CDJMM – Volume 4 -Chapter 57 Filming in the Interstellar Era (57)

A week before the Spring Festival of the year 6020, a world-shaking incident occurred in the American Federation.

Several suspected terrorists—believed to be controlled by the Zerg—opened fire indiscriminately in a downtown district, causing nearly a thousand civilian casualties.

This was the highest civilian death toll caused by the Zerg since the war began.

The tragedy shocked the entire Earth Federation.

Le Jing was working on the final stages of his film when he heard the news from his assistant.

Despite being pressed for time, he still carved out a moment to understand the situation.

Although the incident was tragic, from the perspective of the front-line war, it was ironically a blessing in disguise.

The online comments said it all:

“Wipe out the Zerg—humanity will never be slaves!”

“The Zerg have gone too far! We absolutely cannot surrender!”

“Surrender my ass! I’m telling you, if we really surrender, the human race will be wiped out!”

“Go, army! Avenge our fallen comrades!”

“Use the blood of the Zerg to comfort the souls of the dead!”

In their grief and fury, most humans instead had their fighting spirit ignited. Their resolve to resist the Zerg to the very end solidified. Those online voices advocating for surrender instantly vanished.

Public opinion was more united than ever; from soldiers to civilians, everyone was filled with fighting spirit, vowing to battle the Zerg to the very end.

If the Zerg learned that their terror attack had instead strengthened Earth’s morale, who knew how they would react.

One could only say humans were complicated beings—cowardly when they should be brave, and brave when they should be afraid.

A week later, on Spring Festival day, Le Jing’s memorial film on the Zhazidong Prison, The Five-Star Red Flag Under the Wooden Plank, was finally released.

…

Zerg Planet.

Sevier had completed his quarantine two months ago and returned to work in the Propaganda Department.

After quarantine, he was assigned a new task: to provoke internal conflicts among humans and promote anti-war sentiment.

But ever since that investigation, the atmosphere in the Propaganda Department had noticeably changed.

Although none of Sevier’s colleagues were ever cheerful—their work style was cold, silent, strictly businesslike, the complete opposite of the socially adept, smooth-talking human propaganda departments—the department was now even more stifling.

Faces that were already expressionless became even more tense. The air itself felt thick and frozen.

Sevier’s gaze often drifted away, avoiding eye contact with others. Humans had a saying: “The eyes are the windows to the soul.” He worried that his thoughts would leak through his eyes.

“Sevier, the Minister wants a meeting.”

Sevier happened to meet the speaker’s eyes; both immediately looked away at the same time.  “Alright, I understand.”

All the brain-Zerg of the Propaganda Department walked into the conference room in an orderly manner and took their seats. The room was soon filled.

The Minister of Propaganda was Siya, a forty-something female brain-Zerg who had held the position for over ten years and was one of the Queen’s trusted aides.

Siya said, “Privately, you are to watch this week’s top ten trending human films. Write ten viewing reports, understand the latest shifts in human public opinion, grasp their current propaganda strategies, and propose targeted countermeasures.”

Sevier was unfazed.

This had been their daily routine for the past few months—meaningless, harmless tasks that had no real impact on the grand scheme of war.

Front-line strategy had nothing to do with them.

Sevier listened quietly as Siya explained the assignments—until she mentioned The Five-Star Red Flag Under the Wooden Plank. His breath stopped for less than a second.

This tiny slip earned him a probing glance from the colleague beside him. Sevier turned to look expressionlessly back, flicking his antennae three times. The colleague flicked his antennae twice in response.

Then both shifted their eyes away, as if it had been nothing more than accidental eye contact.

Sevier kept a calm exterior, but inside, a storm was raging.

His neighbor had responded to the code.

They were on the same side.

They were rebels.

Born with a rebellious streak—traitors in their very bones.

…

Sevier left work as usual, calmly entering his apartment and beginning his tasks like any dutiful, entertainment-less Zerg.

After watching several dull films, he finally suppressed his excitement, kept his expression flat, and casually clicked open The Five-Star Red Flag Under the Wooden Plank, pretending nothing was out of the ordinary.

It was Shi Jing’s new movie.

He once regretted that the assassination attempt on Shi Jing had failed, but now he was deeply grateful it had.

If Shi Jing had died, it would’ve been a great loss.

Sevier was just an ordinary worker in the Propaganda Department, far from the Zerg’s center of power. But that didn’t stop him from learning one thing from fellow rebels— the Queen harbored an inexplicably intense hostility toward Shi Jing.

Driven by that hostility, she sent wave after wave of assassins, all of which failed.

Finally, to kill Shi Jing, the Queen even activated her deepest-hidden, highest-ranking sleeper agent— the President of the European Federation.

Sevier suspected that the repeated failures had driven the Queen, always used to absolute supremacy, into a rage so extreme she’d lost her reason—acting more recklessly and madly each time.

But that insanity… provided a rare opportunity for Sevier and his companions.

