Chapter 230: Face the Consequences

"Ms. Anna is here!"

At eight o'clock, Anna arrived at the hotel. The media reporters in the lobby swarmed around her like mice discovering a cake, throwing one question after another at her.

"Ms. Anna, is Mr. Baker up yet? Can he accept our interview?"

"Ms. Anna, yesterday a reporter photographed you entering the hotel with a mysterious lady. Who is she?"

"Ms. Anna, it is said that Link and Miss Knightley had a pleasant conversation at the Dior fashion show. Is that mysterious lady Keira Knightley?"

The reporters held up their microphones, vying to ask questions, each voice louder than the last.

"Everyone, please be quiet!"

Anna, protected by Bob and the hotel security personnel, walked up the steps and said, "I want to clarify three things here: First, Miss Taylor arrived in London yesterday noon and came to the O2 Arena to watch the game, cheering for Link at the scene. We returned to the hotel together after the game. There is no such thing as a mysterious lady.

Second, we will file a lawsuit in the local court in London against the false reports of The Sun, Daily Mail and other media, and pursue relevant responsibilities;

Third, regarding the rumors on the Internet, Mr. Baker will respond later. Before that, please be restrained and do not spread rumors. We will pursue relevant responsibilities for individuals or media that damage Mr. Baker's reputation."

Gary, a reporter from The Sun, hadn't slept all night but was still full of energy. After hearing Anna finish, he raised his hand and shouted, "Ms. Anna, when will Mr. Baker respond? Will Miss Taylor also be present?"

"I will inform you of the details later through Twitter, please wait patiently."

Anna said.

"Ms. Anna, you just mentioned that Miss Taylor rushed to London yesterday to cheer for Link, why didn't she show up in public?"

A Daily Mail reporter raised his hand and asked.

"This is Miss Taylor's private matter, no comment!"

Anna said calmly.

"Ms. Anna..."

Other media reporters also scrambled to ask questions.

Anna answered a few questions and left the hotel lobby, returning to her hotel room.

However, after the interview, the news about Link's secret meeting with a mysterious lady at the London Tower Hotel not only did not disappear, but became even more heated.

More online media joined in and started hyping up the news.

The reason is simple: Link is popular enough, and the public likes to read news related to him, especially scandals.

In addition, his girlfriend is the popular singer Taylor Swift, who is very famous.

After the two fell in love, they were hyped by the media as the 'golden boy and girl', the next 'Britney and Justin Timberlake'.

Not long ago at the MTV Awards, Link stood up in public to support Taylor, fully demonstrating his boyfriend power, and also won the favor of many fans.

The mainstream media is also hyping the two as the 'most perfect couple in the entertainment industry', 'the most enviable couple', and 'making people believe in love again'.

The love story of the two has also become a 'top topic' in the entertainment industry.

If at this time it is revealed that Link is cheating, it can gain extremely high attention in a very short period of time.

This scandal spread across the Atlantic in six hours and even circled the globe, which is proof of this.

"Boss, when shall we hold a press conference? The popularity of public opinion is very high now, I think it's better to do it earlier."

Anna suggested.

"What time is our flight?"

Link asked, looking at his watch.

"2:30 in the afternoon."

"Then let's hold it at one o'clock."

"Okay, I'll go inform them."

Anna nodded and left with her laptop.

Link carried the dinner plate to the bedroom and saw Taylor sitting cross-legged on the bed playing with her phone, laughing while watching.

"What are you laughing at?"

Link asked, putting down the breakfast.

"Come and see, many people on the Internet say you are a scumbag, and that boys with your looks look very flirtatious, and they predicted that you would cheat, but they didn't expect you to be so fast, haha!"

Taylor covered her mouth and laughed.

"You caused all this, and you still dare to laugh?"

Link pinched her nose and said.

"Hate it! I just wanted to give you a surprise."

Taylor patted his hand, got off the bed with her bare long legs, only wearing a suspender nightdress, picked up the headband on the table and skillfully tied a ponytail.

"It's more like a fright! You sneaked over here, you must want to see what I'm doing in the hotel, and if I'm fooling around with any woman, right?"

