Chapter 139 Last chance
After learning from Vivian that she got this from an elder female elf, Xu Yi immediately had Vivian bring him to find that female elf.
The answer Xu Yi received from that female elf made him very happy.
Because elves had the good relationship with plants, they had a very good understanding of how to use the characteristics of the plant. The toy made of resin was just to entertain the elves when they were bored, it wasn’t something rare at all.
This answer made Xu Yi instantly think of countless possibilities, so he went to look for elder Illusia again without any hesitation.
Xu Yi wanted to ask elder Illusia to learn the elves’ method for refining the resin, but he was told that the method they used was a magic that only the elves could use and humans couldn’t learn itk at all.
After Xu Yi tried, he learned that the magic did conform to the specialties of the elf race and humans couldn’t learn it at all, so he could only give up.
After considering it, Xu Yi decided to take a step back. He hoped that the Night Song Elf Tribe that elder Illusia was in charge of could help the Frestech Chamber of Commerce make magic machines that could be used to refine resin.
The outer layer of the magic machines wasn’t hard to make, but the most important core which was the Magic Array used to refine resin could only be made by the elves, so he needed help from the elves.
Actually it had to be said that Xu Yi had another choice, which was to follow the method from earth, putting in additives and coagulants to create a synthetic resin. But Xu Yi wasn’t familiar with making plastic and he didn’t know how to make the additives, or how much to put in. Secondly, this method had a strong polluting factor that Xu Yi didn’t like. Moreover, by using the magic of the elves, he didn’t need to add high temperatures or use complicated methods, he just simply needed to add magic. The resin would then melt into a liquid and could be freely formed.
The more important thing was that although the elves currently used this to refine small toys, Xu Yi could see that this meant the elves could research new magic that would turn the resin into different shapes.
So Xu Yi hoped that the Night Song Tribe would help the Frestech Chamber of Commerce research a series of resin forming magic. It was best if they could form different Magic Arrays based on different requirements for the form.
For Xu Yi’s request, elder Illusia just considered it before agreeing.
The elves lived in the forest and it was quite boring other than hunting for food each day. Helping Xu Yi complete this research would give their tribe something to do, while it could also be considered repayment to Xu Yi.
“Elder Illusia, it isn’t enough if it is just this.” Hearing elder Illusia say that this was considered repayment, Xu Yi shook his head and laughed, “As a human merchant, I’m not that interested in the word repayment. If I had the choice, I like cooperation better.”
“Cooperation?” Elder Illusia looked at Xu Yi in a confused manner, “How can we elves cooperate with you humans?”
“Of course there’s a way. The so called cooperation is both sides working as per their ability and as per their needs. Look, your Night Song Tribe needs our power to change your river and solve your water problem and I also want something from you. Of the current things you have, other than the value that Agnes has, only this resing has value. Perhaps to you this resin is something that can be casually found and doesn’t have any value, but to me, this resin has a very high value. If it wasn’t for the power of your tribe, it would be very hard for me to display this value. So, we can cooperate.” Xu Yi paused before saying with a serious expression, “Elder Illusia, I sincerely hope that we can maintain a long term cooperation relationship. My goal is for both of us to profit, so whether it is me or your Night Song Tribe, we will both receive benefits from this cooperation.”
“Long term?” Elder Illusia looked at Xu Yi with a bit of interest, “Chairman Xu, do you know what long term means to us elves? We elves have long lives, perhaps it can be considered a lifetime for you human.”
“Then I’ll work hard to cooperate until the day I die, what do you think?” Xu Yi said.
“The problem is that our tribe only needs to solve the problem of our water source.” Elder Illusia said with a faint smile, “Not to mention that we have already connected to the underground water, so we are not in a rush to solve this problem. To put it a bit more extreme, we can even leave the Falling Rain Forest and find another place to live. The Sines Continent is very big, we can easily find a new place to live.”
“Then if you meet the same water problem or another problem, will you move again?” Xu Yi asked back without any politeness, “Although the Sines Continent is very big, honourable elder, if you may allow me to be frank, the places you elves can live is already getting smaller and smaller. Could it be that you are planning to keep going like this?”
Elder Illusia fell silent and calmly looked at Xu Yi.
Xu Yi didn’t show any weakness and met her gaze, not looking away at all.
After a while, elder Illusia revealed an awkward smile, which was like a flower in full bloom.
“Chairman Xu, do you know why I agreed to Agnes going to look for you?”
Xu Yi was stunned, “Could it be that it isn’t because I came up with a method to solve your problem?”
