Volume 1 Chapter 57 New advertis.e.m.e.nt
It was already the latter half of September and the summer heat began to gradually dissipate. There was even a cool feeling that filled the breeze in the air.
On the trees by the roads, there was a trace of yellow that appeared in the originally green leaves. When the wind blew through them, there would be one or two that fell down with it from time to time.
However even in this refreshing autumn weather, Freeman was covered in sweat, soaking the shirt that he was wearing. It was very uncomfortable having the shirt stick to his body.
But there was no other choice here. Anyone who was carrying a two hundred pounds bag of wheat from Ireland to Banta City, which was a trip of close to thirty kilometers would be covered in sweat.
Actually he didn’t need to make it this hard for himself because the day of the fall harvest, the McGrady Chamber of Commerce from Banta City that specialized in the grains business had already sent someone to the villages to buy their harvest. Most of the wheat in the village had already been sold to them.
Freeman had done this in the past few years, but this year he chose to send his best wheat to Banta City himself to sell.
The reason was very simple. He had asked around this year and he found that if he sold it in Ireland Village, each pound of would be sold for three copper coins less than in Banta City.
If it was for over two hundred pounds of wheat, this difference was around seven-eight silver coins.
Perhaps to the n.o.bles of Banta City, if seven-eight gold coins were to fall on the ground, they would be too lazy to acknowledge their existence. Even for the citizens of Ireland Village, they didn’t care that much, so they almost all chose to sell their wheat to the McGrady Chamber of Commerce in their villages.
However, for Freeman with a poor family of three children crying for food, seven-eight gold coins was an amount he couldn’t ignore.
The other villages thought it was too troublesome, but Freeman insisted on bringing his wheat to Banta City just for these seven-eight silver coins.
A cool breeze suddenly blew and made it much more refreshing for Freeman.
He temporarily stopped his cart and grabbed a towel to wipe his sweat, as he prepared to rest for a bit.
The walls of Banta City was already in sight and there was still some time before noon, so he didn’t need to rush.
Looking up after wiping off the sweat on his face, Freeman’s eyes suddenly fell onto a location outside of Banta City and he suddenly made a yi sound.
Outside the walls of Banta City, there was a giant brand that had been there the entire time. Not only were the citizens inside Banta City familiar with it, even the villagers like Freeman from outside the city were familiar with it. Each time he had business in Banta City, Freeman couldn’t help taking a look at the sign.
It was for no other reason than to see the beautiful and n.o.ble girl on the sign.
But when Freeman looked at the sign once again out of habit, he found that the picture on it had changed.
On the sign, other than the beautiful girl, there was the Frestech Brand Magic Fan on it.
The first time he saw the picture on the sign, Freeman had already been deeply attracted.
Other than remembering the beautiful girl, he also remembered the Frestech Brand Magic Fan. He even secretly made up his mind that as long as his family became a bit richer, he would definitely buy a Frestech Brand Magic Fan to bring back, letting the three kids in his family enjoy a cool breeze on a hot summer day.
However on the image of the giant sign now, other than the beautiful girl that Freeman was familiar with, there were two other young girls on their as well.
Although the two girls weren’t as pretty as the other girl, they were also still quite pretty. One was very lively and one was a gentle beauty, giving people different feelings.
The three girls in the picture were around a table and based on the cooked dishes, they were prepared to eat.
But in the center of the table was a strange round iron tub. The lively looking girl with a round face had a rice paddle in her hand and was digging out fragrant rice from the strange iron thing.
“What is that thing?” Freeman looked at the image in confusion. After thinking for a bit, he guessed something, “The previous image was an advertis.e.m.e.nt the Frestech Chamber of Commerce did for the Magic Fan, so this should also be an advertis.e.m.e.nt? But what is that strange thing? Why is there cooked rice inside it?”
There were two lines of words on the image, but it was a pity that Freeman was illiterate. In the end, driven by his curiosity, he found a middle aged man who seemed a bit educated pa.s.sing by to ask some questions.
