Chapter 159: A-Feng Wants to Eat Candy
On Sunday afternoon, the customer traffic dropped sharply.
The crowd that had arrived in the morning gradually began their return journeys after eating lunch. After all, tomorrow was Monday, and most people still had to go to work.
But precisely because of this exact crowd, Jian Xingxia smoothly completed Operating Mission Four, upgraded Lin Sanniang, and even summoned Taoya.
The mission had seemed a bit daunting at first glance, but once she put it into practice, she found that with a little extra effort, it was entirely achievable.
Among the overnight guests from yesterday, three of the six upstairs rooms were occupied by three people each: Qiqi’s family, another little boy’s family of three, and Lin Shuang’s group of three. The remaining three rooms were each occupied by two people. The two ground-floor rooms had also been temporarily allocated to Luo Yang and Xiao Ya, and the young security guard and his girlfriend, bringing the total to 19 people.
A large number of people from the Insomnia Support Group had arrived, having camped out early in the morning just to watch for guests checking out.
A dozen or so people subjected Brother Zhang to a comprehensive critique: “Look at you! You didn’t even ask if there were any vacancies left before posting! You literally made us wait a whole day and night!”
“Do you have any idea how agonizing a whole day and night is for someone with a sleep disorder?!”
“Especially knowing that there’s a bed that can make you fall asleep in seconds right here in Jinmen Town, yet we can’t sleep on it!”
Brother Zhang had his own explanation for this: “Didn’t I want to share it with everyone at the absolute first opportunity? Don’t complain about the long wait; if I had told you today instead, you probably wouldn’t have been able to book a room until tomorrow.”
His words were true. Aside from Brother Zhang and Sister Yu extending their stay, two other pairs of guests had also booked rooms for tonight. The remaining three rooms were completely swept up by the Insomnia Support Group.
Jian Xingxia registered them one by one according to the requirements—this time, the system mission didn’t mandate that she collect money, only that she receive them. She simply received them one by one and asked about their experience.
Thirteen people, three rooms, divided into two batches to sleep. The first batch started sleeping right after the previous day’s guests checked out, sleeping all the way until the afternoon. The second batch then took over.
Jian Xingxia calculated: Mission progress 19 + 13 = 32.
Afterward, a steady trickle of guests arrived to take photos and pick fruit. People rarely came to the mountains alone; the guests Jian Xingxia received over these two days were either couples, families of several people, or small groups of friends. After four or five groups of guests arrived, the mission quota was achieved.
It just took a bit of effort to secure the positive reviews. After all, she had to ask everyone individually, and hosting over fifty people was no light task. Fortunately, the “manor” was still small in scale, with only a single front desk. With Jian Xingxia guarding the desk, she finally pulled it off.
In the afternoon, after the guests departed, the manor gradually grew quiet. Only the overnight guests and a dozen or so tourists who couldn’t bear to leave remained, seizing the time to take photos.
Jian Xingxia sent both Taoya and A-Feng out to take photos with them. They were young and lively, and the guests liked them very much. As for charging a fee, that was absolutely out of the question.
Although Jian Xingxia rarely traveled due to a lack of money, her experiences in other matters translated perfectly—when it came to travel and leisure, hidden costs were the absolute worst. She would rather set the prices higher from the very beginning, clearly marked, than have people arrive only to find out that this cost money and that cost money too. Earning a bit of petty cash at the expense of one’s reputation made it highly difficult for subsequent business to take off.
Jian Xingxia had experienced the embarrassment of having no money, and she was unwilling to let such a thing happen in a manor that was supposed to be this comfortable.
As the sun began to dip in the west, A-Feng had to leave first.
Jian Xingxia fetched some traditional Chinese medicinal herbs for him, including dangshen, huangqi, and danggui…
These herbs were expensive and hard to come by in A-Feng’s homeland; a dose of medicine purchased for a whole tael of silver wouldn’t necessarily include dangshen. But through modern artificial cultivation, bulk farming, and scientific temperature and water control, the yield of these medicinal herbs had grown massive over time. They had long ceased to be rare commodities.
