Chapter Nineteen

After checking everything, the two finally noticed the Starlight Points details in the bottom-right corner of the interface.

Starlight Points: A cumulative measure of customer satisfaction after using farm products. During a single task, each customer can contribute a maximum of 1 Starlight Point. (Note: Farm Starlight Points help increase Host privileges.)

“Increase Host privileges?” Liu Wensheng focused his attention on the note under Starlight Points.

Currently, Qin Yun’s system level was: Rookie Level. With such a low level, the farm only had the six of them. That might be just barely enough for ordinary planting and harvesting, but now that a wheat factory was being added, six people definitely wouldn’t be able to handle everything…

“I’ll report it first,” Liu Wensheng said after a moment’s thought. Previously, the cooperation model was [Planting—Purchasing]. Now that the farm required an upgrade, figuring out how to earn 1 million Starlight Points was a big challenge.

Liu Wensheng submitted the System Task to the team. Then the two turned to examine the factory details.

Wheat factory flour pricing: Basic flour at 5 yuan/jin, intermediate flour at 20 yuan/jin.

Current market flour prices range from 2 to 10 yuan. The factory’s 5 and 20 yuan pricing wasn’t cheap, but it was still within an acceptable range.

“At least it’s reasonable now.” Liu Wensheng let out a long breath of relief.

After chatting for a bit, the two headed to the farm. The 2,000 mu of farmland had already been harvested. Qin Yun walked around the perimeter, and at Liu Wensheng’s suggestion, placed the new 3,000 mu of land on the southern side of the farm. With that, the full 5,000 mu formed a perfect square.

“Nice!”

Liu Wensheng felt a deep sense of emotion. Five thousand mu sounded like a lot, but in a vast land like Longxia, even 50,000 mu farms weren’t unusual. Still, this was something they had earned through mission after mission—brick by brick. It gave him a strong sense of accomplishment.

After a short chat, Qin Yun opened the system interface.
…..
Host Name: Qin Yun

System Inventory: [Mutated Potato] x100, [Golden Corn] x100

System Points: 1.2 million
….
The potatoes and corn each represented a 100-mu planting scale. After a careful discussion, the two planted the 200 mu of new seeds. Then, they used all 1.2 million points to exchange for wheat seeds.

Potatoes and corn had a 10-day maturation period, while wheat matured in 5 days. Their plan was to first accumulate points before moving on to other large-scale plantings.

Over the next two days, the Longxia Team focused their research on the [Factory Starlight Points] task. The process: the farm produces flour → customers consume it → customers feel genuinely satisfied.

The key to Starlight Points was customer consumption and satisfaction. With each customer contributing a maximum of 1 point—and considering some customers had extremely high standards—they would need at least 1.5 million people to eat the flour.

“That many?” Liu Wensheng frowned. Longxia had a population of 1.5 billion, but 1.5 million was still no small figure.

The Starlight Points task was difficult, but with the Longxia Team’s research, they quickly came up with a solution: government procurement—distributed as New Year’s welfare by various units. In Longxia, both state-owned and private enterprises had the tradition of giving out holiday benefits. First, it boosts team cohesion. Second, it brings festive cheer. Third, it provides basic living support for employees.

This time, Longxia decided on government procurement and designated the southeastern region as a flour welfare pilot zone. With coordinated arrangements from local governments, the task could be completed more efficiently.

“That easy?” Qin Yun was stunned after hearing this. In his previous life, he had done a wheat mission. Back then, he had to promote everything through street marketing, pushing wheat in all the major farmers’ markets and supermarkets. It took him a full month to start seeing results. But now… this was on a completely different scale!

Liu Wensheng patted Qin Yun on the shoulder. “The sooner we upgrade, the sooner the people of the nation don’t have to worry about grain.”

Longxia’s reverence for food was deeply ingrained. Even though the economy was now highly developed, the country still had a grain shortfall of around 200 million tons. Even in the absence of a food crisis, food security remained a vital area of research.

Qin Yun thought of Zhou Yuanheng. During the food crisis, Zhou Yuanheng—his body wrecked by heavy industry pollution—accepted an interview and said: “My body can last a few more years, but Longxia can’t go a single day without grain…”

In that moment, the figures of Zhou Yuanheng and Liu Wensheng overlapped. Their words were different, but Qin Yun could feel the same unwavering spirit in both.

