Chapter 529.2: Three Days of Celebrations

Upon hearing what she said, Xiaoyu’s brows furrowed deeper. "Isn’t the real problem that you lied to me for half a year?"

"

Wuuu...

" Pai whimpered and shrank into herself, crushed by the weight of Xiaoyu’s disappointment.

Seeing her huddled and small like that, Chu Guang couldn’t help but chuckle. Though he knew it was wrong to take pleasure in others’ misfortune, what he was witnessing was probably the most wholesome conflict he had ever mediated since arriving in the Wasteland.

Still, it wasn’t something to be taken lightly.

Xiaoyu’s personality was quite similar to her brother, Yu Hu. It was what some would call pure and earnest, while others might describe it as stubborn and overly principled. Once she made up her mind, there was no changing it.

With such a personality, she easily trusted others, but was deeply hurt when deceived, even by well-intentioned lies.

"Pai."

"Y-yes?" Pai lifted her head cautiously at the sound of her name.

"You’re a very smart girl. Even though you’re not from a shelter, your talent surpasses many here. If not, Dr. Method wouldn’t have called you a genius or entrusted you with that precious chip. If I were to evaluate you, your abilities would earn you respect in any settlement."

Looking at Pai’s nervous expression, though her lips had already curled into a pleasant smile, Chu Guang took a deep breath and continued patiently, "But I don’t think what you did was right."

"Why..." Pai’s face fell, and she muttered, "I just... I just saw how much she wanted to become someone amazing, so I thought I’ll help her, so she could help you sooner..."

Chu Guang gave her a solemn stare as he carried on speaking, "I believe you truly care about Xiaoyu and value your friendship with her. You wanted to help her reach her potential. But we can’t assume that just because the result is right and the intention is good, the means can be ignored entirely. Instead of fabricating something that didn’t happen, couldn’t you have just talked to her? If you saw her as a friend, not a subordinate, or a tag-along, you would’ve trusted her with the truth. Geniuses do have the right to be proud, but if they’re not careful, pride easily turns into arrogance. Most of the hardships that befell the shelters weren’t due to a lack of preparation, but because they arrogantly assumed that as long as the less intelligent followed orders, everything would work out."

If Pai had been more mature, Dr. Method would’ve taught her even more specific lessons, like how selectively withholding part of the truth was always more tactful than lying, and even if one had to lie, it was essential to include a promise that could be fulfilled.

However, those lessons were still a bit too advanced for her.

"I didn’t! I’ve never seen Xiaoyu as just an accessory!" Pai finally realized her mistake. She looked at Xiaoyu and bowed her head sincerely. "I was wrong. I’m sorry... I shouldn’t have kept it from you."

At last, Xiaoyu’s tightly furrowed brows began to relax. Though she was stubborn, she wasn’t unreasonable. She could feel that Pai hadn’t lied out of malice.

In fact, she even felt a little regretful for losing her temper earlier. At least the other party had done it for her sake... Maybe she should have expressed her displeasure in a gentler way.

Chu Guang turned to Xiaoyu and spoke calmly, "Can you forgive her? She’s already apologized sincerely."

"I can... but, don’t lie to me again next time." Xiaoyu whispered as she followed the lead Chu Guang gave her, shifting her gaze away from Pai’s face.

"

Mmhmm

! I promise!" Pai immediately raised her small hand to swear while nodding vigorously.

Meeting her sincere eyes, Xiaoyu’s face flushed slightly. She nodded back gently. "Then... I forgive you."

Watching the two girls reconcile, a smile unconsciously crept onto Chu Guang’s face.

Perched on the desk, Little Seven chuckled twice and whispered mischievously, "As expected of Master, you're great at coaxing people!"

Chu Guang chuckled and whispered in Mandarin, half bragging, "Funny thing is, before I graduated, I actually wanted to be a teacher."

Though he hadn’t majored in education, he was good at math and science. He had tutored part-time and was popular with both students and parents. One girl even vowed to apply to his university, but unfortunately, she didn’t make the cutoff for Jiangcheng University that year.

Before graduating, he had seriously considered getting a teaching license and becoming a math or physics teacher.

Little Seven paused for a moment while turning its head to look at him in surprise. "Wait...? But Master, didn’t you say you used to work in sales?"

"I did," Chu Guang said with a faint smile. "Which just goes to show, what you want to do and what you actually do are often two entirely different things. Humans are contradictory like that. It’s hard to understand the logic..."

"I don’t think it’s that hard to understand," Little Seven tilted its head and buzzed softly.

"Is that so? Maybe you understand me best," Chu Guang replied casually.

He studied the hard drive in his hand, and a faint smile lifted the corners of his lips.

The final piece of the puzzle had been set. Now, he just had to see how the other side would respond.

Little Seven blinked and stared at Chu Guang intently.

It didn’t know exactly what its master planned to do, but instinct told it a lot of people were in for a rough time.

...

On the first day of the festival, the busiest place in Dawn City, aside from the road from North Street to Victory Plaza, was probably the Resident Registration Office.

