Chapter 188 - 122: Zhao Han: You Slander Yourself, and I’m Worried to Death?

Chapter 188: Chapter 122: Zhao Han: You Slander Yourself, and I’m Worried to Death?

It wasn’t just the ever-vocal online bloggers who were paying attention to this matter. In You City, officials like Liu County and Zhao Han, who kept a close eye on Li Yuan Farm, had also seen the news.

Liu County grew anxious the moment he saw the news and immediately called Zhao Han. "Why is Li Yuan Farm suddenly making cosmetics?"

"I don’t know either. I haven’t heard anything. I’ll ask Boss Zhang about it right away," Zhao Han said sheepishly. He could tell Liu County was very anxious.

Besides, he was anxious too.

’The farm was doing so well,’ he thought. ’Isn’t it good for Boss Zhang to develop new projects? If there were any difficulties, the county would have given its full support. Why on earth did he suddenly start making moisturizing cream?’

Seeing all the posts online, he couldn’t help but feel that Boss Zhang’s moisturizing cream seemed a bit unreliable.

But his faith in Boss Zhang made him feel the man wasn’t irrational. ’He must have a reason for making this moisturizing cream.’

So, he immediately found Boss Zhang’s number and dialed it.

In the operations department, Zhang Lin simply smiled as he watched the increasingly negative buzz surrounding Li Yuan Farm’s moisturizing cream.

’Everything is going according to plan.’

When he received Zhao Han’s call, he guessed the reason. He answered, and heard the bureau chief’s voice. "Boss Zhang, why has your farm suddenly started making moisturizing cream?"

Zhang Lin laughed and said, "Bureau Chief Zhao, you must have seen the news online, right? Don’t worry, it’s all part of my plan. By the way, give me an address. I’ll have someone send a box of moisturizing cream over for your wife to try."

After hanging up, he immediately called for Liu De and had him deliver the moisturizing cream.

After hanging up with Zhang Lin, Zhao Han went straight out of his residential complex to wait. He knew it wouldn’t be that fast, but he was on edge. His entire future career depended on Li Yuan Farm.

Before long, he saw Liu De. Having been to the farm so many times, he remembered President Zhang’s employee and immediately went to greet him.

After taking the moisturizing cream, he hurried home. Seeing his wife with a face mask on, he handed the cream to her. "Honey, hurry and try this moisturizing cream. It’s very important!"

Seeing how serious he was, his wife quickly took off her mask and went into the bathroom to try it. A moment later, she ran out in astonishment. "Honey, where did you buy this moisturizing cream? The effect is amazing! I feel like none of the brands on the market can compare to this."

"Really?" Zhao Han asked urgently.

"Why would I need to lie to you about this?" his wife said.

"So that’s how it is." A look of delight instantly appeared on Zhao Han’s face. ’I knew Boss Zhang wasn’t an irrational person.’

It turned out the moisturizing cream he created was actually this effective. That was probably why he decided to make it in the first place.

’Then there’s no problem.’

With that thought, he immediately called Liu County. As soon as the call connected, he reported, "County Head Liu, I’ve figured it out. The stuff online is purely to slander Li Yuan Farm. The moisturizing cream Boss Zhang made is incredibly effective. My wife just used it!"

"Really?" Liu County was skeptical.

"I’ll bring it over to you right away. You’ll know once your wife tries it," Zhao Han said without hesitation. He took the moisturizing cream from his wife and headed out the door.

A short while later, Zhang Lin, back in the farm’s operations department, received another call from Zhao Han.

As soon as the call connected, Zhao Han’s voice came through. "Boss Zhang, County Head Liu and I are now aware of how effective your moisturizing cream is. The negative buzz about Li Yuan Farm online is so high right now. Should we issue a public clarification? The county can help put out a statement."

"Don’t!" Zhang Lin hurriedly stopped him upon hearing this. He didn’t hide the truth, revealing, "Bureau Chief Zhao, I won’t hide it from you. We actually created this negative publicity ourselves. We’re slandering our own farm, and our confidence comes from the effectiveness of our moisturizing cream!"

On the other end, Zhao Han had the call on speakerphone.

Next to him was Liu County.

Both men were clearly stunned by Zhang Lin’s words. They subconsciously glanced at each other. ’What the hell?’

They had seen the news online and been worried sick that the tourists at Li Yuan Farm would be affected. Who would have thought this whole drama was directed and staged by Boss Zhang himself?

Neither of them was a fool; they instantly understood Boss Zhang’s intentions.

With Zhang Lin not responding, especially after the 8:00 PM primetime slot had passed without a peep, the online bloggers who were waiting with bated breath could wait no longer. They all rushed to sink their teeth into this wave of hype.

