Chapter 17 Free repairs
Everyone instantly calmed down, looking at each other in blank dismay.
“Brand? What is that?”
“That’s right, what is this thing? Have you heard of it before?”
“Only a ghost would have heard of it……”
“He wouldn’t be speaking nonsense to fool us, right?”
…...
Everyone discussed this and after a while, the large man couldn’t take it anymore and shouted at Heinz, “Hey, profiteer, what is this brand you mentioned? Why can you tell it wasn’t sold by you since there was no brand? Let me tell you, if you want to cheat us, there is no good ending for you!”
Heinz laughed and waved his hand, “No, no, no, how could that be? My place is a lawful operation, how could it cheat people. Of course, it isn’t something sold by us, so how can it be associated with us? Come, everyone take a look.”
Heinz took as Magic Fan he had already prepared from Alex and raised it high up, letting everyone see it. He pointed at the badge above the switch at the base of the Magic Fan.
“Does everyone see this? There is a half wing design here, which is the brand of a Magic Fan made by us. It is called the Frestech Brand. Only Magic Fans with this symbol are products sold by us. If it doesn’t have it, it is fake goods sold by someone else!”
[TL Note: Frestech is an actual chinese company that sells refrigerators.]
Hearing him say this, everyone couldn’t help looking at the Magic Fans in their hands.
“Yi? It really doesn’t have it.”
“That’s right, mine doesn’t have it either.”
“Could it be that he is telling the truth? These Magic Fans really aren’t sold by them?”
“It can’t be. I’ve asked around, there is only this place in Banta City that sells Magic Fans.”
“That also isn’t right. My Magic Fan was not bought from this store, it was a fellow who ran to my village to sell this. I’ve heard they specially came to our village from this store to resell this thing.”
“Oh? It’s the same as me. What did the fellow who sold you the Magic Fan look like?”
“Let me think…...That fellow was not old, but his skin was very dark. That’s right, his nose was especially big.”
“Oh, that isn’t the same. The fellow who came to our village to sell the Magic Fan was a middle aged man.”
…...
Hearing the discussion in the crowd, Heinz gave a slight nod. It seemed like the fellows selling imitation Magic Fans was a group. After they finished making the imitations, they split up to sell them in the villages.
After everyone discussed this, they all had the same worried looks.
“Hey, according to what this fellow said, this Magic Fan was not sold by them. What do we do now? I spent two gold coins on this Magic Fan and now it’s broken, so who should I look for now?”
“That’s right, I can’t just spend these two gold coins in vain, right?”
“Ai, it’s my fault for being lazy and cheap. I asked around earlier, everyone who bought a Magic Fan here bought one for two gold coins. Think about it, since those fellows were trying to resell them, how could it be for only two gold coins? Wouldn’t he have made a trip in vain, what money would he gain?”
“That’s right……”
“This isn’t good. According to what you’ve said, haven’t we been cheated? Didn’t we waste those two gold coins?”
“Otherwise? Can we still find the boss here to cause trouble? Our Magic Fans don’t have that…..brand he mentioned, it means it wasn’t sold by him.”
“But……”
…....
Seeing everyone’s worried looks, Heinz seized this chance to loudly shout, “Everyone, please calm down. I still have something else to announce.”
Everyone immediately stopped talking, they wanted to hear what he was going to say.
“I know that everyone has been cheated by a swindler and I understand what everyone is thinking, but I must make something clear right now. The Frestech Magic Fans is currently only sold in our store, anything sold anywhere else are all imitations. I ask everyone to please be careful.”
“Che…..What use is there in saying this now? We’ve already been cheated.”
“That’s right, it’s just words. This fellow wouldn’t compensate us our gold coins.”
“Humph, this fellow in the end is just a profiteer, would he have any good intentions?”
…...
