The naval base, Commander's office.
It was a rare sunshower today, with sunlight piercing through patches of dark clouds, and fine rain misting the office windows. The raindrops were too small to streak down the glass.
Jiang Ye sat at his desk, reading the newspaper and sipping the green tea brewed by his secretary, Su Yueming.
The newspaper's content was becoming increasingly interesting.
The first section was about global development. Several new city lords had just taken office, a mix of men and women, most from the military, but also a few business representatives and even two artists. The newspaper dedicated a significant portion to detailing these new city lords.
Jiang Ye scanned it briefly, not reading in detail. He had personally signed the appointment letters for each of these city lords and had reviewed everyone's detailed information repeatedly. There was nothing new.
The second section was business-oriented, somewhat like advertisements. Many cities were opening new shops, and some local enterprises had just been established, issuing calls for talent.
The third section featured street interviews. This part was requested by Jiang Ye, who had asked Tang Hanliu to assign people to conduct daily random street interviews, with the conversations recorded verbatim.
The first interviewee was a student who claimed, "Excessive homework is a manifestation of low teacher competency. Mechanical copying is the most foolish form of memorization, and numerous exams stifle student creativity. As for parent-teacher conferences, they are the school shirking responsibility, attempting to shift the burden of school education onto family education, causing unnecessary trouble for parents, stiffening parent-child relationships, and failing to solve actual problems. The most shameful of all is the parent-teacher meeting; it is a great tragedy of the education sector, a meaningless collective atrocity that should be abolished as soon as possible."
When the reporter asked for the student's name and class, the student replied, "If I don't go back to school now, it'll be too late. Bye-bye."
The second interviewee was a restaurant chef who complained about working too hard for too little pay. He also claimed that the chef at the restaurant opposite was unscrupulous, smearing snot on the pickles in their burgers, and urged everyone to stay away from that establishment.
The third interviewee was a vacationing military officer. The reporter asked eight consecutive questions, to which the officer gave the same answer:
"For security reasons, I apologize, but I cannot answer these questions."
The fourth interviewee was a wealthy socialite who spoke a lot of nonsense and showed the reporter her twenty-six VIP cards from luxury stores.
The fifth interviewee was a business owner who complained that his employees were always slacking off at work and that too much of the company's profit was being given to Jiang Ye. More critically, an increasing number of alien enterprises were rapidly entering Jiang Ye Star. These alien enterprises were well-funded and powerful, landing like swarms of monsters and crushing local small businesses. Several of his boss friends were facing bankruptcy and strongly advocated for special protection for local enterprises on Jiang Ye Star.
The newspaper's third section was the marriage classifieds, featuring photos and personal information, with each person also providing a two-hundred-word self-description.
This section was applied for by Tang Hanliu and approved by Jiang Ye after consideration.
To place a marriage advertisement in the newspaper, one needed to have their personal information verified by a specialist to prevent scams. After meeting the qualifications, a fee of 1000 yuan was required, followed by a draw.
The daily circulation of the Jiang Ye Star Daily had already exceeded one million copies. One thousand yuan was pocket change. The reason for charging this fee was to ensure the sincerity of those placing marriage advertisements. If they could be placed for free, many would do so just for fun.
The purpose of setting up this section was threefold: first, to help single men and women across the planet solve their relationship problems; second, to promote population growth in the future; and third, to provide a gossip section, as gossip remained quite popular to this day.
Furthermore, Tang Hanliu would later launch a television program to follow up on people who successfully found spouses through the newspaper.
Just as Jiang Ye was about to turn the page, he stopped, his expression bewildered.
His gaze fixed on a marriage advertisement in the middle.
[Name: Xu Yan]
[Gender: Female]
[Age: 30+]
[Profession and Position: President of Termite Real Estate Group on Jiang Ye Star]
[Monthly Income: Approximately 3 billion]
[Personal Description: I hope to find a suitable husband. Requirements: dependable, capable, kind-hearted, cultured, healthy, humorous, and possessing masculine charm. Height and appearance are not limited, but preferably of East Asian descent. This is not meant as racial discrimination, merely a personal preference. Age must be under 40. Education is not limited, but we need to be able to converse. Income is not limited, but a good work history is preferred. Those with less romantic experience are ideal. If you are sincere, please first add my matchmaking account for an initial online chat. If we hit it off, we can meet.]
Jiang Ye found it utterly baffling.
Xu Yan was so beautiful, had a good personality, and was wealthy.
He couldn't find a single flaw.
She was also desperately looking for a partner.
How could she not find one?
It was simply too strange!
It was utterly unscientific!
By all rights, with her qualifications, the men chasing her should be able to form a line around Jiang Ye Star, so why would she need to place a marriage advertisement in the newspaper?
The next time they met, he would have to have a serious talk with her. Jiang Ye felt it was his responsibility as a friend to help her resolve her lifelong matter.
The newspaper's fourth section was the technology section. Jiang Ye Star already had some school laboratories and dedicated research institutes that occasionally developed some unremarkable technologies. Any major advancements in Earthling science were also published here.
This issue's technology section primarily reported on the intelligent bacteria's song reaching the top ten on the charts. Currently, over eighty songs by intelligent bacteria from Music City had entered the galaxy's music streaming charts, their popularity steadily rising, with their account followers exceeding two hundred and fifty million.
The newspaper's fifth section was the police and military section, mainly publishing recruitment notices for auxiliary police or reserve soldiers, as well as some mundane military and police news. Examples included Police Chief Shao Wan being photographed eating Jianbing Guazi at a roadside stall, and two off-duty military officers purchasing luxury cars.
The newspaper's sixth section was the arts and culture section, featuring some poetry and novels, as well as advertisements for concerts, stage plays, and comedy shows.
Following that were various miscellaneous social news items.
The entire newspaper was quite thick, but Jiang Ye read it with great enjoyment.
He had an idea: if ancient emperors could read such a newspaper daily, they would be very pleased. "All the land under heaven is the king's domain; all the people on the shores of the sea are the king's subjects." The king's subjects in his domain had so many interesting things happening every day.
"Knock, knock, knock."
The office door opened, followed by the clatter of high heels and the respectful voice of his secretary, Su Yueming.
"Commander, everyone in the conference room is here."
"Good, I'll be right there," Jiang Ye said, putting down the newspaper.