Chapter 938: Speech (please vote for the super large chapter)
The noisy raindrops hit the cheap umbrellas.
Petite Liz raised her head and glanced at the sky outside the transparent umbrella.
The petals of white jasmine flowers flutter in the wind and mix with the flowing raindrops.
Not far away from the white jasmine sea and close to the road, people wearing mayor's guard uniforms and exoskeleton mechas were quickly building a simple giant electronic screen.
The swimming crowd seemed to be slowly changing direction, leading her body towards the door of the Mayor's Mansion.
The leader in front was waving flags and guiding the parade around corners.
Liz withdrew her gaze, raised her wrist, and glanced down.
What caught her eyes was a circle of white marks, which were the marks left by her long-term wearing of the smart bracelet.
Her bracelets were taken away, not just from hers, but also from most of the people who came to work part-time.
Only the people standing on the outside of the team are still wearing normal bracelets and even extra Bluetooth headsets.
But obviously, these people and their part-time workers are not the same.
She raised her head and glanced at the banner opposing the mayor that was raised above her head.
Before she came, she didn't know that the march was against the mayor.
Although she had guessed it was probably a parade before, she didn't think about it in this regard.
Many parades in Yilan City will be held in front of the White Jasmine Palace, because this place is lively and close to the White Jasmine Palace, which can easily attract news media to watch.
She doesn't mind coming here to make some money for an ordinary parade, but she definitely doesn't want to participate in a protest against the mayor.
She is not against the mayor, but she is not a supporter of the mayor either.
The reason why she didn't want to participate was also very simple. Once she got involved in this kind of demonstration against the mayor, it would be easy to get contaminated with things that shouldn't be involved, and even lead to danger.
In fact, most of the people standing in the middle have the same mentality as her. They don't care much about politics or who is the mayor. They just work a part-time job to subsidize the family or make a living.
And this is probably the reason why the organizers were reluctant to reveal the specific ‘work content’ at first, because once it was revealed that it was a demonstration against the mayor, the price might not be able to attract so many people, and the secret might be leaked.
Sure enough, as Ini said, prices that far exceed the market average always involve risks.
But based on this calculation, for such a high-risk job, they should charge a higher price than they do now in order to recruit the right talent.
No money was made, but more risks were taken, these bastards.
Liz turned her head and glanced at the surrounding 'personnel' surrounding them.
These people are very professional, they have blocked all escape routes, and they seem to have a violent attitude. They are probably recruited gang members.
They can subdue themselves with one hand.
If it weren't for the vicious group of people outside and the bracelet being taken away, she would have run away long ago.
These bastards have figured it out.
Cursing secretly in her heart again, Liz lowered her head, continued to take a deep breath, and blended in the crowd, trying not to attract attention to herself or let the photographers around her who looked like reporters capture her face.
Now she just hopes that everything goes well and those bastards can give her the money and return the bracelet to her.
Although she bought the bracelet second-hand, the quality was very good and the system was smooth. It cost her a full one hundred federal dollars, and it was one of the few 'precious electrical appliances' she had.
If it was robbed by this group of people, she would have to buy a new one, which would cost at least more than one hundred federal dollars. Adding this week's rent, it would be close to two hundred federal dollars.
After deducting the money spent on buying medicines for my father and mother... I hope there will be more hard bread in the supermarket tomorrow morning.
Half a piece of bread with cold water should be enough to fill you up. If you eat it twice a day, it should be enough. If you don't eat it at night, it will be regarded as losing weight.
I hope last week’s wages can be sent out before next week.
If not, she would have no choice but to borrow a salary loan.
8% interest per week is really a greedy vampire.
She raised her hand and rubbed her cheek. In the noisy and chaotic environment, the woman slightly shrugged the tip of her nose.
He did indeed do something stupid.
The crowd squirming forward slowly stopped, and the shouts in the parade continued.
"The restricted area ahead, please stop."
Members of the Mayor's Guard stood at the edge of the street in the rain, blocking the march from moving forward. Behind these members of the Mayor's Guard was a huge screen that had been set up.
Because of the momentum of the parade, most of the spectators around them gave way to them.
This allowed everyone in the parade to squeeze into a good seat in the front row.
When the crowd stopped completely, Liz raised her head and stared at the huge screen in front of her.
The swimming jasmine flowers swayed in front of the screen, and a little light lit up on the screen, as if the system was self-checking.
Liz turned around and looked behind her.
Some of the people standing at the back were looking up at the screen, while others picked up their bracelets.
It seems that this speech is synchronized across the entire network. You can also see the mayor's speech by visiting the official website on the bracelet.
The surrounding sounds seemed to gradually quiet down, and even the noisy noise seemed to be smaller.
Even the people who roared the loudest in the parade were watching the screen at the moment, looking forward to the changes on the screen.
