While Levi and Seraphine were taking some time out of their busy schedules to interact intimately, the people of Zaun were also spending the New Year in their own way.
"Boss, give me a serving of raw pickled devil..." Chuck was just about to find a seat to sit down at the entrance of the restaurant.
"Long time no see, Chuck!" Zeli suddenly jumped out like a rabbit and patted her old friend's shoulder from behind.
"Zeli?" Chak was slightly stunned: "You are back from Ionia?"
He looked at his childhood friend whom he had not seen for several months.
I saw that Zeli, who used to dress like a lively little girl from Zaun, had now changed her tattered jacket into a neat white navy uniform.
Zeli's clothes were neat and tidy, her shoes were shiny, and she was clean from head to toe. Even her messy green ponytails were combed neatly.
Of course, the most eye-catching thing is the two brand new medals hanging on her chest.
One of them is a medal commemorating the victory of the Zaun Navy in the naval battle in the Baloo Sea, which completely wiped out the Noxian Empire Navy.
The other Blue Bird Medal is a reward from the Leader Association to those soldiers who fought bravely and made meritorious contributions on the battlefield.
Chuck had read about it in the newspaper, so he had some idea.
When Zeli appeared on the streets of Zaun and in the Frog Restaurant in the guise of a meritorious warrior, she immediately attracted everyone's respect and envy.
"You... have changed so much." Chuck was surprised.
"You too." Zeli sat down in front of Chuck and shouted to the shop owner, "Uncle, give me a portion of raw pickled frog!"
"You need to add the alchemical sauce! The current magic frogs are not raised in stinky ditches. It would be unauthentic without the sauce."
"Okay!" the shop owner responded from a distance.
Then, Zeli turned around and looked at her childhood friend: "Chuck, you said I've changed a lot - look at you, you're becoming more and more like a student kid from Piltover."
A year ago, Chak was just a street kid in Zaun, a poor child laborer who was sold to an alchemy factory by his mother.
Later, he was fortunately rescued by Levi, and was temporarily arranged to work in the Hex Audio Factory by the Leader Association, which was just established at that time.
Later, with the liberation of Zaun and the formal establishment of the Wind Leader regime, the education and welfare systems under the Wind Leader's rule became more standardized and improved...
Because of his young age, Chuck was forced to leave the factory and go to a free school specially opened by the Leader for Zaun's out-of-school teenagers of this age to teach them science, magic and cultural knowledge.
After half a year of full-time study and spending too long in the ivory tower... Chak now not only wears a neat student uniform and has a clean short haircut, but his every move also has some of the flavor of a former Piltover student - he doesn't look like the wild boy who used to hang out with Zelie on the streets of Zaun every day and "open treasure chests" in the garbage dump.
"This is not bad..." Zeli muttered.
Although Chak looks like a Piltover kid now, all the kids in Zaun know that the "Piltover kid" they call him is actually a compliment.
After all, if possible, who wouldn't want to wear neat and beautiful school uniforms and go to school to receive education like the kids of Piltover?
"Um..." Compared to Zheri's concern for her friend's appearance and temperament, Chuck was more concerned about her recent situation: "Zheri, when did you come back?"
"I..." Zeli came back to her senses and couldn't stop talking: "I just came back."
"You know, I'm serving in the navy this time, responsible for operating the Hextech electromagnetic cannon. But our leader's navy only fought one battle and wiped out the Noxian navy that claimed to be the best in the world."
"Come to think of it." The girl stretched out a white finger, and flashes of lightning flashed from the tip of her finger: "At that time--"
"I used the firepower guidance of the Bluebird Avatar and fired a full-power Hextronen Railgun to destroy the flagship of the Noxus Empire Navy from 80 miles away."
"Throughout the entire battle, the enemy fleet didn't even see our ships before we annihilated them all."
"That's amazing." Chuck exclaimed at the right time.
Zeli is a mage, and also a rare naturally awakened lightning elementalist. Hearing her unrepeatable legend, he really envied his childhood friend's achievements from the bottom of his heart.
