Chapter 238: Behind the Curtain: Secrets of the Cultural Expo

“Boss, rest assured! This won’t affect our presentation at all; in fact, it might even mask our tracks!”

Xu Hao replied immediately.

“Are you absolutely sure there won’t be any impact?”

Dong Liping’s voice carried a hint of surprise—clearly, he was thinking along the same lines as the netizens.

For this Cultural Expo, the plan was to let trusted hands handle the show, keeping the others at bay to prevent any inadvertent leaks to H Country. Evidently, the leadership was truly pissed off by H Country’s repeated attempts to covertly claim Long Kingdom’s traditional culture as their own.

Since Mingsha City is in Su Province, he was primarily coordinating with the Ancient Architecture Institute.

“Boss, rest assured, there’s absolutely no impact!”

“Good, that’s what I like to hear. If you need any help, just say the word.”

On the other end of the line, Dong Liping clearly heaved a sigh of relief.

“Boss, you can count on it. Mingsha City won’t blow the whistle during the Expo.”

“Alright! I’ll update the higher-ups shortly.”

Time flew, and before long it was dusk.

Yan City TV

Han Lijun stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing outside at a sky lit by lightning and shrouded in a heavy downpour. In his memory, Yan City hadn’t seen rain this fierce in years.

“Today’s rain is really something else!”

Muttering to himself, Han Lijun finally returned to his desk.

“Boss, our side is relatively light, but over in Yucheng it’s even worse. I even heard there were rare purple lightning strikes!”

Next to the tea table, Ren Long added his voice.

“Purple lightning?”

Han Lijun paused, clearly taken aback.

“Yeah – around two this afternoon, purple bolts struck one after another like apocalypse thunder. The weather bureau even had to issue a debunking statement because of it.”

Ren Long chuckled.

“All that fuss over purple lightning?”

“Boss, you wouldn’t believe it—since many had never seen such a spectacle, some netizens claimed high cultivators were undergoing a breakthrough, while others said some elite figures in Long Kingdom were setting up formations to protect the nation’s destiny. And unbelievably, many actually bought into it! That forced the authorities to come out and urge everyone to trust science, reject rumors, and not spread falsehoods!”

After speaking, Ren Long handed his phone over to Han Lijun.

The screen displayed all the detailed theories of the netizens.

“Huh?”

After a brief glance at the phone, Han Lijun passed it back.

“I gotta say, these netizens have quite the elaborate analysis—it’s oddly intriguing.”

“Just wishful thinking. If what they say were true, what’s the point of science? Everyone would be off chasing immortality and perfect formations.”

Ren Long continued.

“By the way, this morning a hot topic came up. Apparently, details of the Expo project in Mingsha City were leaked early by someone on the inside?”

He leaned back in his chair for a moment.

Then Han Lijun suddenly remembered something and asked,

“Yes, there was such a post! A lot of media outlets forwarded it.”

Ren Long confirmed.

“Did Mingsha City issue any response?”

Han Lijun’s expression darkened.

“They did! It was answered by Zhu Qiang, the CEO of Mingsha Tourism. Although he kept denying it, his demeanor and condition suggested he admitted to several, if not all, of the details.”

Ren Long continued,

“So it really was someone from inside Mingsha City who leaked it? This Expo, which affects Long Kingdom’s prestige, has been handled so clumsily!”

Han Lijun furrowed his brows even deeper.

“It’s unclear. From the interview footage, the media kept probing but Zhu Qiang never gave a straight answer—only promising a full update later. The level of detail released points to an insider leak.”

Ren Long sighed.

He initially reacted to the post like the netizens, thinking that Mingsha City was incredibly bold—doing things that other ancient cities wouldn’t even dare to consider. But then reality hit: if H Country got wind of this, what then?

“And what about General Zhu’s comment, did he say anything about how Mingsha City would handle it next?”

“He said Mingsha City would do everything possible to successfully execute the five presentation projects to reassure the public.”

“Do everything? So Mingsha City isn’t planning to change their presentation plans anymore?”

Han Lijun drummed his fingers on the table almost subconsciously.

“Boss, like some netizens said, even if Mingsha City wanted to change course, they’re stuck with what’s been revealed. The two exposed projects are essentially the ceiling, so they have to soldier on. Now, we just hope the remaining three don’t throw any more curveballs.”

Ren Long shook his head.

He truly couldn’t imagine any ritual more impressive or representative of Long Kingdom’s traditional court ceremonies than the grand Fengshan Sacrifice.

“The remaining three…”

After a long silence, Han Lijun straightened up.

“Here’s what we’ll do. Tomorrow, contact the team behind ‘Flavors of Long Kingdom’ and have them speed up filming. Also, get in touch with the culinary heritage masters involved in the show—no matter what, convince them to visit Mingsha City at this year’s Expo.”

“And as for our program, we’ll air it after the Expo is over.”

“What exactly do you mean?”

