Chapter 970: Voting |
"Since you've said so, Mai Yuqiang, we will respect your choice and refocus our attention on Bai Liang... Fortunately, Bao has always been under the surveillance of our Morio Town Protection Association, so if something happens to him, we should be able to catch wind of it. However, with Leopard, we might have to let things go," Dio said somewhat helplessly.
Mai Yuqiang could certainly sense the undertone in Dio's words, so he smiled and said, "Don't worry, Dio. We all fully support you running for the position of the actual power president of the Morio Town Protection Association. However, I think you might be somewhat blinded by the situation. Although the Morio Town Protection Association does indeed need a president with real authority to lead everyone in confronting the aggressive Swollen Woman, this position can be replaced by a parliament."
Meanwhile, Bai Xing raised his eyebrows in surprise and said, "Oh, I didn't expect you, Mai Yuqiang, to think of that."
"Hey, hey, hey, Big Brother Bai, who are you looking down on? I, Mai Yuqiang, am both intelligent and brave, not only physically strong but also smarter," Mai Yuqiang said irritably.
Bai Xing nodded and said to Dio, "Dio, you really shouldn't think too much about it right now, because I can be straightforward with you. It's basically impossible for the Morio Town Protection Association to truly elect a president with real authority. I'm sure you can guess the reason—simply put, no one can handle this position properly. So, I'm planning to discuss with others about forming a ten-person parliament within the Morio Town Protection Association, where each team can send one person to share the president's authority."
"I don't think it will work," Dio shook his head and said, "This ten-person parliament sounds good in theory, but in practice, it would be completely useless. Power would still be dispersed among the various teams, and everyone would still prioritize their own interests. As a result, the ten-person parliament wouldn't be able to come to any meaningful conclusions."
Liu Xing nodded, strongly agreeing with Dio's viewpoint. The role of the ten-person parliament wasn't as significant as imagined. Essentially, the ten-person parliament would merely gather the leaders of the ten factions within the Morio Town Protection Association for meetings, granting these faction leaders a certain level of authority and bringing the issue of profit distribution to the forefront for discussion.
On the surface, it seemed not bad—at least there would be communication among everyone. However, in reality, nothing would change, because the leaders of those ten factions wouldn't undergo any ideological transformation just by becoming members of the ten-person parliament. They would still prioritize the interests of their own factions.
Therefore, Liu Xing thought that Bai Xing and Mai Yuqiang's idea was good but ultimately too idealistic.
"I see, so you intend to use the ten-person parliament to dismantle the factionalism within the Morio Town Protection Association?" Dio said, looking surprised.
"That's right. Currently, the factionalism within the Morio Town Protection Association is very severe. This has led to everyone, upon identifying suspicious targets, no longer reporting to the association immediately but rather handling them individually. If they encounter average-level assassins or undercover agents, it's manageable. However, if they come across boss-level killers like Bao, after Liu Fei and his team are out, other faction members can't handle it on their own."
"Furthermore, according to data from the past month, several factions have already clashed over targets. Although these have only been minor skirmishes, shoving, and verbal confrontations, with everyone maintaining a high level of restraint, it's not a good sign. If a full-blown fight breaks out, the Morio Town Protection Association might collapse. Therefore, I, along with Liu Fei and representatives from several other factions, discussed the matter and reached a consensus: we need to resolve the factionalism issue as soon as possible."
"Finally, we came up with an idea: during the re-election of the ten-person parliament, our ten first-generation members will announce that they will never participate in future ten-person parliament elections. This way, when the most influential person from each faction steps down, the members within each faction will feel they might have a chance. After all, our factions are already very loosely structured, without any substantial second or third-in-command positions. As a result, the factions will gradually disintegrate."
Upon hearing this, Liu Xing couldn't help but ask, "Then, the ten new parliament members who are elected, won't they form new factions with those who voted for them? Just like in the United States of America or England, where elected officials advocate for the interests of their constituents who voted for them."
Bai Xing smiled again, placing his hand on the table, and said, "That's even easier. We will implement a truly anonymous election, as we have already prepared the process. After announcing the start of the election, all members of the Morio Town Protection Association will return to their own homes. Then, everyone will use a mobile phone app with remote conferencing capabilities to ensure they are all at home and not going around to connect with others."
"Next, each candidate will deliver their campaign speech, then everyone will mark a box in front of a candidate's code on the pre-prepared ballots. Finally, their pigeons (messengers) will deliver the ballots back to the election committee, which consists of our first ten-person parliament members. After counting the votes, a new ten-person parliament will be elected. We estimate that the second ten-person parliament can be completed within just an hour."
"Interesting. In this way, no one would know who voted for whom. Moreover, even if someone tries to cozy up to you afterwards, claiming they voted for you, you'd have to carefully consider the nature of your relationship with that person and whether they might only vote for you." Mai Yuqiang looked at Dio and said, "Mr. Dio, now you know what to do, right?"
Dio looked at Mai Yuqiang helplessly, sticking out his middle finger and said, "Mai Yuqiang, don't even think about it. I won't give you my treasure that I've cherished for decades!"
Mai Yuqiang shrugged and patted Wang Haiyang on the shoulder, saying, "Then I can only vote for Wang Haiyang."
