When Xiaoyun and Yuqi arrived at the administrative office, it was already ten o'clock.
None of the workers was in their work cubicle, as most of the work was finished yesterday.
The moment the two of them entered the break room, all of the office workers immediately got up.
But Xiaoyun quickly gave them a hand gesture to remain seated, getting ready to announce his news in front of everyone.
"Good morning, everyone. I'm not here to tell you guys going back to work or anything, no need to be worried."
The office workers all let out a small sigh of relief, but what he said next made them scratch their heads in confusion.
"I'm here to announce that a new group will be forming, separate from the accounting job that you guys had been doing for the past few days."
Seeing everyone sitting there in silence, Xiaoyun continued.
"You might be wondering what this group is going to be about. Well, this group will be interacting with entrepreneur who want to start their own business.
It will be the newly commercial section of this civilian department, directly under Yuqi. Now, who wants to be in this new group?"
As the officer workers continued to sit there in silence, Xiaoyun spoke up again to add more details to the plan.
"It will only need four people as of now. But we will expand it in the future. Maybe even as its own separate department."
The moment Xiaoyun finished talking, almost every single one of the office workers raised their hand.
All of their faces were filled with excitement, as the thing Xiaoyun had just described was the ladder to go up.
An opportunity to climb the corporate ladder, or in this case, the government ladder, to become a head of a department.
"The five people working in the downstairs booth, please lower your hands," Yuqi murmured.
The five of them disappointingly lowered their hand, leaving only fifteen people remaining with their hands still up.
"This job will require negotiation and sometimes public speaking. As well as a lot of traveling from one place to another.
This job may be physically taxing, as cars will not be supplied. You might need to walk on foot everywhere to the startup business."
As soon as Yuqi added the warning, almost every single person in the break room lowered their hands.
Only a small group of people in the corner kept their hands up, the exact number that Xiaoyun had been looking for.
"Great. You five will be in the new group. Please transfer all your work to your peer and come to Yuqi's office."
---
After waiting five minutes inside Yuqi's office, the five people who were assigned earlier finally came to her office.
"You guys can read this paper and tell me what you think about it. You go back to the office and come back when you are finished."
Yuqi quickly handed them a small folder, letting them leave the office to have a read for themsleve.
"What do you think they will say about the plan?" Yuqi asked as she looked over to Xiaoyun sitting beside her.
"I don't know... Maybe it's fine, or perhaps it's too ambitious, or it can be too conservative. Who knows?"
"I guess we have to wait..."
"Yeah."
After waiting for an entire hour, the five office workers finally came back to Yuqi's office with the same folder in hand.
"So what do you guys think about it?" Yuqi asked right away.
One of the office workers, who appeared to be the most senior out of them, stepped up and raised his concern.
"We think this is fine. However, we're slightly worried that we are practically pouring money and supplies into the entrepreneur.
We won't get any benefit from this. Some of the jobs here don't create anything of value, like a toy store or a barbershop.
Not to mention there's no taxes anywhere in this plan, and we are giving them raw supplies and tools for them to use for half the store price."
Yuqi and Xiaoyun both looked to each other for a second before turning back to the office workers.
"Well, to address your concern, this commercial department's main focus isn't actually to make money.
Rather, it's to keep people busy by creating new jobs, even if it is just a service job. Any kind of job that can keep people busy."
The five of them looked a little confused as they stood in silence, waiting for Yuqi to elaborate further.
"You might be wondering why that would be necessary when we can always throw everyone to construction or to the farm, right?" Yuqi asked.
The five of them slowly nodded their head, wondering the same thing as they viewed the hard labor as actual productivity that benefited the town.
In their mind, a service job didn't seem important—more of a luxury job that didn't fit emergency times, such as a zombie apocalypse.
"Here's the thing. Some of you might have seen the government statistic that showed way too many people are employed in those fields.
We need to diversify our economy and our job market, and the best way we have found is to let people come up with one on their own.
There's no way we could match every single need of every citizen. I don't need to teach you guys about supply and demand."
As Yuqi explained her thought process, the five office workers started to understand the vision she was trying to achieve.
"Just as an example, that restaurant we went to yesterday. The owner was an early mover of the town who had enough money lying around to start a business himself.
Those people are exactly what we wanted—people who are willing to take risks. Your job is to find more people who have ideas and help to foster them.
They can meet the demand of the town. No matter how big or how small. Just things that can net some benefits to the town are good enough."
The five of them nodded their head slightly as they began to see Yuqi's vision of a private market emerging from their hands.
"From a single employer barbers to five-man restaurants, or a group of people making clothes to a whole supply line making firearms in a factory.
Any of them could fit in this program... Of course, there will still be some limit, as we will be approving what land they can use to build their business.
Ideally, we will be allocating our construction crew to the business rather than having them run the business out of the cabin."
Yuqi stopped for a second, taking a small break as she took a small sip of water from her mug.
"Unfortunately, they aren't available yet... For now, we just have to make do. It's okay to lose the initial investment as long as you guys learn from it.
