Chapter 27

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Protagonist:

Milton

Mins

The intense drowsiness and fatigue let Milton sleep very, very well; even after getting up he was a bit unable to judge how much time had passed.

The time can be seen, the date a bit cannot be seen……

"Hope it's not that I slept a whole day." Milton sat up from the sofa, moved his sore and soft limbs, "Wash up first."

Just walked out of the room, Milton saw Liya sitting at the dining table, woodenly staring at the table in a daze.

Parents both massacred by the Fan Kang Gang, only leaving behind a child……

Milton sighed in his heart, walked over and asked: "Liya, how long did I sleep?"

Liya hurriedly rallied, revealed a smile: "Inspector sir, you seem to have slept a bit over eight hours?"

Such a strong child.

Milton did not sit down; he glanced at Liya, deliberated and said: "What do you plan to do during this period?"

"I…… I don't know." Liya blanked for a moment, "I still have a few dollars on me, what you gave me last time, maybe, can still last a few days?"

The fruit shop is impossible to operate anymore.

The Fan Kang Gang will definitely come knocking…… the boss is dead, father is dead, she no longer has anyone to rely on.

A little girl simply cannot find a proper job in this kind of place; perhaps in a few days she will starve to death, or sell herself to those human traffickers in the depths of the Old Street?

Milton sensing this numb and despairing tone, calmly said: "Go to school and study."

Go to school…… study……

Liya blinked, clenched her fingers hard: "But I have no money for tuition, Inspector sir."

"You work part-time at the pharmacy for now; when next semester starts you'll have enough tuition." Milton finished this sentence, turned and walked toward the bathroom, "Remember, only knowledge can change your destiny."

Liya watched Milton's receding back, watched the familiar surroundings, that shattered sense of safety bit by bit returned, the forced composure collapsed at once, eye rims gradually blurred: "……Thank you."

Milton's figure paused; he turned his head, very seriously corrected the little girl's wording: "Don't thank me; you paid taxes, and this is the right a taxpayer deserves."

Liya froze.

Paid taxes, then can enjoy taxpayer rights?

Liya, who had always been robbed by all sorts of people under all sorts of banners, for the first time seriously chewed on the word "rights," feeling her worldview shake.

Milton, with many matters on hand, no longer bothered with the little girl; he quickly walked into the bathroom to wash up, changed clothes and arrived at the small canteen located on the ground surface.

A bit hungry, eat first.

Brandon and Luz were already waiting here; seeing Milton enter, they hurriedly stood: "Boss? Eat? I had the Chinese restaurant across the street deliver the food; secretly tell you, Chinese people's stuff is really delicious; our canteen's meals are basically all provided by them."

Milton hearing "Chinese restaurant" fell silent; after three seconds he said to Luz: "You go to the Chinese restaurant and buy some ingredients and seasonings; no finished dishes."

Afraid of poison…… Luz nodded, sighed that the boss is truly cautious, then took the money and walked out the door.

Brandon sat on the chair, swayed: "Boss, you're not as cold as you look…… seeing your obsession with tax collection, I thought you'd chase Liya away."

Milton glanced at him, coldly said: "So it serves you right that you govern this place so badly, serves you right that you can't collect taxes."

Brandon a bit puzzled: "Ah?"

"Only collect taxes, refuse to let a single cent flow out, will only make people feel they've been robbed, highly resistant to taxation, driving collection costs unimaginably high, until collection costs far exceed the tax revenue itself, then order collapses."

"You only let people feel the consequences of not paying taxes, but didn't let them feel the improvement in quality of life after paying taxes, so contradictions, conflicts, opposition intensify more and more."

Milton paused, then said: "In words you can understand: suppose a shop, after paying me protection fees, discovers it can do business unimpeded, discovers it no longer receives counterfeit money, discovers even if a pack of tissues is stolen the police help them recover it, discovers because order is restored more and more customers come…… do you still need to go urge them to pay taxes?"

"They'd hate not to kneel on the ground, beg me to come collect their taxes! Understand what is cost, what is efficiency? Don't only think how to divide more bread; go think how to make two pieces of bread."

