Chapter 1041: Smuggling? (2)
Qin Ye ma.s.saged his own glabella for the nth time today.
There were traps and potholes everywhere! In the end, he was still too young and naive!
Never did he think that the biggest trap in existence would be Heaven!
His mind was racing as he pondered how to proceed. He had to borrow the Mutton Fade Jade Vial, and he also had to invest in the Xi He Retirement Home while also satisfying all of the other retirement home representatives. The jade vial would be placed beneath the heavenly waterfall, and the final step was to open up another pa.s.sageway similar to the one that had facilitated Ksitigarbha"s divine descent, thereby allowing the jade vial to descend to h.e.l.l once per week or once per month.
Seeing as there was no way to resist, his only option was to accept the situation. With that in mind, Qin Ye said, "Investing is not entirely out of the question."
A faint smile appeared on Ksitigarbha"s face, and he seemed to have already predicted from the very beginning that this would be Qin Ye"s choice.
"Seeing as you"ve already decided to invest, then let"s discuss my labor fee next..."
"Ah, the representative of the Xi He Retirement Home must be growing impatient. Secretary Jiang, invite him in to see me."
Ksitigarbha was a little speechless.
He couldn"t believe how shameless this King Yanluo was. At the very least, the second King Yanluo would"ve addressed his request with an answer like: "p.i.s.s off, you"re not getting anything from me", but Qin Ye had completely ignored him!
The heavenly official soon entered the room, and as soon as he did so, he immediately fell to his knees in a respectful manner in the face of the two Yama-Kings. "Minister Yao Jingming of the Xi He Retirement Home pays his respects to the two upper immortals."
Qin Ye didn"t say anything. Instead, he merely watched Yao Jingming in silence until the hairs on the back of his neck were beginning to stand upon on end, and only then did a faint smile appear on his face as he said, "Investing in your retirement home is not out of the question."
"Thank you, Yanluo..."
"Not so fast." Qin Ye was gently ma.s.saging his beaded bracelet, producing a faint rustling sound that exerted an indescribable sense of pressure on the heavenly official inside the quiet room. Qin Ye leaned back in his chair as he said, "Abyssal Prefect Cui and Abyssal Prefect Zhong both served h.e.l.l very well, so h.e.l.l is naturally not going to abandon them. However, I"m sure Heaven is aware of h.e.l.l"s current situation. We"ll definitely take care of them, but it would be unrealistic to expect us to take care of all of their needs. What I"m saying is that we can only go one step at a time, do you understand what I"m saying?"
Yao Jingming immediately nodded in response. What Qin Ye was saying was that there had to be a sequence to the way that things were done.
"May I ask what your plans are, Your Excellency?" he asked in a careful manner.
Qin Ye smiled as he replied, "h.e.l.l is currently rapidly developing, and in order to ensure prosperity and stability in the long term, we initiated the new energy resource plan. I"m guessing the retirement homes of Heaven finally decided to send representatives to h.e.l.l precisely because of this new energy plan, right? I"m sure they"re well aware of just how profitable this plan will be."
He leaned forward slightly, and the beaded bracelet in his hand fell still, causing the entire room to abruptly fall silent.
Right as cold sweat was pouring down Yao Jingming"s forehead like rain, Qin Ye finally broke the silence. "I want over half the equity of the Xi He Retirement Home. From now on, the Xi He Retirement Home will become a direct investment target of h.e.l.l, and no one else from the retirement home is allowed to partic.i.p.ate in its development, particularly the development of the heavenly waterfall. At the same time, I won"t partic.i.p.ate in any other areas of decision-making in the retirement home, such as human resources management."
A wry smile appeared on Yao Jingming"s face as he replied, "Your Excellency, I"m afraid there"s been no such precedent..."
The concept of equity didn"t exist in Heaven!
"Then let this be the first-ever case," Qin Ye said. "This is my decision, tell Abyssal Prefect Cui to have a good think about it."
