Chapter 85: Control

The wheel of history rolls inexorably forward — none can block its path. Later that evening, every Transmigrator's Mate 10 received the same MMS: a selfie of Comrade Liang Yuhang grinning with his big buck teeth in the server room.

So the open internet is finally connected!

The next moment, comrades everywhere cheered and fired up their Laptops and WeChat. No rush to add Moments — it was the same crowd anyway. What mattered was getting on the Forum first to post a congratulation thread; this had commemorative significance!

Everyone hurriedly opened the Crossing Forum to look — holy crap, a bright-red stickied post was already up!

The post had been stickied personally by Honorary Moderator Cao Chuan, and its content came from Chief Moderator Xia Xianze: "Decision on Restoring Normal Work Order Effective Today."

Well, that was very celebratory — and very buzz-killing. Clicking it open, the content was ruthless.

First, CEO Xia notified everyone in an extremely forceful tone: the days when any random employee could drop their work and wander into the Old Chief's office for a tea party were gone forever.

From this day forward, the Crossing Faction would restore the work order befitting a normal Company: the Governor's Residence was renamed the Great Office, where department heads and Xia himself would work daily. Paperless office procedures would be enforced henceforth: routine matters resolved via email, WeChat, and group chats; major face-to-face discussions required online booking in advance; disorganized troublemaking was strictly forbidden. Violators would not only have their Import Goods allocation Priority lowered — serious cases would face personal accountability, with future River and Mountain Dividends docked.

At the post's end, Xia Xianze harshly condemned the various departments' abuse of the "Intimidation Style" to compete for Import Goods, and explicitly pointed out: the army's two responsible officers, Liu Zhe and Han Bo, must publicly admit fault on the Forum and write a thorough self-criticism. Anyone may have their own thoughts — the army alone may not. When a military force grows accustomed to using intimidation to get what it wants, the rest of the regime is not far from being tied behind horses and dragged to death.

At some unknown point, Shang Hall gradually fell silent, as if a heavy, oppressive atmosphere flowed through the air. Xia Xianze's murderously sharp first forum post forcibly reversed the basic internal order among Transmigrators — an order that had been steadily collapsing since the Hangzhou Crossing, due to the massive influx of Newcomers and the lack of time to integrate them.

The earlier "Intimidation Style" incident was clear proof. Every person and department had adopted a posture of "give me what I want or I walk," and the chaotic, utterly unconstrained form of "freedom" had erupted in full. The management's weakness, whose first signs had been Revealed back in Hangzhou, grew ever more pronounced — the situation had nearly spun out of control.

This was precisely why Xia Xianze had, at that time, unhesitatingly organized the Telecom Manifest and held a long talk with Cao Chuan.

Having secured the crucial support of Cao Chuan, Xia formally moved to impose control on this pack of swollen egos. The post was merely a face-saving bucket of cold water — the First Step toward bringing the Transmigrators back to rationality and establishing a normal work order. One must understand: ahead lay even more complex, compounded issues — ideology, systems of government — matters none of them had ever touched. Without a sound operational mechanism encompassing both Discussion and implementation, the Crossing Faction would be incapable of bearing the large-scale expansion and self-evolution of its system in the future.

The vast majority of Transmigrators, slow on the uptake, only gradually grasped the deeper meaning after reading the post and carefully mulling it over. Recalling Xia's kindly Expression as he watched everyone collect their phones, they now realized they'd been played.

A few dim-witted, Brainless types — who had felt unstoppable ever since Crossing Over, grown accustomed to doing whatever they pleased — even Intended to go argue with Xia again.

Yet when they refreshed the post and saw those rows upon rows of perfectly uniform replies, lined up as if they had stood there from the very first second the post went live, and then considered the implications of Cao Zong personally stickying it — suddenly, a cold wind blew through them: How had they become members of "that handful"? This wouldn't do. The enemy chieftain was powerful; for now, they must preserve their strength! What if Old Xia's dividend Big Stick came Smashing down and his Hawaii ended up benefiting someone else? Quick, copy and paste one first...

