The Female Agent had studied Fern's childhood.
In fact, the period when Fern was born happened to coincide with a turning point in the Federation's overall social transformation. The effects of the technological explosion were beginning to emerge.
Rapid technological development brought many new changes to society, but it also left many people feeling lost.
At the same time, capital began expanding uncontrollably. Some international hot money noticed the Federation's rapid development and began converging on it.
Housing prices rose, and living costs increased. Behind the Federation's apparent prosperity was the further compression of ordinary people's living space.
Moreover, the Federation had countless believers, and multiple states followed religious doctrine and banned abortion, raising the birth rate.
But the newborns who came into this world faced the worst possible start!
Noel and Fern were abandoned in precisely such an environment.
Under the social conditions of that era, the various government benefits and subsidies for adopting an orphan were far lower than the cost of raising a child.
They grew up in an orphanage without incident, then were handed over to the Newspaper Boss and turned into tools for making money.
That was everything the Female Agent understood about Fern from written records. Sometimes, she couldn't help sighing over his background.
But she could never truly empathize with all the pain Fern had experienced. Whenever she said, "I understand" or "I can understand," it was based on her "impressions after reading about it."
It was a self-righteous understanding, not genuine feeling.
It was like vagrants at an intersection discussing the president's golden toilet, while the president marveled that vagrants couldn't afford bread! How could people living in two different worlds ever truly feel what the other person felt?
Such empathy was usually more about self-indulgence and putting on a performance.
Just