Ouyang Shuo went over to Cui Yingyu’s side. He took the Civil Servant Class Change Token out of his storage bag and said, “Yingyu, I have a good thing for you.”
Yingyu saw the token, and opened her mouth in surprise, making her look lovely. What was strange was, her face showed a happy look, and then immediately turned a bit melancholic.
Seeing these inexplicable changes, Ouyang Shuo was completely puzzled and asked, “Is little sister unhappy about being able to transfer to the civil service?”
Yingyu’s expression was a little complicated as she said softly, “It is natural to wish to move, and I am naturally happy. But suddenly I thought about my original job disappearing after the transfer, and that is the only link between Yingyu and her family. So, I’m a little sad and unwilling…”
Ah, a touching scene, Yingyu was homesick. Yes, a lot of the time, Ouyang Shuo ignored this point. He had almost forgotten that this seemingly strong little sister of his had such a miserable experience originally. In this world, in addition to Shanhai Village, she has another home, the House of Cui in Dali. There, she still had living family.
Ouyang Shuo gently touched her head, and whispered, “Silly girl, do not think too much of this. Big brother assures you that once the territory has the strength to go through the wilderness to Dali, I will help you reunite with your family. Until then, you are with us, and we will be your family.”
Yingyu, flushing from her emotions, smiled strongly and said, “Big brother has to keep his promises, hee hee! However, when I really leave, I do not think Big Brother can bear it and miss me, hee hee!”
Yingyu was a strong and sensible girl, never letting the people around her worry, or feel bad for her. Perhaps only in front of her big brother Ouyang Shuo would she sometimes reveal her weak and passionate female side.
“Why? Don't tell me if you leave you aren't my sister? Well, that is in the future. Let’s not assume too much now. Quickly now, use the transfer token and let me have a look at your new job!”
Hearing this command, Yingyu directly opened the arms of the class change token. There was a hum, the token turned into a white light that vanished into her eyebrows.
Shuo quickly used the assessment technique to see her stats.
Name: Cui Yingyu (Gold rank)
Identity: Shanhai Village Financial Secretary and Manager of the Four Seas Bank.
Occupation: Civil Servant
Loyalty: 90 points
Command: 25
Force: 10
Intelligence: 50
Political: 58
Expertise: Careful planning (enhance territorial trade profits 1%), Heartfelt (enhance territorial tax revenue 5%)
Evaluation: A woman from the Cui business family, gentle temperament, proper businesswoman, not haughty. Tough and strong, a gentle heart, smart and studious, a polished jade with good talent.
Ouyang Shuo was really surprised. He had no idea when Yingyu had been promoted to gold talent rank. Not only that, but the new ‘Heartfelt’ ability was a perfect fit for Financial Secretary. This was what would solidify her position as the Shanhai Village ‘Goddess of Wealth’.
After the class change, even her character evaluation had improved a lot. Before it was only a single sentence, and now it even described her jade-like beauty, letting him see the shadow of her potential for further promotion.
Ouyang Shuo smiled. “Congratulations to little sister!”
Yingyu smiled happily. “Oh, but thank you also too big brother for the class change token!”
“No need to be polite with me. The stronger your ability, the more at ease I will be,” Ouyang Shuo teased her.
Yingyu gave him a slightly sour smile, pretending to be angry. “Well, big brother really has the potential of a businessman! Thinking all the time on how to exploit us!”
“Well then, big brother will stop bothering you and let you get back to work, then!” Ouyang Shuo shamelessly ended the conversation.
Yingyu smiled reluctantly, glared at him, then returned to her work.
The leveling up of skilled men was the same as the leveling up of special talents. Ouyang Shuo would not get any notification. Seeing Yingyu getting promoted to a gold talent, he didn’t worry about other things for the moment. Directly using the assessment skill, going to the office of Gu Xiuwen and Zhao Dexian to examine them.
Name: Gu Xiuwen (Silver rank)
Identity: Shanhai Village, the Assistant Director of Administration and the Household Registration Secretary.
Occupation: Civil Servant ( _Tongsheng_ 1)
Loyalty: 85 points
Command: 25
Force: 15
Intelligence: 45
Political: 55
Expertise: Bureaucratic Knowledge (enhances territorial administrative efficiency 5%)
Evaluation: a poor young scholar, skilled at poetry and literature, and a modest gentleman of character.
Sure enough, Giu Xiuwen had been promoted to a silver level talent. Because he had been given an area of expertise when he was at the black iron level, he hadn’t been given a new area of expertise this time.
Similarly, Zhao Dexian had been smoothly promoted from the bronze grade to the black iron grade. Unfortunately, he was not like Gu Xiuwen who had gained a specialty early on.
Name: Zhao Dexian (Black iron rank)
Identity: Shanhai Village Secretary of Reclamation Division
Occupation: Civil Servant
Loyalty: 85 points
Command: 20
Force: 20
Intelligence: 30
Political: 38
Evaluation: The former chief of Zhao Jiagou village, well-mannered, skilled in village governance, adept at agricultural water management.