"Deal," Dio said weakly, "Mai Yuqiang, go to my house later to take the stuff, but before you leave Morio Town, you must return them to me because they can't withstand any more wear and tear. Following you around would only result in their ruin, not to mention you planning to go off to your death."
Mai Yuqiang and Wang Haiyang gave each other a high-five and laughed, saying, "Don't worry. When I leave Morio Town, I will only take some personal belongings. I will leave everything else and the house to you because I know very well that this is asking for trouble, so those things are trivial to me."
Seeing Liu Xing and the others looking somewhat bewildered, Dio began to explain, "When I was in England, I had only one hobby, which was collecting records, tapes, and even vinyls released by popular stars. So I have a complete set of The Beatles' works, and they are all first editions. As a result, when this kid Mai Yuqiang found out about it, he became interested."
Liu Xing couldn't help but look at Mai Yuqiang, not expecting him to actually be interested in this.
But come to think of it, when Dio was in England, wasn't he always hiding in the Rose Cemetery? How did he get those items?
After discussing the ten-person parliament, although Dio felt somewhat heartbroken, overall he was very satisfied because he had confirmed that he could obtain three votes from Mai Yuqiang and others.
Although these three votes seemed few, they could already ensure that Dio could enter the ten-person parliament. According to Bai Xing's estimation, the number of candidates might be around thirty or forty, so on average, each person could get about one and a half to two votes, not to mention Dio's friends might also vote for Dio.
So as long as nothing unexpected happened, Dio's position was secure.
"Alright, let's get to the real topic—how to track Bai Liang." Mai Yuqiang said seriously, "Undoubtedly, Bai Liang is a very cautious and highly self-controlled opponent. For so many years, he hasn't shown a single flaw, so it's not easy to find any leverage against him. The most important thing is that tracking him is quite troublesome because the road he takes to and from work doesn't have much traffic. If we drive to follow him, it's easy to be noticed, so I have always been placing surveillance cameras along the route to see if Bai Liang has any suspicious movements."
"Although still nothing has been found, I can determine that Bai Liang usually travels between the city and his neighborhood within half a minute of error, but sometimes he extends the error to about a minute. While this doesn't rule out that Bai Liang might have been delayed by other vehicles while driving, and the cameras still haven't captured any useful footage, I still suspect that Bai Liang might be doing something during that half-minute window. Unfortunately, no matter how I change the surveillance intervals, the results remain the same. So, I plan to have you, Liu Xing, and others buy a house in that neighborhood."
Liu Xing raised his eyebrows, not expecting Mai Yuqiang to be willing to invest capital to buy a high-end house in order to track Bai Liang.
Although Morio Town is still quite far from Nagoya's city center, it's still within the Nagoya metropolitan area, so the high-end houses in Morio Town aren't cheap.
Then Mai Yuqiang's face suddenly became embarrassed, saying, "Um, recently, there have been quite a few AKB48 general elections, so I've spent a lot on voting. Therefore, you guys will need to advance the money for buying the house. I'll make sure to repay you later."
Liu Xing and the others looked at Mai Yuqiang in disbelief, not expecting him to be such an idol enthusiast and to have spent a lot of money.
"I didn't expect that, Mai Yuqiang. Weren't you always boasting to me that you only listen to old-school singers and bands because their music is real? You despise the current pop singers. How did you end up liking AKB48? You know they're recognized as one of the top acts in the Island Nation's music scene," Dio taunted.
But Mai Yuqiang's face didn't turn red; he calmly and seriously said, "What's wrong with liking cute girls?"
Everyone present couldn't refute that, especially Liu Xing.
Because Liu Xing is also an AKB48 fan, but the members in the real world and parallel world are completely different, so "Liu Xing" isn't an AKB48 fan.
But coming back to it, after Mai Yuqiang's mention, Liu Xing remembered that the real-world AKB48 is also about to hold their general elections. After the Public-Military Conflict ends, he should be able to return to the real world in time. Should he use his points to exchange for some money to vote?
Anyway, Liu Xing has saved up a lot of points, and these points aren't useful to him right now, so exchanging a thousand points should be fine, right?
Liu Xing made up his mind.
After teasing Mai Yuqiang, Liu Xing made a phone call to Zhang Jingxu and others to get some money, then Dio contacted one of his broker friends to buy a house in Bai Liang's neighborhood. The house was right next to Bai Liang's home, less than fifty meters away in a straight line.
It must be said that Liu Xing didn't expect that Dio had become a "social butterfly." He had friends everywhere in Morio Town.
Liu Xing hadn't forgotten that the old Dio, although not exactly reclusive, had very poor interpersonal relationships, with barely a handful of friends.
It seems that after becoming a Ghoul, his personality changed somewhat, given the many experiences he had over the decades.
After buying the house, Mai Yuqiang contributed his car.
Although Mai Yuqiang bought a car, due to exercising and the size of Morio Town, he hardly used it throughout the year, not even getting a license plate, since Morio Town is the territory of the Morio Town Protection Association.
"Later, I'll have someone repaint the car and put on fake license plates. Then you can use it to track Bai Liang," Mai Yuqiang said seriously, "But you still need to be careful because Bai Liang is too cautious. Of course, don't worry too much. If something happens, we'll arrive at the scene within a minute."
Liu Xing always felt that Mai Yuqiang was setting a flag.
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Chapter 971: Special Treatment