Chapter 6: Developing New Land

Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Developing New Land

The middle-aged man stared blankly at Zhang Lin, clearly not expecting the stall owner before him to be the general manager of Li Yuan Farm.

However, when it came to agricultural products, it wasn’t strange for a general manager to be out doing product research at the beginning. Some bosses even did it themselves.

"Sir, let me properly introduce myself. I’m Zhang Lin!" Zhang Lin said with a smile as he put down his phone.

He already had plans for wholesale, and now someone had come to him directly. This person clearly saw the potential of his honey peaches, so he naturally didn’t mind selling wholesale to him.

The middle-aged man snapped back to reality. "President Zhang, my name is Lin Tuo. May I ask what the wholesale price for your farm’s honey peaches is?"

Zhang Lin explained, "President Lin, Li Yuan Farm’s set market price is 30 yuan per jin. If you want to buy wholesale, considering this is our first test product, we can offer you a 20% discount. That would be 24 yuan per jin. However, President Lin, you would need to sell them at our farm’s set price."

The reason for this set price was due to official regulations on commodity prices. To prevent unscrupulous individuals from price gouging and disrupting the market, any product priced significantly above the market average had to be registered, and one had to cooperate with officials for a data review.

Things like luxury food ingredients and exorbitantly priced vegetables and fruits all had to go through this kind of registration.

’These honey peaches come from the game; they have no traceable origin. I can’t register them right now. It’s fine for a small-scale operation, but if I start wholesaling, I’ll have to be careful once the quantities get large.’

’Thirty yuan is only a bit higher than a few other brands of honey peaches, so it’s still within the safe zone and won’t trigger those regulations.’

Lin Tuo’s eyes lit up when he heard the price. "In that case, President Zhang, how many jin can you wholesale to me each day?"

You have to understand, the profit margin on many fruits in retail isn’t actually that high. All that talk about how you’re losing money if you’re not at least doubling your cost when selling fruit is pure nonsense.

Those online stories about small shops making tens of thousands a month are either extremely rare or just more nonsense.

You could find this out just by asking a few fruit shops on the street.

’Given the delicious taste and texture of Li Yuan Farm’s honey peaches, I wouldn’t have to worry about sales at all. His test sales over the past two days have already proven that. Now, Li Yuan Farm is offering a 6-yuan profit margin. With 100 jin a day, that’s a profit of 600 yuan. If it was 1,000 jin, that would be a daily profit of 6,000 yuan.’

’Even if I just acted as a middleman, there’s a huge profit margin.’

Zhang Lin gave Lin Tuo a meaningful look.

’He’s asking how many jin I can wholesale to him, not how many he wants to buy. This guy is ambitious.’

So, he replied with a wide smile, "President Lin, our farm can currently wholesale 1,000 jin to you daily. If you can take it all, we can stop doing our test sales here at the market and even provide daily delivery."

"President Zhang, I’ll take all 1,000 jin every day," Lin Tuo said with almost no hesitation.

’Are you kidding me? The guy was clearly able to sell 1,000 jin just by doing test sales in this market.’

’Now he’s even promising not to sell here anymore. With my familiarity with this market, I can definitely sell 1,000 jin.’

"However, we have one more condition: your wholesale payments, President Lin, need to be settled daily." Zhang Lin didn’t want his payments delayed, so he came up with an excuse. "Our farm has invested a lot in research and development, so we need to recoup our funds quickly to pay our employees. If you agree, President Lin, I’ll go back and prepare the contract tonight, and we can start deliveries tomorrow."

"Deal. We’ll do as you say, President Zhang," Lin Tuo agreed without hesitation.

’There’s no reason not to agree. One thousand jin a day means 6,000 yuan in profit. I’m confident I can sell it all. If worse comes to worst, I’ll just hire two salespeople to visit other fruit shops and act as a middleman. I could make tens of thousands a month without lifting a finger.’

’So, now’s the time to be decisive. Maybe I can get even more stock in the future.’

Zhang Lin’s first wholesale deal was settled very pleasantly. Afterward, he and Lin Tuo added each other on WeChat.

After selling off all the honey peaches for the day, Zhang Lin checked his balance. As expected, it had smoothly surpassed 34,000 yuan.

After packing up his stall and returning to the farm, he immediately went to the computer in the steel-paneled house to prepare the contract.

The wholesale contract was simple. There were templates online; he just had to download one and modify it.

By the time he finished modifying the contract, it was completely dark. On his way home for dinner, he stopped by a convenience store outside his residential complex to print it out.

...

