Chapter 99 The lives of noble young masters aren’t good either
When the word “programming” passed in his mind, Xu Yi’s gaze looking at the crystal ball became even more passionate.
This fellow that looked like a beggar clearly didn’t know what kind of value was in the Magic Array he designed, but Xu Yi was very clear on this. If his guess was right, this fellow designed Magic Arrays like programming to set them ahead of time, allowing the Magic Arrays to change function in between use. This would very likely change the entire magic industry and greatly pull together the disparity in terms of industrialization between earth and the Sines Continent.
“You’re the one who set the Magic Array on this?” Xu Yi asked this person to confirm it.
That person nodded as an expectant look appeared in his eyes.
“You…...What do you think of this thing?”
Xu Yi pushed down the excitement in his heart and gave a slight nod, “Not bad. But since you can draw Magic Arrays, that means you should be a magician. How did you end up like this?”
That person’s eyes dimmed again and he shook his head, not saying anything.
Seeing that he didn’t want to answer, Xu Yi didn’t force him. He raised the crystal ball and asked, “If I had you draw the Magic Array on this again, can you do it?”
“Of course there’s no problem.” That person heard another meaning in Xu Yi’s words and he couldn’t help revealing a trace of excitement in his voice.
“That’s good. I’ll introduce myself again. I am Xu Yi from Banta City and I’m the chairman of a company in Banta City. Right now I want to invite you to do some research for me in terms of Magic Arrays and the wage will be set at ten gold coins per month. Will you accept these terms?” Xu Yi looked at him and spoke in an honest voice.
“Ten gold coins per month? That much?” The person looked at Xu Yi like he couldn’t believe it, “You’re this young, are you really the chairman of a company? You’re not lying to me, right?”
Xu Yi said with a smile, “What value is there in me lying to you? If it was just buying this crystal ball, I think ten gold coins would be enough, right?”
That person was silent for a bit as he lowered his head to think before slowly giving a nod.
“Alright, I promise you. But…...But I don’t even have a copper coin right now, this……”
“This is not a problem, since you are a worker for my company now, I’ll take care of your basic living expenses.” Xu Yi looked around before saying, “Based on your appearance, you shouldn’t have a dwelling or family in Anvilmar City, right? How about you come with me now and I’ll take care of your food and board. When I finish my work here in a few days, you can come back to Banta City with me.”
The person nodded.
Actually he already had no other paths, he was almost about to starve to death. Xu Yi had suddenly appeared to hire him and gave him a salary of ten gold coins per month, this was a chance that he couldn’t let go.
“Alright, let’s go.” Xu Yi stood up and reached out to pull that person up, “That’s right, I don’t even know your name yet.”
“Santo…...Sancheli, I am called Sancheli.”
Xu Yi looked at him and thought that since this person’s response was so hesitant and he even changed his words, it meant that this was probably a fake name.
But he didn’t care that much right now. Anyway, his reason for hiring this person was just to obtain the method of setting the functions of a Magic Array beforehand, it didn’t matter if he hid his identity or not.
Xu Yi was about to leave the small alley and head back to the office to clean him up when several figures appeared at the end of the alley. One of them pointed at Sancheli and said in a loud voice, “It’s him! Young master, is that right?”
Xu Yi looked up in a daze and saw three familiar figures.
Victor, Cell, and Urgot. It was actually the three young master who had violently beaten Sancheli in front of the horse carriage yesterday.
After looking at Sancheli, Victor gave a cold laugh before saying in a sharp voice, “It’s this fellow! He actually dared to make this young master lose such a great deal of face in front of a crowd. If we don’t take care of him, this young master can’t swallow this offense! Cell, Urgot, watch from the side for now. When I finish venting my anger, it’ll be your turn!”
Cell and Urgot on the side couldn’t help complaining, “Hey, Victor, don’t beat him to death or we won’t be able to vent our anger.”
Victor spat into his palm and rubbed his hands, as he said with a cold laugh, “Relax, how could I let him die this quickly? If I don’t properly torture him, how could I vent the anger in my heart! Hey, that fool over there, what are you standing in a daze for? Why aren’t you scramming yet? You want to also be beaten by this young master?”
The final words brought Xu Yi back to his senses.
Xu Yi knit his brows. He never thought that after obtaining this pleasant surprise with great difficulty, this kind of accident would appear.
He turned to look at Sancheli and noticed that he was trembling slightly. It was clear that he was a bit afraid.
Xu Yi couldn’t help feeling angry and finding this funny.
This Sancheli was beaten miserably yesterday by Victor’s group, but he didn’t show any trace of fear then. Now that he hadn’t even been beaten yet, he was already afraid like this. The difference in reactions was just too big.
