Li Runshi’s car stopped in front of the office building. The secretary opened the door, but seeing that Li had no intention of getting out, he asked cautiously, "Chairman, is there somewhere else you need to go?"

Li Runshi shook his head, finally breaking his train of thought. He had intended to step out, but in the end, he said, "To see Premier Wu."

When Wu Youping saw Li Runshi enter, he smiled immediately. "Chairman Li, have you seen the statistical reports?"

Li Runshi nodded slightly. The State Council's data was encouraging. Since the start of the war, actual military expenditures had never exceeded national tax revenue. As a result, the war bonds that had been planned remained solely on paper.

This fact gave Li a starting point for their conversation. "Premier, do you believe that everything has meaning?"

Wu Youping was slightly surprised, and his expression quickly turned serious. "I’ve heard the rumors too—some are saying that 'a single word from the Chairman is worth ten thousand words.'"

Li Runshi had heard this as well. Some comrades who had clearly failed to gain influence were now resorting to a cult of personality, fervently extolling He Rui. In Li’s view, these people were of low caliber, which was why they spoke such nonsense. Apparently, they hoped to win He Rui's favor through this idolization.

It was an incredibly foolish approach.

"The Chairman recently discussed the future lifestyle with me. It was only after personally seeing the budget allocations that I became certain: the era where everyone can receive twelve years of education has truly arrived. Twenty years ago, I also envisioned such an era, but after a few quick calculations, I immediately abandoned the thought. Now that the national budget can finally sustain such expenditures, it feels somewhat surreal," Wu Youping remarked nostalgically.

Li Runshi felt a deep sense of resonance. "Thus, the 'meaning' those people believe in doesn't actually exist. However, the lifestyle itself requires a higher level of meaning. If we look at it through the Chairman's 'Hierarchy of Needs,' he is, in fact, not a normal human being."

Wu Youping saw Li’s predicament and couldn't help but smile bitterly. "That is why propaganda is an offensive field. It’s either the East Wind prevailing over the West Wind, or vice versa. The true reasons behind it often cannot be explained openly. Chairman Li, this burden will have to be carried by you."

Li Runshi hadn't expected Wu Youping to act as if he were washing his hands of the matter again, and he felt the pressure mount. Wu Youping was He Rui’s close comrade-in-arms, who had created the present-day China alongside him. In the eyes of ordinary people, China had returned to the pinnacle of the world, and Li Runshi was inheriting an incomparably wealthy family estate.

Yet He Rui, Wu Youping, and Li Runshi all knew very well that the path China was about to take was not one of sitting idle on a mountain of gold. They had to keep moving forward, onto a road they had never traveled before...

"Winning the land is easy; holding it is hard. As for continuing the journey, that is harder still. Chairman Li, whether now or in the future, if you need me for anything, just say the word. I will support you." Wu Youping’s tone carried a heartfelt sympathy.

Wu Youping had long felt that having seen the China of today, he could die without regrets. Thus, he felt a profound pity for Li Runshi. For Li, the hardest part was that the price China had paid for its success thus far was so low that only a tiny minority could understand that this was abnormal—even unreasonable.

Human beings naturally assume that what exists is meant to be, no matter how irrational that existence might be.

Wu Youping advised, "A few days ago, I went home and spoke with my children. I realized that to these little ones, a peaceful life, sufficient food, and clean water are all taken for granted. All they have to do is go to school on time, get their vaccinations on time, and take their deworming medicine on time. In short, as long as they follow the system set by their superiors, a peaceful, prosperous, and happy life is guaranteed. Heh..."

Li Runshi heard the sympathy in Wu’s voice and felt truly grateful, as he had noticed very similar views in his own children. The perspective of today's youth was entirely different from when Li was young. When they first began to understand the world in 1924, China had just concluded the Sino-Japanese War and the Unification War that decided the order in Asia. China truly possessed the strength of a first-rate power in Asia and one of the few in the world.

When telling children about the humiliations China had once suffered, their reaction was anger, not despair. To them, China had simply suffered from a serious illness called "the Manchu Qing." Once that illness was cured, a healthy China could naturally continue to be the world's strongest.

Three years later, in 1927, the Sino-British War ended. This made the children believe that China could defeat any opponent, whether it was the world hegemon Britain or poverty itself.

