"out of control?"
Now not only Hitzfeld, but even Villefort, who was watching the show nearby, became interested.
How could something like this get out of control?
If you can’t sell more newspapers than others, should you gather your employees to compete with them?
"It's the novelists' problem."
Carl leaned forward and clenched his hands on his knees.
"A week ago... this market had basically been taken up by those more well-known local newspapers. Other newspapers either reacted slowly or took a wait-and-see attitude and did not act in time, resulting in the poaching of reliable and capable authors in the market."
"Can you understand what I mean? It's just that there are many places where there is demand for authors, but there are only a limited number of people in Nan Xinze who have the ability to provide works."
"I understand." Hitzfeld's right eye flashed, "Go on, Mr. Karl."
"If everything goes well, that's it." Carl raised his eyebrows again. "Big newspapers sign supply contracts with them, requiring them to only supply them. If they breach the contract, they have to pay a huge penalty... Then other newspapers in the market are squeezed out, and small and medium-sized newspapers go bankrupt one after another..."
"But what's happening now is that a large number of 'novelists' have suddenly emerged."
"They quickly joined in on the farce, making Nansinze's 'newspaper war' more and more intense."
Chapter 4: Newspaper Wars Part 2
"What do you mean?"
Hitzfeld was originally sitting in a standard posture, neither leaning forward nor backward, but when he heard this, he leaned forward slightly.
She was slightly...interested by this statement.
What does “a large number of novelists suddenly emerged” mean?
Sarah thought the education system was relatively backward. Although there were conditions to build iron boats and airplanes and airships, the living conditions of the residents near Flo Street and the educational level of the teenagers showed that they did not attach much importance to this.
There is indeed a system of primary schools, middle schools and universities here, but the high tuition fees and the lack of educational resources mean that most children between the ages of 6 and 14 just muddle through.
Take the books she bought for her teaching assistant interview. The price of these books alone is not something an average family can afford.
I can buy it if I grit my teeth. But what about the future? I need more than just these books for the level 1 exams. I need to buy dozens or even hundreds of books for my family!
So what Carl said before about the shortage of people who can contribute articles in the market is...very normal.
Blackwood City is close to the capital, and the life is already rich by relying on sea transportation. In Wayne Port, they can at least get soup when they eat meat. Even so, a large circle of residents outside Flo Street are illiterate. They have to count on their fingers for a long time to add and subtract numbers over 10, and the results may not be correct.
How can you expect too many "novelists" to be born in such an environment?
Literature is a very rigid thing. Not only does it require literacy, but it also requires a lot of reading experience.
Nanxinze has good economic conditions and most people are richer than residents of other cities...this is true.
But it’s just the level of being content with a small fortune, right?
Literacy.
Understand the reason.
Able to understand the operating procedure manual issued by the factory.
Can support 3-4 people in the family.
Can afford a bicycle and take the bus.
You can send your children to a regular school to live out their days.
At best I can afford a car.
That's almost the limit.
Money should be spent wisely, and no family will invest all their money on education.
Under such conditions and historical context, the accumulation of knowledge is very slow.
A city of a million people may have hundreds of thousands of literate people, of whom hundreds of thousands can express their opinions fluently in "writing".
But most people get stuck after writing a few sentences because their experience and accumulation are not enough for them to express more.
Given a limit of 800 words to write an essay, perhaps only people can organize their language well and write it fluently.
However, the number of people who can truly cross this threshold and express their ideas relatively freely through lengthy written articles may be only a few thousand, or even less than a thousand.
If we continue to purify these people and add factors such as "style", "writing skills" and "market feedback", the number of people who can finally break through the factors and be qualified to be called writers and novelists will probably be only about a hundred.
Even so, these people may not necessarily be engaged in this line of work.
Those who can accomplish this kind of literary accumulation have all been receiving education since childhood, and at least have no shortage of books to read...and their family conditions are not bad.
Why don't you do anything else with the conditions? Why do you have to write novels?
Isn't it good to be a businessman?
Isn't it good to be in the parish?
and so……
After peeling off layer by layer, in the end, there are only a dozen people on the market who are willing to lower themselves to write these things. In today's era, for today's Sarah and today's Nan Xinze, it would be amazing if there are only a dozen.
And there should be as much as needed.
There shouldn't be a lot of them popping up suddenly.
"If we knew the reason, we wouldn't come to you."
Carl frowned. "Anyway, the reality is that this thing really happened - many people who are capable of providing articles for newspapers emerged in Nanxinze, and their skills are higher than each other! The existence of these people has completely disrupted this market!"
"And there's more..." When he said this, his voice became very low: "The Xinze Parish noticed something unusual and began to investigate these people. They found that some of them suddenly disappeared recently."
