Empire of Shadows

The movie was really good, but Pedro’s gaze was drawn to a young man next to Mr. Jack.

A very handsome young man.

He wasn’t sure how old this young man was; people from the Federation were different from people from Rapa.

People from Rapa needed to toil all day, exposed to the wind, rain, and sun, which made them age very quickly.

The people from the Federation all looked younger than their appearance suggested, maybe by a few years, maybe by ten, or even more.

He wasn’t sure if the gentleman was really only in his twenties as he looked, or if he was older.

Mr. Jack was also chatting with him, and the principal next to him was also craning his neck to look at the young man, his face full of fawning smiles.

This made Pedro somewhat curious about who this young man was.

In Rapa, not just anyone could be a high school principal. This also meant that he had at least some connection with the ruling group, otherwise, it wouldn’t have been his turn to sit in this position.

His behavior was almost obsequious; this young man’s identity must be extraordinary.He observed for a while, confirmed his view, and quickly returned his attention to the movie.

The movie soon came to an end, and people spontaneously stood up and applauded, applauding enthusiastically!

For the students of this high school today, this was absolutely unprecedented!

It was the first time they had seen a movie, the first time they had learned about the lifestyle of the federal people, the first time they had intuitively felt the difference between societies.

They had too much they wanted to express at this moment, and at the same time, because they had watched this movie, they had more doubts.

The principal and Mr. Jack deferred to each other for a while, after which Mr. Jack took the initiative to walk to the podium.

There was a microphone and a speaker here, but there was a bit of noise.

He tapped the microphone, and after confirming that it was working, he said with a smile, ”I just chatted with the principal. After the movie, you must have many questions or emotions you want to vent, so we will have thirty minutes to talk.”

”Actually, besides myself today, there is also a very special gentleman who has come to the scene,” he looked towards the audience.

Lance buttoned up his clothes and walked onto the podium from the stairs on one side.

Mr. Jack was from the Federal Ministry of the Interior’s General Administration for the Revitalization of Public Culture and Education. This was a department within the Federation responsible for popularizing education, promoting culture, increasing the level of education of the public, and also for literacy.

They would fund the development of education and culture, including the Federal Arts Council, which was also an unofficial department funded by them, and had received many government ”orders,” and had great influence and the ability to interfere in the entire art industry.

This time, the work of promoting cultural exchange in Yalan was also specifically handed over to this General Administration for the Revitalization of Public Culture and Education. They had also brought some civil society groups to visit Yalan.

For example, members of the ”Federal Writers’ Association.” The cabinet had once formulated a writing plan called ”Tell My Story.” They hoped that more authors would stand up and write, and that every federal citizen would read for at least two hours a month.

Although this kind of thing sounded like a formalistic job, it couldn’t be said that it had no effect at all.

The emergence of a group of new authors had quickly caused a good response in society. Of course, there were also some people who had taken the federal government’s money to attack the federal government. In any case, the current literary scene in the Federation was in a stage of blossoming.

Some wrote ”My Slave-owner Grandfather,” and some wrote ”My Slave Grandfather.” Anyway, there were people writing about everything.

These people, some authors who were willing to cooperate with the federal government, and some new-wave people who closely followed the trend, had all become members of this Yalan cultural exchange.

Anyway, it was funded by the federal government. Federal people also liked to eat and drink at public expense, not to mention they could also travel, and maybe even help those girls in need to supplement their protein at public expense. Everyone who had the opportunity had happily participate.

Mr. Jack was an official of the General Administration for the Revitalization of Public Culture and Education, and at the same time a member of some unofficial societies and associations. Originally, he was still considering how to turn the content of the post-movie discussion to his work tasks.

His main job was to carry out cultural propaganda in the few schools within Rapa.

Lance had no other business recently and had come with him.

It was about two hundred kilometers from here to Zhuolan, which was not considered far. Apart from the dirt road being a little less easy to walk on, it wouldn’t take a few hours to arrive.

He had heard that several students from this school would emerge every year to attend Jede National University. In this vicinity, including the Zhuolan side, it was quite famous, so he had specially come to take a look.

The proportion of students attending university from the private aristocratic high school on the Zhuolan side was high, but it was meaningless.

Lance’s main propaganda was still aimed at the common people and the middle class. Among these people, the speed of information dissemination about the Federation would be very fast!

The middle class is always the group with the most ideas.

After Lance had walked onto the podium, Mr. Jack took the initiative to introduce, ”Mr. Lance is the main initiator of this event, and also the sponsor of some of the rewards, including the costs and quotas for the exchange students to the Federation, all provided by Mr. Lance.”

Lance smiled and nodded to everyone in acknowledgment. Amidst the applause, he sat down on a sofa to the side.

Then he introduced some of the accompanying personnel, for example, sociologists and the like.