After a short wait, followed by a flash, an old man wearing a gray suit, sitting behind a marble table, with his back against an old window and simple curtains, appeared on the screen.
Liz stared at the simple decoration of the room on the screen.
In fact, this was the first time she heard the mayor's speech and saw the mayor's complete appearance.
Most of the time in the past, she couldn't care about these, she was either working or on the way to work.
But she didn't know why, but when she saw the scene on the screen in front of her, she didn't feel too unfamiliar.
Although the heavy marble table exuded an ancient atmosphere, the lightly carved walls vaguely showed the expensive luxury.
But with the simple windows, curtains, and plain books, that office seemed to be just an ordinary room.
The old man sitting behind the stone table looked level with them. Although he was majestic, he was also kind. He seemed not much different from the elders in the family.
For some reason, Liz's heart gradually calmed down. She stared at the old man, waiting for him to speak.
She couldn't help but want to hear what the old man would say.
——
Ninwis District
"Look over there."
In the alleyway between the staggered low-rise buildings, the walking crowd raised their eyes and looked in the direction above their heads with shouts of surprise.
The little boy who had just walked out of the small door raised his head, followed the gazes of the people around him, and looked at the huge billboard in the distance.
It was already a huge advertising screen. In addition to adult products, it was usually a huge advertising screen for striptease bars or underground loan advertisements. At this moment, it seemed that it had finally changed its tone and turned into a "waiting for live broadcast" pattern.
"What does waiting for the live broadcast mean? Live broadcast of the mayor's speech? What does the mayor have to do with us? Is there any brand that has come up with fresh advertisements?"
Questions came from the crowd in confusion.
The little boy's eyes also fell on the unclear line of 'explanation' below the text waiting for the live broadcast.
[From White Jasmine Palace, the live broadcast of the mayor’s speech is currently connected...]
mayor···
The boy took a deep breath, held the medicine in his arms, held up his umbrella, and ran quickly in the alley full of small puddles.
As he ran, people heard the news one after another, or opened the door, or walked to the balcony, looking up at the huge billboard above their heads.
——
Nancheng Command Center
In the simply decorated office, the old general looked at the holographic projection map in front of him and at the various mechanical troops traveling through the wilderness simulated in the projection.
Several officers were standing respectfully beside him.
At this moment, he seemed to notice something, raised his head and looked forward.
A large screen hidden on the wall was opening in front of him. What was on the screen was the official website of the White Jasmine Palace, the Mayor's Palace of Yilan City.
At this moment, the entire web page was occupied by a huge video screen. The old man in the screen looked forward, seemingly looking at the people outside the screen. He slowly spoke,
"I'm glad I can still sit here today..."
——
Ninwis District
Jie Lin suddenly opened the door, took off his bracelet, clicked on the city government webpage that had been loaded on the bracelet, put the medicine in his hand aside, and placed the bracelet in front of his mother.
Then, under the confused gaze of his mother Zhaojia, he quickly picked up the flyer next to him and sat next to his mother.
The video on the bracelet was projected on the quilt, and the old man who had already started speaking appeared on the screen.
He slowly overlapped the simple image of the doctor on the flyer in his hand with the old man in the video.
"Assassination is the origin of what we are talking about today, but it is not the root cause. I am sitting here today not to denounce the murderer in the loudest voice. This is what the FBI and the city police department should do.
"I just want to talk to you about what the city government has implemented in the past year, why we have to implement these things, why these things led to this assassination, and what we should do next."
A calm and gentle voice slowly came from the bracelet. It didn't sound like a condescending reprimand or instruction, but more like a relative sitting next to him who was telling what he wanted to tell.
Zhaojia, who was sitting on the bed in a daze, lowered his head and began to listen carefully to the old man's speech.
The old man's old voice echoed in the somewhat empty house, passed through the undulating window-sealed posters, was submerged in the patter of rain, and was submerged in the dilapidated, silent and gray city.
······
Under the hustle and bustle of the street, people walking stopped beside the street, looking up at the huge advertising screen above their heads and the gentle and kind old man on the advertising screen.
"When I sit behind this desk, I see faces before my eyes.
"Among them are employees of consortiums in factories, mines, and grain factories, as well as waiters standing in front of the counter or walking between desks, and even people lying in bed, unable to receive treatment, struggling to survive.
"Ilan City is facing an unprecedented crisis, a turning point in history and destiny in the past eight hundred years.
"Under this crisis, the vast majority of people in Yilan City can only earn meager wages and struggle to obtain food and housing to barely survive. They can only use their little wealth to buy medical supplies that are not enough to treat their diseases.
drug.
"Jobs that may be lost at any time, endless accumulation of debts, painful and incurable diseases, these things are entangled in everyone, taking away our lives little by little.
"This is a crisis that concerns the vast majority of people in this city and is still affecting this city.
“In order to respond to this crisis, we have made many efforts, the two most important of which are the health insurance bill and the employee protection bill, and these two bills can also be attributed to the same purpose.
