Mystery: The New Dark Emperor Arrives

Chapter 627 Xio’s professional qualities

With Tutuga Port becoming the economic backbone of Longtail Island, Hobert has basically completed the plan he had been planning for the past two or three months.

The land reform outside Tutujia Port has basically been completed, but getting rid of the bad habits of the indigenous people on Longwei Island is a long and arduous task.

However, with Hobert taking over the position of "Mountain God", this mission will definitely have significant results within a year.

After handing over the operation of Tutuga Port to Fors and handing over the operation of Longtail Island's government affairs to Conrad, Hobert returned to Backlund and began to deal with Backlund's backlog of affairs.

At noon, the "Earl's Light" office building.

There was a sudden knock on the wooden door of the Financial Director's office. Audrey glanced at the clock on the wall and realized it was lunch time before she knew it. She thought it was Annie who had brought lunch: "Come in!"

There is a separate kitchen for the management of "Earl's Light". Although it is not as luxurious as the lunch of MI9, it tastes good.

Audrey didn't want to highlight how special she was, so she had lunch at "Earl's Light".

When she opened the door, it was not Annie who came in, but the handsome Hobert, who was wearing a windbreaker and had a bit of stubble.

Audrey, who wore a relatively simple long skirt today and looked somewhat professional, was a little surprised: "Hobert, you're back!"

"Yes, I just came back from the Southern Continent." Hobert lied extremely smoothly as he walked in with lunch: "I came here without even having time to shave. It happened to be lunch time, so I brought my lunch with me. Brought it."

In fact, at his level, he has the final say whether his beard and hair grow long or not.

Audrey happily went to pick up the lunch, only to see Hobert suddenly grow his arms.

She didn't refuse and hugged Hobert tightly.

Ten seconds later, Hobert kissed Audrey on the forehead, and the two separated.

Hobert put lunch on the table, which was quite sumptuous, including two steaks, a plate of prawns, a salad platter, and two bowls of onion soup.

Prawns are rare in the kitchens of other companies, but in the kitchen of "Earl's Light", some sea fish or shrimps and crabs that are relatively expensive in Backlund often appear.

Not only are there small kitchens, but there are also large kitchens for employees.

Because Nancolson had already started developing a fishery on Dockyard Island, what troubled them before was that no one knew how to fish at sea, but as Long Tail Island became Hobart's territory, they learned from the indigenous fishermen. Some fishing tips.

South Colson has made systematic arrangements, built a fishing port, purchased small fishing boats and many fishing gears, so now seafood is a common food on the tables of residents of inland South Colson.

At the same time, it can also be supplied to the high-priced Backlund "Earl's Light" factory, so that the workers here can also eat seafood.

Normally, Audrey found the food in the small kitchen of "Earl's Light" to be a bit greasy, but today with Hobert here, she felt it was particularly delicious, and she ate all her portion of steak and three prawns in a short time. Finished eating.

The maid Anne put away the tableware, and Hobert and Audrey drank tea and chatted.

Audrey whispered: "The second tranche of funds for the Southern Continent, a total of 20 pounds, has been prepared."

Hobert nodded: "The southern continent has also found a location to build a factory. As soon as the money is in place, large-scale construction operations can be carried out."

In fact, the place has been found a long time ago, but because the land reform on Changwei Island needs to be carried out first, a large number of manpower is needed, and the manpower has not been in place.

Now that the land reform on Longtail Island is over, Hobert can transfer a large number of officials and cadres to the southern continent to start planning the infrastructure there.

This has been being prepared since the Battle of South Colson. In a week or two, there will be a large number of grassroots officials in the Cadre School in South Colson and they will be sent to the southern continent.

These things flashed through Hobert's mind, and he asked Audrey: "How is the operation of 'Earl's Light' recently?"

"It's not going well." Audrey said with some worry: "There were two accidents in the Wood District and the St. George District. The wires were blown by the wind and fell to the ground.

"A total of five people were electrocuted in four accidents. Almost all major newspapers reported these accidents, causing orders for light bulbs to plummet."

Hobert nodded slowly: "Has it been windy in the past week or two?"

Audrey was startled: "It seems not."

"You go on."

"Of course the Gas Association will not miss this opportunity. Many prosecutors immediately filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court on the grounds that the electric lights caused huge harm." Audrey said: "However, with the mediation of my father and others, the Supreme Court The court did not file a case.

"But the council set up a panel to investigate the potential hazards of electric lighting and its future prospects.

“The Prime Minister’s Secretary serves as the leader of the team, and the team members include MPs, officials from the industrial sector, and members of the Gas Association.

