Chapter 141 Why is it this poor?
As the horse carriage kept moving forward, Xu Yi found more and more. The Stantine Duchy was very rich in terms of natural resources.
Not only were there various kinds of fruit trees that bloomed around them like they were worthless, Xu Yi looked into the distance to find large cacao trees and coffee trees. But more importantly, there were even rubber trees blotting out the sky!
Seeing this scene, Xu Yi didn’t even have time to be surprised at the various kinds of tropical plants that grew in the Stantine Duchy just like one earth, he was just completely shocked.
With such rich natural resources, why was the Stantine Duchy this poor?
Before coming to the Stantine Duchy, whether it was from the books of the continents, or from people who had described the Stantine Duchy, or even if the descriptions of Anklo who came from the Stantine Duchy, they all gave the same information. The Stantine Duchy was a very weak country that was very poor.
Before coming to the Stantine Duchy, Xu Yi was already prepared to see a country that was wrecked by hurricanes and tsunamis all year round.
But he never would have thought that the Stantine Duchy’s land was not only not barren, it was even more bountiful than he thought.
With these rich natural resources, it was like a precious gift to them from the heavens!
If this was placed on earth, this country might not be rich, but they would be described as broke.
But on the way here, Xu Yi saw the scattered Stantine Duchy citizens through the window of his carriage. Based on the tattered clothes they wore and the wrecked log cabins they lived in, their lives were indeed quite bad.
This really was something that Xu Yi couldn’t understand.
With this kind of natural resources, even though there was a limit to the Sines Continent’s transportation network and they couldn’t deliver these resources out to make money, the citizens shouldn’t be in such a destitute condition, right?
With these doubts, Xu Yi began to shift his attention from the rich plants outside to the people of the Stantine Duchy.
When the carriage finally came to a place that was like a town, Xu Yi jumped out and looked over the scene in front of him, as he finally understood.
Although the Stantine Duchy citizens had rich natural resources, perhaps it was because they had rich natural resources that they became this poor.
This reason sounded very strange, but it was a very suitable analysis.
When he was still back on earth, Xu Yi had gone to many tropical and subtropical countries when he went on inspections. For example, he had gone to the southern China peninsula and the Indian peninsula many times before.
In those countries, Xu Yi had found a similarity which was that those people were very lazy.
For the same construction project, perhaps it would only take a company in China two to three months to complete, but in those countries, not mentioning the low efficiency of the governments, just with the laziness of the workers themselves, it was enough to stall the project for half a year without finishing it.
Because of this problem, there were many managers who had secretly complained to Xu Yi.
Clearly they only had to learn how to use a few machines and they would just work by sitting inside and controlling those machines, but those workers refused to learn how to do the most basic work.
And if you made them do physical labour, they would slack off.
Because the efficiency of those workers were very low and delayed the progress of the project, there were many companies who had directly spent a large amount to recruit large numbers of workers from China.
Even if their contracts with the local government meant that they had to recruit a certain amount of local workers, those companies would rather spend more money and just pay those workers for nothing, not relying on their efficiency at all.
Xu Yi thought of the complaints of those managers and the local conditions of those countries, comparing them to the scene in front of him before making this judgement.
The Stantine Duchy was this poor, but ignoring all other reasons, the most important reason was that the people were too lazy.
Looking in from the entrance of this town, although there were quite a few people, whether they were strolling on the streets, sitting in a corner, or sunbathing on the ground, each person gave off a lazy feeling.
It was like as long as there was nothing important to do, they definitely would not waste any energy doing anything.
Although there were a few stalls in the streets, most of the time they had no customers. The bosses of those stalls didn’t seem to care and didn’t waste energy calling out. They even went as far as covering their eyes and going to sleep!
Xu Yi thought about it and found that he could understand the thoughts of these normal people.
Perhaps on earth where one could say that all things are equal, normal people had hopes of climbing up the ladder.
But the society of the Sines Continent was very backwards with a deep rooted social class concept, so normal people would never think of going against nobles.
So for the average person, being able to fill their stomachs and living normal lives was their first goal.
