A clear conscience? Why would you have such an extravagant idea? / Yes, Prime Minister teaches how to handle reporters' questions

Meanwhile, on television, Theresis, playing Hacker, is discussing the "former prime minister's memoir" with a Grand Secretariat member. Because it involves defense secrets and there is a risk of leakage, it needs to be strictly reviewed. However, Theresis sees some negative comments about herself in the memoir.

Because Theresis's character, Hacker, is the successor to the prime ministership, and Harker was considered a "dangerous presence" who was not well-liked by the prime minister when he was a minister, the critical content about him in the former prime minister's memoirs would inevitably have to be deleted or modified by Theresis, who is now the prime minister.

Of course, many of the themes are actually echoed in "Yes, Minister," but now even watching "Yes, Prime Minister" alone won't have any impact, because with the character development in the first season, most viewers can see that Hacker, played by Theresis, is a person without much of his own opinion.

"Starting from page 211, it says, 'The Minister of the Executive Yuan supports the expansion of the fuel plant in the Grand Secretariat, yet publicly opposes it.'"

"On page 224, there's another vicious accusation, saying I halted the factory project because I was afraid of baseless rumors from the media."

"An even less convincing passage appears on page 231..."

"Page 231, 'Hacker cares more about votes than principles.'" And this time, before Theresis could even speak, Humphrey, played by the Bloodborne Archon, read these words aloud with great emotion, saying:

"As soon as they sensed something was wrong, they took off running."

"He raised the average age of the Grand Secretariat, but lowered the average IQ."

The Bloodborne Archon's amiable smile drew laughter from viewers watching on television. Everyone couldn't help but recall the scene in the first season where Theresis's character, Hacker, dramatically read "Number One Fool Appleby (Humphrey's last name)" to the Bloodborne Archon when he was suspected of being Ursus spy.

Undoubtedly, this is the Bloodborne Archon's revenge, but whether it is entirely part of the story or whether the Bloodborne Archon is using this opportunity to subtly criticize Theresis remains unknown.

"But this doesn't count as a leak at all," the deputy prosecutor countered, telling Theresis, "Besides, Chapter Five was also leaked, and we didn't do anything about it."

"And there's just as much classified information here, yet you didn't even launch a leak investigation."

"Chapter Five highly praises the contract I negotiated with Rim Billiton, and my LAN security regulations too." Theresis immediately explained his reason for not cutting Chapter Five, but when asked why he didn't launch a "leak investigation," he revealed a shameless smile and said:

"Well, anyone could leak this chapter to the media."

Theresis's double standards and her complete lack of shame drew laughter from the audience.

In just a few lines of dialogue, the "two-faced" character of Hacker, played by Theresis, was once again vividly displayed, to the point that even when Theresis delivered her next line, it couldn't help but elicit laughter:

"Even the title of Chapter Eight is... 'Jim Hacker's Double Life'?"

This time, however, it wasn't the Bloodborne Archon sabotaged things, but Manfred's character, Bernard. Manfred peeked out slightly and said matter-of-factly:

"That's not exactly a secret, is it?"

"Hahahaha!" XN

Manfred's portrayal of Bernard, with his "daily resignation tips," has become particularly memorable. It must be said that, as one of the three main leads, although Manfred's Bernard wasn't nominated for "Best Performance Award" like the Bloodborne Archon and Theresis, the role he played was no less challenging than the other two, only perhaps less likable.

"If this were a narrow-minded leader, this official would probably already be holding a grudge, wouldn't he?"

Meanwhile, in the Yan, Chongyue was watching "Yes, Prime Minister" with the Emperor and the Yan Grand Tutor. Although Chongyue was not involved in officialdom, as a "Sui" (a low-ranking official), he was not ignorant of the subject, but rather simply uninterested. He couldn't help but sigh:

"Otherwise, he'll end up like that unfortunate employment minister in the first episode. This Mr. Bernard must be quite talented; I really hope to witness the work efficiency of a true elite."

"Corrupt officials are cunning, but honest officials are even more cunning than corrupt officials. Those who cannot flatter are indeed more likely to be resented." Even the Grand Tutor couldn't help but sigh at this point.

However, at this moment, the Emperor of Yan felt that the two men were implying something, because he knew that he was indeed a bit petty, but these two speaking so slyly in his ear inevitably made him feel uncomfortable.