Then again, he is also a magician, so why was he afraid of these three noble young master who had nothing other than strong bodies?
Xu Yi looked over at Victor and took a step forward to move in front of Sancheli.
Seeing Xu Yi’s action, Victor was surprised before flying into a rage.
“What? This young master wants to teach this beggar a lesson and a kid like you wants to butt in? Are you tired of living?”
Xu Yi revealed a smile as he bowed to Victor and said, “Young master Victor, this person is my friend, can you give me some face and let him go?”
Victor was stunned, “You know me?” Then he angrily said, “What kind of thing are you? Why should I give you face?”
Xu Yi was silent for a bit before raising his hand and slowly approaching Victor.
When he was less than two meters away from Victor, he saw Victor tighten his foot and Xu Yi knew that he couldn’t approach anymore. He stopped and said in a low voice, “Young master Victor, I was in the same carriage as Viscount Leslie yesterday.”
Although Victor was domineering, he wasn’t a fool. After being surprised for a bit, he understood Xu Yi’s meaning.
He looked at Xu Yi before looking at Sancheli behind Xu Yi and saying with a dark look, “You are big brother Leslie’s friend, so I can give you face and not care about you standing in front of me. But this fellow has caused us three brothers to lose face in front of everyone, we can’t let him go. Move aside!”
Xu Yi revealed a difficult expression and took another step forward towards Victor as he said in a low voice, “Young master Victor, I won’t hide the truth, he is now a worker for our company. As his boss, I can’t just watch him being beaten by someone, that wouldn’t be proper, don’t you think? If you think that he has made you lose face, I can have him apologize to you and I can give you some compensation, what do you think?”
“Worker? Boss?” Victor looked at Xu Yi in a daze with a confused look on his face, “Hey, are you mistaken? This fellow is just a poor beggar, when did he become your worker? What can he even do for you? Sweep your floors?”
Xu Yi revealed a smile and didn’t reply to this question. Seeing that Victor was much less angry, he directly reached into his chest and took out a pouch before leaning over, blocking everyone’s sight and secretly handing it over to Victor.
“Just a small gift, I ask young master Victor to accept it. If you’re still not satisfied, we can still discuss this, what do you think?”
Victor hesitated a bit before he looked at the bulging purse in Xu Yi’s hand. He gritted his teeth as he reached out to take it. He carefully opened it and was instantly stunned.
Golden light flowed out of the purse, it was actually filled with gold coins!
Although he couldn’t tell exactly how many there were, but with a rough estimate, he could tell that there were at least fifty gold coins in the purse!
Victor’s breathing instantly became rushed.
Although he was a noble young master of Anvilmar City, there were many noble families in Anvilmar and there were all kinds of noble young masters like him.
Not to mention that he didn’t have the right to inherit the family. For an unimportant junior like him, he only received an allowance of twenty gold coins each month and didn’t have any other sources of income.
Now that this large amount had suddenly appeared in front of him, it made him a bit excited.
Seeing his reaction, Xu Yi couldn’t help finding it a bit funny.
It seemed like the lives of the noble young masters of Anvilmar wasn’t good. If it was the officials of Beijing back on earth, not to mention this bit of money, it wouldn’t enter their eyes even if they were offered ten times this amount.
“Young master Victor, this is only a little gift, of course it can’t be considered a full compensation. How about we find a place to sit down and talk?” Xu Yi reminded him.
Victor quickly came back to his senses and gave a soft cough. He didn’t reveal anything as he put this purse away before pointing at Sancheli behind Xu Yi and shouting, “Consider yourself lucky. This young master on account of this……”
Xu Yi quickly said, “I am Xu Yi, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s chairman.”
Victor nodded before continuing, “On account of chairman Xu’s face, I’ll let you go. But it’s best if you never appear in front of this young master again, otherwise this young master cannot promise you’ll leave in one piece, understand?”
Hearing Victor’s words, not only was Sancheli a bit confused, Cell, Urgot, and their two servants were all confused.
Didn’t they say that after finding this beggar that made them lose face, they would properly beat him up to vent their anger? Why did Victor suddenly change his mind?
Victor was too lazy to explain. He patted Xu Yi’s shoulder and loudly said, “Chairman Xu, since you are big brother Leslie’s friend, then you are our friend. If you ever meet any trouble in Anvilmar City, you can just give the names of us brothers. No matter what…..Ke, not mentioning any big troubles, there shouldn’t be any problems with small troubles and we promise to take care of it for you!”
