The negotiations between the Chinese official representatives and the Japanese side went very smoothly. Japan paid the money, and China delivered the goods. Equipment that had once cost a fortune to produce was now being sold for the price of scrap metal. Even though there were arrangements from the Central Committee, Wu Xiangyu still felt a bit of heartache over this. Li Runshi, of course, did not think that the investments made back then were only worth this little price now, but Li Runshi looked at the problem from a different angle. He said to Wu Xiangyu, "All of this shows that our China is constantly progressing. Progress inevitably involves elimination; staying in yesterday forever won't do. The changes in this era are too fast!"

The changes in this era were indeed too fast, and China's changes were particularly rapid. Wu Xiangyu certainly knew this. In his youth, the price of white paper was not cheap, but now even toilet paper in China's big cities was fine, white, and soft. Previously, there was no soap for washing clothes, and using honey locust pods was considered a more refined method. Now, not only was laundry detergent used for washing clothes, but there were even washing machines. One didn't need to use their hands at all; just throw the clothes into the washing machine, and with a rumble, it was taken care of. Moreover, washing machines had changed from single-tub to twin-tub. There was no need to wring out the clothes; one just fished them out of the washing tub and threw them into the spin dryer to remove the moisture directly, greatly shortening the drying time. Not to mention the ordinary masses, even Li Runshi, as the Vice Premier, often couldn't help but click his tongue in wonder.

The "three big items" for marriage in China were changing very quickly. From alarm clocks, bicycles, and radios, they had turned into wristwatches, refrigerators, and washing machines. Many of the masses had never even seen a pocket watch before directly entering the era of wristwatches, which had been extremely precious in the pocket watch era. "Luxury goods" that had once been monopolized by "high-born" prominent families had now become daily necessities that urban residents could enjoy together. Of course, this also caused a sharp widening of the gap between urban and rural areas.

On the contrary, after arriving in Japan, Li Runshi found quite a few "familiar feelings." Those old-style "novelties," such as streetcars, were still operating in Japan, while Chinese cities had already begun to universally promote trolleybuses with two long braids. Large table clocks that needed to be wound were very common in Japan. Those exquisite wooden cases, carved textures, and gold-plated decorations looked really nice. But in China, table clocks hadn't even had time to become fully popularized before they were replaced by lightweight quartz clocks. Quartz clocks with plastic cases and transparent glass faces, which could run on two dry batteries, cost only half the price of the honest wooden table clocks. The reason was simple: the processing cost of wooden cases was higher than that of plastic.

As for the development of the machinery industry, it was changing with each passing day. China didn't have a long age of steam to begin with, and the electrical age quickly left the steam age behind. Boilers still existed in industrial sectors, but very few boilers were built to provide steam power. In these Five-Year Plans, power station construction, power grid construction, and high-voltage transmission and transformation construction had always been key investment projects. In China's scientific research and development industry, countless amounts of money were thrown in. Then countless more amounts of money had to be thrown in to build factories, debug equipment, and run trial operations, and then, like a magic trick, massive amounts of products were produced. Laborers who earned remuneration through labor began to consume these countless industrial products. Even though he saw all this with his own eyes, Wu Xiangyu often felt a little bewildered. China's changes were too fast and too drastic, so much so that people didn't quite dare to believe that all of this was true.

In Wu Xiangyu's youth, Japan was already a stronger country than China. Wu Xiangyu still vaguely remembered that in his childhood, going to Japan to study was an important way to learn advanced culture and technology. Now, various machine tools eliminated by China were considered very advanced machine tools in Japan. At this time, if anyone wanted to rely on studying in Japan to muddle through and get a diploma, it would be a humiliation.

This was an era of violent change. Whoever could not keep up with the times would be left behind. And China had undoubtedly kept up with the times, at least leading the times in Asia.

Li Runshi was obviously a person who would absolutely not immerse himself in nostalgia for the past. After simply finishing the discussion about China eliminating its own backward industries, Li Runshi talked about the changes in Japan recently. "I didn't expect that Comrade Kita Ikki still grasped the focal point of Japan's contradictions and proposed the concept of 'The People's Emperor.' Once this concept came out, I'm afraid the Japanese upper echelon will have trouble sleeping and eating."

Wu Xiangyu just smiled after hearing this. In China, if one spoke of "The People's Chairman Chen," it would be a very normal formulation. If the top leader did not belong to "the people," then this leader had no meaning; this was China's political correctness. It was just that in China, the monarchy had already been thoroughly buried. In these years, there had also been quite a few incidents of people "establishing themselves as Emperor." The security operations to arrest these "new Emperors of China" mostly involved the Armed Police at the county level. For the smallest scale operations, the village sent two militiamen and caught the "Emperor." Such news couldn't even make the headlines on the entertainment pages of newspapers. Seeing that the Japanese people really believed that the Emperor could "uphold justice" for the people, even someone as serious and earnest as Wu Xiangyu couldn't help but want to laugh.

Li Runshi also smiled, and there was genuine magnanimity in that smile. "Kita Ikki is mobilizing the masses. No matter what reason is used, as long as the people can be mobilized, it is a victory. Only by experiencing struggle can the people understand who the enemy is. If this struggle can make the people realize that the Japanese Emperor is the greatest enemy of the Japanese people, Japan will really enter a new era."

