"I heard a rumor that Quincy Manor might be entering the presidential race next year, so it makes sense they’d want an official announcement."

"For real? Quincy Manor is running for president?"

Hearing her colleagues’ uncertain chatter, Phoebe Lockwood couldn’t help but speak up. "It’s true. Quincy Manor—"

Before she could finish, Henry Hartwell cut her off mercilessly. "Don’t spout nonsense. The Astoria Daily doesn’t debate national affairs; we report the news to guide public opinion."

Everyone immediately shut up, not daring to speak out of turn again.

Henry Hartwell continued, "Quincy Manor specifically requested Claire Sinclair to handle this matter. If anyone else feels they’re up to the task, you can volunteer now."

The moment he finished speaking, everyone looked at Claire Sinclair with envy. But it was only envy; no one was willing to speak up.

Without much thought, Phoebe Lockwood instinctively raised her hand. "I think I can do it."

Henry Hartwell nodded and looked at the others. "Anyone else?"

The veteran employees all remained silent.

Claire Sinclair raised an eyebrow. ’Why isn’t anyone else volunteering?’

’Could it be? Is there some tricky problem with this assignment that I’m not seeing?’

Henry Hartwell suddenly called her out. "Claire Sinclair, you and Phoebe Lockwood will handle this together. You’ll take the lead, and Phoebe will assist. Do you have anything to add?"

Claire Sinclair shook her head. "Not at the moment. But if I need help later, can I ask our senior colleagues for assistance?"

"You may. Then it’s settled. Meeting adjourned."

With that, Henry Hartwell was the first to walk out of the conference room.

The others immediately looked at the two rookies with pity.

"Lockwood, Sinclair... you can’t write anything about Quincy Manor. How are you going to even start?"

"Exactly! Last time, one of our guys accidentally wrote a few lines about Quincy Manor, and they aggressively demanded the entire article be deleted. And you know what? The article was saying *good* things about them, not bad."

"Quincy Manor is too mysterious. They don’t let you write anything. Good things are a no-go, and bad things are even more out of the question."

One after another, their colleagues chimed in, all essentially saying that the Quincy Manor assignment was a hot potato.

’No wonder no one was willing to help...’

It slowly dawned on Claire Sinclair. ’I’ve probably been set up by Mr. Hartwell again, haven’t I?’

’He’s taking advantage of my relationship with Adrian Quincy to dump this difficult job on me. That’s just...’

’Oh well. Since it’s a job, someone has to do it.’ 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Just as Claire Sinclair was about to speak, Phoebe Lockwood suddenly said, "Claire, I just remembered, I have to help my dad with PR for the governor’s office. I’m afraid I won’t have time to go to Quincy Manor with you. Can you handle it by yourself?"

Claire Sinclair raised an eyebrow. ’This woman. She volunteered so eagerly at first, definitely wanting to use this as a chance to get close to Adrian Quincy. But as soon as she heard what our colleagues said, she got scared off.’

’Such an opportunist, no principles at all.’

Though Claire was complaining internally, she had no choice but to compromise out loud. "It’s fine. You guys go ahead and do what you need to. I’ll try to figure something out on my own first. If I can’t, I’ll ask you for help then."

"I’m going to be really busy for a while, Claire. You’ve got this!"

"Yeah, you’ve got this! I have an undercover story to work on, so I’m gonna get back to it."

"I’ve got a few deadlines piling up too. I’m off to work."

...

Her colleagues fled as if escaping the plague.

Soon, only Claire Sinclair was left in the conference room, her face ashen and her mood foul.

’If you can’t write anything about Quincy Manor, then how are you supposed to do any PR for them?’

’Wait, am I an idiot?!’

’Who said PR has to be done with words? A few photos would work just fine!’