Chapter 63 Right and Wrong: That was a beauty he was unfamiliar with, very strange. ...
Manla's capital planet has no winter, so the temperature didn't drop much during this short month. Although it wasn't as scorching as in the height of summer, it still made people irritable and restless.
The excitement of victory receded like the tide. The winners had to deal with the aftermath, while the losers were unwilling to accept defeat. Discussions about the war spread online, with various people analyzing and debating what exactly caused Manra to initiate the war.
“Currently, more than half of the people on the entire StarNet do not believe that the mercenaries provoked the attack first. Many people think that this is just a pretext for Manra’s attack, and that her real purpose is to stand up for the Business Alliance,” said a woman with long blue hair and black eyes. Shi Wei was communicating with her.
Shortly after her return, the secretarial team that His Majesty had arranged for her arrived. These people, all carefully selected and highly qualified, were primarily responsible for handling various affairs for her. The head of the team was this blue-haired Beta woman—
Wang Hengmu, born into a minor noble family, studied at the Imperial Academy of Humanities. He joined the Security Bureau while in university. Due to his exceptional intelligence, he has completed all tasks, large and small, with outstanding performance over the decades, rising through the ranks to the Third Committee of the Social Security Department, making him a core member of the Security Bureau.
Most importantly, she was one of Lu Qi's most trusted confidantes, which is why she was assigned to be Shi Wei's first secretary.
This was her team to cultivate, and the people Lu Qi chose certainly didn't disappoint her.
"...These are some of the more viewed posts, the one with the most reposts is written by 'czzka'—'An Excuse for Declaring War? Or Is It Really a Femme fatale?'" Secretary Wang clicked on this 5,000-word article with pictures and text, highlighted a few lines, and said, "He analyzed the timeline and listed a lot of real evidence, believing that this war was started because of you, and listed—"
At the end of the article, after a long and rambling monologue, the author lists ten deadly sins of Shi Wei, this "femme fatale":
1. Betrayal of one's motherland.
2. Seducing those in positions of power.
3. Excessive close ties with the security bureau.
4. Create scandals to attract attention.
5. Colluding with mercenaries.
6. Fickle and promiscuous.
7. Frenzied political enthusiasm.
8. Provoking war.
9. Materialism.
10. Greed.
After reading it, Shi Wei was speechless and asked Secretary Wang, "Which of these charges do you think is the most serious?"
Secretary Wang paused for a moment, probably speechless at the ten deadly sins, and then said after thinking for a while: "I think it's the third and fifth, especially the third one—in the internet discourse, many people are afraid and disgusted by the omnipresence of Manla's Security Bureau. In fact, this is the effect of some media deliberately spreading propaganda. Unfortunately, the director doesn't care about this and even thinks it is the Security Bureau's deterrent power."
"This has led to considerable criticism of the Security Bureau among the citizens of the Empire, especially after the 'eavesdropping scandal' of the last century was widely reported. The public is confused about the details. If they think you are involved with the Security Bureau, they will feel that every move you make has a hidden meaning," Secretary Wang said. She looked at Shi Wei and said calmly, "The fifth point is also dangerous for you because it relates to this attack. However, we have successfully restored the surveillance footage of the restaurant where the incident occurred. Releasing some of the footage will confirm your identity as a victim. I suggest you go and visit the Alpha who protected you when you were injured again tomorrow."
A few days ago, Shi Wei went to see that Alpha and was very upset. However, the Alpha did not hold a grudge and kept apologizing for not protecting Shi Wei.
Both he and Shi Wei were victims of this incident. This identity could indeed help her get rid of some troublesome rumors. As for the third point, Shi Wei said, "I did work in the Security Bureau for a period of time. I can't lie about that, so let's just ignore this point. There are plenty of nobles and high-ranking officials who have close ties with the Security Bureau. They can't produce any substantial evidence, so what can they do to me?"
Secretary Wang nodded; that was what she thought too. If they couldn't deny it directly, they would choose to play dead.
Shi Wei looked at the ten "major crimes" and suddenly laughed: "This writer must be from the Alliance. Only those notorious media outlets in the Alliance like to play this kind of double standard."
"Heh." She laughed dismissively, her tone giving Secretary Wang a strange sense of familiarity: "The so-called betrayal of the motherland is actually quite normal for Manra and Fran to immigrate to each other, as they have been good friends for many years. The fact that he listed it as the number one thing is something only an organization like the Alliance, which is extremely short of people, would consider to be a betrayal."
"As for seduction, scandals, materialism, and promiscuity—" Shi Wei shook her head and said, "Manla has an open atmosphere, and Omegas have a much higher degree of freedom than the Alliance. Such criticisms are nothing to us. However, women in the Alliance generally have low status. They use the slogan of freedom and equality to brainwash Beta women, making them sacrifice their wombs and labor to increase the marriage rate. Meanwhile, the superiors have long since divided up the Omegas with good genes."