“That is the reason on the surface, but the deeper reason is that on the blueprint you gave Agnes, I saw a possibility. I hoped to grab this possibility and to turn this possibility into reality.”
“What possibility?” Xu Yi curiously asked.
“Elves and humans living together in peace, the possibility of living together.” Elder Illusia said, “Just like you said, the places for us elves to live are getting smaller and smaller on the continent. In these hundred years, the elf tribes I’ve known of have been disappearing one by one. Compared to when I was young, there is already less than half of the elves left. If another few hundred years pass, all the elves on the continent will disappear and the elves will have completely vanished.”
“As the elder of the Night Song Tribe, I have no way to change the fate of all the elves, but I want to try to change the fate of our tribe. Since the continent is now controlled by you humans, it is time for us to recognize this fact and put down the rules of thousands of years to try and cooperate with you humans, try to live together. It has been several thousand years since the race wars and the hatred between humans and elves have long dissipated. This is now a good chance and the final chance for us elves, so I very much want to grab it and had Agnes contact you.”
“So you’re not against Agnes working for our company?” Xu Yi asked.
“Yes. I want Agnes to be the first step out for our tribe. If she can live a normal life in your human world, it means the other elves can also have the same lives.” Elder Illusia revealed a bitter smile and said with a soft sigh, “I don’t know if this is the right choice, but perhaps it is our final chance. We elves have always disliked change, but if we don’t make any changes, there is only the destiny of destruction that awaits us.”
Xu Yi looked at elder Illusia in a daze. From the young girl’s face in her early twenties, he could see all kinds of vicissitudes and exhaustion.
It seemed like the survival of the elves have bothered her for a long time and even this elegant elder of the elves couldn’t handle this load.
“Elder Illusia, if you think like this, I think that I should change my proposition from before and not let Agnes be my slave.” Xu Yi said.
“Oh? Why?”
“If you desire humans and elves living in peace and living together, we can’t have the elves have a lower status than the humans from the moment they appear again in front of them. If Agnes appears in front of the other humans as my slave, the other humans will treat the elves as those from thousands of years ago who were turned into slaves after being defeated. It will not change their view of you elves at all.” Xu Yi replied.
Elder Illusia considered this before asking, “Then what difference will there be if you don’t have Agnes as your slave?”
“It’s a very large difference.” Xu Yi said in a certain voice, “I hope that Agnes can work for our company completely because of her artistic talent, making me want her as our company’s designer. If she appears as a normal elf and not my slave, the other humans will pay more attention to her identity as a designer and will more easily recognize her value. We humans are a race that cares about facts, as long as you have value, we will place importance on you and seriously take you in.”
Elder Illusia considered this for a long time before slowly saying, “Chairman Xu, I think you’ve given me a very good lesson this time. Yes, it is because humans are a race that cares about facts that they rose up among the various races of the continent and finally took control from us elves who were too arrogant and proud to see the facts. It we want to keep surviving now, we can only become like you humans. We need to show our value other than our beauty, that is what we should do.”
After saying this, elder Illusia suddenly stood up and gave Xu Yi a deep bow.
“Chairman Xu, thank you. You have allowed me to understand the truth.”
Chapter 140 Two sprouts (End of volume 1)
As an elven elder who had lived in the world for over three hundred years, Illusia without a doubt had outstanding wisdom and foresight, as well as a clear understanding of the world.
Actually even without the talk with Xu Yi, she would have already noticed the problems the elves had encountered.
Only with the appearance of Xu Yi, it gave her a chance to apply the good opportunity she had thought of.
So after a long talk between elder Illusia and Xu Yi, they easily set their cooperation agreement.
In the beginning cooperation between the two, Xu Yi had to help the Night Song Tribe solve their water source issue.
So Xu Yi’s preliminary plan was to construct a large dam upstream of the river flowing into the Falling Rain Forest while also dredging the river, allowing it to connect again.
This was a large project and would take quite a bit of time even on the technologically advanced earth, so it was naturally not that easy on the Sines Continent.
Moreover, to properly control the river, Xu Yi decided to ask the Amrit Chamber of Commerce that had just learned the reinforced concrete technology from him to construct an even sturdier dam. As well as having them create reinforcement on the river bank.
Based on his calculations, as long as this project succeeded, he wouldn’t need to worry about this river for at least a hundred years.
There was a large cost associated to this project and naturally the Night Song Tribe couldn’t take out that much money.
