Let’s disregard for a mont that Emperor Gafura lost his temper and lashed out in the Ruler’s Hall; Lynch encountered his birthday.
October 10th, he turned twenty-two.
On October 10th last year, he didn’t celebrate his birthday. He wasn’t very used to it, or rather, before coming to this world, he had gotten used to not celebrating his birthday.
In such a place, celebrating a birthday is actually a kind of tornt because you can never escape a cage your whole life. Each birthday only serves as a reminder that certain people have murdered another year of yourself with such a thod.
So the people there generally don’t celebrate birthdays, which is different from small rooms in ordinary, more widespread regions.
In those regions’ ordinary small rooms, people do celebrate birthdays. So friendly places even organize birthday events, allowing everyone to find so amusent, along with talent shows and the like, creating a lively atmosphere.
Because they can eventually leave and gain freedom, every birthday celebrated ans they are one step closer to freedom.
But in Lynch’s place, every birthday brings him one step closer to the grave.
This also made Lynch, after coming here, not really care whether he celebrated his birthday or not.
This ti, he didn’t want to celebrate his birthday either; it didn’t an much. Yet, he unexpectedly couldn’t successfully avoid it because Rella chased him here to celebrate his birthday.
Before realizing he was going to celebrate his birthday, Lynch had just finished a communication salon with so local rchants, foreign rchants, and dostic rchants.
It sounds a bit complicated, but it’s actually a group of uneasy rchants and a group of sowhat excited rchants gathering together to discuss upcoming market and competition issues.
Lynch had previously said that the United Developnt Company wouldn’t divvy everything up like Pretton Trading Company did.
The Federation is still a nation concerned with appearances, even though they internally yearn to do just that and actually do so through other ans, but they won’t say it out loud, much less admit to it.
Everything is to be left for the market to dictate, no longer monopolized by institutions like Pretton Trading Company. This is truly the righteous justice.
In the past, everything from what business to do each year, how much to do, and how much to earn, was tightly controlled; so tightly that these people rely needed to assign a few subordinates to handle routine daily tasks and just wait for the money to roll in.
But now it’s different. Lynch has opened up the market, and even he won’t be monopolizing the market share, which makes the ensuing market competition exceptionally fierce.
Competition among local rchants, foreign rchants, and Federation rchants will resemble a bloody war without any rules; initially, people will face price wars, and the conflicts will swiftly escalate.
The only judge of this war is Lynch, so from a certain perspective, this eting equates to him laying down the rules and then pulling the trigger on the starting gun.
Currently, he’s not very interested in these local businesses, but he’s very concerned about the local market. After all, it’s a market of two to three hundred million people; once these people beco wealthy, their consumption potential will even attract the attention of Federation people.
This is one of his plans, or rather, one of United Developnt Company’s plans. They will provide suitable jobs and wages to the people of Nagariel, fully exploiting their labor value.
Then, through the sale of services and goods, they will take back a significant portion, and this is perfect!
Lynch, who was deep in thought, continued walking forward, and just as the door to the room opened, suddenly there was a cheer in his ear that almost startled him.
"Happy Birthday," clearly words ant to make soone happy, yet they made him slightly bemused.
Fortunately, he had seen many major events, and this incident was still within his psychological endurance. He quietly unclenched his fist and tily revealed a look of disbelief on his face.
Standing closest to him, Rella’s face was flushed, holding what seed to be a hat — Federation people have many actions related to rituals.
For instance, different holidays involve different nus, and even where they are eaten can be very particular.
Then there’s the gang involvent; the fights between gang mbers are quite ritualistic, from how people are killed to how things are handled afterwards, all of this can be traced. Those veteran policen can imdiately gather firsthand case information from the scene of a gang fight.
Of course, this also includes the birthday party. Wearing a pointed colorful hat becos the "ritual" of the birthday party, making it an indispensable ceremony.
Rella didn’t notice the helplessness behind Lynch’s surprised expression as she placed the hat on him and pulled him into the room.
When entering the room, Lynch saw the Provincial Governor Drag, who had changed into Federation attire, and he instantly felt a lot better.
"I didn’t know you were coming..." Lynch softly said as he stood before a cake taller than a person.