After viewing their stats, Ouyang Shuo took Fan Zhongyan for a quick chat. Having given instructions to the Secretary of Construction and Material Reserves Division, he also had to inform Fan Zhongyan of this matter. As the primary officer in charge, he had to show him the respect he deserved.
He could have easily bypassed Fan Zhongyan, going right to Construction Division, and nobody would have said anything. However, if he dealt directly with the Construction Division and not their superior, he was destroying the hierarchy he was setting up. This would be a blow to Fan Zhongyan over time, which Ouyang Shuo did not want to see.
After leaving the administrative offices, Ouyang Shuo returned to his own office. This time, he didn’t read as he normally did, but instead took out a pen and paper and began to write.
Taking Yingyu’s abilities into account, she had political experience but had no understanding of taxation. Ouyang Shuo, of course, wasn’t going to throw his Financial Secretary under the bus. In the early days, he was prepared to help her until she was on firmer ground. Once she came on track as the Financial Secretary, he would slowly let go.
Therefore, using his afternoon free time, he prepared his own understanding of the tax system, combined the real world’s advanced fiscal and taxation systems with the ancient dynastic methods of the same, sorting a realistic and forward-looking financial division work guide for her.
In this working guide, he defined the roles of finance and taxation, how to carry out taxation works and what to be careful about, and gave a clear explanation on how to establish a sound tax system around these core issues.
He wrote in the work guide that finance was a kind of economic behavior with the territory as the body, and it was the income and expenditures of the territorial collectors meeting public demand in the territory in order to achieve the goal of optimizing the allocation of resources, and further economic stability and development.
Financial income included taxes, government exclusive income, and other income forms. To improve their revenue, the most fundamental way to do so was to develop the economy. The fundamental factors that affected fiscal revenue the most were at the level of economic development. Therefore, only by vigorously developing the economy and encouraging the development of handicrafts and commerce, would the economy continue to grow steadily and fiscal revenue increase.
Ouyang Shuo believed that with this guide and Yingyu’s ingenuity, as long as he pointed the way, she could take the Financial Secretary job and run with it. Of course, there would be bumps in the road along the way, that was inevitable.
After writing the work guide, Ouyang Shuo logged off of the game. Yingyu had experience for managing the Four Seas Bank. The Cui were a business family of Dali, they had their own banks. Yingyu learned much in that environment, and he didn’t worry about that.
++++++++++++++++
Back in reality, it was still the weekend. Sun Xiaoyue and Bing’er didn’t want to stay at home today, so both of the young women had gotten up early to get dressed and go out. After eating breakfast, they pulled Ouyang Shuo out to go shopping. That was like telling him he could have fun and relax, but in truth they only needed people to carry their bags.
The mall was fully integrated, it had places to eat and drink and do everything. Shopping was a natural talent for women, and even little Bing’er, under the influence of Big Sister Xiaoyue, grew eager.
And so, a little girl in a blue print dress came out from the dressing room, turned around in place, and with a pair of big lovely eyes watching Ouyang Shuo very closely, said sweetly, “Brother, is the skirt Bing’er is wearing beautiful?”
Xioayue was already on her seventh skirt. Ouyang Shuo was trying to maintain a composed and interested face, but in fact, his smile was rather stiff as he praised, “Beautiful, it is too beautiful. You must wear this skirt. It’s like a little blue goddess fallen into the mortal world.”
He was so effusive, Bing’er’s eyes were squinting from her happiness, she jumped back to the dressing room to pack up her new clothes.
At this time, Xiaoyue came out of the next dressing room wearing a short-sleeved, slim silk dress. It gave her a fresh and elegant look that was fairly mind-blowing.
This look on Xiaoyue was really amazing. Ouyang Shuo couldn’t help but blurt out, “Too beautiful!”
Looking at him in the mirror, Xiaoyue was shocked, blushing hotly. Ouyang Shuo also felt suddenly uncomfortable and looked away in embarrassment.
Coming out of the clothing store, Ouyang Shuo had five or six bags in his hands, he’d lost count. In order to express his apologies, he had spent more than 4,000 credits on beautiful clothes for the both of them.
At this time, two girls spotted them and came charging over after screaming excitedly. “Wow, Xiaoyue, we did not expect to see you here, what a coincidence!”
Xiaoyue was also very happy, but did a complete facial change and began pretending to complain. “Well, you will just have to blame my two boyfriends over best friend friends. The two of you left and now I don’t have anyone else who will accompany me while shopping.”
These two girls were Xiaoyue’s original roommates. Xiaoyue had not expected to meet her in the mall at all. Now that they had, the three young women started chatting nonstop.
_Tongsheng_ _1_ __ 童生 _:_ _lit. "child student", an entry-level examinee who had passed the county/prefecture exams in the ancient China imperial examination._ _wikipedia_
*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes
*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap