Chapter 422: Analysis of Online Public Opinion
“The one who’s always trailing after you?” Yu E’shui had no impression of this Huang Pan. He asked as he signed the approval.
“No, that’s Liu Ziming.”
At the mention of the name, Yu E’shui had a faint recollection. The sullen young man who followed Lu Xuan around everywhere was said to be a relative of Lu Xuan’s “mistress.” He had a look of deep-seated resentment, and because he couldn’t even pass the Class C literacy exam, he had ended up getting a job in the Great Library’s service team two years ago through Lu Xuan’s connections. The naturalized citizens selected to work at the Great Library all had to pass a political background check. The key was political reliability; a lower level of education didn’t matter. Sometimes, illiteracy was even better—as long as they could recognize Arabic numerals.
“Huang Pan is the tall, sturdy one…”
“That’s a pity. A tall, strong man, and he can’t do heavy labor anymore,” Yu E’shui said, uncapping his pen and signing the document with a flourish. “Anything else?”
“According to regulations, Huang Pan is a staff member in a sensitive position. His appointment and departure must be filed with the Political Security Bureau. This is the filing material…”
“Is it just this document?”
Yu E’shui cut him off. He didn’t care about these people at all; it was just the habit of a leader to inquire about everything. He glanced at it with some disapproval.
“You can just handle this kind of thing according to procedure. You don’t need to come to me for a signature for everything. Is there anything else?”
“Director, please let me finish. This material requires the official seal of the Great Library. You are the head. Any use of the seal for external matters must be approved by you.”
At Lu Xuan’s words, Yu E’shui’s furrowed brow relaxed. He signed the document Lu Xuan handed him with a flourish.
“Second thing, Captain Jiang from the Special Reconnaissance Team called for you yesterday afternoon. You were in a meeting. He said he wanted to borrow me to go to Maqiao Fort to teach a few days of political history to the newly selected members of the team. What do you think—”
Yu E’shui’s face darkened. He couldn’t help but complain:
“What do they think the Great Library is? A labor dispatch company? Today this one wants someone, tomorrow that one borrows someone. Don’t they see that besides you and me, there are hardly any proper Elders working here? Are we supposed to do the work of the Great Library or not? The security situation is so bad right now, terrorists have even come to set off explosives at the East Gate Market! And what do we have here? Treasures! Irreplaceable treasures! Wealth, wealth to be left to our descendants! Any loss in the Great Library is a crime against our descendants, against humanity!” Yu E’shui became more and more agitated, standing up and pacing the room. Lu Xuan quietly watched Yu E’shui, who was on the verge of a full-blown meltdown. He knew that as the Senate’s power grew, it had gained a decisive advantage over the surrounding forces. Their confidence in their system was soaring, and the importance they placed on the historical knowledge in the Great Library was gradually diminishing. Although the Great Library’s status as a repository of human knowledge was still paramount, the Ming history research section would become increasingly marginalized, eventually reduced to a mere advisory office. It was normal for Yu E’shui to feel a sense of loss.
Yu E’shui suddenly snatched Huang Pan’s work injury subsidy approval from the table and waved it in the air. “Increasing the number of Special Reconnaissance Team members?! The security for our library, such an important unit, hasn’t been increased at all! I’ve told the Executive Committee so many times, there should be a Special Reconnaissance Team detachment specifically responsible for the security of the High Mountain Ridge area. Now it’s a bunch of Korean and Japanese devils guarding High Mountain Ridge! My God! I think they’ve got their priorities completely backward. This is the foundation of the Senate, knowledge is the foundation of the Senate…”
“Director, don’t be anxious. I heard the Special Reconnaissance Team is preparing to transfer a group of people to some Secret Service, to be directly responsible for the security of the Elders and important institutions. Our Great Library, being such a vital department, will certainly be protected by the Secret Service…” Lu Xuan comforted him.
“Secret Service?!” Yu E’shui’s feet seemed to be nailed to the floor. He turned his head and stared at Lu Xuan in astonishment.
“You don’t know? It’s been rumored recently. It’s on the internet, and people are talking about it privately. I hear Speaker Qian has already recommended that foreign woman, Salina, to be the director of the Secret Service. They also say a Senate Security Committee will be established in the future. The Secret Service will be under the jurisdiction of this Security Committee.”
Lu Xuan spoke with great animation. Yu E’shui’s expression became very complicated.
“What? You really don’t know about this? You’re the Executive Committee’s chief historical consultant. Such a major policy change, it’s impossible they wouldn’t ask for your opinion… You don’t believe me? The proposal for political reform has been on the BBS for days. The detailed posts about establishing the Security Committee and Finance Committee are already out…”
Yu E’shui opened his browser and casually browsed the posts. His expression tightened, then quickly became as still as water. His composure gradually returned.