Cell and Urgot suddenly revealed looks of understanding. So this Xu Yi person who appeared out of nowhere was actually Viscount Leslie’s friend. It was no wonder suddenly gave him face and changed his mind.
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile, “Young master Victor is too polite. I haven’t encountered any problems yet, but I was looking for someone to do a bit of business with. I wonder, is young master Victor interested?”
Chapter 100 More people from the agricultural department
After two hours, Xu Yi and Sancheli returned to the office.
Housekeeper Lahm saw Sancheli who looked no different from a beggar following Xu Yi and his heart was filled with doubt, but he was an experienced person, so he wouldn’t ask about it. He followed Xu Yi’s orders and had the servants help Sancheli wash up and change clothes. He followed Xu Yi and said with a serious look, “Chairman Xu, the special guards of the king has just sent a messenger saying that his majesty will be summoning you the day after tomorrow at five in the afternoon, it’s best if you prepare yourself. You should wait here ahead of time and people will take you into the palace when the time comes.”
“The afternoon of the day after tomorrow? It’s quite fast.” Xu Yi nodded, “I thought that his majesty would be busy with other matters and I would need to wait several days before being summoned.”
Housekeeper Lahm immediately said with a smile, “Chairman Xu, you are underestimating yourself too much. The messenger who came was his majesty’s personal clerk, so sending him to contact you, it can be seen that his majesty has placed great importance on you. I even asked that clerk and he said that since his majesty has set the appointment for five in the afternoon, it means he wants you to stay for dinner. This is a rare honour, you must prepare yourself mentally.”
“Oh? His majesty has placed such importance in me? That really makes me feel flattered.” Xu Yi laughed before knitting his brows, “Since it’s like this, what is going on with the agricultural department? His majesty has placed such importance in me and the agricultural department is this rude to me, don’t you find it a bit strange?”
“This……” Housekeeper Lahm looked around before suddenly moving to Xu Yi’s side and said in a low voice, “Chairman Xu, the current agricultural department head is Marquis Saitech and he doesn’t have the same political views as Viscount Leslie’s father, Duke Stagg……”
Although this was a simple reminder, Xu Yi immediately understood what Housekeeper Lahm meant.
But understanding was just understanding, Xu Yi could only reveal a helpless bitter smile.
Actually he just wanted to research magic machines and keep inventing new magic machines to increase the lives of the commoners. Now without doing anything, he was caught up in the battle of these important people. He really didn’t want this.
But this was something Xu Yi had already expected.
Not to mention this world that was controlled by the nobles, even on earth with its democratic and equal system, businessmen couldn’t completely stop themselves from being involved in politics.
Not to mention the larger countries on earth where politics were controlled by the large businessmen.
“According to this, wouldn’t it mean that I can’t receive the support of the agricultural department?” Xu Yi knit his brows.
Although by receiving the support of his majesty, Xu Yi’s plan to promote agricultural magic machines can be accomplished, the concrete parts of the plan would still involve the agricultural department. If the agricultural department were to obstruct Xu Yi’s plan for political reasons, that would create many problems.
“Chairman Xu, you don’t need to worry about this. The agricultural department is the most important department in the country, it’s not just controlled by Marquis Saitech alone.” Housekeeper Lahm comforted him.
Xu Yi thought about it and could only give a shrug, “I hope it’s like this.”
When he was about to give some instructions to Housekeeper Lahm, a servant quickly ran in.
“Sir housekeeper, there are two people claiming to be officials of the agricultural department here to see chairman Xu!”
Housekeeper Lahm and Xu Yi were stunned at the same time.
Didn’t the agricultural department officials already come, why are there two more now?
After five minutes, Xu Yi went to see the two agricultural department officials in the main hall.
The two were wearing the same uniform as the other four officials from before, but there was a bit of a difference in the badge on their chests.
The two officials were a man and a woman who both looked quite young. The man seemed to be around thirty and the woman was in her early twenties, they were far from being able to compare to a fifty year old old man like Lord Fisher.
They were different from the aloof Lord Fisher, these people looked more gentle and approachable. When they saw Xu Yi, the male official took the initiative to stretch his hand out to him.
“Are you chairman Xu? I am Harvey, I have long heard of your fame. Now that I’m finally meeting you in person, I am truly filled with excitement.”
Xu Yi was confused as he shook his head, “You know me?”