Whoever has money earn whose money, putting energy on bullying civilians, will never make a big fortune.

Brandon hadn't read many books, only felt the other party's words really made sense; he suddenly realized and nodded: "So it's like this…… this is someone who went to school? Looks like I have to earn another tuition for my kid."

"……"

After Milton finished giving Brandon a lesson, Luz also carried large and small bags back.

He put the ingredients on the table, panted: "Chicken wings, eggs, a large piece of beef, tomatoes, some vegetables, also rice and some seasonings; Boss, is this enough for everyone? Do we have a cook here, who can cook?"

"Oh! Heard it was you purchasing, they even gave us a few bottles of Coca-Cola, American goods, good stuff. Your 'Hell Tax Collector' title is really too resounding!"

Mention this nickname again and I'll turn hostile……

Milton's mouth corner twitched, gave Luz a look full of warning, then took the ingredients into the kitchen.

Luz stared blankly, turned to ask Brandon: "This, Boss personally cooks? Boss can even cook?"

"I don't know either!"

40 minutes later, under everyone's, including Liya's, astonished gazes, Milton expressionlessly brought out several large basins of steaming hot dishes——Tomato Egg Drop Soup, Boiled Beef, Coke Chicken Wings and Steamed Rice.

To cater to these foreigners' palates, and because seasonings were partly missing, he only added a very, very tiny bit of spicy to the Boiled Beef; as for numbing, that was directly none.

"Meat and veg and soup, make do and eat, sigh." Milton dished a plate of food, awkwardly forked a slice of beef and ate; in his heart he only gave this thing 6.5 points, barely passable as palatable.

However, what he never expected was, the others only tasted slightly, and their facial expressions underwent violent changes.

Everyone including Liya, basically all ate a mouthful of dish, looked up at Milton, complexions and gazes each more shocked than the last, later even "admiration" this emotion appeared; some even ate with tears welling up.

"This, too delicious…… I'll go get another bowl of soup!"

"Chicken wings can still be made like this?"

"You take less beef, have some decency!"

Almost everyone at the fastest speed finished a plate, then quickly went to get another plate, like they hadn't eaten in days.

Milton looked at this group of starving ghosts, dumbfounded asked: "You guys that much?"

Brandon said nothing, just buried his head in eating.

Luz forced his head up and said unclearly: "Boss, this is really too delicious... you, let me finish eating first before talking."

So Milton watched his own cooking being eliminated at light speed—this bunch of madmen didn't even let the soup go!

After eating, everyone was so full they couldn't even stand, yet still had looks of unsatisfied longing.

"Boss... you, you cook this well?!"

"Damn, tastier than the Chinese restaurant across the street, this is my highest praise for food!"

Actually by this point Milton understood too—this kind of poor place, three meals a day were just bread and fried eggs making do with plain water; occasionally eating some offal to supplement protein... going to an American-style Chinese restaurant to stuff yourself was already rewarding yourself.

In a place where you could starve to death, being able to eat your fill was already good; who had the leisure to study cooking?

Luz sighed contentedly: "I'm now sure I didn't follow the wrong person! Boss, what country's cuisine is this? After I retire, I'll learn your cooking and open a restaurant, business will definitely be better than that Chinese restaurant."

Milton closed his eyes once and answered: "This is Chinese cuisine."

"... Ah?! This is Chinese cuisine? Then what is General Tso's Chicken?"

Milton was completely speechless at this bunch of clowns, he sighed and shook his head: "After eating, come down, we'll study the 'Boss's' ledger, see if we can catch the tail of the Qingteng Charity Foundation."

Now the vast majority of pharmacy "customers" could only move around on the first floor, only absolutely trustworthy people could enter the underground basement.

After finishing speaking, he returned to the small meeting room on basement level 1, opened the ledger, and studied it bit by bit.

A very simple procurement list, only recording drug names, drug unit prices, and some miscellaneous notes... maybe afraid of leaving too much evidence?

Milton continued looking through the bill, suddenly, his brow furrowed slightly.