Chapter 42: This Sea of Flowers Doesn’t Meet the Requirements?

Chapter 42: Chapter 42: This Sea of Flowers Doesn’t Meet the Requirements?

Zhao Han was just getting up to wash up when he received a call from his cousin, Chen Shengfei. Seeing the early morning call, he picked up his phone and answered, "Fei, what’s up so early?"

Chen Shengfei laughed. "Of course, I’m calling to hear you thank me. Hurry and check the news online! Boss Zhang’s rapeseed Flower Sea has gone viral on Tiao Yin. It’s the only tourist spot in your You City that’s ever blown up online, isn’t it?"

Zhao Han was stunned. His cousin had strongly recommended Boss Zhang’s Flower Sea, and trusting his judgment, Zhao Han had even asked the tourism bureau to invite him to fill out an application for a tourism project subsidy.

’Presumably, Chen Ting had already taken care of it.’

Still, he wasn’t surprised that the Flower Sea had become a hit. He had seen the video, after all—it was truly stunning, absolutely beautiful.

Frankly, there was no other flower sea in the country that could even compare.

After hanging up, Zhao Han quickly pulled out his phone and logged into Tiao Yin. He did a quick search, and when the video from Li Yuan Farm popped up, his eyes immediately lit up.

The video already had over 400,000 likes.

What’s more, he saw that many videos shot by tourists yesterday had also piggybacked on its popularity, with some getting over ten thousand likes.

’It really blew up.’

And it showed signs of becoming a massive hit.

Zhao Han’s eyes grew even brighter. He quickly put down his phone, sped up his morning routine, and then hurried out the door to the tourism bureau.

He wanted to find out about the status of Li Yuan Farm’s tourism project subsidy.

Thankfully, his cousin Chen Shengfei had given him a heads-up. His instruction to invite Boss Zhang to the tourism bureau to apply for the subsidy had built some goodwill.

Otherwise, it would have been embarrassing for a local attraction to go viral online with the tourism bureau having absolutely no involvement.

...

Meanwhile, Fu Yao had woken up early and gone to her usual Shaxian County snack shop for breakfast. She normally ate there before heading straight to school.

While she was eating, she received a call from her older sister, Lin Xin.

She answered and said, "What’s up? Spit it out!"

Her tone was clipped and to the point.

’Her sister was all the way in Shanghai for work, but she was still bothering her this early. She must have nothing better to do.’

Lin Xin’s excited voice rang out, "Fu Yao, you’ve gone viral, you know? You’re about to be an internet celebrity!"

"What internet celebrity?" Fu Yao asked, puzzled.

"Hurry and open Tiao Yin!" Lin Xin said excitedly. "Didn’t you film an ad for a Flower Sea? The video already has over 400,000 likes, and so many people are saying how pretty you are!"

Fu Yao was taken aback. ’The Mister must have started promoting it online,’ she thought.

She instinctively opened Tiao Yin and was surprised to find a flood of likes and comments in her notifications:

"Found her! It’s this girl!"

"I came here after seeing that Flower Sea video."

"Following!"

Fu Yao was genuinely surprised by this.

She usually posted some Tiao Yin videos of her own, but they were just clips from her daily life and barely got any comments. Something was definitely different today.

She quickly searched for the Mister’s Li Yuan Farm and, sure enough, saw a video with over 400,000 likes.

This was the first time she had seen a Tiao Yin video from someone she knew get so many likes.

People online had seen this video and then found her Tiao Yin account.

She couldn’t help but marvel at how resourceful these people were. The Mister’s video hadn’t even mentioned her Tiao Yin account, yet they still managed to track her down.

Lin Xin’s voice sounded again. "Fu Yao, see? That Flower Sea is definitely going to be a hit. You have to keep filming videos there. That way you can keep getting traffic and have a chance to make a living online!"

"No way. I’m just going to focus on getting into college." Fu Yao didn’t heed her sister’s advice. She clearly had her own plans.

’The internet is too fickle. The only thing that’s truly yours is the knowledge you’ve mastered.’

Lin Xin started to plead earnestly. "Fu Yao, don’t be a fool! Do you know how easy it is to make money as an influencer? It’s a shame this kind of opportunity didn’t fall into my lap, or I’d seize it in a heartbeat."

