CHAPTER 325: CHAPTER 323: EIGHT WONDERS OF SILVER BLOOD

Dan Chixia looked as though his backbone had been extracted. He sat limply on the ground, the spirit and vigor of an Imperial Academy student entirely gone, his expression pale as if freshly exhumed from the graveyard.

Le Yu promptly helped him up, saying, "Even though saying this is insincere—I am not targeting you, Mr. Dan Chixia."

"You need not blame yourself, as you are not the only victim. In Dongyang, the Silver Blood Association uses such means through production materials to coerce, seduce, test, entice, and praise millions of people, brainwashing them into slaves who plot against each other, hate one another, vie for power and profit, and wallow in corruption and pleasure."

"Their approach is just like mine, probing your limits step by step, pretending to support and appreciate your abilities, until you are willing to do anything for scores—in Dongyang, that would mean for money."

"Many things become hard to turn back on once you take that first step. It’s not only because humans find it hard to admit their mistakes, but also because it’s difficult to abandon sunk costs—the costs you’ve already paid. When people have done so many things that abandon their dignity, if the other party makes more humiliating demands, they often further break their own bottom line."

"They’re not stupid, and neither are you, Dan Chixia, and precisely because you’re not stupid, you must disguise your actions with a dignified mask—the Silver Blood Association’s officials say that without the Silver Blood Association, there’d be no Dongyang people, and you say you’re doing it for my sake."

"I’ll reiterate again, Mr. Dan Chixia, you’re not wrong, you’re just..."

"...not that brave."

"To show my apology, if you choose my course, as long as you attend the final exam, you’ll get a perfect score directly."

Helping Dan Chixia up, Le Yu looked at Shi Wen, still trembling with anger, then turned to the students.

"I believe everyone has understood the power of ’production materials’ now?" Le Yu smiled, "Let me briefly recap what happened in the past half-hour—"

"First, I set ’sixty usual points’ as the hiring price, asking everyone to work for me."

"In this process, I requested things from four students that were outside the scope of work, including but not limited to running errands, shoulder rubs, and nail clipping. These are typical examples of abusing power—don’t think it’s a trivial matter; so it let me succeed. If given enough time and interaction, allowing me to lower your moral bottom line step by step, anyone I target will certainly yield to my demands due to ’sunk costs.’

"It seems everyone is very interested in the content of ’yielding to demands,’ so I won’t say anymore. If you’re curious, you can think about it while dreaming tonight."

"Among them, Qian Yuya astutely grasped my teaching intentions," Le Yu suddenly mentioned Qian Yuya’s name, "She attempted to learn from me, using point deductions to control other students’ personalities, though her methods were rather crude. But in light of her earnest learning, I gave her five additional usual points."

The students in Qian Yuya’s group suddenly realized, looking at her with eyes full of envy—no wonder she was so strict; she wanted to reflect the teacher’s teaching!

But Qian Yuya slightly frowned at Le Yu, not knowing what thoughts were in her mind.

"And when everyone completed the tasks according to my instructions, I deducted your deserved usual points based on various assessment standards."

Le Yu surveyed the students, "When I did so, even though you sensed something was off, you still chose to give up resistance thinking you could get twenty or thirty usual points."

"If controlling personalities is a little trick of the Silver Blood Association, then this method is the core skill for the Silver Blood Association’s growth."

"Jing Zhengwei referred to it as—"

"Surplus value theory."

"Why could the Silver Blood Association grow step by step? The reason is that they exploit the surplus value of workers. What is surplus value? Suppose the cleanup task corresponds to sixty usual points, then when you complete the job, I use ambiguous subjective evaluation standards to lower your rewards, letting you only get thirty points, then the thirty points not given to you is the surplus value of your work."

"Moreover, I encouraged the group leader to deduct your points to enrich themselves, transferring part of the conflict between you and me to one between you and the group leader."

"And after Qian Yuya’s group finished their work, I had them clean the next classroom, even though I paid five usual points, it was far disproportionate to their workload—clearly, they also provided me with a lot of surplus value."

"This is just part of the Silver Blood Association’s means; there are many classic exploitation methods bound by time and space that I cannot demonstrate one by one, such as: demanding overtime without paying overtime fees, canceling vacations, delaying salaries, dismissing pregnant women, using various reasons to withhold wages... The hundred-year heritage of Silver Blood aesthetics is utterly endless, and I cannot say it all. But the core is the same—exploiting workers’ surplus value through various means."

"You may find it strange why people endure such exploitation, but after my demonstration, you should have no doubts—like credits, production materials offer you few choices, and the poor have none."

"The strength of the exploitation system lies not in the excellence of the system, but in that you have no choice."

"I won’t introduce more detailed exploitation techniques; I fear teaching them to you badly. I’m not afraid you’ll become villains, I’m worried you’ll learn poorly." Le Yu blinked, "Don’t think learning the methods I teach will allow you to oppose the cunning merchants or nobles of Yanjing; they’re all engaged in politics. My heart may be dirty, but they have no hearts at all."

The students laughed heartily, and Le Yu said, "There’s much more to say on surplus value theory, but due to time constraints, I’ll leave the rest to you for contemplation. You can apply this theory to various social phenomena, perhaps discovering more intriguing social patterns from it."

"I won’t teach you to brew glory, achieve greatness, or prevent death... I don’t even know how myself. I just want to use the historical event of Silver Blood’s downfall to explore some inherent social laws with you, many of which are theories Jing Zhengwei casually mentioned in conversations with me, and I merely repeated his academic results for you. Hence, all in-class statements do not represent my personal views."

Clang—clang—clang!

The students were suddenly shocked to realize the lecture had concluded just like that.

"Time flies by, it’s time to say goodbye." Le Yu clapped his hands, "Now the first class on ’Production Materials and Surplus Value Theory’ ends here, starting next week I’ll introduce you to the eight legendary individuals of the Silver Blood Association, taking you into their realms of thought, witnessing their storied lives."

"Next week, ’The Eight Oddities of Silver Blood·First Oddity Jing Qingfu,’ stay tuned."

"For now, class dismissed, thank you everyone."