Chapter 55 Difference in quality
“I’ve already investigated this. In the Magic Fan factory of the Leo Chamber of Commerce, they also have five similar magic machines……” Seeing Xu Yi being lost in thought, chairman Farsak added these words that had implied meaning.
Xu Yi looked at him and calmly said, “Chairman Farsak, please speak if you have something to say.”
Chairman Farsak’s round face didn’t have the same incomparably kind smile from before. His little eyes stared right at Xu Yi and shot out two beams.
“Chairman Xu, although it wasn’t stated clearly in the contract you signed with my company, if your company does sell magic machines to other companies in Saltan City, shouldn’t you have informed me first?”
Xu Yi slightly knit his brows. Our Frestech Chamber of Commerce sells magic machines to begin with, do I need your permission to sell them?
Of course, Xu Yi was very clear on the fact that while this was a very common business practice on earth, it was not the same on the Sines Continent.
After thinking for a bit, Xu Yi pushed down on chairman Farsak’s hand, signaling him to be patient. Then he reached out and rubbed the foundation of the Magic Fan.
After a while, Xu Yi revealed an understanding smile that was already expected.
“Chairman Farsak, first I need to strictly remind you, the magic machines are magic machines that our Frestech Chamber of Commerce has independently studied. As long as others give us a price, we have the right to sell to anyone……” Seeing that chairman Farsak’s face sunk, Xu Yi continued with a smile, “Of course, since we are in a cooperation, then as a partner, I naturally have to consider the benefits of your Farsak Chamber of Commerce. So, in a normal situation, we would not sell the magic machines needed to produce the Magic Fan to any other companies in Saltan City.”
“Then what is the deal with this Magic Fan?” Chairman Farsak pointed at the Magic Fan in Xu Yi’s hand with a frown, “If it was made purely from manual labour, each Magic Fan would take a very long time to make and have a very high cost. But the price of the Leo Chamber of Commerce’s Magic Fan is actually ten silver coins lower than the ones from our Farsak Chamber of Commerce. If they didn’t make them with the magic machines, I can guarantee that the Leo Chamber of Commerce will bleed themselves to death. Of course, I don’t believe those fellows at the Leo Chamber of Commerce would be so foolish.”
“Chairman Farsak, I think you have neglected something.” Xu Yi said with a smile, “Since the Magic Fans can be imitated, then the magic machines can also be imitated.”
“Imitations of the magic machines?” Chairman Farsak’s small eyes suddenly popped out, “That is impossible! Those five magic machines are very complicated, how could it be possible they were copied?”
Xu Yi gave a shrug, “Although I don’t want to admit it, this is the truth if my guesses aren’t wrong. The five magic machines the Leo Chamber of Commerce you mentioned had, it should be imitations made by them.”
“But…...But are the magic machines that easy to imitate?” Chairman Farsak looked at Xu Yi, as if he didn’t believe him.
“Of course it’s not easy, but that doesn’t mean that it is impossible.”
Xu Yi casually picked up a tool and very easily dismantled the Magic Fan in his hands into components.
It was like he had expected, this Magic Fan not only had the same outer shell as the Frestech Brand Magic Fan, but even the inner components were basically the same.
In other words, this Magic Fan was a complete knockoff of the Frestech Brand Magic Fan.
“Can you see any problems?” Seeing Xu Yi’s actions, chairman Farsak couldn’t help asking.
Xu Yi picked up an axle that supported the fan blades to look over before laughing, “I can see many problems. Chairman Farsak, this Leo Chamber of Commerce shouldn’t have sold this Magic Fan for more than half a month, right?”
Chairman Farsak was stunned. After thinking about it, he said with a nod, “That’s right, it hasn’t passed half a month yet. How did you know?”
Xu Yi pointed at the components on the ground, “They told me.”
“They?” Chairman Farsak looked at the components scattered on the ground and didn’t understand.
Xu Yi looked over at chairman Farsak, “You should have brought the Magic Fan your company produced on your trip this time, right?”
“I did.” Chairman Farsak took out another Magic Fan from his giant bag.
Xu Yi looked it over and suddenly knit his brows, “Chairman Farsak, when your company made this Magic Fan, did it strictly follow the standard that I set?”
Chairman Farsak was stunned before saying in an aggrieved voice, “Of course! Chairman Xu, this thing was developed by your Frestech Chamber of Commerce, how could I not follow the standard you set?”
“I can’t see it?” Xu Yi gave a snort. Looking around, he saw a Frestech Brand Magic Fan that was spinning in the corner and he brought it over. He put it beside the Magic Fan chairman Farsak brought and filled them both with a Magic Crystal of the same size and quality, pressing the switch at the same time.
Two blue lights appeared and the blades of the two Magic Fans began moving, making the same weng, weng sound.
Xu Yi brought chairman Farsak in front of the Magic Fan to test the wind being blown out before suddenly looking over and asking, “Can you see it?”
Chairman Farsak’s round face already had an ugly expression on it.
Although these two Magic Fans looked exactly the same from the outside, once they were activated, there were some visible differences.
First was the toggle speed.
