Chapter 104: Strange Things
"Caroline?" Alan was surprised. He thought Caroline was on his side. "What's wrong with you? Are you serious?"
"I didn't ask you to listen to me." Caroline said quickly, "You all know, Alan, Simon, my mother has been looking for a blind date for me since last year, and I had decided to quit my job and come back this year. You don't have to do the same as me."
Such an excuse obviously could not convince Allen. The young man, who was only one year younger than Caroline, shook his head again and again: "That's not what you really mean, Caroline. We have been playing together since we were young, and we only separated when you became a waiter in a restaurant."
Caroline sighed. They were all her childhood playmates. She didn't want Alan to misunderstand that she didn't support him, but she didn't want Alan to think that she liked to lie, so she could only say, "I just... I do plan to stay, really Alan. I understand your concerns, and I feel the same way, but... if I have a choice, I would rather stay in town."
After a pause, the 23-year-old girl showed a bitter smile that didn't match her age: "When we met before, I said I was fine, but I was lying. I just couldn't let go of my face. I... I'm tired of working in a restaurant. I hate it."
"You may not understand that my job is not as simple as just working hard. Let me put it this way, there will always be bored men who look at you with critical eyes, say rude things that make you angry, and even discuss loudly in front of you how much money it is worth to keep a small town girl like us."
Caroline spread her hands and said irritably, "If someone points at me and says, look, that girl is from Westham, then everyone around me will laugh, as if I am a living joke just standing there."
"We are not allowed to get angry or panic, because that would lower the class of a high-end restaurant. If you dare to cry, you are done for. Your salary will be reduced by two levels, and you will be sent back to the kitchen to start as a dishwasher." Caroline said angrily, "It is common to be touched on the buttocks or pinched on the waist unexpectedly. After all, we waiters in high-end restaurants wear eye-catching short skirts."
"You always say that it's so easy to make money by working as a waiter in such a beautiful big store... In fact, I have wanted to switch jobs with others countless times." Caroline smiled bitterly and glanced at the surprised faces of her childhood playmates. "I am willing to stay in a dusty workshop in sweaty and dirty clothes. Really, I really want to."
Alan's expression changed several times. He wanted to say something, but finally shook his head.
Yes, working in a factory is not pleasant. The heavy physical labor and strict workshop supervisors are annoying, especially when part of the salary has to be paid to the trade union that has never done anything for them, which makes people feel even more resentful.
But...factories don't hire everyone. For example, the leather factory where he and Simon had worked for several years only wanted male workers between the ages of sixteen and forty. They didn't want older workers or women.
"If I stay in Westham, at least no one will laugh at me just because I'm from Westham. Plus, the salary Mr. Rex gives is really fair." Caroline finally said, "The undead mayor appointed by Mr. Rex is willing to recruit people from brothels as clerks, and he doesn't reject women from being sanitation workers or doing odd jobs. I think I can always find a job."
Alan sighed, knowing that he couldn't convince his companions.
"Let's stay together, Alan." Simon said after a moment of silence, "No matter what happens in the future, at least Mr. Rex is now the lord of Westram, isn't he? Even if he will be driven away by others in the future, we can at least make some money during this period." After a pause, the young man said seriously, "Believe me, if we stay together... we can make a lot of money!"
The short Benjamin was the youngest among them, only 19 years old. He had a better relationship with Simon, who was only two years older than him, than with Caroline and Alan, who were slightly older. He asked curiously, "Simon, do you want us to do something with you?"
"Yes." Simon nodded vigorously and said loudly, "We can be merchants and sell the things that Mr. Rex sells to people somewhere else!"
Allen, who had been against staying, was shocked: "What are you talking about? Where do we get the money?"
The four of them all worked in Innadri. Benjamin, who had the shortest working experience, was an apprentice in a shoemaker's shop for four years, but they really didn't save any money.
The reason is not that they are extravagant, but... the cost of living in Westham is too high, and their salaries have to be brought back by others to support their family expenses.
"So we have to earn our capital first." Simon said with a sharp look in his eyes. "Now many families have bought the good cloth that Mr. Rex had sold to them at a reasonable price. My grandmother also used her savings to buy more than 20 meters of cloth and hid it in the closet. We can first find people close to us and persuade them to give us the cloth for resale. After the sale, we can give them the capital of the cloth and half of the profit. We only want the other half of the profit."
"My grandmother only spent ten copper coins per meter to buy cloth. If we take this cloth out, we can sell it for twenty or twenty-five copper coins!"
