Chapter 64

What do you do if your CPU breaks down? You just need to fix it. But since the CPU is practically smoking, you can't just use traditional repair methods like tapping its head; you have to open the case and look at the motherboard chips inside.

Xue Jin'an's gaze swept over Cui Zui's head, searching for a suitable point for craniotomy.

As Cui Zui was grinning foolishly, a sense of crisis suddenly rose in his heart. Startled, he saw his master staring at his forehead with a familiar look that seemed to threaten to cut off his manhood.

Almost instantly, Cui Zui's turbulent internal energy subsided, and his mind was forced to cool down as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over it. Not only did his head stop steaming, but he also couldn't help but shudder.

"Master, I'm all better, I'm fine, really! If you don't believe me, I can do two math problems right now to prove it to you!" Cui Zui said urgently, as if afraid that if he finished speaking, his master would chop him down on the back of the neck with a knife, giving him a version of anesthetic that was better than any medicine.

For this reason, he even picked up the exam paper that his grandfather had set out, which was as difficult to understand as a book written in heaven. He looked at the questions with an extremely serious expression and started to calculate with his fingers.

Of course, he couldn't figure it out, but this was Cui Zui's normal level. Xue Jin'an only heard him mumble a couple of lines about his problem-solving approach, and he knew that Cui Zui's brain hadn't been completely fried.

Xue Jin'an was too lazy to go over the plan again, so he simply picked up a piece of paper and, with a thought, wrote down everything he had planned in his mind.

Having just proven that his brain was still functioning, Cui Zui breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing his master pick up a pen to write, he assumed he was doing an exam and didn't disturb him. Instead, he walked to the side, still shaken, and drank some tea to calm his nerves.

Before he could even finish his cup of tea, he turned around and received a stack of papers from his master. Thinking it was his master's answer sheet, he subconsciously glanced down at it, but his gaze immediately froze on it. He began to read it word by word, even becoming unconsciously immersed in it.

Xue Jin'an's plan mainly consists of three steps:

The first step is to find Xu Pingchuan, the Minister of War. This real-person PUBG game is very suitable for training the individual abilities of soldiers and can be considered a training method. In this way, soldiers will become one of the main customers of the shop and can be won over. All matters related to the registration, military orders, and military expenses of the army are managed by the Ministry of War.

Although the Minister of War is a civil official position, Xu Pingchuan is a traditional military general who has served on the front lines and earned merits. He is very concerned about military management; otherwise, he wouldn't have argued with the Ministry of Revenue for months over the issue of cutting military training budgets. He must understand the value of real-person PUBG and would be very happy to cooperate with Cui Zui.

Of course, winning over clients was just a side effect. The real purpose of seeking out Xu Pingchuan was to establish a cooperation with Feng Yinshou, the Minister of Revenue, through him, and to persuade Feng Yinshou to become an angel investor in the project, providing suitable land and some funding.

This was the second step in the plan: securing angel investment from the Minister of Revenue.

This is not a difficult problem. Since taking office as Minister of Revenue, Feng Yinshou has been trying to find ways to increase revenue and reduce expenditure. He has not achieved much in increasing revenue, but he has done a very good job in reducing expenditure. He has become a well-known miser, money-grubber, and a greedy swindler.

It's not that Feng Yin, a man from a good family background, wanted to end up like this; it's just that the Ministry of Revenue really didn't have much money.

Leaving aside the financial deficit caused by the emperor's costless reforms to recruit soldiers and improve their treatment, it can be said that the Ministry of Revenue's accounts were not exactly clean even before that.

However, the Ministry of Revenue is a lucrative department where everyone from top to bottom is involved in corruption, and everyone is united in their efforts, making it quite difficult to thoroughly investigate the accounts—at least Feng Yinshou cannot do it.

It's not that Feng Yinshou, as the Minister of Revenue, is doing a bad job; it's just that the Ministry of Revenue is a huge mess, and he has already put in a lot of effort to ensure that it has been able to operate successfully until now without any problems.

Feng Yinshou had long wanted to retire. Even if he didn't completely withdraw from officialdom, he wanted to step down from the position of Minister of Revenue. He submitted memorials requesting to retire and return to his hometown many times, which showed that he was not entirely without sincerity.

However, the emperor certainly wouldn't let him go.

In short, the Ministry of Revenue needed money, and this project was profitable, so Feng Yinshou had no reason not to cooperate.

As for how to persuade Xu Pingchuan to put aside his grudges and willingly help find the Minister of Revenue, it is related to the military expenses mentioned earlier. If Xu Pingchuan can contribute to solving the Ministry of Revenue's funding gap, Feng Yinshou will have to give him face both morally and logically.

The third step is the construction of the real-person PUBG store. It is written in great detail from design to operation, and even the cost of opening the store, store pricing, contract revenue sharing and so on are given in detail.

It's safe to say that even the most incompetent person, if they follow this guide step by step, will absolutely not lose money.

