Chapter 278: The Demon in the Cage

Xiao Zishan knew the characteristics of such people very well. They had lived a smooth life, navigated society with ease, never suffered any major setbacks, and could handle everything. They felt they were good at everything and that everyone was beneath them. Now, being under controlled use and blacklisted, and all because of the women he despised the most, he must have accumulated a great deal of resentment. His revenge would surely be both brutal and fierce.

The thought of an inexperienced girl, well-read but with social experience mostly from TV dramas and web novels, falling into the sights of this gentleman, made Xiao Zishan shudder.

He had personally witnessed a girl he knew fall from a white-collar office worker to a prostitute, all for her gigolo boyfriend, who was simultaneously dating four or five other “girlfriends,” ranging from eighteen to forty. These women could sit at the same table to celebrate his birthday, vying to please him and giving him everything they had for his expenses.

While lamenting that some men deserved to be doused in gasoline and set on fire, he also deeply understood the extent of women’s foolishness and stubbornness in matters of love. Once they fell into the emotional trap of certain talented men, they were often unable to extricate themselves, and it could even lead to physical harm. If Xin Wuzui could make a girl jump off a building in another time and space, he could probably make a woman jump into the sea in this one.

“It’s not too late to pull back from the brink,” Xiao Zishan muttered to himself. He hoped she would be a little more clear-headed and not give herself the chance to experience the dark cruelty of palace intrigue dramas and novels.

Watching these stories full of human darkness from the comfort of a warm room was one thing; experiencing that darkness firsthand was another matter entirely.

He knew that the deputy director’s visit was not to seek his consent but was out of “respect” for the Executive Committee.

But Xiao Zishan still felt something was not right. Although the little lady’s methods and thinking were a bit insidious, she was merely using the privileges of an Elder to seek power for herself. The problems she exposed were also normal and objective. Her actions, though scheming, had not yet crossed the line.

After all, she was also one of the Elders. If that grand gentleman Xin Wuzui were to stir up some trouble, not only would the Elder Council lose face, but it would also affect the unity between male and female Elders. Of course, according to the principle of thorough democracy, even if all the female Elders united, they couldn’t overturn the heavens. But they were, after all, an important part of the Elder Council. A real split would do no good for the great cause.

Thinking of this, he grew more uneasy. He picked up his PHS phone and called Zhao Manxiong. “Old Xiong, about that matter you mentioned…”

“I assure you, it will not involve any Elder, nor will it target any Elder,” Zhao Manxiong seemed to know what he was thinking, his voice as gentle and kind as ever. “I understand the principles of right and wrong.”

Zhao Manxiong hung up before he could answer. Are you trying to spare me the inconvenience of answering ‘yes’ or ‘no’? Xiao Zishan thought.

Although he trusted the political wisdom of the First Deputy Director, whether a person familiar with the history of the Great Purge would be as ruthless as that history when dealing with matters involving Elders was a questionable issue. After much consideration, he decided to go and see this gentleman himself to get a firsthand understanding. After all, it had been several years since he had last seen him.

Xin Wuzui’s workplace was the “Central Computing Center” under the Finance Department in Gaoshanling.

Naturally, he couldn’t go specifically; it had to be a “chance encounter.” It wasn’t difficult for him to find an excuse to go to Gaoshanling. Many of the Executive Committee’s directly subordinate institutions in the Gaoshanling restricted area were under the management of the General Office. He went to the Gaoshanling area every three to five days. A visit to the computing center was also within his job scope.

When one speaks of a computing center, one would surely imagine a modern white building with countless server hosts arranged in neat arrays in a constant temperature and humidity room, with various colored LED lights flashing. But in this time and space, this computing center was a long, three-story red brick building with many columns. This was a “key building” constructed by the General Construction Company in accordance with the three principles of “suitability, solidity, and economy” proposed by the Elder Council, Chairman Wen, and State Councilor Ma.

Xiao Zishan passed through the heavily guarded gate and did not go to the director’s office of the center—he knew that the Elder director of the computing center was at a meeting with the finance department today. He went directly to the “computing building.”

Xiao Zishan passed through two more locked iron gates guarded by sentries and entered the computing building. According to the monitoring materials provided by the Political Security Bureau, Xin Wuzui’s office was on the third floor.

The light in the stairwell and corridors was bright, even a little dazzling. It was clear that the General Construction Company had used various techniques to maximize the use of natural light. Even the ordinary windows were much larger than in normal buildings. On a clear day like today, black sun-shading nets were hung on the windows, which felt very strange.

