Chapter 61: A Fine Steed! Planting Fruit Trees?

Chapter 61: Chapter 61: A Fine Steed! Planting Fruit Trees?

In today’s society, when you talk about a "Treasure Horse" for transportation, most people instinctively think of a four-wheeled BMW. But a "Treasure Horse" doesn’t necessarily have four wheels; it might have four legs.

That’s right. The Transportation Procurement Card from the system actually had an icon of a horse—snow-white all over and looking magnificent.

’As expected,’ Zhang Lin thought. ’How could a farming game give out something as cliché as a modern car?’

[Transportation Procurement Card (Pure White Treasure Horse): Quality 1]

[Use this Purchasing Card to procure a very beautiful, pure white Treasure Horse from the purchasing market at a very low price. The horse comes with a full set of equipment and all necessary documents. Also includes one "Riding Skill Experience Book"!]

Zhang Lin’s eyes lit up when he saw this description. He was eager to give it a try.

After all, what man doesn’t dream of riding a horse across the plains?

Besides, it wasn’t just four-legged horses he wanted to ride; he wanted to ride the two-legged kind, too. The method of riding was just a little different.

The crucial part was that buying the horse came with a "Riding Skill Experience Book"!

With this item, even someone who couldn’t ride would instantly learn how after using it.

This was just part of the game’s logical setup.

In "Agricultural Tycoon," many game storylines required learning a certain agricultural skill, or even reaching a certain level in that skill, to proceed. Experience books were items used to quickly raise skill levels.

Zhang Lin got on his scooter and hurried back to the farm.

Back in his steel-paneled office, he immediately opened the in-game purchasing market in his mind. Sure enough, he saw a new procurement option for a Treasure Horse. The icon was a pure white horse, just as beautiful as the description had said.

The only thing was the limit of one horse, and the price wasn’t low: a full 20,000 yuan.

But Zhang Lin didn’t think it was expensive. In fact, he bought it immediately. The description said he could procure it "at a very low price," which meant the horse’s true value was far more than 20,000 yuan.

After all, for it to be called a "Treasure Horse," its bloodline had to be excellent.

Just as he clicked "purchase," an option popped up:

[(Please Name) White Horse: Mount!]

[This is a mutated white horse with the bloodline of a Thousand-Mile Horse. It has a gentle temperament, is friendly toward people, and possesses a very high level of intelligence. It will be the farm owner’s best mount!]

Seeing the description, Zhang Lin had to admit that a mount produced by the game was truly something else. The high intelligence alone was excellent.

Its gentle temperament and friendly nature were also perfectly in line with modern social values.

But what surprised him even more was the white horse’s bloodline—it was a Jurchen Thousand-Mile Horse, a breed on the verge of extinction.

In ancient times, this type of horse was the top choice for a warhorse.

The more Zhang Lin looked at the information, the more he liked it. He named it directly: "Bailong!"

He was terrible at naming things, so he just picked one at random.

’Isn’t that basically the White Dragon Horse?’

Simple and clear.

As he finished naming it, another notification appeared from the game system:

[Congratulations on procuring a pure white Treasure Horse and naming it Bailong. The Treasure Horse Bailong is now materializing! Relevant documents are now materializing! The experience book is now being used...]

The next moment, a white light of materialization began to glow on the desk in front of Zhang Lin, and the relevant documents appeared within it.

At the same time, a stream of memories flowed into his mind, all related to riding experience. It was as if he had grown up on the great plains, with horsemanship seared into his memory, giving him an innate understanding of the subject.

The feeling was incredibly strange.

A moment later, a notification that the materialization was complete appeared:

[Congratulations, the Treasure Horse Bailong has successfully materialized and has appeared in the warehouse. Please go and check!]

[Congratulations on obtaining your first mount. Daily procurement of horse feed is now unlocked!]

On Zhang Lin’s desk, related documents like a quarantine certificate had appeared. He picked them up and saw they all had complete official stamps.

He immediately left the office. As he neared the warehouse, he heard the sound of a horse neighing inside. He went in and, sure enough, saw a magnificent, snow-white horse.

This was Bailong.

Just as the description said, it was very beautiful. One look was enough to see that this was a handsome horse.

Seeming to notice Zhang Lin, a spark of intelligence appeared in the white horse’s eyes. It trotted over to him happily, circled him twice while nickering, and even nuzzled him with its head.

Since it was procured from the game, it had defaulted to him as its master.

Horses are also extremely loyal to their masters, which is why there are so many scenes in movies and TV shows of warhorses saving their riders.

Zhang Lin stroked Bailong’s soft mane. The horse then lowered itself and nuzzled him again with its head. Its intention was obvious.

It wanted to be ridden.

Zhang Lin smiled, mounted the horse with great skill, took the reins, and guided it out of the warehouse.

Thanks to the Riding Skill Experience Book, he was now a skilled rider.

After leaving the warehouse, Bailong let out an excited whinny.

Zhang Lin tugged the reins, signaling for Bailong to run.

The white horse seemed eager to run as well, its hooves immediately pounding as it charged forward.

