Becoming a Billionaire From Awakening a System

Chapter 263: Chapter 262: This Is Our Bargaining Chip and Confidence

”I really didn’t expect this. It’s an incredible, pleasant surprise!”

Liu Bowen’s eyes lit up.

For Liu Bowen, these stunning photos of Cyan Mountain Town had brought him a huge amount of attention.

In a way, this was ushering in a second spring for his career.

Although the officials had already responded,

Liu Bowen still stuck to his old work habits.

He picked a few comments to reply to.

”This is Cyan Mountain Town in Bin City!”

”It’s a very peaceful little town!”

”I felt a rare sense of peace here. Everyone is welcome to come and see it for themselves!”

By evening, the buzz surrounding the photos of Cyan Mountain Town had mostly died down.

It had also dropped from number one on the trending list to somewhere in the forties.

But following Liu Bowen’s replies,

the search volume gradually began to soar again.

Liu Bowen was a social media influencer.

Across various platforms, he had a total of about five to six million followers.

He had made this post on the platform where he had the most followers.

For an influencer who had never bought fake engagement or followers,

having nearly one to two million active fans out of five or six million was significant. While the traffic these fans could generate was limited, it could still make some waves.

During the day, Liu Bowen had already experienced the tranquility of Cyan Mountain Town.

His mind had gradually grown calm.

But then this exciting development happened in the evening.

So, Liu Bowen didn’t sleep that night.

Although some of Liu Bowen’s photos had made it onto the trending lists before,

they were usually ranked around the thirties or forties.

The buzz would typically die down in just an hour or two.

All things considered, this was the first time Liu Bowen had ever maintained this level of buzz for so long.

He felt a rush of passion and excitement he hadn’t experienced in a long time.

Furthermore, Liu Bowen had once studied in Cyan Mountain Town for a period of time.

So he felt a certain sense of belonging to the town.

Therefore, deep down, Liu Bowen also hoped that more people would come to see Cyan Mountain Town.

Zheng Yan, the top official in Cyan Mountain Town, also saw Liu Bowen’s replies.

Liu Bowen wasn’t the only one who couldn’t sleep tonight.

The leadership team of Cyan Mountain Town was essentially spending the entire night in their offices.

They were holding an emergency meeting to discuss the opportunity this sudden buzz had created for Cyan Mountain Town.

”This is a rare opportunity for Cyan Mountain Town. Our past promotions lacked this kind of explosive traffic. Now that we have it, we must seize it!”

A determined glint flashed in Zheng Yan’s eyes.

At that moment, Cyan Mountain Town’s government staff were already working through the night to find Liu Bowen.

And Zheng Yan’s most important task now was to build the Cyan Mountain Town brand as much as possible.

”We’ve discussed tourism plans before. With this opportunity, the number of tourists coming to Cyan Mountain Town will definitely skyrocket!”

”But because our previous tourism development efforts weren’t very effective, Cyan Mountain Town’s bed-and-breakfast industry is underdeveloped, and we haven’t undertaken any large-scale commercialization.”

Zheng Yan took out a pen and paper, breaking the problem down piece by piece to analyze it.

This was also the biggest headache for the team right now.

People attracted by the photos would choose to visit Cyan Mountain Town, but if the town gave them a poor travel experience,

the buzz around Cyan Mountain Town would quickly fade, and it might even suffer a backlash to its reputation.

This ran completely counter to Zheng Yan’s vision of establishing Cyan Mountain Town as a premier tourist destination.

”Actually, the reason these people are coming is because of Cyan Mountain Town’s undeveloped, authentic lifestyle.”

said Zheng Yan’s deputy, Wei Shaojie, who was the current second-in-command of Cyan Mountain Town.

Wei Shaojie had just been transferred here this year, an ”airdropped” second-in-command, so to speak.

But he was young, quick-witted, and full of ideas.

When it came to tourism planning, Wei Shaojie and Zheng Yan were on the same page.

Zheng Yan often appreciated some of Wei Shaojie’s ideas.

After hearing Wei Shaojie speak up, Zheng Yan’s gaze fell on him:

”Go on. Right now, anyone can speak freely. What we need to do is brainstorm!”

With Zheng Yan’s support, Wei Shaojie laid out the idea he had been mulling over:

”Since they like Cyan Mountain Town’s authentic lifestyle and architecture, why should we commercialize the town itself?”

”The moment we commercialize it, the current way of life in Cyan Mountain Town will have to change, and its most fundamental appeal will be gone.”

As soon as Wei Shaojie finished speaking, Zheng Yan understood what he meant.

Clearly, Wei Shaojie was against any commercial development within the town proper.

But tourism involves every aspect of a visitor’s stay—food, lodging, and transportation.

Each of these things contributes to the overall visitor experience.

Without commercial development, how could Cyan Mountain Town possibly accommodate all these tourists?

