An Eye for News Chapter 16
Xu Ran was furious.
He had spent hours climbing to
the rooftop and used a personal favor to finally locate the perfect filming
spot. Granted the building he was on was lower than the commercial building, he
felt his result was impeccable.
This was the first time Xu Ran
felt the adrenaline rush during the chase for news since he became a reporter.
Now, not only did Se Cai refuse to accept Director Bai’s kindness, he wanted
him to join his script?! No wonder he was mad.
“Xu Ran, the precious shot you
got was when the plainclothes policeman tackled the jumper right? Could you
pull it up for me?”
Se Cai walked calmly to Xu Ran’s
side and said.
“The video is short and is
blocked by the rooftop’s exhaust shaft but you could still see what’s
happening. I don’t believe you have better materials…”
Xu Ran remarked sulkily as he
pulled the video to the frame in question. Then he stopped talking, suddenly feeling
ill at ease.
“Why is that plainclothes police
so familiar…”
Hai Dong pulled himself closer
to the computer screen and asked.
Xu Ran frowned. In a cartoonish
way, he flitted between the ‘plainclothes police’ on his screen and Se Cai that
stood before him. He felt an ice shard lodged in his heart.
Both Se Cai and the ‘plainclothes
police’ were wearing the same striped T-shirt and faded blue jeans.
Even though the shot was taken
from a distance away and thus was heavily pixelated, Xu Ran realized with a
sinking feeling that the 2 persons were one and the same!
“He’s wearing the same clothes
as you… You’re him, isn’t it?”
Xu Ran finally spoke his mind,
it was too much of a coincidence to not be true.
“You’re right. Where do you
think I was? I schlepped through 33 floors of stair and an air duct to procure
the best angle! Also, as luck would have it…”
Se Cai briefly went through
everything that had happened in the past few hours. Zhang Xin Yu even let out a
scared cry when he got to the dangerous parts.
When Se Cai pulled out his
camera and transferred its storage into the computer, everyone, Station manager
Wei included stood up with bated breath!
From the video, everyone saw Se
Cai put the camera down before he flew out to tackle w.a.n.g Da Fa. When the video
showed Se Cai came back to retrieve the camera, a collective sigh of relief was
heard.
When the video finished playing,
the newsroom was as still as a funeral…
“Splendid! This is superb!”
Director Bai’s loud cheer broke
the silence.
“Just how did you manage to do
all these and record them…”
Xu Ran breathed incredulously.
The tables had turned. He
thought himself lucky but Se Cai had completely showed him up.
His materials were taken using a
long focus from a street away. His pictures were fuzzy and he had no sound
recording. The 2 were incomparable.
The fact that Se Cai still
offered him the chance of a joint script showed true grace on Se Cai’s part.
“Leave my name out of the
byline, I don’t like being given charity. Se Cai, consider yourself lucky
today!”
Xu Ran collected himself and
said icily at Se Cai.
His pride didn’t allow him to owe
Se Cai a favor. After all, he didn’t really care about getting into central
news. His heart wasn’t in the journalistic field.
“It’s not my luck but my thirst
for a good news piece.”
Se Cai retorted.
It was true that the Eye of News
system had proved to be extremely helpful but without Se Cai’s pa.s.sion behind
it, it would have been useless. Let’s not forget it was Se Cai’s own
determination that pushed him up 33 floors and through a dusty old air duct.
The system was not a hack, it
was merely an a.s.sistant. Without Se Cai’s own drive and thirst for news, he
wouldn’t end up with such precious materials!
Xu Ran stared at Se Cai with
incomprehensibility. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he truly
couldn’t fathom what was this thirst that Se Cai spoke of.
“Great job! Get your newsreel
and script ready, then send them to the central news station!”
Station Manager Wei ordered. He
patted Se Cai’s shoulders encouragingly.
With his years of experience in
the broadcasting field, Station Manager Wei could ascertain the final news’ newsworthiness
from its raw material.
If Xu Ran’s piece could possibly
get on central news, Se Cai’s piece was guaranteed a place there. It was only a
matter of which program.
Central news station due to its
size was separated into multiple channels. The best program was channel 1’s
nation and Bai Dong Hai had became the youngest program producer because one of
his lead news was picked up by
channel 1’s <30 minutes="" news="">. Its influence and rating was second only
to
the eminent news program on central tv station and they were miles ahead of the
other channels’ news shows.
Having one’s news on the central
station meant a free publicity for the county or city of news origin. It would
give a tremendous boost to the place’s name and image. That was why County S’s
Publicity Department gave out bonuses for county media that got on central
station. Other than bonuses, there were also the forced annual goals.
Se Cai heard from his friends in other forms
of media that their companies had explicit policies regarding this. If their
article got on
RMB bonus if they got on
news though had bred some immoralities and hard-handedness within the county’s
journalistic circle.
In reality, central station’s
channel 1 still had one more program that was more influential than
The program was
had enormous sway over public opinion and held a grand tradition of putting
government official’s misdeeds under the spotlight. Needless to say, none of
the government ministry would want their name mentioned on the show.
Should your news get on
both the governmental and journalistic circles.