Chapter 13 Problems with mass production
Xu Yi choked on a mouthful of food.
“Ke, ke, ke…...Ke…...Still, what did you say?”
“Go to your house.” Still felt a bit strange, but seeing the strange expressions on Xu Yi’s face, her mind turned and instantly understood what he meant. A faint blush covered her face and she couldn’t help sending a punch out, “What are you thinking!”
Xu Yi quickly waved his hand and shouted, “Alright, alright, I know what you mean. You want to go to my house and see the model piano, right? But I don’t understand, why are you in such a rush?”
Still stopped her hand and hesitated for a bit. She asked in an uncertain voice, “Xu Yi, that…..Can you sell me that model piano?”
“Sell it to you?” Xu Yi looked at Still with a confused gaze, “What do you need it for?”
“I have my uses.” Still ambiguously responded.
Xu Yi didn’t even think about it as he shook his head, “I’m afraid not. That thing is very important to me, I can’t sell it to you.”
It wasn’t Xu Yi rejecting on purpose. That model piano was made by him during his time in the Senkaiser School, it was also the first magical mechanical product he made in this world, so it was very sentimental to him. He wasn’t willing to give it to anyone.
“It’s like this……” Still was a bit disappointed before asking, “Then…..Can you teach me how you made it? Un, I originally wanted you to teach me how to make it since personally making something is worth more than buying something from someone else.”
Xu Yi looked at Still with a strange gaze, “Still, I want to ask something. Are you planning to give this to someone?”
“That’s right, I need to give someone a birthday present right now. Last time I saw your model piano, I felt it was quite novel and using it as a birthday present was quite good. What do you think? Can you teach me? Teach me how to make it, alright? I promise I will not treat you unjustly. As long as you help me, I will let grandfather treat you well from now on.”
Xu Yi stroked his chin. Forgetting about using this chance to advance a step further with Great Magician Camilla, just based on the fact that Still was such a beauty, it was normal for him to help her.
“That’s right, I want to ask something else. Is the person you’re giving the present to a man?”
A faint blush appeared on Still’s face and she angrily said, “Why do you care!”
Xu Yi laughed, thinking that he had been correct.
But Still was nineteen years old, she was in the spring of life. It wasn’t strange for her to like some boy.
“Alright, it’s no problem teaching you how to make it, but there’s no need to go to my house. It’s already getting late, it’s not convenient for a little girl like you to come to my house. From tomorrow onwards, come to the lab to find me after work, I’ll teach you there.”
Still looked at Xu Yi in surprise, “Xu Yi, I never thought you would be such an honest person.”
“Ke…...Do I look like a dishonest person?” Xu Yi angrily looked at Still, as he snappily asked, “That’s right, when do you need the present? I need to prepare my speed for teaching you.”
“There’s still half a month, there shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
“Un, that is enough time. That model piano’s crafting technique is not difficult, it just requires some fine details.”
After the two made an agreement, Xu Yi left after saying goodbye. He didn’t head home like normal, rather he went to the hospital first.
The little slave who was wrapped in bandages, looking no different from a mummy had woken up from their coma. Lying on the bed in the hospital, their eyes looked at the sealing and there was a trace of alarm and fear in them.
Hearing Xu Yi talking to the doctor, he finally reacted. He turned to look at Xu Yi and a deep curiosity appeared in his eyes.
“How do you feel?” Noticing the little slave look over, Xu Yi stopped talking to the doctor and asked him this in a gentle voice.
The little slave didn’t seem very adept at talking to others, so he only nodded after a bit of hesitation.
Xu Yi revealed a smile and didn’t press him. He asked the doctors a few things and after confirming that he was already good, he said to the little salve, “It’s good that nothing’s wrong. Your injuries haven’t healed yet, so just rest up for a few days here. I’ll come back for you when you are better.”
Xu Yi turned to leave when he felt a tug at the corner of his clothes. Turning back in a surprised manner, he found that the little slave had reached out and was tightly holding his clothes.
Xu Yi looked at the nervous and fearful little slave and instantly understood what he needed.
“What? You need someone to stay with you? I’m afraid I can’t, I’m very busy with work, I don’t have much time to stay with you. Relax, since I have already bought you, I won’t throw you away. You can just relax and stay here. The doctor has said that you can leave in a few days, it’s fine.”
The doctor on the side looked at Xu Yi with a strange gaze.
Bought? That meant the little fellow on the bed was a slave.