The next morning, he woke up and checked the game interface in his mind. One thousand jin of honey peaches (Quality 1) had refreshed.

After washing up and leaving his bedroom, he had just started eating the breakfast his mom prepared when he received a call from Lin Tuo.

’Looks like he’s more anxious than I am.’

He answered the call, and Lin Tuo’s voice came through. "President Zhang, I sent the location to your WeChat. Take a look!"

"Got it, President Lin. I’ll arrange it as soon as I finish breakfast." Zhang Lin hung up, opened WeChat, and sure enough, he saw a location pin from Lin Tuo. It was a fruit supermarket just outside the South Market.

After breakfast, Zhang Lin immediately rode his scooter to the farm and took out the 1,000 jin of (Quality 1) honey peaches.

"[China Merchants Bank] A debit of 4,000.00 yuan was made from your card ending in **** at 8:00 on June 4. Remaining balance: 29,124.52 yuan."

After receiving the bank text, Zhang Lin saw that baskets of fruit had once again refreshed in the warehouse. He called over Liu De and started by loading 500 jin onto the three-wheeled cargo tricycle. Then he asked Liu De, "Liu De, do you know how to drive one of these?"

Liu De immediately replied, "Boss, I used to drive one of these for years."

"Good. I’ll take you to make a delivery to President Lin this one time. From now on, you’ll be the one delivering the honey peaches every day," Zhang Lin said as he started the vehicle.

’Now that I have an employee, I don’t have to do this kind of work myself.’

Soon, they arrived back at the spot where he had set up his stall for the past two days. A sign was now standing there, which read: "Li Yuan Farm Honey Peaches Designated Retailer: Lin Xiaotuo Fruit Supermarket!"

An arrow on the sign pointed the way.

Zhang Lin smiled when he saw this.

’That Lin Tuo is really something.’

A moment later, he drove the tricycle to the front of Lin Xiaotuo Fruit Supermarket.

Lin Tuo was already waiting. Seeing him arrive, he immediately rushed over to greet him. "President Zhang, you’re finally here."

"President Lin, this first trip is 500 jin. The other 500 jin will be delivered shortly. Here’s the contract." As he spoke, Zhang Lin handed the contract he had prepared to Lin Tuo.

Lin Tuo took it, read it over, and seeing no issues, swiftly signed his name. Then, he had his staff start weighing the peaches, while he simultaneously began arranging the weighed ones on a display shelf.

The shelf was already decorated with promotional stickers for "Li Yuan Farm’s New Honey Peach Variety," along with the price: 30 yuan/jin.

He had just finished setting them up when a young man walked over and asked in surprise, "Mr. Lin, why are these peaches so expensive?"

"Chen, try one and see if it’s worth the price!" Lin Tuo said, grabbing a peach, washing it, and handing it to him.

This young man, Chen, lived nearby, loved fruit, and was one of his regular customers.

Chen didn’t stand on ceremony. He took the peach and took a bite. After just two bites, he said to Lin Tuo, "Mr. Lin, weigh out a few jin for me. These honey peaches are incredible!"

Lin Tuo immediately grabbed a bag and started packing peaches, not forgetting to compliment Zhang Lin. "President Zhang, your Li Yuan Farm honey peaches are a real hit. Anyone who tries one is guaranteed to buy."

Zhang Lin wasn’t surprised. ’After all, they’re a product of the game, complete with three bonus attributes.’

Soon, Lin Tuo’s side finished weighing everything and signed the receipt.

After the first delivery was done and he was back at the farm, Zhang Lin had Liu De make the second one.

Not long after, Lin Tuo’s payment for the day came through:

"Your account ending in... has received an incoming transfer of 24,000.00 yuan. Your new balance is 53,124.52 yuan."

His balance shot past 50,000 yuan.

’The payment was prompt. I’ll treat this as a trial period to assess him before we move on to larger quantities.’

Next, he had other things to do, such as developing the farm’s land.

’The level-up requirement is to develop 50 mu of land.’

’Besides, there are milestones for land development. Developing 10 mu will unlock a milestone reward.’

’Earning 10,000 in profit increased my wholesale quota by 500 jin. Developing 10 mu of land might just add another 500 jin. That’s more money!’

’Dad already developed 5 mu, so I just need to develop another 5 mu to get that milestone reward.’

’But tilling land by hand is back-breaking work. You can only till about 2 mu in an eight-hour day, and if you include planting, you can’t even manage that much. I’ll need to use tools.’

With that in mind, Zhang Lin hopped on his scooter and headed once again to the county’s agricultural machinery market.