Daddy, Come Home For Dinner!

Chapter 950: Chapter 950: You Know Nothing of Power

"It can also supervise..." The secretary-general found the latter words hard to express.

"Supervise what exactly?" Lucas pressed on.

"It also allows netizens to monitor whether there is any discrimination or unfair treatment toward Hua Country contestants during the competition," the secretary-general explained.

His words were actually quite tactful.

Han Bang’s side really relied on their wealth, and their words were quite unpleasant.

"But now, Han Bang holds the exclusive broadcasting rights, and the TV stations in Hua Country are unwilling to purchase our rights, feeling there’s no profit to be made. So the only way to broadcast in Hua Country is through Han Bang," the secretary-general said.

"Yet Han Bang bought exclusive rights but refuses to broadcast, our competition’s exposure in Hua Country will be pitifully low," the secretary-general added, "According to our publicity department’s analysis, there might only be some user-edited clips left. As for the media..."

The secretary-general continued, "I’m not too optimistic because Han Bang, being a leader in Hua Country’s film and entertainment industry, controls many media and self-media marketing accounts. By then, how many will still remain unaffected and willing to edit and release our competition videos is uncertain."

Lucas rubbed his temples in frustration: "So the current situation is, the sponsors and brands that withdrew investment are actually related to Zhao Gushen, because they belong to families of Zhao Gushen’s good friends?"

Lucas found it hard to believe: "Is their friendship really that deep? This is Zhao Gushen’s issue, why are they meddling! They’re even willing to incur losses to help Zhao Gushen?"

They’re not even family.

Even if they were family, among such large families, there’s not necessarily much kinship involved.

Who could help the other unconditionally like this?

What could the secretary-general say?

He couldn’t understand it either.

Is it necessary?

The secretary-general remained silent.

Lucas sighed, finding it all unfathomable.

"And the media in Hua Country, including netizens, there should be very few willing to edit and showcase our competition videos, right?" Lucas asked.

"That’s the current assumption. Netizens who edit on their own will probably get criticized," the secretary-general said, "It seems Hua people are unusually united on such matters, sometimes even a bit extreme. They’ll criticize blindly and aggressively."

"As for self-media, some are controlled by Han Bang, while others might refrain from posting due to Han Bang’s influence; that’s uncertain," Lucas said. "After all, our show isn’t significant enough to boost their KPIs substantially."

"If not for the Zhuang Mingyan incident blowing up, our competition wouldn’t have reached its current level of fame and popularity," the secretary-general said.

"Whether self-media will deliberately edit and post due to the heat of this incident for traffic, that’s uncertain," the secretary-general added.

"It depends on how much KPI it can bring them. If it’s not sufficient to attract them, they surely won’t want to offend Zhao Gushen and his allies."

The power of the Eight Great Families in Changping is intimidating just to think about.

"However..." the secretary-general hesitated, "even if some self-media are willing to edit and release, it would be a minority, insufficient to make a significant impact."

"Currently, what’s the public opinion among netizens in Hua Country?" Lucas inquired.

"This... hasn’t been checked yet," the secretary-general admitted.

"I need to know their public sentiment," Lucas said, "Keep an eye on it."

The secretary-general immediately tasked someone knowledgeable in Chinese to collect netizen opinions in Hua Country.

When he presented it to Lucas, it showed a uniform trend.

"Hahahahaha, incredible! Let them see our Hua Country’s power!"

"Eight Great Families: You know nothing of power."

"Never expected that most of the sponsors were brands from Hua Country. How dare you offend the big bosses? What were you thinking!"

"They took money from our Hua Country sponsors and came to Hua Country to bully us; it’s shameless!"

"We can’t let this slide!"

"Yes! We must boycott the International Cooking Competition!"

At this moment, Changping’s official Weibo posted a particularly timely message.

"[In the face of national pride and dignity, all benefits become trivial.]"

The Changping official Weibo didn’t specify which matter this referred to.

But everyone knew what Changping was referring to.

Passionate netizens flooded the comments section with support.

"Well said!"

"Changping, brave and soaring, we stand by you always!"

"Hahahahaha! I just want to tell the Las Vegas Company that you didn’t just provoke one Changping, no! You’ve also provoked the other seven families! Tremble!"

"It’s terrifying; it’s my first time witnessing the power of the Eight Great Families united."

Although there were instances before, it was mostly minor squabbles conducted privately, never reaching such widespread notoriety.

After all, the Eight Great Families aren’t in the entertainment industry where every move is scrutinized.

Netizens are usually too engrossed in celebrity gossip to pay attention.

Few people watch the Eight Great Families’ affairs every day.

They conduct themselves discreetly, and even observant netizens can’t catch much.

Unlike in the entertainment industry, there are no paparazzi or diehard fans following them.

Who would dare follow the Eight Great Families?

Even if they did, who would publish any news?

Moreover, they aren’t in showbiz, responsible for entertaining the public.

Even if published, not many netizens would be interested.

This time, the situation arose due to the International Cooking Competition’s incident blowing up.

The joint effort of the Eight Great Families was then noticed by netizens.

Netizens just realized the power and excitement of the Eight Great Families uniting.

On Lucas’s end, just the issue with sponsors pulling out was enough to overwhelm him.

The matter of Han Bang purchasing exclusive rights yet intending not to broadcast wasn’t as pressing.

Lucas had to temporarily set it aside.

But as for the sponsorship withdrawal, he hadn’t figured out a solution yet.

And then, another piece of bad news struck.

Seeing the secretary-general come in, Lucas was too tired to ask what had happened.

The secretary-general’s hurried expression and "something’s wrong" look were obvious enough.

The secretary-general reported, "The venue we originally booked has also been canceled."

"What happened?" Lucas asked. "We booked the venue on our own turf; there’s no way those Eight Whatever Families could be involved, right?"

Could they really stretch their reach this far?

The secretary-general replied with difficulty, "I’ve looked into it."