At this time, it was already September, and it had been five months since Zhou Lang came to this era.

The weather in India can be hot in September, and Zhou Lang must take a shower twice a day in the morning and evening, but he still goes home with a stinky sweat every day. This is especially true when he has to wear layers of formal clothes every day.

The Europeans were very strange that they had come to India, to this tropical country, but they still stubbornly retained their European traditions, not to mention the top management of the East India Company, even their female dependents, who were dressed as if they were still in London, wearing layers of skirts, underneath which were blouses, underneath which were tunics, corseted breasts, wearing male hats, and holding small umbrellas. Where they live, the architecture must be European, and even the plants in front of and behind the house insist on keeping them exactly the same as London.

The garden behind Zhou Lang's rented mansion was full of European-style flowers, and he did not have the capital to hire a gardener, so most of them had died, but the two linden trees that were transplanted later grew well.

The stubbornness of the Europeans made Zhou Lang a lot of guilty, because he had to cater to the preferences of the other party, if the investor was wearing a formal suit, Zhou Lang T-shirt and shorts were dragging a pair of flip-flops, it was basically impossible to pull the investment. So Zhou Lang can only wear suits and leather shoes, and he is dressed in formal clothes all day long, this kind of dress in India, which can no longer be depicted by saunas, it is simply steamed steamed buns, human flesh steamed buns.

Fortunately, there are good bathing facilities, and the wealthy Dutch businessman who built the mansion has built a special bathroom, which is connected to the water supply system built by the British, and there is a luxurious bath with a cold shower every day, which is a rare pleasure.

In the past few months, the rented mansion has also undergone some changes, and there are two more people. One is Xie Qinggao, who moved in more than ten days ago, and a woman who came a month earlier than Xie Qinggao, an Indian woman. This woman is not Zhou Lang's confined, all his energy at this time is highly focused on his big plan, and he has no intention of finding a woman for the time being. This woman is actually Vimula's.

The woman's name was Sushra, and she was quite beautiful, eighteen years old, two years younger than Vimula. Of course, such a woman is not something that a pariah like Vimula can get under normal circumstances, so it is not a normal situation for this woman to come to Zhou Lang's house.

Sushra was also a Dalit and his family had been skinning for generations, and the slaughter industry was also considered an unclean occupation in India, a profession exclusive to untouchables. However, although the slaughtering industry is a cheap industry, it is also higher than the collection of corpses. The caste system in India has really reached its peak, and it is said that in some places there are as many as 300 castes of different castes. The same is a pariah, the farmer is more noble than the skinned, the skinned is nobler than the corpse, and there are even the untouchables whose entire group is a prostitute.

Therefore, Vimula, who fished out the corpse, was considered a kind of high climb to get Sushra, who had been skinned for generations, and it was not easy to succeed under normal circumstances, but Sushra had a problem himself. Due to the British intrusion into Indian society, there was a certain impact on the caste system in India, and the Sushra family had the earliest dissolution from the meat-loving Westerners because of the slaughtering industry, and Sushla, as the youngest daughter of the family, was sent to a British aristocratic family as a servant very early. When she grew up a little, she turned out to be quite handsome, which aroused the interest of the male owner. It all happened naturally, Sushra became pregnant, and unfortunately soon the hostess came to India from London and Sushra was kicked out.

Instead of hating the whites for the unfair treatment of their daughters, the Sushra family took all their anger out on their daughters, and even threw their pregnant daughters out of the house for fear of affecting the family's business with the whites.

By the time Vimula met Sushra, Sushra had become a beggar, picking up garbage on the streets for a living. Vimula's fate changed because of Zhou Lang's relationship, and he became more and more convinced of the traditional Indian belief that good people are rewarded, so he rescued Sushla who was in trouble. At first, he just brought Sushla a little food every day, but somehow the two came together, and a few months later, Vimula trembled and begged Zhou Lang to take Sushla in.

