Chapter 1 Martin O'Neill had no reason to deny Chen Hero's request for leave. The first team couldn't even muster a full squad these days, and Chen Hero was usually mixed in with the reserves and youth teams for training. Tactical drills were out of the question. What good could such training possibly do?

Rather than force him to stay with the team, he might as well do him a favor and let him go back. That way, he'd remember O'Neill's kindness and repay him on the field later.

If he insisted on keeping him with the team... he wouldn't be able to hold him anyway. Chen Hero was on good terms with the club chairman and general manager. A quick word, and he could simply skip training, couldn't he?

So, the next evening, Chen Hero boarded a flight back to China.

Meanwhile, his press officer, Vera, had already arranged a press conference for him in China. To save time, it would be held in the capital, Beijing.

Vera invited all the influential media outlets in China to attend the press conference. The theme was to clarify the rumors and attacks against Chen Hero on Weibo by Ms. Zou Yan Yun—the real name of that Zou "Heroine."

Actually, there was another piece of news to announce: Chen Hero would be filing a lawsuit in the Beijing local court, accusing Zou Yan Yun, Xie Liang, and others of defamation, spreading rumors, maliciously slandering him, and violating his right to reputation.

But Vera didn't mention this news. Always leave some surprises for everyone, right? Otherwise, what suspense would there be at the press conference?

The war of words between Chen Hero and Zou Yan Yun had been a hot topic not only on Weibo but also in offline media discussions.

It was already the second half of 2014, and society had long since entered the internet age. The power of the internet could not be underestimated. Various countries had introduced many laws and regulations targeting the online world, basically treating it like the real world. Because countries around the world had realized that the internet had begun to exist independently of reality, becoming a parallel world, which was very dangerous.

The power of the internet had attracted the attention of governments, and online voices had naturally become the dominant content of public opinion.

The main job of many media outlets now was to squat on major Weibo platforms, collect various news events, organize them, and then report them.

If something big happened on Weibo, it meant that something big had happened in reality.

That's why the war of words between Chen Hero, Zou Yan Yun, and Xie Liang received so much attention.

As soon as the news of the press conference was announced, phone calls and emails applying to attend flooded in.

De Kela's attitude was "no one refused" because they had rented not a conference room in some five-star hotel, but a newly built imAx cinema's screening hall with a total area of more than 600 square meters, which could accommodate 650 people at the same time. If that many seats weren't enough, because it was a giant screen, there was still a long distance between the first row of seats and the screen. So, ten rows of folding chairs could be added between the first row of seats and the screen. If they squeezed, they could even fit fourteen rows of seats, accommodating two hundred more people. Of course, this location wouldn't be very comfortable for watching surveillance footage…

With so many seats, there was no need to worry about being crowded.

The giant curved screen, twenty-two meters wide and twenty-eight meters high, would be used to play the evidence presented by Chen Hero.

Watching surveillance footage on an imAx screen would surely be shocking…

For the past two days, Chen Hero's management team had been busy compiling the list and number of media outlets applying to attend the interview, while also arranging accommodation—yes, you heard that right, arranging accommodation!

To attract as many media outlets as possible to attend the press conference, Chen Hero was going all out. Every media outlet that successfully applied and received an invitation letter would have their round-trip transportation and accommodation provided by Chen Hero.

In addition to round-trip transportation and accommodation expenses, each reporter attending the press conference would receive a Liverpool home jersey personally signed by Chen Hero, a Liverpool club scarf, and a piece of Hero's self-created brand casual wear—men receiving men's styles, women receiving women's styles. Even if they couldn't wear it themselves, they could give it away. Hero brand casual wear now had high visibility throughout the country due to advertising campaigns, and sales were also good. Franchise stores had opened all over the country.

Such treatment made those media outlets with little influence, who were unwilling to waste transportation expenses to do interviews, interested—this was completely free! Free to participate in this media feast, why not? And there were things to take when they left! Even attending a conference at public expense wouldn't have this kind of treatment… They were staying in five-star hotels, the best!

Many media outlets, upon hearing that Chen Hero was so willing to spend money, secretly clicked their tongues—the rich are different. Spending so much money just to fight for pride! So much courage! The world of these tall, rich, and handsome men, we poor losers, can't understand…

The reason why Chen Hero spent so much money to invite the national media to attend this press conference was simple: he wanted that woman and her cronies to be completely discredited in front of the people of the whole country!

You want to play with me? You want to play big?

I'll make it happen for you this time, and play the biggest game ever with you!

※※※

The money Chen Hero spent was not only on this. He had already asked Vera to spend heavily on advertising space and time in influential print media, television stations, and online media in China, just to do one thing: advertise his press conference and announce the list of media outlets that had agreed to attend.

The title of the advertisement was particularly sensational: "Battle of Honor and Dishonor—September 8th, for my reputation and glory, no choice, a desperate fight! Welcome to watch!" Below was the specific time and location.

These days, money makes the world go round. Even if the Zou reporter had more connections in the media, she couldn't match Chen Hero's money offensive. Under his crazy spending spree, many media outlets opened their thighs… ah, no, their hearts, and accepted Chen Hero's advertising placements.

In addition to newspapers, there were also television stations and the internet. Even bus stop signs featured advertisements for Chen Hero's press conference.

