Chapter Forty-Eight: "Yes, Prime Minister," Banned Worldwide / Chapter Forty-Nine: Ursus's Plan to Hunt Down Chen Qi

At that moment, in Londinium's sewers, Alda stared at the television still playing before her. Slowly rising to her feet, she faced all the Self-Rescue Army members and spoke firmly:

"—We can't wait any longer."

"I agree." The tiny unicorn commander, Clovicia, acknowledged Alda's judgment. Though she was so young, even she could sense the immense threat Chen Qi posed to all of Victoria!

"He has to die. Even if he doesn't, he must never be able to write or speak again. Otherwise, Londinium... no, Victoria itself will be shattered by the blade forged from his pen, like a stack of building blocks chopped apart!"

"We have to act. We absolutely cannot let Londinium fall into the hands of the Sarkaz. Absolutely not!"

Yes, Prime Minister: Silenced Worldwide

Yes, Prime Minister had exploded in popularity once again. This time, its popularity had spread beyond Victoria's borders and into other nations.

The reason was the sixth episode of the political satire comedy Yes, Prime Minister, which had aired across all of Victoria the previous day and was beloved by Victorian audiences. Its mockery of the Victoria Ministry of Foreign Affairs' inaction made it the highest-quality and most joke-packed episode so far.

Although Yes, Prime Minister had aired two episodes a week since its debut and maintained remarkably high quality, with every episode offering plenty to watch, it was only from the sixth episode onward that the series truly caused a nationwide sensation in Victoria.

After all, as Humphrey had said, "Political satire is the second most boring kind of show in the world." Londinium's residents had watched it because they had been stuck rewatching too many old programs during Sarkaz rule, coupled with Theresis's aggressive promotion of Yes, Prime Minister, so it had received widespread acclaim within Londinium.

Afterward, Theresis manipulated the people in charge of Londinium's television stations and authorized the show for broadcast across Victoria. While this new series drew in a large audience, judging by ratings in the various mobile cities, it was merely at the level of competing for top viewership. It was not particularly astonishing.

After all, could Victoria possibly go a year without producing several good shows? Besides, this was authorized for broadcast by the capital, Londinium. Surely they had already undergone professional review internally.

If they stopped it, they might be held responsible. Since Londinium had given the go-ahead, there was no need for them to worry about it. They just had to air it.

—This was what nearly every television station employee and minister responsible for the field in Victoria thought. Yet amid this strange tacit understanding, none of them expected the show to cause such enormous trouble in a single day.

The sixth episode's "Four-Step Victoria Diplomatic Strategy" directly touched the nerves of politicians and civil servants who were also watching Yes, Prime Minister. They did not even have time to laugh before reporting the news to the dukes in their respective territories with the utmost efficiency, asking them to make a decision.

Upon receiving the news, the dukes nearly all reacted the instant they heard the term "political satire." They hurriedly ordered their subordinates to replay that segment...

Thus, after watching the "Four-Step Diplomatic Strategy" in Yes, Prime Minister, every duke independently gave the same order at once: ban the television series throughout their territory!

Never had Victoria's Civil Service System been so efficient. From reporting the situation, to the dukes learning of it, issuing orders, and carrying them out, everything was completed in one swift motion. In less than ten minutes, Yes, Prime Minister, the television series that had become wildly popular in Victoria, vanished overnight from every television screen in Victoria except those in Londinium, as though it had never existed.

But Victoria's residents were not about to lose their memories just like that. They remembered happily watching the show, laughing so hard they could not stop at its mockery and criticism of Victoria, only to turn around and find it suddenly taken off the air.

At once, the coordinated actions of several dukes sparked an unprecedented craze for Yes, Prime Minister within Victoria, elevating it to heights it had never belonged to before.

The next day, in more than one mobile city, Victorians of every social standing—workers, teachers, doctors, respectable or otherwise—so long as they were not involved in politics, gathered outside their respective mobile cities' parliaments and television stations. Holding placards high, they protested their actions.

"We demand that Yes, Prime Minister be restored!"

"Victoria cannot treat us like this! We don't pay taxes so you can stand above us and exploit us! You're even taking away our entertainment!"

"Can Victoria not even tolerate one excellent comedy?!"

"What is Victoria afraid of? Or is everything said in this comedy true?"

"Reality is more absurd than comedy! Victoria's officials have proven that with their actions!"

The public kept shouting these slogans outside parliament buildings and television stations. Demonstrations even broke out across multiple mobile cities in Victoria. In many places, sheriffs had no choice but to deploy the city defense forces to suppress them, causing casualties on a certain scale.

