Chapter 5 - Mass production
“A total of one hundred and thirty seven fans?” Xu Yi had a bit of a headache as he looked at the preorder form Heinz gave him. For a while, he didn’t know if he should be happy or worried.
The popularity of the Magic Fan didn’t surpass his expectations. In this kind of extremely hot weather, everyone wanted something that could cool them down a bit. However, arranging large scale Frost Arrays was too expensive for most people, so with the appearance of the Magic Fan, it satisfied most of their needs.
Thinking about it, a large scale Frost Array would require thirty gold coins to install and it would cost over a hundred gold coins each month to maintain it. Instead, compared to a Magic Fan which costs two gold coins and had a consumption of less than a gold coin each month, it was much cheaper.
Even if the effects of the Magic Fan couldn’t compare to the large scale Frost Array, it could still let people cool down a bit which was enough for them to alleviate some of this summer heat.
But no matter what, Xu Yi never thought that in just a single day, Heinz would have taken preorders for one hundred and thirty seven Magic Fans.
Moreover, according to Heinz, there were many people that didn’t have the resolve to buy it since they didn’t see the product. Once there were enough Magic Fans, the order quantity would surpass one hundred and thirty seven.
“Dear Xu, no matter what, you have to make these hundred and thirty seven Magic Fans as soon as possible! This is a matter that will affect our future reputation!” If Hienz was normally polite to Xu Yi before, now he viewed Xu Yi like a mountain of gold. His voice was filled with expectations and he even added in a few words of flattery, “Of course, if you can, make as many Magic Fans as you can! Believe me, there are definitely more people in Banta City that need Magic Fans! Even if there are no people left in Banta City, I believe that people in other cities will need them!”
Xu Yi somewhat couldn’t resist the fervor Heinz had and thinking about the seven gold coins and one silver coin Heinz gave him, excitement also filled his heart.
“Alright, I’ll do my best to complete them!”
But it was easy to agree, only it was hard to actually do something.
If he wanted to complete the preordered hundred and thirty seven Magic Fans, Xu Yi definitely couldn’t do it alone.
Even if he was very adept at making Magic Fans, for Xu Yi to do it alone, he would need at least three hours for each fan. Multiply that by one hundred and thirty seven, that was a total of four hundred and eleven hours, which would mean spending half a month on working straight!
After sending Heinz off, Xu Yi considered it. He first went to the blacksmith that he had make the outer casing for the Magic Fans and ordered another two hundred sets of outer casing before rushing back to the Camilla Magic Tower.
He used his lunch break to go meet Heinz and when he returned to the lab, his coworkers are also there.
Xu Yi under everyone’s surprised gaze brought back a large sack of cool ale which he distributed to everyone. When he came in front of Rem, he didn’t reach out to take it, rather he asked with a frown, “Hey, Xu Yi, just speak if you need something. My mother taught me that after you eat something from someone else, your mouth will become soft. If you don’t tell me what it is, I won’t drink your ale.”
Hearing Rem say this, the other people who had taken the ale and were prepared to drink it all put them down. They gathered around to look curiously at Xu Yi.
Rem’s reaction surprised Xu Yi a bit. He looked at Rem and revealed a smile. Seeing that everyone was looking at him, he raised his voice to say, “Everyone, I do have something that I need everyone’s help with. Of course, this ale is just a little gift, it doesn’t count for anything. Everyone can relax and drink it, I haven’t put any poison in it.”
Xu Yi’s relaxed words drew a wave of chuckles before he continued saying, “As for asking for everyone’s help, naturally I have a reward prepared. This can be considered outside work, is there anyone that is interested?”
“What kind of reward is it?”
“What is it that we have to do?”
“How long? Is it hard work?”
…...
Everyone was focused on different things, but they were most concerned about the reward.
While they assisted Great Magician Camilla in his magical research, although they received a monthly salary, it was firmly fixed and it couldn’t be discussed. So when these coworkers learned about the rewards, many of them were interested.
“This work isn’t too hard for everyone and you won’t spend that much time on it. As for the rewards, it depends on how much work is done. The more work down, then the more rewards there will be. The specifics are like this……”
When they heard Xu Yi tell them that they only needed to inscribe a simple Revolving Wind Array, everyone let out a sigh of relief. To them, this low level Revolving Wind Array didn’t need them to spend too much time and it wasn’t that difficult for them.
