Rise of the Argentine Empire

"I am irreconcilable with evil," Saint-Hesse murmured in his sleep. It seemed someone was wiping his face, but he felt like he was dreaming.

He dreamt of himself in great power, capturing the mad dog Rooney, full of vigor. Then he dreamt of his bankruptcy, the factory closing down, the bank liquidating, and ending up on the streets.

He also dreamt of his relatives and friends from his previous life, flashing back and forth, the dream beginning to blur.

Tears welled up in the corner of his eyes. In the bizarre dreams, he seemed to have dreamt of many things. Fragments of memory turned into dreams, like shattered soap bubbles, grasped only to break.

A sigh.

The surroundings seemed a bit off. This didn't seem like his home. Hiss, Saint-Hesse gasped, looking at the clothes he was still wearing from yesterday. Thankfully, it wasn't a new transmigration. With a carp-like leap, he jumped up from the sofa and walked to the window. It was still the familiar environment, the morning in Tech City. Cleaners were sweeping the streets.

He seemed to have fallen asleep on someone else's sofa. The living room layout was a bit like his own, the floor was the same, even the same direction, Saint-Hesse judged.

"Mr. Saint-Hesse, you're awake? Last night, you were sleeping in front of my door, waving your arms and legs, saying things I couldn't understand, crying and laughing. Later, I heard a bang, which startled me. Because I couldn't find your keys, I dragged you back to my place to prevent any accidents," a familiar voice came from behind. It was his neighbor, Ms. Elena, explaining the situation.

Saint-Hesse breathed a sigh of relief, his face apologetic. He felt around in his pants pockets, but his wallet and keys were gone. What a despicable thief! Taking the wallet was one thing, but even the keys! The security level in Tech City urgently needed improvement! But it was also possible he lost them at the hotel, or somewhere along the way.

"Thank you so much, Ms. Elena. I really troubled you last night. I'm so sorry," Saint-Hesse turned to face the voice, bowing his head slightly shyly.

He wondered if he had gone on a serious drunken rampage. Although he had no memory of it, it was quite terrifying. Was this what a blackout felt like? His vigilance was too low. This was his first time getting drunk since coming here, and it must be the last.

Ms. Elena was wearing a light pink nightgown, walking barefoot on the wooden floor, her hair simply tied up with a purple bow headband. She had dark circles under her eyes, so she probably didn't sleep well last night.

"It's alright. It was a bit busy last night, but neighbors should help each other. I couldn't find the keys last night. Maybe you can contact the landlord…" Elena said in a light tone, then handed Saint-Hesse a glass of water. It was hard to imagine how much effort it took for a petite girl to move a 1.8-meter boy from outside to the sofa.

"Thank you so much. If it weren't for you, I might have had to sleep outside all night. By the way, the weather is a bit stuffy today, compared to yesterday," Saint-Hesse said apologetically. No, it was rare for neighbors to help each other like this.

Saint-Hesse felt that Elena's words were a bit off, but he didn't refute them. He prepared to loosen his tie, but it seemed to have been taken off. He glanced at the table, then took the clear glass of water and gulped it down, finding the taste unusually sweet.

"It is a bit stuffy. I don't know if it's going to rain, but there aren't any dark clouds in the sky outside," Elena pointed to the weather outside the window.

"Maybe summer is coming. This plain water is really good. Sorry, I drank it all in one go," Saint-Hesse felt a bit impolite and quickly apologized.

"I added a little honey, maybe it can help with the hangover, but I've never drunk alcohol. Someone told me that. Would you like me to give you a ride to the library later? It's okay, would you like another glass?" Elena looked at Saint-Hesse with her big eyes, as bright as sapphires, and her eyelashes were so long.

"That won't be necessary. Ah, my car is parked at the factory, and I feel a bit dizzy, probably still hungover, so it might be dangerous," Actually, his headache had already improved after drinking the honey water, but Saint-Hesse was a bit uncomfortable with the concern of a girl, especially a female neighbor he had only met three or four times.

