Chapter 337: Public Opinion

Translator: _Min_Editor: Caron_

Celestial Trade Company's food was all previously imported from New Zealand. The specifics of its operation were all contracted to professionals to manage. But with the increase in demand, this operational model was no longer suitable.

This is what Jiang Chen was planning:

He would import goods from Australian farms and transport them to Coro Island through the port in Melbourne. Part of the goods would be sold by Celestial Trade Company in Pannu Islands and part of them would be kept as raw ingredients for further food production and transported to the apocalypse.

At the same time, the Xinlong Food Processing Plant located in Wanghai City would be moved to Pannu Islands. All the staff willing to relocate overseas would be kept on, while local cheap labor would be hired to perform the assembly process. They'd produce cheap raw ingredients from Australia into canned foods and preserved products.

This processed food would be partially be sold locally and moved to the apocalypse.

Therefore, he wouldn't only save on tariffs, but he would also save on the labor cost as well as easing transportation of the goods to the apocalypse. It was like hitting three birds with one stone.

Of course, with such a massive and long-term deal, it couldn't be hastily decided upon.

Jiang Chen only initiated the conversation because he happened to be in Australia. Therefore, he made a personal trip. As to the specifics of the deal, he left it to Zheng Hongjie to take care of and left Luke his number.

After that, Luke cheerfully sent Jiang Chen off in a taxi to head back to Melbourne.

He booked tickets for the next day. Although there was still some time before it turned dark, he didn't know what to do by himself when he looked at the busy street. He started to regret not bringing Ayesha along.

The girl seemed to really enjoy pretty clothes. He still vividly remembered the date with her in Veit. That day, they almost cleaned out an entire clothing store with some intimacy that happened that same night.

When he returned to the hotel he was staying at, Jiang Chen felt lonely on the massive king bed, so he took out his phone.

He happened to see Liu Yao's message on Little White, so he replied.

<Are you here?>

<I'm here, haha, did you miss me?>

Without any surprise, Jiang Chen still replied instantly. He sometimes even suspected whether the girl created a special alert just for him.

With a smile on his face, Jiang Chen naughtily prepared to tease her.

<Guess.>

<Definitely not! (Sad)>

<Congratulations… You guessed wrong.>

<Haha. (Happy)>

Jiang Chen continued to type on the screen with a smirk on his face.

<How is your filming going?>

<We're close to finishing. I'm so tired.>

*Buzz*

Liu Yao sent a selfie over.

Scissor hands at a 45 degrees angle - playful but at the same time demonstrating her impressive 36D cleavage.

She also added: <Do I look good?~>

Jiang Chen couldn't stop himself from laughing as he replied.

<Good to masturbate to.>

<Screw you!>

Although that was what she said, she didn't feel annoyed at all as another buzzing sound came through. This selfie was even more flirtatious. Although nothing was exposed, it teased Jiang Chen even more.

Fine, Jiang Chen was hard.

Needless to say, time flies when you talk with a beauty. Liu Yao was also a great conversation starter as she didn't make Jiang Chen feel bored at all as the night flew by.

Just as Jiang Chen prepared to say goodbye, Liu Yao sent another message over.

<Also, did you know that Weibo has been full of posts about you these last few days?>

<Weibo?> Jiang Chen paused.

He did register a Weibo before and Sina decided by themselves to verify him as an Orange V. He had millions of followers already. But since he was flooded with messages such as <I want to bear your baby> and was constantly tagged with pointless things, Jiang Chen hadn't logged on for a while.

After he said goodnight to Liu Yao, Jiang Chen didn't immediately sleep but instead opened Baidu and searched for his name.

After he searched himself, thousands of posts popped up about him.

Some were negative, some were positive.

<Internal feud? Future International's sudden expansion in real estate, Linhua Group's record loss of 2.5 billion USD. In the face of profit, the tendency of countrymen to fight each other remains unchanged!> Jiang Chen could guess the content just by scanning the name.

Disregarding the fact that it might've been an internet army hired by Linhua Group to change public opinion, Jiang Chen wasn't bored enough to read this type of foolish article. It was written without any proof or understanding of the circumstances and emphasized partial facts rather than the complete picture.

While he was in the country, Linhua didn't act like a victim when they were plotting against him. They had the attitude of <I'm going to buy 50% of your share, or you can't do business here> when they negotiated. They totally deserved what they got now.

Of course, there was certainly a lot of positive news. Generally speaking, public opinion stood on Jiang Chen's side, since Future International's rise to the top meant that Hua's artificial intelligent stood at the frontier of the world. Although Future International had relocated to Xin, Han netizens still considered it as a national company. Even though Alibaba's IPO made a Japanese person named Su Zhengyi the wealthiest man, people rarely considered Alibaba a Japanese company.

Other than the posts with polarized opinions, Jiang Chen saw a post with an interesting point of view.

<Celestial Trade Company and Future International, they belong to the same hidden organization? Overseas Han organization may be plotting a masterpiece!>

The original poster of this post listed large quantities of half-fake, half-genuine "evidence" and perfectly demonstrated their imagination as the OP connected the two completely contrary companies together. He declared that the organization controlling the two companies was an overseas Han organization. Counting the coup in Pannu Islands, it was their work that sparked everything. The formation of the Han-speaking country, Xin, was a link in their master plan.

And this organization may have received secret support from the Han government!

The renowned, born-in-the-nineties billionaire Jiang Chen was only a pawn of the organization.

Because of this sophisticated thought process, clear explanation, and excellent storytelling ability, the post caused a lot of people to reply. The number of likes easily broke a million. But the replies were also funny, such as:

<The OP knows too much; is your water meter okay 1 ?>

<The UA wouldn't allow Hua to intervene with Pacific affairs. This coup was the afterproduct of the superpowers' strategic conflict - OP's intelligence is questionable. What overseas Han organization? There should be a limit to this guy's imagination.>

<The person above is a pro-UA supporter, let me curse at him.>

The comments certainly entertained Jiang Chen, but if he were to comment on the post, the only word he could think of was:

Bullsh*t.

A lot of conspiracy theories had no proof to back them up. Logically, any natural occurring events could be described as "preplanned" after the fact.

Of course, these comments were like smoke screens for Jiang Chen - the more, the better for him.

When his eyes began to feel drowsy, Jiang Chen flung the phone away. Just as he was about to sleep, the EP on his left hand buzzed.

When he opened it, it was Lin Lin's message.

<Come back.>

Although Jiang Chen was puzzled why Lin Lin didn't just open the video message, he still got up from the bed.

He closed the curtain by the window before he started interdimensional travel on the bed.