Harvey laughed, “Of course. I have already done quite a bit of research into the farmer support plan your Frestech Chamber of Commerce has proposed. I have to say, chairman Xu, your plan is a work of art. Not only does it help the peasants make a living, with the efficiency of the agricultural magic machines your company has produced, the citizens of Banta City has drastically increased their number of tiller fields. According to Count Sean’s report, if nothing unexpected happens, the harvest next year in Banta City will be greatly increased. As an official of the agricultural department, I am very happy about this matter. If the situation in Banta City can be shared across the entire kingdom, the amount of food harvested can be greatly increased and it would solve a major problem for our Lampuri Kingdom! Therefore, our agricultural department had placed great importance in you and your Frestech Chamber of commerce, reporting this matter to his majesty immediately. His majesty has also placed great importance in this matter, so he has decided to summon you for a meeting.”
Xu Yi looked at him with a bit of surprise, “You say your agricultural department has placed great importance in this matter? Why can’t I see it?”
Harvey was a bit stunned. He could tell something was strange from Xu Yi’s tone.
“Why do you say this?”
Xu Yi looked at Housekeeper Lahm to the side and paused for a bit before saying, “Before you came, in the morning, there were four other officials from the agricultural department who were here. They didn’t show any manners at all and immediately told me to hand over my six agricultural magic machines to them.”
“Agricultural department officials came?” Harvey was stunned. After looking at the female official who had been silent the entire time, he asked Xu Yi in a serious voice, “Chairman Xu, who was leading them?”
“He called himself Lord Fisher.” Xu Yi said.
“Lord Fisher?” Harvey gave a slight nod and said nothing else. After being silent for a while, he said with a serious expression, “Chairman Xu, I want to explain something to you. Our agricultural department has many responsibilities and for contacting your Frestech Chamber of Commerce and for any future cooperations, it is all controlled by the Kingdom Agricultural Reform Committee under the agricultural department, which is formed of only me and her.” Harvey pointed at the female official beside him, “Lord Fisher is an official of the agricultural department, but he has no authority in this matter, so you don’t need to worry about him.”
Xu Yi knit his brows, “Only you two? Then how should I believe you?”
Harvey thought about it and revealed a bitter smile, “This is something we haven’t considered. But chairman Xu, I think after you see his majesty, you’ll have your answer.”
Xu Yi spread his hands, “Alright, after I see his majesty, I’ll come talk to your agricultural department. For now, I don’t know who I should believe.”
“This…...Chairman Xu, before you meet his majesty, we want to see the six agricultural magic machines you bought at work and summarize it in a report for his majesty. So we hope that you can cooperate with us and bring the six agricultural magic machines out of the city now to perform a demonstration for us.” Harvey said.
“Why should I believe you?” Xu Yi looked at Harvey and said, “What if you are the same as that Lord Fisher and just want to confiscate my magic machines?”
Harvey didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, “Chairman Xu, how about……”
“If the agricultural department really wanted you to hand over the six magic machines, would you hand it over?” The female official who had been silent the whole time finally spoke to cut Harvey off.
Once she spoke, Harvey immediately closed his mouth.
Based on this, Xu Yi immediately understood. Although it seemed like Harvey was in charge, the real leader here should be this younger female official.
Actually calling her an official made her seem too old. Actually she was just over twenty and even if she didn’t look as shocking as Still, she had very gentle features and a close to perfect figure. When one looked closely, they couldn’t help feeling a bit of affection for her.
But her aura revealed a strong confidence and nobility. She clearly didn’t have a normal status and had been properly educated since she was young.
This kind of outstanding girl, this was not something a normal noble family could raise. At the very least she came from some large noble family.
No wonder the Agricultural Reform Committee Harvey mentioned was only composed of him and this girl.
Harvey already looked like he wasn’t simple and this girl’s background was probably even stronger than his. Perhaps their backing was the king himself, so they didn’t need to care about Lord Fisher at all.
“If the agricultural department has enough reasons, for example wanting to study how these six machines function, as well as how they increase efficiency, then I can hand them over. But if it is someone like Lord Fisher who arbitrarily orders me to hand them over, then I’m not willing to comply.” Xu Yi honestly answered.
The girl gave a slight nod, “For this kind of unreasonable request, of course you don’t need to accept. But chairman Xu, we hope that you can give us a demonstration of these six magic machines now, letting us understand how these magic machines function, so we can let his majesty understand more easily how they work. I think you wouldn’t reject this, right? I think that since you’ve brought these magic machines from Banta City, of course you don’t hope to keep them in a storage room, unable to demonstrate their true use.”
Xu Yi thoughtfully looked at the girl. The other side’s eyes didn’t turn at all, looking right at Xu Yi. Her eyes were clear, not having a single trace of guilt at all.
“Your eyes are truly beautiful.” Xu Yi suddenly praised with a smile before suddenly standing up, “Alright, I’ll choose you believe you. But I need to remind you first that you shouldn’t be scared by how powerful they are.”