Chapter Fourteen

“Longbao hits 70 billion in sales within the first hour of Double Eleven, breaking historical records!”

“Pearl Plaza Deep Sea Hydrating Mask: Spend 100, get 200 in gifts, luxury giveaways nonstop!”

…

Over the next ten hours, news related to Double Eleven continuously trended online.

“How many users have placed orders now?” At 3 p.m., at Qianzhiwei’s headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhou Gaoda looked at the backend of the official website.

Zhou Gaoda, head of publicity at Qianzhiwei, was in charge of the company’s marketing and promotion. Half a month ago, Qianzhiwei had already launched its Double Eleven pre-sale campaign. But contrary to expectations, after ten hours, sales were underwhelming.

After Zhou Gaoda asked, a staff member quickly turned to the side. “Two hundred and thirty thousand.”

“How many orders for the Nut Gift Pack?”

“Eight thousand two hundred.”

The staff pointed to a line of data. The Nut Gift Pack included seven types of nuts such as walnuts, almonds, and macadamias. It was priced at 135 yuan and was a key promotional item for Double Eleven. While 8,200 orders would usually be considered a hot seller, on Double Eleven, this figure was far from satisfactory.

“What about Kangaroo Baby and JoySky?” Zhou Gaoda frowned. Kangaroo Baby and JoySky were Qianzhiwei’s competitors, both also offering nut gift packs this time.

“Kangaroo Baby has 23,000 orders, JoySky 17,000.”

Zhou Gaoda’s expression turned serious immediately.

“Should we lower our price a bit?” a staff member asked hesitantly. Qianzhiwei’s products were similar to the other two, but Kangaroo Baby offered a 10-yuan discount for full purchases, and JoySky was a well-established nut brand. In comparison, Qianzhiwei had no standout advantage.

“Let me think…” Zhou Gaoda tapped the table unconsciously. Qianzhiwei positioned itself as a fast fashion brand—constantly slashing prices could harm its brand image.

He looked at the sales data. Qianzhiwei offered twelve product categories. The bestsellers were mochi and pork jerky; the worst were original flavor bread and snow rice crackers.

“How much bread do we have left?” Zhou Gaoda asked after a pause.

“Ningzhou warehouse: 600,000 boxes. Jinghe warehouse: 300,000.” Qianzhiwei’s Original Flavor Bread came twenty pieces to a box, priced between 12 and 17 yuan during the promotion. Due to its bland taste, sales had always been poor.

After discussing with other executives, Zhou Gaoda decided to implement a promotion: buy a nut gift pack and get bread for free. Not just with nut packs—any purchase over 100 yuan would come with complimentary original flavor bread.

“Isn’t that promotion too generous?” a staff member exclaimed. Double Eleven was a discount event, but most offers were calculated to preserve profit margins. While Qianzhiwei wouldn’t lose money with this giveaway, profits would certainly shrink compared to before.

“We’ll go with high volume and low margin.”

Zhou Gaoda sighed. Qianzhiwei and Kangaroo Baby had always been competitors. Losing to Kangaroo Baby again would be a blow. At this point, they weren’t even focused on profit—just on making the numbers look good enough to earn some sales commission from Longbao.

…

“Another batch in.”

While Qianzhiwei was bracing itself, over at Fengshan Farm, Liu Wensheng was watching trucks full of wheat being loaded and couldn’t help but remark. It was currently a non-mission period, so the farm was running as usual. After temporarily solving the rat infestation, they endured the itchiness and rented three more harvesters.

Now, with 2,000 Mu of farmland fully harvested, Baisheng Agricultural came as agreed to transport the goods. This batch totaled 1,500 tons of wheat. Baisheng deployed ten heavy-duty trucks, making two trips to move everything.

“Those rat-rabbits(Pika) should calm down for a while.” As Baisheng’s convoy left, Qin Yun immediately thought of the rodents. For the past three days, they harvested by day and defended against rodents by night—it had been a whirlwind.

“Hope those little devils don’t come back!” said Liu Wensheng, sporting heavy dark circles. The rats not only ate the wheat but chirped outside all night, keeping everyone awake.

After some griping, Qin Yun opened the system interface.

Host Name: Qin Yun.

Farmland Area: 2,000 Mu.

Farm Equipment: Farm Lake, Basic Irrigation Machine.

System Points: 22 million+.

…

With the wheat shipped and crops planted during the holiday period, System Points had soared past 22 million.

“Still not enough to level up.”

Liu Wensheng sighed at the system rules. Now at over 22 million points, the best way to use them would be [land expansion – buy seeds – harvest wheat]. But with the farm area already at 2,000 Mu and monthly output capped at 9,000 tons, it felt like they were sitting on a gold nugget they couldn’t spend.

Though frustrated, Liu Wensheng still forwarded the system data to the Longxia Team.

It was now mid-November, and temperatures in the residential area could drop to minus three degrees Celsius. After analysis, the Longxia Team decided to use 20 million points for facility upgrades, spending the rest on seeds to keep the planting cycle going.

“Buying seeds is still the most practical…” Liu Wensheng reviewed the team’s plan. Based on Qin Yun and Zhang Hu’s physical endurance, they could probably tough it out for another month. But upgrading the residential area early was largely to account for his own health. He had been strong all his life and didn’t want to delay the farm’s progress because of himself.

