Chapter 38: Constantine Still Has a Chance

  Mnemosyne's dark past is just a small episode in life, but the more people I meet, the more profound my feelings about life become. Having met Frederick, that brainless righteous youth, my big fat cousin taught me a lesson in motivation. What a powerful lesson from a beautiful woman!

  To be honest, I wasn't quite clear about the magnitude of beautiful women's energy. But until I met Big Brother Fat, I felt it was necessary! The empire needs to launch a nationwide research project on morale-boosting topics, and beauties are naturally one of the objects of study.

  So when the beauties of the Roman Empire introduce themselves, they have one more title. This may not be a big deal for noblewomen, but for commoner beauties, I think they would be thrilled to tell their dates that they are research subjects at the Spiritual Quality Special Strategic Court Research Center of the Ministry of Military Affairs of the Roman Empire! Hmm, this is much more impressive than saying I'm the daughter of some farmer, and it's enough to scare foreigners to death!

  Haha, too happy! Paying tribute to Da Vinci, the pioneer of research on human body...

  This idea has been lingering in my mind, but I really admire Big Brother's affection for that lady he had never met. For over a dozen days, he worked overtime, and his excess fat seemed to have decreased significantly during this period. And I, because of my frequent contact with this elder brother, was asked by the cheap old dad about the reason, I said the idea in my mind, and he immediately gave me the title of Assistant Consultant to the Minister of Posts. Along with that, he also threw over Bridges? Jimiski, the executive officer of the Audit Court, and two deputies.

  Bridges? Jimmyski, just by the name you can tell it's a literary girl's family, and he also has another identity, the younger brother of the literary girl's father. The big fat brother now has even more reason to strive! Although before this, he didn't even know how many people were under his command, how the entire department operated, or what the monthly expenses were.

  Fortunately, the Ministry of Posts had been roughly established by my grandfather in his time and recently several capable people were arranged by Old Cheap to be in charge of all matters in the department. Otherwise, it is hard to imagine what a mess the postal service of the whole empire would have become.

  The current Ministry of Posts has one court, two bureaus, and a total of 19,317 registered employees. This large-scale organization is the largest among all departments, but it includes more than 17,000 postal workers, with monthly expenses of only over 700,000 sols, and basic annual expenditures maintained at around 8.6 million, including miscellaneous expenses of no more than 9 million. However, if the expenses of long-distance postal workers in various places are added, this number will reach 11 million.

  It's not necessary for a keen-eyed person to see that there is something fishy going on. Compared with the annual expenditure of nearly 30 million by the Ministry of War and 18 million by the Navy, this amount is hardly worth mentioning, let alone compared with the annual expenditure of nearly 70 million by the Imperial Household Department. Even the Emperor's annual expenses are two to three times that of the entire department, totaling over 3.7 million.

  On the ninth day, we fifty-three people worked overtime to process over ten thousand people, averaging twenty-seven per person. The massive task was completed before the twelfth day. The results from Marcus' place came out. Logically speaking, areas with large populations and relative prosperity should have more postal workers maintaining local postal services. However, in our audit, a relatively poor and sparsely populated area emerged with an unusually high number of postal workers, despite the registered names and birth dates matching. I reported this to Old Man Peng. Fat Marcus cursed the imperial moths while being overjoyed, and the next day he was laughing so hard his mouth couldn't close, asking me if I had any more tricks up my sleeve.

  Seeing him so motivated, this kind of injustice is really not wasted. I went back to dig out a few reforms for the empire that I wrote idly and recalled how the postal service used to operate. The next day, I gave this old brother a reform plan that wasn't even considered a postal reform.

  I don't have the skill to write out a grand strategy like the Longzhong Plan or the Ten Strategies of Zhuge Liang, this reform plan is simple, put bluntly it's about opening up sources.

  In later generations, the post office was responsible not only for mail delivery but also for developing the philatelic and greeting card industries. Popularizing philately was too unrealistic, as the cost of paper and processing alone exceeded the consumption level of ordinary people. On the other hand, greeting cards had great potential. A few skilled painters were found from the university's art department to create samples, which were then printed on cardboard. The products were divided into three categories based on craftsmanship, aesthetics, and blessings, with the main consumers being wealthy individuals and nobles. New styles were released during holidays and special events, and limited editions were sold for major events. After auditing, the profits were offset against postal expenses, with excess funds surrendered to the imperial treasury and deficits supplemented by the imperial finance court. However, all initial costs were borne by this individual, and if the post office had a surplus profit each year, it could be used to repay his expenses.

  This old brother listened, gritted his teeth and did it! He actually took out 330,000 Sol as start-up capital in one breath! I didn't let him take action immediately. Let him go contact a good painter, and I'll let him wait until I contact him.

  Things went smoothly at Da Baozi's brother's place, but the 250 military house thing really got me fired up. The reason is simple, after about a month, those idiots who were sent to follow a large group of beautiful girls came to my house to report back to me.

