One hectare of land is not too big, Xuyi spent less than an hour to complete the land surveyance.
Xuyi goes to Wensley the the butler, takes a document out of his bag and hands it to Wenley.
"Mr. Wensley, this is the business plan for our first year of tenancy, for His Lordship to look it over. If His Lordship finds anything dissatisfactory, we will appreciate his advice and will promptly revise our plans accordingly."
Outwardly, Xuyi still conforms to the rules of conventional etiquette and behave appropriately according to his social standing.
He is crystal clear, that the hierarchical social system pervades this feudal-serdom society of the Conaissance Continent, which is very different from the social environment he has grown up in back on Earth. If he wants to succeed, he still has to follow the societal rules.
Sure enough, seeing Xuyi is being respectful, Wensley's warms up slightly. He takes the business plan and nods: "I will bring it back to His Lordship. Actually, there is no need to feel nervous. His Lordship is a generous man, as long as you do nothing to displease him, His Lordship will under usual circumstances find no cause to intervene in his tenant's matters."
"Then I shall thank Mr. Wensley for putting in your good words."
When the conversation is cordial, matters move along much more smoothly. Wensley only glances through the business plan, and then hands Xuyi a leasing agreement for signing.
After Xuyi signs his name, Wensley offers his hand for a handshake. "Very well. Mr. Xuyi, the land is now under your leasehold for the year, hopefully your will not waste this opportunity bestowed by His Lordship."
"I will."
After exchanging their farewells, and just as Heinze and Xuyi are leaving, a horrible scream comes from afar. The party of three are stunned, and turn to the direction where the scream.
Then another scream sounds, now mixed with a bitter wailing and a loud sound of whipping.
"I'll have a look!" Without a thought, Xuyi rushes towards the noise.
Heinze hesitates slightly, before turning towards Wensley," Mr. Wensley, the direction of these horrible sounds seem to come from His Lordship's county?"
Wensley looks to the direction of the scream with narrow eyes: "We go and have a look, too."
The nearer they go, the more resounding the lashes, which send chill down one's back, and each lash is followed by a scream of someone in excruciating pain.
Xuyi is much younger than Heinze and Mr. Wensley, and he had a headstart, so not long after, Xuyi has reached the source of the pitiful screamings, and he felt anger coarsing through his every vein!
On a barren ground, three brawny men are enclosing on a frail teenager, judging from his size a fourteen- fifteen-year-old. One of the men holds a cowhide whip, lashing with all his might on the poor lad one after another.
The teenager is already covered in bleeding lashmarks, in some places, the flesh is torn in lacerations; the wretched state the boy is preposterous in a time of peace like this.
And if he was screaming at first, he doesn't seem to have the might left, he doesn't even have the strength to thresh or flail about, and only involuntarily convulses at every lashing.
"Stop it!" Xuyi roars in rage, and rushed forward without a single thought. "You want to beat him to death?"
The three men do not expect anyone to intrude so suddenly, and look at Xuyi in astonishment. Assumably their uneasiness stem from the wizard's robe Xuyi is wearing, and stop themselves involuntarily.
But when Xuyi reaches out to hold the boy up, one of them stops him.
"Hey! Who the heck are you? We are teaching our house slave a lesson, no matter who you are, you have no right to interfere!" bellows the brawny man.
"House slave?" Xuyi looks at the boy in surprise, he is now on Viscount Lesley's estate, so the boy must be...
"This boy is His Lordship's slave?"
The brawn boldens up at the mention of his master: "Since you know His Lordship, then you should not meddle with our matters. Let me tell you, this son of a b#:"h has lost His Lordship's farm cattle, so even beating him to death is a light punishment."
"A cattle?" Xuyi is even more furious, "for just a cattle, you are going to take someone's life?"
"You know s#it!" sneers the brawn. "Harvest season is just two months away, and this brat gotta lose the cattle at this time. Now the harvesting is gonna be blown! Plus you know how much a cattle costs? 40 gold! Even if we sell this brat off we can't get half that! And you say he still deserves to live?"
"Even then you can't murder someone? And even if he dies you won't get your cattle back."
"Bulls#:t! Of course we know that. But this is punishment! You know punishment?! If we don't punish him, and the other slaves all do the same s#:t he does, with what will we plough His Lordship's farms?"
Xuyi knows he couldn't reason the situation to his advantage. In Conaissance Continent, there is no such thing as human rights for slaves, and slaves here a mere properties. He really has no right to meddle with this.
He turns around towards Mr. Wensley who is just reaching the scene, and feels more composed.
The three men follow Xuyi's gaze and finally notice Wensley their head steward. As guardsmen of Viscount Lesley's county, they would certainly know the Viscount's most trusted steward. They are stunned by his presence, and go forward to meet him.
Mr. Wesley and Heinze finally reaches them, and with just a fleating glance, the experienced Mr. Wesley has made sense of what has passed.
