Chapter 101.3 Old Friends
Malcolm decided not to bother me and to invest the profit in business development, and with the help of the girl, in a few months the invested amount would be recouped five times. If he had told me what he was up to, I'd have just given the seeds away.
But he kept quiet, either because he thought it was a trivial matter to bother me, or because he thought too much of himself. It doesn't matter. On the other hand, he was acting in my interest, he was engaged in business development, and there was nothing to punish him for. It's a strange situation.
If I now hit the man, he will "stand in the posture" and may, purely out of malice, keep the business at the same level, without development. And what if there will be a good chance, and he does not want to have problems with me? After thinking, decided to discuss this matter calmly and quietly, behind closed doors. You say, do what you think is right, but be kind enough to let me know.
If there's no opportunity or time to discuss it, go ahead, but report back. But he's silent, the dog, he didn't even say a word — he sent me a dry accounting with a canvas of the movement of funds on the accounts, and that's all. The second message, which by the way was said in such a way, made me tense and goose bumps ran down my back.
During one of her visits, Gwyneth had stayed late to get a potion kit for a low-income acquaintance. I allowed her to take a few vials a month for herself, family, or friends, within reason, of course. While she was talking to the shopkeeper and Kiriko stayed close to her, a visitor came in.
A short, plump Chinese man with a thin moustache, very smiling, friendly, generous. He approached the shop to complete a steady supply of potions and powdered potions for the Chinese diaspora in London.
As he explained, Chinatown is run by an old and respected Muggle family who look after their people. Muggles and wizards live together in peace and understanding, he said. Well, that would have been fine if the Chinese man hadn't been so cautiously, secretly interested in his host.
He smiled especially broadly when he heard that the recipes for the line of powdered potions had been supplied by the owner himself, a young Japanese man with unusually colored eyes. People praise these powders because they have no side effects and can even be given to infants because they are milder than the usual potions.
The Chinese nodded and agreed, —Yes, Eastern medicine is very ancient, it has many mystical mysteries and secrets. And what is the name of the master? Really? How old is he? Still studying? What a worthy young man!
The woman just smiled at the Chinese man's behavior, his flowery expressions, and his funny accent. I, on the other hand, had lost my appetite. My instincts were screaming, warning of danger, not fatal, but I should keep my nose to the wind.
By the way, about this article. So far, nothing particularly loud will not be, just a hired journalist in colors painted what I am all positive: and paintings, and opened a business, and gave people a job, and pay taxes faithfully, and education itself concerned.
So why do I need "imposed supervisors"? All my official affairs are conducted by English specialists — a manager and a lawyer. So why was it necessary to impose a guardian on me when both my interests and those of Britain are clearly being respected? What and WHOSE interests were pursued by the "activists" who assembled the Wizengamot for this case?
The very next day, along with Maggie, Lizzie, and another guy in their group who knew how to make Portal-keys, I was transported to my lands by the group apparatus. To be honest, I thought the construction would slow down a lot because of the bad weather, but it didn't!
The three-storey house has already been erected, only interior work on the upper floors is left, and specialists are working on the electricity and water supply. I was stunned by the speed of the work, and the head of the crew just shrugged his shoulders and said that they work all year round and have long been used to working at maximum speed without any loss of efficiency or quality.
Even four of the ten wind turbines had been erected, and they powered all the construction lighting during the dark hours. It is always windy here, so they have already saved a lot of money on fuel for generators.
There were also problems. When laying the canal and digging the ponds, there are a lot of stones, sometimes quite large, which slows down the pace a lot, and also these rains.
Without thinking too much, we put some of the newcomers, the strongest in combat, and one of the two medics of the group on guard in the ready rooms of the dormitory. The guy, Nick Summers, not smiling, frowning, but very intelligent and understanding.
He and I even got to talking about displacement artifacts. It turns out that magical science is a bit more advanced in the US than is officially known. In Britain, Anthony told us, there is an artifact called "The Puncher" that can pierce an anti-apparatus dome up to the fourth of the dome's six power levels. But the artifact is very rare, only a few appear on the black market and are immediately destroyed.
No one knows who makes them, they just appear as a zombified Muggle under Imperio, bring a scroll with instructions to one of the "dark" shops, and leave. Sometimes, if the merchant decided to cheat and not give all the money to Gringotts on a given account, the wizard would disappear for months or a year.
The wise man was punished, but what good would it do if the wizard didn't show up? So, for fear of severe retribution from their own people, deals with the mysterious wizard are always fair. Oh well. In the USA, similar artifacts (and there is more than one variation) are issued to all local enforcers. There are even stationary artifacts that pierce the domes when it is impossible to apparate there.