Yet this was not what troubled the dukes most. To them, as long as Yes, Prime Minister could remain banned and no copies leaked out, this level of unrest could be fully suppressed within a few months. It would gradually be forgotten, just like everything else before it.

After all, this was not the first time Victorians had marched. As one passage in Yes, Prime Minister put it, "Victoria's workers are lazy and gluttonous, always hoping pie will fall from the sky instead of honestly working for a day."

Though it was said jokingly, this was actually how a large number of Victorian officials viewed Victorian workers. Victorians really did protest and cause trouble every few days, because the method worked very well. They did not have to work, could rest in a roundabout way, and could gain more benefits for themselves. Most of the time, nothing happened.

The dukes believed they could weather this in a few months, but what gave them a headache was discovering that Yes, Prime Minister had spread far too widely!

After all, no one had paid attention to the show before, and no one had told them that a political satire comedy had already been circulating within Victoria for three weeks. By the time they noticed it, Yes, Prime Minister's reach had expanded to a level they could not accept.

Even when they activated the cybersecurity teams and blocked every piece of information related to Yes, Prime Minister online, several more radical dukes even issued an order—if any information about the show appeared on a city's online platform, ban the account and the video together.

And so, hundreds and thousands of accounts were banned across different mobile cities. Yet Victoria's cybersecurity teams were astonished to discover that the related information was not decreasing. It was increasing instead!

It was even spreading into places beyond their reach! The cybersecurity teams realized that many Victorians had long anticipated the show would eventually be banned. They had recorded it in advance and saved it onto tapes or discs so they could play it whenever they wanted!

They could not possibly ban it all. The rate at which they banned content was not even as fast as the rate at which people uploaded it.

Moreover, once Victorians realized the cybersecurity teams were taking action, they fully demonstrated the people's ingenuity. Before long, Yes, Prime Minister spread beyond Victoria through all sorts of means...

Thus, only a few days later, Yes, Prime Minister appeared on public online platforms in nearby places such as Columbia and Leithania.

And farther away... it had even reached nations in the eastern region, such as the Ursus Empire.

Several days later, an Ursus girl with red streaks in her hair cautiously looked around. After confirming no one was nearby, she darted into a secluded school warehouse.

"Finally, I found an opportunity! The inspectors won't come here at this time. I can finally finish watching the fourth episode of Yes, Prime Minister!"

"The school has actually strictly forbidden us from watching it. They just don't want us exposed to this stuff. Then I'm absolutely going to find out what they're hiding!"

"There's nothing General Winter can't know! Since it's a show from Victoria mocking its own government, I have to watch it!"

The Ursus girl who called herself "General Winter," and looked only middle-school age, hid inside the school's abandoned warehouse. As the leader of clubs across several school districts, she was not worried about anyone picking a fight with her. But she did worry that people she had defeated might catch her doing this and use it against her, reporting it somewhere...

Recently, the soldiers and police in the city had been unusually diligent. Many people had already suffered because of it... General Winter was not afraid of being arrested, but she feared dragging her family into it. Therefore, she never watched at home the things Ursus officials had strictly forbidden them from watching.

Before long, General Winter took out her earphones, connected them to her phone, opened the fourth episode of Yes, Prime Minister that she had downloaded through special channels long ago, and began watching.

—This was the episode Ursus had banned most severely out of all the prohibited episodes of Yes, Prime Minister. It had reached the point where anyone daring to show it would be arrested. General Winter knew the risks involved, which was why she had deliberately chosen a place where people rarely came to hide.

Soon, thrilled by the challenge of breaking a taboo, General Winter, who knew only a little about politics, watched with relish this masterpiece she considered an "enlightening work," but which Ursus authorities had labeled a "forbidden object" in recent days.

For some reason, though she only half-understood much of it, General Winter was obsessed with watching the show. She had even forced herself to study Victorian for it.

As an Ursus, General Winter's Victorian was not very good. After all, it was taboo in Ursus, and no one dared translate the show for her.

Therefore, General Winter could only watch one segment at a time, try translating each sentence herself, then write it down in Ursus on the notebook she carried so she could understand it later.

Gradually, second by second, time passed. General Winter watched halfway through the sixth episode, writing as she murmured:

"Infected... but our country's... blessing, um... benefactors."

"Okay... let me see. This episode seems to be about products made by the Infected. I'll read it first."

General Winter put down her pen and phone, feeling a little tired. She picked up the notebook containing her translations and read through it line by line. Whenever she encountered something she could not understand at all, she either skipped it or revised it herself.