"Maybe I should go find Kate to get a spare key, then take a shower and change my clothes," Saint-Hesse added, already unable to stand his own alcohol-reeking self. His beard was unshaven, and his image was not good. He hoped he didn't throw up last night…

"Okay, you can come over for breakfast later. I'm about to prepare breakfast, and I'll prepare an extra portion ~," Elena pursed her lips, inviting him with anticipation.

"Okay, I can't refuse that. I'm already starving. I'll go get the spare key right away," Saint-Hesse was indeed a bit hungry, then said goodbye and walked downstairs. It was a hassle that there was no elevator.

After walking a few steps, he found the landlord of the rental agency, explained the situation, and got a spare key from him. He returned to the apartment, which was still messy and unorganized. Saint-Hesse boiled water and, while waiting, took out his razor and carefully shaved his beard.

The beard he had shaved clean yesterday morning already had a faint bluish stubble. He operated carefully.

Soon after shaving, the water was boiled. Saint-Hesse took a hot shower, finally feeling refreshed. He changed into clean clothes and tidied himself up in the mirror, preparing to attend the opening ceremony later.

He glanced at the newspaper. No other important events had occurred, except that the major city newspapers had begun more detailed reports. The tabloids were still sensationalizing headlines to attract sales. Saint-Hesse's name as the specific person in charge was also revealed, but without a photo. Saint-Hesse never accepted interviews from reporters, and the military didn't reveal anything either.

Saint-Hesse felt that he didn't need to be too famous right now, so he never allowed anyone to take his picture.

Breakfast was eaten with Elena, a plate of black pepper spaghetti, accompanied by a bowl of Italian soup, and a few slices of toasted soft bread.

The spaghetti was sprinkled with onions, tomatoes, and fennel seasoning, with a good taste, exuding a wonderful aroma of food. Saint-Hesse couldn't help swallowing his saliva.

The soup tasted salty and sweet, with chunks of beef, diced onions, diced carrots, and celery inside. Taking a sip, it tasted very good, not a dark dish. Although such a combination in his memory was still not very familiar, it made people's appetite.

"Miss Elena, I didn't expect you to be such a good cook. It's very rare for such a young and beautiful lady like you to have such good cooking skills. This is truly a delicious gift from God," Saint-Hesse exaggeratedly praised, as Elena must also be a Catholic, then dipped the sliced bread into the soup, taking a bite, which was quite delicious.

"This is a new way of eating I invented." In his previous life, he liked to tear steamed buns into pieces and put them in mutton soup, having eaten it a few times.

"Okay, I'll try it too," Elena followed suit, eating a bite of bread, holding her cheek with one hand, her sapphire-like eyes looking at him.

"Hmm, it is indeed a delicious way to eat. The harder texture of the bread combined with the salty and sweet soup, softened after soaking, neutralizes it," Saint-Hesse pretended to understand, nodding repeatedly.

"By the way, Mr. Saint-Hesse, being too honest is not good," Elena said and quickly walked to the kitchen.

"Huh… Ah?…" Saint-Hesse was completely confused, not understanding for a moment.

Then it was small talk time. Saint-Hesse looked at his watch, it was only eight o'clock.

After chatting, they learned more about each other. Mary Kim said that she saw Saint-Hesse in his uniform that day and thought he was very handsome, but later they lived at school, so they didn't meet much.

Elena was of Spanish descent, and her parents were both doing business in Buchen. Saint-Hesse was not very interested in these things.

He made a phone call to Aragon, asking him to drive the rented car over to pick him up. Aragon had already obtained his driver's license.

More than half an hour later, Aragon arrived late.

"Little Gong, how was last night?" Saint-Hesse asked, looking at Aragon's somewhat unsightly face.

"Hey, boss, don't even mention it. I was carried home! It took six people to carry me back. I heard it from the neighbors; they almost called the police!" Aragon was also drunk yesterday, but he didn't seem too bad. When it comes to drinking, Aragon is just a kid, even though he always stocks up on a lot of alcohol at home.