It's better to have those raw resources used than having them sitting in the storage, eating dirt."
Once again, the five office workers stood still, listening to Yuqi's rambling as Xiaoyun continued to sit next to her in silence.
"We had been trading with the outside traders for so many different resources, yet we don't have a way to use them.
You guys see the issue I'm trying to address? You guys understand what I'm trying to do with this now?"
Yuqi finally stopped, giving the office worker a chance to talk as she took another sip of water.
"Yes, I think we understand now." The senior office worker answered, with the other four all nodding in agreement.
"Great... Here's a box of food stamps and a letter of authorization to the storage room."
As Xiaoyun handed a box of stamps over to the senior worker, Yuqi handed them the letter of authorization that Xiaoyun had already signed.
"You guys can start writing a letter and stamp it at the front of the billboard at the booth to try to encourage people to become entrepreneurs.
Oh, and one last thing. This is a long process, so if you guys need people, just notify me about it before hiring more."
"Thank you, boss."
As the five of them left the office with the box of food stamps and the letter of authorization, Yuqi finally let out a small sigh of relief.
"Whew, we're finally done with that. Now we can finally relax." Yuqi murmured as she leaned back onto her office chair.
"Yeah, we should be a lot freer now," Xiaoyun murmured as he leaned back into his seat as well.
---
As Xiaoyun and Yuqi drafted more stuff for the future, someone suddenly knocked on the office door.
When he opened the door, Yezi was standing outside with an entire folder in hand, the same folder as the one he had come with last time.
"Huayi better had approved you to come here," Xiaoyun warned, his eyes looking alert as if he had had enough of what had happened before.
"Don't worry, she already got all she wanted and approved me. I even got her to sign it at the front."
As Yezi shows the front document with her signature, Xiaoyun finally lets him enter the office.
"Iron——Ahem, I mean Yuqi, please read this and approve it."
Yezi quickly changed his words at the last second as he put the folder onto the desk for her to read.
"You were about to call her the Iron Lady, weren't you?" Xiaoyun jokingly asked as he stood on the side.
"Come on, that's what everyone in the town calls her. I-I just accidentally almost slipped up." Yezi quietly whispered back.
"Whatever, Yuqi, let me help you read it."
Xiaoyun quickly walked back over to Yuqi's side, sitting beside her and reading the folder together with her.
Thirty minutes later...
"Hm, seems fine to me. Rescue plan to bring more people to the town, sending a group of three on a scouting mission, and all inside the city outskirts.
This is a pretty good plan. We can always use more newcomers to replace those who get tired of working in construction and farming."
Hearing Xiaoyun's answer, Yezi's face started smiling. But what he said next instantly wiped it away.
"However, in this part of the plan, where you request the bus... I can't let you do that. Just use a car instead, or even the RV."
"The car can only load a few people before it's full, and the RV with its max speed will get destroyed if it gets noticed by a zombie horde."
"Yezi, we need the bus for transportation in this massive town now. And we need your truck to transport the supplies from storage to the store.
Maybe you can get another bus outside or get a van from outside while you are exploring."
Yuqi argued back this time, siding with Xiaoyun's opinion as she knew how important vehicles were for the town.
"Fine, we will just use your guy's car then. That's the only option left anyway." Yezi argued.
"That's fine. I had been walking to work the past few days anyway... Just give the car back when you find a different one outside."
Xiaoyun answered, putting his signature on the bottom of the plan before keeping a copy for himself and putting it into the cabinet.
"Thank you."
Just as Yezi turned around and was about to leave, Xiaoyun suddenly spoke up again.
"Wait, if you are now in an outside affair focusing on the city's outskirts, who's the one managing the trading with the outside?"
"I don't know. I'm now in the military branch, so that's your problem now. You guys can make a separate department for that."
With Yezi rushing out of the room, Xiaoyun and Yuqi both turned to each other for a second before letting out a small sigh.
"Why did you move Yezi's department back to the military?" Xiaoyun questioned.
"What do you mean? You're the one who told me I should move him back... Besides, he's not really a good trader anyway."
"Whatever..."
Just as Xiaoyun finished complaining and was about to head towards the cabinet to find someone fit for the job, his phone suddenly started ringing.
Taking it out, it was Yiming calling him.
"Xiaoyun! Where the hell is Yezi? There's an entire row of cars outside wanting to trade!" Yiming yelled on the other side.
"Yezi had shifted to outside rescue, so he doesn't do trade anymore." Xiaoyun calmly answered as he lowered the volume a little.
"Then who the hell is supposed to trade with them? You want me to tell them to turn away?"
"No, I'll be right there to trade for today, just wait a second."
As Xiaoyun hung up the phone, Yuqi had already taken out a stack of folders, looking through the names to find someone fit for the job.
"Yuqi, can you make another plan for setting up a trade outpost——"
"Yep yep. I'll make it myself. You can go now."
Yuqi grumpily interrupted as she began reading through the list of people's work experience in the past from the booth collection.
"Thank you!"