At this time, Zeli continued to mutter: "For more than two months, we have been doing some unimportant escort and patrol work in Ionia."
"After research, the higher-ups concluded that the Imperial Navy could no longer pose a threat to us, so I retired and returned."
"I have nothing to do since I came back. I wanted to go to school to find you, but I didn't expect to run into you here."
Chuck listened to Zeli's chatter patiently, then smiled and continued, "That's a coincidence."
"Yeah." Zeli wiped her nose guiltily.
"Hahaha." A laugh appeared at an inopportune time.
It turned out to be an old acquaintance of the two teenagers, the owner of this Magic Frog Restaurant, who came to serve them personally.
Everyone lives in the same community, and Zeli is almost the only person born here with both parents. She is also a well-known community treasure with a cheerful and outgoing personality who likes to interact with people.
So many years ago, when Zeli and Chuck were still little kids and the store owner was just an inconspicuous roadside vendor, they knew each other.
"What's so coincidental?" The shop owner put the two plates of raw pickled frogs on the table, and said to Zeli jokingly, "Chuck, it would be strange if you didn't meet her on this street."
"As soon as this girl came back, she ran around the street in her navy uniform, showing off the two medals on her chest everywhere. From this morning till now, I don't know how many times I have seen her wandering around this street."
"Ahem..." Zeli's face flushed as she covered her shiny medal: "I, I just haven't been back for too long and got lost."
"Hehe." The shop owner laughed and said, "I'm watching you, girl."
"Tell me, from the grandma selling fried bananas on the street to the customers eating in our restaurant, is there anyone who hasn't seen you and heard your story of 'sinking the imperial flagship with a single shot from 80 miles away'?"
"Hmm..." Zeli's face turned red, and her green hair was shining with white lightning due to embarrassment.
"Y-you all know?"
She thought she was being very low-key.
"Haha." Chuck couldn't help laughing.
"Zeli used to be like this. The last time she was 'lost' on the street, she had that homemade Walkman she made from discarded parts hanging clearly on her waist." He then made a few insults to his childhood friend.
Seeing the electric light flashing on Zeli's head, she was so embarrassed that she didn't know whether it was going to short-circuit or explode...
Chuck was a little scared and changed the subject: "Um, Zeli..."
"You just said that you've retired from the Navy? Not on leave, but retired?"
"Yes." Zeli said hurriedly, as if she had finally found a hole in the ground that she could crawl into, "The mass-produced electromagnetic cannon driven by hex gems has been successfully researched."
"The Navy doesn't need a humanoid electromagnetic gun like me anymore, so I retired and came back."
"After all, I'm not a soldier by profession, but a graduate student in the Science and Equipment Department. I heard that Professor Victor recently proposed the idea of ​​a miniaturized electromagnetic rifle, and he still needs my help in the experiment."
"Become a scientist?" Chuck thought for his friend: "That's also good."
Zeli not only has a talent for magic, but is also a scientific genius. She has been learning scientific knowledge since she was a child from her parents who are alchemy engineers, and being a scientist is also in line with her life plan.
"What about you?" Zeli asked in return: "What do you want to do after you graduate from school?"
"I..." Chuck thought for a moment.
Then he said seriously: "I want to be a worker."
"Puff——" Zeli almost sprayed the magic frog meat that she had just eaten into her mouth onto her childhood friend's face.
"Ahem..." She swallowed the food with difficulty, then looked at Chuck in confusion: "You...want to be a worker?"
This topic is a bit delicate.
Although Zaun is a purely industrial city, for the past two hundred years, Zaun workers have been the lowest-status group in the city.
Even the petty gangsters, the prostitutes working as waitresses, and the orphans picking up garbage from the gutters can all look down on the poor people who work in the factories.
Because everyone knows that this job is not for humans.
In the old London-style factories of Old Zuan, workers were considered long-lived if they lived past 30. Only those who really couldn't survive and would starve to death if they didn't work would end up working in the factories.
So over time, being a gangster thug who followed the Alchemist Baron to bully others has become the ideal career for the people of Zaun.
The workers, who are the cornerstone of this advanced industrial city, have become the lowest level of society, despised and pitiful.