This Xu Yi really was a strange person, actually being this good to a slave.
It had to be known, this hospital was Banta City’s best hospital, the fees weren’t cheap at all.
The little slave tightly held Xu Yi’s clothes and the fear on his face became stronger. It was like he was afraid that Xu Yi would throw him away.
Seeing this appearance, Xu Yi could only give a helpless sigh. He turned to the doctor and asked, “Is it alright if I take him home like this? Will there be any danger to him?”
“This…...Actually he only has some external injuries, it isn’t too serious. There’s no problem taking him back now, as long as he eats his medicine on time and change his ointment every three days.”
“That’s good, I’ll take him home first then. Leave this bed for him, I will pay the fees.”
The doctor couldn’t help looking at the little slave in the bed.
This kind of treatment, not to mention a slave, some family’s children would find it hard to receive something similar.
Completely wrapped up, this slave that couldn’t move at all was brought back to Xu Yi’s home. He worked hard to get him to settle down and after feeding him his medicine, Xu Yi was covered with sweat.
Seeing the little slave sleep after eating his medicine, Xu Yi let out a long sigh, “Hu…..I told Butler Brunei that I wanted to buy him to take care of me, but now I’m the one taking care of him.”
Even while sleeping, the little slave had a pained expression on his face from time to time. It could be seen how difficult his life was normally.
Seeing this thin little face, Xu Yi let out a sigh and shook his head. He turned to to take a bath before heading back to study the Magic Array.
After having Wella’s help with the Magic Array, the research on the Variable Speed Magic Fan had become much faster. All that was left to do now was to find a suitable structure for this Magic Array.
Xu Yi wanted to use this second generation Magic Fan to greatly increase the power of the Magic Fan, but after researching, he found that there were two problems that couldn’t be avoided.
The first problem was materials.
The industrial system of the Sines Continent was close to zero. Although there were some artificial products, most of the time they used natural materials. Even if it was processed, it was a crude processing. The various kinds of materials were far from being able to compare to the super finely made materials of earth.
Taking the Magic Fan as an example, the core part of it was without a doubt the electric motor, but Xu Yi had used the Revolving Wind Array to replace that.
However, for the center bearing that was just as important as the electric motor, Xu Yi had not been able to find a suitable replacement currently.
On earth, they could use highly dense and highly wear resistant alloy materials on earth, but they could only use normal iron on the Sines Continent.
This world’s iron craftsmanship couldn’t compare to earth’s, the quality of the smelted iron wasn’t high. Even if they were hammered, it wouldn’t raise the quality that much higher.
When Xu Yi made the first generation Magic Fan, he didn’t care that much about this quality.
An electric fan on earth could last for around ten to forty thousand hours, but with Xu Yi’s current estimates, the first generation Magic Fans couldn’t last more than three thousand hours.
If each Magic Fan was used for eight hours during the three hottest months of the year, the first generation Magic Fan could only last four years before they broke.
If it was used all day like Heinz was doing, the two Magic Fans he had now would be broken by summer next year.
It could be said that the problem with the material was the most serious problem with the Magic Fans and it was something that Xu Yi couldn’t solve at all.
Materials was one of the most basic and complex components of an industrial system, it would involve many parts of the system. Even on earth, it would be very difficult to increase the level of materials, not to mention the Sines Continent with no industrial system at all.
The second problem was an issue with the production process.
There were no standard tools on the Sines Continent like on earth. When Xu Yi made the first generation Magic Fans, he could only find the blacksmiths in the forges and have them create something based on his design.
It could be said that these blacksmiths had pretty good technique for Banta City, but no matter how precise human hands were, they couldn’t compare to the precise machinery of earth. The outer cover for the Magic Fans they built always had a slight difference.
Although it didn’t seem like a big problem, Xu Yi was very clear that if they wanted to increase the output of Magic Fans, they needed to step into mass production. That meant that every part of the Magic Fans needed to be perfect, or at least it had to reach a level of being uniform.
“Cutting machines, slide tool rests, punch presses, drill presses, and boring lathes…..Ah, ah, ah, I want to die!”
Thinking about all the problems he needed to face when wanting to start mass production, Xu Yi gave a wail filled with pain.
Chapter 14 A hundred thousand bolt screws
Standing in front of the Volcano Blacksmith, Xu Yi had swept away the pain from last night and had become composed again.
