The Changing of the Eras

After reading the letter from Nagaril, Lin Qi walked to the door, took out a ten-dollar bill, and handed it to the messenger.

The mailman was a young postman in his twenties. He was nervously holding his Wide-brimmed Hat with both hands. Normally, such letters could be delivered directly, but he felt this was an opportunity, so he didn't put the letter in the mailbox as required. He waited for the person in the room to open the door for him. The good news was that the door opened, and he met Mr. Lin Qi.

"This is what you deserve," Lin Qi said with a smile, seeing that the postman was still hesitant. He put ten dollars into the postman's hat.

Just as Lin Qi was about to close the door, the postman spoke up, "Mr. Lin Qi, I'd like to work for you."

Lin Qi found it somewhat amusing. The postman in front of him was about the same age as him, but their statuses were worlds apart. Lin Qi gently pulled on the closing door and looked at him, "You have already served me, Mr. Postman."

As if realizing something, the postman quickly wiped his free right hand on his body and then stretched it out. "I'm so sorry, my name is Aldrich. I've heard about your deeds, and I'd like to work for you like everyone else."

He emphasized the word "work" to make sure Lin Qi heard "work" and not "service".

Lin Qi looked at his outstretched hand, and then reached out and shook hands with him.

To be honest, Lin Qi is actually a very approachable person. Unlike those people from prominent families with impressive backgrounds who are naturally arrogant and always look down on ordinary people, he is not like them.

These flaws are nowhere to be found in Lin Qi. Whether it is the president of the country or a mailman who wants to shake his hand, as long as it is well-intentioned, he will not refuse.

Lin Qi looked the man up and down; he actually liked this type of person. Regardless of whether they possessed talents that others didn't, they at least had courage.

Courage is the foundation for success. As the old saying goes, you may not know if you will succeed if you don't try, but you will definitely not succeed if you don't try! "Do you have a pen and paper?" Lin Qi asked casually.

The postman, named Aldrich, frantically pulled a pen and a blank sheet of paper from his pocket; postmen always carried these things.

Lin Qi wrote something on it that the postman couldn't understand, then folded it up and handed it to the postman, asking, "Do you know the Green Brothers?"

"Yes, of course I know them, they're very famous!" The postman nodded quickly. "Nobody doesn't know the Green Brothers, Mr. Lin Qi."

These two brothers have actually toned down quite a bit recently, but their past notoriety still exists. If left unchecked, Lin Qi might see them on the execution ground in a few years.

While the Federal champions freedom and allows people to do what they want, crime is absolutely forbidden. If things get too out of hand, even if some voices can be suppressed within the city limits, it won't be able to suppress the voices from the state, or even from Bu Peien.

Fortunately, they recognized their mistake in time, which greatly averted some potential dangers.

Lin Qi nodded. "Take this message to them and tell them you'll find them a job!"

After he finished speaking, he patted the postman's arm and closed the door after the postman left in a state of ecstasy.

"What happened?"

As soon as he returned to the Living Room, Landon asked if something had happened since Lin Qi had been gone for so long.

Lin Qi didn't explain. He walked to the sofa, and the people who were sitting on the sofa and around it quickly stood up, helped Lin Qi clean a separate sofa, and then moved away from Lin Qi.

Of course, saying thank you is worthless and won't make anyone lose face; it will only make others think you're well-mannered. Lin Qi wouldn't be stingy with these worthless words.

After thanking him, he sat down. "It's nothing, just an interesting young man. Let's continue our previous conversation."

Mayor Landon nodded. "Mark intends to dispose of all his local assets..."

Mark, acting as Mayor Landon's front man, has been in charge of managing these assets, but there are some things he hasn't been good at, such as the distribution of relief food.

The relief food people are currently eating comes from Mark's food processing plant. It is said that he won the bid after participating in the bidding process, but no one can say for sure whether that's true or not.

If the mayor had personally taken charge, it would have looked rather unseemly, but with Mark, it looked much better and even garnered praise for effective oversight.

There are many similar cases; Mark indeed controls a considerable number of businesses.

Now that Mayor Landon is leaving, he no longer has dominant power in the area. These industries that were originally profitable are likely to suddenly fall into a state of loss, and the losses will continue to grow, eventually wiping out all the money he has earned over the years.

