I Can Stock Up in the Game

Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Wholesaling 1000 Jin Today

Zhang Lin received a game notification and checked the game interface in his mind.

He opened the market interface. As expected, the wholesale quantity for honey peaches hadn’t refreshed yet. The daily refresh wouldn’t happen until the next day.

The milestone progress had increased slightly to 0.5%.

Time passed. Amidst the shouts from the loudspeaker, the honey peach sales remained booming. By 3 PM, all 500 pounds of honey peaches wholesaled for the day had been sold.

This proved his strategy was a success.

After accounting for the samples given to customers, his balance reached 13,372.50 yuan once the entire batch of honey peaches was sold!

After deducting the cost and the peaches used for samples, the profit from 500 pounds of honey peaches was over 11,000 yuan!

Seeing these figures, Zhang Lin excitedly clenched his fists!

To put it in perspective, most people in You City didn’t even earn 11,000 yuan a month, yet he had made that much in profit in a single day.

Moreover, tomorrow he could wholesale 1,000 pounds of honey peaches, and his profit would double.

”Boss, you said the job included room and board when I was hired!” Liu De reminded Zhang Lin as he was cleaning up the cart stall.

Zhang Lin knew the hiring details must have been adjusted by the game system, so he agreed to honor the room and board agreement.

That was easy enough to arrange.

His dad had already built some prefabricated steel houses over at Li Yuan Farm. One was used as an office, and the other nine were intended as employee dorms. With 2,000 acres of land to develop, he would definitely need to hire many workers in the future.

Prefabricated steel houses were fast to build, taking only about ten days, and were very cheap. They were usually the top choice for construction sites, and they had become his dad’s top choice when starting his business as well.

Before his dad passed away, he had already set up water and electricity for the steel houses, which made things convenient for him. He could just arrange for Liu De, the employee hired through the game, to move right in.

So, Zhang Lin took Liu De straight to the supermarket. He spent over 4,000 yuan purchasing more than a dozen kinds of daily necessities like blankets, pillows, spare work clothes, towels, mugs, toothbrushes, shampoo, toothpaste, and fans.

An employee manifested out of thin air by the game was definitely different from one hired in the real world. He had to provide all the necessities.

Besides, he’d have to hire more employees later on. Once the 2,000 acres were developed, he’d need to hire a lot of staff. He couldn’t go shopping every time he hired someone new!

Since he had the game system to recruit employees, he definitely wouldn’t be hiring from the real world.

At least with employees from the game system, he didn’t have to worry about loyalty. Plus, he wouldn’t have to worry about them exposing his secret of wholesaling goods from the game.

Afterward, he spent another 2,000-plus yuan on appliances, kitchen tools, vegetables, and rice.

After this flurry of activity, his balance was down to just over 7,100 yuan.

Only then did Zhang Lin drive the three-wheeled cargo truck back to Li Yuan Farm with all the supplies. While passing through a street, he saw a honey peach vendor arguing with an old man. The old man seemed to have a short fuse, as he was smashing the vendor’s honey peaches on the ground.

A loudspeaker at the honey peach stall was blaring: ”Come one, come all, don’t miss out! The new variety of honey peaches from Baihui Farm, developed with a huge investment, is now on trial sale! The flavor and texture are far superior to all other honey peaches on the market! You won’t find them anywhere else in the world...”

Hearing the loudspeaker, Zhang Lin instinctively hit the brakes.

’Why does that promotional slogan sound so familiar?’

”Boss, he’s copying you!” Liu De’s astonished voice rang out.

Zhang Lin recognized him then. ’Isn’t that the vendor from the market earlier?’

Not only had the guy stolen his slogan—merely swapping ”Li Yuan Farm” for ”Baihui Farm”—he had even copied the price: 30 yuan per pound.

The man had left suddenly before; it turned out he had just moved to a different spot to play copycat.

It just seemed like the other guy hadn’t sold a single peach from his whole cart.

”Everyone, come and see! I’ve never seen such a shameless fruit seller! How dare he sell these crappy peaches for 30 yuan a pound?” The hot-tempered old man was still cursing as he finished smashing the fruit. ”He claims the flavor and texture are better than any other peach on the market. I tried one, and it was nothing special, but he won’t even let me tell the truth. What a crook!”

The commotion had already drawn a large crowd. The stall owner, apparently frustrated, actually gave the old man a shove.

To everyone’s surprise, the old man went right down with the push and started shouting, ”Ouch! He’s hitting me! My whole body hurts...”

”...” Zhang Lin was left speechless by the scene.

’That old man’s move was wild.’

’Still, watching the vendor,’ he thought, ’the man deserved it. If this guy’s antics ruined his own name, it could end up affecting my business too.’

’Did this guy really think my promotional gimmick was just a gimmick?’

’A gimmick is just to attract people. The real substance is that the texture and flavor truly are far superior to any other peach on the market.’

