Chapter 31 Not playing with him
“Lord Baron, Xu Yi has left the City Lord’s Manor.” Butler Brunei respectfully reported this to Baron Belil Stagg.
“Un.” Baron Belil gave a slight nod to show he heard.
If Xu Yi saw the current Baron Belil, he would definitely be very surprised.
The current Baron Belil was sitting up straight with a calm look on his face along with a confident smile. It wasn’t like that careless appearance Xu Yi had saw, it was like he was a completely different person.
After elegantly sipping his tea, Baron Belil thought for a bit before saying to Butler Brunei, “He should have been in the City Lord’s Manor for around half an hour? It seems like his relationship with Lord Count Sean is pretty good.”
Butler Brunei nodded, “Yes. Count Sean greatly favours the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, openly showing his support for Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. If it wasn’t like this, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce wouldn’t have developed to this degree in Banta City.”
“I think that for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce develops this quickly, my beloved big brother Leslie should have played a large role.” Baron Belil said with a faint smile.
Hearing Baron Belil mention his previous master, Butler Brunei lowered his head and said nothing.
Baron Belil looked at him and revealed a faint smile, “Butler Brunei, big brother Leslie had you stay here because he wanted you to watch over Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce for him, right?”
Butler Brunei hesitated a bit before seriously replying, “The Lord Viscount never said anything like that. He just felt that since I knew the situation well, it would make it easier for whoever the family sent to take over.”
“Un, you have indeed helped me quite a bit during this time. If you weren’t big brother Leslie’s subordinate, I really would want to keep you.” Baron Belil praised Butler Brunei before changing the topic, “But Butler Brunei, because of your attitude towards Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, I can’t actually keep you here. If you accidentally make a mistake because of your thoughts, it may not just be bad luck and could also implicate me or even our entire family.”
Butler Brunei looked at Baron Belil in surprise, “Lord Baron, this…..isn’t it too exaggerated? I am just a small butler, how could my attitude have any effect?”
“Although you are just a small butler, if you stay here, you will represent my big brother Leslie. Big brother Leslie is the eldest son of our Stagg Family and the only successor of the Lord Due, so his attitude will represent our Stagg Family’s attitude. So based on this relation, your attitude to many people can be represented as our Stagg Family’s attitude.”
Butler Brunei knit his brows, “That means…..The Lord Baron is worried that others will misunderstand through my attitude towards the Frestech Chamber of Commerce that the Stagg Family favours the Frestech Chamber of Commerce?”
“That’s right.”
“Then I’m even more confused. The Frestech Chamber of Commerce is a pretty decent company and Xu Yi is quite smart. If they are taken it, it would help the family very much, so why is Lord Baron doing this?”
Baron Belil looked at Butler Brunei. Butler Brunei had served the Stagg Family since he was young and now he had served them for close to sixty years. He was normally very cautious person and didn’t speak much, but now that he had asked this much for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, it confirmed many questions in his heart. It showed that he indeed had a favourable impression of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce or rather Xu Yi.
If his attitude represented Leslie’s attitude, it means that Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce were worthy of this favour.
If it wasn’t because of the family’s choice, he might really try to win them over.
After thinking about it, Baron Belil answered, “The reason is very simple, it’s because Xu Yi is too close to her highness queen Seveni.”
Butler Brunei was stunned. His face changed and after considering it, he couldn’t help lowering his voice and carefully asking, “The Lord Duke…...has made his decision?”
Baron Belil sipped his tea and looked up at Butler Brunie before casually saying, “That is not something you’re qualified to ask, you just need to do your own things.”
Butler Brunei’s heart skipped a beat before he took a step back with his head down and didn’t say another word.
###
The sun was still high in the sky when he left the City Lord’s Manor, it was currently noon. Xu Yi looked up at the sky before heading to the research facility to the south of the city.
He didn’t choose to take the horse carriage before because he wanted to use the walk to gather his thoughts.
He didn’t receive any accurate information from his meeting with Count Sean just now.
After all, in such a short amount of time, Count Sean couldn’t receive any more information to give Xu Yi a more accurate judgement about Baron Belil.
Although he was very shocked that Baron Belil suddenly raised the rent to a hundred thousand and even cursed Baron Belil as crazy, Count Sean couldn’t do much about this.
In the end, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s factory was on the Stagg Family’s land and it all depended on the Stagg Family.
Now that the Stagg Family had sent Baron Belil to control this land, then he made the decisions for this land and even the king couldn’t question his decisions.
The only thing that could change the situation was the contract the two signed last year.
This contract was signed with Viscount Leslie, stipulating that the land was being rented for three years and it would be fifty gold coins each year.
