Reborn in 1993, Dark Sea

"What exactly is missing? Tell me quickly, stop beating around the bush!" Mai Xiaoyu said fiercely.

"Thoughts, things that change people's thoughts, phew..." An Xiaohai let out a long breath: "People change from the inside out, and the effect of internal driving force is far greater than that of external driving force."

If a person is inherently positive and optimistic, they are likely to maintain an optimistic and positive attitude regardless of whether they are in favorable or unfavorable circumstances.

When disaster strikes, there are many people like this who don't complain but actively try to save themselves. This is very detrimental to An Cheol-ho's plan.

There is another type of person who is inherently negative and pessimistic. No matter how good their life is, they can always find something to be dissatisfied with and find all sorts of reasons to complain.

An Cheol-ho and the Abyss Organization prefer this type of person.

Besides these two groups, there are also the majority of ordinary people.

Ordinary people, plain and simple, are neither optimistic nor pessimistic, nor particularly proactive, but they don't always complain either. They are just ordinary people who are content as long as they can get by.

The Chinese people are the kindest and most docile people in the world. As long as they have even the slightest hope, they will not rise up in rebellion.

Although they were all ordinary people, the seeds of patriotism were forever buried in their hearts. When the country was in danger and the nation was in peril, these seeds would quickly take root and sprout. Millions of ordinary people united together to form the Chinese nation.

In such a culturally charged environment, it would be extremely difficult for Ahn Cheol-ho to achieve anything!

He must find a way to change this situation, but changing people's worldview and cognition is extremely difficult. To achieve this goal, he must start from the root cause, and the fastest way is through education and propaganda.

This is what's missing from Ahn Cheol-ho's overall plan, the part we haven't discovered yet. To accomplish something like this requires a long period of effort and a great deal of time.

Sometimes I wonder, did he leave us in this world just to buy him time?

He created us, drew your attention to us, and continuously drained your energy and resources.

But what about him? He has already severed all clues and connections. You cannot find him through us, but he can find us at any time and observe your movements through us.

If they find something unusable, they turn away; if they feel we have some value, they make use of it.

When you get close to him and he feels threatened, he can use us to divert your attention. We are his tools from beginning to end, utter tools!

Looking at An Xiaohai, whose eyes were slightly red, Mai Xiaoyu's gaze became extremely complicated.

"Okay, let's not talk about that anymore. Let's go back to the six companies listed."

First, let's talk about Jinling Media Co., Ltd.

Jinling Media operates several magazines. I bought and read all of them. The content doesn't seem outrageous, but they all promote the free and happy life of the West, both overtly and covertly. These magazines mainly cover the provinces of Haidong and Haixi.

Secondly, there's Future Education Group, which provides foreign language training and has a very wide coverage in Haidong and Haixi provinces, with several branch offices also established.

I was chatting with Xuan'er before, and she mentioned this Future Education Group to me. They sometimes go to university campuses to do promotions.

Xuan'er went to listen a few times, but after coming back, she always felt something was off. Those teachers kept saying how backward we were and how advanced the West was, and that only the West had true democracy and freedom.

Although they spoke of these things in a very veiled way, Xuan'er still felt very uncomfortable after hearing them, and she did not attend any of the subsequent activities.

Then there's Nansheng Technology. This company is nominally a technology company, and it doesn't seem to have anything to do with industries like education, culture, and media. However, they operate two large local online forums.

I've visited both forums. Many posts seem fine at first glance, but upon closer inspection, they contain a lot of misleading information.

Their most common tactic is to guide netizens to question and reflect. They question our leaders, our heroes, and all the achievements we have made.

This is dangerous!

This is a test, a constant probing of our bottom line. Once they feel the time is right, the next thing they'll do is stop questioning and start smearing us.

Their aim in doing this is to undermine our faith;

Although Haixi Pharmaceutical is a pharmaceutical company, it also frequently organizes international exhibitions and exchange meetings, and has sponsored many experts and scholars to go abroad for exchanges.

I remember Director Xu once explained to me in detail how typical espionage activities are carried out, and Haixi Pharmaceutical's actions perfectly matched Director Xu's description.

An Xiaohai paused here, pacing back and forth in the room with a slight frown.

"What about Wanli Winery? What's suspicious about them?" Mai Xiaoyu asked after a long pause.

"Wanli Winery owns many tobacco and liquor stores, which are located throughout the Haidong and Haixi provinces. They have exclusive stores in almost every city and even every town."

These stores are all operated by themselves, none of them are franchises, but they do not use a unified signboard, each has a different name, and on the surface, there is no apparent connection between them.

Tobacco and liquor stores are a very strange place. Section Chief Yang owns one. These tobacco and liquor stores would generally find it difficult to survive on normal business alone, let alone make a lot of money. However, they are very easy to get involved in corruption.

