Chapter 64: Evening Paper Fierce

  For anyone on Elephant Island, if you haven't read the Evening Post this month, it can only prove two things - either you're illiterate; or you're out of touch, completely and utterly out of touch.

  In less than a month, this strange newspaper, which is published every three days, swept the entire Ivory Island with a terrifying speed like wildfire, and changed everyone's life quietly and imperceptibly, just like spring rain.

  In the bustling tavern, customers drinking beer each held a copy of the evening paper, and news topics became their best accompaniment to wine. Occasionally, there would be several drunkards who, due to inconsistent views, would argue until their faces turned red and ears were burning, even leading to fistfights.

  At the luxurious banquet, the topics of conversation among the nobles were no longer about buying a famous horse or several female slaves, but rather what was on the front page of today's evening newspaper. They passionately discussed and analyzed it in depth, speaking with great enthusiasm and fervor, as if not doing so would be unable to prove their own knowledge and erudition, as if not doing so would be unable to attract the attention of the ladies.

  In business gatherings, businessmen exchange business information obtained from evening newspapers as the basis for their next investment. Although not every time they can accurately profit, there will always be someone who proudly stands out and claims that his insight into business opportunities is so keen that he has gained incredible returns just by relying on a single piece of inconspicuous news.

  In the end, even in the daily meetings of the highest parliament, when those members stood up to speak, they would always take out a piece of news from the evening paper as evidence of their own correctness, although sometimes two guys who were attacking each other would take out the same news report...

  It was like this, under the unstoppable trend, Xiangya Evening News, which had been published for less than a month, quickly showed a shocking growth trend, with sales surging rapidly.

  The total sales of the first issue of the evening newspaper were only 2,000 copies. The second issue doubled this number, and by the time the third issue was officially released, pre-orders alone had reached 8,000 copies. This was still because the printers couldn't keep up with demand; otherwise, sales would have increased several times over.

  The situation is not just good, but very good, even better than initially expected. However, Lin Taiping was not satisfied with this and instead made revisions to address several issues that appeared in the previous few evening papers, which were re-released in the sixth issue.

  After the revision, the Ivory Evening Post was officially set to four pages. The first page is dedicated to major news events, the second page reports on various social news, the third page collects and releases public information and business information, while the last fourth page, also the most eye-catching page, is a gathering place for gossip and scandalous news.

  As a result, the Ivory Evening Post, which was originally positioned in a somewhat confusing manner, immediately met the needs of all social strata. Every citizen of the Ivory Islands, whether noble, merchant or commoner, could find content that interested them in the newspaper. This made the influence of the evening post higher and higher, and its circulation rose again in an astonishing manner.

  However, not everyone is happy about this. At least the people in charge of printing, the Cow Heads, have been working day and night to the point where they are exhausted. They have developed a habit of wanting to print something on any white paper they see, to the extent that when Turo ate white bread yesterday, he subconsciously pulled out an ink brush to apply butter.

  But what can be done, movable type printing is a prerequisite for monopolizing newspapers, so Lin Taiping didn't dare to recruit workers from outside and could only ruthlessly let the cow-headed people persevere again. For the first time, he felt that the dark creatures under his command were too few, perhaps he should think of a way to go somewhere and bring back a large group.

  In fact, it's not just the Minotaur who complains about being overworked. The Dark Elf reporters also have a tough job. With dozens of islands and hundreds of thousands of people on Ivory Island, they are running around non-stop, almost to the point of vomiting blood.

  "What's that, to put it in the words of Ye Ge's tears streaming down her face - 'Waaahhh... yesterday I ran under the scorching sun to six places, and if you add up the distance, it's like circling the Ivory Coast... how unfair! The scorching sun will ruin my delicate skin!'"

  "Cough, sunbathing is good for calcium supplements." Lin Taiping replied seriously, then quickly and cleverly clapped his hands before Ye Ge could pull out his wolf-toothed club, "It's settled, we'll recruit a batch of thieves to be our freelance journalists. At least there's no monopoly on this technique."

  He said and did, Lin Taiping immediately ran to the Thieves' Guild to sign a contract, and took the opportunity to dig up the corner of Earl Galante's wall, digging all the best thieves in the guild, including the president.

  Of course, before formal work, these thieves also had to undergo rigorous training. Lin Taiping, as the president of the Ivory Evening News, personally took charge and gave them a three-day news training course.

  "Ladies and gentlemen, who can tell me what news is? In my opinion, so-called news should be eye-catching. A dog biting a person isn't news, nor is a person biting a dog. But when people bite each other over a dog, that's news."

  "Bankers, murders, sex scandals - these are the things that most interest the public. If you go and interview some parliamentary speech, which fool will come to read it? Note, we must note, our loyal readers are those guys who have nothing better to do after eating their fill every day, what they care about most is what we publish, as the saying goes, the reader is God."

  "What? You say you can't find good news? Don't be ridiculous, with an island as big as Ivory Island and a population of over 500,000, how many strange things happen every day? Even if you really can't find any news, won't you just make something up? What's there to fear? As long as you write 'according to sources' in the report, you don't have to take responsibility for it."

  "Do you know? In my hometown, there is a tabloid called the Sun Newspaper. Its content consists of gossip, scandals and pin-up girls. Every day it gets scolded tens of thousands of times, yet its sales volume always ranks first. Do you guys know what this means?"

  And so, after being brainwashed for three days, the thieves who had originally come to apply for the job just for the generous reward all became Lin Taiping's loyal and devoted followers... Finally, under the gaze of dozens of pairs of admiring eyes, Lin Taiping waved his hand grandly: "Everyone, remember that in the history of journalism in Kontanes, your glorious names will be left behind. Let's set off!"

  A large group of thieves with glowing green eyes rushed out, shouting loudly. With their terrifying endurance and super strong professionalism, they broke through the pot to ask for the bottom of the gossip enthusiasm, appearing in every corner of Elephant Island, everywhere was their battlefield, everywhere was their shadow, not afraid of thunder, not afraid of death, not afraid of being chased by dogs.

  "Uh, boss, what did you say to them?" Kristen had just bought a big box of milk powder back and suddenly saw a large group of thieves rushing out like they had been injected with chicken blood, leaving her stunned.

  "Nothing, I'm just teaching them how to be a successful paparazzi." Lin Taiping replied with his arms crossed, thought for a moment and then smiled and added, "By the way, I told them that if anyone can get any negative news about Marquis de Glangte, I'll pay one gold coin per hundred words."

  One hundred words and there's a gold coin? Not copper or silver, but a shiny gold coin?

  In an instant, Kristen had the impulse to drop everything and apply to be a journalist. She turned her head stupidly, looking in the direction where the thieves had disappeared, and suddenly couldn't help but shudder.

  "Ah-choo! I bet that hypocrite is going to be in big trouble next!"

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  I highly recommend "The Records of Unusual Creatures" to everyone, honestly, I'm a loyal fan of "Xi Ling Empire", this book is really fun to read. Of course, I also look forward to reading the new book by Yan Zhi (Eye Ball). It's not an exaggeration to say that Yan Zhi and Song Shu Xue (Squirrel Scholar) are the leaders in comedy writing nowadays. Everyone can go take a look.

  Record of Strange Creatures