The gentlemen seated here did not care much about William’s business. An auction house only truly made money when it catered to high society.

Ten thousand ordinary people could not create the astonishing returns generated by a single rich man. Ordinary people took a long time to think before buying anything. The moment the price rose even slightly beyond their limit, they walked away without hesitation.

The rich were different. They spoke only of whether they liked something or not. They never considered the actual value of an auction item. When it came to something they wanted, most people’s answer was that there was no ceiling.

The conversation soon moved away from William’s business, or the businesses being run by the others, and returned to the financial markets. Everyone exchanged supposedly reliable or unreliable inside tips.

In truth, none of them were reliable. The truly reliable tips never circulated at all. They stayed within a handful of people, not among people like these, far from the Federation’s financial center, passing things back and forth until everyone under the sun had heard about them.

From another angle, the tips they talked about were all things they themselves could not verify. Most came from their stockbrokers, and those brokers… were not all good men.

A social card game ended amid the group’s idle conversation. William’s luck was not very good. He lost a little over ten dollars. The others won or lost here and there, but the numbers were small.

That was what a social card game was. The point was not gambling. It was meeting people, getting a better sense of one another, learning each other’s political position, business attitude, and so on, then deciding whether the other man might make a good friend.

After the card game ended, two gentlemen lingered at the back. They warmly invited William to attend a small gathering they were hosting, with residents from the community and a few friends from society.

This was the core of middle-class community culture. But this kind of community culture would soon grow colder as the times moved forward. After several social upheavals and era-defining events, people would begin refusing to share opportunities.

This might not have been the best of times, but it was certainly not the worst.

Watching the others leave, William made a phone call and asked the service company attached to the community to come over and clean up the mess for him…

Over the past several days, William had spent his time in one social event after another. He had also begun paying attention to the financial markets. He discovered that in the three social events he had attended, the heart of every conversation was always how much money people had made lying back in the financial markets.

When everyone was making money, it meant the risk was growing larger and disaster was drawing near. The reason was simple: if someone made money, someone else had to lose money. Profit could not be born from thin air. It was only possible that the loss had not occurred immediately, but had been delayed.

One morning, William was watching television. The politicians on the screen were still praising the astonishing achievements of the Federation’s economic development, as if all of it had come from the President and men like themselves calmly directing the campaign from behind the curtain. Then the telephone suddenly rang.

William lowered the volume on the television with one hand and picked up the phone with the other. “Speaking…”

Sometimes those seemingly unrelated celebrity interviews and talk shows revealed details people failed to notice. For instance, when this politician spoke about his accomplishments, he said a few things that interested William.

“William, my friend, it’s me, Fox. Can you come over? We need to talk!”

This call had come a little later than William had expected. He had thought Fox would run into trouble sooner. Still, it was not too late. He agreed, tidied himself up briefly, and went out.

He was considering buying a better car. A luxury car could make him look more like a successful man. He had once met a man like that in the little room.

The man himself could be said to have had no money at all. He had taken the money from selling his house and used it to rent a top-tier luxury car, bought himself a proper outfit, and used a few small tools to splice himself into photographs with certain leaders. Somehow, he had smoothly swindled quite a lot of money.

Even more interestingly, the man was caught because he turned himself in. If he had not surrendered, he would never have appeared in front of people again for the rest of his life.

People were always warning themselves not to be shallow, not to judge by appearances alone, and yet every one of them kept making the same mistake.

When William arrived at Gatnau Finance Company, the line of people waiting there was not much shorter than before. While the middle class, including those in high society, were still discussing the dividends brought by financial investment, they had failed to notice that enormous problems had already appeared at the bottom of society.

After William came into the office, Mr. Fox received him warmly. “Are you busy at noon? If not, how about we have lunch together?”

Only after William gave his answer did the old man begin talking about the matter he found troublesome. “We have always been good friends, and our cooperation has been pleasant, so I won’t circle around it. I’ve run into a problem.”

William nodded once. “I’m listening…”

“It’s like this. As the agreements have expired, ownership of some collateral has transferred. You know how it works. These things have become mine. But my problem is that I can’t turn them into cash efficiently!”

When William had designed the method for Mr. Fox, using forfeited collateral as the high-interest return, Mr. Fox had been quite pleased. It was a big business, and he was guaranteed to make money. He simply had not expected turning the goods into cash to be this difficult.

From a fine set of tableware to an oven that had never been used, these things were hard to sell now even if they were brand-new, even if they only cost half their original price.

People with money did not want to use things someone else had used. They developed a strange kind of fastidiousness, and the cause of that fastidiousness was simply that they still had some money.

As for those without money, even if they wanted these things, they had no money to buy them. Besides, the people Mr. Fox came into contact with were usually the same ones bringing things in as collateral for loans. They were even less likely to buy anything here.

The goods were difficult to sell and took up far too much space. Mr. Fox had already rented more than a dozen warehouses in the suburbs to store them. It was making his life miserable.

More troublesome still, he had to pay the bank interest. Loans from the bank also carried interest. After William and Jorgreman’s negotiations, plus certain policies introduced by the Federation government, the lending rate had been lowered appropriately, but Mr. Fox still had to pay interest.

He could avoid repaying principal for the time being, but he could not avoid paying interest. The money in his hands was swelling rapidly like a snowball, at least on paper, according to the debt-settlement mortgage agreements. He had put the overwhelming majority of his money into the business of making money roll into more money, leaving only a small portion available for emergencies.

If he ended some agreements now, his losses would become very large, especially with those compound-interest lending relationships. After paying the bank’s interest, he actually would not earn much. So he was reluctant to end those agreements early, and could only call in “clever William” to discuss it. He also believed that William would certainly have a solution.

After hearing Mr. Fox’s request, William shrugged, then casually took a cigar from the tin box on the old man’s desk. “You can sell off that collateral. Someone will need it.”

Mr. Fox said nothing. Mr. Fox Jr., standing behind him, continued, “We considered that method, but…” He shook his head. “The results were poor. Yesterday, we sold fewer than twenty items the whole day, and they were all cheap little things. That road won’t work.”

William unhurriedly cut both ends of the cigar, opened the torch, lit one end, took a draw, and slowly exhaled. “Mr. Fox, and Mr. Fox Jr., you think these things are hard to sell because you are not professional enough.”

“I have a very valuable lesson, called ‘Leave professional matters to the professionals.’ You are not professionals, so you cannot do it. But others can.”

Mr. Fox’s eyes shifted. He looked at William and paused for a few seconds. “Then who are the professionals, and what do I have to pay?”

William smiled and shook his head. He crossed his legs and flicked the ash from his cigar. “If you don’t mind, Mr. Fox, we can talk about our next cooperation.”

Mr. Fox could not help laughing. “I keep feeling like I’ve been conned. Is that normal?”

William answered with neat precision. “People often feel that way in the face of happiness. They cannot believe happiness could come so easily. That fits your current situation very well.”

“You are a talent, William, my friend!” Mr. Fox said with heartfelt admiration. He had already realized he had stepped into the trap, but he did not regret it.

William smiled back. “Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Fox!”

The two men walked through the Warehouse District, where goods were piled up like low mountains. Looking at the endless spread of things, Mr. Fox felt both pleased and somewhat troubled.

These items could not simply be stacked together. They were not standardized goods. If they were to be stacked, supports would have to be built first, meaning every item would need an outer frame to make sure it would not be crushed under weight.

That would require a fair amount of money, plus the cost of labor and machinery. And after stacking them all together, pulling out any one item would become another major undertaking.

In the end, they could only be laid out flat like this, across the vast space of the warehouse. At most, a few small things could be placed on top of items that could bear some weight.

From tables and chairs to certain artworks, oil paintings and the like, the things here covered almost everything an ordinary person might need over a lifetime. William even saw a full set of silver tableware.

Fine white ivory handles, pure silver frames, six complete place settings of knives, forks, plates, and bowls, all arranged in a large box. It was a very pleasing thing to look at.

Perhaps noticing William’s gaze, Mr. Fox smiled and said, “An old woman brought that in. Said it was a gift from her son when she retired. But this year her son’s business ran into some trouble, and he urgently needed money, so…”

William nodded. Not because he understood her, but because he knew that everyone who appeared here was desperately short of money. Whatever reason they gave, they had all come here for the same thing.