Therefore, Mark must resolve his affairs before the mayor's powers completely expire.

"First, there's the food factory..." Mayor Landon glanced at the people in the room, but no one stepped forward to say they were willing to take it over; everyone had many concerns.

Food processing is not a business that can make a lot of money. In good times, you can make some money, but now that the situation is bad, it is very difficult to make money. Even if you take on the City Hall's relief food orders, you can't say that you can make money.

Mark is able to make money because the mayor is his uncle; in fact, the food factory essentially belongs to the mayor, which is why he can make money.

But when other people take over, they won't have "my uncle mayor," and that will become their nightmare.

Mayor Landon knew perfectly well why these people weren't stepping forward. He glanced at Ferral, who coughed, drawing everyone's attention.

"Once I take office, all the preferential policies and measures that the City Hall currently provides to food factories, including financial subsidies, will remain unchanged!"

Ferral's assurance immediately had a magical effect; someone stepped forward, beaming, and expressed their willingness to buy the food factory.

He did this not to make money, but simply to contribute his own strength to every family in Sabine City who needed food aid!

But clearly, some people were unwilling to let one person have all the glory, and they also joined the "buying frenzy." From being ignored to rushing to buy, Lin Qi remained calm, the mayor was slightly sarcastic, and Ferral was beaming.

Three people, with completely different feelings and attitudes. But regardless of whether Mayor Landon was displeased by these businessmen's blatant behavior, or whether Ferral's statement changed the situation and proved that he had surpassed Mayor Landon in people's minds, this was reality, and the game had to continue without end.

In one day, Mark's assets were basically all disposed of, fetching around two million dollars. If they hadn't been badly ripped off on the Cheap Apartments, they might have been able to take even more money with them.

And today also marks the end of an era in the history of Sabine City, the end of an era belonging to Mayor Landon.

As evening fell and everyone had left, Mayor Landon and Mark were also preparing to depart. Mayor Landon stood at the door and shook hands with Lin Qi one last time to say goodbye. He would return and submit his resignation to the State Government the next day or two, recommending a successor. The State Government would then directly appoint an interim mayor before the next election.

In other words, if Lin Qi misses today, he is unlikely to have many more opportunities to meet with Mayor Landon —this refers to Sabine City; there will still be opportunities to meet after Mayor Landon goes to Bu Peien.

At this point, he brought up the things they had discussed before. "I will take part of this money with me, and I plan to give the other part to Mark. We've talked about the business in Nagaril before."

Lin Qi nodded. "I'll arrange some work for Mark then."

Mayor Landon sighed contentedly, patted Lin Qi's arm, said goodbye, and quickly left with Mark.

Standing under the eaves, watching the mayor's car drive away, Ferral, who was standing next to him, let out a heavy sigh of relief. "It's finally over."

Lin Qi turned to look at him, smiled, and asked, "How does it feel to have power?"

Ferral stepped out of the silence. The winter night sky was cloudless, filled with bright stars. He gazed at the sky as he had when he was a child, engrossed in the view, and answered Lin Qi's questions.

"It's fascinating. Can you feel it? Landon hasn't even left yet, and people's attitudes toward him have already changed dramatically. But as soon as I speak, everything goes back to normal. That's the value of power."

Even Ferral himself didn't realize that he had overlooked the fact that he didn't address him as "Mr. Mayor," "Your Mayor," or "Mr. Mayor Landon," but instead called him by his first name.

"I really want to say that I don't actually feel much, but we all know that's a lie. Power is really alluring, and I don't know if I will feel pain when I lose it!"

"No, everyone will experience pain. In fact, everyone experiences pain; it's just a matter of whether they show it or not."

He withdrew his gaze, stood in the courtyard, and looked at Lin Qi. "So, what should we do next?"

"After you announce your inauguration, cooperate with me to acquire some factories, and you will provide at least four or five hundred jobs for the city. People will soon start to support you." These were all things that had been discussed beforehand, and Lin Qi even stayed in China for a longer period of time for this purpose.

Ferral seemed a little off at this moment. He asked a question he had never thought of, much less ask himself, "Is it safe?"

"I mean, are we safe doing this?"

"Of course!" Lin Qi looked up at the sky. "Everything we've done is in accordance with the laws of this country, and everything is safe!"