Chapter 2508

Schiller is holding a pile of files, looking down to check which ones are needed. At his feet are many boxes, as well as many bundled files and a large pile of books.

Looking around, the entire office is in chaos. Victor is busy pulling out the wires under the desk, and Anna is picking out the sculptures previously placed in the cabinet.

"Is your own office packed up?" Victor looked up and said, "There are at most two more trips this afternoon, and there won't be any tomorrow. If you haven't packed up, you'd better hurry."

"I finished moving yesterday," Schiller said. "That shredder can't be put together with these documents. Yesterday I asked a truck driver friend to come over and help me move a trip. It's a good thing I called him; I might not have been able to handle that shredder by myself."

Victor laughed, continued his work, and said, "So you finally passed Bruce's doctoral application. What good things did he give you this time?"

Schiller cleared his throat and said, "What he gave me is secondary; the key is that he finally found a Batman who is worse than him."

"Oh, is there really one?" Victor deliberately made an exaggerated expression and said, "I thought he would never find one."

"His luck is quite good," Schiller threw the unused files aside and said, "I just happened to watch how this only Batman who is worse than him directed a pile of shit show and was still complacent about it. This severely lowered the average level of Batman, which in turn lowered the threshold for doctoral applications that use the average level as a reference."

"I knew it would be like this," Victor wrapped the wire around his arm and said, "I've been waiting for Pamela's doctoral application, but my mailbox is empty. Do you think I should ask her?"

"I think it's better not to," Anna said. "It's not that you have to maintain the professor's airs, but this might put even more pressure on her."

"Pressure? What's wrong with her recently?" Victor asked curiously.

"Remember when she helped those rich people repair their gardens to make money during her internship?" Schiller said. "Now it's all gone. Her financial situation is in trouble and she is adjusting, so don't ask her about her studies recently."

After a little thought, Victor sighed lightly and said, "Actually, my financial situation isn't good either, otherwise I could help her. You know, we just bought a new house, and the car loan hasn't been paid off yet. After I finish my teaching tasks, I have to go to the laboratory in the new district to work."

"What about your patented technology?" Schiller stopped his movements, looked at Victor, and said, "The patented technology for dense ice should bring you a large amount of patent fees, right?"

"If there were no economic crisis, I'm afraid so. But think about it, dense ice technology is generally used to improve low-temperature transport capacity or manufacture low-temperature superconductors, but now the problem faced by companies that need these technologies is not technical breakthroughs; they have to save themselves from bankruptcy first."

"Most companies' high-tech projects have stopped running," Anna sighed and said. "The nuclear power computing module laboratory I worked at before is also laying off people recently. I've already prepared to take a pay cut."

After finishing, they both looked at Schiller. Schiller shook his head and said, "I'm not a technical person; I don't even have the opportunity to work in a laboratory. How much money do you expect me to have?"

"But you are a psychologist, and a very famous one at that. Don't you charge by the hour?" Victor looked a bit skeptical. "You must be very rich."

"Don't try to fool us. Let me guess, the custom-made suits in your closet are enough to buy a house."

Schiller sighed, picked up the box on the ground, and said, "That's exactly why I don't have money. You know I only do extremely limited psychological counseling, and most of it is on a voluntary basis."

"But for the sake of my teaching work and the strange hobbies of my other personalities, I have to spend a lot of money to buy those expensive custom-made suits. I have already listed my manor for sale, but I don't think there's much hope. I don't know if I can move into the South District this year."

"God, you really intend to buy a house in the South District? It's expensive as hell there, and property taxes are collected very high. More importantly, you have to spend at least four hours a day taking care of that damn lawn!" Anna said extremely exaggeratedly.

"I'll remember to call Pamela. I can even pay her 10 dollars an hour," Schiller smiled and said.

"Seriously, actually, your professional ability is the best way to make money," Victor squatted on the ground, thinking while saying, "The economic situation is so bad now, everyone has psychological problems to some extent. Even if ordinary people can't afford the price, those rich people shouldn't be stingy about paying a little more for their own mental health."

"You mean I should become a real psychologist?"

"At least it's better than taking a professor's dead salary," Victor sighed and said. "Nora and my salaries can't even pay the mortgage. Originally, we only went to the laboratory to provide technical guidance in our spare time from teaching. Now it's good, we both have to consider working three jobs."

"Have you considered applying to the Wei En Group?" Schiller thought for a while and said, "They are always short of technical personnel over there."

"Still the same sentence, the technical personnel lacking in society now are electricians, wiremen, and even painters. In their eyes, we scientists are monsters that consume funds and never know satisfaction. Even if Bruce agrees, the board of directors will have a lot of opinions."

Victor looked a bit frustrated. Schiller had to say, "Look on the bright side, at least you are in my phone yellow pages. If you feel very depressed, I can provide you with free counseling."

"I really thank you!" Victor rolled his eyes and said.

