Youcheng County's watermelons usually came from one of two sources.
One was the wholesale fruit market, located in the logistics park on the other side of the county. It was a bit of a trip.
The other was to put in the effort to buy directly from fruit farmers in the surrounding villages.
So, if the price was the same wholesale rate of 1.5 yuan per jin, the melons tasted even better, and they were delivered right to your door, there was no shortage of buyers.
As soon as Qin Lin sent his message, three people popped up in the group chat.
"So it's Xiao Qin."
"Xiao Qin, have you switched to wholesale?"
"Then I'll come take a look, too."
Qin Lin knew all three who had messaged him. As it happened, they all had shops near Market Street.
When no one else spoke up, Qin Lin arranged to meet the three of them at his shop.
Just then,
Qin Lin noticed a prompt in the game screen in his mind. The seeds needed to be watered for the first time.
He immediately controlled the Game Character with his thoughts, went into the tool shed to get a watering can, and carried it to the river to fill it. Then he watered all the seeds.
A short while later, the three people he'd arranged to meet in the WeChat group arrived on their electric scooters.
Two were middle-aged men, Liu Dasheng and Chen Dahe. The woman was named Ai Quni.
As soon as Liu Dasheng walked in, he said, "Xiao Qin, where are the melons? Let's have a look!"
Qin Lin pointed to the pile of watermelons on the ground. "Brother Liu, Brother Chen, Sister Ai, take a look at these."
The three of them went over to inspect the melons.
They'd all been in the business for a long time and could tell at a glance whether a watermelon was good.
The patterns were clear, with distinct shades...
The stems were still green, and the melons were fresh.
They sounded good when tapped.
These were clearly excellent watermelons.
"They look great," Liu Dasheng said with a smile.
Chen Dahe and Ai Quni nodded, too.
But there were too many unscrupulous wholesalers and fruit farmers these days. They still needed to cut one open and taste it.
Qin Lin understood, so he said to the three of them, "Go ahead and pick one."
"Xiao Qin, let's go with this one!" Liu Dasheng pointed to a watermelon at random.
Qin Lin nodded, picked it up, and cut it in half. The juicy red flesh was so appetizing at a glance.
He cut the two halves into smaller wedges and said, "Brother Liu, Brother Chen, Sister Ai, give it a try!"
The three didn't stand on ceremony. Each picked up a wedge and took a bite.
"Woof! Woof!"
The black dog barked again. It seemed to see Qin Lin handing out watermelon, so it trotted over to the shop entrance and crouched there, taking cautious little steps.
Damn, it was really trying to make itself at home.
Seeing this, Qin Lin casually picked up another wedge and tossed it to the dog.
If dogs ate too much watermelon, they got diarrhea. He'd let it learn how cruel the world could be. Once it found out the melon didn't agree with it, it would stop hanging around.
With the attributes "Deliciousness +1," "Sweetness +1," and "Texture +1," Liu Dasheng and the others had only taken a couple of bites before their eyes lit up.
"Now that's a good melon. It tastes much better than the ones I usually buy."
"Definitely. It's sweet and juicy, too."
"Xiao Qin, you really deliver?"
All three looked at Qin Lin. The melons looked better and tasted better, yet cost the same wholesale price—and came with delivery. There was no reason not to buy them.
Qin Lin assured them, "Of course. I'll deliver them right to your shops."
The three nodded and immediately decided to try thirty melons each, leaving the few remaining ones for Qin Lin's own shop.
Their shops were all nearby. Qin Lin didn't ask for a deposit; they agreed that they'd pay once the watermelons were delivered.
He offered delivery to keep things discreet. There were no security cameras in his shop, but Market Street was covered in them.
If he kept bringing watermelons out of his shop for no apparent reason, it might not raise suspicion this time, but if he did it often, people would start paying attention.
After all, who wouldn't notice someone bringing in nothing every day, then hauling out piles of watermelons? If people started looking into it, he could end up in serious trouble.
So, he'd have to find a secluded spot outside for this in the future.
After Liu Dasheng and the others left, Qin Lin glanced at the black dog still munching on watermelon outside. He ignored it, pulled down the roller shutter, and headed to the inner section of the Market Street parking lot. There, he walked over to an agricultural cargo tricycle, its handlebars and frame rusted through. Nobody would buy it for even 2,000 yuan.
But it was fine for hauling goods. As long as it didn't get a flat tire, it could carry about a ton.