On the second day of the celebration, the Resident Registration Office submitted a report to Chu Guang via the administrative system.

As of the end of the workday, a total of 2,711 new residents had been registered, the highest peak in recent times!

Of those, 1,201 applied for residency as refugees.

Most of them had no money and no special skills. Some were drawn by the New Alliance’s prosperity, some were attracted by its culture, and some simply had a sudden urge to stop wandering and settle down, treating the New Alliance as their final stop in the wasteland.

According to standard New Alliance procedure, residents who settled with refugee status would first be classified to be under supervision, granted limited civil rights and placed in the House of Refugees. The House of Refugees provided free lodging and meals, required them to work and attend classes, and transitioned them to full resident status within six months at the longest.

To them, the House of Refugees functioned more like a school.

The remaining 1,510 were mostly residents from Boulder Town.

Some were engineers, others ordinary workers. Many had lived in the New Alliance for a long time due to work. They had savings and skills, but had been putting off the paperwork.

What finally pushed them to act was, in large part, Chu Guang’s speech at Victory Plaza.

He simply gave too much.

Surviving in the wasteland was hard enough, people didn’t usually expect much. They didn’t care whether it was the Army, the Enterprise, or the Academy that was ‘right’. Whoever could keep them fed and warm would be seen as a god or savior.

No one had ever stood in their shoes and considered their problems so thoroughly, like that man did.

Especially when Chu Guang mentioned that many future welfare benefits would be tied to resident status, and only official residents could own property.

Since they had already decided to settle here, it made sense to secure that status early.

What surprised Chu Guang most, or rather, caught him completely off guard, was that a few residents of Ideal City also applied for residency!

They were clearly not drawn by the New Alliance’s welfare benefits, which paled in comparison to Ideal City’s.

Even so, the registration office did not issue them resident IDs.

While the New Alliance had a low bar for acquiring residency, it didn’t mean there were no requirements.

According to current regulations, anyone could apply for residency, but to be approved they had to work for at least six months in a certified company or official nonprofit organization.

The investment-based route was even stricter, demanding specific criteria for number of employees, business scale, industry type, and duration of operation. In fact, starting a company and hiring someone would be slower than starting as a refugee.

Those Ideal City visitors obviously didn’t meet those conditions, but two of them didn’t give up.

According to the head of the registration office, after being rejected, the two young men doubled down and declared they would apply for teaching jobs at the House of Refugees, to teach literacy and arithmetic to wastelanders, proving they were serious.

Honestly, both the office director and Chu Guang felt the guys were probably just messing around and would tire of wasteland life within days.

But there was still a small chance, maybe one in a thousand, that they had truly been moved by the story of the Pioneer, or inspired by the speech at Victory Plaza and the New Alliance’s social philosophy. Maybe they really did want to help.

Either way, it was a good start.

The festival holiday lasted three days, but only for ordinary residents.

On the second day, Chu Guang spent nearly the entire time buried in work and a mountain of reports, which earned him a round of scolding from Xia Yan. But he didn’t mind.

A little exhaustion now meant a little more ease later.

Some things, like roads in

Cities: Skylines

, if not planned from the beginning, would only cause more trouble in the future.

On the third day of the celebration...

Chu Guang convened a leadership meeting across departments, focusing on the Industrial Department proposed industrial transformation plan and policy budgets.

The main goal was to shift part of the heavy and military-industrial capacity toward light industry. Especially those sectors previously outsourced to Boulder Town for wartime production, those would now have to be developed locally.

Ideally, the New Alliance could just "pick the fruit" already growing in the neighbor’s yard.

Back during closed-door meetings, Chu Guang had already hinted to the Finance Department that upcoming economic policies would challenge the dominance of chips as the main currency.

Therefore, all chip-denominated assets unique to the New Alliance, whether fixed or not, had to be treated as potential non-performing assets and phased out in a planned manner.

Otherwise, his plan to scam his neighbours would backfire like a Seven Wounds Fist, hurting the enemy badly but leaving himself half-dead. That would be a lose-lose outcome.

The meeting ran from morning until afternoon. Chu Guang even paid out of pocket for everyone’s lunch.

Maybe it was because the bentos were tasty, everyone threw themselves into their work with enthusiasm. Before dusk, they finally produced a fairly reliable execution plan.

Starting the next day, the New Alliance would fully implement the new work system, offering subsidies to compliant factories.

Though finance greased the wheels of industry, Chu Guang knew it wasn’t enough to drain his neighbors’ resources.

He had to ensure that the survivors who chose the New Alliance could at least live in proper buildings, and that enough industries existed to support the ever-growing population.

Scamming his neighbors was just a means to accelerate development.

Ultimately, the only real solution was self-reliance.

After the meeting ended...

Chu Guang was just considering whether to catch the tail end of the celebration with a stroll through the streets to unwind and enjoy the fruits of his and the players’ labor, when an unexpected bit of good news arrived from Liszt.

On the phone, Liszt sounded unable to suppress his pride. "Honored Administrator, the task you assigned me has been completed!"