Chapter 5 Small company without a future
Compared to the many methods of transportation on earth, the Sines Continent only had the single method of traveling in horse carriages, which was without a doubt worse.
But compared to other horse carriage companies, the largest horse carriage company in the Lampuri Kingdom, the Fersen Carriage Company was quite punctual normally.
Xu Yi came a bit later than when the horse carriage arrived and he came just in time to see Akali jump out of a horse carriage.
When she jumped down and saw Xu Yi, Akali excited ran over.
“Sir chairman, I’m back!”
Seeing Akali’s excited appearance, Xu Yi couldn’t help revealing a smile.
This little girl had been rather sad lately, but after going home for New Years, she seemed to have returned to normal.
Xu Yi rather like this little girl Akali who was lively and happy, but once she became depressed, it made people feel it was a shame.
“Un, welcome back.” Xu Yi responded with a smile. His eyes looked at the two horse carriages behind Akali and gave a nod to Evita who came out after Akali. Then he looked at the two men and three women beside her who were around the same age.
If his guesses weren’t wrong, these five should be the five classmates Akali mentioned in her letter last time.
As expected, when she saw Xu Yi’s eyes falling onto the five of them, Akali excitedly introduced them to Xu Yi, “Sir chairman, they are the five classmates I mentioned to you before. What do you think?”
Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling, “Akali, I’m recruiting magicians. Could it be that you want me to tell how strong their magic is just based on their appearance?” He reached his hand out to the five of them after saying, “These students, welcome to Banta City. I am the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s chairman Xu Yi.”
The five youths shook hands with Xu Yi while looking over him with eyes filled with curiosity.
When it was the turn of a girl who was rather tall with black curls, she suddenly revealed a smile and said, “Sir chairman, although Akali said that you were young and handsome, we never believed it. We always thought that to become a company’s chairman, one should at least be an uncle. I never thought that now that I’ve seen you, you are even younger than I imagined. Sir chairman, you aren’t that much older than us, right?”
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile, “You aren’t the first people who are curious or doubtful about my age. I am twenty eight this year, but compared to you, I can be considered an uncle. At least Still keeps calling me uncle.”
“Still?” The three girls looked at each other with surprised looks. Another girl who was rather short and chubby suddenly asked in a mysterious manner, “Sir chairman, according to what Akali said, you and Still’s relationship is quite good. Could it be that you are already…..in that kind of relationship?”
Without waiting for Xu Yi’s response, the man who had shaken his hand and introduced himself as Schoch suddenly said with a soft snort, “Bella, don’t speak nonsense. Still wasn’t interested in any of the male students back in school, how could she suddenly feel anything for chairman Xu?”
Bella rolled her eyes at Schoch and said without any politeness, “Chairman Xu isn’t a little boy like you, it isn’t strange if Still likes him. Let me tell you, chairman Xu is this young and handsome, and he is the chairman of a company. Even I would like him, don’t you say so, sir chairman?”
Xu Yi waved his hand without knowing whether to laugh or cry, “Young miss Bella, please don’t kid with me. Still and I don’t have that kind of relationship, I just have a good relationship with Still’s grandfather Great Magician Camilla. Adding in the fact that Still works for my company and normally interacts with me, our relationship is just not bad.”
“Lies.” Akali on the side suddenly gave a soft snort as she muttered this.
Xu Yi looked at her and didn’t pursue the matter as he turned to call the horse carriage he had already prepared. He first had the driver head around Banta City to let them become familiar with the area, also going to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s repair center in Banta City.
After seeing all the magic machines in the repair center, the students couldn’t help revealing looks of surprise.
Especially when they saw the Magic Lamp. Not only did the three girls really like it, even the two boys couldn’t help revealing looks of praise.
After circling the city, the horse carriage arrived at a factory outside the city.
After seeing the three workshops on the empty space, these youths revealed a bit of disappointment.