Cui Zui stared at the stack of papers, especially at the third step of the plan, completely absorbed. The more he read, the deeper his feelings for Xue Jin'an became. When he looked up at Xue Jin'an again, his bright eyes were filled with a deep admiration and worship that he himself did not realize.

Cui Zui was truly moved. He considered himself to have pledged allegiance to the Seventh Prince and even recognized him as his master. Therefore, regardless of his position, dedicating everything to Xue Jin'an's ideal of hegemony was what he should do and his duty.

Throughout history, advisors and strategists have almost always been like this: they would give up vast wealth and beautiful women to help their lord achieve his goals. Of course, the distribution of benefits and power after the success, and the resulting wariness and suspicion between them, are another matter entirely.

As a person of this era, Cui Zui naturally bears the imprint of this era. He never felt that these sacrifices were anything special; he was willing to do so.

However, Xue Jin'an only took the smallest amount of money, and then generously and naturally declared that the property belonged entirely to Cui Zui.

For the first twenty years of his life, Cui Zui had gained nothing since his mother's death. He had become accustomed to loss, to being let down, and to struggling with the complexities of human nature.

Then he met Xue Jin'an, who roughly pried open his eyelids, made him look at the endless wilderness, and told him that he was seen and that he was worthy.

How could Cui Zui not be moved that such a valuable item was given to him without hesitation? How could he not be completely devoted to it?

Cui Zui took a deep breath, used his inner strength to suppress the overwhelming emotions in his heart, and focused his mind on the plan in his hand.

"Master is amazing! The plan here is so detailed. Your disciple will certainly live up to your expectations." Cui Zui bowed respectfully to Xue Jin'an, then hesitated slightly. "Master, I only have one question now. What should we do if the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue collude to use us and then discard us?"

It's not that Cui Zui is being overly pessimistic, but such things are actually quite common. Even brothers can turn against each other for profit, so what does it matter if enemies shake hands and collude?

Not to mention that Xu Pingchuan and Feng Yinshou don't have any deep-seated hatred for each other. They could easily take over the entire project and kick Cui Zui out, which is perfectly feasible.

Not to mention that the status of merchants is not high among scholars, farmers, artisans and merchants, even if we say that the common people do not fight against the officials, if these two families really want to kill each other like this, Cui Zui can only grit his teeth and swallow his blood, and cannot say a word of objection.

Cui Zui pondered how to resolve this predicament should it actually occur, and after much thought, he realized that only his master's identity could be leveraged.

However, once their master's identity is exposed, Xu Pingchuan and Feng Yinshou will inevitably tell the emperor. Not to mention how much trouble this will cause their master, the profits from the shop will likely have to be offered to the emperor.

Cui Zui didn't say anything outrageous, but his expression was full of displeasure.

This is all money he earned to give to his master. Why should the emperor get so much without doing anything? Just because he's the emperor?!

But this was the only way to resolve this predicament, and it only involved some personal gain. Cui Zui ground his teeth, finally enduring what most people wouldn't, and successfully convinced himself.

Cui Zui was still thinking about how to talk to his master. He was worried that his master would anger him and then he would lose his temper and beat up the emperor.

However, he was overthinking it. Xue Jin'an hadn't even considered that. He offered another method: "Collect the parts of the answer sheets I filled out that relate to the Ministry of Revenue's taxation, compile them into a book, and then give it to him. After reading it, he will naturally understand what to do."

If there's anyone in the world who could clean up the Ministry of Revenue's mess in a short time, it would undoubtedly be Xue Jin'an, the code life.

If Feng Yinshou really had ulterior motives and wanted to kick Cui Zui out, Xue Jin'an wouldn't mind investigating him.

This can be considered a real threat, especially when combined with the new accounting method that Cui Pengfei recently came up with—speaking of which, this new accounting method was summarized by Old Master Cui Zai from Xue Jin'an's answer sheet.

Don't be fooled by Xue Jin'an's apparent ability to write down the answer without hesitation after just one glance at the question. In reality, the answer is translated in his mind, with the numbers and units replaced before it appears to others in a way that is understandable.

However, Old Master Cui was indeed Old Master Cui. He managed to extract some information from Xue Jin'an's original answer manuscript, such as Xue Jin'an having a very simple set of numerical symbols and vertical calculation.

Then, by a twist of fate, he saw the charts that Cui Zui had learned from Xue Jin'an... After this integration, the old man created a new accounting method, but it was not yet perfect.

Cui Zui spent three days preparing for this cooperation. Unexpectedly, he saw this new accounting method in his study. After thinking for a moment, he decided to take it with him when he went out to see the Minister of War.

When Cui Zui handed over his invitation and waited at the entrance of the Ministry of War's residence, he couldn't help but feel uneasy. However, this unease only lasted for less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before it completely dissipated when the steward of the Ministry of War's residence ran over to greet him and bring him inside.

The Minister of War was in a terrible predicament. He had been trying to get military funds for months without any results, and the corrupt official in the Ministry of Revenue even proposed to cut military funds by another 30% next year. Xu Pingchuan was so angry that he almost got into a fight with someone during the morning court session.