“Enriching or aimless?” Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, “We’re facing a food shortage crisis, so there’s no time to think about all that.”
Wang Yuexi said, “That was why I stopped Ms. Zhou. It’s not because I want to throw away the potatoes, but because I hope Future Commander will give the order to sell them at parity prices to stabilize the market and not give them out to the stronghold residents for free. Not everyone is that ambitious. When they realize they can survive without putting in any hard work, many people will become utterly complacent.”
Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “If it were me, I would go and do something more meaningful if I didn’t have to worry about having enough to eat and wear.”
“Future Commander, that’s you, but there will always be a portion of people in society who are prone to laziness.” Wang Yuexi said in seriousness, “Why are there able beggars in the stronghold? In this era of hardship, why do some young people still laze around at home while their parents work to support them? There aren’t many people who are truly motivated and have a sense of self-control. The people who play mahjong all night long will only leave the table if they still need to work to survive. If they can continue sitting at the mahjong table without doing anything else, they might as well be useless. Of course there’s nothing wrong with always playing, but what if it’s playing for a month or two, or what about a year or two?”
Wang Yuexi continued, “Perhaps I can joke that as long as you don’t need me to work, I can carry on playing as happily as I like. But is that really the case? It’s not! Future Commander, I just hope these potatoes can be sold at a stable parity price. I’m not trying to devalue Ms. Zhou’s efforts. Besides, it’s only right to set a threshold when providing relief in times of crisis.”
Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Mhm, we’ll do as you say then.”
There was no need to discuss whether Wang Yuexi’s thinking was correct or not, nor the long-term and short-term considerations. For Wang Yuexi to step forward and block Zhou Yingxue, the black market’s mafia boss and the future commander’s trusted aide, it showed that he was a person with principles and courage.
Moreover, the other party was not extreme with his ideology either. He had only requested to sell the potatoes at parity price, so Ren Xiaosu had no reason to reject him.
He also agreed with what Wang Yuexi had said about setting a threshold when offering relief. He had read a book that said that a long time ago, there were cases of sand being added into sacks of rice used to relieve disaster victims. Was this done on purpose to annoy the victims? No. The truly starving victims would not care if there was sand in the rice. Instead, it would avert those who were not truly hungry from taking advantage of the victims if they saw there was sand mixed in.
Recently, Ren Xiaosu also found out about an interesting anecdote regarding Wang Yuexi.
Currently, there were a lot of immigrants in Stronghold 144, including some refugees and poor people from the Central Plains. As a result, a lot of them did not have the money to buy or rent a place, so they ended up sleeping on the streets.
Then the Policy Research Office led by Wang Yuexi drafted a relief program to build some cheap houses to rent out to these immigrants.
But when Wang Yuexi was carrying out this project, he specifically requested that there be no dedicated bathrooms in the rental houses. It had to be a shared bathroom serving more than a dozen households, and even the toilet had to be the squat type.
At the beginning, many people in the stronghold criticized Wang Yuexi, saying he was a really terrible person and that what he did was totally inhumane.
Later on, everyone realized that those who criticized Wang Yuexi were all people who wanted to abuse the rental housing program. Although they did not necessarily need the cheap houses, they wanted to move in and take advantage of the stronghold’s financial support.
At a time like this, the benefits of having a shared bathroom and not a dedicated one would emerge. That was because it was good enough for those who had been forced to sleep in the streets to have a place to stay, so why would they care whether the bathroom was shared or dedicated?
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To be honest, Wang Yuexi really had his own way of governance.
Wang Yuexi continued to tell Ren Xiaosu, “By the way, I still have another matter that I’d like your help with, Future Commander. I hope you won’t ask Ms. Zhou to plant too many potatoes and winter melons. On top of that, this needs to be kept a secret.”
“Why?” Ren Xiaosu asked with a smile.
“Ms. Zhou’s power is our trump card.” Wang Yuexi explained, “These potatoes can ensure that no one in the Northwest dies of starvation. But if we plant them on a large scale and make everyone think that farming isn’t required in the Northwest anymore, it’ll probably lead to a disaster. During the next few decades when Ms. Zhou is around, nothing bad should happen. But what if she’s no longer around one day?”
Zhou Yingxue muttered, “Who are you cursing? What do you mean by when I’m no longer around?”
She was exceptionally meek in front of Ren Xiaosu and did not even dare to raise her voice when rebuking Wang Yuexi. However, Zhou Yingxue was still the current boss of the Northwest black market, so even with Ren Xiaosu reining her in, Wang Yuexi knew very well how fearsome she could be.
However, Wang Yuexi did not back down. Instead, he continued asking, “Future Commander, to put it bluntly, if we really rely on Ms. Zhou to provide us with food, what if she defects to the Wang Consortium one day? This is only a hypothetical, but who can guarantee the future? At that time, all the lives in the Northwest will be entirely tied to Ms. Zhou. Is that what you want to see, Future Commander?”
Ren Xiaosu laughed and said, “Are you worried that Zhou Yingxue will betray the Northwest?”
Zhou Yingxue said from next to them, “How could I possibly betray my master?!”
“Future Commander, you should understand what I mean.” Wang Yuexi continued insisting, “When you told Wang Fugui that Yunsu must not interfere with the economic lifeline of the Northwest, you were also worried Yunsu would become a new consortium when you were no longer around, isn’t that so? Future Commander, that day will definitely come. You, me, and Ms. Zhou will all depart from this place. So since we’re making the vision of the Prosperous Northwest happen, we should seek the most suitable system of survival and regulations for it, not find it a savior.”
In fact, it was highly unlikely that Zhou Yingxue would betray Ren Xiaosu. However, everyone’s fate was inevitable. When Zhou Yingxue passed away one day, the Potato Shooters would definitely not allow anyone to get near them.
The Potato Shooter had become a submissive crop in the hands of Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue. But if an outsider were to approach it without permission, it would still uphold its dignity. At that time, there would probably not be a lot of people in the world who could obtain the potatoes from a large farm of Potato Shooters.
Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “That makes sense. We’ll do as you say then. Zhou Yingxue, don’t make things difficult for him. We must follow the stronghold’s regulations and hand over the potatoes that were brought in.”
Wang Yuexi finally heaved a sigh of relief. To be honest, he was really quite worried Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue would fly into a rage when he hypothesized that Zhou Yingxue could betray the Northwest.
But he felt that his suggestion, and the way he chose his words, were not wrong.
“Thank you, Future Commander, for understanding my concerns,” Wang Yuexi said.
Ren Xiaosu patted him on the shoulder. “Why are you thanking me? I should be the one thanking you instead. With someone like Director Wang in the Northwest, we will thrive.”