Chapter 189 Freeman’s decision
The Sandton industrial district has been a bit cold recently.
Since the Frestech Chamber of Commerce received orders from the City Lord’s Manor, the remaining bit of workers and magic production machines in Sandton Manor had been moved out and the factory inside had been demolished. Sandton Manor was restored as a manor and it was like the entire Sandton industrial district lost their energy, becoming much more peaceful.
If it was before, the Sandton industrial district every morning would be filled with the sounds of magic production machines, creating noise that filled the entire Sandton industrial district.
But since the Frestech Chamber of Commerce left, although there were still lingering sounds, people felt that it lacked any energy and these sounds sounded like they had no strength.
“Chairman, this is the finished product. Take a look.” A worker had handed a polished component to Freeman who was at the entrance of the factory, waking him up from his daze.
Looking over the component and then touching it a few times, Freeman immediately knit his brows and handed the component back to the worker.
“No, the surface isn’t smooth enough. The connecting joint needs to be polished again. Also, you should measure the length, I’m certain it’s too long.”
The worker took a Vernier Scale to measure it and he found that this component really was a millimeter too long. He looked at Freeman with a face covered in admiration, “Chairman, you really are a god! You can actually see how long it is just by touching and looking at it. But it’s less than a millimeter too long, isn’t this nothing special?”
Hearing this, Freeman’s body trembled as he knit his brows. He looked over the worker and suddenly gave a cold snort. He pointed at him and said, “Just based on this, you’ve lost your bonus this month.”
“Ah?” The worker was surprised, “Chairman, it can’t be? Why did you deduct a month’s bonus just based on these words?”
Seeing that the worker dared talk back, Freeman angrily said, “Humph! You actually dare say that it’s ‘less than a millimeter’ too long? Don’t you know that we are working in a very refined industry? Not mentioning one millimeter, we can’t even have a deviation of a tenth of a millimeter! Do you understand?”
The worker wanted to say a few things, but he was pulled away by the workers by him.
One of them said in a low voice while dragging him away, “You idiot, can’t you see the chairman is in a bad mood recently? If you annoy him at this time, isn’t that seeking death?”
The worker wouldn’t give up as he said, “So what if his mood isn’t good? Can’t I give my opinion? I just said a single thing and he wants to take away my bonus for this month? Damn, he really annoys me! I won’t work here anymore!”
“You won’t work here anymore?” Another worker said with a cold laugh, “I say, Rayleigh, the Ireland Chamber of Commerce has the highest wage and bonus in this industrial district and it has the least amount of overtime. Where would you go if not here? Then again, you did make a mistake just now. Let me tell you, for our component factory, it’s good to be very precise. Do you know why our Ireland Chamber of Commerce’s business is the best? It’s because we make the best quality items! If you don’t even understand that, you might as well not work here anymore.”
“That’s right, Rayleigh, your words were wrong just now. Do you know, the chairman is so strict with components because he was taught by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s chairman Xu like this. Chairman Xu is the person who our chairman admires the most, so if you dare look down on his words, it isn’t strange for the chairman to scold you.”
“Humph, that Xu Yi isn’t the king, why are his words absolute?”
Rayleigh still wasn’t convinced, but since he was being dragged away, he didn’t keep acting stubborn. After the other whispered a few more things to him, he began to honestly do his work.
Freeman who was still standing at the entrance had clearly heard their conversation and only after seeing Rayleigh working properly did his cold gaze relax a bit. He leaned against the door again and looked over in the direction of Sandton Manor as he tightly knit his brows.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce moving from here, first not mentioning how it affected the Ireland Chamber of Commerce, it made Freeman as an individual very depressed.
Freeman had been a farmer from Ireland Village and he was so poor that he couldn’t even feed his family.
Since winning the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s eating competition and then meeting Xu Yi, his life had completely changed.
When he first obtained the Magic Harvester from Xu Yi, Freeman had made several dozen gold coins from a single short harvest season. This greatly improved the living conditions of his family.
Then after that, following Kovac’s advice and setting up the Ireland Chamber of Commerce with villagers from the same village, Xu Yi had not just helped him very much, giving them not only the machines, but also manpower and technology. Even the first order after the company was established was given to them by Xu Yi.
It could be said that the Ireland Chamber of Commerce developing to this scale and becoming the leader of Banta City’s component processing industry, earning a profit of over ten thousand gold coins a year that Freeman never dreamed of was all because of Xu Yi.
