Volume 5 Chapter 12 - Asking for money (1/2)

Akali moved very quickly and it didn’t take long before she flew back like the wind.

When she fell down, she waved her hand in a spirited manner, “Alright, the problem is solved.”

Xu Yi stopped her hand moving towards the wood platform and asked, “What was the problem, did you investigate properly?”

Akali was stunned, as if she was surprised that someone would ask her this. Afterwards she reacted and replied, “Oh, it was a small mistake with the frequency of the Magic Array. I didn’t think that it would be this hot that it would distort a portion of the Magic Array, causing there to be a mistake. I checked just now and fixed it, so there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Un, it’s good that you know the problem.” Xu Yi nodded, “But Akali, based on what your team just said, you’ve already done this experiment over a thousand times, shouldn’t this problem have occurred before and you would have found a way to solve it?”

Akali looked at Xu Yi and looked a bit hesitant.

Xu Yi knit his brows, “What? Is there something that you can’t say in front of me?”

“Chairman, you’re the one who wanted me to speak.” Akali gave a laugh.

Xu Yi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, “Just say it. Could it be that there is something that is stopping you? I think that in the company, there is no one that can stop you, right?”

“That isn’t for sure, there is Evita……” Akali said with a look of hidden bitterness.

“Evita?” Xu Yi was confused, “What is with Evita? If there really is a problem, could it be that she wouldn’t tell me directly?”

“This can’t be said to you.” Akali gave a shrug before looking at Xu Yi and saying with a sigh, “Alright, always, it’s already been said, I’ll just tell you. Chairman, you’re right, we did know about this problem, but we couldn’t solve it because of Evita’s orders.”

Xu Yi asked in a confused voice, “Why?”

“Because Evita said that we have to save on research costs as much as possible.” Akali said in a helpless voice, “Evita said that our magic research facility had spent too much on research last year, so starting this year, she wanted each team to save on cost as much as possible and we couldn’t spend randomly. I’ve already discovered the problem with this material, but when we switch materials for each experiment, we need to study the compatibility as well, so we have to spend a lot of money. In the end, we gave up on this.”

“Nonsense!” Xu Yi suddenly roared out and scared Akali and the other researchers, “Saving on costs is correct, but if you lower the research standard because of this, that would be putting the cart before the horse! Akali, you are a senior researcher, don’t you know that if research isn’t done perfectly, there might be heavy losses because of small mistakes in the end?”

“This……I……”

Akali rarely saw Xu Yi this fired up, so she was a bit stunned.

“What you, what me, let me tell you, as long as you can raise the standard of research and make it more perfect, it’s worth spending however much money it costs! Could it be that you’ve forgotten that in the last batch of Magic Air Conditioners our company developed, because of a small mistake during development, we had to recall over twenty thousand units that were sold?”

Akali stuck out her tongue, “Of course I remember. Still said that from that recall, our company lost over a hundred thousand gold coins, right?”

“Not just a hundred thousand gold coins!” Xu Yi said in a deep voice, “The more important thing was that this incident had seriously damaged our company’s previous perfect reputation. This is a hundred times more important than a trivial hundred thousand gold coins! So I will not allow a single mistake during the development, do you understand?”

“I do, I do.” Akali kept nodding, “But sir chairman, Evita said that we had to save one research cost, so she strictly controlled the funds of each research team. Look……”

Xu Yi gave a snort, “I’ve already noticed this problem. You tell her that to solve this problem, there is no problem in increasing the research funds.” After pausing, he asked, “Is a hundred thousand enough?”

Akali gave a cheer, “More than enough!”

After cheering, Akali even gave Xu Yi an excited hug and said with a big smile, “Sir chairman, I knew that you were the most generous. You wouldn’t be as stingy as Evita, not even giving us a single gold coin.”

Seeing the excited looks Akali and the surrounding researchers had, Xu Yi had a thought. It was like he realized something as he pointed at Akali, “Alright, Akali, you did this on purpose. You wanted to use this chance to get more research funds from me, right?”

Akali giggled and swung from Xu Yi’s arm, “I really can’t hide it from the wise sir chairman. But sir chairman, you wouldn’t mind, right?”

Xu Yi gave a cold snort, “You really are a person who thinks too much. Just tell me if you want more research funds, when have I ever been stingy? But I’m telling you, I can give you the hundred thousand, but you have to use it on solving the material problem. If I find that you’ve been spending it on other things, humph, humph……”

“Of course not, sir chairman, how could I spend it randomly? It isn’t the first day that you’ve known me.” Akali said with a smile.