Chapter 26 - Becoming a Spokesperson

[I had planned on saving up three months' salary to buy their cheapest ring in order to help JiangJiang with his sales. How come I suddenly have this urge to buy this same pair of earrings? My ears aren't even pierced!]

[The watch she was wearing looks great too. Oh, my lord. I want all of them!]

[How much will this entire set cost?]

[Truth be told, she is quite pretty. She looked every bit as attractive as the first-tier actresses when she walked into the venue.]

Under the support of hardcore fans and passersby, there were still black fans that tirelessly sing the opposite tune:

[I am sure Brand B is going to go belly up. Those who own their stocks should sell them all now. Hiring Xu WanZhi will surely bring their company down.]

But as soon as comments like that appeared, they'd be attacked by the fans right away:

[Who was the one who said they are going to eat a keyboard if Xu WanZhi got the role? They haven't streamed it live yet. Perhaps you can go and join them on that?]

On her way back home from work, Xu WanZhi sat in the car and watched satisfyingly as her number of fans increased rapidly. Her Wechat, too, was exploding with messages. All of them her colleagues in the field congratulating her.

It is human nature to ingratiate oneself with influential people. Even the few actresses who had been closed to Chang XiaoYa sent her congratulatory messages and tried all different means to get her attention and brown nose her.

Amidst all of the messages, only one of them caught her attention.

The message was from someone by the name of Xu Tian, the birth father of original owner.

"WanZhi, I heard that you've earned a pretty decent role as a spokesperson. You are your father's daughter."

From original owner's memory, her birth father Xu Tian was more or less a scum. The Xu's had been businessmen for generations. All the way until his generation and he had picked up gambling. He had lost all of the family's fortune and, for a very long time, it was original owner's mother who was feeding and clothing everyone.

Original owner's mother was a tailor of traditional cheongsam. She was a virtuous and competent woman. She had given all the money that she earned from making cheongsam to Xu Tian for him to restart their business.

Yet Xu Tian had became an alcoholic.

Every time that things didn't go well during the day, he'd go get a drink. When he came home drunk, he'd beat up his wife. Finally, this virtuous woman couldn't take it anymore and lost her mind. She was sent to a mental institution and finally died a tragic death there.

Xu Tian didn't feel much sadness over his wife's death. He was like a cold-blooded animal. He has sunk into the ever-changing business world and only wanted to raise his daughter up to be his right-hand person. Which also made Xu WanZhi, who only wanted to attend film academy, a thorn on his side.

He refused to let his daughter head down the entertainment circle path so he starved the original owner and refused to pay for her tuition.

It was under pressure like this from her family that the original owner developed the idea to marry into the prestigious family at any cost so she could come out from under the Xu's influence.

Recently, Xu Tian's business had not been going well so, when he saw that his daughter has been going up and up in the entertainment circle, he came running back to her, hoping that she could help him with a round of investment.

What a thought.

Xu WanZhi sneered. She clicked open Xu Tian's Weibo and blocked and removed him.

When she returned to the Wechat screen, she suddenly spotted Mu ZhenYu's name. The gold master who offered her $50 million yuan right off the bat took the top spot on her list of contact.

It had been much easier to stroke her gold master's fur as of late – the other night, he complained that she wouldn't talk to him much but she'd listen to Jiang YueXian rambling on. And the last time when it rained, he worried that she was afraid of thunders and pro-actively wrapped his arms around her.

Now that she had taken the role as the spokesperson, should she send him a message and inform him of it right away?

She took a screen shot of the official announcement and clicked into Wechat. But before she clicked send, she went over to check the time.

If he was in Italy, he just might be having dinner with others. Its probably best for her to not disturb him.

Xu WanZhi put down her cellphone and closed her eyes to take a break in the car.

Over in Italy, Mu ZhenYu was sitting in an old-style conference room and listening to a blonde-haired and blue-eyed European man reporting to him in his not-so-good Chinese.

Mu ZhenYu was toying mindlessly with his cellphone and up on the screen was the marketing photo of Xu WanZhi for Brand B that was just pushed to him via Weibo.

Xu WanZhi in the picture was looking straight at the camera. There were love in her beautiful eyes and she was stunningly beautiful.

He reminded him of the countless times when she had gazed at him. Being looked at by that pair of eyes could make one feel weak and tingly immediately.

He touched her eyes through the screen and thought to himself: Just what kind of thoughts does she have beneath those eyes.

He suddenly felt that he started caring about her. The kind of care that was mixed with some controlling and some peeping tom aspects and some other emotions that was out of his control. It was enough to make him lose his concentration at work.