"The team also sent you invitations, but Todd rejected them all because you were on a business trip out of town. It seems that a new invitation was sent this morning. It is said that a more important meeting will be held tomorrow."

Hobert nodded: "I understand."

The formation of this group is obviously to mediate the conflict between the Gas Association and "Earl's Light". It also hopes to redistribute the interests of the lighting industry and allow the Gas Association to transform into the era of light bulb lighting to prevent "Earl's Light" from forming a monopoly. The government Not easy to control.

He asked again: "So is our business in other cities still going well?"

"It went very smoothly!" Audrey said: "We have built power plants in the 12 cities. After the electric lights went on sale in the past ten days, they have attracted millions of pounds of funds, of which Upton brought 80 pounds. After going to Intis, I prepared 120 million pounds for him in follow-up investment.”

Hobert nodded. With such a sum of money, Upton would be able to launch business in Intis at an extremely fast speed and receive new funds quickly.

He asked: "Can I get 80 pounds on my books?"

Audrey smiled and said, "No problem."

"Take it out and distribute dividends to shareholders." Hobert smiled: "Don't consider my part."

A few months ago, all shareholders except Hobert had a total investment amount of 140 million pounds, and now they can allocate 80 pounds. For shareholders, when they previously invested in banking and finance, the money came in very quickly. That's it.

Hobert said to himself: This is the so-called dividend of emerging industries.

"Okay." Audrey agreed.

Hobert warned again: "When you give dividends to shareholders, or when they come to collect them, you must explain to them that the company will take some big actions recently, so they don't have to worry, I will take care of it."

What he actually means is: I will take care of it, don't worry about it, let alone bother me.

After chatting for a while and making an appointment with Audrey to visit her home tomorrow night, Hobert came to Todd's office to find out more about the situation.

When previous incidents occurred, the public relations team of "Earl's Light" also responded quickly.

But they were always a step too late. When they went to negotiate compensation with the family of the deceased, the family had already sued "Earl's Light" to the court and kept shouting that those who made electric lights and wires should be sent to prison. .

By the time other people from the public relations department arrived at the newspaper office, reports on these accidents had been laid out and printed in batches.

While we were discussing with the editor-in-chief to spend money to suspend printing, the printed newspapers had already begun to be sold on the street.

Todd said with a dark face: "If someone hadn't deployed in advance, I wouldn't believe it."

After Hobert learned about the situation, he gave Todd a few words, took away the invitation letter from the investigation team, and left "Earl's Light".

At this time, he suddenly realized that he did not have emergency contact information with Xio. He was about to go to the telegraph office and send an urgent message to Xio, asking her to go to the Earl's Mansion as soon as possible.

But I also thought that if Hugh was not at home, he might not receive the telegram.

Hobert lamented that without extraordinary powers, if there was a phone, he could at least confirm whether Xio was at home.

So he used "travel" to go to the address left by Xio, and sure enough he was not at home.

If you use the ability of "correlation", you can find Xio, but as long as Xio's current location is more than five kilometers away, it will take a certain amount of time.

Hobert then thought that he could use Xio's hair to make a long-distance "correlation". As long as she didn't leave Backlund, he could at least roughly know where she was now.

But Hugh was a very good bounty hunter. Hobert searched for a long time but couldn't find a single hair.

He simply returned to the Earl's Mansion, intending to write a letter and ask a messenger to deliver it to Hugh.

As soon as he entered the hall of the Earl's Mansion, Dophis handed over an invitation, reminding Hobert that he had an appointment that evening.

That was the invitation Georgina had sent before, inviting Hobert and others to have dinner and enjoy the opera.

Hobert returned to the study with the invitation and exclaimed: "How fast, it's already September 9th!"

He remembered that the war seemed to break out in October, which meant that he still had a month to prepare.

Use this period of more than a month to invest a large number of gold pounds in the Southern Continent.

This plan has been going on, with Audrey in charge of Backlund's side and Hobert's sister Donna in charge of the Southern Continent.

The other thing is to prepare for the launch of the phone product, at least before the war starts, let the nobles in Queens use it first. If the war starts, we will definitely get a large number of military orders!

After thinking about it for a moment, Hobert wrote to Hugh and began to deploy a crackdown on the gas association.

Xio arrived at the Earl's Mansion at about three o'clock. Before Hobert assigned her a task, Xio took the initiative and said: "I investigated the four accidents at the 'Earl's Light'. They were not real accidents. A frame-up planned by two gas companies."

Hobert smiled and said to himself: This is called professionalism.

Xio's investigation was very comprehensive. Not only did he basically find out the planners of the gas company, he also found evidence that the gas association had bribed several major newspapers.