“This is just a proposal. Any Elder can propose military and political affairs. There are seven or eight such proposals on the BBS every week.”
Lu Xuan nodded in agreement. “You’re right, you’re right.”
“But looking at Old Qian and their intentions, their appetite is not small,” Yu E’shui commented lightly, as if it had nothing to do with him. “Supervision or not doesn’t matter much. I’m just afraid that with all this, everyone will want to be a chairman or vice-chairman, or at least a committee member. Our Great Library will be even more deserted…”
“Then what about the Special Reconnaissance Team’s request?”
“It’s fine, you can go. The Great Library is what it is. One more or one less of you doesn’t make a difference.” Yu E’shui suddenly sounded a little sad. “What work isn’t in service of the Senate?”
“That’s true, that’s true.”
Lu Xuan returned to his office. As he passed the office opposite, he glanced at Cheng Yongxin. He saw her tense expression, her hands flying across the keyboard. A cold smile touched his lips.
He turned on his computer and connected to the BBS. He thought to himself, this place of ours is really a bit like a city of silence—you can only connect to one website, the Senate’s portal. All interface-based applications are within this portal.
In his old time, Lu Xuan didn’t pay much attention to online public opinion. The BBS and various interactive online media in his country were mostly anonymous, which led to a proliferation of sock puppets and professional posters. Secondly, anonymity made netizens prone to emotional outbursts in their speech, with very few rational and objective discussions. Often, whoever shouted the loudest seemed to be the most reasonable. Public opinion was easily swayed.
The Senate’s BBS was a real-name system. This first of all eliminated the possibility of sock-puppet spamming. Secondly, in a society of acquaintances, everyone had to leave some room for maneuver. For some people, they had to maintain their masks, they couldn’t casually lead a double life, let alone go all out, pants down.
So, one could still see a part of the public opinion on this BBS. The reason he considered it “a part” was that too many Elders simply didn’t have time to chat on the BBS. Those who paid more attention to the BBS and often came to chat were mostly Elders from the administrative sector. Elders working in the industrial sector were generally not keen on participating in discussions, only showing interest when it concerned their own affairs.
Since the “terrorist incident” at the East Gate Market, the BBS had been very lively. The topics of the posts had also evolved from “event review,” “finding the mastermind,” and “how to retaliate” to a “reflection” on the “systemic problems” of “why the system is the question,” and recently to discussions on “systemic reform” and “Elder power.”
Lu Xuan had his own set of theories and methods for analyzing public opinion on the BBS. Thanks to the real-name system, he analyzed the posts of each hot topic day by day. Based on the content of the posts, he categorized the posters and repliers by their position, inclination, and general political leanings, and then weighted their number of posts. This way, he could roughly distinguish the direction of public opinion and the “guidance of public opinion” in the Senate.
A long time ago, Lu Xuan had discovered that there was guidance of public opinion on the BBS. Not only the Executive Committee itself, but also the various professional sectors and political factions under it, consciously or unconsciously tried to manipulate public opinion.
He first started searching for new posts. Just then, a new post caught his attention: “Elder Military and Political Proposal: Establish Our Youth Organization.” He clicked on it. The post was from Wei Aiwen of the General Staff’s Political Department.
From the content of the post, it was no different from other posts. Since the core members of the Otaku Party had issued the “systemic reform” proposal, demanding the establishment of a “Security Committee” and a “Finance Committee,” all sorts of “systemic reform” proposals had been popping up, riding the bandwagon. Establishing a youth league or even a party had been proposed long ago. It was only normal to bring up old matters again, riding this new wave.
Lu Xuan carefully read the replies. More than two hundred people had “liked” the post. There were not many replies, only about thirty. Most of them expressed support and offered suggestions. The posters were mostly Elders with similar inclinations to Wei Aiwen. A few posts expressed the need to “postpone” and “clarify the political structure before discussing.” One post expressed “concern”: without a good system of constraints, would the youth league become a “tool” for “certain Elders with ulterior motives”? Although this reply did not directly quote the original post, it received more than a hundred “likes.”
Lu Xuan took out a notepad and began to count the relevant Elders as usual. Halfway through, he suddenly thought of something, threw the notepad aside, and picked up the phone. “Is this the data room? This is Lu Xuan! Bring me all of last week’s Lingao Times right away.”
The Lingao Times was a four-page broadsheet newspaper with not much information. Lu Xuan quickly found the report he remembered: “Fledgling Eagles Spread Their Wings—A Record of the Ogura’s Female Sailors’ Brave Fight Against Terrorists.”