Lin Ze opened his messaging app and saw a system notification.
"Dong Nan has requested to add you as a friend."
Lin Ze accepted, and the other person soon sent him a message.
"Hello, I saw your post on your Moments and noticed you're selling high-quality dried matsutake. Is that right?"
"Could you tell me the price? It'd be great if you could include some photos of the actual product."
Lin Ze's promotional video had only shown that he had the goods. To learn what they were actually like, the buyer needed more information.
Lin Ze typed back, "Yes, I have premium dried matsutake for sale. The price for 500 grams ranges from 3,500 to 7,000 yuan. The minimum order is generally 50 grams, and shipping is free nationwide. I'll send you some photos of the actual product in a moment."
"If you're satisfied, I'll give you a link to my online store."
After sending the message, Lin Ze took out the dried matsutake that had just arrived.
He selected mushrooms of various grades and arranged them on the table. Then, finding a good angle, he photographed each one.
These matsutake were mostly comparable in quality to the ones Lin Ze had bought in the Other World.
Besides photos, Lin Ze also sent over a short video.
Soon, the buyer on the other end had finished looking at Lin Ze's photos and video and, with the discerning eye of a seasoned gourmet, confirmed the quality of the goods.
Moreover, compared to other sellers, Lin Ze's prices were about ten percent lower.
So the buyer decided to make a purchase.
"Looks good. I'll take 500 grams to try first. If they taste good, I'll come back with some friends next time."
Seeing the message, a smile appeared on Lin Ze's face.
A strong start to the business—this was going really well.
"Of course. Here's the link to my online store. You can place an order for the product you want there, and I'll ship it out right away. If everything's in order when you receive it, please confirm receipt and leave a five-star review. Thank you."
Lin Ze typed rapidly.
Then he sent over the link to his online store.
He had registered the store a long time ago. A few days earlier, while traveling and taking photos, he had also set up product listings based on the grades of matsutake he had researched and their corresponding prices.
Now he could use the store as it was.
"All right, I'll place the order now."
The buyer sent the message.
Soon, an order notification appeared on Lin Ze's end.
The order showed that someone had bought 500 grams of dried matsutake for 3,500 yuan.
Lin Ze took out the packaging box and electronic scale he had just bought. Wearing gloves, he weighed out 500 grams of matsutake of the corresponding grade, packed and sealed it, then called a courier and had the package sent to the address the customer had provided.
And just like that, his first sale was complete.
Now all he had to do was wait for the customer to confirm receipt, and Lin Ze would be able to collect the payment.
The online platform had already charged him a fee to open the store, so it wouldn't charge any additional commission. When the time came, Lin Ze would receive the full 3,500 yuan.
However, he would need to pay a nine-percent value-added tax on agricultural products, which he would have to declare later.
That first sale—a strong start to his business—filled Lin Ze with confidence.
Before long, more orders began coming in one after another, and he soon had over a hundred jin of matsutake reserved.
Clearly, the matsutake Lin Ze had been using as cover were no longer enough.
And now it was time to start selling the matsutake he had bought in the Other World.
Lin Ze went to a quiet room in the villa.
He checked the room several times with an infrared detector and confirmed there were no other surveillance devices, eliminating any possibility that the room might leak information.
After that, Lin Ze left all his electronic instruments, such as his phone, in another room.
He opened Gates to Heavens and selected the golden coordinate for this world. A doorway opened, leading to the garage of the Two Realms Trade Base in Big Stone Village.
First, Lin Ze stocked Little Donkey with enough feed and water for a few days. Then he brought over all the more than five hundred jin of matsutake he had bought in the Other World and transported them through Gates to Heavens to the matsutake trading base in Tiannan City.
In theory, once he had set the coordinates, Lin Ze could use Gates to Heavens to travel anywhere in the Main World.
The reason he had taken a plane to Tiannan City and personally bought a batch of matsutake was to give people the impression that he was a matsutake merchant with a perfectly reasonable source for his goods.
Now that the groundwork was in place, it was time to start selling in bulk and turn the profits from the trade between the two worlds into cash.
With all the groundwork in place, no one knew how much matsutake Lin Ze actually had.
Over the next few days, packages were delivered to Lin Ze's place now and then, and packages were sent out just as often.
Perhaps word of mouth had spread, but in any case, Lin Ze gained quite a few repeat customers.
By the fifth day of his matsutake business, he had sold all 62 jin of matsutake he'd bought in the Main World and all 557 jin he'd bought in the Other World.
He posted a sold-out notice on his alternate account's Moments.
Lin Ze began calculating his total profit from this round. Although the matsutake had sold for different prices depending on their quality, the average price had reached 4,600 yuan per jin.
He hadn't made much money on the matsutake he'd bought in the Main World; that payment would just about cover the costs and taxes.
But the 557 jin he'd bought in the Other World had brought in yuan in total. That was his pure profit.
"What a ridiculously profitable business."
Lin Ze watched his nearly empty bank account fill back up as payment after payment came in.
He had known for a long time that trading between the two worlds was profitable, but even so, he couldn't help marveling at it now.
He'd earned some money over the past five years, but he'd never had this much in his hands all at once.
To celebrate making so much money in one go, Lin Ze decided to reward himself.
He went straight to the bank and withdrew more than two million yuan in cash. More than two hundred bundles filled up a large suitcase.
Then Lin Ze spread all that money across his bed.
Two million five hundred and sixty thousand.
That cold, impersonal number didn't feel like much, but in banknotes it amounted to more than twenty thousand bills.
Looking at the piles of cash before him, Lin Ze had a much more tangible sense of how much he had earned from his first trade between the two worlds.
At the same time, he once again understood just how precious Gates to Heavens was.
It was a treasure trove worth more than the entire world, more than all of civilization!
Although Lin Ze would have to extract its value himself, there was no question that it was priceless and not for sale.
"All right, next I should head back to the Other World and stock up again."
Lin Ze gazed at his earnings, spellbound, for a while. Gradually, his excitement settled.
He put the more than two million yuan he'd earned into the villa's safe and began planning his next move.
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