"Your Excellency..." A reluctant look appeared on Yao Jingming"s face. "This is preposterous..."
Before he had a chance to finish, Qin Ye continued, "Of course, even though we"re in different realms now, they once made significant contributions to h.e.l.l. If they agree with this arrangement, then I guarantee them that once the new energy resource is up and running, 0.000001% of the pure profits that it earns will be invested in the Xi He Retirement Home once every five years in the form of dividends over a duration of 100 years."
Yao Jingming shuddered slightly upon hearing this, and a drop of cold sweat fell onto the ground in front of him.
As the minister of the Xi He Retirement Home, he was mainly responsible for overseeing matters related to money and food in the retirement home.
Thus, he was very much aware of the current state of the Xi He Retirement Home.
It was an understatement to call the retirement home poor... Around 100 years ago, 200 Abyssal Prefects ascended at the same time, forcing Heaven to construct hundreds of retirement homes in a hurry. However, everything had happened far too abruptly, and there simply weren"t enough spare resources to go around!
Thus, Heaven employed a very sly tactic.
The plot of land upon which the Xi He Retirement Home was granted to them free of taxes and rent, but it was only granted to them for 300 years.
Abyssal Prefect Cui had almost erupted into a flurry of profanities upon hearing this, but getting angry was never a solution to any problem.
Heaven was a ma.s.sive retirement home for all of the most powerful beings in Cathayan history, and even Yama-Kings were a common sight there, let alone Abyssal Prefects. Even the high-grade retirement homes for Yama-Kings hadn"t been constructed yet, and Heaven was constantly tightening its budget, so there was no money to be spent on constructing retirement homes for Abyssal Prefects.
Thus, he had to swallow that bitter pill.
However, upon arriving at the plot of land a.s.signed to them, they were given another nasty surprise!
The plot of land was right next to the heavenly waterfall! It was an extremely scenic location, but the waterfall was rumbling incessantly day and night! How was anyone supposed to live there?!
However, the contract had already been signed, so there was nothing they could do. Furthermore, investments for newly constructed retirement homes in new areas in Heaven were calculated once every 10 years. The first 10 years were generally used to find a suitable site and tally up the number of people, as well as to contact the construction teams of Heaven to see who would be willing to take on the job. After all, heavenly officials were all quite lazy.
Thus, they had no choice but to ask h.e.l.l for money.
The new King Yanluo seemed to be reasonably approachable, and the situation was truly dire. Not only were there close to 200 Abyssal Prefects who didn"t even have money for clothes and food, let alone retirement care, they were on the verge of going insane from listening to that waterfall every single second of every day! As long as h.e.l.l was willing to invest, equity was nothing!
The key seemed to be the heavenly waterfall.
That was the source of immortal energy for the entirety of Heaven, and the third King Yanluo seemed to be very interested in it for some reason.
He didn"t know exactly what Qin Ye wanted to do with the heavenly waterfall, but it most likely wasn"t anything good.
Most importantly, he was open to investing in the Xi He Retirement Home, but the problem was that the Xi He Retirement Home was situated right next to the heavenly waterfall! If something were to happen to the heavenly waterfall, the Xi He Retirement Home would have to take responsibility! In a world where Yama-Kings were a common sight, how could a bunch of Abyssal Prefects take responsibility for anything?!
Thus, Qin Ye"s proposal had to be turned down. However, the most d.a.m.ning thing was that final dividend yield that he proposed!
0.000001% of the new energy resource"s pure profits? Surely that would be at least tens of millions per year, if not over a hundred million!
Right as his mind was racing, Ksitigarbha said, "There"s no need to overthink this, the third King Yanluo bears no ill will, he simply wants access to the heavenly waterfall for research and development purposes related to the new energy resource."
Yao Jingming cast a skeptical gaze toward him.
Ksitigarbha continued, "Rest a.s.sured, I"ll take care of this in person, so there"s no need for your heavenly officials to do anything."