Jian Xingxia simply lacked the money right now, having incurred quite a bit of debt to open the guesthouse; otherwise, she would have definitely bought two sticks of cultivated ginseng to try out. After all, the price of artificially cultivated ginseng wasn’t that terrifying.
Every time Jian Xingxia handed A-Feng his “wages,” she felt a bit self-conscious.
Although to A-Feng, his life had already transformed completely since coming to the manor, whether Jian Xingxia gave him one thousand taels or ten thousand taels meant exactly the same thing to him—a massive amount. But deep down, Jian Xingxia felt a trace of guilt. Every time A-Feng came, he did everything he could to carry as much weight as possible, bringing all kinds of bamboo ware crafted by his grandpa and grandma.
She had questioned the system before. If judged solely by A-Feng’s working capability, his rank matched Taoya’s exactly: Trainee Worker, with an hourly wage of 3–5 yuan.
She had also questioned the system regarding Old Man Sui’s rank: Specialized Worker, with an hourly wage of 10–15 yuan. It was a tier higher than a Skilled Worker.
But for some reason, after recruiting A-Feng, his wages were calculated according to the intermediate Skilled Worker tier: 6–10 yuan per hour. The system seemed to have struck a compromise, granting A-Feng this opportunity to run errands on Old Man Sui’s behalf.
Every time, Jian Xingxia calculated A-Feng’s earnings at the maximum hourly wage of 10 yuan, giving him a full 60 yuan worth of wage supplies. However, even with the 30-yuan discrepancy covered, Jian Xingxia still felt quite self-conscious. After all, if she were to buy the bamboo chairs, tables, baskets, and chests A-Feng brought, it would cost her money too. Although she didn’t need to match the original value one-to-one, she had to compensate him somewhat.
But with the system strictly blocking this path, Jian Xingxia could scratch her head bald without finding a way out, so she could only do her absolute best to make up the difference through the arrangement of supplies.
If the bamboo baskets and chairs A-Feng brought could sell for one thousand wen in the Great Liang Dynasty, Jian Xingxia would find a way to arrange supplies that could sell for at least five thousand to ten thousand wen there. Therefore, every time A-Feng collected his wages, 30 yuan was left to his own discretion to take what he wanted, while the other 30 yuan was managed by Jian Xingxia and Lin Sanniang to arrange items of higher practical value for him. After all, if they didn’t step in to manage it, this silly child would try to run off with just two pairs of shoes and a bag of rice.
Today, the silly child was picking items for himself.
A-Feng said, “Grandma said Grandpa and I go through clothes too fast, and they always need mending, so she wanted me to bring back some needles and thread.”
Jian Xingxia: A 36-piece needle and thread combo kit purchased online for 3.9 yuan, take it!
A-Feng said, “Grandpa said we have a woodcleaver now, but the kitchen knife at home has grown dull too.”
Jian Xingxia: A fine iron kitchen knife sourced from a new user deal for 9.9 yuan, arranged!
A-Feng scratched his head. “Grandma wants to eat sesame cakes, Grandpa wants to eat fatty pork, and I want to eat candy…”
Jian Xingxia: Three bags of sesame cakes bought at a promotional price of 9.9 yuan, unpacked and wrapped in oil paper for him!
Fatty pork was easy to handle—the pork skin and fat trimmed off by the plump auntie during meal prep were priced by the system as scrap trimmings at three yuan per catty. She wrapped a generous portion in a lotus leaf for A-Feng!
As for the candy, that was even easier. Jian Xingxia grabbed a massive handful for him. “Eat them here, it doesn’t cost money.”
A-Feng grinned as he touched his pocket. “I want to carry them back. In the past, the other kids laughed at me, calling me a wild bastard someone picked up. They wouldn’t play with me. When they ate malt candy, they would throw the corn husks on the ground and tell me to pick them up and lick them…”
“I didn’t pick them up.”
“But… I really, really want to eat candy.”
He wanted to eat candy, wanted to eat candy right in front of that group of children, and wanted to make them envious of him too…
As A-Feng spoke with a bright grin, Lin Sanniang’s eyes had already turned red beside him.
