Chapter 173 Coward
A week after the wedding, Seveni surprisingly appeared in front of Xu Yi and Still.
“I’m really sorry.” Seveni said to them with an apologetic look, “I wanted to attend your wedding and personally give you my blessings, but I was delayed because of an accident. I truly am sorry.”
Xu Yi honestly looked over Seveni and found that her face was covered in exhaustion, causing him to knit his brows. He waved his hand and said, “This isn’t anything important. Your highness is busy, so it is normal for you to be delayed. But your highness, I’ve heard that…..your recent situation isn’t good…..”
Seveni revealed a surprised look as she looked at Xu Yi and asked back, “Why are you asking this?”
“This is something that I’ve inferred from the information that some people have revealed to me……”
“Does that include Count Sean?” Seveni asked.
“Count Sean didn’t say anything, but he told me that his successor was from the Stagg Family. I think…..that this is not something your highness wishes to see.” Xu Yi paused before saying, “Other than that, Viscount Leslie’s reply gave me some facts. Your highness, didn’t those old nobles use to support you? Why are they suddenly changing their minds and supporting his highness Eric?”
Seveni looked at Still.
Xu Yi immediately said, “Still is my wife, I don’t need to hide anything from her.”
“I am happy and envious of the relationship between you and Still.” Seveni revealed a faint smile before shaking her head and saying, “It’s a real pity that I could never find someone who I could reveal everything to, so…..there are some things that aren’t convenient for me to tell you.”
Xu Yi gave a shrug and said with a self ridiculing smile, “I thought that I was your highness’ firm ally.”
Hearing Xu Yi suddenly using polite language with her, how could Seveni not know that Xu Yi was showing the dissatisfaction in his heart? She could only say with a bitter laugh, “Xu Yi, it isn’t that I’m not willing to tell you, rather I can’t. There are many things that if you knew, I think that with my understanding of your personality, you will definitely choose to interfere with. But right now, I don’t want you to do this. The Frestech Chamber of Commerce can develop well, so I hope that you will make our Lampuri Kingdom stronger. I don’t wish for you to be destroyed before you can develop bigger. Do you understand my meaning?”
Hearing the sincerity in Seveni’s voice, Still reached out her hand to take Xu Yi’s and shook her head at him.
Xu Yi gave a deep sigh and looked at Seveni for a while before honestly saying, “Your highness, I understand your thoughts, but I hope that you can also understand my thoughts. From what I can see, you are the most suited successor in the kingdom. Because you really wish for the Lampuri Kingdom to become stronger and doesn’t just want the crown like other people, so no matter what, I will support you with all my strength.”
Although many people had connected Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to supporting Seveni, this was the first time that Xu Yi had actually indicated his attitude.
When Seveni heard the seriousness in Xu Yi’s voice, her heart couldn’t help being moved. After hesitating a bit, she slowly shook her head and said, “I’m very happy that I can receive your approval and support, but please believe you, you really really aren’t suited to knowing this matter right now. When the time is right, I will tell you.”
Seeing that Seveni was this determined, Xu Yi knew that there was no meaning in continuing this conversation. He gave a nod and said, “Alright, I hope that day will come soon.”
Seveni revealed a faint smile. She took a deep breath and the emotions that shouldn’t have appeared on her face appeared.
“We should discuss business. Since you already know that the one taking over for Count Sean is Count Stagg, I think you should be clear on the influence this matter has on you and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.”
Xu Yi gave a slow nod, “Yes, but I only know that it will be bad and I don’t know how bad it’ll be.”
“I can only say…...it’ll be worse than you imagined.” Seveni said with a serious look.
“Is that so?” Xu Yi and Still knit their brows at the same time, “That means that your relationship with his highness has reached the point where everything is being shown out in the open?”
“It can be said like that.” Seveni’s voice had a trace of helplessness, “Although this is not what I want to see, the facts are like this. Moreover, I can’t resist this matter, so I can only remind you to be more careful. Don’t give my royal brother any excuse to make a move, do you understand what I mean?”
Xu Yi knit his brows even tighter as he said with a bitter laugh, “Then you want me to be a coward?”
“Royal father once told me that if you want to achieve big things, you must learn to be patient. These are the words that I’m giving you now.” Seveni said seriously.
Xu Yi looked at Seveni and shook his head as he said, “Your highness, these words are suitable for me, but they aren’t suitable for you. If you still haven’t resolved yourself, perhaps many people who have supported you will be disappointed. Do you really think that his highness Eric is more suited to taking the throne compared to you?”
