Chapter 61: Paparazzi
“You were introduced by Lewis?” Xu Yi looked at this young noble that Viscount Leslie had attracted in front of him. He never thought that he would hear a name that he hadn’t heard in a long time from him.
Baron Hannas gave a slight nod before saying with a faint smile, “That’s right. When he heard that I was coming to Banta City, uncle Lewis told me that I had to contact the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. Uncle Lewis also said that he is very regretful that he couldn’t obtain the chance to work with you on the Magic Fan before. If your company has any other new products, he would definitely cooperate with you if there was another chance.”
Lewis’ normal looking face with an astute feeling passed through Xu Yi’s mind again.
To a large client who ordered a thousand Magic Fans right away, Xu Yi had a profound impression of him.
When the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had just been made and the Magic Fan had just been researched, they didn’t enjoy the same fame as they did in Banta City and they didn’t have any fame in the surrounding cities.
Even in this situation, Lewis dared to immediately order such a large number. It could be seen that his eyes looked quite far and he was quite bold.
What Xu Yi never imagined was that he still remembered their small company after several months and even sent someone to specially contact them.
Xu Yi looked over Baron Hannas and thought that although this fellow was young, he was still a baron no matter what. Moreover, he went through Viscount Leslie to look for him, which meant that he had some status in Anvilmar City.
For such a person to call Lewis uncle, it could be seen that Lewis was indeed an important person.
“Lewis…..How was mister Lewis certain that we would have new products?” Xu Yi asked curiously.
Baron Hannas revealed a smile, “I also asked uncle Lewis this and he responded that although he had only met chairman Xu Yi once, he could tell that you were a driven person. You definitely wouldn’t be satisfied with just one product like the Magic Fan.”
Xu Yi awkwardly touched his nose and his face became somewhat embarrassed.
“Am I that easily seen through by others?”
Viscount Leslie who was accompanying them broke out in laughter, “Xu Yi, if I couldn’t see the ambition in you, do you think I would be willing to work with you?”
Xu Yi helplessly spread his hands, “Is the word ambition written all over my face?”
Baron Hannas also broke out in laughter, “Chairman Xu is truly interesting. Having ambition isn’t a bad thing, right? Since you have set up such a unique company, if you didn’t have ambition…...Un, I like the word driven uncle Lewis said. If you didn’t have drive, how could this company have lasted this long?”
“Alright, I admit it, I have ambi…..I have a lot of drive. Un, I also like this word. Our Frestech Chamber of Commerce has just been established, but I will make it the best company in all of the Lampuri Kingdom and even the Sines Continent!” Xu Yi said with a firm nod.
“I believe that.” Baron Hannas nodded with a faint smile, “But chairman Xu, I am also very curious. I’ve heard that you are an exceptional magician and based on the small Magic Plowing Machine from earlier, I can at least tell that the level of your Earth Magic Array is quite high. Since it’s like this, why didn’t you choose to continue studying magic and become a powerful magician? Why did you choose to study magic machines? I think you should be very clear that even if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce becomes the largest company on the Sines Continent, as a merchant, your status still won’t be as high as a powerful magic, right?”
“You are not the first person to ask me this.” Xu Yi looked over at Viscount Leslie. Just a month ago, Viscount Leslie had asked him this same question, “This question is not easy to answer. I can only tell you that this is my personal interest.”
Baron Hannas knit his brows and was very unsatisfied with this answer.
“Chairman Xu, based on personal interest, it has urged you to give up a promising future as a magician and become a merchant instead?”
Xu Yi gave a shrug. He couldn’t just tell him his thoughts about creating a complete industrial system on the Sines Continent, right?
Even when Viscount Leslie asked him, Xu Yi only told him that compared to studying magic, he rather liked studying magic machines.
This kind of response about personal interest was not something others could understand or be satisfied with, but it was not something they could refute.
So far, Xu Yi had only disclosed a trace of his true thoughts to Great Magician Camilla and Still.
As for Baron Hannas? Their relationship was just too lacking.
“Baron Hannas, I think you should give this question to mister Lewis, perhaps he will have a better time understanding this than you. That’s right, you said that mister Lewis wants to cooperate with our Frestech Chamber of Commerce, I wonder, what are the specifics of the cooperation?” Xu Yi quickly changed the topic.