If there was no clean water, they built waterworks. If there wasn't enough water for the fields, they built irrigation projects. If there were no warships, they built shipyards.

...If they were scolded by their parents for poor grades, they would reluctantly "look for problems" within themselves.

The children did indeed feel a lot of pressure and hardship while growing up, but they never knew the meaning of despair. Precisely because they did not know what despair was, the young people charging across the battlefields today were filled with confidence and passion.

When China faced technical problems in industrial development, He Rui cooperated with France and bought all of France’s science and technology back home. When the country needed industrial support, He Rui invited global investment, allowing foreign firms to make money in China and thereby completing the industrial supply chains.

Even when China faced immense economic crisis pressure after 1938, the children never felt despair. Because at that time, He Rui introduced the two-day weekend model and strengthened universal education and adult re-education.

During the economic crisis, Chinese adults believed that even if they made less money, life from 1938 to 1941 was far better than the precarious days of 1924.

The youth fully accepted the explanation He Rui offered: "The problems encountered in China's development must be solved through continued development. Science and culture are the primary productive forces."

He Rui gave the people a method and a meaning, and the people truly believed in that explanation. But the central leadership knew that during those three or four years of pushing cultural education with all their might, the Chinese economy had encountered problems that were almost unsolvable. He Rui’s solution was to "smash the old world and build a new one."

Feeling the immense pressure, Li Runshi sighed. "The Chairman never lies; he merely speaks to different audiences in terms they can understand. I admire that greatly."

Wu Youping saw that Li Runshi had truly entered the state of mind of a supreme leader and felt much more at ease. He switched to a lighter topic. "Not long ago, I met that grandson of Master Zhang who is in the shipping industry. His son is only ten. The little fellow asked me a question. There’s a card game now called *Azur Lane*. He couldn't understand why we couldn't treat the warships the Americans helped us build after World War I as our own warships from that era. Hahaha..."

By the end, Wu Youping couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Li Runshi couldn't help but smile as well. He could understand why Wu was laughing. The children of today truly couldn't understand why, if China’s aircraft carriers were launched in 1940, the few destroyers "built" by China in 1919—twenty-one years earlier—couldn't be considered ship types designed and produced by China itself.

In their minds, the Chinese warships of 1919 should have a natural lineage with those of 1940.

It wasn't just ten-year-olds who didn't understand that a historical gap had truly occurred; most young people in the country weren't very clear on it either. They simply happened to be born in New China, and thus naturally possessed peace, health, food, and a bright future.

This was the achievement of He Rui’s generation of leaders—a greatness that even the Chinese people who lived through it could not fully grasp at their current political level.

Li Runshi sighed, "Its rise was sudden, and its fall may be just as swift!"

If the people remained as they were, then the result of "holding onto the boat to find the sword" would inevitably occur.

Wu Youping nodded heavily; he shared the same feeling. If the future youth of China could not understand this achievement and eventually formed a rigid, reactionary mode of thinking, they would naturally believe that as long as a few exceptional figures appeared and fought a few battles with foreign powers, all of China's problems could be solved. That would be disastrous.

"Chairman Li, the Chairman has an idea. He intends to change the national name and the National Day. He wants to mark October 1, 1924, as the day New China was founded. Only by completely breaking with the old era in these most fundamental aspects can we establish the legitimacy of a People’s View of History. If we continue with the 'Republic of China,' someone will inevitably try to shape Sun Yat-sen and Yuan Shikai as 'Founding Fathers.' What do you think?"

Hearing Wu Youping’s words, Li Runshi was overjoyed. He knew this would not be Wu’s idea alone; it must be He Rui’s decision.

Feeling a sense of liberation as if chains had been broken, Li Runshi felt a strong respect for He Rui’s restraint. The reason He Rui hadn't done this in 1924 was that it would have caused a massive internal split and wasted time for China’s development.

The strategic window He Rui created was too short. If they couldn't have finished unification at top speed then, the China of 1926 wouldn't have possessed the strength to go to war with Britain. And if they hadn't defeated Britain, France would never have accepted the proposal for full cooperation.

"This must be proposed by the Chairman himself," Li Runshi quickly judged.

Wu Youping nodded heavily. "Since you agree, let’s begin the process."