"How much savings do you actually have?" Anna looked at Schiller curiously and asked, "Is it enough for you to buy a house in the South District?"

"Paying the down payment is definitely enough, and I have good credit, so the loan is not difficult to handle. The money afterwards is also enough to pay the mortgage for a period of time, but this is not sustainable." Schiller shook his head, obviously a bit embarrassed. He said, "Victor is right, the professor's dead salary is not enough to maintain my life like this. The manuscript fees for journals are falling again and again, and even I don't want to write anymore."

"They are also having a hard time," Anna said, holding a box of sculptures and turning around. "It's not bad that they can still receive manuscripts."

"It's really a devastating blow," Victor simply started to sit on the ground and organize the lines, saying, "By the way, how is Evans?"

"He went back to help the old Godfather. You should know they are preparing for the European Union, right?" Schiller said.

At this, Victor and Anna both laughed out loud, but it was a bitter laugh. Victor said, "The Soviet Union is leaving soon, and the European Union is coming again. This time, the lords in Congress are really going to have heart attacks."

"Better take care of yourself first," Anna just wanted to say something when her phone rang. After responding a few times, she put down the phone and said, "Mrs. Adrian, the person in charge of the administrative office, is coming over in a while. We might have to wait for her here."

"What's wrong? Why does the administrative office have to be at this time..."

"I think this phone call might just be a polite notification." Schiller turned his head to look at the door. As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of high heels came from the end of the corridor.

Mrs. Adrian soon appeared at the door. She rubbed her hands, took a deep breath, sighed, and said, "Sorry, professors, bad news. In order to maintain the normal operation of the school, all faculty and staff will have their salaries reduced by 30%."

"God!!!" Victor screamed, "Our salaries are already very low, and they haven't been raised for 50 years. Now they have to be reduced?!"

Anna also leaned against the windowsill, not knowing what to say. Mrs. Adrian was obviously even more sorry. She said, "No one could have expected this economic crisis to come so suddenly, but the new campus has been built, and we must move."

"But there are still many imperfect places in the new campus that need money to repair. The school's finances have actually been in an emergency for a long time. In addition to raising the tuition fees for students in the next ten years, they finally touched the professors' salaries."

Schiller looked at Mrs. Adrian and said, "What about you? How much did your salary get reduced?"

Mrs. Adrian showed a sad expression and said, "I'm sorry, professors, this is also the main purpose of my coming here this time. During my tenure, I have worked very happily with you, but I will move to Blüdhaven soon."

Victor looked up in surprise and said, "What's wrong? Madam, are you going back to your hometown?"

Mrs. Adrian shook her head and said, "My husband and I are not locals. Although we have worked here for so many years, we didn't buy a house, and now we can't afford it even more."

"Fortunately, we didn't buy a house, but have been carefully maintaining the property in our hometown. Now we are almost at retirement age, and we still have some savings in our hands. It's not cost-effective to continue paying rent and receiving a salary that is low to the point of being hair-raising. It's better to go back to our hometown to retire."

For a moment, everyone fell silent. Schiller had to speak again, "You and your husband have tenaciously survived two Great Depressions; you are already very amazing."

Mrs. Adrian smiled and shook her head, "I wasn't born during the first one, and my husband was still a child. But when his father was still alive, he mentioned it. At that time, he was also a member of the unemployed army."

"Fortunately, if we leave now, we can still get a small amount of compensation, at least enough for my husband to repair his boat. I know that the professors working here are rare talents, and I am very happy to work with you, but I always have to eat, don't I?"

The three of them didn't say anything. After sending Mrs. Adrian away, Anna covered her head and said, "This is really too terrible. Mrs. Adrian's husband has a very reliable relative here, and the rent they pay is already very low. If even he can't afford it, what about others?"

"Student tuition has also risen," Schiller said, tapping the box in his hand lightly. "No wonder Pamela was so anxious to borrow money from me before. The house she rents is too expensive. I guess she can't afford tuition after losing so many projects."

"She borrowed money from you? How much did she borrow?"

"Not much, just 500 dollars. But it can be considered as an advance on her salary for repairing the garden. After all, if I want to sell my manor, the garden still needs to be repaired," Schiller said.

"When will these dark days pass?" Anna complained, "Does anyone have any ideas now?"

Schiller and Victor both shook their heads. Obviously, this kind of large-scale social or even global economic problem cannot be alleviated by one or two people doing something, not even Bruce Wei En.

This is the law of the operation of this economic system, not an accidental event, but an inevitability. Personal power is too small under the transformation of social rules.

Schiller actually knows that Bruce has a plan, but even if it is effective, the dark days before dawn still have to be endured by ordinary people themselves.

And as an ordinary person, after thinking about the balance in his account, Schiller finally put the box on the table, looked at the two, and said, "Do you think psychological counseling... I mean if I open a psychological clinic, will it help alleviate my financial situation?"

"Of course!" the two said in unison.