Chapter Forty-Six: One Year

The Academy finally intervened.

The Academy kept the entire city of Yeye running, which meant that it also possessed the reserves of supplies required by the whole city. If those reserves were opened to Su Ziye, they would be virtually inexhaustible.

More importantly, no one dared refuse to sell anything the Academy wished to purchase.

Yeye City had two markets, East Market and West Market.

East Market was a colossal shopping center operated directly by Yeye Academy. Even the Shining Gold Merchant Guild, despite its immense size, was merely one merchant among many there.

Thus, even after Su Ziye had exhausted a considerable amount of supplies, the Academy could easily replenish them through its various channels.

It could even draw upon the treasury of the Lanye Empire—if it truly found that necessary.

And so, the moment the Academy intervened, the darkness hanging over Su Ziye’s head was swept away almost instantly.

As long as he had the raw materials, Su Ziye’s factories could continue operating. The Academy itself also needed the goods produced by those factories as part of its own reserves. As for Academy Happy Water, that was another matter entirely. By then, it had become so popular throughout the Academy that it was an indispensable part of everyone’s daily life. Its excessive sugar content was admittedly a problem, but for the youthful students of Yeye Academy, such sugar was merely a necessary supplement after overtaxing their brains.

The instant noodles, though ordinary in flavor, had likewise won over many admirers. Qingyi was one of their most devoted enthusiasts. According to an unreliable source, Senior Qingyi had already mailed a large parcel of instant noodles home for her family to sample. She had also played a major role in persuading the Academy to open its supply channels of raw materials to Su Ziye’s factories.

Even putting all else aside, the Academy actually held shares in Su Ziye’s factories, and their construction and operation had depended on the Academy’s participation from the very beginning.

Until now, however, there had been an unspoken understanding that a distinction remained between their respective affairs. After this incident, the Academy had become deeply involved in Su Ziye’s enterprise. Just as Su Ziye had offered up his steam engine, steamboat, and railway models as tokens of allegiance, the industry that had taken root and spread along the shores of Shattered Star Lake could no longer be separated from the Academy.

That was one of the prices Su Ziye had to pay.

But as Su Ziye himself had said, among all those capable of helping him, the Academy had asked the lowest price.

The Academy had solved the problem of raw-material supplies. Once that urgent crisis had passed, the malicious buyers had no reason to continue their pointless wastefulness. They had no hope of competing with the Academy’s resources, and after its intervention, they wisely slunk away.

But Su Ziye had no solution for the Happy Water that the Shining Gold Merchant Guild had released—a drink virtually identical in flavor to his own.

The deed was done. The other side’s ability to reproduce Happy Water independently, without relying on him at all, deeply alarmed Su Ziye. He also committed the name of the little girl called Christina to memory. He had no choice but to share the enormous market with the Shining Gold Merchant Guild.

On the one hand, the Academy was Su Ziye’s foundation, and that foundation was essentially immovable. It was a fortress the Shining Gold Merchant Guild had no way to breach.

On the other hand, the sales channels opened up by the instant noodles could smoothly accommodate Happy Water as well. The two products were not merely free of conflict; they even complemented one another.

Still, Su Ziye felt somewhat melancholy at having parted ways with the Shining Gold Merchant Guild so soon. He had never expected it. Even if they were destined to go their separate ways in the end, he had not wished it to happen now.

But what was done could not be undone.

All he could do was cling wholeheartedly to the Academy’s support while continuing to complete the work he had yet to finish.

On the final day of the fourth month, Su Ziye finally completed the steamboat he had promised Carlotus. The great vessel, belching black smoke, appeared upon Shattered Star Lake, and he finished the complete set of blueprints for the ship, which he named the Academy.

Perhaps one day Su Ziye would wish to establish a shipyard devoted entirely to shipbuilding, but for now, that goal remained somewhat distant.

Fortunately, the Academy was extremely interested in the matter. It ultimately established a genuine shipyard beside Shattered Star Lake, hiring a large number of workers according to Su Ziye’s model and beginning large-scale ship production through a system in which experienced workers trained newcomers.

After all, the very idea of ships driven by steam had stirred the hearts of many interest groups. Even the dullest person could instantly understand what it signified.

Su Ziye also benefited from the shipyard, for it was a project requiring enormous investment, with the manufacture of steam engines being the most important part. Taking advantage of his special status and privileges, Su Ziye quietly secured a considerable number of steam engines from the project. With them, he went on to realize two of his original ideas.

The first was the textile machine.

It was primarily used to spin cotton into thread and then weave that thread into cotton cloth. The resulting fabric was sturdy and durable, while its price was astonishingly low—low enough to sweep through nearly every market. Its only limitation lay in the number of looms and spinning machines available.

The second was the railway.

With Carlotus’s support, together with the Academy’s own assistance, a large labor force was recruited, and a railway stretching a full fifty kilometers was eventually constructed. As Su Ziye had originally intended, it was primarily used to transport coal for the steam engines. At Su Ziye’s insistence, however, a small portion of its capacity was also set aside for passengers eager to experience this novelty.

After all, it was a unique spectacle. Indeed, one of the most magnificent images of humanity’s industrial age was that of a steam train surging endlessly across the open countryside, a symbol of mankind’s power to conquer nature.

And Su Ziye dearly hoped that more people would have the chance to witness the world’s first train.

Those were the things Su Ziye accomplished during his first eight months.

Beginning with Happy Water, continuing through the construction of the instant-noodle factory, and then enduring an attack from a distant empire, he had ultimately chosen—or perhaps been forced—to place himself under the Academy’s protection. After that came the mass production of steam engines, the construction of steamboats, and the establishment of textile mills. Together, they brought Su Ziye’s profits to an utterly astonishing scale.

By the end of the eighth month, according to Qingyi’s calculations, the scale of Su Ziye’s industry had already reached one million gold leaf coins—and it was still growing rapidly.

That represented many things. At the very least, it meant that Su Ziye had finally fulfilled his wager with Carlotus.

He did not remain idle during the time that followed. He intended to use this hard-won leisure to continue his experiments and trials. Thus, during the final four months, Su Ziye gradually established a small concrete plant dedicated to producing that gray-white construction powder, as well as an experimental blast furnace for steelmaking. After all, there was no shortage of coal.

Next, using the cotton obtained through the textile industry, Su Ziye manufactured a quantity of smokeless powder. This confirmed an important deduction of his, but he neither sold the powder nor revealed any further applications for it. Once the tests were complete, he brought the matter to an end.

Finally, Su Ziye built a real automobile according to his own wishes—one that could actually be driven out onto the road.

He faced countless difficulties: tires, suspension, the gearbox, the chassis, and all manner of other problems. Yet Su Ziye had matured considerably by then, and the automobile was eventually assembled, albeit with plenty of bumps and jolts along the way. Its power source was, naturally, magic. Many aspects of it were still far from perfect, but at least it was a genuine working car.

Su Ziye left it in the center of the Academy so that any student interested in it could climb aboard and give it a try.

For a time, Su Ziye’s reputation soared to its absolute peak.

And so, quite naturally, in the final election of the academic year, Su Ziye became the undisputed chairman of the next Student Self-Government Council.

He became the man who wielded the highest authority in the entire Academy.

As for Senior Carlotus, the former chairman, he carried out an astonishing series of maneuvers and completed his own career transfer.

He joined the Snow-Burial Society, replacing Diexian as its new leader.