"Aren't you a big drinker? The self-proclaimed 'Prince of Tequila'?" San Jose teased.

"Boss, you know, last night I only had one shot of tequila, and I was out... It was completely different from what I usually drink. I could at least have two of the kind you gave me, yes, two shots," Aragon emphasized.

"Haha, Little Gon, you, you," San Jose didn't know how to respond for a moment.

They looked at each other and burst into laughter.

The depression in their hearts eased a bit.

......

Elena changed her clothes, and today she was wearing a light blue dress as usual, with her hair in a ponytail, looking youthful and beautiful. Aragon was driving attentively, being quite cautious. Fortunately, the city was small, and there weren't many cars on the road, otherwise, Aragon would definitely be honked at like crazy.

The two dropped Elena off at the Central Library on the way, and then said goodbye to each other.

For safety, the two put on bulletproof vests as usual. San Jose was fine, but Aragon's clothes looked a bit comical. Today's bulletproof vests are not as light and thin as those in later generations; they are quite thick.

Aragon was also preparing to wear a helmet, but San Jose stopped him, saying there was no need to go to that extent. Some members of the Byrd Brotherhood had indeed run away, and Aragon's caution was somewhat necessary, so both of them put on helmets.

They prepared to drive to Maria Town. Cross and the people from the City Hall had also set off and were on their way.

"Little Gon, we'll go to Maria Town later to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the new factory."

"Your skills should be fine now, right? It's over a hundred kilometers," San Jose asked, feeling a little uneasy.

"Boss, absolutely no problem. I'm already a seasoned driver," Aragon patted his chest and guaranteed. After getting his driver's license, Aragon hadn't touched a car much, so this was a good opportunity to familiarize himself with the operation.

"This time, we're driving a new Jeep rented from the rental shop. I'm very familiar with it," Aragon continued, seeing that San Jose was a little worried, his eyes darting around.

"Okay, then. We'll leave later."

When Aragon was driving, he didn't look like an experienced driver at all, going at a speed of about 20 kilometers per hour, driving slowly.

"Little Gon, why don't I drive? At your speed, we won't arrive until the groundbreaking ceremony is over."

"Boss, you can drive too?"

"Nonsense, who can't drive?" The two got out of the car and switched seats. Manual transmission, pulled up the handbrake, then third gear, throttle to eighty, speeding like the wind.

"Boss, slow down, slow down," Aragon said nervously, grabbing the car window tightly with both hands.

San Jose smiled and continued to accelerate to 90.

An hour and a half later, they arrived in Maria Town.

Mayor Cavo was leading people to greet them, including people from the City Hall, the Tax Bureau, commercial banks, and the Argentine Petroleum Company, but most of them were not high-ranking.

San Jose got out of the car, greeted them, exchanged a few pleasantries, and then the group went straight to the new factory. Actually, it was two factories, one was a plastic bottle factory, and the other was a plastic raw material factory. The plastic raw material factory was the one San Jose applied for a loan for, while the plastic bottle factory was built as a secret factory.

A modern factory building rose from the ground. When San Jose recruited workers for this, he offered a fixed basic salary of 4,000 pesos a month, which was quite good. If they did well in a month, it wouldn't be a problem to earn seven or eight thousand, basically reaching an average of 6,000 pesos a month.

This attracted many workers from the town to join, and San Jose also recruited workers from outside the town. This factory was very impressive, with a huge amount of capital invested in it before and after.

The production volume was also quite terrifying, with a constant stream of bottles and raw materials being transported through the small port.

The plastic raw materials came from the La Plata City oil refinery, and the new bottles would allow San Jose's next plan to gradually release new production capacity.

"Mayor Cavo, thank you for your support. And thank you to the people from the City Hall," San Jose shook hands and gestured to Mayor Cavo.

Then, the small auditorium in the town was used as a venue for speeches.

