The power of authority truly was beyond anything money could match.
Just look at how the two fared against each other. When money fought authority, it often took elaborate schemes, one tactic after another, and sometimes even a war. When authority fought money, a single casual word could be enough to confiscate everything the other side owned and wipe out their entire family.
As He Ping'an had said, if Pan Long offered eight or ten times the usual price—or more—the bookshop owner would gladly print his book first. He might even have the workers put in extra hours. And if Pan Long paid the workers a bonus on top of that, they would probably work with boundless enthusiasm, ignoring their fatigue and refusing to rest.
It was like a famous saying from his previous life: there was no such thing as too much work, only too little pay.
If the money was right, forget 996. People would even spend all 365 days of the year, twenty-four hours a day, at the office, sleeping on sofas, eating boxed meals, and squeezing work into every minute.
All work meant trading life for money. If the return was high enough, plenty of people would risk their lives for it.
...Unfortunately, the powerful figures of the old Federation era had never been willing to pay enough.
So when the Red Tide rose again, their power and wealth crumbled before it. The arrival of a new age met no resistance worth mentioning.
With He Ping'an's authority behind him, Pan Long forced the bookshop owner to change his plans and arrange a special printing of the Treatise on Ancient and Modern Immortals and Buddhas.
The whole thing cost him nothing extra. All it took was a word.
That was the power of authority!
But Pan Long