Weaponizing the Rumor Mill
By @john1208
Wei Zhaochen awakens in the rat-infested dungeons of the Qilong Dynasty, the disgraced youngest son of a loyalist family framed for treason. With his clan scheduled for execution in exactly five days, he has no martial arts, no magical artifacts, and no physical strength. But as a former cutthroat PR executive, he knows something far more dangerous: how to control the narrative. Smuggling out a series of explosive, sensationalized anonymous pamphlets, Zhaochen creates the empire's first mass-produced tabloid, sparking a public frenzy that forces the royal court to halt the execution to save face. His viciously effective smear campaigns soon catch the eye of Grand Regent Pei Wanning, a terrifyingly competent but widely despised female ruler suffering from a disastrous public image. Zhaochen offers her a devil's bargain: he will sanitize her reputation and politically assassinate her rivals using the dark arts of modern propaganda, if she protects his family. As their partnership deepens into a tense romance and his shadow news agency grows, can Zhaochen control the vicious court he is spinning, or will the mob he created devour them both?
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