Chapter 45: Repaying a favour

Yue Lan's eyes immediately went from the Jenga set to the board the moment that it was brought over.

She looked at it with a confused, but excited look as she asked, "What is this?"

Since Lin Fan was able to make something as exciting as Jenga, she was certain that this new product wouldn't disappoint her. As it turned out, it didn't disappoint her.

Lin Fan brought the board over and had the boss sit down to play with Yue Lan instead.

After all, the boss of the woodworking shop had only taken his order because he was interested in the items that he had asked him to make. So it was only natural that the boss would get to test it now that he was finished.

Lin Fan quickly explained the rules to them and then helped them set up the four pieces in the center before letting them play.

It didn't take the two of them long before they were lost in the game.

However, by the end of it, Yue Lan was the one that won.

Both of them were at the same level since this was their first time playing this game, but Yue Lan was able to win quite easily because of her skills, especially that level 8 Mental Calculation skill. She was able to use that Mental Calculation skill to predict several moves into the future, which had given her quite the advantage.

The final score was 51 to 13 in favour of Yue Lan.

It was a landslide victory.

But that didn't matter since both of them were very entranced by the game itself and had started a second round without a word.

Of course, Yue Lan won this second round as well and she had won with an even bigger disparity in tiles.

The woodworking shop's boss still wanted another round, but Yue Lan wanted to think about the prospects of these products, so she let Xiao Yue play instead.

Xiao Yue, who had been watching from the side the entire time already wanted to play, but since it was a game for two players, she had no choice but to stand and watch. Now that she had her chance, of course she wouldn't let it go.

Of course, the woodworking shop's boss wasn't able to keep up with her either since she was a cultivator.

Cultivation didn't just cultivate the body, but it also helped with the cultivation of her mind.

Her brain was able to process much faster than normal people, so she was also able to calculate the moves before she made them. Not to mention that she had been carefully watching on the side, so she had been formulating strategies the entire time.

As for Yue Lan, she turned back to Lin Fan and questioned him about these two products that he made, "Master, how did you come up with these two products? This Jenga and this Othello, I've never seen anything like them before!"

Lin Fan revealed a bitter smile when he heard this.

It wasn't as if he could reveal that he had taken them from his previous life, right?

But he wasn't surprised by Yue Lan's response to these two games.

They were the two of the most popular board games in his previous life, so it wouldn't make any sense if they weren't popular here.

So Lin Fan just chose to make up a random excuse as to how he came up with them before moving onto the main topic.

With a serious look, Lin Fan asked, "Do you think that they'll sell?"

Yue Lan replied without any hesitation, "They definitely will!" Then after thinking about it for a bit, she added, "Of course, we have to find a way to secure a proper supply of the product and to advertise it…No, advertising it won't be a problem since this kind of thing can be demonstrated in the store. In fact, the less advertising the better since these things can be easily copied, so it's very easy for fakes to appear…"

Yue Lan started to mutter to herself about all the different things that she needed to consider, even forgetting that Lin Fan was standing beside her.

Lin Fan just patiently waited until she was finished.

When she was done muttering to herself, she suddenly turned to Lin Fan and said, "The most important thing now is securing a proper supply chain since once it starts selling, they will fly off the shelves."

Lin Fan just calmly said with a smile, "Isn't there this woodworking store?"

Yue Lan knitted her brows to think when she heard this, but then she realized that Lin Fan was right.

The boss of this store already had experience with creating these games, so if he was willing to work with them, it would be easy for them to mass produce these products.

Of course, this woodworking shop clearly had other contracts, but everything could be arranged once the games started selling and the money started rolling in. There was nothing when it came to business that couldn't be solved with money.

Yue Lan didn't waste a single second as she went over to the boss who was still playing Othello with Xiao Yue.

While they were playing, Yue Lan quickly worked out a contract with the boss who was more than willing to accept this contract. He had played the games, so he knew how addicting they were and he was certain that they would sell just like Yue Lan.

Since that was the case, wouldn't it be a foolish move to not accept this contract?

This was his chance to earn a large amount of money and he would be a fool to turn it down.

Of course, neither of them mentioned money during this because neither of them knew what to charge since this was a completely new item. They would both need some time to do a bit of research on other similar products before they would even be able to come up with an estimate.

So Yue Lan made an appointment with the boss to come in on another day to take care of everything and to sign a proper contract because all they had right now was a verbal agreement.

Naturally, the one thing that Yue Lan did was make sure that the boss of the woodworking shop didn't spread this item to others. The boss quickly agreed to this since he knew that he would be working with them for a long time, so he wouldn't betray them that quickly.

After taking care of that, Yue Lan immediately decided to go to the Merchants Guild with the two items.

Lin Fan was confused why she wanted to do this, but she quickly explained that there was something called licensing with the Merchants Guild. While it wouldn't completely stop forgeries, it would at least brand their item as the original.

To put it in terms of Earth, while there was no such thing as patents in this world, there were things such as registering brands which was what Yue Lan was suggesting.

With the power of the Merchants Guild, this guaranteed that people would recognize it as the original brand. If anyone dared to copy this brand, the hammer of the Merchants Guild would fall on them.

No merchant who did business on the continent would be foolish enough to risk offending the Merchants Guild. Once they did, they would no longer be able to do proper business on the continent.

After settling this matter, Yue Lan wasted no time in going around to the various stores to scope out the competition.

Well, it wasn't right to call them competition since they weren't products that were exactly like Jenga or Othello, but they were also entertainment products.

In this world, there were still board games that were played, namely Chinese Chess, though it was called by a different name here.

However Lin Fan was surprised to find that this game was the exact same as Chinese Chess from Earth.

This was a surprising coincidence that Lin Fan felt was off, but he couldn't tell exactly what it was.

However, Lin Fan quickly threw these thoughts away since he just wanted to live a peaceful life. If he were to find an answer, it would clearly involve a much larger plot and he wasn't willing to involve himself in this.

What Yue Lan researched was the market price of these other entertainment products so she could figure out how much to sell Jenga and Othello for.

They spent the rest of the afternoon looking over this and when they got back to the inn after dinner, Yue Lan immediately locked herself in her room to process her research.

Lin Fan would have been worried that she was overworking herself, but after seeing the serious and excited look she had, he decided to leave her be. This was clearly what she wanted to do and what she loved to do, so Lin Fan had no reason to stop her.

However, he didn't let her keep going late into the night.

After all, she still had a promise to fulfil, a favour to repay.

When it was time to go to sleep, Lin Fan went into Yue Lan's room.

Yue Lan was still lost in thought over the information that she had gathered, so she didn't notice Lin Fan coming in. However, when Lin Fan locked the door behind him, she had no choice but to acknowledge him.

Seeing the strange way he looked when he came over, she couldn't help asking in a slightly nervous voice, "What, what are you doing?"

Lin Fan just said with a smile, "Well, you're the one who invited me."

Yue Lan was confused at first, but she quickly remembered what she said in the morning.

That was right, she had indeed invited him!

However, she was currently in the middle of figuring this out.

She was about to say something, but Lin Fan's fingers came across her lips, stopping her. Then he picked her up and carried her to the bed as he said, "I won't take no for an answer."

Yue Lan felt her heart skip a beat when she was picked up, but she wasn't against this.

In the end, she just let Lin Fan do what he wanted.

This time, she was able to last two hours…