After dinner, it was already 8:00 PM.
After paying the bill, Wu Jun and Chen Lin walked out of the small restaurant. He hailed a taxi for her by the roadside.
"Driver, take her to Jade City." Wu Jun took a hundred-yuan bill from his wallet and handed it to the taxi driver through the window.
"Wu Jun, no, don’t. I’ll get it." Chen Lin grabbed Wu Jun’s arm. Dinner tonight had cost over three hundred yuan; she was too embarrassed to let him pay for her taxi too.
"Alright, don’t argue over such a small amount. I’ll just deduct it from your salary." Wu Jun opened the car door for Chen Lin, nudged her into the car, and told the driver to go.
As the taxi drove away, Chen Lin looked back through the window at Wu Jun, who was still standing there. The fluttering in her heart grew stronger and stronger.
After seeing Chen Lin off, Wu Jun hailed another taxi to go to Shimen Restaurant and pick up the pickup truck he had rented.
He’d left it there after drinking last night and hadn’t driven it back. He had been so busy running around all day that it was still parked there.
After getting his pickup, he first went to the Xiao’anshe area to meet up with Xiao Hong.
Xiao Hong was eating skewers with Wu Guangkun at a night market stall. Wu Jun joined them for a few, and after he paid the bill, he said goodbye to Wu Guangkun, drove Xiao Hong to the warehouse, and summoned him back into the game.
When he got back to the building with the supermarket, it was already past nine at night, but the lights in the store were still on.
He parked the truck in front of the building, got out, locked it, and turned to walk toward the building’s entrance.
"Brother Wu, you’re back." Wu Jun had left early in the morning and been gone all day. Xu Fei hadn’t seen him at all, so she was delighted to see him and greeted him happily.
"Why aren’t you closed yet? From now on, close at 9:00." Seeing no customers in the supermarket after he entered, Wu Jun replied to Xu Fei and turned back to close the store’s door.
Xu Fei watched Wu Jun’s back and thought to herself, ’Silly Brother Wu, wasn’t I waiting for you to come back?’
After the supermarket was closed, Xu Fei reported the day’s sales to Wu Jun.
They had sold 38 bags of rice, just two bags short of a ton, bringing in 9,500 yuan. General merchandise sales were 1,580 yuan. The two combined were over ten thousand yuan.
Even though he was busy with the rental company’s location today, Wu Jun was still able to take orders on his phone. The delivery to Wang Qidong was 260 bags, bringing in over 60,000 yuan.
Between the supermarket and the warehouse, the total income for the day was over 70,000 yuan, but less than 80,000—just enough to offset the rent for the villa he leased today.
He chatted with Xu Fei for a bit, and then they each went back to their own rooms.
As soon as he entered his room, Wu Jun saw a new folding bed. The bedding was already laid out. He had a bed to sleep in tonight; no more sleeping on the floor.
’That girl Xu Fei, she really knows how to take care of her Brother Wu.’
At 10:00 PM, the game’s production was tallied: 23 tons of regular rice and 1 ton of Rare Quality Rice.
Wu Jun dumped the 70,000 yuan he had just earned today into the game, recruited 7 more Farmers, and increased his daily production to 30 tons.
He still had 38 mu of farmland, so he didn’t need to buy more. He had only lost 35 Farmers in the last [Resource Guardian] event. With his current 30 Farmers, 8 mu of rice paddies were still idle.
After finishing his in-game operations, the phone Wu Jun used for communication rang.
Wu Jun opened his phone and saw a long stream of messages in the family chat group. A bunch of people were sharing their work experiences from the day and @ing Wu Jun to report their results.
His eldest aunt’s family had visited 15 restaurants today, his youngest uncle had visited 18, and his cousin’s husband was the most impressive, having visited 25!
In a single day, the three groups had gotten Hongyun Rice into 58 restaurants—an outstanding achievement.
Wu Jun sighed in admiration. There really was strength in numbers. If he had tried to do it himself, he could have run his legs off and still not covered that many.
Wu Jun opened his phone and sent a 1,000-yuan "lucky draw" red packet to the group as encouragement.
