our family is gone

Chapter 756 Where is my subsidy?

The composition of the school is mainly divided into several parts. The first are those from normal families who send their children here to study.

The second group is workers and farmers who are in their teens and twenties, have jobs, and come here to receive literacy training and skills training.

There is also the last category, which is orphans who are admitted to school for various reasons.

To be honest, those new barbarian boys have no money. In the past, they were taken care of together in the form of a tribe. In fact, their parents had been in chaos for a long time, and only a few of them have accurate family relationships.

Most of these barbarians were poor, so Lance simply separated the children into different grades, managed them together, and filed their files and treated them like orphans, which was not unfair to them.

This was even done intentionally to cut off their ties with the tribe and to show kindness to the outside world.

Building a school costs money, and it is still far from free. Ordinary students have to pay tuition, which is affordable even after subsidies. If they are relatives of heroes, there will be greater exemptions.

Although those who came for literacy tutoring were treated as rewards and did not need to pay tuition, it was still considered a subsidy, which was equivalent to the lord paying their tuition.

But they still have to pay for food, while the first two groups can afford it because one has family support and the other can earn their own money.

The problem lies with those orphans. They have no money to pay for tuition, and naturally no money for food. They can only rely on grants from the lords to subsidize them.

The standard meals were not very good, but they contained vegetables and meat, as well as nutritional subsidies such as eggs and milk every day. If there was a harvest from the berry garden on the farm, we could also eat berries.

Lance really raised them like human beings, because these orphans were selected by him and were the ones he specially trained to be separated from their family and only receive the kindness of Hamlet.

But why did he not see any nutritional supplements in the bowls of those people when he came to eat for free today? Only dry and hard bread?

"Is this all you eat? I remember there was a nutritional subsidy, right? You should at least have meat every day, right?"

The student did not expect the lord to suddenly appear, so they naturally did not hide anything when faced with this question.

"It's getting dark, and the adults said the food is running low."

"Everyone is starving, so we just need to eat this."

Looking at the simple smiles of those children, Lance looked a little unnatural, but he didn't say much. He began to ask more detailed questions, and then turned to more people.

"When did this start?"

"What do you eat for all three meals?"

Lance walked around among them and investigated roughly, and found that this was not an isolated phenomenon, but a large part of it, and the time span was not short.

It was somewhat there before, but after the arrival of extreme darkness, this problem became more serious.

This mainly happens to orphans, including students from barbarian tribes. On the contrary, ordinary students who pay money have meat in their bowls, which is probably brought from home.

It's just that today is a holiday and all the students have gone home, leaving only these orphans, which has magnified the problem.

Lance's investigation naturally attracted some people's attention. Soon the person in charge of the school cafeteria came running over. With a smile on his face, he obviously didn't realize what was going on.

"Welcome Lord to inspect our work!"

"You finally came out, didn't you? It seems your eyes aren't that good, or are you busier than me? I wonder what you're busy with?"

Lance looked at the man. Although he had a smile on his face, his sarcastic words were like teasing his prey. They put great pressure on the man, and all of a sudden the man sensed a hint of danger.

"Go and get me a meal." Lance didn't care about his reaction at all. He just said it casually and sat down among the students.

It was just that this attitude of raising the hand and then suddenly changing one's words made that person inexplicably develop unrealistic fantasies, and he even dared to try to please the lord, Lance.

"Sir, we have prepared the food in the private room."

These words made Lance, who had just sat down, pause and the smile on his face became even wider.

“I’ve been in Hamlet for so long and I’ve never heard of a school cafeteria with private rooms.

What? Is it unfair for you to eat with students and teachers?"

"No no!"

The man hastily denied it. He was also a little confused by the lord's inexplicable attitude, but the lord's weird tone had not stopped, and his smiling face was full of sinister malice.

"That's even more troublesome. I can't even use the private room for meals, but you got it first. It seems like you have more power than me."

A sudden remark instantly wiped out the last bit of smile on that person's face, leaving only panic.

"Oh, by the way, I remember you seemed to be from the city, and you were promoted to the school cafeteria because you had experience in banquets. You used to serve big shots, and now you are a big shot yourself. How can you be called a big shot if you don't have a private room, right?"

Lance was still talking to himself, and the man's identity was revealed from his words. He was previously a chef for a wealthy businessman in the city, and was promoted because of his relevant experience.

But most people cannot withstand this kind of stress test. Fortunately, Lance didn't want to waste any more time and directly pointed out the key issue.

“Why are those students eating this?”

Lance raised his hand and knocked on the table, so that the man finally didn't have to guess the lord's intentions anymore. However, instead of feeling relieved, he became even more flustered, hesitating and unable to explain himself.

Fortunately, the lord was very understanding and helped him explain.

"I heard them say that it was because of darkness that there were problems with the transportation of supplies, right?"

"Ah... yes, yes, yes! It's because of the problem of delayed delivery of supplies. It's all their fault... I will recover as soon as possible..."

The man seemed to have found a life-saving straw. A smile broke out on his face again and he nodded frantically. He shirked responsibility and promised various improvements.

However, whenever he had come into contact with the lord, he knew that Lance's kindness was usually not so easily accepted.

Lance listened to his words and did not rush to refute. Instead, he smiled and waited for him to finish.

Whether it is extreme darkness or a blood moon, it still has an impact on Hamlet's material supply. This is the disadvantage of urbanization, and food input is necessary.

As soon as he came back, Lance asked someone to sort out the information during this period. From the information he had on hand, it seemed that—

During the darkest period, fishing at sea becomes more difficult, marine resources shrink, and the output of vegetables and fruits plummets.

