"Let's leave it at that. I'll leave the remaining matters in Water-Drawing City to you and Lucifer." Li Wei sighed as he gazed over Water-Drawing City's sprawling, prosperous urban expanse.
Yet he had always believed that, in a few years' time, the Minas Tirith they were building in the North would sooner or later reach such a scale—perhaps even surpass it!
Garvin bowed solemnly.
"Thank you for your trust!
"Once we collect the advertising revenue from this evening's premiere of the light-and-shadow drama, along with the bicycle sales, advance payments for orders of the old-model steam locomotives, and the funds Hogg Workshop has accumulated on its books over the past two weeks, we can complete the consolidation of more than half of Water-Drawing City's smithies and leather workshops before spring. We can also build production factories in the Port District, recruit workers, and begin manufacturing.
"Once trade in the North revives in spring, I will proceed according to plan and crash the prices of weapons, armor, and other iron goods throughout Water-Drawing City, luring those hoarders into selling along with us and clearing out their inventories ahead of time.
"By then, at least among the city clusters around Water-Drawing City, Hogg Mining will basically hold the power to set prices for these goods."
"When you handle things, I'm at ease."
Li Wei smiled and patted his chief executive officer on the shoulder before turning toward the building. Yet for some reason, a heaviness suddenly settled in his heart.
All told, although he had already spent sixteen years in this world, the time he had truly been awake and active between his three long slumbers might not even add up to half a year.
Even for a dragon still in its juvenile stage, that was an utterly abnormal—even incomprehensible—thing.
What was