Hobert looked at the information in his hand, took out his wallet and took out 800 pounds in cash: "Is this enough to pay your informant and the cost of your investigation?"

Xio was a little confused when he saw the stack of cash: "I, I spent more than 300 pounds, mainly to bribe the employees of the newspaper and the staff of the gas association."

Hobert took out another 200 pounds and handed 1000 pounds in cash to Hugh: "These are all yours."

"It won't take that much."

"The remaining money is your reward." Hobert smiled: "Your information is too timely, which allows me to deal with the intimidation of the Gas Association more calmly."

He paused and then said: "You can help me do another investigation and help me find out all the storage locations of Backlund gas."

Xio was slightly startled: "Hobert, I know that the gas association's frame-up makes you very angry, but you can't be too impulsive, otherwise you will hurt many innocent people."

Hobert smiled and said: "Don't worry, I know it!

"Well, I promise you, I will never hurt an innocent person!"

Xio nodded, she still trusted Hobert in this regard.

Hobert finally asked: "How should I contact you if I have something urgent again?"

He smiled self-deprecatingly: "I am not a fortune teller." When it came to finding people, Hobert was at a disadvantage.

Don't think about it for a while, she doesn't have any good ideas.

"Give me a lock of your hair." Hobert said, "That way I can find you quickly."

"Okay." Xio didn't hesitate at all. The reason was simple. If Hobert wanted to hurt her, there would be no need for such a complicated operation.

The two discussed the mission of assassinating members of the Aurora Society again, and Xio went to do the investigation that Hobert had given her, while Hobert changed into formal clothes and went to attend Georgina's previous invitation.

Georgina invited the same people as last time, and her colleagues from MI9 arrived first.

While chatting, Qonas said to Hobert: "I got some news that the accident at 'Earl's Light' was framed by someone. Would you like me to help you investigate."

"No need." Hobert smiled and said, "I've already checked it out!"

With your own intelligence officer, your waist will be strong!

Qonas added: "Admiral Amyrius entrusted me to send you an invitation to play cards at the East Balam Veterans Club tomorrow afternoon."

Hobert knew that this was another business coming: "No problem."

A few people chatted for a while, and then three royal members arrived.

After everyone was polite, they went to the restaurant to eat.

The dinner was not very luxurious, or did not have unusual ingredients, but it looked very exquisite and tasted very good.

Especially the grilled lamb chops, which were extremely tender, delicious and juicy. Hobert had only tasted such delicacy at a banquet hosted by Count Wolfe, who loved gourmet food.

At the dinner table, several people were chatting and the issue of "Earl's Light" came up.

After everyone saw that Hobert didn't care, they stopped talking about this topic.

After dinner, it was time to enjoy the opera.

There is an open-air theater in Georgina's yard, with only a few seats in the large stands.

Hobert sighed again: Nobles still know how to entertain.

He didn't listen to opera much. In the few salons he attended before, he spent the whole time chatting and didn't listen to a few words.

But in today's environment, although the sound effect is not as good as that in an indoor theater, it gives people a very good feeling, and there is no evaluation after the appreciation.

During the transition, several people chatted casually. Such a level of ease made Hobert even want to build an amphitheater in the Earl's Mansion.

When she was calculating the cost of building a theater, Alice suddenly sat next to Hobert and asked in a low voice: "I heard that you launched a war against the Church of the Mountain God on Longtail Island?"

"Yes." There was nothing to hide, Hobert said: "The war is over, and a big victory has been achieved."

"Of course this kind of wild god will not be your opponent." Alice smiled pointedly: "I have something to ask you for help. While the actors are preparing for the next performance, how about we go there for a walk? Sample?"

Hobert was in a good mood today. He stood up and said, "No problem."

After taking a few steps, Hobert felt Alice injecting spirituality into a sealed object.

At Sequence 4, Hobert's spirituality was not so sensitive. By Sequence 3, he could probably detect Alice using the sealed artifact.

With such awareness, he can "use" the negative effects of other people's sealed objects.

Hobert waved his hand and "amplified" the ability of the sealed object: "This way, even demigods won't be able to hear our voices."

What Alice used was the same sealed object that had been used several times in front of Hobert before to prevent others from eavesdropping. However, the level of this sealed object was level 2, and only demigods and below could not hear them. conversation.

She smiled and said: "That's great, after all there are several demigods sitting over there."

Hobert asked: "What's the matter? Are you afraid that others will listen?"

"Kill someone for me."

Hobert glanced at Alice: "Who?"

The princess replied: "James, the royal family's old butler."

