CH 276

At the time of the incident, Mu Wenhua was working.

In a sense, Song Shengsheng once again changed her life.

She gave up being a housewife and chose to send her daughter to daycare, trying to be a little braver and open a new chapter in her life.

She took on a receptionist job at a children’s playground in the mall. Although the job wasn’t great and the pay was low, she had to shuttle back and forth every day. Nevertheless, it was her first brave step to face life after being away from society for over two years.

At first, she didn’t realize what was happening. She bent down to take off a child’s shoes while a grandmother wiped the boy’s sweat with a large towel. Suddenly, Mu Wenhua noticed the old woman’s ears twitching as if she heard something. The grandmother’s actions to comfort her grandson came to a halt.

The elderly always had keen senses, and Mu Wenhua followed the direction of the sound to realize that the commotion was coming from a chain electronics store diagonally across the children’s playground.

Since it wasn’t yet mealtime, the mall was relatively empty, but a crowd had gathered at the entrance of the electronics store. People were standing on tiptoes, looking like something magnetic was attracting each passerby’s footsteps.

Mu Wenhua couldn’t help but rise on her toes as well. She saw the distinctive red mark of breaking news flashing on the window display TV, but she couldn’t hear any sound. She felt lost and didn’t know what to do, thinking to herself, ‘If the world has become this bad, what else could be terrifying?’

So, she just furrowed her brows, took a deep breath, and turned around to take out the clothes for the children from the cupboard.

Around that time, her phone rang.

“Honey, quickly take a leave and pick up our daughter from daycare. They said all public places are dangerous!” Mu Wenhua answered her phone, and her husband’s voice was trembling and loud, catching the attention of the elderly lady nearby.

“What happened, dear? Calm down and tell me slowly,” she said apologetically to the old lady, lowering her voice.

“There’s an attack. They announced that they will attack all public places. Online, they said that malls and schools are high-risk areas.” The man’s words were urgent and incoherent. “I still have a meeting now; there’s no time. Go and pick up our baby; just listen to me! I also need to call my parents!”

“Honey, what’s going on exactly?” Mu Wenhua’s heart tightened, but she felt lost and didn’t know what to do. “What happened?”

However, the man had already hung up the phone, and the rapid “beep…beep…” sound seemed to signify something.

The old lady snatched the coat from her hand with a look of distrust in her eyes, but Mu Wenhua didn’t hesitate and wrapped up the child before leaving.

As she looked around, more and more people gathered at the entrance of the electronics store, and those stuck inside were trying to get out while those outside were trying to peer inside for news. The mall’s transparent roof cast a grayish light, making the vast space feel both noisy and ominous.

……

Hongjing Municipal Bureau.

After Xing Conglian put down the handwritten letter, the heavy tone he had while reading the letter seemed to reverberate in the small glass room.

After listening to the entire content of the letter, the public opinion expert who had been challenging Xing Conglian no longer had time to say another word to him.

He looked at Minister Shen, and the old man nodded. With permission granted, Xing Conglian immediately turned and left, arriving at his most proficient battlefield within thirty seconds.

The most elite online public opinion monitoring team in the entire Jiangxia Province was by his side, with Wang Chao still in the small glass room. The intensity of the online events continuing to escalate gave these officers no spare time to adapt to the change of command.

They seemed to act like machines, following each order one by one, but a gloomy cloud gradually spread across everyone’s faces.

Within a few minutes, there was a qualitative change in the public opinion situation compared to when Wang Chao discovered the anomaly and reported it.

——Listen to me, I’m an insider. Don’t go to public places. The more crowded the place, the more likely it is to become a target of attack!

——That thing is as dangerous as mustard gas. The government has been hiding the truth from us. They have no solutions at all!

——What should we do then? Can we only compromise? The government won’t really agree to their demands, right? There are so few of us in this small place, we’ll be doomed!

Online discourse had already taken a very frightening turn.

The public opinion expert calmed his breath and quickly deployed the tasks. Deleting posts, banning accounts, controlling large-scale internet water armies to flood major forums, gripping the sources of information, and preventing false information from spreading in a short time—this was what he excelled at.

“Notify all major provincial and municipal television stations and online media for a video conference.” He glanced at the time. “In three minutes.”

The telephone conference started quickly.

The video conference screens of the emergency contact persons from various major media gradually lit up.

The public opinion expert sat in front of the display screen, watching one image after another and one face after another, and his expression grew colder and colder.

Clearly, even though the police had issued orders again and again, private television stations didn’t care about administrative prohibitions.

The video window of BAS TV, the first to release the news, was pitch-black, and they didn’t even bother to send representatives to attend the conference, displaying an arrogant and infuriating attitude.

