Chapter 765.1: The Unexpected Is The Normal State Of Life

House: “Drowning in sweet dreams, perishing in madness... That is probably the truest portrayal of Dawn City’s survivors. They drove the valuation of a fish-selling company all the way up 25,000,000,000 silver coins. The New Alliance does not even have that much money combined! This is far more expensive than the S Coins that destroyed Boulder Town!”

“You can clearly see that they learned absolutely nothing from Boulder Town’s painful lesson. Instead, they cradle garbage in their palms as though it were treasure, while casting aside genuine treasures like worn-out shoes.”

“Boulder Town’s former greatness did not come from chips. It came from those hardworking laborers! Yet the New Alliance is handing money out to those people... Ahem, what I mean is, if people can earn an income without working, what fool would still choose to work? They are using the wrong methods to corrupt these diligent people into idlers and drunkards!”

“I’ll leave my words here. The New Alliance will collapse sooner or later. Everyone carrying silver coins in their pockets will regret it in the end. It is only a matter of time!”

Host : “(applause) Then, Mr. House, what do you believe would be the correct approach?”

House: “Mr. Sigma is doing quite well. Although the Flintstone Group has monopolized Bugra Free State’s most profitable industries, that gentleman would never be stupid enough to distribute dividends to shareholders... Of course, what I mean is that this is a good thing. The Flintstone Group quietly and imperceptibly spreads its benefits into the pockets of everyone in the Free State, giving back to the entire settlement rather than fattening the wallets of a small group of shareholders. Their loss-making financial statements are the best proof. They have always been losing money, yet they continue operating diligently! Unlike the administrator, who buys popular support, Mr. Sigma is the true philanthropist working silently behind the scenes, a genuinely good man!”

Host “(sound of drinking water) I also believe Mr. Sigma is doing the right thing, but that gentleman is not someone you are qualified to evaluate... Alright, that concludes our interview. Today’s subject is Baiyue Strait Development Company. Let us move on to our next interviewee...”

Soft music began playing from the radio behind the bar, and the host proceeded to interview another victim of the Boulder Town bankruptcy.

Recent events in Dawn City had deeply wounded the residents of the Bugra Free State. Those poor children with injured hearts needed a little spiritual massage to lower their blood pressure. After all, the New Alliance and the Bugra Free State were situated far too close to one another. Heaven and hell somehow existed within the same province, and merchants frequently traveled between the two. Inevitably, idle gossip was carried back and forth.

That was true for both sides. For instance, Boulder Town’s radios could receive their broadcast.

Also, Boulder Town’s residents were far too familiar with that distinctive, hoarse duck-like voice.

“Sometimes I really don’t understand... Has that man ever listened carefully to what he says?” A middle-aged man eating breakfast at the dining table made a helpless expression.

It had been his suggestion to change the station and see how Mr. House’s illness was progressing, but he was regretting it. Listening to that fellow bark was worse than hearing frontline battle reports. The latter might be somewhat dull, but at least they were not quite so boring.

A server approached carrying a tray, shrugged, and placed a palm-sized roasted rib on the table. “No idea, but it seems our New Alliance is collapsing again. After all, House is a genius who can predict everything, right?”

“Hahahaha!”

The waiter made everyone laugh. The workers eating breakfast doubled over, and several nearly choked.

They were in the Walnut Tavern near Boulder Town’s industrial district. Its weathered signboard showed clear traces of age. In the past, workers from the factory had habitually come over to pick up discarded cigarette butts and smoke them while drinking watered-down, low-quality alcohol. Now, before starting work, they usually ordered a 3 Silver beef rib so they could remain at peak energy between 8:00 in the morning and noon.

Drunkards who became completely intoxicated first thing in the morning were ultimately a minority. Most people still cared about appearing respectable, especially once they had accumulated savings and started families.

Only after they possessed everything did they realize that all those things called refinement, elegance, dignity, and the rest were never the exclusive privileges of the nobility. They were merely a series of lies woven by people who gained without labor in order to suppress workers spiritually.

The workers could see it most clearly for themselves. Once their lives improved, they understood shame and etiquette far better than the former nobles ever had. At the very least, they would not use money to humiliate their compatriots, nor would they demand privileges that placed them above the dignity of others.

Although the mainstream media of the Bugra Free State habitually referred to what happened in Boulder Town as the “Great Boulder Town Bankruptcy,” Boulder Town’s residents themselves preferred to call it the “Great Boulder Town Transformation.”