He shouldn't have feelings like that toward her, but why was it that he felt so irritated?

He had hugged over during the nights of thunderstorms… he wondered what she thought of that.

Ironically, did it even matter what she thought of him? They would be strangers again in 6 months' time.

He meant to make himself feel better by thinking that there was an end to all this. So why was it that he was getting progressively more unhappy the more he thought about it?

He pulled a cigarette out and lit it up before he looked up to the Italian man and said to him in his perfect Italian, "Why don't you carry on in your mother tongue?"

Two days later, all the netizens whose jealousy was rearing its ugly head was still dissing Xu WanZhi on all the major forums.

"What is wrong with all these black fans to need to scream and shout all over the place just because their idols didn't get the spot of the spokesperson," said Xiao Yuan as she flipped through her cellphone with a pout and an unhappy look. "It's not like if they diss you hard enough they'd be able to take the spokesperson's job from you."

"The fans are nothing but weapons. They are only dissing me because the one responsible pointed them at me. My spokesperson's fees don't come out of their pocket. What are they getting off on?" said Xu WanZhi as she casually played with her own nails. "Did you not see those feel big sisters who wished they could burn holes on me with their eyes?"

"WanZhi-jie, the faceslapping moment is here," said Xiao Yan as she leaned over and hunched over the laptop computer. "Brand B had just announced their sales report from Fifth Avenue in the near 48 hours since you had become their new spokesperson. Their sales had gone up by 8% with the set that you wore being the most popular. The earrings were already sold out."

Xu WanZhi stuck her head over and took a look. The data came from Brand B so they were very reliable.

She tapped on the laptop screen and said, "Find a couple paid site and have them repost it. Then contact Fang-jie and have her pay for most trended search – make sure we get into top 3."

"Okay!" Xiao Yuan snapped her finger, downloaded the sales report, and emailed it directly to the marketing department.

Two hours later, #Brand B and Xu WanZhi worked hand in hand and sales shot up# became the most searched terms on Weibo.

As the most luxurious jewelry brand in the world, Brand B's sales amount was closely tied to economic level. A brand like this almost had nothing to do with your everyday person. Their demographic was defined as the top 5% on the financial pyramid.

To be able to gain 8% increase in sale volume given that was almost an impossible mission.

Yet the truth was laying right out there in front of everyone's eyes. Ever since Xu WanZhi had joined the big family of spokesperson, the impossible mission had been accomplished

Many of Jiang YueXian's fans had long been Xu WanZhi's enemies and insisted that the increase in sales attributed to Jiang YueXian. Yet, per the sales report, it was specified the bolded part that the styles that were in photographed in Xu WanZhi's promotional photo were the ones that sales had gone up. There was almost no change in men's wristwatch.

The data said it all.

After the searched term had been up for a while, a few overseas media that have Weibo accounts also reposted the news. A well-known fashion magazine went as far as to say, "Miss Xu WanZhi's understanding of fashion is ahead of her time and her compatibility with Brand B's designers was from the level of the souls. Coming from Asia, she has a pair of mystical and profound eyes. Much like Mona Lisa, her smile would capture anyone who sees it. Through a wordless mean, she conveys the message that Brand B's jewelries are the best to the entire world. Up until the point that Miss Xu has become Brand B's spokesperson, she had never stepped foot in the fashion field. Brand B, however, was able to discover this diamond in the rough. And now, she had repaid the opportunity that was provided to her with her superb commercial value. She was able to bring consumers' desire for Brand B's product to a level that had never been seen before. We trust that Miss Xu would become the favorite of all luxurious brands world-wide in the future."

Under the big data, the trolls started their activities:

[Xu WanZhi could finally change her title as the Queen of Negative Publicity now – to PR Princess.]

[Xu WanZhi's PR company must have a lot of money. It's unbelievable that they could bribe an account like that. Will they be able to make back the astronomical PR fees that they have spent?]

[I've heard that she had leeched onto so rich man and is now a stockholder of her own agency. She probably spent all the budget that was meant for everyone on herself.]

There were a few of these absolutely absurd comments, but they were far and in between. Mainly they were just trolls who couldn't think of anything else to say. The technology department, nevertheless, had done some digging and learned that all the aliases that defamed her were secondary accounts of fans of a certain film empress with the surname Shen. Xu WanZhi couldn't care less and had no intention of paying it any attention at all.

Low and behold, the fashion magazine spoke up themselves and posted a second message on Weibo. "Our magazine had always provided the most professional analysis. Back in 2018, an actress reached out to us and offered us a large sum to use her as our cover in the hope of becoming the spokesperson for Brand L's newest purse. We had declined her request. We hope that those with no knowledge of the interworking would stop spreading untrue rumors; otherwise, our magazine will take legal actions in defending our reputation."

