The sound of knocking echoed, 'knock, knock, knock.' As Savage turned, he found that it was his door being knocked. When he opened it, he didn't see anyone in front of him at first. Looking down, he discovered a child, his cheeks still rounded with baby fat, clutching a stack of newspapers and looking up at him full of hope.
"Sir, would you like to subscribe to the newspaper? Eighty percent of the residents here have done so. I will deliver the latest daily paper to your doorstep at 6:30 in the morning. If you've also ordered milk, it will be delivered simultaneously. Other breakfast items and daily necessities will be delivered at 8 am and 5 pm…"
Savage raised an eyebrow, but the child didn't flinch. The boy stepped closer and handed a newspaper to Savage. "You can take a look first. We have a partnership with Gotham Daily, so the ink quality of our newspapers is guaranteed to be the best. It's so clear that you don't even need to iron it!"
"Of course, we offer a free newspaper ironing service. However, you must subscribe to at least one year of newspapers and milk to receive this service."
"Believe me, sir, we, the Majul gang, are the most professional newspaper boys in living hell. The milk we supply is also the best, fresh from outside the city. If you order both, I can even negotiate a discount for you…"
The child eagerly peddled his wares, but Savage's attention was drawn to the newspaper instead.
He noticed that the construction site information he had sent the Pied Piper to collect was now openly presented in the newspaper. Not only that, starting dates, completion times, daily working hours for each site, and even blueprints of the finished work were all written on the front page headlines of the newspaper.
Savage snorted coldly, thinking that Wayne Enterprises was just a private firm and did not understand the importance of information. Exposing such valuable data freely in the newspaper that anyone could read, wouldn't it be easy for those who intend to cause trouble to find this information?
"Sir, would you like to subscribe? I beg you, please subscribe to at least one copy. Our sales performance isn't doing well lately. If I don't meet the quota, our boss will beat me… I am begging you…"
Amidst the child's pleas, Savage returned the newspaper and asked, "How do I subscribe?"
The child immediately revealed a joyous smile and pulled out a notebook from his pocket. "All you need to do is write your name and address here, pay the fee, and then you can get the newspaper every week."
"A newspaper subscription alone costs 10 dollars a week. But if paired with milk, it would total 16 dollars a week. If you choose to subscribe for a year, it can be cheaper. If you wish to hire for long term errand services, it can be a monthly subscription, and a month would be 60 dollars…"
Savage gave a cold snort. "You think I don't know you deliberately inflated the price? And the houses rented by the mob here are at least ten times more expensive than those outside."
"Of course, sir." To Savage's surprise, the newspaper boy did not panic nor deny it. He simply stated earnestly, "Subscriptions for outsiders here are always expensive, as we need to bear additional costs to deliver your newspaper."
Afterwards, the boy spread his fingers and said, "Let's just put it this way, if you found yourself in trouble here, or hurt someone as a result of not knowing the local rules, we would also get taken in for questioning by the mob bosses…"
"Whenever a major incident occurs, we are also implicated. The minor impact could be not being able to work for a few days, and the severe ones might cost us our lives. Therefore, it is reasonable for our hiring fees to be more expensive for non-locals. All outsiders are treated the same."
Upon finishing, the newspaper boy scoffed, "There are some outsiders who can't afford the subscription, so they come up with all sorts of excuses and expect us to sell it to them at a lower price…"
"There was this one out-of-town drunkard. He got drunk and smashed a vase. The fragments injured a patrol leader. The next two days, I was taken in for questioning, lost two days of work because of it and even had to borrow money to buy food…"
"In the end, the drunkard had no money to pay, resulting in me getting scolded by the mob boss, who blamed me for not warning them even though I knew he drank."
The newspaper boy stared at Savage with wide eyes. "They told me you were wealthy, and that's why I came. If you were one of those broke locals without manners, I wouldn't bother knocking at the door!"
Savage's eyes widened a little, a hint of surprise appearing on his features. He found it unexpected that this local child could reason so well.
His statements sounded reasonable enough to inspire a certain amount of sympathy. Hence, Savage responded, "Money isn't the issue here. The problem is, how much can you do for me if I give you this much money?"
The boy's eyes widened instantly. He looked around before lowering his voice, "God, sir, you're really not planning to do something here, are you?"
With a seemingly secretive stance, Savage pulled out a dime from his pocket and passed it to the newspaper boy. After he pocketed the coin, he carried on, "For the first month of an outsider's arrival, we children keep a close eye on him. If any trouble arises, we'll report it immediately. Please don't do anything rash here."
"If the mob can't handle it, they'll call the police. The police in Gotham are terrifying. Here in our area, not many people survive to stand trial, let alone get by unscathed. And then there's that Batman who is often patrolling around here, I heard that he eats children…"
Savage squinted his eyes, "No, I don't intend to cause any trouble here. But as you know, being new here, I'm not familiar with the local customs. If I decide to subscribe to your newspaper and milk delivery service, are you willing to tell me about the significant events happening around here recently?"
The newspaper boy scratched his head. "But sir, all the important news can be read in the newspaper. You just have to subscribe."