Liu Zhe and Han Bo were cursing up a storm at that moment. Those two were purely collateral damage. The original offending slogan had been dreamed up for fun by a few pranksters in the troops, their minds blown wide open after hearing chief culprit Zou Guoqing's screwball antics. Who could have guessed that once the joke got out, it would be exploited by accomplices in those bastard departments? And so now, Messrs. Liu and Han had been dizzily transformed into targets — professional hate-magnets, the Twin Stars of bullet-catching.

The two former officers, who had received systematic political education and deeply understood its perils, felt a bone-deep chill upon seeing the post. Usually, noisily cursing someone out in public was no big deal. What was there to fear? The fear was that others would fear you!

Once others no longer felt safe around you, but instead felt afraid — then it was completely over. At that point, whatever the dog dragged in, you dragged in. You scratch your backside and everyone thinks you're reaching for your gun. This kind of misunderstanding would Without a Doubt be elevated to a political Height. What followed would be wave after wave of cold, utterly merciless measures, with no reason to be spoken of...

Even as they cursed out all those bastards at the top of their lungs, they scrambled to first flood the forum with confession posts, then immediately began writing their thorough self-criticisms. Any superfluous action at this moment was unnecessary. Did they think Old Xia didn't know the two of them were taking stray bullets? In the end, it was still laxity — weak awareness, failure to control subordinates' rhetoric. This was called leadership Responsibility.

That terrifying day passed.

When the sun rose the next morning, it was as if nothing had happened. Everyone methodically threw themselves back into the great cause of Crossing Over.

"Methodically" here meant: each attending to their own duties, each content in their own post. The idlers who usually wandered about everywhere vanished overnight; today, they all conscientiously appeared in the Infrastructure Department. In truth, the Company was now pouring 80% of its energy into infrastructure — any normal person knew infrastructure was short-handed.

Colleagues exchanged faint smiles upon meeting, then brushed past one another. It was as if overnight, everyone had returned to the factory, returned to the Company, returned to the work unit — warm and united, serious yet lively.

Cao Chuan and Xia Xianze strolled through Shang Hall in the early morning. Everyone they met along the way today merely greeted them and hurried past, looking very busy. Gone were the previous antics of rushing over for awkward small talk whether they had business or not.

"Now this is starting to look a bit like a Company," Xia Xianze remarked with satisfaction.

"Indeed. Being mobbed the moment I step out the door — I couldn't take it either!" Ever since returning to Dayuan in high spirits the day before, Cao Chuan's image had undergone a drastic change: the fan was gone, the long robe discarded, and he had even ruthlessly cropped his long hair into a buzz cut. Today, clad in khaki casual workwear, he looked exceptionally crisp.

"So you were dead set on waiting for us to adjust on our own," Xia Xianze said.

"Of Course. Either you involve yourself in everything, or you let go completely. Crossing over every few days to dispense some grand guidance... what would that even be? The only thing I can do now is support your decisions. I won't meddle in specific affairs." Cao Chuan nodded, giving a direct answer.

"Heh." Xia Xianze smiled faintly. "It seems your original intent hasn't changed. I remember everything you said back in the rear garden."

"This is quite good as it is. The current situation is even better than what I originally envisioned. I never imagined everyone could push a thousand li into the wilderness and open up the wilds. That's very cool — they're really impressive!"

"Mm. Since you remain optimistic, then we must proceed to the next step: remove this 'Company' label and change the name." Xia Xianze halted his steps, standing in the middle of Shang Hall's drill ground, facing Cao Chuan directly as he spoke.

"Heh heh, I'm a fence-sitter — I support whoever's on stage. Don't come crying to me if someone brings you down!" Cao Chuan replied teasingly.

Xia Xianze shook his head with a wry smile. "Cao Zong still loves his jokes as much as ever."