On the bottom, there was a screen shot of an email. The PR's tone was so humble that they were at the level of dirt. And "JS", the signature in the mail, after much analysis was determined to be the abbreviation of a certain film empress with the surname Shen.

Such was the attitude of an oversea media. They hit the nail right on its head.

Xu WanZhi immediately asked Fang Lin to call and express their appreciation – after all, she had just got on this path and it was necessary to maintain good relationships with the media.

Instantly, the title "PR Princess" went right back to the troll's own Mistress: Alright, so you said other's PR was groveling. Now the truth about what you have done had been dug up.

Xu WanZhi rose up aggressively, slicing straight through any sort of hinderance, and now she had even received support from an oversea media. This incident was, doubtless, a good warning for the others and many of the trolls no longer dare to follow suit.

With the incident of breaking into the fashion realm, the popularity of "Blossoming Us" had also shot up by a big margin. Even though it was just going to be a web series, but the number of people who mark it as "want to watch" exceeded three other TV shows that were led by first-tier actors and actresses and quickly became the most anticipated show for the fall season.

After the bashing had calmed down, Xu WanZhi even went over to take a look under Jiang YueXian's Weibo.

Over on film emperor Jiang YueXian's side, it was obvious that he had been reining in his fans to not let them cause trouble under her Weibo.

Just as he had said, love is sacrificing, not possession. Had he really changed so drastically?

After the filming was over, she told Xiao Yan. "Open up a few Weibo accounts today and follow some cute pet accounts for a couple of days. We have no filming in the morning two days from now. Bring the cameraman with you to my place to take pictures of my fox."

Xiao Yuan became very excited after she heard that. "Fox? Your baby fox? We are going to have a specific account just for your baby fox? Awesome! Wanzhi-jie, you are finally going to go down the path of clearing your name!"

"Yup." Xu WanZhi nodded. "It's time to start closing in the net."

A week later, several cute pet accounts simultaneously reposted the new "AiAi Fox"'s first Weibo:

"Baby fox is like a little princess. They must wear the prettiest dress and have on the prettiest blush!"

Along with the post were three animated gif. In the first one was the picture of a little fox with the blush filter on. A large hand handed over a pastel color dress in front of her and the fox, her eyes squinted, with the smile like look, docilely reached out her left paw. When the left side was done, she reached out her right paw as though she could comprehend what was going on.

After she had on the pretty lacey dress, she leapt onto the table, cocked her little head and posed for the picture.

In the second gif, the cameraman couldn't help himself but reached out his dark and large hand to touch her little ear. The fox, on the other hand, leapt up, arched her back and stuck her tail way up in the air and gave him the I-am-going-to-rip-you-to-pieces vicious beast look.

In the third one, the cameraman had retrieved his hand and the baby fox squatted back docilely and licked her little nose.

The caption underneath it was, "I am a vicious beast with no emotions. Don't cross me. Don't even think about it!"

A few of the major Weibo accounts had quite a few active fans who looked at cats or hamsters' pictures on Weibo every day. Seeing an unusual little baby fox made them go nuts.

[Vicious beast with no emotions? Are you kidding? It is sooooo cute!]

[Oh, mi lord. Where did this tsundere little princess come from? I love her!]

[Wait, wait – This is the same little baby fox that Jiang YueXian had asked the entire web to look for him, right? Right?]

[Yeah! Judging by its size and coloring. It's the exactly same one that Jiang YueXian was looking for! @JiangJiang, hurry up to look at the fox!]

[I want to buy it the prettiest of all dresses and add the cutest filter on it!!]

[I am going to die!! Gimme more!!]

[Mommy! I am going to go buy a fox right now and see when will it turn into a demon!]

Jiang YueXian, when he caught wind of it, went looking for it on Weibo right away and saved each of the pictures one by one. Contented, he sank into his own couch and registered for a secondary Weibo account and quietly followed the Weibo account and added a comment: Must continue to remind self. Love is sacrifice. Do not even bring tens of millions of fans to harass someone!

A few days later, Xu WanZhi received a call from Mu ZhenYu – that was about to return from Italy.

It had been over ten days since they had last spoken with each other. As soon as she picked up the phone, he said to her in a commanding tone, "Xu WanZhi, my flight will be landing at 10 AM. You need to come and pick me up."

Xu WanZhi wasn't sure what she should make of that. "Why me?"

His answer was simple. "I don't have a car."

Xu WanZhi, "No worries. I have $8 million. I can buy you one."