So in response to this, the Night Song Tribe followed Xu Yi’s request and began studying resin related project, while also collecting resin in large amounts. When Xu Yi finished developing the resin refiner with the Night Song Tribe, they would begin refining large amounts of materials for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to use.
As for the request of Agnes working for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, because of Xu Yi’s suggestion, Agnes didn’t become Xu Yi’s slave. So elder Illusia couldn’t take this request as repayment.
On the surface, it would cost a lot to fix and dredge the river. According to Xu Yi’s initial estimates, even if this river wasn’t too big, the lowest cost would be over a hundred thousand gold coins. The repayment the Night Song Tribe gave wasn’t that much to look at.
But in the long run, grasping this resin material technology had a large significance to the development of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. At the same time, they would be opening a new point of benefit, therefore it created a good relationship with the Night Song Tribe.
In short, it was still the Frestech Chamber of Commerce that gained.
Xu Yi, Still, and Vivian stayed at the Night Song Tribe for three days. After Xu Yi explained all the requests he had in terms of the resin research to the elves, they finally left.
Because Agnes wanted to stay in her tribe for New Years, when they left, Agnes sent them out of the Falling Rain Forest and back to the Angola Tribe before turning to leave.
Because it was already the thirtieth of December, the last day of the year, the three didn’t stay in the Angola Tribe at all. They just quickly told chief Monto to give their greetings to chief Siluka and the other dwarves before getting back into their horse carriage and rushing back to Banta City.
It was already dusk when they arrived and after entering Banta City, they found that it was very lively today. There were bright lights coming from the windows of each house and all kinds of sounds were coming out, sounding very lively.
It seemed like whether it was earth or the Sines Continent, no matter what world it was, New Years was a very important thing and a good time for a family reunion.
Seeing Xu Yi looking at the sides of the road, Still couldn’t help saying, “Xu Yi, how about you and Vivian come to my place for New Years? There is no need to mention grandfather and mother and father will definitely welcome you and Vivian. If you go, you will be very happy. This is better than you and Vivian being alone, right?”
Xu Yi turned to look at Still with a faint smile and said while shaking his head, “No need. Still, I’m very grateful for your well intentions, but New Years is a very important thing. According to the rules of my hometown, New Years must be spent with your family, so I won’t disrupt your family. Then again, I will go greet your grandfather tomorrow morning for new years, we’re just not seeing each other for a night.”
Still’s fae turned a bit red and muttered, “It isn’t like I want you to go because I want to see you……”
The horse carriage quickly came to Still’s house. When Still jumped down, Xu Yi didn’t have any intentions to go in. He waved his hand to Still and brought Vivian back to his own home.
Seeing the home he had rented for half a year, but had always forgotten, Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling.
It seemed like his fourth year in this world would be spent in this small and worn out room.
Although he was just with Vivian, Xu Yi still decided to make some delicious dishes.
Other than the dishes Vivian was in charge of, Xu Yi used his memory to make some dishes that would normally be made at New Years on earth.
Although since Xu Yi had never cooked on earth, causing these dishes to look and taste terrible, Xu Yi and Vivian were happy eating them.
The liveliness was a bit lacking compared to other homes, but with Xu Yi’s effort, the atmosphere wasn’t lacking at all.
The only thing lacking was that this world didn’t have a television, so there wasn’t the New Year’s Gala that Xu Yi rarely watched.
Compared to Xu Yi’s disappointment, Vivian was truly happy in this moment.
This was because not long after she was born, her parents who were also slaves had died in the famine of the Lampuri Kingdom over ten years ago. So since Vivian was young, she didn’t have any impression of her family and never had family members to spend New Years with.
In her fifteen years of living, she had spent fourteen years just trying to survive.
If it wasn’t for meeting Xu Yi and being bought by him, not mentioning all this delicious food, warm clothes, and the right to go to school, she might even have died suddenly.
So being able to have this New Years meal with Xu Yi, her beloved master, having fun playing with Xu Yi, it was already the greatest happiness for her.
After the finished dinner, Xu Yi looked at the night sky filled with countless stars and suddenly had an idea. He asked Vivian if she wanted to go for a walk.
Of course Vivian wouldn’t go against his idea, so she put on a coat for Xu Yi who was already drunk. She wanted to clean the table, but Xu Yi waved his hand to stop her.
“Don’t worry that much today, just be relaxed and happy.”
So Vivian smiled as she hugged Xu Yi’s arm and the two left the room, casually strolling through Banta City at night.
