Chapter 496

In the manor, the tassels hanging from the retro gorgeous tablecloth swayed slightly. The afternoon sun was just right, making the food on the table look more appetizing. Merkel reached out and straightened the last plate. Shiler was walking down from upstairs.

He looked up at the watch on the wall, and Merkel also lowered his head and looked at his watch and said: "The guests will be here soon."

When Shiler walked down the stairs, he heard the doorbell ring. Merkel stepped forward to open the door. Mayor Luo Yin walked in angrily with a briefcase, came to the side of the sofa in the reception hall, threw the briefcase on the sofa, put his hands on his hips, and stood on the spot sighing.

"What's wrong?" Shiler looked him up and down. Luo Yin was still wearing a trench coat and felt hat, with unmelted snowflakes on his shoulders. The expression of the whole person seemed a bit gloomy.

Luo Yin took a deep breath, adjusted his emotions, and then said: "It's nothing, I just had a conference call, and my emotions haven't been adjusted yet."

"Conference call, about what?"

"Do you remember the donation from the charity party before?" Luo Yin put one hand on his hip and the other on the back of the sofa, getting angrier as he spoke: "Originally, the donation should be donated to the foundation, and then the foundation would conduct inspections to decide the donation allocated to each city."

"However, that bunch of people in the foundation refused to conduct inspections on the grounds that Cat Getan's security was too poor, and only intended to allocate the lowest-grade donation to us. That money is not even enough to repair a road!"

"And, this kind of thing is not once or twice. Before, when the state legislature allocated funds, some councilors proposed that Cat Getan's priority should be lowered, and part of the allocation for Cat Getan should be transferred to Metropolis..."

Luo Yin covered his forehead, his chest rising and falling constantly, clearly not lightly angered. He said: "Among all the super-large cities on the East Coast, Cat Getan suffered the most severe disaster. Our temperature this year has dropped very severely. In addition to the snow disaster, there is also a freezing disaster. The disaster in several farms and ranches in the suburbs is very severe..."

"In addition, the logistics system we just developed has also been hit hard. We really need money to repair it. We cannot rely entirely on the gangs. They pay one point of return and want ten points of harvest. If they are kidnapped too severely, it will cause big trouble."

"You are very sober." Shiler evaluated. Luo Yin shook his head and said somewhat discouraged: "Only when I became the mayor of this damn city did I know that there is no reason for this city to be rotten to this point today."

"Foundations, state legislatures, and even Congress, they have no intention of saving this place at all. They don't even allow us to save ourselves!"

"I proposed that we can reduce the required allocation, just need more snow removal machines, and some seawater heating equipment, but they all refused. It's not that they don't have these equipment, they just don't want to lend them."

"The feeling they give me is that they are afraid that this place will get better." Luo Yin said very confusedly.

"They are not afraid that this place will get better, but afraid that the improvement of this place has nothing to do with them. Wouldn't that make them look too incompetent?"

Shiler walked to the dining table and pulled out a chair. Luo Yin stood on the spot and got angry for a while, then came to the dining table. Shiler said to him: "Wait a moment, we have two more guests."

Luo Yin raised his eyebrows and said: "You didn't say there were others. Who is it?"

"Oh, they are here." Shiler looked at the door. Merkel walked over again. After opening the door, outside the door were Victor and Bruce.

Several people greeted each other. Bruce and Victor sat down and looked at Luo Yin. They were also a bit puzzled. Shiler didn't say that there were others at this banquet today when he invited them.

"Alright, everyone is here, let's eat first." Shiler picked up the knife and fork and started preparing to eat. The other few people also started eating lunch. While eating, Shiler said: "How is the snow disaster relief and urban reconstruction work?"

"Not so good." Luo Yin's mood was still a bit depressed. He said: "Money is needed everywhere, manpower is needed everywhere, but hiring people also needs money."

"The gangs have the heart to build quickly, but they are scattered soldiers, not organized, each doing their own thing, repairing in a mess."

"Have you thought about organizing them?"

"Because the municipal government has no funds, and Cat Getan is not a strong mayor system, what I say is useless, almost no one listens."

"Have you considered enriching the municipal government's funds?"

Luo Yin sighed deeply again. He felt that Shiler was a bit asking about things that shouldn't be asked today. He cut the steak fiercely with a knife and said: "How to enrich funds? Increase the tax rate? Then the gangs will go crazy. The allocation is unreliable, and the tax rate cannot be moved..."

"Developing new industries?"

"Where else in Cat Getan can develop new industries? The logistics industry that was just about to develop was hit hard by this year's snow disaster and the previous explosion. Few companies dare to come here to build factories, and the natural environment is not good enough..."

Luo Yin couldn't eat anymore, but at this time, Shiler turned to Bruce and Victor and asked: "Do you have any results on the thing I entrusted you to study before?"

Victor shook his head first and then said: "I don't know where you got that kind of mineral, but the existing machines cannot analyze its composition at all. I used some reagents to experiment with its properties, but basically didn't get any results."

Bruce also said in the gap of drinking water: "Indeed, the researchers at the Wei En Group laboratory gave the same conclusion."

Bruce bit the heavy tone on the words "researchers." Shiler understood his hint. The so-called researchers were actually himself.

"What on earth are you talking about?" Luo Yin asked somewhat puzzled.

Shiler beckoned to Merkel. Merkel understood and took a box from the museum shelf next to him. As soon as the box was opened, Luo Yin was dazzled. Inside was a very brilliant gemstone.

