Enforcer Manual
Chapter 604: It’s no longer a situation for us good folks_1

Chapter 604: Chapter 604: It’s no longer a situation for us good folks_1

When Guan Lili mentioned Qi He’s name, Song Lan immediately felt that the whole matter had become more complicated.

Firstly, their relationship with Qi He was somewhat ambiguous, not only had he arranged their visit to Purple Wisteria Academy, but he had also entrusted them with the care of his confidant, Anjing.

Lu Xiang had also harbored doubts about him.

From various suspicious signs, although he was a representative of the Ragus Foundation, his mind didn’t seem to be fully focused on the interests of the company and the foundation, especially after such a serious incident had occurred at Purple Wisteria Academy, with the foundation suspecting them.

This must be the result of someone manipulating things from within the foundation, and Lu Xiang even doubted that Qi He had intentionally invited her and Song Lan to the Purple Wisteria Academy.

After Guan Lili left, Song Lan carefully checked the background of the "Polaris Alliance." Although the company was publicly neutral and had not been directly involved in the factional strife between the Innovator Faction and the Conservative Faction, it had started cooperating with several of the foundation’s subsidiaries in film, military, and biopharmaceutical industries a few years earlier.

When he searched for Guan Lili, he even found a photo of her with Qi He.

The date of this photo was not long ago, when Kolo Film Industry, a subsidiary of the Ragus Foundation, had signed a ten-year collaboration project with the "Polaris Alliance," and Qi He, as the representative of the company, had attended the meeting.

There was a big problem.

Song Lan stared at this photograph for a long time, suddenly feeling that the situation in District Seventeen was becoming extremely complicated, with the Review Meeting, Innovator Faction, and Conservative Faction all wanting to make a big move on this land, and indeed, they had found many points of suspicion.

For example, General Kunka, who now led the Rebel Army, was a native of District Seventeen.

Another example was that during the tragic landing battle, only the Expeditionary Army, formed by District Seventeen, had managed to preserve most of its forces.

And he and Lu Xiang had become the only two "soldiers" to return to the United Government from the front lines.

Under the deliberate propagandizing of the Review Meeting, more and more citizens of the United Government began to connect these coincidences, and voices questioning them started to emerge like bamboo shoots after the rain. While net surfing, Song Lan also discovered some organized and probabilistic sockpuppet organizations.

They not only spread anti-intellect hate speech against the United Government but also continually expanded the battlefield, branding even the fence-sitting centrists and the more temperate and rational allies as stooges of the United Government. Unless you denounced the United Government as utterly despicable along with them, you would be labeled a stooge.

In the wake of their relentless mudslinging, inciting conflict, and labeling actions, many people had been pushed to believe in the stance of the United Government.

Song Lan could only say that the techniques of propagandizing and manipulating public opinion had been thoroughly mastered by them, and they understood all too well that labeling and stirring up conflicts were more effective means of delineating sides than rational and objective discussions on the internet.

Such crude and easily anger-inducing speech always managed to drown out well-reasoned analyses, turning the entire internet into a battleground and dragging every netizen into this war of us-against-them.

The arrival of Guan Lili and her team further confirmed this.

In this era, even national-level rescuers had become corporate assembly-line products.

The concept of "national level" was something Song Lan only learned about when researching the "Polaris Alliance" data. To meet this criterion, the minimum standard was a support rate of over 90% among the citizens. This figure might not seem significant at first glance, but upon closer examination, it was chilling— a 90% national support rate meant that if you pulled ten random people off the street, chances were that nine of them would be his supporters.

If they were seen as mouthpieces for the United Government, the intensity of their propaganda could only be described as terrifying.

Song Lan felt that this might be a spectacle only seen in the United Government and this era.

The common people deeply resented corporations, yet no one favored the "products" created by corporations more than they did.

For a trivial act by a rescuer, people could quarrel for days.

All these discoveries left Song Lan feeling disheartened.

It was no longer a situation for good people.

The power of an individual was ultimately limited, and it was impossible to spend every day online engaging in verbal battles with others.

As Song Lan once again became a citizen full of worries, Lu Xiang finally returned home.

"Did someone come by?"

As soon as she entered the door, she noticed signs that strangers had been in the house.

"It was the Director of Public Relations from the ’Polaris Alliance’."

"Guan Lili?" Lu Xiang blurted out. At the time of her promotion to a three-star rescuer, this director had somehow found her number and crafted a tailored strategy to turn her into a national-level rescuer.

She had spent the entire afternoon dealing with Engle and his team, yet it never crossed her mind that Engle’s visit was merely a feint, and Guan Lili had personally led a team to sneak into her home.

But fortunately, from the current state of the living room, it seemed that things hadn’t gone in the worst possible direction.

At least she didn’t find any bloodstains on the floor or the walls, nor were there scattered fingers or other human organs in the corners of the living room.

Yeying’s mouth was indeed incessantly smacking, but upon closer inspection, she was eating walnuts that Song Lan had air-freighted back.

To be absolutely certain, Lu Xiang still uneasily asked a question, "Is she still alive?"

This tricky inquiry even stopped little Yeying from gnawing on the walnuts, casting an inquisitive gaze at the two of them.

A big question mark emerged above her small head.

What exactly had these two been through that led Lu Xiang to ask such a question?

"...Old Lu, what do you take me for?"

Could it be that, with Guan Lili bringing her team of seven or eight people swaggering into the living room, he might have knifed Guan Lili in front of so many people?

"That’s good."

Lu Xiang breathed a slight sigh of relief, but she didn’t think her concerns were unnecessary.

Because the last person who bypassed her to intrude, Mr. Dorago Safron, had gone to the bottom of the lake in search of David Jones’s treasure, and to this day, his body had yet to be discovered.

With the addition of Yeying, Song Lan was even more formidable.

Song Lan would handle one and Yeying would eat one; their cooperation was flawless.

She meant that this Dumb Bird was indeed mostly gentle and harmless, but once it decided to act, it was even swifter and more decisive than a real professional assassin; Lu Xiang had never seen Song Lan falter on this matter.

"What did she tell you?"

"Just stuff about packaging and promotion."

"What else?"

Lu Xiang placed her bag on the sofa, took off her coat, and sat down next to Song Lan.

"What else could there be?"

"Why do you smell so strongly of perfume? What exactly were you discussing?"

"Just a very ordinary work discussion..."

"Yeying, come and imitate how they were talking."

Song Lan absolutely didn’t expect Lu Xiang to throw such a curveball, but before he could even speak, Yeying’s clear eyes landed on him.

And then...

The girl put down the walnut in her hand, walked up to Song Lan, stood on tiptoe, leaned on the chair back behind Song Lan, bent over, and brought her walnut-scented mouth close to his ear.

Song Lan stiffened.

An intense gaze fell upon him.