Chapter 419: City Lord’s troubles

Chapter 419: City Lord’s troubles

In the City Lord’s work hall, Chu Tian was sitting on a white jade gem encrusted throne with his legs crossed. He was holding a cup of freshly brewed tea from his assistant. The water was good water, using the Water of Life from the Green Religion Temple. The tea leaves were also good leaves, they were the high quality elven green tea.

He was very satisfied.

There was a smooth mirror as tall as a person in front of Chu Tian, with the image going from fuzzy to clear, finally revealing a girl’s figure. Although she wasn’t tall, she was slender and graceful with skin as white as snow. Her body was exquisite, being big, slender, long, and round where it should be. She was filled with vitality and there could not be a single fault to be found.

She bent her face in and took a close look.

This allowed Chu Tian to inspect her face at a close distance which was simply as smooth as china. Her large eyes were like crystals, her nose was tall and slender, her lips were small and red, and her black hair draped over her shoulders. She looked very cute and beautiful.

Chu Tian lazily shook his gown, “How about it, I didn’t lie to you. Why aren’t you greeting me as sir City Lord yet!”

“Wa!” Meng Yingying’s eyes lit up as she released a series of questions from her mouth, “This is your office? It looks so luxurious! What is that behind you, a garden? Why does it seem like it’s in the clouds? You really succeeded in becoming the City Lord? Why is it so fast!”

“Wouldn’t you know if you just come and see?” Chu Tian waved his hand like she shouldn’t mention small matters to him, “What is the situation with Oldman Small Town?”

“Elder sister has unified the surrounding area and is now planning to build a business and industrial city. The initial plan will contain two million people, so Miracle Commerce will have a lot of labour to use. The new crystal oil has been mined and there is more than we imagined, so we can start researching a new generation of Source Energy Weapons. Vivian has developed the fourth Space Warehouse and the Flower Fairies have constructed a stable Spiritual Domain. Our cultivation has increased by a large amount, and alos…..”

Un, un, not bad.

Everyone didn’t slack off.

“Since everything is developing smoothly, come as soon as possible. I’m lacking in helpers here, I need the help of you and the young miss.”

“Alright!”

Meng Yingying revealed a happy expression. She wanted to come for a long time.

“Yingying, are you talking to Chu Tian? I seemed to have heard his voice.” At this time, there was a magnetic girl’s voice coming from the side before a fiery bodied beauty appeared in the mirror. Who was it if it wasn’t the young miss?

Chu Tian immediately greeted the young miss.

Meng Qingwu saw Chu Tian sitting in the City Lord’s throne, so of course she was very surprised. She never thought Chu Tian would make this much progress this quickly. Chu Tian did not seem to hide anything from the young miss because he immediately described the situation to her.

“Speaking of this, your position is still not stable. We need to take out large amounts of money to develop Green City, luckily Miracle Commerce has been earning large amounts these past few months, so now we have quite a bit stockpiled.” Meng Qingwu said without hesitation, “If we don’t calculate the value of the other resources, Miracle Commerce has a total of twenty five thousand source stones stored. Miracle Commerce has a large store, so we need to keep five thousand low grade source stones in stock. I will put the other twenty thousand source stones into the company’s Space Warehouse, so you can use it if you need money on that side. I will quickly exchange the resources so you have more source stones to use for development.”

Miracle Commerce was already this rich?

This number had surpassed Chu Tian’s expectations. This was just the source stone reserves and if Miracle Commerce exchanged their items for source stones, it had to be at least several times that. Chu Tian was instantly filled with confidence.

With a good wife like the young miss, Chu Tian did not need to worry at all.

There was the clear sound of footsteps in the hall. It was Delores who had returned.

“Alright, let’s not talk today. This City Lord will go all out in working.” Chu Tian said goodbye to the young miss and Yingying before turning off the communication mirror.

He looked up.

Peng!

Various scrolls, lists, and notes was placed in front of him like a small mountain. There were over several hundred scrolls that completely shocked Chu Tian.

What kind of nonsense is this?

“Why is my beloved sir City Lord in a daze?” The beautiful City Lord’s assistant Delores had a trace of a mischievous smile flashing in her eyes, “This is only a small part. There are three filled archive next door that all need the City Lord to look over them.”

“Is this right! Why is there so many?”

“Think about it. There are taxes for each region, the caravan registration information, the city personnel information, the city development information, the research lab information, the citizen registry, the city’s planning draft, the water system information, the planting information, the public safety information…..Everything is here. Do you think a City Lord just gives orders?”

“Fine, fine. We’ll give these things to the young miss when she comes.” Chu Tian wiped off his sweat. He never thought that being a City Lord would be this troublesome and this was like a bucket of cold water splashing over him, “What do I need to know now?”

When had there been a City Lord like you?