But now Baron Belil cancelled that contract and arbitrarily raised the amount to a shocking hundred thousand gold coins, which was a serious violation of the contract.
The people of the Sines Continent cared very much about contracts. If Xu Yi was to reveal this, the Stagg Family would be blamed by countless people and Baron Belil would be cursed by everyone.
When Count Sean asked Xu Yi if he wanted to announce this matter, Xu Yi considered it before shaking his head.
The Stagg Family was one of the top families of the Lampuri Kingdom, having immense power and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was just a small company. If this matter was revealed, although it would make countless people blame the Stagg Family and even make Baron Belil take back this decision, allowing the Frestech Chamber of Commerce stay on the land as per the contract, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would surely offend the Stagg Family.
For the currently small and weak Frestech Chamber of Commerce, this was pretty much seeking death.
Xu Yi wasn’t just some young kid in his twenties, he wouldn’t choose this dumb decision just to vent some anger.
Based on the advice Viscount Leslie gave him before leaving and Count Sean’s analysis, the first thing Xu Yi needed to do was work hard on developing the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
When the Frestech Chamber of Commerce became stronger, there were many things that could be easily solved.
So after considering it, Xu Yi made the final decision on this matter…..He would leave that land and stop playing with him!
Baron Belil raised the hundred thousand gold coins a year rent simply to drive the Frestech Chamber of Commerce away because it was impossible for Xu Yi to agree to such an exaggerated increase.
Although right now, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce might make an annual revenue of over one million gold coins, to pay a hundred thousand gold coins for a trivial one hectare of land was something they couldn’t accept.
Not to mention that Xu Yi felt this one hectare was already restricting the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s development, so he contacted the king through Seveni to rent a large piece of land.
Now that Baron Belil wanted to chase him away, Xu Yi used this chance to start his plan ahead of time.
Although the timing would be a bit hasty, since Viscount Leslie told Xu Yi he would be leaving, Xu Yi had already expected this day and made a series of preparations, so he wouldn’t be caught off guard.
When Xu Yi went to see Count Sean, other than to tell him Baron Belil’s unreasonable request, he mainly went to tell him his decision.
Towards Xu Yi’s decision, Count Sean was a bit surprised. He mentioned that he could negotiate with Baron Belil for Xu Yi and tried to keep Xu Yi here, but Xu Yi steeled his heart and turned down Count Sean’s help.
In the end, Count Sean could only helplessly agree to Xu Yi’s decision. He mentioned that he could provide Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce some help to make it easier for them to relocate.
After discussing everything with Count Sean, Xu Yi didn’t waste time as he quickly prepared for the relocation.
Although the research facility in the city wouldn’t be affected, as part of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, he still had to inform them to have them prepare their hearts.
He was thinking about everything that needed to be done, as Xu Yi slowly walked forward. When he had a general plan of all the work in his mind, he was close to the alley the research facility was in.
Xu Yi stopped thinking and when he was about to go in, he saw a familiar figure standing in a corner out of the corner of his eye. 𝚋𝚎𝚍𝚗𝚘𝚟ｅｌ．𝚌ｏ𝚖
Looking over, he found that person was Rem.
After seeing this, Xu Yi knit his brows and became a bit doubtful.
Other than Rem, there was someone that Xu Yi didn’t recognize.
What made Xu Yi suspicious was that Rem and this person didn’t look normal, rather they were very close together, almost sticking to each other. They were trying to talk as softly as possible and they hid their expressions, as if they were doing something that couldn’t be revealed.
Xu Yi was a bit curious. If this person was Rem’s friend, since it was the research facility’s lunch break, it was very normal for him to see this friend or go out for a meal. But based on their appearance, it really was suspicious.
Looking around and finding no way to approach them, Xu Yi gave up the thought of eavesdropping on them. He took a deep look at the stranger and after memorizing his appearance, he headed into the yard.
Chapter 32 Sandton Manor
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s two factories in Banta City were the large workshop covering over three thousand square meters and the smaller workshop covering over a thousand square meters. Adding in the office and the store rooms, they took up a total of over five thousand square meters.
Calculating all of this, over half of the hectare of land was already being used, leaving not enough space for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to develop.
So when Xu Yi announced that they were moving, everyone in the company was shocked. But after they listened to Xu Yi analysis, they agreed with his decision.
Of course, there were still some complaints.
Like when Camby heard Baron Belil’s request, he spat out in disdain, “Pei! Humans really don’t keep their words!”
As for the human leaders of the company led by Xu Yi, they could only lower their heads and not say a thing.