For the Stantine Duchy that had rich natural resources, if one was hungry, they could just pick some fruits from the fruit trees by the side of the road to fill their stomachs.
Since there was no pressure to survive and no hope to climb up the ladder, a normal person naturally would just eat and wait to die by the side of the road.
Of course, understanding didn’t mean accepting it.
Seeing the scene in front of him, Xu Yi had the same feeling when he inspected those peninsulas, feeling sad and angry at these normal people.
If they worked hard and were a bit more diligent, at least their lives could become better, so why didn’t these fellows work harder? ｂｅ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟𝚎ｌ.𝚌𝚘ｍ
Anklo on the side saw that after Xu Yi got out of the carriage and was silent with a bad look on his face after seeing this town thought that Xu Yi wasn’t satisfied with this environment, so he quickly said, “Chairman Xu, let’s just rest here temporarily today. I’ve already contacted the City Lord here to have him receive you in his manor. The environment of his manor is much better, you don’t need to worry.”
Xu Yi was too lazy to explain his thoughts to Anklo, so he shook his head and headed into the town.
Seeing Xu Yi’s actions, Anklo was stunned before quickly following him.
This town only had six streets and they were all very short. This town wasn’t even a tenth of the size of Banta City, so Xu Yi had gone from one end to the other in less than half an hour.
After going around the town, Xu Yi fell into deep thought before asking Anklo, “What is the scale of this city in your Stantine Duchy?”
Anklo was stunned before revealing an awkward smile and hesitantly replying, “This is the largest city in the north of our duchy…..”
Xu Yi was stunned. He raised a brow and looked at the city behind him again. He couldn’t stop the absurd feeling that was rising from his heart and the twitching on his face.
This place that couldn’t even compare to a small town on earth was actually the largest city in the north of the Stantine Duchy?
What a joke!
Although Xu Yi tried his best to stop himself from revealing a strange expression, Anklo could only awkwardly explain, “Chairman Xu, our Stantine Duchy strictly speaking has no concept of a city. This city is just to make it easier for the nearby people to trade and since it isn’t the day of a market, it doesn’t seem like there are many people. But if you come here on market day, this place becomes rather lively…..”
Anklo explained for a while, but he really couldn’t say anything else.
He frequently went to the Lampuri Kingdom and not mentioning Anvilmar City, just Banta City that Xu Yi came from was already bigger than all the cities in the Stantine Duchy.
Explaining this in front of Xu Yi, it just became worse as he kept going.
Seeing Anklo becoming more quiet and looking more awkward, Xu Yi gave a sigh and turned to stop looking at this pitifully small “city”. He said to Anklo, “Alright, bring me somewhere to rest. After sitting in a horse carriage for a day, I’m a bit tired.”
Anklo quickly called the three horse carriages behind them over and asked Xu Yi to get in. They went on the only road that was considered rather wide and headed to the south.
The City Lord Manor that Anklo mentioned actually surprised Xu Yi. It was very large and there were many buildings in the yard, taking up a large space, looking quite magnificent.
Although it couldn’t compare to the noble manors outside Banta City, with how wide it was, with the mountains and ponds it had, as well as the rather well built log cabins, the environment really didn’t seem bad.
According to Anklo’s introduction, the owner of this manor was this city’s City Lord and this city took his family’s name.
His family was called the Wein Family and this city was called Wein City.
The current head of the Wein Family was the owner of the manor called Swain Wein. He was a round middle aged fat man who wasn’t that tall.
After seeing Anklo and Xu Yi, Swain Wein had a very friendly manner and was very flattering in front of Xu Yi.
When flattering someone, he definitely wanted something.
This Swain Wein treated Xu Yi like this, so of course he had some requests for Xu Yi.
But Xu Yi didn’t know what kind of requests he had for now.
But this question was soon answered at the welcome banquet set out for him.
Chapter 142 Canned fruit factory and rubber processing factory
“Chairman Xu, come and have a cup of our special fruit juice. I guarantee it will be even better than drinking wine.” Swain Wein revealed a smile and his small eyes were completely wrapped up in the fat on his face, not revealing anything at all.
