AWB Chapter 254 This overwhelming wealth has finally reached the propaganda department!
Chapter 254 This overwhelming wealth has finally reached the propaganda department!
Cheng Xin remained silent. Now that things had come to this, she knew that her mistake was probably irreversible.
After a long silence, she finally spoke again.
"There's just one thing I don't understand: what exactly was the agreement you reached with Lin Xuan?"
Tomoko remained silent for a moment before shaking her head.
"It's nothing much, it just made me voluntarily sever my connection with the Trisolaran civilization."
Cheng Xin was taken aback upon hearing this.
"So... you're actually acting on your own will right now?"
This still shocked him somewhat. As an artificial intelligence developed by the Trisolaran world, Sophon must have a certain degree of autonomy. However, most of the time, she is controlled by the background. Now that the connection with her own civilization has been severed, her own functions have actually been half disabled.
At that moment, Cheng Xin suddenly smiled.
She suddenly understood why the Trisolarans chose to bypass the Earth Alliance and directly reach an agreement with Lin Xuan.
The deterrent effect is long gone, but Lin Xuan still instills a deep-seated fear in them.
Looking back at myself, I realize how ridiculous my previous idea of two civilizations coexisting peacefully was.
Suddenly, as if she remembered something, she looked at Tomoko again.
"How is Yun Tianming doing these days?"
Upon hearing this, Zhizi nodded slightly to her.
"It's amazing you still remember him. I thought you had long forgotten him."
"How could I forget? Back then, the Ladder Project was something I did to her."
Proposing the ladder plan was Cheng Xin's greatest achievement in her life, but it was also the life choice she regretted the most.
When others achieve success, they might jokingly say things like, "I'm not interested in money," or "I regret that I was able to achieve so much back then." But when Cheng Xinruo says this, it's absolutely from the bottom of her heart.
Yun Tianming was a direct victim of the Ladder Project. If it weren't for the Ladder Project, he could have lived out his life in peace during the Crisis Era.
With the development of the times, since the beginning of the two major international eras, the number of suicides has been rising steadily.
At first, people were surprised by this phenomenon, but in the long run, the implementation of euthanasia has undoubtedly provided a way out for the desperate people at the bottom of society.
Suicide pavilions were a common sight on the streets and alleys, and for a time, Taylor even personally endorsed them.
The advertising slogan is: Return yourself to God, and you will have no regrets on earth.
Therefore, Cheng Xin never felt that she had saved Yun Tianming. On the contrary, perhaps it was a good thing for him that he was able to successfully complete the entire process of euthanasia back then.
“He’s doing very well now, and in our area, he’s achieved a social status comparable to yours.”
Zhi Zi hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not tell Cheng Xin that Yun Tianming had become the Fairy Tale Ruler.
This matter was too confidential for Yun Tianming to disclose, and they were unwilling to reveal it themselves.
Upon hearing this, Cheng Xin breathed a sigh of relief, and her brows relaxed a bit.
"That's good too. Thomas Wade was right about one thing: he's not suited for human society. If he can make a difference in another civilization, then he'll have realized his life's value."
But today, whether it was intentionally to provoke Cheng Xin or not, Zhi Zi immediately interrupted Cheng Xin's fantasy upon hearing her words.
"But that's just what you think, isn't it?"
“Ms. Cheng Xin, we cannot judge past choices based on current results. Before reaching the Trisolaran civilization, neither you nor Yun Tianming knew what they would face. Therefore, he was the one bearing this unknown outcome. I cannot agree with your self-comforting spirit.”
Cheng Xin's shock level increased by 99!
Cheng Xinren was completely numb. No, I was just making a casual remark, did you have to be so harsh on me?
……
After regaining control of the Earth Alliance, Luo Congmin finally got this massive political machine running again.
It's not that she's particularly capable, but rather that the previous local alliance was a mixed bag, with no unified voice whatsoever. With one government and three parties, neither government orders nor anything else could be effectively implemented at the local level.
Not to mention the people below, even the people in the Earth Alliance themselves were feeling a bit of a headache.
Everyone is starting to miss the days when Luo Congmin was around; at least there was someone who could make the final decision on any matter.
