Chapter 250: Chapter 250: The Suicidal Craftsman (Requesting Guaranteed Monthly Votes)

As scions of a great clan, the Yu Family members paid close attention to the monopolization of knowledge.

Only through monopolizing knowledge could a clan better consolidate its status and gain more development opportunities than others.

In doing such things, it wasn’t just members of the Yu Family; taking them as an example, they had many blind spots and even misunderstandings about knowledge because stronger forces had blocked them from accessing relevant information.

The Yu Family didn’t mind inviting craftsmen to learn a thing or two, but they could only acquire some practical skills. As for the most basic, theoretical aspects, they didn’t even need to think about it.

This was much like the major powers of the Earth Realm selling arms to Africa—never mind, arms are too sensitive a topic. Let’s use another example: selling motorcycles.

Africans want to buy motorcycles? Great, great, as long as you have money, there are plenty to go around. If you don’t have the cash, owning mines and the like is fine too; we can also help arrange mortgage loans.

Got a motorcycle but nowhere to repair it? That’s not a problem; we can set up a few after-sales service centers locally and also help train a group of local repair technicians.

What? You also want the motorcycles to be locally produced? That’s not a problem either, as long as you’re willing to offer tax breaks. We can consider setting up an assembly plant, which can also boost the local economy and employment rate.

By this time, there are preconditions involved; tax breaks are just one of them. The workers for the assembly plant must pass our evaluation before they can start working—a demand that, from a labor relationship perspective, benefits the capitalists.

If it’s already like this with assembly plants, should the local area further request the localization of component production, capitalists would be remiss not to strangle you by the neck and shake you down fiercely.

For countries with weak industrial systems, the localization of components involves the production of basic materials and manufacturing techniques, many of which are beyond their grasp and cannot be solved in the short term.

Capitalists will never provide any answers to these issues. Basic materials and manufacturing techniques… you want to learn those as well?

Haha, I won’t sell! It’s not even a matter of money!

Understanding this logic, one understands the attitude of the Yu Family towards the craftsmen.

They brought the craftsmen in to help vet and oversee the electric generators, and they didn’t mind asking them to perform some simple repairs in the future, but want to understand “Insulation”? Sorry, that theory is off-limits to you!

Yu Zhengqing certainly supported the family’s suggestions; after all, it was something that the clan had spent a lot of money to acquire. Divine Doctor Feng was willing to teach the related knowledge as a service, and the beneficiaries were also members of the Yu Clan.

Similarly, those craftsmen were hired by the Yu Family for a fee, and gaining additional knowledge was already an unexpected bonus. People should know contentment!

So Yu Zhengqing stated that he would talk about what he could and refuse to discuss what he couldn’t, absolutely.

Even after the disciples had left, he still sat there, dazed, muttering softly to himself, “Between Yin and Yang, through the strange material ‘Insulation’… but what exactly is the connection that exists between Yin and Yang?”

He was puzzled, and so were the three craftsmen, who, extraordinarily, gathered together to discuss.

Night had fallen, and even though the camp was quite a distance from Feng Jun’s courtyard, thanks to the two roaring generators, the light here was not at all inferior to the surrounding area of the courtyard.

The three craftsmen were experienced and skillful, yet the appearance of the electric generator still left them a bit confused; the principle behind the lamps’ illumination was beyond their understanding.

All afternoon, they had only figured out the principles of power strips and switches. Now they were discussing the issue of electricity transmission, focusing on the wiring material provided by Feng Jun.

Making such thin copper wires without breaking them was something all three craftsmen could achieve, but to do so with such uniform thickness was exceedingly difficult, and what puzzled them even more was the uniform layer of soft skin enveloping the copper wire.

“This soft skin around the copper wire seems unchallenging and nothing extraordinary in terms of skill, but covering such a long length of copper wire is incredibly costly. Could they have some secret technique that nobody knows about?”

“The technique is one aspect,” one craftsman spoke thoughtfully, “but the key issue is the significant increase in costs. I’ve been thinking… if there’s no soft skin, would the lamps really not light up?”

“Perhaps we could try it out,” another craftsman joined in, “remove a section of the soft skin and see what happens.”

“If you two want to die, don’t drag me into this,” another shorter craftsman spoke up, speaking fiercely, “You only see the Yu Family’s generosity and distinguished reputation, but have you forgotten that the Yu Family is also capable of killing?”

The inquisitive craftsman, not easily persuaded, retorted, “They’ve hidden too much relevant knowledge, making our work… practically impossible to carry out.”

No fools make it to the rank of master craftsman; perhaps they are oblivious to the intricacies of social interaction since the so-called craftsman spirit entails earnestly carrying out their work, diligently completing tasks without too many extraneous thoughts.

Of course, they still need to have their own ideas when it comes to work.

But they were certainly not stupid; how could they not feel the watchful and guarded nature of the Yu Family?