Moving an entire factory was a very large and complex task, especially with the various production magic machines of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, where any of them weighed over several hundred kilograms, or even reaching a ton. It wasn’t an easy thing to move them.
It was a good thing that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had several hundred dwarves. With the strength of these dwarves that surpassed normal humans, they really lifted these machines that would normally require heavy machinery on earth to lift into the horse carriages.
Otherwise if they relied purely on manpower, it would waste quite a bit of effort to move these magic machines.
For this relocation, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce not only moved all their employees, they also hired all the free labour in Banta City.
But this was far from enough. Count Sean even sent five hundred Banta City guards to help out with this matter.
Watching these dwarves and large men with their shirts off, sweating as they lifted these large machines into the horse carriages, Xu Yi couldn’t help feeling a bit of regret.
If he had invented some heavy magic machinery before this, perhaps it wouldn’t have been this troublesome.
Of course, no one expected Baron Belil’s sudden request. So even if Xu Yi had prepared his heart for this, it was impossible for him to prepare everything.
Right now, he could only urge everyone to pay as much attention as they moved all the large machines to reduce their losses as much as possible.
“Not only will there be losses because of these machines being moved, just your Frestech Chamber of Commerce stopping their production for a few days will cause serious losses.” Chairman Moon Cruise of the Amrit Chamber of Commerce came to watch after hearing this news, but he gave a sigh as he said this in a pitiful voice, “I wanted to urge you to quickly finish those Magic Concrete Mixers, but now it seems like it’ll take some time.”
“There’s no other way, I can’t expect things suddenly happening.” Xu Yi said with a shrug.
Chairman Cruise looked at Xu Yi and suddenly lowered his voice to mysteriously say, “Hey, chairman Xu, I’ve that your Frestech Chamber of Commerce is suddenly deciding to move because you’re being forced out by Baron Belil?”
Xu Yi looked at him and calmly said, “Chairman Cruise, you can’t speak nonsense. This is a decision that our company made for our own development, it isn’t related to Baron Belil at all.”
Seeing Xu Yi’s expressionless face, chairman Cruise laughed and didn’t ask anything else.
Actually the people of Banta City already knew about this matter in their hearts, but since Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce remained silent, others wouldn’t take the initiative to offend Baron Belil or even the Stagg Family.
If it wasn’t for the Amrit Chamber of Commerce being close to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and chairman Cruise having a good relationship with Xu Yi, he wouldn’t have asked this much.
“That’s right, chairman Xu, I still haven’t asked you, but where are you planning to go?” After a moment of silence, chairman Cruise couldn’t help asking this.
“I’ll be following my original plan and moving to the Falling Rain Valley. Once it is done, I won’t need to worry about the land for the factory at all. But chairman Cruise, has only half the road to the Falling Rain Valley been finished?” Xu Yi asked back.
Chairman Cruise looked at him, “What? You think we’re going slow? This is the fastest speed with me personally supervising, we can’t go any faster. You care too much about quality, so if I raise the speed, we can’t keep the same quality. It would be strange if you didn’t come find me for trouble later.”
Xu Yi waved his hand with a smile, “No, no, no, you’re misunderstanding, I don’t find it slow. On the contrary, only a month has passed and you’ve already finished close to half of it, so it is actually quite fast. So fast that I’m worried about the quality of the road. Of course, I believe in chairman Cruise and the Amrit Chamber of Commerce, I believe that you won’t be careless with the road’s quality. The reason I asked this was actually to say that I don’t have a way to safely bring everyone to the Falling Rain Valley. You think that on those broken uneven gravel roads, can we transport everyone there safely?”
Chairman Cruise shook his head without any hesitation, “It’s definitely impossible. It is spring and it rains quite a bit in a year, since those roads are made of dirt, if you move onto them, the wheels of the horse carriage will sink in and you won’t be able to move at all.
“That is right. Although we have to move this time, we don’t need to move far. Rather we can go to the Sandton Manor that isn’t that far away.” Xu Yi said.
“Sandton Manor?” Chairman Cruise thought about it before looking at Xu Yi in surprise, “If my memory isn’t wrong, that Sandton Manor was the one you bought three months ago? Could it be that you expected this to happen three months ago?”
“It would be boasting if I said that I predicted this to happen. But…..It isn’t wrong to prepare beforehand.” Xu Yi said with a smile, “There’s a temporary workshop built in that manor and although it is simple, we can maintain our normal production without any problems. So chairman Cruise, you don’t need to worry, your Magic Concrete Mixers will not be delayed. Don’t forget, the river construction project and the road to the Falling Rain Valley needs the help of those Magic Concrete Mixers and these two projects are very important to me.”