“May I ask if Master Lanus is in?” Xu Yi came to the front door of the blacksmith and was hit with a wave of heat, almost forcing his words back into his mouth.
“Keng——”
A loud metal clashing sound came from the blacksmith, as if it took the place of a reply.
Xu Yi went in and he saw the forge of the blacksmith spew out flames. Beside the forge, there was a dwarf whose head was only to Xu Yi’s chest, but was several times bulkier than him currently holding a piece of red iron clamped in his left hand and with his right hand slamming down with a hammer that was two times the size of his head.
“Keng——”
“Keng——”
…...
As the hammer fell down again and again, there was a clear metal clanging sound that filled the blacksmith, that had a kind of charm to it.
Xu Yi watched this dwarf’s extremely rhythmic hammering for a while and couldn’t help secretly nodding.
Heinz really was right. If one was talking about blacksmithing, dwarves really were the best on the continent.
When he met Heinz today, Xu Yi discussed the issues he faced with him. Heinz didn’t have a method for the material problem, but in terms of craftsmanship, he did give a suggestion. It was to have Xu Yi search for Banta City’s most renowned blacksmithing master, which was this dwarf Lanus in front of him.
After being reminded by Heinz, Xu Yi finally remembered that while the Sines Continent was different from earth, it didn’t only have humans. There were also many races other than humans.
The dwarf clan was renowned as blacksmithing masters on the continent, publicly recognized as the race with the greatest skills in blacksmithing.
But normally dwarves lived in their own tribes and rarely went out, so there was only Lanus, this dwarven blacksmith master in the entirety of Banta City. Xu Yi actually never thought of him before.
Xu Yi patiently waited for a while and Lanus finally finished what he was currently forging. He threw the red piece he had already hammered into shape into the water and looked at Xu Yi.
“Hey, say what you want to say, I don’t want to beat around the bush.” While speaking, Lanus took a waterskin from the table and opened it, causing a strong wine scent to spew out.
Dwarves loved wine the most, the stronger the better.
“Master Lanus, I am here to ask for your help in making something.” Xu Yi took out a blueprint from his chest.
“What is it?” Lanus raised his head back to take large mouthfuls while taking the blueprint to look it over. He gave a cold snort and threw the blueprint away, as he angrily said, “Who told you that I, Lanus would help people make this kind of broken nails?”
Xu Yi laughed, as he picked up the blueprint from the ground, “Master Lanus, although this thing is a nail, it is better to call them screw bolts.”
“I don’t care if it’s a screw bolt or not, anyway I, Lanus will never make this kind of little toy! You can leave!” Lanus waved his bulky arm and turned to leave. He looked like he wasn’t willing to acknowledge Xu Yi at all.
“Are you not making it? Or can you not make it?”
When Xu Yi’s voice fell, Lanus quickly turned around and pointed at Xu Yi as he shouted, “Human! Let me tell you, don’t think that Lanus is someone stupid you can goad into action! I said I won’t do it, so I won’t do it!”
“Oh, if you won’t make the screw bolt, will you make this? This thing is not a small thing.” Xu Yi took out another blueprint.
Lanus glared at Xu Yi before calmly taking the blueprint.
This time he didn’t throw away the blueprint, rather he honestly looked over it.
After a while, Lanus slowly looked up at Xu Yi with a face filled with curiosity, “Hey, little human, where did you get this blueprint? Why have I never seen this before?”
“It was made by me. How about it? Master Lanus, can you make it?” Xu Yi asked.
Lanus looked at the blueprint and carefully thought it over. His face suddenly turned red and he gave a snort, “This was just randomly thought of by you, how could it be made? I say, brat, did you deliberately come here to play with me? If so, scram for me now!”
Xu Yi laughed. There was a large scale excavator on this blueprint, it was even hard to make on earth, trying to make it with human labor was basically a fool’s dream.
But he certainly wasn’t here to play with Lanus. Although he saw Lanus becoming angry, he looked down at the blueprint and said with a serious face, “Master Lanus, you are a blacksmithing master. Although this thing can’t be made right now, you should know that this wasn’t randomly thought of by me. This thing is the main reason I came to find you.”
Lanus gave a snort, but his expression relaxed a bit.
Actually he could see that Xu Yi was not lying.
Although the thing on the blueprint seemed like it was fantasy, there were exhaustive details written for every part of the blueprint, even having detailed and precise parameters. It could be seen that this was not made on an impulse.
