Chapter 198
Adam was terrified. Why was Stephen still hesitating at a time like that? Was it so difficult to admit his mistake?
He quickly grabbed the loudspeaker, determined not to let Stephen continue speaking.
“We will! We will compensate you! We’ll buy all dead fish at half the market price and live fish at full price! For those who took out loans to lease fish farms in the past year, we will pay half the amount…”
Adam was pulling out all the stops he had learned in his career, thinking on his feet. He was prepared to compensate half the losses of the villagers, fishermen, and hotel owners.
Faced with that explanation, the people were relatively satisfied.
Adam continued, “As for the eight individuals we lost, we deeply regret this tragedy. We will all attend their funeral today.”
After finishing his statement, Adam was drenched in sweat.
The town’s mayor looked at him for a while before taking the loudspeaker and asking, Everyone, what do you think of this solution?”
“Sounds good!”
“It’s not bad.”
“Let’s get it done with!”
((
Overall, there were no major objections. After all, all the mess was now Stephen’s and his team’s responsibility. Even if they did not profit, at least they would not be drowning in debt.
Seeing that the people were quite satisfied, Adam quickly said, “This time, we will complete the calculation of the total losses within three days and provide the necessary compensation. Please give us some time and return home to wait.”
The town’s mayor glared at him, urgency in his voice. “Don’t drag it until another life is lost!”
“We won’t. We won’t.” Adam shook his head repeatedly. “Nothing like this will happen again. We’ve learned our lesson!”
Deep down, he knew his position was hanging by a thread. Every death would bring him scorn, and
now, there were eight deaths. His days in office were numbered.
The town’s mayor led the crowd to leave, but before leaving, everyone shot Stephen a glare. Stephen kept his head down, too ashamed to meet their eyes.
Chapter 198
+25 BONUS
He did not expect it would lead to death. Even more shocking was how everyone seemed willing to risk their lives to demand answers from them.
“Thank you,” he said to Adam.
If Adam did not step in today, things would have ended much worse for him.
Adam chuckled bitterly. “It’s nothing. We need to get a team together to assess the compensation. We must compensate these families. Otherwise, Aqua City would be finished.”
The assessment report came back quickly. They needed to compensate a staggering 600 billion dollars!
When Stephen saw the numbers, his eyes nearly popped out of his head. “600 billion!”
Aqua City’s current GDP was only 2.2 trillion dollars, and giving out 600 billion at once would leave just 1.6 trillion dollars! It was not just a hit to Aqua City’s economy; it was like burying the city alive!
“That’s too much.” Stephen looked at Adam, hoping to reduce it.
Adam glanced at Stephen. “It’s less than I expected. Aqua City’s economy relies heavily on fishing and tourism. Only compensating 600 billion dollars isn’t actually that much in the grand scheme of things.”
Stephen fell silent. After Adam’s reminder, he finally remembered how Aqua City used to generate revenue in the past. Now that their financial lifeline had been severed, 600 billion dollars did not seem excessive after all.
“Let’s go ahead with the compensation,” Stephen finally said.
He thought that even though he would lose 600 billion dollars now, he could make it back many times over once the industrial sector took off. Industrialization was much more profitable than tourism and fishing.
While Stephen was still discussing with Adam, news about Aqua City spread rapidly on the
Internet.
“Eight people dead in a day? What was Stephen doing?”
“What could have driven them to take their lives?”
“There needs to be accountability!”
“This is the third time Stephen has failed, right? North Hill City, Seaside City, and now Aqua City? He clearly can’t manage Riveria at all.”
“Honestly, he’s just like Ethan Rivers–both useless. Keeping him around only guarantees disaster.”
Chapter 198
+25 BONUS
“I’m starting to suspect that Stephen was actually Ethan’s subordinate.”
“Who used to manage Riveria? Bring them back! They were doing a good job before. Why replace them?”
“Yeah. Who was the one managing Riveria before?”
5
