On the evening of day 70, the reception room on the second floor of the town hall.
Ren Zhong sat by Ma Dafu’s tea table.
Old Ma was in the office hall outside handling affairs.
Ma Xiaoling, with her legs crossed, sat by another table nearby, cracking sunflower seeds while frowning at her tablet.
The back of the tablet was facing Ren Zhong’s tea table, so he couldn’t see what was on the screen, but from Ma Xiaoling’s deeply furrowed brows and the greenish reflection on her face, he knew she was probably watching stocks.
A few days ago, Ren Gushen started advanced teachings, letting her first accumulate experience on her own.
He hadn’t asked recently, so he had no idea how his star student was doing in stock trading. Hopefully, she hadn’t lost all her dowry.
"How’s it going? Is it dropping badly?"
Ren Zhong asked. Content originally comes from novel·fire·net
Ma Xiaoling let out a long sigh, "Yeah! All the stocks I picked are dropping. That wave from Starship Shipyard a few days ago was too intense; the market’s panic is still ongoing."
Hearing her say it was so bad, Ren Zhong almost felt like paying her back.
If he wasn’t mistaken, he still owed her 400,000.
Ma Xiaoling: "But it’s not too bad. I’m learning how to short now, making a profit."
"What were you about to say just now?"
"Nothing. I’ve noticed more and more people with weapons in town over the past couple of days. No street fights, right?"
Ma Xiaoling shook her head, "No, everyone is earnestly making money."
After saying that, she gazed intently at the screen, silent and lost in thought, clearly attempting to predict the stock market trend with the nonexistent "Ren’s Meditation Method."
At this moment, Ma Dafu walked in from outside the reception room, wiped the sweat off his forehead, sat down to brew a pot of Kung Fu tea, then smiled and said, "If you had come two or three years earlier, Starfire Town wouldn’t have fallen to this point. Alas."
Clearly, the changes that happened in Starfire Town over these few short days left Mayor Ma Dafu greatly impacted.
Old Ma’s feelings were complex.
The better Ren Zhong did, the more inadequate Ma felt about himself. It seemed like he was only kind-hearted, but otherwise useless.
Ren Zhong smiled, "There aren’t that many ’what ifs.’
Ma Dafu nodded, "Indeed. Today, quite a few scavengers came to deregister. It should be the last batch, and tomorrow, Mengdu Group’s sampling vehicles may return empty-handed."
"Oh?" Ren Zhong’s eyes lit up. "That’s good news."
Ma Dafu: "In normal past surveys, if the overall performance was good, with high scores in population growth trends, birth rate, average population IQ, mental outlook, and material output, the temporary scavenger quota for a small town might not be reduced, but instead increased. Since you rebuilt the new Starfire Resources and implemented various new policies, the scavengers’ efficiency in hunting Ruined Beasts has increased day by day and will continue to do so. Moreover, more and more people will become scavengers. Everything is improving. As long as there’s hope for survival, no one is willing to die."
Ren Zhong: "Yes, that’s why I’m also urgently adding production lines and recycling platforms, quickly keeping up with demand."
"Everyone can feel the change. There’s still 20 days until the survey, but the scavengers have already come up with a new slogan."
"What slogan? How come I don’t know about it?"
"I noticed from the lip sync analysis on the central monitoring side. The scavengers are discussing completing the output of the past 60 days in just 20 days, increasing Starfire Town’s average output by at least 10% compared to previous years. Some scavengers are even planning to hurry up and get their women pregnant. The proportion of pregnant women represents the trend of population growth. These two major items alone can add quite a few points in the survey. Considering the changes in mental outlook, some scavengers even hope that after we pass the survey, the quota will straightaway increase by 4,000 people, reaching 24,000 based on the current foundation."
"In a normal survey, the emergence of a Level Five Professional is a variable standard in the professional development evaluation index, optional to mention. So, the scavengers’ plan makes sense. However, this is usually something for the town government to consider. Scavengers typically wouldn’t think this far. But this time, the scavengers are also ignited with passion. Alas, but this survey is different. It’s been many years since Starfire Town’s scavengers produced a Level Five Professional, so the county government is reasonably raising the standards according to regulations, within the rules. But I believe, with someone like you here, even if the scavengers leave the town and go to the wild, they can still live well. You should start planning early."
Ren Zhong played dumb, "It’s all within the plan, don’t worry."
"Can’t afford not to worry. Take the Mengdu Group, for example. I’ve already heard rumors that someone in the Liao Yuan branch of the Mengdu Group has noticed the changes in the town and plans to gradually spread the truth about the survey in the town, creating panic, and at the same time proposing a one-to-one plan."