140. Become the Country with the Most Civically Cultured People in the World?

If the old, downtrodden Li Daniu had encountered a difficulty, his first reaction would have been to find a way to avoid it.

But the Li Daniu of today no longer considered himself downtrodden. Besides, as the King of Tuvalu, the nation was practically his own enterprise. How could he flee when his own enterprise encountered difficulties?

“Prime Minister Burns.” Li Daniu looked at Burns with great seriousness. “As the person I trust most, how can you merely report these difficulties to me? Shouldn’t you be solving them all yourself and then presenting me with a perfect result?”

The words made Burns flush with embarrassment.

Burns had originally been willing to remain in Tuvalu as prime minister not only because the old king had paid all his tuition fees, and even his living expenses, but also because he wanted to transform his homeland—this impoverished nation of Tuvalu.

Yet less than two years after taking office, the harshness of reality had worn away the passion in his heart. After the old king’s death, he had even begun considering retirement.

What he had never expected was that the situation would suddenly turn around. After ascending the throne, Li Daniu managed to earn an astonishing amount of money and was even willing to invest it in developing the country.

In Burns’s view, when Li Daniu had initially used the deposit returned for a necklace worth more than two hundred million dollars to improve the living standards of the people of Tuvalu, it had merely been a burst of youthful enthusiasm. Li Daniu would soon regret not taking the two hundred million dollars and leaving.

But when Li Daniu used the future royalties from his own novel, *The Lord of the Rings*, as collateral for a loan to purchase the Auckland Islands and prepare to build a new Tuvalu, Burns finally came to believe that Li Daniu was truly determined to transform the country.

At that moment, he decided to assist Li Daniu wholeheartedly and make his homeland a better place.

Unfortunately, Li Daniu’s vision for New Tuvalu and Burns’s own vision were worlds apart. Although Burns was deeply envious of the future Li Daniu described, he did not truly believe in it. To him, it was simply impossible.

Still, Li Daniu was the king, and Tuvalu was a nation where the king had the final say. Burns could only obey. A sliver of hope remained in his heart: what if it really could be achieved?

With such thoughts weighing on him, how could he not feel ashamed after Li Daniu’s reprimand? The king himself was traveling abroad and working tirelessly to earn money, leaving Burns to spend it on construction—and Burns still had so many problems to report. It was a complete display of incompetence.

“Your Majesty, please punish me for my crimes.” Burns dropped to one knee on the spot, his right hand pressed against his chest.

The posture Burns adopted was the most sincere gesture in Tuvalu’s rudimentary royal etiquette. However, after the beginning of the new century, almost no one used such ceremonies anymore. The old king had nearly abolished the practice of kneeling, and only refrained from issuing the decree after being persuaded by the former prime minister. In practice, however, it had already been abolished.

Li Daniu was stunned by Burns’s sudden movement. What the hell? This wasn’t a feudal society. Why had he suddenly knelt down?

After standing there in a daze for a moment, Li Daniu hurried to Burns’s side and helped him up. He had only intended to put a little pressure on Burns so that he would work harder. He had never imagined things would turn out this way.

“Your Majesty, as Tuvalu’s prime minister, I am always pushing problems onto you to solve. I have disgraced the royal mandate. Please punish me.”

Burns refused to rise. He genuinely felt that he had failed. When there had been no resources, he had constantly complained that the conditions were insufficient; now that resources were available, he had discovered a whole new set of problems that seemed impossible to resolve.

Punish you? If I punished you, who would I have left to rely on?

Li Daniu exerted some force and pulled the unwilling Burns to his feet, which only made Burns feel even more ashamed.

“Fine. Even if you are guilty, what good would punishing you do? Would it make the construction of New Tuvalu progress any faster?”

After pulling Burns over to a chair and making him sit down, Li Daniu continued, “You should find a way to redeem yourself through your actions. From now on, whenever you encounter a difficulty, your first thought must be how to solve it—not how to report it to me. Understand?”