Ren Long was momentarily taken aback.

“Since Mingsha City is gathering traditional flavors from all provinces, we can lend a hand—at least, the locations we’ve filmed won’t need to hunt for talent again.”

“Alright then, I’ll call them tomorrow and also reach out to Director Fang.”

Ren Long nodded quickly.

Though Yan City TV was struggling for projects after the ‘Immortal Sword’ series, in these critical times he knew exactly what mattered.

The program’s impact post-presentation would surely be diminished.

After all, many have already seen Mingsha City’s setup, and compared to Long Kingdom’s prestige, ratings are just numbers.

“Understood!”

Night deepened.

Although Haishi didn’t experience rainfall, dark clouds obscured the moon, and the night sky was as deep and black as could be.

Eggplant TV – After watching a news clip online, Cai An’s brows furrowed. He then slammed his keyboard, abruptly cutting off the video.

“We have an inside leak?”

With that,

Cai An slowly leaned back in his chair.

“Boss, the person in charge over in Mingsha City looked absolutely miserable during the interview! I suspect H Country has already started plotting their move on our Fengshan Sacrifice.”

Across the desk, the Channel Director sighed helplessly.

“Some things, if kept under wraps, might never be imagined by them. But once exposed, they’ll surely find a way to escalate things even further based on the Fengshan Sacrifice.”

“Mingsha City is growing too fast—they clearly failed to rein in their insiders.”

After a long pause,

Cai An massaged his temples.

“Boss, maybe that insider didn’t plan it all out. He just wanted to showcase Mingsha City’s preparations. Didn’t some netizens say that Mingsha City focused only on film and TV, ignoring the Expo? They even claimed it hadn’t given a statement like Jinlong Ancient City did.”

The Channel Director added,

“In his view, that possibility is very high. As for the Director Association or any of that, neither Cai An nor I are thinking along those lines. Even if there’s a conflict between the Director Association and Mingsha City, it’s an internal Long Kingdom affair. In such critical matters, Ding Xiaoping should be able to assess it clearly.”

“I mean, to respond, they could simply mention the preparation progress—it wasn’t necessary to blow every detail out of proportion.”

Cai An frowned, shaking his head repeatedly.

“Anyway, handling Mingsha City this time won’t be easy.”

“So, tomorrow, put together a spreadsheet of our local specialty dishes here in Haishi, and attach a list of culinary heritage masters skilled in these flavors. Then send it over to Mingsha City. We may not be able to help with everything, but this little task is within our reach.”

After a moment’s thought,

Cai An said,

“Okay, boss! I’ll do my best to convince those culinary experts.”

At that,

the Channel Director chimed in without hesitation.

“Alright! We need to act quickly. This way, Mingsha City won’t have to come to Haishi. And by the way, all expenses will be covered by our station!”

Cai An nodded.

“Understood, boss.”

In truth,

it wasn’t just Yan City TV and Eggplant TV reacting to the online interviews of Mingsha City; Yun Province TV was no exception.

Cui Fangshan even called the relevant department in Yun Province, requesting that they package all traditional cuisine and related personnel from the province and send them over to Mingsha City—no hidden agenda!

As if that weren’t enough,

Cui Fangshan then called Fang Hou to say that the light-hearted ancient costume comedy could be postponed indefinitely. Everything would pivot to the traditional cultural presentation.

In Long Kingdom, the landscape was vast:

the east was gloomy while the west shone under the moonlight, not a single cloud in sight.

Ning An Cultural Tourism

Office Building, Chairman’s Office –

Qi Haoyong had just finished watching the media interview.

After a long silence, he looked over at a middle-aged man opposite him and said, “Mr. Wang, you go to the provincial capital tomorrow and find Boss Li at Juxian Building!”

“Find Boss Li?”

The man looked puzzled for a moment.

Ever since he was severely wronged by the Director Association last year, things had steadied at Ning An Cultural Tourism this year, and projects were slowly coming together. Although not exactly as good as promised, life was passing by just fine.

“Remember when we dined together last time? He mentioned that his side had a family recipe, something called an ‘Ancient Feast.'”

Qi Haoyong nodded.

“Ancient Feast? Wait, do you mean…”

The man instinctively glanced at his computer screen. Ning An Cultural Tourism wasn’t planning to dive into the culinary realm, so finding Boss Li now had only one possible explanation –

“Last year, we clashed fiercely with Mingsha City for various reasons. But in the end, these are internal Long Kingdom matters. Now that the details of Mingsha City’s traditional culinary presentation have been leaked, if H Country catches wind…”

Qi Haoyong casually lit a cigarette.

As a Long Kingdom native, he was tired of seeing our heritage continuously appropriated by others.

“Either way, if we can help, we’ll lend a hand. We’ll find a way to introduce people over there. Whether or not they end up using the Ancient Feast is up to Mingsha City.”

After a pause, Qi Haoyong added.