Chapter 496

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

He looked up at the clock on the wall, and Merkel also looked down at his watch and said: "The guests will arrive 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 his briefcase on the sofa, put his hands on his hips, and sighed on the spot.

"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. His whole expression looked a bit gloomy.

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

"Conference call, about what?"

"Do you remember the donation from the charity gala 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 investigations to decide the donations allocated to each city."

"However, those people in the foundation refused to conduct investigations in the name of Gotham's poor security, and only intended to allocate the lowest-grade donations 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 legislators proposed that Gotham's priority should be lowered, and part of the funds allocated to Gotham should be transferred to Metropolis..."

Luo Yin covered his forehead, his chest rising and falling constantly, obviously very angry. He said: "Among all the super-large cities on the East Coast, Gotham 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. Several farms and ranches in the suburbs have suffered very severely..."

"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 gangs. They pay one point of return and want ten points of harvest. If they are kidnapped too severely, it will cause a big mess."

"You are very sober." Shiler commented. Luo Yin shook his head and said somewhat discouragedly: "Only after becoming the mayor of this damn city did I know that there is a reason why this city is rotten to this day."

"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 funds, just need more snow removal machines, and also need 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."

"They give me the feeling that they are afraid that this place will get better." Luo Yin said very puzzledly.

"They are not afraid that this place will get better, but afraid that the improvement of this place has nothing to do with them. Doesn'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, and also 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 toward 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 began to prepare for the meal. The other few also began to eat lunch. While eating, Shiler said: "How is the 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 it quickly, but they are scattered soldiers, not organized, doing their own things, and the repairs are a mess."

"Didn't you think about organizing them?"

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

"Have you considered enriching the funds of the municipal government?"

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

"Developing new industries?"

"Where else in Gotham is there any new industry to develop? The logistics industry that was just about to develop was messed up 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 was almost unable to eat. But at this time, Shiler turned to Bruce and Victor and asked: "Have you got any results on the thing I entrusted you to study before?"

Victor shook his head first and then said: "I don't know what kind of mineral you got, 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 Wayne Group's 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 took a box from the museum shelf beside him with understanding. 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. At different light angles, the mist inside would also change. Luo Yin was involuntarily attracted by his gaze, staring at him for a long time.

"What is this?"

"I named it Mist Crystal, but in fact, 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 in his hand. This gemstone was actually Kryptonite without radiation. It was originally 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.

"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 and pointed to Bruce and Victor and said: "A world-class chemist and cryogenist, as well as top researchers hired by Wayne 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 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 a 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 something about this.

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 there will definitely be people 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."

Bruce knew that Shiler's so-called new mineral was actually Kryptonite that had been drained of radiation. 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, all can 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, Wayne 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, just treat it as an investment."

Shiler sighed. Bruce had already discovered his true intention. He could only say: "Alright, actually I didn't intend 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 drugs, 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, its composition cannot be cracked."

"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, do you do 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 Gotham's pillar industry 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, then walked in, put down the documents, and said: "Sir, this is the 24th document today, sent by a guy glowing green into the mailbox. It is... Green Lantern Industry Logistics Support Plan Part 302..."

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

By the time he placed the last box on the corner of the table, he looked around the room. The entire study had been drowned 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 various people glowing green, and a small half were newsboys coming and going to the mayor's office.

In just two days, Shiler had already been drowned by the massive amount of work brought by the two huge plans he developed.

"Cheated Kangxi"

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

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

DC Shiler, who had just recovered from his injury 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, burying him directly inside.

By the time he crawled out of 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 thanks, this is an abacus."