Two days later, accompanied by Woolley, Lady Leah and Tina smiled and handed a bag of heavy gold coins to the treasurer Bunny.

Although she was in great pain, Lady Leah still smiled gracefully and said, "Lord Buny, paying taxes according to the law is the obligation of citizens. On behalf of Glyndwr Manor and the general public, I express my understanding and support for the treasurer's collection actions. The 713 gold coins here are the taxes and fines I should pay. Please count them."

"Oh, ma'am, your behavior is admirable." When Bunny said this, he also wanted to force a smile to fit the situation, but he couldn't do it no matter what. The moment he got the heavy bag of gold coins, his heart trembled suddenly, because he caught a hint of mockery in the eyes of the young man standing on the left side of Madam Leah.

The calmness and sarcasm hidden in that teasing made him uncomfortable.

Woolley, Woolley Grindo. Boonie kept repeating the boy's name in his mind.

Doji, why did you provoke this troublesome little guy? Buni thought to himself again. At this time yesterday, he had already found out that the night before the tribune Aesop played the "fight against crime" trick, the young man in front of him had walked into Aesop's mansion, and it was said that the two had talked for a long time.

To be honest, Buni didn't want to believe that Aesop's actions were inspired by Wu Lai, but he had to choose to be half-believing or half-doubting, because strategy has never been the forte of Aesop, a warrior who was born as a general. This has been confirmed many times in the past few years - in all the confrontations, whether open or covert, Aesop has never been a match for him and Doji.

Aesop, who "happened to see this scene", came over with a smile and said, "Buni, this will be a good start."

Bunny gritted his teeth and had the urge to throw the bag of gold coins in his hand at Aesop's face, but he finally gave up the idea because he knew very well that if they fought, five Bunnies would not be a match for one Aesop.

As Aesop glanced at him seemingly unintentionally, Wu Lai nodded gently at him, and then Aesop returned his smile.

Aesop's efficiency and impartiality allowed the tax collection incident in Seneca City to be settled within six days. In the end, more than half of the estates in the Seneca city-state were required to pay taxes and fines. Although the nobles complained, the consul decisively chose to ignore the complaints when he saw the reported figures.

Because, Aesop's "anti-crime campaign" recovered, confiscated, and fined a total of 53,721 gold coins and 15 silver coins. According to the rules, most of this money had to be managed by the city-state, such as repairing city walls, digging ditches and wells, or building roads. In the final analysis, the consul had the final say on how the money was used.

Even if it was an official matter, the nobles would not have suffered such a huge loss. The reason for this result was that Aesop completely applied the recovery and confiscation standards of Greendo Manor during the investigation. Therefore, Doggie sadly became the most hated person in the incident, and his family also suffered the greatest loss in the incident - among the more than 53,000 gold coins, nearly 15% came from Doggie's Baiting family.

Wu Lai, the root cause of this incident, became the biggest beneficiary. Under the strong request of Aesop, who always kept his word, the consul reluctantly allocated half of the 53,700 gold coins as rewards. Therefore, after deducting the special contribution tax of 40 gold coins and the 300 gold coins voluntarily donated to the people's protection department, 2,340 gold coins were pocketed by Wu Lai. After deducting the 513 gold coins he paid for the Grindo Manor, his profit was still staggeringly considerable. However, only consul Anthony and Aesop knew this result, because the code had special provisions for this situation, and they had to keep it secret.

"Should I build a cellar in the White Stone Building to store the money?" Wu Lai said to himself after receiving the bonus.

Two days later on the morning, when Wu Lai was about to deliver the printed samples of the divine code to the temple, Tina and Lady Leah had already arrived.

This was the fourth time the mother and daughter had come in the past six days, and Wu Lai was already tired of hearing their words of thanks.

But today, Mrs. Leah did not come to express her gratitude.

"Wu Lai, I've made up my mind. You and Tina are not related by blood, so I decided to let Tina marry you." Mrs. Leah stated her purpose. When she said this, Tina beside her lowered her head shyly.

Woolley was dumbfounded. He had thought that after what she had experienced, Mrs. Leah would give up this idea.

"How can this be possible?" Wu Lai quickly shook his head and refused.

"Of course. I have already consulted the priests of the temple and some friends who are familiar with the etiquette of the nobility." Lady Leah said with a smile, "Your wisdom and courage will be Tina's best support. I believe that your father's soul will be as happy as I am to see you together. You have to know that Tina's beauty is second to none in Seneca City."

"No, I refuse." Wu Lai shook his head again. After glancing at Tina, he bit his lip and said hesitantly, "I heard that Tina is in Assyria..."

Woolley didn't finish his words, but Tina and Lady Leah's faces had changed.

"No, Woolley, that's not true!" Tina suddenly became excited.

Wu Lai was stunned for a moment, and turned his gaze to Madam Leah: "I don't know it very clearly, but please understand that it will put me in a shadow. I always hope that my bride is perfect."

"Tina is perfect." Lady Leah's facial features were almost distorted. "It is because of her perfection that some people with ulterior motives maliciously slander her innocence. It is also because of this that Tina returned to Seneca and never wanted to go to other city-states again."

"Don't say anything, mother." Tina suddenly stood up and ran out of the living room with tears in her eyes.

"Tina!" Mrs. Leah couldn't catch up and hurriedly said goodbye and left.

"Perfect? ​​Don't think I don't know anything." Wu Lai curled his lips in annoyance.

…

Mikoyan's expression when he saw the printed version of the divine code was described by Wu Lei as "a wolf with flaming eyes". However, he could understand the surprise and admiration of the high priest who was accustomed to reading manuscripts for the printed version.

