Qin Lin knew exactly how appealing the Level 3 land's seven-color, symbiotic ornamental bougainvilleas were.
With +2 to vibrancy, +2 to ornamental value, and +2 to appeal, they'd caught his eye the moment he entered.
The +2 to photogenic quality should boost the effect of taking pictures and shooting videos.
As for transplant survival rate, that went without saying. That was the most useful attribute for him.
If he wanted to create a sea of bougainvilleas at Qinglin Villa, he had to bring the plants out of the game and get them to survive transplanting in the real world.
These seven-color, symbiotic ornamental bougainvilleas were already easy to transplant, and with their +2 transplant survival rate, it wouldn't be a problem.
Qin Lin came out of the game, intending to find a place to bring one of the seven-color, symbiotic bougainvilleas out. But as soon as he left the restroom, he saw a pure-looking young woman, around 1.65 meters tall, wearing a white shirt and jeans. She eyed him warily. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
She looked like a high school girl. For all he knew, she might still be underage.
Qin Lin was taken aback and countered, "I'm the owner here. Why can't I be here? Who are you?"
"You're the new owner?" The young woman's face lit up with delight. "Are you going to fire the old employees?"
"You work here?" Qin Lin asked instinctively.
The pure-looking young woman did seem a little young. He had no idea whether she was an adult yet.
Once she learned that Qin Lin was the owner, she seemed to drop her guard and hurried over to introduce herself. "Boss, I'm Gao Yaoyao. I used to sell tickets for the jungle adventure course and rainbow grass sledding area in the back. Are you keeping the old employees?"
So she really was an employee at the villa.
Looking at Gao Yaoyao, Qin Lin asked without thinking, "Um, are you an adult?"
"Boss, I've already graduated from vocational school. I'm 19. I can show you my ID card."
Qin Lin was relieved she wasn't underage. He thought for a moment, then asked, "How many employees did the villa have before?"
He did need staff. If the former employees were decent, he could keep them. A pure-looking young woman like Gao Yaoyao was well suited to tourism work. With a little talent, she could probably do well at one of the famous scenic attractions.
It was a bit of a waste for her to be a lowly ticket seller at this little villa.
Still, she was young and hadn't seen much of the world. She also hadn't been tainted by the comparisons and status games at university. Otherwise, she might have gotten too ambitious and looked down on this kind of job.
Gao Yaoyao explained, "Besides me, the ticket seller, there was a security guard, a registration clerk, a cashier, four chefs, and..."
"Hold on. Four chefs?" Qin Lin was completely baffled.
Did the villa really need four chefs?
Most people who came here cooked for themselves, didn't they?
Gao Yaoyao nodded. "I think only Master Lin actually cooks. The other three are one head chef and two deputy head chefs."
"Damn!" Qin Lin was stunned.
He more or less understood what was going on.
The villa had originally been a place for a few corrupt officials to eat and drink to their hearts' content. The person in charge was a front man, and the head chef and deputy head chefs might well have been brought in by him to collect a salary.
Qin Lin asked again, "Gao Yaoyao, did any of the former employees know carpentry?"
"Master Lin does!" Gao Yaoyao replied. "He can cook, and he can fix tables too. He's repaired a lot of the broken racks."
Qin Lin asked, "Did anyone know gardening? Someone with experience transplanting and caring for flowers, for instance? I saw quite a few potted plants at the villa, so someone must have been responsible for them, right?"
Gao Yaoyao answered, "Master Lin was in charge of the vegetable garden too. He also transplanted the potted plants. Well, we helped water them sometimes. Oh, and Master Lin has been trying to save those two ginkgo trees for ages, but he hasn't succeeded."
Qin Lin was stunned.
Why did Master Lin seem like a workhorse? He did everything.
It felt like hiring him was like hiring several people at once.
Qin Lin thought for a moment, then asked, "Gao Yaoyao, do you have the former employees' contact information?"
"We have a group chat," Gao Yaoyao replied.
Qin Lin made his decision. "Aside from the head chef and the deputy head chefs, ask the others if they'd be willing to keep working here. Especially Master Lin."
He needed to hire staff anyway. Better to hire people who already knew the place than bring in strangers. He could see how things worked out, and if anyone wasn't suitable, he could hire someone else to replace them.
"Boss, Master Lin will definitely be willing, though he'll probably make a request related to those two ginkgo trees. I'll ask the others too." Gao Yaoyao's face brightened at once. She took out her phone and opened WeChat.