The corridor echoed with the clatter of abacuses and the whirring of hand-cranked calculators. From time to time, naturalized citizen clerks pushing carts piled high with documents and ledgers hurried past in the corridor.

The rooms he passed were not filled with mainframes or servers. Instead, similar to the computing center of the Colonial Trade Department, the computing tasks were broken down and calculated by specially trained calculators using hand-cranked calculators, abacuses, and slide rules. The results were then collected and processed in a “human-powered computer” developed from a “calculation assembly line.”

Although the daily calculation volume of this entire building was less than that of a single server in the computer center in the Great Library’s tunnel for one minute, such computing power was already very valuable for Lingao. The few dedicated servers had too much work to run, so the simpler tasks were all handed over to the human calculators here.

To prevent the papers from being blown away, the windows were covered with thick wire mesh. The calculators worked with their heads down. Their drinking water was specially made by the Ministry of Health, said to be refreshing and invigorating. This special drink was bottled in glass, placed in a sunken hole on the desktop. The bottle was sealed, with a straw inserted. This way, they could drink water directly without using their hands. A female attendant was busy in the calculation room: moving away completed papers, bringing in new calculation problems, and from time to time, replacing their drinking water and wiping their sweat with a towel.

The room was very hot, and of course, there were no electric fans. Fortunately, the huge windows brought in enough wind, and the temperature in the Gaoshanling area was already a few degrees lower than in other places. There were also large wooden tubs in the room, filled with large blocks of ice.

This scene reminded Xiao Zishan of the workshops of sweatshops in the old time and space. He slowly walked up to the third floor. At the end of the third-floor corridor, there was another iron gate.

He rang the bell next to the iron gate, and a guard opened a small window on the gate from the inside.

Xiao Zishan took out his highest-level special pass. The iron gate opened with a sound. The sentry saluted. “Master!”

“It’s nothing,” Xiao Zishan waved his hand dismissively. “I’m here to check the situation. What is this place?”

“Finance Directorate, Room 255, Master!”

Any place with a codename was a confidential unit. Xiao Zishan knew very well that this was where Xin Wuzui worked, but he still asked, “Is there a Master working here?”

“There is a Master Xin.”

The corridor behind the iron gate was about ten meters long, with doors on both sides. There were no large windows here, only long, narrow skylights in the ceiling to let in light. Xiao Zishan noticed that all the doors were Lingao-made “security doors,” which indicated that the security level here was very high. Inside were either a large amount of confidential data or first-level controlled equipment and materials brought from the old time and space.

From the faint voices and the sound of typewriters and calculators coming from behind the closed doors, he knew there were people in the rooms, but he was not interested in them.

The door of the last office was ajar, revealing a bright light.

He pushed the door open. One of the Four of the Black was sitting there.

Xin Wuzui hadn’t changed much since he had seen him at the trial. He still had the look of a dissolute middle-aged man, an artistic and roguish type. Even his Italian suit was ironed with the same straight lines as before.

Xin Wuzui was not working. He was leaning back in a rattan chair, flipping through a magazine-sized booklet. He held the book in his right hand and gently turned the pages with his left. He wore a diamond ring on his finger.

Xiao Zishan coughed lightly.

He stopped reading and looked up.

In that instant, he suddenly felt that his gaze could almost make a low sound. He remembered the few high-end business receptions he had attended, where the business elites in their high-end Italian suits, with their snow-white collars and cuffs, and even cufflinks, had such a gaze.

“Director Xiao,” his voice was soft, even very pleasant, but the tone was cold, polite, and reserved. “What wind brings you to my place?”

“The east wind,” Xiao Zishan smiled. “As the Director of the General Office, it is my job to care about the life of every Elder.”

Xin Wuzui put down the booklet in his hand. At this moment, Xiao Zishan saw clearly that it was a recently launched trial issue of the “comprehensive” magazine, Times Life Weekly.

The magazine was a suggestion from the Propaganda Department, but Xiao Zishan knew that Panpan was the main editor. Because the magazine’s target audience was the “core group of the new society”—Elders, life secretaries, and naturalized citizens—and its mission was to spread the “Australian lifestyle, cultural concepts, and ideas,” it received the approval of the Planning Office without much trouble.

But this magazine had just published less than twenty trial issues and was only being “test-read” in a small circle. How could Xin Wuzui, who was almost isolated from the world, have it?

“Please sit,” Xin Wuzui made a gesture. “Tea? Thanks to you, I have everything here.”