Bella seemed like someone who couldn’t keep their words in. After looking at the somewhat shabby factories other than the new factory, she couldn’t help saying to Xu Yi, “Sir chairman, are these all the factories under the Frestech Chamber of Commerce? This is just too small, it can’t even compare to a casual factory that we saw under the large companies from before.”
Schoch also revealed his disdain as he said with as snort, “That’s right, with such a small factory, it seems like your Frestech Chamber of Commerce isn’t anything great. It’s fine if Akali likes to boast, but Evita has never boasted before. How could you deceive us like Akali did by saying that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was a very good company and that it was very promising working here?”
Evita had a gentle personality and being scolded by Schoch like this, her face instantly turned red and actually didn’t know what to say.
Akali reprimanded back without any courtesy, “What do you know? Don’t look down on the fact that the factory isn’t big, but don’t you know that even with the largest factory not being used last year, our factory has already made many kinds of magic machines? If you look around Banta City now, I can guarantee that you will find out Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s things in every house! Let me tell you, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce has only existed for half a year and it’s already this strong, you dare say that there are no prospects to working here? Humph! And you’re not embarrassed to talk about me and Evita. We’ve only worked a few months here last year and we’ve already earned over a hundred gold coins. How about you? Waiting around your house not doing anything and only knowing how to rely on your mother and father, so embarrassing!”
Everyone was stunned.
Although Schoch said in front of Xu Yi that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had no future and his tone was quite sour, no one would have thought that Akali would actually react this strongly. Not leaving any face for Schoch at all.
Schoch’s face turned white and green. After changing several times, he gave a strong snort and angrily said, “Akali, I only came to give you and Evita face, but I never thought you thought of me like this. Alright, since you like this broken company, then you can just keep working here. This small company without a future can’t enter my eyes! Let me tell you, the large companies in Anvilmar City have approached me, but I haven’t replied to them! For a magical genius like me, even if I’m forced to work for a company, I should enter a large company like the Chimera Chamber of Commerce. I definitely will not enter this poor little company without a future at all!”
Seeing that Schoch was about to charge off in anger, Xu Yi knit his brows and moved in front of him.
“What? Chairman Xu, you don’t let people leave?” Schoch angrily looked at Xu Yi as he spoke.
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile and shook his head, “No, my place here is not a bandit nest, of course you can leave when you wish. But classmate Schoch, if I was you, I wouldn’t choose to leave now because if you leave, you wouldn’t be able to refute Akali’s words. Wouldn’t that prove that her words are correct?”
“Of course it isn’t like that!” Schoch flew into a rage. He looked at Akali and wanted to reprimand her, but he felt it was too embarrassing to argue with a girl. He could only give a strong snort and turn his head.
Seeing this scene, not only was Xu Yi not nervous at all, rather he almost broke out in laughter.
These fellows, they really were young people.
“Un…..Classmate Schoch, I won’t oppose you leaving, but I don’t agree to your appraisal of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce from before. There is a saying in my hometown that you can’t say anything if you don’t investigate. You don’t know anything about our Frestech Chamber of Commerce and you already determined that our company has no future, this conclusion is rather rash.” Xu Yi said, “Although our Frestech Chamber no Commerce only has these factories, I can give you some data, so you might as well listen with your classmates.”
Hearing this, the five youths couldn’t help paying attention to Xu Yi.
“The first number is that our Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s total income in the last half a year is two hundred three thousand four hundred and ninety four gold coins.”
The five youths called in surprise at the same time. It was even Evita and Akali’s first time hearing such comprehensive numbers, so they couldn’t help revealing surprised looks.
To these youths from normal families, two hundred thousand gold coins was a number they usually could never touch. They couldn’t even think of such an astronomical number.
But for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce made by this young chairman Xu, it actually made this much money by selling products in half a year.
