Chapter 1110 - 586: Explosive News

Li Zhongda is an old student abroad.

He’s called a "student abroad" instead of the formal "international student" because they’re essentially a bunch of slackers.

Li Zhongda and those he represents, due to mediocre or terrible grades, often have to pay their way to some fly-by-night universities abroad.

They usually study garbage majors like "Business" or "International Trade" at these diploma mills.

Due to their poor majors, they naturally can’t find jobs abroad and can only rely on parents and relatives for work back home. Many of them struggle to repay their study abroad expenses over a lifetime.

Li Zhongda went abroad early, studying for four years at a fly-by-night university in the Carmenia Federation, and has been back for quite a few years.

Due to his rather old qualifications, he is considered an "old" student abroad.

Early on.

Carmenia Federation still had a halo of admiration among the Great Xia people, coupled with many people’s lack of knowledge about diploma mills, Li Zhongda managed to get by fairly well.

He found a decent job in Tianfu Sea City, the economic center of Great Xia, and with financial help from his parents, bought a house, married, and had a son.

Compared to his peers, he was significantly ahead.

When chatting with colleagues and friends, he often shows off with a tone of "how good Carmenia Federation is and how perfect their welfare system is," proudly flaunting his study abroad experience.

This is a typical case of self-flattery.

For students abroad, they must prove that the country they studied in is better than Great Xia, so their diploma has value.

But the only constant in the world is change.

Li Zhongda, now middle-aged, unsurprisingly faced a mid-life crisis as his company "optimized" him out.

From HR, he learned that this round of optimization was at 10% and those with diploma mill credentials like his were the main targets.

And at this point, "No students abroad" had long become industry consensus, turning diploma mill credentials into "negative points," so his numerous job applications went nowhere.

He rarely talked about his study abroad experience.

Half a year after being unemployed, the inevitable happened.

His wife divorced him.

To make a living, Li Zhongda had to drive for a ride-hailing service.

Two more years passed, the Age of Calamity arrived, and even the ride-hailing business couldn’t continue.

Fortunately, the country still took care of ordinary people, and the community arranged a job for him with a monthly salary of 3000, so he wouldn’t starve.

Compared to before, the gap was indeed too large, so Li Zhongda was always full of complaints, even his son didn’t want to talk to him.

By the third year of the Age of Calamity.

Great Xia had almost completely shaken off the impact of the calamity, with all sorts of Black Technologies emerging and the economy flourishing.

Li Zhongda was still working in the community.

Given his age and knowledge base, he couldn’t actually do much work.

But his grievances noticeably lessened.

Because the country’s welfare kept increasing and getting better.

The various subsidies like "medical," "transport," and "living" summed up to over 2000 a month, combined with his salary raised to 3500, making his monthly income nearly 6000.

The most crucial part was, as Great Xia promoted AI-driven automation, most jobs were handled by AI, and the work he was responsible for became extremely simple, often requiring just a few taps on a smartphone.

Compared to such an easy job, 6000 could definitely be considered a high salary.

This perfectly fits the saying "more money, less work, closer to home."

On the internet, this kind of position has a name—the National Placement Job.

Statistics show that Great Xia’s various official institutions have over 120 million placement jobs.

Li Zhongda feels that these 120 million jobs could easily be cut, with the country deliberately retaining so many dispensable positions just finding a reason to distribute money to the people.

Looking worldwide, apart from Great Xia, there’s no other country that treats its citizens this way.

And behind this is the reflection of the country’s super strong fiscal strength; otherwise, it couldn’t afford to support a billion idle people.

From now on.

Li Zhongda never spoke of "how good Carmenia’s welfare is" again, instead started saying "Great Xia’s welfare is the best on Canglan Star."

Moreover, since he understood Carmenia Language, he often visited the foreign section of Heaven Reaching Tower network, showcasing the beautiful life of Great Xia people.

This even became his greatest joy in life.

This boring act also brought an unexpected benefit—Li Zhongda surprisingly managed to hook up with a white woman online.

Her name is Dai Li, she’s only 28 this year, looks quite nice, and her figure is considered curvy.

She hails from Belgium in the Southern Cross Alliance, her husband was unfortunately killed in a mutated creature attack, making her currently widowed.

In the past, Belgium was a typical high-income, high-welfare nation.

Li Zhongda viewed Belgium with admiration.

Things are different now, Belgium’s economic situation is terrible, the national welfare has been cut significantly.

The more Li Zhongda talked with Dai Li, the more pitiful he found the Belgium people.

Food was not guaranteed, safety was not guaranteed, power supply was also not guaranteed, and income from work was even less guaranteed.

Dai Li once said, during the most serious period of material shortage, she only ate one meal a day.

How is this a developed nation?

It’s clearly an underdeveloped nation!

During their conversations, Dai Li frequently expressed her envy of Great Xia.

Li Zhongda’s heart was irresistibly stirred, and their chats developed in an increasingly flirtatious direction.