After introducing these people, Mr. Jack also sat down on the sofa. ”Our conversation is also a part of the cultural exchange, so if anyone wants to ask a question, you can raise your hand.”

In Rapa, those who could attend high school were basically from middle-class families. They could, through other channels, receive some information that was different from the ordinary class.

A student raised his hand. Mr. Jack motioned for him to speak his mind.

This student was dressed very cleanly. There was no such thing as a uniform school uniform here, so everyone looked a little more individual.

It was just that those who were dressed really well were still in the minority.

”Mr. Jack, the movie is really a great invention!”

”I can just sit in the auditorium and see what’s happening in the Federation, thousands of kilometers away. This is simply incredible!”

”I noticed that the male and female protagonists in the movie just now mentioned ’freedom’ many times, and in some of the backgrounds, ’freedom’-related slogans also appeared.”

”My question is, what exactly is freedom?”

This question had made even Mr. Jack stunned for a moment. This was actually a very broad question. What exactly is freedom?

Just as he was thinking about how to answer this question, Lance raised the microphone in his hand.

”Your observation is very careful!” He first praised this student. A hard-to-hide smile also appeared on the student’s face.

He bowed slightly. ”Thank you.”

Lance crossed his legs, looked at that student, and then at the other students who were looking at him.

”I believe that freedom is divided into three stages.”

”The first stage is the freedom of action.”

”What I want to do, what I don’t want to do. No one else, including myself, can force me to do this, or I can’t do this.”

The others all nodded, including the student who had asked the question. This was a very simple understanding. To put it more bluntly, it was the most common control problem between parents and students.

”You can do this!”

”You can’t do this!”

These are all in life. Lance had just mentioned it simply, and they had immediately understood.

After they had shown an ”understanding” expression, Lance continued, ”The second stage is the freedom of thought.”

”This is a very general explanation. It’s more like...”

”People are always telling you what you should do, what you shouldn’t do. They are not directly and strongly demanding that you do this, or not do this.”

”But they, through the way of spreading ideas, tell you that you shouldn’t do this.”

”I want to eat candy, but my mother tells me that eating candy will cause cavities, and I shouldn’t do this.”

”We are not discussing the matter itself, whether eating candy is good or not, whether it will cause cavities, but just the warning, the influence that this role of a mother has on me.”

”Under her influence, although I want to eat candy, I didn’t. This is spiritual unfreedom.”

”I can eat it, but my spirit is restricted, is imprisoned. Even if the candy is in my hand, in the end, I put it down.”

”Spiritual freedom is the questioning of authority, the exploration of the rules that people are accustomed to following.”

”Eating candy, will it really cause cavities?”

”Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But why don’t I give it a try?”

”To break the shackles of the spirit is the second stage of freedom!”

Lance changed his sitting posture and handed the microphone to his other hand. To be honest, this sofa was a bit hard on his butt. ”The third stage of freedom is the freedom of the soul.”

”This is an even broader explanation, and it is even harder to touch its core, because it is very difficult for us to understand what the freedom of the soul really is.”

”I’ll try to explain it.”

”The freedom of the soul refers to ’me’.”

”Does it sound even more confusing?”

The students all nodded. In fact, they were already a little confused at the second stage of freedom, let alone this third stage.

Lance smiled. ”I have also been confused before, but in the end, I have figured this out.”

”For you, it may be impossible to interpret, to understand in a short period of time, but I believe that your lives are still long. In a certain day in the future, when you have reached a certain stage in your life’s path,”

”When you think back on what I have said to you today, you will have an enlightenment.”

”What is ’me’?”

”This is a question that no one can explain.”

”’I’ is not necessarily me, because ’I’ may be the ’I’ in the eyes of others, and not the ’I’ in my own eyes.”

”Your teacher wants you to be a student with excellent academic performance, your parents want you to have a dazzling performance in the future, and your friends want you to be a model friend.”

”Your family, your partner, your future children...”

”There is an ’I’ in each of their eyes. The ’I’ in their eyes is not necessarily the real me!”

”Do you really like to study?”

”Are you really consistent with the way you behave in front of your elders?”

”I believe, not necessarily!”

The entire auditorium was quiet. There was only Lance’s voice, and the occasional noise from the speaker.

This was an important diplomatic event, so there were also federal reporters, reporters from some of the developed regions of Yalan, and also cameramen. They were faithfully recording everything that was happening here.

”I don’t like to read, but in order not to make my father or mother sad, I can only pretend that I like to read. This is unfree.”

”I don’t like this child, but because he is related to me by blood, I have to pretend that I like him very much and to bear all the responsibilities. This is also not free.”

”Freedom should be without restraint, without shape, not to be drilled into one after another of the tangible boxes made by others, to become the ’I’ in their eyes, and not the real me.”