So Freeman’s heart was always filled with gratitude and admiration towards Xu Yi.
For Freeman, Xu Yi was even on the same level as his parents.
However, Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had left Sandton Manor. It made it feel like there was something missing from this lively atmosphere and this empty feeling was very uncomfortable.
Freeman wasn’t an emotional person, but this strange feeling made him very agitated.
Leaning on the door and looking at Sandton Manor in the distance in silence, Freeman was in a daze for a while before suddenly spitting onto the ground. 𝒃𝙚𝙙𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝒍．𝒏𝒆𝒕
“Damn Count Stagg, he had to go causing trouble for chairman Xu. Now that chairman Xu and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce have been forced out, I want to see how he’ll stay on as the City Lord.”
Not mentioning scolding the Lord City Lord, the previous Freeman didn’t even dare have any disrespect towards the Lord City Lord in his heart.
But now that Count Stagg was aiming at Xu Yi, this simple and honest person couldn’t help exploding with anger and had been bold enough to scold him like this.
After cursing Count Stagg several times, Freeman suddenly looked at a horse carriage that was slowly passing in the distance.
Freeman recognized it as the Fersen Carriage Company’s public transport carriage. He thought of something and went forward.
The Fersen Carriage Company’s carriage stopped at the road in front of the Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Kovac jumped out.
Freeman immediately went over and pulled him aside as he asked in a low voice, “How is it?”
Kovac knit his brows and slowly shook his head, “It’s not good. I went to the city to ask around and because the Lord City Lord stopped many construction projects, many companies are losing business, so even we’re losing quite a few orders. I’m worried that if it remains this way, Banta City will stagnate and die.”
“Humph, if it wasn’t for our new Lord City Lord forcing the Frestech Chamber of Commerce away, how could Banta City become like this?” Freeman said with a cold snort, “It was good when Count Sean was here, but this Count Stagg hasn’t even been here for a month and the lively Banta City has already become like this. He really is skilled.”
Kovac shook his head with a bitter smile, “There’s no use in complaining. He is after all the aloof Lord City Lord, even chairman Xu had to make concessions when he caused troubles for him, so what can small people like us do?”
Freeman agitatedly walked around a few times before suddenly giving a nod as he made his decision.
“Kovac, how about we also move?”
Kovac was surprised, “Us moving? Where would we go?”
“Of course it’s the Falling Rain Valley, near the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.” Freeman said, “This Count Stagg clearly said in the ?Banta Times? that he thinks agriculture is the foundation of a kingdom, business isn’t really important. So he will focus on developing agriculture while he’s in the seat of Banta City’s City Lord and won’t develop business like Count Sean. Since it’s like this, what reason is there for us to stay here? We might as well leave.”
“This is right, but Freeman, the Falling Rain Valley is the land the Frestech Chamber of Commerce directly rents from the royal family and the Banta City’s City Lord can’t meddle there. To the current Frestech Chamber of Commerce, that land is very important, you think that they’ll agree to us building a factory there?” Freeman asked with a frown.
“How will we know if we don’t try?” Freeman looked at him, “Chairman Xu has always supported our company, I think that this wouldn’t be an exception. Then again, didn’t you say last time that many companies wanted to leave Banta City? Even the Amrit Chamber of Commerce is thinking about this. Since even those large companies are leaving, then we shouldn’t hesitate.”
Kovac carefully thought about it before giving a slow nod.
“This seems to be the only method. This new Lord City Lord is going against chairman Xu, but he is also involving us smaller companies. We don’t have the capital to resist the Lord City Lord, so it seems like we can only run.”
Freeman patted Kovac’s shoulder and comforted him, “Relax, our Ireland Chamber of Commerce could be founded and developed all because of chairman Xu and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, it isn’t related to that idiot City Lord at all. I’m confident that as long as we stay with chairman Xu, this bit of loss won’t be anything. In the future, we’ll definitely earn it back several times over!”
Kovac gave a bitter laugh, “Although I have this confidence, leaving Banta City is…..”
After saying this, Kovac stopped. He looked in Banta City’s direction and gave a sigh before shaking his head, “If our small companies leave, what difference is there between Banta City and its past? It was hard to develop such a good environment and now it’s about to be ruined, I really feel pity for Banta City.”
Freeman gave a cold snort, “This is an issue that our great Lord City Lord has to manage, I couldn’t care less.”