Fu Yao teased, "You’ve missed your chance. If you were single, I could have introduced you to the Mister. Once you became his girlfriend, you could film there whenever you wanted."

With that, she hung up, not wanting to argue with her sister.

Just then, she noticed that in her class’s WeChat group, a bunch of classmates were @ing her.

She opened it to see they had all stumbled upon her video and were excitedly spreading the word.

She had no interest in this. Instead, she took out her phone, found the Mister’s number, and dialed it.

’She had to tell the Mister the good news, too.’

Zhang Lin was also up by this time. He had just finished washing up when he saw a call coming in from Fu Yao.

He pressed answer, and the young woman’s excited voice came through. "Mister, quick, look at Tiao Yin! Your Flower Sea went viral."

Hearing this, Zhang Lin also opened Tiao Yin.

He already knew last night that the Flower Sea would be a hit, but when he saw that the video he posted yesterday already had over 430,000 likes, a look of delight appeared on his face.

The likes were growing faster than he had expected.

The view count, too.

’The Appearance +1 attribute is even more incredible than I thought!’

He checked his follower count. After just one night, it had already grown to 100,000.

’For that many views, the follower conversion rate is really high.’

When he checked the game interface in his mind, he grew genuinely excited.

He had received two milestone rewards in his sleep: one for reaching 10,000 online followers, and another for 100,000.

[Congratulations! You have completed the "10,000 Online Followers" milestone. Milestone reward granted. The Market has been updated with a new special item for purchase: Fast-Growing White-Heart Small Sweet Potato Seedlings (Quality 1)! Daily purchase limit: 10,000 seedlings!]

[Congratulations! You have completed the "100,000 Online Followers" milestone. Milestone reward granted. The Market has been updated with a new special item for purchase: Blueberries (Quality 1)! Wholesale purchase limit: 550 pounds per transaction!]

Zhang Lin was in an excellent mood. He had woken up to find two new items available for purchase.

As a southerner, he knew sweet potatoes well. He had eaten plenty of them as a child. Anyone who grew up in the countryside had likely dug them up and roasted them over a fire.

Now, the reward was a new type of sweet potato seedling he could buy.

As for blueberries, they were also an imported product. Initially, just like Sunshine Rose grapes, they were exorbitantly expensive. At their peak, they cost nearly 300 yuan per pound—completely unaffordable for the average person.

But once the crop was introduced here, industrious farmers began to cultivate them, and the price of blueberries plummeted.

Furthermore, even more farmers started growing them last year, and blueberry prices had recently taken another nosedive. Now, blueberries in the market only cost a little over ten yuan per pound, and in some southern cities, the price was as low as 8 yuan per pound. Specific prices varied by market and region, but not by much.

He opened the Market interface and, sure enough, saw the prices for the blueberries and the fast-growing sweet potato seedlings.

Wholesale blueberries were surprisingly cheap, the same as the honey peaches: 4 yuan per pound.

The Fast-Growing White-Heart Small Sweet Potato Seedlings, however, were 0.5 yuan per plant, meaning 10,000 seedlings would cost 5,000 yuan. This was much more expensive than real-world seedlings, but as a game product with a (Quality 1) rating, he figured they must be special.

Zhang Lin wanted to check the item descriptions for these two new products. So, after first processing the wholesale order for Lin Tuo—1,100 pounds of honey peaches and 550 pounds of Sunshine Rose grapes—he quickly ate some breakfast and headed out to the farm.

「Meanwhile.」

Zhao Han got to his office as quickly as possible and called for Director Chen Ting.

Although Chen Ting considered himself a local bigwig, he didn’t dare dally when summoned by the bureau director. He arrived at Zhao Han’s office in record time. "Director, you were looking for me?"

Zhao Han got straight to the point. "Director Chen, I asked you to invite Li Yuan Farm for a subsidy review. How is that matter progressing?"

"Director Zhao, that Li Yuan Farm’s Flower Sea... it might not meet the standards for approval," Chen Ting immediately reported. In his opinion, the owner of Li Yuan Farm was completely clueless; he had gone home and asked his wife, only to find that the man hadn’t even reached out to ask how to "handle things."

"What did you just say? You’re telling me that Flower Sea doesn’t meet the standards?" Zhao Han was in the middle of pouring a glass of water. Hearing Chen Ting’s words, he choked and sputtered, coughing violently.

...