Qin Lin drove the tricycle to the shop, loaded the watermelons onto it, and pulled the shutter down again. Then he set off to deliver the melons to Liu Dasheng and the others.
Liu Dasheng's shop was the closest to his, also on Market Street. It was just a short ride away, and the shop was called Dasheng Fruit Store.
Liu Dasheng was chatting outside with a man holding a watermelon. When he saw Qin Lin's tricycle pull up, he brought the man over and said, "Xiao Chen, come take a look at these freshly delivered melons. They're definitely fresh and delicious. Pick one and I'll cut it open for you to try."
"Sure thing, Brother Liu." Xiao Chen nodded and went over to pick one from the tricycle.
Liu Dasheng explained to Qin Lin, "Xiao Qin, Xiao Chen is my upstairs neighbor and a regular customer. He loves watermelon and usually buys a few at a time. We'll settle up together later."
"Sure." Qin Lin nodded.
Xiao Chen quickly picked a melon from Qin Lin's tricycle and brought it over to Liu Dasheng to weigh.
"Xiao Qin, this one's eleven jin." After weighing it, Liu Dasheng took it aside, cut it open, and handed Xiao Chen a small wedge.
Xiao Chen and Liu Dasheng were old friends, so he took the melon and tasted it without hesitation.
Xiao Chen soon exclaimed in surprise, "Brother Liu, this melon is so sweet and crisp! It tastes much better than the ones you used to sell. How much is it?"
Liu Dasheng smiled. "Same price as always, two yuan per jin. How many do you want?"
"Brother Liu, I'll take four. Send them over when you have time." As he spoke, Xiao Chen picked out four more melons from Qin Lin's tricycle and brought them over to Liu Dasheng to weigh.
All four weighed more than ten jin, for a total of forty-seven jin.
Liu Dasheng said, "Forty-seven jin comes to ninety-four yuan. Xiao Chen, mark it down, and I'll bring them over when I get a chance."
"No need to mark it down. I trust you, Brother Liu. I'll send the money over WeChat." Xiao Chen waved his hand, took out his phone, and transferred the money to Liu Dasheng.
After Xiao Chen left, Liu Dasheng turned back to Qin Lin. "Xiao Qin, it looks like the melons your relative grows really are good. Xiao Chen is usually picky about watermelon."
Qin Lin was pleased, too. He grabbed a basket from Liu Dasheng's shop and started loading melons into it.
Liu Dasheng had sold four of the melons, helping Qin Lin earn more than seventy yuan.
Including the five he'd already sold, Qin Lin loaded twenty-five melons into the basket for Liu Dasheng to weigh. They came to 287 jin in total. Adding Xiao Chen's forty-seven jin, that made 334 jin. At the wholesale price of 1.5 yuan per jin, the total was 501 yuan.
Liu Dasheng promptly transferred the money to Qin Lin over WeChat.
Qin Lin also wrote Liu Dasheng a receipt. Small business owners needed them for tax reporting.
"Brother Liu, let me know if you need more. I'll go deliver melons to the other two." Qin Lin beamed. He'd already earned more from this one delivery than his fruit-and-vegetable shop usually made in a whole day.
Next, Qin Lin delivered thirty melons each to Chen Dahe and Ai Quni.
Chen Dahe's order weighed 360 jin, for a wholesale price of 540 yuan. Ai Quni's weighed 328 jin, for a wholesale price of 492 yuan.
Adding Liu Dasheng's 501 yuan, ninety melons had earned him a total of 1,533 yuan.
When Qin Lin got back to his shop, he was surprised to find the black dog still lying comfortably outside. It showed no sign of having diarrhea.
That didn't make sense.
By the time the sun had completely set, he'd sold another four watermelons at his shop. Including the few he'd sold earlier, that brought his shop's earnings to 172 yuan.
That meant he'd made a net profit of 1,705 yuan from the watermelons he'd taken out of the game.
Qin Lin clenched his fist, wanting to cheer. If he made 1,705 yuan a day like this, that came to 51,150 yuan a month. In a small place like Youcheng County, that was definitely a high income.
As he thought about it, another prompt appeared in the game screen in his mind. Weeds had grown and needed to be cleared right away, or they might cause the watermelon seedlings to wither.
After weeding, Qin Lin checked the time. It was completely dark. He got up, packed some of the leftover vegetables to take home, pulled down the roller shutter, then went to the parking lot and rode the little cargo tricycle home.
