Wu Jun finally understood why Rong Rong hadn’t used the tissue he offered her earlier.
He’d thought the girl was just being cautious, but...
It was past eleven at night by the time he dropped off Ma Siyu and got back to his new villa.
After washing up, Wu Jun went back to his bedroom and took out the phone linked to [Resource Tycoon]. He harvested the in-game output, adding another 100 tons to his inventory.
He had lost 74 Farmers and 9.2 acres of rice paddies in last night’s [Resource Guardian] mission, a loss of 1.3 million yuan. Wu Jun still winced just thinking about it.
Bleeding millions every week wasn’t sustainable. Losing the money was one thing, but if he was unlucky enough to fail a mission one day, these days of what felt like picking up free money would be over for good.
Wu Jun had tried to think of solutions, but nothing had worked.
He’d tried to arm the in-game Farmers, equipping them from head to toe with full armor, large machetes, and even powerful crossbows he’d bought from a private seller.
However, as soon as a Farmer was recalled into the game, they reverted to their original state. The equipment couldn’t be kept, making it completely ineffective.
To truly fortify his defenses, he had to push harder to sell rice. He needed to sell 10,000 tons to meet the upgrade requirement and level up his main base.
Wu Jun opened the in-game quests and took a look. He had already met two of the upgrade conditions.
The requirement of 100 Farmers and 16.5 acres of rice paddies was something he could now handle with ease.
The difficult part was the last condition: selling 10,000 tons of rice produced by the game.
The game’s maximum production capacity was 100 tons a day. Even if he could sell all of it every day, completing the 10,000-ton task would take a hundred days—more than three months.
What’s more, when he was working alone, he had sold less than 100 tons in an entire month, which had significantly delayed his in-game progress.
Right now, he had only completed 2,689 tons of the 10,000-ton task, not even a third of the total amount.
After the price of Hongyun Rice was raised to 20 yuan a pound, daily sales dropped by half compared to when it was 5 yuan a pound.
Before, he could sell up to 80 tons a day. Now, he was maxing out at 40 tons a day.
Although he was selling less, he was making even more money than before. Excluding the rice bought by VIP customers at the original price, he was bringing in over 1.3 million yuan a day. That, at least, was something to be happy about.
However, compared to making more money, Wu Jun felt that sales volume was more important. The sooner he completed the 10,000-ton rice task and upgraded, the more at ease he would be.
During his week off, he had come up with some of his own ideas for increasing sales.
This past week, they had been busy preparing for Maruko’s 1,000-ton order, so there wasn’t much inventory in the warehouse. That’s why Wu Jun hadn’t mentioned his ideas to Dong Lizhu yet.
Though he was supposedly a hands-off boss, he had no shortage of things on his mind.
After maximizing daily sales, he also needed to find time to sort out the issue of the rice’s origin.
He’d been wanting to deal with this for a while, but he kept getting interrupted by all sorts of random things popping up.
Seeing it was getting late, Wu Jun put down his phone and went to sleep.
He slept until past eight in the morning.
One of the nice things about moving out of the small supermarket and living on his own was being able to sleep in.
After getting out of bed, Wu Jun first ordered breakfast delivery on his phone, then slipped on his shoes and went to the bathroom to wash up.
Just as he finished washing up, the delivery arrived—perfect timing.
After breakfast, Wu Jun left the house and strolled toward the company office.
"Good morning, Mr. Wu! It’s been a while. Thank you for the gift," the young receptionist greeted him as soon as he walked in, shaking a bracelet on her wrist.
Wu Jun smiled and asked, "Do you like the gift?"
These bracelets weren’t the one-yuan-a-piece junk you’d buy from an online marketplace. Each one cost over 600 yuan. While not overly expensive, they weren’t so cheap as to be embarrassing, either. It was a pretty generous gift for the company’s employees.
Wu Jun was a boss now, after all. He couldn’t bring himself to fob off the young women at his company with cheap trinkets. He’d rather not give any gift at all.
The receptionist said with a grin, "I’d like anything Mr. Wu gives me."
"Has Ms. Dong come in yet?" Wu Jun asked with a shake of his head and a smile. ’These sweet girls at the company are too easily pleased.’
The receptionist said, "Ms. Dong and Manager Ma just went upstairs."
"Got it," Wu Jun replied and headed for the stairs.
On the second floor, Wu Jun went straight to Dong Lizhu’s office and knocked on the door.
After waiting for nearly half a minute, he finally heard Dong Lizhu’s voice telling him to come in.
As soon as he entered, Wu Jun saw Ma Chaoyun sitting awkwardly on the sofa against the wall, while Dong Lizhu was behind her desk, straightening her clothes.
"Oh, Uncle, you’re here too," Wu Jun said as he entered, greeting Ma Chaoyun.
"AHEM, Wu Jun, you’re in the office today! Well, if there’s nothing else, I’ll be heading out." Ma Chaoyun stood up awkwardly and turned to leave.
"Wu Jun, did you have fun on your trip these past few days?" Dong Lizhu greeted him, also looking slightly embarrassed.
She had been given an important position by her nephew, and her work was going smoothly. She no longer had to walk on eggshells around anyone and was earning much more money.
Dong Lizhu, whose career had reached a new peak, was looking better and better, seemingly growing younger by the day. She had completely overcome the problem of her premature menopause.
And now, she was even enjoying a little office romance with Ma Chaoyun. Wu Jun saw it all, inwardly amused. ’As long as it doesn’t affect their work, I can turn a blind eye to this sort of thing.’
The Ma Family had many daughters but only one son, Ma Chaoyun. In rural areas, it’s traditional for elderly parents to live with their son.
When their mother was alive, Dong Lizhu, the daughter-in-law, had done just as much for her as her own three daughters, if not more.
Back then, when Ma Siyu was in college, she had also lived with her sister-in-law. The whole family was squeezed into a small apartment, but Dong Lizhu never complained.
This aunt of his deserved respect. That was why after they had resolved their conflict in the hospital room last time, Wu Jun not only held no grudge against her but had even promoted her unconventionally.
While he was away from the company, Dong Lizhu had kept the business running in perfect order and had even overseen the completion of that huge 1,000-ton order for Ueshiba Maruko, proving her capabilities to Wu Jun.
"It was great fun," Wu Jun said with a wink, his words carrying a double meaning. He walked over to the sofa and sat down where Ma Chaoyun had just been sitting.
Dong Lizhu coughed lightly to hide her embarrassment. ’Ma Chaoyun is going to be kneeling on the washboard tonight!’
Wu Jun changed the subject. "It felt really good to get away and relax. Auntie, you should organize something for the employees when you have time. Team-building events are popular now, right? We should keep up with the times."
"That’s a great idea." Dong Lizhu, relieved to be free of the awkward atmosphere, smiled and said, "The girls downstairs have been wanting an outing for ages. Now that you, the big boss, have given the word, I’ll pick a date. Oh, by the way, Wu Jun, how’s your father’s recovery? Things have been so busy at the company that I haven’t had a chance to visit."
"He’s doing well. I stopped by after I got back yesterday, and he can already get up and walk around." After a bit of small talk and catching up, Wu Jun got down to business.
Wu Jun said, "Auntie, could you start recruiting some people? Look online, at job fairs, or even at the universities. We need a few graphic designers, clerks, illustrators, and customer service reps."
Hearing this, Dong Lizhu instantly understood what he was getting at.
"Are we opening an online store?" Dong Lizhu asked, seeking confirmation.
"Exactly. We need to tackle both online and offline sales," Wu Jun said. "Later, I’ll have Chen Lin go and register our online storefront."