“There aren’t any.” Baron Hannas was still young and it was easy for Xu Yi to change his focus. He shook his head and said, “Uncle Lewis just wanted me to take a look first and meet you if it was possible to raise this idea. As for what the specifics are…..I’m not familiar with this. Does chairman Xu Yi have any methods of cooperation?”
Xu Yi knit his brows, “Me? Actually I know nothing about mister Lewis and don’t even know what he does, so how could I know about any cooperation?”
Baron Hannas’ eyes popped out in shock, “You actually don’t know uncle Lewis’ identity? Could it be that he didn’t tell you last time?”
Xu Yi shook his head, “He only gave me a name card. There is only a name and an address on the name card, I don’t know anything else.”
“There was an address on the name card uncle Lewis gave you? What was the address?”
“I think it was Anvilmar City’s Sloan Street Number Twenty Three…...Or was it Number Twenty Four? I’m sorry, I didn’t bring the name card with me and I can’t remember it too clearly.”
As soon as his voice fell, Xu Yi found that Viscount Leslie and Baron Hannas both had strange expressions.
There was only a look of shock in Viscount Leslie’s eyes while Baron Hannas looked at Xu Yi like he was a freak.
“Uncle Lewis actually gave you his personal name card! My god! I never thought that uncle Lewis treated you this importantly! No wonder he specially had me come find you.”
Although Xu Yi was a bit surprised, he could guess from the reaction of the two that the name card Lewis gave him back then was not something that is easily obtained.
This was even more strange. Lewis had clearly only met him once, so why did he treat him this importantly?
Could it be that this fellow is a prophet, knowing that he would invent even more magic machines and would change the continent?
“Chairman Xu, I think I need to learn more about you.” After Baron Hannas got over his shock, he revealed a serious expression, “Uncle Lewis is famous for his judge of character and since he has put such importance on you, I think there should be something worth this on your body. Eh…..How about this? I will stay in Banta City for half a month and in this half a month, chairman Xu, can I learn more about you and your Frestech Chamber of Commerce?”
Xu Yi couldn’t help being stunned, “How do you want to learn?”
“For example, I can stay by your side all day and watch over your actions. I could also go to you factory and watch how you operate. I can also ask around Banta City and see what kind of evaluation people have towards your company……”
Xu Yi felt a chill run through him.
The thoughts of this Baron Hannas, why was it similar to that of paparazzi on earth?
“I’m afraid this……” Xu Yi wanted to reject him, but seeing Viscount Leslie give him a nod from the side, he swallowed his words.
“Afraid what?” Baron Hannas asked with an expectant look.
Xu Yi looked at Viscount Leslie’s expression and considered it before saying with a smile, “I’m afraid you’ll be wasting your time?”
“No, no, no, I’m very interested in your Frestech Chamber of Commerce right now. This will allow me to understand you better and when I return to Anvilmar, I can explain in greater detail when uncle Lewis asks me about this.”
“It’s like this……” Xu Yi hesitated for a while before nodding, “Alright then. Since Baron Hannas has this idea, I will represent myself and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to warmly welcome you.”
Chapter 62 Banta Times
“I don’t welcome him!” Heinz steeled his face and revealed all of the unhappiness in his heart, “Xu Yi, when you agreed to that fellow, why didn’t you tell me first? Don’t you know that now that we are producing the Magic Rice Cooker, we are working at full capacity and I have my hands full everyday. But now you want to bring in a weak and pale noble young master, do you want us to produce properly?”
Xu Yi looked over in surprise at Baron Hannas in the distance who had a curious look and was skulking around like a cat and he couldn’t help asking, “It can’t be right? Didn’t I already say that you don’t need to care about him, just treat him like he doesn’t exist. You also don’t need to care about the fact that he’s a noble young master, he already said that you don’t need to be that polite to him.”
“You say it so easily!” Heinz angrily said, “No matter what, he is still a noble young master from Anvilmar City and based on what you said, he has a strong noble background. There are many magic production machines and components in this workshop, so if something happened to him or if he was injured, would we even be able to keep running this workshop? Even if nothing happens to him, he is still interfering with our normal work by standing there! Look, he’s even running over to harass our workers…..My god! He actually wants to control the Magic Thread Rolling Machine!”
