HLM – Chapter 968 A Major Hit

Unlike many countries in the world, in Saudi Arabia, anyone who is a son of the king or a prince can be addressed as a “prince.”

Saudi Arabia’s succession system passes the throne from brother to brother rather than father to son. Combined with the fact that polygamy is permitted, and that even a king’s son-in-law can be titled as a prince, the result is a massive group of princes. And naturally, the number of “princely children” is even larger.

In other words, as long as someone is even slightly related to the Saudi royal family, their children are either princes or princesses.

Some say that in Saudi Arabia, nearly every day someone makes a pilgrimage to Mecca, every day oil flows out to the world, and every day, a new little prince is born into the royal family.

Although the statement sounds exaggerated, it shows just how many princes there are. A previous report quoted a Saudi government official saying the royal family has nearly 3,000 princes and princesses. A U.S. government publication estimated that Saudi Arabia has close to 5,000 princes alone.

The main reason behind the Saudi royal family’s population boom is polygamy. Islam allows a man to marry four wives, and Saudi princes and royals, being wealthy and constantly surrounded by temptation, often divorce after marriage and have new sons with other women.

Divorce technically conflicts somewhat with Islamic doctrine, but this has not stopped the Saudi royals from imitating the practice extensively.

Historically, Saudi Arabia had a remarkable king named Abdulaziz. Over a century ago, he was born in Riyadh but was forced into exile in Kuwait after the city was invaded by a rival tribe.

In 1901, King Abdulaziz led the Bedouin nomads back into Saudi Arabia, conquered the tribes across the Arabian Peninsula, and eventually founded modern Saudi Arabia.

His journey of conquest was also a journey of marriage. Amid constant warfare, he married women from various tribes to build alliances and stabilize his rule.

However, religious doctrine permitted him only four wives.

This did not stop the clever King Abdulaziz — he simply kept marrying and divorcing. He married over 300 times throughout his life and left behind 43 legitimate sons eligible for succession — not counting those without succession rights.

This extremely large number of sons is precisely why Saudi Arabia’s succession system passes the throne from brother to brother. He knew that if he followed the conventional father-to-son system, his sons would fight endlessly for power, splitting the nation.

Thus, after founding the country, he established a new succession rule: the throne would not pass from father to son, but from elder brother to younger brother. The king must name an heir at the beginning of his reign.

Wang Bo listened to Bartier’s story as entertainment, and Bowen, Hani, Kobe, and the others listened too — by the end, all of these guys were practically drooling with envy.

“That’s what it means to be a real man! Married over three hundred times in one lifetime! Starting today, King Abdulaziz is my idol!” Bowen declared.

Wang Bo replied, “How about you first secure yourself a first wife? How are things going with that cowgirl?”

The cowgirl, Koci, had caught Bowen’s eye, and the deputy town chief had been vigorously pursuing her—but with little success.

Seeing them drift toward talking about romance, Bartier immediately grew anxious. “For heaven’s sake! Our topic isn’t marriage or dating — we’re supposed to be talking about securing this business deal!”

“Members of the Saudi royal family care deeply about how much respect others show them,” Bartier continued. “Wang, don’t string them along. Give them an answer quickly and tell them we can cooperate. If they think you’re playing tricks, then this deal will be impossible.”

Wang Bo protested, “I just wanted to negotiate the price!”

“Then state your conditions directly. But personally, I think this price is already good. Earlier I called a Saudi friend to ask about Ahmed’s personality. Guess what he said?”

Wang Bo shook his head.

“Ahmed isn’t a successful businessman, but he is an excellent breeding expert. That’s why the royal family put him in charge of the Safi Farm. When he does business, he tends to offer his bottom-line price right away and rarely negotiates.” Bartier explained.

Wang Bo recalled Ahmed’s strange smile yesterday when he said he needed time to think.

Ahmed must have already guessed what he was planning. Even during dinner — before the sparkling wine and rainbow honey appeared — Ahmed barely spoke. Clearly, he wasn’t in a good mood.

Thanks to Bartier’s warning, Wang Bo decided not to dig his own grave.

The next morning, Ahmed and his group prepared their own breakfast, asking him only to provide rainbow honey and sparkling wine — it seemed they truly loved those two things.

After breakfast, Wang Bo waited for them in the meeting room and then spoke straightforwardly: “After considering things last night, I think I should do this deal.”

A smile appeared on Ahmed’s face. “We are honored.”

Wang Bo said, “No — it is Sunset Town that is honored. Even without the money, being able to gain the friendship of your royal family is already a tremendous benefit.”

Ahmed replied, “When you agreed to gift us rainbow honey, you already earned that friendship. And we Bedouins never allow our friends’ interests to be harmed.”

Wang Bo grinned. “That’s wonderful. To express my gratitude, I’m willing to continue supplying you with rainbow honey in the future.”

Ahmed’s eyes lit up. “Actually, I was thinking about something last night as well. We don’t need to limit our cooperation to livestock. We can also cooperate on honey.”

“How?”

“I don’t know how much the honey sells for in New Zealand, but if I bring it to Riyadh or Dubai, it will be worth a fortune!”

“You’re serious?” Wang Bo asked.

“Very serious. No matter how much honey you produce per month, I can help you sell all of it.”

Well then, what more was there to say? A side benefit falling right into his hands—Wang Bo was about to strike gold.

He had accumulated a lot of honey. It tasted amazing, and he hadn’t sold any of it, using it mainly at home and giving some to his parents. The rest he had stored in the castle.

He opened the sandbox and checked: Queen Tuck did only two things every day — crafting pottery jars and gathering honey.

The honey was sealed in pottery jars: each large jar held around five kilograms, and each small jar held one kilogram. Currently, the castle had around twenty large jars and fifty small ones—quite a lot of honey.

The Honeycomb Heart he drew during the New Year really had been useful.

When he returned to Sunset Town and inspected things, he discovered the hive had grown even larger. Tuck had become a true “Honey Queen,” and an entire area had turned into a massive apiary.

Without a doubt, honey production was about to explode. He had originally planned to put some honey on the shelves for sale—then the heavens gave him a pillow just as he was getting sleepy: Ahmed wanted to cooperate to sell it in Saudi Arabia and the UAE!

And of course, this stuff would definitely fetch an even higher price in the land of wealthy Middle Eastern elites.