How much money does Chairman Chen actually have? This is a question many people are quite interested in. In 1923, after the People's Party legally established the transparency of assets, especially for officials and party members, this question was finally answered. Chen Ke himself is a poor ghost. His wages were never high to begin with; after deducting food costs and paying rent, there was very little left. Especially after his wife, He Ying, gave birth to their second child, even that little surplus was gone.

Of course, it’s not that there aren't big tycoons within the Party. Ranking first is You Gou, who has inherited two million RMB in assets, equivalent to the annual income of five thousand ordinary workers. The one who is currently a poor ghost but has the potential to leap to become the number one wealthy person in the Party in the future is Qi Huishen. Qi Huishen’s father has a massive fortune of seven million RMB, and this money will sooner or later fall entirely into Qi Huishen’s pockets.

Most People's Party cadres don't have much money. Reality has forced the People's Party to move the schedule for raising civil servant salaries forward.

Before the wage increase, Chen Ke finally caught an opportunity to earn some extra income in 1923. At the end of 1922, because of his development of synthetic ammonia technology, he shared the 1918 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the gold medal with the German chemist Haber. 1918 was during the war, so the Nobel Prize could not be awarded. After the war, both Chen Ke and Haber faced questions regarding their moral character. Haber was considered a warmonger, and Chen Ke was also considered a warmonger. Coupled with France's obstruction of Haber, the Nobel Committee didn't finally make up its mind until 1922.

And at the end of 1922, Chen Ke not only won the Chemistry Prize, but his General Theory of Quantum Mechanics proposed in early 1921 also triggered a shock in the Copenhagen School. Of course, this highly controversial topic was not enough for Chen Ke to win a prize. The reason for Chen Ke's award was the verification experiments he came up with regarding electron diffraction and the photoelectric effect.

Many years later, this was one of the reasons why a group of people fiercely attacked Chen Ke as the greatest demon in human history. A man famous for syphilis treatment, stimulant research, and nuclear weapons theoretical research—a guy who turned all these studies into military and commercial uses—had little chance of gaining the appreciation of pacifists.

In 1923, Chen Ke finally had the chance to use his "academic research ability" to subsidize his household expenses. It was just that the economic situation in Sweden in 1922 was terrible. Chen Ke took half the prize money, which was only 190,000 Swedish Kronor. For an ordinary Chinese family, this would indeed count as a huge sum.

"I won't be turning this money over," Chen Ke said in the Politburo.

"Why?" The Standing Committee members were all quite surprised. It wasn't that everyone coveted the money, but rather that this was widely divergent from Chen Ke's usual style.

"Is there any problem with distribution according to work?" Chen Ke asked in return.

"No problem. We're just not used to it," You Gou, the Party's current wealthiest person, answered very crisply.

In terms of economic contribution, if Chen Ke dared to say he was second in the Party, no one would dare say they were first. The early operating funds of the People's Party were all maintained by the money Chen Ke earned. As for the industrial industries established under Chen Ke's guidance, they were already China's money-printing machines. Such a selfless person, for the first time, was putting money that belonged to him into his own pocket. Even if it was unassailable in terms of reason and morality, it would always arouse the curiosity of the comrades.

Chen Ke was very clear that the unease in his heart was not because he was pocketing the prize money that belonged to him, but because of the shame generated by "plagiarism." He took some time to adjust his mindset before replying, "Striking at the rentier class is our current policy. However, if individual labor cannot be recognized, it will inevitably deal a huge blow to the enthusiasm of laborers. Collectivism is certainly good, but even the best things cannot withstand the destruction of being overextended."

"If you start this, aren't you afraid of being accused of paving the way for the legalization of wealthy people within the Party?" Zhang Yu said in a tone that made it impossible for others to figure out his emotions.

The two big "wealthy people" in the Party looked at Zhang Yu with disdain. Human jealousy is not so easily eliminated. Both believed that Zhang Yu might not genuinely be jealous of their money, but that wasn't because Zhang Yu wouldn't be jealous, but rather that as long as Zhang Yu considered engaging in revolutionary work as his proper business, jealousy would be harmful to him.

Chen Ke answered Zhang Yu's question seriously, "Marx didn't oppose private property either, let alone want to eliminate private property. According to the *Communist Manifesto*, communism does not deprive anyone of the power to appropriate social products; it only deprives the power to use this appropriation to enslave the labor of others. That is to say, rich people and capitalists are two different things. I don't need to stop anyone from discussing this matter. If someone wants to discuss it, we should actually use the discussion to clearly distinguish between being wealthy and having property. We need to explain capital and possessions clearly."