Xu Yi raised his cup to him and Anklo. The juice in the cup was a bit fragrant and it tasted like mango juice when he drank it.
Compared to drinking wine, he actually preferred drinking fruit juice.
Drinking wine would make people dizzy and this was not something that Xu Yi who always liked to stay sober and sharped liked to do.
When he put down the cup, the young maid behind Xu Yi quickly came forward to fill it up.
Seeing the pieces of clothes that didn’t even cover up the key portions of the girl’s figure, Xu Yi couldn’t help secretly shaking his head.
The Stantine Duchy was poor, but that was just for the normal people. For a great noble like the head of the Wein Family that controlled a large part of the northern duchy, he was living quite the luxurious life.
He was even living a more extravagant life compared to the nobles of the Lampuri Kingdom.
Although the Lampuri Kingdom’s nobles were still promiscuous, they at least didn’t have underage girls entertain guests while close to being naked.
“Chairman Xu, for an honoured guest like you to come here, it really is my honour. Come, let’s drink another cup.” Family head Wein raised his cup again with a smile.
When Xu Yi finished, head Wein’s small eyes turned over to Anklo before saying to Xu Yi, “Chairman Xu, I heard sir Anklo say that you have come to our Stantine Duchy this time because you are planning to invest in our duchy?”
Xu Yi was a bit surprised that he had jumped into this topic. He thought for a bit before saying with a nod, “That’s right.”
“Then may I ask chairman Xu, on your way here, do you feel that there is anything in Wein City worth investing in?” Head Wein asked.
“This fellow really is straightforward.” Xu Yi said with a faint smile, “Head Wein, I can’t answer this right now, but based on what I’ve seen already, there is potential for investment. If possible, I very much hope that I can invest.”
This sounded like polite words, but these were Xu Yi’s heartfelt words.
Just based on the rich natural resources he saw on the way here, this place had many money making opportunities worth investing in.
The biggest barrier was actually the people who lived here.
If he wanted to invest here, he had to hire the local workers.
But based on the situation that Xu Yi saw, he didn’t feel relieved hiring local workers.
Head Wein didn’t treat Xu Yi’s words as polite talk and kept asking, “Then if chairman Xu was to invest here, what plans do you have?”
Seeing that Anklo put down his cup to pay attention, Xu Yi thought about it before saying, “Currently speaking, I very much want to create a canned fruit factory here and a rubber processing plant. As for other things…..I don’t know for now, I need to decide after examining further.”
“Canned fruit factory? Rubber processing plant?” Head Wein and Anklo looked at each other. He couldn’t help asking, “I know about rubber, but what is a canned fruit?”
“Eh…..To put it simply, it’s cutting the fruit into slivers and mixing it with fruit juices in a glass jar or an iron can before being sealed. This canned fruit’s benefit is that it can maintain the taste for a long time and after it is made, it can be transported to other countries to be sold. I think it should be quite welcomed.” Xu Yi said.
Head Wein and Anklo’s eyes instantly lit up.
“There’s this method of preserving fruits?”
Head Wein’s face fat even began trembling with excitement as he kept asking, “Chairman Xu, if there is such a good method, we can sell our fruits! There’s so much fruit that goes rotten each year that it pains me dearly! Chairman Xu, you must come and build a canned fruit factory here! No matter what requests you have, I will agree to it all!”
Anklo gave a soft cough, stopping the excited head Wein from charging at Xu Yi.
“Chairman Xu, may I ask, what is the rubber processing plant that you mentioned?”
“Of course.” Xu Yi said with a faint smile, “Mister Anklo, I think that you should know that our Frestech Chamber of Commerce has a tire factory, right?”
“Un, I do.” Anklo nodded, “When I was in Banta City, I found that the horse carriages had all changed to tires. I even sat on some and found that after they changed to tires, the horse carriage was not only more steady, it also ran much faster. Actually, I was planning on buying a few tires to bring back and put them on my horse carriages, but there were too many things to do that I forgot about them.”
“It seems like you know about the benefits that tires bring.” Xu Yi revealed a faint smile, “Our company currently uses a special material to make the tires and this special material has similar characteristics as rubber. Because I couldn’t find rubber trees in the Lampuri Kingdom before, I had to use this special material. Now that I’ve seen all these rubber trees, I have to consider if I can replace the special material with rubber.”