It was the shorter craftsman who spoke again, “They hired us to do a job, paying us for it. We just need to do our work honestly. As for what you want to know, if they tell you, it’s a favor; if they don’t, it’s within their rights. Do you understand?”

The other craftsman fell silent, sat there for a while, then claimed he had a stomachache and needed to relieve himself.

About half an hour after he had left, there was a loud bang, and the camp suddenly went dark; the lamps lost their glow. What had been as bright as day was now pitch black.

Fortunately, the campsite wasn’t plunged into complete darkness; there were still about twenty lights on.

They were powered by another generator, one that was being used to test the fuel consumption of the lights.

The reason everyone felt it was pitch black was that they were accustomed to the existing illumination. With the sudden drop in light, their eyes just needed some time to adjust.

Soon, the Yu Family Members found the culprit: it was that electrician with an intense spirit for research.

In fact, it was impossible to hide the experiment from the Yu Family Members. Such a valuable generator was surely being watched, and even the wires used for testing were duly recorded and measured by the foot.

When the materials were returned, if a couple of inches were missing, no one would fuss over it. But if a few feet were missing, then be prepared for a hunt for accountability.

This electrician had secretly hoarded over half a foot of wiring, but trying to plug it into the power strip, he couldn’t escape the watchful eyes of the Yu Family Members.

He was bold indeed, directly stating that he wanted to conduct a test, and to their surprise, the Yu Family Members, knowing he was an electrician, didn’t stop him.

When the lights dimmed, the Yu Family Members jumped into action, kicking him over and quickly tying him up.

An investigation ensued, and with the help of the skilled hands of the Tian Family, the cause was soon found: the generator had tripped.

The Yu Family Members also understood the principle behind the tripping, it was just that they hadn’t practiced it themselves.

After shedding the problematic load and closing the breaker, the entire campsite was once again brightly lit, and the Yu Family could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

A martial master kicked the electrician fiercely, “Damn it, thank goodness the fuse didn’t blow. Otherwise, killing your entire family wouldn’t even satisfy our anger!”

In this plane, the status of craftsmen wasn’t low, and the insurance that Feng Jun sold to the Yu Family wasn’t very expensive either, just three silver coins.

One hundred and fifty grams of silver, on Earth Realm, was merely a few hundred dollars—a high profit indeed.

A good electrician could even earn up to hundreds of silver coins per month.

Killing an electrician’s entire family over a simple fuse, such a statement was indeed a bit too cruel.

But everyone was aware that it wasn’t just about the three silver coins. Even if the insurance hadn’t burned, the electrician’s chance of survival was slim anyway. However, it wasn’t the decision of those below to make, so someone reported to Yu Zhengqing to ask how to handle this individual.

The Yu Clan earned their keep in the jianghu, they weren’t lacking methods of interrogation, but when Yu Zhengqing heard the report, his eyes lit up, “Hmm, let’s go to Doctor Feng. Have him help monitor the situation.”

Without realizing it, he was influenced by the language habits of this place. Phrases like “monitor the situation” weren’t surprising here—after all, there were many checkpoints in this plane, so it was easy to be understood.

What was key, though, was that he had also started calling Feng Jun “Divine Doctor,” following others.

The Divine Doctor was arranging a banquet in the courtyard, hosting the just-returned Deng Family Brothers.

After more than ten days of long-distance travel and tense work, they had preliminarily completed the wiring of Brother Bao’s residence, and the equipment was roughly set up. What remained was adjusting the position of some surveillance cameras and improving the wiring.

Speaking of such novel inventions here, there was no need at all to beautify them.

A few wires haphazardly strung up on walls and across the ground—who would dare say they were ugly?

It’s like Britain a hundred years ago, with its forest of chimneys and dense black smoke. Few thought of pollution; what most people saw was Britain’s strength, wealth, and prosperity.

However, Feng Jun came from the modern world, not from a century ago. He knew the rules of installation—to keep wires away from easy reach, ensure they run horizontally and vertically, avoid having them dangle, and try to protect them from sun and rain.

Those trained by him followed these stringent wiring standards to the letter.

At first, Brother Bao was somewhat indifferent, just marveling that the Divine Doctor was particular with his work, feeling that his money was well spent.

But later on, it dawned on him: if the purpose of installing the formation was for security and to remain undetected, he couldn’t let others know where the cameras were.

So, he started to have the wiring in his residence changed. Indoors had to look good, while outside, aside from looking good, it had to be sufficiently concealed.

Thankfully, there were fifty disciples from the Tian Family who followed him, plus the servants from the Zhu Family who came to learn. These small alterations were really not an issue.

But even now, Lord Beiyuan Mansion still kept over twenty Tian Family Disciples to help continue improving the wiring.

The Deng Family Brothers had finished the main job and didn’t want to stay any longer, so they returned to Mount Zhige with the people sent by Lord Beiyuan to buy diesel.

(Updated to, calling for the guaranteed monthly votes of March.)