As soon as the switch for the Frestech Brand Magic Fan was pressed, it only took the blink of an eye for the fan blades to begin moving, blowing out its cool breeze.
As for the Magic Fan the Farsak Chamber of Commerce made, it took a whole five seconds before the fan blades started moving. It took a while before one could feel the cool breeze.
Next was the stability of the fan.
The fan blade speed of the Frestech Brand Magic Fan was set and the naked eye couldn’t see any fluctuations.
As for the Farsak Chamber of Commerce’s Magic Fan, it slowed down from time to time, like something was hindering the movement of the fan blades.
Other than these two points, for the Frestech Brand Magic Fan, it only made a faint weng, weng sound while it spun. As for the Farsak Chamber of Commerce’s Magic Fan, not only did the blades make a large sound, there was also a ka, ka sound that rang out from time to time. After the blades spun for a while, the noises would become even louder and the entire Magic Fan would shake, making people believe that the blades would fall out of its frame.
“Chairman Farsak, if you were a customer and these two Magic Fans were in front of you, which one would you choose to buy?” Xu Yi asked.
Chairman Farsak’s face had sunken and the fat on his face twitched. He finally revealed a bitter smile and replied, “Of course I would choose your Frestech Brand Magic Fan.” Without waiting for Xu Yi to speak, he then asked, “But chairman Xu, why is this? I have been very strict with the Magic Fan and have strictly followed the guidelines you have set during the manufacturing process. Even the five component making magic machines were bought from you, so why is there such a difference in the end?”
“It’s very simple. The difference lies in two points. One is material and the other is workers.” Xu Yi stretched out two fingers which he shook and suddenly asked, “Chairman Farsak, the skilled workers that I sent you, you haven’t placed any importance on them at all, right?”
“How could that be! Those five people you’ve sent are there to teach the manufacturing process, how could they not be important?” Chairman Farsak raised his voice, “Since they came, I have fed them good food and drinks all day, not treating them like slaves at all.”
Xu Yi shook his head, “Can you guarantee that the people under you didn’t treat them as slaves?”
“This……” Chairman Farsak’s voice stopped before he said in an uncertain voice, “I have strictly told them before, so they shouldn’t…...Ke, chairman Xu, you also said material, right? I don’t understand, isn’t it just iron being used to make the Magic Fans, is there a difference?”
Xu Yi gave a sigh. If this fellow were to know that there were over ten kinds of different pig iron alone, how many chunks of fat would fall off his face from shock?
Of course, for this Sines Continent that had an incomparably weak industrial system, even if Xu Yi said all this, no one would be able to understand him.
Feeling helpless, he could only slowly explain it in words that chairman Farsak would be able to understand.
“Even with the same kind of iron, there are still differences……”
Chapter 56 Hope
In the end, chairman Farsak left Banta City feeling very satisfied.
The reason why he could leave assured naturally was not just because Xu Yi had explained the problem with the Magic Fan to him. He had also promised to also send several other skilled workers to help him increase the quality of his Farsak Chamber of Commerce’s Magic Fan.
To a well qualified merchant like chairman Farsak, something that could satisfy him naturally brought him enough benefits.
To obtain these benefits, he had signed a new contract between his Farsak Chamber of Commerce and Xu Yi’s Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
This contract was for an even deeper cooperation compared to before.
According to this contract, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would provide more complete technical support for the Farsak Chamber of Commerce. At the same time, when the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had a new magic machine product available, the Farsak Chamber of Commerce would have the rights to cooperate with them first.
For example, on chairman Farsak’s trip to Banta City this time, he had heard about the small Magic Harvester. Other than coming here for the matter of the Magic Fan, his main reason was to collect information on the small Magic Harvester from Xu Yi.
Xu Yi very cleanly gave him all the information on the small Magic Harvester, but he rejected the proposition of helping the Farsak Chamber of Commerce set up a small Magic Harvester production line.
Even if chairman Farsak was dissatisfied with this, Xu Yi was unable to help him.
The small Magic Harvester was not the same as the Magic Fan, the requirement in terms of forging technique was increased by several times. Currently, even in the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, only the dwarves could complete this work.
Xu Yi had not invented a magic machine that could replace manpower in making the small Magic Harvester and of course he couldn’t just give these dwarves to other people, so naturally he had no way of helping chairman Farsak set up a production line.
Chairman Farsak’s request couldn’t be fulfilled, so he could only take a step back. He proposed to Xu Yi that they would be the only distributor of the small Magic Harvester in Saltan City.
To this request, Xu Yi agreed right away.
With the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s current scale and fame, it wasn’t a realistic idea for them to break into the Saltan City market. Rather to enter Saltan City through this chairman Farsak who had enough strength and status would be much easier.
Letting chairman Farsak represent the small Magic Harvester, even if they lost a portion of the profits, it could allow the Frestech Brand and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce gain fame in Saltan City. In short, it was a quite efficient deal.
Other than this, Xu Yi firmly refused chairman Farsak’s suggestion of being the only buyer for the magic machines.