"That is to ensure that every citizen of Yilan City, ensure that we, our children, and our descendants have the right to live a healthy life under the sun.
"In our city, 20 percent of the people are employed in the mines,
"The vast majority of them suffer from dust, noise, toxic gases and intense heat, which causes them to suffer from pneumoconiosis, deafness, organ failure and other diseases.
"But when the disease defeats them, the mines that employ them will not provide assistance. These mines that profit from the work of the people of Yilan City will not spend a penny to treat the miners.
, but will ruthlessly abandon them,
"They will take out at most a few hundred federal dollars, just like a ferocious crocodile leaving false tears, and throw these banknotes out of the mine together with people who have lost the ability to work due to illness.
“People who suffer from diseases due to work often do not have any medical insurance, or only have the lowest-priced medical insurance. They cannot afford high surgical and medical expenses, and have lost the ability to work, so they can only rely on cheap medical insurance.
Drugs, to sustain life through pain and suffering.”
Outside the White Jasmine Palace, standing in the dripping wind and rain, listening to the old man's words, Liz subconsciously clenched her hands.
The old man's speech on the screen continues,
“Such a phenomenon does not only appear in mines, but also in every job, in machinery factories, chemical plants, agricultural factories, and even in hypermarkets and fast food restaurants.
“Employees who are accidentally injured or die due to work, like employees who become sick due to exposure to pathogenic substances, cannot receive any compensation and have no way to treat their injuries or diseases. Many family members of the deceased cannot even pay for the expenses of their loved ones.
Funeral expenses.
"But the mines, factories, the owners of all these, the consortia that own all these, they squeeze the lives of their employees and make a lot of profits. Their rulers live a life of luxury and lust, and they really can't do anything.
?
“The federal government has no shortage of equipment to deal with dust and toxic gases, nor does it lack safety measures to reduce noise, but mines will not purchase them because it will increase the cost of the mines.
“People who are unable to work due to illness will not receive compensation from the consortium and will not increase the costs of the consortium, but improving the working environment of employees will really cost them money.
"Thirty years ago, I sat in front of an old man's bed, holding her withered palm, and watched her die of illness.
"She had two sons. One died in the factory without receiving any compensation, and the other died at home because he could not afford medical expenses.
"More than 70% of the people in Yilan City are employed by large cross-city consortiums and need to face hospitals from large cross-city consortiums. This crisis covers Yilan City and the entire federation.
"So we need to implement the Employee Protection Act: raise the minimum wage, require consortiums to improve the safety of each employee, deal with dangerous working environments, and purchase corresponding accident insurance for each employee - if they are injured or sick,
You will receive basic compensation.
“So we need to implement the medical insurance bill so that every employee can get medical insurance, let the medical consortium lower the price, make the undesirable diseases affordable, and let everyone have access to treatment.
"I did all this, so I got attacked.
"Protests, smear campaigns, assassinations, they used all their power to silence my voice and make me speechless forever.
"They don't want us to be able to live in the sun, they want to continue to control this city and squeeze money out of every life.
"We live in an ancient city. In the nearly eight hundred years since the city was founded, under the white jasmine flag, we have suffered countless attacks.
"Crisis after crisis tries to conquer us, but we are still here.
"Defeatism has never been recorded in the dictionary of the Elan people, and we will not back down from it.
"At this moment of historical intersection, at this moment that determines the fate of Elan, I want to tell the people of Elan bluntly,
"The crisis will not stop, and the attacks from the consortium will become more violent.
"We are now at a crossroads that will determine our destiny and that of our children and grandchildren.
"If we don't want our children to live the same life as us and our parents, and if we don't want our children to have to rely on cheap medicines and wait to die of hunger and pain like us when they get sick, we need to unite and jointly deal with the consortium and deal with
this crisis,
"Next, I will continue to promote more reform policies and draw our weapons against the 'rich' 'financial groups' who created this crisis, for our sake and for the sake of our future generations.
"I firmly believe that a bullet can penetrate my chest, but it cannot penetrate the faith of the people of Iran.
"We will eventually get through this crisis, unite, and victory will be ours."
······
FBI
Levis stared at the screen in front of him that was paused after the speech. He tremblingly took out a cigarette from his pocket, held it in his hand, and brought it to his mouth while shaking.
But before the cigarette reached his mouth, it fell to the ground. He picked it up tremblingly, brought it to his mouth, and bit it with a pale complexion.
He fumbled for the cigarette lighter, lit it and held it tremblingly a few times before bringing it to his mouth and lighting the cigarette.
He took a deep breath, and the rich smoke poured into his lungs, seeming to relieve his tension and fear.
He put down his cigarette, glanced at the FBI agent beside him, and then turned back to look at the old man on the pause screen. He raised his throat and spoke with a slightly uncontrollable and suppressed vibrato.