Delores secretly criticized him, but she still replied, “Green City’s situation is less than optimal, the gnomes have a high deficit. I’ve looked over last year’s expense reports, it’s actually 165% of the revenue. The gnomes have already come close to becoming bankrupt and their tax income over the past ten years have been less than 50% the normal amount. This falling down trend is very serious, do you understand what that means?”

“What does it mean?”

“The Eternal Forest and Green City had an agreement. The gnomes would hand the city to the elves and the gnomes would be able to keep all their wealth, but the Eternal Forest needed to pay the consumption the gnomes used to pay. Speaking of this, since you’ve became the City Lord, you took over the debts of the gnomes. According to the current revenue and consumption, you need to pay around twenty six thousand and five hundred low grade source stones every month by a conservative estimate.”

The fox clan was very shrewd with money.

This was completely manifested on Delores, being able to clearly understand the finance situation in this short period of time.

Pu!

Chu Tian almost spat out a mouthful of tea onto her, “Having to give several tens of thousands of source stones every month. This bucket that is filled with holes, why would the Eternal Forest accept this? Isn’t this a joke!”

“You have to look at whose hand it is. The elves are not rich, but they can still accept this small amount. Moreover, if Green City had the elves’ strength, they would quickly restore their popularity and it would become a profitable business, without needing them to do anything else. So to the elves, this was a business where they couldn’t not make a profit.” Delores said this before looking at Chu Tian, “In your hands…..Don’t say that I’m attacking you. Since you’ve taken over, half the Green City caravans are preparing to leave and the other half is already on the road. This month’s tax revenue has shrank by a large amount and it has crippled our finances, so I think you should start praying.”

A hole that would cost several tens of thousands of spirit stones each month.

Isn’t this not a small number for anyone?

Chu Tian’s Miracle Commerce had money, but they had been established not long enough and their base couldn’t compare to the large clans of the forest. Now that they had a large plate in front of them, they couldn’t afford to eat it.

“What are these source stones being spent on? Can we cut a bit of it?”

Delores quickly looked over the expense reports, “These are mainly being used to buy materials, supply the Green City army, consumed in the gardens, and being used to pay the gnomes’ living fees. This makes up around half of it.”

“What is the other half for?”

“Of course it’s for research!” Delores rolled her eyes, “It’s not like you don’t know, the gnomes are the race with the strongest intellectual curiosity and desire to explore. The gnomes’ research is considered high grade in the entire Forest of Chaos, so each laboratory requires a large amount of resources.”

If Chu Tian were to take over the business in Green City.

Of course there were ways to reduce the basic consumption of resources and army expenses, but these things were very small and didn’t even amount to a fourth of the expenses. The most expensive expenses were the gnome living fees and the gnomes’ research budgets, this was the basic condition the gnomes had given to the Eternal Forest.

The Elven King had promised to agree to these.

Since he had been appointed as the permanent City Lord, Chu Tian and Miracle Commerce naturally had a duty to shoulder this promise.

Chu Tian never would have thought that after working hard to sit on the City Lord position, not only would he gain no benefits at all, he would also have to support several hundred thousand gnomes. This large pressure was enough to give him a strong headache.

Clark wants to chase me away with difficulties!

However, these gnomes are underestimating me too much!

Chu Tian thought about it a bit before saying, “Send out my first order now. When this City Lord is in charge, there will be no taxes charged on any business in this city.”

“You’re crazy!” Delores’ eyes popped open, “This is no different from breaking an arm. The financial deficit is already severe enough, do you feel this hole isn’t deep enough yet?”

“It’s like you just said, half the merchants are preparing to run and the other are already leaving, so what’s the use in trying to fight for that tax revenue? We need to keep people here before we think of a way to make money off them. As for this financial hole, reduce the efficiency as much as possible and I will make up for the rest.” Chu Tian said with a face filled with disdain, “Isn’t it ten thousand source stones? It isn’t like I can’t take that out!”

“You…..” Delores knew that Chu Tian’s backing was not simple, but seeing how generous Chu Tian was, not even placing this large amount in his eyes, she couldn’t help raising Chu Tian by several points in her heart, “Alright, it’s fine as long as you feel there is no problem.”

Chu Tian did not care what kind of stir he caused in Green City or even the Forest of Chaos, the first thing was to restore order.

I’m very interested in the research facility. Come, let’s go and take a look.”

Chu Tian’s second matter was to understand the gnomes’ situation. After all, the gnomes can be considered a rarely seen highly intelligent race in the forest, so they had a high compatibility to Miracle Commerce.

Green City had been constructed for an entire five hundred years.

The gnomes laboratory had also been constructed for an entire five hundred years.

This definitely could not compare to the Southern Summer Country’s environment. Chu Tian wanted to personally see it and see what was different about it.

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