Chapter 85: Buying a Tricycle
She had been receiving pleasant surprises all day, only to get stuck right here at the very end.
Sure, the mall had unlocked. But what about the management points? Not a single one!
Jian Xingxia covered her face in exasperation. Wasn’t this pure, unadulterated torture?
Right at that moment, a system prompt chimed in her ear—
[The Estate Owner can obtain Management Points by operating the estate or by accepting management tasks.]
[Current world currency can also be used for conversion. Current conversion ratio: 10,000:1. Every 10,000 yuan can be converted into 1 Management Point.]
[System has detected that the Estate Owner’s current balance is ≥ 10,000 yuan. Would you like to convert immediately?]
What?
Although Jian Xingxia was deeply covetous of the items in the mall, money was her absolute lifeblood! This was the very first time in her life that her savings had ever reached such a high figure. There was absolutely no way she was letting it drop back to zero right now!
Jian Xingxia closed the mall, forcing herself to look away.
The All-Terrain Tricycle sounded incredibly tempting. But 6 Management Points equated to sixty thousand yuan. Sixty thousand yuan was enough to buy a college student for a whole year—after graduation, a monthly salary of five thousand was already considered pretty decent compensation.
Jian Xingxia bit the bullet and checked her money.
Before accepting Management Task Two yesterday, her balance had dwindled to just a few hundred yuan. Her 24-hour ultra-high-intensity chestnut marathon had pulled in 4,521 yuan. After using the [Income Doubling Card], she had received that exact specific figure of 4,521 yuan from Qiqi’s mom down to the last cent.
Adding the two to three hundred yuan she made during the hour or so she spent waiting for the system to distribute the reward after the 24-hour window closed, Jian Xingxia’s balance had reached 10,171 yuan for the very first time.
Ten thousand one hundred and seventy-one yuan.
To someone else, looking at this ten thousand yuan might not evoke much of a reaction—it was merely one or two months’ salary or just some living expenses. But to Jian Xingxia, this was the first time she had ever possessed so much money. Call her short-sighted if you must.
If she hadn’t been in such a desperate rush to buy a tricycle, Jian Xingxia wouldn’t even want to break into this ten thousand yuan. She actually wanted to transfer this flat ten thousand separately onto a bank card and lock it into a fixed-term deposit. Then she could challenge herself to spend only the remaining 171 yuan for the entire month.
Anyway, she currently had food, drink, and supplies available in the mountains, and water and electricity were completely free. The refrigerator still held the final freezer-full of chestnuts boiled by Lin Sanniang. Aside from occasionally buying some emergency items or paying a bit of transit fare, she barely needed to spend money.
However, the tricycle still had to be bought. It was the most urgently needed tool.
That night, Jian Xingxia slept while clutching her phone.
She was going to buy the tricycle tomorrow, which meant the precious little money in her account could only keep her company for a single night. She just wanted to hold onto it for a bit longer.
The upgrade rewards had been claimed. The main road at the gate and the picking greenhouse were still upgrading. But the new upgrade requirements had already appeared.
[Current Estate Status: Basic Farmstead. Level: 1. Meet the following three conditions to upgrade to Level 2.
- Estate guest visits reach 200 person-times (Current progress: 0/200);
- Estate reputation score exceeds 80 points (Current rating: 0 points);
- Estate operating revenue reaches 50,000 yuan (Current operating revenue: 0/50,000).
Upgrade Reward: 30 Estate Management Points, Full-time Worker Slot * 1, Management Gift Pack * 1.]
Ask and you shall receive.
Jian Xingxia had just been fretting over how she couldn’t bear to spend cash to convert into Management Points, and now they had appeared right in the upgrade rewards. Upgrading to Level 2 would reward a whopping 30 Management Points!
Looking at all those amazing goodies in the Estate Management Mall, Jian Xingxia felt incredibly tempted. 30 points! That was enough for her to buy several items!
Furthermore, it would unlock a full-time worker slot! Jian Xingxia had never hired a full-time worker before, so she had no idea what the rules were. Would the working hours be adjusted? Could their compensation be paid on a monthly basis? Could the “laborers” exchange it for items of even higher value? Or were there other specialized types of labor?
Jian Xingxia looked forward to it immensely in her heart. When a person has hope, they feel that life has meaning. Her sleep was particularly deep.
That night, Jian Xingxia’s dreams were exceptionally sweet. In her dream, she was walking along the flower-scented creek path at twilight, picking wild berries, and dancing hand-in-hand with the little rabbit.