"I'm talking about significant events in Living Hell…"
It seemed the newspaper boy still didn't understand, but he said, "Well, if this will make you subscribe to our newspaper, I suppose it wouldn't hurt. However, I don't have much time to writing things down, so how would I tell you?"
"If you can't write, I'll find someone else who can." Savage squinted his eyes, rubbing his arm, he responded, "There should be plenty of newspaper delivery boys around here…"
The newspaper boy shook his head and said, "The mornings and evenings are our peak delivery times. No one would be willing to spend time writing long essays. If we don't do it ourselves, we have to hire someone, and that involves money."
"I've told you, money is not an issue." Savage took a step back at the right time and said, "I'll pay you a fair amount, but you must guarantee the timeliness and truthfulness of these reports."
The newspaper boy hesitated for a moment and then said, "Okay, but you have to give me an extra 10 dollars a week ... ah no, 5 dollars. 5 dollars is enough. I'll put the written material under your vase at 5 o'clock every evening."
"But..." The newspaper boy raised his voice and emphasized: "You must order one year's worth of newspapers and milk to make up for my lack of orders for this month, or it would not be worth it for me..."
The two of them haggled for a while, and in the end, Savage paid up, and the newspaper boy got his orders.
Savage felt that he had found a breakthrough. Although these kids are greedy for money, they are at least better than those unreasonable mobs that only know how to shoot their guns.
They can raise their prices, even if they treat him like a cash cow, it doesn't matter, as long as they agree to his first condition, the subsequent dealings would be easier.
Yes, Savage's thoughts were the same as Shearer's before. He believes that as long as a group here opens their doors to him, as long as they make a little concession, things will naturally fall into place.
The newspaper boy quickly ran across the hallway, through the somewhat narrow corridor, and arrived at the South District.
He knocked on the door of an office, didn't wait for a reply from inside, barged in straight away, and said, "Boss Cobblepot, it's a deal! You're really a prophet, he asked me to deliver the news to him!"
"How much did you ask for?" Cobblepot questioned from behind the desk.
"I originally wanted 10 dollars, but in the end, I took 5 dollars. Is this price too high?" The newspaper boy asked. He added, "After all, I told him that the newspaper subscription costs 10 dollars a week..."
"No, I think it's reasonable." Cobblepot gave a cunning smile. He said, "This price will let him know he is being ripped off, but for him it's nothing much. This is what Professor Shearer calls, blurring his judgement of the loss."
"10 dollars a week is an outrageous price for Living Hell, he should know this, but because he's wealthy, he thinks it's worth a try. Next, it's about gradually escalating his costs to test his limits."
"now, the show is about to begin."
With Cobblepot's smirk, several flyers on his desk flew out of the window, scattered in front, landing at Savage's door.
Each apartment in Living Hell has a mailbox in front of it. Savage had noticed that most of the mailboxes here were stuffed with adverts even before he moved in. But he didn't expect to receive a warm welcome from the local businesses on his second day.
Food, daily necessities, even weapons, bars, restaurants and certain shady drug stores, all the businesses you could find in Living Hell, pretty much all of them, heavily advertised in these few corridors.
Savage won't be cooking himself like the other inhabitants, he would only go to high-end restaurants to dine. The food prices at the restaurants in Living Hell are not expensive per se, but the additional charges are shockingly high. A 30% service charge, a 20% tip, and even the takeaway container fee is several dollars.
However, Savage used to patronize Sokolov's Grand Hotel, and the charges at the restaurants here, even including these miscellaneous costs, is still less than half of what he would have paid at Sokolov's.
After comparing these costs, Savage felt that they charged a bit more, but it didn't bother him, because the total cost wasn't high and the service was far better than Sokolov's Grand Hotel.
All the stores in Living Hell follow one style - the moment Savage walks in, everyone greets him with a smile, the managers and the servers, all lined up in two neat rows, bowing and smiling. The moment Savage made a gesture, someone would immediately come over to attend to him.
When it came to tipping, the best server would come over with a friendly smile, Savage would then casually tip them without a second thought, after all, it only totaled several tens of dollars.
Of course, after seeing these advertisements, Savage wanted to go to the bar to scout around. The bar was a place where the mob members often gathered, it should have lots of information.
He had to order a drink when he stepped into the bar, the most common whiskey on the rocks cost several tens of dollars, but if he paid a bit more, less than a hundred dollars could get him a pretty decent drink.
Savage didn't find it surprising as the prices were more or less the same when he dined at Sokolov's Grand Hotel.
While sitting at the bar, the mob members next to him often blabbed after getting drunk, discussing their boss. Savage was listening, and his glass of drink had to be refilled continuously. Spending several hundred dollars in one night was normal.
These expenses in two or three-digit figures didn't bother Savage. Dining cost about 200 dollars, going to the supermarket would be around a hundred dollars, going to a bar, or clubs to gather information, even spending 500 dollars in one night didn't seem too much.
However, after living here for two weeks, Savage was taken aback when he looked at his recent expenditure.
In two weeks, he had spent close to 3000 dollars. It was the 90s, and even for the middle class in Gotham, this was a considerable sum.