House, who had just been invited onto the radio to complain, was one of that transformation’s victims.

As the workers around the table mocked House, only one person looked at him with a trace of sympathy.

When Joey and Lorette led the occupation of the radio station, that man had been among them. When they released House, he had clearly seen the expression on House’s face.

“I don’t actually dislike him. That fellow is also a pitiful man, and he is even more pitiful now. We were all hamsters trapped in the same cage. After finally escaping it, we could run somewhere other than the exercise wheel. Yet before dawn arrived, he panicked and crawled straight into another cage... I have to admit, we really did frighten him badly at the time.”

That broadcasting studio was, in a sense, simply another production line. The condescending host clearly did not respect House very much, and Sigma, whom House praised, was even less likely to do so.

The people seated at the table exchanged glances.

“I cannot agree with you. At least in my view, that man is not worthy of sympathy. He never said a single good thing about us. Only at the very end did he claim that he had been forced. Looking at him now, he was lying back then as well. He has never reflected on anything.”

“Exactly. If he truly believed he was wrong, he would not have fled from here. Isn’t there a saying? Liars are not actually afraid of their lies being exposed. They are afraid that someone will remember they once lied. Everyone here remembers.”

Many people agreed with those words, though not everyone did.

“... But precisely because of that, I think it was understandable that he fled. We established laws, but too many people hated him. Even if we would not persecute him systematically, we could not stop an emotionally unstable friend from throwing a bottle at him, or even putting a bullet into the back of his head.”

The noisy argument continued until the timekeeping bell rang. The second it did, the workers abandoned the mess of cups and plates and headed toward their workplaces.

In the past, they had been required to arrive at the factory precisely when the bell rang. However, the Workers’ Association had argued that workers do not own watches and only know the time after leaving home when they hear the bell and that people need to eat their fill before they can work energetically. On those grounds, it demanded that factories either provide free meals or allow workers 20 minutes of commuting time.

Although the reasoning sounded somewhat ridiculous, the factories ultimately chose the lesser of two evils. In exchange for a guarantee that production schedules would not be affected and that workers would not drink before starting work, it granted them twenty minutes of paid commuting time.

For factories, merely getting those drunkards to drink a little less was already enough to increase output considerably.

As for the workers, even if only to preserve the dignity they had fought so hard to obtain, they would work a little more conscientiously.

What no one expected, however, was that the greatest beneficiaries of the negotiations between the Workers’ Association and the Industrial Department would be the breakfast shop owners and food-cart vendors around the industrial district. Some taverns that had previously remained closed in the morning even began operating for 18 or even 24 hours a day.

Longer opening hours meant more employees were needed. Otherwise, the shopowners would have to pay expensive overtime wages. As a result, even Boulder Town, which had never lacked laborers, began experiencing a labor shortage.

Fortunately, the survivors continuously pouring into the walls filled that gap, especially immigrants from the Poro Province and the central provinces. Most began by washing dishes.

But not all of them did.

Niyan, for instance, was an exception. While most people obtained identity cards by washing dishes, he immediately conceived the idea of paying to work, hiring a New Alliance citizen to act as his employer.

And that was not all. While the foolish Wolffolk guards were still trying to think of ways to amuse the Duke, he had already come up with a brilliant idea, opening his own newspaper dedicated exclusively to writing things Duke Garawa enjoyed reading.

It was actually very easy. He did not even need to waste brainpower thinking of content, because House had already done that work for him. All he needed to do was pinch his nose, copy the nonsense House babbled in the studio onto paper, season it slightly, and serve it on Duke Garawa’s table.

The newspaper was called the Dawn Garden Street Gazette. “Dawn” naturally referred to Dawn City, while Garden Street was a historical place name in Clearspring City.

No one would know it was merely an obscure little tabloid, because it was never publicly distributed.

That also exploited a minor loophole in New Alliance law, much like the method he had originally used to obtain his identity.

Only newspapers distributed publicly required accreditation from the Industrial Department. His newspaper’s only readers were Duke Garawa and the staff of the Xilande Empire’s embassy. It was printed under the category of office consumables and did not even need to carry an entertainment label.

In fact, the Dawn Garden Street Gazette was not registered as a newspaper company at all. Its declared business categories were office supplies and infant products.

The newspaper was merely something they produced along the way.

Naturally, because the Dawn City authorities mercilessly suppressed liars, the Dawn Garden Street Gazette existed in a precarious condition and required donations from kindhearted individuals to continue spreading their “truth.”

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.