“I gave her seventeen hundred dollars for this set. If you like it, you can take it home…” He could tell William seemed rather fond of the tableware. One or two thousand dollars was not a sum he particularly cared about, so he was being generous for once.

William shook his head. “You paid a little too much. Ivory isn’t worth much. Silver isn’t worth much either. Two things that aren’t worth much don’t become valuable just because you put them together.”

The landmass of this world was broader, and there were still many uninhabited regions that had not been damaged by humanity or technology. In those places, nature still preserved its most primitive face.

Ivory, something strictly banned from transport and trade in another world, might only be a common material here among the middle and upper classes. It was not especially scarce.

Mr. Fox did not quite understand. He had seen similar ivory-and-sterling-silver tableware in some shops, where the prices easily ran to two or three thousand dollars, even three or five thousand, enough to make a man click his tongue. For a set like this, with six complete place settings, he felt that offering a little over a thousand dollars had already been somewhat unconscionable. He had not expected William to think he had paid too much.

“That old woman you mentioned must have gone to an antique shop first, before she came to you…” William lifted his foot and continued forward. As he walked, he said, “Mr. Fox, I don’t know whether you have any other views about your work, but in my opinion, work is work. Personal sentiment is a private matter. The two cannot be mixed together.”

“It is your right to sympathize with people and feel sorry for them. But we cannot convert that sympathy and pity into a priced figure, then stuff it into our business as economic value. That only makes a great many people carry trouble they should never have had to carry.”

Many people in positions above others were not mature when they first reached those positions. Their behavior had a certain childishness to it. They could not tell what sort of thing could be expressed and what sort of thing could not.

For Mr. Fox, perhaps all he had done was pity an old woman and appraise the collateral she brought in at a higher price. But that collateral agreement might fail approval on the bank’s side, thereby blocking a thousand-dollar loan, which would in turn affect roughly one hundred fifty to two hundred dollars of William’s income.

Roll that money forward, and the loss would become even greater. Mr. Fox himself would also lose a great deal. And the cause of all this would be nothing more than one overflowing moment of sympathy.

“Mr. Fox Jr. seems to have a different view…” William noticed the disapproving expression on Mr. Fox’s son’s face and asked casually.

Mr. Fox looked at his son beside him. Mr. Fox Jr. pressed his lips together. “We sympathized with and helped an old woman. I’m not ashamed of that. I’m proud of it.”

Mr. Fox’s eyes brightened slightly, and he nodded with satisfaction. In truth, people like him, who moved through the gray edges of society, often had a very strange psychology.

They desperately hoped their children would be stronger than themselves, harder, more ruthless, without any weakness and afraid of no challenge. At the same time, they hoped their children would be kind, friendly, almost like angels.

Perhaps that was the complexity of human nature. Hearing what his son said, Mr. Fox turned back to William with satisfaction.

There was no provocation in it. He was simply curious how William would answer. He was guessing too.

William smiled. “I respect your attitude toward the world. But first, we have to figure out whether the world really is what we think we are seeing.”

“First, if a family can produce tableware like this, then whatever trouble they’ve run into absolutely cannot be solved by pawning one set of ivory-and-silver tableware. If one or two thousand dollars were enough to solve their problem, they would not need to go through a finance company to solve it.”

The moment he said this, Mr. Fox and his son both froze. They had overlooked this small issue. A family that could afford several thousand dollars’ worth of tableware had already reached the point of pawning belongings to get through a crisis. For such a family, one or two thousand dollars was of no real use at all.

It was like the cooperation between Mr. Fox and William. Earlier, he had not been optimistic about working with William, largely because William could not produce enough money. They knew William had around one hundred thousand dollars in his hands, but that money meant nothing to Mr. Fox.

Once William said this, both men’s faces changed at once.

William then held up two fingers. “Second, it seems you did not have anyone examine whether it was genuine…” Mr. Fox and Mr. Fox Jr. were suddenly too embarrassed to speak. In the end, Mr. Fox gave a small nod.

They had been very busy lately and had had no time to handle such matters. Besides, for father and son, whose assets were constantly swelling, even if it truly was fake, the loss would not be large. It could hardly even be counted as a loss.

At least from the act of helping the old woman, they had gained a kind of spiritual satisfaction. Their character and souls had been elevated. Even if they could not recover the money and the object proved fake, it did not really matter.

The problem was that William had pointed it out. All at once, there was a helplessness to it, like children who thought they had done a good deed only to discover they had caused a bad result.

They were not children. They were adults, so there was only embarrassment.

William continued, “A pitiful old woman. A piece of collateral whose authenticity we still do not know. A story that sounds full of holes…” A trace of mockery entered his smile, and his gaze moved to Mr. Fox Jr. “Do you still feel proud of what you did?”

A brief silence settled among the three of them. Mr. Fox Jr. lowered his head, and Mr. Fox also began to think. William gave them some time to sort it out before sighing. “That is how it looks from the angle of business and work. If we meet people who need help, and if we have the ability, then of course we should help them.”

“Please remember this: we only help people who truly need help. We do not help swindlers. In the coming period, I believe a lot of swindlers will try to bring worthless things here. You had better find a few people who know the trade as soon as possible, otherwise the bank loans may very well fail to go through.”

“As for things you cannot judge as genuine or fake, handle them all as fake…” As he spoke, he started walking forward again. “Where were we?”

The Foxes hurried after him. “We were talking about handling the things in the warehouse…”

William had come to the Warehouse District precisely to deal with the things in these warehouses. And this was not even all of it. Mr. Fox’s other warehouses were just as packed with all kinds of goods. Sometimes the collateral listed in a single agreement was not one item, but many.

He walked in front, with Mr. Fox and his son behind him, the three of them moving forward in a line of one ahead and two behind.

“I understand your trouble very clearly now. I can solve these problems…” He slowed his steps slightly, letting Mr. Fox draw almost level with him. “You can entrust these goods to me to sell. I have a company that can handle the things you have here…” He casually indicated the rough scope with his hand. “All of them.”

Mr. Fox’s expression caught for a moment. He had thought William would have some other way of handling it, such as packaging the goods off to someone else. He had not expected William to intend to do it himself. That sobered Mr. Fox a little from the ever-swelling myth of his own fortune.

His wealth was doubling rapidly at a speed he never would have dared imagine before. And William, in ways and at a speed even harder for him to imagine, was also moving forward, swelling, increasing without pause.

Mr. Fox had spent half his life running gray businesses, living every day on edge, before he had everything he had today. But look at the young man in front of him. Half a month ago, he had been nothing more than an ordinary jobless man.

Now, his wealth might already be countless times what it had been before. And he had taken less than a month to complete this myth of fortune.

More frightening still, William’s income was entirely legal. Taxes had been paid on all of it.

Mr. Fox was expanding. So was William. Faster, and more quietly.

He drifted for only a moment before coming back to himself. Thought moved fast, so fast that before William even realized what Mr. Fox was thinking, the old man had already regained control of his body.

“Hmm…” After a brief hesitation, Mr. Fox asked with a trace of admiration in his tone, “Then what do I need to pay this time?”

William was not quite sure what had caused such a great change in Mr. Fox over such a short span of time, great enough that it had even altered a certain part of his bearing, but it was a good sign. He did not mind it.

“That depends on what you choose.”

“The first option: reduce the collateral price in the agreements by thirty percent, and I buy these goods outright. Whether they rot in my hands later or sell for a higher price has nothing to do with you.”

“Profit or loss, it will be mine alone.”

“The second option: my company helps you sell these goods. You need to give me two prices: the lowest price you can accept, and the price you hope to get.”

“I charge based on the middle price. Whether the goods sell or not, you must pay me a ten percent fee. I cannot guarantee when they will sell, or what the final transaction price will be.”

As William spoke, he stopped. He looked at the father and son, the smile on his face as bright as it had been when they first met.

Mr. Fox looked worried. He and his son discussed it quietly for a while and found it difficult to choose.

In truth, both of them understood that the collateral values in these agreements had been pressed down very low. Something originally worth one hundred dollars counted as only forty or fifty dollars here. There would absolutely be people willing to spend forty or fifty dollars, fifty or sixty dollars, or even more, to buy these things. They were far cheaper than they had been when displayed in a store cabinet.