“I don’t want to discuss this.” Seveni shook her head and stopped this topic dead in its tracks, “Chairman Xu, other than coming to offer my blessings to you and Still in person, I also have some important matters to discuss. The first matter is related to the Magic Trebuchet.”
“Are there any problems with the Magic Trebuchet?” Xu Yi asked, “In the letter from Viscount Leslie, the Magic Trebuchet have displayed incredible strength in the northern battlefront. The Sack Kingdom soldiers have been beaten back again and again, they can’t even hold a formation.”
“Yes, the Magic Trebuchet is indeed very powerful, but because of its outstanding performance, the army headquarters doesn’t wish for this technology to remain in someone else’s hands. The army headquarters has decided that they wish the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to give the Magic Trebuchet technology to the army headquarters and send technical staff that can help the army headquarters understand the technology.” Seveni said.
“Your highness, this is your intention?” Xu Yi seriously asked.
Seveni paused for a bit before saying, “This is the army headquarter’s intentions.”
Xu Yi instantly understood, “Then can I reject?”
“I’m afraid not.”
Hearing this response, Xu Yi couldn’t help giving a cold laugh, “Then can I ask, what compensation is the army headquarters offering me?”
Seveni was silent for a while before slowly replying, “This is the decision of the army headquarters and the Royal Parliament. All military technology cannot be privately owned in the future.” 𝚋𝚎ｄｎｏｖ𝚎𝚕．𝚌ｏｍ
“So that means there is no compensation?” Xu Yi asked.
Seveni slowly shook her head.
“Very good.” Xu Yi gave another cold laugh, “This means that I will be handing it over for free. It seems like the face of the army headquarters isn’t that thick. They know that they are giving me an embarrassing request and they had your highness come here as a shield. Good, I can choose to give this technology for free since I am just a normal merchant, I can’t go against the army headquarters. But your highness, please tell the army headquarters and the Royal Parliament for me to properly consider the serious consequences of their actions.”
Seveni revealed a bitter smile as she said with a sigh, “Xu Yi, I hope that you will not lose faith in the kingdom because of this. Royal father places great importance on you and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.”
“If it’s this kind of great importance, it’s fine if I don’t have it.” Xu Yi said with a cold snort. After saying that, he looked at Seveni with a different kind of expression, “As for losing faith…..I only ever had faith in your highness, I hope that you will not disappoint that faith.”
Seveni was speechless and the room fell into silence.
Feeling the awkwardness in the room, Still forced out a smile and said to Seveni, “Your highness, this is the first matter, is there a second matter?”
Seveni took a breath and calmed herself before replying to Still with a faint smile, “The second matter is good news. Royal father has already decided that Banta City, Karma City, and Saltan City will officially become the Lampuri Kingdom’s special economic zone. In this special economic zone, all trade in these three cities will receive special benefits and preferential treatment when it comes to kingdom laws.”
“This is a piece of good news, but isn’t this too much of a coincidence?” Xu Yi’s tone implied disdain, “Right when Count Sean is being transferred and Count Stagg is taking over, this is announced. Your highness, are you certain that this isn’t to pave the way and create momentum for Count Stagg?”
“No matter what you think, isn’t this a good thing for Banta City?” Seveni said, “After being listed as a special economic zone, all the companies in Banta City will receive preferential treatment. For example, when the products of Banta City’s companies reach the other parts of the kingdom, they will only have to pay a set tax instead of being influenced by the tax of the various regions. You should know that just based on this, how much benefits Banta City companies will receive.”
“Un, this is indeed a good thing.” Xu Yi nodded.
Because the Lampuri Kingdom didn’t have a unified standard tax, different places were controlled by the various City Lords.
For example, Banta City businesses had to pay a tax of 34%, Karma City had a tax of 37%, and Saltan City had a tax of 38%.
Banta City’s taxes were the lowest because Count Sean always supported the development of business. After the Frestech Chamber of Commerce drove the development of Banta City, this was lowered again to promote business development in Banta City.
A tax of 34% was already the lowest in the Lampuri Kingdom.
In the other cities of the Lampuri Kingdom, they were much higher than these three cities, with some cities even reaching a shocking tax of 50%!
From Xu Yi’s point of view, this was clearly an idiotic tax rate.
Lampuri Kingdom’s business sector hadn’t developed yet and in this situation, instead of lowering taxes to promote the development of the business sector and setting the taxes this high, it would be strange if the business sector could develop.
