As the industries grew more numerous, Liang En's direct involvement in managing them became increasingly less. After all, if he spent all his energy on managing the industries, he wouldn't have time for anything else. Fortunately, after summoning Elizabeth Bathory, these activities could be handed over to this professional, freeing Liang En from daily business operations.
However, it's worth noting that even before this, many of Liang En's business projects were either managed by trustees or semi-trustees. At that time, he didn't have much time to devote to these areas either.
This situation brought some trouble for Elizabeth since many industries were under trusteeship, requiring a significant amount of time to sort out these matters. Fortunately, Elizabeth quickly resolved various issues and organized a team to fully manage the multitude of industries under Liang En's control.
This was also why there was a need to acquire a bank earlier. To consolidate these scattered industries, having a bank of their own was the most suitable way to oversee them collectively.
Interestingly, although the bank was initially intended for industry coordination, it now turned out to be quite profitable, especially after the establishment of the branch in the Philippines, which significantly boosted earnings.
This was mainly because Liang En's previous actions in the Philippines earned him widespread recognition. In the eyes of many, Liang En was a very trustworthy person because he followed the rules and reported substantial wealth, making his bank seem reliable as well.
This reputation might not be very important to corporate clients, but for individual depositors, it was invaluable. Given that the bank in the Philippines primarily targeted individual depositors, this reputation naturally brought in a large number of customers.
Moreover, since Liang En's bank was established in a region with numerous farms, they could precisely identify the clients they needed, effectively reducing bad debt rates.
Due to these various industries, Liang En had essentially achieved financial freedom, though this did not stop him from continuing to expand his business.
For instance, after returning home this time, aside from chatting and communicating with his relatives, his main task was to restore perfumes and fragrances from history.
These perfumes weren't just from ancient Egypt or Greece but also included products from the memories of Elizabeth and Marie. Unlike Joan of Arc, who had no understanding of perfumes, these two former noblewomen had a deep knowledge of fragrances. Though not professionals, they had some familiarity with these things.
Given that the skill of making perfumes could easily disappear amid wars and chaos, replicating these fragrances was very valuable today.
However, the aesthetic of scents differed across eras. For example, the perfumes Elizabeth proposed were far too strong for modern tastes. Traditionally, Eastern European perfumes had very strong scents, sometimes excessively so, which were not very popular in today's Europe.
While Arabs and Indians traditionally favored more intense fragrances, their preferred scents differed significantly from those in Europe. This meant Liang En needed some time to adjust these scents to better suit the preferences of his target customers, which required considerable time for experimentation.
The lack of standardized formulas meant they could only figure it out through trial and error.
"This scent is much better, at least closer to modern preferences," Joan of Arc said after sniffing the newly concocted fragrance.
By this time, she had completed her filming work and returned to Ireland. Although the shooting wasn't finished, her part was done. After Liang En made the request, Guerlain immediately sent him two large packages of various internal samples of perfumes to help them grasp the current trends.
After experiencing these perfumes, Joan of Arc quickly grasped the modern style and could provide her own opinions.
"Finally, it's done. Now we can gradually release these formulas," Liang En sighed in relief upon hearing Joan's approval of his formula.
Naturally, the perfume formulas couldn't be released all at once because doing so would not only depress prices but also miss an opportunity to maintain long-term contact with the company.
Considering that Liang En's core business now included a series of luxury goods industries, aside from some charitable agricultural production or low-level agricultural processing, connecting and cooperating with other non-competitive luxury goods industries became important. For instance, Guerlain had already invited Liang En's team to help design perfume bottles.
Of course, such designs wouldn't exclusively invite Liang En's team, but as collaborators, they could be chosen preferentially when the quality was on par with others.
This preferential selection right was sufficient for Liang En, as he believed the designs inherited from renowned historical artists would certainly not be inferior to others.
After completing the perfume research, Liang En finally had time to accept numerous invitations to social activities, such as banquets or visits to some people's homes.
Besides, Liang En also went to the University of Edinburgh to give a public lecture and share information about his previous archaeological work in Uruk.
Since his academic reputation grew, invitations from various research institutions and universities increased, and Liang En had to respond periodically to avoid appearing arrogant.
The public lecture was a great success. The students who attended were very interested in these cutting-edge archaeological projects, especially since Liang En disclosed some previously unreleased details.
Because of these details, many professors were drawn to the lecture halfway through and carefully noted Liang En's content.
Undoubtedly, these notes were very important. For the professors, the most valuable part of the lecture was the firsthand information from the archaeological frontline.
Due to this reason, the duration of Liang En's public lecture was extended by an additional hour, mainly for the Q&A session afterward, where professors asked numerous detailed questions.
After the Q&A, Liang En joined these professors in the office, exchanging their materials, a part of the pre-agreed cooperation.
Given the limited energy one person has, academic exchanges are very important. One major reason for Liang En's public lecture at the university was to obtain a series of information from the school to facilitate his future research.
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