"We can help our close ones resell cloth and earn at least five copper coins per meter of cloth!" Simon waved his arms excitedly to his friends, "And what do we need to pay? We just need to collect money and rent two carriages from the carriage rental company!"
"Since Nadeli wants to collect business taxes, we can sell them in the countryside farther away, or send them to manor farms! We can make money no matter how we sell them!"
Alan's mouth opened wide and Caroline's eyes widened.
Benjamin jumped up with joy and hung on Simon: "I want to go with you, Simon! You have to take me with you!"
Simon laughed, letting Benjamin hang on him, and sincerely invited Alan and Caroline: "Want to join us?"
Alan hesitated for two seconds, gritted his teeth, and held out his hand: "Count me in."
"And me." Caroline also stretched out her hand excitedly .
Seeing the three of them put their hands together, Benjamin quickly got off Simon and held the boys' hands tightly with his two hands that were soaked in shoe polish and couldn't be washed white. "Me too, me too!"
Simon took out all the money he had on him on the spot, and discussed with his friends how to rent a car and how to persuade close people to give them the cloth to resell...
The four young men discussed it lively for a while, and Benjamin, the youngest, suddenly said, "I say, why don't we go see Mr. Rex and ask him to give us some cloth to ship out and sell?"
Simon didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Don't say stupid things, Benjamin. It's not that easy to meet the Lord."
Caroline said, "Well... I heard from my grandfather that Mr. Rex is easy to see... They can see him every day when they get their meals."
"Hey, Caroline, you don't think Benjamin's nonsense will work, do you?" Simon was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.
Benjamin said innocently, "I'm not kidding. My mother always said that Mr. Rex is a very kind gentleman. Why not give it a try?"
"I say, can we talk about something serious?" Alan said helplessly.
"Wait, Benjamin's idea is feasible." Caroline said with shining eyes, "My grandfather also said that Mr. Rex is the most generous gentleman he has ever seen in his life. I believe my grandfather will not make a mistake. And now Mr. Rex sells . He wants the townspeople to trust him, right? Then let's go and ask him. Even if he doesn't agree, I don't think he will punish us."
Alan and Simon looked at each other, a little shaken, and a little felt that this was not a reliable approach...
Caroline was a very opinionated person and had blind faith in her grandfather. Seeing that her friends did not object, she hurriedly dragged the three of them to the main street in the town.
As soon as the four arrived at the intersection, they saw... a long queue on the side of the road that stretched as far as the eye could see.
"What are you doing?" Alan was surprised.
"They should be... hiring?" Simon looked around and pointed at someone in the line. "That should be it. Look, my uncle is in there too."
A man in a small fur hat in the long queue heard the familiar voice, turned around and saw his nephew, and quickly waved his hand and shouted: "Simon! You little bastard, you ran away so early in the morning and I was looking for you for a long time! Hurry up and queue up at the back, or you will miss your turn when there are enough people!"
"Sorry uncle, I have more important things to do!" Simon quickly pulled his friends and ran away.
"What big deal can happen to you! Come back quickly!" Simon's uncle stamped his feet anxiously, but was reluctant to leave the team.
The four young men ran for a while across the street where there was a long queue, and finally got a glimpse of the queue - there were two square tables in front of the gate of the largest club, and several young ladies were busy registering the townspeople who were queuing up to sign up.
Caroline walked closer out of curiosity and found that... those ladies seemed to be from the brothel on this street. Their skin was tanned a lot, but their faces and figures were still very outstanding, which was definitely not something you would see in ordinary people.
"Is this the clerk in the town hall hired by the undead mayor?" Caroline couldn't help but feel a little envious. No matter what these ladies' original lives were like, being able to work in such a respectable place was Caroline's dream.
It was still early in the morning and the temperature was not high, but the clerks were already sweating; they quickly registered the names of the townspeople and gave those who had registered finger-length bamboo slips with different symbols on them.
Caroline walked closer out of curiosity and heard a lady in a slightly hoarse voice tell the townspeople who had just received the bamboo slips: "This is your work certificate for today. The number on it is today's date, and the text is your name. Remember to keep it well. After work, the on-site supervisor will ask you to line up and draw a red line on your bamboo slips with a special pen. You can bring the bamboo slips with the red line to the town hall to collect your salary, or you can come to collect it later. Just don't lose the bamboo slips."
Caroline thought about what the clerk said and nodded silently... It would be too busy to record the names of so many people one by one and pay them. It would be much simpler to use this kind of bamboo slip as a settlement voucher - even if it was counterfeited, they would not be able to cheat people out of their money without the red line drawn with a special pen.