At the same time, they were hesitant. Over the past two days, they had also tried selling these goods, and the results had been unsatisfactory. Not everyone was interested in them. In two days, they had recovered only a little over a thousand dollars.

If they wanted to turn all of it into cash, it probably would not be easy. It would not be quick either. It would drag on. During that process, there would be warehouse costs, management costs, labor costs, and possible accidental losses, such as something being broken.

Their actual value would shrink. In fact, it had already begun shrinking. Every cent spent on them was equal to their value leaking away.

If they gave them to William at seventy percent of the agreement price, honestly, they felt it was too low. Something worth one hundred dollars would be taken away by William for only thirty or forty. That was a little… too much like bullying, wasn’t it?

But choosing the second method also made them uneasy. If William deliberately slowed the pace of sales, even that mere ten percent fee would be enough to make them suffer, not to mention that their biggest problem right now was their urgent need for cash to deal with the bank’s harvest of interest.

William had clearly given them two choices, but in the eyes of these two men, there was really only one.

Just as they were about to make a decision, William suddenly interrupted what they were preparing to say. “Think it over more carefully, gentlemen.”

“This is business, so we handle it as business. We do not let any personal sentiment interfere with our judgment. And please do not assume, because of your relationship with me, that I must be a good man. In fact, I am also a businessman. Do you know what ordinary people out there call businessmen?”

Without waiting for the Foxes to answer, William smiled and answered himself. “They call businessmen greedy devils. That is the nature of a businessman: pursuing more profit. I may not necessarily look out for you, but I will certainly do my best to satisfy my own interests.”

He lowered his voice as he spoke. “But outside of business, speaking now from a private standpoint, I think the second method is more suitable. Of course, for me personally, whichever you choose is the same.”

William’s blunt words dissolved the small displeasure in the father and son’s hearts inside the “honesty” he had created. At this moment, when they looked at the matter the way William had described, without any personal sentiment, his demand was not actually excessive.

Everything they were carrying, and everything they were close to being crushed by, would be shifted onto William. They would not have to pay another cent for it, and they would still receive money from him.

William was doing work, not picking money off the ground. With those words added in, Mr. Fox also sighed. “We’ll choose the first.”

“Have you thought it through?” William asked with a smile that was not quite a smile.

“I have!” Mr. Fox’s answer was not very loud, but it was firm. “When I was young, my father told me not to look only at how impressive thieves look when they spend money freely. You also have to think about what they look like when they fail, when they are beaten, when the police catch them and send them to prison, or even when they are killed out in the wild.”

There was some emotion in his tone. “Everything has a glamorous side, and it also has a side we do not want to see. This is your ability to make money. I don’t have that ability, so I shouldn’t be jealous of you.”

He shrugged. “Likewise, the way I make money is something you can’t use either. And I believe you won’t be jealous of me. Right?”

William put on a slightly exaggerated expression and agreed wholeheartedly. “That is a statement full of philosophy and wisdom, Mr. Fox. You are a wise man.”

Mr. Fox burst into loud laughter. “That’s the first time in all my years anyone has called me a smart man. You should know, people always like to call me an idiot, or a fool!”

He reached out and put an arm around William’s shoulder. “Then it’s decided. When are you coming to haul these things away?”

“That depends on when you have time.”

During this period, William had been going back and forth between Mr. Fox and Golden Exchange Bank, helping them move cash around, and had gained plenty of benefit for himself as well. It was enough to handle the things here. In truth, he could have done something worse, but he was in a good mood now and did not intend to do that.

Everything was getting on the right track. It would only get better and better. There was no need to take risks.

Very soon, William arranged the warehouse and recruited Richard and the other temporarily unemployed men back. What came next would be a major push, or rather, the birth of a new myth of fortune.

That morning, Richard sat uneasily in an office that still carried the smell of fresh paint.

The spotless, bright windows kept not one sliver of sunlight for themselves, leaving the whole room flooded with light.

Some time earlier, when the matter involving William and Michael had first broken open, the Federation FBI and the IRS had come for Richard almost at the same time.

As one of William’s key hands, Richard was bound to hold an important position in the combination of William and Fox. Only the Federation FBI and the IRS had both guessed wrong. He was a poor bastard who did not even count as outer circle.

After The FBI and the IRS each took their turn with him, he was released after paying bail. In the end, William proved that he had no problem, but Richard’s bail money never seemed to have any follow-up.

If you thought Richard would give up cooperating with William after this journey, which had nearly frightened the soul out of him, then you would have guessed wrong.

The excitement brought by enormous profit had already bred in Richard the courage to trample the law. As long as the profit was sufficient, there was nothing he would not dare try.

He had also tried going to the employment center to look for a new job. But whenever he saw those jobs with guaranteed hours plus extra hourly wages, and then looked at the miserable income attached to them, he lost even the desire to try.

To bury his head in work like a rotten piece of wood and receive, each month, only enough wages to barely keep himself alive, that was not work. That was the diligent murder of himself, the murder of his own life.

Just when he was wondering whether he should take a desperate risk, William called him. In an instant, Richard felt as though light had returned to the earth.

The next morning, Richard arrived at William’s warehouse half an hour early. Seeing that this boss had changed into even more high-class clothes, Richard very humbly expressed his confidence in William’s return, as well as his courage to keep working under William.

Once a man had grown used to making fast money, no one would willingly bend his back again. This was also one of the reasons many criminals found it hard to break away from crime. They had grown used to all kinds of destruction, violence, and quick cash. To make them let others push them around while working honestly?

“Seeing you again is like seeing the sun come out, Boss. Even the clouds clear.” Richard had a good mouth and a quick mind. That was why William had chosen him.

Of course, he was bold enough as well. At least when he received William’s call, he had not said “sorry” and hung up at once like certain people. Instead, he had come here early to meet him.

William patted him on the shoulder. “Work hard. We will have a future full of light. Some more people will come later. You will be half a teacher to them. Help me bring them along for a while.”

Richard behaved with great humility. While William spoke, he lowered his head slightly, giving the impression that he was listening with both ears open, and nodded from time to time to acknowledge or agree with William’s words. In short, his performance satisfied William very much.

“Could you tell me in advance what we’re going to do next, so I can be prepared?” When Richard asked this, his blood began to pound, and his heartbeat quickened. He was afraid William would name a job that failed to satisfy him.

Fortunately, William could see through this young man at a glance, and through the greed he kept buried deep. So he gave him an answer very readily. “A new job with no base salary. But this time, your commission will be higher. As long as you have enough ability, you can earn far more than before.”

The moment money was mentioned, Richard became extremely engaged. He patted his chest and promised that he would complete William’s instructions and work hard to do his job as well as possible.

Before ten thirty in the morning, the people William was waiting for had nearly all arrived.

Among them was a group of half-grown children. The oldest were only thirteen or fourteen, the younger ones twelve or thirteen. They were the children left behind by the news boss.

With William’s financial assistance, they did not need to worry about sitting idle until their money ran out, then being taken away by guardians and thrown back into a new den where their value would be squeezed from them. They cherished this opportunity especially. Other than William, no one else was willing to give them a suitable job, and a suitable wage.

The children had changed into clean old clothes. On some remote streets of Sabine City, there were many street stalls selling used clothing, and most of the stall owners were people who did not look particularly comforting.

Those clothes had often been stolen from all over the city, then sold here at low prices.

At first, there had only been two or three little stalls. Now there were more and more, and not only clothes. Some furniture had also begun appearing among them.

Last year, the Sabine City Police Department had issued a notice stating that burglaries of empty homes were increasing. These people were no longer merely stealing money. They would not even spare furniture and electrical appliances.

The police department reminded all city residents to lock their doors before leaving home and take protective measures.

Richard stood in the very center like a proud little rooster, and also the most independent one. On his other side stood more than twenty young people. These were employees William had entrusted the employment center to find for him.

William glanced at his watch and signaled for one child to close the door. Then he began speaking to these people about their work from now on.

“I know some of you here must still have questions. Questions about what our work is going to be…” When he said this, the children, including Richard, all looked toward the group of “new employees.”

This made the new employees inexplicably nervous, as though… their group was different from the others. It also made their attention begin to focus.

“It is actually very simple. What I want you to do is sales. I have a great many goods here…” He called over several children and had them hand out the manuals to everyone. “The goods in the manual are the things you need to sell.”