And some television stations keenly noticed the sensation of this event. Although the press conference wouldn't last long, if they could broadcast the press conference live, it would definitely be a great way to boost ratings! Just think about it, after Chen Hero's hype that didn't treat money as money, how many people already knew about this press conference, and how many people would pay attention to this press conference? At this time, as long as they could broadcast it live… how much money would they get just from selling naming rights? Not to mention the advertising revenue for the first five seconds, ten seconds, fifteen seconds, half a minute… and other time slots before the live broadcast.

So, television media from all over the country flocked to Beijing, wanting to compete for the live broadcast rights of the press conference. In the end, Vera chose the most influential and widely covered television station in China—National Television.

The online video and text live broadcast rights were sold to Sina.com.

And the price wasn't cheap. In fact, don't look at Chen Hero's initial heavy spending, as if he didn't care about money at all. By this time, he had recovered some of the costs. Even if he lost money in the end, he wouldn't lose much…

It must be said that Chen Hero and his management team were top-notch. They managed to turn such a press conference into a national hot topic.

And everything mentioned from the beginning of this chapter was done in two days. The efficiency of Hero's management team was evident.

※※※

Faced with Chen Hero's high-profile and extravagant behavior, Reporter Zou was dumbfounded—she and her friends did want to hype things up to achieve two results: one, to force Chen Hero to reconcile with her privately and pay her money, so that she could make a lot of money and earn enough fame. Through this matter, she could accumulate enough capital, even if she didn't work as a reporter anymore, she could still do other things, such as the trendy profession of current affairs observer… Second, if Chen Hero refused to admit his mistake, then let him be abandoned by sponsors, lose a large amount of endorsement fees, and make him hurt for a long time.

But this so-called "hype" was also limited. They felt that the main battlefield was still on Weibo, because the advantage of Weibo was that everyone could express their opinions, which could create public opinion for them, supplemented by the follow-up attention of traditional media. It would be about the same as the heat of the "Guo Meimei incident."

So, they kept attacking and provoking Chen Hero on Weibo, even fabricating rumors that Chen Hero coveted Reporter Zou's beauty…

Who would have thought that Chen Hero's counterattack would be so rapid and explosive—directly mobilizing the media forces at all levels and aspects, and launching a massive media war.

Now, even those who don't go online have learned about this matter and are discussing it.

Even National Television ran to join in the fun and bought the live broadcast rights… What is this all about!

From the beginning of bombing Chen Hero on Weibo, they felt for the first time that the initiative was no longer in their hands…

In the face of absolute strength, all conspiracies will be revealed!

And Chen Hero now let them see what is called "absolute strength"!

You can mobilize the media and the masses? So can I!

And I can do it better than you!

Although they faced a very unfavorable situation, did they have a way out? No, Chen Hero had already made this matter known to the world. In the latest list of invited media outlets they announced today, there were even names of foreign media…

Chen Hero made it difficult for them to back down. If they surrendered and admitted defeat now, then everyone would know that they were slandering Chen Hero before the press conference even started.

This was absolutely not acceptable. Maybe Chen Hero was so high-profile just to force them to lose their composure? If they really admitted defeat, then they would be falling for Chen Hero's trick.

And they didn't believe that Chen Hero could produce any strong evidence to prove that Zou Yan Yun was lying and slandering him—they couldn't imagine that Chen Hero would install so many security cameras in his home, with one in every room. This was indeed not something ordinary people could do… So, if they lost in the end, they wouldn't be wronged, because they really didn't understand the world of idiots.

So, they began to counterattack on their respective positions. Weibo was still the main battlefield, and some of Reporter Zou's media friends helped her cheer on their media.

They attacked Chen Hero's approach of spending money to buy people's hearts, and dressed themselves up as particularly sacred: "Although I don't have money, I am equal to him in personality. Truth and justice must never be defeated by ugly money! Maybe I will lose to the money offensive in the end, but I will never give in!"

They were just short of looking up and shouting "freedooooooooooom."

Specific things were done by others, and Chen Hero just had a war of words with them on Weibo, warming up and building momentum for the press conference.

In response to Zou "Heroine's" Weibo post, he forwarded and commented: "Stop pretending, you saint. Please give me all your ugly money and let me suffer the torment of your soul for you! If I don't go to hell, who will?"

Xie Liang then said: "People with money, power, and influence can always easily manipulate public opinion. I have received a notice from above, forbidding me to publish any comments on this matter. If my friends find that they can't contact me at any time, please don't worry about me. I'm just one step ahead of you…"

Chen Hero forwarded and commented: "I heard that the current emperor is a football fan. Ah, my backer is so big, it's awesome! Also, Xie Big Mouth, if your friends can't contact you, there's only one possibility: your phone bill is overdue! Also, didn't you want to slap me? I'm in Beijing now, come slap me, come on, if you don't come, I'm your grandson!"

He wasn't trying to reverse the situation with this. He was just bored and playing with them, just like a cat always plays with a mouse for a while after catching it, tormenting the mouse's body and spirit.

Anyway, he was idle. As mentioned before, he didn't have a war of words with others on Weibo just because he didn't have time. Now that he had plenty of time, he had to let them see that even if they were arguing on Weibo, those bitches couldn't beat him!