Xio's Indignation

"Really...?" Hugh muttered to himself suspiciously as he changed his shoes and walked towards the desk in the Living Room. His gaze swept over the desk, and the corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily.

She thought to herself, "They haven't even filled a single page, yet they have the nerve to say they've been writing a new book..." and placed the Desi Pie and Sweet Iced Tea on the Tea Table.

Pretending not to see the fleeting disdain in her friend's eyes, Fors sat up straight, picked up a Desi Pie, and said with a grin:

"It smells so good, is it fresh out of the oven?"

"Hugh, you're so good to me, I love you to death!"

"Tch... not sincere..." Xiu scoffed dismissively, and said mischievously.

"How do I compare to that guy?"

Fors grunted, stopped putting the Desi Pie into her mouth, and quickly turned her head to check her living Living Room.

After confirming that no one else was around, she cleared her throat and said without hesitation:

"Of course it's you."

"I'll remember that. I hope you'll answer the same way next time he's around." Hugh gave his hopeless friend a disapproving look and sat down on the Single Sofa.

"What about Albert?"

"He hasn't been eating much dog food lately, so I bought his share too."

"Albert..." Fors swallowed his food, his gaze strange.

"He went to Empress Borough..."

Empress Borough... Hugh's gaze turned strange.

She suddenly chuckled, and while chewing on her Desi Pie, she ruthlessly retorted:

"Useless."

As she said this, she stared intently at her friend on the Long Sofa.

Fors immediately objected, feeling that the other person was criticizing one tree while pointing at another, and retorted irritably, "What do you mean?"

"It means exactly what it says." Hugh shrugged and said sarcastically.

"Albert is useless. Even though he was told that Susie had gone back to her Family Estate with her owner, he still brings snacks to Empress Borough every day."

"You're not much better than him. You don't write your own new book, nor do you properly play the ' Trickmaster.' Instead, you're incredibly concerned about that guy's Factory, constantly asking managers for information and even paying out of your own pocket to have professionals do the accounting. You're wasting your energy on this."

She was referring to what happened yesterday.

Fors was surprised when he crawled out of his warm bed early in the morning, much to the astonishment of Hugh, who was also an early riser. Hugh thought his friend had changed his ways.

It wasn't until breakfast that I found out the other person was going to the Factory District today.

"Because I own shares..." Fors was a little embarrassed by what he said and couldn't think of a good reason for a moment, so he weakly retorted.

Hugh pursed his lips and continued:

"I recently heard in the East Borough that that guy's Factory made a big contribution during the Great Smog before the Lunar New Year, and many people are grateful to him."

"And you know what, this year's Backlund, how should I put it? Fors, can you imagine the streets on a foggy day, with everyone, including homeless Vagrant and even Gang, all wearing white Face Mask? By Goddess, I almost went crazy when I first saw it."

"Uh..." Since returning home from vacation, Fors had only gone out once, and the whole time she traveled by carriage, so she hadn't really paid attention to these things.

She closed her eyes and imagined it for a moment, and indeed found the scene somewhat comical.

But she quickly realized what was happening and frowned slightly.

"Wait a minute, Hugh, can you explain this? You've been out running around for days, why are you only telling me this today?"

"... Would you believe me if I said I forgot?"

Feeling uneasy under his friend's gaze, Xiu awkwardly replied:

"Isn't it because he's out there having a good time, leaving you all alone in Backlund working for him? Why would I bring this up out of the blue?"

Fors glanced at his friend suspiciously, not quite believing it.

Don't cough once, quickly adjust your mindset, and appear completely calm.

"Okay." Fors's intuition told Fors she wouldn't get any more information, so she nodded reluctantly and chuckled as she refuted her friend's earlier statement:

"It's not about him having a good time outside; he has important things to do."

"And working... that sounds awful! Can't you use a nicer word? Haha, Hugh, do you even know what 20% of the shares means?"

"What?" Hugh answered instinctively.

Fors chuckled, lowered his voice, and leaned closer to his friend, saying:

"Light Year, after deducting production costs and the wages of workers for the Future two months, I received a bonus of five hundred pounds."

Xiu accidentally bit her tongue, and the excruciating pain instantly made her eyes well up with tears, but she didn't care about that and asked in surprise:

How much did you say?!

"Five hundred pounds, and that's a share of the profits after the upfront payment covers costs?! Seriously, do you guys have such a huge profit margin on your Face Mask?!"

Before her family's decline, she received an education befitting her status and understood the concepts of advance payments, costs, dividends, and profits.

Generally, the prepayment should not exceed 50% of the contract amount.

This means that when the goods are delivered later, the outstanding payment will be pure profit, many times more than five hundred pounds.

Huff... Xiu exhaled forcefully and said softly:

"Since I came back, I've been running around outside until dark every day, and I haven't earned more than twenty pounds in total."

"And..."

As she spoke, she glared at her friend, reached into her jacket pocket, pulled out two packs of new Face Mask, slammed them on the Tea Table, and said irritably:

"And it cost half a pound to buy this thing!"

"You two heartless Factory owners, give me back my hard-earned money!"

"Sorry, once the item is sold, it's non-refundable... uh." Before Fors could finish speaking, her friend pounced on her and pushed her onto the Sofa.

She tried to resist, but soon sadly discovered that if she didn't use more powerful magic tricks, she might hurt her friend, damage the furniture, or mess up the Trick. She couldn't escape the "Sheriff's" control at all, so she could only twist and turn and pitifully beg her friend for mercy.

Two minutes later, Fors, with tears streaming down her face from laughing, glared weakly at her nonchalant friend and tidied her messy hair again.

At this moment, Xiu sighed and said seriously:

Fors, I won't laugh at you for being lazy anymore.

"With the share dividends that guy gives you, as long as you don't deliberately splurge, you'll quickly save enough money to Advancement to the next Sequence."

"Uh, why save up?" Fors paused for a moment.

Why save up? Hugh was stunned:

"I know your teacher can provide the Formula, but what about the corresponding Beyonder Characteristic?"

"That's enough," Fors said, counting on her fingers.

"A long time ago, he gave me one of the Main Ingredient, and the teacher also mentioned in the letter that he would provide a Main Ingredient as a reward."

See, that's enough.

"Besides, I'm not short of money right now. My previous savings, royalties from the new book, Factory dividends, and a Potion are more than enough."