Caroline wanted to get closer to take a look, but her friend grabbed her collar in time.
"Don't go over there. If you do, people will misunderstand you as someone who wants to cut in line." Simon reminded Caroline sweatily to look to the side. The people in the front were glaring at them fiercely.
Caroline didn't want to be scolded by others, so she quickly retreated.
The people who received the bamboo strips were divided into different groups and taken away in batches by the security guards wearing the uniforms of the former militia. Jimmy, who was maintaining order, saw the four of them and waved his hand, saying, "Simon, Alan! What are you doing here? If you want to do odd jobs, you have to queue up!"
Jimmy was close in age to the four young men, and they had played together before. When Simon saw his acquaintance, his eyes lit up and he quickly went up to them: "Jimmy, we want to see Mr. Rex!"
Jimmy: “Huh?”
"Who wants to see me?" A man turned around curiously in the noisy crowd.
Half a block away, the four young men were caught off guard... and saw Charlie Rex, the person they had been speculating and discussing for a long time.
When they saw the new lord clearly, the four young men opened their mouths wide - so young!
He seems to be only a few years older than them!
He looks even younger than Jimmy, who also played with them as a child!
Rex looked at the three men and one woman, confirmed that he didn't know any of them, and turned his attention to his security teammate Jimmy who was talking to the four people.
"This, this is my friend, and he's from town too," Jimmy introduced nervously.
"I'm Charlie Rex, what's the matter?" Rex smiled gently at the four young men from the small town.
Caroline, who was standing at the front, didn't care about being nervous, and instinctively stood up and replied: "Hello, dear sir, I am Caroline Megan, I, we hope to talk to you."
Rex waved to Jimmy to return to the team, then smiled and nodded at Caroline and the others: "Okay, come over here."
Rex couldn't help laughing as he patiently listened to these brave young men from small towns stutteringly explain their purpose.
"Of course." Rex said happily, "You don't have to rent a car if you want to do this business. I can rent a tricycle for you. But the current price of cloth is already the lowest, and the price cannot be reduced if you buy in bulk. Do you agree?"
The four young men were so surprised that they almost jumped up on the spot.
"Of course, of course." Caroline said nervously, "But, but we don't have enough capital..."
"I can sell the first batch of goods to you on credit. You can settle the payment when you come to pick up the goods next time." Rex said kindly, "There are also taxes. The 10% transaction tax and your personal high-income income tax must be paid in full."
"Okay, okay!" Caroline then let go, showing an ecstatic smile and nodding desperately.
"Then let's sign the contract and get the goods." Rex waved his hand and immediately led the four young men to the town hall.
The four young men who had eaten the crabs seemed to be sleepwalking. They had no strong sense of reality along the way. Only when they arrived at the town hall and the contract was placed in front of them did they suddenly come to their senses.
"Can you really give us the cloth?" Simon looked up stupidly and said in a dreamy voice.
"Of course, this is not something you can joke about." Rex took out red ink from the drawer of his desk and said, "Read the terms of the contract carefully. If there are no problems, sign and put your fingerprints on it."
Among the four, Alan was literate - his family was better off than the other three and he went to school when he was a child.
But Allen didn't have the courage to look at the contract in front of the Lord, so he took the red ink and pressed his fingerprints...
Rex didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "That's not how the contract is signed. Come on, I'll read it to you."
The four young men looked at each other...not daring to refuse.
After completing the contract procedures and receiving a copy of the contract, the four young men were led to the warehouse of the town hall. When they saw the warehouse full of cloth rolls, their jaws dropped uncontrollably...
Half an hour later, the four men who came empty-handed walked out of the town hall compound, pushing two tricycles filled with cloth rolls.
After walking for quite a distance, Simon, who was driving the front of the car, turned back with a confused look on his face: "Guys, we just... got two carts of cloth? We didn't pay a single copper coin?"
Alan was frightened by him and shouted, "Wake up, Simon, this is not for free. You have to settle the payment after the sale! The four of us have signed and stamped our fingerprints. Our families are all in town. Don't hurt anyone!"
"I'm not that crazy!" Simon said with a smile, "I just can't believe... Mr. Rex is so easy to talk to!"
"Mr. Rex has a lot of cloth." Benjamin swallowed his saliva and said dreamily, "Simon, if we sell all these cloths, can we make a lot of money?"
