732 A Lame Joke (1/2)
Tang Jing sat upright in front of her father, who was sitting behind a large office desk. He wore reading glasses to carefully read through the new draft that his daughter just handed in. He had been reading the 3,000-word manuscript for a full 15 minutes and showed no signs of putting it down. It was very quiet in the editor-in-chief's office.
It was a long time before Tang Yuanan took off his reading glasses and massaged the inner corners of his eyes. He said, ”Xiao Jing, I'm going to retire in a few years.”
”I know, Papa,” Tang Jing said. ”You can put the blame on me if there's any problem.”
Tang Yuanan put down his hands and glared at his daughter. ”Nonsense! How could your own father be such a person?”
Tang Jing did not speak. She continued to look at her father, the president and editor-in-chief of the sports newspaper with the widest circulation in China.
”I almost built the newspaper up with my bare hands,” he said. ”It has been 22 years. I'm just worried that once you publish the article, there's going to be a lot of pressure on the paper.”
Tang Jing bit her lips and said, ”I will resign now and transfer to another sports newspaper. Let them take the blame.”
”Hey, you...” Tang Yuanan really could not do anything about his own daughter. He stared at Tang Jing for a moment. He slightly softened his tone and said, ”Actually, Tony Twain's words are not new. The General Administration of Sport of China intends to put the national system into effect and return football to the professional sports school era. Many people have privately discussed this issue, but no one dares to speak out publicly. Even if they said it in front of the media, the press would not print such comments. Do you know why, Xiao Jing?”
”Pressure from the Chinese Football Association,” Tang Jing replied.
”No.” Tang Yuanan shook his head and said, ”The Football Association has long been a target of scorn. After the Olympics, Xinhua News Agency and People's Daily continuously published articles criticizing the Chinese Football Association. Someone had to take the blame for the failures in the Olympics and World Cup qualifiers, and the Chinese Football Association was a good candidate. The real pressure comes from the General Administration of Sport of China. The FA is a subordinate body of it. The one calling the shots is in fact the General Administration of Sport of China. The FA only follows in accordance with the path given by the General Administration of Sport. So, which exactly was Twain rebuking? It's not the Football Association. It's the General Administration of Sport.”
Tang Jing's face slightly changed color. She was well aware of the difference between the Chinese Football Association and the General Administration of Sport of China. She knew which organization had more power.
After thinking for a moment, she got up and walked toward her father's desk. She reached for the manuscript and said, ”No, Papa. I won't make things difficult for you.”
Her father lifted his hand, but put it back again. He allowed his daughter to pick up the manuscript, which was filled with Twain's furious words, and walk out of the office.
Back in the press room, Tang Jing began to pack up her desk. She carefully packed her favorite Garfield hanging pendant, her own water glasses, folders, books, and so on. Her colleagues looked strangely at her as she packed her belongings in silence.
Finally, a colleague who had a better relationship with her rushed over and asked in surprise, ”Tang Jing, what are you doing?”
”I quit my job.” Tang Jing took a folded piece of paper out of her pocket, opened it, and pressed it on the table. She picked up the box and smiled at her concerned colleague.
”Quit...” Her colleagues were too stunned to respond. They stared dumbfounded at her as she left the office.
The paper pressed on the table was a resignation letter.
※※※
While driving back to her house, Tang Jing received a call from her father.
”Tang Jing!!” Tang Yuanan roared angrily on the phone. ”What do you think you're doing!”
”I quit, Papa.” Tang Jing remained calm and said, ”You don't have to care about what I want to do now.”
”I don't agree to your resignation!” her father shouted.
”Then, we'll go to the court for labor arbitration, Papa,” she replied.
Tang Jing could hear the creaking sound of her father's teeth gnashing together.
”Fine!” he spat out in frustration. ”Even if you quit, you're still my daughter. I won't allow it!”
”Your daughter is already an adult,” Tang Jing said. ”I moved out a long time ago to live on my own. Even if you are my Papa, you have no right to interfere in your daughter's life.”
”You...” There was nothing else Tang Yuanan could say. Tang Jing had heartlessly refused to talk with him.
”OK, Papa, your daughter now has the steering wheel in her left hand and the cell phone in her right hand,” Tang Jing said. ”I'm driving on the beltway now. If you don't want to get a bereavement call from the traffic police later, I'm going to hang up now.”
”Hey, Tang Jing you... Hello? Hello!” He could only hear the busy signal.
※※※
That evening, Tang Jing updated her Sina blog and announced that she had officially resigned from Titan Sports. She blogged that she was now independent and unemployed, as well as recalled some of her life working at the newspaper and thanking some people.