Even if this rejection made chairman Farsak very dissatisfied, Xu Yi didn’t plan on making any concessions.
He was not just considering Saltan City’s side, he was also considering from a long term angle.
If he agreed to this request from chairman Farask, all the products of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would be limited in the future.
With the precedent of chairman Farsak, if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce wanted to sell their products to the entire Sines Continent, it would be hard to reject other merchants if they came with the same request.
Like this, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would be greatly limited and would even be controlled by others.
This was something that Xu Yi could never accept.
Chairman Farsak wanted to keep struggling and even implied some vague threats in his voice, but Xu Yi’s tone was firm and didn’t allow a single concession, so chairman Farsak was helpless in the end,
After all, there was only the Frestech Chamber of Commerce that produced the magic machines right now and chairman Farsak saw enormous benefits from this. If he really had a falling out with Xu Yi from this negotiation and lost the chance to work with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, it would be a great loss to his Farsak Chamber of Commerce.
So after two days of back and forth negotiation, they finally reached an agreement.
Although there were many conditions from chairman Farsak that wasn’t accepted, from the negotiations, he could tell that the Farsak Chamber of Commerce would earn large benefits from this, so naturally he was satisfied when he left.
Compared to the relatively satisfied chairman Farsak, Xu Yi’s heart was not that relaxed and happy.
After sending chairman Farsak off, Xu Yi returned to the office. He looked at the Magic Fan on the desk that kept turning and fell into deep thought.
The Magic Fan that was turning now was not the Frestech Brand and was not the Farsak Brand, rather it was the Magic Fan produced by the Leo Chamber of Commerce.
It had to be said, the quality of this Magic Fan was definitely not high. Not only could it not compare to the Frestech Brand Magic Fan, it was even a bit worse than the Farsak Chamber of Commerce’s Magic Fan.
Over the two days he negotiated with chairman Farsak, Xu Yi had placed the Magic Fan on his table to turn without stop.
It had been two days and the Magic Fan was much looser than before. The Magic Fan kept trembling when the Magic Fan was set to the high speed setting and it made waves of ka, ka sound, like it would break at any moment.
For Xu Yi to be able to convince chairman Farsak, the performance of this Magic Fan had an important use.
Personally witnessing the Magic Fan produced by the Leo Chamber of Commerce being unable to withstand this performance, the worry in chairman Farsak’s heart had scattered.
Different from chairman Farsak’s heart filled with schadenfreude when seeing this, when Xu Yi looked at the Magic Fan, his heart was actually filled with great worry.
Although the quality of this Magic Fan was very lacking, it could even be said that they were nothing more than fake goods, this Magic Fan did represent a fact. That was that other than Xu Yi’s Frestech Chamber of Commerce, there were other people and other companies that had set their eyes on magic machines.
Xu Yi was always worried that because the industrial system on the Sines Continent was too weak and because the magicians had a high position, most people wouldn’t place importance into the magic machine industry.
As a master mechanical engineer, it was very difficult for Xu Yi to accept a world with a weak industrial system like this. So he hoped very much that he could create a complete industrial system on the Sines Continent.
But building the foundation of an industrial system was an incomparably large project and it was impossible to complete with just a single person. Only if more people became involved and they worked together, could there be a hope in completing this idea.
Now that the Leo Chamber of Commerce had appeared, this meant the people of the Sines Continent recognized the importance of the magic industrial system.
Although the Leo Chamber of Commerce only produced this Magic Fan in hopes of earning money, as long as they kept participating, this meant that they had the same idea and there was hope.
Of course, this was not an especially surprising thing.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce had earned over ten thousand gold coins in just two short months with the Magic Fan, so this kind of income would naturally make others jealous. So it wasn’t a strange thing for them to follow along and enter the magic machine research sector at all.
Xu Yi was not worried that the Leo Chamber of Commerce would be any threat to them because one could see from their Magic Fan that the Leo Chamber of Commerce was only at the initial stages of research.
Even though Xu Yi was surprised that they could make the imitation magic machines, he had a rough understanding of the production process from this Magic Fan. The fake magic machines had a great inferiority, they couldn’t compare to the magic machines from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce at all.
Xu Yi suddenly gave a sigh and reached out to touch the base of the Magic Fan.
“Based on the style of the Magic Array, this should be Wella’s handiwork. Based on what Lotte said a few days ago, the company in Saltan City that she and Rem, as well as Cimirot went to should be the Leo Chamber of Commerce.” Xu Yi turned to look out the window in a northeastern direction, in the direction of Saltan City, “If it was in terms of magic machine research, clearly our Frestech Chamber of Commerce is better. Wella chose the Leo Chamber of Commerce because she was afraid that Rem would be unwilling to work under me. As for Cimirot…...
Xu Yi gave a cold snort. He looked at the Magic Fan on the table of the office and a trace of ridicule appeared in his eyes.
“Choosing this kind of company for quick success, you’ll deserve the bad luck you get.”
“Ka——”
The Magic Fan on the table suddenly shook and the outer wire mesh of the fan was shaken off by the trembling of the Magic Fan. It slammed down on the table and made a deafening sound.