Chapter 39: The 39th Day of Livestream Selling
If it was a long-term supply arrangement, then even if the quantity increased by a hundred times, Lin Zhao could probably take it.
But if it was a large quantity supplied in the short term, with the possibility of expiring, then Lin Zhao was in a bit of trouble.
To be precise, His Excellency the dark elf Arland was in a bit of trouble.
Because, like the Mechanic, he was also an old-school artisan who still insisted on doing everything by hand. He had only one head and two hands. No matter how much he desired those spiritual plants, he had to admit one reality: even if he brought along all the apprentices he had borrowed from the Potion Guild to brew potions together, before the spiritual energy in the plants completely dissipated, he temporarily could not consume that many spiritual plants.
Brewing potions was an art that required slow work to produce fine results.
Low-level potions were the exception. But he had not yet begun researching low-level potions. Before he found a perfect lower-tier substitute method for making spiritual plants more cost-effective when fused with magical plants, magical plants were already the cheapest option. Replacing them with spiritual plants would instead raise the cost.
Perhaps once he thoroughly studied all kinds of spiritual plants and magical herbs in the future, and could produce specific, mature, stable brewing formulas, he might be able to use them all up. But in short, right now, he could not.
At his most powerless moment, he had encountered the inventory of spiritual plants he most wanted to possess.
His Excellency Arland’s sorrow was no less than the stretch of days when he could not eat fried chicken. As he talked, he suddenly wanted to eat it again. Then tonight, he would eat Snowflake Fried Chicken.
Speaking of fried chicken, Lin Zhao remembered that this potion master had once said he knew a little time-space magic. “What if you used time-space magic to stop the spiritual energy from leaking out of the plants first?”
“Then your investment would probably exceed your loss even faster,” the dark elf answered honestly.
Time-space magic—or more accurately, a time-space magic array—required Sands of Time to activate. The working principle of a top-tier magical item like Sands of Time was like using water to extinguish fire. The stronger the fire, the more water you needed. To stop the time of ordinary objects, naturally, it cost almost no magical power. But when it came to potion materials, the consumption increased step by step.
The more magical power an item contained, the more Sands of Time it took to freeze its time. And this was a continuous investment. Until the item was taken out, one would have to keep pouring in large quantities of Sands of Time.
“Do you know the market price of Sands of Time?”
Lin Zhao did not know, but he did not need to know. Just hearing the name was enough for him to sense how expensive and rare it was.
Even someone as wealthy as Arland—a potion master and a royal family member—would generally only use time-space magic arrays on extremely rare magical plants that were priceless or whose practical value far exceeded their monetary value. Of course, now he also used them to store fried chicken and grilled skewers.
Still, he increased his demand for high-level spiritual plants. At worst, he would simply evolve sleep out of his life. He truly could not bear to let such excellent spiritual plants flow away.
But an order like this could not solve the fundamental problem.
Just as Lin Zhao was worrying, Qin Xiaoman arrived. To be precise, ever since he heard from Lin Xiang that Lin Zhao had actually been sick all along, he had been coming over every few days to visit his friend.
Every time he came, he brought a huge pile of things. Basically, whatever people brought when visiting a patient, he brought.
The first time, when he came to pick up Third Aunt, he even brought money.
Lin Zhao refused to accept it no matter what, so Qin Xiaoman gave it directly to Aunt Lin instead. There were four red envelopes in total: one from him, one from his parents, one from his elder sister and brother-in-law, and one from his grandmother. The reason he gave was one Aunt Lin could not refuse, because he said, “These are red envelopes wishing Linzi a speedy recovery. How can you push health away?”
Aside from those bigger gifts, the rest were all food. Qin Xiaoman’s father personally cooked them. The old man had twice wanted to invite Lin Zhao over for a meal but failed, so he poured all his culinary passion into the food his son could deliver straight to the door.
Last time, it was sauerkraut that had been fermented before New Year’s and homemade meat sausages. Today, it was fried meatballs—all kinds of them. Some with meat, some vegetarian, and some with fresh shrimp.
As soon as Qin Xiaoman entered, he called out to Lin Zhao to hurry up and eat while they were hot. “They taste best right after they’re fried. The moment my dad took them out of the pan, I started my electric scooter.”