Heinz revealed a faint smile as he continued to say in a loud voice, “But, the cause of this matter is the Magic Fan in the end. Our Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s chairman has said that this time everyone has sustained a loss and although we can’t give everyone compensation, we can at least help everyone solve some of their problems. For the Magic Fans everyone has bought this time, whether it is of the Frestech Brand or not, as long as it is broken, it can be repaired for free! Listen well, as long as it doesn’t require a part replacement, the repair will be free!”
Heinz announced this and everyone broke out in cheers.
“Really? You’re speaking the truth?”
“Free! He actually said free repairs!”
“It can’t be, right? Didn’t he say that our Magic Fans weren’t sold from his place? Why would he repair it for us for free?”
“Are you stupid, didn’t you hear what he just said? Their chairman is helping us solve this problem.”
“Wa! That chairman really is a great person! That’s right, what is your company called? It’s Fresh…...Frestech Chamber of Commerce?”
“That’s right, Frestech Chamber of Commerce. This store owner just said that the Magic Fans were of the Frestech Brand, it seems like the name came from the name of the company.”
“Alright, I’ll remember that. Frestech, Frestech, I’ll look for this first when I buy Magic Fans in the future! The other fake products can all go shove it!”
“Un, me too! As long as you can fix my Magic Fan this time, not to mention the Magic Fans, even for other things, I will buy everything as long as your Frestech Chamber of Commerce sells it!”
…...
Hearing everyone continuing to talking about “Frestech”, Heinz’s expression became very strange.
Could this be the “brand recognition” Xu Yi talked about?
Although he didn’t understand what these words meant, based on the reaction of these people, not only did he and Xu Yi not suffer a huge loss this time, they even gained some benefits that couldn’t be seen right now.
“Managing a brand is very hard, it needs to be maintained for a long time. If we even relax a bit, it could be destroyed at any moment. So, Heinz, you have to remember in the future, no matter the time, as long as there is a chance, you have to seize it to advertise our brand.” After he finished fixing a Magic Fan, Xu Yi turned his head over to speak to Heinz.
“Un, I know.” Heinz replied with a nod.
Seeing the people who had full smiles and were filled with words of thanks after their Magic Fans had been repaired, Heinz had some understanding in his heart.
After this matter, these people should have a deep impression of the “Frestech Brand”. This means that in their hearts, they should have a certain amount of brand awareness.
Seeing Heinz being lost in thought, Xu Yi turned back around with a smile. After he stretched out his stiff limbs, he nodded at the person waiting in front of him, “Alright, bring your Magic Fan over.”
Afaylia’s after carefully placed the Magic Fan he was carrying on the table in front of Xu Yi. After sitting down, he didn’t watch Xu Yi fix the Magic Fan, but rather he looked at Xu Yi with a curious look.
Sensing Afaylia’s father’s gaze, Xu Yi felt a bit awkward. He looked over the Magic Fan while saying with a smile, “Old grandfather, what are you looking at me for? Is there something on my face?”
“Ah? Ah…..nothing, nothing.” Afaylia’s father quickly waved his hand as he said while laughing, “I’m just a bit curious. Hey, kid, tell me, what is your company’s boss thinking?”
“What do you mean?” Xu Yi asked back in a surprised voice.
“I’m saying…...These people who been scammed with these Magic Fans are clearly unrelated to you, so why is your boss helping us fix them for free?”
“Oh, you’re asking about this. It’s very simple, our chairman said that a company is not just about making money, they also have to bear social responsibilities. Although it was you all who were cheated into buying these imitation Magic Fans, because we didn’t announce this matter beforehand, you were all cheated. So that means, we do have some responsibilities. These free repairs can be considered our compensation to you all.”
Afaylia’s father knit his brows and thought it through for a while before shaking his head, “I don’t understand. Actually it’s fine if you all do nothing since these Magic Fans weren’t sold here. We can’t cause any trouble for you even if we wanted to.”
“He, he, I’ve already said this, this is our social responsibility.”
“What social responsibility? I don’t understand.” Afaylia’s father waved his hand.