Although they were called manuals, they looked more like photo albums. Opening the first page, one could see four color photographs, with descriptions of the items beside them, as well as their selling prices in department stores.

These prices had all been collected by the children running all over the city during this period. They had contributed a great deal.

Richard was also looking carefully. He did not quite understand, but he knew how to preserve the dignity of someone in a higher position. He did not ask. Instead, he put on an expression that said, So that’s how it is. I understand.

“I want you to knock on doors, one household after another, tell them why you are there, then show them the goods in the manual and tell them how good these things are…”

“I know some of you will think this is difficult to accomplish. But please believe me, this is much simpler than you imagine.”

“The bottom-line selling price for every item is forty percent of its original price. Anything above that, we split fifty-fifty.”

In an instant, everyone drew in a cold breath. Even those who had originally been thinking of leaving now showed startled expressions. In all of Sabine City, even in the entire state, even in the whole Federation, there was no commission at this level.

Even those who thought it was impossible to achieve began to have a few thoughts at this moment. Why not try?

After waiting a short while, once they had absorbed the information, William continued, “If you think this job is not so easy to do, that is all right. I have another job here that I can give you.”

“Every Saturday afternoon, I will hold a Secondhand Auction here. At that time, a large number of secondhand goods will be auctioned here. I will give each of you one hundred seats. Your job is to find people and fill them.”

“For every transaction produced among the seats assigned to you, you can receive a commission of five percent of the total deal value. Pay attention, gentlemen. As long as someone you bring makes a transaction, you have income.”

“I have millions of dollars’ worth of goods here waiting to find buyers, and these goods will only become more numerous. Do not worry that I will have nothing to bring out.”

“I can even give you a guarantee. Every month, here, at least three people will have income exceeding ten thousand dollars. If no one’s income exceeds ten thousand dollars, I will pay the difference out of my own pocket.”

“The top three in sales performance, if I cannot make their monthly income reach more than ten thousand dollars, I will make up the money myself. This applies to everyone.”

In that instant, even Richard’s breathing lost its rhythm…

They did not need to do particularly well. They only needed to do better than most people. In an era when the average wage was two or three hundred dollars, the temptation of earning over ten thousand dollars a month was simply too great.

Those who wanted to leave and those who did not all stayed. So far, the idea of earning over ten thousand a month still existed only among the upper-middle and upper classes. Even among the middle class, anyone who was not an associate of a company might not have the ability to earn that much in a month.

So in this era, what kind of concept was a monthly income over ten thousand?

Very simple. It meant earning in one month what other people would need four years to make without eating, drinking, or spending a cent. Broken down by day, every day’s take would exceed another person’s income for an entire month.

Besides, Sabine City’s economic situation was not good. The unemployment rate kept rising, and on the streets one could always see people with their heads hanging low, running into walls everywhere as they searched for work. Getting a good job was truly too difficult.

Whether they wanted to fight for that ten-thousand-dollar monthly income, or simply wanted to witness whether William was a fraud, these people all stayed.

As long as they stayed, there was a very high chance they would join William’s team. There had once been such a profession: food and lodging provided, lessons taught for free, and still no one could be found to come.

Those organizers had even considered kidnapping people to make them study. For certain industries, people themselves were wealth, enormous wealth.

But William’s way of playing was different from theirs. He would not be so crude. What you beg to give someone, he may not even deign to accept. Only what someone begs you for, even begging without dignity, will be treated by him like treasure.

What followed was a fairly simple exchange of new practical experience. Most of these young people did not have much work experience. More importantly, they had not been in society for very long. They were all around twenty-one, with only a vague understanding of how grim and cold this society could be, while still preserving bright fantasies.

They were bright because, in the end, all such fantasies would rot.

Over more than two hours, William told them how to knock on other people’s doors, how to make those people sit quietly on the sofa and listen to their nonsense, and how to make them willing to come to the Warehouse District on Saturday afternoon to attend an Auction destined to be written into history.

William said a great deal, but the core was simple: wealth, interest, and pursuit.

“When you meet old people living alone, buy some children’s toys for them and tell them how attractive those toys are to children…”

“The needs of the elderly are actually very simple. They only want the children to keep them company for a while, so these old people do not mind spending money to buy a little humble happiness to fill their easily satisfied hearts.”

“When a child sees a toy he likes at their place, he will think of them afterward, and may even take the initiative to say he wants to go there.”

“Even if he does not, when he plays with those toys, perhaps he will think of those old bones by accident.”

“When you meet adults still living with their parents, talk to them about freedom. Used cars and used houses will become their first choices…”

“The gap in understanding between young people and their elders, the generation gap, will make them need a space of their own. If they cannot afford a house, then the used car they can afford is the thing they need most.”

“A car may not be large, but it can become a paradise where they hide from reality.”

“When you meet women, introduce more fashionable things. A new hair dryer, a new curling iron. There will always be something they need…”

“When you meet men, hard liquor, cigarettes, ties, watches, even certain…” William lowered his head and looked over the manual several times. “… certain intimate goods.”

“Someone once told me that sales is about creating demand. If you create a demand a poor man cannot afford, you will not earn a cent of commission from him in your whole life.”

“Sales is not creating demand. It is discovering demand, then stimulating it.” He changed his sitting posture. Around him, the young people surrounded him like students, taking notes seriously.

“Those people who give you time to display goods are not asking you to create an impulse to consume in a short period of time. They want to use the chance they give you to persuade them as a way to persuade themselves, to convince themselves they do not need a certain product.”

“If you can discover what he needs, then tell him that now is the most appropriate time to buy it, then you have mastered this world.”

Richard was taking notes very seriously as well. He could not help asking, “Mr. Carter, how should I find someone else’s need? I believe he won’t tell me.”

William pointed to his own eyes. “Observe. From the first moment you enter the door, use the clothing of the person who opens it to guess roughly the family’s income and the level of their life.”

“People with money like silk casual wear. It is summer now. They need to maintain their decency and appearance, and expensive silk is their favorite thing.”

“Poorer people, people like us, mostly wear something close to the casual clothes you wear at home. Some even wear work clothes.”

“As for those who are not wearing clothes at all, if it is a man, I suggest you tell him directly that you have cheap liquor.”

“If it is a woman…” A look appeared on William’s face that the men all understood and the children only half understood. “Check the time, and the date. Not every hour of every day is that safe.”

The mood in the room loosened. Through the simplest methods, William allowed these people to understand, in the shortest time, the people they were going to sell goods to, then offer them something slightly above what their current standard of living could bear, followed by a price difficult to refuse.

It was like a man who liked cars. He wanted a better car. In ordinary times, he would almost never take the initiative to wander around the used-car market, and might not even pay much attention to that side of things. But that demand truly existed.

As long as the right moment came, and the right person gave him a condition he could not refuse, his demand would be stirred up, and then it would be hard to put back down.

Discover, then stimulate them. That was what William was teaching these young fellows.

At noon, William invited everyone to eat together. Nineteen-dollar steaks made everyone feel rather flattered.

A nineteen-dollar steak was not something everyone could afford. Many people might never have tasted what that kind of steak was like until now. Whether they stayed in the future or not, at least they felt they had not lost anything today.

While William continued, subtly and steadily, to instill some knowledge of commerce and business into these young friends, someone was also watching him.

Michael’s affair was gradually calming down, and he had received the result he deserved. But that did not mean the problems between the Federation FBI, the IRS, and William had vanished into smoke.

No matter what role William had played in this affair, he was still the man who had made the Federation FBI and the IRS lose face.

Perhaps those two major bureaus would not be very likely to investigate William by taking the initiative to attack him, but they could keep an eye on him. As long as he made a mistake, there was a chance he could be pulled down.

That was why people often said individuals could not fight state agencies. Those people took money to do things aimed at you. It was not their caprice. It was their job.

Even among the young fellows William had recruited, there was a Federation FBI undercover agent, a young undercover agent who had graduated from the police academy not long before, had been selected into the Federation FBI because of his outstanding grades, and carried a chest full of justice and a sense of mission.

Wood. A name so ordinary that if you shouted it on the street, at least four or five men would turn to look at you.

The young undercover agent beside William had just such an old-fashioned name, simple, crude, and carrying a faint smell of its time.