In Li Runshi’s previous thoughts, how to make a clean break with the old era was one of the hardest tasks. Some remnants of the old era, in order to gain legitimacy, had colluded with certain capitalists to launch an offensive in the press. Li Runshi had dealt quite harshly with such propaganda.

In a famous closure case, the *Christian Times* in Shanghai was shut down for serializing a novel. The novel followed the traditional pattern of "emperors and generals," telling a story like this:

He Rui had been a chosen official of the Manchu Qing since he was ten, receiving focused cultivation from both the Qing and the Republic. Qing ministers like Cixi, Yuan Shikai, Zhang Xiluan, and Duan Qirui all thought highly of him and supported him with all their might. He Rui did not fail the trust of these great men and eventually reached the pinnacle of power, realizing their ideals.

Li Runshi had immediately ordered the closure of a batch of newspapers and launched a crackdown on stories of this type. For this, he was once privately called the "Lai Junchen of the current age" by literati, and the nickname "Wu Song" for Wu Youping became popular for a time.

But once the bill to change the national name and National Day was passed, New China would possess complete legal and historical legitimacy. Since the Civilization Party was a party of the People's Democratic Dictatorship, He Rui was simply a revolutionary born in the Qing era and living in the Republican era. The New China he founded was a people's regime from start to finish, and all "old eras" were merely objects of his struggle.

From experience, Li Runshi knew that once the new legal and historical legitimacy was formed, He Rui’s "United Front" would be maliciously attacked as "how to most effectively use others." But he firmly believed that He Rui would not care about such misunderstandings. He Rui’s life was dedicated to serving the Chinese people and the working people of the world. Kings, nobles, and generals were never his fellow travelers.

Recovering from his joy, Li Runshi quickly sorted out several main threads and felt that the possibility of success was nearly 100%. With the prestige gained from winning World War II, the backlash from breaking with the old era would be negligible. Most Chinese people not only wouldn't oppose such a break, they would welcome it.

Having fundamentally resolved the issue of the political line, Li Runshi finally relaxed. He suddenly remembered the original reason he had sought out Wu Youping and said, "Premier, I was originally distressed about what kind of new lifestyle to provide. Now I feel the future is bright. In this relaxed atmosphere, I’d like to ask the Premier for his views on functional gains versus capital gains."

Wu Youping hadn't been in a hurry to tell Li Runshi about this, but seeing him so distressed, he couldn't bear it and informed him early. Seeing Li had regained his spark, he was very happy and spoke more lightheartedly.

"The aristocrats of France and England, following their historical status and mission, were to write works attacking modern bourgeois society. In the July Revolution of 1830 in France and the Reform movement in England, they were once again defeated by the hateful parvenu. From then on, there was no more talk of serious political struggle.

"All they could still engage in was a literary struggle. However, even in the literary field, it was impossible to harp on the old tune of the Restoration period. To arouse sympathy, the nobles had to pretend they no longer cared for their own interests and were writing indictments against the bourgeoisie solely for the sake of the exploited working class. The means they used to vent their anger was to sing songs cursing their new rulers and mutter to him some more or less sinister prophecies.

"Thus arose Feudal Socialism—half elegy, half lampoon; half echo of the past, half menace of the future; at times, by its bitter, witty, and incisive criticism, striking the bourgeoisie to the very heart's core, but always ludicrous in its effect, through total incapacity to comprehend the march of modern history.

"In order to rally the people to them, the aristocrats waved the proletarian alms-bag as their banner. But no sooner did the people follow them than they beheld on their hindquarters the old feudal coats of arms, and deserted with loud and irreverent laughter.

"A section of the French Legitimists and 'Young England' played this part."

Hearing Wu Youping fluently recite the *Communist Manifesto* from memory, Li Runshi nodded, feeling that after China’s full entry into industrialization, it had indeed reached this era.

Wu Youping continued, "The Weihua Company—many say it’s a good company, and more who have some economic knowledge say it’s a bad one. In my view, Weihua is a company composed of 'techies' whose corporate direction is to realize their dreams.

"This company is not listed; it does not serve investors. it only serves the outstanding 'techies' gathered together. They are undoubtedly the typical representatives of dual gains—both functional and capital.

"Does Chairman Li think such a company is good or bad? I believe that in different economic environments, one's view would change greatly. That is all."