“Sir chairman, then can you tell us how much money you made?” Cecilia of the three girls who had been rather silent asked this. 𝘣𝘦𝑑𝑛𝘰𝑣𝘦𝘭.𝘰𝘳𝑔
Xu Yi nodded with a faint smile, “This question is the right thing to ask. For a chamber of commerce, the important thing is not how much it has sold, but how much it has earned. This is the second number I want to tell you. In the past half a year, our Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s total revenue was over one hundred and forty thousand gold coins.”
Everyone was shocked.
According to what Xuu Yi said, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s profit margin was quite high.
“Those two numbers are just to tell you that although our Frestech Chamber of Commerce can’t be considered a large company right now, we definitely aren’t a company without a future. Rather, our Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s prospects for development is very good. After another period of time, we will be opening a new factory in the neighbouring Karma City and within the year, we’ll also build another new production base in Banta City. According to the plan, the area of the new production base will even be bigger than Banta City. Do you think that a small company without a future can have such a large and long term plan?”
“Area surpassing Banta City?” Akali looked at Xu Yi in surprise and couldn’t help asking, “Sir chairman, I feel that you can boast even more than me.”
Xu Yi laughed, “Of course this isn’t boasting, you’ll know in the future. Of course, to all of you, our Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s plans don’t matter that much. I think what you rather care about is your own income. Let’s use Akali as an example. She and Evita came to work for our Frestech Chamber of Commerce last August and has been working for our company for less than five months. If you add up all the income, it is like Akali said, she has already earned over a hundred gold coins. And this was based on the fact that the two of them had a base wage of fifteen gold coins last year. From this year forward, the two of them are second level researchers for our company and their monthly wage has been increased to twenty five gold coins from fifteen gold coins.”
“Twenty five gold coins?” Bella said in surprise, “This isn’t low even for Anvilmar City.”
“That is only the base wage.” Xu Yi said with a smile, “Other than this, every time you invent a new magic machine or you’ve made some improvements to a magic machine, the company will also give you extra cash awards. The award amount isn’t set, but the lowest amount is twenty gold coins and there is no upper limit. With our company’s emphasis on creating new products, one can frequently earn these cash awards.”
“Un, Akali and I received seventy gold coins as rewards last year.” Evita timely added this in.
Akali grumbled and said in a dissatisfied voice, “That is because we’re not strong enough, otherwise we could even receive more. Look at Great Magician Camilla, because he worked with our company, he received over a thousand gold coins. He’s much stronger than us.”
Everyone couldn’t help rolling their eyes at all. Great Magician Camilla was a Great Magician, what did you have that could compare to him?
But based on what Xu Yi, Akali, and Evita said, the five youths could tell that if they worked for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, they might really earn quite a bit.
Seeing the eyes of the five youths light up, even Schoch seriously considering this, Xu Yi couldn’t help revealing a smile.
Not afraid that they wouldn’t be moved, but it was easier to take care of once they were moved.
Chapter 6 Give it to me
For these five youths who hadn’t graduated that long ago and had just entered society, so they were anxious to prove themselves, finding some work with a high wage was without a doubt necessary.
Not only was the work researching magic machines for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce decent and the wage wasn’t bad. The only disadvantage was the fact that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce wasn’t really a large company and didn’t have any fame.
But for these five youths who weren’t considered magical geniuses, this was already enough for them.
So after a two day inspection, the five youths all decided to sign a work agreement with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, becoming five first level researchers for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
They were like when Evita and Akali had just joined the company, the five of them received for now a base wage of fifteen gold coins per month.
But according to their contracts, after they worked here for half a year and no problems occurred, they would be promoted to second level researchers. At that time, they would receive the second level researcher wage of twenty five gold coins.
To these five youths, perhaps this was just a simple work choice and wasn’t that complicated or difficult, but to Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, the five youths joining was of great significance.