This situation was not improved until the leader appeared.
Workers have gained equality in personality, legal protection, and a huge improvement in welfare benefits, and their social status has also been greatly improved.
but……
Although this improvement is huge, it is only from 0 points to 75 points. It is passing, but not excellent.
Everyone knows that in today's Zaun, workers are still not an ideal first choice of profession.
Doctors, teachers, soldiers, police, journalists, writers, scientists, artists, engineers, self-employed people, including business owners who have been hit hard by the leaders and can only cower in the shadows...
Which of these occupations is not more popular than being a worker?
"Hmm..." Zeli hesitated a little: "Chuck, why is your ideal just to be a worker?"
"What's wrong with the workers?" Chuck asked back.
"Uh..." He said it in a light tone as if he was joking, but Zeli was suddenly speechless.
She couldn't just say that workers were inferior in economic status.
She is a trendsetter. This is not in line with the political correctness of a trendsetter.
"No——" Zeli woke up instantly.
If, for the sake of insists on describing the ugly as beautiful, the fat as thin, and the sick as healthy, then she is violating the greatest correctness of a leader - seeking truth from facts.
Leaders must seek truth from facts.
If we don't seek truth from facts, we won't be able to recognize the current problems.
These problems may not be solved now. But if they cannot be solved now, and we just pretend they don’t exist, then there will be no possibility of solving them in the future.
"Chuck, you know. Even now, worker is not an ideal career." Zeli was about to say.
"Hey, what are you talking about?" The shop owner, who hadn't even walked far away, couldn't help but interrupt when he heard this: "Everyone is equal now, so what's wrong with being a worker?"
"Tsk!" Zeli glared at him and said, "Being a worker is so good, then why don't you go and exchange with Chuck?"
"You go work for Chuck, and Chuck will help you open the store."
"Ahem..." The shop owner was so embarrassed that he couldn't speak.
His Magic Swamp Frog shop is doing very well. He earns a lot of silver every day, so why would he go to a factory?
“Look—” Zeli rolled her eyes: “People who sell magic frogs look down on you.”
"This, there is no way..." The shop owner muttered his best theory:
"After all, we are still far from a harmonious society. We are still a market economy. Private ownership not only exists objectively, but also has strong vitality."
The shop owner's tone was a little conflicted.
This question involves the leader's route, and he doesn't quite understand it.
Not to mention him, even if all the leaders were to hold a meeting to debate, they might not be able to come up with a perfect result.
In short, the current Leaders Association is still taking a moderate approach of market economy plus policy intervention.
Because Levi and most of the Leaders’ cadres believe that with the current level of productivity and the objective fact that most areas of Runeterra are still in a feudal agricultural society with zero industrialization... the Leaders cannot take too big a step in production relations.
The advantage of a planned economy is that it concentrates resources to accomplish major tasks, which can help backward countries quickly achieve industrialization, while also improving their independent national defense capabilities and ensuring their own security.
But now the most advanced industrial technology in Runeland is in the hands of the Wind Leader. In this magical world, the defense of the Wind Leader relies more on the goddess Janna, rather than the industrial level of the Twin Cities.
The leaders had no need to industrialize quickly and were naturally unwilling to take the risk of choosing a planned economy with which they were unfamiliar.
Therefore, the market economy under policy intervention and the economic form combining planned regulation with market regulation became their choice after careful consideration.
But if you make the corresponding choice, you have to face the corresponding problems.
The problem with the plan is that the leader's limited computing power cannot keep up with the complex and changing product demands of consumers.
The problem with the market is the almost inevitable polarization between the rich and the poor.
"Alas, there is nothing I can do..." the shop owner sighed, "The market economy allocates resources based on the role of each factor in production."
"This means that workers who have the least production factors and are at the bottom of the market distribution system cannot earn more than those in the middle and upper levels of the profession."
"The redistribution by leaders through taxation, welfare, public services, etc. can only raise the lower limit of workers' treatment. As for the upper limit..."
The upper limit is there.
