Chapter 64

"Hello everyone, this is the 'Whispering Fear' program, I am tonight's host, Li Xue..."

At exactly midnight, the 'Whispering Fear' program on the cultural radio station started on schedule.

In a high-end apartment, Qian Hongyou, in his forties, sat on the bed, turned on the radio, and tuned to the cultural radio station.

"So late, what are you listening to that for?" His wife was woken up, turned over, and grumbled unhappily, "Not enough listening at work during the day, you have to listen at home too!"

"Alright, alright, you sleep, I'll go listen outside."

Qian Hongyou casually replied, took the radio to the living room, turned on the air conditioner, and sat on the sofa to continue listening to the 'Whispering Fear' program.

He was the director of the cultural channel and had been thinking about tonight's 'Whispering Fear' since he got home less than half an hour ago.

Although, it was his arrangement for Li Xue, the intern, to take the fall...

Pfft, what fall, what kind of fall, this is called giving young people a chance, responding to the national call for youth, the author's cultural level is too low!

Alright, let's start over.

Qian Hongyou was the channel director, and he was very concerned about the broadcast of tonight's 'Whispering Fear' because it related to how much leadership responsibility he would bear tomorrow.

Fortunately, the main responsibility could be pushed onto the temporary worker, so his leadership responsibility wouldn't be too great. He could smooth things over with the higher-ups and make a self-criticism at the meeting, and the matter would be over.

As the saying goes, the stick is raised high but falls lightly; the temporary worker would be fired, and the leaders would just scratch their itches from a distance.

"Today, I will share a story from my friend Hu Bayi. For convenience, I will use 'I' to refer to Hu Bayi and share his tomb-robbing experience with the listeners."

Nonsense!

Who gave her the authority to change the broadcast content at will?

And tomb-robbing experiences, what's there to talk about in tomb-robbing?

This is outrageous!

The quality of interns is too poor!

Disobedient employees are not good employees!

She's out of here tomorrow!

Bang!

Qian Hongyou, still unsatisfied, slapped the coffee table. Immediately, a roar came from the bedroom: "What are you slapping? Can't you let people sleep?"

The relationship of middle-aged couples can easily fall into crisis, and the Qian Hongyou couple was no exception.

"My grandfather's name is Hu Guohua. Our family was a famous landlord in the surrounding area. In our most glorious period, we bought three connected alleys in the city..."

What a mess, bland and uninteresting, where's the ghost story?

Qian Hongyou wanted to slap the table again but thought of the lion in the bedroom and reluctantly put it down, lit a cigarette, and smoked fiercely.

"...The paper craftsman made a paper woman according to my grandfather's requirements, and painted eyes, ears, mouth, nose, clothes, and hair with watercolors. From a distance, it really looked like a real person..."

Is this promoting feudal superstition?

The intern is too outrageous.

If she continues to broadcast like this, there will be a big mess!

When that happens, it won't just be a self-criticism at the meeting for me!

Qian Hongyou got angrier and more frustrated the more he thought about it, but he couldn't interrupt the live broadcast. He forcefully extinguished the cigarette butt and angrily turned off the radio to go back to bed.

Angry, he couldn't sleep. Tossing and turning in bed, he was scolded by his wife five times and didn't fall asleep until around three in the morning.

The next morning, as expected, he was late for work.

Waking up at nine, he didn't get to the office until ten.

But he was a leader, and no one in the cultural channel, except for the higher-ups, would dare to argue with him about being late.

At the office, he was still thinking about last night's 'Whispering Fear' hosted by Li Xue, his face as dark as if it could drip water.

"How was the audience feedback for last night's 'Whispering Fear'?"

For the programs broadcast by the radio station, listeners can express their opinions and views through mail, email, and website message boards.

Mail takes time and hasn't arrived yet, but emails and message board comments are immediate. Qian Hongyou's secretary, who has been with him for many years, knew his boss's habits and had already compiled the feedback this morning.

The feedback wasn't good, almost all of it was dissatisfaction and criticism.

Where is Teacher Jiang Yuan?

The substitute host's level is average!

The last story wasn't finished, why change the story?

The story isn't scary at all.

Tomb-robbing is illegal, and you'll be shot if caught!

If you don't bring Teacher Jiang back, I'll make paper figures for you every day.

Ghosts are the souls of the dead, and you talk about ghost lights, let him blow out a light and I'll see!

...

How dissatisfied must the listeners be to come up with such bizarre reasons to criticize the program?

"Has that intern arrived?"

Qian Hongyou's face became even uglier, preparing to take action against Li Xue.

Li Xue was an intern, and even though she didn't finish work until after midnight last night, she still came to work on time this morning without being late.

When she arrived at the office, she noticed that everyone's expressions were strange.

Most people ignored her, a few looked regretful, and a few others had a look of schadenfreude, as if they were waiting to see the show.

She was very clear about her position. Regardless of whether others acknowledged her, she greeted the seniors in the office one by one, then quietly swept the floor, wiped the tables, fetched water, and organized files, commonly known as doing odd jobs.

At 10:30 AM, Qian Hongyou's secretary came out and called everyone to a meeting.

It was called a meeting, but it was a routine procedure.

In the office hall of the channel, everyone put down their work and listened to Director Qian Hongyou read out the listening rates of the previous day's programs. Programs with high listening rates were praised, those with low rates were criticized, and programs that consistently performed poorly would face being replaced.

The replacement might not just be the program; the host could also be replaced.

"Cough, cough."

Qian Hongyou coughed as usual to assert his authority, gave a brief opening statement, and then directly targeted Li Xue.

Little comrade, who allowed you to change the live broadcast content last night?

Who did you report to?

Do you still respect your leaders?

...

Qian Hongyou scolded Li Xue, and no one else reacted.

Last night was a big pit, and whoever fell in couldn't get out intact.

Li Xue changed the live broadcast content without permission, committing a major office political taboo—disrespecting the leadership!

How could it be good today?

"Do you even know your place! You're just an intern..."

Qian Hongyou, who had been holding in his anger all night, vented it all on Li Xue. Just as he was spitting out saliva, a staff member walked in with a form and handed it to Qian Hongyou's secretary.

This interrupted Qian Hongyou's scolding, and he was unhappy: "What are you doing?"

The secretary quickly explained: "Director, the listening rates are out, for the whole day yesterday."

"Give it to me!"

Qian Hongyou took it and glanced at it, then froze.

Two minutes later, he coughed again: "Cough, where was I just now?"

"You were saying I'm just an intern!"

Li Xue wasn't a submissive girl and shot back.

Interns are people too!

So what if I quit, who's afraid of whom!

Qian Hongyou didn't take offense and continued: "Right, you're just an intern, but you dared to take responsibility and innovate. Regardless of the outcome, at least this courage is worth learning from by everyone here!"

Director, did you forget to take your medicine today?

The employees of the cultural channel were collectively stunned...

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