Chapter 60: Marquis Xia's Fault (2)
Chen Hao was confused. Wasn't it tens of billions? How did it become hundreds of billions?
Su Yu did not bother explaining. He said, "Don't worry. The higher ups aren't stupid. They won't do anything that will incite unrest. The prefect is only in seclusion. He is still around. Are they not afraid that they will get in trouble with the prefect if they push things too far?"
Su Yu was confident that Marquis Xia would not create a big trouble for himself. If Marquis Xia was really that stupid, the Xia Trade Company wouldn’t have been able to monopolize the market of cultivation resources in Great Xia.
Of course, his background also played a role in the monopoly, but without the ability, the other players in the market wouldn't sit idle while he took over the market.
"Yu, tell me. What is the reason for this? Why does Marquis Xia need all that money? A lot of people in Great Xia are feeling like beating him to death. His Xia Trade Company is so profitable. He can make money just by selling things there. Why do this?"
Su Yu shook his head, "Nobody will say no to more money. Maybe Marquis Xia enjoys counting money. You can't do anything about that."
Nobody knew that Great Xia's treasury was emptying rapidly. Even though Wan Tiansheng had said as much during the meeting, everyone still believed that he was lying to scare them into following his proposal.
What joke was that? Great Xia was one of the strongest human prefectures with countless experts and a developed economy. Their citizens lived in peace and harmony, and they also dominated the battlefield. How would they be running out of money?
If they were really running out of money, would Xia Longwu still be spending so much? In fact, even if Xia Longwu personally announced that Great Xia was broke, everyone would still laugh and say that the prefect was funny. As far as they were concerned, that wasn't possible.
Su Yu would never consider that possibility. Neither would Chen Hao. After hearing Su Yu's words, Chen Hao was somewhat relieved. He said, "Good, it's good that we won't be affected. My father was considering selling our old house..."
Su Yu cursed inwardly. The Chen family sure was rich. They had an old house in the neighborhood he was staying in. They had not done anything with that house. If they could sell it this time, they could probably make at least a million dollars.
Su Yu rubbed his chin and said, "Hao...is it really very profitable to sell properties now?"
That was a million dollars in cash! Back when Su Long bought this house, he had the military discount and only needed to pay around seventy to eighty thousand dollars for it. The sale restriction period for those purchasing through the military discount was already over. Not too long ago, the house was worth about five hundred thousand. But in the blink of an eye, the house had doubled in value. That was too scary.
Even Su Yu was itching to sell his house. There was too much profit to be had.
Chen Hao looked at Su Yu doubtfully and said, "Yu, you're still thinking about that? Uncle Su will beat you to death after he returns. If you lack money, I'll have my father lend you some."
"What are you thinking?" Su Yu smiled. "I was just wondering. I won't be able to sell it. Even if I want to do it, I need to get my father's approval first. Too bad. This is such a good opportunity to make money."
Chen Hao did not really care. He did not need to pay for his own expenses so he was still unaware of how hard it was to earn money.
Returning to the previous topic, Chen Hao spoke with a somewhat worried tone, "Even if this matter won't affect us, I'm afraid there will still be a lot of people from the capital around during the exam day. I heard that there are a lot of geniuses there. They have a bunch of fifth-stage and sixth-stage Source Opening cultivators. Even seventh-stage and eighth-stage cultivators are commonly seen. Yu...will they laugh at us for being too weak?"
Su Yu was indifferent, "What is there for them to laugh about? If they have to grow up in Nanyuan as well, they might be even worse than you. Sure, we have a bad starting point. But things will even out when we get to the capital. At that time, they might not be able to continue growing faster than us."
He did not overestimate those from the capital. Neither was he underestimating those from Nanyuan. Those from the smaller cities had a harder start, but at Great Xia, everything would be equal. As long as they stay clear to their goal and work hard, many of them would be able to do well. There were plenty of examples of such individuals.
