Kays Translations

Chapter 36: Return to the Capital

By the seaside, the sound of the waves continued as before, at the same place as the last trade, which was chosen by Li Xian as the port. Wei Zhe came again on behalf of the sea tribe.

“It’s only been a little over two months, and you’ve completed all the weapons?” Wei Zhe was surprised. He hadn’t expected Li Xian to contact him so soon. At this time, Wei Zhe was already preparing for the New Year, and here he was, pulled away by Li Xian.

Li Xian replied straightforwardly, “Senior Wei, please inspect.”

Next to them, someone had already lifted the rough burlap, revealing the one million pounds of weapons customized by the sea tribe, all neatly arranged on the beach. The most eye-catching were the five tridents among them.

But Wei Zhe couldn’t open his eyes at once; they were too… dazzling!

Indeed, Li Xian had put considerable effort into these weapons. After Liu Bin completed the polishing, Li Xian had Liu Bin polish them again using coarse burlap mixed with shell powder. With the machine tools, it was quite simple.

Using bone powder and other materials to grind weapons was something Li Xian had seen with Japanese swords, allowing the blade to shine even brighter than a mirror. Now, he had adapted this method, choosing shell powder since they were close to the sea.

The result of this polishing was—spectacular! The stainless steel was already bright, and after another round of polishing, it achieved a mirror-like effect. All the weapons sparkled in the sunlight, competing for attention like treasures.

As for whether such smooth weapons could be held, Li Xian thought—who cares! The designs provided by the sea tribe didn’t specify, so they just “did their best,” and they just happened to do it “too well.” That’s called fulfilling their responsibility.

In reality, Li Xian’s intent was not merely a prank; he aimed to showcase the capabilities of the trading business.

Aside from the three gigantic tridents, the handles of the other swords were covered with rough patterns for better grip.

Wei Zhe, of course, was no fool. Although the quality of the weapons looked good, he pointed out the issue with the tridents: “They’re too smooth to hold.”

Li Xian replied honestly, “Senior Wei, we are familiar with swords and know how to use them; however, we don’t know how to use tridents, so we didn’t know where to carve the patterns.”

“Um…” Wei Zhe was taken aback for a moment, thought for a while, and finally smiled helplessly, “You’ve done well. Just throw these into the sea.”

Wei Zhe realized that they would need to consider the opinions of the sea patrols on how to use the tridents. But still, these mirror-like weapons looked truly beautiful.

It’s very simple to throw them into the sea. Wei Zhe cast a freezing spell, and thin ice appeared on the ground; Li Xian then had his subordinates push the weapons into the sea.

Then Li Xian pointed to a row of horse-drawn carriages nearby:

“Senior Wei, these items are the goods we prepared. They include 10 of the latest crystal chandeliers specifically designed for the palace, as well as 1,000 mirrors of various styles. Additionally, there are 1,000 glass cups and lanterns, and 500 ordinary colored lanterns.

There are also 1,000 one-meter-sized solid-colored glass balls, including clear, green, blue, red, yellow, black, white, purple, and more than a dozen other colors.

Furthermore, there are 300 rolls of top-quality silk.”

“So many?” Wei Zhe looked over each item, unable to resist admiring them. Just the mirrors alone showed that Li Xian had put in a lot of effort this time. There were heart-shaped ones, gourd-shaped ones, round and flat ones, gold-edged ones, silver-edged ones, mirrors in the style of the Great Xia Kingdom, mirrors in styles from other countries, and even many in styles reminiscent of Earth that Li Xian remembered—1,000 mirrors with not a single duplicate.

As for the crystal chandeliers, their details were hard to discern since they were all wrapped in burlap and stored in boxes; however, it took four large boxes to package each chandelier, which was quite substantial.

And those 1,000 glassware pieces were “display items” made for mass production next year, naturally stunning to behold. While natural jade and crystal are nice, they ultimately have dull colors and cannot compare to the rich, vibrant, and customizable colors of glass.

All the items were excellent, and the quantity was considerable, but Wei Zhe found himself in a dilemma—he hadn’t prepared so much wealth.

Li Xian smiled generously, “The mirrors, chandeliers, and glassware are New Year gifts for Princess Ao Qingxue.”

“In that case, I will accept them on behalf of the princess.” Wei Zhe’s enthusiasm increased immediately, and he quickly arranged for his subordinates to start moving the items.

“Senior Wei, next year we will exchange for more spiritual silk threads, so please prepare in advance. Also, please convey my regards to Princess Ao Qingxue.”

“Understood.”

After seeing the sea tribe personnel leave and the sea return to calm, Li Xian smiled with satisfaction and turned to leave. Why was Li Xian so pleased? It was certainly because the relationship with the sea tribe had essentially been established—at least a friendly cooperative relationship had been confirmed. The next step, which would be next year, was that great iron ships would be sailing on the sea, la la la.

After Li Xian returned, he tidied up briefly before going to see his older brother, Li Liang. However, Li Liang couldn’t leave and needed to stay in An Yang. But less than half an hour later, Li Xian ran out in a flurry—his sister-in-law wanted to recommend her younger sister again. As Li Xian’s performance continued to improve, his sister-in-law’s enthusiasm escalated correspondingly.

In the afternoon, Li Xian officially set out for the imperial capital. This time, he brought along a full 300 horse-drawn carriages of goods, including 12 crystal chandeliers, aimed at penetrating the top-tier market specifically targeting the extremely wealthy and the obscenely rich.

He also had the latest colorful lanterns and cartoon lighting fixtures, preliminary display glassware, a few shiny stainless steel weapons that could illuminate, and a total of 6,000 rolls of fabric—this was what He Lin had worked overtime to weave, along with some regular stock.

Additionally, Li Xian brought a special product—50 engines! These engines had been rushed out in the past few days; they were small and quite rough, standing one foot tall and two feet long, with only two chambers and one horsepower, and the formations inside were stitched together from leftover sea spirit silk.

Such engines had a very short lifespan of only three to five months; however, Li Xian was confident they would definitely create a sensation in the imperial capital.

Of course, the shrewd Li Xian wouldn’t simply sell the engines but would bundle them with a rudimentary textile machine.

“Are you really going to sell the engines?!” Xu Ren exclaimed anxiously. “This is the heart of industry; I still can’t understand the reasoning. I still oppose selling.”

It turned out that when Li Xian decided to sell the engines, Xu Ren had already tried to stop him; but this time, Li Xian did not heed Xu Ren’s advice and was determined to go through with the sale.

In the face of Xu Ren’s objections, Li Xian said: “In terms of strategy, I am not as good as you, sir, but in industry and related business, I am better than you; can you guess what my purpose is in doing this?”

When it came to selling the engines, Li Xian could be said to be stubborn—at least it appeared that way, as everyone was opposed to him.

Now, as the team was about to set off, Xu Ren was still resolutely trying to prevent Li Xian from selling the engines.

“Sir, haven’t you thought this through? To obtain, one must first give. Even fishing requires bait.”

“That’s completely different,” Xu Ren countered, unconvinced.

“Alright, please let me explain my reasoning to you.”

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