Zhou Lang was very reluctant, in fact, he had already discovered the inconvenience caused by getting involved with Indian untouchables. Although the majority of the East India Company's managers were white, there were also a significant number of Indians. In particular, in the army, the middle and lower rank officers were all Indians without exception, and for the purpose of winning over the old ruling class of India, these Indian officers were often well-born Brahmin castes and Kshatriyas. After learning that Zhou Lang's family lived with a pariah, these Indian officers resolutely refused to associate with Zhou Lang, even if Zhou Lang had the heart to get acquainted with a few Indian officers who had mastered Western military technology, they would not dismiss him.

After all, Vimula is Zhou Lang's savior, and since the other party has already lived in his own home, it is difficult for him to drive him away. But to live in another untouchable caste, Zhou Lang was still very reluctant in his heart, not because he had no sympathy, but because he was afraid of getting into trouble.

But Vimula begged bitterly, repeatedly saying that his girlfriend only needed to live under the eaves and never step into the house, looking at a poor man crying bitterly, Zhou Lang couldn't bear it for a while, anyway, because Vimula had already had a conflict with the Indian high-level, the so-called lice did not stink, and he could only allow it.

Of course, he could not let a woman live under the eaves, but let her live directly in Vimura's room, or allow her to have a room to himself. Anyway, there are many houses here, there are eight rooms downstairs, six rooms upstairs, and a large terrace upstairs.

Vimura chose to let Sushra live in her house.

As for how the two of them live, Zhou Lang didn't want to care at all, now he resolutely would not enter Vimula's house, not respecting the other party's privacy, but he really couldn't get used to this Indian. Not long after he moved in, Zhou Lang had something to tell Vimula about and went to his room once, but what puzzled him was that there was a beautiful big bed left by the previous owner, and Vimula had to sleep on the carpet.

After asking, I realized that Vimula was persuaded several times because he didn't dare to sleep in bed like his master, and Zhou Lang didn't want to care about the strange inferiority complex that Vimula had developed in Indian social life. In short, if you let a person who walks to pay attention to his own shadow will sweep away other people's untouchables and begin to accept the concept of equality of all people, it is as difficult as making a slave turn into a master, and it is difficult for people's hearts. In the past few months, Zhou Lang also discovered other problems with Vimula, such as he never used Zhou Lang's tableware, and never even bathed in the bathroom where Zhou Lang bathed, and he bathed alone in the back garden with a wooden barrel.

Later generations of Chinese public intellectuals always like to criticize the servility of the Chinese, but compared with the Indians, it is really a small thing, and for the Chinese who have installed the idea of "princes and generals have a kind of Xiangning" in their hearts for thousands of years, the kind of "appointment" in the hearts of Indians is simply unimaginable.

Sushla, who is also a pariah, is much more normal than Vimura, which probably has something to do with the fact that she has been in an English family since she was a child, so she can speak English fluently, but that's all, this young woman is not a special talent, her former male master obviously did not deliberately train her, and she is still illiterate. Unlike Vimula, she was able to sit at the dining table and eat with Zhou Lang naturally, and she also enjoyed soaking in the luxurious bath, but nothing more.

Other than that, Sushra doesn't have any bad deeds, she is a very hardworking woman. After moving in, she began to help Vimula with household chores, sprinkle and clean the house, mainly cooking, and Vimula mainly took care of some menial work. Zhou Lang did not just take in Sushla, as Vimula begged for, and in fact gave her a salary of one pound a month, Zhou Lang did not intend to exploit her labor.

The only thing that made Zhou Lang feel uncomfortable was that he didn't know if it was his own delusion, he always felt that this woman was seducing him, and several times he had just come home and met this woman who had just come out of the bathroom in disheveled clothes, and found her private clothes in the bathroom many times. and the way she looked at herself, it also made Zhou Lang feel that there was something different.

