HLM -Chapter 1091 The Election Begins

As the last ray of sunlight sank below the horizon, a flash of light suddenly shot straight into the clouds.

The ear-splitting music came to a halt. Wang Bo leapt onto the stage in a single bound, raised the beer bottle in his hand, and shouted, “OK everyone—gentlemen and ladies, boys and girls! The moment of revelry has arrived. Let’s raise our glasses and party our hearts out!”

“Party! Party!! Party!!!”

Wild screams erupted from the crowd below.

Everyone lifted their bottles. Among a group of burly Māori men, Ben McGee looked deathly pale. “Oh my god, still drinking? I can’t take it anymore—I’m going to throw up!”

At this moment, the star of the show, Tuhao Jin, had to make an appearance. Seeing so many people gathered here, it immediately became excited, pawing the ground and trying to plunge into the crowd.

Malong clung to it with all his strength, desperately trying to calm it down. “Good boy, be good—Tuhao Jin is a good boy. Oh my god, stop pulling me!”

Wang Bo poured a bottle of beer into his hand, and Tuhao Jin curled its tongue and drank it all in one go.

Down below, Parker stared in shock. “My god—how can you let a racehorse drink alcohol?”

“Tuhao Jin isn’t just any racehorse,” the writer Hill chuckled beside him. He turned to Parker and held out a hand. “Buddy, want a drink?”

Parker was wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap. After all, he was a celebrity—showing up openly at a party like this could easily cause chaos.

In fact, dressing like this at a party would usually draw even more attention, but fortunately it was winter and cold at night. Many people were wearing hats, and some even wore sunglasses because of the strong wind, which allowed him to successfully blend into the crowd.

Just as Parker was about to raise his bottle, Hill suddenly froze. “Shit—Craig Parker?”

Realizing he had been recognized, Parker cursed inwardly.

Luckily, Hill reacted quickly. From Parker’s expression, he understood what he was thinking and lowered his voice with a laugh. “Haha, it really is you? Don’t worry—no one else will recognize you as easily as I did. Your disguise is a success.”

“Except against you,” Parker said with a wry smile.

Hill said, “Of course—that’s different. First of all, I’m your fan, a genuine one. Secondly, my friends and I have been studying your background lately. Want to know why?”

“Planning to kidnap me?” Parker joked.

Hill shook his head. “No. We’re casting for the big-screen adaptation of Deadly Notes. Mr. Barnett and I both think you’re the perfect choice to play the lead, Officer Reese!”

Parker was stunned for a moment, then thought it over. “The Mr. Barnett you’re talking about—is that John Barnett?”

John Barnett, head of South Pacific Films and one of New Zealand’s most prolific TV producers. He had bought the rights to Deadly Notes and was preparing to make both a TV series and a movie.

Hill nodded. “Yes, that’s Mr. Barnett. I imagine you know each other well, right?”

Of course they did. Parker looked at Hill again and said, “Then I really misjudged earlier—so you’re the newly famous author, Mr. Hill.”

Meeting here was a stroke of fate. Hill hadn’t expected to run into one of the potential leads for his film, and happily pulled Parker off to the Daqin Café to talk business.

Parker was equally delighted. Deadly Notes had already exploded beyond New Zealand and even beyond Oceania. After becoming a bestseller in Australia, the novel had gone on sale in Europe and the US, achieving tremendous success.

What Hill didn’t know was that Parker had been following the book closely. With his keen instincts, he realized that once adapted into film and television, it was bound to be a hit—the novel’s appeal lay in its story and logic, practically tailor-made for adaptation.

The two left happily together. Someone who saw their backs turned to the person beside them and said, “I think I just saw Craig Parker.”

“Who? Craig Parker? You must be seeing things. How could he be here? He’s probably off filming somewhere.”

“That’s true. Come on, cheers. I must be seeing things—I clearly haven’t drunk enough.”

Wang Bo had no idea that this celebration had accidentally led to such good fortune. He was chatting with the townsfolk at the venue, and also arranged for someone to take away Ben McGee, who was drunk and sprawled on the ground.

This party also served as the opening act for the election. Once September arrived, regions across the country began collecting votes. The once-every-four-years general election for prime minister had finally entered its countdown.

After the general election came smaller local and township elections, so September was also known as “Crazy Month,” when voters everywhere went all out supporting their chosen candidates.

Wang Bo often saw election-related news—every day, someone expressed support for a candidate by streaking, storming public places, or creating sensational headlines.

The candidate chosen by the Labor–Green alliance was named Carmetti Johnson. He had a strong chance of winning this year, and his support currently surpassed that of the incumbent Prime Minister Lawrence.

On September 10, while people in China on the far side of the ocean were celebrating Teachers’ Day, New Zealand officially began election voting.

Early in the morning, Wang Bo arrived at the government office to oversee matters. There were five vote-counting machines, similar to airline self-service ticket kiosks but used in reverse: ballots were inserted, automatically read, and the results transmitted online for tallying.

According to election rules, since 1996 New Zealand has adopted a “Mixed-Member Proportional” system. The party that wins the most parliamentary seats is given priority to form a government.

New Zealand’s general election is a nationwide direct vote for the ruling party. Every New Zealand citizen and approved permanent resident is legally required to vote, including eligible voters overseas, who must vote at overseas government polling stations or by mail.

If someone cannot vote on election day, they may vote in advance. The machines in Sunset Town already contained more than a hundred recorded votes.

Besides the counting machines, many items hung in the government hall: portraits of the candidates, as well as the policies they promised to implement once in office.

There were far more than just two candidates—other parties had also nominated their own—but everyone knew the final result would come down to the Labor–Green alliance and the National Party. The rest were merely running as extras.

The Labor–Green alliance was smart. Instead of speaking vaguely about environmental protection and greenery, they put forward a wide range of concrete livelihood policies.

On sensitive issues such as housing, taxation, education, healthcare, foreign investment and immigration, and social welfare, the Labor–Green alliance had publicly released detailed plans for governance.

Wang Bo printed out these policies and posted them in the most visible spots so people could easily read them. As for the National Party’s policies? Sorry—there was no space left to post them.

Of course, he did this deliberately. Large portraits of candidates from all major parties dominated the walls, and the little remaining space was given over to policy statements from the other parties.