Yes, even after Boss Qin had made money, he was still riding his little electric scooter all over Jiangzuo. Because Jiangzuo was not big, and a lot of the time, driving was actually less convenient than riding an electric scooter.
That overflowing concern and warmth left Lin Zhao so touched he did not know what to say.
All he could do was lower his head and eat a shrimp meatball almost half the size of his fist. The outside was crispy, the inside was springy, and the skill of Qin Xiaoman’s father, once famous throughout the entire neighborhood, was still as excellent as ever. The reason the old man was so persistent about inviting Lin Zhao to eat at his house was also because he felt no chef outside could match his cooking.
“My whole family wanted to come see you, but you’re socially anxious, right? So I told them to stop causing trouble. Because of Third Aunt’s situation, they didn’t really feel like spending New Year’s on Qiong Island either. They came back only a few days after I did. My grandma and Third Aunt are still staying at my place now.” The way Qin Xiaoman talked was truly excessive. He chattered nonstop, and his thoughts scattered everywhere.
But just listening to him talk was enough to make Lin Zhao feel interested, because Qin Xiaoman was always so full of vitality.
“No, no, no, stop moving. I’ll wash the fruit. Do you want something to drink? I’ll make you some fruit and vegetable juice?” After visiting so often over the past few days, Qin Xiaoman was already as familiar with Aunt Lin’s house as if it were his own.
“Cola, thank you.” Patient Lin sat on the sofa without moving an inch and was not polite at all.
Only 1114 beeped along after Qin Xiaoman, playing the role of cheering him on.
Before long, the person and the system returned from the kitchen. The efficient Qin Xiaoman was carrying a huge plate of washed and cut fresh fruit, along with two cups of plain warm water.
Lin Zhao: “…”
Although he was already a mature adult, he still did not really like drinking plain water. No matter what he drank, he always hoped there would be some flavor in his mouth. “Even brewing some tea would be nice.”
“Be content. I’m drinking plain water with you.” Qin Xiaoman had a strange insistence. As a patient, Lin Zhao could eat fried meatballs and drink rice wine, but water had to be warm plain water. Boiled water cured all illnesses. As he ate a strawberry with just the right balance of sweet and sour, he skillfully pulled out a jar of honey from under the tea station and added a symbolic spoonful to Lin Zhao’s water.
Only then was Lin Zhao satisfied.
Wait.
“What did your grandma use to brew the wine? It was ready in just a few days?” Lin Zhao belatedly realized something.
“Sweet rice wine. What else do you think it’s brewed from? Of course, glutinous rice.” The answer was right there in the name. Qin Xiaoman started burying his head in cherries. “As for the time, did you forget? When we were kids, my grandma came over too, and didn’t she teach us back then? If the temperature at home is right, it’s almost ready in two days. My grandma even dug out the old tools she used back then. I’m honestly amazed my parents still haven’t thrown them away. There’s a whole pile of junk under the bed at home. I’m so done. One of these days, I should hire one of those decluttering teams and give my parents’ place a proper purge.”
But Lin Zhao almost instantly pushed through the fog.
Right. Spiritual plants could also be brewed into wine.
Since spiritual plants had a short preservation time, then they could find a way to turn those spiritual plants into something with a longer shelf life. Pills and potions both required slow work and depended on the alchemist’s own cultivation level. There definitely would not be enough time for that. But spiritual wine was different.
Brewing wine did not require cultivation.
“You really helped me a lot, Manman!”
Qin Xiaoman looked completely confused. Although he had no idea what he had helped with, as long as he could help Lin Zhao, he was happy.
Then his merciless “boss” said, “Why don’t you hurry up and hire a full-time assistant? If my idea works out, you probably won’t be able to handle everything by yourself.”
“Sure, I’ll give it a try.” After New Year’s was the peak season for job hunting, so it should be pretty easy to find someone.
After sending Qin Xiaoman off, Lin Zhao immediately contacted the demonic cultivator, Ms. Hu, and briefly explained his idea to her.