Normally, he drove the tricycle out early every morning to buy stock and replenish what his shop had sold. But tomorrow, he intended to use it only to haul watermelons.
At 1,700 yuan a day, there was no need to fret over the small profits from selling fruit and vegetables. Even the hundreds of thousands his family owed could soon be paid off.
Qin Lin rode back to an old residential complex. After his family sold their house, they'd rented a cheap two-bedroom apartment there.
He went into the building, climbed to the third floor, and returned to the apartment. His mother, Lin Fen, was busy preparing dinner.
The apartment had two bedrooms, but it was cramped, with the rooms split into small spaces. The clutter made it feel even more cramped and dim.
With the family in this state and hundreds of thousands in debt, there wasn't much they could do.
As soon as Qin Lin entered, he said, "Mom, I told you I'd cook when I got back."
"I'm not well enough to do much, but I can still move around. Come eat!" Lin Fen was in poor health and looked pale, but a trace of stubbornness remained in her voice.
She'd worked hard her whole life. Doing nothing was even harder for her.
"Okay." Qin Lin helplessly put the vegetables he'd brought home into the fridge.
Lin Fen served him a bowl of rice and asked, "How was business at the shop today?"
"It was better than yesterday. It'll get even better." Thinking about what had happened that day, Qin Lin spoke with a confidence he couldn't quite explain.
Hearing her son give the same answer as always, Lin Fen sighed. "Xiao Lin, your father and I have let you down. All your peers have parents helping them out, getting their wedding gifts and down payments ready. Your father and I only left you with hundreds of thousands in debt."
"Mom, what are you saying? You and Dad gave birth to me, raised me, and put me through school. That's already more than enough." Qin Lin had never blamed his parents. He was healthy, and they'd cared for him devotedly since he was little. He'd already been luckier than many people.
The more her son said that, the more useless Lin Fen felt. She could only sigh again. "Xiao Lin, how are things going between you and Moqing? Don't blame her parents, either. Moqing is a good girl, and her parents have already been very accommodating. They don't want a bride price or a car. They only asked for the down payment on a small house, and our family can't even manage that. That's our problem."
"You and Moqing should keep seeing each other. When I'm feeling better, I can look after the shop. You can find a job, and we can work hard together. We'll eventually save enough for a down payment. If you and Moqing don't end up together, don't hold it against her!"
Qin Lin paused mid-bite at those words.
Moqing really was wonderful. They'd been in neighboring classes in high school. For three whole years, they'd only seen each other in passing on their way to and from school, never even exchanging a word. But after they got into the same university and happened to buy adjacent seats on the same train, they officially met and gradually got together.
Fate worked in mysterious ways.
He had no right to blame Moqing's parents. What parents in this day and age would want their daughter to marry a man with no car, no house, and hundreds of thousands in debt?
He wouldn't, either.
Besides, her parents had already agreed to forgo a bride price and a car. They'd only asked for a down payment on a small apartment big enough for the two of them. They were already more understanding than countless other parents.
If they couldn't even manage that, then the problem was with his family. To say anything more would be ungrateful.
"Mom, don't worry. We'll have a house, and Moqing will be your daughter-in-law. She isn't going anywhere." Qin Lin quickly finished his rice, then went back to his room and opened a cabinet. Inside was a marriage certificate.
Husband: Qin Lin. Wife: Zhao Moqing.
He hadn't told his mother that Moqing was her daughter-in-law on a whim. He was just keeping the truth from both their families.
When his girlfriend had secretly taken her household registration booklet and gone with him to register their marriage, telling him that she'd chosen him for life, the warmth in his heart could have melted the entire Antarctic ice sheet.
He knew how much courage it had taken Moqing to do that. He also knew he could never let her down.
He knew it had been unfair to Moqing to register their marriage under those circumstances, and that it had been a deception toward the Zhao Family. But he was even more afraid of losing the most precious thing in his life.
Just then, movement appeared in the game screen in Qin Lin's mind. He carefully put away the marriage certificate, locked the drawer again, and turned his attention to the game screen.
The watermelons on those few plots of land had grown vines. They'd ripen tomorrow morning, but pests had appeared on the vines, too. He had to clear them out, or they would slow the watermelons' growth and reduce the yield.
Qin Lin focused his thoughts and controlled the Game Character to take out the small net used for clearing pests. Then he caught them one by one.
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