Carrying the Quality 2 grass carp and Quality 2 black carp, Qin Lin headed to the parking lot. When he saw the Maybach 62S, he knew Mr. Chen was far richer than he'd imagined.
That model apparently cost over ten million yuan and was quite famous. Jack Ma himself drove one, and plenty of other well-known tycoons owned them too.
"Mr. Chen, I'm the owner of the villa. My surname is Qin." Qin Lin carried the two fish over and offered them to the driver. "Thank you for speaking up for me earlier. I don't have much to give you in return, so please accept these two fish as a token of my appreciation."
"So you're Boss Qin!" Chen Shengfei looked at the fish in surprise. "These are two big wild fish, Boss Qin. You're generous."
Expensive gifts from others wouldn't surprise him. He was already wealthy, and there weren't many people richer than he was. If other people could buy something, he could certainly buy it too—and probably buy more.
But he was genuinely delighted by these two big wild fish. They were rare, and even money couldn't buy them.
Besides, he'd already tried the fish. That meal had left him feeling wonderful all over.
Qin Lin smiled and said confidently, "Mr. Chen, I may not have many other skills, but when it comes to wild fish like these, you can come by anytime, and I'll always have some for you."
"Boss Qin, that's a skill in itself. After what you've said, I'll come again when I have time." Chen Shengfei meant it sincerely.
He didn't doubt Qin Lin. The man had casually given him two big wild fish, several more were on display in the hall, and there were fish in the pond as well. He wouldn't have been so willing to offer them if he didn't have a reliable supply.
Chen Shengfei's words meant Qin Lin had achieved his goal. "Then I'll be waiting for you anytime, Mr. Chen."
After Chen Shengfei left, Qin Lin returned to the hall. Curious, he took out his phone and searched online for information about him.
To his surprise, he found plenty of results right on the first page.
Even more astonishingly, Chen Shengfei owned a company called Blue Sea Group, a very prominent and powerful company in Fujian Province. The search results included quite a few photos of Chen Shengfei with official leaders.
This man was the real deal. Qin Lin hadn't expected to attract someone like him on the villa's opening day. He immediately felt that giving him those two big fish had been well worth it.
Afternoon.
The villa drew no fewer guests than it had in the morning, and it remained lively. At four in the afternoon, smoke rose from the kitchen once again as groups of three or five friends who had stayed behind started cooking together.
There were also plenty of people who couldn't cook and ordered food instead.
Qin Lin also harvested the newly ripened Quality 2 strawberries and brought them to the villa. As for the okra that had ripened again, he sent it to RT-Mart. The game could now produce 3,000 jin of okra a day, far more than the villa could use.
It wasn't until nightfall that all the visitors gradually left. Only one or two eccentric guests rented tents to camp at the villa.
The villa had gotten off to a flying start on its first day.
Gao Yaoyao and the other employees were exhausted, but every one of them had a smile on their face.
They would have been happy to work this hard every day. Their boss had promised that they weren't just getting fixed salaries; they'd also receive a cut of the earnings. The busier they were, the better business was—and the more they'd earn in commission.
Zhao Moqing sat by the counter with her laptop, tapping away as she worked out the figures.
She was calculating the villa's income for the day. Since she had worked in taxation, she was very familiar with the process.
"I've got the numbers." Zhao Moqing handed Qin Lin the laptop. When she saw the total, she breathed a slight sigh of relief. After all, Qin Lin had borrowed several million yuan to build the villa.
Qin Lin took it and saw that the villa had received a total of 238 visitors that day. In other words, flower-field tickets had brought in 11,900 yuan. Chen Shengfei had also bought up all the Quality 2 watermelons, Quality 2 strawberries, and Quality 2 okra.
The reserved 300 jin of Quality 1 okra had sold out, as had all 303 jin of strawberries that had ripened in the morning. Another 190 jin of the afternoon's harvest had also been sold.
These had brought in a total of 47,344 yuan.
One Quality 2 wild black carp and 45 Quality 1 wild fish had brought in another 29,165 yuan.
Other things—pine nuts, vegetables from the garden, fishing-rod rentals, the jungle adventure, grass sledding, drinks, stove rentals, barbecue grills, and so on—had only added up to 18,813 yuan.
All told, the villa's revenue for the day had reached 107,222 yuan.
Revenue had exceeded 100,000 yuan.
Although Chen Shengfei's bulk purchase had helped boost the total, this was still only the first day, and it wasn't even a weekend. More tourists would surely come as word spread, especially on weekends.
Zhao Moqing didn't know how many sources of profit Qin Lin had at the villa. But with revenue topping 100,000 yuan, she figured that even after subtracting costs and labor, the business should still be profitable. Qin Lin should at least be able to pay off his debts.
That was good news.
However, she had no idea that apart from the vegetables from the garden, pine nuts, and drinks, almost everything else in that 100,000 yuan was pure profit.