"Missing?"
"Yes... missing! Their families, friends, superiors, and colleagues have no idea where they are. The newspapers don't care about their whereabouts at all because there are still people who can continue to write about them! If the parish hadn't been involved, it would probably take another week to half a month to discover the problem!"
"so."
Villefort shared his deep frown.
Just now he wanted to interrupt and ask whether it was the Eclipse Church that sent people to Nanxinze - that is, he suspected that those novelists who suddenly appeared were all cultists.
But since both family and social relationships have been investigated, this possibility is obviously ruled out.
"Evil."
Hitzfeld narrowed his right eye.
"It's not a natural occurrence, and it's not the Eclipse Church. It can only be that...something has influenced these people, causing them to 'suddenly' have a profound accumulation of literature."
She looked at Karl: “Can’t find out?”
Karl shook his head: “I can’t find out.”
"These are the only things we can find out at the moment... Also, we have confirmed that these people were not capable of writing before."
"So, only if I take this case, will you give me the 5 Selas?"
"This...I'm afraid we have to solve it thoroughly first--"
"You mean I have to cross half the country to take risks in an incident that may contain a fatal crisis, and you are even going to deduct the reward for my last mission and ask me to solve this problem before I will pay it?"
Hitzfeld interrupted him rudely.
"I'm sorry, I can't go."
"That's really too much, Carl."
Villefort was also there to help the girl.
"I'm not sure what the White Shadow Palace was thinking, but what you did...we all saw it."
As the director of the Department of Homeland Security, his words carry a lot of weight.
Karl couldn’t help but frown and looked at him.
Villefort raised his chin slightly, but did not yield.
"You can get your reward today."
Carl opened his mouth and took a breath, and was forced to give in. "But you have to make sure--"
"I can't guarantee anything, Mr. Carr."
Hitzfeld interrupted again.
"You have to understand one thing: you didn't pay me because I promised to solve this case. This is what I deserve. Only after you pay me this money can we continue to discuss the next commission."
"you--"
"of course."
Hitzfeld leaned back on the sofa, holding up her skirt and raising a section of her white silk calves.
"How much money you plan to pay for this case can only be discussed in detail after that."
……
Ten minutes later, Xiaomila-Carr rushed out of the house with a gloomy face, leaving a gold bank check for 5 Selas on the coffee table.
"You have offended him badly."
Villefort also rose.
"If nothing unexpected happens, he will accompany you throughout the entire case. Aren't you afraid that he will do something along the way? Or write something that doesn't exist in the subsequent report?"
"Isn't there still the leader of the Shadow Lion here?"
Hitzfeld bent over and picked up the check.
"I don't believe you will let him and I go alone... or do I need to pay extra salary for this?"
rich.
It feels different to speak like this.
5 Sera is a huge sum of money even in the capital. With this money, not only can she solve her bathing problem, but also Ashley's food, clothing and education problems can be alleviated.
"that's right."
Villefort nodded seriously: "I plan to send Xiasha with you."
"..."
Hitzfeld's smile instantly broke.
Chapter 5: Strangeness in the Mirror
After Villefort left, Agent Jones brought the spicy pork steak he had bought specifically for Hitzfeld.
After eating in a daze, Hitzfeld didn't read a good book the whole night.
Can't see into it.
On the surface, Nan Xinze's newspaper war was nothing. After all, there were only a bunch of people writing articles, and their disappearance did not cause much impact on society. As long as the situation was stable, there would be no big problem.
But that's not how things should be viewed... We also have to consider those people who wrote articles using wisdom that does not belong to them. Once these articles are published and seen by more people, will they cause some weird incidents again?
No one can say for sure about this matter, and no one can guarantee it. The cult definitely doesn't dare to take the risk, so they must be very anxious now.
In addition, they - and possibly the royal family, because the royal family has not made any moves since returning from the north - did not rely on Frick to dig out many secrets from her during the last mission together. So they will definitely be more urgent for her to take on this mission.
To put it bluntly, she couldn't refuse this commission.
You have to answer it whether you want to or not.
Some people just don't trust her and want to find out what secrets she is hiding. As long as they keep this in mind, she will be ordered around all the time.
Hitzfeld is not averse to solving those evil incidents, but she doesn't like being pushed around.
Squeezing Karl, using Villefort to pressure him, and lowering the terms again and again, this is her first step to deal with it. First, swallow everything you can eat.
In the second step, she was considering whether to use this case to fabricate something and make up some ability to show it to the cult so that some people would feel at ease.
Then the third step, which was the one she had thought about for a long time before deciding on: she had originally planned to take a commission from another city and go out for a walk to avoid someone's overly scorching gaze.
Everything was planned perfectly.
But Villefort was going to send that man with her—
