Chapter 243 Freedom
Zhu Yun turned around and was surprised to find that it was First Lady Lan Yan.
Why was she here? Did she also support the abolition of the Bloody Decree? But wouldn't that be against her husband?
Moreover, in her impression, Lan Yan and Zhang Quanming have always been a model couple. In the past, on important occasions, the two have always been very close, and there has never been any rumor of discord between them.
The crowd was also in an uproar. In their eyes, Lan Yan, the first lady who obeyed her husband and always put his interests first, was a traitor among women.
Therefore, when people saw her, instead of feeling happy, they were filled with anger.
This woman must be here to defend Zhang Quanming again!
The officer was also surprised, unsure of Lan Yan's position. He explained, "Madam, I am arresting Zhu Yun on orders from the leader."
Lan Yan said coldly, "The chief's order was to arrest Zhu Yun, not to hold innocent civilians hostage. By doing this, are you a thug or a soldier?"
The officer hurriedly defended himself, "But..."
Lan Yan, in contrast to his usual elegant demeanor, interrupted sternly, "Do you really expect the leader to praise you for your excellent work? The government's image is being ruined by idiots like you. Do you want to court-martial? Release him now!"
The officer was immediately shaken. What the leader's wife said must be what the leader meant, right?
His shameless behavior will definitely affect the leader's personal image. Even if he completes the task, he will not be able to escape the court's trial.
After weighing the pros and cons, he released his hand that was holding the trigger, let go of the blind girl, and staggered. The adjutant next to him hurriedly stepped forward to support him.
The blind girl stumbled forward and fled. Wang Chun rushed over, rescued her, and handed her over to his subordinates to comfort her.
Without the hostage, the officer knew it was impossible to capture Zhu Yun. In addition, he was anxious to treat the injury on his shoulder, so he turned around and led his men to retreat.
Watching the imperial army retreat in a panic, the protesters booed loudly.
They won again!
Everyone's confidence increased, waving the laser guns in their hands, and laughter rose and fell among the crowd like a vast ocean.
The fanatical atmosphere continued until Lan Yan walked onto the stage and stood in front of the microphone.
The scene was quiet for a moment, and vigilant and suspicious eyes were all focused on Lan Yan.
Even though she had just dealt with the blind girl and saved Chairman Zhu from being arrested, they still suspected she had bad intentions.
Who knows if she was deliberately putting on a bad face to persuade them to give up their protest and go home?
Zhu Yun was also extremely wary of Lan Yan, staring at her closely. If she dared to say anything that denigrated women's rights, he would immediately cut off her microphone.
Lan Yan smiled and said, "You must be curious about why I am here. There are two main reasons——"
"First, I support the repeal of the Bloody Decree."
"Second, I want to divorce Zhang Quanming."
Before he finished speaking, there was a slight click. Liu Ming, who had been prepared for a long time, accurately captured this decisive moment.
While the audience was still in shock, Liu Ming had already sent the photos to his assistant. The prepared press release underwent final editing and was immediately sent to all major media platforms.
The news broke instantly, and related entries directly became hot searches.
Zhang Quanming had pressured the internet authorities to suppress all reports of the protests. However, when the First Lady, Lan Yan, suddenly announced she was seeking a divorce, there was no time to respond.
Everyone knew about it in an instant, and public opinion was in an uproar.
People who had not previously paid attention to the protests flocked online to watch the demonstrations, flocking to the Xinhuo app's livestreaming room. The number of viewers in the livestream room, which had only a few hundred thousand, skyrocketed, soaring to tens of millions within a few minutes, and even reaching hundreds of millions.
Fortunately, the programming team was well prepared, otherwise the server would have been jammed and crashed long ago.
At this moment, everyone in the empire was watching this live broadcast.
Zhang Quanming was practically going crazy, slamming his fist on the table and yelling, "Why haven't you shut down the livestream yet? Didn't I tell you to bring the person in charge of Tianqiong here? Where's he?!"
In front of the crowd at Empire State Plaza, Lan Yan read out her carefully prepared speech in front of the live camera. Her tone was sincere, her expression was genuine, and every word she said was moving.
"I was only 20 years old when I married Zhang Quanming. I was very naive at the time and had many unrealistic expectations of marriage. I didn't even know that the man I was about to marry had been divorced twice and even had two children."
"Someone told me that your husband is the head of the empire. What else could you possibly want? However, becoming the wife of the head of the empire is not my goal. I also want to have my own life, not compromise everything for the benefit of Zhang Quanming."
"As the First Lady, I must meet everyone's expectations and always appear perfect and elegant. Even if I knew that Zhang Quanming had a new lover, or even that his lover was his subordinate, I could not publicly accuse him and had to keep his secret."