Lady Hu was startled. “There are indeed people who run spiritual wine businesses. Most spiritual plants can be brewed into different types of spiritual wine, like white liquor, medicinal wine, poria wine, and so on. Supposedly, they’re beneficial for cultivation too. Spiritual wine also sells for more than spiritual plants. But brewing that much wine would also take quite a lot of time, wouldn’t it? Converting it into cash would be even slower.”
In the cultivation world, it might indeed still require a lot of time, and the spiritual plants would still expire due to the time spent processing them. But in the modern world, that was not necessarily the case.
Lin Zhao gave Ms. Hu a small shock from modern automated production. Did she know how long industrial winemaking took? Under artificially selected, high-efficiency yeast and modern equipment, ordinary white liquor and beer could go from saccharification to fermentation, then initial maturation and bottling, in as little as twenty-four to thirty-six hours. Less than two days.
No matter how many spiritual plants she had, they might not be enough to consume.
Even if the cultivation world’s spiritual plants were different from Blue Star plants and might be difficult to ferment, or encounter all kinds of problems, those problems could similarly be solved with talismans or magic arrays.
A clash of magic against magic.
1114 had already used its computing power to run a theoretically feasible plan. The idea of using modern industry to brew cultivation-world spiritual wine had a high probability of success.
This way, Lady Hu would not only avoid a loss, she might even make a profit.
Yes, Lady Hu had originally planned to swallow this batch of spiritual plants herself. If she could sell them, she naturally would not lose money. If she could not sell them, then she needed a springboard that would allow her to enter the sect’s decision-making circle.
The high-level spiritual plants had basically been completely bought out by rich elves, so Lady Hu would not lose much either way. What remained were large quantities of low-level spiritual plants. If the quantity were not so huge, these spiritual plants would never have become a problem for the Heavenly Evolution Demon Sect. They could be integrated into most pills as a base ingredient. But it was precisely because they were so replaceable that the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect had become so fearless.
Of course, from the current perspective, these low-priced spiritual plants might soon become high-priced spiritual wine.
“I still have some time before the spiritual plants mature. I’ll privately find someone to research a brewing plan first, and also negotiate the price with the sect.”
She was not as black-hearted as the Ten Thousand Demons Sect, but it was not as though she would let the sect profit for nothing either. If she bought and resold without any loss, how could she show her sacrifice and ability?
The Ten Thousand Demons Sect wanted to take the opportunity to force the price down to around thirty or forty percent of its original value. That was truly black-hearted; it was basically no different from robbery. Other opportunistic acquisition channels could at most negotiate down to about fifty percent. She could offer sixty to seventy percent. Surely the sect would be very moved.
—
“1114.”
“I’m already searching for nearby wineries.”
Bad news: Jiangzuo had no winery.
Good news: there was one in a township in the neighboring city.
It was located between Jiangzuo and the neighboring city, about an hour’s drive away.
It was a small winery that was about to go bankrupt. It had been operating for around a dozen years, not quite twenty. Once, it had also enjoyed a brief period of “glory,” but the decline of the township liquor market was the norm. This small winery, which had never managed to make a name for itself, had been getting worse year after year and was not far from closing down.
To be precise, after New Year’s, the winery had not resumed operations yet, because the owner no longer had the money to support it. Starting from the end of last year, he had been looking for a buyer to take over.
“Its production license, business license, environmental approval, and fire safety acceptance documents are all complete.” Although it was a small winery, the owner was honest and upright in the way he handled things. He never danced on the edge of legality. “Aside from some installment loans owed to the bank that haven’t been fully repaid, there are basically no hidden debts. But it’s also because the owner is too kind. One of the conditions for transferring the winery is that none of the factory’s employees can be fired, which is why he still hasn’t managed to sell it.”
One of the reasons the winery could no longer continue operating was that the owner insisted on not owing his employees wages. He wanted everyone to have a good New Year.
But this era was just that ironic. Good people often could not run a business well.
Author’s Note:
Mm, our little Boss Lin is going to become a factory director~
Before, he still transported goods sneakily. Ever since he found out Earth was undergoing a spiritual energy revival, he’s ready to do whatever he wants now. Not really. Anyway, the Special Management Bureau will lead everyone back to science.
Special Management Bureau: ?
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