“We’ve got 2 million points left. That’s enough.” Qin Yun looked at the system interface. Currently, the [Poor Building] debuff had increased from 20% to 30%. Zhao Zhishun had to cook with stiff hands—clearly unsustainable.

After some discussion, they decided to upgrade the residential area.

Qin Yun clicked on [Building Upgrade Pack].

[Building Upgrade Pack]: Upgrades the current building level. (May randomly grant a buff.)

Level: 0-star to 1-star.

Price: 20 million.

…

The [Building Upgrade Pack] was straightforward. Qin Yun purchased it immediately.

“Use it?”

“【Yes】.”

[Bamboo Courtyard], [Dreamy Gothic], [Modern Style]…

As Qin Yun clicked, five building models appeared on the system interface, each with a 1-star rating.

“Which one do we pick?” Qin Yun turned to Liu Wensheng.

Since this would be their future living space, the Longxia Team suggested they choose as a group.

The six of them decided to vote. After tallying the results, they all chose the same style: 【Loess Kiln Charm】.

“The name’s a bit odd, but it looks sturdy.”

Liu Wensheng joked with a smile. From the model, 【Loess Kiln Charm】 resembled the earthen buildings from Fujian province. However, unlike those structures which used wood for support, this one was entirely constructed from packed loess—from the courtyard to the doorframes. It gave off one strong impression: solidity.

They weren’t sure about the other designs, but based on appearance alone, 【Loess Kiln Charm】 seemed the most practical.

The six packed their daily items and stored the rest on the harvesters. After two hours of busy work, they left the [Poor Building] area with large and small bags in tow.

“Activate 【Loess Kiln Charm】?”

“Yes.”

Liu Wensheng activated the live recording. At the moment Qin Yun confirmed the selection, it felt like the earth shook. The previously existing twelve square houses collapsed with a thunderous crash. Immediately afterward, a perfectly circular earth building rose from the original site. Standing thirty meters tall and spanning more than thirty mu, the structure loomed before the six of them like an impenetrable fortress, exuding a profound sense of history.

Three minutes later, the surrounding dust settled.

The farmland, lake, and blue sky—everything around them remained the same, except now there was a massive, awe-inspiring structure before them.

“This is unbelievable,” Liu Wensheng muttered in a daze. Though he had previously witnessed farmland, a lake, and an irrigation machine appear out of thin air, the sudden emergence of an earthen building still left him utterly stunned.

The group steadied themselves and walked a full circle around the structure, finally finding the main entrance. The [Loess] gate was five meters wide and ten meters high, constructed in the style of an ancient city gate—solemn and solid. Behind it was a six-meter-long wooden bolt. When locked in place, the entire earthen building would be virtually unbreakable.

“Is this really a farm building?” Zhao Zhishun felt like he had stepped onto a Longxia film set.

Finding a smaller door to the left of the main gate, two meters wide and three meters tall, the group entered through it.

The interior of [Loess] was similar to Fujian’s traditional earthen buildings, comprising six floors, with the first and sixth being taller than the others. Each floor housed over thirty rooms of varying sizes. From the central courtyard looking up, they could see a wide circle of open sky.

They spent the next hour exploring the interior. After taking inventory, they found 180 rooms in total—about half designated for lodging, the rest including storage rooms, kitchens, and washrooms. The rooms came furnished with uniformly styled wooden beds and wardrobes; aside from some soft furnishings, the rest of the furniture was complete.

Though the structure was made of loess, it didn’t crumble to dust. The walls felt smooth to the touch. Each floor was equipped with windows, offering a clear view of the outside. “If this were ancient times, it would definitely be a near-impenetrable military fortress,” Liu Wensheng commented with strategic insight.

As they wandered about, Zhao Zhishun was the first to notice something off. “Isn’t it… not cold anymore?”

Qin Yun opened the system interface.

Current location: Huangtu Yaoqing.

BUFF: 20% Eternal Spring.

Level: 1 Star.

……

The location had updated. According to the BUFF description, Huangtu Yaoqing maintained an average temperature of 5%–15%, with a warm and clean climate that effectively prevented infestations from ants and insects.

“I’m actually feeling the temperature difference for the first time,” Zhang Hu said, eyeing his heavy winter coat, uncertain whether to take it off.

Although there were plenty of rooms in the building, for the sake of convenience, they chose to reside on the first floor.

After picking their rooms, they began a large-scale move. By the time everything was done, it was already 10 p.m. The earthen building had no power supply yet. Liu Wensheng picked up his pre-charged laptop to report to superiors, while the others skipped lighting candles and simply fell asleep.

“Congratulations to Host on acquiring a Primary Building: [Huangtu Yaoqing]. System Task updating…

Current Task: Establish a Wheat Processing Plant.

Requirements: Own an independent flour brand, purchase 3 sets of fully automated wheat production equipment, and 1 Wheat Mill building card.

Mission Reward: Unlock farmland capacity (expandable to 5,000 mu), Random Seeds x2.”

……

Early the next morning, Qin Yun had just woken up when he noticed the system had updated.

He clicked on the system pricing.

Fully Automated Wheat Production Equipment: 200W/unit. (W = 10,000)

Wheat Mill: 1000W

……

1000 + 200 × 3 = 1600W. The moment he calculated the system investment, Qin Yun felt just one thing: broke again.

—————
200W = 2,000,000 yuan

1000W = 10,000,000 yuan

“W” stands for “万” (ten thousand).