No matter how much work a worker does or how skilled he is, he can never surpass a restaurant owner who is doing a thriving business.
"Maybe what Zeli said is right." The shop owner admitted his mistake and looked at Chuck.
He also believed that since Chuck had the rare opportunity to receive an education, he could set bigger goals in life.
"No, you got it wrong." Chuck shook his head.
He finally had a chance to speak.
"It's not that I don't understand reality. I just recognize my own abilities."
"I have no talent for magic, nor do I have any talent for science. The ideal of being a scientist is too ambitious for me. Being a skilled worker is my best choice."
Chuck said in a calm tone.
"This..." Zeli and the shop owner were silent.
They then realized that they were not ordinary people. One of them was a rare extraordinary wizard and scientific genius, and the other was also a rare successful businessman.
And Chuck is just an ordinary guy, the most ordinary kind.
Their experience in advancement may not necessarily be transferable to ordinary people.
"But you can't just lie down..." Zeli muttered: "Chuck, I believe in you, as long as you work hard..."
"Lie down?" Chuck laughed, "Haha, what are you thinking about! I'm the leader, how can I lie down?"
"In fact, I just want to use this method to practice my ideal of being a leader."
"This..." Zeli only then remembered that Chuck was also a leader.
Moreover, like her, he is an “old man” who had joined the Leaders Association nearly a year ago.
"Yes!" Zeli immediately thought of a way out for her friend: "What Leaders lack most now is grassroots cadres with firm beliefs like you. Since you want to practice your ideals, why don't you take the civil service exam?"
Although civil servants are paid no more than workers, and their work is not easy at all under the leadership of a group of workaholic leaders.
But in today's era of booming leaders, civil servants have far greater opportunities and room for advancement than working in a factory.
"Because you're wrong, Zeli." Chuck said: "What the leader lacks most is not grassroots cadres, but skilled workers."
"Huh?" Zeli was slightly stunned: "Leader is short of skilled workers? Where?"
What the Twin Cities lack the least is workers.
"But what about Ionia?" Chuck asked earnestly. "What about Noxus, Demacia... what about the rest of Runeterra?"
"This..." Zeli fell silent, thoughtfully.
Chuck continued to sigh: "Zeli, you are still standing a little too high."
"You think there is no future in being a skilled worker, but have you discovered that..."
With a stable job, a comfortable income, good treatment and generous benefits, you can live a peaceful life.
This is the good life that the people of Zaun in the past and the vast majority of people in Runeterra now could not even imagine.
"What is this good life based on? It is based on the excess profits brought by Zaun's advanced industrialization level."
"Now that we have a good life, should we forget the people who are suffering and poor outside of Zaun?"
Chuck sighed deeply.
"I understand." The shop owner next to him seemed to have realized something.
"Chuck, you want to participate in the plan proposed by President Levi to 'engage in industry and support the second line', right?"
Levi pointed out a problem very early on, that is, there is actually no essential difference between the current Zaun and the previous Piltover.
He has always been worried that when this generation of Zuan people with faith and ideals passes away, the new generation of Zuan people will enjoy the best benefits in the world and forget where these benefits come from...
Will Zaun in the future become another Piltover in reality?
Will there be more apprentices from other places appearing in Zaan’s factories?
Will there be discrimination against out-of-town students again in Zaan’s universities?
Will the pain he and his sister experienced, and the fate of this generation of Zaun people in Piltover, be repeated on the Shurimans and Ionians who come here to work in the future ?
In the future, will the rural farmers in Demacia and Noxus devote their entire lives to gaining the identity of a Zaun resident?
…
Definitely.
Levi knew the answer. This was a rule, and he couldn't completely avoid it.
But he had a way to ease it.
First, stick to your faith.
The education of Janna's thoughts can train the people of Zaun to be leaders rather than city masters.
As long as the leader's beliefs remain unchanged, medical, educational, industrial and other resources will not be overly tilted towards the city of Zaun.
So, there is a second method - transferring resources to support backward areas.
The people of Zaan will never be poor.
Even without policy bias and the advantage of being the capital, the two cities can at least reach the level of Singapore just by relying on the Sungate Cross-Sea Canal.