Zhang Lin controlled its direction, letting the white horse gallop across the open areas of the farm. In the past few days, Liu De and the other farmhands had already tilled most of the 2,000 acres. Although nothing had been planted yet, the ground was relatively flat, so Bailong could have a good run.

However, he could feel that it wasn’t running freely. The terrain wasn’t right. When conditions allowed, he would set up a pasture where it could run as it pleased.

But no matter what, the feeling of riding a horse was truly amazing, a completely different experience from driving a car.

The key difference was that anyone could drive a car, but not everyone could ride a horse.

After riding for a while, Zhang Lin rode Bailong back to the steel-paneled building and looked at the purchasing market again.

He remembered that after Bailong had materialized, the purchasing market had unlocked the procurement of horse feed.

Refined Feed: 10,000 yuan/ton!

Ten thousand yuan per ton.

Because it was a daily procurement item, there was no quantity limit.

Zhang Lin was finally starting to understand why people said you could afford to buy a horse but not to keep one. He had only spent 20,000 yuan from the game system to buy Bailong, but a single ton of its feed cost 10,000 yuan.

But for a "Treasure Horse" level steed, you could only give it refined feed, or else you’d ruin the horse.

By his calculations, Bailong would eat over 200 yuan worth of feed a day.

Its food budget was who-knows-how-many-times better than a person’s.

Zhang Lin directly spent 10,000 yuan to procure one ton. The refined feed also materialized directly in the warehouse, packed in bags each weighing over a hundred pounds, and all stacked in a corner.

He dragged a bag out of the warehouse, opened it, and poured some out.

When Bailong saw the feed, it let out a whinny and happily trotted forward to dig in.

Seeing this, Zhang Lin realized he needed to build a stable.

At the very least, Bailong needed a place to live and a manger to eat from.

The game’s construction market had stables available to build.

But it wasn’t worth spending one of his newly acquired build slots on it, since it was something that could also be built in the real world.

He could just talk to Huang Tao later; he’d be able to handle a small construction project like this.

Watching Bailong with its head buried in its food, Zhang Lin returned to the steel-paneled building and looked at the game in his mind, opening the purchasing market.

This time, the level-up reward had also unlocked a new purchasable item: special mature honey peach saplings.

Special Mature Honey Peach Saplings (Quality 1): 50 yuan/tree, 1,000 trees purchasable/day.

In reality, there were two types of honey peach saplings. The first was the ordinary kind, which you plant when they’re very small. One of these cost about 5 yuan.

The other type was mature saplings, the kind you could plant this year and harvest from in two years.

These were more expensive, costing 20 yuan per tree. However, the overall cost was higher and transplanting was a hassle, so tree nurseries rarely bothered with them.

He never expected the game system to offer such saplings directly, and at an even higher price than normal—a whopping 50 yuan each.

But these were Quality 1 honey peach saplings. If planting them could yield Quality 1 honey peaches, it would be absolutely worth it.

One tree could produce dozens of pounds of fruit, and the wholesale price was 24 yuan per pound. The 50-yuan cost for the sapling suddenly seemed like nothing.

Most importantly, with these peach saplings, he could solve the biggest problem with his honey peaches: their origin. Otherwise, he couldn’t just keep promoting a new variety and keeping its source a secret forever without any trees to show for it.

As long as he had this type of peach tree and planted a batch, people would stop probing into the origins of his Sunshine Rose grapes and blueberries as well.

’But with mature saplings, my warehouse can’t possibly hold this many. There should be some kind of restriction, right?’

Just like with recruiting employees.

Zhang Lin didn’t hesitate and clicked "purchase" directly. Even if there was a restriction, the system would notify him. His policy was to buy what he could, when he could.

But to his surprise, after spending 50,000 yuan to purchase 1,000 mature honey peach saplings, he didn’t receive a restriction notice. Instead, he got an unexpected notification:

[Congratulations, you have spent 50,000 yuan to procure a batch of special mature honey peach saplings. The special saplings are being materialized and transported...]

’They’re not materializing directly in the warehouse like the honey peaches and Sunshine Rose grapes. They’re being transported. This is a bit like a construction project.’

...

The Bureau of Agriculture had been busy for the past two days.

Lin Mengxi was naturally even busier. The collaboration with Li Yuan Farm had fallen entirely on her shoulders. However, after two days of preparation, they could try their first broadcast tomorrow at noon.

The two types of fruit had been selling very well offline at Li Yuan Farm over the last couple of days, and they were also building a reputation online. The livestream was sure to have great results.

So, after handling matters at the bureau, she and a few colleagues hurried toward Li Yuan Farm again. But not long after their car left the county town, they spotted a convoy of trucks on the national highway.

"What kind of saplings are on those trucks?" one colleague asked in surprise.

"They look like they’re heading to Li Yuan Farm. You don’t think those are the fruit trees for Li Yuan Farm’s new fruits, do you?" another colleague said.

"It’s possible," said a third colleague. "After all, they’ve already started trial sales of the finished fruit, so it’s normal for them to be trial-planting the trees."

"Let’s follow them and see!" Lin Mengxi’s eyes lit up when she heard this. The bureau was paying very close attention to Li Yuan Farm’s fruits. Could this really be the fruit trees for those fruits, ready for trial planting?

...