But soon, as she stared at line after line of words she had translated herself, General Winter's eyes gradually changed from relaxed to serious. Many of Humphrey's remarks made her pupils contract slightly.

"How can this be..." General Winter slowly realized what the episode was really about, and for the first time, she was shaken by the message it conveyed.

"Maintaining the current death rate would be best!"

"Originium taxes account for one-third of public medical funding!"

"Those Infected willingly sacrificed themselves to save their non-Infected compatriots!"

Line after line of words filled the page. Without the canned laughter that came with the television show in her ears, the Ursus girl slowly realized just how terrifying and cold those words were without the veneer of comedy.

Lost in confusion, General Winter suddenly heard a loud crash. The door before her was kicked open, and several hulking figures surged into the tiny abandoned warehouse.

"Open up! Ursus Provost Department! Someone reported you for watching a banned television series. This is a serious violation of the law! Come with us!"

Before General Winter could even react, two burly Ursus men grabbed her and carried her out with none of the slightest gentleness.

And what they carried away was not merely General Winter's body. They took with them the Ursus girl's trust in her own country as well...

Ursus's Plan to Hunt Down Chen Qi

A few days after General Winter was taken away by the Ursus Provost Department, an announcement was issued throughout the Ursus Empire: "Yes, Prime Minister is hereby designated a forbidden work. Any Ursus citizen within Ursus territory who watches, disseminates, or privately possesses content from Yes, Prime Minister will, in severe cases, be charged with treason."

The order came from Ursus's capital, Holy Steed Castle, where the Ursus Emperor resided—the holiest place in all of Ursus.

Yet banning Yes, Prime Minister alone was not enough. Two more orders followed from the Ursus imperial palace.

"First, Ursus will dispatch an ambassador to Londinium to issue international condemnation over the political interference consequences caused by the implications, insinuations, and deliberate dissemination into Ursus of the television series Yes, Prime Minister. We hope Victoria's authorities will provide a prompt response and issue a diplomatic reply regarding its policies toward the Infected."

"Should Victoria's explanation prove insufficient, the Ursus Empire will, in the Emperor's name, define this incident as a 'diplomatic provocation' by Victoria. If necessary, we will retaliate through military deterrence!"

The implication was simply that Ursus officials were saying: Your Victoria does not treat the Infected any better than we Ursus do. Do we really need to argue over which of us is worse?

Our Ursus Empire's Infected do not feel oppressed. Why are you Victorians pleading on their behalf? Deal with your own Infected problem first!

However, the Ursus imperial palace clearly understood that this was merely a diplomatic stance, meant to stabilize the hearts of Ursus citizens. Ursus had always taken a hard-line stance in diplomacy and frequently resorted to military threats, precisely to give Ursus citizens confidence in their country.

In this regard, the Ursus Ministry of Foreign Affairs was indeed quite different. After all, foreign ministries in most nations shared one thing in common—foreigners thought other countries' foreign ministries were tough, while citizens thought their own foreign ministry was too weak.

Only in the Ursus Empire did both citizens and foreigners believe its diplomatic stance was exceptionally hard-line. This time, the Ursus Empire continued its usual approach.

After all, they knew that they could not even be sure whether Londinium was currently under Aslan control. Receiving any response was nearly impossible—unless Theresis had drunk himself silly and publicly declared that they were in Londinium, and that if the Ursus legions dared come, he dared fight.

The other order, however, was not made public. It was the result of discussions among several nobles in the Ursus imperial palace.

The problem had to be solved at its root. No matter how thoroughly Yes, Prime Minister was banned, it had already spread across the land. Ursus could take harsher measures, but who could guarantee that Victoria, Leithania, and Columbia would be as ruthless as they were?

On this point, the nobles in the Ursus imperial palace reached unanimous agreement for the first time—don't be ridiculous. The people of those countries were completely unreliable when it came to domestic issues.

But there was no helping it. No one had expected a television series to dare write such things. Ursus was remote, and given the state of network connectivity across the land, a television series filmed in Victoria should have had an extremely small chance of spreading all the way to them.

How many countries' shared online platforms would it have to pass through to reach them? The people in the Ursus imperial palace could not understand it, but they knew very well that if something like this happened once, it would definitely happen again in the future.

They could no longer stop Yes, Prime Minister from spreading across the Ursus Empire's online platforms, but they had to mitigate the damage as much as possible. Therefore, after discussion, they decided to solve the problem at its source!

"Chen Qi, a Yan national. Are those members who originally belonged to the Infected violent organization, the Reunion Movement, still following him?"

