International funds, think tanks, scientific research institutions, and all governmental or non-governmental organizations were behaving like sharks that smelled blood in the water. They focused their sights on Xin and Celestial Trade to track down first-hand information.
The attention brought by the “Devil Worm Incident” exceeded the poplarity of the Xin election!
Now the international community generally agreed that the specimens sent to Celestial City would likely provide pieces of evidence to uncover a series of unsolved mysteries, such as the Mars ecological environment and geomorphological features from more than three billion years ago.
After all, everything about Mars could only be speculated based on the data from Curiosity and the Hubble Telescope.
Since lives existed on Mars more than three billion years ago, in this three billion years time frame, did civilization exist on Mars… this was the most talked-about topic. Everyone was looking to find the answer from the specimen.
It was no exaggeration to say that the Devil Worm opened the door to a new world for mankind.
Without failing to live up to the expectations of the international community, Celestial Trade was meticulously preparing for the upcoming summit.
However, the bad news from the Mars colony cast a gloom over the upcoming summit…
“African-American, Xin immigrant, ethnic minority, father of ten children…” Zhang Yaping tossed a newspaper on the coffee table, sat on the sofa as he pinched his eyebrows, then said with a headache, “How are these people so rowdy!”
James’ black and white photo was printed on the headline, with a striking title next to it.
To be honest, if it weren’t for the labels attached to him, the media would not have reacted so strongly. At most, it would criticize the safety of the Mars Colonization Program, and then condemn Celestial Trade for not planning the rescue mission thoroughly enough…
Not thorough enough? There was a well-thought-out plan.
However, no plan is perfect.
Those reporters were not soldiers. They wouldn’t care about how dangerous the situation was. They would at most take a few photos of the Devil Worm specimen a few months later, then make some aggressive commentary of the Mars creature before they tried to restore what happened with cinematics.
In any case, the whole incident was attached to these four labels and everything just turned for the worst.
With the help of the media with ulterior motives, the whole incident was rendered from a simple “rescue failure” to Celestial Trade’s differential treatment of colored minorities, and the media pushed this story further by revealing the relationship between the rescued and the deceased.
The African-American population made up a small percentage of Xin’s population, but for some reason, any issue that occurred in this group often attracted leftists. They would march on the streets and protest with the photo of the deceased.
James was portrayed as a victim of discrimination and differential treatment. Celestial Trade, the Mars colony and even Zhang Yaping, who was preparing for the election, got caught in the middle of the landslide.
Jiang Chen, who was sitting across from him, had a helpless smile.
“There are always people with too much energy. You and I both know we can’t do anything about this.”
“Can we settle this somehow? If James’ wife does not sue you, the protesters will have nothing to say.” Zhang Yaping frowned.
“It’s useless,” Jiang Chen shook his head. “It’s not as simple as it seems.”
The executives of Celestial Trade certainly considered treating it in a low-profile way, which would be to settle with the family of the victim before the media learned of this news. Unexpectedly, however, just as the news of the rescue leaked, the Canadian government immediately took care of the families of the victim.
Immediately afterward, a black activist organization stood up and persuaded James’ wife to go through the legal channel, and then volunteered to arrange a strong team of lawyers for her to sue Future Mining and Celestial Trade in Ottawa.
There was no doubt that the UA was linked to all this. After all, the two countries shared the same border. The rapid response of the Canadian government made it hard to not associate it with the Capitol. The activist organization that contacted James’ wife was also based in North America.
As for covering up the failure of rescue…
Technically, it was not infeasible, but the actual operation would be too difficult, and if it was exposed, it would lead to an avalanche of controversies. Almost every colonist updated their Twitter and Facebook, and everyone also could talk to their family five times a month.
It would be unrealistic to isolate Mars from human society just because someone died.
“What do you mean? Is the UA behind all this?” Zhang Yaping frowned.
“There is a 99% chance they are, but it doesn’t make sense to have this discussion. After all, they played their cards,” Jiang Chen said with not much worry in his tone “If they think they can rely on this little trick to bother us, then that’s just cute.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Start with your problem first,” Jiang Chen crossed his fingers over his knee then looked at Zhang Yaping. “What we have to do now is to wait quietly, wait for the rowdiest people to jump out and then take care of all of them at once.”
The UA continued its attempt to intervene with Xin’s election. However, because of the presence of Ghost Agents, FBA and CIB had been unable to get directly involved in the operations.
Since a long time ago, they began providing funds to human rights groups and Coro officials, and even directly subsidized some candidates, who advocated to curtail the expansion of Celestial Trade and emphasized the state power, to participate in the general election.
It was time to cleanse these heretics.
“Do you need me to do something?” Zhang Yaping asked.
“You don’t have to do anything,” Jiang Chen said with a smile. “Resist the pressure from the public, don’t respond to the accusations from the outside world, or simply just don’t ask about this. You can prepare for the summit at the end of this month and the election in March.”
“If you already have a good plan,” Zhang Yaping forcefully nodded, “Then we’ll follow your plan.”
It sounded simple to simply ignore the criticism, but it was not a simple task. It was the final sprint till the election and while his support rate far outranked his opponent, no one could guarantee a victory until the final moment.
James was a nobody; someone no one paid attention to. However, his death now became a political event. If the matter was not handled properly, it would become a black mark on his political career.
Also, if the event continued to escalate, it may create some “suspense” for the election in two months…
This was also what worried Zhang Yaping the most.
However, Jiang Chen’s next few words erased his concerns.
“Don’t worry. I know what you are worried about, but some things will never happen.” Jiang Chen stood up and walked next to Zhang Yaping. With a mysterious smile, he then lowered his voice, “There will be news soon that a candidate is suspected of accepting foreign funds, and then they’ll be taken away by the persecutor…”
Then, those idiots who had ulterior motives would gain a deep understanding of the true owner of Xin.
Jiang Chen patted Zhang Yaping’s shoulder, and left the shocked, or rather, joyous president in the office.
