Volume 5 Chapter 41 Old fashioned Wimbledon City
Riley was sitting at a table on the second floor of a restaurant, looking out the window at the bustling crowd walking through the street and he couldn’t help giving a sigh.
He had already been in Wimbledon City for a month and a half now.
According to the plan, on his trip to the Candra Empire this time, he would be discussing the matter of laying down roads in the Candra Empire between the Amrit Chamber of Commerce and the Candra Empire.
He and chairman Cruise had thought that this would be easy since he had come with ambassador Hakanin this time. With ambassador Hakanin’s status, they should have been able to easily open up the situation in Wimbledon City and quickly reach an agreement with the Candra Empire.
But facts were completely different from what he imagined.
Ambassador Hakanin was the emperor’s brother in law, but he didn’t have any real power in the Candra Empire, his position wasn’t as high as Riley had thought it would be.
Through the nobles of Wimbledon City that he had been able to meet through ambassador Hakanin these days, Riley could see that although these nobles gave ambassador Hakanin some and met Riley, when it came to matters, they all used tactful, but firm voices to reject him.
It was clear that these nobles with real power didn’t pay any attention to ambassador Hakanin at all, so naturally they wouldn’t treat the roads that he bragged about as something important.
There were even several nobles that looked at Riley with deep suspicion, like they were treating him as a swindler.
At first, ambassador Hakanin had warmly brought Riley to meet the nobles. He even led him to several noble gatherings, allowing him to become acquainted with quite a few nobles.
But because of the attitudes of each noble, ambassador Hakanin perhaps felt that this was no longer interesting and gradually wasn’t willing to care about this matter, so his passion faded.
In the last half a month, ambassador Hakanin had rarely met with Riley. Whenever Riley mentioned the matter of the road, he only received a perfunctory answer from ambassador Hakanin.
At this point, Riley naturally knew that chairman cruise had been wrong.
This ambassador Hakanin couldn’t be relied on at all.
There were many times that Riley felt a bit of regret. If the Amrit Chamber of Commerce entered the Candra Empire through official channels and discussed the issue of cooperation with the Candra Empire, the effects would have been much better.
After all, the convenience of the roads were very clear. As long as the Candra Empire could attach great importance to this, Riley was confident enough that he could make the Candra Empire accept this new thing.
However, Riley and the Amrit Chamber of Commerce had left a bad impression on many of the nobles of Wimbledon City. If they wanted to sign a cooperation, it would be very hard.
“Were we too anxious?” Riley asked with knit brows.
Although the Amrit Chamber of Commerce was a first class company in the Lampuri Kingdom and because only they had the technology for building roads and tall buildings with reinforced concrete, they had some fame in the surrounding countries. But because the Lampuri Kingdom and the surrounding countries didn’t enter the eyes of a colossus like the Candra Empire, those nobles of Wimbledon City hadn’t heard of them at all. Naturally they wouldn’t care about Riley or the Amrit Chamber of Commerce.
So Riley couldn’t help thinking that the Amrit Chamber of Commerce trying to enter the Candra Empire, which was one of the two empires on the Sines Continent was too rushed.
Actually, with the current development of the Amrit Chamber of Commerce, it was best if they kept opening markets in the small countries and built up their foundation. When the time was right, they could think about entering the Candra or Marlow Empires.
Chairman Cruise had been planning like this at first, but because the Frestech Chamber of Commerce suddenly had the idea of entering the Candra Empire, chairman Cruise as Xu Yi’s faithful ally had the same thoughts.
But reality was very cruel, the Candra Empire didn’t even spare a glance for the Amrit Chamber of Commerce.
Whenever he heard of this, Riley couldn’t help feeling a bit of complaint in his heart towards Xu Yi.
If it wasn’t for Xu Yi being in a rush to enter the Candra Empire, chairman Cruise wouldn’t have been this impulsive.
But Riley also found it very strange.
He had known Xu Yi for over five years and knew that Xu Yi wasn’t an impulsive person, he always had a detailed plan for anything he did and he had powerful foresight. No matter what he did, it would seem ordinary at first, but there would be a powerful effect that shocked everyone later.
This time he decided to have the Frestech Chamber of Commerce enter the Candra Empire definitely wasn’t because of an impulse.
But thinking of this, Riley’s thought changed and he discovered a fact that made him unsure whether he should laugh or cry.
Him representing the Amrit Chamber of Commerce hitting a wall in Wimbledon City wasn’t related to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce at all.