’Li Yuan Farm still hasn’t done any PR after all this time. It must be just as Lili Fragrance said—there really is a problem.’

’Since Lili Fragrance is representing justice, we have to hurry up and cash in on this trend.’

Overnight, by the next day, everyone from cosmetics bloggers to incident commentary bloggers like a certain "Xuesong" or "Host Zhe" were questioning Li Yuan Farm. The slander against the farm’s moisturizing cream reached its peak. Naturally, the hype was so huge it dominated three trending topics:

"Lili Fragrance Criticizes Li Yuan Farm for Ripping Off Customers!"

"Zhao Lili Slams Li Yuan Farm for Its Utter Lack of Common Sense!"

"Li Yuan Farm Might Suffer a Major Setback with Its Moisturizing Cream Because of Zhao Lili!"

These three major trending topics also brought Zhao Lili immense popularity. When she arrived at her studio, her strategist reported excitedly, "Lili, your popularity is at an all-time high, and your follower count is growing. We made the right move."

"Good work," Zhao Lili said with a beaming smile, but then she suddenly rubbed her right eye. "Strange, my right eye suddenly won’t stop twitching!"

The strategist immediately laughed. "A twitching right eye means wealth is on the way! It just means your status is about to skyrocket. And with that comes money, right?"

Zhao Lili agreed, and her face lit up with a smile.

Li Yuan Farm’s moisturizing cream was indeed being slandered to the extreme online. But sometimes, the more a product is vilified, the more curious people become about just how terrible it truly is.

This was the case for many tourists visiting Li Yuan Farm.

This was especially true for the tourists who became "lucky winners." They wanted to attend the product trial to see for themselves just how bad Li Yuan Farm’s moisturizing cream was.

Zhao Qing was one of them.

She had come with her boyfriend, and who would have guessed that when he picked up the tickets and scanned the code, she actually became a lucky tourist, eligible to attend Li Yuan Farm’s product trial and try the moisturizing cream.

Following the directions, Zhao Qing soon entered a spacious office area in Li Yuan Farm’s administration building. It had already been arranged into a very unique and distinctive event venue.

Her boyfriend, however, could only wait outside.

When Zhao Qing entered the venue, she saw that many female tourists had already gathered. She even noticed some cosmetics influencers among them.

She had seen these people on her social media feed; a few of them seemed to be quite famous cosmetics bloggers.

That’s right. The major cosmetics influencers who had originally received invitations from Li Yuan Farm had either politely declined or simply ignored them.

But after last night, seeing how massive the hype had become, they had all rushed over.

After all, the situation was different now. The hype was at its peak, and crucially, they were coming under the pretext of "criticizing," "verifying the truth," and "satisfying their fans’ curiosity." Their reputations wouldn’t suffer even if Li Yuan Farm’s product turned out to be terrible.

At that moment, these influencers had already started their livestreams, clearly intending to cash in on the hype and earn some extra income.

When the product trial began, Zhao Qing saw the beautiful female director of Li Yuan Farm emerge, followed by a line of young women pushing carts loaded with boxes of moisturizing cream.

This director was also quite famous online now. Thanks to Li Yuan Farm’s popularity, many people knew of her, and they especially knew about the "spicy dance" video she posted that was immediately banned by the platform. Some pervs had even given her the title "Spicy Dance Goddess."

Naturally, Zhao Qing’s attention was also quickly drawn to the boxes of moisturizing cream.

That was what she was here for.

The invited cosmetics bloggers did the same, pointing their livestream cameras at the moisturizing cream.

Meanwhile, in Lili’s studio, Zhao Lili and her strategist were also watching a cosmetics blogger’s livestream.

She had become the main figure in this whole affair, and Li Yuan Farm’s product trial had made her unable to resist peeking in. She would only be at ease once she saw with her own eyes that Li Yuan Farm’s moisturizing cream was proven to be ineffective.

The strategist next to her took a document from an employee and teased, "Lili, quite a few influencers showed up. At first, some of them were as concerned about their status as you were, but now they don’t mind eating your dust to get a piece of this traffic. Still, no matter what they do, they can’t possibly gain as much from this as you have."

Zhao Lili nodded. "This time, I’ll really pull ahead of them."

As she spoke, she handed another document to the strategist. "This is the application I wrote for the International Cosmetics and Fashion Convention. Take a picture of it for me and submit it online!"

"Alright!" The strategist nodded.

Just then, peeking through the blogger’s livestream, Zhao Lili could see that the Li Yuan Farm product trial was beginning.