In front of the five of them was the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s current research facility. The current research staff was only Still, Evita, Akali, Wella, and Sancheli who had been focusing on studying the Magic Array programming issue. Even if Xu Yi was added in, their research power was very weak, causing Xu Yi to give most of their research work to Great Magician Camilla’s Magic Tower to complete.
This situation clearly wasn’t good. First, not mentioning the fact that it cost the Frestech Chamber of Commerce a large amount of gold coins to have Great Magician Camilla’s Magic Tower help with the research, just based on the fact that they couldn’t research anything themselves made it so the Frestech Chamber of Commerce couldn’t become a healthy company.
So Xu Yi needed large amounts of magicians to join them.
Even if these five were young, the strongest among them was only a Fourth Grade Magician. But they represented the fact that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was strong enough to bring in magicians, which represented a beginning.
As the Frestech Chamber of Commerce became stronger, even more magicians would join them.
Of course, training their own powerful magician was also necessary.
Therefore Xu Yi injected five hundred gold coins into the magic research facility each month to support Evita and Akali’s independent magical research, letting the two of them increase their magic power.
The increase of power for a magician required powerful talent for magic, but it also consumed a large amount of gold coins.
This is because each magician’s research required large amounts of magical resources. Without the support of funds, if a magician wanted to rely purely on his talent to grasp a new kind of magic, it was basically impossible.
So every powerful magician on the Sines Continent had large amounts of financial support behind them. Even an impoverished Great Magician like Great Magician Camilla had the Magicians Guild and the Lampuri Kingdom’s support.
Accordingly, if a magician had enough funds to conduct magic research, they also needed a decent magical talent. Then it was natural for them to increase their strength.
When Evita and Akali joined the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, they were only a Third and Fourth Grade Magician respectively.
And now that they’ve worked for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce for half a year, although they spent quite a bit of time researching magic machines, with the financial support from Xu Yi, the two of them had studied other magic while studying Magic Arrays. Their strengths had increased by leaps and bounds and now they broke through the boundary of a Fourth Grade Magician.
Evita could even grasp a small bit of Fifth Grade Magic, only being a step away from becoming a Fifth Grade Magician.
And this was an important reason for why the five youths excitedly signed the contract with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
Compared to Akali and Evita, Still who had great talent and had more magical power hadn’t increased by that much in half a year.
As for the reason…...It was because she was always busy with something else.
“Xu Yi, chairman Rank of the Sarank Chamber of Commerce sent someone to find me today to have me be in an advertisement for their Sarank Chamber of Commerce. Do you think I should go or not?” Still’s slender brows slightly knit, asking Xu Yi in a slightly worried manner, “I’ve avoided him several times, but he keeps sending people to find me, it’s really troublesome.”
Xu Yi looked at her with a smile and said, “That depends on if you’re willing or not, why are you asking me?”
Still rolled her eyes at Xu Yi and said with a soft snort, “I am the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s spokesperson, you don’t think there’s a problem if I do advertising for other companies?”
“What problem is there?” Xu Yi carelessly shrugged his shoulders, “The Sarank Chamber of Commerce deals in luxury goods, it doesn’t clash with our Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s products at all. If you do an advertisement for their company, it won’t affect the Frestech Chamber of Commerce at all. If I really have to say something, chairman Rank’s eyes are rather sharp. Still is this beautiful and elegant, it really is fitting for you to do an advertisement for their Sarank Chamber of Commerce’s jewelry.”
Still immediately revealed a smile, “Really? You also feel that I’m a good match for those jewelry?”
Seeing the light in Still’s eyes, Xu Yi couldn’t help sighing in his heart.
It seemed like whether this was earth or the Sines Continent, girls, especially beautiful girls couldn’t resist beautiful jewelry.
“Of course!” Xu Yi gave a very certain nod, “But if I can be honest, no matter how beautiful the jewelry is, it can’t compare to your beauty. You are already a radiant piece of jewelry, so why put on those things to ruin your beauty?”
