Days passed by, and Li Haochen's smile grew wider. This was because he had new breakfast shops and late-night snack stalls cooperating with him every day. As these individual clients accumulated, their combined sales were not inferior to those of the twelve Dongyang Fast Food stores.
With the rise in sales, the village factory added another production line. This increased production capacity provided several more jobs for the villagers.
Feeling the factory's efficiency gradually improving, everyone was full of energy. They cleared mountain land and planted bamboo. Vast expanses of mountainous terrain were transforming, promising great hope in a few years.
During this period, Alon was arguably the busiest, working from morning till night, but without any complaints. He had unwavering faith in Li Haochen's character, believing that with continued effort, he would reap significant rewards in the future.
Li Haochen was aware of Alon's pressure. To alleviate it, he transferred Axian to assist him and also brought their girlfriends into the team.
The offer was readily accepted; it would have been foolish not to. A starting salary of three thousand yuan a month was much better than their previous jobs as supermarket service staff, comparable to a teacher's income, albeit without the provident fund. Moreover, it allowed them to keep an eye on their men, a win-win situation.
Li Haochen was the happiest. This quartet would now handle the loading, unloading, delivery, and sales, freeing him from the overwhelming workload. This would allow him more time to focus on his Butterfly Bay's grand cage and spatial development.
Aside from the chopsticks project that was smoothly handed off, the bamboo poles for farming mussels were also completely installed. Once the mussels were attached, a steady stream of income would follow.
To free up manpower, the conch store would no longer have Gu Xiaonian fighting a lone battle. Li Haochen brought his girlfriend, Luo Xiaoling, to join him, entrusting them with the management of the store.
With Luo Xiaoling's transfer, "Yipin Stewed Soup" lost a valuable employee. Liu Zijun was unhappy about this, leading to a phone call that lasted almost an hour and showed no signs of stopping.
This put Li Haochen in a difficult spot. He had to shell out money to appease her – a bag costing tens of thousands of yuan. Being a boss was not easy.
One morning, Li Haochen entered his spatial realm. Many of the coconut saplings inside had already grown to knee height. If they weren't planted soon, their roots would deepen, making them difficult to transplant.
He spent two hours bringing this batch of saplings out of the space, amounting to at least four to five thousand. This was enough to plant in two villages.
For every sapling that grew, a new one was planted, ensuring no delay in the subsequent progress. Of course, Li Haochen could have accelerated this process if he had abandoned other tasks and focused solely on seedling cultivation.
However, this would have been a net loss. The spatial sea was his foundation, so he decisively abandoned that idea.
Busy with work, the morning passed quickly. When he emerged for lunch, he called Li Rendong to come and pick up the coconut saplings and the chopsticks produced during this period. After all, the warehouse was cleared, and there was plenty of space.
By evening, the entire afternoon had been spent replacing the bait boxes in Butterfly Bay with mussels.
After some time, many fish had been lured in. The area now teemed with fish. Li Haochen encountered many as he swam over. Most were black sea bream, yellow sea bream, and sea bass. There were also groupers and rockfish, but not in large numbers.
Transforming Butterfly Bay into a giant cage was a brilliant idea, far more satisfying than fishing at sea. With the allure of the spatial divine bait and mussels, many fish entered daily.
During the fishing ban period, when there were no fishing boats operating multiple times a day outside, Butterfly Bay would become a super treasure trove.
The villagers of Dalong Village had once laughed at him. Now, he thought, it was best to quietly amass wealth, heh heh!
As the sun rose and set, time flew by unnoticed until the holiday arrived. Bus stations, train stations, high-speed rail stations, and even bus stops were filled with young men and women carrying large backpacks or dragging suitcases. Li Haochen was among them.
“Did you bring a power bank?”
“What about the data cable?”
“Brought it, brought it. You’re more nagging than a mother.”
At the entrance of the train station, Murong Yanran smoothed Li Haochen's collar, stood on her tiptoes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and chattered her instructions. This was followed by a long kiss. Such a scene was not uncommon within the train station.
“It’s only a few days. When the time comes, you’ll need to board. Go back, and remember to water the vegetables.”
“Only a few days?” Li Haochen said this aloud, but his action of looking back every three steps clearly showed his reluctance to part. Murong Yanran stood rooted to the spot, watching the train depart before returning to her hotel.
On the train, he found his assigned seat by the window, which was good for admiring the passing scenery and preventing boredom.
He stowed his backpack in the overhead luggage rack and sat down, putting on his wireless headphones to listen to music.
A rustling sound came from beside him. Turning his head, he saw a young beautiful woman tiptoeing to place her luggage in the rack. Her midriff-baring t-shirt was pulled up high, exposing a large expanse of fair skin and her cute navel.
“Let me help you!”
Seeing her struggle to reach, Li Haochen stood up and voluntarily pushed her suitcase into the rack. What else could he do? She was a beauty, after all, and he had to play the gentleman.
“Thank you!”
“You’re welcome!”
The girl was quite lively and bold, matching her attire.
She had been actively striking up conversations with Li Haochen, asking anything and everything. Her boldness made Li Haochen click his tongue in amazement. He learned from their conversation that her name was Zhao Xiaomin, a freshman at the Conservatory of Music, also heading to Jinyuan.
She was quite a conversationalist. They had been driving for an hour, and thankfully, she grew tired after a while. Otherwise, she might have pestered him with chatter all the way to Jinyuan.
The journey to Jinyuan was long, over ten hours. Li Haochen zoned out for a while before closing his eyes to rest, eventually dozing off.
When he awoke, they had arrived at the transfer station. The woman beside him was no longer in her seat, but her luggage remained. She was quite carefree not to worry about it being taken.
Li Haochen wanted to use the restroom, but with both their luggage in the rack, it was inconvenient to leave.
Fortunately, Zhao Xiaomin returned shortly, holding two boxed meals. “Here, this one’s for you. Thanks for earlier!”
“Thanks!”
Li Haochen was indeed hungry and graciously accepted the meal, thanked her, and then went to the restroom.
Upon his return, he brought two bottles of drinks. It was only polite to reciprocate.
After they ate, they chatted for a while longer before resting again, as there was still a significant distance to cover.
“Dear passengers, the train is about to arrive at Jinyuan South Station…”
An announcement sounded as they disembarked and walked out of the station.
As soon as they emerged, a black and white Land Rover Defender pulled up beside them. A rather young and handsome man stepped out of the car.
“Brother!”
Zhao Xiaomin ran over and hugged the man tightly, causing him to blush. He quickly broke free, “Aren’t you embarrassed? Still acting like this at your age.”
“Tsk, no wonder you don't have a girlfriend yet. So uptight.”
“Haochen, let’s go, get in the car. I’ll get you a hotel room.”
“Pfft~”
“Pfft~”