From these two aspects, it can be said that it is normal for production cuts to lead to shortages in material supplies, and Lance has nothing to say.

But the farm had all the supplies it produced, like eggs and milk, which might be less in production, but they were still available. Even the expired milk was not going to be wasted, not to mention the large amount of dried fish and bacon in stock, which was absolutely impossible to leave.

He was simply bullying ordinary noble lords who would not interfere in these matters, so they probably didn't understand.

But Lance knew all of this very well, because he was the one who led those people to research and formulate the emergency plans and resource allocation, so he knew exactly what the situation was.

So what he said sounded very reasonable, and everyone had to hold on a little harder under special conditions, but Lance knew that this guy was just a barking dog.

After he finished speaking, Lance finally revealed the fangs hidden under his "good intentions".

"During this period, Hamlet was under martial law, and the military was responsible for the transportation of supplies. The supplies they transported under the blood moon were given priority to the school. I don't remember any missing items in the report they gave me."

Lance laughed in anger and asked sarcastically, "Are you saying that my army is also corrupt?"

"Ah! No, no..."

Lance's question made the man deny it immediately. He was sweating profusely in this autumn and winter season, and his already pale face looked even more like a dead person.

Only now did he react and remember that it seemed to be true.

If word got out, even if the lord let him go, those troops would definitely not be willing to be humiliated, and it was hard to say whether he would be sunk into the dock overnight.

"Then tell me, where did the missing supplies go?"

Everyone knew what Lance said as a finishing move, but they just pretended to be stupid and forced him to say it out loud.

But Lance still underestimated the "strong" beliefs of these people. Although they were almost scared to death, they refused to speak.

Lance likes it very much, he loves playing games the most.

"That's easy. Just compare the account books of the farm, logistics, and school and you'll know where the shortage is."

Lance advocates leaving traces of work, and the handovers between different departments are recorded and signed.

The production, transportation, and use of materials are all accounted for in three separate accounts. You can find out by checking these.

This sentence is directly equivalent to putting it on the scale, because the matter has been made clear and must be investigated according to the rules.

"My Lord, I said! I said..."

At this time, he had no idea what had happened. He couldn't bear the pressure and cried out everything.

It was actually a very simple matter. Wasn't Hamlet short of funds some time ago? Then he tried to find ways to reduce costs and increase efficiency, such as adding some water to milk and making the bread smaller.

Some things would be fine if they had not started, but once they started, they could not be stopped. He did not stop even when the economic situation improved, and he used this part of the profits to send the supplies to the ruins town through some channels.

This is not about making a profit from the price difference, but about making money with no capital, and everyone shares the money happily.

Later, when extreme darkness fell and prices soared, he became even more aggressive, deducting more and more, and at the same time began to become dissatisfied.

However, he did not dare to do that because those normal students and workers and peasants all had families or the ability to resist, so he targeted those helpless orphans.

When the blood moon came, a large number of outsiders were trapped here, and the prices became even higher. He took the opportunity to cooperate with others and made another huge profit.

If he stopped at this point, Lance might not even notice it, but his courage had already been bolstered and the school cafeteria was his.

"It would be fine if you were a little greedy normally, selling inferior ingredients as good ones to make a profit. If the amount is not large and it does not affect the normal life of the students, the loss will be recovered according to the law and a fine will be imposed. At most, you will have to work as a digger for two years. If you do a good job of accounting, you may not even be discovered.

But why would you touch the money? You are taking food away from those children, and in such a dire situation, now you don’t have to build the road, and your family is also in trouble.”

"They have no family? No background? Are they easy to bully?" Lance's eyes became more fierce, and he roared like a roar: "I am their family, I am their background! Today I will tell you whether they are easy to bully!"

"Boys assemble!"

Lance shouted, and soon many students, mostly ten years old and above, walked out, both boys and girls.

In general, we select children with outstanding performance and willingness to do so. Compared with general physical education classes for physical fitness, they all receive basic militia training.

The few times Hamlet got into trouble, they would take up weapons, even if they were just simple spears, to maintain order in the school and even defend it.

"You go and call...you go and notify..."

Lance gave the order and the children immediately started running.

The events here eventually alarmed more and more people. It can be said that every move of the lord was being watched.

First, Rosa, the principal, also came here, but she looked a little uneasy and angry.

As the principal, she mainly focuses on the quality of education and is busy with various things every day. Who would have thought that something like a canteen that is not difficult to run would go wrong?

"Do you know about this?"

"do not know."

"If you've eaten in the cafeteria, you shouldn't be unaware of this, or did you also go to the private room?"

Lance's expression was calm, even a little indifferent. You know, he had just inspected the school some time ago and praised the principal's achievements with a friendly face, but now it's like this.

It is obvious how quickly he changes his attitude, and he doesn't care about human relationships at all. If something is done well, it is good, and if it is done badly, it is bad.

"Usually when I'm busy, I send it directly to the office. Sometimes I don't notice it when I come to the cafeteria. It's my problem." Rosa was speechless. She was really dragged down by her stupid teammates.

"I can't blame you. If today wasn't a holiday, and there were only those orphans here, I wouldn't be able to tell, to be honest."

When Lance heard this, his expression relaxed a little, and he nodded to confirm that she was not involved, but he added another sentence.

"But please cooperate with the investigation if needed."

"My Lord, I am willing to cooperate with both the investigation and the punishment, but please try not to affect the normal operation of the school."

Rosa said it with gritted teeth. She still had her own selfish motives. After all, this happened on her territory and it was a slap in her face. It would be good if the impact could be reduced a little.

Lance didn't care. "There's nothing that can't be said. Just in front of the children, tell them that there are some things they can do and some things they can't do. No lesson can be more profound than today."