If something goes wrong with the policy, there will be someone to step in and take responsibility. People don't need to be afraid of being held accountable for any constructive suggestions they offer.
So now that Luo Congmin has returned to take charge of the Earth Alliance again, everyone is very happy.
As for whether they were afraid of Lin Xuan, everyone knows the answer. How could they easily admit to something like that? They have no emotional intelligence at all. This is called giving up their power for the greater good. They are doing this for the benefit of all mankind.
The reconstruction plan for Ringworld was finalized the day after Luo Congmin took office.
The specific details of the meeting also progressed quite smoothly.
"Madam President, I believe that the position of chief architect for the reconstruction project of the Ringworld should be given to Mr. Kant, who has made great achievements in this field."
Wei Shiqing from the Earth Link Engineering Department stood up and suggested.
Before Luo Congmin could speak, Lin Xuan, who was standing to the side, rejected the idea first.
"Who? Kant, born in the 13th year of the Deterrence Era. He's not even a hundred years old yet. What achievements could he possibly have? Wang Miao doesn't seem to be dead yet. If he's not dead, let him continue to take over the RimWorld project. Stop him from spending his days holed up at home playing games with those two scoundrels, Bai Bing. Tell Bai Bing that he had better produce some results this year, or I'll expose all the things he's been doing, like developing game cheats."
Hearing Lin Xuan's words, everyone present couldn't help but twitch their lips.
"Listen to what you're saying, is that even human? What do you mean by 'not even a hundred years old'? Besides you and Luo Congmin, how many people here have lived to be over a hundred? If you don't want to use other people, why don't you just decide from the beginning? Why do you have to make us recommend someone?"
"What's wrong? Do you really like the veto power of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council back in the UN General Assembly era?"
Even Luo Congmin couldn't help but give Lin Xuan a reproachful look. Since he came back, he has become more and more domineering. Before, as an observer, he didn't dare to directly manage the various affairs of Earth. Now, however, he has come to the Earth Federation to rule from behind the curtain, acting like a retired emperor.
"Then... how should we solve the workers' problem?"
At this point, someone else stepped forward and raised a question.
Previously, the construction of the RimWorld was carried out by Thomas Wade through the forced conscription of people and clones from all over the world.
We can't let it happen again, can we? If we did, we wouldn't even need to wait for the Dark Forest Strike; their internal strife would be enough to give the entire Earth Alliance a run for its money.
"Regarding the worker issue, let's stick to the conscription system. I don't have any better solutions right now."
Luo Congmin gets a headache whenever this topic comes up, because clones still have some defects compared to ordinary humans, and there are some machines they cannot use for the time being.
Before developing the necessary tools for cloning, the only option is to recruit ordinary people to operate these instruments.
However, this would severely strain government spending, and the economic system that the local government had painstakingly stabilized would collapse again.
"I'll think of something else. We'll just have to tighten our belts for now."
Luo Congmin finally understood what it meant to be a clever cook without rice. But just as she was thinking about how to make money, Lin Xuan spoke up again.
"Why should the Land Federation pay for the workers? Aren't there plenty of workers available right outside?"
Upon hearing this, all the local committee members in the meeting room were taken aback.
Luo Congmin immediately realized something and looked at Lin Xuan with a look of horror.
"Tell Cheng Xin and the others that since the doves have realized their mistakes, send them to the sun to repair the ring world as a form of labor reform. They can come back down whenever they finish repairing it."
"Let Rediaz go and arrest everyone who has any connection with the doves and who supported the Black Zone Project. I only want people. Send them all to the sun for labor reform."
These words immediately caused many people in the venue to lose their composure.
“Mr. Lin Xuan, this…this is absolutely unacceptable! No matter what, even if the doves are wrong, they are still high-ranking officials of the Earth Alliance. How can they go to the world to do manual labor?”
Song Chen from the Ministry of Education was the first to stand up and oppose it. He was actually half a dove, but the Ministry of Education had always been controlled by Luo Congmin, so it was not convenient for him to openly join the dove faction back then.
Upon hearing this, Lin Xuan couldn't help but furrow her brow slightly.