"I remember our people encountered them on the snowfields before. That Talulah... isn't she the adopted daughter of Koschei, that old black snake?"

"Damn it. When they escaped from the snowfields back then, we should have sent the Emperor's Blades to wipe them all out in one stroke! Who would have thought they would cause such a disaster now..."

Within the Ursus imperial palace, several nobles discussed the harmful influence brought by Yes, Prime Minister. But when they mentioned the Reunion Movement, which had once struggled to survive on the Ursus snowfields and had only been a somewhat capable Infected violent organization at the time, they realized they had only paid it a little attention because of Talulah and Patriot.

Yet who could have imagined that Chen Qi would appear from nowhere and suddenly lead the violent organization astray? He set up some Art Troupe, and it caused such a huge mess!

Why did you have to film Yes, Prime Minister? Could ordinary civilians be allowed to know about politics?

"That guy has far too much nerve. He actually put political satire on the big screen, and even brought up diplomacy and the Infected issue!"

"That man has to disappear. At the very least, those art people need to learn that keeping their mouths shut and their pens under control is what matters most to them!"

In the end, several Ursus nobles decided Chen Qi's fate within the imperial palace. But they quickly noticed another problem.

"Still... those people are all in Londinium now. Even if we send the Emperor's Blades to assassinate them, they won't get past those Sarkaz Confessors..."

"Theresis needs that organization to film Yes, Prime Minister for him. He and several of his generals have even acted in it. That shows just how highly he values this person."

"There's even a Drac among them... Talulah, was it? Koschei's adopted daughter. What if Theresis supports Talulah as Victoria's new emperor to curry favor with Chen Qi?"

The moment those words were spoken, the Ursus imperial palace fell silent. They suddenly realized that what they had thought was an organization that could be wiped out at will had become as difficult to deal with as gristle.

First, they were no longer a violent organization made up only of Infected. They had transformed into an Art Troupe, and several of their productions had even succeeded. Everyone had subconsciously overlooked the fact that nearly every member of the troupe was Infected. They had gained social recognition and were no longer struggling to survive.

Second, their crew possessed considerable combat strength. With Talulah and Patriot alone, who would dare claim they could take them down without five Emperor's Blades?

What was more, they were now in Londinium. Theresis protected them more attentively than he protected himself. How could he possibly let their people get near Chen Qi?

"—I refuse to believe they can remain in Londinium forever. We only need an opportunity to act."

"Have people watch them and see where they go in the near future. The moment an opportunity arises, chop off that man's head at once—at the very least, cut out his tongue and chop off his fingers so he can never again write things he shouldn't write!"

"Agreed."

Meanwhile, in Yan, not far from Ursus, the imperial palace was also bustling with activity. It seemed even livelier than Ursus's side.

One first-rank official after another sat in their respective offices, examining thick stacks of account books. Third-rank officials, who would be highly influential elsewhere, could only serve as "porters" at this moment, responsible for tallying the documents and delivering them one by one to higher-ranking officials.

"Shangshu's financial reports are all here. Remember to label them."

"These are the financial reports from the Gou Wu region!"

"And the financial reports submitted from Yumen!"

The officials were incredibly busy. Before long, a third-rank official anxiously gathered a stack of documents in his arms and hurried in one direction, only for a stern voice to stop him.

"That is the Imperial Calendar Bureau's financial report. Do not mix it up. We are currently compiling the finances of the various mobile cities."

"Ah, yes! My apologies, Grand Tutor."

Only then did the third-rank official realize that he had mistaken the Imperial Calendar Bureau's report for something else. He immediately put down the documents in his hands and picked up another stack.

However, the third-rank official clearly did not understand the current situation. Unable to resist, he turned and asked the Grand Tutor:

"Grand Tutor, I still do not understand... why has His Majesty suddenly decided to undertake such a large-scale review of the financial situations of the various mobile cities and the Six Ministries?"

"Shouldn't the Ministry of Revenue compile these matters at the beginning of every year and report them to His Majesty? Why does His Majesty suddenly wish to inspect these financial reports today?"

"...His Majesty naturally has his reasons." The Grand Tutor, who clearly knew some inside information, rarely revealed a troubled expression. Yet he still maintained his inscrutable demeanor and did not disclose anything as he said:

"Focus on your duties. His Majesty attaches great importance to this review, so there must not be any mistakes. Inform the Minister of Revenue that every account must match. If there are any discrepancies, they must be marked and must not be concealed!"

"Yes!" The third-rank official immediately nodded, then carried the documents away once more.