The emergency contact persons for each media outlet were visibly agitated and anxious.

With a stern face, the public opinion expert cleared his throat, but before he could speak, the local television station, which had taken the lead in the video conference, began a series of attacks against him.

“Our news hotline is about to explode!”

“We don’t know how to report this. The anti-social elements are sending their messages to our mailbox!”

“Even if you don’t let us broadcast, online self-media is already making a huge fuss about it.”

Chaotic voices rang out, and the public opinion expert slammed the table. “Quiet!”

The water glasses on the table shook, and the screens followed suit.

And at that moment, he suddenly noticed something. In the upper left corner of the telephone conference screen, the video grid that originally belonged to the National Yongchuan Satellite TV was also pitch-black from beginning to end, with no response.

……

The public opinion expert’s intuition wasn’t wrong; something indeed happened at the National Yongchuan Satellite TV.

The atmosphere in Studio 1 of the TV station was tense. Every staff member present had turned off their phones and all other communication devices. The emergency contact person who should have been coordinating with the police stood grimly behind the camera. To prevent any unforeseen situations, they even locked the studio door from the inside using a rusty key found on the spot.

The previously energetic female anchor, who had been exchanging arguments with the expert, now seemed like a different person. She sat upright at the anchor desk as the makeup artist was busy giving her a more solemn look.

At this moment, solemn applause echoed in the studio.

Everyone, who had been busy in the hall, instantly turned their gaze to a chubby man standing under the spotlight.

He was the Vice Director at the National Yongchuan Satellite TV, named Zhao Ren. Several months ago, it was he who went against public opinion and decided to broadcast the confrontation between Lin Chen and Li Jingtian via satellite.

Zhao Ren held a rusty key in his hand.

“Anyone unwilling to do this can raise their hand now.”

The hall fell silent, and everyone looked at the chubby man with a gaze as if they were looking at someone with a mental disorder.

“Boss… that’s enough…”

“Stop acting,” said the No. 1 camera operator.

“Anyway, at most, we’ll receive administrative punishment, and if someone has to go to jail, it’ll be you,” the female anchor said earnestly.

……

The sense of panic continued to spread, and the invasion of the realm of consciousness was always silent but irresistible; it was human nature.

In the entire area of the three provinces, the only government department that remained quiet was probably the Hongjing Municipal Detention Center. There was a glass of water on Lin Chen’s desk, and there was no tense atmosphere between him and Shen Lian.

The news on Yongchuan Satellite TV came to an end.

While other television stations were actively following the latest developments in the event, Yongchuan Satellite TV was playing a very light and pleasant potato chip advertisement.

Shen Lian hummed a tune to the familiar music and seemed very satisfied after seeing Lin Chen’s manipulation of public opinion.

“Consultant Lin truly keeps his promise.” Miss Shen Lian’s toes gently swayed under the table, filled with the joy of a young girl.

Lin Chen took a sip of water, put down the cup, and said, “The attack in Meicun happened as scheduled. After proving his abilities, he’s probably going to declare the next phase of action to the whole society?”

Shen Lian didn’t even look at him. Her full attention was completely absorbed by the piles of potato chips.

“Yes, that’s about right,” she casually replied. “You have a phone, why ask me? Just make a call or check Weibo.”

“Does that mean he’ll directly start a public opinion frenzy online and declare war?” Lin Chen asked.

Shen Lian glared at him, showing her dissatisfaction with his clichéd question.

Lin Chen smiled calmly and explained, “The continuous series of events will cause a domino effect in public opinion. The ubiquitous self-media and grassroots opinion leaders will replace the government as the voice. Their evaluations will lead to a ‘diffusion effect’ of panic. In the process of public opinion spread, netizens act as detectives, continuously analyzing and summarizing the hearsay information, leading to a greater ‘inflation effect’. Finally, the government becomes the center of all pressure and tends to make some mistakes, ultimately igniting the explosive emotions in everyone’s hearts… Suspicion, distrust, and hatred, the darkest and most distrustful emotions in human nature will be aroused again. At that time, all he has to do is extend a helping hand to these people, and he might be seen as a benefactor. It’s somewhat like Stockholm syndrome. This is probably the pattern. Am I right?”

Lin Chen’s explanation was a bit long that the advertisement for the potato chips had already ended. Yongchuan Satellite TV moved on to another very quiet and atmospheric kitchen and bathroom advertisement.

Shen Lian didn’t respond to him. Her eyes shone brightly as she admired the half-naked handsome man on the TV. Lin Chen knocked on the table, and she reluctantly glanced at him, saying, “If you know so much, go and command the public opinion battle to save the country and the people. Why are you standing in front of me?”

“I’m here to accompany you to watch TV,” Lin Chen said straightforwardly.