"So you're saying the officials of the Earth Alliance are superior, and that ordinary people can do the manual labor that these high-ranking officials can't? What use are these good-for-nothings who only know how to eat, drink, and defecate? Then kill them all, leave no one alive!"
Upon hearing this, Song Chen panicked and hurriedly offered an explanation.
“Mr. Lin Xuan, that’s not what I meant. You don’t know this, but the people who want to work for the Earth Alliance now have highly edited genes. It’s not that they are superior, but that they are better at mental work than physical work. It would be a waste to make them do manual labor!”
Hearing what the other person said, Lin Xuan couldn't help but look at Luo Congmin beside her. After receiving a nod of affirmation from the latter, she was speechless.
Principal Liu Chang's words suddenly echoed in his ears.
"Lin Xuan, you're ruining me! Gene editing technology, damn it, I don't even want to think about it. This isn't just an ethical issue; once this technology is successfully developed, we'll both become inferior beings!"
Gene editing technology is the kind of technology that will truly categorize people into different classes from a biological perspective.
In the past, if you said that people were of different social classes, people would laugh at you for having a narrow mind. But now, the distinction between people of different social classes is being written into textbooks.
Those with a higher degree of gene editing are better suited for mental work, while those with a lower degree of editing are naturally limited to manual labor.
However, these technologies are naturally firmly controlled by the wealthy. Therefore, the children of the rich generally become increasingly intelligent, while for the children of ordinary people, unless their efforts far outweigh their genetic disadvantages, it is very difficult to close the gap.
However, this is not absolute. Even after hundreds of years, the fairness of the college entrance examination remains beyond question.
While it cannot achieve complete equality for all, it will at least give those with poorer genes at the bottom some opportunities to climb up and cross social classes, preventing class stratification from becoming completely rigid.
Every year, Luo Congmin personally supervises the National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao). Even during her years as president, she never relaxed her management of the Gaokao.
Therefore, for everyone, making high-ranking officials of the Earth Alliance do manual labor is completely unacceptable to them; even as a punishment, it is far too severe.
Seeing everyone's reaction, Lin Xuan immediately laughed.
"Alright, in that case, tell the families of these executives that those who don't want to work should pay to come to me to bail them out!"
"The ransom for a second-level ministerial-level staff member is 200 million, and for a minister it starts at 1000 million. I've long heard that corruption is rampant among the officials of the local alliance. Surely they can't even afford this much money at home?"
“If you pay, I’ll release him immediately. If you don’t pay, I’ll have Rediaz broadcast the footage of him working to the entire solar system.”
"You care about your reputation, don't you think that people of higher social standing can't do manual labor? Well then I'll grant your wish, but I only have one request: money. Once I have the money, we can talk about anything. If you don't have the money, then you'll humiliate him to death."
Upon hearing Lin Xuan's words, all the officials from the local government couldn't help but twitch their lips.
Good heavens, this isn't an observer, he's a complete bandit!
Even bandits don't do this. Kidnapping and extortion, starting with millions in their mouths—they're trying to empty the coffers of these high-ranking members of the local alliance.
Where are the people from the publicity department?
"exist!"
Several people immediately stepped out from the line of the education and culture department; they were all heads of the publicity department of the local association.
“Every week, you need to be in charge of these people’s live streaming work. Make sure you know exactly who hasn’t paid and how much is owed. If there’s a missing sum, I’ll make trouble for your publicity department!”
"As ordered!"
The head of the propaganda department had no choice but to agree. Because the local alliance had always had a bad reputation, and because the masses were too free in their thinking and not easily brainwashed, the propaganda department had always been of little use to the local alliance.
The head of the publicity department used to pray every day that one day he would have a chance to use his talents.
Well, this immense wealth has finally descended upon them.
The meeting ended. Although Lin Xuan's approach was somewhat outrageous, it was exceptionally effective. The reconstruction of the world that had troubled Luo Congmin for so long was solved so easily by Lin Xuan.
For a moment, Luo Congmin didn't know whether to be happy or helpless.
"Perhaps this is why Lin Xuan can make everyone feel both afraid and at ease. It's no wonder that the Trisolaran civilization lost to someone like her."