Chairman Cruise looked at Xu Yi like it was his first time meeting him.
Sandton Manor was Viscount Sandton’s private manor. Because financial problems occured with the Viscount Sandton’s family, Viscount Sandton held a public auction for this manor three months ago, selling it to Xu Yi for a high price of three hundred and seventy thousand gold coins.
Everyone in Banta City thought Xu Yi was crazy back then.
Although this Sandton Manor was facing a mountain and beside a river, so it was very peaceful, making it a good choice for a vacation manor. It was still over fifteen kilometers away from Banta City, so it was rather remote.
Moreover the manor was less than two hectares, so even if the interior was decorated quite well by Viscount Sandton, it was not worth over three hundred and seventy thousand gold coins no matter what.
According to the price among the Banta City nobles, the manor should be worth around two hundred and fifty thousand gold coins.
But at the public auction of the manor, Xu Yi had suddenly come in and placed his bet.
Perhaps they were not satisfied that an ordinary merchant like Xu Yi wanted to buy this manor, so some nobles bid against Xu Yi, driving up the price. In the end, it reached a shocking amount of three hundred and seventy thousand gold coins.
Three months ago, everyone’s estimates of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was no more than five hundred thousand gold coins. For Xu Yi to suddenly take out three hundred and seventy thousand gold coins to buy this manor, naturally everyone thought that Xu Yi had gone crazy.
Even if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had popular products and high profits, causing the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to have more finances than normal companies, but to suddenly take out three hundred and seventy thousand gold coins, this must have emptied the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s coffers.
Doing something like this, to the other merchants and companies, this was simply stupid.
Even if people thought that Xu Yi wanted to buy some land for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, this price was a bit high in the end, so they didn’t think it was a smart choice.
However, Xu Yi still insisted on doing this.
Chairman Cruise had been very confused back then and did his best to persuade Xu Yi, but he was powerless since Xu Yi had steeled his heart and didn’t listen to his advice, as he bought this manor.
But three months later, when the Frestech Chamber of Commerce faced the difficult problem of having to move, chairman Cruise suddenly found that Xu Yi’s decision to buy the manor was a very smart decision.
Actually if it was just purchasing the manor, this two hectare manor was only worth at most a hundred thousand gold coins, or not even that much.
But for Viscount Sandton who was lacking funds, when he sold this manor, he also sold the territory that this manor was on which was rarely seen.
Because the Lampuri Kingdom had never given land since it was formed, so all land was very precious for nobles and they wouldn’t easily take them out to sell.
Viscount Sandton really had no other choice, otherwise he wouldn’t have made this decision.
Adding in the fact that the land was also being sold, this manor’s price suddenly went from a hundred thousand gold coins to around two hundred and fifty thousand gold coins.
It was because of this that Xu Yi encountered such large obstacles when he tried to buy this manor, spending over a hundred thousand more than the estimate to get it.
Of course, right now, that auction was very cost effective for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
With a piece of land that belonged to them, not only did it have a strong symbolic significance, it also meant that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce could give up the factory on the land controlled by the Stagg Family.
At least they wouldn’t be forced to move again because of a casual word from Baron Belil.
Thinking of this, chairman Cruise couldn’t help revealing a look of praise as he looked at Xu Yi.
With a chairman with such foresight and having such decisiveness in critical matters, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would definitely develop more smoothly than people imagined.
And for the Amrit Chamber of Commerce, being able to have this kind of partner was a matter that was worth rejoicing over.
Chairman Cruise turned over and said with a faint smile, “Chairman Xu can be assured, not only do you attach great importance to these two projects, I also attach great importance to them. If our Amrit Chamber of Commerce can finish these two products, it means that our Amrit Chamber of Commerce has completed two projects that other companies didn’t have the techniques to complete. Just based on this, we should thank chairman Xu from the bottom of our hearts. If it wasn’t for your selfless help, our Amrit Chamber of Commerce definitely wouldn’t have this chance or advantage.”
“Chairman Cruise is too polite, this is also your Amrit Chamber of Commerce working hard to seize this opportunity.” Xu Yi said.
Chairman Cruise laughed and was about to say a few more polite things to Xu Yi to increase their relationship when he suddenly saw several horse carriages slowly approaching.
A horse carriage in the middle had the mark of the City Lord’s Manor and the one behind it had the mark of the Stagg Family.
Chairman Cruise immediately closed his mouth and pointed in the direction of the horse carriage for Xu Yi.
Xu Yi turned to look and revealed a faint smile, “The Lord City Lord has also invited Baron Belil, is he planning to laugh at my present distressed manner?”