The Standing Committee members and the two cadres equivalent to Standing Committee members were all well-versed in theory. At least they had long since clearly understood the essential difference between property and capital from Chen Ke. Chen Tianhua said excitedly, "Is this going to be class struggle?!"

The proletariat under the rule of the People's Party did not necessarily have a connection with poverty. Over the past ten years, the income of most proletarian laborers had increased rapidly. The standard of living for urban industrial laborers had generally reached or even exceeded the standard of living of small landlords at the end of the Qing Dynasty. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, a small landlord family could absolutely not reach the level of eating their fill every day, having meat at least once a week, and every school-age child being able to go to school. Not to mention enjoying the community's medical, hygiene, communication, and entertainment levels.

"But jealousy is something that cannot be eradicated. Chairman Chen, are you prepared to gamble your reputation to wade into these muddy waters?" There was no concept of a bright world in Zhang Yu's eyes; this guy's personality always focused more on the dark side of human nature. This was also one of the reasons why he was favored by Chen Ke and appreciated and trusted by the comrades. Without a guy like Zhang Yu playing a positive role, an organization could easily turn into a group of fanatics.

Chen Ke laughed. "Whether my reputation will be ruined depends on what result this great discussion will actually produce. If the result of the discussion can really clarify the facts, I will first be treated as an ordinary laborer. Jealousy cannot be eliminated, but everyone can at least distinguish what kind of existence capital actually is. What is getting rich by capital operation, and how the proletariat makes money by labor—these essential concepts will be distinguished. As for whether class struggle will break out, that depends on the extent of the preliminary ideological preparation."

Zhang Yu gave a dry laugh as if he found it amusing. "Chairman Chen, I have deep experience in propaganda. The eyes of the people are sharp, but that is only when facing immediate interests. With your matter, what the people truly care about is how to get a Nobel Prize, or how to be like you and put the prize money into their own pockets. If you talk to them about the hardships of labor, many people will give up immediately. Those who know how to give up are actually the smart ones. The muddled ones will immediately fantasize about metaphysics and follow a map to find a horse. They have no idea how fierce the competition to get this prize money actually is. They are the kind of guys whose heads have been muddled by success studies. They think success can not only be replicated but can be replicated solely by imitating surface phenomena. They don't know that they will only end up trying to draw a tiger and ending up with a dog, and they never think that they are doing foolish things like climbing a wall upon hearing a drumbeat. Chairman Chen, with this beat of your drum, how many people will follow along and act foolishly? I think we shouldn't ask for trouble like this."

Hearing this, Chen Ke couldn't help but laugh out loud. Not only did Chen Ke laugh, but Qi Huishen also couldn't help but laugh. Shang Yuan and You Gou sneered, Chen Tianhua smiled bitterly, and Xu Dian simply didn't smile.

Shang Yuan put away his sneering smile and asked seriously, "Then, Comrade Zhang Yu, what is your view? We can't just let this matter take its own course, right?"

"My view is that we have to reinforce the concept of the ruling class," Zhang Yu answered seriously. "The ruling class must have class consciousness. The current ruling class is the laborers, but among these laborers, how many actually want to become capitalists? Or at least become people with control over capital. Our People's Party is composed of the proletariat, and our People's Party is also the largest controller of capital in China. This is a fact. So how does our People's Party determine our control over capital? How does our People's Party operate this capital? What is the relationship between our People's Party and the ruling class? How can the concepts of our People's Party be self-consistent with the actual operating system? How does it conform to science and democracy? How do we solve this series of topics?"

Listening to Zhang Yu's string of questions, Qi Huishen praised, "These questions are very good, but the discussion triggered by these questions must have a cause. Chairman Chen wants to use this Nobel Prize as an entry point. I don't think there's anything wrong with this line of thought."

"A correct line of thought does not equal correct steps!" Zhang Yu immediately raised an objection. "Not to mention the ruling class, just within our People's Party, everyone indeed doesn't dare to fish capital into their own pockets. But how large is the proportion of those who want to become capital controllers? Whoever can control capital has the greatest right to speak. Hasn't our People's Party been able to achieve today's success over the past dozen years precisely because we control the largest capital in the entire China? Can't we challenge foreigners precisely because of the capital controlled in our hands?"

Hearing this, the common ground between Zhang Yu and Chen Ke became gradually clear, and the divergence between the two also gradually emerged. You Gou said, "Does that mean Comrade Zhang Yu thinks we should educate in stages? First education within the Party, then laborer education, and finally universal capital education for all people?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Tianhua immediately opposed Zhang Yu's viewpoint. "This is absolutely not okay. You can't just educate the rulers. This must be education directed at the people of the whole country."

