Today, they too are going to their deaths.

In the following month, Prince Charlemagne was embroiled in a series of troubles, with countless impeachments, attacks, and threats almost exhausting his energy.

Assassination attempts followed one after another from the remnants of other conquered countries, the remnants of illegal supernatural organizations, radical members of the Serpent Cult, those with differing political views, and those qualified to vie for the throne.

If it weren't for the powerful allies he had won over, and his own considerable strength, he would probably be dead long ago.

But he eventually managed to stabilize the complex situation and proudly invited Choi Xun to Dunling.

During these days, Cui Xun focused on reading original texts, studying magic, and writing stories and theories. While constantly enriching himself, he was also preparing for the future.

Blake, who received the gift from Mennov, felt incapable of shouldering the responsibility, so after Cui Xun had read the book "Mennov's Thoughts," he handed it over to the trade union.

Several worker representatives who shared similar ideas with Mennov developed a tendency to become extraordinary after reading the book.

If Cui Xun hadn't demonstrated his current strength, the royal agents might have considered the issue of illegal superhumans. But with Cui Xun's protection, everyone tacitly agreed to turn a blind eye.

The purely theoretical content of "Menov's Thoughts" was officially published under Cui Xun's urging, but it involved issues of the kingdom system. The version that circulated publicly was heavily edited, and the complete version was only circulated in small groups at private gatherings.

This phenomenon is particularly common in study groups.

In addition to receiving basic instruction, the workers who attend evening classes also gather together in their spare time to learn from each other and share their reading experiences.

Sometimes, people gather in the newly renovated slum to listen to volunteers give free lectures.

Recently, military engineers on leave have even come to the newly built school to teach some basic mechanical knowledge.

Many people have shown considerable talent in this process.

The engineers sometimes wondered if there was something special about this city, that it was full of talented people, and sometimes they thought that perhaps there were many talented people among the common people, but they just lacked an opportunity for them to learn.

There was a six-year-old prodigy who created a flying mechanical bird using only simple parts, which amazed the engineers, who wrote him a letter of recommendation.

The followers of the Serpent Cult also accumulated a large amount of blood money during this month. After absorbing two refined blood coins and realizing the problem of diminishing effects and the catalytic awakening effect of refined blood coins, some people began to plot to trade with other forces and even started to promote a blood money apprenticeship system that required loans.

Talented individuals can borrow twelve Blood Coins from their seniors in exchange for one Refined Blood Coin, thus achieving spiritual awakening ahead of schedule. They then pay 10% of their Blood Coins each month as guidance fees and tuition, continuing until the apprentice has fully mastered the secrets of the serpent.

Despite the minor issue of mentors keeping their information to themselves, the system has been functioning fairly well since the introduction of a mentor competition mechanism.

As for the idea of ​​spreading the blood money system, Cui Xun is also considering it, but for now he is only using the Serpent Worship Cult to conduct extraordinary economic experiments.

Many of the Serpent Worshippers from other regions stayed here after discovering the precious blood money, while other evil Serpent Worshippers unfortunately died in local conflicts after entering the city.

In some cases, Cui Xun took action and then shifted the blame to others; in others, they were genuinely killed by other forces.

Those who attempted to assassinate Charlemagne didn't dare to directly assassinate Cui Xun, but they still had the audacity to approach him and extend an olive branch. However, they either couldn't offer the same treatment or the same courtesy as Charlemagne.

These people came from different factions, and their relationship was far from harmonious. In other cities, their conflict would have affected many people, but in a city with Cui Xun in charge, they respected the strong and tried their best to keep the fight between themselves.

A few organizations that Cui Xun deemed promising were given a rough copy of the original text compiled by Cui Xun as a gift.

In return, they began to spread Cui Xun's thoughts and personality, attracting many forces that wanted to gain Cui Xun's favor and began to imitate Cui Xun's attitude towards ordinary people.

Most extraordinary individuals despise and exploit ordinary people. They don't want to leave a single penny for them, believing that the protests of the weak are stealing money from their assets. However, they are always generous when it comes to pleasing the strong. In their view, the money invested in ordinary people is entirely a tribute to Cui Xun, this super strong individual.

With the guidance of various forces, a nationwide minimum wage standard has officially been put on the agenda and is expected to be formally implemented in January next year.

