At night, Mr. Mayor was sitting in his car, slightly drunk, after the dinner party, looking at the colorful city, and he didn't have a lot of thoughts in his mind, not as ambitious and grandiose as described in the article.
He only felt that this was a trouble, a heavenly trouble.
The sky was completely dark at this point, like the city's current situation, shrouded in despair.
A lot of times people thought that the mayor would be better than some state legislators or city councilors, at least they held actual power instead of a collective power that could be generated through a collective vote.
But only they know that when things are going well, of course they are happy to be a mayor, but in the current situation, even if a mayor has great skills, it is very difficult to do a great job.
There are some things that cannot be changed by human power, just like the ever-declining economy.
Every day he looked at the rising unemployment rate, at the homeless people wandering around on the streets because they couldn't find work, and at the growing gaps, he felt a deep sense of powerlessness, as well as physical and mental exhaustion.
The car slowed to a stop, the minuscule weightlessness of the moment of stopping making him feel mildly nauseous, he slapped his cheeks and stepped out of the car.
Refusing the driver's assistance, he made his way back to the house and sat down on his butt on the couch, heaving a sigh of relief.
The maid of the house brought chilled ice water, and he took a sip of it to dispel the slight drunkenness in his body, casually asking, "Is Ferrell back yet?"
Ferrell, as well as the rest of his staff, lived in the same neighborhood as the mayor, and even lived in the house right next door to the mayor's, so at any time the mayor had a need, they could be at the mayor's service at the first opportunity.
The maid nodded a little, "I saw Mr. Ferrell's car come back already after seven."
"Tell him to come over, I'll wait for him in the study."
The mayor drank the rest of his half glass of ice water, his whole body was much refreshed, he braced himself and stood up, a little tiredly, and walked into the study.
He sat down in a chair and waited for Ferrell's arrival, thinking about things at the same time, drifting off a bit in a daze, and by the time he turned around again, Ferrell was standing in front of him.
"When did you come?" , he pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the corners of his eyes, he wasn't sure he had any eye boogers, he had to make sure he was decent.
Ferrell waited for the mayor to straighten his grooming before he looked up and answered, "Been here a while, just saw you resting so I didn't bother you."
The mayor smiled a forced smile, followed by a sigh, "I met with Niall in the evening, and he was ambivalent."
Recently, there was a gossip circulating in Sabine that Mr. Neo, the president of Ristoan, was actively reaching out to the Conservative Party, and he had affirmed some of the Conservative Party's policies of the last few years in some off-the-record occasions, believing that they had put the Baylor Federation ahead of the rest of the country.
In this country anything can be confused, gender, loyalty, love or hate, but only political positions can't.
Neo could tell people that there was a falling out between him and the Mayor while also demonstrating his determination to remain true to the Progressive Party's position, then that would be a problem between him and the Mayor.
But now that he's starting to make some principled changes in his argument, the mayor is definitely going to have to figure out if he's doing it to put pressure on himself or if he's actually got something else in mind.
Unfortunately, though, he didn't try, and Neo's consistent avoidance of that aspect of the issue actually gave the mayor an initial judgment that he's still choosing, while also hoping that both parties would give him some leverage that would make him inclined.
Hateful businessmen, hateful capitalists!
There are tens of thousands of people surrounding Ristoan who work for them, directly or indirectly, and once Ristoan announces that he is leaving Sabine and the state and relocating to Conservative Party turf, it will be the mayor's biggest defeat during his time at the helm of Sabine!
What's even scarier is that if even just 10,000 or 20,000 new unemployed were to be added all at once in such a situation, the whole of Sabine would instantly go to hell.
Coupled with the rumors that Nio had deliberately let out in recent times, by then everyone would blame the mayor as the cause, believing that it was the mayor who had forced Nio out, causing everyone to lose their jobs as well as their livelihoods.
The angry public was enough to decapitate his political career, Neo was just set on being able to force the mayor to bow down, but this Mr. President Neo was overlooking another problem.
HENG HUI's fall was not something that could be done by the power of one Ristoan group, a lot of people made a concerted effort, and among them, there were also a number of economies that were about the same size as Ristoan's, and on what grounds would these people be willing to let the fattest part of the world be swallowed by the Ristoan group?
Even if the mayor agreed, other mayors, council members, and even the governor would not agree with him to do so, which led to things becoming a dead end.
So is it really impossible to change all this?