The girl’s face slightly blushed, "I read a book. The book says one should fight for their happiness, so I ca because I believe you are my happiness."
This direct confession left Lynch sowhat at a loss. Did Mr. Wardrick misunderstand sothing, sending this young woman here?
In fact, Lynch shared the sa view as Mr. Wardrick. He was unlikely to marry Rella as his wife, and Mr. Wardrick wouldn’t allow him to anyway.
To Lynch, the female side was too strong — this is not about Rella’s attitude in life and work, but rather that her family background and relationships far exceeded Lynch’s, which in turn would not be of any help to Lynch.
It might even limit Lynch’s developnt due to their relationship. During business talks with Lynch, people might consider Rella and the capital forces behind her more, pondering whether proceeding might lead to negative repercussions, thereby simply bypassing Lynch.
Any growth or progress Lynch made could be seen as developnts gained through Rella’s connections and help, which is undoubtedly fatal to both his personal and business endeavors.
Unless he can grow enough for people to overlook his origins and background before they marry, but in the short term, this seems unlikely. It would require at least a decade, making this inevitably a love affair without a result.
Perhaps, this is why Mr. Wardrick sent her over?
Because he knows the outco?
However, regardless, being valued by soone is still delightful. After softly saying "thank you," Lynch cut the cake.
Not far away, re hundreds of ters, Mr. Simon returned ho just in ti.
The salon they organized this ti made his already low spirits even lower.
At the eting, Lynch declared he wouldn’t interfere in the competition between rchants but wouldn’t allow malicious competition to erge.
He ntioned what he considers malicious competition, but in Mr. Simon’s view, Lynch is rely preventing them from breaking so local and possibly even Federation laws, or he is essentially suppressing local foreign rchants like Mr. Simon.
Since they have been here longer, they are more familiar with the society and all its layers here. If anyone were to utilize criminal acts to undermine competitors, undoubtedly, it would be soone as deeply connected locally as Mr. Simon.
Lynch set rules to restrain local foreign rchants like them but didn’t regulate malicious behaviors in competition such as run-outs and bidding wars.
These two situations are what almost all rchants most fear encountering, whether the forr or the latter.
There are many types of run-outs, the most common being returns. Don’t think that this era has no concept of returns. As long as the custor finds the product unsatisfactory, they can request a refund.
Whether or not to refund may be the rchant’s choice, but if they refuse and create a fuss, the adverse impact is borne by the rchant themselves.
But if they refund, others buy and then return again, should they still stock goods?
No stocking, nothing to sell.
Stocking leads to returned goods being sent back, causing backlogs and tying up significant funds.
And let’s not even ntion the even more frightening bidding wars, which can make rchants lose everything. During the Pretton Trading Company period, they directly set standard prices, or protective prices to ensure the benefits of every distributor, and this has been what allowed everyone to support Pretton Trading Company. Now all that is over.
Federation rchants have more advantages than them, and they are simply not opponents of the Federation rchants. Perhaps leaving now is the right decision.
He walked into the study with a frown and called in his butler, "Find out recently how much my properties, estates, factories, and shops are worth..."
He tried to speak in a calm tone, but the butler still detected a different nuance. The butler hesitated for a mont before testingly asking, "Sir, are you planning to leave?"
"Leave?" Mr. Simon laughed, "Of course not. This afternoon at the salon, I t so Federation rchants, and these people are very arrogant. I’ve decided to teach them a lesson, let them know that even without Pretton Trading Company, we are still half the masters here!"
His bold statent, though, didn’t convince the butler that’s indeed the case.
While thinking about how to further dispel the butler’s doubt, Mr. Simon’s gaze unintentionally landed on his son at the edge of the courtyard, chatting with a young man across the not-so-tall hedge.
He frowned but soon relaxed again, having no intention of taking his child and his mother away, only planning to leave alone.
A short while later, the butler erged from the study and happened to encounter the young master who had just finished chatting. The latter instantly noticed the worry lines on the butler’s face.
As soone trying hard to prove himself to be a good child, he was observant and ticulous.
He approached the butler and softly asked, "Mr. Butler, what’s troubling you? You seem to have sothing on your mind."
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