When they heard from Xu Yi that each complete Revolving Wind Array could earn them ten silver coins, everyone became very excited. Even Wella whose expression hadn’t changed became a little excited.
According to what Xu Yi said, this work was very simple. They just had to make a few Revolving Wind Arrays and they could earn several gold coins. It really was relaxed work.
After Xu Yi finished speaking, of the sixteen people in the lab other than Xu Yi, there were ten of them who agreed to do this work.
The remainder who didn’t agree included Rem and Wella, as well as those ranked at the top in terms of magical power in the lab.
Xu Yi could only reveal a gentle smile and say nothing else.
He understood that these people didn’t agree mainly because they looked down on this kind of work, even looking down on him.
But this didn’t hinder him at all, being able to convince ten coworkers had already exceeded his expectations.
With the help of ten coworkers, just completing the hundred and thirty seven Magic Fans wasn’t a problem at all. They could even follow Heinz’s idea and create even more fans.
For the next week, Xu Yi could be considered so busy that his feet didn’t even touch the ground.
On one hand, he had to strictly monitor the quality of the fan’s outer casing made at the blacksmith.
As a high level mechanical engineer from earth, Xu Yi knew that when a product was mass produced, the most important thing was to ensure that the quality was kept constant.
However on the Sines Continent, the quality of a blacksmith’s product completely depended on their experience and craftsmanship. There was no way to control the fine details of a product, so naturally it was impossible for the product to be completely the same.
Xu Yi didn’t have a way to control this temporarily. He could only make clear marks on the blueprint and request the blacksmiths to strictly follow the design of the blueprints.
On the other hand, he needed to teach his ten coworkers how to make the Revolving Wind Array.
In the beginning, the ten coworkers disdained this matter. They thought that they didn’t need to be taught for a trivial Revolving Wind Array, they could just casually make them.
But when Xu Yi made a Revolving Wind Array in front of them, they found that this Revolving Wind Array was more complicated than they had thought. They didn’t understand most of the nodes and lines inside of the array.
One of the coworkers wasn’t convinced and randomly drew an array. However, when Xu Yi combined this array with the fan outer casing, everyone found that the wind blown out of the Magic Fan was very weak, not reaching the basic standard set.
At this time, they all obediently listened to Xu Yi’s arrangement and honestly began to study the array.
Other than focusing a large amount of energy on these two tasks, Xu Yi also couldn’t give up his work at the Camilla Magic Tower.
With Heinz’s urging of Xu Yi and the sales prospects of the Magic Fan, Xu Yi could give up working at the Magic Tower. If he just focused on selling the Magic Fan, he could guarantee that he wouldn’t lack money. So why did he make himself this busy?
Xu Yi could only laugh at this. He didn’t give Heinz the reason why he did this and continued to work at the Magic Tower each day.
After being busy for a week, five hundred Magic Fans were made in the end. After throwing away thirteen fans because they were inferior products, they were left with four hundred and eighty seven fans. Not only did they finish the preordered hundred and thirty seven fans, they had an extra three hundred and fifty fans.
Xu Yi had rented a small room during this period of time as a workshop. After finishing work at the Magic Tower, Xu Yi and his ten coworkers gathered here to work hard on the Magic Fans.
Today’s work environment was different from before. There was much more joy since after finishing the five hundred Magic Fans, Xu Yi gave them the reward he promised them.
Of the ten coworkers, each person finished around fifty Magic Arrays. According to the reward Xu Yi had promised them before, each person received five gold coins.
This amount did not seem like much, but for these low level wizards that normally didn’t have much chance to earn a lot of money, this was a solid amount of income for them.
Other than that, Xu Yi even gave each of them a Magic Fan as a bonus.
It had to be known, the Magic Fan had already become a hot product in Banta City. A normal person couldn’t buy it even if they wanted to.
In secret, the set price of two gold coins for each Magic Fan had even been raised to three gold coins! It had increased by half!
If they were to sell the Magic Fans Xu Yi gave them, it would mean gaining three more gold coins!
Seeing these young coworkers trying to hide the excitement on their faces, Xu Yi revealed a faint smile. He turned and headed in the direction of Heinz’s store.
