Darkstone Code
Chapter 89 - 0088 As long as you wear a mask, everyone is a movie star

Chapter 89: 0088 As long as you wear a mask, everyone is a movie star

"Negotiated?" The mayor withdrew his gaze from the window, glanced at Ferrari, and asked, "How did the negotiation go?"

Returning to the office, Ferrari encountered His Excellency the Mayor, and the complex emotions within him felt like a truck crashing into a chemical store, triggering constant reactions.

The only thing providing him some comfort was the check belonging to him in his chest pocket; agreeing to Lynch might not be a bad thing after all.

The City Hall does not provide salaries for people like Ferrari; their salaries come from the mayor’s private office expenses. In other words, the mayor pays Ferrari’s salary, which means it can’t be too high. This is why his salary is only a bit more than five hundred dollars - the mayor finds it hard to give him a higher wage.

In reality, it’s not that he can’t pay more; rather, it’s very difficult to pay much more. Ferrari’s salary, as part of the Mayor’s personal office staff, including office expenses, comes from the political donations given by capitalists.

The use of political donations also has certain standards and requirements. It’s not easy for politicians to spend the money however they want after capitalists give them this money. It follows a relatively complete process and is subject to supervision.

If Ferrari, employed as a personal staff officer by His Excellency the Mayor, has too high a salary, the group responsible for supervising the use of this fund has the authority to reduce Ferrari’s salary standard or ask the mayor to dismiss him.

This is a very rigorous, complex, yet ludicrous process. Simply put, after capitalists give money to politicians, they also need to prevent politicians from just taking the money without doing the work and guard against the expansion of politicians’ greed. So, they come up with a bunch of methods to limit how this political donation is used. Only when certain needs are met can this political cash be drawn unconditionally to the fullest extent possible.

Before that, it must go by the rules, with many eyes watching them.

At the same time, this also becomes the biggest weakness or work shortcoming for similar staff officers like Ferrari.

Once they are dismissed for some reason, it will be difficult for them to find the same work. Even if they turn to ordinary enterprises, the company will struggle to give them a satisfactory job, so even when facing grievances outside, they try to endure.

In the future, if one day the mayor can achieve his political ambitions and ideals, they might have a chance to step from behind the scenes to the front stage.

Federation history has many examples of staff officers turning into politicians, helping their former employers achieve life ambitions, and gaining sufficient experience themselves. More importantly, they earned the friendship of capitalists.

With capitalist support and paired with their experience and wisdom, they can easily succeed. That’s partly why Lynch is acting somewhat strong, and Ferrari doesn’t resist.

If things get too ugly, Lynch can just leave, and people will simply say his political stance doesn’t align with the mayor’s, so he left.

But Ferrari can easily encounter problems. When people discuss Lynch, they’ll also discuss the mayor. A mayor forcing out a capitalist isn’t a laughing matter; it would make more capitalists wary.

In the end, the only one who suffers will be Ferrari. Not just Lynch and Ferrari are skilled in acting— the mayor is too: "You’ll have to endure for a while..." and then a lifetime passes.

If he doesn’t do this, maintaining a certain level of closeness with Lynch will actually be helpful to his future plans.

Once he decides to run for a position, Lynch, with whom he has a good relationship, can immediately become his supporter. Nowadays, the key to winning isn’t how capable a person is but how well they can act and how much campaign funding they have.

The mayor was sipping coffee, taking small sips while watching Ferrari.

Indeed, he has a lot of work, although he also has quite a few staff officers under him. Including Ferrari, he has four staff officers and two young men responsible for the dirty and tiring work.

Many times, his work merely involves gathering everyone together to discuss work content and then completing his "assignment" based on collective wisdom, so in reality, the mayor’s work isn’t as complex as people imagine.

The truly hard-to-complete tasks have little correlation with his work on paper; these tasks involve social interactions.

This time, his staff officers discovered the issue of second-hand goods trade auctions, immediately realizing its value: purchasing needed items with less money or reducing the desire to shop could save more funds for a family.

With financial reserves, even if life is somewhat tough, they won’t be completely unable to survive.

These are merely surface-level thoughts; what truly catches the staff officers’ attention is the word "action."

Most politicians use phrases like "being processed," "discussing countermeasures," or even "we are powerless" when explaining why there’s been no action in response to some issues.

While the majority of the crowd doesn’t expect their politicians to immediately provide corresponding solutions, they are already satisfied as long as things aren’t made worse.

But sometimes people still feel displeased and angry due to politicians’ inaction and indifference. Thus, a successful politician must show the public they aren’t just doing nothing when facing difficulties; they are doing something.

Second-hand goods trade is the mayor’s best answer to economic recession, signaling Sabin City’s citizens that he’s dedicated to contributing his strength to this city and its residents, proving that he’s not a "zombie."

As for the outcome, if it’s a good one, people will lavish praise upon him from society to politics, giving him high ratings.

But if the result is bad, first, he at least made an effort; second, whether the execution was in place, conformed to his initial plan, or had some issues causing the plan’s failure has nothing to do with him.

On the contrary, he can still take this opportunity to accumulate some experience as political experience and knowledge reserves, useful when necessary.

A perfect plan, he can achieve it without paying any price, so why not do it?

Ferrari nodded under the mayor’s gaze, having sorted out his emotions, appearing composed as if everything was within his plan.

"I’ve negotiated with Lynch and discussed some further-reaching matters with him. With my help, Lynch realizes the role His Excellency and your party play for Sabin City, and he is very eager to have dinner with you..."

At this point, His Excellency the Mayor merely smiled. This city has more than 800,000 people, but only one in 10,000 or fewer have such an opportunity. He didn’t believe Lynch was one of those.

Ferrari clearly understood His Excellency’s style and attitude towards work and life, and the mayor’s silence was within his expectations.

"Lynch promises to build a statewide second-hand goods distribution channel centered on Sabin City, providing at least 500 jobs to society by early next year, also..."

Ferrari took out the transfer check from his pocket and placed it on the table, "This is his donation to thank His Excellency and the Progressive Party for helping Sabin City, voluntarily mobilized by employees, hoping it can aid you and Sabin City."

The mayor raised his eyebrows with some interest; he took the check, glanced at it, flicked it with his forefinger, and handed it back, "Deliver to the accountant to register it..."

Political donations would be given to a special accountant, and this money would enter a special public account, nominally managed by the mayor.

He paused, "What did you say just now?" Without waiting for Ferrari to respond, he asked and answered himself, "Lynch wants to invite me to dinner?" His face had a hint of a smile, "Tell him I agree. For some responsible young entrepreneurs, as a local manager, I should pass on my experience, which is not yet outdated, to him, helping him avoid taking a few wrong paths."

He raised his eyebrows, "Take a look at my schedule and help me arrange it."

It was evident that His Excellency the Mayor was in a pretty good mood.