Xu Yi laughed, “You’re old, you don’t need to understand. You just need to know that this is how it’ll be.” After saying this, he returned the Magic Fan in his hand to Afaylia’s father, “Here, it’s fixed. Why don’t you take a look?”
“Ah? It’s fixed?” Afaylia’s father took the Magic Fan in a daze. He looked over it before pressing the switch.
After a few seconds, the blades of the fan began moving and it blew out a cold breeze after a while.
Afaylia’s father instantly bloomed with a smile, “This is great! This is great! With this fan working, my little grandson won’t cause any more trouble! Thank you kid!”
“No need, this is what I should do.” Xu Yi smiled as he spoke in a respectful voice before adding, “That’s right, there is a problem with the Magic Array inside the Magic Fan and there is a problem with the structure, so it can’t be used for a long time. You need to let it rest after a certain amount of time or something bad will happen to it. According to my estimates, you can’t use it for more than two hours before you need to let it rest.”
“I can’t keep using it?” Afaylia’s father’s good mood instantly sunk, “What broken thing is this? It even cost me two gold coins.”
After being annoyed for a bit, Afaylia’s father asked Xu Yi, “Then what about the one you sell…..Right, that Frestech Magic Fan? Does it need to keep resting like this thing?”
“Of course not.” Xu Yi shook his head with a smile, “There is definitely no problem with the quality of our Magic Fans, it can be used continuously for three days without problems. You can ask around Banta City, there are people who have bought our Frestech Magic Fans and there hasn’t been a single person with any problems. Of course, it can’t keep spinning for too long, otherwise it wouldn’t be able to keep going no matter what it is. Don’t you think so?”
“I understand this, but it’s so much better than this broken thing.” Afaylia’s father slapped his head in annoyment, “If I knew this earlier, I wouldn’t have blindly bought something outside. I would have just come into the city and bought it from here!”
Xu Yi laughed, “It’s not too late to know about this now, you just need to recognize our brand in the future.”
Afaylia’s father gave a strong nod, “Frestech Brand, right? I’ll remember it!”
Chapter 18 Birth of the screw bolt
After sending off the last person who had been cheated, Xu Yi let out a long sigh and stretched out his body.
“Hu, it’s finally over. I’m so tired.”
Heinz came over right in time to hand Xu Yi a cup of warm tea. He said with a smile, “Actually, since you already expected that this would happen today, you should have called those students over. If you rely on just one person, naturally you’ll be tired.”
Xu Yi shook his head, “That won’t do, the things they learn in school are very important to them, I can’t cause them to fall behind. Then again, it already stated on the contract they signed before that it can’t interfere with their class time. They are also closely related to the production of Magic Fans, so if they are tired, it wouldn’t be good since it would affect our production.”
Heinz rolled his eyes at Xu Yi, “It’s not bad if you’re tired?”
“Hei, this bit isn’t much. In the past…..” Xu Yi suddenly stopped.
He wanted to say that when he used to work in the research center, he went three days straight with only four hours of sleep. Compared to that time, this was basically nothing.
But he reacted before he spoke. He was no longer in that world anymore, he couldn’t return to that wild research environment.
Thinking of this, Xu Yi couldn’t help feeling a trace of sadness in his heart.
Seeing Xu Yi suddenly become silent and his expression became vacant, Heinz was a bit confused. However, he knew that it was not a good time to ask questions, so he also became silent.
There was only the sound of Alex putting things away in this room.
After a while, Xu Yi shook his head and looked at Heinz with a smile.
“Sorry, I was distracted. That’s right, what were we talking about just now?”
“You said that you couldn’t tire those students and affect production.”
“Oh, right. Speaking of this, Heinz, find some time to go to the Baron Rickto Magic Academy and try your best to recruit more students. You can also have those students we already hired to advertise for you, it would be more effective. I’ve almost finished researching the second generation Magic Fan, so perhaps we’ll be able to begin producing them at the end of the month. We’ll need a large amount of manpower at that time.”