Tomorrow was the day Heinz had set to sell large amounts of the Magic Fans. This time he had used the money from the preorder of the hundred and thirty seven fans to directly make five hundred Magic Fans. If there was a large sale tomorrow, he would definitely earn a large amount.
If there was an accident and he couldn’t sell the Magic Fans, he wouldn’t even receive his initial investment.
Success? Failure? He could only wait until tomorrow and see.
Chapter 6 Shopping frenzy
It was already the middle of July, it was the hottest time of the year. Even though it was early morning, when the sun came out, the streets of Banta City became quite hot and dry.
Banta City seemed like it had been weakened by the burning sun and the entire city didn’t have any strength at all. Not to mention streams of people, it was rare to even hear a voice.
However, in the business street to the city’s west, it was a completely different scene.
There were over a hundred small and large stores gathered on this business street and there were several hundred people gathered here before the sun had even risen. What was even more shocking was that these several hundred people were gathered in front of a single store, like they had an appointment.
“Yi? Joseph, why are you also here?”
“Nonsense, I can’t come if you can? That’s right, Ike, you’re also buying a Magic Fan?”
“That’s right. You said ‘also’? Could it be you’re also here to buy a Magic Fan?”
“Of course. I preordered one a week ago!”
…...
Similar conversations sounded occasionally from the crowd.
After chatting to each other, everyone found that the hundreds of people gathered in front of this normal looking “Heinz General Store” were actually all here to buy Magic Fans!
There was a small group of people who had preordered one a week ago and were here to pick it up today. The other several hundred people had heard about the Magic Fans from other sources and had rushed here to get one.
“I say, with this many people, what if the story doesn’t have enough Magic Fans to sell?” A person suddenly asked this question.
He asked this question and the people chatting with each other suddenly became silent. After a while, it was like they were of one mind as they charged towards the door of the general store.
“Don’t push! I have to buy a Magic Fan today! Otherwise, my wife will scold me to death!”
“Damn! You think that only your wife knows how to scold people? Mine told me that if I don’t bring back a Magic Fan tonight, she would bring our kid to sleep on the streets!”
“Alright, all of you stop pushing! I already preordered one!”
“Scram! Why are fellows who have already preordered pushing with us!”
…...
Xu Yi had already sent the five hundred Magic Fans to Heinz’s General Store last night and was currently taking stock with Heinz. They suddenly heard the noise from outside the store and after looking at Heinz, they came to the front of the store together.
When they opened the door, the two were scared by the scene in front of them.
A dense crowd of people charged into the store like a flood, instantly filling this little store.
“Heinz, where is the Magic Fan I ordered?”
“Hey, boss, I didn’t preorder one, but I want two right now! No! Three!”
“Me too! Heinz, I am an old customer here, you have to sell me two Magic Fans!”
“Damn, so what if you’re an old customer? You have to sell me one if I give you money, I also want one!”
“What are you pushing so fiercely for if you’re only buying one? Get to the back for me!”
…...
It was already very hot, but when the crowd charged it, it became even hotter. Adding in the fact that this was Xu Yi first time dealing with this situation, he instantly broke out in a sweat.
It was also Heinz’s first time seeing such a wild crowd, but he had opened this store for many years, so he was much better at dealing with this situation compared to Xu Yi who always studied inside. He quickly calmed himself down and loudly shouted, “Everyone, calm down! Calm down! We have prepared five hundred Magic Fans this time, we guarantee we can sell to all of you!”
Hearing that there were five hundred of them, everyone calmed down a bit.
But this calm only lasted for the blink of an eye as everyone thought of something. There were several hundred people outside the store and even if each person only bought one, it would be barely enough. But there were many people who didn’t just stop at one just now, so like this, five hundred wasn’t enough at all.
Thinking this through, the crowd actually became wilder than before.
Seeing this, Heinz knew that there was nothing he could say. He quickly looked at Xu Yi to have him and his nephew Alex who he called back two days ago to head to the backyard and bring out the merchandise.
A single Magic Fan weighed less than three kilograms, so Xu Yi and Alex could bring out ten together. However, as soon as these ten had appeared, they were instantly taken by the crowd camping outside the store. The two of them could only head back and get some more.
As Xu Yi and Alex moved back between the store and the warehouse in the backyard, all four hundred and eighty seven Magic Fans were quickly sold.