On top of that, he'd earned 15,673 yuan from the okra sent to RT-Mart. Even after paying the required 5.6% business tax and an additional 2% tax on individual businesses, then deducting Gao Yaoyao and the other employees' wages, along with all the other assorted expenses, he had still comfortably made more than 100,000 yuan that day.
Naturally, he couldn't tell anyone about this. Keeping quiet and making his fortune was the smartest approach.
Besides, as the business grew, he'd have to make the books and other records more discreet so nobody would discover the truth. Or he'd have to come up with a better approach in the future.
After the guests had all left, Qin Lin asked Master Lin to prepare a whole table of dishes. He also had a Quality 2 black carp and several Quality 1 wild fish cooked to reward everyone.
Once all the dishes were served, Qin Lin invited everyone to sit down, then raised a glass of juice. "Those who can drink, have some wine. Those who can't, have some juice. Let me raise a glass to everyone first. We got off to a great start today, and you've all worked hard. To celebrate, I'll give each of you a 200-yuan red envelope later."
The employees hadn't expected an extra surprise. Two hundred yuan wasn't much, but an unexpected bonus was still exciting. Gao Yaoyao and the other girls shouted without holding back, "Long live the boss!"
After that, they all eagerly raised their glasses and clinked them with Qin Lin's.
Lin Fen and Zhao Moqing watched with smiles of satisfaction—one for her son, the other for her husband.
After the celebration dinner, Qin Lin drove his mother and Zhao Moqing back to the county town. When they arrived at Dongcheng Mingyuan, Zhao Moqing got out. After saying goodbye to Qin Lin and Lin Fen, she walked toward the residential complex with a spring in her step.
The tension that had been wound tight inside her all day had inexplicably eased a little.
She had taken the household registration booklet and secretly registered her marriage with Qin Lin. She felt guilty about keeping it from her parents. Although she and Qin Lin had often talked about coming clean, she was afraid to do it.
She knew that what she'd done had been disrespectful to her parents and had let them down.
Qin Lin had given her a huge surprise today. If Qinglin Villa kept going like this, she believed he'd be able to pay off his debts, and things would start looking up.
However, Qin Lin still owed several million yuan, and she didn't want to tell her parents just yet. She was afraid it would scare them even more. Several million yuan was no small amount.
When Zhao Moqing got home, she found her sister-in-law scrolling through her phone.
"Moqing, come take a look!" When Li Jiawen saw her, she pulled her over. "Qinglin Villa has been all over my Moments today. Several of my WeChat friends posted about it, and lots of people on Douyin's local feed have uploaded videos too. The flower fields are so beautiful! I'm definitely going with your brother sometime. Then we can invite a bunch of people and make it a fun group outing."
"Then I'll give you some tickets." Zhao Moqing smiled and took out a stack of flower-field admission tickets, waving them in front of Li Jiawen.
On the way home, Qin Lin had given her quite a few tickets to hand out.
"Moqing, where did you get so many tickets?" Li Jiawen exclaimed. "Give me a few more. Some of my close friends want to see the flower fields too."
Zhao Moqing smiled and pulled out more than ten tickets for her sister-in-law.
"Huh!" Li Jiawen took the tickets in one hand and scrolled through Douyin with the other. Suddenly, she looked surprised. "Moqing, look at this video. Something seems to have happened at Qinglin Villa. A local media account in Youcheng is criticizing it. And how could Qinglin Villa do this? That's way too much!"
"???" Zhao Moqing frowned at that. She immediately leaned over to look, and her brow furrowed.
"Take a look, everyone! Qinglin Villa is selling ridiculously overpriced fruit and forcing visitors to buy it. That's blatant coercion... Not only does Qinglin Villa sell overpriced fruit, it even hired a plant to mock visitors for not being able to afford it..."
A woman's indignant voice came from the video.
"..." Zhao Moqing was completely stunned. That was the unreasonable woman's voice.
That woman had slunk away from the villa earlier, but now she'd posted a video online, playing the victim and blaming them instead?
How could anyone be like that?
The worst part was that a media account had helped spread it. Hadn't they even bothered to investigate and find out what had really happened?
Li Jiawen glared at the video and cursed. "That's outrageous! Isn't Qinglin Villa just abusing its position as a popular business? I was thinking of going, but now I'm not so sure."
"..." Zhao Moqing turned her attention to the video and saw that it had already received a huge number of likes. In the local feed, people were even hurling abuse.
"Heh, Qinglin Villa must be crazy for money!"
"I'm a country bumpkin. I can't afford strawberries that cost 200 yuan a jin. Let's see if I ever go to this scenic spot!"
"I've seen people robbing others, but never in broad daylight. Qinglin Villa is going to be finished as soon as it opens!"
"@the relevant authorities, shut it down immediately!"
"..." Zhao Moqing.
She couldn't even put into words how furious she felt.
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