I, the Villain, Want to Save Myself, But the Yandere Heroines Disagree
Chapter 55 - Some Happy, Some Sad (1/3)

“If you want to see your daughter, I’m afraid I cannot help. After all, as a father, what you did was truly too poor.” Orson paused, then spoke.

“Is that so? Do you also think I am not a good father?” Louis heard this, and lowered his head in disappointment.

“In that case, please forgive my rudeness. I won’t see you out.”

“It’s alright.” Orson shook his head and walked out of the room.

Louis sat in his seat, thinking back on what Orson had just said, and sighed helplessly.

At this moment, his deputy, Paul, also walked in. He looked at the disheartened Louis, and spoke, asking, “President, did you still not reach an agreement?”

“Mm.” Louis nodded. “It’s still too difficult to persuade Young Master Orson to stop helping Celineina. Most importantly, Young Master Orson himself looks down on our Silver Moon Trading Company.”

“Paul, do you think I was wrong? As a father, I didn’t give my three children an equal opportunity to compete. Was I wrong?”

“...President, regarding your family matters, I do not wish to comment much. After all, I am merely a staff member of the trading company and have no right to judge your family matters.”

“However, if you insist on me speaking, perhaps when you were choosing an heir, President, you really should have given Miss Celineina a little more opportunity. This way, you wouldn’t have pushed her to the extent of being completely opposed to you.”

“One can only say it is fate and circumstance.” After saying this, Paul respectfully stood to one side.

“Sigh.” Louis also sighed.

The business war with the Lison Trading Company had been going on for some time.

The Lison Trading Company, controlling the production end, had completely stifled the Silver Moon Trading Company in certain commodities. The Silver Moon Trading Company, on the other hand, relied on its commercial relationships to control most of the market’s commercial resources, raising prices on some key commodities to suppress the Lison Trading Company. But overall, the Lison Trading Company was making more profit.

As for other trading companies in the market, such as the Ali Trading Company which had previously competed with the Silver Moon Trading Company, it had already become a casualty in the business war between the two major trading companies.

The Ali Trading Company neither controlled large amounts of supplier resources like the Silver Moon Trading Company, nor did it control the production of many key commodities like the Lison Trading Company. Its own development still followed the old ways of trading companies. Ultimately, under the drastic fluctuations in commodity prices, it suffered heavy losses.

In the past few months, the Ali Trading Company was even on the verge of being acquired by the Lison Trading Company.

In reality, the Lison Trading Company was also preparing for the acquisition of the Ali Trading Company. The two parties should be able to reach an agreement in the next couple of days.

This way, the gap between the Lison Trading Company and the Silver Moon Trading Company would be further narrowed.

Facing the challenge from the Lison Trading Company, the Silver Moon Trading Company could only follow suit and also start its own production. However, issues such as immature technology, insufficient experience, and management loopholes led to the Silver Moon Trading Company’s products being less competitive than the Lison Trading Company’s, even with the same production chain.

This resulted in a situation where if the Lison Trading Company wanted to make more profit and raise prices, the Silver Moon Trading Company could still make a little less money.

However, if the Lison Trading Company lowered commodity prices, the goods produced by the Silver Moon Trading Company would actually lose money, making it even more unprofitable.

But there was no other way. If they didn’t do this, all their market share would be taken by the Lison Trading Company.

Just as the two were still worrying about the business war, Mark suddenly walked in.

“Father, Uncle Paul, you must help me!” he cried out, his face full of panic.

Seeing his reaction, Louis knew that something bad was likely about to happen.

“What happened?” Louis asked directly.

“Over in Prussia, the Lison Trading Company opened a new branch there, and then cut off my supply of textile products in Prussia. Now all the textile products are monopolized by the Lison Trading Company.”

“Then, then second brother told me that we should pool the assets we have, buy all the Lison Trading Company’s textile products at high prices, and then hoard them for speculation.”

By the time Mark said this, Louis had already guessed what happened next.

They had underestimated the Lison Trading Company’s production capacity. By using aliases or having others purchase on their behalf, they bought a large quantity of textile products from the Lison Trading Company, causing a shortage for the Lison Trading Company in Prussia. However, the local people hadn’t actually bought the products, so the demand for the products was still there. Through this method, they continued to raise prices, acting as scalpers and making a profit from the difference.

This kind of naive method could sometimes be effective, but only if the other party indeed had insufficient production capacity.

But in reality, the Lison Trading Company controlled over eighty percent of the Empire’s current textile production. How could there be a situation of insufficient production capacity?

Therefore, the final result was that Mark’s side hoarded more and more, and all the goods ultimately rotted in his hands.

And precisely at this moment, the Lison Trading Company anticipated that Mark’s hoarding of goods had reached its limit, and directly brought in a large batch of goods from other regions, and then sold them at low prices.

Anyway, when Mark and the others had previously bought in large quantities at high prices, they had already made a substantial profit for the Lison Trading Company. This wave of price reduction could be said to be a genuine benefit to the people who actually needed to buy textile products.

And Mark no longer had the funds to hoard goods. On the contrary, the low price of the goods led to a strained cash flow for the trading company, making it unable to operate properly. In the end, they could only sell the goods off at an even lower price.

Yet, Mark, under Lawrence’s instigation, had always firmly believed that there would eventually be a time when the Lison Trading Company would have insufficient production capacity. Therefore, in the end, he even gritted his teeth and sold off many of the trading company’s fixed assets for cash.

After this debacle, the assets of the Silver Moon Trading Company’s Prussia branch instantly shrank by a full half.

Many presidents of local trading companies under their purview also expressed their dissatisfaction. If Mark could not resolve their dissatisfaction, they would join the Lison Trading Company.

In desperation, Mark finally sought out Louis, hoping to get some funds from his father for turnover.

“Mark, tell me, how much of the trading company’s assets are currently left in the Prussia region?”

“Father, if I say it, please... please don’t blame me...”

“Say it first!” Louis, for once, lost his temper at his eldest son.

“Only half is left...” Mark said this, lowering his head. “This half is what I finally got after going through many channels and selling off this batch of goods I had at a low price. Otherwise, it would be even less.”

“You said... you said how much?!” Louis heard Mark’s words and almost couldn’t catch his breath. He slumped back in his chair.