaved with anger. "They're twisting the truth, saying that those were their long-abandoned initial designs, and that Yao Yao, a newcomer to the industry, stole their ideas!"
Huo Jing took a deep breath, as if she remembered something, and quickly added, "But Yanzhi, there's something you might not know. Yaoyao had a backup plan to guard against Zhao Yan."
"She was worried about data leakage, so in the final plan submitted to the production line, she made a minor anti-counterfeiting adjustment to one of the core accessories and encrypted it into a version B. She communicated with the production department and all production was based on version B."
"In other words, what Creative Arts stole was the A version of the plan that had already been scrapped internally!"
Huo Jing recounted Ruan Yao's predictions and responses in detail, her tone carrying a subtle hint of appreciation.
A hint of gentleness and pride, which even he himself did not notice, flashed across Huo Yanzhi's eyes.
His girl was never a delicate flower that could only be raised in a greenhouse.
"Since that's the case," he finally spoke, his voice calm and devoid of any warmth, "then the public relations department should refrain from making any response for the time being."
"What?" Huo Jing thought she had misheard. "Not responding? They're practically tearing us apart with insults right now!"
"Let them rant." Huo Yanzhi looked at the vile comments on the screen and said calmly, "Push the negative public opinion to its highest point, the higher the better."
Huo Jing was stunned.
She instantly understood Huo Yanzhi's intention.
The strategy is to first criticize before praising.
He wanted to make Creative Toys fall hard from the clouds at its most glorious and triumphant moment, shattering it into pieces.
"I understand." Huo Jing immediately calmed down. "I'll make the arrangements."
“In addition,” Huo Yanzhi added, “launch an internal investigation and find out who the real culprit is.”
"good."
The call has ended.
Huo Yanzhi deleted all call logs and messages expressionlessly, took off his earphones, and put them back in his pocket.
When he pushed open the door to the SPA treatment room again, all the sharpness and coldness on his face had disappeared, and he had returned to being the gentle and considerate husband.
The masseuse left sometime during the night, and Ruan Yao was almost asleep, feeling limp all over.
Huo Yanzhi walked over, bent down, and placed a light kiss on her smooth forehead.
"Is it comfortable?"
Ruan Yao snuggled against him, like a cat whose fur had been stroked, and hummed contentedly, completely unaware of the bloody storm raging outside that had already reached her eyebrows.
Just as she fell asleep, an encrypted email was sent from Qin Feng's email address to Huo Yanzhi's phone.
[Zhao Yan, senior planner of the Lexingdao project department. Last Wednesday afternoon at 4 PM, he left the company with a USB drive containing core data from the 'Summer Wonderland' project. That evening, his personal account received an anonymous transfer of 500,000 yuan. Investigation revealed that he had frequent private contact with Wang Hai, CEO of Chuangyi Toys.]
Huo Yanzhi's fingertip lightly slid across the screen, and the information disappeared.
He raised his hand and gently brushed away the stray hairs from Ruan Yao's cheek, as if what he had just seen was just an insignificant spam text message.
*
Four o'clock in the afternoon.
The business district in northern Beijing has been completely ignited by the plagiarism scandal involving Creative Toys and Lexingdao.
Creative Toys' stock price defied the trend and surged dramatically within just a few hours of the release of its new product, "Summer Fantasy."
Its head, Fatty Wang, was in high spirits and held an emergency press conference to give a public interview.
Sitting under the spotlight, he arrogantly implied that Lexingdao, as a new brand, was too eager to succeed and resorted to such low-level tactics of "imitation" and "opportunism" to gain attention.
"We at Creative Toys have always upheld the spirit of originality," Fatty Wang said righteously to the camera. "We strongly condemn this unethical practice in the industry and reserve the right to pursue legal action against those responsible!"
His words undoubtedly added fuel to the fire of this public opinion storm.
Online, netizens who were unaware of the truth were completely enraged and flooded the already paralyzed official website of Lexingdao and its few official Weibo posts, using the most vicious language to insult and condemn it.
[Support Creative Design's rights! Plagiarists, get out of the design industry!]
Where is that designer surnamed Ruan? Is he afraid to admit his mistakes? Is he hiding away like a coward?
[I heard he's related to the Huo family. Ha, money really can buy anything.]
[Lexingdao is a total blacklist! Garbage company!]
The hashtag #LexingdaoGetOutOfTheTrendyToyCircle# has topped the trending searches.
At the celebration banquet for Creative Toys, glasses clinked, and everyone's face was filled with the joy of victory.
"President Wang is brilliant!" A senior executive raised his wine glass, his face full of flattery. "This move is a fatal blow, not only stealing their market share but also completely ruining their reputation! This time, Lexing Island is likely to suffer a major setback!"
Surrounded by the crowd, Zhao Yan was enjoying unprecedented praise and flattery, and he felt quite elated.
He looked at the comments on his phone that were insulting Ruan Yao and Lexing Island, and his smile grew even more smug.
So what if she's just a young girl with the Huo family backing her up?
They were still being manipulated by him.
Just as the celebratory champagne for Creative Toys was being opened, and Fatty Wang was about to give his victory speech...
The official Weibo account of Lexingdao, which had been completely silent, suddenly updated with a new post without any warning.
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