The screen finally changed.
Charts appeared.
Clean.
Elegant.
Misleading.
The Accusation
A council member spoke without emotion.
"Your interventions correlate with destabilization in three regional health administrations."
The word correlate hung in the air.
Not accuse.
Not prove.
Just imply.
System Alert
[System Warning: Narrative Framing Detected.]
[Suggested Action: Immediate Statistical Rebuttal.]
Lin Chen did not interrupt.
He watched the data scroll.
The axes were correct.
The scales were not.
Controlled Misdirection
They highlighted:
Administrative delays
Budget reallocations
Policy reversals
All true.
All consequences of survival.
What they didn't show:
The death curves before intervention.
Lin Chen Speaks
"Correlation," he said calmly,
"is what remains when causation is inconvenient."
The room stilled.
The Counterquestion
He leaned forward slightly.
"Would you prefer stability,"
"or continuity of failure?"
No one answered.
System Log
[System Log: Rhetorical Dominance — Increasing.]
[Public Sentiment Projection: Divided.]
Lin Chen didn't push further.
Not yet.
A Seed Planted
He had not disproved them.
He had reframed the choice.
And choices made people uncomfortable.
End of Chapter