Chapter 8 Chapter VII

Namati's dark eyes were fixed on Qiao Ruonan, and they were sitting in a tightly screened office in Sterling District at the moment.The facilities of this headquarters are not yet complete. After all, their power in the Sterling area is still weak, but I believe it will gradually grow stronger in the near future.The growth rate of the mass movement is truly astonishing.Three years ago, Qiao Ruonan was self-made and had nothing, and now his influence has spread throughout Trantor—of course, his influence is not evenly distributed, and it is more deeply rooted in some places.The movement had little effect on the outside world.Demozel did his best to reassure them, but that was his fatal wound.The rebellion here on Trantor is what really kills.Elsewhere, rebellions were suppressed.And only here will Demozel be subverted.It's strange that Demerzel doesn't realize this.However, Qiao Ruonan firmly believes that Demerzier is just a fake name, and anyone who dares to challenge him will find that he is just an empty shell.Once he found that his own safety was also threatened, the emperor would definitely destroy him with his own hands without hesitation.At least, all of Qiao Ruonan's predictions so far have been fulfilled.His current political career is going smoothly, except for some small troubles on side issues, such as this rally at the University of Sterling that was disrupted by this guy named Seldon.This may be why Qiao Ruonan insisted on seeing him.Even the smallest details should be handled with caution.Qiao Ruonan likes this feeling of invincibility, and Namati has to admit that creating the prospect of invincibility is the best way to achieve invincibility.People tend to jump at the wind and join the winning side, even if they disagree politically.Could it be that meeting with Seldon this time is also a chance for victory?Or has this side issue escalated into a major issue?Namati didn't like being dragged into humbly apologizing, and he didn't see any advantage in doing so.Now Qiao Ruonan was sitting there, silent, obviously immersed in thinking.He bit his thumb bitterly, as if he wanted to draw some kind of spiritual food from it. "Jojo," Namati called softly.He is one of the few people who can call Qiao Ruonan by his nickname in private.In public places, people can endlessly chant that nickname, but that is only one of Qiao Ruonan's many ways to win people's hearts.In private, he demanded absolute respect, and only a few of his buddies who fought with him when he first debuted could call him that.

"Jojo," he called again. Qiao Ruonan raised his head: "Why, A-Gump, what do you want me to do?" He sounded a little annoyed. "What are we going to do with this Seldon guy, Jojo?" "Treat? Take it easy. He may join us soon." "Why wait? We can put pressure on him. We can play tricks in college to make life difficult for him." "No no no. So far Demerzel has let us go. That fool is overconfident now. We'd be fools to push him to the brink before we're ready. Hands-on with Seldon Taking action is likely to lead to such consequences. I suspect that Demozel places great value on Seldon."

"For that psychohistory you two were talking about?" "Indeed." "What the hell is that? I've never heard of it." "Few people have heard of it. It is a mathematical method used to analyze human society, which can eventually achieve the purpose of predicting the future." Namati frowned, and his body retracted involuntarily.Is Qiao Ruonan joking?Did he say that to make him laugh?Namati never understood when and why people expected him to laugh.He never found it funny.He said, "Predict the future? How?" "Huh? If I knew, why would I want Seldon?"

"To be honest, I don't believe in this at all, Jojo. How can you predict the future? What's the difference between this and fortune-telling?" "I know, but ever since this Seldon broke up your little meeting, I've had him investigated. Thoroughly. Eight years ago he came to Trantor and gave a paper at the Congress of Mathematicians on Psychological A historical treatise, but the whole thing fell silent after that. Nobody ever mentioned it again. Not even Seldon himself." "So it sounds like the matter is going nowhere." "Oh, no, quite the opposite. If the thing had died down, or had to be given up amidst people's jeers, then I'd say there was no progress. It just means that the whole thing is deeply frozen. That's why Demozel let us go. Maybe it's not his stupid overconfidence that guides his behavior, but psychohistory .Psychohistory may well have predicted something that would have given Demmerzl an advantage in the crunch time. If so, we could be doomed unless we use the weapons of psychohistory ourselves.”

"But Seldon claims that psychohistory doesn't exist." "If you were him, would you admit it?" "I still say that, we should put pressure on him." "That's no use, Forrest. Have you heard the 'Wayne's Axe' story?" "No." "If you are from Nishia, you must have heard of it. It is a very famous folk tale in my hometown. The story goes that there was a woodcutter named Wayne, and he had a magic ax. With a single swing, any tree can be felled. The ax is obviously a rare treasure, but Venn has never had to bother to keep it - and the ax has never been stolen. Because no one but Venn himself , no one can lift that ax.” And likewise, no one can manipulate psychohistory in the present situation except Seldon himself.We could never be sure of his allegiance if we had forced him to our side.He is likely to plan actions that appear to be beneficial to us, but in fact will unknowingly bring us down.When the time comes, we will find ourselves dead without a place to bury.This obviously doesn't work.He must join us voluntarily, he must be willing to work for us only because he wants us to win. "

"But how are we going to bring him here?" "Seldon has a son. Ricky, I think that's his name. Have you watched him closely?" "I don't really care." "Forrest, Forrest. If you don't pay attention to everything, you'll miss a lot of points. You could tell by the look in the boy's eyes that he was listening to me. It can be affirmed. I am the most sure about how to leave a deep impression on others. I know when I deeply shake the hearts of others and when I subtly influence other people's thoughts." Qiao Ruonan smiled.It wasn't the phony, bewitching smile that was his trademark public persona.It's the real smile at this moment—cold and indifferent, unpredictable and profound, but also harboring evil intentions. "We can use Rich when we see the opportunity," he said, "and use him to influence Seldon if possible."