"Mr. Chen, Mr. Ma, we're not offering memberships or reservations just yet." Qin Lin could only respond awkwardly.
Memberships at a tourist attraction? Was that a joke?
Unless he came up with a project aimed at high-end customers someday.
Ma Liewen could only say regretfully, "Boss Qin, you're leaving me with nowhere to spend my money even when I want to. It's ruining the experience!"
Chen Shengfei offered a suggestion. "Boss Qin, your villa isn't fully developed yet. I've noticed that a lot of the land here is still unused. You could easily solve the accommodation problem. You get quite a few visitors now."
Qin Lin had actually been planning this for a while.
When he was planning the rafting project, he'd also considered building some other facilities, including accommodations. Those were essential for any tourist attraction.
But funding and permits were both problems, so he'd have to take it one step at a time.
He should find some time to get the permits for the rafting project first.
Chen Shengfei and Ma Liewen had thoroughly enjoyed their meal, and it had cost them a pretty penny: one Quality 2 watermelon for 1,300 yuan, two jin of Quality 2 strawberries for 400, two jin of Quality 2 okra for 800, two jin of Quality 2 Chinese yams for 800, and two jin of Quality 2 broccoli for 800.
One 11.5-jin Quality 2 crucian carp cost 4,600 yuan. Altogether, the meal came to 10,700 yuan.
Spending over ten thousand yuan on a single meal was beyond the imagination of ordinary tourists.
But for Chen Shengfei and Ma Liewen, it seemed like nothing out of the ordinary. After lunch, they strolled around the villa to walk off their meal.
The villa only had one attraction, the Bougainvillea Sea, so the two of them could only head inside.
Sure enough, they were captivated by the flower garden.
No one could resist the effects of the game's stat bonuses.
Chen Shengfei said in surprise, "Old Ma, I have to admit, this flower garden is really beautiful."
Ma Liewen asked in astonishment, "Old Chen, didn't you come in to see it last time?"
Chen Shengfei explained, "Last time I was focused on eating, and then I had an urgent matter to deal with, so I went back."
The two of them had vacationed in many places and visited all kinds of tourist destinations. They'd seen every kind of scenery, but even with their discerning eyes, they'd never been drawn in the moment they stepped into a place like this. And the sense of ease that came from seeing such beautiful scenery was truly magical.
Qin Lin's attention was also caught by a few visitors. They were all young ladies dressed in Hanfu, buying tickets to enter the flower garden.
They had clearly come prepared to shoot videos and take photos in the flower garden.
There were even more visitors at the villa today than yesterday.
The buzz on Douyin was still going strong, and it was even growing.
As Qin Ren put it, the Bougainvillea Sea had blown up Douyin's traffic pool and become a genuine internet-famous attraction.
Especially once visitors started coming to check it out, almost every one of them filmed videos. Quite a few uploaded them to ride the wave of popularity, and the videos all looked beautiful and atmospheric, making them easy to promote.
It was simply incredible!
So now, the Bougainvillea Sea itself had become a source of traffic. For some time to come, the platform would keep promoting it and make it a trending topic, just as it had with the Tumbler Girl, Brother Pomegranate, and Dingzhen.
These days, the internet was cracking down on online celebrities and emphasizing positive energy. Douyin didn't dare promote this sort of online celebrity too brazenly to create trending topics anymore. But a flower garden was just scenery, so there was nothing to crack down on. The platform could promote it without restraint.
That meant even more people would be drawn to Qinglin Villa in the coming period. The numbers might even soar.
As for how long the trend would last, that depended on how Qin Lin promoted the villa and kept it in the public eye. It might last only a week or two, or it might go on for much longer.
For example, the Tumbler Girl's approach hadn't been as effective as Brother Pomegranate's. During her traffic boom, the Tumbler Girl gained over 1.5 million followers. Brother Pomegranate, on the other hand, was clever. He cultivated an approachable persona, showed off his foreign-language skills to people filming videos, and promoted agricultural products. His traffic boom lasted longer and burned brighter, earning him over three million followers.
As for Dingzhen, a poor county needed him to attract attention, and the Sichuan provincial government's tourism bureau helped build up the hype. As a result, he gained nearly ten million followers.
Qin Ren's suggestion was to set up an official self-media account for the villa on Douyin first. That would make it easier to turn this wave of attention into traffic for the villa itself.
In this internet age, as long as you had attention and followers, you'd never have to worry about a lack of customers.
Take Brother Pomegranate, for example. He'd gone quiet on Douyin now, right? You could hardly find any of his videos. But he still had all those followers, and he continued to earn several million yuan a year with ease.
By evening,
Qin Lin had harvested the mature Quality 1 okra, Chinese yams, and broccoli and delivered them to the villa again.
When night fell, Chen Shengfei and Ma Liewen stayed at the villa for dinner once more.
That evening, they ordered another wild grass carp weighing over twenty jin.
The meal came to 9,800 yuan. They'd spent 20,500 yuan on two meals at the villa.