"We cannot artificially create a revolution. Revolution is first when the masses of the people have a demand, and only then can we respond to the people's legitimate requests. If the people have no demand, or the people's demand itself is unreasonable, how do we respond?" Zhang Yu showed no sign of weakness.

Chen Tianhua wanted to refute Zhang Yu, but after thinking carefully, he couldn't help but frown. "Comrade Zhang Yu, do you mean you still don't want to intensify the struggle?"

Zhang Yu narrowed his eyes slightly and stayed silent for the moment. He really hadn't expected Chen Tianhua to be astute to such a degree.

You Gou's level of political struggle was relatively poor, and she couldn't understand the dialogue between these two, which was like speaking in riddles. "Hey! What exactly do you two mean?"

Qi Huishen's expression wasn't very good either. Seeing that You Gou's question seemed a bit naive, he explained, "They don't mean much. Comrade Zhang Yu hopes to solve the problem of the future development path by cleaning up our own house. Comrade Chen Tianhua wants to introduce a mechanism for public supervision. However, public supervision can easily get out of control, directly turning contradictions among the people into contradictions between ourselves and the enemy."

Hearing Qi Huishen clarify his attitude so clearly, Zhang Yu nodded and replied, "That's right. The construction of a mechanism for public supervision is inevitably a very long process. At the current stage, we cannot grant too much power to the people. Our People's Party doesn't want to manipulate public opinion, but some people do. What do we do then? Drag those people out and kill them?"

"Who wants to manipulate public opinion?" You Gou still didn't quite understand.

Even though You Gou was this obtuse, Zhang Yu saw the possibility of pulling in an ally. He explained frankly, "The fastest way to get rich is nothing other than mastering capital. Once the power of capital is realized, everyone wants to master capital. Even those who know they don't have the ability to master capital at least want to be a rentier class. If this issue is rashly opened up, leaving aside the people, I believe that within our People's Party itself, quite a few factions will emerge. I'm not saying that these factions don't have an ideological basis now, but that the self-awareness of these people is not yet sufficient; they still act on instinct. Once there is a large-scale debate, once there is an opportunity, these people will definitely choose sides. What do we do then?"

Seeing that Zhang Yu had spoken so clearly, Chen Tianhua also simply and firmly stated his own position. "We must struggle when we should struggle. We must purge a portion of people from the ranks when we should purge a portion of people. Covering it up is definitely not going to work. Does the socialist system not rely on capital operation? The socialist system should be more adept at capital operation than the capitalist system. There is at least one thing we must be sure of: our People's Party is not a party of the whole people!"

Hearing this, You Gou finally understood where the problem lay. She wanted to say something, but couldn't say anything. Speaking of selfishness, everyone had it. You Gou had absolutely no intention of donating the two million in her hands. She was already pregnant, and maternal instinct strongly urged You Gou to leave this money to her child. She had chosen revolution, so she could only dedicate her life to the revolution. But after personally walking through the arduous path, although You Gou hoped her child could become a useful talent, if her child became an ordinary person with a life that wasn't so hard, You Gou didn't think there was anything wrong with that.

Chen Tianhua was still single, while Zhang Yu already had a wife and children. The issue the two were discussing appeared extremely sharp. This not only concerned the currently well-operating state system but also involved the future direction of this system.

At this point, Chen Ke couldn't help but speak up. "Society has to develop forward, so we must pass this pass. Blocking it is definitely not an option; we must guide it. Without the consensus of the people, who are we going to guide?"

Zhang Yu didn't want to abandon his position just because of these few light words from Chen Ke. "Chairman Chen, the capitalist system still occupies a comprehensive advantage overall. I won't say anything else; right now, the foreign devils are conspiring very closely with Wang Youhong. Looking at their meaning, they intend to prop up a model in our China."

Since the economic crisis, life in the Jiangsu Special Administrative Region had become impossible for a time. Exports declined across the board, and people's livelihood was in a depression. The masses were about to rise up in revolution. As a result, with a few orders from the British, Jiangsu's economy immediately entered a stable state. The British naturally couldn't be harboring any spirit of internationalism; their intentions were obvious to everyone on the street.

Hearing Zhang Yu cite this example, everyone's faces except Chen Ke's looked quite bad.

Chen Ke looked at everyone's expressions and couldn't help but laugh out loud. Amidst the questioning and puzzled gazes, Chen Ke laughed, "I don't want to say anything special either. I'll repeat what I've said many times before. Watch him build a red tower, watch him entertain guests, watch his building collapse."