A wave of reducing working hours and raising wages has swept through the major cities of the Kingdom of Albion.

Robots produced by the Royal Society are still being deployed to factories, replacing workers, but primarily in the most dangerous and tedious jobs. Those replaced workers are able to fill the positions created by the reduced working hours, significantly alleviating the original conflicts.

The new aristocracy were initially dissatisfied with this, but as new theories were proposed, they began to strongly support it and even formed a wage increase alliance.

The new theory posits that the technological explosion driven by the Royal Academy of Sciences led to an annual commodity growth of over 20% in the Kingdom of Albion. However, the asset growth of most people fell far short of this figure due to low wages and uneven consumption, which in turn resulted in a decline in the growth rate of commodity production.

Only when the income of middle and lower-income consumers increases will their willingness to consume rise, asset growth will return to normal, and factory owners will reap huge returns.

What they should be pursuing is a positive cycle of wage increases → increased sales → increased factory owner assets → opening new factories → recruiting new workers → further increases in sales.

In this process, anyone who deliberately suppresses workers' wages is stealing the benefits of the wage increase alliance and is a shameful traitor and thief.

In this process, Cui Xun only spent some effort guiding the new aristocracy, and he found the theory quite amazing when he heard about it.

This theory was entirely conceived by the insightful individuals of the Kingdom of Albion. They had even arrived at this theory long ago, and were just waiting for the right opportunity to put it into practice.

So, could someone discover something deeper?

In addition, Cui Xun's educational philosophy has given rise to theories such as educational economics and neonatal economics, as well as factory safety concepts. There are also ideas proposed by high-ranking members of the royal family and nobles to establish a factory safety supervision department.

Although the former mostly wanted to profit from it, and the latter wanted to seize power, Cui Xun didn't care about their motives. He only hoped that these people could do something practical, which would make everything better.

"It has really changed a lot, even more than I had expected."

On the train, Alice sat opposite Cui Xun, gazing out the window at the city receding into the distance, and couldn't help but sigh.

Cui Xun smiled easily and affirmed, "It has indeed changed a lot, but it's still far from what I truly want."

Alice teased, "Oh, I'd like to see what kind of tricks Lord Cui Xun will pull this time. I can't imagine how this excellent situation can get any better. What do you say, Gray?"

Gray sat in the seat next to her, his mouth agape and eyes wide, lost in thought. He only snapped back to reality when his sister mentioned him, a bewildered expression on his face: "Ask me? Was it really necessary?"

Although he was Alice's relative and she used her power to take him to the safest place, he was now completely numb and wished he could crawl out through the crack in the door.

Cui Xun is too dazzling; he is not someone like him who should be in the shadows drawing a salary without working. Even if he was the one who brought Cui Xun into the ranks of royal agents, he, as a useless guide, should be abandoned.

Besides him, there were many royal agents on the train, each of whom was more capable than him and did not deserve such an honorable position.

Cui Xun comforted him, "It's just casual conversation. Just think of yourself as part of the atmosphere-building team and say whatever comes to mind. I never mind."

Gray clutched his head and said with a wry smile, "I mind. It's too much pressure for a loser like me."

"Hey, little sister, don't glare at me like I'm an idiot or someone stepping on a landmine. I know you mean well, and I know I should say something now, but I just can't do it, you understand?"

"This position doesn't belong to me, I'm not qualified, I... I don't understand!"

Cui Xun stroked his chin, pondering, "Should I hold a handshake event so that everyone can interact with me directly? That might reduce excessive worship."

Alice immediately rejected the idea, saying, "I think that even a brief encounter with you will leave an indelible impression on your mind. And because these people cannot have a long-term, in-depth conversation with you and get to know the real you, they will only exaggerate the impression and regard you as a god."

"I think all the other agents besides me show some signs of this. If I hadn't seen the nonsense you wrote in the original text, I would have regarded you as a solemn and noble demigod, a great hero."

Cui Xun said helplessly, "Alright, alright, I know my image is too good. Then the handshake event will be canceled for now. As for Gray..."

Cui Xun asked uncertainly, "If you're really feeling unwell, you could go wander around the other carriages?"

Gray bowed deeply to Cui Xun, thanked him, and then hurriedly left Cui Xun's private carriage.