Chapter 190 The past Agnes was very proud
All the large and small companies of Banta City were currently anxious over the actions that Count Stagg had taken after taking over as City Lord. While everyone was worrying, the Falling Rain Valley that was sixty kilometers away from Banta City was bustling, it was a scene filled with vitality and vigor.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce wasn’t affected by being forced out of Sandton Manor, everyone was busy with their work just like before.
The company was operating very smoothly. Not to mention the company’s leader Xu Yi not feeling anything, even the ordinary workers were very calm, without the slightest bit of unrest.
This wasn’t strange.
Perhaps to the other companies and citizens of Banta City, Sandton Manor was a very important place for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. Now that Count Stagg was hostile towards Xu Yi and forced the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to move, causing them to lose this important base, which was a serious attack on Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce which would create large losses.
In reality, Sandton Manor was far from being as important as other people had thought.
In the beginning, Sandton Manor was indeed very important to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce because the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had been forced away from Viscount Leslie’s territory. They only had a single magic machine workshop and the household magic machine workshop left.
Although Sandton Manor wasn’t big, it was equal to all of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s production base, so it was clear how important it was.
However, after developing for a year and making progress in the Falling Rain Valley, the main production base of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had already been shifted to the Falling Rain Valley.
In the current Falling Rain valley, just the number of household magic machine workshops had already reached eight.
When the Frestech Chamber of Commerce produced household magic machines, they put them all in the same factory. The space was very crowded and the environment could be considered bad.
Now that the workshops in the Falling Rain Valley had been completed, Xu Yi provided a workshop for each household magic machine.
For example, there was a specific Magic Fan factory in charge of making Magic Fans.
This Magic Fan factory was even bigger than the two workshops at the Sandton Manor combined. The space and environment were naturally much better.
So when the Falling Rain Valley gradually started producing products, the two workshops at the Sandton Manor hadn’t been producing as much.
Under Xu Yi’s instructions, it had gradually changed into the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s machine development center.
It was different from the magic research facility that studied Magic Arrays that powered these magic machines, this development center was in charge of how the machines were designed.
Camby and the other dwarven magic mechanical engineers had made amazing progress at Sandton Manor, just this year’s agricultural magic machines had a total of thirteen improvements.
This year’s Banta City’s spring harvest went very smoothly and it went by even faster than last year, this development center had the greatest merit for this achievement.
So that meant that the machine development center was also very important to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, but its importance was different from the production lines. The production line’s most important parts were the workers, location, and the machinery. If they were forced to move, it would greatly impact the normal work of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
But for the development center, the most important thing was the data they had received from their experiments.
These things wouldn’t be affected by the move and at most it would just delay them by a day or two.
So in short, although the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was being forced out of Sandton Manor, it didn’t affect their work at all.
Rather because the workers of the machine development center were dwarves, now that they were at the Falling Rain Valley, allowing them to be with their dwarven friends and family in the Falling Rain Valley, it made Camby and the other dwarven workers much more enthusiastic.
Among these people, the only ones affected who didn’t seem to adapt that well were the researchers of the magic research facility.
The magic research facility used to be in Banta City, so they could stroll around in Banta City in their free time.
But the Falling Rain Valley was a full sixty kilometers from Banta City. Even though the Fersen Carriage Company had opened a public transport line on Xu Yi’s request, it wasn’t convenient to go back and forth.
But even if they didn’t adapt that well, not a single researcher had a complaint.
After all, it was rare to see Xu Yi have such a strong stance on them moving. The researchers were already used to working for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s magic research facility and if they lost this hard earned job by angering Xu Yi, it was not something that anyone was willing to accept.
Moreover, life in the Falling Rain Valley was not as they imagined, being boring just because it was far away from Banta City.
On the contrary, after Xu Yi’s investment that spared no expense, adding in the highest quality construction work from the Amrit Chamber of Commerce and the beautiful decorations from the elves of the Night Song Tribe. With over four thousand dwarves that had settled here, the current environment of the Falling Rain Valley was something that everyone praised.
There were many researchers who weren’t satisfied with working in such a remote place, but once they got out of the horse carriages, they were immediately sucked in by the environment and forgot all their complaints.
After half a month, all the Frestech Chamber of Commerce workers who had moved from Banta City quickly adapted to life in the Falling Rain Valley. They integrated with the dwarven and elven workers of the Falling Rain Valley and lived in harmony.
“Chairman Xu, it seems like you were right. Humans really are a race with strong adaptive abilities. As long as there is something that brings both sides together, humans can quickly become friends with other races.”