After a while, the people in the store couldn’t wait any longer and they directly charged to the warehouse in the backyard with Xu Yi and Alex.
Heinz also took advantage of this to change the sales location to the warehouse. So in less than an hour, all the Magic Fans in the warehouse had been sold.
There were still over a hundred people outside the store that hadn’t bought anything yet. When they heard that all the Magic Fans had been sold, they were instantly disappointed and some of the more impatient people couldn’t help complaining.
“Not even preparing enough things, what kind of broken store is this?”
To this kind of mindless complaint, Xu Yi and Heinz could only reveal bitter smiles.
But in their bitter smiles, there was a clear satisfaction and relaxation.
They thought it would take quite a while for them to sell over four hundred Magic Fans, but they never thought that they would all be sold in less than an hour. This really surprised the two of them.
For the remaining hundred people who hadn’t bought the Magic Fans, Heinz naturally wouldn’t give up on them that easily. After obtaining a nod of affirmation from Xu Yi, he told everyone that there would be large amounts of Magic Fans in the future. If they needed them, they could order in advance.
This time, no one hesitated and they all ordered in advance.
After another half an hour, the people gradually scattered and the store returned to its normal calm.
After sending off the last customer, Heinz immediately pulled Xu Yi into the back room.
“Ding, ding, dang, dang——”
Heinz shook the money bag in his hand and a large amount of gold coins flowed out like water. It came down and formed a small mountain of gold coins on the table in front of the two of them.
Seeing this little mountain letting out a golden glow, Heinz swallowed a mouthful of saliva with great difficulty.
Too much!
It took Heinz a while before he could calm down his excited heart and took inventory of the money in front of Xu Yi.
There were a total of four hundred and eight seven Magic Fans sold and with a price of two gold coins per Magic Fan, it should have been a total of nine hundred and seventy four gold coins. However, one hundred and thirty seven of those fans had a deposit of one gold coin on them, so after taking away one hundred and thirty seven, the total was eight hundred and fifty seven gold coins.
After Heinz took inventory, there was nothing missing at all.
“Xu…..Xu Yi, we’ve become rich today!” Even if his heart was prepared for this number, but seeing over eight hundred gold coins in front of him, Heinz felt a bit dizzy.
Opening a general store in Banta City, his entire year’s revenue wouldn’t be more than three hundred gold coins. Not in just a single morning, he had earned over eight hundred gold coins!
He simply didn’t dare believe it was true!
Although Xu Yi was calmer than Heinz on the surface, he was also a bit excited deep within.
After coming to this world for three years now, his lifestyle could not be considered abundant. Although he wasn’t very sensitive towards money, with this kind of income now, there was no doubt he could be much more relaxed.
The two were silent for a bit. Xu Yi calmed his mind and took out four hundred gold coins from the pile and moved it towards Heinz.
Heinz was stunned, “This isn’t correct, right?”
According to the agreement between him and Heinz, he should have paid Heinz 10% which should have been a commission of ninety seven gold coins. Other than that, when he was making the five hundred Magic Fans, Xu Yi didn’t have enough money for the material, so he borrowed two hundred gold coins from Heinz. He might as well return it all at once.
Properly speaking, Xu Yi should have given Hienz three hundred gold coins. The remaining hundred gold coins was what Heinz was surprised about.
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile, “There’s nothing wrong. The extra hundred gold coins is for you to help me find a bigger place to rent in the city, making it more convenient for me to mass produce Magic Fans. Otherwise, if I keep doing from my home, it would be very inconvenient.”
Heinz gave a slight nod. Xu Yi’s little room was less than ten square meters, it was quite inconvenient.
Xu Yi wanted to give more detail to Heinz when Alex who was watching over the store suddenly charged in.
“Uncle Heinz, Xu…..Mister Xu Yi…...There’s a big customer here!”
“Big customer?” Xu Yi and Heinz looked at each other with surprised gazed, “What is considered a big customer?”
The two came to the front together and instantly understood what Alex meant by “big customer”.
The person who came was a middle aged man in his forties, with an average height and normal looks, but there was an astuteness to him from head to toe. When he narrowed his eyes to look over people, it was like he was looking at them like a product.
“One thousand.” After seeing Heinz and Xu Yi, that middle aged man named Lexis directly gave his reason for coming here, “I want to order one thousand Magic Fans in advance.”