As long as there is no problem with the distribution, the people of Zaun will never be poor. They will always be the de facto "upper city people".
So how can we narrow the de facto inequality between Zaun and other economically backward regions?
Of course, we should do our best to help backward regions develop industries, improve productivity, and make all parts of the world as prosperous as possible.
“But to achieve industrialization all over the world, we need a huge number of skilled workers.”
"But unlike the leaders' cadres, technical workers cannot be trained out of thin air from the grassroots level in Ionia - they must receive comprehensive scientific education and vocational training."
"Currently, only Zaun and Piltover have the ability to provide this kind of training."
The shop owner recalled the article he read in the newspaper.
Now he understood why Chuck said that what Leader lacked most now was not cadres but skilled workers.
"So, that's why you decided to become a skilled worker?" Zeli looked at Chuck in shock.
"Yes." Chuck nodded: "I have signed up for the 'Talent Cradle Program' of Second Line Construction."
"After I graduate, I might go to Ionia, or somewhere else - it all depends on the organization's arrangements."
"Chuck..." Zeli and the shop owner were shocked and speechless.
Now even a fool can see that the identity of a Zaun resident will be an extremely valuable thing in the future.
But Chak took the initiative to leave Zaun and devote himself to the second-line construction for his ideals and beliefs.
This departure may last a lifetime and I will never come back.
"I admire you!" The shop owner patted Chuck on the shoulder and said, "Young man, you are awesome."
He knows just as much theory as Chuck, but this is the difference between a theoretical master and a true leader.
"Chuck!" Zeli also looked at him with admiration.
"Hey..." Chuck muttered helplessly, "Why are you guys making me feel like I'm being exiled? Going to support the second-line construction, the pay isn't bad."
Levi doesn't like to talk about dedication without talking about treatment.
Good people should not be held at gunpoint. Even if leaders are willing to sacrifice themselves, it is not a reason for them to suffer.
Therefore, the workers who support the second-line construction will enjoy subsidies and benefits that exceed those of the local workers in Zaun.
The money will be deducted from the transfer payment provided by Zaun, so that those "upper city residents" in Zaun who are unwilling to go can also make some contributions.
"Well... okay." Zeli finally restrained the subtle look she gave to the martyr.
But facing Chuck's resolute choice, she couldn't help but feel sad: "Alas. It seems that we will be separated in the future."
"No, there's a Hextech flying door." Chuck smiled.
"You're lying... There are only a few cities in the world that have Hextech flying gates."
"It doesn't matter. Even if it doesn't exist, we will build it brick by brick."
"..." Zeli was speechless.
After a long time, she finally managed to say: "Happy New Year."
"Huh?" Chuck looked at her in confusion.
The people of Zaun don't celebrate the New Year. He didn't understand.
"President Levi taught me this." Zeli said, "I was showing off on the street before... um, I met him when I was lost."
"He said Happy New Year to me."
Zeli didn't understand at that time either.
She thought that President Levi had picked up the bad habits of the people of Piltover and started celebrating some meaningless festivals.
But Levi told her that the people of Zaun could have a good New Year now, and their mission as leaders was to ensure that people all over the world could have a good New Year.
The people of Zaun now have a holiday for the New Year, but countless people in the world still suffer and go hungry on this day.
Therefore, this "Happy New Year" is not only a beautiful blessing between people, but also a warning to leaders - the struggle has not yet been successful, and comrades still need to work hard.
Yes……
Although Levi privately did not allow Seraphine to sublime.
But as the president of the association who is in charge of theoretical work, he has a lot of skills when he is elevated in front of his subordinates.
The little girl Zeli is only 15 years old this year. After being taught by this "old senior", she took his words as her life creed and kept them deeply in her heart.
"I remembered it, but I didn't do it. And you, Chuck...you are the real leader."
"So that's it!" Chuck was also deeply inspired after hearing this story.
He stood up and extended his arm to Zelie formally:
"Comrade Zeli, Happy New Year!"
"Well, Happy New Year!"
The two hands were clasped together tightly.