Chapter 447: Hyperthyroidism

Qian Shuiting frowned slightly, thinking to himself, “I knew there had to be a ‘but’!”

“But, this division into legislative, judicial, and executive branches is just rhetoric for the ‘broad masses of the people.’ This system elevates the status of law too high. To facilitate rule by lawyers, it practically inverts form and substance. The article I wrote last year, ‘The Foundation of Ruling by Law Lies in Ruling the State,’ published in The Morning Star, was quite controversial. You should remember it!” As he spoke, Liu Xiang carefully observed the changes in Qian Shuiting’s expression.

Qian Shuiting nodded slightly, and it was unclear whether he was agreeing with the first part or the second.

Liu Xiang didn’t press the issue and continued, “From my experience, the three powers should be planning, decision-making, and execution. The Senate’s position in these three areas is awkward: the planning part is too specialized, and having five hundred people involved just means that on every specific matter, the few experts are constantly interfered with by countless laymen. For the decision-making part, the Senate is actually quite large, and we’ve spread ourselves thin enough as it is. If we insist on holding a general assembly to decide on every single matter, we won’t be able to make quick decisions. And no decision is the worst possible outcome; even a wrong decision is better than no decision at all. As for the remaining execution part, the Senators are simply not enough to manage this vast empire.”

“Isn’t this a complete negation of the Senate’s role!” Qian Shuiting was alarmed. “So this is what Liu Xiang actually thinks!” Just as Qian Shuiting was about to say something, Liu Xiang waved his hand to stop him. He could no longer contain his excitement. He stood up and began to pace, his eyes shining, foam gathering at the corners of his mouth. He gesticulated wildly as he expounded on his ideas.

“What I mean is, what position should the Senate actually occupy? By my division, the three blocks of planning, decision-making, and execution are like the Department of State Affairs, the Secretariat, and the Chancellery. It doesn’t seem right to shoehorn the Senate into any of these roles! Where should we place the Senate?” Liu Xiang hinted strongly, trying to lead Qian Shuiting to the answer himself. Unfortunately, Qian Shuiting remained unmoved, just frowning and watching Liu Xiang. To avoid an awkward silence, Liu Xiang paused for only two seconds before revealing the answer himself: “The Senate is the Emperor!”

“The Senate is the source of everything, the Mandate of Heaven. Without the Senate’s approval, all documents are forged edicts.”

“The army swears allegiance to the concept of the Senate. The government and any other organization or individual are not allowed to possess an army.”

“The Senators who make up the Senate naturally have the right to manage any state institution. Of course, the prerequisite is that the Senate as a whole has authorized him.”

“The Senate has the final right of judgment on all matters, which is why we formed the Arbitration Tribunal…”

“The Senate possesses…”

Liu Xiang poured out his thoughts in a long monologue, seemingly entering his own world again, using a great deal of emotional and parallel sentences. Seeing Liu Xiang’s somewhat frenzied state, Qian Shuiting didn’t interject, just listened silently.

“If we are to form parties, we must be careful. We shouldn’t create public political parties, not parties for all citizens. They should be political clubs limited to Senators, because our actual situation dictates that the Senate is an assembly of nobles. For some people to resort to street politics just to get ahead is completely beneath their station! This is still the founding stage, and some Senators lack the consciousness of a ruling class, so they borrow the tactics of those grassroots fighters and perpetually-out-of-power opposition parties from the Old World to attract attention. We can still just call it ‘beneath their station.’ But if they continue this when the regime is running smoothly, labeling them ‘individuals who have betrayed their class’ wouldn’t be going too far!” Liu Xiang mercilessly criticized the style of certain people, but didn’t notice Qian Shuiting’s somewhat hesitant expression.

“Behind closed doors. Drinking, dancing, settling matters over clinking glasses—that’s the political ecosystem of the elite! As for public parties, parties for all citizens, whether we roll out a donkey and an elephant, or a Labour vs. Conservative, that can be discussed later. The Senate can guide it, can fight viciously outside the chamber, but within the Senate, there should be a certain decorum…”

“The supreme authority, the largest authority, and the strongest authority are three different things! The position of the Senate!”

The topic eventually circled back to the Feiyun Society’s platform, but Qian Shuiting, who was already in a bit of a daze, couldn’t recall how it got there. He just felt that this Liu Xiang, who used to study chaos cryptography, must have a thought process that followed Brownian motion and true random numbers. After all this time, he still couldn’t figure out what his line of thinking was.

Qian Shuiting saw the hyper-excited Liu Xiang off, muttering to himself: I originally thought he could become a pillar of our party, but now it seems his political ideology is incompatible with the Zhai Party.

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Tonight’s dinner was a gathering of the Zhai Party trio. So, as usual, the wives did not attend, so as not to “spoil their fun.”

“Master, today was the joint meeting, but I still can’t figure out this Liu Xiang guy!” Qian Shuiting said to the specially invited Zhou Weisen, while slicing a lightly smoked sausage specially supplied by the Nanhai Farmstead.

