Whispering Verse

Tax evasion will be investigated, and the tax audit in this era adopts a very simple method. At the end of each month, the city hall will spend a month organizing accounting to conduct a verification of all the tax declaration contents of the previous month. , check whether there are any fluctuations in the tax amount in recent months, whether there are any discrepancies in the name of the payment, etc. If there is a large fluctuation and there is a problem with the payment, special city hall civil servants will visit to check the accounts, or calculate production costs by checking gas meters and other methods.

Although it sounds complicated, in fact, only detective agencies and other tax paying entities that are not convenient for accurate business verification need to pay special attention. There are indeed some loopholes to evade taxes, but Shade has no such idea. After all, he is doing serious business.

It took half an hour to complete the tax filing process at the tax department next to Blackstone Security Company. This time Shade filed taxes for the last two months and paid a heavy tax of 7 pounds 14 shillings.

This is a large amount of money. If Xia De can have this kind of income every month, his annual tax payment can barely reach three digits, which is higher than the income level of most people in this city.

From this point of view, the job of detective is actually very promising.

"Where did you buy these maltose?"

The tax bureau in the North District is next door to the Blackstone Security Company. Shade has come to see Iluna before, so it is not his first visit. On the other hand, the cat on the first floor of the security company was still very enthusiastic towards Shade, but in order to prevent the cat at home from being unhappy, Shade did not hug it this time.

Iluna met Shade in the lounge on the first floor of the security company. At that time, Shade had a magazine under his left arm and an iron box containing yellow gelatin maltose in his right hand. The candy is just at the bottom of the box, not much. The box had no lid and was slightly rusty at the corners. There were two short wooden sticks inserted inside that were thicker than chopsticks.

"Also, aren't you going to solve the commission? It looks like you've been wandering around all morning."

As she said that, Iluna looked at Shade's appearance suspiciously.

"I got the magazine from the haunted house. As for these candies, if the one-time tax exceeds a certain amount, I will give you some gifts. Including but not limited to two copies of this morning's newspapers, a box of maltose, three raw eggs, and a A wooden pen holder with a bookmark stamped by the city hall and a brass whistle. Oh, the last one is gone, otherwise I would have taken the whistle, that one would be good for teasing cats."

Shade replied.

These gifts are meant to encourage tax payment. If you pay more than five pounds on site, you can choose one at will. The value of gifts is not equal. For example, after the candy in Shade's hand is finished, the iron square box can also be used as a pen holder. So he just took a box of candies at random, and seeing Iluna's interest, he handed it to her.

"Shadow, do you think I'm still a child?"

The seventeen-year-old girl said with a smile, took the candy and put it on the table nearby, looking very happy.

"What about magazines? Why would you be interested in a magazine about women's clothing? Is that also a tax return bonus?"

As he said this, he was about to take the magazine that Shade had tucked in. Shade subconsciously wanted to hand it to her, but he immediately thought of what was in it.

"No!"

He raised his voice slightly:

"Here are the books I borrowed from the Black Raven Library! Yes, you can't show them to others."

Iluna nodded, but was a little surprised why Shade had such a big reaction.

Afterwards, Shade briefly explained his itinerary this morning and told Iluna the two things that had been resolved.

Iluna had no emotion about the young ghost who died. This kind of thing was not uncommon. As for the peeping incident later, Iluna also had a headache:

"We can't control the affairs of ordinary people, but since the other party has asked us to entrust it, I think the captain will find a way to solve it. Really, it's really hard to make money."

"What methods will your captain use?"

"It's hard to say. It mainly depends on whether the other party is obedient."

So Shade stopped asking, because the rest of the matter had nothing to do with him.

Of the three commissions given by Iluna, only the last one remained, that is, the merchant selling spices in the north of the city.

The other party does not have a fixed shop, but hangs out in a square in the North District of Tobesk like the vendors on Saint Teresa Square.

The first two commissions were not big things, so Shade regarded the third one as an ordinary event and just treated it as a distraction today.

After bidding farewell to Iluna, he took the carriage leisurely to his destination. On the way, I also chatted with the driver about the recent prices. Summer is coming to an end, and the prices of cheap fruits such as apples have remained stable, and children from ordinary families can occasionally eat them.

Tobesk Hymn Square is one of the more prosperous squares in the north of the city. It is said that the name originated from the fact that a certain bishop of the Peace Church composed a hymn here in the early days of the city's founding, but for some reason he did not use his name. name.

The north of Tobesk City is the lower town in the usual sense. Unlike Saint Teresa Square, which is mainly occupied by residents, Anthem Square is the largest trading center in the north of the city. The square is connected in all directions. There are three cats hotel, Hunter Bookstore, "Eliminate All Diseases" herb shop, Mrs. Shulan's clothing store, etc. There is even a blacksmith shop with a sign of "Honorable People" to help people repair pots, pots, etc. Sharpen kitchen knives and scissors. As for the square, there are endless vendors selling various groceries, fruits, vegetables and meat, gang loan sharks, and various performers.

People in the villages and towns around Tobesk, such as the village where Mr. Copus, who provided corpse materials for the ring magicians, lived, would center around the Psalm Square in the north of the city after entering the city.

The upper class is an upper class society. The poor and rural villagers exist in the same space as them, but they are definitely not the same kind of life.

Although it is in the downtown area, Anthem Square is more lively than the central area of ​​the city. There were no noble women or fashionable gentlemen here, only people in patched clothes walking around.

Women wore headscarves and aprons, carrying shopping baskets and comparing the products they wanted to choose; children who had not washed their faces for a long time were playing barefoot on the street, and would dodge out of fear when encountering strangers; A rude and strong man wearing black shoes holds a bottle of wine and complains to his companions about the unsatisfactory life of his life; the beggar by the wall seems to have nothing to do with the noise around him and the clanking sound of the blacksmith shop, huddled on the straw mat , will only leave when the owner of the house curses.

This is the first time for a foreigner to come here, and the overwhelming variety of scenery makes him a little overwhelmed. Although the streets and squares are dilapidated, they are full of life. Compared with the people living in Saint Teresa Square, the people living here seem to be in a different world than the former.

"It turns out there is a place like this in Tobesk."

The stranger's eyes widened and he stood on the edge of the square and turned his head to look at everything around him. The smells of low-quality tobacco, fermented food, and rotten grass mixed in the air, and various sounds rushed into the ears, forming a complex background noise.

He had only seen this place before on the map left by Detective Sparrow. The map recorded dense information and even marked how to find the wandering warbler, loan sharks and the entrance to the underground casino nearby.

"If I want to see more things in this world, I should actually visit places like this more often."

The shock brought by the scene he saw at this time was no less shocking than when Shade first went out and saw the street scene in a foreign land.

The life ring in the soul is slowly rotating, and the brass-colored enlightenment elements are being enriched. This means that this scene gives foreigners who are still unfamiliar with this world a more enlightened understanding of civilization.

Compared with people in this world, outsiders have unique advantages in thinking and understanding of civilization. However, this advantage is not the application of literature and fairy tales like Dorothy and Princess Lesia, but more similar to Old John's understanding of civilization as a whole.