However, the Emperor of Yan really couldn't say anything... The Grand Tutor was the teacher of him and his elder brother, and Chongyue was currently the only trustworthy person who could possibly keep the other "Sui" who were making some small moves in the future. The Emperor of Yan had no choice but to focus his attention back on the television.

However, as the plot unfolds, the contents of Chapter Eight of the former prime minister's unpublished memoir are leaked, along with the fact that Prime Minister Hacker wanted to suppress the memoir.

This incident greatly angered the Prime Minister, who immediately summoned Manfred, the Bloodborne Archon, and "Secretary of the Propaganda Department" Bill to find out who the leaker was.

However, before that, he had to figure out how to deal with the media from half of the Victoria newspaper offices blocking the way outside, which was giving Theresis a major headache.

"This is incredible. Last week I tried everything to tell them how I was easing the situation in Viu, but nobody wanted to listen. Now, they've all swarmed in like a bunch of vultures."

"Uh... not a bunch (Notherd, meaning 'didn't hear clearly,' Prime Minister." Manfred, with his professional habit of pointing out these quantifier and grammatical errors, spoke up again, but this time he was met with Theresis's serious expression, and he reiterated:

"Like a bunch of vultures."

"Eagles don't flock together, they roam in groups." Manfred, whose professional habit in this regard was beyond saving, continued to insist on correcting him, "And they don't chase, they..."

"--How are they, Bernard?"

"They..." Then, realizing belatedly that his occupational habit might actually be a prelude to angering the Prime Minister, Manfred had a sudden inspiration and immediately chose to play dumb, imitating an eagle—shrugging his shoulders to represent wings, raising his pupils, and twisting his face, which looked a bit old due to makeup, into an extremely comical appearance.

Meanwhile, both on and off television, laughter never stopped from the very beginning. However, these jokes were just an appetizer. What Theresis was about to reveal was the real deal: how a former "media person" should deal with these unfavorable comments.

Clearly, Theresis is very experienced in dealing with the media and in manipulating her previous statements to convey a different meaning.

"To those places that smear me... smear them back!"

"The claim that the former prime minister wanted to rewrite history to make his governance seem less disastrous is an implication that he was senile."

Bill, the propaganda secretary, was quick to embellish the situation, adding, "[With the passage of time and the lack of verifiable evidence, his memory may have become blurred]."

"Good, so you're getting senile?" Theresis was quite pleased with this embellishment and immediately continued to ask.

"--[There's no need to be so harsh on someone of such advanced age]?" Bill continued, recording, "And what about the part about you wanting to prevent the memoir from being published?"

"That's a lie too." Theresis was determined to stick to her principle of "never admitting fault" when dealing with the media, Bill immediately chimed in:

"[This is a misinterpretation of a speech given at a routine meeting; there was no censorship involved.] Would you like to grant me an interview?"

"Of course not, as for explanations..." Theresis only thought for a moment before arriving at the best solution, and immediately said:

"To quote the original statement, 'trivial matters are of no national importance,' this is merely a typical example of the media vulgarizing politics—to all my dear Grand Secretariat colleagues."

With just a few words, Theresis managed to temporarily stabilize the situation that had been extremely detrimental to her reputation. The professional skills displayed by the character Theresis portrayed were also secretly noted down by many high-ranking officials in the audience, who planned to use them in the future...

Even the Emperor of Yan couldn't help but brighten up and quickly said:

"Grand Commandant? Bring me paper and pen. This plan is excellent; I must write it down."

Although the system in Yan is still feudal, the pace of its feudal development has reached that of modern cities. Even the emperor of Yan still needs to deal with the media... The media in Great Yan is no less troublesome than that in Victoria.

Moreover, he should at least hold himself to the standards of a "wise ruler" and not kill indiscriminately just because he was upset... Now he finally found a way.

"Hmm, this episode was useful, quite pleasing to me," the Emperor of Yan thought to himself, as he wrote, his wariness of Chen Qi's talent slightly easing...

Chapter 127: A Clean Conscience? Why do you have such a luxurious idea?

"How can this young man possess such great talent? I've heard he's only twenty, yet he already has such insight and understanding? He even possesses many skills that I myself haven't fully grasped..."

The Emperor of Yan recorded these techniques, yet he couldn't help but wonder why Chen Qi possessed so many insights, as well as such rich experiences and knowledge, enabling him to write such profound works at such a young age.

