The Apex of the Macroeconomic Structure.
It was just ten in the morning. The weather was peculiar, a sunshower like golden threads, and the floor-to-ceiling windows on all sides were coated with a layer of gold dust.
Xu Yan and Feng Zhi Shuang were busy arranging small sofas. A total of thirty-three single small sofas formed a large circle. The two orange ones were for themselves, the red one in the center was Jiang Ye’s special seat, and the remaining thirty were for the city lords. Each small sofa had a name tag.
As soon as the sofas were arranged, the main door was pushed open with a bang.
Jiang Ye entered with a group of city lords of various appearances.
Everyone silently found their seats, sat down quickly, and each took out a tablet computer.
Feng Zhi Shuang handed Jiang Ye a microphone, sat down herself, and placed the tablet on her lap. The atmosphere was somewhat like a small academic conference, with a group of top students forming a circle to receive special instruction from a teacher.
“Everyone present represents cities with large populations. I’ve called you here today to announce a series of projects,” Jiang Ye said, dressed casually and sitting in a relaxed posture. He pulled a long list from his pocket.
“First, every city must build or expand bookstores and libraries. I’ll read out the mandatory standards,” Jiang Ye said.
“One electronic bookstore, selling e-readers and related small commodities. I’ve already contacted twelve relevant alien brands. The location must be in the city center. The budget for the renovation and construction of each store is five million.”
Xu Yan immediately started tapping furiously on her tablet.
“One city library, with a collection of ten million books,” Jiang Ye continued reading from the list.
The entire room was stunned!
The city lords exchanged bewildered glances, doubting if their ears had malfunctioned.
What did ten million books even mean?
A bookshelf that could hold a thousand books already occupied the largest wall in an ordinary residence.
To have ten thousand such bookshelves in a library!
It was almost a palace-level scale, except palaces housed eunuchs, palace maids, emperors, and guards, adorned with silks and satins. The Commander-in-Chief was aiming for a palace filled with paper books. If such a place caught fire, the flames would be visible even from outer space, and the entire city would be showered with burning words and paper.
“The Planetary Governor has already listed ten thousand types of books, all meticulously selected by her. If each of these ten thousand types is purchased with one hundred copies, that’s one million books. The remaining nine million will depend on your local tastes,” Jiang Ye said. “Each city’s library must build its own app and find ways to promote it throughout the city. Users can submit their desired books through the app, and purchases will be made based on the opinions of the city’s citizens. Finally, there will be a reserve of three million books for future restocking.”
“Is this necessary?” Feng Zhi Shuang couldn’t help but raise her hand. “Thirty cities, each with ten million books in its collection, that’s a total of three hundred million books!”
“It is necessary. A planetary review is imminent, and it may have already begun. Humanistic conditions are an important indicator, and we must quickly use money to bolster this indicator,” Jiang Ye said. “This is a project for a hundred years. In a hundred years, the population of your cities will grow to millions, even tens of millions. On average, each person will have only a few books, which is not many at all.”
“The scale is so large, it will cost a lot of money,” Xu Yan’s ten fingers danced wildly on the tablet, sketching preliminary architectural drafts.
“When has money ever been a problem? Jiang Ye Star’s finances are very ample. All the projects mentioned today will be funded by me. Your cities only need to be responsible for daily maintenance. Subsidies will also be provided for maintenance, so you will truly have very little to bear,” Jiang Ye said.
Many city lords breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.
For smaller cities, building a super-large library was indeed a significant pressure.
Since the Commander-in-Chief was taking on the entire burden, this became a purely good thing. Who wouldn’t love a landmark building given for free?
“The books in the library can be sold or rented. Rentals must be public welfare in nature, with a symbolic fee of one hundred yuan per library card. Each rental can be for five books. You can decide the finer details yourselves and submit a report to me. I will come to inspect it later,” Jiang Ye said. “In addition to city libraries, we will also build a batch of for-profit bookstores.”
The city lords scratched their heads.
It felt as if their formerly inhabited cities were suddenly becoming places for books to reside.
“The mandatory standard for for-profit bookstores is at least thirty per city. The store size can vary. We encourage local entrepreneurship and also welcome alien bookstore brands to set up shop. I will provide funding subsidies. The cities will provide the storefronts, and the rent will be reduced to 5% of the market price,” Jiang Ye said.
“That’s quite a lot,” Feng Zhi Shuang joked. “Why not just build human museums and human shops, neatly arranging all the citizens on shelves, and let the thick paper books reside in the residential buildings?”
“It’s still not enough,” Jiang Ye said. “There are two more projects regarding books: publisher relocation and free book distribution in schools.”
The entire room was dumbfounded.
There were even more?
“Regarding publisher relocation, the Planetary Governor is already in talks to bring some reputable, high-quality publishers from the M78 Nebula to our planet. The goal is to bring one to each city. This will make supply more convenient,” Jiang Ye said. “As for free book distribution in schools, it also requires the cooperation of each region.”
The city lords stopped blinking.
“Every school will give all students ten non-textbook extracurricular books for free each year,” Jiang Ye said.
“After the publishers relocate, they will send a batch of candidate books each year, from which suitable ones will be chosen,” Jiang Ye said. “Of these ten books, five will be unified globally, chosen by the Planetary Governor. The other five will be decided by the teachers and professors in each city. Once decided, the book list will be reported, and the Planetary Governor will be responsible for review. Upon approval, funds will be allocated for purchase and distribution.”
“Mr. Commander-in-Chief, I must remind you,” Feng Zhi Shuang said, “this comprehensive plan is extremely costly. With the current scale of each city, they cannot support such large libraries, so many bookstores, and so much free book distribution. The annual expenditure on paper books alone will likely be in the tens of billions.”
“Some money has to be spent, even if it feels like a waste. Once the planetary review is passed, we will obtain a planet with a rich environment. Even if we catch the wild mosquitoes on that planet and make them into canned meat, the profit will be far more than this,” Jiang Ye said. “And even if the planetary review fails, I wouldn’t bat an eye at spending tens of billions of ‘wasted’ money every year.”
The city lords secretly gasped.
A Commander-in-Chief is indeed a Commander-in-Chief, with such a grand tone.
It was as if tens of billions were pocket change to him.
“Is it because of your wife?” Xu Yan suddenly asked.
“The Planetary Governor plays an important role in this plan, but only because she has relevant professional experience and is a book market expert, not for any other reason,” Jiang Ye said, shaking the list in his hand. “The plan to improve humanistic conditions is only a small part of it. Please continue listening.”