“What is written on there?” The middle aged man looked at where Freeman was pointing and he revealed a smile, “Oh, that. Let me tell you, that is the new advertis.e.m.e.nt the Frestech Chamber of Commerce just put up two days ago. It is to advertise their company’s newest product, the Magic Rice Cooker.”
“Magic Rice Cooker? It’s that round thing inside the picture? What is it used for?” Freeman became even more curious.
“You can’t even understand that? Look, isn’t there rice inside? So that means that this Magic Rice Cooker is used to cook the rice.” The middle aged man pointed at the sign and read it word for word, “There are two lines up top. The first line is ‘Frestech Brand Magic Rice Cooker, letting you enjoy the purest rice’. The second line says ‘A healthy life, leaving behind firewood smoke’. Do you understand what this means?”
Freeman honestly shook his head, “I don’t.”
The middle aged man couldn’t help rolling his eyes, “What is there not to understand? If you use the Magic Rice Cooker, you don’t need to use firewood to light a fire and you’ll still be able to cook rice. Not only is it faster than using firewood, there isn’t any smoke at all. How about that? Isn’t it convenient?”
“Not using firewood? How is it possible to heat it up?” Freeman asked in a stunned voice.
The middle aged man laughed, “It seems like you still don’t understand, but forget it. Without seeing it yourself, you wouldn’t understand if I explained it to you. If you are really curious, you can buy one yourself to try. Let me tell you, I bought one immediately after it came out and now it’s much more convenient for my wife to cook the meals.”
After watching the middle aged man leave while laughing, Freeman helplessly shook his head. He thought that although the Magic Rice Cooker was a good thing, he wasn’t able to afford it. No matter how good it was, he had no use for it.
After talking by the road for a bit, Freeman felt like he had recovered a bit of strength. He headed out on his carriage, continuing towards Banta City with his carriage filled with wheat.
After half an hour, Freeman arrived at the McGrady Chamber of Commerce. After easily following the stream of people to where they were buying wheat, he sold his wheat and left with two gold coins, thirty seven silver coins, and seventy six copper coins.
After receiving this hard earned income, Freeman looked at the restaurant beside the McGrady Chamber of Commerce before swallowing a mouthful of saliva with difficulty. After that, he took out cloth package that he carried half a day, which contained the sesame cake his wife had prepared for him this morning and got some free cold water offered by the McGrady Chamber of Commerce to settle his lunch.
He had just taken a sip of water and was prepared to eat the sesame cake when he suddenly heard the rushed conversation of two people beside him.
“Hey, are you going to partic.i.p.ate in the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s Big Stomach King Compet.i.tion?”
“I’m partic.i.p.ating, but it’s a pity that I can only eat three bowls. Ai——”
“Only three bowls? Aren’t you too lacking? I can eat a full five bowls!”
“Che, what is five bowls? When I went last time, that fellow who stole the championship ate an entire nine bowls! The rice in three Magic Rice Cookers was eaten by him alone!”
“That powerful? This fellow wouldn’t be a pig, right?”
“How would I know……”
……
Freeman’s ears piqued at this. Big Stomach King Compet.i.tion? What was that?
The curious Freeman found out from someone working for the company what the Big Stomach King Compet.i.tion was. It was a contest the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had held since the morning to see who could eat the most.
There was no limits to partic.i.p.ation in this compet.i.tion, it didn’t matter who one was, they just needed to want to partic.i.p.ate.
In this compet.i.tion, the compet.i.tors could eat as much as they want of the rice the Frestech Chamber of Commerce provided. Whoever ate the most would be the champion.
The compet.i.tion would last all day before deciding a champion. Not only would that champion win a Magic Rice Cooker, they would also receive a special membership card from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. No matter what product they bought from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce in the future, they would receive preferential treatment.
Freeman didn’t care about these prices at all, he just cared about the fact that it was free to eat the rice.
Looking down at his dry sesame cake, Freeman thought about it before wrapping it up and putting it back in his chest. Then he asked the staff member where the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s compet.i.tion was and headed off with large steps.