And based on his inference, he could tell that it wasn’t impossible to make this thing, only it couldn’t be accomplished with the Sines Continent’s current blacksmithing level.
“Alright, brat, just what do you want me to make?” Lanus couldn’t help asking.
Xu Yi took out the first blueprint.
“I’m not joking with you, this time I really hope that you can help me make this bolt screw.”
This time Lanus didn’t fly into a rage, but he carefully looked over the blueprint.
When he looked it over, he saw that there was a little toy drawn on the blueprint and threw it away. Now that he was carefully looking over it, he found that although this little toy called the screw bolt was small, it was actually not simple.
Looking it over, he found that this thing was like a normal nail, but looking it over carefully, he found that although it was like the nail, this screw bolt had fine lines all over it. There was no difference in the spacing between lines and it curved all the way down. It looked very precise and complicated, it was not something a normal smooth nail could compare to.
Lanus looked at it for a while and was a bit confused, “Hey, kid, why did you make such a complicated pattern for a nail? To make it look better?”
“Of course not.” Xu Yi took out another blueprint for Lanus with a smile.
The blueprint had plans for the second generation’s Variable Speed Magic Fan, but it was only a part of the Magic Fan’s outer casing. It included the screw bolt and nut part connecting the outer casing.
Lanus took the blueprint and looked it over, immediately understanding the mysteries contained within.
“So it was something like this! This is great! With these holes, as long as these screw bolts are twisted firmly, it will be fixed! Even taking it out is very convenient! Hey, kid, the person who thought of this is simply a genius!”
As a blacksmithing master, Lanus could tell with a single glance that this screw bolt would have a large effect on the blacksmithing industry.
He had looked down on this little screw at first, but seeing the cap nut and the screw bolt hole, his perspective of the bolt screw greatly changed.
Looking up to see Xu Yi’s faint smile, Lanus was stunned, “Was this thing something you thought of?”
“It was me.” Xu Yi admitted without any politeness, “How about it? Master Lanus, are you willing to make this screw bolt now?”
Lanus looked at the blueprint and nodded, “Based on your creative talent, I will make an exception and help you. Tell me, how many of these screw bolts do you need?”
Xu Yi raised one finger at him with a smile.
“It can’t be one, right? Is it ten? Un…...I’ll make a mold first, it should take around a week.” Lamus thought about it before speaking.
“Not just ten.” Xu Yi shook his head with a smile.
“Then a hundred? There’s isn’t much of a difference. As long as a mold is made, a hundred isn’t that different from ten. It should take around ten days.”
“He, he, Master Lanus, you’re mistaken. It isn’t a hundred either, it’s a hundred thousand.”
“A hundred thousand?!” Master Lanus’ eyes were already quite big and they were staring right at Xu Yi right now, wishing that he could spit in Xu Yi’s face, “I thought that you were seriously here for my help, but I never thought you were playing me! A hundred thousand! You want me to spend the rest of my life making these damn screw bolts?
Xu Yi wiped his face and his smile didn’t change as he took out another blueprint.
“It’s a waste for a master blacksmith like you to spend your life on something small like the screw bolts. Actually, I came to find you this time was to have you help me make this Magic Thread Rolling Machine.”
“Magic Thread Rolling Machine? What damn thing is that?”
Lanus curiously took the blueprint and from a single glance, his face became serious.
“This…..This thing is like this……”
“How about it? Do you have any confidence in making this?”
Lanus didn’t immediately respond this time and looked at the blueprint for a while. After thinking for a bit, he slowly replied, “I need to research this, I can’t make it that quickly. That’s right, kid, what is this thing used for?”
Xu Yi pointed at the screw bolt blueprint, “It’s to make screw bolts.”
“Oh? No wonder it’s like this.” Lanus nodded in understanding.
“Master Lanus, if possible, I hope you can make this machine as quickly as possible. Of course, I definitely will provide a reward you are satisfied with.
Lanus waved his arm, “We’ll talk about the payment later, first tell me this, what is with this toy? For such a complicated thing, there are many things that aren’t clearly written on your blueprint. How do you want me to make this?”
Xu Yi couldn’t help secretly revealing a smile. He said in his heart that this Magic Thread Rolling Machine was something that he made with the Sines Continent’s situation in mind. If he were to draw the Thread Rolling Machine from earth without changing a thing, even if it was a dwarven blacksmithing master renowned across the Sines Continent, he would definitely be stunned seeing it.