’It was just like in college when a rich second-generation kid won over the campus queen with a bicycle. She posted on her Friends Circle about how romantic it was, and then a bunch of other guys copied him, thinking they could create a romantic moment for their own dream girls just by using a bike.’

’What they didn’t get was that the key factor was being a ”rich second-generation kid,” not the bicycle.’

’When a rich kid woos the campus queen on a bike, it’s romantic. When an ordinary guy tries to pick up a girl on a bike, he’s just a loser.’

’It was the same with this promotion. My peaches came from the game, boosted with three attributes: Deliciousness +1, Texture +1, and Sweetness +1. That made my idea brilliant, a great strategy. But for this vendor to pull the same stunt with ordinary peaches? That was just being a fucking crook.’

Zhang Lin watched the crowd around the stall grow larger and larger, then just shook his head and restarted the truck.

Back at Li Yuan Farm, he and Liu De cleaned up the prefabricated steel houses. They set up two rooms, one for each of them.

The appliances, vegetables, rice, and other items were placed in the makeshift kitchen.

After that, he took Liu De to water the five-acre plot his dad had developed.

His dad had already planted vegetables on these five acres—mainly two common types, bok choy and water spinach. Since his dad’s passing, the vegetables had been largely neglected. Fortunately, a recent light drizzle had kept them from withering away completely.

The products wholesaled from the game were manifested out of thin air. Although it wouldn’t seem strange to a game-recruited employee like Liu De, he still needed a cover story for the outside world.

He would have to develop all 2,000 acres of the farm eventually, if only as a cover.

Besides, developing the farmland also contributed to a milestone. He could get the first milestone reward just by developing ten acres.

By the time the two of them finished watering all the vegetables, the sun had set.

After returning to the prefabricated house, Zhang Lin got a call from his mom and rode his scooter back home for dinner.

As for Liu De, with appliances and ingredients all prepared, he could cook for himself.

...

「The next day」

Zhang Lin woke up bright and early and immediately checked the game interface in his mind. He opened the market and saw that the wholesale quantity for honey peaches had refreshed.

Wholesale products available at current level:

1. Honey Peaches (Quality 1), Wholesale Price: 4 yuan/pound, Available Quantity: 1000 pounds/day!

Just as he’d thought. After completing the milestone for earning 10,000 yuan in profit yesterday, the wholesale quantity for honey peaches had increased to 1,000 pounds.

The thought of yesterday’s profit spurred him into action, and he quickly got up to wash.

His mom had already prepared breakfast. He ate it hastily, then went out and rode his scooter to the farm.

When he arrived at the prefabricated house at the farm and parked his scooter, Liu De had just finished breakfast and was washing the dishes. Although he was a worker recruited from the game, he lived and acted just like a real person.

”Morning, Boss!” Liu De saw Zhang Lin and quickly greeted him respectfully.

”Mhm,” Zhang Lin nodded and went straight to the warehouse. He then looked at the game screen, opened the market, and chose to wholesale all 1,000 pounds of honey peaches.

”Card ending in ****: 4,000 yuan paid via China Merchants Bank at 7:30 on June 3. Balance: 3,134.52 yuan.”

In the blink of an eye, his balance dropped to just over 3,000 yuan. But these 1,000 pounds of honey peaches would let him earn much more.

A game notification appeared:

[Congratulations! You have spent 4,000 yuan to wholesale 1,000 pounds of Honey Peaches (Quality 1). The Honey Peaches (Quality 1) have been manifested and stored in the warehouse. Click to view!]

This time, Zhang Lin didn’t need to click to view, because in that instant, orbs of light appeared before his eyes. Within the light, crate after crate of honey peaches materialized out of thin air in the warehouse.

In a moment, the entire warehouse was once again filled with the unique, fresh fragrance of honey peaches.

Zhang Lin immediately picked up a few at random to check their attributes. Just like yesterday’s, they all had the three attribute bonuses.

He washed one and took a bite, relieved to find it was still just as delicious and fragrant, with a superb texture.

He called Liu De over to help him load the crates of honey peaches onto the three-wheeled cargo truck. However, they only loaded half of them.

It was true that the truck could carry a maximum of two tons, but its cargo space was limited. Half of the peaches, 500 pounds’ worth, nearly filled it.

Afterward, he drove off into the county town and went to yesterday’s spot. He once again set up the printed promotional poster and turned on the loudspeaker: ”Come one, come all, don’t miss out...”

With the slogan blaring, the day’s business officially began.

But when the first customer appeared, Zhang Lin’s face fell. He even felt a sense of dread.

It was an old man, striding forward with his chest puffed out.

’Fuck, isn’t that the hot-tempered old man who was arguing with the other vendor yesterday and then flopped on the ground?’

Right then, Zhang Lin really wanted to scream, ’Don’t you come over here!’