Era of Magic and Martial Arts

Chapter 402 - 386: We Don’t Need the Ants to Listen to Us, We Just Need...

Perhaps it was Destiny’s coincidence. At the same time Qian Huan closed the webpage, in the Bright Group’s general manager’s office, Lu Chenjia also lightly released his grip on the mouse.

He leaned back in the leather chair, his gaze passing through the floor-to-ceiling windows, overlooking the dense, ant-like throngs of people flowing below.

The city lights twinkled in his eyes, like a vast galaxy, and he, standing above this galaxy, looked down upon all life.

"This is enough, the public opinion has reached a sufficient temperature."

Lu Chenjia stated flatly, with a touch of nonchalance in his tone, as if all this was just a game he was casually playing.

The man dressed as a secretary standing by nodded, hesitated for a moment, then asked:

"Currently online, the reputation of the Second Prison, the support rate for Qian Huan is only just at 53%, the public opinion hasn’t completely reversed, shouldn’t President Lu add more fuel to the fire?"

Lu Chenjia did not answer immediately, still overlooking the window, his gaze deep and cold.

After a while, he finally spoke softly:

"We don’t need to make the public believe in anything, nor do we need to make the public oppose anything. The costs are too high."

The secretary furrowed his brows, seeming a bit puzzled: "Then... what does President Lu mean?"

Lu Chenjia chuckled lightly, with a hint of mockery in his tone:

"The strength of the public comes from their numbers, but their weakness is also in their numbers. So, it’s difficult to unify them, but dividing them is very simple."

He turned around, no longer looking at the ants below, and said quietly:

"We don’t need the ants to completely obey us, we just need them not to reach a consensus."

..........

At the same time.

In the roundtable conference room of the Executive Government, a dozen or so members of parliament sat upright around a heavy mahogany table.

The crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling cast a cold white light, illuminating each face with a sense of solemnity.

A giant electronic screen hung on the central wall of the conference room, its cold white light pouring down like surgery lights, the screen showing real-time scrolling data streams like an invisible giant net, enveloping hot topics like #SecondPrisonRiot#, #QianHuanReform#, #GongLaoWill#.

One red and one black line chart are like two monstrous snakes, devouring and summarizing the various data.

In this solemn room, the will of the ants has been most directly transformed into cold numbers and graphs.

Red bar chart: 53%

Black bar chart: 47%

Below the Executive Government building, the families of the deceased prison guards held black and white photos and banners, with cries and protests faintly seeping through the thick glass windows.

"All this noise is really hurting my ears."

The most senior member of parliament, Zhang Deming, spoke first, his tone as calm as discussing the weather,

"Apparently there’s a need to refurbish the Executive Government building this year, adding two layers of soundproof walls to the outer walls."

"Agreed!"

"Agreed!"

"Agreed!"

"...."

The first agenda of today’s meeting thus passed unanimously and smoothly.

The Chief Member then slowly scanned the room, speaking leisurely:

"The Second Prison’s incident, its impact is vile, it has been delayed for a few days, you all have observed for a few days, now it’s time for everyone to take a stand."

The members of parliament present exchanged a knowing glance.

They perhaps did not know all the details of the Second Prison incident, but the charts on the big screen had already made the situation clear at a glance.

These tricks might deceive the enraged public, but they certainly cannot escape the discerning eyes of these seasoned politicians.

In fact, before entering the meeting room this morning, the team under each member of parliament had already prepared detailed analysis and predictions for their respective member of parliament.

Of course, these analyses and the direction of public opinion have nothing to do with who or what the truth is — those are merely superficial issues.

The conclusions they unearthed pointed directly at the core:

Bright Group has stepped in, showing an attitude of determination towards the Second Prison.

The suggestions prepared for their members of parliament came in two forms:

First, obstruct.

Before Bright Group completely controls the situation, find a way to extract a piece of flesh from them, for example, by asking Bright Group to make concessions on some key project, or directly demanding a "benefit fee."

Second, agree.

Cultivate a good relationship with Bright Group in hopes of earning their support for a further step in the future. Indeed, Bright Group’s resources and connections are enough to help any member of parliament advance at critical nodes.

As for which one to choose, it depends on the member of parliament’s own attitude tendencies.

As to ultimately choosing which strategy, it depends on each member’s attitude inclination.

And the balances behind this tendency are extremely complicated:

The entanglement of factional interests, the strength or weakness of positional authority, the depth of relationship with Bright Group, personal character and likes or dislikes, even one’s own age and seniority, all of these factors need to be carefully considered.

But one thing is evident, the least important among these is the attitude of the prison system, the so-called truth of the incident, or the heart-wrenching cries below.

Public sentiment was something they had to consider initially, but now, even this aspect needs no heed.

Then, the interesting part is that when these members of parliament reached the stage of verbal exchanges, every word, even every punctuation mark, inevitably circled back to "public sentiment," "the truth," "the tragic fate of the deceased," and "the attitude of the prison system."

"The tragedy at Second Prison, Qian Huan cannot escape the blame."

Zhang Deming lightly coughed, speaking steadily, his voice carrying a trace of gravity,

"This matter fully demonstrates that prisons should not undergo privatization reform, applying corporate standards to prisons is madness, it’s the cruelest infringement on life and human rights, and our Executive Government must not continue to turn a blind eye."

"Human rights?"

Another younger member of parliament snorted and interrupted,

"What human rights do the scum in prison need, with the Executive Government subsidizing prisons with so much money every year, sustaining a group of prisoners, it’s a completely irresponsible practice towards the public, privatization reform is a necessary measure to reduce the fiscal burden!"

Those words immediately sparked a few faint discussions from one side of the conference table, some looked down at the documents in front of them, while others slightly frowned, seemingly pondering their wording.

A middle-aged member of parliament who had remained silent slowly raised his head at this moment, speaking with a deep tone:

"There’s nothing wrong with privatization reform, the crux of the problem is who is to take charge of reform at the Second Prison, it’s not absolutely necessary to choose only Bright Group, I think this matter is open for discussion, in fact, a re-tendering wouldn’t be an unfair option..."

Member of Parliament Wang sat among them, coldly observing the performances of the other members, watching them bicker endlessly under various grandiose pretexts, a contemptuous curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.

He suddenly spoke to the Chief Member:

"After all this talk, why not just let people from the prison system come in and speak for themselves?"