But Sushla is a woman of Vimula, and it is impossible for Zhou Lang to make up her mind, but this woman is obviously benefited from Vimula's acceptance, but she has the intention of hooking up with the male host, according to the Chinese's opinion, it is a little unscrupulous.

Another resident, Xie Qinggao, is as busy as Zhou Lang, leaving early and returning late every day. Before Zhou Lang's plan was launched, Xie Qinggao was not idle, and the thing Zhou Lang arranged for him was to study. Xie Qinggao knows several Chinese, even the indigenous languages of Nanyang, and he is also literate, but he does not know European characters. But this is not a problem, the reason why I don't know him is that no one has taught him before, and he has no interest in learning. For Western characters, as long as you can speak, learning words is very simple, just a few letters, memorize, just spell directly. As for grammar and the like, Zhou Lang didn't have time to teach Xie Qinggao, so he directly gave him a copy of the complete works of Shakespeare and threw a dictionary for him to learn by himself. At the same time, he also asked him to read the newspaper every day, he needed Xie Qinggao to have the quality of a senior manager, not yet, as long as he worked hard, he had this potential. Time is the best teacher, and as long as you persevere, the front desk can also grow into a president.

After Zhou Lang's plan was launched, Xie Qinggao's task came. Zhou Lang's main task for Xie Qinggao is to let him pull up the team to go to sea, as for what he needs to go to sea, Xie Qinggao knows better than Zhou Lang, and he will hand over professional things to professional people to do, which is Zhou Lang's experience, and everything is no longer in line with modern management concepts. Xie Qinggao is the captain of Zhou Lang's internal design, he needs to find a suitable first mate for himself, and because Xie Qinggao's own sailing level is limited, he needs a first mate with the same professional knowledge as the captain. It is also necessary to recruit a group of experienced sailors, at least skilled sailors in various professional positions. It is easy to use a group of novices to do chores, and India, like China, is not lacking in manpower.

Therefore, Xie Qinggao's job is to soak in the dock every day, focusing on recruiting those experienced seafarers, whether they are Europeans or Indians, they can be given higher wages, but they must be qualified, and it is best to have no bad habits. In terms of investment, Zhou Lang is very generous, and even informed Xie Qinggao that if he really meets those experienced and reliable captains, and at the same time there are ideals who are willing to invest in the future, he can even use shares to attract the other party and absorb the other party as a partner in his own company. As for the concept of partner, Xie Qinggao, who has traveled all over the world, also knows something, and Zhou Lang told him about it again, because Zhou Lang gave Xie Qinggao the position of a partner rather than a pure employee.

The busiest, of course, is Zhou Lang. He was busy looking for investment, and this was indeed an excellent time, and his plan had been made public on a small scale within the East India Company, and there were many interested parties, because his plan was really a plan that seemed to be extremely feasible and had a great expected rate of return. After all, he has hundreds of years of business knowledge in his head, and he knows how to make plans that can tickle investors.

But the IPO has not yet reached that point, and what he is doing now should be regarded as building momentum. Of course, he also attracts investors, but he has strict requirements for the original shareholders, not only asking for money, but also looking at the resources behind the initial shareholders, such as the other party's connections, the other party's background, and the other party's personality. Because these initial shareholders in his opinion, they are partners who want to work with him for a long time, and if it is not good, it needs to be agreed, and the selection process is as strict as finding a wife.

Under such strict conditions, Zhou Lang's work has also made some progress at present, a partner has been determined, and there are three backup options, if nothing else, he will soon expand his partner to five, Xie Qinggao plus four Britons.

The British partner who has now joined Zhou Lang's team is Zhou Lang's immediate boss, who is no longer the Scottish commoner of the past, but a young but ambitious British aristocrat named Henry Pitt, who succeeded Zhou Lang's predecessor as the manager of this small department.

As a member of the illustrious Pitt family, his ambitions are by no means limited to that.