If visitors don’t stay overnight, how much hotel tax revenue would Cyan Mountain Town lose each year?

So, not pursuing commercial development was clearly impossible.

And yet, Wei Shaojie was against commercial development within Cyan Mountain Town.

Zheng Yan’s mind raced, and he quickly grasped the key to the problem.

His eyes widened as he looked at Wei Shaojie in surprise and said, ”Are you talking about that plot of land from before?”

Wei Shaojie nodded with a smile as the regional planning map of Cyan Mountain Town was projected onto the large screen in the conference room.

The plot of land owned by Lin Feng was located just south of the town.

It wasn’t far from the town. If they built a pedestrian commercial street between the plot of land and the southern entrance of Cyan Mountain Town,

and then developed Lin Feng’s plot of land into a tourist-focused commercial zone,

wouldn’t that be the perfect solution?

Wei Shaojie took a marker, lightly circled the plot of land owned by Lin Feng, and said:

”This is the best option for development!”

The gazes of the other members of the leadership team also fell upon that plot of land.

Wei Shaojie cleared his throat lightly and said, ”This plot of land is large enough. It’s a property worth around six hundred million.”

”If it were fully developed, it would be about a quarter of the size of Cyan Mountain Town. If this were developed into a commercial district...”

Wei Shaojie paused here. Seeing that everyone’s eyes were fixed on the large screen behind him, he then continued,

”If this were a commercial district, it could completely handle the tourist crowds even during the Celestial Dynasty’s peak travel season. It would be perfectly suited for the large influx of tourists to come.”

Zheng Yan was completely convinced by Wei Shaojie.

Because looking closely at the map, there was indeed no place more suitable than this plot of land.

After a hundred years of development, Cyan Mountain Town’s existing regional plan had already formed a well-organized, picturesque layout.

If they forcibly carved out a commercial district within these areas, it would alter Cyan Mountain Town’s current environment.

Such an approach would clearly be unwise.

When the first wave of tourists arrived and discovered that the place they were visiting didn’t match the photos they had seen online,

Cyan Mountain Town’s reputation would suffer.

But if they planned the commercial district outside the town,

they could preserve Cyan Mountain Town’s original character and appearance to the greatest extent possible,

and they could also provide tourists with a better experience.

Zheng Yan glanced at the other members of the team and saw that no one seemed to have any objections.

Moreover, this was an idea Wei Shaojie had been mulling over ever since they first started discussing tourism plans for Cyan Mountain Town.

So, it was clear from his explanation that it was already a very well-developed concept.

No one else had any alternative suggestions to offer.

So, after waiting for a moment, Zheng Yan slapped the table and declared, ”I fully agree with Wei Shaojie’s idea! Developing this plot of land would obviously be much better!”

However, at that very moment, Zheng Yan’s secretary silently produced a file and placed it in front of him.

Zheng Yan opened the file with some confusion and glanced through it.

”What?”

”This plot of land was already sold by Boss Tian?”

Zheng Yan was, after all, the number-one official in Cyan Mountain Town.

For minor matters like a land transfer, as long as both parties agreed and the paperwork was in order, the subordinate departments would naturally approve it.

Zheng Yan normally wouldn’t concern himself with such things.

It was only because of the tourism development plan and the recent explosion of traffic for Cyan Mountain Town,

that he had paid any attention to this plot of land.

If it were still the previous owner, Boss Tian, negotiating with him would have been much simpler.

After all, Boss Tian was one of Cyan Mountain Town’s major taxpayers.

But now the land had been transferred into the hands of someone named Lin Feng.

Moreover, this Lin Feng wasn’t even in Bin City. According to the file, this person named Lin Feng had done nothing with the land after purchasing it.

It seemed a bit like he was hoarding the land.

So-called land hoarding is when a rich second-generation heir or an investor buys a large plot of land, almost like a gamble,

waiting for it to appreciate in value in the future.

Wei Shaojie had clearly known about the land’s ownership for some time.

He was the one in charge when the residents had previously filed complaints.

”There’s no need to worry about any of that. We can find this Lin Feng and have a good talk with him. The best outcome would be for us, acting in an official capacity, to buy the land from him.”

Wei Shaojie said to Zheng Yan after thinking for a moment.

Zheng Yan nodded. ”That does seem to be one solution, but what if this person refuses to sell the land to us?”

It wasn’t an impossible scenario. What if the owner had bought the land for some other purpose?

He might not be willing to sell!

That was where the trouble lay.

So, Zheng Yan thought for a moment and continued, ”Let’s try to negotiate with him first. If that doesn’t work, we’ll try to persuade him to invest in developing a tourist commercial zone there.”

At this point, Zheng Yan pointed to the printouts of the photos Liu Bowen had taken.

”This is our negotiating capital and our leverage!”