Qin Ye waved a dismissive hand as he said, "You can go now. Relay what I said to the director of the Xi He Retirement Home, and I want a reply within a week."
"Yes, Your Excellency."
Thus, Yao Jingming departed, and only then did Qin Ye ask, "How likely do you think they"ll be to agree?"
"I"d say there"s an over 80% chance," Ksitigarbha replied with a smile. "You"re not in Heaven, so you don"t know the situation there. At this point, the Abyssal Prefects have already arranged many joint protests, but what can we do? Most of the original inhabitants of Heaven are ancient G.o.ds, and in accordance with the rate of ascensions from h.e.l.l, retirement homes are constructed at a rate of one per several centuries. Due to the slow rate of construction, the existing retirement homes do their best to have high-quality and diverse facilities. Facilities like sports grounds, tea rooms, ma.s.sage suites, dance halls, and horse farms are pretty much standard at this point, and recently, seaside resorts and ski parks were also thrown into the mix. Each retirement home of this caliber costs several billion to build, and fairness has to be ensured all around. All of the past retirement homes were built so well, but in the face of the collapse of h.e.l.l, there"s been a sudden ma.s.sive influx of Yama-Kings and Abyssal Prefects, and they"re only being a.s.signed random plots of land and told to fend for themselves. How could any of the recently ascended underworld emissaries accept this arrangement? Thus, they began to stage protests, and they"ve all made significant contributions to h.e.l.l in the past, so Heaven could only agree to their requests. However, they want at least three to four new retirement homes! Where is the money for that going to come from? This is why all of these representatives were sent down to h.e.l.l to secure investments as soon as the gates of Heaven were opened."
He heaved a faint sigh before taking a sip of tea. "No one has it easy nowadays..."
Oh? Then why do you sound so smug? Is it because I agreed to invest in your retirement home?
Qin Ye stared intently at Ksitigarbha, trying to find a crack in his facade, but Ksitigarbha wore a placid expression that was completely impeccable.
Looks like his acting skills are just as exceptional as my own...
After a brief pause, he asked, "What about you? You"re not going to betray me, are you?"
A serious look appeared on Ksitigarbha"s face as he replied, "That"ll depend on the degree of sincerity you show me."
"... Guards, bring me Ghost King Zhao"s Courage of Dragons Silver Spear! There"s no need to handle it carefully, just throw it into the room!"
"Hey, don"t be like that, Yanluo Qin! Something as valuable as the Mutton Fat Jade Vial has to be delivered by someone trustworthy, do you think the Mother Buddha would just give it to any heavenly official? Once the vial is given to me, I"ll be held liable in all of this. I also have to help you gather immortal energy, then deliver it to you in secret at the risk of being caught by the Heavenly Dao, so this is far from easy for me! We both served h.e.l.l together at some point, surely you wouldn"t abandon an old friend to spend his retirement years in poverty and despair!"
The veins on Qin Ye"s forehead were bulging like worms, and he reflexively reached out, only to grab onto thin air.
Unfortunately, the spear still hadn"t been delivered, so he couldn"t slay this demonic monk...
After forcibly repressing the killing intent in his heart, he put on a fake smile as he asked, "Can I count on you then?"
"Rest a.s.sured, as long as you show me enough sincerity, I will repay you in kind."
Reality was often drastically different from imagination, and that certainly applied to the character of Ksitigarbha. As shameless as Qin Ye was, even he didn"t want to speak with this b.a.s.t.a.r.d any longer. Thus, he wisely vanished as a gust of Yin wind, and by the time he reappeared, he was already in a ma.s.sive conference hall.
This was the largest and more secure conference hall in the entire Yin Mountains Research Center.
All of the advisors were already present, as well as the minister of education, the minister of finance, and the minister of technology, all of whom had traveled quite far to get here.
He wasn"t in the mood to squabble with Ksitigarbha as he had more important things to do.
The issue surrounding immortal energy had been resolved, all that was left now was to use the new energy resource to tip the entire world on its head!