Qinglin Villa had truly become famous these past few days.
On the first day, the hot topic of the villa forcing guests to buy things had stirred up a huge commotion. It was a social issue that naturally attracted a lot of attention.
On the second day, though, the story had suddenly taken a turn. It became a social issue about a spoiled child misbehaving and unreasonable parents making a scene. Events involving spoiled children making mistakes were perhaps even more infuriating.
After all, stories about spoiled children causing huge losses for others appeared online all the time, while their parents tried to brush it off with the excuse that they were just children.
Some parents even insisted, as if it were only natural, that the law couldn't do anything to children.
This only made Qinglin Villa even more popular.
As a result, Qin Ren's studio's social media accounts had gained a huge number of followers, too. To show their gratitude, at the height of the buzz, Qin Ren's studio released the promotional video of the Bougainvillea Sea they had filmed earlier, helping Qin Lin draw the attention over to the flowers.
The promotional video, with its almost artistic sea of blossoms, immediately attracted a huge amount of attention.
Everyone who saw it was captivated by the scenery in the video.
It was simply so beautiful.
With the immersive effect, every shot looked as if it had been painstakingly sculpted by a great artist.
The footage of the central area was especially mesmerizing, with the sea of flowers so enchanting that it was hard to look away. Butterflies danced through the air, birds sang sweetly, and even the little squirrels weren't afraid of people. Everything was breathtaking.
In no time at all, countless people were asking about the sea of flowers. It had practically become a viral tourist attraction.
This was another goal Qin Lin had carefully planned for: not only to make those who had smeared him pay, but also to give his villa a great deal of publicity.
The result was a surge in visitors to the villa. They came not only from Youcheng, but also from Shacheng and the city proper. Some had even traveled from farther away to check it out.
Qinglin Villa.
Qin Lin was using a hoe to turn over a patch of ground in the courtyard behind the main hall.
Beside him, security captain Chen Dabe was working away with a hoe as well, as if to say, "Whatever the boss does, I do."
"Linzi, what are you doing?" Qin Ren asked curiously from nearby.
The villa had become so popular, and he couldn't understand how his buddy still had the time to dig up the ground.
For the past two days, he had been spending all his time at the villa filming videos of the Bougainvillea Sea.
His studio's account had gained a lot of traffic, too, so naturally they wanted to keep riding the wave of interest in the scenery. The other partners weren't close to Qin Lin and felt awkward asking him, so they'd left it to Qin Ren. It was practically a work trip that doubled as a vacation at the villa.
"I'm going to plant watermelons!" Qin Lin explained, taking out a packet of seeds and getting to work.
He was digging because of these Quality 2 watermelon seeds.
[☆ Seedless Watermelon Seeds (Quality 2)] [Seeds specially cultivated to produce delicious watermelons. They have no seasonal planting restrictions, and their growth cycle is extremely short.]
He had managed to bring ordinary seeds from the outside into the game.
So shouldn't he be able to bring seeds from the game out and plant them?
This was an experiment he wanted to try.
He knew perfectly well that ordinary watermelon seeds from outside had produced Quality 1 watermelons in the game because of the game itself.
Without the game's Level 3 plots, there was a good chance that planting the Quality 2 watermelon seeds outside wouldn't produce Quality 2 watermelons.
But it was worth a try, wasn't it? Reality wasn't a game. It was unpredictable and ever-changing; nothing was set in stone.
Even if planting the Quality 2 seeds outside didn't produce Quality 2 watermelons, the quality might fall to Quality 1. That would still make them a new variety, and a stronger one than ordinary watermelons.
What if the seeds changed because of the different environment? Plant seeds could adapt to their surroundings and climate. What if one or two happened to adapt to these conditions while retaining their original quality?
Wouldn't that be incredible?
Early rice research had relied on just such mutations to obtain seeds. The odds were low, but you always had to hope for that one chance, didn't you?
Besides, these Quality 2 seedless watermelon seeds had another feature: they weren't restricted by season, so they could be planted directly even in winter.
"Watermelons? Linzi, it's almost October. Are you kidding me?" Qin Ren gaped, feeling as if his friend was messing with him.
Everyone knew watermelons were planted in March.
If you wanted to plant them in October, you'd need to put up a greenhouse.
Qin Lin didn't bother to explain. He continued planting the seeds in his hands, one by one.
He would certainly need a greenhouse. To cultivate the seeds, he would have to turn these Quality 2 seeds back into polyploid plants, go through several other steps, then pollinate them with ordinary watermelon plants before he could cultivate seedless watermelon seeds from the tetraploid plants.
The process was complicated and would take a lot of work.
Other watermelon seeds needed a greenhouse in winter.
The process was complicated. He had spent the past two days studying books on the related techniques.
After planting all the seeds, he remembered to tell Chen Dabe, "Don't forget to water them."
"Of course, Boss!" Chen Dabe nodded.
Qin Ren saw that Qin Lin wasn't going to explain further, so he changed the subject. "By the way, Linzi, did you set up the villa's official social media account like I asked? With all this buzz, now's the perfect time to draw in traffic. I expect the attention to keep growing over the next few days. Who would've thought the videos the visitors took of the sea of flowers would be so captivating? The more visitors film and upload, the more traffic you'll build up. Maybe you'll even break through the traffic ceiling. Then you'll be set."