Before ambassador Hakanin came back, he made a special trip to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce for a large batch of household magic machines, which had filled up twenty large transport Magic Cars.
In less than ten days after ambassador Hakanin and Riley reached Wimbledon City, they were all swept up.
According to the number ambassador Hakanin told Riley in secret, from these household magic machines, he had earned a large profit of over two hundred thousand gold coins!
It had to be known, if ambassador Hakanin stayed in the Rudson Kingdom all year, he wouldn’t earn more than thirty thousand gold coins. This time he had just resold a batch of household magic machines from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and received such a terrifying profit.
It was no wonder that whenever ambassador Hakanin mentioned Xu Yi or the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, there was a smile that bloomed on his face.
But Wimbledon City was known as the number one city on the Sines Continent. It was said that the stable population in the city was one and a half million while the transient population was at least over two million.
Although ambassador Hakanin had brought twenty large transport Magic Cars filled with household magic machines, it was only like throwing a pebble in the pond after selling them all. It didn’t create any changes in the market at all.
Riley looked out the window to find that although Wimbledon City was big and was more lively than any other city he had been in before, if he looked seriously, he found that it wasn’t much different from the other cities of the Sines Continent.
The low buildings made of stone were close together and there were narrow paths between them. People by the road were waving rush leaf fans in their hand, trying to fend off the last heat wave of late summer……
Everything in Riley’s eyes made him think that it was old fashioned.
In the beginning, he didn’t know why he had this strange feeling seeing this lively scene.
But after a while, he suddenly understood.
He felt that Wimbledon City was old fashioned because he kept comparing Wimbledon City to Banta City that he was most familiar with.
Just in terms of scale, Banta City was clearly several times smaller and because of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the other large companies leaving, it had become much less lively. It wasn’t as grand as before, but at any time in Banta City, it would be filled with a feeling of vitality and novelty.
If one were to specifically describe this feeling, it was the smooth roads in the new part of Banta City that connected all of the city, as well as the street lamps on both sides of the road and the public transport Magic Cars that drove across those streets. There were also new styled factories in the new city, as well as houses that were filled with household magic machines that reached over ten meters into the air……
Adding in the bicycles riding across the roads and the people walking around when they were free, everything was different from the old styled cities of the Sines Continent.
Yes, with the efforts of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and various City Lords, Banta City had already changed into a new city. It was even completely different from the other cities on the continent.
Moreover, each of these differences represented one thing, which was advancement.
According to what Xu Yi said before, Banta City had now become a modern city, it was on a different level as the old styled cities of the Sines Continent.
Even if Wimbledon City was the biggest city on the Sines Continent, Riley still felt superior in his heart.
So what if it’s big? Was it more advanced than Banta City?
On the continent, the only places that could compare to Banta City was Black Rice City on the Black Rice Wasteland and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s base in the Stantine Duchy.
Thinking of this, Riley’s mood became much more relaxed.
The Candra Empire fellows didn’t know how to judge things, then they could just stay with their backwards thinking.
If the Candra Empire didn’t welcome the Amrit Chamber of Commerce, there were many other countries that did welcome them.
This fat empire would eventually pay the price for their hesitation in the end.
Riley put down the wine glass that he had held for a while and the worry in his heart gradually disappeared.
He took a deep look at Wimbledon City outside the window and he made his decision.
He would say goodbye to ambassador Hakanin tomorrow.
When he returned and told chairman Cruise about the situation in the Candra Empire, he believed that sir chairman would make the same decision.
When Riley was about to call the waiter to settle his bill, there was a dull sound that came from the staircase of the second floor. There was a skinny middle aged man who was covered in an astute aura that came up.
The middle aged man looked around and when his eyes fell onto Riley, he directly came over.
Riley was surprised. His mind quickly turned, but he confirmed that he didn’t recognize this person.
The middle aged man came to Riley’s table and revealed a courteous smile.
“May I ask, are you vice chairman Riley from the Lampuri Kingdom’s Amrit Chamber of Commerce?”
Riley was even more stunned.
This middle aged man had clearly investigated before coming to see him.
“That’s me, do you need me for something?” Riley carefully asked back.
Obtaining Riley’s confirmation, the middle aged man’s smile became even brighter.
“Vice chairman Riley, I’ve come looking for you to ask about the roads.”
Riley’s mind suddenly focused.
After being in Wimbledon City for this long, this was his first time hearing someone express interest in the public roads.