“Un, I know.” Heinz casually wrote what Xu Yi said into the little book he carried with him.
Seeing his movement, Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling because Heinz’s actions were simply the same as an experienced secretary.
Heinz was a bit confused by Xu Yi’s smile, but he opened the book and remembered something else.
“That’s right, Xu Yi, I already asked around and there really isn’t anything like the newspaper you mentioned before in Banta City. The closest is the City Lord Manor’s government report sent once in a while. But that thing is only sent to the old masters of the noble families, normal people can’t see it at all.”
“It’s like this, then forget it. I’ll think of another method of advertising.” Xu Yi waved his hand, signaling to forget this matter for now, “Speaking of manpower, Heinz, I think we should hire a group of blacksmiths.”
“Ah?” Heinz was stunned by Xu Yi’s sudden thoughts, “Hire blacksmiths? Why? If it’s to make fans, can’t we just use a blacksmith shop in the city?”
“Other people have too much control like this. If something happens to the blacksmith shop, it’ll be very hard for us to take care of this.” Xu Yi shook his head, “Of course, the main thing is that we need specialized people. I’ve always been dissatisfied with the outer casing made from those blacksmith shops, their quality can’t match my requirements. Because we haven’t been able to find a suitable substitute, we’ve been using them the entire time. After what happened today, haven’t you noticed yet that we were able to easily convince those people that the Magic Fans they bought wasn’t from our place because of the quality of our Magic Fans are much better? So, if we want to maintain the value of our brand, we need to maintain the quality.”
Heinz thought about what happened today and found that Xu Yi was right.
If it wasn’t for a clear difference in quality, making those people have to admit that the Magic Fans they bought and the Frestech Brand Magic Fans were completely different things, this matter wouldn’t have ended so easily.
“But where are we going to find a large amount of suitable blacksmiths?” Heinz knit his brows.
“Actually, we don’t need very skilled people, we just need specialized blacksmiths for this. Do you understand what I mean?” Xu Yi asked.
“You’re saying…..we just need to hire some blacksmiths that know how to forge and have them specially make the fan outer casing for us?”
“That’s right, that’s exactly what I mean. Even later……” Xu Yi revealed a faint smile and a strange look flashed in his eyes, “When we’ve developed to a certain extent, we won’t even need that many of these specialized blacksmiths.”
It was already afternoon when he left Heinz’s General Store. Xu Yi looked up at the sky and thought that he would take another day off. He had already taken three days off during this week, he hadn’t gone to work at the Magic Tower for close to half the time.
“The coworkers in the lab should already be able to guess that I don’t want to do it anymore? Perhaps they’ll think that I’m too dumb, giving up the chance to study magic with Great Magician Camilla.” Xu Yi revealed a smile of self ridicule, “But speaking of this, Great Magician Camilla has never revealed a stance on this. If it was anyone else, perhaps he would have already driven them out of the Magic Tower.”
While trying to guess what Great Magician Camilla was really thinking, Xu Yi passed several corners and arrived in front of the Volcano Blacksmith again.
Like usual, when he entered the blacksmith shop, he was welcomed with a wave of heat.
“Hey, Master Lanus, here.” Xu Yi didn’t even look as he threw the bottle of wine in his hand into the blacksmith.
A thick hand came out of the heat wave and firmly grabbed the wine bottle.
“Brat, can’t you see that I’m working? What if…..Yi? Good wine!”
Master Lanus was about to curse out when he was attracted from the powerful wine fragrance from the bottle of wine. Without saying a single thing, he put it to his mouth and took a large swig.
“Hu…..It really is good wine!” Master Lanus let out a breath filled with alcohol smell before giving a burp. Only then did he look at Xu Yi, “Hey, kid, this should be the Sachi Manor’s thirty year aged wine, right? This costs at least five gold coins per bottle. A kid like you wouldn’t have any good intentions, so what requests do you have now?”