Of course, the name might look a little old-fashioned, but it was much, much better than names like “Dick” or “Pussy.”

After lunch, William and the newsboys left first. Before leaving, he wrote a check for Richard and told him to take them out and help them find their footing a little.

Wood immediately slipped into his role. “Richard, Boss seems to have something to take care of. Do you need our help?” The bright expression on his face, carrying a trace of eagerness to please, was very comfortable to look at. He even deliberately showed off his muscles a little.

Richard only glanced at him, then looked down at the check in his hand. He did not like these muscle men. If one was talking about muscle, every worker in the plant who went shirtless on the job had plenty of it.

This was no longer an era in which a man’s future potential was judged by his muscles. Only farmers and workers from the past treated muscle as something remarkable.

In this brand-new era, a money-making brain and wealth were the important measures of a man’s value in society, not those stiff muscles.

Though sometimes, he did feel a little envy.

“Doing your own work matters far more than sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong. What’s your name?” Richard put the check away. William had given him a sum of money and told him to take these young fellows to have two sets of matching uniforms made, two short-sleeved shirts with the company name on the chest, plus two pairs of pants, thirty genuine leather briefcases, and one thousand belts.

Those belts had important use. Richard had already given up trying to think through what use the belts might have. In his view, a belt was a belt, and cheap belts like these were not very easy to sell.

Not everything found a good outlet just because it became cheap. Only the necessities of life had outlets. Belts were not one of them.

People who did not care and were not particular could solve the problem with a length of rope. People who were particular would not buy cheap belts. He did not know what William wanted them for. For his head, it was too difficult.

He was working hard to move closer to William. He was learning, tireless learning, serious learning. He did not believe he would spend his whole life as some small-time character working for other people. One day, he too would become a boss.

Richard looked at Wood, eager to try something. William had given him a position second only to William himself, which meant that in this little group, he was the person most worthy of trust.

William’s trust, together with his own sense of responsibility and mission, had produced something he had never experienced before, something wonderful: power.

“Wood. Impressive…” He patted Wood’s solid arm. It really was like patting a stone, a completely different experience from patting his own body, which still had a little give to it. “You’ve got spirit. Then do me a favor…”

A moment later, Wood received a very suitable piece of physical labor, while Richard himself spoke with the remaining people about how he had come to know William.

No beautiful future could compare with facts that had already happened. However well William talked, there would always be people half believing and half doubting. After Richard directly stated his own identity, he began talking about his earlier cooperation with William.

In his view, it was cooperation. Of course, one could also say he had been employed, but he preferred the former, more equal way of putting it.

“You have no idea how crazy that period was for us. My daily income was around two or three hundred dollars. That was the best job I had ever found since the day I was born!”

The exclamations from the beginners around him satisfied Richard immensely. He showed the brand-new watch on his wrist. “See this? It took me only one week to buy this watch, which I hadn’t originally planned to buy at all. And now I have a new goal.”

This watch was worth two thousand dollars. It was only an entry-level luxury watch, the lowest-end product in the entire series.

Perhaps because of its entry level and its corresponding cheapness, many people’s first luxury-brand watch was this one. Gradually, people began calling this thing, which looked like trash in the eyes of the rich, a “classic model,” and chased after it with great enthusiasm.

This had also created an interesting phenomenon. Luxury brands and certain models widely circulated among the lower and lower-middle classes of society were not popular in the true top tier of high society, much less those so-called “classic models” and “hot sellers.” Those were only sales tactics used to satisfy the frightening vanity of the lower and middle masses.

If one insisted on tracing what sort of clothing and accessories the great figures of the highest society actually wore, they might give you the name of a designer, or the name of a handcraftsman you had never heard of.

But for the bottom of society, the meaning of this “classic model” was very clear. When Richard revealed the watch on his wrist, people’s eyes could no longer move away from it.

According to Sabine City’s current average wage, after deducting everyday expenses such as food and drink, an unmarried young man would have to scrimp and save for two or three years to afford a watch like this.

A good watch mattered a great deal for improving a man’s image. Leather shoes, belts, watches, tie clips, and ties. Many people observed a man through these things, and their effect was considerable.

If these people had believed only thirty percent of what he said before, then now they believed seventy percent.

Just as Richard was very satisfied with these people’s reactions, Wood, who had suddenly come in from outside carrying two stacks of food boxes, asked, “If it really made that much money, why don’t we keep doing the work you did before instead of doing these things we don’t understand?”

Richard glanced at him. The others were all looking at him. He shook his head. “You’d know if you read the papers.”

Previously, the two major authorities had swept through Sabine City’s underground finance companies, arrested a batch of criminals suspected of money laundering, and taken down several newly emerging coin-exchange businesses.

The atmosphere in the warehouse grew a little heavy. After half a minute, Richard clapped his hands and told that boy who was always causing him trouble to bring up the coffee. Then he continued talking with everyone about how to get through the job smoothly.

That night, Wood returned to the home where he lived alone. He had just reached for his key to open the door when his pupils tightened.

Before leaving, he had set a small trick. He had pulled out one hair and tucked it into the keyhole. If anyone tried to open the lock, as long as a key was inserted, the hair would certainly be brought out when it was pulled back.

Now the hair was gone, which meant someone had tampered with his door lock.

Whether an undercover agent was inside a criminal group or beside someone like William, he had to make every possible preparation. Vigilance was the only guarantee that he would survive.

Just then, a familiar voice came from inside the door. “Come in. It’s me…”

It was his superior. He opened the door and entered the room, rolling his eyes in displeasure. “You nearly scared me to death!”

His superior smiled and explained, “I didn’t know when you’d be back. If I kept appearing around here, someone might notice me, so I came straight in.”

He quickly ended the previous topic. “How was today? Did you see William?”

Wood nodded. “I saw William, and his business partner. Richard…”

“Richard?” Wood’s superior frowned. “As far as I know, this Richard is something that doesn’t even count as outer circle. Are you sure he’s William’s business partner?”

Wood shrugged, walked into the kitchen, poured himself a glass of water, and took a large drink. “All I can do is hand the intelligence over to you. Analyzing intelligence is not my job.”

Wood’s superior fell silent for a moment. He wrote that down in his notebook, then pressed on. “Anything else unusual? Tell me everything you went through today…”

Once he started, he spoke for more than an hour. The two of them stared at each other, and there was a feeling neither of them could quite describe.

His superior’s brows were drawn tight. In an uncertain tone, he asked, “Are you sure… he said the top three could earn over ten thousand?”

“He said it. Whether they can actually reach it, I don’t know. I’ll try…”

His superior quickly made a decision. “When the time comes, we will support you. That can let you get closer to William, have him treat you as one of his own, and thereby get close to evidence of his crimes. Be careful and protect yourself.”

Just as the young undercover agent Wood was looking forward to the new day, William, on the other side of town, drove to the edge of a middle-class community in a very good location.

After waiting a little over ten minutes, a mature woman wearing light makeup walked out through the community gate, a fashionable handbag in her hand.

William immediately got out of the car, waved to the woman, and smiled. He even opened the rear door for her.

It was a very gentlemanly gesture. The passenger seat might have felt more intimate, and not every woman would like that kind of presumptuous move. Before there was absolute certainty, dealings between a man and a woman were best conducted without creating awkwardness, especially in a relatively sealed space.

“Thank you…” Vera smiled at William as she got into the car.

That afternoon, William had called her and invited her out to dinner, while also discussing some work matters.

Vera, who had been in a cold war with her husband all this time, felt she really did need to go out and clear her head. She had even put on makeup, a rare thing for her.

Women wearing makeup had only become fashionable in the past few years. In the past, women in the Federation, and even across the world, basically did not wear makeup. Only professional women with certain skills used heavy cosmetics to conceal their real faces, and only they used perfume to cover the scent of dead hormones rising from their bodies.

But as the sweeping suffrage movement achieved victory after victory, the use of cosmetics was completely liberated from prejudice. Of course, one Federation sociologist believed this was a conspiracy by those professional women.

In the past, people only had to see their faces and smell the strong fragrance on them to know what sort of work they did. Naturally, these people would also be discriminated against by all of society.

Now, people could no longer tell who was who. They had successfully hidden themselves.

