Chapter 77: The Fake Hero

While Zhong Dajun was busy writing his manuscript at home, his opponent Xie Liang was also busy writing his.

However, unlike Zhong Dajun's purpose of portraying Chen Yingxiong as someone who could save the image of Chinese football and bring psychological comfort to hundreds of millions of Chinese fans, his purpose was very simple: to discredit this guy who dared not give him face!

Zhong Dajun was a famous local football reporter, and so was Xie Liang.

Moreover, he was not only a football reporter but also a celebrity in the local cultural circle. He often hung out with a group of artists and writers and considered himself a cultural icon, not just a simple football reporter.

He not only wrote football reports but also published books and poems and opened a blog online to comment on current affairs. He was quite popular.

Such people were extremely skilled in writing and had a considerable number of fans. The power they possessed should not be underestimated.

So he could almost do whatever he wanted in the local area, and few people dared to offend him.

But Chen Yingxiong happened to offend him that day.

Xie Liang was very talented. He could make a particularly boring thing very interesting, which made people admire him and say, "This guy is really talented!"

His writing was witty and humorous, and it felt like laughter, anger, and insults were all part of the article.

He knew that doing so would please readers.

When he explained something clearly in a straightforward manner, he thought that it was expository writing. He preferred twisting the angle to analyze the matter more abstractly.

Today, he would use this sharp pen and words that could be used to make articles full of laughter, anger, and insults to expose Chen Yingxiong, the big liar hiding among the people!

"…Some people think that if they pay a foreigner to wear sunglasses and keep silent, they will be mistaken for Keanu Reeves. In fact, in front of the broad masses of people who have rubbed their eyes, he is nothing more than the King of the Black Asshole Empire - forgive me for swearing, because in the face of such a liar, I can't help but express my indignation in this way!"

"…swindlers always think that our IQ is very low, and then use their clumsy lies to deceive us… But please, this is the 21st century, the Internet is popular, information is developed, and communication is exploding. What can be hidden from people? This guy claims to be a Chinese player playing in the Russian league. Some time ago, the search for 'Hero Chen' on the Internet was very popular, but in the end, there was no result. Now someone is trying to take advantage of the situation and sell dog meat under the guise of sheep meat, pretending to be the Imperial Japanese Army… This trick is really clumsy, but we must think about what is behind it? What makes these scammers feel confident? Isn't it the terrible state of Chinese football? Poor Chinese fans have tried all kinds of methods to help these idiots survive. Anyway, there is no TV station in China that broadcasts the Russian league, so you have to believe whatever he says! Do you think we have no place to check? Otherwise, why doesn't he say that he plays in the top five leagues? Doesn't that sound more impressive than playing in the Russian league? In fact, he didn't say that because the liar knows that our understanding of the top five leagues is even greater than our understanding of our own national leagues. If he said that he was from the top five leagues, he would be exposed immediately… It shows that the liar still has a minimum IQ…"

Some readers were reading this article with great interest while holding the Jinguan Express.

In fact, many people didn't know who the scammer was, and who the "Hero Chen" was. Although the Shuxi Metropolitan Daily reported it before, who cared about that?

Everyone went there for the name Xie Liang. Xie Liang's articles were interesting, and many people felt refreshed by the jokes and insults.

However, after reading the article, everyone would naturally wonder who was the liar that Xie Liang could scold so happily?

It just so happened that newsstands always put the Jinguan Express and Shuxi Metropolitan News together… and today the two seemed to be competing with each other. The Jinguan Express showed an article written by Xie Liang, and the Shuxi Metropolitan News used a whole page to report on Chen Yingxiong's glorious deeds in Russia.

When everyone made the comparison… they realized that the person Xie Liang scolded was the one Shuxi praised!

Interesting! I have to find out… What's going on with these two today?

"Hey, have you heard? A guy who plays in some Russian league suddenly appeared in Chengdu. He's awesome! He scored ten goals in eleven league games!"

"Tsk, Xie Dazui just wrote an article to scold him today…"

"Ah? Why is he cursing?"

"A liar!"

"A liar? Of course not. The Shuxi Metropolitan Newspaper has a whole page reporting on him. There are also screenshots of the official website of the Russian club. It looks like the same person in the photo…"

"Huh? Really? Show it to me!"

…

On Zhong Dajun's desk was a copy of Shuxi Metropolitan Newspaper, which had just been published that day, and in his hand was a copy of their nemesis Jinguan Express. He was reading Xie Liang's article titled "The Fake Hero".

He didn't get angrier the more he read. Instead, he wanted to laugh more and more. In the end, he simply couldn't help it. When he saw "…this fake hero has a vulgar name of Hero, I think it's better to call him a fake big liar, it's more appropriate!", he laughed loudly in the office, causing everyone around him to look up at him, confused, not knowing what their reporter Zhong was laughing at.

Zhong Dajun smiled proudly.

Of course, he was very proud. When he was writing the article the previous day, he thought of this flaw - he just listened to Chen Yingxiong's endless speech for two hours and decided to publish these articles. If he was asked "Why do you trust him so much? You just write whatever he says", he would be dumbfounded.

After all, Chen Yingxiong's story was too bizarre… Anyone who likes to make up stories can make one, but it just doesn't seem like real life.

In order to shut up all those who doubted and tell them that this was the fact, he specifically went online and pulled down photos of Chen Yingxiong from Zenit's official website.

Then he put it together with the photos he took the previous day, and told the readers - whether it was fake or not, you could compare it yourself. It was useless for him to tell you, don't believe his words, believe your own eyes!

It's absolutely flawless, and there are photos to prove it. Who can say he is a fake?