The fourteenth day since returning to the old house.
The moment Jian Xingxia opened her eyes, she pulled up the virtual panel of the Estate Management System. Sure enough, the daily temporary worker recruitment slots in the upper right corner proudly displayed a large number “2.”
Jian Xingxia was absolutely delighted. But she wasn’t in a rush to recruit anyone yet; instead, she went first to look at the main road and the picking greenhouse that were “upgrading.”
Unlike yesterday evening, the blue mist today seemed a bit lighter and more translucent. Jian Xingxia tried stepping inside and found that she could walk through it normally.
“So how exactly is this upgrading?”
Jian Xingxia felt a bit worried. The other narrow trails in the mountains were one thing. Normally, they were completely obscured by wild grass taller than a person, and the villagers were terrified of spirits and monsters, so they didn’t dare come over. When the time came, she could just claim that the trails had always been there and she had simply cleared them out slowly; that would probably fool them.
But the main road and the picking greenhouse were entirely different stories.
The villagers had traveled the “main road” several times already. Just a couple of days ago when they used it, it was still a dirt track filled with yellow clay and overgrown weeds. If it turned into a proper grand road in three days, could that possibly make sense?
As for the picking greenhouse. Looking at the 3D blueprint, a greenhouse covering nearly a mu of land would require a significant amount of materials just for the support pillars and plastic sheeting. It couldn’t just materialize out of thin air in the mountains, could it?
Jian Xingxia fretted in her heart, but she had no solution. She could only ride her tricycle down the mountain.
Once in the village, she returned the vehicle first. Then she went to ask Old Chai for the address of the tricycle dealer and inquired about a few things to watch out for. After that, she hitched a ride in Little Hu Liu’s vehicle to head to the town.
Little Hu Liu was exceptionally happy today.
“Sister Xia, I found a job in town! Shaking drinks at a milk tea shop, fifteen yuan an hour!”
Although it was a bit far to travel from the village to the town and Little Hu Liu was still riding a manual tricycle, fifteen yuan an hour was considered “high income” to him.
“I asked the store manager to schedule me for the longest shifts every day—fourteen hours a day. I just have to be responsible for opening up the shop and doing the final cleanup and sweep.”
Jian Xingxia had also worked in a milk tea shop before. Opening the shop to prepare ingredients and closing up to clean were the most physically draining tasks. It was far more tedious and exhausting than just shaking the drinks. You couldn’t sleep in either.
But Little Hu Liu didn’t find it grueling at all, only feeling that the store manager was wonderful for being willing to schedule him for such long shifts.
Upon learning that Jian Xingxia was heading out to buy an electric tricycle, Little Hu Liu told her excitedly, “I’ll be able to buy one very soon too. Fourteen hours a day—as long as no money is docked—means 210 yuan.”
“If I work for half a month, plus the money I saved up before, it’ll be just about enough.”
Jian Xingxia smiled and encouraged him, “Then keep working hard!”
As they chatted, they arrived at the electric vehicle dealership in town.
Jian Xingxia browsed around. She didn’t buy an “open-top” electric tricycle like Old Chai’s. Instead, she selected one similar to what couriers used—a tricycle equipped with a covered canopy. The driver’s cabin was fully enclosed and could even be retrofitted with an air conditioner. The truck bed at the back was open, but Jian Xingxia requested a folding rain canopy to be installed.
The overall shape looked somewhat like a miniature freight truck.
In the city where Jian Xingxia went to university, vehicles like this were not permitted on the roads except for couriers. But in a small place like Jinmen Town, the streets were everywhere filled with senior mobility scooters and little electric mopeds. Jian Xingxia bought it with absolute peace of mind.
After a round of bargaining, the final deal was struck.
“Tricycle with a 1-meter by 1.5-meter truck bed for 4,800 yuan, upgraded battery for 1,500 yuan, folding rain canopy for 500 yuan, air conditioning installation for 800 yuan, and local electric vehicle license plate inclusion for 100 yuan, totaling 7,700 yuan.”
The owner brought out a pile of free gifts: “Chain lock, raincoat, helmet, storage box, rain cover cloth, elastic tie-down straps, lights and horn, reflective tape… all of these are yours for free.”
Some of them weren’t even meant for a tricycle, being promotional gifts for little electric mopeds. But operating on the absolute truth that one should never pass up something free, Jian Xingxia cleaned them all out.
Starting from today, she was a vehicle owner too!