The Suffrage League, however, believed this claim was nothing more than grandstanding. Beauty and the pursuit of beauty were everyone’s freedom. Men always treated women’s behavior as abnormal, and that itself was discrimination against women.

The success of the suffrage movement in these years had indeed changed many things. Even some men had begun trying makeup. Another change was that perfume had entered people’s lives across the board.

The Federation was a carnivorous society. From morning to night, most people ate meat. Some ate small amounts of vegetables, but overall, meat dominated.

This gave some Federation people serious body odor. In the past, other than bathing often, they had not had many solutions. Now, everyone had begun using perfume.

Although social customs were changing, women from the middle and upper reaches of society, especially women from high society, were not very likely to take the initiative to wear makeup. Many older women, even today, still preserved the old traditions: no makeup, no perfume.

That was why, in certain times and certain settings, people associated cosmetics, especially lipstick, with intimate goods.

For Vera to come out in light makeup was already a kind of breakthrough. One had to know that there were still thousands upon thousands of women who only wore makeup at home, adding a little force to the feelings between husband and wife. They rarely wore makeup when going out.

William gave a small nod, acknowledging her thanks. After he returned to the driver’s seat, he started the car and drove toward the restaurant he had reserved.

The restaurant he had reserved was not far from where Vera lived. Residential areas and business districts always complemented one another. Absolutely no one would invest in building a superstore specializing in top luxury goods in the slums of a third-tier city, and no one would operate a dollar store outside a high-class community.

After a drive of roughly ten minutes, the car slowly stopped outside a restaurant. Just as the greeter was about to come forward and open Vera’s door, William smiled at him from inside the car and asked, “May I have that opportunity?”

Vera raised an eyebrow slightly, and of course there was a little surprise as well. The greeter smiled and stepped aside.

William got out of the car, walked to the rear door, and opened it. With one hand, he shielded the top of the doorframe. With the other, palm facing down and fist loosely curled, he extended his arm flat so Vera would have something to hold.

Vera thanked William again for his manners, and for his gentlemanly conduct. William then bent his right arm and looked at her.

William was younger than Vera. Women were sometimes foolish and sometimes shrewd. More frightening still, when they were shrewd, they could deceive themselves if necessary. So when Vera faced William’s behavior at this moment, she treated it only as a “little brother’s” joke.

She took William’s arm. This was already a relatively intimate gesture, serving as repayment for William’s gentlemanly behavior.

The two entered. William gave his name, and the head manager… well, this society was full of managers everywhere. As the head manager led them toward their reserved table, William lowered his voice and spoke beside Vera’s ear.

His voice was not loud, and the breath he exhaled felt a little strange, drawing a person’s ability to think into a kind of thickened state. He said, “I heard an interesting little joke outside. Will you be angry?”

Vera shook her head.

William smiled and said, “Do you know why I’m standing on your left?”

She tilted her head and thought for a moment, then still shook her head.

“Because this way, I’m closer to your heart…” After saying it, he could not help laughing, which made a line filled with a little sweetness and a little ambiguity feel truly like a joke.

It was not abrupt. It was not stiff. Instead, it felt relaxed, yet it did not damage the certain feeling brought by the words.

Vera laughed too. She did not think it was bad or awkward, and even struck back a little. “The person who taught you that joke must not be a good man.”

“I feel exactly the same.”

As they spoke, they had already reached the table. William pulled out the chair for her. After thanking him again, she sat down naturally, and the topics that followed became less “awkward.”

“I recently established a new company and have already sent a letter to the law firm. This may disturb your vacation…” An auction house also needed an accountant. Although City Hall had given William some policy-based tax reductions, he would still file his taxes properly.

Since Sabine City’s economy had declined, City Hall had been encouraging entrepreneurship and urging factory owners to shoulder more social responsibility by providing more jobs to society.

Only this approach did not have much damn use.

Funds that should have been used in the real economy had been taken by people and thrown into the financial markets. The real economy shrank further. Forget providing more jobs, even maintaining the existing jobs was already a very difficult thing.

Under such circumstances, William was willing to establish a service-type firm centered on secondhand trade and auctions, and he promised to immediately provide no fewer than twenty jobs, with no fewer than one hundred jobs in the future. This genuinely impressed the clerks at the Social Services office.

After the clerks felt William’s sense of social responsibility and his burning enthusiasm, they took the initiative to help him fill out a form and applied for a rather good preferential policy.

For two years, his auction company would enjoy a half-tax policy. For the two years after that, as long as its annual profit did not exceed the second-tier import-export quota for collection, they could still enjoy tax-reduction policies.

Good policies also required complete books. From the beginning, William had never expected the IRS to let him go, even if his “relationship” with Director Johnson was not bad. The other party was unlikely to let him go.

Walking every step properly was crucial for him now. Besides, he truly did not care for the small gains from tax evasion, and it was even more impossible for him to take on greater risk.

Complete books and tax payments were not meant to prove how flawless he was, but to give his enemies no opportunity at all.

If one wanted to be invincible in the world, one first had to make oneself strong.

It was a dinner that looked somewhat romantic.

The restaurant was elegant, and people spoke in low voices. Aside from the piano music, the only sounds in the whole place were the faint scrape of cutlery against plates and bowls. As long as one ate here, one always had to cut something with utensils. The sound was unavoidable, though everyone was doing their best to avoid it.

Even seated in the main dining room, this kind of environment gave people a natural sense of separation from the other tables.

Each table was a little space of its own, able to contain only the people sitting beside it.

The flower petals on the table, the red tablecloth, and the fine tableware made the scene feel somewhat romantic, even though William had not made any overly deliberate arrangements.

Perhaps because of the petals, perhaps because of the setting, most of the diners here were pairs of young men and women.

Before the chef finished heating their food, William talked a little about work.

Sometimes women looked easy to talk to, but they still had certain things they held to inside, as well as something difficult to grasp. Even they themselves did not know why they acted this way, or that way.

So the central purpose could not be set aside. William had invited Vera to dinner, and the theme was work. If he did not talk about these things, it would make Vera uncomfortable and cause her thoughts to wander. But once he did, the other things became embellishments to a pleasant dinner.

“You know, I’ve been busy lately with my new work…” William unfolded his napkin and smiled. A handsome person smiling was always pleasing to the eye, just as a beautiful person smiling was always captivating.

William was a handsome man. Handsomeness was his most important pass. In truth, for him, being handsome or ugly was not an obstacle that would stop him from reaching the top. But handsomeness could make the process a little easier.

Just like now. A handsome young man invited a married woman, who was in a cold war with her husband, to dinner. The atmosphere was somewhat ambiguous, and this lady might enjoy that slightly dangerous sweetness with a faint flush on her face.

But if William had been ugly, forget an ambiguous atmosphere. She might not even have answered his call.

Vera looked at William’s face and nodded. “You told me you had plans for some new companies.”

“Yes, I did…” His voice seemed to carry a kind of magic, letting people feel the pleasure inside him through the sound of it. This was a very special technique.

Expression, eyes, and voice could work together to release enough misleading signals to make people feel he was happy. Faced with beautiful things, people would unconsciously lower their guard. Not only people, animals were the same.

“I plan to establish a large company covering the entire state. By the second half of this year at the latest, or the beginning of next year, the company will be fully organized.”

William had only said half of it when a waiter came to the side of the table after apologizing politely. William also stopped what he was saying.

The waiter held a bottle of red wine on a tray and bowed slightly. “Excuse me, ma’am, sir, this is the wine you selected.” He showed them the label. “Shall I open it now?”

Vera touched her cheek and smiled without blame. “I didn’t know you had ordered red wine.”

“If you don’t like it, we can have something else. Juice or a soft drink?” William changed the choice very decisively. This, instead, made Vera too embarrassed to say no. She only said it was fine, and by default, the evening’s drink contained liquor.

Of course, she also trusted William very much. She did not think William would do anything excessive to her. Sometimes a handsome face really was something to envy.

After sniffing the oak cork, looking at the legs on the glass, and sensing the changes in aroma and astringency, William accepted the bottle of red wine that had been cellared for ten years.

Only after the waiter had gone some distance away did he smile and say, “Actually, I don’t much like drinking red wine. The taste…” He shrugged, which instead made Vera laugh.