“Once we finish planting this batch of wheat, let’s produce 200 tons,” Liu Wensheng said, laying out the plan.

After chatting a bit more, Qin Yun brought something up: “What do we do about the funds in the account?”

Longxia’s points-to-currency exchange rate was 1:1. For example, if the farm sold 10,000 jin of wheat and Baisheng Agricultural paid 30,000 yuan, then System Points would increase by 30,000. But the Longxia Coin wouldn’t just vanish into thin air—Qin Yun would also receive the 30,000 yuan payment from Baisheng.

Strictly speaking, this was a kind of exploit at a higher level. After four months of cycling through this, Qin Yun’s account balance had reached 200 million yuan—a staggering figure.

After Qin Yun explained this, Liu Wensheng thought for a moment. “Let’s just leave it there for now.”

The Farm System was still in the exploratory stage. If they hastily withdrew funds from the account and disrupted system mechanics, it might not be worth the risk.

Though the system’s grain prices were high, for Qin Yun and Longxia, it was like moving money from the left pocket to the right. Aside from staffing and logistics costs, Qin Yun and Longxia had essentially obtained 30,000 tons of grain at zero cost.

Over the next three days, everyone focused on wheat planting. After three days, 900 tons of wheat had been harvested. The farm’s flour yield rate was 90%. Baisheng Agricultural acquired 800 tons and placed an order for 1,000 tons of flour.

This was the first order. A contract was signed between both parties, and Qin Yun opened the system interface.

Current Task: Operate the wheat factory and obtain 1 million Factory Starlight Points.
System Points: 4.8 million

……

The 4.8 million points came from converting 800 tons of wheat, giving the farm ample seed points. Once the 1,000-ton flour order was fulfilled, they would earn another 10 million points…

Wheat and flour were essentially cost-free trades. Sticking to the principle of squeezing every bit of value, the farm team eagerly dove into flour production.

The flour factory was fully automated. Each machine had a daily capacity of 120 tons—equivalent to a mid-sized flour plant. The farm currently had three machines. Since wheat planting took time, they weren’t in a rush to buy more equipment and instead focused on maximizing flour output.

At 10 a.m. on December 5, after the combined efforts of the six-person team, the first batch of flour was finally produced!

The maximum capacity of the gold and silver barrels was 20 tons. Once the first production machine shut down, Qin Yun picked up a dustpan, pressed the toggle beneath the gold barrel, and a cascade of white flour spilled into it. The wheat factory was silent, and everyone stared at the flour in the dustpan, feeling as if it was the most beautiful color in the world.

Liu Wensheng dipped his index finger into the flour, brought it to his mouth, and said, “Delicious!”

After Baisheng Agricultural acquired the wheat, they also tried further processing at their flour plant. But perhaps due to different processing techniques, it always seemed to him that the farm’s equipment produced a more aromatic and delicate result.

“Rich wheat aroma.”

“Pretty refined.”

…

Zhao Zhishun, Zhang Hu, and the others followed suit and had a taste. It was raw flour, yet everyone found it surprisingly flavorful. Looking at the wheat in front of him, Zhao Zhishun had already decided on his lunch for the day: handmade noodles!

The system shop had updated with a dried noodle machine and a packaging machine. Now that the flour plant was operating smoothly, they planned to save up points to purchase a fully automatic packaging machine. That way, the excess flour could be stored in the tulou, and the factory could run twenty hours a day, maximizing production efficiency.

As they were carefully planning, Qin Yun’s phone rang.

It was an unfamiliar number. Qin Yun tapped to answer.

“Mr. Qin Yun from Fengshan Farm?” As soon as the call connected, a weary male voice came through.

“Hello.” Qin Yun sounded a bit puzzled.

After hearing Qin Yun tacitly confirm his identity, the caller seemed to perk up. “Hello, Mr. Qin. I’m Glib Glutinous Rice Ball. Do you happen to have any extra wheat on hand?”

The person on the other end rattled off a bunch of words. Qin Yun found the name “Glib Glutinous Rice Ball” a bit odd, but he more or less figured out the caller’s intent: he wanted to buy wheat?

【Author’s Note】
The system being relentlessly milked: Discussing my exploitation so openly in front of everyone… have you no shame? _(:з」∠)