"Fine." Chen Hao stopped talking about the examination. Instead, he asked curiously, "Yu, what are you planning to do now? The school holidays will start in a few days. Why don't we go on a trip somewhere?"
"No thanks." Su Yu still had a lot of things to do. He still needed to complete the character "lightning", practice the Lightning Source Blade, kill a middle-stage Great Strength cult member, read, and grow his willpower. He was very busy.
"You! Focus on your cultivation. Don't go anywhere! I was only speculating, but nothing is absolute. You better reach the fifth-stage before the exam. That will help you during the exam. It's very normal for some of the weaker students to be removed when they need to reduce the accepted students by one or two. That might be you."
Chen Hao's father had given Su Yu three drops of source qi liquid. He had not used a single drop of them. During the past few days, he had been practicing the Lightning Source Blade and hadn't been able to recover his source qi. Since he hadn't opened his One Hundred Openings acupoint, he was unable to actively absorb external source qi, making his recovery slow.
Thus, he was planning to use a drop of source qi liquid soon. He could also use that opportunity to help Chen Hao with his cultivation.
"Fine."
Chen Hao had a sullen expression. He was being forced to read again. If he had known that this would happen, he wouldn't have visited.
...
/p>
At the same time.
Nanyuan mayor's manor.
Mayor Wu Wenhai, Martial Dragon Guards Squad Leader Xia Bing, Liu Wenyan, principal of Nanyuan Secondary School, chief of Windcatcher Department, and many other higher ups of the city were gathered.
Wu Wenhai waited until everyone sat down before saying, "Everyone knows what's happening. The capital intends to sell one house and one residency slot per exam taker. In short, a family with two children will need to purchase two houses and two residency slots for their children. Each house must not be smaller than a hundred square meters."
The principal stroked his beard and hissed before saying, "The marquis is...too scummy."
Wu Wenhai ignored that comment and continued, "Also, we don't have much time before the exam. All outsiders trying to get a slot in Nanyuan will be charged extra ten percent tax."
"..."
Liu Wenyan asked, "So will Nanyuan be making that money or will the money go to the capital?"
"Fifty-fifty split." Wu Wenhai smiled, "This is good for us. The marquis will be taking all the blame while we only need to line our pockets. We won't be affected. Only those from the capital will suffer. But if they're unhappy, they're free to not come. We won't lose anything."
The principal looked anxious, "I'm only afraid that they will steal the slots that are supposed to be ours."
"That won't happen. The higher ups intend to recruit the same number of local students from Nanyuan. At most, they will reduce the intake by one or two students.
"This is actually good for us. The capital initially intended to go all out in their cost-cutting. Even Nanyuan will have about a quarter of our original slots cut. But now, we get to maintain our original slots and even make some money on top of it. Nanyuan isn't a rich city. If we take this chance to earn some money, we will have more funds to allocate when required."
Everyone nodded. Wu Wenhai continued, "This is settled then. Our objection won't do anything anyway. I'm gathering everyone to tell you to let your students know that they shouldn't feel pressured. The higher ups won't make a plan without taking our well-being into consideration.
"Also, things will be chaotic at the capital for a while. We will also receive a lot of visitors. The Windcatcher Department and city guards need to be ready to maintain order in the city. We can't allow the Myriad Race Cult to take advantage of the chaos and incite public outrage."
Wu Wenhai solemnly said, "Some people don't know what's going on and will start spreading false news. The moment the locals get the impression that their benefits are encroached upon by outsiders, chaos will erupt. We need to be on alert."
Everyone agreed. Wu Wenhai let off a long breath and said, "Also, the higher ups want us to try our best to keep these rich people in Nanyuan. Our development has always been slow. With the limited resources here, our economy has never been able to grow much. This is a good opportunity. To be precise, this is money dropping from the sky.
"If we can keep these people around, it will help with Nanyuan's development. Additionally, our secondary school can take this chance to make some money as well."
"What?"