Wanli Winery's tobacco and liquor stores, spread across two provinces, act like tentacles. They can keenly sense information from the officialdom in both provinces and can directly participate in the process of corruption, thus gaining access to a wealth of firsthand information.

At crucial moments, they can even use this information to blackmail corrupt officials and bind them to their cause.

This information can also be used to screen out officials who are worth focusing on corrupting and exploiting.

At the same time, the cash flow of tobacco and liquor stores can be extremely alarming, making them an ideal business for money laundering.

"And what about Starry Sky International Investment Co., Ltd.? What have they been doing?"

"They did everything mentioned above!" An Xiaohai gritted his teeth: "Starry Sky International Investment Co., Ltd. is connected to all five companies mentioned above, both directly and indirectly."

In short, its shadow is behind many suspicious companies; it lurks elusive behind them, giving me a very familiar feeling!

An Xiaohai paused here, sat back on the sofa, and began to think as usual.

After frowning and thinking for a while, Mai Xiaoyu suddenly got up and rushed into An Xiaohai's room, took out a few magazines, and then rushed back to her own room.

As darkness fell, Mai Xiaoyu hadn't come out of her room since returning. Zhou Xun had cooked dinner, but when she went to call Mai Xiaoyu out for dinner, she found that Mai Xiaoyu was no longer in her room. Neither of them knew when she had left.

When it comes to Zhou Xun's cooking skills, An Xiaohai can accurately describe them in just two words: delicious.

After dinner, while Zhou Xun was clearing away the dishes, An Xiaohai finally met the person he had been waiting for.

On the path downstairs, Han Shasha slowly walked past with a large suitcase towards her residence. If her habits hadn't changed, she would probably go out to shop in half an hour to an hour.

An Xiaohai gave Zhou Xun a wink and went back to his room to change into a set of seemingly ordinary clothes.

Zhou Xun frowned deeply as she watched.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with this outfit?"

"Well, to be honest, there's a big problem! I think your previous outfit was much better than your current one. Before, you looked like a boss, but now you look more like an ordinary person."

"Great, that's perfect."

"Is this more perfect? ​​Isn't it said that when dating a girl, you should try to leave a good impression?"

"That's true, but the impression shouldn't be too good."

"Why is that? Is there any special reason behind it?"

"Of course there's a reason behind it, would you like to hear it?"

"I want to..." Zhou Xun scratched her head and said somewhat shyly.

Were you a very good student when you were a child?

"Not bad, I can generally stay in the top 10 of my grade."

"Do you often get beaten up?"

"Yeah, how did you know? If I do even slightly badly on a test, my dad will definitely beat me, but does that have anything to do with you changing clothes?"

"Of course it's related. Think about it carefully. What kind of treatment would those poor students in your class receive if they passed?"

"Their parents would reward them handsomely. I remember one guy who was like that. He often failed his tests, but then one time he got a 70 on the final exam, and his parents rewarded him with two dollars. We were all so envious!"

"That's right," An Xiaohai smiled slightly, "If you want to get along with someone for a long time, it's best not to appear in the most perfect form from the beginning."

The most perfect posture is a perfect score; this is a psychological anchor.

If the other person gives you a perfect score from the start, you have to maintain that perfect score in the days to come. Even losing just one point will damage their impression of you.

More importantly, you've already reached a perfect score, and it's difficult to make a breakthrough in the short term. If this state continues for a little longer, the other person will gradually get used to it, and there will be nothing new to it.

A perfect initial impression means that from that point on, you're on a downward spiral, and the other person will gradually discover all your flaws.

However, if the initial impression is not perfect, as you get to know each other better, the other person will discover more and more of your strengths and be pleasantly surprised.

Of course, this balance must be struck carefully. You can't start off below the other party's passing grade. If you don't reach the other party's passing grade from the beginning, then there's no point in continuing.

Remember, if you want to maintain a long-term relationship, don't try to be too perfect at the beginning; it will be exhausting.

"Wow, that's amazing! That makes so much sense!" Zhou Xun gave An Xiaohai a thumbs up, then turned and walked towards her room.

"What are you going to do?"

"Change your clothes! I want to learn from you and show up with a presentable appearance!"

"You don't need to. Your task is to help me arouse the other party's interest. The greater the contrast between you and me, the more interested you will be in Han Shasha."

"What's the underlying principle?"

"The principle is very simple. Think about it carefully. Is it more impressive for Captain Zhou to appear with his bodyguard, or for an ordinary-looking person to appear with Captain Zhou, who acts like a bodyguard?"

Zhou Xun was stunned!

"President Chen, you're really shrewd! I'm impressed! But I'll definitely have to discuss your theory with Captain Zhou later."

"..."