Chapter 142 - 143: A 2000-Person Group

Chapter 142: Chapter 143: A 2000-Person Group

After wrapping up his conversation with Wang Tao, Chen Yuan didn’t head straight home.

He gave Chen Wenbin a call and found out the man was still at the village committee office. Chen Yuan strongly suspected Uncle Bin was just hanging around to freeload off the air conditioning — it was already half past seven and the guy still hadn’t clocked out.

He hopped on his three-wheeler, twisted the throttle, and tore down the country road into the setting sun, heading straight for the village committee.

The sooner things got sorted, the sooner construction could start, and the sooner the Old Pond could go live. He had more than enough points — there was no reason to let the upgrade stall.

By the time he walked back out of the village committee, it was already half past eight.

"That county funding came through pretty fast."

Chen Yuan clicked his tongue. Just yesterday the money hadn’t cleared, and today it was already sitting in the village committee’s account. They’d even transferred a portion directly to him — construction could start whenever he was ready.

"Works out perfectly. Ties right in with the Flower Sea Fruit Forest project."

He thought it over, then shot Wang Tao a message saying all the projects were good to go — just let him know whenever materials were needed and he’d place the orders.

Message sent, he pocketed his phone and rode the three-wheeler home.

The moment he pulled up, he saw workers from the installation crew hauling out the last of the packaging scraps, calling out "Boss Chen!" every time they passed him.

"Thanks for your hard work!"

Chen Yuan handed each of them a cigarette as they filed past. Technically they were Wang Tao’s crew and he wasn’t on the hook for them, but they’d just installed his family’s air conditioning — the least he could do was offer a smoke.

"Oh nice, they even put up the door curtain."

Chen Yuan jogged into the courtyard and saw that a heavy-duty curtain had been hung across the main hall entrance, giving it the look of a shopping mall doorway.

"Of course we needed a curtain. Otherwise you’d have to keep the door shut with the AC on, and people walking by would think nobody’s home."

Tang Ying came out smiling and headed toward the kitchen.

"Fair point."

Chen Yuan grinned and trotted into the main hall, glancing around until he spotted a floor-standing air conditioning unit tucked in the far corner next to the TV.

The hall was too spacious for a wall-mounted unit to handle — even with this floor unit, the curtain was necessary. Leave the door wide open and you’d lose most of the cooling effect.

"Whoa, that cooling is legit."

Cold air was flowing steadily through the room, and the temperature was noticeably several degrees lower than outside. Chen Yuan was impressed.

"It really is something. I tested it earlier — close all the other doors, get the curtain in place, and every corner of the hall stays nice and cool."

Chen Jun strolled around the hall, personally soaking up the effect, his face wearing a blissful, contented grin.

Sure, he’d been against it not too long ago — but in the dead of summer, who wouldn’t want to sit in air conditioning? Before they had it, even with a fan blowing right at you, you’d still end up sweating through every meal.

Things were different now. Dinner was actually going to be enjoyable.

"Come eat before it gets any later — look what time it is."

Tang Ying carried the food out from the kitchen, her expression full of concern as she waved Chen Yuan over. It was past eight-thirty — why couldn’t he just eat first before running off to deal with things?

"Dad, grab me a beer while you’re over there."

His dad happened to be right by the cooler, and Chen Yuan couldn’t be bothered to get up. He dropped into his seat and started shoveling food into his mouth. Lunch had been barely a few bites — he was genuinely starving by now.

*Glug, glug, glug.*

He took the beer and skipped the glass entirely, tilting the bottle back for a long, greedy pull. That hit different.

AC running, a proper home-cooked meal in front of him, cold beer in hand — life was good.

"I know you’re busy, but no matter how busy you are, you need to eat on time. You hear me?"

Watching Chen Yuan inhale his food like that only made Tang Ying more worried.

Chen Yuan kept shoveling and nodded rapidly.

Tang Ying could tell it went in one ear and out the other, but she didn’t push it.

"Go clear up the cardboard and trash, then get the storage room sorted. I’ll go take care of your sister’s room."

Tang Ying snapped Chen Jun out of his happy daze and sent him off to work.

Chen Jun nodded, picked up the remote, and moved to switch the AC off.

"Why are you turning that off? Your son is still sitting right there eating!"

Tang Ying shot Chen Jun a look. Did this man feel absolutely nothing for his own child?

"I was just thinking — it’s been running a while, the room’s already cooled down. Once the boy finishes eating he’ll go upstairs to rest. No point leaving it on for just us."

Chen Jun looked a little put out.

Chen Yuan bit back a smirk beside them.

"What are you grinning at? You can turn it off yourself when you’re done. Oh, and your uncle said no problem — he was asking about the AC prices too, thinking of getting a few units installed tomorrow."

Chen Jun set the remote down on the table and fixed Chen Yuan with a look as he said it.