Watching Gray's departing figure, Cui Xun suddenly said to Alice, "Do you think it's an abuse of power if I force others to treat me as an equal and ignore my achievements?"

Alice pondered for a moment and replied, "If you believe your achievements are insufficient to earn the respect of others, then other meritorious people will also be unable to demand the respect of others. Without the important value of the respect of others, the number of people willing to do great things will greatly decrease."

"Moreover, 'coercion' and 'equality' are clearly opposites. Forcing others to look at you as an equal is nothing more than enjoying the pleasure of deliberately giving as a stronger person."

Cui Xun praised, "Well said, my dear accompanying historian. Remember to write down the entire conversation starting with Gray. I have a feeling it will become an important allegory in the future."

Alice was not affected by the "accompanying historian's" teasing; she simply wrote it all down diligently.

She has recently developed an interest in recording Cui Xun's words and delving into the wisdom within them, and she is quite happy about it.

But just as Alice put down her pen to finish this record, a piercing scream suddenly rang out from the other carriages: "Someone's dead!"

Cui Xun immediately got up and ran out, with Alice following closely behind.

Although Cui Xun was incredibly fast, the car's automatic doors limited his speed, making him the fourth person to arrive at the scene.

Before Cui Xun, there was a lady whose clothes could be described as decent, an agent who was not very close to Cui Xun and used the identity of a postman, and a blue-haired girl who wore a deerstalker hat, a coat, and had a pipe in her mouth, and looked like a stereotypical detective.

Of course, there were also corpses lying on the ground.

A clean and decisive headshot, with no other injuries. The victim showed no signs of struggling and appeared to have been abruptly killed by an attack from the shadows.

The detective frowned, her pipe swaying back and forth in her mouth. She said calmly, "This is such a simple case that it's boring to me."

"Based on the ballistic trajectory, the killer was positioned to the right rear of the victim when he fired, with his hand raised. This suggests that the killer was slightly shorter than the victim. Based on the bullet, the killer used traditional gunpowder, and there must have been traces of gunpowder on his body. However, experienced killers are already accustomed to disposing of such traces."

Having said that, the detective turned to the postman agent and said decisively, "Without a doubt, the murderer is you!"

"You shot the victim, and you planned it well in advance, preparing spare clothes and cleaning your body, but you missed the crucial time to dispose of the body. Or to be more precise, the person who was supposed to help you dispose of the body failed to do so as promised, which led to the woman discovering the body."

"I've figured out your modus operandi, but I'm still curious, how exactly did you fire the gun silently?"

The postal agent covered his face, unable to face his colleagues who were rushing over from afar, unable to face their expressions of "How could your technique be so rough, and how could ordinary people see it?"

Beside them, an agent who looked like he had just washed his hands looked embarrassed.

"Oh dear, I suddenly have a stomachache and forgot to deal with the body. I thought these carriages should only contain our people."

The detective's once imposing expression froze. Her gaze swept over the dozen or so well-proportioned passengers in front of her, some of whom clearly had undergone rigorous military training, before finally settling on the woman who was still confused about the situation.

The detective, pretending not to hear the agent with the upset stomach, quickly changed his tune, saying, "No, my reasoning is wrong. This was clearly all staged by this woman. After killing the victim, she pretended to be the first to discover the body, actually trying to deflect blame for the murder!"

Cui Xun was both amused and exasperated. He had imagined encountering train robberies and murders in his younger days, but he never expected that it would be his own subordinates who committed murder on the train. He had thought that someone would actually dare to attack the train he was on.

Cui Xun confessed to the detective, "Don't worry, we are government officials. We discovered a high-risk fugitive by chance and shot him dead to prevent him from accidentally injuring civilians when he went berserk."

The detective let out a deep breath, barely managing to relax: "That scared me to death."

She thought the visitors were all bandits, and that a thrilling train robbery was about to unfold.

The woman looked extremely confused. She asked blankly, "Should I have shouted? Should I have come here?"

Cui Xun denied it, saying, "Of course not, it's all our fault. Your shouting actually helped us to assess the situation more quickly. Usually, your behavior like this can help others."

"As an apology, would you two be interested in coming to my carriage and chatting with me for a while?"