The Princess and the Paupers

“Well, Ben just couldn’t spit it out.
“Spit it out.” Attlee was getting a bit impatient. “Whatever you’ve got to say, just say it! We’ve been working together for years; do
you really think I’d fire you over a few misplaced words?”
“Mr. Murphy, of course you wouldn’t! It’s just that they said some pretty nasty things. I didn’t want to upset you.” Ben was too
embarrassed to relay the message.
The more he kept his mouth shut, the more Attlee wanted to know.
Ben followed him into the elevator and into his office before finally spilling the beans: “They called you an idiot, said they’ve had
enough of your stupidity, and don’t want to work with you anymore! Basically, they’ve thrown a bunch of weird insults your way.”
“Which company said this?” How dare they insult him?
Attlee was instantly ticked off. He got it; they didn’t want to work with him, but why hurl all these bizarre insults?
“There were three in total, the biggest one being the nastiest.” Ben said, struggling to get the words out.
Upon hearing this, Attlee felt a pang of unease: “Was It Allbara Investment?”
Yes.”
Allbara Investment was a top–notch venture capital firm in Solterra. Its founder was known as the “God of Venture Capital” and
any project she invested in was sure to hit the jackpot.
Many small enterprises were able to expand and strengthen their businesses because of their investments.
In the past, no matter what Attlee wanted to develop, he could easily secure funds just by mentioning it to Allbara Investment.
Even if the project ended up tanking and the money was lost, they never blamed him.
Seeing Allbara Investment backing him up, other companies assumed he had some powerful backing and treated him with
respect.
But what’s going on now?
Why suddenly refused to work with him?

“Which project did we last ask Allbara Investment for funds for?” Attlee couldn’t remember.
“Mr. Murphy, two months ago you secured funding from Allbara Investment to buy IU Tech.”
IU Tech was a high–tech mirror company. People could try on all the clothes in the store just by standing in front of the mirror and
touching the electronic system; there was no need for actual clothes...
The Murphy family made their fortune in the clothing business, owning their own production company and physical stores. Attlee
wanted to install IU Tech’s mirrors in all his stores, allowing customers to try on more clothes without wasting time and hopefully
buy more to take home.
“But who would have thought that the clothes tried on with IU Tech’s mirrors would look different than when tried on by the
customers themselves? The difference was just too big.” His secretary regretted.
Not to mention that the maintenance cost of IU Tech’s mirrors was high; they had high environmental requirements; if exposed to
sunlight for a long time, they would burst into flames; if installed in a damp place for a long time, they would malfunction;
sometimes the figure in the mirror would distort In short, Attlee had tens of thousands of IU Tech’s mirrors installed and then
removed.
It cost a fortune; not only did he lose all of Allbara Investment’s money, but he also lost a lot of his own.
Attlee pondered, “Could this be why?”
Was this why Allbara Investment no longer wanted to work with him?
“That wouldn’t be it.” Ben hurriedly said, “Previously, you took funds from Allbara Investment to invest in a clothing city and
ended up losing everything, including your own money, but Allbara Investment still continued to work with us.”
Attlee thought about it. If they didn’t want to work with him, they would have stopped a long time ago; why wait until now?
“Did Allbara Investment mention anything else apart from insulting me?”
“No.”
The founder of Allbara Investment never appeared in public; all business was handed over to Solterra’s CEO, Mr. Dylan.