”I have said that freedom is a very complex and broad issue. We have no way to accurately explain it. This is just my explanation. Maybe on your side, freedom has other explanations.”

”I am just telling you my perception of freedom.”

”If you long for everything in your youth, then you go and embrace it. This is freedom!”

”If you hate studying, and are willing to bear the consequences, then throw away your stationery and books. This is also freedom!”

”To protect is freedom, to resist is also freedom. To do whatever you want to do, what you want to do from the bottom of your heart, is freedom!”

As Lance’s voice stopped, a short silence appeared in the auditorium, but soon, applause rang out.

The student asked with a look of longing, ”Mr. Lance, in this world, is there true freedom?”

Lance showed a smile. ”I don’t know if there is, but each of us is looking for it. I believe that one day we will find it!”

The applause grew louder.

Lance seemed to have said something, but it also seemed as if he had said nothing. However, those words of his had planted a seed in people’s hearts.

The subsequent questions from the students were obviously on a different level.

Such as the learning and living environment of the federal students, such as the admission rate of the federal universities, and whether they could find a suitable job after graduating from university.

These questions were all answered by Mr. Jack, not by Lance.

Now some of the content was not suitable to be said too deeply all at once. This required a period of brewing.

Half an hour had passed quickly. Lance and Mr. Jack and the other entourage had soon left amidst the farewells of the teachers and students.

As people of Rapa who rarely had the opportunity to come into contact with foreigners, for every teacher and student, this was an extremely rare experience, enough for them to savor for a long time.

After Lance and his group had left, whether it was the teachers or the students, they had all returned to their classrooms, their minds filled with the images that had been played not long ago, and the words that Lance had said.

Many people, with ”Freedom” as their title, began to write a review of this movie.

The students might not have noticed anything, but Pedro always felt that in the process of writing, a feeling of ”offense” would continuously arise.

He had offended the great president, had offended the laws of Rapa, had offended everything here!

In the past, he had not felt that he was unfree, but after watching this federal movie, he had felt that he was not so free either.

This scene had happened in many places, in the few factories in Rapa, in the places where people gathered on the side of the road.

It was just that the content that these people had watched was different from the content that the teachers and students in the school had seen.

For example, the workers in the factories, what they had watched was the daily life and work of some of the workers in the Federation.

They had learned some special words from these movies, for example, ”weekend.”

To be able to rest for two days a week, this was simply incredible in Rapa!

Because Rapa had no rest days at all!

If there was work in a factory, all the workers had to keep doing it until it was finished.

It could be a dozen or so days, it could be twenty or thirty days. Only then could they rest before the next order arrived, and this rest was without pay.

But look at the Federation. Every week, no matter how busy the orders were, there were two days of rest, and such a high salary.

People were all watching, all learning about the Federation. The more they learned about the Federation through various propaganda means, the more they yearned for the life in the Federation, and the more they longed for it!

How can life in the Federation be so good?

No exploitation, no oppression, equal pay for equal work, and also time for rest, free food, and wages paid on time.

In fact, many of the people of Rapa had not felt that they were so bitter before.

Although it was indeed very bitter, but this kind of bitterness was that everyone was living a hard life, so there was no special feeling. On the contrary, they felt that life might just be like this.

But now, they had seen these propaganda, had seen these cultural exchanges, and their days had really begun to become bitter.

At the end of November, and the beginning of December, the ”review” written by Pedro had won an award, ten dollars.

Even the principal was so envious that he had fiercely patted him on the shoulder. ”You kid, you’re really lucky!”

Pedro, holding the ten dollars, was grinning from ear to ear. Just by writing a review, he had gotten more than half a month’s salary. He was also very surprised.

The principal had handed the money to him. It was a ten-dollar denomination Federal Sol banknote. At the same time, he had also handed him an envelope. ”This is what Mr. Jack asked me to give you.”

”They have already seen the review you wrote, and they think you have written it very well, and that you have a very deep understanding of the cultural differences between the two countries.”

”Next week, there will be a seminar or something in Zhuolan. You are invited to go. They will reimburse you for your travel expenses, accommodation, and all expenses, to participate in the discussion on how to continuously promote the exchanges in all aspects between the two regions.”

”Do you want to go?”

In fact, the principal’s subtext was, ”You’d better not want to go, so that I can go.”

If it had been in the past, he might have said that he didn’t want to go, but Lance’s words had given him some new ideas, and in addition, he was recalling everything in the movie. He had become more curious and had a longing for the society of the Federation.

How did such a free and unrestrained country develop into such a powerful country?

He wanted to know more!

”Thank you, I’ll be there on time!”

He pinched the envelope and tugged it. It took a little force to pull it out of the principal’s hand.