Xu Yi and Heinz quickly ran over and pulled back Baron Hannas who was eager to give the machine a try.
“This…..Ke, Baron Hannas, you can look over the workshop, but let’s forget about operating the machines, alright?” Xu Yi learned from Viscount Leslie’s signals that this Baron Hannas’ background was not small, so he should agree with him as much as possible, “This magic machine is a bit dangerous, so if you try to operate it without training, it is very likely you’ll be hurt by it. Look, the head can knock the head of the nail flat, I think it wouldn’t be that difficult for it to break your finger or even your arm, right?”
Baron Hannas was a bit curious, “It can’t be right? It looks quite simple for those workers to control it.”
“That is because they are our skilled workers. You have to know, when these magic machines were being used at first, there were some workers that were injured because of it and there was even one who broke his arm.” Speaking of this, Xu Yi looked over at the workers that were working the Magic Thread Rolling Machine.
Those workers understood and quickly followed him.
“That’s right, that’s right. That kid Tucci’s arm still hasn’t healed yet.”
“That’s right, this thing is dangerous. I was almost accidentally caught in it last time and if it wasn’t for my quick reactions, I would have lost my entire arm.”
“Right, this magic machine is not something to play with. People who aren’t skilled with it will be injured.”
…...
Hearing the terrifying words from the workers, Baron Hannas hesitated a bit before helplessly giving up with a sigh.
“Alright then, I won’t control it myself and watch you work it instead.”
Xu Yi and Heinz had just given a sigh of relief. They saw Baron Hannas take out a small book and pen from his chest and write something in front of the two.
“There is danger in controlling the magic machines, even workers can be injured.”
Xu Yi looked over the writing in the book and his face twitched.
He never thought the things he said casually would be seriously written down by him.
It was a good thing that there was no worker unions on the Sines Continent, otherwise based on what was recorded here, his factory might have been shut down.
Thinking of this, Xu Yi suddenly thought that although even though he paid attention to the treatment of his workers, he hadn’t really thought about safety programs or compensation plans.
Currently there hasn’t been a workplace injury accident yet, so this hidden danger hasn’t been revealed yet. But once this came out, it would cause trouble if he didn’t have appropriate measures in place.
The workers in the workshop before were slaves from Viscount Leslie, but now that they had recruited a hundred workers, he had no choice but to attach importance to this issue.
Thinking of this, in front of Baron Hannas, Xu Yi made plans with Heinz for everything.
Seeing Baron Hannas record everything he said in his little book, Xu Yi couldn’t help revealing a faint smile.
The things Baron Hannas were recording were clearly being brought back for Lewis.
If these things became important to Lewis because he found them interesting, it would be very helpful to what Xu Yi wanted to do in the future.
After he finished touring the household magic machine workshop, Xu Yi brought Baron Hannas to the magic machine workshop.
Seeing that this workshop was filled with dwarves, Baron Hannas was quite surprised.
Since the race war several thousand years ago, other races were appearing less and less in human areas.
Even in the Lampuri Kingdom’s capital of Anvilmar, it would be hard to find several dwarves. There was no need to mention an entire hundred dwarves.
Baron Hannas couldn’t suppress the curiosity in his heart, as he grabbed the manager Camby and began asking questions. Only these questions were not related to the workshop or the magic machines, rather it was about the daily lives of the dwarves.
Seeing Baron Hannas asking these gossip questions with an excited look on his face, Xu Yi couldn’t help shaking his head as he made a decision.
If this Baron Hannas was placed on earth, he was most suited to being a paparazzi.
Thinking of the paparazzi, Xu Yi couldn’t help suddenly thinking of something.
He remembered that over a month ago, he had asked Heinz whether there was a newspaper in Banta City or not. The response was that other than the occasional government notice from the City Lord Manor, there weren’t any official newspapers.
Now that he saw Baron Hannas acting like a paparazzi, Xu Yi couldn’t help thinking about those tabloids back on earth. He then suddenly thought that since there were no newspapers in this world, why wouldn’t he just make one?
On earth, before the internet, the newspaper could control what the public discussed. If one controlled the newspaper, it was equal to controlling the public opinion and could even guide it to a certain extent.