Wu Wenhai smiled, "The marquis said that all exam takers need to be registered as a student of a local school as well. In other words, they will need to enter our secondary schools before taking the exam. You guys decide for yourself how much you're going to be selling a single student slot for. As long as you're not too excessive, everything will be fine."
Liu Wenyan took a deep breath as he said, "That fatty, cough, cough, I mean that Marquis Xia is really not letting go of any avenue of money making. Increasing taxes, selling student slots, selling properties, selling residency slots...He won't stop before making a couple hundred thousand dollars from each family."
Wu Wenhai laughed helplessly, "That's how Marquis Xia is. He made things very clear. The parents are free to reject spending the money. He's not going to force anyone. They can always have their kids take the exam in the capital. He won't stop them. So...nobody can do anything to him."
"The marquis's money making ability is truly..." the principal clicked his tongue in praise. "I wonder if Great Xia King is aware of this. Would he beat the marquis to death if he finds out?"
"Well, that's not our business." Wu Wenhai nonchalantly said, "The marquis will have to take the blame himself. Then again, he's already used to being the fall guy. It's not like this has never happened before. Back then, he sold merit points at the black market and scammed billions of dollars from those rich families. But in the end, the entire scandal was swept under the rug."
Everyone had odd expressions on their faces upon hearing that. There were different tiers of merit point owners. There were things that would not be available to purchase regardless of how many merit points one had.
A few years ago, a black market appeared in Great Xia. In that market, everything was available for purchase so long as one could afford it, sidestepping the tier system set by the government.
Naturally, the things in the black market were excessively overpriced. Furthermore, the black market only accepted merit points. At that time, the value of a single merit point grew beyond a hundred thousand dollars. Things that could be purchased with merit points also doubled in price.
In the black market, sellers could earn ten times the profit of selling outside the black market. Even with the excessive price, many rich individuals were still willing to throw their wealth into the black market. Eventually, it was revealed that Marquis Xia was the culprit behind the black market.
The black market was busted and the merit points the rich individuals bought in the black market went to waste. The bust was carried out by Xia Longwu himself.
It wasn’t like the merit points of the black market customers had been frozen or confiscated by the government, but without the black market, these rich individuals were no longer capable of buying the things they had intended to buy with their merit points.
After all, they did not have sufficient original earned merit to purchase those items legally. Thus, they ended up with hundreds of thousands of merit points in their possession but could only buy items worth hundreds of merit points. The merit points in their pockets were basically worthless.
And they couldn't even sell those merit points away as Xia Longwu had all their names. They did not dare to rashly sell their merit points lest they accidentally sold to some cult members and got themselves in trouble.
After that incident, Marquis Xia had remained low profile for many years. But now, he was out and about lining his pockets everywhere again.
It was rumored that he had earned tens of billions of dollars through the black market. Nobody knew where the money went, and nobody dared to ask. In any case, the money had only been earned from some rich families instead of the common people so the masses were unbothered by it.
Liu Wenyan and the others did not remark on the incident. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that Xia Longwu had always been known for his discipline, many would suspect that the entire black market incident was a trap of the prefect to make some money off the rich individuals.
But since only the few rich individuals were affected, the incident had remained relatively unknown among the masses. During that period of time, Marquis Xia's reputation was terrible among the rich. It was also then that he came to be known as Pig Xia.
Everyone started laughing as they talked about the marquis. Liu Wenyan was laughing as well, but suddenly, he sighed. That fatty was now a professional fall guy. Nowadays, there were probably very few people that still remembered the elegant and handsome little marquis from fifty years ago.
In truth, this so-called Pig Xia was the person single handedly keeping Great Xia operational. If someone was keeping the sky from collapsing upon the Great Xia, then it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that this Pig Xia was the one propping half the sky up.
Alas, the masses were ignorant and quick to believe in rumors. Very few were aware of Marquis Xia's contributions to the prefecture.
Face of a pig, a heart as bright as the sun. That was a saying that was incredibly fitting for the infamous Marquis Xia.