Genshin Impact: Watch me turn the tables and kill my servants at the start!

The next morning, Fanes was checking the data of the last shipment of rice entering the newly built granary in the port of Winter when he saw Pantalone walking along the dock from afar. The sound of his leather shoes on the stone slabs was steady and unhurried.

He walked over alone, without any documents in his hand or any attendants, and stopped in front of Fanes. His gaze, behind his gold-rimmed glasses, swept over the rows of grain sacks piled up to the roof in the warehouse before he spoke.

"Twelfth Seat, I've seen the quantity and quality of this batch of grain. Have you thought about how to maximize its profits?"

Fanes closed the ledger, tucked it under his arm, leaned against the warehouse doorframe, and looked at him: "Tell me about it."

Pantalone took half a step forward and lowered his voice. He spoke at a moderate pace, each word sounding as if it had been precisely calculated.

"The grain market in Zhidong is always in short supply, and about 30% of families rely on relief grain every winter. If you're willing, I can take over the entire supply chain. From the planting end in the New World to the wholesale end in Zhidong Port, all the warehousing, transportation, and distribution links will be funded and built by the Northern Bank. My plan is to completely control the pricing power, triple the grain price in winter, and maintain a high price even in the summer off-season, using the high price throughout the year to cover transportation costs. The profit that can be brought in each year will be at least five times the gross profit of your current shipment. People in Zhidong won't stop eating because the grain price is high; they will just save money from other places to buy grain. Once their reserves are exhausted, we will then launch a loan service for purchasing grain. The grain money can be repaid in installments, and the interest rate should not be too high, just around 3% per month."

As Fanes listened to him recount the entire plan, he felt a chill creeping down his spine.

This person's logic chain was so complete that it had no loopholes, and every step touched the most vulnerable nerve of the people of Zhidong—if they didn't buy food, they wouldn't survive the winter; if they bought food, they would go bankrupt; and once they borrowed money, they would be tied to the account of the Northern Bank for life.

Fanes had read about this kind of thing in books before, but he never imagined someone would say it to him in such a calm tone. He leaned against the door frame in silence for two seconds, finally understanding why his textbooks in his previous life had depicted capitalists hanging from streetlights.

Fanes spoke, his voice not loud but his tone firm, "You fucking think this is something a human could come up with?"

Pantalone adjusted his glasses: "Do you have a better method? Do you have a way to gain greater benefits? If you do, tell me, and I'll assess its feasibility. If not, my plan is currently the most reasonable."

Fanes straightened up from the doorframe, tucking the account book under his arm: "I've decided to sell this grain to Inazuma at a fair price."

For the first time, Pantalone's expression faltered noticeably. He turned to look at Fanes, as if to confirm he hadn't misheard: "Say it again?"

"Fair price. We sell it to Inazuma at the local cost price plus 10% for shipping and storage, without making a profit. We might even lose a little money."

After Fanes finished speaking, he saw Pantalone looking at him with a "Are you crazy?" look. He waved his hand and said, "Don't rush, let me finish."

Pantalone did not interrupt him, but simply crossed her hands in front of her, making a gesture that said "you continue".

Fanes held up one finger: "First, we will continue to supply Inazuma with grain at below-market prices. Inazuma's local grain merchants can't compete with us at these prices, their grain won't sell, and they'll reduce planting next season. Once their planted area decreases and domestic production shrinks to a certain extent, we can announce a production cut. Of course, when to cut production is up to us. Then Inazuma will face a situation—import channels will be cut off, and domestic production can't recover to its original levels, so they'll have to beg us to resume supplying them at even higher prices. At that point, we'll set the price, and they won't even have the right to haggle."

Fanes shrugged. "This way, we won't affect the supply from Zhidong, and we can establish long-term pricing power in Inazuma. Isn't that more respectable than just robbing them?"

Pantalone stood there listening to the whole thing, his hands still clasped in front of him, his gaze lingering on Fanes' face for a long while behind his gold-rimmed glasses. When he spoke, his voice was half a tone lower than before, carrying a restrained "I can't believe I didn't think of that first" attitude.

"...You mean, bleed them first, then stop the bleeding, and then collect the money?"

Fanes nodded: "Yes."

Pantalone was silent for a few seconds before letting out a short laugh, like a breath squeezed out of his nose.

"Goodness, you're even more ruthless than me. At most, I just want to take money out of their pockets, but you're not planning to leave anyone else a way to survive."

Fanes stood at the warehouse door, looking at him: "What do you mean I'm not leaving others a way to survive? Didn't I give her a chance? It's because my own grain production decreased, there was nothing I could do, it wasn't intentional. They don't grow grain themselves, is that my fault?"

Pantalone didn't pursue the topic further. He turned to look at Fanes: "So what do you plan to do with the other countries? How many countries can you apply this method to?"

Fanes leaned against the warehouse doorframe, arms crossed: "Liyue can't use it. Morax will definitely come looking for me. Vilette in Fontaine isn't stupid either; she'll give herself away if we're not careful. Sumeru is practically being played by the Faith Council; they don't need us to use this tactic. Nata still needs food supplies to support their fight in the Abyss. If Nata is gone, who will fill that position? The only one we can use left is Inazuma. So this plan will only be implemented in Inazuma; we can proceed with normal trade elsewhere."

Pantalone remained silent for a long while after hearing this. He stood there, his gold-rimmed glasses reflecting the light from the warehouse entrance, his gaze slowly moving from Fanes to the row of grain sacks stacked to the roof behind him, and then slowly back to Fanes' face.

When he spoke, Pantalone's voice lost some of the businessman's usual ease, as if he were truly re-evaluating his opponent, who was just over ten years old: "It's clear that you are no ordinary person."

Fanes straightened up from the doorframe, switching the account book from under his arm to his other hand: "We're all in the same boat."