"It's nothing. On the premise of basically ensuring the supply of 'Gift of Mercy', I can provide you with 400 divine scriptures every day. Just prepare the money, otherwise it will affect the efficiency." Wu Lai said lightly. After adding several nimble slaves last month, completing 400 divine scriptures a day is a piece of cake. Calculated based on the actual cost of less than half a silver coin, starting tomorrow, he will earn more than 30 gold coins from the temple every day. In other words, the printing house is about to become the most profitable business of Wu Lai.

"No problem." Mikoyan laughed and put his arm around Wu Lai's shoulders affectionately.

On this day, Woolley had his dinner in a large warehouse in the paper mill, and all the slaves were allowed to dine with him.

The dinner was very sumptuous. In addition to pickled meat, beef jerky and chicken, there was also fresh fish. However, Wu Lai did not eat fish. Although he knew that fish could provide the human body with high-quality protein, he did not like eating fresh fish at all because the Assyrian territory seemed to have not yet mastered the cooking technology to completely remove the fishy smell.

Even without the stimulation of wine, the slaves were still extremely excited, but an even greater excitement soon emerged -

Woolley suddenly stood on the dining table, and when all the slaves were stunned by his sudden action, he waved to Neptune.

Neptune walked to the dining table, feeling somewhat bewildered and at a loss as to what to do. He even suddenly remembered the rumors that the nobles enjoyed humiliating and killing slaves during meals.

"Neptune!" Wulai pointed his finger at Neptune, but his eyes swept over all the slaves. "He was the first one to follow me. In the past days, he used his loyalty and skills to let me know what a loyal servant is. A loyal servant is worthy of reward! So, today, I want you to witness with your own eyes what kind of reward I, Wulai Grindo, can give you!"

The slaves stood up subconsciously and rushed towards Wu Lai hesitantly because they wanted to see and hear more clearly.

Wu Lai turned his body sideways and looked down at Neptune who was looking up at him. He saw excitement and expectation in Neptune's eyes.

"Neptune! My loyal servant, today, I, the Assyrian citizen Wulai Glindo, free you from your slavery with the grace bestowed upon me by the gods and the civil rights granted by the law. From today on, you are free." Wulai said with a smile.

There was total silence, and everyone couldn't believe their ears.

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Neptune was stunned. Although he had always believed that he would be free one day, he never thought that this day would come so soon.

"Neptune, thank you for your generosity and kindness, my master." Neptune knelt down slowly, tears streaming down his face.

The slaves who saw this scene shed tears of excitement, hugged and comforted each other, and hope was ignited in their hearts.

Gauguin, who was accompanying Woolley, was also very excited. As a former slave, he naturally knew what this moment meant. As someone who had served Glyndwr Manor with Neptune for many years, he also understood what the old man had been looking forward to. So, he quietly turned his back and wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes.

"Tomorrow, I will go to process the civilian identity documents for you. If you are willing to stay, please continue to manage the mill for me and teach apprentices. If not, I will give you a sum of money that will be enough for your retirement." Wu Lai said.

"Master Woolley, old Neptune is willing to stay and serve you until the day you get tired of old Neptune." In fact, Neptune had already made plans to spend the rest of his life with Seneca. After all, he was already an old man.

"Okay, I will give you a separate room, just like Gauguin, and I will give you a salary of fifteen silver coins every month. How about it?" Wu Lai asked with a smile.

Neptune nodded happily: "Everything is up to you, Master Wu Lai."

Wu Lai nodded solemnly, turned around and smiled, and said, "I allow you to cheer as much as you want."

Immediately, the slaves cheered like waves.

Neptune also cheered along, occasionally pinching his arm, or slapping himself...

It was late at night when he returned to Baishi Building. After a busy day, Wu Lai felt a little tired. After forcing himself to finish writing his diary, he hurried into the bathroom. This was his way to relieve fatigue and regain his energy to continue working - after all, today's work was not finished yet.

Wu Lai was very satisfied with the water temperature of the small bath. After taking the towel handed over by Xi Bo with a blushing face, Wu Lai rolled his eyes and kicked Xi Bo out. Recently, he felt more and more that it was inappropriate to strip naked in front of Xi Bo, because every time he seemed to see a hint of "unkindness" in the eyes of this female slave, but if he didn't strip naked, could it still be called a bath? "I know I have a lot of money, but there is no need to look at me with such a hungry look, I am a minor." Wu Lai muttered as he covered his face with a towel soaked in water, and then rested his head on the edge of the small bath.

It feels so good. Wu Lai moaned with pleasure in his heart.

After a while, Hippo's voice was heard beside the bath: "Master, do you need to add hot water?"

"Add it." Wu Lai replied. Although it is spring now, if you don't add hot water to the bathtub in time, how can you take a comfortable bath?

With the sound of flowing water, the water temperature in the bathtub increased slightly.

"That's enough." After calculating from the sound of water that Xibo had poured two buckets of hot water into it, Wu Lai stopped her, then dipped the towel on his face in hot water again and covered his face with it again.

It's really pitiful that you can earn so much money in a day and still feel happy about taking a hot bath. When Wu Lai was laughing at himself in his heart, he suddenly heard a slight sound coming from beside him - it sounded like someone walked into the bathtub, and it seemed that the breathing was a little rapid.

Wu Lai's first reaction was that his female servant had the intention of "seducing her master".

How could this be tolerated?! Wu Lai suddenly pulled off the towel covering his face. Before that, he had already decided to refute it harshly, and even thought of the words to use.

The moment the towel was pulled open, Wu Lai did not do as he had imagined, but was stunned.