"But initially, I didn't think it was much of a problem." Curran continued.

"The company's business is still doing well, and Mor is sufficient, even if some of the manpower and financial resources are transferred to do something that cannot create profits, it is not much of a problem, not to mention that the results of Chriss's research can also be used on the latest model of whaling ships. All in all, I just started out as a normal research investment, and instead of stopping it, I was happy to see it happen.

"But gradually, things deviated from my expectations. In order to validate the new technology, Chriss' group needed to build a technical demonstration ship and conduct sea trials. At that time, both the thruster technology and the shipbuilding process were far less mature than they are now, and during the sea trials, they encountered various problems such as insufficient buoyancy, structural damage, and thruster explosions, and almost every problem meant the loss of a ship, and during that time, the company built a total of 19 technical verification ships and lost 18 ships.

By that point, the company had invested a huge amount of research on Mor in Chriss, and very little had been able to turn it into profit. By this time, there had been a number of objections from the minority shareholders, and some conservative ones had even begun to divest, and I approached Chris, and the two argued for a long time, and finally she assured me that the next trial voyage would be successful, and that the ship would sail west of the Western Islands and back, and that we would be the first shipyard in the whole of Debsota to accomplish this feat.

"I agreed. So, under Chriss's leadership, the company began to build a ship that was much larger than all the ships in the past. At the same time, competition in the shipbuilding industry in the lower city is becoming more and more fierce, with companies going out of business almost every day; Coupled with the fact that too much Moll had invested in Chriss's project, and some shareholders had withdrawn their capital, the company's business was already very unoptimistic at that time, but no matter what, Chriss's ship was finally completed, and she named it 'Chrisskoren'.

"Soon after, the 'Christopher Curren' set sail with all the anticipation, and we watched it all the way to the end of our vision. Although it is too far to maintain contact with the ship, there is still a way to get a general idea of the condition of the ship......"

When Summer Night heard this, she suddenly remembered something: although the Moby Dick had not yet reached Debussota, Curran seemed to have known in advance that they had successfully hunted Moby Dick, and he had never been able to think of how the other party knew about it, and now it seems that this is probably related to the method mentioned here.

But she didn't interrupt Curran's narration, and just silently kept the question in mind.

As he pondered on a summer night, Curran had already continued:

"...... the 'Kris Curran' had been on normal sail for seven days, and based on the speed of the voyage, it is likely that it has already crossed the Western Islands, and may even be on its way back. This was very exciting for everyone, even those who had been against Chriss's project, and at this point they had changed their attitudes. After all, if the 'Kristhuren does set a record', the company's reputation in Debsota will also be greatly enhanced, which will be very helpful in securing orders and attracting new investment.

"On the eighth day, however, we lost track of the Chris Curren. At first, we could have found all sorts of excuses to console ourselves, but as time went by, and the ship never returned, we finally had to accept the fact that the Chris Curren had died in the Aether Sea and would never return.

"This became the straw that broke the camel's back, and shareholders began to withdraw their capital, leaving the company's already stretched Mo'er Stream on the verge of breaking (aka "cash flow" – Summer Night Note), and suppliers who sensed that the situation was not going well were worried about the company's bankruptcy and demanded that we pay for the equipment in advance, which further accelerated the company's collapse.

"Eventually, the company I set up with Chriss' came to the brink of bankruptcy, and in a few days, the deadline for paying for the equipment would be reached, and at that time, not to mention that the company would not be able to come up with so many Mol, even if we put our own Mol in, it would not be able to fill that gap.

"Just when we were almost desperate, 'Aether Exploration' found me, no, strictly speaking, it was the 'Venture Capital Department 7' under 'Aether Exploration' that found me, that is, their gang."

Curran pointed to the masked witch beside him.

"Chairman Curran, please don't change the name of our company at will." "I've clarified many times that the company I belong to is called 'Ether Exploration Venture Capital No. 7 Subsidiary', not 'Venture Capital No. 7'. ”

"It's about the same anyway." Curran said to the Mask Witch and explained to Summer Night, "In the past, Aether Exploration had set up a number of departments dedicated to venture capital, and named them Venture Capital Department 1 and Venture Capital Department 2 in order...... Later, all of these departments became independent from the headquarters and became subordinate subsidiaries, so the name became the 'Aether Exploration Venture Capital No. 7 Subsidiary' that this guy just said, which is very embarrassing, right? ”

"Indeed." Xia Ye smiled, "Chairman Curran, you finally said something that I could agree with immediately. ”

Curran didn't seem to hear the irony, and smiled, "That doesn't mean we can't agree on everything, does it?" ”

Xia Ye avoided answering: "We digress, please continue your story, Chairman Curran." ”

The gray-haired girl in the black dress nodded, and continued to tell:

"At that time, I was approached by the 'Venture Capital Department 7' and offered to inject capital into the 'Voyage Ship' to save our company, but only if they agreed to some conditions, the most important of which was that Chrissy had to give up all her shares and leave the senior management.

I didn't answer immediately, and after sending them away, I went to Chrissy and told her about it. To my surprise, Chrissy agreed almost immediately, saying, 'Of course I would like to do so, but you have to promise me, no coran, that you can still carry out my project in the future.' ”

"I can't promise her."

At this point, Curran paused for a few seconds before continuing:

"I can only tell her the truth: the 'Venture Capital Department 7' is different from those small shareholders in the past, once they inject capital, they will have the ability to directly interfere in the company's operation, in other words, the future 'voyage ship' will no longer be just the two of us. And the purpose of their investment, of course, is to pursue returns, your project is a bottomless pit that will only swallow the devil and will not spit the devil, and it is impossible to continue in the future.

"Chrissy was very angry at the time, saying that if this was the case, what was the point of the existence of the 'long-distance ship', it would be better to let it go bankrupt; I was also angry at the time, and said to Chrissy that if it weren't for your insistence on doing those studies, the company would not have been in this situation; Chrissy retorted that if it weren't for her, the company wouldn't have even been able to get the initial trial qualification, and I said that if it weren't for me, the company wouldn't even exist......

Of course, this kind of argument will never come to fruition, and I had a big argument with her, and eventually the relationship between the two of us broke down completely. The next day, I accepted the conditions of the 'Venture Capital Department 7', Chrissy was kicked out of the senior management, and I arranged a mid-level position for her, originally thinking that she would refuse and leave the company directly, but I didn't expect that she would accept it.

"Even with the capital injection of the 'Venture Capital Department 7', the company at that time still paid a huge price in order to survive, many shipyards and equipment were forced to sell, employees either quit themselves or were laid off; Eventually, even the company's name was changed to 'Far Ship Leasing'. ”

(End of chapter)