HLM – Chapter 109 What a Wishful Dream

The day after Lister visited the town, another new team arrived—five people in total. Over the phone, they introduced themselves as an inspection group from the New Zealand Tax Department.

Upon receiving the notice, Wang Bo frowned and asked, “Even the tax department sends out inspection teams now?”

Charlie explained, “Yes, the tax department has the authority to conduct inspections across towns nationwide. Government construction funds allocated to local areas are disbursed through the tax department, so they’re also responsible for oversight—to monitor how those funds are used.”

“But Sunset Town has only been established for a few months. What exactly are they inspecting? Do they want to see how the chief spent the money?”

“Just the salaries we got—that little bit of money is barely worth mentioning!” Wang Bo said proudly. Backed by his secret treasure stash, he had a spine as stiff as steel.

Charlie fell silent, his frown even deeper than Wang Bo’s, the wrinkles on his forehead tight enough to squash a fly.

Seeing that expression, Wang Bo sensed something wasn’t right and asked, “What’s going on?”

Charlie hesitated, then said, “I suspect their motives aren’t pure. Juan was right—there’s no justifiable reason for them to audit the funds at this point, not when the town is still so new.”

“What do they want then?”

Charlie shook his head, his face gloomy, and didn’t respond.

Due to the poor road conditions in the town, the inspection group’s car broke down halfway through. Wang Bo had no choice but to let Charlie drive the Land Cruiser to pick them up.

The group consisted of four middle-aged men, all dressed in suits and carrying identical briefcases. Their cold, indifferent expressions made them even more annoying than the Maori loan sharks who came collecting debts back then.

The leader of the four was a man named Boozer, a tax inspector specializing in auditing the use of town subsidy funds.

In this area, Wang Bo had nothing to fear. The government’s paltry subsidies had only been used to pay salaries to his people—nothing more.

After reviewing the records, Boozer was confused. He asked, “Mayor, on the way here, we saw roads and houses being constructed in your town. May I ask, where did the money for that come from?”

Wang Bo shrugged. “That was my own investment. You may not know this, but I’m quite wealthy.”

Boozer paused for a moment, then he and his three colleagues began flipping through the expenditure records.

But Sunset Town had only been established for less than five months, and there were only three staff members. The expenses fit neatly on a single sheet of paper—no amount of flipping through would reveal anything new.

After reviewing the documents, Boozer pushed his laptop aside and, with a shift in attitude, looked sincerely at Wang Bo and asked, “Mayor, do you have any thoughts on the current level of government funding?”

Wang Bo very much wanted to say he had plenty of opinions—and very strong ones at that. But just then, he noticed Charlie subtly signaling him with his eyes, indicating he shouldn’t speak.

Though confused, Wang Bo didn’t understand why Charlie was doing this. This wasn’t North Korea—they weren’t under some dictatorship. Even if he cursed the government right here, it should be fine, right?

Still, he chose to follow Charlie’s signal. Charlie had been helping him wholeheartedly this whole time and had never let him down.

So Wang Bo shook his head and said, “No particular thoughts.”

Boozer continued, “Don’t you think the government’s funding for your town is a bit lacking? That it can hardly support your town’s development?”

That’s absolutely right! Wang Bo wanted to slam the table in agreement. Boozer had hit the nail on the head. The government was stingy to the extreme—barely over two million a year, and even that was split across four quarters. How was that supposed to be enough?

But again, Charlie signaled with his eyes—don’t say too much.

So Wang Bo had to swallow his frustration and put on a submissive expression, saying, “I can handle the town’s development myself. Um, the late Sir left me some antiques. I can fund the construction by selling those.”

Boozer was getting anxious now. He said, “With national funding available, why would you pay out of pocket? You could request increased subsidies from the government, couldn’t you?”

Now Wang Bo knew something was off. Was the New Zealand Parliament really this generous? Offering to increase local government funding without being asked? Why had he never heard of such a good thing?

Since taking office, Wang Bo had been quite diligent, constantly researching how other towns developed.

But through that research, he’d found that the New Zealand Parliament was notoriously tightfisted, allocating very little to local governments—and even that was difficult to secure. Local governments had to rely on developing primary, secondary, and tertiary industries to fund themselves through taxes.

Something was definitely fishy. Wang Bo became alert and asked, “Just say it—what’s the real meaning behind all this?”

Boozer was about to respond with a smile when Charlie stepped forward and sneered, “It’s simple. Parliament’s ambitions are too big. They want to directly reclaim the Dominion of the  Sun as state property.”

The faces of the four tax officials immediately changed, and Wang Bo’s expression grew even uglier. “What do you mean by that?” he asked.

Boozer glared at Charlie and said, “Sir, please leave.”

Charlie snorted. “You have the authority to order me around? Foolish. Greedy. Disgusting.”

With that, he pulled Wang Bo aside and began explaining.

Right now, the land in Sunset Town—all except Highway 8—belonged to Wang Bo. If all town investments were made in his name, then effectively, Sunset Town was no different from the Dominion of the Sun—it was entirely his domain.

Once the town’s roads, buildings, and utilities were all privately funded, then he would call all the shots.

But if the town’s infrastructure were funded by the government, then Wang Bo’s control would diminish drastically. Sure, he would still own the land, but the usage rights would belong to the government.

What’s the difference?

If everything was built using his money, then the land, buildings, and utilities were all his. If the townspeople wanted to replace him as mayor, he had every right to revoke their access. Their only option would be to leave.

As for Sunset Town? It would become a ghost town—completely abandoned.

If the town were built using government money, then even if the people wanted a new mayor, there would be nothing Wang Bo could do. At most, he would be a major landowner or rancher—but not the mayor anymore.

After explaining, Charlie’s face darkened. “Damn it. I didn’t think those parliament scumbags could be this greedy. Turning a private domain into a public town wasn’t enough—they still want more. Bloody bastards.”

Wang Bo’s face looked even worse. He held back his anger and asked, “Charlie, why didn’t you tell me all this when we first applied for government funding?”

Charlie opened his mouth to explain, then gave a bitter laugh. “Would you believe me if I said… I overestimated those damn politicians’ moral bottom line?”