Qin Lin nodded. "It's already set up. Moqing is managing it for me."
Just then, Gao Yaoyao hurried in from outside and said, "Boss, we've sold all 300 pounds of okra from this morning. Lots of visitors, especially the men, want to buy it."
Her pretty face was slightly flushed as she spoke. She knew what the okra could do, and she knew why those male visitors wanted it.
A visitor had posted a video exposing the effects of the special Quality 2 okra. There were always some visitors willing to try it, and observant enough to notice the results.
Qin Lin didn't even need to promote it.
One rich kid had been drawn in by the buzz online yesterday. He'd brought two female companions and, not short on money, had ordered the Quality 2 okra with his meal.
Then the rich kid had spent the night in Youcheng and somehow ended up having his room checked. Someone posted about it online this morning, and with the villa already so popular, the rich kid had become a minor sensation himself!
It left Qin Lin feeling rather baffled.
The Quality 2 okra had become famous, but there was only so much of it each day. As a result, even the Quality 1 okra had become very popular.
Besides, Quality 1 okra really did work. After all, it also had the effect of +1 to tonifying the kidney and consolidating essence.
So, for a while, okra had become the most popular food at the villa.
"I'll take care of it!" Qin Lin nodded to Gao Yaoyao.
Now that the Quality 1 okra had become unexpectedly famous, he planned to stop supplying RT-Mart. Aside from providing okra for the villa, he could use some of his land to grow other crops and increase the variety of food on offer.
Gao Yaoyao added, "Boss, apart from the special-quality watermelons, which aren't selling well, the strawberries that cost 40 yuan per pound have sold out, too. The fish in the pond are almost all gone as well. It's not even noon, and we've already served 261 people. A lot of visitors say there aren't enough activities they can spend money on here. We're even short on stoves and barbecue grills to rent. Lots of people have to take turns using the same ones, and the visitors are complaining."
"Ah!" Qin Lin sighed helplessly at that.
Could he really be blamed?
He'd only meant to use the opportunity to give the villa some publicity, but the buzz had exceeded his expectations.
And the Bougainvillea Sea had the effect of the game's attributes. Visitors who came would be amazed and delighted, then recommend it to even more people. It would probably see an explosive growth in visitors over the next while.
The problem was that many things at his villa couldn't keep up. Once the number of visitors reached a certain point, the crowding would also affect their experience of the flowers and cause all sorts of problems.
He might even have to limit the number of tickets sold each day by then.
Maybe he was the only one who worried about having too many visitors.
Gao Yaoyao continued, "Boss, there's another problem. There are too many people, and the two security guards can't keep an eye on the sea of flowers. Today, we already caught a visitor throwing pebbles at Little Squirrel."
Qin Lin sighed.
There were always some people who slipped through the cracks of civility training. He could only tell Chen Dabe, "Go on a local online forum for veterans this afternoon and post an ad for security guards. After that, your security department will get a share of the bonus, too. I'll decide how much later."
"Of course, Boss!" Chen Dabe immediately responded with delight.
Being the security captain was getting more and more rewarding. His team kept growing, and that made him work even harder to prove himself. He immediately went to fetch a watering can and water the watermelon seeds.
Qin Lin left the main hall and saw that all the Quality 1 okra and Quality 1 strawberries from the game had indeed sold out. The more than twenty Quality 2 watermelons, however, had attracted few buyers. They weren't available by the slice, and each watermelon cost over 1,000 yuan.
When people went out to have fun, they didn't mind spending a little at a time, letting the costs add up to two thousand yuan without feeling it. But asking ordinary visitors to spend 1,000 yuan all at once was too much.
Around noon, Qin Lin checked the visitor log.
They had already served 321 people that morning. Most had come after seeing the videos online, and tickets to the Bougainvillea Sea alone had brought in 16,050 yuan.
Moreover, all the Quality 1 okra and Quality 1 strawberries he had brought over that morning, along with the 10 pounds of Quality 2 okra, had sold out, bringing in 43,350 yuan.
The rest of the revenue added up to another 21,476 yuan.
That morning's revenue had already topped 80,000 yuan, and most of it had cost him nothing.
That was because he hadn't yet figured out how to fully tap into the visitors' spending power. He needed to come up with more things for them to spend money on.
The vegetable garden at the villa could still keep up with demand for now.
For fruit, he would have to contact wholesalers and buy more ordinary fruit to meet the coming surge in visitors. The game's produce alone probably wouldn't be enough.
The fish in the pond were another matter. The ones he caught in the game each day were nowhere near enough, so he'd have to contact seafood wholesalers, too.
Then there was the 30-acre Bougainvillea Sea. It could only accommodate so many visitors, so before it reached its crowding limit, he would have to develop other attractions to spread them out.
The planned rafting project had to get underway right away.
Otherwise, once the number of visitors reached a certain point, they would have to queue for ages just to see the flowers. That would be awkward.
Before you continue