Perhaps it was because he was a bit drunk, Xu Yi pointed at some kids running around on the streets as he said to Vivian, when he was young, they definitely would have been running around with firecrackers on New Years Eve. One time, he had set a pile of straw on fire while running around with firecrackers, so he had been beaten because of it.
Looking up at the night sky after a while, he pointed and said to Vivian, in his hometown, there would be a constellation that was easy to recognize in winter called Orion. There were three stars that formed a line in that constellation that was called Orion’s Belt.
After a while, his face became dispirited and even some tears came out. This was his fourth New Years away from his family. He really wanted to see his parents now, he really wanted to know how they were doing.
After a while…...
……
Vivian supported Xu Yi as she silently listened to the words that came out of his mouth that she didn’t recognize, as the doubt in her heart became stronger.
What were fireworks? Were they fun?
Why does master say that the night sky in his hometown had an Orion? Could it be that the night sky in his hometown was different from the night sky in Banta City?
Since the master missed his parents, why didn’t he go back?
…...
Questions kept appearing in Vivian’s head, but she didn’t ask them because she knew that the master just needed to vent right now.
As they chatted and walked along, unknowingly the two had already left Banta City and had walked to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s factory to the west of the city.
It was already New Years Eve and the two factories were silent. Other than the light of the Magic Lamp the two bachelors Xu Yi had hired as guards for the magic machine workshop, every other place was pitch black.
Xu Yi didn’t have any ideas of disrupting the guards, he just stood in the empty space in front of the factories. Looking at the small workshops in the dark, his heart filled with emotions.
Although the two workshops were very small, it represented the sprout of the dream in his heart.
Although they were just two sprouts now, as the Frestech Chamber of Commerce developed and the people of the Sines Continent began to pay more attention to the magic industry, these two sprouts would one day become giant trees.
There was a figure in the corner of his eyes that came out of the household magic machine workshop, causing Xu Yi to be surprise. When he wanted to call out, he found that this figure was very familiar. After looking carefully, Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling.
“Hey, Heinz, why aren’t you with sister in law at home today, why did you come here?” Xu Yi greeted that person in a low voice.
That person was surprised and looked over. After seeing that it was Xu Yi and Vivian with the faint light coming out of the workshop, he calmed down.
The figure walked over and it really was Heinz.
He looked at the two of them and asked in a low voice, “I couldn’t calm down, so I came to take a look. Anyway, Xu Yi, why aren’t you and Vivian spending New Years at him, what did you come here for?”
“It’s nothing, I just wanted to take a walk outside and naturally came here.” Xu Yi gave a shrug as he turned to look at the two workshops, “Perhaps it is because this place takes up the most important spot in my heart, so I couldn’t help wanting to come take a look.”
Heinz gave a slight now, “I’m also the same. To be honest, Xu Yi, I was just the owner of the small general store half a year ago, I never would have dreamed that I would become a major shareholder in a large company. There are many times that when I go to sleep, I doubt that everything I’ve experienced is false and it is all an illusion. So I come to the factory very early each day just to see this factory, just to see the two workshops. As long as I can see them, I feel that I’m not in a dream and everything I’ve experienced is real.”
Seeing Heinz being in a rare mood, Xu Yi couldn’t help saying with a smile, “No wonder you look unwilling to leave each day when we’re getting off work, are you afraid that everything will disappear when you leave?”
Heinz gave a slight nod, “Xu Yi, you know that I’m not someone with lofty aspirations. To me, I’m very satisfied with my current life, so I treasure the things I have now. I’m really afraid that these two workshops will disappear one day. If that really happens, I might even die from my broken heart.”
“Relax, that won’t happen.” Xu Yi patted Heinz’s shoulder forcefully and said, “These two workshops might disappear because they are too small, they can’t take the requests of our company. What we need is a large work area like the new workshop. But even if they disappear, there will be more workshops that appear to take their places. You have to believe that as our company develops, the magic industry will be like a raging flame that instantly spreads across the continent, lighting it up in the end. When that time comes, there will be our company’s workshops and factories all over the continent. Heinz, can you see every single workshop then?”
Heinz looked into the dark night, but his eyes could already see what Xu Yi described.
After a while, he muttered, “Xu Yi, can everything you said become reality?”
Xu Yi gave a very confident nod, “Of course, because the magic industry has already sprouted on the continent and it’s very hard to stop its growth. One day, our Frestech Chamber of Commerce will create a giant magic industry empire on the continent!”
(End of volume one ?Sprouts of the Magic Industry?. Please anticipate volume two ?Fires of Industry?.)