“What do you mean by strange requests?” Xu Yi said in an aggrieved voice, “Master Lanus, have you been dissatisfied with the requests I’ve made the entire time? Don’t forget that you’re the one who agreed to them. As for me changing this request in the end, wouldn’t it improve the two machines much more?”
“Humph! I did say this, but kid, you keep throwing requests after requests at me.”
Xu Yi gave two laughs. He looked to the side and his eyes fell onto the two strange machines in the corner of the blacksmith shop.
“Wa! Master Lanus, I’ve only been away for two days and you’ve already finished it?”
Xu Yi excitedly charged over. He went around the two machines a few times like he was looking at a treasure.
“Humph! What kind of person am I, Lanus? It’s just two machines, how hard can they be?” Master Lanus gave a snort before taking another swig of the wine.
Xu Yi was already beginning to look over these two machines from head to toe.
One of them was the Magic Thread Rolling Machine which he had Master Lanus make the other day. The other one was a Magic Capping Machine he added later.
These two machines were important machines for making the screw bolts. As long as both of them worked properly, the mass production of screw bolts that Xu Yi envisioned would be possible.
Don’t look down on the screw bolt. This thing seemed normal, but it could be found in every part of the industrial system, it was an essential material.
Whether it was big or small, complicated on simple, almost every machine and industrial product on earth had a screw bolt in it.
Being able to mass produce screw bolts, it meant that Xu Yi had already taken the first step on the path of industrialism on the Sines Continent!
“Master Lanus, can these two machines be used right now?” Xu Yi turned his head to ask this.
“Nonsense, I’ve already told you it’s finished, could it be it still can’t be used?”
“Very good.” Xu Yi took a small iron rod from the store and placed it in the mold of the capping machine before pressing the on switch.
There was no movement at all.
“Idiot! You didn’t even put in a Magic Crystal, how could it move!” Master Lanus’ angry roar came from behind him.
Xu Yi slapped his head. He realized that he had been too excited, actually forgetting the most important thing.
Xu Yi quickly took out the High Grade Magic Crystal he had already prepared and put it into the capping machine as the power source before pressing the switch again.
There was suddenly a “peng” sound from the capping machine, as it sent a high speed hit, hitting the top of the rod inside the mold.
“Keng——”
With a clear strange sound from the capping machine, the machine itself trembled intensely. The entire blacksmith shop trembled several times from the giant sound, which was truly terrifying.
Xu Yi couldn’t help being stunned.
Wasn’t it just hitting a screw bolt head, why did it create such a heaven shaking sound?
He finally came back to his senses after a bit. He pressed the switch again and the stamp head came back to the peak.
Xu Yi took the iron rod from the mold. He was pleased to find that under the power of the stamp head, the head of the rod had actually been turned into a circle. There was also a cross hole on the head, which was normal for a screw bolt.
“It’s not bad.” Xu Yi nodded in satisfaction, “Let’s try the thread rolling machine.”
Compared to the simple and crude capping machine, the thread rolling machine was much more complicated.
Even though Xu Yi simplified it quite a bit, this thread rolling machine actually had over four Magic Arrays. Just drawing the Magic Array had used quite a bit of concentration from Xu Yi, not to mention having to perfectly combine the Magic Array with the structure of the machine.
But seeing the cutting tool quickly engraving lines on the screw bolt, Xu Yi completely forgot the difficulty in studying this machine and was just filled with a sense of accomplishment.
This was the Sines Continent! This was a world without any industrial systems at all!
To be able to create a screw bolt in this world, this was already a great accomplishment!
As one of the most important participants in this great project, Xu Yi completely had the right to feel proud!
To the side, Lanus saw these two machines turn this iron rod into this finely made screw bolt and his heart was filled with shock.
At first he thought this kid’s two machines were very strange, that was why Lanus took the challenge to make it for him.
But now that he had seen how amazing these two machines were, Lanus suddenly felt that these two machines were more important than anything he had made before.
“How did this kid think of these two machines?” Lanus looked at Xu Yi with eyes filled with curiosity.