66 66. Big Returns

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Happy didn't go out too much after his excursion to the MACUSA office for the coming month and busied himself training with the Zouwu named Jade. He spent his time from day till night with the creature, trying to understand it and live like it.

Eventually, Jade and Happy grew a deep bond, and Jade even allowed him to live in her den along with her whole family, which included a few of her grandkids who were small and a bit annoying, though nothing that Koko couldn't handle.

Still, on occasions, he regularly met with his first muggle employee, Christopher Gardener. The man was given a signing bonus out of compassion since he had no money to set things right before actually starting the job.

So, with the signing bonus of ten thousand dollars, Chris first found himself a small apartment, and a caretaker for his kind, and enrolled his son in a good school. He expected to have enough funds once he worked the first month, so he was very eager to start.

Immediately, Chris got himself a set of decent suits and prepared for his first assignment. In a privately hired company jet, he quickly made his way to the recently fallen Soviet Union. It was perfect for them to trade their goods, as the fractured nations didn't really have a smooth and equal distribution of wealth. Poverty was rampant, and there was some food shortage, despite having very fertile soil.

Some of them simply wanted to stockpile food in case something bad was to happen. Initially, it was tough to get in, as Chris was from a new company with no past history. However, by showing a little bit of extravagance, he started with the smaller nations born in the USSR.

Starting with Uzbekistan, which didn't have too much farmable land and lacked machinery for large-scale farming at the time. They agreed to a trial deal after Chris gave them a sack of samples. Some lab testing was then done, and soon the order was placed.

Using the proof of previous orders, Chris went to Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. Ukraine was excluded since it had an excellent agriculture industry and were exporters of food. Though, in the end, Chris concluded his trip to Russia, showing the deals with other nations as a foundation while offering some favors to a few people and ultimately securing a deal.

Though, the countries didn't require rice, but rather wheat, which Happy had no problem supplying. Though Chris did go to China just after, as the nation was the biggest producer of rice, they always imported some to stock up their granaries. Sadly, no deal was reached, and he returned empty-handed.

Once the orders were received, at Happy's orders, the elves got to work in Hogwarts as per instructed. The Room of Requirement was first filled with branded sacks of grains, stacked up tightly next to each other, for easy transport.

Then, their respective Portkeys were used to send it all in one go to a warehouse. In that case, it was a warehouse in Athens, Greece. From there, it was loaded into ships and sent to Russia through the Black Sea. After that, a part of it was sent to the five other nations through trains or trucks—the entire logistics was muggled and arranged by Chris.

Once the qualities were confirmed, except for Russia, the other five nations gave bigger orders while transferring money to the same place.

…

Back in the States, Happy sat before Chris in a small roadside coffee shop run by an old couple. The coffee wasn't particularly tasty, but Happy had fallen in love with their homemade baked goods.

It was a fine summer morning, so they sat outside the shop, watching the people pass by.

"Chris, how much do you think it'd cost to build a Statue of Liberty? But a goose instead of Lady Liberty?"

Pfft!

Chris spat out some of the coffee and quickly cleaned it with some tissue. "What…Ummm…The original price was around five hundred thousand back then. Going by inflation, it's more than five million dollars. But it's certainly impossible to make it now with five million, as labor cost is much different from back then. I would at least go with a hundred million to half a billion. It depends on where, how elaborate, and how big you want it."

Chris couldn't believe he was answering that question with so much seriousness. But, with all the brain power he had, he couldn't understand if Happy was testing him or if he was actually serious.

"That's it? It's expensive, but not unaffordable…Maybe one day I'll make one in the Thames River." Happy muttered and finished eating his tasty chocolate or jelly-filled buns. "So, how was business?"

Finally, the moment Chris was waiting for. He took out a file and handed it to Happy. He had tried to sort out all the data as simply as possible so a young boy could understand. Using simple pie charts and bar graphs, he showed all the distinctions between the total cost, profit, and money lost in logistics.

Happy read it while drinking a milkshake, thanks to his homeschooling in the previous life. "We've already got two hundred million dollars in the first month and more orders worth four hundred. But, this won't help unless we find countries that need regular supplies of grains, rice, or even certain processed things like pasta, noodles, or vegetables. We need to create a list of long-term repeating buyers."

Chris nodded, having come to the same conclusion. "Mr. Lestrange, I am working on a list, but first, I wanted to ask what products we can sell?"

"Anything as long as it's not some canned, processed food. Grains, vegetables, fruits, noodles, pasta, and such. But only focus on things that are in high regular demand." Happy gave the go ahead.

But that confused Chris more than ever. "Mr. Lestrange, if I may ask, how is the company getting all this? Where are the farms?"

"We don't magically make it all from thin air!" Happy blurted and looked at the man's face. "Haha…Well, we have thousands of people around the world connected with us, working for us independently. We simply act as the best mediators. You bring me the orders, and I will get the deliveries done."

Chris was, of course, unsatisfied with that answer. It was impossible to grow the same crop around the world with the same quality or deviation. Furthermore, if he were to believe it, then each independent farmer had to be a millionaire too, with huge amounts of land.

"Then, how about trying expensive industries? Almas Caviar sells for fifteen thousand dollars per kilogram. Or a White Alba Truffle, which can go…I don't know, a hundred thousand each. Or maybe wines as well?"

Happy wasn't interested in those, sadly. "No, those are made from living items, I won't go into them. I can maybe try the wine—can you find me a perfectly intact bottle of wine, aged ten years, twenty-five years, fifty years, hundred years, and any older ones? Make a list of wine companies as well, and hire an assistant for such data-gathering work. Ah, one more thing, you can trade with sanctioned nations like Iraq, but only take gold as payment."

With that, Happy got up to head back, as it was a big day for him. "Here's your month's salary check, and the bonus for bringing in the big deals. See you later, and keep me updated."

Chris just watched Happy leave silently. In his heart, he felt somewhat terrified of Happy for some reason. He felt the boy was too unpredictable, and it was impossible to think a kid was running a company—common sense fought with his mind, stopping it from accepting reality, which seemed like an absurdity.

He looked down at the two cheques. The first one was for $8,400, as promised in his contract. But, what shocked him beyond his wildest imagination was the second check. His hands shivered while holding it, prompting him to look left and right.

$200,000.

"S-So much…This is the bonus?!" He felt his fever rising right then, and his eyes suddenly overcome with tears. For months he struggled to even find a roof and food for his son and himself. How could life change so much, so drastically?

It all felt like, "Magic."

And with the two checks, the first thing he did was run to the bank—faster than ever before in his life. It was the day he wanted to treat his son to a big meal.

And it all became possible because of a kid he worked for.

…

Happily returned to Scamander Mansion. It was just him at the big house since the two adults had gone to work. With sweet delights made by the elves before him, he sat in the living room with Koko on his lap, and his back resting on the side belly of the sleeping Jade.

He stared at the big colored television with delight, watching the National Lottery reveal the winning numbers.

"YES!" Happy exclaimed for the third time that day. "Ten million more! This is the easiest hundred million I've ever made in my life!... Wait, I swindled from those goblins too."

Just a few minutes later, he jumped again. "YES! One more… Koko, today I'll feed you a bigger meal. Your boss here is now a hundred million richer, a new drop to my ocean!"

"Baaaaa…!" Koko bleated like a sheep.

"ONE MORE! Sweet Grandpa God, I love you!"

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