The Shadow Tycoon
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 77
Those who had wanted to leave and those who had not all stayed. So far, the idea of earning more than ten thousand dollars a month still existed only among the middle and upper classes. Even among the middle class, anyone who was not a company partner might not have the ability to earn that much.
So in this age, what did earning more than ten thousand a month mean?
Very simple. It meant earning in one month the wages another person would need four years to make without eating, drinking, or spending a cent. One month. Calculated by the day, each day’s gain would exceed another person’s monthly income.
What was more, Sabine City’s economic situation was not good. The Employment rate kept rising, and on the streets one could always see people with their heads lowered, running into walls everywhere as they searched for work. Getting a good job was truly too difficult.
Whether they wanted to compete for that ten-thousand-dollar monthly income, or merely stay to witness whether William was a fraud, these people all remained.
So long as they stayed, there was a very high chance they would join William’s team. There had once been such a profession, one that provided food and lodging and even free instruction, yet still could not find anyone willing to come.
Those organizers had even considered kidnapping people to make them study. For certain industries, people themselves were wealth, enormous wealth.
But William’s method was different from theirs. He would not be so crude. What you begged others to accept, they might not even deign to look at. Only what others begged you for, even begged without dignity, would they regard as treasure.
What followed was a rather simple exchange of new practical experience. Most of these young people did not have long work histories. More importantly, they had not been in society for very long. Around twenty-one years old, they had already gained a hazy awareness of society’s grim coldness, yet still retained splendid fantasies.
The reason they were splendid was that, in the end, all such fantasies would rot.
Over more than two hours, William told them how to knock open other people’s doors, how to make those people sit quietly on the sofa and listen to their nonsense, and how to make them willing to come to the Warehouse District on Saturday afternoon to attend an auction destined to be written into history.
William said a great deal, but the core was simple, still wealth, interest, and pursuit.
“When you meet elderly people living alone, sell them children’s toys. Tell them how attractive those toys are to children...”
“The needs of the elderly are actually very simple. They only want children to spend a little time with them. So these old people will not mind spending money to buy a little humble happiness to fill their easily satisfied hearts.”
“When children see toys they like at their homes, they will think of them later, and may even bring up going there on their own.”
“Even if they do not, when they play with those toys, perhaps by accident they will think of those old bones.”
“When you meet adults still living with their parents, talk to them about freedom. Used cars, used houses, those will become their first choices...”
“The difference in understanding between young people and their elders, the generation gap, will make them need a space of their own. If they cannot afford a house, then a used car they can afford is what they need most.”
“A car may not be large, but it can become their paradise for escaping reality.”
“When you meet women, introduce more fashionable things, new hair dryers, new curling irons. There will always be something they need...”
“When you meet men, strong liquor, cigarettes, ties, watches, even certain...” William lowered his head and looked over the booklet again and again. “ ... certain intimate products.”
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