"Yes, investment." Seeing the surprise written all over Feifei's face, Yani explained, "Since time immemorial, the most profitable business has always been investing in the future."
"I thought it was starting wars to sell weapons, then selling the weapons and stripping the losers of everything," Feifei said with a laugh.
"That's a very efficient method. It may not be very ethical, but it is certainly one way to invest in the future." Yani shrugged, unconcerned. "Of course, plenty of baboons wrapped in feather blankets have reversed cause and effect, mistaking the means for the end. There are no shortage of those baboons in the Alliance. Some of them are even the so-called big shots who call all the shots in high society, chatting and laughing with the old men in their families every day. But if they can't tell the means from the end and let some imaginary numbers rob them of their wits, it'll affect their family culture too. They'll probably fade into obscurity in a generation or two."
Feifei wanted to make a few sarcastic remarks, but had to admit that throughout the Alliance's history, there had often been figures who dominated their eras for a few decades, and the title of richest person in the Alliance had frequently gone to inspiring self-made success stories. Yet after all these years, those thirteen families were still the same thirteen families.
"The future of art, the future of culture, the future of technology—and, of course, the future of politics. Isn't there a story from your home about an odd treasure being kept until it became valuable?"
Yamida really was as learned as a library, knowing more stories about Earth than the vast majority of Earthlings.
"So Fish is what you mean by the future of politics?"
"Maybe he's the future