"Our factory will increase production in the future, strive to pay more taxes, and provide more jobs. If possible, we will set up a beverage factory and renovate the dock," San Jose spoke eloquently in his speech, promising a lot.

After the speech, the group came to visit the factory. Looking at the fully automated production line that had officially started, Cross was the concurrent factory director, and Qingyun was being trained as the deputy factory director, who would be trained as the factory director in the future. Cross couldn't keep an eye on this place all the time; the factory in Ke City needed him more now.

Bottles were produced in a matter of seconds, along with matching bottle caps, then packaged and transported to the Pulari factory area in the suburbs. The produced bottles had to be sent to Bu City to meet the growing needs of the sales market.

Plastic bottled soda was lighter, more transparent, and could also be wrapped with a layer of plastic advertising film and logo on the outer packaging, which was a great invention popularized in the late World War II.

The transparent bottles contained light green apple-flavored soda, orange orange-flavored soda, transparent lemon-flavored soda, black blackcurrant-flavored soda, and red watermelon-flavored soda.

San Jose was already planning to launch it to the national market. This would be a more convenient product than glass bottled soda, easy to carry around, very convenient, and the profit would be more substantial.

This would be the world's first commercial plastic bottle factory, earlier than Coca-Cola. The specially customized plastic bottle factory equipment production line, the first generation of bottles, after four or five months of debugging, was able to mass-produce safe and reliable food-grade plastic bottles.

Although the production of the plastic factory was not large, the Argentine National Petroleum Company had fully supported this plastic bottle factory because this plastic bottle factory needed a huge amount of oil refining by-products from the oil factory every month.

It could increase a lot of extra income, and the price given was not low. San Jose was fully stockpiling plastic raw materials, polyester, polyethylene, polypropylene, and other raw materials.

As a new industry, the petrochemical industry was not highly valued at present and was not blocked by the United States and other countries. San Jose easily obtained new production methods.

The equipment deposit was completely set according to San Jose's settings. Cooperating with the Chemistry Laboratory of the University of Cordoba, with San Jose's guidance, they were able to make rapid progress in just a few months, directly from the production of plastic products to the invention and mass production of safe food-grade plastic bottles.

The next step was to create momentum nationwide and even globally. San Jose estimated that the food-grade plastic bottle production process could earn him a small fortune and ease the pressure on funds. He did not plan to personally go out, Cross would be the spokesperson and main operator of this press conference, and perhaps the Redwood Investment team would also be brought along.

The group visited Argentina's first modern plastic factory, which would rise at a rapid pace. If there was enough capital, they could consider acquiring the Sean Glass Factory and move it here together, and then build a brand-new soda bottling plant here to control the source of raw materials and help expand soda sales.

This factory was not taken too seriously by other international companies, and he deliberately kept a low profile, only saying that it was related to the production of glass factories. There was also an element of luck in obtaining that loan in the first place, and Ke City was still far from being world-class.

The group nodded frequently. Although they didn't quite understand, it didn't affect their performance. They all expressed great satisfaction. The Maria Town leaders, led by Mayor Cavo, and the representatives of the City Hall also looked happy, feeling that San Jose was very reliable, a very trustworthy person, and very courageous, having established such a giant production monster in just a few months.

The Tax Bureau personnel also announced some tax preferential policies, while the city leaders of Ke City did not attend the groundbreaking ceremony due to the long journey. In addition, representatives of the Argentine Petroleum Company also signed a larger-scale raw material cooperation plan on the spot.

After the activity celebration ended, San Jose left the noisy crowd and walked alone on the small road, with Aragon following far behind.

San Jose looked at the distant Pampas grassland, staring blankly in a daze, feeling as if he had lost something in his heart, but he didn't know what it was, and he felt a little uncomfortable for a moment.

After adjusting his mood, he did not go to the dinner prepared by the mayor. He had a simple meal with Aragon in a small restaurant in the town, without drinking alcohol, and rushed back to the rented apartment.