"That is still far from democracy." Wu Xiangyu actually didn't care too much about what Japan would turn into. China didn't lack dramas about filing a complaint with the Emperor. As Vice Premier, whenever Wu Xiangyu thought about what would happen if such a thing occurred in China, his first feeling was discomfort.

"Democracy is first of all a problem within the same class. If two armies of China and Japan are fighting in a hostile relationship, could the outcome be decided by a democratic vote?" Li Runshi laughed. "Since the Japanese populace is attempting to seek interests that belong to them, this process of struggle is indispensable."

Hearing this, Wu Xiangyu simply stated his own position clearly. "What I am considering now is domestic affairs. To establish a democracy based on scientific foundations, the burden is heavy and the road is long. This process is no less than a fierce revolution of changing dynasties."

"It will go even further than that," Li Runshi replied. "For the people to want to liberate themselves is an incomparably arduous road. I think this is a more profound progress. The Japanese working people haven't even been able to find the road to the liberation of their own class. Whereas we have now begun to gradually consider the road for the people to obtain self-liberation. Isn't this true progress? Everything is developing and changing; nothing can last for thousands of generations. If one cannot progress, one cannot obtain liberation."

Although they started the discussion from the Japan issue, the two young and middle-aged leaders of China very naturally turned the issue to China's domestic affairs. Although it wasn't intentional, both of them felt that there wasn't much content to discuss regarding Japan. It wasn't that they looked down on Japan, but that the things Japan was facing right now were too far removed from China. China domestically had already gone through this stage; the Chinese people had already been liberated from the old system. The road that Japanese revolutionaries had to walk was still long.

So on February 2, 1936, after China and Japan signed the agreement, Li Runshi and Wu Xiangyu left Japan and returned to China.

After they returned to the country, news about Japan continued to come from Japan.

On the morning of February 4, a group of soldiers appeared in front of the Imperial Palace. They knelt on the ground and begged to see the Emperor, requesting the Emperor to listen to news from the common folk.

On the afternoon of February 4, the army took all these people away.

On the morning of February 6, more soldiers and commoners appeared at the entrance of the Imperial Palace, kneeling to beg to see the Emperor. The military police immediately dispersed the masses and arrested many people.

Numerous rumors soon arose within Japan. The rumors said that high officials were forming cliques in private and imprisoning the Emperor. Because these people knew that if the Emperor took personal control of the government, he would definitely remove the violent and pacify the good. To let the Emperor know the public opinion, one must ask the Emperor to personally come out and receive the representatives of the populace. Under such incitement, quite a few radical forces began to operate and make contact, preparing to go to the Imperial Palace to petition.

"The People's Emperor loves the people; the People's Emperor cannot see the people!" This saying also began to become popular in Japan. Thanks to the military, Japan had been trying to propagate the supreme image of the Emperor for many years. Since he was supreme, it was natural for the Emperor to love the Japanese people.

Including the "50% Tax" ending without a result, and the "equal distribution of fertilizer" ending without a result, many issues in society that caused complaints everywhere but could never be solved now had a new explanation. That was: there were bad people preventing the Emperor from knowing the real news. As long as the people petitioned outside the Imperial Palace and let the Emperor hear the voices of the people, these problems could be solved.

The Japanese Control Faction was first caught off guard by these changes, and then they flew into a rage out of humiliation. Traffic was banned near the Tokyo Imperial Palace, and the police began to interrogate those who came to Tokyo from other places. Anyone found attempting to petition was immediately arrested first, and after a severe beating, they were sent back.

Even after suffering such rough treatment, the rumors in the Japanese localities showed no signs of retreating. Not only did they not retreat, but more aggressive statements also appeared: "The Emperor already knows a little bit of the wind, so those who are attempting to put the Emperor under house arrest and deceive the Emperor are afraid, so they took action to prevent the Japanese populace from approaching the Imperial Palace in Tokyo."

The manipulation of intelligence and public opinion is a very interesting thing. The people might act blindly, but the people always hope to be able to obtain a better life. In order to improve their own lives, the people are still willing to take risks. In the industrial age, the information sources and knowledge of ordinary people are not comparable to those in the agricultural age. When "rumors" pointedly indicated that as long as the people could see the Emperor, the people's suffering could be solved, the people would rather believe this was true. After all, the Japanese Emperor was a living god in the present world and should possess boundless power.

Not to mention the people, when Chen Ke was a few years old and had just learned to read, he read about the "True Dragon Son of Heaven" and watched that old animated film *Nezha*. He once thought that the Emperor was a monster with a dragon's appearance, or at least with dragon characteristics on his body. Holding this mentality of looking at a rare animal, Chen Ke asked his parents, only to learn that the Emperor who was called the True Dragon Son of Heaven was actually also an ordinary person and had no blood relationship with the magical animal "Dragon." At that time, Chen Ke even felt quite disappointed.

If a child born at the end of the 20th century was like this, the Japanese people at the beginning of the 20th century quickly believed the rumors for real. Even some urban crowds who didn't quite believe that the Emperor could solve problems couldn't help but want to try and see.

Thus, on February 26, a large group of marchers braved the heavy snow to go to the front of the Imperial Palace to petition. Then a bloody conflict occurred. The official statement was that while arresting the petitioners, thugs concealing weapons attacked the military police first. Those who sympathized with and supported the petitioners accused the military police of opening fire directly on the petitioning crowd.

Anyway, on that snowy day, a total of 48 people were beaten to death, and 166 were injured. The February 26 Incident shocked the whole of Japan.