“If you don’t like it, why did you order a bottle of red wine?” Vera might not even have known why she asked such a question, nor what kind of answer she wanted.

William, however, picked up the bottle and poured some wine into Vera’s glass. He took over the work that should have belonged to the waiter. While pouring, he said, “I thought you would like it. I’ve read some books, and the books said women like red wine. Don’t they?”

The angle of his answer was surprising, directly sealing off Vera’s plan to continue questioning him. If she asked why he had been reading those books, the answer might make everyone very embarrassed.

But when she did not press further, and William did not give a definite answer either, she would let her thoughts wander. Even if she did not show it, after the meal, when the liquor began to take effect, she would still let her thoughts wander.

Why would a handsome young man try to please her? She would give herself a forcibly reasonable explanation according to her own needs, then secretly delight in it while enjoying the atmosphere.

She might even tell herself that pursuing her was William’s decision, but she would not accept him, so it did not count as betrayal or adultery. She could hardly stop someone else’s freedom just because of her own thoughts, even if this might be completely different from the facts.

Sometimes women’s thoughts were contradictory like that. Of course, men were sometimes even more contradictory.

The light makeup on Vera’s face could no longer hide the heat rising in her cheeks. That touching flush gave her a hazy beauty, and her air became more fragrant.

“… This company I’m putting together will have a dedicated accounting department. I don’t really trust anyone else, so I hope you can be responsible for that department.” William placed the red wine into a wine bucket with some ice in it. The temperature now was too high, and the restaurant had prepared a special wine bucket.

The melted icewater would not touch the bottle directly, keeping the wine at the right temperature. This kept the bottle from becoming too cold and maintained a very suitable drinking temperature.

Once the conversation returned to work, Vera’s expression became somewhat more serious. She looked a little unsure of herself. “I’ve never done that kind of work. Maybe you should find someone sufficiently professional to do it. I can assist him, her, or them.”

William looked into her eyes and shook his head. “I don’t trust other people. I only trust you.”

Being needed was absolutely a happy thing. Vera’s eyes softened again, and her voice became gentler than before. “I’ll help keep an eye on it for you…”

“I insist.” William looked at her. “I’m not afraid of you making mistakes. I’m not afraid of any losses. That department is yours. We’ll settle it like that.”

She nodded somewhat helplessly. “I’ll do my best. If I make a mess of something, don’t blame me.”

William smiled and said nothing. He paused for roughly ten seconds, giving Vera a full process to understand, accept, and store away this information, before he continued. “The new work may be rather busy. I will have multiple companies to coordinate with. It may take up some of your extra time. If…”

Vera pressed her lips together and interrupted him. “I’ll help you. Don’t worry.”

Once a sense of responsibility and mission appeared, a nameless force would pour into a person’s body and add something called fighting spirit. That thing could create many miracles.

After that, William began discussing some details of the work. The cooks finally finished preparing their dinner and brought it over.

A rich dinner, fine tableware, an elegant environment, and all the colors of light and wine. No wonder people always yearned for wealth, because true happiness was hidden inside wealth.

The meal lasted for quite some time. A little after nine in the evening, William drove Vera back to the outside of the community where she lived. Originally, he had wanted to send Vera home, but in the end, he stopped outside the community.

In William’s words, if her husband saw his wife return in a young man’s car, he might become angry because of it, affecting the feelings between them.

So William, this kindhearted man, only stopped the car outside the community gate, and also said this would let Vera air out the smell of wine.

Faced with such attentiveness, with William thinking so thoroughly for her, Vera felt deeply moved. After saying goodbye to William, she carried her bag and walked toward home in a cheerful mood.

Around midnight, a little after eleven, Gape finally returned from the company, exhausted. During this period, he had been dealing with traces in the company accounts connected to dealings with Biddle Group.

Some things were not on the books, but money had been added in. Some things were on the books, but the numbers were not quite right. This was not one bad account. It was many bad accounts.

It was precisely through this stretch of grueling work that he had suddenly gained a vague understanding of certain things.

For Biddle Group, a company about the same size as the Ristowan Group company where he worked, perhaps even a little larger, to suddenly sink into the mud, it absolutely could not be as simple as tax evasion. It might have something to do with Biddle’s involvement with foreign capital.

Gape was not quite sure where this feeling came from. As he began handling this side of the company’s problems, he had also been closely following news about Biddle Group. From his perspective, there was actually nothing wrong with Biddle’s side at all.

“Maybe I shouldn’t think so much…” he said to himself as he drove off the main road and turned into the community entrance.

These major cases were too far away from him. Forget influencing or interfering with them, there was not even anything he could do. His concern for the case was simply curiosity.

Gape’s car had been registered with the community. When his car approached the guard booth, the security guard on duty immediately raised the barrier for him. Gape also forced out a bit of a smile and said thank you.

In truth, sometimes politeness itself did not come from upbringing or some similar personal quality. It was a way to maintain a more positive image of oneself. One could call it the hypocrisy of adults, or one could call it knowledge that had to be mastered upon entering society.

To Gape and more people like him, it was only a thank-you. But it was enough to make their image a little better.

Just as he was about to press the gas and drive into the community road, the security guard seemed to hesitate, his expression somewhat strange.

People who worked with numbers were all careful. People who were not careful could not do that kind of work. Gape’s brow moved slightly. He took his foot, already resting on the gas pedal, back down. “Do you have something you want to tell me?”

Originally, the security guard had not intended to meddle. But Gape was so polite and counted as “respectful” toward him, which made certain words hard not to say, though he also felt it was not very appropriate.

His conflicted look made Gape even more puzzled. “If there is something, please be sure to tell me. Perhaps it is very important to me?” He used “please,” enough to show his seriousness.

Only then did the security guard give a bitter smile and sigh. “I really shouldn’t be sticking my nose into this, Mr. Gape, but…” He shook his head. God knew what that head shake was supposed to mean. “Mrs. Vera came back tonight in a young man’s car. That man was very handsome…”

Once he said this, the security guard had spoken what was in his heart and stopped. Normally, this kind of thing was strictly forbidden.

Whether in a mid-range community or a high-class community, the attached service company did not allow employees to disclose or discuss anything related to homeowners.

Every year, there were many legal battles surrounding privacy. Every employee received professional training before starting work. But Gape had disguised himself very well, and the security guard on duty today still had the innocence that remained in most of society’s rank and file. He said what he should not have said.

Gape’s face immediately turned very ugly. In the end, he still forced a smile and tossed a pack of cigarettes out the window. “Thank you. I asked someone to drive her back.”

Only then did the security guard let out a breath. “Is that so? That’s good. I almost thought…” As he spoke, he was still somewhat embarrassed, not noticing at all that Gape’s sour face had gone so dark it was almost merging with the surrounding night.

After parking the car, Gape opened the door with a gloomy expression. He had never believed there would be any problem with his marriage.

He was young, handsome, had a job that made people envious, had substantial assets, and was about to become a junior associate at Ristowan Group.

Although only a junior associate, that already surpassed the overwhelming majority of people. He had already set one foot on a higher step. No woman would leave him, just like those cheap girls at the company.

But now he was very angry. Something he had regarded as an important embellishment in his life, an ornament used to decorate his social completeness, a little pet he kept, had actually begun to breed thoughts that displeased him.

No male chauvinist could easily tolerate that.

He pushed open the guest bedroom door. They were still in a cold war and were still sleeping in separate rooms.

Vera had not yet fallen asleep. She had turned on the bedside lamp and was reading a book on management, one Gape had bought before. Now she was reading it.

Women who had been drinking were like this. They became more emotional, and they also had a kind of recklessness that made them act as soon as a thought occurred. Reading while slightly drunk… was it really useful?

Not necessarily. But they would use their own “effort” to move themselves.

The instant the door opened, Gape looked at Vera. Vera also met Gape’s gaze. The two looked at each other for a moment before Gape suddenly said, “You drank tonight?”

Vera put down the book in her hand. “Does that have anything to do with you?”

Gape was somewhat enraged now. He had been working bitterly outside, while this woman had spent the evening with another man. He had been suppressing his emotions all along, but some of it still leaked out.

His voice was filled with a hoarse, inexplicably wounded quality. “You betrayed me!”

A trace of displeasure appeared on Vera’s face as well. “I was only discussing work with a friend. And there are no marks on my ass.”