The full name of the alliance is "Freedom and Equality Union," but in reality, freedom belongs to the upper echelons of the pyramid, and equality is a joke.
Even the usually stern Secretary Wang chuckled, coldly stating, "When I was in university, the Alliance introduced some policies to boost the marriage and childbirth rate: levying a high uterus tax on all unmarried, childless women of childbearing age, covering childcare costs with the government, protecting marital property, and so on—"
I had only heard a little about this history before. Secretary Wang sighed and continued, "Most of the policies were good, but in the loose management system of the Alliance at the time, the implementation process lacked supervision and feedback for modification. Soon, Beta women began to get married and have children in order to avoid taxes. Over the five years, the maternal mortality rate increased significantly, and the survival rate of 6-month-old infants dropped sharply. Along with the increase in the marriage and childbirth rate, the divorce rate also increased."
There have been too many unexpected incidents. Free maternity medical benefits are not implemented by the alliance's private hospitals. Instead, they use government subsidies to encourage pregnant women to give birth. Even some sick babies who should not have been born are delivered by private hospitals.
Because of government subsidies, many poor couples are getting pregnant like crazy, selling their Alpha and Omega offspring for a fortune, while the government covers the childcare costs for ordinary Betas—it's hard to say whether these "farm" couples will take good care of their Beta children.
There was even a bizarre industry called "breeding farms" that actually emerged. The alliance's efforts to combat human trafficking were very weak. The reason is simple: many high-ranking officials were involved in these shady industries.
"In short, it was a chaotic and disgusting decade, and things only improved after the previous president took office and repealed those policies," Secretary Wang said. "But this president went too far, vigorously promoting 'female virtue,' 'chastity,' and 'husband-wife harmony.' His inaugural slogan was 'Let female betas return to the home,' which garnered him a large number of votes."
This is a dark joke, because at the time, an unmarried female Beta in the Alliance only had half a vote, a married one vote, a woman with children had two votes, and the sparsely populated Alphas and Omegas also had two votes, while male Betas, regardless of marital status, had one vote.
The election results were predictable. Most tragically, the voices of unmarried female Betas were not only drowned out by male Betas, but also by other women.
Shi Wei sighed and said, "Do these people in power really care about 'female virtue' or 'returning to the family'? They don't care. They just shout out a slogan to win over one group of people and suppress another group—what they want is the power of discourse."
Attacking her as promiscuous, involved in scandals, and materialistic is just a slogan; does expressing this viewpoint equate to endorse it? Not necessarily.
It doesn't matter what the ghostwriter was thinking; as long as he wrote it, he got paid.
Are the people manipulating public opinion behind the scenes trying to argue about right and wrong? As long as they do it, they will benefit from it.
Shi Wei said to Secretary Wang, "The solution is simple: focus on the 'promiscuous,' 'scandalous,' and 'materialistic' claims. Don't reply to anything that's unfavorable to me. Pick out those with obvious faults, write about them in detail, and monitor the comments simultaneously."
"Fran has an old saying—'The more you talk, the more mistakes you make; the less you talk, the more you do.' He listed ten points in one go. If you find even one mistake, the credibility of the whole article will be greatly reduced. So find several accounts, post it slowly, and show me the draft when it's finished."
The battlefield of public opinion is never a place for reasoning; it's a place where anyone can do whatever it takes to win, and only the victor has the right to speak.
Shi Wei opened Asta's diary, where she found this sentence: "To truly know a person, don't look at what they say, but at what they do."
This principle can be applied to many places, especially in this interstellar era. Think tank data can trap a person in a mental cage, but fortunately, Shi Wei can obtain a lot of real and effective information. She is now slowly applying the information she has obtained to these events.
Before Shi Wei could even get to know all the members of this brand-new team, they encountered their first problem.
The reason why King Scolag II did not intervene in the matter of how to reverse public opinion was to allow her to get familiar with the new team.
The emperor of the empire, while attending to his busy affairs on a neighboring star, noticed, during a moment of leisure, that night had quietly fallen—
He hadn't seen Shi Wei for over a month. After returning to China, he was busy with various things and only saw her twice, both times in a hurry.
Actually, it wouldn't be impossible for him to squeeze out the time; for an emperor, doing such a small thing would be too easy.
But he didn't; in fact, he was somewhat afraid to see her.
These days, what he can't get out of his mind is the image of Shi Wei being sent to the starship that day, her deep red hair bright and dazzling under the bright lights.
That was a beauty he didn't recognize; it was strange to him.
As unfamiliar as those photos.
-----------------------
Author's Note: His Majesty's young heart is filled with fear and nervousness.
Shi Wei, who was concentrating intently: Kill these hypocritical dogs!
-
Come update!
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2024-05-29 23:17:11 and 2024-06-05 16:00:01!
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: Earthly Ideal Little Sun and 1 bottle of Ershui;
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