"In response to this, I ask every woman present: should I be satisfied?"
Everyone excitedly said: "Of course not!"
"Yes, I'm not satisfied. A man can't be fickle and still expect a woman to continue to play the perfect wife to him, even if he's the head of an empire. But when I asked him for a divorce, he accused me of being unreasonable and beat me in anger, just like an ordinary man who's done something wrong and been exposed."
As he spoke, Lan Yan took the makeup remover towel and wiped off the heavy makeup on his face, revealing a large and shocking bruise on his pale cheek.
It took a few days to recover, so you can imagine how serious the injury was.
Lan Yan's eyes gradually turned red. "In order to get me to quell the controversy surrounding the Song Xiaojun case, Zhang Quanming promised to set me free after his term ended. But not long after, he introduced a bloody decree prohibiting women from getting divorced!"
In fact, she knew very well from the beginning that Zhang Quanming would not give up competing for the next leader, nor would he let her go, because their interests were too deeply intertwined, and he had to tie her to his side through marriage to believe that she would not betray him.
The same thing happened with his mistress. He slept with an office worker only to get something on her so he could hire her without worry.
Zhang Quanming has no idea how to manage a team, nor does he have any charm worth following. His only means is "bad connections" - by monopolizing resources and power, he forces those who benefit from him to remain loyal to him. Once the other party wants to withdraw, they will fall into an extremely miserable situation.
For this reason, as long as Zhang Quanming is in power, Lan Yan must be the perfect leader's wife and the gentle mother of his children.
If Lan Yan dared to escape his control, he would definitely make her disappear from this world quietly like his previous two wives.
It was precisely because Lan Yan realized this that he wanted to contact the Tianqiong Foundation for help through reporter Liu Ming.
But she didn't expect that Liu Ming would be so wary of her. Not only did he keep denying the existence of the foundation, he also planned to end the interview early and leave.
Lan Yan knew that if she missed this opportunity, she would never be able to escape. Perhaps the next time she appeared before the nation, it would be an obituary for her accidental death.
She could only take a gamble and play all the cards in her hand.
——Don’t you also want to avoid the reports that I’m planning to divorce the leader Zhang Quanmin?
Sure enough, after hearing these words, Liu Ming, who was about to leave, stopped.
Afterwards, she confessed everything, including how she had to use heavy makeup to cover up her injuries because she was beaten.
As she expected, the honest and fearless reporter finally relented after hearing about her difficult plight.
"I will try to recommend you for membership, but whether you can pass the review depends on your luck."
A day later, Lan Yan met the president of the Tianqiong Foundation as he wished.
The other person was sitting behind the long table, his eyes, mostly white and less black, looking as creepy as a cheetah when he stared at her.
Why was he looking at her like that? Was he doubting that she had joined the foundation simply to leave Zhang Quanming?
Lan Yan hurriedly said, "President, everything I said comes from the heart. If you are willing to help me, I am willing to donate half of my property to the foundation."
"Very good," he said, his lips curled into a smile, but his eyes remained cold. "Then how about exposing Zhang Quanming's ugly true face in front of the entire nation?"
Lan Yan hurriedly shook his head, "No, if I do that, he will definitely kill me."
If she wanted to die, she wouldn't come to the president for help.
The smile on the other person's lips deepened, "Don't worry, I will make sure you are safe."
Lan Yan thought she didn't know how powerful Zhang Quanming was. He could mobilize an army of 100,000 people, and all the agents from the Investigation Bureau were working for him. Ordinary people had no way of competing with him.
She was about to open her mouth to remind the other party, but her vision suddenly went dark. When she opened her eyes, she was back in the real room.
——She was forced offline.
Lan Yan was apprehensive. Should she really do what this man said? But it was too dangerous. What if she failed? What if she couldn't handle Zhang Quanming at all?
It's too unfair that the president asked her to rashly gamble her life without telling her what his abilities are.
But...but...
She had no other choice.
So, Lan Yan appeared at the scene of the protest, stood on the platform, used her influence as the first lady as a weapon, and launched the most powerful attack on Zhang Quanming.
"I absolutely do not support the Bloody Decree, nor do I believe that Zhang Quanming, who wantonly violates the rights of citizens, is a qualified leader of the empire."
"Today, here, I unilaterally announce that my marriage to Zhang Quanming is over, and I, Lan Yan, will no longer be the First Lady."
"Even the law cannot deprive me of the right to freely decide my own life."
After he finished speaking, the whole audience fell silent, and the barrage of comments that were flooding the live broadcast room stopped for a moment.
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