So it was death either way, inside or out!
Su Xian actually regretted it a little, too.
Leaning back in the battered bamboo chair in the courtyard, he felt the warm sunshine and silently wondered, Had I been too harsh just now?
Old Yan and Uncle Mu En both had something of that argumentative "brain-dead Shrek fanboy" streak, but they were simple mountain folk, after all.
He was an outsider who had come to teach as a volunteer, and he still had two years to spend in the village. Running their idols into the ground was a bit inappropriate.
At that thought, Su Xian decided to smooth things over. He cleared his throat twice and said, "Of course, Old Yan, Uncle Mu En, don't despair just yet! I said handing out money wouldn't help Shrek because you haven't seen through the underlying logic behind its ten thousand years of glory!"
"Underlying logic?"
Mu En and Yan Shaozhe, who had still been questioning their lives, pricked up their ears at this unfamiliar academic term.
Zhang Lexuan, who was hidden nearby, scribbling notes furiously, positively lit up. Even her breathing slowed.
"Yes, underlying logic!"
Su Xian held up three fingers and began dissecting Shrek from an industrial and institutional perspective, stripping off its skin and pulling out its tendons:
"Think about it. What lets Shrek swagger across the entire continent? First, those elders in the Sea God Pavilion who are a hundred or two hundred years old. They're the divine needle that steadies its seas."
"Second, they scour the entire continent for the most extraordinary geniuses, throw them onto Sea God Island, and force-feed them countless heavenly treasures until they become high-level combat assets! These people do no productive work. All they do is cultivate and fight."
"Third, to support these elders and geniuses who swallow gold and gulp jade every day, Shrek has to act like a vampire, ruthlessly squeezing tribute out of the Three Great Empires and the common people at the bottom."
With every sentence Su Xian spoke, Mu En and Yan Shaozhe grew a shade paler.
"Those three things are the great cancers in Shrek's social system!"
Su Xian pinpointed the deadlock with needle-sharp precision. "But, Old Yan, you have to understand the cause and effect here. It's not that these three cancers have dragged Shrek down. It's precisely because Shrek spends vast resources supporting these three cancers that it can maintain ten thousand years of lasting peace and stability!"
"If you don't support the Sea God Pavilion's elders, the ferocious beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest could flatten Shrek City tomorrow! If you don't keep those extraordinary geniuses penned up, the Three Great Empires could turn on you tomorrow and deny all ties!"
"So these cancers are also Shrek's defensive moat! Shrek and these vested interests have long since formed an inseparable symbiotic relationship! If you forcibly cut out the cancers, you'll rupture an artery, and Shrek will fall apart on the spot!"
"Then... is there really no cure for this illness?" Yan Shaozhe swallowed and asked.
"There is."
Su Xian shifted into a more comfortable position and lazily basked in the sun. "To cure an institutional illness this deep, you either wait for the Fixed Soul Cannon Shells ten thousand years later to blast Shrek flat, blow the entire vested-interest class to dust, and reshuffle society..."
"Or... you make the pie bigger!"
"Make the pie bigger?" Mu En and Yan Shaozhe asked in unison.
"Yes, make the pie bigger!"
"Right now, you only have so much revenue, and all of it goes toward supporting elders and geniuses. Of course that makes for a warped society! But what if you industrialized and set up Soul Tool assembly lines? Productivity would explode! What if Shrek's revenue went from ten million gold coins to ten billion?!"
"By then, plucking a single hair off your leg would be enough to feed those elders. Put the remaining money into education for commoners, infrastructure, and research and development, and wouldn't the entire social system become healthy?"
"Industrialization and Soul Tools are Shrek's only lifesaving medicine for making the pie bigger without collapsing immediately! Of course, the process will definitely provoke a furious counterattack from the merchant associations trading in traditional resources and the established families with vested interests."
At that point, Su Xian suddenly stopped, then waved a hand dismissively. "Ah, I'm getting carried away."
"When all's said and done, what the hell does that Shrek Academy's hopeless predicament have to do with me? It's not like I've transmigrated to the Douluo Continent! What does Shrek's survival have to do with a volunteer teacher in Daliang Mountain?"
"I was just following the novel's setting and doing a little armchair strategizing for you. As for exactly how to deal with those merchant associations' counterattack or how to raise money, I can't be bothered to think about it."
Su Xian picked up the insulated mug beside him and leisurely took a sip of goji berry tea.
Mu En and Yan Shaozhe, who stood around him, exchanged glances with Zhang Lexuan and Qian Duoduo, who had joined them at some point.
