The standoff lasted nearly half a minute.
This man clearly wasn't good with words.
He kept a gloomy expression, then suddenly laughed, seemingly too embarrassed.
"Go ahead and score a few points with your words, but the facts will never change."
"You've heard the saying that water can carry a boat but can also capsize it, haven't you? We're happy to keep the water calm, because when it isn't, a couple of little boats always have to sink. But whether those little boats sink doesn't depend on the water. It depends on us. When the water starts getting rough, we have to sacrifice a couple of little boats to calm it down and let it think it has the power to sink boats."
"But no matter how rough the water gets, the big ship will never sink."
The man certainly knew how to use a metaphor.
He likened ordinary people to water.
The big ship represented Wu Huaqing and his network of connections.
The little boats represented certain expendable pawns who stood above ordinary people but could be abandoned at any moment to appease public anger.
So Wu Huaqing hadn't caused too much of a stir with me before because he wanted to keep the water calm, letting it believe that life was peaceful and everything was going smoothly.
But when he truly wanted to do something, he wouldn't care whether the water was calm.
Just as an elephant going to the river for a drink wouldn't care how many ants it trampled along the way.
"You're being very abstract."
I looked at the man onstage holding the crossbow. "I don't know much, so I don't understand what you mean. Why don't you just tell me what you want to do?"
Feeling he had gained the upper hand, the man