CHAPTER 667: PREPARATION FOR INTERVIEW

"Does it have to be live? Can it not just be pre-recorded?" Xiaoyun asked as a bad memory popped up in his head.

"It wouldn’t be as effective if it were pre-recorded, though. But if you want it to be pre-recorded, I can do that too."

"Let’s just do a live recording," Xiaoyun answered after a short consideration.

"Perfect. Let me give you a tour of the venue right now so you can be prepared for tonight. If you aren’t busy, of course."

"That’s fine."

As Xiaoyun got up from his seat and signaled him to lead the way, he couldn’t help but notice the excitement on Shen Wen’s face.

It was almost as if he had been waiting for this exact moment. A bad feeling started to develop in Xiaoyun’s mind, but he couldn’t pinpoint why.

There was no reason for Shen Wen ever to defame him, considering both of their interest were aligned with each other.

"Mr.Governor, have you been on TV before?" Shen Wen asked as he brought Xiaoyun into a parked car outside.

"Just a few times in the past..."

"That’s extremely impressive. So young and already on the TV before? You’ll be perfect for this live interview."

As Shen Wen started up the car, Xiaoyun quickly realized he had accidentally given the wrong answer.

The only time he had been on TV was when he was Songming, not Shen Wen’s perception of him as a twenty-year-old university student.

"It was just some small press that came to the school dorms. I just happened to walk past and be interviewed by it."

"That’s even better... Don’t worry, Governor, I’ll have the live guests ask softball questions."

Shen Wen quickly added after noticing the frown on Xiaoyun’s face, which made him think the Governor was nervous.

"No need. Just have them ask whatever they want... Have you ever heard of the proverb ’the audience’s eyes are crystal clear, Shen Wen?"

"You’re right, Governor."

As Shen Wens backed down from his suggestion, the two of them finally arrived at the TV station that he had been promising.

"Careful, Governor, you need to follow me step by step. The front entrance right now is still under repair."

Xiaoyun nodded as he followed Shen Wen out of the car, going towards the TV station’s entrance before realizing what he was talking about.

The front entrance was just five planks of wood, nailed to the concrete floor with a massive hole right below the planks.

"What happened here?"

"I wouldn’t know. It was like this when I brought it... Probably something to do with the soldier clearing this building."

As the two of them carefully walked past the entrance, they soon arrived at the main lobby of the building.

"Governor, I’m just a little curious, why don’t you just want to do a cold treatment for this whole drama?"

Shen Wen curiously asked as two of them continued walking down the halls, going past various rooms before arriving at a door with a construction sign.

"Cold treatment is just laying landmines in people’s heads. Just because no one talks about it in the future doesn’t mean people forget about it."

"I see..."

With the door pushed open by Shen Wen, Xiaoyun could finally see the venue where he was going to be interviewed.

It was a relatively big room, enough to fit around a hundred people at once to watch from down below the stage.

Cameras were already set up to aim directly at the stage and at the audience, with mics and speakers in each of the room’s corners.

"Hey, boss!"

As all twenty workers wearing hard hats inside the venue turned towards the two of them, Shen Wen suddenly started winking at them.

"Boss, you okay?" One of the workers curiously asked.

"I’m okay. Ahem, everyone, stop your work for a second. This is the Governor here. Can you all say hi to him?"

All of the workers froze for a second before one of them said Hello, leading everyone else to say Hello as Xiaoyun said hello back.

"You all, make sure all the wires are properly connected. We’re going to get this working by..."

Shen Wen awkwardly paused as he turned over to Xiaoyun, who already knew what he wanted to ask.

"Anytime works."

"By Monday, then. We’ll get our first TV broadcast fully functioning by that time. Everyone, get back to work."

As the workers turned their attention back to setting up the venue, Xiaoyun was a little curious about what they were working on.

"I thought you got the whole thing working already."

"I meant to say I got the signal part working... There are a lot of things my team and I still need to do."

"Tell me if you need any help with it... Give me a call when you finish setting up. I’m going to go back to my office and start getting ready for the interview."

"Okay."

---

As July came to an end, the weekend went by relatively uneventfully, if ignoring the drama regarding Xiaoyun’s marriage.

The news had spread even faster than he had imagined, as even Yiming and Yezi both sent a letter asking if everything was still okay.

Someone was clearly behind all these attacks on him, from the naked pictures of him to the newspaper talking about his marriage.

Although it’s mostly relatively harmless in terms of actual damage to his power, it was still tainting his reputation.

Unfortunately for Xiaoyun, Yueyue’s report had also come to a dead end.

The two defaming events had no connections, as the first case was a calculated attack while the second case seemed to be just a genuine reporting.

It just so happened to remind people of his special privileges, one that makes people think whether he should be allowed to go above the law.

Outside of the drama, Xiaoyun had been staying in the office for the entire morning and afternoon for the past two days.

He was studying everything he could be asked in the interview/debate, from the population statistics to battlefield reports.

Everything he could possibly think of, he was looking through them so he could remember it inside his head.

Of course, this was not to include the most important thing. Coming up with an actual argument in defense of his marriages.

This was the hardest part of the preparation, as for the first day, he couldn’t even think of an actual, valid reason that could be relatable to the general population.

It was much better on the second day. His mind was starting to develop ideas, ones that might just be enough to convince the crowd and the general population.

Now all he had to do was to wait for Monday night, as it soon arrived.

---

"Honey, you sure this interview is a good idea?"

Leyan questioned, with all nine of them standing right behind her, all looking just as concerned.

"There’s no turning back now. Shen Wen has already spent hundreds of thousands on advertising it, and everyone in the town is anticipating it."

Xiaoyun paused for a second, then continued.

"Just trust me. I got this. I had spent more than enough time to answer any kind of question they could throw at me."

"Fine then... Have a safe trip, okay?"

As Leyan leaned closer to kiss him on the cheek, all of his wives immediately took turns walking up to kiss him on the cheek as well.

"C-Can I do it too?" Lily shyly asked.

"Of course you can."

Lily quickly walked forward, only to be a little off as she struggled to kiss him on the cheek.

Fortunately, Xiaoyun didn’t play with her as he bowed down a little to let her kiss him on the cheek.

"Okay, don’t forget to tune in to the right channel... You guys should be able to see me on the TV live tonight."

"We know... Bye!"

"Bye."

As Xiaoyun exited the house, all ten of them immediately headed over to the sofa, turning on the TV before tuning to the channel that had been advertised in the newspaper.

"You want to buy clothes? Brand new winter cloths that is made out of genuine goose feather? Come to Luoping’s Yuanyuan’s clothing store!"

Everyone fell into silence as the TV started playing ads. There was nothing much they could do other than to wait.

"Mom, can you go cook dinner? I’m kind of hungry." Nami murmured as she rubbed her empty stomach.

"I don’t want to miss it. You go heat some food yourself." Leyan murmured, rejecting Nami’s demand.

"I’ll go heat up some frozen pizza." Kate volunteered, getting up from the seat as she headed towards the kitchen by herself.

"How long is this ad going to play before the interview actually begins?"

Anna impatiently asked as she started to get a little annoyed by the ad’s voice presenter, which felt way too high-pitched for her.

"He just left the house. It’s probably going to be an hour or so before it actually begins." Yuqi answered.

"That’s so long..." Tianci murmured, looking just as impatient as Anna as they all remained seated on the sofa.