Before, if the large companies of Banta City wanted to sell products in other cities, they had to pay the tax rate for those cities. If they chose to transport their products to other cities, they needed to count the transportation fees, so most of the time they didn’t earn as much as selling to Banta City and the surrounding cities. So most Banta City companies only sold their products locally and weren’t interested in developing foreign markets.
Now that the king had set this place as a special economic zone, implementing a standard tax rate, it could promote the development of Banta City’s companies.
But Xu Yi wasn’t happy about this.
First, this was the first time the Lampuri Kingdom was implementing a standard tax rate, so Xu Yi suspected that this wouldn’t be implemented properly.
Secondly, it was already good that this place was set as a special economic zone, but the one taking over for Count Sean was Count Stagg.
Ignoring the Stagg Family’s attitude towards the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, would Count Stagg have the same boldness and foresight as Count Sean?
Chapter 174 Company reorganization
Even if Xu Yi had worries in his heart, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s development didn’t slow down.
After a quiet April, once they entered May, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce first announced the marriage of Xu Yi and Still, then they released a new product, the Magic Freezer.
To be honest, the Magic Freezer wasn’t a completely new product, it was just an extension of the Magic Refrigerator.
It was different from the Magic Refrigerator that could only keep things frozen. The Magic Freezer was divided into two levels, with the lower level keeping things frozen and the upper level only lowering the temperature, but not freezing things and just keeping them fresh.
[TL note: I know that the previous refrigerator is actually a freezer, but the author used the chinese words for refrigerator (冰箱) instead and uses freezer (冰柜) for the new product which should be a refrigerator, so these terms will be kept the same.]
Once the Magic Freezer came out, it was immediately welcomed by many families.
Because the Magic Refrigerator could only keep things frozen, it had a single use, so its sales numbers were normal. There were only higher sales numbers in summer when ice cream and other frozen products were being sold.
But the Magic Freezer was different, its dual function was quite practical for many households.
Especially the top half’s function of keeping things fresh. Dishes that weren’t finished could be kept fresh in them to be eaten next time.
This solved many problems for housewives, so naturally it was very popular.
The Frestech Brand Magic Freezer was only released for a week and it had sold over twenty thousand units.
Each unit had a price of twenty five gold coins, so in just a week, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce earned five hundred thousand gold coins.
Taking away the cost, the net profit was over three hundred thousand gold coins.
Adding in the Magic Refrigerator, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s household magic machine department now had the Magic Fan, the Magic Air Conditioner, the Magic Bread Maker, the Automatic Magic Rice Cooker, the Magic Lamp, the Magic Freezer, and the Magic Kettle, a total of eight products.
Not including the Magic Freezer that was just released, the sales of the other seven products had stabilized after their explosive periods.
The other seven products had sales of seven hundred thousand to eight hundred thousand, which was also steadily increasing.
Taking away the costs, the household magic machine department was bringing a net profit of around four hundred thousand gold coins a month to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
This number was already quite shocking.
So when Xu Yi announced that Ankhto would be managing the household magic machine department, although he was prepared since Heinz had told him, his breathing became faster and he was very nervous.
“I…..I will work hard…..Eh, to do well. I definitely won’t let down the chairman’s expectations of me!” Ankhto said in a loud voice.
Xu Yi nodded with a smile, “Alright, I believe in your abilities. Other than that, since your responsibilities have increased, your salary must also increase. Ankhto, as the manager of the household magic machine department, your current monthly wage will be fifty gold coins. How about it? Are you satisfied with this wage?”
“Ah? Fifty gold coins? Isn’t that the same as general manager Kennard’s?” Ankhto was shocked, “How could that be, I can’t compare to general manager Kennard.”
“There’s no need to be modest, you haven’t been holding responsibilities in our company’s household magic machine department for a few days, your abilities aren’t bad. Other than that, I have other plans for general manager Kennard, you don’t need to worry.” Xu Yi signaled to Ankhto to sit down with a smile before turning to Evita sitting beside Ankhto, “Evita, although your magic research facility isn’t in the same management area as the company, the magic research facility is the most important department to me, so I’ve decided to change the wage for the magic research facility. You are the magic research facility chief and you will be treated the same as the managers of the other department, so your salary will be fifty gold coins per month. As for the adjustment of the other members of your department, that is up to you as the chief. Give me a report in two days.”
Evita was calmer than Ankhto. She just revealed a smile and gave a slight nod as she agreed to this.