“You can! Of course you can! You definitely can!” Head Wein shouted before Anklo could speak, “Chairman Xu, you just need to worry about opening the rubber processing plant. As long as you come, it will be the same as the canned fruit processing plant, we will prepare anything that you need!”
Anklo slightly knit his brows. Head Wein speaking before him made him a bit uncomfortable, but he didn’t say anything and just waited for Xu Yi’s reaction.
Xu Yi didn’t react, rather he just nodded with the same faint smile, “Since head Wein is this inviting, I certainly will not disappoint your good intentions. I will be seeing the duke later with mister Anklo and if everything goes smoothly, I will seriously consider this matter.”
Although Xu Yi didn’t give an affirmative response, head Wein treated it like Xu Yi had agreed. His eyes narrowed as he smiled, making him look quite funny.
Xu Yi’s replies were airtight, so Anklo naturally couldn’t say anything.
So this welcome dinner that wasn’t especially grand came to an end with a happy atmosphere.
After they finished dinner, it was already dark outside.
Xu Yi was a bit tired after sitting in a horse carriage running on the Stantine Duchy’s poorly made roads, so with the pretext of wanting to get some rest, he rejected head Wein and Anklo’s invitation to participate in a bonfire outside Wein City.
When he took a bath, he was surprised and not surprised to see that head Wein had sent two maids to take care of him.
Xu Yi wasn’t used to it at first, but the two maids explained that this was the lord head’s orders. If he didn’t let them take care of him, they would definitely be killed later. Xu Yi’s heart softened and he let them take care of things.
It was a good thing the two maids were trained, so they didn’t do anything when Xu Yi was taking a bath, otherwise Xu Yi wouldn’t have been able to stop himself.
After he finished his bath, the two maids naturally indicated they would go to bed with him.
Xu Yi thought about it and agreed to them coming to his room.
But when the two maids took off their clothes, they both felt faint at the same time and lost consciousness.
Xu Yi caught the two girls falling down and put them on the bed before covering them with the blankets. Agnes who had suddenly appeared in the room to use elven magic to knock out the two maids gave a nod, “Let’s go.”
Agnes looked at the two maids in bed and hesitated a bit before asking, “Chairman, the illusion magic can make them see illusions, but it won’t affect their bodies at all. If you really want to cheat others, I suggest you do something to their bodies.”
Xu Yi rolled his eyes, “How will I do that? Do you want me to make a move on them? What a joke.”
Agnes looked at Xu Yi and suddenly clapped her hands, “Oh, I remember now. Chairman, you said last time that because humans are shy, they don’t like having others nearby when copulating, right? It’s fine, I’m not a human.”
Xu Yi snappily looked at Agnes, “We humans are shy, but could it be you elves aren’t the same? I don’t believe that when you elves copulate, you like having others watch you!”
Agnes seriously shook her head, “We elves do not copulate like you humans.”
Xu Yi was stunned, this was his first time hearing this.
“Then how do you elves reproduce? Moreover, I’ve seen that you elves have the same marriage relationship as us humans.”
“The method that we use to give birth to descendants…..” Agnes tilted her head to think before shaking her head, “I don’t know. The elder said that I’m still young. I have to be at least a hundred before considering giving birth to descendants.”
Xu Yi rolled his eyes again, thinking that it really was a waste of time explaining this to an elf.
“Alright, let’s stop talking nonsense. You don’t need to care about putting the two girls here, I didn’t plan on hiding everything from them. Agnes, how is your Shadow Dive Spell now? Can you guarantee you can bring me along?”
Agnes hung her head in a depressed manner and said, “Not that well.”
“What does that mean? You don’t have confidence in bringing me out?” Xu Yi asked.
“It should be fine if it’s just going out of the manor.” Agnes replied.
“That’s fine. Let’s go.”
“Un.” Agnes replied as a faint green glow came from her body, surrounding Xu Yi as well.
In an instant, the two of them disappeared without a trace from the room.