Evening, at the factory entrance.
Fifty people sat on small stools, looking at Lin Ke on the stage, surrounded by glowing Servants of Truth.
Ove greatly cherished this disciple, often following him without reason.
Others were slaves to their sons or daughters; he was certainly a disciple slave.
Lin Ke stood on the stage as the Servants of Truth instantly cast all their light on him.
Lin Ke remained silent at first, standing quietly with a smile as he looked at the fifty noisy people, some old, some young.
Although he was small, the "leader" bloodline’s added aura, coupled with his past life experiences, made him appear rather dignified.
The villagers stopped talking, and their attention involuntarily focused on Lin Ke, who began to speak:
"My employees, my workers!"
His opening words included two new terms.
However, these fifty villagers roughly understood the meaning of the terms, likely referring to laborers.
"First, congratulations on becoming the first batch of employees at the Azanen Paper Workshop."
Saying this, Lin Ke clapped his hands with a smile.
The surrounding soldiers also began to applaud.
The villagers, unsure of the occasion, followed suit, as is typical with herd mentality.
Lin Ke lowered his hands, and the guards immediately stopped clapping, leading the villagers to follow suit and stop as well.
They understood that applause seemed to express approval and respect.
He spoke again: "Starting tomorrow, a brand new and beautiful day is about to begin. We will greet it with hope and passion, just like the radiant sunrise..."
He used the typical opening of a leadership speech, narrating beautifully.
In the past life, it became overused due to frequent usage, and because some people were hypocritical and antagonistic forces defamed it. Therefore, people didn’t believe it.
But now it’s different.
Honest and shrewd villagers had not yet encountered the overwhelming information bombardment. They simply thought their young master was indeed nobility.
"The young master speaks so well."
"Such beautiful common language."
"If he speaks, he should speak more. I wonder where I can buy the young master’s works."
"Even if you buy them, you wouldn’t understand!"
The villagers, unrestrained, listened to Lin Ke while chattering among themselves.
Lin Ke didn’t mind. At first, they couldn’t be managed too strictly, or they would all be scared away.
"...Therefore, with joy, compassion, and expectation, I had my teacher, a powerful practitioner, help me establish this factory, the paper factory!" Concluding, Lin Ke signaled to a group leader in the Guard Team below.
This was followed by thunderous applause once more.
"Next, I’ll discuss the five employee guidelines..."
"Under this main point, there are five sub-points..."
"Here, I need to emphasize three agreements..."
"Well, finally, I want to say..."
After a half-hour speech, the villagers’ gazes gradually turned to awe.
How could one person think of so many things?
As expected of the young master!
After emphasizing all this, Lin Ke finally rested his hoarse voice.
Both the prior briefing and today’s employee meeting were recorded using a Memory Stone.
His past life’s struggles taught him not to overly trust absolute things.
For instance, if someone said nobles valued honor more than life, Lin Ke would understand it as most nobles value honor more than life in specific circumstances.
In case of future disputes, today’s Memory Stone recordings could serve as evidence.
After concluding the employee meeting, Lin Ke naturally returned.
The castle was being prepared, with John busying himself behind Antova.
They were preparing for Lin Ke’s birthday banquet in three days.
As the sole future heir of the Azanen Territory, each of Lin Ke’s birthday banquets had to be grand.
Though there might not be many guests, it was one of the days to exhibit noble status and couldn’t be shabby.
In previous years, not a single noble attended, including other minor nobles from the Azanen Clan.
Lin Ke felt indifferent, Fulon even more so, but Antova would always express her anger whenever it was mentioned.
As Antova said, those "lower nobles" didn’t even attend the Azanen heir’s birthday, calling them "a bunch of low worms."
And those higher nobles were people without foresight, like Gula Cattle seeing only the grass in front of them.
The mistress’s choice of words was always unique and focused when it came to insults.
Lin Ke walked through corridors, where the walls, originally made of bricks and stones, were now adorned with framed oil paintings.
These oil paintings were specifically stored and only displayed on such special celebration days.
Because Azanen’s highest rank was only a Viscount, a mere small-town official in the view of real aristocrats like the Naseng Grandees.
Azanen couldn’t afford a servant dedicated to maintaining the paintings or the material costs, so they were only brought out on specific holidays.
Climbing the castle’s central spiral staircase, large red Azanen Banners were hung above.
It seemed less like Azaenn Castle, yet Lin Ke shook his head without comment and went back to meditate.
"Little Lin Ke, can you tell me again about the comparative experiment method you mentioned to me before?"
At this time, Ove was standing on his room’s balcony waiting for him.
Lin Ke walked in and smiled when he heard this.
Previously, while researching papermaking, he used the comparative experiment method, utilizing different control groups to verify factors like temperature, materials, mixing level, and drying time.
This greatly benefited Ove.
Lin Ke’s inquiry revealed that Ove’s teacher was only of level ten and had died prematurely.
The research method passed down from Ove’s teacher was simple, just observing.
For example, Ove spent hundreds of years capturing a lightning stroke and watching it in his own dimension.
He would stare intently at it, feeling, touching, listening, and even licking to perceive.
This was the research method of the era, or rather, most people’s method, relying on primitive sensory organs to perceive.
After all, the common practice was seclusion, and the only academic exchange Lin Ke heard of was between the Materialist and Idealist Schools, which sometimes involved arguments or even brawls.
No conferences, no academies, no research institutes...
Only teachers passing knowledge to disciples, nobles to descendants.
Even the royal family of the Gula Kingdom managed a research-like institute, but it completely obeyed royal authority.
The academic research atmosphere was terribly poor, nowhere near the academic prosperity during "First Year of Tianlin" and beyond, as Lin Ke remembered from his past life.
"Teacher, it’s , the comparative experiment method..."
Lin Ke explained it once again, this time focusing on examples to help Ove understand.
Ove was unpretentious and never felt ashamed to ask others.
After listening, Ove stood on the balcony, closing his eyes in contemplation.
Lin Ke didn’t disturb him, instead taking out a Divine Artifact fragment from the bedside cabinet, sitting on his custom-designed velvet-backed chair, and began to meditate.
Lin Ke didn’t hide the Divine Artifact fragment from Ove, as it was just a fragment.
Not considering Lin Ke and Ove’s relationship, even with Ove’s level, he could defeat weaker gods.
So, after questioning, Ove checked it for dangers and returned it to Lin Ke as there was none.
At Ove’s tier, the accumulation of Magic Power wasn’t essential.
Moreover, Divine Artifact fragments only provided a slightly larger amount of wood elements, trivial to him, so there was no need to encroach on Lin Ke’s usage time of the fragments.
For Ove now, feedback from some experiments was the key to his breakthrough.
For example, the simple comparative experiment method was more precious to Ove than a complete Divine Artifact.