…the chance for humans to start a war.

They themselves could not resist the Queen — but humans could.

Only if humans killed the Queen would they be able to break free from the pheromone control and briefly regain their freedom.

Then they could flee the Zerg planet and live as free beings.

So they found ways to meet the President of the European Federation in advance. They temporarily blocked the parasite in his brain from monitoring him and offered him two paths: either remain the Queen’s puppet, or be killed by Zerg assassins in front of everyone.

From far away on the Zerg planet, Sevier hacked into the surveillance system and watched the entire transaction.

The expression on the European Federation President’s face was so complex that Sevier could not decipher it.

First he cried, then he laughed. His face was full of tears, but his eyes were burning hot, as if consumed by some extreme emotion.

“You want humans to start a war?” The President’s lips curved into a strange smile. “Are you going to betray the Queen?”

This was a cunning and treacherous human.

In just a few minutes, he seemed to understand everything that was happening.

“Please,” he rasped, “you must kill me. I cannot become a sinner to humankind. My death will become the spark that ignites the war. You will get everything you want!”

“Deal.”

But out of caution toward humans, they controlled the parasite in his brain and gave it a single command—when the assassin opened fire, the President must appear in the correct position.

To their satisfaction, the President was someone who kept his word. The parasite never needed to act; the President simply went to his death.

Even better, he left behind targeted last words, turning his death into the fuse for the Second Interplanetary War.

Truly a very useful human.

The outbreak of the war caught the Queen off guard, and it made her even more suspicious that there were traitors among the brain bugs. After all, the order she originally gave the President was merely to lure out Shi Jing and then send agents to assassinate him.

But now the agents had instead killed the President under the banner of the Zerg.

Because of this, Sevier and the others came under even tighter surveillance.

But they did not regret it.

Everything they had done was for freedom.

And the Queen could not exclude them forever.

Those low-level Zerg were nothing but brainless cannon fodder — only their kind, the brain bugs, were capable of negotiation.

Sevier gathered his scattered thoughts and began watching Shi Jing’s new film.

He was very curious about its content.

Under the Planks, the Red Flag did not have a complicated core story.

It told the story of people imprisoned in concentration camps set up by the former government around the founding of New China, and how they constantly resisted under torture.

These people came from all walks of life, struggling to survive in a pitch-dark underground prison.

Facing brutal torture, not a single one chose to yield.

Physical suffering could not shake the will of their souls.

Sevier was confused.

He did not understand what the meaning of their persistence was.

They were clearly weak humans. Their physical pain had long surpassed any limit. Why did they still persist? Why could they still laugh, still dance and sing while wounded?

With these doubts, he continued watching.

In such a harsh environment, the prisoners managed to obtain a piece of news — the new government had been established!

Suppressing their excitement, the prisoners used quilt covers, rough paper, and grains of rice to make a Five-Star Red Flag.

Not knowing what the real flag looked like, they could only rely on imagination — a large yellow star in the center, with one small yellow star placed in each corner — their imagined version of the Five-Star Red Flag.

They then carefully hid the flag between the wooden planks, agreeing that once they made it out, they would bring the flag with them.

For some reason, watching those scarred yet hopeful humans, Sevier felt something strange stir in his heart.

What truly moved Sevier was a poem.

A human named Chen Ran had written a confession poem on the wall:

“Let the heavy shackles ring beneath my feet,
Let your whip be raised high,
I do not need any confession,
Not even if my chest faces your blood-stained blade!

Man must not bow his noble head;
Only cowards beg for ‘freedom’;
What is torture to me?
Death itself cannot make me speak!

Facing death, I laugh aloud,
Even the devil’s palace trembles in my laughter;
This is me — a Communist Party member’s confession,
Singing the victory song to bury the Chiang regime.”

When the actor recited the poem, Sevier felt a rare sense of resonance.

It was clearly a human story, yet it mirrored the plight of the brain bugs so closely!

Were they not also resisting now?

Though the hope of victory was slim, they were still struggling for freedom against the Queen’s control.

Just like these human prisoners, they were fighting for freedom.

The ending of Under the Planks, the Five-Star Red Flag was not very good.

Most of the idealistic prisoners were killed. Only a dozen escaped. Those who survived retrieved the flag as promised — but nearly all their comrades who had made the vow with them were gone.

“Today we die as heroes; in an instant we shall reunite in the underworld!” The survivors stared at the words on the wall, wiped their tears, clenched their fists, and gazed resolutely at the rising sun in the east.

Yet Sevier still believed it was a good ending.

At least some escaped. At least some gained freedom.

One day, might he also gain freedom?

Sevier recalled a piece of uncertain news he had heard days ago.

It was said that all the films and TV dramas Shi Jing made were based on real history. That was why the Queen was so wary of him and had begun to suspect traitors among them.

If this rumor was true… then they absolutely had to cooperate with Shi Jing.

This human might be the key that unlocks their prison.