The Pitt family is a British earl family, and the aristocratic status alone does not fully explain the deep background of this family, the current British Prime Minister, is a member of the Pitt family, named William Pitt Jr., just so it is still impossible to fully describe the prominent position of this family, it is worth mentioning that William Pitt Jr. became the British Prime Minister at the age of 24, and has been the Prime Minister for ten years since 1783, during which he has experienced a political crisis, but he has the full support of the king and has always stood tall. A man who can become the head of state at the age of 24 cannot be explained by his personal ability in any case, and it can only be said that his family's influence on Britain is too great. But even so, it still can't summarize the prominent status of the Pitt family, because Prime Minister Pitt Jr.'s father, Prime Minister Pitt Sr., is also the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

In other words, the Pitt family is a two-generation prime minister family, and it is the current British prime minister's family.

And the most special thing is that this family has always had an inseparable relationship with India in history, and it can even be said that this family made its fortune through business in India. Pete Sr.'s grandfather was a merchant who plundered in India, and he once bought an amazing diamond the size of a pigeon for 25,000 pounds in India, earning him the nickname Diamond Pete. The diamond was later sold for £135,000 to the Duke of Orleans, the French regent, and later became known as the Regent Diamond.

The elder Pete's grandfather, who made his fortune in India, was able to send the elder Pitt to study at Cambridge University, and later became an army officer, and made meritorious contributions in the European theater of the Seven Years' War, became an aristocrat, and then participated in politics, and slowly climbed to the position of British prime minister.

Not only did the Pitt family start out in India, but they have not left to operate in India for four generations. The family had always been shareholders of the East India Company, and was one of the largest shareholders. Scholars who study the history of the East India Company believe that although the East India Company was a joint-stock company, there were only 200 major shareholders who actually controlled the company, and the Pitt family was one of them.

Henry Pitt, who came from such a large family, was one of many males in the family, and according to the traditional winner-takes-all primogeniture system in England, even his brother William Pitt Jr., who was prime minister, could not inherit the family fortune, let alone his nameless young son. So he came to India to give himself a brilliant future, but fighting within the East India Company could not realize his ambitions. The current situation made it difficult for him to carry out his work, as the current Viceroy of India, Lord Cornwally, with the support of his brother Prime Minister William Pitt Jr., was reforming the East India Company, and the children of prominent shareholder families could find a well-paid position within the East India Company, but it was difficult for them to make their own business, because the East India Company now forbade its employees to trade privately.

For Zhou Lang, whether it is Henry Pitt's deep background or his personal ambition, it is worth winning over to become his partner; For Henry Pitt, since the East India Company forbade its employees to conduct private trade in India, Zhou Lang's proposal to form a Chinese East India Company to carry out trade between China and India was a way to circumvent the company's regulations.

So the two hit it off, and Henry Pitt became Zhou Lang's first British partner, and Henry Pitt also used his background to introduce more other high-quality partners and investors to Zhou Lang.

Most of these people are similar to Henry Pitt, with prominent family backgrounds, British elite education, through family connections, into the East India Company, and easily become middle and low-level officials, but they are very dissatisfied with the current reforms, although the reform is in the interests of the British government and shareholders, but it is not in the interests of the second generation of shareholders who cannot inherit the property, so they are extremely eager to create a business of their own.

They don't just want to get rich, in terms of their status, even if they don't come to India, they can get ideal positions in Britain through family connections, such as government officials, army officers, but they take the risk and come to India, which is unfamiliar with life, and for them it can be called a harsh environment, obviously they are not here to make a fortune, not to enjoy a comfortable life, but to work hard, to create their own unique future. Not only do they want to make a fortune, but they also want to be able to make a mark and become a new aristocratic family.

But the current reforms of the East India Company had wiped out their ambitions, so they needed another opportunity, and there were not many opportunities of such a size as India that would allow them to obtain a position of nobility, and it was obvious that China could afford this weight anyway, so under the recommendation of Henry Pitt, there were many young nobles who were interested in Zhou Lang's plan.

The only problem is that they don't have a lot of money in their hands.