Volume 2 Chapter 60 Tire

“Two days into one day?” Chairman Pompeii was stunned before he shook his head, “How could that be possible? If you say a day and a half, I could have my subordinates work a bit harder and buy some better horses, perhaps it would be possible. But to shorten it to a day…..Only if there was a public road connecting Banta City and Anvilmar City.”

“Don’t think about it for now.” Xu Yi shook his head, “The two roads we are building right now is an experiment for his majesty. When these two roads are finished and his majesty feels the results are good, then the kingdom will start investing into building public roads. As for the road connecting Banta City and Anvilmar City, who knows how long we’ll have to wait.”

Chairman Pompeii gave a dejected nod, “That’s right. If every part of the Lampuri Kingdom was connected with roads, then it would be much easier for our carriage company to do business.”

“This is my second time hearing someone sigh like this.” Xu Yi revealed a faint smile, “Relax, as long as more people see the benefits of these roads, then I believe that all of the Lampuri Kingdom’s roads will be turned into public roads.”

“I also believe this, but the problem is how long will it take? Right now I can’t wait that long.” Chairman Pompeii gave another sigh before looking at Xu Yi, “Chairman Xu, didn’t you say that we should change ourselves and not change the roads?”

“That’s right, I’m talking about something more realistic. It is the horse carriage that your company currently uses.” Xu Yi said.

“Horse carriage?” Chairman Pompeii considered it before knitting his brows, “How can we improve the horse carriages? Other than getting better horses, is there anything else we can do? The problem is that good horses cost more and eat more expensive feed, I can’t support that.”

“Alright the horse can be replaced with something else, we can’t do that now. I came to you this time to talk about the carriage specifically.”

“Carriage?” Chairman Pompeii was even more confused, “What part of the carriage can be improved?”

“Of course there’s a part.” Xu Yi gave a confident nod, “I saw the Sarank Chamber of Commerce’s cavalcade just now and I noticed that all the horse carriages in their cavalcade were made of wood?”

“Of course, our carriages are horse drawn vehicles, whether it is transporting humans or goods, they are all made of wood. Is there some problem?”

“Could it be that you don’t think…..horse carriages made from wood aren’t durable and break easily?” Xu Yi asked.

“Of course I’m clear on this, but we can’t make it out of metal, right? I tried making a carriage out of metal before, but the problem was that not only is metal heavy to the point that two horses couldn’t even move it, it also costs quite a bit to make. Last time I tried making a four person carriage and it actually cost me two hundred gold coins! Do you think that I can afford this kind of price? You have to know that all our horse carriages are made of wood and they cost no more than twenty gold coins to make.”

Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling. A carriage made completely out of iron? This chairman Pompeii really could think.

“I’m not saying to completely make it out of iron, of course that won’t work. My meaning is that for a carriage, the easiest thing to wear down and break is not the horse carriage itself, but rather the tires and rolles, right?”

“That’s right, it is indeed like this.” Chairman Pompeii nodded, “But I’ve also tried this, making the wheels and rollers out of iron. It is still too heavy and is actually easier to distort than wood. Adding in the fact that it costs several times more than wooden tires, I had to give it up in the end.”

“It costs several times more to make it?” Xu Yi was a bit surprised, “That isn’t right, from what I can see, iron should be cheaper. Shouldn’t it be more expensive to make wheels and rollers out of wood?”

“Chairman Xu, you don’t understand. Although iron itself is much cheaper than wood, to build the same kind of wheel and roller, it costs more to pay a blacksmith than a carpenter. Calculating this, it’s more expensive to make a wheel out of iron.” Chairman Pompeii helplessly said.

“Pa——”

Xu Yi suddenly clapped his hands before saying with a smile, “That’s it!”

Chairman Pompeii looked at Xu Yi in surprise, “What do you mean?”

Xu Yi laughed, “Chairman Pompeii, if I told you that I could sell you wheels and rollers made of iron at a price lower than that of those made of wood, would you be interested?”

“Are you joking?” Chairman Pompeii curled his lip, “How could iron be cheaper…..” He suddenly stopped talking and looked at Xu Yi with wide eyes, “That’s right, doesn’t your Frestech Chamber of Commerce do this! I really am stupid, I actually forgot something like this! Chairman Xu, can you really provide a cheaper wheel and roller made of iron?”

“Of course, I can even add something better that is called a tire.” Xu Yi replied with a smile.

###

It was close to night when he left the Fersen Carriage Company and when Xu Yi got home, the curtain of night fell.