If Xu Yi could succeed in making a newspaper, he could definitely create some influence for himself.
Of course, the idea of social classes was very important on the Sines Continent, so trying to control the public’s opinion was a way to seek one’s death. However, this did not hinder the other conveniences of a newspaper, like in the form of advertisements…...
Thinking of this, Xu Yi’s somewhat helpless gaze looking at Baron Hannas instantly changed.
###
Ten days passed and it was officially the October of autumn.
Most of the leaves on trees were dyed golden yellow and people on the paths gradually changed to longer clothes. There was a cool breeze that filled the air, as the summer heat from before completely disappeared.
Today was a normal day in Banta City, but early in the morning, it was a bit different for the people of the city.
“Extra! Extra! Freshly printed ?Banta Times?! Any big and small news in and outside the city will all be in the ?Banta Times?!”
A little boy who was around eleven-twelve was running through the streets, shouting out in a clear voice.
Hearing what he said, the people on the streets stopped moving and looked at the little boy with curious gazes.
“Hey, kid, what is this ?Banta Times?? What small and big news? What is it for?” An uncle who was the closest to the little boy called out to ask him these questions.
The little boy was not nervous as he took a newspaper from the sack filled with newspaper at his chest with a smile and handed it over, “Look, this is the ?Banta Times?. There are many things recorded that are happening inside and outside the city, are you interested in buying one to take a look? It’s very cheap, each copy is only one silver coin.”
“Let me see it first to see if I’ll buy it or not.” The uncle prepared to take it, but the little boy swiftly dodged out of the way.
“This customer, the most important thing about the newspaper is the content. If you finish reading it, how can I sell it to you? How about it? It’s only one silver coin, you can read it as you wish.”
The uncle glared at the little boy, but while being watched by the crowd, he still obediently gave him a silver coin. After that, he had a high and mighty appearance as he read the newspaper.
Compared to the commoners outside Banta City, the people in the city were much more educated. This uncle looked quite rough, but he still knew how to read. As soon as he opened the newspaper, he read in a loud voice.
“Front page headline, farmer support plan, good! Some time ago, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce announced the small Magic Harvester and small Magic Plowing Machines that they researched. They are prepared to provide support to farmers and make it easier for them to plant their fields. After a month of experiments, the plan is proceeding very smoothly. Three villages outside Banta City including Ireland Village were the site of the first round of experiments and the farmers have already enjoyed the benefits of this plan. To support this plan, Banta City’s City Lord Count Sean Samo has said that this is a plan that helps the commoners and has praised the Frestech Chamber of Commerce as a conscientious company……”
Hearing the uncle read this, the surrounding people all broke out in discussions.
“I’ve also heard about this farmer support plan before. I have a relative who lives in Ireland Village and I’ve heard that someone from their village rented a small Magic Plowing Machine from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. It only took three days to finish all the fields in Ireland Village and they earned over four gold coins just from this thing.”
“How did they earn so much?”
“It’s very simple. He used this small Magic Plowing Machine to help others plow their fields and charged two silver coins for each mu. Ireland Village has around two hundred mus of farmland and it was all taken by him, so how much did he earn?”
“Then all the Ireland Village’s people had him plow their fields and they didn’t do it themselves?”
“Are you stupid? If you plow it yourself, how long will each mu take? Also you would be tired to death. If you let him do it, a single mu takes less than ten minutes and only costs two silver coins, so would you do it? Couldn’t you just do something else with all that time and effort saved?”
“That is right…...I’ve heard that the Lord City Lord is also repaving the roads and there is work at the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. There is work everywhere and with all that time, one can earn much more than just two silver coins.”
“That is correct……”
…...
Hearing the discussion of the crowd, the uncle became more complacent and read even louder.
However, many people were too impatient to listen to him read. They went directly in front of the little boy and gave him a silver coin, buying a copy for themselves to read.
After a while, the little boy’s sack of newspapers was emptied and there were many people who hadn’t received on.
Seeing everyone’s disappointed appearances, the little boy put away the silver coins in his hand and shouted with a smile, “There will be ?Banta Times? sold daily starting now! If everyone wants to buy one, please come earlier!”