Neo must know these things, his purpose is only to let the mayor to get the biggest benefit for him, do his best to serve him, but this is also impossible, a good politician if completely reduced to the capitalist's henchman, it only shows that the politician is not good enough, at the same time, his political career is almost at an end.
It was a dilemma that had always given the mayor a headache.
He talked about it, and didn't expect Ferrell to come up with a solution right away, it didn't just happen today either, he just mentioned it off the top of his head, it was like a person who was suffocating had the desire to confide in someone for that brief period of time, and when it was all said and done, it was done.
The topic was shelved there, and after a slight pause, he then brought up the other thing that brought Ferrell here, "How are things going with Lynch today?"
Ferrell's face then changed a bit as he nodded his head and pictured the scene, which had impressed the mayor as he did his own calculations while asking, "How many people do you think Lynch would need to hire to serve him if this all became a regular pattern?"
He said fearing that Ferrell had misunderstood and added, "I mean if his endeavors were spread throughout the state!"
Ferrell frowned and calculated for a while, not very sure, "Today he hired about forty sales people, several accountants, and if you count the temporary workers who helped him set up the site, and the people over at the warehouse, he'll provide at least two hundred to three hundred jobs in one city."
"All the cities in the entire state combined ...," Ferrell said with more or less a look of surprise on his face, "at least five thousand jobs!"
Talking about five thousand jobs in a state with a population of a few million was a bit too much of a no-brainer, but the mayor valued the jobs nonetheless, knowing that Lynch's plans weren't the only ones that were currently available.
He began to do the math, according to Lynch, the club he had established would be able to provide a lot more jobs, and with some of his other ideas, the mayor was a little alarmed without realizing it.
If what Lynch said came to pass, he would be able to provide at least no less than ten thousand jobs for the entire state, as well as no less than four thousand jobs for Sabine.
If a few hundred jobs would at best make the mayor look at them more than once, then four thousand jobs, if arranged properly, could take care of at least four thousand families, directly affecting the lives of roughly fifteen thousand people or so, and indirectly affecting the lives of about ten thousand people.
Just one Lynch alone could affect the lives of almost thirty thousand people, and that was when he was not very visible, what if he was given a chance to take off?
The mayor could not help but fall into deep thought, at present, the Progressive Party has already had a consensus within the party, let's not talk about any economic development first, first solve the problem of the people's lives, if we don't solve these, the Federation's seemingly beautiful finances will be in danger of collapsing in an instant.
At that time, once unable to restore the trend of decadence, there may be a farce of local financial bankruptcy.
And the more it comes to such a time, the more important these capitalists become; politicians have a hard time providing direct jobs for the populace, but the capitalists have the possibility.
They didn't need to keep everyone fat and white, as long as they could keep the ordinary people going, so that the system could function properly, and could last through this time, everything would eventually get better.
Thinking about it, the mayor had made up his mind.
The meeting with Neo at night had made him realize that this man could no longer be relied upon, and that Ristoan could not even be relied upon, not even if he compromised.
Today, Neo forced him to bow down for the Ristoan group, and even if he did bow down, the two sides had buried an unresolvable grudge against each other.
Now the mayor does not attack, is he has to beg the other party, but once when he has the ability to turn around, he will definitely make Neo and Ristoan Group pay the price.
Neo can he not be aware of this situation?
No, he was well aware of it, but he still did so, which also meant that the compromise between the two sides wouldn't last long, and immediately after that, they would confront each other again using another matter as a trigger.
"Make arrangements for me, I'd like to meet with Lynch." , after having made up his mind the mayor directly talked about his thoughts, maybe Lynch couldn't change the current situation, but he could provide some other ideas.
Just by looking at the industries under Lynch's command it was clear that this was a very thoughtful young man, if he could provide some ways that would hold up through this difficult time the mayor could not only keep his head down, but he might even have the chance to pull out his hand and slap Neo.
As someone who was familiar with Lynch, Ferrell was obviously a good intermediary, the mayor and Lynch not only knew each other, but also had a meal, but this kind of "acquaintance" was only on the surface, if you want to go deeper, to talk about something more central, you have to have a reliable intermediary as a bridge.
Suddenly he felt that arranging Ferrell to contact Lynch was a good choice, at least it gave him one more way, one more chance.
His mood suddenly improved, his entire body relaxed a bit, and at the same time he began to look forward to this meeting.