"Don't wrong me, I'm not that petty."

Taylor rolled her eyes at him, brushed her teeth casually, and sat on the sofa to eat breakfast.

Link shook his head, opened the curtains, took a few pictures of the hole in the floor-to-ceiling window, and posted them on Twitter with the caption 'Look what this is'.

Wow!

After the tweet was posted, in just an instant, the online traffic surged in like the Thames River rushing outside the window.

Five minutes later, it received more than 33.2K likes, 68.1K retweets, and more than 11K comments and messages.

Lady Gaga commented: That's scary, I'm glad you're okay.

Carrie Underwood commented: Are British paparazzi so crazy? Be careful next time you go to London for a concert.

Paul Walker commented: 007: The World Champion's London Adventure

Katy Perry commented and asked: I just tried it, the sound of scratching the glass is very loud, what were you doing at that time, why didn't you hear it?

In addition to these comments from acquaintances, there are more comments from fans, asking who the mysterious lady is, asking him to come out and explain quickly, and some people calling him a scumbag for deceiving Taylor's feelings.

To Link's amusement, someone zoomed in on the picture and saw a blurry figure through the reflection of the floor-to-ceiling window, claiming that the owner of this figure must be the mysterious lady, but it didn't look like Taylor.

Then someone teased Link, saying that he wanted to refute the rumors in this way, but accidentally confirmed them.

He also asked Anna to inform the media that he would hold a press conference at 1 pm when he left London to explain what happened last night.

But the British media believe that this is Link's delaying tactic.

According to the flight speed, it only takes about 12 hours from Los Angeles to London.

If Taylor was arranged to get on the plane and fly directly to London after the incident yesterday, it is very possible that she would arrive in London before one o'clock to cooperate with Link's performance.

Link shook his head, these media are too unscrupulous.

When they believe in a fact, no matter what the truth is, they only interpret it in a way that is beneficial to their hype, and then lead the unsuspecting public into the ditch.

"Hey, beauty, now many people want to know who the mysterious lady is, how about showing your face?"

Link said to Taylor who was eating while holding his phone.

"No! I haven't washed my face yet, don't take random pictures."

Taylor moved her butt and turned her back to him.

"How about taking a picture of your back?"

"Okay, remember to take a good picture." Taylor put down the fork, tidied her hair and suspenders, and straightened her slender waist.

Link took five pictures of her back, then took them over for her to review, Taylor looked at them several times, and chose a better-looking one for him to send out.

So Link posted another tweet with the caption "The truth just got up, the rumors have gone around the earth three times".

"Why did you say I just got up? It was past nine. Fans will think I'm lazy if they find out," Taylor complained, patting his shoulder.

"It's just a figure of speech, and you did just get up."

"I got up early, I was just playing on my phone."

"Okay, I'll be more careful next time."

After the tweet was posted, nitpickers emerged again, questioning why it was a back photo and why not a front photo if it was really Taylor Swift.

Some netizens even commented that the photo was photoshopped, and that the PR team found a model whose back looked like Taylor's, and the purpose was still to delay time.

If it was really Taylor, they should post a photo of the two of them together, and they should be standing in front of the window with the hole to prove that Taylor was really in London.

In addition, if the 'mystery lady' was really Taylor, why didn't she like Link's two tweets? She used to like and retweet the tweets Link posted.

Taylor not liking the tweets today meant she was angry and the two were not communicating well.

Link looked at these comments and smiled wryly.

He believed that even if he posted a front photo of Taylor now and asked Taylor to like it, those people would still shake their heads with their eyes closed and say 'I don't believe it, I don't believe it'.

He decided to ignore it for now and let the media spread rumors. For an entertainment star, having some scandals is actually better.

Because he didn't bother to explain, and because he had just defeated British boxing champion Carl Froch, many British media were not friendly to him.

After seeing his scandals, they started to publicize the matter vigorously, trying to use this 'scandal' to defeat him and regain their lost face.

For this reason, the day after Link won the WBC gold belt, the media was full of news about him cheating.

Even though Link held a press conference at Heathrow International Airport that afternoon, made some explanations, and walked into the airport side by side with Taylor in front of many media reporters.