One sentence instantly calmed Gape down. That day had been the greatest humiliation of his life. The cheap woman who had left several lipstick marks on his ass had also been kicked out of the company by him under some pretext.

There could be little private thoughts in the office, but things that belonged only in the office should not be brought home, whether brought back to one’s own home or carried into someone else’s. That broke the rules.

Added to the fact that Vera’s buzz clearly had not yet passed, arguing would only let the neighbors watch a joke. By early tomorrow morning, the whole community would know what had happened here. So he rationally chose to shut his mouth.

He pointed at Vera. “You had better remember that you are married.”

Vera still struck back without showing weakness. “Do you think you remembered?”

Gape felt as if his head had exploded. Where had that gentle, obedient wife gone?

He turned and slammed the door shut, took off his clothes, and went to the bathroom. He needed a shower to calm himself down.

In the bathroom, he saw the clothes Vera had changed out of. After a precise round of investigation and reasoning, he more or less breathed a sigh of relief. At least Vera had not betrayed him.

He had relaxed for less than a minute before becoming displeased again. This woman had actually learned to talk back. It seemed the affection he had shown her over the past few years had made her mistake it for indulgence. Once this period was over, he would have a proper talk with her.

Early the next morning, Gape drove away. There were still many account books he had to deal with. He did not have time to waste at home.

A little after nine in the morning, Vera finally woke from sleep. Drinking a little wine had given her a very good night’s rest. After bathing, she entered the study. She had to find some books related to management and take a look.

William trusted her so much, and she also had to work hard to repay that trust.

Just as she selected a few books and was about to leave, she suddenly discovered several account books on Gape’s desk. Every accountant actually hated this thing, but they were also very sensitive to it, because this was their work.

Vera hesitated for a moment, then walked over and took a look. It was an original copy. At the bottom of the account book was a very clear line of small printed words: Ristowan Group Dedicated Account Book…

At the same time, the security guard who had just finished handing over the morning shift was about to return to the dormitory to sleep when the manager on duty walked up to him with a cold face. He casually tore off the community work badge stuck to the guard’s chest. “You’re fired…”

“Biddle Group has implicated numerous parties. Senator Thomas has already been approved for subpoena by the state court…”

“Many firms across the state are involved in this shocking cross-border tax-evasion scandal, with far-reaching consequences…”

“So far, eleven firms are under investigation by the Federation FBI, the IRS, the Federation Security Committee, and other agencies because of ‘Biddle Group.’ Operations have been temporarily suspended, and workers have held marches demanding that the investigation end as soon as possible so they can return to work…”

Whether in the newspapers or on television, news about Biddle Group’s tax-evasion scandal had gradually begun to increase recently.

This was, in fact, a very clear storm warning. First, voices came through certain channels, making the public realize that many things might change in the short term. That way, when the storm truly arrived, everyone would not appear completely caught off guard.

Perhaps people would even tell those around them, “I fucking knew this day would come,” to show off their foresight. At the same time, it was also a reminder to certain people: those who should report should report, and those who should run had better run.

In other words, the people above Biddle Group could no longer take care of this “little brother.” Its backers might already have abandoned it, or been dragged down by it. The battle at the senior leadership level had already ended. That was the reason. They could not wait any longer. Nothing would change.

“What do you think?” Mr. Fox Jr., sitting off to one side, was also reading the newspaper. Recently, he had developed the good habit of reading newspapers. He had learned it from William.

Much of the time, William would take time to read the papers. Newspapers were still the mainstream news channel in today’s world, at least within the Federation. Even television found it difficult to steadily suppress traditional print media in terms of news mediums and channels.

Quite a few people believed that within the next ten years, television would eventually replace traditional print media and become an important way for people to obtain news and information. They were too optimistic. This would actually continue for a long time, all the way until the birth of small portable technological products that could be carried around. Only then would print media be replaced.

Before that, television could never achieve the portability of print media.

You could take a newspaper out of your briefcase while riding in a car and use it to pass the time.

You could casually pick up a newspaper while waiting for something and kill a little time.

You could even read a newspaper in the bathroom while enjoying the relief of clearing yourself out, using it to ignore the peculiar smell in the space. Sometimes, after the newspaper was finished, it could serve another purpose too. Of course, if you did that, you had to wash your ass a little more carefully afterward, because the ink would stain it.

Television could not do that. People could not carry a television weighing several dozen pounds to and from work. The reason traditional print media had not been replaced by television lay in convenience.

Just like now. William could casually pick up a newspaper and find the content he liked to read, enjoying this brief reading time. But he could not carry a television in his arms and make it obey his will by broadcasting whatever he liked.

During his time in contact with William, Mr. Fox Jr. had changed some of his views. For example, people mixed in with society’s rank and file were not necessarily all brainless.

He had thought that way before. Now, he no longer dared think that way. William was not only smarter than him, but smarter than Mr. Fox Sr.

William casually put the newspaper down and shook his head. “I lack supporting evidence, so I won’t comment on or discuss these things.”

In truth, he had it. He simply did not want to say it. Without exception, the companies implicated by Biddle were all joint-venture firms. Combined with William’s thorough study during this period and his deepening understanding of this world, he had already realized where the problem lay.

But there was no need to tell Mr. Fox Jr. these things, and even less need for Mr. Fox Sr. to understand them. It had nothing to do with their lives. There was no need to trouble them over it.

William’s words carried a trace of unwillingness to continue discussing the subject, and Mr. Fox Jr. quickly shifted topics. “Recently, Father and I have been discussing something. We plan to invest in some other industries at the appropriate time. Legal industries. What do you think?”

The change in the Foxes was largely influenced by William. The two sides had become a stark contrast.

William’s speed of making money was no slower than theirs. From a certain angle, he made money even faster. If one did not look at the specific figures, but instead looked at the rate of return, a hundred Gatnau Finance Companies put together could not match what one William earned.

The most important thing was that William’s businesses were all legal. He earned money legally and spent money legally. This dreamlike kind of life made Mr. Fox, for the first time, feel a denial of his past decisions that even he was not quite willing to believe.

So father and son discussed it for some time and decided to invest in some legal businesses. If they succeeded, they would also be able to break away from some of their current circumstances. At the very least, they would not have to live in fear all the time.

Their thoughts made William feel somewhat incredulous. Many people accustomed to making fast money could not possibly accept being asked to run a legal business. He had not expected this father and son to want to change on their own initiative.

He nodded, then pointed toward the street outside the huge glass window. “What do you see?”

There were quite a few pedestrians on the street. Some had their heads hanging low, and there were more of these people than the rest. Economic decline was never something that made people happy. Added to the wave of shutdowns and the suspension of production at several major firms under investigation, many workers had lost their jobs.

There were also some women. Mr. Fox Jr. did not know whether it was his own illusion, or whether his understanding of certain things had failed to keep up with the times, but he always felt that this summer, the girls on the street had become more eye-catching. In the past, it had been difficult to see such pretty girls on the street.

But he would not say these things. As a civilized man who had gone to school and received higher education, he did not think William’s question could be so simple.

After careful thought, he answered William’s question in a tentative tone, within his own professional field. “Cheap human resources?”

This summer was the first time in nearly ten years that average wages had fallen sharply. In the past, average wages had risen continuously every year. But since the beginning of summer, the workers who had shouted that they would strike unless wages increased had vanished.

Instead, at street corners, there were more short-term laborers willing to work for people as long as they were given a meal.

At the employment center, the people waiting to be hired had also slightly lowered their wage demands. Labor was becoming cheap. This was everyone’s consensus.

William shook his head. “You could say that. But you need to look a little farther. Haven’t you noticed that the girls’ necklines are getting lower, and their skirts are getting shorter?”

Mr. Fox Jr. felt somewhat embarrassed and used an awkward laugh to cover certain thoughts inside him. At that moment, Mr. Fox happened to push the door open and come in. He looked very energetic today and held a gentleman’s cane in his hand.

“What are you talking about?” He hung the cane in the slot under the coat rack by the door, the one specially used for umbrellas and walking sticks, while having Mr. Fox Jr. turn on an electric fan. At the same time, he asked curiously.

Mr. Fox Jr. repeated their conversation from just now. Mr. Fox also became interested. He asked on Mr. Fox Jr.’s behalf, “Why is that?”