  Listening to them, they finished talking about hooking up with the Constantinople girls in just a few words... I'd like to cut off their belts and take a look at what's underneath, see if they're packing anything. Oh my god, our Constantinople is an empire that lasted for thousands of years, a thousand-year empire! You know what that means? Just look at the royal families of 21st-century Arabia and Western Europe, you can tell how well their genes have been modified, even if they're not stunning beauties, they're definitely not like the Qing dynasty's ugly ducklings! So, I've seen those noble ladies, they're really nice! Very pretty! They're beauties! But these guys are something else! They go out all day, and it's one on one!

  What's the result?

  The battle is going smoothly....

  My day! You're making war out of dating! Following your mother's interests, are you?! Can't you just spark some romance?! There will be plenty of battles to fight in the future, with French people, Russians, Poles, Germans... If time collapses a bit more, who knows, maybe even Mek star people will appear! If it gets any more fantastical, angels and demons might show up too. And if technology advances a bit further, aliens won't be out of the question either! Are you worried there won't be enough battles to fight?! You're treating dating like war! Do you deserve those beautiful noble ladies?! Do you deserve my painstaking efforts?! Do you deserve your youth?!

  Forget it, I'm too lazy to mock this group of idiots. Rarely do I see a glimmer of conscience, but unexpectedly... It seems that all that can be said is that education from a young age really is very important. This bunch of idiots will probably only understand what they've missed out on in their lives when they're faced with the regret of their final moment before death.

  "Didn't anything unusual happen to you guys?" I asked persistently, refusing to believe that a man's nature could be so completely erased. After all, I was already restless at the age of eleven, secretly reading H-books at twelve, chasing after my heartthrob at fourteen, and holding hands with girls at fifteen... At sixteen, well, it seems like I've been stuck in this phase forever...

  Everyone thought carefully and basically shook their heads... "No."

  Except Constance!

  I excitedly grasped his shoulder!

  All I heard him say was: "If there's anything unusual to talk about, it's that before I sent her away, she said I'm a good person. But I really can't think of what's good about me."

  Was a good person card issued? My mood is complicated, after some deliberation, I finally decided to let it go. It's extremely rare to have a good person card, it's better than having none! That's progress! There was a reaction, which means Consistency still has hope: "Consistency, you've made a great achievement! Someone, take note of this, Consistency, the task completion rate is excellent!"

  ….

  "You all have a noble lady looking for you... that's really great..." Morris shook his head, with a look of loss, seemingly truly envious.

  "Have you been staying at home all along?"

  Maurice said sourly, "Yes, I even loaded three revolvers and made some small bombs, but no one came to look for me... what a disappointment."

  Maurice, probably for this life, you can only find a suitable girl in the fighting nation on the Russian side, other countries, like Constantinople, are estimated to have no hope.

  "Alright, all of you be quiet. Except for Konstanz, the rest of you just stiffly completed your tasks, you've disappointed me too much! Facing this group of goods that have the ability and time to freely fall in love but won't grasp it well, it seems I can only do it myself. Have you forgotten my request? To go with the flow! To reasonably create a dramatic plot twist! This is like war, a fake fight, although we've always had a huge advantage, our task requirement is to lose this war and reasonably fail! How many times have I said it, you need to hold back! Need to soften up! The attitude needs to be appropriately lowered! But look at you all! From your accounts, it's fundamentally them who are taking the initiative! Those noble young ladies did their best, but they're basically just trash with combat power of five!!"

  "Question: What is a piece of trash with combat power of five?" A guy raised his hand and asked.

  "It's just that they can't withstand a single blow, weak and unable to withstand the wind. The gap in combat power between them and us is huge! So your coordination is really important! If you continue like this, how can I make further arrangements?! Are you thinking of surrendering and disarming, do you want everyone to lose face?"

  Alexander appeared at this time: "Facing the enemy, huh, being alone with a woman for the first time, everyone is a rookie, brother, you can't be too demanding, we've never been so close to women since childhood..."

  "Yes, I sometimes can't help but raise my hand to hit her..."

  "You're lucky I didn't lose my temper, several times I almost drew my sword and threatened that woman to stay away from me..."

  "Not really, a thrilling and heart-pounding moment, I thought I had forgotten that feeling."

  "I've got a few hand grenades over here, who wants them? Wear them on your body, guaranteed those women won't dare get too close..."

  Maurice's idea was highly praised by the vast majority of people for a time!

  "Damn it." I rubbed my temples in pain, regretting it! Poor these idiots are not my fault! However, since the first step has been taken, we still have to continue, right? Three warnings and five orders: no bringing explosives, no hand grenades, no physical fights, no foul language! This virgin (me) spent a lot of effort in Constantinople to plan out many dating spots and things to do on dates... watching plays, going for walks, flying kites, going fishing, having picnics, rowing boats... basically everything I could think of that people can do in this era.

  I'm so exhausted from this, I'd rather go flirt with Wendy's husband than do something like this again!

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