“You say he supports the Zhai Party’s goals, but he also seems to have some communist leanings, and even a bit of admiration for the centralized systems of China’s past dynasties. You say he’s a communist, but he doesn’t support thorough land reform… I always feel like he’s got a split personality!”

Zhou Weisen took a sip of his wine, shook his head, and said, “You mentioned him to me the other day. I’ve been reading his articles in the evenings when I have time, and I actually think his line of thought is consistent. To say he’s a Red is less accurate than saying he’s from the ‘Back to Marx’ school…” Seeing Qian Shuiting’s confused expression, Zhou Weisen explained, “It’s about adhering to historical materialism first, using Marx’s basic principles to analyze the current political and economic situation… Of course, this doesn’t mean he fully accepts the views of the real ‘Back to’ school from the Old World, but rather that he’s willing to use this approach to think about problems. The approach is more important than the result; he’s a STEM guy, after all.”

The three of them had left their home country early to start their new lives abroad, and their education under the red flag was mostly forgotten. Zhou Weisen, being a bit older and having left earlier, and having often followed various developments back home in the Old World, still knew a little. The Qian brothers were complete strangers to these things.

“In other words, he’s a pragmatist grounded in basic reality. The five hundred of us are only suited for a senatorial parliamentary system, so he wholeheartedly supports this system. And the prototype for his vision is that whole ‘parliamentary supremacy’ thing. You can think of it as a Britain where the Queen is a complete figurehead, or as he said, a Chinese Song or Ming Dynasty where the emperor is replaced by the parliament.”

“The problem is, his speech clearly leans towards centralism,” Qian Shuiting had to point out. “It’s dangerous.”

“Grounded in reality,” Qian Shuixie chimed in, complaining, “If there were really someone in the Senate with overwhelmingly superior abilities, would he also support fascism!”

Zhou Weisen smiled slightly. “Perhaps. If it really came to that, he might actually support it!”

Qian Shuixie also laughed and said, “Big Brother, you said he has a split personality, and I think there might be something to it. I remember at one party, he ran up to sister-in-law and asked if there was any ‘Methimazole’ in stock and what its shelf life was. I asked around at the hospital later, and that’s a drug for hyperthyroidism! I’m afraid this Liu Xiang really has some symptoms! The other day when I got back to the Feiyun, I overheard him ‘lecturing’ Big Brother. His energy, it looked a bit like mania. Maybe it’s the hyperthyroidism acting up!”

Qian Shuiting just laughed along. He had heard that afternoon that Li Mei had gone to see Liu Xiang’s little girl, and his own brother had already formed a slight opinion of Liu Xiang. What was his sister-in-law in charge of in Guangzhou? Commerce! And what was Li Mei? A business tycoon! Could it be she wanted to stick her hand in it too?

Although in his conversation with Liu Xiang, they had more or less reached an agreement that Zheng Shangjie’s position would remain unshaken, it was very easy for a local administrative official to sideline someone. Liu Xiang’s grandiloquent speech today, in particular, had made Qian Shuixie somewhat annoyed.

“Let’s not talk about that for now. How are things with the Zhang family?” Qian Shuiting asked.

Qian Shuixie had been tasked early in the morning to find out the latest news. He put down his knife and fork. “The woman was taken back, at Old Zhang’s insistence—you know that. Originally, Old Zhang also wanted to take his second daughter home, but You Laohu’s mother flatly refused, so she’s still at the kindergarten, waiting for the matter to be resolved. Many Senators who know the situation are filled with righteous indignation and are calling for severe punishment.”

“I think it’s necessary too. This case is too egregious,” Zhou Weisen said. “Even if Old Zhang kneels on a washboard at home—as long as he’s willing, it doesn’t matter. But this matter also involves falsely accusing Zhang Yunmi—and she’s a Senator.”

“That’s why it’s difficult for us,” Qian Shuiting shook his head. “If we support punishing the maid, wouldn’t that mean we support the Executive Committee interfering in the private affairs of Senators? If we set that precedent, it would be terrible! We have to nip it in the bud.”

Zhou Weisen was a bit unconvinced. “The problem is, young Zhang is also a Senator. If we don’t support her, not only would it be unjustifiable, but we’d get flamed to death by everyone. At the very least, we have to go through the process. We can’t just let it go.”

“We need to prevent the Executive Committee’s interference while also being reasonable and lawful. I think the only way is for Zhang Yunmi to renounce her right to pursue her father’s secretary and issue a pardon. That way, the General Office will have no authority to handle it.”

“The question is, would young Zhang be willing?”

“I think she’ll agree to this solution,” Qian Shuixie said. “I interact with her a lot, and I feel she still loves her father very much—a kind of love-hate relationship, I guess.”

“The problem is, she probably wouldn’t think of it herself.”

“She’s almost eighteen. She’s an adult now. She’ll think of it, she’ll think of it.”