Qin Lin had asked because of his bougainvillea sea plan. Creating one would require transplanting the flowers and hiring a construction crew to build supporting features like fences, stone paths, swings, and pavilions. He'd need people to keep an eye on all of that.
A moment later, Gao Yaoyao said, "Boss, I asked them. The cashier has already found a new job, but everyone else is willing to keep working here. They'll all come in tomorrow morning."
"Okay. You can head home for now and come back tomorrow." Qin Lin wanted to send Gao Yaoyao away so he could take a bougainvillea out of the game.
"Boss, I actually live in the staff dormitory. I don't rent a place in the county town," Gao Yaoyao said quickly. "If you want to look around the villa, I can show you."
There was no way around it. With Gao Yaoyao at the villa, he couldn't take the bougainvillea out.
Qin Lin had to give up and leave the villa.
He didn't want anyone discovering his secret.
Back in the county town, he first went to a sign-making shop to order a vintage-style sign. He would replace the Fuhai Villa sign with it later.
Then he worked out the details of his bougainvillea sea plan.
Bougainvillea seas came in scattered and dense arrangements. A dense arrangement naturally cost more, but the effect was more breathtaking and beautiful.
For a large-scale, dense bougainvillea sea to be truly impressive, it needed to cover at least 20 mu. After allowing for stone paths, swings, stone benches, pavilions, and dedicated photo platforms, it would take at least 10,000 bougainvilleas.
Naturally, he couldn't use only the seven-color, symbiotic ornamental bougainvilleas grown on Level 3 land. They took three days to produce just 25 plants. Getting 5,000 would take 600 days. That was no joke.
These seven-color, symbiotic ornamental bougainvilleas were only suitable as the main plants. He still needed other bougainvilleas for decoration.
Even if he spent a month growing them, 250 seven-color, symbiotic bougainvilleas, each 2.5 meters tall with a 2-meter canopy and 12-centimeter blooms, would be enough for the main display.
Qin Lin remembered that the game also had lower-grade ornamental bougainvillea seedlings. He immediately checked the light screen and sent his in-game character to look around the seed shop in Mineral Town. Sure enough, the Level 2 land had ordinary ornamental bougainvillea seedlings, available in several colors.
He looked them up online. These ornamental plants weren't cheap either, costing around 400 yuan each, and they could grow to several dozen centimeters tall.
That was excellent.
Since they came from the game, they were sure to have attribute bonuses too, making them worth far more than 400 yuan.
There was one problem, though: game currency. Whether they were seven-color, symbiotic plants or ordinary ornamental seedlings, he had to pay game currency to buy them.
Qin Lin thought it over and decided to stop growing strawberries on the Level 2 land and use all of it to grow ordinary ornamental bougainvilleas. He would tell Manager Chen that the strawberries were out of stock.
He would keep selling the okra grown on the newly opened land in the game to earn money for seedlings.
The Level 2 land could produce 25 ordinary ornamental bougainvilleas a day, and they took one day to mature. That meant he could get more than 4,500 ordinary bougainvilleas in a month.
That still wasn't nearly enough to reach 10,000. He'd be short by more than 5,000.
Still, with these game-grown bougainvilleas as a base, he could use ordinary bougainvilleas from the real world to decorate the outer edges. That should work.
So he could order over 5,000 ordinary bougainvilleas. That would also help disguise their origins and keep people from suspecting where they came from.
Qin Lin checked online. Ordinary bougainvilleas were nowhere near as good as the game-grown ones, but there were still plenty of attractive varieties.
After looking through his options, he found a cultivation base in the city. Each plant cost 30 yuan, so 5,000 would only cost 150,000 yuan. And he only had to pay a 20% deposit upfront.
He went ahead and placed an order for 10,000 plants.
If he was doing it, he might as well add another 10 mu and make the flower sea larger, using the 10,000 plants to complement the nearly 5,000 game-grown ones.
Normally, creating a bougainvillea sea on this scale would cost several million yuan. He only had to spend 300,000.
Besides, no one else could get their hands on so many seven-color, symbiotic bougainvilleas, let alone ones with game attribute bonuses.
With good publicity, this flower sea was sure to become a hugely popular attraction in Youcheng and Shacheng.
As long as it drew enough visitors, he could sell the things grown in the game directly at the villa.
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