Artifact Report

Chapter 337 Mai Minghe: The Reward of a Life-or-Death Struggle
The Chai family has a lot of influence.

Originally, he said he would act as a matchmaker for him, but Mai Minghe still had some doubts: after all, the person he was going to meet was the mayor, and he was just an ordinary citizen. The meeting was so sudden, would he really be able to meet him?

What worried her even more was that before leaving, Chai Si said that the mayor was going to sign a welfare housing expansion project today, and his schedule was already full, but Mak Ming Ho didn't need to worry. He had already made arrangements, and Mak Ming Ho only needed to bring his business card.

that's it?
Looking at the lead-gray business card, Mai Minghe felt a sense of distrust, as if it were a movie prop.

Not to mention she also has to sell this fake image to the mayor... what if the mayor doesn't want it?
She had been focused on getting the lipstick back, but now, sitting on the reception sofa outside the mayor's secretary's office, she suddenly felt nervous: she had never done fake sales before, so how would she know how to sell something?

"Ms. Mai? I'm sorry, please wait a few more minutes."

The secretary entered the reception room, her demeanor composed and polite, refraining from saying anything she shouldn't. However, when she looked at her, she couldn't hide her doubt and curiosity: "The signing ceremony for the welfare housing expansion project is about to begin. He's making an important phone call right now, but he said he'll finish it as soon as possible."

Should I finish this quickly? Probably not, maybe it'll have to be for Mr. Chai's sake?
When Mai Minghe was finally led into the mayor's office by the secretary, all the sales pitches she had prepared vanished instantly, and she couldn't remember a single word—because she never expected the room to be full of people.

As soon as the door opened, every face turned around.

A group of men and women, dressed in suits, wearing access passes and press cards, carrying cameras and notebooks, all turned their gazes to Mai Minghe's face; for a moment, the room was filled with silent doubt.

"Oh, you've come,"

The mayor stood up from behind the table and laughed heartily.

Whether he smiled or not, his face was always bulging with snow-white muscles; when he smiled, he simply raised the corners of his mouth into the muscles, and the corners of his mouth disappeared into the shadows cast by the muscles.

A face I can never get used to, no matter how many times I see it.

She had briefly seen a mask resembling a "Noh mask" during the night of the bar fight—later she learned that it was actually Han Liuyue.

Nowadays, the mayor also has a "Nengmian" (a type of face mask) around his neck, but perhaps because the people under the Nengmian are different, the distribution of facial features and the direction of muscles are also somewhat different.

What they have in common is that they both make people feel a chill in their lower abdomen.

But apart from Mak Ming-ho, everyone in the office was very natural, as if this was how humans should be.

“This is a friend of mine,” the mayor said to the surrounding reporters and lawyers, then strode towards Mai Minghe, smiling as he extended a hand to her: “You brought the thing that Chai Si mentioned?”

Even if he wanted to just take the item directly, it would be better than this polite handshake.

Under the gaze of everyone in the room, Mai Minghe braced himself and let him clench his fingers.

"Yes, I brought it," she replied, still a little dazed.

It can't be done in front of so many people...

“That’s great,” Mayor Oliver Meissen nodded and said with a smile, “Then please wait here for a moment. The signing process will be quick. I’ll answer a few more questions, and then we can talk about our business.”

"I can come another day..."

"No, no, no, no!"

Oliver Meissen immediately shook his head violently, as if his head were about to detach from his body. "The sooner the better, there's no time to lose. You stay in this room and don't go anywhere. If the signing and press conference hadn't already been scheduled, I would have even considered getting our business done first."

He looked at Mak Ming River through his pores, the light shining on his head, casting shadows between the undulating white snow.

His voice, however, still sounded like that of a competent politician, booming and confidently jokingly saying to himself, "Since I'm being so proactive, please do me a favor and just wait here, okay?"

So it turns out she was afraid she might change her mind at the last minute, so she took the lipstick with her when she left...

The fact that the nest sent her to the mayor to sell lipsticks was definitely not without reason.

The secretary found a chair for Mai Minghe, and she sat in the corner, watching everyone in the room take their places: the mayor sat behind the table, posed, and surrounded by people, picked up a pen and quickly signed his name on the document; the flashes of the cameras popped, the light shining on his pale face, which was as swollen and bubbly as dough, weak and powerless, as if the light had been sucked into his skin, and could not reflect any light.

It was the first time she had witnessed the workings of the government at the highest levels, and she found everything strange—like a puzzle with a piece of chewed gum crammed into the gap instead of a picture.

It does match and border the shape of the surrounding puzzle pieces, but it's not quite right.

"Why was the location for the welfare housing chosen within the city limits of Blackmore City, rather than in the suburbs?"

During the Q&A session, one reporter asked a very pointed question.

"The highest cost in the current plan is the land acquisition cost for the welfare housing sites. With the same amount of money, if housing were built in the suburbs, it could accommodate far more people than the current plan. Mr. Oliver, what are your reasons for making this decision? What efforts have you made to avoid issues such as backroom deals and misuse of funds?"

Despite the pointed questions, the mayor seemed well-prepared.

He opened a document and fluently recited a series of data, including population data, regional distribution, educational prospects, employment rate, land value, and so on for low-income groups.