It appeared translucent, and there seemed to be some faint mist in the stone, but it was very brilliant, seemingly with its own light source. Under different light angles, the mist inside would also change. Luo Yin couldn't help but be attracted, staring at it for a long time.

"What is this?"

"I named it Mist Crystal, but actually this is a peach pit spat out by some glutton after eating a peach. I cut it according to the diamond cutting method, and it became like this."

Shiler took the gemstone out of the box and put it on his hand. This gemstone was actually Kryptonite without radiation. Originally it was transparent, but after being spat out by the gray mist, it became translucent with a bit of mist, but this made it incomparably beautiful, brilliant enough to make people unable to move their eyes away.

"This thing is quite beautiful. I am very happy to give it as a gift to others, but what does this have to do with new industries?"

"Do you think it has any economic value as a new material?"

"Economic value? That depends on what it can do. Does it have any special properties? For example..."

Luo Yin racked his brains and couldn't think of any professional terms. He had this concept in his mind, knowing that some rare metals can be used as raw materials for key parts of certain equipment, or have some irreplaceable special properties, and because they are relatively rare, they will be speculated to high prices.

"Its special property is that no one knows what its special property is."

Shiler said like a tongue twister. As he spoke, he stretched out his hand, pointed to Bruce and Victor, and said: "A world-class chemist and cryologist, as well as top researchers hired by the Wei En Group, have failed to crack the properties of this new unknown mineral..."

"Then isn't it useless?" Luo Yin said directly.

"However, this is only temporary. What if it is researched out later?" Shiler put down the knife and fork, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and said:

"Any kind of unknown new material is a blue ocean. What's more, it also has the guaranteed ornamental value. Even if it is discovered later that it has no special properties, due to its rarity and ornamental value, it also has a certain value."

"So, you want to..."

"Find a way to speculate its price up, wouldn't the budget for disaster relief and reconstruction be there?"

"Where is the mine of this thing? Is the output stable?" Luo Yin also knew about this aspect.

Shiler's train of thought is actually very easy to understand, nothing more than futures. A new material whose properties have not been cracked by researchers appears, and someone will definitely be willing to invest. And this new mineral called Mist Crystal looks more like an ornamental gemstone, its value is visible to the naked eye, so there should be no shortage of investors.

And the remaining problem is that investors will definitely go to inspect the mine, inspect the stability of the mineral output, and then decide the investment amount and investment cycle.

"The problem is here. This thing has no mine, and there is no so-called output. All the minerals are in my hands now. This is spot goods."

Bruce knew that Shiler's so-called new mineral was actually Kryptonite with radiation removed. He also put down the knife and fork, wiped his mouth, and then said: "That actually belongs to the art market. Ornamental value, mystery, unique items can all be used for speculation."

"However..." Bruce glanced at Shiler and said: "Do you really intend to sell this thing? If you want to sell it, the Wei En Group can acquire it at a high price."

"What do you want it for? There is no radiation in it anymore."

"I am also very interested in new materials. You can just treat it as an investment."

Shiler sighed. Bruce had already discovered his true intention. He could only say: "Alright, actually I didn't plan to sell it."

"You say, if this kind of mineral has some physical therapy effects based on unknown principles, such as extending life, after some special treatment, it can be made into medicine, or health supplements..."

"Do you want to use it to cheat money?" Luo Yin asked again, hitting the nail on the head.

"Don't say it so bluntly. This is a brand new mineral, even with the efforts of top experts in various fields, it is impossible to crack its composition."

"But it's useless."

"How can you prove it's useless?"

"Then how can you prove it's useful?"

"Although I cannot prove it's useful, you also cannot prove it's useless..."

"Although I cannot prove it's useless, you also..."

"Stop!" Shiler called a stop to this meaningless tongue twister. He said: "I just want to cheat money, are you doing it or not?"

Luo Yin put down the knife and fork, stretched out his hand, shook hands with Shiler, and said: "I believe this will be the pillar industry of Cat Getan in the future."

Two days later, in the corridor of the manor, Merkel held a thick stack of documents in his arms, and a series of briefcases hung on one arm.

Standing in front of the door, he knocked on the door, walked in, put down the documents, and said: "Sir, this is the 24th document today, sent to the mailbox by a guy glowing green all over. It is... Part 302 of the Green Lantern Industry Logistics Support Plan..."

"In addition..." Merkel picked up the series of briefcases and stacked them one by one on the corner of the table. While stacking, he counted: "Mist Crystal Industry Development Plan Case 102, Case 104, Case 106..."

After he put the last box on the corner of the table, he looked around the room. The entire study had been submerged by documents. Whether it was on the floor, on the table, on the bookshelf, or even on the windowsill, all kinds of documents were piled up.

More than half of them were sent by all kinds of people glowing green, and a small half were newspaper boys coming and going from the mayor's office.

In just two days, Shiler had been submerged by the massive work brought by the two huge plans he had developed.

"Cheated Kangxi"

Shiler, sitting in the chair, lowered his head and took out the abacus from the drawer, "pop," and patted it on the desktop.

Then, his eyes went blank, and he started to daze.

The DC Shiler, who had just recovered from his illness and got up from the hospital bed to take over, had just come back to his senses when the pile of documents higher than his head "bang" fell down, directly burying him in it.

After he crawled out from the vast sea of documents, Shiler lowered his head and saw an abacus and a note. The handwriting on the note was very familiar. It was written on it:

"No need to thank me, this is an abacus."