I guessed that the idiot who asked for money yesterday was you, idiot!

I knew that a petty-minded man like you would do something weird!

I'm waiting for you!

Both Zhong Dajun and Xie Liang were famous sports reporters, and they worked for enemy units. In addition, Zhong Dajun had always disliked Xie Liang's love of showing off, so they had a personal grudge against each other for a long time.

Your child is jumping around now. The more happily he jumps, the more miserable his death will be when the time comes!

Let's see who's better. Your eloquence or my truth!

…

After the interview ended the previous day, Zhong Dajun patted his chest and assured Chen Yingxiong that the news about Chen Yingxiong would definitely be on the front page the next day, which was Monday. In addition, there would be another full page to report on this matter. Because there was too much material, maybe two issues would be needed.

We must promote Chen Yingxiong!

So early Monday morning, Chen Yingxiong strolled out to the Hongqi Supermarket at the entrance of the community to buy a newspaper.

As expected, he saw his name and photo on the front page of Shuxi Metropolitan Daily. He was delighted and paid for it.

Just as he was about to leave, he saw the Jinguan Express next to the Shuxi Metropolitan Daily.

He thought of the reporter who had asked for a red envelope yesterday. Would this guy say anything bad about him in the newspaper?

So he took out some money and bought a copy of Jinguan Kuaibao and went back to read it.

When he got home, he opened the Shuxi Metropolitan Daily first. As expected, Zhong Dajun had not lied to him. The entire page was dedicated to his report!

This made him feel so refreshed that his whole body felt relaxed, and he couldn't help laughing out loud.

Dracula was flipping through the Jinguan Express nearby, and then he handed the newspaper to Chen Yingxiong who was laughing.

"What?" Chen Yingxiong didn't understand.

"Someone called you a fake," Dracula said calmly, as if the matter had nothing to do with him.

"Ah?" Chen Yingxiong took the newspaper and read it for only half a minute before he slammed it on the table. "Fuck his ancestors!"

Xie Liang described Chen Yingxiong in an extremely bad light in his article. According to him Chen Yingxiong was simply a clumsy and failed liar! He also made fun of his name.

Chen Yingxiong had always liked the name his father gave him, but today he was ridiculed by an unscrupulous reporter… 

"Call and protest!" Chen Yingxiong said to Dracula, "Protest in the name of my agent! Remember to speak English, these bastards' knees go weak when they hear a foreign language! Damn it!"

…

Xie Liang repeatedly read the article he had written that was published in the newspaper. He was a little narcissistic and felt that his article the previous day was very well written and it felt so good to curse!

He still considered himself a scholar.

At this moment, the door of his office was pushed open.

Xie Liang frowned, wondering who this ignorant and impolite bastard was? Why didn't he knock on the door before entering?

When he looked up, he saw the editor-in-chief's angry face.

He held a newspaper in his hand.

"Xie Dazui!" The editor-in-chief didn't call him by his name, but directly called him by this nickname which was slightly teasing and derogatory, indicating that he was very angry.

He threw the newspaper in front of Xie Liang.

"Show me!"

Xie Liang looked confused and lowered his head to look.

The huge photo was in the middle of the page. It was made up of two photos. The one on the left was a recent photo of Chen Yingxiong whom he had seen in the teahouse, and the one on the right was… it looked like a standard photo.

In addition to this eye-catching photo, various captions were also eye-catching: "He is the legendary Hero Chen!" "Chinese player Chen Yingxiong struggling in Russia!" "The dark side of Chinese football gave birth to a penalty zone killer!" "Fake? No! The real thing!"

This last title was like a slap in the face…

"This is…" He looked down and saw the signatures at the end of the news, all of them were… Zhong Dajun!

This bastard!

Zhong Dajun couldn't stand Xie Liang's show-off, and Xie Liang naturally couldn't stand Zhong Dajun either. How can there be two tigers in one mountain? Chengdu already had Xie Liang, why did they need Zhong Dajun?

People always introduced him as "one of the famous football journalists in Chengdu". Listen, listen! One of! How ugly!

I don't want to be on equal terms with this person!

"It was you who told me yesterday that he was a liar and that you called the police to arrest him, but he got away… and now?" The editor-in-chief was furious, his voice eight octaves higher than usual.

"A liar openly published in another newspaper?! Do you think the editors of Shuxi Metropolitan Newspaper are all idiots?!"

"Well… there is this possibility… Shuxi's sales have never been as good as our Jinguan Kuaibao, so it is understandable that they would resort to some despicable means to increase sales…"

"I can understand that! But look at the photo!" the editor-in-chief tapped the photo with his fingers and yelled. "Look at the small words on the title picture below!"

Xie Liang looked down and saw the words written under the photo. "The left photo is a recent photo of Chen Yingxiong being interviewed, and the right photo is a photo of him on the introduction page of Zenit St. Petersburg's official website. They are the same person."

He suddenly felt dizzy and couldn't sit still in his chair.

At this moment, someone rushed into the room and shouted to the editor-in-chief: "Teacher Zhu! Teacher Zhu! A foreigner who claims to be Chen Yingxiong's agent called to protest!"

The editor-in-chief, who was called "Teacher Zhu," was stunned for a moment, glared at Xie Liang fiercely, turned around and followed the visitor out of the office. Before leaving, he didn't forget to throw out a harsh word. "Write a self-criticism and a public apology letter!"

In the editor-in-chief's opinion, whether Chen Yingxiong was a fake or not was no longer a matter of debate…

Xie Liang was left alone, staring at the entire page of the report and interview about Chen Yingxiong in the Shuxi Metropolitan Newspaper like a fool…