This brat really thinks he's in Daliang Mountain in New China?!
Here he is, calling them "Shrek's cancers" one moment and saying "what the hell does it have to do with me" the next.
When his sight returns someday, if he finds out he really has transmigrated to the Douluo Continent, and that the "cancers" he was just cursing are standing right in front of him, alive and well...
Just how spectacular will his expression be?
Yan Shaozhe burst into wicked laughter inwardly.
Hehehe! Go on, curse away!
Curse us to your heart's content while you can!
The day you see daylight again, I'll hang you from the Golden Tree on the back mountain and make you swallow every single word you cursed me with today!
Of course... first, you have to help me solve this damned financial crisis!
"Teacher Su is absolutely right! We're only discussing a novel's setting!"
Just as the atmosphere grew a little strange, Zhang Lexuan stepped forward with a bright smile and naturally picked up the conversation. "But, Teacher Su, since we're just sitting around anyway, why don't we... play a game?"
"A game?" Su Xian tilted his head in puzzlement. "If you've got that much time on your hands, Uncle Mu En, why don't you find a tractor and take me to the clinic in town to have my eyes checked? These bandages have been wrapped around me so long I'm about to sprout mushrooms."
"Oh, Teacher Su, you can't rush things with your eyes! Our mountain roads are rough, and the doctor in town said you need another half month to heal before the stitches can come out." Mu En lied without blushing or missing a heartbeat, then hurriedly signaled Zhang Lexuan with his eyes.
"That's right, Teacher Su. Let's play that game you young city people love... a murder mystery role-playing game! Yes, a murder mystery role-playing game!"
Putting her freshly learned knowledge straight to use, Zhang Lexuan dangled an enticing hook. "Just suppose! Suppose you really have transmigrated to the Douluo Continent, and you've even become a senior administrator at Shrek Academy! Now we'll give you a specific challenge, and you come up with a way to solve it!"
"A murder mystery role-playing game? Sounds interesting!"
Su Xian was bored out of his mind, and the mention of this sort of role-playing simulation immediately caught his interest. "Sure! You even know about murder mystery role-playing games. Looks like you've been watching plenty of short videos! Go on, then. What's the scenario? Let's hear it."
Qian Duoduo had long since run out of patience. He darted forward and eagerly presented Shrek's actual predicament as the "scenario":
"Teacher Su, listen carefully! Here's the scenario!"
"Shrek Academy took your advice and is preparing to go all out on industrial assembly lines for Soul Tools to make the pie bigger! But word got out!"
Gritting his teeth, Qian Duoduo described the crisis. "Those huge alliances of merchant associations outside Shrek City that rely on reselling high-level Soul Beast materials and monopolizing traditional hidden weapons, along with those traditional established families, refused to stand for it!"
"They joined forces, not only cutting off Shrek's cash flow but also working with mine owners in the Three Great Empires to choke off every supply channel for rare metals!"
Qian Duoduo's eyes grew redder as he spoke, because this was no script. This was the nightmare he was living through right now. "Shrek's treasury is almost empty! The industrial assembly lines haven't produced so much as a screw, and we're already facing bankruptcy! And at a time like this, we can't suppress them by force, either, or we'll be forcing every merchant under heaven to break with Shrek!"
"Teacher Su, this is the biggest deadlock in the script! No money, no ore, and the merchant associations have us by the throat! How... do we break out of this?!"
Qian Duoduo finished speaking.
Mu En, Yan Shaozhe, and Zhang Lexuan were all like prisoners awaiting their sentences, scarcely daring to breathe for fear of missing a single word Su Xian said next.
Because they knew that whether Shrek could rise anew from the ashes or be dragged to its death by the merchant associations depended entirely on this blind man's next answer!
"Oh?"
Listening to this "scenario," whose details all fit together seamlessly, Su Xian raised his eyebrows slightly.
He rubbed his chin and silently mused, These mountain villagers are pretty impressive!
They're only playing a murder mystery role-playing game, yet they even understand the underlying logic of macroeconomics and commercial monopolies this well?
Looks like the short videos reaching lower-tier markets really are packed with knowledge these days.
"That's a bit of a challenge!"
"Since the merchant associations dare to play at economic blockades, we'll use magic to defeat magic and financial methods to reap them like chives!"
"Uncle Mu En, Old Yan, Uncle Mo Niu, listen carefully!"
With his eyes open, sightless yet seemingly able to pierce the mists of the ages, Su Xian casually uttered a few words:
"To break out of this situation... have you ever heard of 'financial leverage,' or... 'national debt'?"
Before you continue