Hobert was stunned: Is this a butler or an agent?

"It's dangerous," he smiled.

Although Ellie didn't say anything, Hobert guessed that during the Backlund smog incident, it was the butler James who asked Prince Edsac to "commit suicide."

"It was dangerous before, but it is no longer dangerous from today." Alice said: "The king's appearance has become less and less recently, and all the affairs of the palace have been handed over to my mother.

“I used some means to make James lose power and transfer him from Thordrak Palace.

"He has many enemies, and he also worked for the Embassy of Intis. Such a person will not attract much attention if he dies on the way to his post after losing power."

Hobert was stunned: He is really a spy!

He glanced at the serious-faced Alice again. After the previous assassination incident and the trip to Ma Xi, she seemed to have completed some kind of transformation. She was no longer so persistent and more flexible.

"Okay." Hobert thought for a while and agreed. Today is different from the past. In his eyes, the current Loen royal family is just that!

You may be crazy, but you still need to be cautious: "Why don't you take revenge with your own hands?"

"This housekeeper is a Sequence 5, I'm not sure." Alice said: "The opportunity may only be once. After all, this is a Sequence 5, and he should be able to find a new backer soon."

Hobert said "Yes": "Give me his detailed information, including his extraordinary path, appearance, and where he went to take office? Which route did he take? When did he leave? The more detailed the better."

Alice took out a palm-sized notebook from her pocket: "I take it with me."

Then she added: "If you can, please give me his head. I will make it into a drinking vessel to honor Edsac."

Hobert nodded: "No problem."

As he spoke, he put away the notebook handed over by Alice.

Alice smiled: "I didn't expect you to agree so happily."

Hobert asked helplessly: "Do I look like the kind of person who is hard to talk to?"

"Yes."

"Okay." Hobert smiled.

He then asked: "How should I give you my head?"

"James will leave Thordrak Palace the day after tomorrow, which is Thursday, and go to work as a housekeeper in a royal manor." Alice replied: "Generally, Georgina will organize a banquet on Friday or Saturday.

"She will definitely invite you again and give me your head at that banquet."

"In front of several demigod-level heads of MI9, trading a human head?" Hobert felt that he was not sure about this. These are all human beings, and their eyes are sharper than the other.

Alice smiled mysteriously: "I will create opportunities for you when the time comes."

Hobert nodded: "Okay."

"How can I thank you?"

Hobert thought for a while: "I haven't thought of it yet. Let's talk about the remuneration when we have the opportunity in the future. Well, you can rest assured that I will not raise higher requirements than this assassination mission."

"it is good."

The two chatted for a few more words and returned to the theater from the garden.

Because Alice did not go back, the following opera was not performed for a long time.

After they returned, the show continued.

After listening to the opera and chatting for a while, it was around ten o'clock in the evening before Hobert returned to the Earl's Mansion.

Hugh's investigation has submitted a report to Hobert, providing the location of some gas storage points.

This survey is not difficult. You just need to hire some people in the East District and do some statistics.

But to make it a little more complicated, Xio also left a note saying that all the investigations would be completed by tomorrow afternoon.

That night, Hobert had a good rest, and the next morning he received an invitation from Georgina's housekeeper, inviting Hobert to listen to the symphony on Friday night.

Hobert agreed happily and chatted with the butler for a few words before changing into formal clothes and riding a carriage to the Capitol.

With the invitation in his hand, he was invited to a small conference room by the servant.

At this time, there were several people sitting in the conference room. The leader was a middle-aged man in his forties. He had his hair slicked back and wore a dark vest. He looked very energetic.

This was Vito, the Prime Minister's secretary. He stood up and smiled: "Ah, our Earl Hobert is finally back from his business trip."

"Sorry." Hobert said politely, "I have some matters to deal with before."

"You came at just the right time." One congressman smiled and said: "Today we are discussing the future development prospects of electric lights. I think there is no one who understands this issue better than you."

"Of course." Hobert smiled kindly: "Electric lights are the future of the lighting industry."

But he changed the topic and looked around: "It seems that everyone hasn't arrived yet, but it doesn't matter. I'm here to announce an important decision to everyone."

Everyone looked at Hobert. Whether it was his title or his achievements in business, no one could ignore his words and deeds.

"'Earl's Light' has made a decision." Hobert said: "Until the previous four accidents are investigated clearly, we will temporarily stop Backlund's sales."

The people in the room were stunned for two or three seconds before they understood what Hobert meant. Some even wondered whether Hobert was crazy?

Vito couldn't help but ask: "Mr. Count, are you serious?"

(End of this chapter)