Chapter 362 - 364: On-Stage Debate

Chapter 362: Chapter 364: On-Stage Debate

A red-haired girl was hunched over her desk, writing her thoughts in a thick notebook with a fountain pen.

Lilika’s Diary:

October 28th. A day and a half until my birthday. I’m excited for this year’s presents.

I went to the supermarket today and noticed the prices for food and daily necessities have gone up. It feels like my money is never enough.

I wandered around the supermarket for ages, unable to bring myself to splurge on a slice of cake. The absurd thing is, by the time I finally decided to go back for it, the last few slices were already gone.

The economic crisis is getting worse and worse, and there’s inflation everywhere. ’Yeah, I think that’s the word.’

It’s so hard on poor people like me.

It’s like a lot of people think their money is about to become worthless, so they’re spending it like crazy. This damn situation... I wonder if a war is actually going to break out.

My friend Little Locke says several major countries are drafting soldiers and churning out weapons non-stop. I don’t know if I can believe him, but it all feels a bit like the Cold War.

A lot of my classmates say the current administration is the dumbest one in history, but I wonder, ’Could the dumbest person really get that far?’ It’s not like it’s an ancient hereditary system anymore.

I’m getting hungry, but we don’t have any snacks in the house. Can I even make it to next month? Three days is such a long time!

Sigh...

I can’t buy twenty games again next month. I seriously overestimated my money management skills. Anyway, next month’s allowance absolutely has to last!

Hehe. Lately, there’s this handsome guy who’s always hanging around the school gate. He’s so stylish, totally different from the other boys. A few of my best friends think he’s looking at them, but I think he’s looking at me.

It’s not just my imagination, either. I just know it!

"Lilika, hurry up and bring me that box of face masks from the table."

Her mother’s voice called out from the upstairs bathroom.

"Can’t you come down and get it yourself?"

Lilika yelled toward her bedroom door.

"Be a dear~ Won’t you get it for Mommy? It’s a little chilly downstairs."

Hearing her mother, Lilika once again wondered who was the daughter and who was the mom in this house.

Her mom was the one always going on about dieting and skincare, and she was also the one who ate all of Lilika’s snacks.

"You’re impossible!"

Putting down her fountain pen, Lilika got up and went to the living room downstairs. She found the box of Deep Sea brand face masks on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

When she went upstairs, she found her mother already in the bedroom watching TV. Dressed in her pajamas, she was rubbing lotion onto her legs.

Her mother, also a natural redhead, was in her early forties but could have passed for Lilika’s older sister. She was a blend of youthful energy and mature allure!

"Here’s your face mask!"

"Mmm, just put it here."

Her mother was watching a popular national entertainment channel. It was a satirical talk show with a classic debate format. ℴℴ𝘮

Lilika glanced at the screen. One of the debaters was Vikas, a so-called "rights warrior" active on the anti-racism front who often took shots at politicians.

In reality, though, she couldn’t stand the guy. He wasn’t a genuinely decent person; the methods he used for his so-called anti-racism were utterly shameless.

To put it nicely, he was a human rights advocate. To put it bluntly, he was a master of taking things out of context and twisting the truth. Whenever a dispute arose, if he could find a video or some document and one of the parties involved was Black, then the other party was automatically at fault for being racist.

Was the video unfavorable to the Black person? Vikas would just edit it, spin the story, and build a media frenzy. In short, he’d make it all about racial discrimination, completely avoiding any discussion of who was actually right or wrong in the incident.

Then, sure enough, a wave of overzealous activists would show up with signs to protest at the relevant locations.

The guy had been exposed as a fraud several times, but there were still plenty of clueless onlookers online, so he managed to maintain his positive "rights warrior" image and stay relevant.

And Lilika just happened to be one of the people who knew his true colors.

Since she despised the man so much, she decided to sit down with her mother and see what he was going to spout this time.

The person debating him was a sharp-looking middle-aged man. The chyron identified him as a social analyst named Rini.

While her mom went into the bathroom to put on the face mask, she grabbed the remote and cranked up the volume. The voices from the TV blared out.

"An incompetent government! Incompetent police! Public safety is in the toilet, the economy is collapsing, there are threats of a third world war, and absurd rumors about the end of the world are flying around everywhere! Dr. Rini, you tell me, is there any hope left for this administration? I say the president should just resign!"

’Listening to his self-righteous tirade,’ Lilika thought, ’his whole spiel sounds a lot like my friend Little Locke. He has the intellectual depth of a high school boy.’

Dr. Rini didn’t rush to answer. Instead, he took off his glasses and began wiping them with a cloth, a gesture that seemed to convey his disdain for his opponent.

"Mr. Vikas, after all that, what is your actual point?"

Vikas leaned forward across the table toward the doctor.

"I’ve come into some... special information. The government is hiding something important, something they’ve been hiding for years. They’re taking taxpayer money and treating the people of the United States like a bunch of fools!"

"Dr. Rini, I know you used to have a position at the White House. Can you offer an explanation?"

Here, Vikas paused, then asked his next question in a very serious tone.

"It’s about the end of the world!"

A ripple of laughter and murmurs went through the studio audience.

"Alright, Mr. Vikas. Let’s assume the world really is about to end. Do you believe the government should make that public the very moment they know?"