"Super cheap. We’re sourcing them through Wang Tao’s company — employee internal pricing. Way below market."

In Chen Yuan’s mind, he’d have been happy to cover his uncle’s AC costs himself.

But like the saying goes — do something too generous and it puts people in an awkward spot. Besides, since the fishing ground opened, his uncle’s side-business selling packed lunches and side dishes had been booming.

His uncle was making decent money and would absolutely insist on paying his own way. So the best move was just to make sure the price was as low as it could get.

"What kind of company is Wang Tao running, anyway? Feels like they’ve got their fingers in everything."

Chen Jun was genuinely curious.

"Ha, they really do deal in just about anything — it’s a whole mixed bag. Think of it like a general marketplace."

Chen Yuan chuckled and scooped up another mouthful before adding, "Oh right, Mom, Dad — there’s something I wanted to run by you."

When Chen Yuan finished explaining his idea to use his second aunt’s house as a trial guesthouse, both Chen Jun and Tang Ying stopped what they were doing. Their expressions turned serious.

"If you’re serious about it, I’ll give your second aunt a call later tonight."

Chen Jun thought it over and said.

He didn’t ask any questions about the guesthouse plan itself. Chen Yuan was at the helm of the fishing ground — the right move was to follow his lead. Everyone else just needed to do their part.

After dinner, Chen Yuan moved to wash the dishes, but Tang Ying waved him off. He called out a goodbye and headed down to the fishing pond — a quick walk around to check on the anglers’ catches, and to let Wang Heng and the others know about the sleeping arrangements.

"Ha, Boss Chen’s doing his rounds again!"

The anglers ribbed him good-naturedly.

Everyone seemed to be in high spirits. From the looks of it, the pond had definitely been fished out, though exactly how much they’d pulled up was another question.

Chen Yuan made his way around, bumped into Chen Dequan and shared a smoke, then headed over to Wang Heng.

"Brother Wang, we’ve got three rooms ready at home — sheets and bamboo mats all set up. Sister Qingyang gets my sister’s room. You, Brother Xu, and Blond Punk — that’s two to a room, with one person left over. That last one can either bunk with me, or I can ask Little Fish King to share my room."

Chen Yuan pulled out his pack and offered one over.

"Ha, Boss Chen, no need to make it complicated. Master and Mistress take one room, I’ll share with Brother Xu, and Little Fish King gets his own room. Works out perfectly."

Blond Punk was off to the side making exaggerated faces, a sly, shit-eating grin plastered on his face.

"Blond Punk, are you looking for a beating?"

Dongfang Qingyang’s beautiful eyes snapped over to him, her fair features flushing faintly pink under the lights.

"No need to overcomplicate it. I’ll share with Little Fish King — gives us a chance to talk fishing. That is, if he doesn’t mind."

Wang Heng glanced over at Little Fish King.

"Ha, absolutely fine by me."

Little Fish King shrugged easily.

And just like that, the rooms were sorted. Little Fish King and Wang Heng in one room — Wang Heng probably wanted to pick his brain about competitive fishing. Chen Yuan had no objection.

Blond Punk and Xu Bai in another, and Dongfang Qingyang had a room to herself.

He didn’t linger long by the pond. One cigarette later, he said his goodnights and headed back inside, went straight upstairs to wash up, then switched on the AC and stretched out on his bed.

"Right — I still haven’t sent out those red packets for hitting a hundred."

He’d been slammed all day and hadn’t kept up with the group chat. Only now did he remember that the red packets he’d promised for reaching a hundred members still hadn’t gone out.

The turnout for today’s first session had been absolutely explosive — the group had shot up by three or four hundred members in one go.

"Holy shit—"

He’d already thought the first session’s response was incredible, but when Chen Yuan opened the WeChat group, he was met with a sight that was both thrilling and jaw-dropping: the group had blown past two thousand members.

A full two-thousand-person group — and people were still flooding in.

It was absolutely insane.

Chen Yuan quickly started scrolling, skimming through the messages.

"Didn’t they say Chen Yuan Fishing Ground has a high booking success rate for newcomers? So why couldn’t I grab a spot for tomorrow?"

"Bro, have you seen how many new people piled in today? At least seven or eight hundred by now — could easily hit a thousand new members by end of day."

"Ughhh, who invited all these people?? Now even us regulars can’t get a spot~"

"What can you do — Boss Chen’s Angler Carnival was too much of a hit. Folks from other fishing grounds were doing everything they could to get into this group."

"I ran into a few people who straight-up sent me red packets the moment they messaged me, begging me to add them to the Chen Yuan Fishing Ground group."

"The Angler Carnival is an absolute bomb drop. Every fisherman out there wants a piece of this~"

"Word about the Angler Carnival even reached us over here in the Warm Zone. Took me forever to find someone to get me in. Shame I missed the booking window today — can’t wait to try and grab a spot tomorrow~"