High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1029: Chapter 91 On Fair Language

Regarding the Doctor’s last words, Zheng Qing somewhat disagreed.

”You can’t say that!”

The young state-funded student raised his eyebrows, shaking his head in dissatisfaction, ”We also heard the speech in front of the library that day. The choice of words was quite reasonable... unlike today’s report, which purely distorted the facts, substituted concepts, maliciously speculated, and unjustly defamed!”

”This is because of bias,” Xiao Xiao adjusted his glasses and corrected, ”You stand from Jiuyou Academy’s perspective, so naturally, you feel the ’Death of Lineage’ makes a lot of sense. But if you stand from Alpha Academy’s perspective, that speech was very accusatory. Not a single person from Alpha Academy would appreciate that speech.”

”I can testify to that!” Zhang Ji Xin immediately raised his hand, adding, ”You guys were only focused on listening to the speech that day, you didn’t see the expressions on Sepulano and Friedman... Sepulano was okay, he’s scheming, squinting from beginning to end, expressionless. Friedman isn’t as crafty, his face was livid with anger. I bet if there weren’t a few ’Triple-A Club’ members stopping him, Friedman would have definitely wrecked the event.”

”Isn’t Friedman a vampire? His face should be deathly pale normally,” Xin Fat Man muttered under his breath.

Zheng Qing couldn’t help but laugh.

Then, he noticed Matthew, sitting in the front row of the classroom, turning his face, looking somewhat unhappy—creatures like werewolves and vampires are always a bit more sensitive than ordinary wizards in sensory aspects.

Zheng Qing immediately remembered Matthew’s identity, as well as his relationship with Friedman, and quickly waved his hands to his companions, signaling towards where Matthew was.

Everyone then restrained themselves a bit.

Nicholas’s mood had also calmed down quite a bit by now. He pointed to the part about himself in the text, sighed, ”I actually didn’t intend to treat her harshly... just wanted her report to be a bit more objective and fair. Don’t you all think this counts as manipulating public opinion? Shouldn’t the school, or the Mage Alliance, handle this kind of thing?”

”Public opinion? What is public opinion?” Xiao Xiao counter-questioned, then, grabbing a feather pen, drew a circle in mid-air, ”Only that which captures the attention of people is public opinion. Public opinion is never manipulated; it simply provides a new focal point for people. It’s not about fairness, it’s merely a unique perspective of reporting.”

”Pandering to the crowd, disregarding fairness, typical of someone from Alpha Academy,” Zheng Qing sneered, ”If I were the chief editor, I would definitely write the report with an objective and fair attitude.”

”Your comment just now is just like Ms. Pulitzer’s reports, filled with bias. The so-called fairness is actually just a compromise between different opinions; there is no true objectivity and fairness in the world.” Noticing that Zheng Qing still looked unconvinced, Xiao Xiao changed the question:

”If you were to describe Blue Bird in one word, what would it be?”

Hearing this question, Zheng Qing was somewhat puzzled, tentatively replied, ”Cold on the outside, warm on the heart?”

Xiao Xiao pulled out a piece of paper, wrote down Blue Bird’s name, then next to the name, he wrote Zheng Qing’s four-character assessment, continuing to ask, ”Describe Mike Gold Cypress Plano with a word.”

”Warm on the outside, cold on the heart,” Zheng Qing slightly adjusted the order of the previous words, decisively giving his opinion, ”That guy, he looks friendly and smiles at everyone, but in reality, he’s extremely ruthless.”

”Very good,” Xiao Xiao, pointing at the two names on the paper with the tip of his pen, and the four-character assessments next to them, summarized, ”Anytime we start to use language to evaluate a person or an affair, we inherently carry biases; this is the nature of language and it can’t be changed.”

”Just like the two words you just used.”

”Cold on the outside, warm on the heart, reads as a very good phrase, as a commendatory term; while warm on the outside, cold on the heart, just a slight adjustment in order, gives a very negative impression.”

”Both are people whose appearances do not match their hearts, but because of the different attitudes towards others, the linguistic treatment they receive differs as well.”

Having said this, Xiao Xiao folded the paper, put it in his notebook, and concluded, ”So, language is never fair. Words are always biased. As long as we use language to judge others, we naturally carry our own stance.”

This speech was too absolute, much like long ago when Xiao Xiao told Zheng Qing that ’time’ was the only metric standard in the world, it was hard to persuade anyone.

”By your reasoning, are you suggesting there is no fair and objective language in the world?” Zheng Qing retorted.

”It’s not quite that bad.” Xiao Xiao furrowed his brow, slowly shaking his head.

”So there is?” Xin Fat Man seemed very interested in the topic, interrupting to ask, ”Can you give an example or tell us the name of that language?”

Xiao Xiao touched his notebook, hesitated for a moment.

”I’m referring to something like a primitive machine language.” He chose his words carefully, trying to describe the ’fair and objective’ language in terms everyone could understand, ”I could give an example... but that doesn’t mean I’m right. This is just a bit of personal reflection.”

The others said nothing, only gesturing with their eyes for Xiao Xiao to continue.

”For instance, individual 1234 represents Blue Bird, and the compounds controlling different emotional chemicals inside his body could be represented as A1-A100, with the secretion volume of each compound in a certain timeframe indicated by values 1-10... things like that.”

”I could say ’individual 1234, compound A5 value 3, compound A1 value 9, compound B2 value 2, compound D7 value 10, Alpha organ expands, Bing organ contracts, child system fifth branch nerve signal frequency XX...’ something along those lines.”

The audience looked at each other, all with a face of confusion.

”What the heck is this!” Zhang Ji Xin expressed everyone’s thoughts with a brief comment.

As the Hunting Team Leader, Zheng Qing had to appear slightly more competent than the others.

Thus, he cleared his throat and tentatively asked, ”Um, you just mentioned the A series represents different emotional chemicals in the body... so what about the B series, D series, and that Alpha, Bing, Yi, Ding... what do they all mean?”

”How should I know?!” Xiao Xiao rolled his eyes, looking at everyone with disdain, ”As I said, this is just an example. Using this language would minimize ’subjective wording’ and maximize ’objective description’... it’s just an expression. If such a language really existed, there probably would be a dictionary for you to consult.”

The conversation fell a bit cold for a moment.

After a few seconds of silence, Nicholas seemed to finally come back to his senses, softly coughing.

”Cough cough, so, if you eventually change your mind and decide to trouble that journalist, remember to let me know.” The sallow-faced repeat student’s eyeballs resumed their previous trembling, looking very seriously at Zheng Qing, ”Though I can’t help much, I will do everything I can.”

With that, he glanced back at the front rows of the classroom.

There sat the star students from Astronomy Class 08-1, the Witch division.

”I don’t want Fifi overthinking this matter.” He added finally.

The other Warlocks emitted ambiguous, soft chuckles.

”Definitely, definitely.” Zheng Qing stretched a smile, touching the tip of his nose, ”If I have a plan, I will definitely notify you!”