Finally, Mayor Oliver said with almost heartfelt emotion, "...I don't want this project to become a way to drive low-income people out of Blackmore City. Removing them from Blackmore's resources and opportunities will only turn welfare housing into slums. I hope to bridge the income gap between classes and give low-income people a foothold in Blackmore City to continue living, working, and receiving education normally."

Not to mention Mak Ming-ho, even the reporter who asked the question seemed quite satisfied with this answer.

If you ignore what's going on with Oliver's face, he's a competent mayor—the apartment in McMurray has been rented for forty years, and the rent is still the same as it was forty years ago; but she's only known Hai Luwei for a few days, and she's already felt the heavy weight of rent and housing prices on young people from every angle.

"So, when do you expect the project to begin, and how many years will it take?" another male reporter asked. This question was undoubtedly much easier to answer than the previous one, but Mayor Oliver paused for a moment.

He raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the rows of reporters and landing on Mak Ming-ho in the corner of the room.

Why are you looking at me like that? Mai Minghe was taken aback.

"Excuse me, please wait a minute,"

Mayor Oliver stood up with a smile, picked up a notepad from the table, scribbled a few lines, and then stood up, giving no one a chance to react, and strode toward the River McMurray.

Many faces turned around as he walked.

The mayor kept the questioning gazes and hushed whispers at bay; Oliver slowly lowered his swollen, pale face toward her.

“Take a look at this number,” he said, handing the note to Ma Minghe.

She glanced down at it.

The number was large, so large that it made her facial muscles twitch; but not so large that she didn't realize it was a sum of money.

“If the numbers are acceptable, give me the information now,” Mayor Oliver said in a low voice. “Once the interview is over…”

He didn't finish his sentence, but that didn't prevent Mai Minghe from understanding.

She wasn't worried that a mayor would be in debt; besides, even if Oliver was only willing to pay one cent, she could only sell him the lipstick—only by selling it to him could she get the next "Illusion Report".

But... why now?
All eyes in the room were on her. Someone whispered "Mayor" a few times, and several reporters whispered among themselves before hurriedly writing something in their notebooks... The focus of all attention was on Mak Ming Ho, and even the air seemed to be filled with an invisible, urging pressure.

She thought for a moment, then took out her lipstick and placed it in Mayor Oliver's hand.

...Isn't this the purpose of this trip?
Mayor Oliver gripped his lipstick, straightened up, and strode back.

"Sorry, I haven't had any water today, my lips are a little dry."

In front of everyone, he applied lipstick twice to his lips.

The lipstick was colorless when applied, so no one seemed to suspect that it wasn't a lip balm.

"Now I'll answer the question from earlier."

After the mayor sat back down at the table, he said with a smile, "I'm sure everyone hopes that the project can start as soon as possible, right? The date is set for December 1st."

"...Tomorrow?" Someone in the audience gasped. "Oh, you mean December 2027?"

“No, I’m talking about tomorrow. Tomorrow morning at ten o’clock,” the mayor said, still sporting his swollen, fleshy smile. “Everyone wants the project to start immediately and be implemented as soon as possible, right? The sooner it’s completed, the sooner it can be opened to the public…”

Mai Minghe couldn't help but glance at the time on his phone. It was 2:30 PM on November 30th—tomorrow?
What kind of project can complete land transaction procedures and construction preparations in one day and start construction immediately?
Sure enough, a tidal wave of questions and doubts erupted in the office.

The mayor remained calm and answered each question one by one. He first acknowledged that one day was indeed a very short time. He then added that everyone hoped the project would start as soon as possible, so he had expedited the process.

"It's all up to us," he said. "If we speed things up, why can't the project be completed ahead of schedule?"

"One day isn't enough for others," "One day is enough for me," "The land transaction procedures have been completed," "The land transaction process is proceeding smoothly"...

He spoke one sentence after another, a dense stream of words flowing out like a flock of birds flying across the sky, making it almost impossible to breathe.

At first, Mak Ming-ho was trying to remember what he said, but then she couldn't remember anymore, and could only become a fallen leaf on the water. The mayor's speech was like a wave, and wherever the wave pushed her, that's where she went; she could only remember what the mayor was saying.

Whether those words were reasonable, what was wrong with them, which information was true, and which was false... I no longer cared about those things.

Like exchanging gunfire, the two sides talked back and forth for more than ten minutes. Gradually, the area around the reporters quieted down, and the questions and doubts decreased until they disappeared completely.

The signing and press conference came to a successful close.

When everything settled down and the party was over, Mak Ming Ho sat in the same spot, still somewhat amazed: "People these days are really something. They can get such a big project started in just one day."

Despite his ambiguous relationship with the lair, he's surprisingly capable—

Her vision was filled with a sheet of snow-white noodles.

Mai Minghe was startled and shrank back, almost hitting the back of his head.

“Here, this is what we agreed on,” the mayor said with a smile, handing over a check. “I am very grateful to you; you have made a great contribution to Blackmore City.”

Mai Minghe accepted the check in a daze.

My phone started buzzing in my pocket, playing the familiar Amber Alert sound.

(End of this chapter)