"Mr. Xuyi, this is the matter of His Lordship's household, I hope you will keep yourself out of the matter." said Mr. Wesley flatly, but in a steely tone.
Xuyi frowns deeply, he knows that according to the law of the land, he has no justification to continue his cause of saving the boy's life. But his conscience does not allow him to turn away.
He looks at Heinze with plead, but he finds Heinze just shakes his head, clearly disagreeing his wish to continue meddling.
Seeing the brutes of guardsmen raising their cowhide lashes, Xuyi feels even more distressed, suddenly an idea flashes to his mind, and he blurts out, "Wait! Mr. Wensley. Can I buy this slave?"
"Buy this slave?" Xuyi took him by surprise, but his annoyance returns, "Mr. Xuyi, I will say it again, this is the matter of the household, must you really have a hand in this?"
"Oh, no no. That is not what I meant." Xuyi waves his hands in submission. "I just thought, I am living alone, and has been thinking of getting a slave to administer to my needs. But I have yet found a suitable one. Since this house slave has served His Lordship, I would like to take this opportunity to ask for one of His Lordship's capable slaves, and allow me to buy one? I am sure His Lordship has vested due confidence in Mr. Wesley, and has enough authority over the sale of only a mere slave?"
Mr. Wensley's expression darkens, and as he is about to repeat his refusal, Xuyi suddenly put his arms over his shoulders.
This sudden gesture has Mr. Wensley gasping in exasperation. Just as he is about to lose his temper, he heard Xuyi whispering by his ear: "A tenth of shareholding! My honorable Mr. Wensley, if you would sell me the slave, I will transfer the right for a tenth of the magitech fan factory's shareholding to Lord Lesley. How do you see this?"
Mr. Wensley looks at Xuyi in amazement, and when he sees his serious expression, he is extremely curious: "Mr. Xuyi, are you serious about this? A tenth of your shareholding for a worthless slave? Although I have no idea how much a tenth of your share is worth, but magitech fans are selling so well in Stadtspire City, so even a tenth of your shares is worth quite a sum?"
Xuyi smilingly replies, "You may take it as my fling of indulgence."
Mr. Wensley gazes at Xuyi profoundly: "Are you sure about this, Mr. Xuyi?"
"Yes I am sure," is his unwavering reply.
Mr. Wensley nods silently, breaks loose from Xuyi's hold, and gestures to his three guardsmen: "Release him."
The three brawns look at one another, and then steps aside from the slave. Mr. Wensley throws a glance at the slave, then turns towards Xuyi: "Mr. Xuyi, from now on, this slave is your property."
Xuyi let out a cordial laugh, slios his hand into his pocket: "Thank you very much. What is the price for this slave?"
Mr. Wensley's expressions turned unnatural, and then he shakes his head: "Mr. Xuyi, for your generosity, I thank you on His Lordship's behalf, and I will gift this slave to you."
"If so, please express to His Lordship my gratitude."
Mr. Wesley and the three guardsmen leaves the place, while Xuyi and Heinze carry the wounded slave onto the carriage.
"What's gotten in your head!" Heinze finally let out his pent up emotions. "Xuyi, based on our estimations, if the magitech factory runs smoothly, our anual profits will at least be 5000 gold! And you transfered a tenth of our factory's shares to Lord Lesley, that's 500 gold a year! Our rent for his land is not even a hundred gold!"
Xuyi waves off Heinze's complaint, and gestures to him to sit down, and said with a smile: "Even without this incident, I have planned all along to find a suitable opportunity to let him have some of our shares. Now, with this incident, I have a perfect reason to give Lord Lesley our shares, I would rather say things has gone exactly as I have wished it."
Seeing Xuyi so relaxed has Heinze feeling calmer, but still he is confused.
"Why?"
"Why?" Xuyi repeated with a cheeky grin, then points out at the barren land out of the window. "Heinze, you see clearly. This land is Lord Lesley's private estate, you must know what private estate means? It means as long as he see fit, he can chase us out; even when we have a leasing contract it would not stop him, because this is the damned privilege of the noblemen."
"I have thought this over for a long time. If we want to succeed in the long term, we must get the wholehearted support of Lord Lesley. But how can we make this noble viscount's support? There is only one answer, that is to tie him and us to the same battle chariot. That is, only when his benefit and our benefit are aligned, he will whole-heartedly support us, or at least he will not be a burden to us. Actually, a tenth of shares is too little, if possible, I want to transfer two tenth of shares to him. But it will be too obvious and may cause Lord Lesley to be suspicious of us. Besides, our relationship is just starting off, so no need to rush things."
Heinze looks at Xuyi agaped, and let out a sigh of amazement: "Xuyi, I thought you are just some talented wizard, but I never knew you are an even slyer merchant."
"Haha, thanks for the compliment."