Ma Chunmei has claimed your red packet.
Ma Dongmei has claimed your red packet.
Ma Chaoyun has claimed your red packet.
Bian Xuedao has claimed your red packet.
Wu Guangqiang has claimed your red packet...
Seeing that even his dad was able to claim a red packet, Wu Jun was moved to the verge of tears. ’He must be recovering well!’
Ma Siyu has claimed your red packet.
’Huh? Who added her to the group again?’
After claiming the red packet, everyone was ecstatic and chimed in with their thanks.
There were only about ten people in the group, so with a 1,000-yuan red packet, each person could get at least several dozen yuan.
Ma Dongmei sent a grinning emoji: "Thanks for the huge red packet, CEO Wu!"
Ma Chaoyun sent a drooling emoji: "Thanks for the huge red packet, CEO Wu!"
Qian Na: "Thanks for the huge red packet, CEO Wu!"
Dong Lizhu: "..."
Chen Xingyang: "..."
The formation was perfectly uniform, with everyone thanking CEO Wu for the huge red packet.
Until Ma Siyu spoke up, instantly breaking the formation: "Ptooey! You cheapskate, such a tiny red packet!"
Wu Jun tapped to see the details. Everyone else in the group had received tens or even hundreds of yuan. The person who got the most was Wu Guangqiang, with 321 yuan.
Ma Siyu got the least, only 0.01 yuan...
Wu Jun had to burst out laughing. He sent a message: "Ma Simai, what kind of luck do you have? To get just one cent from such a big red packet."
The others all started teasing her as well.
Ma Siyu sent a long string of fire-breathing emojis. Anyone would be pissed off to get only one cent from a 1,000-yuan red packet.
Finally, Wu Guangqiang sent the 321 yuan he’d won back to the group with a note: "This is for our fifth sister. Don’t anyone else touch it."
After claiming it, Ma Siyu sent a grinning emoji: "Thanks, brother-in-law! My brother-in-law is still the one who spoils me the most!"
Wu Guangqiang: "It’s your third sister. Your brother-in-law is asleep."
Everyone: "..."
Wu Jun: "..."
Ma Siyu sent a string of nervous-sweat emojis: "Thanks, my third sister!"
Watching his family laugh, joke, and chat up a storm, Wu Jun felt very gratified. Their bond was clearly much stronger than before.
"Brother Wu, I’m done showering. It’s your turn." There was a knock on his door, and Xu Fei’s voice came from outside.
"Got it, I’m on my way." Wu Jun rolled off the folding bed and went to take a shower.
After his shower, feeling refreshed and clear-headed, he put down his phone and went to sleep.
「The next morning.」
The moment Wu Jun opened his eyes, he heard someone moving around outside. He checked the time—it was just 5:00 AM, and Xu Fei was already up.
Wu Jun got up too. After getting dressed, he folded up the bed and opened the door to leave his room.
"Brother Wu, you’re up so early today. You could sleep a little longer. It’ll take me a while to make breakfast." Xu Fei, who was tying on an apron, greeted Wu Jun as he came out of his room.
"I’m not sleeping in. I have something to do at the warehouse." Wu Jun greeted her back and went into the bathroom to wash up.
To prevent a repeat of yesterday’s situation, Wu Jun planned to go over early and take out the rice stockpiled in the game first.
They had visited nearly 60 restaurants yesterday. Adding the 30-some that he had covered himself, his business scope had instantly exploded to almost 100 restaurants.
Wu Jun predicted that today’s sales would definitely hit a new high.
After washing up, Wu Jun said goodbye to Xu Fei and left. He drove the pickup to the warehouse, took out the 23 tons from the game, and summoned the Farmers to stack it neatly, with two tons per stack.
Wu Jun did a quick count. Including the newly withdrawn 23 tons, there were nearly 100 tons of inventory in the warehouse. Selling all of it would bring in a million yuan.
After taking out the rice, Wu Jun locked the warehouse door and drove back to the small supermarket.
Xu Fei had already finished making their meal. There was no one in the shop at the moment, so the two of them went into the kitchen to eat.