Tang Jing's blog had always been popular because she was a well-known ”beautiful reporter” who followed and covered Nottingham Forest in Nottingham and was rumored to be linked with Dunn. Consequently, her article was quickly reprinted. All the people who knew her were surprised by her resignation because there was no indication that she was unhappy with the newspaper. She had received orders to fly to Chengdu two days before she resigned to interview Twain. Many journalists in China had hoped to do an exclusive interview with Twain, but only Tang Jing had the opportunity. They also did not hear of any contradiction between her and the management, which everyone knew was her father. No matter how big the contradiction was, resignation seemed an unlikely result.
The advantages and disadvantages of the Internet age were that information spread quickly. Within one night, the piece of news about a well-known sport newspaper's beautiful reporter mysteriously resigning appeared on several portals' landing pages. Many netizens expressed their views on the matter and made all kinds of statements.
The most sensational theory was that because the woman and Coach Dunn were caught together and exposed, she was forced to resign due to the pressure from all sides. She had said that she was in Chengdu to interview Twain. In actual fact, she was on a date with Dunn. Twain unexpectedly caught the couple in the act, so there was no way to dispute it. Nottingham Forest Football Club made a strong protest to the newspaper. She had to resign to quell the error of her judgment, even though she was the daughter of the newspaper's president. Otherwise, it would be bad for everyone if the matter was leaked.
Although this version was sensational, not many people bought it. How could a foreign football club be angry because one of its assistant coaches had sex with a woman in his native country while on vacation? It was too trifling. Therefore, the real reason for Tang Jing's resignation was still widely debated.
There were also reporters who called Tang Jing, wanting to hear what she had to say. As a result, she turned off her cell phone and could not be contacted at all. The only window of contact with the outside world left was her Sina blog.
The next night, just as everyone was still speculating about why the beautiful reporter who had a smooth career and rising fame suddenly resigned, she updated an article in her blog.
”This was the last question I asked when I went to Chengdu to interview Manager Tony Twain two days ago. I had asked a routine question, but I did not expect to receive a surprising response. It is well known that Manager Twain is fluent in Mandarin. We communicated directly in Mandarin from start to finish with regards to the question. Therefore, you do not have to suspect that I used a translator machine to tamper with his answer. This is the original text. Tomorrow I will consider releasing a recording of the conversation.”
That was the introduction she Tang Jing wrote, which was naturally followed by the article she had showed her father, ”Chinese Football in the Eyes of a Successful English Football Manager.”
In the 3,000-word article, Twain's style of statements could be found everywhere. The unruly English manager berated Chinese football and hit the nail on the head, which made most people who read it nod their heads in approval. At the end of the article, Tang Jing wrote, ”Everyone is welcome to reprint the work, but please do not change a single word.”
Tang Jing succeeded. She made use of the resignation incident to rouse everyone's interest before throwing out the long-planned article after the attention was focused on her blog. She caused an earthquake on the Internet in the shortest possible time.
Sina, Sohu, NetEase, Tencent, Tianya Club, and all the large and small, well-known and little known, professional and amateur, football-related and unrelated websites, and forums all immediately reprinted the article. As the original source, the number of clicks on her blog surged overnight. Comments were refreshing every minute.
Some people agreed while some people scolded. Some people contemplated while some people questioned it. The people who agreed naturally said that the article was spot on. Those people who scolded were more interesting.
They certainly did not criticize Twain and Tang Jing because they supported such lousy Chinese football. The reason they were upset was that no matter how bad Chinese football was or how terrible the Chinese Football Association was, it was their own affairs as Chinese people. Since when did they allow their own affairs to be dictated by an English barbarian? His words were harsh, making many critics wonder who Twain thought he was. He may have had some success, but he had actually been down and out the past two years. What gave him the right to be so cocky in China?
Those people who questioned it queried if Tang Jing used a fake article to create sensationalism, which was basically self-hyped. This was the era of hype and speculation. To create self-hype, one just had to take a look at star bloggers and online celebrities.
Regardless, the critics reasons were well founded. An Englishman, no matter how much he claimed to know and love China, could not say such a thing that drew blood on the first prick about the current state of Chinese football. Those words could only be written by people who had been immersed in Chinese football for years or really understood and cared about Chinese football. What was the benefit for an Englishman to join in on the action? Did he know who the current full-time vice president of the Chinese Football Association was before he bawled the system out? Moreover, looking at the pervasive ”resentment and impatience toward the system for failing to meet expectations” and ”pity your misfortune and condemn your submission” emotional state, how could a British citizen, who had nothing to do with their country, have such a sentiment? Therefore, they could only draw the conclusion that Tang Jing's level of fraud was too low or she was simply hawking a big gap in the story to complete the self-promotion.