Elder Illusia watched several elven clansmen who were walking and chatting with human workers, even revealing happy smiles when they were being teased by the humans workers. She couldn’t help revealing a happy smile.
Before cooperating with Xu Yi, she never would have imagined that her clansmen could create such a harmonious scene with humans.
Xu Yi laughed as he curiously looked at the elven and human workers in the distance before saying, “Actually without much contact with the elves, we humans thought that elves were proud and inaccessible. But after being together for some time, everyone has found that the elf clan is just a bit proud on the surface, but they are actually clean, pure, and easy to get along with. For example, when I first met Agnes, she seemed very proud and seemed very hard to approach. But now I see her as a normal little girl, I even hit her head when I am angry, not caring that she is an elf at all.”
Elder Illusia revealed a faint smile. When she was about to speak, there was a sudden distortion in the space behind them and Agnes had appeared. She looked at Xu Yi with a stubborn look, “Chairman, I’m already eighty six years old! I’m several times older than you, I’m not some young girl!”
Xu Yi laughed, “But Agnes, eighty six years old for you elves is underaged for us humans, what problem is there in me treating you like a little girl?”
Agnes kept thinking, but she couldn’t think of anything to refute Xu Yi with. She could only keep explaining, “When I first met you, I wasn’t that proud, right?”
“Not proud? Do you remember the first thing you said to me?” Xu Yi asked with a smile.
“The first thing?” Agnes knit her brows and after thinking for a bit, she shook her head, “I forgot.”
“I still remember. The first thing you said was ‘human, I don’t trust you’. You actually dare say that you weren’t that proud?” Xu Yi asked.
“It’s like this?” Agnes thought for a bit and finally remembered the scene of her first meeting with Xu Yi, “I wasn’t being proud, I was just speaking the truth. The elders of the clan told me since I was young that humans were deceitful and I couldn’t easily believe in humans. When I first saw that the chairman was a human, of course I couldn’t believe you.”
Xu Yi looked at elder Illusia and complained, “Honourable elder Illusia, you’ve always taught your clansmen like this? You should at least teach Agnes that there are benefits and disadvantages in our human world, right? Not every human is deceitful, for example, me……”
Elder Illusia said with a faint smile, “There was no other way, Agnes was still young and didn’t have the ability to judge if humans were trustworthy.”
Xu Yi gave a shrug before looking back to Agnes, “See, didn’t I say that you were young?”
Agnes gave a soft snort and turned around, acting like she was ignoring Xu Yi.
Xu Yi couldn’t help breaking out in laughter.
The Agnes before wouldn’t perform such a human-like action, but now she had become like this. She was even acting like a spoiled human girl, it was definitely Still’s influence.
Thinking of Still, Xu Yi thought of another question. He asked elder Illusia, “Elder Illusia, now that Banta City has changed City Lords, what I promised you about Still being your agent and being able to help you create an elven company might not work.”
“Why? Didn’t you tell me there wasn’t a problem before? Why is it not possible now?” Elder Illusia was a bit doubtful.
“That was because Count Sean was the City Lord before, so I was confident that any request I had would pass. But now that there is a new City Lord…..his relationship with me isn’t good…..”
Elder Illusia looked at Xu Yi before shaking her head, “I don’t understand, why do you humans have all those rules and laws, but many times you don’t follow those rules and laws and make decisions based on the relationship between sides. Are relationships that important for you humans?”
“Definitely.” Xu Yi said with a nod, “To give an analogy, elder Illusia, if me and a person you’re not familiar with asks you the same request and you could only help one of us, who would you choose?”
“Of course you.” Elder Illusia replied without any hesitation.
“See, this is the use of relationships.” Xu Yi said.
Elder Illusia pondered this for a bit before giving a slow now, “I understand now, but the relationships between you humans is just too complicated.”
“Isn’t that why you wanted your clansmen to study relationships by integrating with us humans?” Xu Yi said with a smile.
Elder Illusia thought for a bit before revealing a smile, “You’re right. Alright, chairman Xu, I think you already have a solution for this matter? Otherwise, I don’t think you would take the initiative to bring it up.”
Xu Yi smiled as he gave elder Illusia a large thumbs up.
“See, you at least understand me now. Yes, although you can’t establish an elven company right now, there is an alternative method.” Xu Yi paused before saying with a serious face, “That method is to become an affiliate.”