You must understand, the Emperor of Yan also grew up under the tutelage of the Grand Tutor, along with his elder brother. They received the strictest, most luxurious, and highest-level education in Yan from a young age, while he himself, at this age, only managed to sit on this throne by a twist of fate, one that did not belong to him...

His elder brother was more perceptive, more shrewd, more concerned about the world, and more capable of governing it—but even his elder brother was better than him at "retiring unscathed."

Now, Chen Qi not only has some connection with his elder brother, but in a sense, he is even exceptionally close to him... This makes the Emperor of Yan begin to suspect that Chen Qi might be his elder brother's illegitimate son, born without his knowledge.

Otherwise, with such insight and understanding at such a young age, it's truly hard to imagine that he's just an ordinary person wandering far from home.

Of course, there's another piece of evidence that, while not technically proof, is that Chen Qi and Chen Huijie share the same surname, "Chen".

"There's a saying in Yan, 'Children from poor families learn to be independent early.'" Chongyue seemed to sense the Yan emperor's renewed wariness and promptly spoke up:

"Director Chen Qi is not registered in Yan, and we know nothing about his past experiences... Since he did not grow up in Yan, but was a child raised in the wilderness, yet did not become a wild beast, he must have experienced hardships and adventures that many people have never endured."

"--Then why not? Is he a 'Feranmut' in human form?" The Emperor of Yan also raised this question, but upon hearing this, Chongyue smiled confidently and said calmly:

"Your Majesty, rest assured. Of the countless Feranmut in the world, I dare not say I recognize them all, but I do have some memory of eight or nine out of ten of the Feranmut of Yan."

"Although I have never met Director Chen Qi in person, if Feranmut were to transform into a human, no matter how it is disguised, it would inevitably carry a degree of contempt for all living beings—but Director Chen Qi has never felt that way so far."

"He possesses the heart of a 'human being,' Your Majesty, I am certain of that."

Even Chongyue himself now has the heart of a "human". In order to gain such a human-like understanding, Chongyue even separated a part of himself as a "year". Therefore, he could see through the brief award ceremony that Chen Qi was an absolute "human" and did not have the natural superiority of Feranmut.

Chongyue's words reassured the Yan Emperor somewhat, and the three of them turned their attention back to the television, where the story continued.

In an attempt to quell the negative news, Hacker, played by Theresis, invited the editor-in-chief of Victoria's largest newspaper to dinner, hoping he would retract the report. However, the editor was powerless to do so and could only suggest that Theresis provide some compelling evidence to refute the claims.

The editor-in-chief also mentioned that the "meeting minutes" could be used as evidence, but in order to prove her "innocence," Theresis couldn't care less about that at the moment.

"Bernard, the meeting minutes are exactly what I said, aren't they?"

"Ah, this..."

However, the Bernard, played by Manfred, is the one responsible for recording the "meeting minutes." This task effectively prevents the conversations between the Prime Minister and his ministers from being misinterpreted and can be considered the primary evidence in internal investigations. Manfred is the recorder.

However, judging from Manfred's expression, it was clear that he not only did not write meeting minutes, but also, faced with the Prime Minister's inconsistency, he did not know how to write them.

"The Prime Minister's current decision contradicts his previous statements... This is a difficult situation."

Meanwhile, in Lungmen, Chen Huijie and her group were at Wei Yenwu's residence. These Lungmen upstarts were sitting on the sofa, taking advantage of their leisure time to watch Chen Qi's much-discussed second season of "Yes, Prime Minister".

At that moment, Chen Huijie also sensed Manfred's predicament on the television screen. She couldn't help but turn her gaze to Wei Yenwu beside her and asked:

"Officer Wei, what do you think we should do in this situation?"

"Well... my thoughts might be quite different from yours, Little Chen." Wei Yenwu also looked very serious. He was also a loyal viewer of "Yes, Prime Minister," but besides seeing what kind of big stunt his audacious nephew-in-law had gotten up to, he was also there to explore the deeper meaning behind it.

In particular, he could also explain the deeper meaning to these inexperienced younger generations and show off his knowledge. Wei Yenwu quite enjoyed this process.

"If there's a conflict between the leaders' words, then the meeting minutes must be written according to what the leaders said. This is the only way for Bernard in the story to keep his position."

"So, the only option is to forge meeting minutes against one's conscience?" Chen Huijie wasn't surprised by this outcome, but she still didn't approve of this approach.

"There's nothing we can do about this, right? After all, if you want to keep your position, you can't go against the boss." Hoshiguma said, having experienced this firsthand, having risen from a gang member to an inspector.