Burns nodded. “Your Majesty, rest assured. From now on, I will do everything in my power to solve every problem we encounter.”

“That’s more like it.”

Li Daniu smacked his lips. “We’ll deal with the problems one by one. Let’s begin with immigration. If we can solve that, our shortage of manpower will be resolved as well.”

Burns pointed to the documents on the desk. “Your Majesty, although we have not yet developed a suitable policy, I have already studied the immigration policies of several countries similar to ours, as well as those of major powers such as the United States.”

“Generally speaking, apart from refugees, applicants must undergo an assessment before they can be accepted. Most assessments focus on three areas: wealth, personal qualities, and skills.”

Li Daniu nodded. Of the three, wealth was actually the most important. Wealthy people had countless choices if they wanted to immigrate.

Skills came next. When it came to talent in certain specialized fields, many countries were eager to attract such people.

But Tuvalu was different from those countries. At present, before New Tuvalu’s infrastructure had truly been completed, it had no way of attracting the wealthy. Even if it imposed no personal income tax, there were many small countries in the world that did the same. Why would anyone choose Tuvalu?

Therefore, the immigrants Li Daniu needed were people with a certain level of practical skill. Unlike other countries, he was not seeking military or technological experts. What he needed most at present were people capable of filling ordinary jobs.

Burns continued, “Your Majesty, there is another issue related to immigration: living allowances. If every immigrant is entitled to a monthly allowance of three thousand dollars, then no matter how quickly you earn money, you will not be able to keep up with the monthly expenses. Besides, if immigrants can receive three thousand dollars every month simply by coming here, who will still want to work?”

“Exactly.” Li Daniu said, “The immigrants we need most right now are people who can endure hardship and hold down front-line jobs. It would indeed be inappropriate for someone to receive three thousand dollars every month without doing anything. However, this is easy to solve. Even employment at a company requires a probationary period. We can establish a probationary period—or several probationary periods—for immigrants to Tuvalu. Each time they pass one, their monthly living allowance will increase.”

Li Daniu had been thinking about this issue for quite some time. He possessed no extraordinary genius for governance, so he could only use the simplest method to solve the problem.

The probationary system was the solution he had come up with.

“That’s an excellent idea.” Burns’s eyes lit up. “Moreover, if we establish probationary periods, we can turn our country into the nation with the highest-quality citizens in the world.”

Li Daniu gave Burns a thumbs-up. He had merely opened the discussion, yet Burns had already thought of the problem he himself had been pondering for days.

“Exactly. We can divide the probationary period into several stages, with a different level of living allowance corresponding to each stage. If an immigrant commits a crime during the probationary period—or even does something like driving under the influence or running a red light—we can lower his level or extend his probation. If he manages to avoid every infraction at each stage, he can continue advancing until he ultimately receives the full living allowance.”

Li Daniu explained his idea. Naturally, he was only outlining the general direction. Specific details—such as the length of each probationary period, the amount of the allowance corresponding to each stage, and how many infractions would result in demotion—would all require careful discussion. They could not demote someone simply because he had accidentally run a red light once. If the rules were that strict, who would be willing to come?

Burns asked excitedly, “Then what requirements will we impose on immigrants?”

“That’s something we’ll have to ask the German,” Li Daniu replied. “As for immigration, we should choose people who can contribute to the construction of New Tuvalu. Besides, we can’t hand every project over to outsiders. Our own construction companies need enough workers as well.”

“Understood. Shall I call the German now?”

After asking, Burns saw Li Daniu nod. He immediately picked up the telephone in the office and called. Ever since the German had arrived in Tuvalu, he had spent almost all his time working on the Auckland Islands.

While Burns made the call, Li Daniu began imagining the future New Tuvalu—a country with the highest-quality citizens in the world. The benefits he intended to prepare for the people of Tuvalu would amount to far more than three thousand dollars a month.

Li Daniu believed that no one would be willing to forfeit those benefits merely because they had failed to obey traffic regulations.

To be continued.