The Retired CEO's Guide To Being Spoiled-Chapter 281: The Storm of Public Opinion

While the atmosphere inside Ethan Caldwell’s room was filled with intense and alluring passion, outside, Helen Lloyd and Colin Grant were like cats on hot bricks. They were pouring all their efforts into controlling the situation on the online forums. However, the media seemed to have caught the scent, relentlessly pushing the related news threads to the top.

Or perhaps it was not entirely due to the agility of the paparazzi, but rather an unseen, dark hand manipulating things from behind the scenes, continuously adding fuel to the fire. The glaring light from the tablet screen reflected onto Helen Lloyd’s tense face. She swiped her finger across the glass surface continuously, witnessing the public opinion-steering post, which the public relations department of the Caldwell Empire had uploaded less than three minutes ago, endure several large-scale attacks from a barrage of ghost accounts. The number of shares and comments was surging at a dizzying pace.

[Oh, come on, everyone knows Gabriel Cole and Ethan Caldwell are rivals, as if they were meeting a business partner.]

[Wow, married to one CEO but giving his heart to another CEO, huh?]

[I told you he was a cheap slut but you people did not believe it. No wonder someone tried to have their way with him the other day.]

[Can you all stop victim-blaming? How the fuck is this situation the same as the last one?] 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

[If he had not been whoring around with this man and that man, who would even bother touching him?]

[Fucking whore!]

The comments below were becoming increasingly twisted and hard to read, carrying naked malice, and were becoming harder to contain by the second. The accounts deliberately manipulating the narrative continuously released meticulously edited pieces of misinformation, aiming directly at the reputation of those involved.

"It looks like the frontlines are about to break, Helen ." Colin Grant stared at the post below, the constantly jumping engagement numbers making his eyes blur, and he could not help but let out a heavy sigh. It was obvious that the communications department had stayed up all night, coming up with numerous crisis management plans and backup strategies, but this time, it was not as easy to quell the uproar as it had been the last time. Every effort to clear the air seemed to be blocked by an invisible wall.

The situation from the previous incident initially looked far more intense and difficult to control, yet it only took a few hours to put everything back in order, the storm passing without leaving a single trace. Now, however, even though they had released countless clarification articles, the state of affairs was getting progressively worse, resembling a bottomless pit of thick mud.

"If we know how to direct the media, the other side also has professionals who can manipulate the media just like us. In fact, the opponent has prepared exceptionally well." Helen Lloyd pressed her lips tightly together, her fingers tapping rhythmically on the hood of the car parked in the silent night: "Perhaps the quick resolution last time was largely because Julian Sterling was extremely sharp, catching the exact flow of public opinion, and partly because the forces behind the scenes thought they had achieved their goal, so no one fueled that fire anymore."

Speaking of this, a gleam of admiration mixed with anxiety flashed in Helen Lloyd’s eyes, and she could not help but click her tongue: "But you have to admit, Julian Sterling’s judgment is truly brilliant. He once mentioned that the previous few storms were indeed just paving the way to pull in even bigger scandals later on. And now, the real devastating attack has only just begun to strike."

"So what should we do now? We cannot just stand by and watch the public being led by the nose like this." Colin Grant gripped the phone tightly in his hand, his voice clearly revealing his burning impatience.

"We will control as much as we possibly can. Just continue reporting the violating posts and blocking those ghost accounts that specialize in spreading malicious rumors." Helen Lloyd took a deep breath, trying to maintain the composure of a high-level manager: "Wait for the boss inside to feel better and contact us first. At this moment, we absolutely must not act on our own and mess up the plan any further."

The two of them leaned against the car, conversing tensely and working for a while longer when Helen Lloyd’s personal mobile phone suddenly vibrated. She glanced at the screen for a moment, her eyebrows arching slightly, and then shot a look at Colin Grant. Colin Grant was puzzled by the sudden change in her demeanor: "What is it? Is there more bad news?"

"No. It is Louis York."

Louis York, the powerful tycoon behind Golden Era Entertainment, the man who held countless top-tier media resources in his hands, was also a close friend of Ethan Caldwell for many years.

Helen Lloyd pressed the answer button, and before she could even utter a word, Louis York’s frivolous voice came through: "How is it going? What kind of trouble has my best friend gotten into?"

"Mr. Louis..."

Helen Lloyd still did not have time to say anything when Louis York on the other end continued: "Alright, no need to hide it from me. Before boarding his flight, Kieran Talbot already informed all of us. He was afraid that Ethan Caldwell and Julian Sterling would be too busy indulging in their wild passions to handle the situation in time. I saw the posts up there, you guys are losing control of it, right?"

"Yes." Hearing that Kieran Talbot had already briefed these people, Helen Lloyd did not say anything more.

Kieran Talbot knew about the incident because Julian Sterling had directly called to inform him, but exactly how detailed Julian’s explanation was to Kieran, or the level of severity conveyed at that moment, Helen Lloyd completely had no idea. Because of this, she could not fathom just what percentage of the truth Ethan Caldwell’s tight-knit circle of childhood friends had managed to grasp.

In sensitive situations like this, the vital survival principle of a high-level assistant was always: the less spoken, the fewer mistakes made; saying nothing meant making no mistakes.

Whichever direction the other party wanted to interpret the situation, she would just let them think it out themselves. The only thing Helen Lloyd needed to do was cooperate in silence, letting those young masters assume that they had thoroughly understood the entire root of the matter.

Meanwhile, Louis York did not even bother wasting time beating around the bush to dig deeper into the trivial details. A faint, rhythmic clicking sound of a lighter seemed to transmit from the other end of the line, and immediately after, he went straight to the main point with a tone of absolute confidence: "Do you need me to lend a hand in cleaning up this pile of garbage? When it comes to power struggles or corporate business, I admit I am no match for your boss. But stepping into the war of media direction and manipulating online public opinion, well, that happens to be my home turf."