More than twenty thousand yuan for two meals—anyone who didn't know better would have thought the place was a rip-off.
As the visitors gradually left, Chen Shengfei took Ma Liewen with him.
They headed into the county seat, since the villa didn't have any accommodations.
Chen Shengfei took Ma Liewen to Zhongmin Hotel, the biggest hotel in Youcheng.
The moment they arrived at the front desk, a middle-aged man in the lobby looked at them in surprise. "That looks like Chen Shengfei."
Someone beside him asked in confusion, "Director Chen, you know him?"
Director Chen explained, "That's Chen Shengfei, the guy who was supposedly a plant at Qinglin Villa, which has been so popular lately. Who would've guessed he was the chairman of Blue Sea Group? A villa capable of attracting someone like him must have quite a draw."
"Besides, that Bougainvillea Sea is genuinely impressive. You've seen the data from Zhongmin Hotel. Just like the other two hotels, it's clearly had a lot more out-of-town guests staying here. They must have been drawn in to see the flower garden."
The person beside him exclaimed, "No wonder you specifically brought up Qinglin Villa at the county meeting."
At the villa,
Gao Yaoyao brought Qin Lin the day's figures.
As expected, the online buzz brought in even more visitors today, bringing the total to 923. Ticket sales for the flower garden alone had reached 47,650 yuan.
Excluding Chen Shengfei and Ma Liewen's spending, almost all of the Quality 1 okra, Quality 1 Chinese yams, and Quality 1 broccoli had sold out today, bringing in another 36,000 yuan.
There were also 610 jin of Quality 1 strawberries. Together with the Quality 2 strawberries and several Quality 2 watermelons sold, they brought in a total of 36,800 yuan.
Quality 1 wild fish, fishing rod rentals, stoves, barbecue grills, and a range of other items brought in 28,800 yuan altogether.
Wholesale fruit and seafood brought in another 16,431 yuan or so.
In other words, his revenue for the day had already reached 135,081 yuan.
Once Ma Liewen and Chen Shengfei's spending was added in, the total had broken 150,000 yuan. Daily revenue of 155,000 yuan was simply unimaginable in Youcheng.
And most of it was practically pure profit.
However, there was also a worrying problem: with visitor numbers surging like this, the flower garden would soon reach its visitor capacity, which would affect the viewing experience.
No matter how beautiful or wonderful a place was, if too many people poured in at once, its scenery would lose much of its appeal.
After Qin Lin looked over the figures, he glanced to the side. Zhao Moqing was seated at a table, seriously working on her phone.
Tomorrow was the weekend, and she'd come to help again.
"Gao Yaoyao, cut up a special-quality watermelon and bring it over," Qin Lin instructed Gao Yaoyao nearby. Then, with a smile, he sat down across from Zhao Moqing. "What are you looking at? You seem so focused."
Zhao Moqing complained, "What do you think? Your villa's self-media account. I'm using other tourist attractions' accounts as a reference to put together the profile, then I'll apply for verification. Qin Ren said that once it's verified, Douyin will prioritize promoting the villa's official account when it recommends trending content about your Bougainvillea Sea."
"Thanks for all your hard work!" When Qin Lin saw Gao Yaoyao bring over the watermelon, he took a slice himself and held it to Zhao Moqing's mouth.
"Hmph!" Seeing what Qin Lin was doing, Zhao Moqing gave a coy huff and took a bite of the watermelon.
Still, she was happy to help Qin Lin. Then she took out a sheet of information and handed it to him. "There's something else. Building a rafting project requires a lot of permits. First, you have to apply for approval from the tourism bureau. You also need a river-concession contract, a river modification permit, the relevant permits to operate a tourism project, and a land-use permit from the natural resources bureau..."
"So many permits!" Hearing Zhao Moqing list all those requirements gave Qin Lin a headache.
Things looked easy enough when you watched other people do them from the sidelines. It was only when you had to do them yourself that you realized how difficult everything was.
There were so many permits and licenses. Just running around to apply for them would be exhausting.
Zhao Moqing knew just how many permits were needed. She smiled and said, "Tomorrow's the weekend. I'll take Monday off and go with you to sort them out!"
"You're the best!" Qin Lin said.
As the two of them were talking, Chen Dabe suddenly ran in and said, "Boss, that couple who caused trouble before is back. They're outside."
"..." Qin Lin frowned.
Defamation was a private prosecution offense, but he'd already called the police before, and they'd collected evidence. The police could then forward the case to court.
There should have been some progress these past few days.
A moment later, Lin Chunlan and Jiang Hang walked in together.
Qin Lin frowned slightly. He could more or less guess why the couple had come.
Before the defamation case went to trial and a verdict was handed down, the two sides could settle privately and withdraw the police report, putting the matter to rest.
That was why so many people got away with defamation without facing legal consequences: they settled privately.
The police would certainly have explained this option to the couple as part of the procedure. They'd come to seek a private settlement.
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