Chapter 3641: Craftsmanship Spirit

The White House spokesperson at this time was not only very relaxed in her heart, but also very pleased.

Because she knew very well in her heart that, through her series of efforts just now, the possible negative impact of this matter had been reduced to the minimum.

To have prepared for crisis public relations in such a short time and to have secured such a favorable situation was enough to be written into the classic cases of White House crisis public relations.

All of this was thanks to her fearlessness in the face of danger, her quick reaction, and her correct thinking.

She believed that after this matter passed today, her presence in this White House administration would also reach a new peak.

Thus, with the last ten seconds remaining before the scheduled press conference time, she walked confidently into the press hall with a smile on her face.

The venue was instantly lit up like daytime by various flashlights, the shutter sounds crackling nonstop; facing countless flashes, the spokesperson showed no discomfort or tension, but walked all the way to the podium with a smile and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for waiting. Before today's press conference begins, I would like to apologize to everyone first, because today's press conference will be delayed by twenty minutes from the originally scheduled time."

The venue immediately erupted in an uproar, as everyone had been waiting for the White House to give a global explanation of what happened in Antarctica, and had thought they would hold a press conference so quickly that they could break this big news right away, but they never expected that, just as the press conference was about to start, it would suddenly be postponed again.

The spokesperson then said: "The reason for delaying the start of the press conference is that, in ten minutes, Japan will hold an emergency press conference in their country before our press conference begins, so if you want to know about the Antarctic matter, please wait for Japan's press conference to finish first; our venue's big screen will broadcast it live, so please don't worry— in ten minutes, I will watch this press conference together with everyone."

The venue immediately erupted in an uproar, as they had received no notice that Japan would hold a press conference; this was mainly because the Japanese side also knew that such a blame-shifting matter was really not something to show face for, so, as requested, they hastily held a press conference, hoping the fewer people who came the better, ideally not a single reporter would come, just having themselves face the camera to explain the matter and then quickly end it, so as to avoid the worrying Q&A session; if someone happened to ask a face-slapping question, answering it would also be very awkward.

Because the other party in this matter was none other than the Japanese Antarctic research team members, everyone also wanted to know how the Japanese government would express its position on this matter.

Thus, everyone waited patiently for the Japanese press conference to begin.

Ten minutes passed quickly.

The big screen at the venue switched to the live feed of the Japanese press conference.

Interestingly, this time Japan did not notify any media to attend; the entire press hall had only one person, namely their spokesperson.

This person had a somewhat embarrassed expression; before going on stage, he pushed up his glasses, took a deep breath, and then walked onto the stage.

After stepping onto the stage, he spoke in Japanese: "First, please allow me, on behalf of Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, to apologize to people worldwide, because our matter has caused trouble and confusion for people around the world, and I am truly sorry."

After saying that, he walked away from the podium and deeply bowed toward the camera.

It must be said that their craftsmanship spirit is indeed extraordinary— this person bowed so low that his head was almost level with his knees.

Only after countless seconds did he stand up, push up his glasses again, return to the podium, and speak very solemnly: "First, I need to inform everyone simultaneously of one matter: that the Japanese Antarctic research team members have, in recent times, allegedly collectively committed treason."

Since there was no audience at the venue of the Japanese press conference, his remarks elicited no on-site reaction; however, at the White House press conference, all the media reporters present could not help but exclaim in surprise.

The Japanese spokesperson continued: "Regarding the alleged treason, I will first give an explanation, because while foreign citizens may not be aware of this, domestic citizens should still have an impression: that is, during the recent period, our icebreaker encountered a malfunction while transporting a new batch of research team members to Antarctica, causing the icebreaker to be unable to return, leaving both the old and new batches of research team members stranded in Antarctica; at that time, we reported this matter domestically, and fortunately, our Antarctic research team had sufficient supplies to sustain them through this winter; after that, we have continued to monitor their situation, contacting them daily to ask if they encountered any problems or difficulties there, and their replies were always that everything was fine."

Continuing, the Japanese spokesperson said: "During this period, our backend showed that almost all large polar vehicles and equipment had not been activated at all; these devices were being stored according to the original plan, waiting for winter to pass, but what we did not expect was that, two days ago, we suddenly received a fuel signal from the icebreaker, indicating that our icebreaker had suddenly consumed a large amount of fuel; this signal soon returned to normal, but after our experts' assessment, we determined that this signal was likely not a mistaken touch, yet a strange thing is that the backend showed that all our vehicles and equipment had not been used, so we requested the U. S. military's assistance in investigation; after investigation, we found that all our heavy vehicles were conducting exploration on the Antarctic continent, even our helicopters were continuously surveying the Antarctic continent, but these actions were not authorized by us; based on these individuals, the unauthorized, illegal, and non-compliant use of state-owned machinery, equipment, and fuel consumables gives us reason to believe they have already committed actual treason; however, because we lack the technical capability to deploy forces to Antarctica in winter, we have requested the United States to send troops to help."

After finishing these remarks, the spokesperson once again walked away from the podium and displayed his craftsmanship spirit again by deeply bowing toward the camera.

Subsequently, he returned to the podium again and continued: "The U. S. military, responding to our request, dispatched troops to arrest our suspected treasonous research team members; during this process, we also authorized them to interrogate these research team members, and we did not expect that a person in charge of our research team would admit to treason but refuse to disclose the true purpose of his treasonous Antarctic research; out of responsibility to Antarctica and to the world, we earnestly request the U. S. military personnel on site to subject these research team members to a certain degree of torture to extract confessions, namely the clips seen in the videos; here, I, on behalf of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, apologize to all Japanese citizens and people worldwide for all the research team members and their families; although our intentions were good, our actions were indeed highly inappropriate, causing harm to the individuals involved and distress to the general public; from now on, we will resolutely prevent such incidents from happening again."

Subsequently, he walked away from the podium for the third time, once again displaying his craftsmanship spirit; thus, art has been perfected.