The crisis was started in the past by the pest infestation and led to a series of chain reactions. However, during this time, there were only two big winners. One was Laura, and the other was Evan.
Furthermore, no one knew that there was also another winner that had been hiding behind these winners and was actually the one who gained the most. It was none other than Zhao Hai.
Zhao Hai earned a total of 20,000 gold coins during this crisis. Moreover, he earned several hundreds of gold coins a day, which went directly into his pockets. The most important thing was that this time’s crisis was something he could have been left out of.
When Zhao Hai received the news Laura had sent, saying that the storm had passed, he couldn’t help but want to laugh. This was because this crisis had initially been started because of him. Now, with his help, they stopped it. Most importantly, he’d made money while helping Evan, whom had helped the Buda clan back when they were in a bind. A true good person with power, for Zhao Hai, was a very important thing.
With Evan regaining his authority, he would not move to attack the Buda clan, which also lifted them out of one of their crises. They almost didn’t have to worry about the Purcell clan dealing with them.
Zhao Hai didn’t think that the result would turn out to be this great. It was really a big surprise for him. And now, the matters in Casa City wouldn’t need him to personally manage over. Even if he wouldn’t be providing the food, the large firms in the Purcell Duchy would do so, thus lowering the food prices within the Purcell Duchy. With this, the food crisis was officially lifted.
This news was not necessarily a good thing for Zhao Hai. To be precise, when Zhao Hai sold food commodities, he gained several hundred gold coins each day. Now if the large firms sold theirs, then his income would definitely decrease.
However, Zhao Hai still received nearly 200 gold coins per day just for selling food. The consequences of what those large firms had done earlier had resulted in a negative status.
Commoners also held their grudges. When they were in a difficult time, they would remember those who helped them and those who had harmed them.
Due to this, there were very few people who would buy from the stores of the large firms. On the other hand, the Higanbana firm had gotten a large number of customers who bought from their stores.
It was then that those great businessmen became convinced that this time, Laura was a lot more clever than them. Even if it was invisible, the Higanbana firm had become the flagship firm inside the Purcell Duchy.
These large firms understood that the creation of such a flagship firm was not easy. So long as there were Higanbana signboards, it would surely represent a source of wealth.
Thinking about it now would be of no use, so what they did was try to find a way to pull people into buying from their stores. Therefore, to do so, they made some superior conditions. For example, discounts on certain commodities. Or if one buys a certain commodity, then they would receive an extra gift.
These large firms were in the business for a long time. Naturally, they were clear on how to deal with this. They had discovered these methods and were ready to exploit them.
However, even after doing so, there were only a few people who went into their stores to purchase anything. The commoners were still offended by them. Fortunately, they were large firms who were still rich. They could afford to lose for now. Given some time, they should be able to recover slowly.
But if they wanted to get back their former prestige quickly, it would be impossible. Laura wouldn’t miss this opportunity. There was a saying that when machines dominated the market, even when they came back to life, they could only have a part of the soup1.
The biggest issue to be considered this time was that these large firms had offended the Purcell clan. If they were supported by the person who had won, then it would be better. They wouldn’t be in such a difficult situation and it might have also given them some benefits. However, they’d chosen to have little contact with Evan prior to this. Don’t even speak about benefits, they were already lucky enough that Evan had given them face and hadn’t pushed them out of the Purcell Duchy.