Still broke out in laughter. She looked at Xu Yi with an interested expression as she said, “Xu Yi, you’ve said that you’ve never interacted with girls before, but I don’t believe that.”
“Why not? Do I need to lie to you about this?” Xu Yi said with an innocent expression.
“This is because your flattery is too good to listen to, it doesn’t seem faked at all. You must have frequently lied to girls before. How could you have not interacted with girls before?”
Xu Yi rolled his eyes and snappily said, “I am just speaking from the heart. Actually I don’t like girls wearing any jewelry, especially a girl who is already beautiful enough. This is because I really feel that a beautiful girl is a special scene and putting on any embellishment like jewelry is ruining it. Still, actually you are as beautiful as a flower under the sun, why would you rather put on jewelry to ruin that beautiful scene?”
Still didn’t laugh this time, rather her face turned red and she said in a soft voice, “I never said that I would wear any jewelry. Actually I don’t even like wearing those things, it’s very troublesome.” After pausing, she said to Xu Yi, “Since you don’t like me wearing jewelry, I’ll go turn down chairman Rank.”
“Don’t, these are just my thoughts, you shouldn’t be influenced.” Xu Yi quickly stopped her, “Also being in the Sarank Chamber of Commerce’s advertisement will make you more popular and you being more popular brings benefits to our Frestech Chamber of Commerce. When you do advertisements for our Frestech Chamber of Commerce, the effect will be even better.”
“Then do you want me to go or not?” Still waited for Xu Yi’s answer.
“This…..Can I ask how much chairman Sarank is willing to pay you?”
Still reached out a finger.
“One hundred gold coins? Isn’t this too cheap, damn! Don’t go!” Xu Yi immediately shook his head.
Still gave a soft snort and said with a bit of pride, “It isn’t one hundred gold coins, it’s a thousand!”
“Ah? A thousand gold coins?” Xu Yi was instantly speechless. He finally couldn’t help shaking his head after a while and saying with a sigh, “The Sarank Chamber of Commerce really is worthy of dealing in luxury goods, making such a generous move. Still, if your grandfather were to know that just by doing one advertisement for the Sarank Chamber of Commerce you would be able to earn as much as he receives from the royal family in a year, what would he think?”
Still stuck out her tongue and naughtily said, “So I didn’t mention this matter to him at all.”
Xu Yi laughed, “That’s good, it’s better not to excite an old person like him. But speaking of rewards, compared to chairman Rank’s large move, it seems like the reward our Frestech Chamber of Commerce gives you is a bit low. You only receive fifty gold coins per advertisement, this really is a bit too much. How about this, Still, you give me a price. As long as it isn’t as exaggerated as a thousand gold coins, I can promise you as the chairman. You are still a big star in our Banta City, so the price can’t be too low.”
Still rolled her eyes at Xu Yi and snappily said, “Get this clear, I’m helping you do advertisements, I’m not helping the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. If it wasn’t for you saying it was a problem for the company, I wouldn’t even take a single copper coin. Now you’re mentioning rewards with me, then good. I won’t mention something like a thousand gold coins, I’ll just request nine hundred and ninety nine gold coins, will you give it to me?” 𝚋𝚎𝚍ｎ𝚘ｖ𝚎𝚕.𝚗𝚎𝚝
Xu Yi looked at Still’s outstretched little white hand and couldn’t help teasing, “This expensive, I can’t afford it. How about I give myself to you to settle the debt, what do you think?”
Still’s face turned red. After looking at Xu Yi for a while, she slightly pursed her lips and said, “Alright, give it to me.”
Xu Yi was stunned. Seeing Still’s slightly red face under the Magic Lamp and the slightly nervous look in Still’s eyes, he actually became stupid for a while.
The two looked at each other and although they felt it was very awkward, they weren’t willing to look away.
It was like in this staring match, the two of them both wanted an ending.
Without knowing how long passed, Xu Yi slowly opened his mouth and softly said one word.
“Alright.”