When he walked into the door, he saw a figure appear in front of him as Agnes suddenly came out.

“Sir chairman, you’re finally back!” Agnes excitedly called out. She grabbed Xu YI’s hand and pulled him in through the door.

Xu Yi was a bit surprised, “Agnes, you seem quite happy today.”

“This is because Agnes made dinner tonight.” Still’s voice came from inside the room.

When she saw Agnes pulling Xu Yi in by the hand, Still’s expression changed slightly. She stood up and her expression didn’t change as she stole Xu Yi’s hand back from Agnes before saying with a smile, “You were gone for so long, the dishes are almost cold.”

Xu Yi looked at Vivian on the side with surprise before looking back at Still, “Didn’t you say that you two were making dinner tonight, why did it become Agnes?”

Still gave a shrug, “You should ask Agnes. When she saw Vivian and me prepare to make dinner, I don’t know what happened, but she suddenly said that she would make dinner. She wouldn’t listen to us no matter what we said.”

Xu Yi looked at Agnes in surprise, “Agnes, did you meet something that made you happy today?”

Agnes shook her head, “No. When I saw Still and Vivian preparing to make dinner, I suddenly thought that I’ve been here for so long, but I’ve always eaten the food Vivian made. According to what sir chairman told me last time about humans carrying their own weight, I thought that I should repay you by making dinner and returning your favours. Am I right, sir chairman?”

Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling, “Although it’s not completely right, it’s not wrong. Very good, Agnes, you’re learning more and more about the customs that we humans have. I believe that you’ll soon become what elder Illusia wishes for and you’ll truly be able to live in our human society.”

Agnes said in a somewhat distressed voice, “But every time I go out, there are many people who point at me and quite a few people surround me.”

“There’s no other way, who told them to be not used to you.” Xu Yi smiled as he patted Agnes’ shoulder, “Relax, humans get used to new things quite quickly. I believe it won’t take long before everyone is used to the existence of you elves. Look, now that a hundred of your compatriots have come, when they reveal themselves more in the city, everyone will gradually be used to this situation and will no longer point or surround you.”

Agnes thought for a bit before nodding, “I hope so. Alright, sir chairman, you’re finally back, so let’s quickly eat dinner. I don’t know what human eating customs are, but Still and Vivian both said that the dishes won’t be good if they’re cold, so let’s eat them before they get cold.”

Hearing Agnes say that she didn’t understand human eating customs, Xu Yi’s heart skipped a beat.

Last time when he went to the Night Song Tribe, elder Illusia had only given the three of them some simple fruits and water. This made Xu Yi complain about the diet of the elves.

Now that Agnes had emphasized this point, just what kind of appearance would the meal she made have?

Seeing Agnes pull back the cover over the table, Xu Yi took a deep breath and calmed himself as he took a look.

When he saw it, Xu Yi almost began to cry.

The things in the three dishes and soup bowl were completely black, he couldn’t tell what they were at all.

If someone wanted Xu Yi to recognize this as a normal meal, it would just by too hard to do.

Seeing the bright smile on Agnes’ face, Xu Yi asked Still and Vivian, “Hey, were these dishes made by Agnes alone? You just stood on the side without helping her at all?”

“This is because Agnes said that having people help wouldn’t let her show her sincerity, so she chased both of us out.” Still casually replied before looking at Xu Yi with a secret smile, “Dear sir chairman, Agnes said that since she came to the human world, you have helped her the most, so she wanted to make this meal to thank you. So…..you can’t let down Agnes’ good intentions.”

“That’s right, sir chairman, in order to show my gratitude, I made this entire meal by myself. How about you have a taste?” Agnes looked at Xu Yi with an expectant gaze.

Seeing the happy expression on Agnes’ face, as well as the secret smile on Still’s face and the worry on Vivian’s face, Xu Yi gave a sigh in his heart. He revealed a bright smile on his face and said to Agnes, “Alright, let me give it a try.”

He gritted his teeth after saying this and revealed a righteous look, as he took a large bite of the food Agnes delivered to his mouth.

Instantly all kinds of strange tastes exploded in his mouth. Xu Yi felt like he had fallen into an amazing world and the surrounding space turned colourful.

At this time, Agnes’ voice rang in his ears.

“Sir chairman, does it taste good?”

After a while, Xu Yi slowly spat out two words with difficulty, “Tastes……good……”

[TL Note: Moment of silence for our poor man…..]

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