Many media outlets were still reluctant to accept the truth.

They believed that 'Taylor' was a stand-in, not the real Taylor.

Some said that Taylor came from the United States to save the day, and even praised Taylor as 'America's good girlfriend'.

This incident even involved several British female stars, including Keira Knightley, Emma Watson, Adele, and models who walked the runway at the Dior fashion show.

The news about 'Link cheating' was noisy in the British media for half a month before it gradually subsided.

Because of this scandal hype, Link's popularity in the UK has risen sharply, and even ordinary British people know that there is a boxer and singer named Link Baker.

The publicity effect is better than the advertisement made by the promotion company for millions of pounds.

According to statistics from Kingston Digital Data Survey Company, before the boxing match, among 5,000 respondents, 1,059 had heard of Link's name, 658 knew he was a singer, and 297 knew he was a boxer.

After this scandal, among 5,000 respondents, 3,858 had heard of his name, 3,617 knew he was a singer, 3,522 knew he was a boxer, and 3,809 said he might be a playboy.

Link's fame in the UK has risen sharply, becoming a 'black and red' celebrity.

And in this fake news incident, the biggest beneficiaries were The Sun, Daily Mail and other media, whose news almost attracted the attention of the whole world during that time.

---

"Haha, thank Link for making us a lot of money, I would call him my lucky star."

Charlotte, the detective, laughed while reading the news at The Sheaf pub on the east bank of the Thames.

"Jack, this is yours!"

Reporter Gary took out a stack of pounds, about 10,000, and pushed it in front of Detective Charlotte.

"Ten thousand?"

Detective Charlotte squinted her eyes, looked at the pile of banknotes on the table, then looked at Gary opposite, and said with a half-smile, "Bernard, I'm a detective, good at inquiring about news, I heard that you became the head of the photography team of the entertainment news department of The Sun with this news, and you also got a bonus of 100,000 pounds, and the other royalties should be tens of thousands, you only give me 10,000, is it a bit less?"

Reporter Gary pushed his glasses and said with a smile: "Jack, you heard right, it is 100,000 pounds, but we are paid according to work this time, the more you do, the more you get, I think 10,000 pounds is very reasonable."

"Fuck! Bernard, I worked tirelessly a few days ago, running around with you, and even went to the roof of the hotel with Biggs. I took the risk of going to jail to help you make big news, but now you say I did the least?"

Charlotte said angrily with a cold face.

Gary frowned, "Jack, you are not the only one taking risks this time, James and I are the same, relatively speaking, we need to take more risks."

"But you have gained more. You have been promoted and raised your salary. James has also made great contributions to arresting Biggs and will be reused in the future. Only I have not gained any credit. I think I am qualified to share more money."

Charlotte said firmly.

Reporter Gary shook his head and pushed another stack over.

"Is that enough?"

"I think it would be more appropriate to discuss the money after James arrives."

Charlotte said with her arms folded.

As he was talking, Officer Ryder walked into the pub with a sullen face.

"James, today is a celebration, why are you so late?"

Charlotte asked.

"Something happened!"

Officer Ryder glanced at the two of them and whispered, "I said it before, don't cooperate with Biggs, but you don't believe me. Now that bastard sent someone to tell me to get him out earlier and prepare 500,000 pounds for him, otherwise he will expose our plan."

"500,000 pounds?"

Gary and Charlotte couldn't help exclaiming.

"That bastard is a robber, we shouldn't have cooperated with him in the first place."

Officer Ryder picked up the wine glass and drank it down, his face gloomy.

"What should we do now?"

Reporter Gary looked nervously at Officer Ryder and Detective Charlotte.

If Biggs exposed the matter and let everyone know that the news was fake news concocted by the four of them, he would not only lose the opportunity to be promoted and raise his salary, but he might also be fired by The Sun.

This is definitely not the result he wants.

"If he exposes it, will we go to jail?"

Charlotte looked at Officer Ryder and asked.

Officer Ryder nodded silently.

Gary and Charlotte's faces suddenly turned ugly.

(End of this chapter)