As expected, Manfred in the show went to the Bloodborne Archon to ask how the meeting minutes should be handled.

"But the problem Yes, Prime Minister did try to ban the memoirs, didn't he?"

"--I don't know, is there?" However, the Bloodborne Archon immediately understood Manfred's meaning, but he denied it at the first moment, which made Manfred ask anxiously:

Don't you remember?

"Whether I remember or not is unimportant, Bernard," the Bloodborne Archon couldn't help but reassure him. "If the records don't say he has it, then he doesn't."

"... So you want me to forge the meeting minutes?" Manfred finally understood, but the Bloodborne Archon definitely didn't want to be caught red-handed, and quickly retorted:

"I absolutely did not have such a thought! It's up to you, Bernard, what do you want?"

"--I want a clean conscience."

However, Manfred's thoughtless words were met with a moment of silence and calm. For a moment, all the high-ranking officials in all the countries who were watching "Yes, Prime Minister" fell silent.

Even the Bloodborne Archon in the drama, upon hearing these words, felt a moment of melancholy flicker in his eyes, and couldn't help but mutter to himself, "A pure conscience..."

"--When did you come up with such extravagant ideas?"

"Hahahahaha!" XN

However, a single sentence from the Bloodborne Archon brought the entire drama back to comedy. But this time, compared to the Swarm were laughing heartily, many officials, after their light laughter, couldn't help but feel a faint sense of loneliness.

This time, even the rising stars of Lungmen and Wei Yenwu, as well as the emperor and Grand Tutor of Yan, remained silent for a moment. The older generation let out a soft sigh, full of vicissitudes and sorrow.

"Conscience is for politicians, Bernard. We are humble public instruments! Our duty is simply to carry out the will of the elected representatives. How could we be wrong if we are simply following their orders?"

The Bloodborne Archon also earnestly instructed Bernard that it was unrealistic to make the meeting minutes comprehensive, because everyone's thoughts would change during the process. What he had to do was to select from these conversations the version that the person he was loyal to most wanted to see.

"The purpose of minutes is not to record the events themselves, but to protect the parties involved."

After the Bloodborne Archon's persuasion, Manfred seemed to have a much better conscience. Unbeknownst to him, the Bloodborne Archon had imparted invaluable professional experience to many officials in related fields.

"... Well, although this Humphrey is a seasoned veteran, we can't completely say he's wrong."

Meanwhile, in Lungmen, Swire couldn't help but think that the Bloodborne Archon was right. If she were to consider only her position and class, having such a subordinate would undoubtedly save her a lot of trouble.

"However, this raises questions about the credibility of the meeting minutes. While such actions may contribute to stability, they are certainly not ethical," Lin Yuxia nodded in agreement.

"--Sometimes, stability is the best policy."

Wei Yenwu's words silenced the young men for a moment. He left them to ponder the meaning of his words, while he smoked and couldn't help but sigh:

"What on earth is going on in this kid's head? How did Little Tal, the girl she picked up from the snowfield, become such a prodigy? How strange..."

Although given the current situation, Wei Yenwu no longer needs to worry about the safety of Chen Qi and Talulah. In fact, it could be said that the power behind Chen Qi and his group might already be enough to threaten the Yan. Even Wei Yenwu himself can be considered one of Chen Qi and his group's backers.

But the more mysterious Chen Qi became, the more curious Wei Yenwu became about Chen Qi's identity, and... the more worried he became about his younger brother in the palace, wondering if he might be thinking something.

"Don't you dare cause me any trouble, kid... otherwise Little Tal and Little Chen won't have an uncle anymore..." Wei Yenwu couldn't help but think to himself.

However, when Wei Yenwu turned his attention back to the television, Manfred in the story was surrounded and questioned by reporters. Under their incessant questioning, Manfred inadvertently conveyed the message that "the Prime Minister's power is above the 'Official Secrets Act'."

"Oh no, this kid's doomed."

Upon seeing this scenario, Wei Yenwu, a seasoned official, quickly sensed danger—this was no longer a "resignation trick" that could be laughed off; it was a serious mistake that could actually get someone fired.

On the television, Manfred's expression spoke volumes; he had realized he was in trouble.

Chapter 128: "Yes, Prime Minister" Online Tutorial on Dealing with Reporters' Questions

"Oh dear, sending this kind of message to the media is going to be a disaster."