The conference today was to reorganize the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, so the people attending were all high and medium level members of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
Because the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had more and more products, becoming bigger and bigger, Xu Yi found that for a medium level manager like Ankhto, there was a conflict of authority in unclear situations. So before this problem came up, he would reorganize the structure of the company. The goal was to clarify authority, letting the Frestech Chamber of Commerce develop even more smoothly.
There wasn’t much change to the overall authority structure of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, it was just clarifying the distribution of authority, identifying what each person was in charge of.
For example, Ankhto had received the job of being the manager of the household magic machine workshop from Heinz a long time ago and he had done an outstanding job the entire time. The household magic machine workshop was properly managed, so he could definitely become the manager of the household magic machine department, being responsible for managing all related operations to the production of household magic machines.
As for other aspects, there wasn’t that much of a change. He was still in charge of what he was in charge of before.
The only change was that Heinz left the job of being Karma City’s factory manager and he was replaced by someone that Heinz himself chose.
After this reorganization, Heinz remained in the company as Xu Yi’s assistant, he didn’t hold any concrete posts. 。
The only thing worth mentioning was that the general manager Kennard after the reorganization became the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s CEO.
This was another new title Xu Yi came up with, but the responsibilities that Kennard had were still the same.
The one thing worth noting was that since Xu Yi announced Kennard was to take the post of CEO, he also announced that he would no longer meddle in managing the company or the direction of development of the company.
Hearing Xu Yi announce this, other than Heinz and Kennard, everyone else was shocked.
In everyone’s mind, Xu Yi was equal to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. He was the pillar of the company and if he wasn’t taking part in managing the company, was he going to give up the company?”
“It isn’t as you think.” Faced with everyone’s doubts, Xu Yi waved his hand with a smile, “How could I not care at all, this company was made with my own hands, it is impossible for me to not care about the company. I am just not going to manage it anymore because this wastes too much of my time and energy, I want to invest that time and energy into some other things. For example…..going on a honeymoon with Still……”
“Ha, ha!”
Everyone in the conference room broke out in laughter.
Of course they knew that Xu Yi was joking, but everyone understood because of this explanation. Xu Yi just didn’t want to waste his precious time and energy on trivial things.
After the reorganization meeting, there weren’t many things that had changed. There were many people who were joking that Xu Yi was just using this reorganization to increase their wages.
Actually, most of the high and medium level members had their wages increased quite a bit this time.
Ankhto’s previous monthly wage was less than twenty five gold coins and now it had suddenly doubled.
Evita’s previous monthly wage was only thirty gold coins, but now it became fifty gold coins.
As for Kennard, because he was the one and only CEO, his wage of fifty gold coins had gone to eighty gold coins.
This was a very large number.
For the companies of the Sines Continent, as long as they were leaders of a company, they would definitely receive shares of the company. So them having a wage was just courtesy.
For Kennard who didn’t have any shares of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, receiving eighty gold coins a month with his wage alone was quite unique.
Even for department heads like Evita, Ankhto, and Camby who were receiving fifty gold coins a month, that was unprecedented.
“I feel that this is a good chance to advertise.” After the meeting was over, Kennard found Xu Yi to give this proposal, “Chairman, didn’t you always say that our company was lacking people with talent for management? If we advertise the high wages our managers receive, I believe that we can find some talents for management.”
Xu Yi waved his hand, “You can make the decision yourself. Anyway, you are the CEO, this is what you should do. It isn’t related to me at all.”
Kennard’s lip twitched, as he wanted to smile, but he couldn’t do so. After thinking about it, he asked with knit brows, “Sir chairman, are you really planning on giving up completely? I feel that the company is still in an important period of development and it still needs your leadership.”
“I already said it, I’m not completely giving up. Rather, I’m handing the management of the company to you so I can have more time and effort to consider what direction this company should develop in.” Xu Yi paused before suddenly giving a sigh. He looked to the northwest of the city and slightly narrowed his eyes, “Actually according to my original plan, the company just needed to walk forward step by step and it would naturally become stronger, becoming the existence that could change the world like in my heart. But…..there will always be people who like causing unnecessary trouble for you.”
Kennard took a deep look at Xu Yi and after thinking for a bit, he said with a faint smile, “Be assured, sir chairman. As long as smart people can see the use of our company, I think that no matter what, these people will allow our company to keep our use. Not to mention, it isn’t like her highness can’t fight back at all, right?”
Xu Yi looked at him and gave a slight now, “I hope that it’s like this.”