"Of course!" Simon was excited when he mentioned this. "Mr. Rex said that he would give us as much cloth as we can sell. We have signed the contract - guys, we are going to be rich!"
"I'm going to be rich!" Benjamin jumped up and hung on Simon again.
"Wait, are the four of us pushing so much cloth unsafe?" Caroline giggled for a while, then suddenly calmed down, "If the four of us carry so much cloth to a distant village, will we be robbed?"
Benjamin and Simon, who were in ecstasy, were suddenly sobered by these words.
The nearby villages would come to Westham to buy cloth on their own, so there was no need to buy the expensive goods they sent over.
As for the villages farther away, such as those in Innadri, they are not familiar with them at all, and there is no telling whether they will be robbed!
"Call for help." Simon gritted his teeth and said, "Let's go back and call for help. Call all those who can come... We can settle the wages after we sell the cloth. We can even earn a little less."
As a result, none of the four young men dared to leave the two carts of cloth, and they ran from house to house, looking for relatives and friends...
Caroline's mother, Lady Winnie, almost fainted when she learned that her daughter was so bold as to do business with the lord for cloth on credit.
After further questioning, she found out that her daughter had even signed the contract and put her fingerprints on it, so there was no possibility of her going back on her word. Ms. Winnie wished she could faint again.
The reactions of the other three families were similar to that of Megan's family...
What sin did this small town family, who had lived a cautious life for generations, commit to raise such a bold and reckless offspring who could bring such a disaster to the family without even realizing it? !
Others are worried about not getting their monthly salary even when they are employed, but you guys dare to do business with the new lord!
In desperation, the elders of these four families had to hold their noses and call on friends everywhere...
Rex didn't know that what he thought was an opportunity for the young people turned out to be a mess among the four families. After sending the four people away, he turned to look for Ji Tang.
There are more than twenty villages in the Westham territory, the closest of which is less than three kilometers away from Westham Town, and the farthest is in the mountainous area more than thirty miles away. In order to roughly determine the amount of funds needed for the unified purchase of autumn harvest grain, Ji Tang has already informed Rex and asked Rex to take time out to go to the countryside for research.
If it weren't for his skeleton appearance getting in the way, Ji Tang would have planned to go by himself...
The mayor and the lord, the two local "highest commanders", met and took out the all-terrain mountain bikes they had ridden from the Exile Town. Then one man and one undead rode the mountain bikes out of the town.
"The records of village heads registered in the town hall are from more than 20 years ago. The previous mayor really...didn't manage any other place except Westham Town during his tenure." On the way, even Rex, who was good-tempered, couldn't help complaining, "I don't know how many times these village heads have changed. Ji Tang, what do you think we should do with these people?"
"We are new here and don't know the situation. Let's not jump to conclusions. We need to investigate thoroughly first." Ji Tang was used to giving advice on everything, and said patiently, "Even if we really want to rectify the situation in the village, we can't do it right away. At least wait until we have a firm foothold and a certain mass base before considering it."
Rex was silent for a moment, then said, "Can't we let the undead serve as village chiefs?"
Ji Tang: “…I don’t think so.”
Brother Lahong fought hard to become the mayor of Exile Town, but his ambition didn't last for two days before he went back to leading a team on monster-killing quests... It is completely unrealistic to expect players to engage in tedious, boring and unrewarding administrative work in the "game".
Rex hesitated for a moment, then nodded reluctantly: "Okay... I'll listen to you."
The countryside of Westham is similar to the southern villages of China, except that there are no rice fields. The locals grow more wheat and corn.
This is not to say that there is no rice in this world, but that growing rice requires higher basic water conservancy projects - in a remote place like Westram, even the only town road was built by the flesh trade, so there is no way around it for farmland water conservancy projects.
After visiting several villages and meeting some brave local villagers to learn about local agriculture, Ji Tang, who had only grown vegetables in the two years before joining the army, had countless ideas about bringing technology to the countryside to help farmers and alleviate poverty...
On the way to the next village, the two people riding on the ridge of the field saw from afar a large group of people appearing on the town road in the northeast direction.
Rex stopped his mountain bike and looked at the group of people.
The distance was very far and I could only vaguely see an outline, but... I didn't need to see too clearly to confirm that these people were up to no good!
Not only were they riding horses, but they were also wearing shiny armor that reflected the midday sun!
"It's the enemy!" Rex said to Ji Tang solemnly.
Ji Tang also saw the shining armor on the horsemen.
However, unlike Rex's reaction of facing a great enemy, the first thought that came to Ji Tang's mind was: There comes a monster.
