Chapter 127: Grand Opening of the Guesthouse
On this day, the remote Lu’an Village welcomed a long-awaited burst of liveliness.
The first car drove into the mountains. A young man and woman sat inside, looking at the navigation as they drove, feeling quite uncertain.
“I honestly don’t know if this is the right place. I hope the navigation didn’t mess up.”
“It should be right. I set it for Lu’an Village… Look! It’s here! Look at the side of the road! There’s a banner hanging from the tree!”
The two looked over and saw a colorful banner hanging by the roadside, with several large characters boldly written on it:
“Xingxia Manor, Enter From Here!”
The guy driving sneered. “Ha, it’s just a tiny agritainment farmhouse. Calling it a farm would already be quite a stretch, but they actually went and named it a manor. They certainly talk big.”
The girl looked rather displeased. “Can you please shut your mouth! Who cares what they call it? As long as it’s fun, that’s all that matters. Besides, how many agritainment spots are there in the entire Jinmen Town? Shouldn’t we offer some encouragement?”
“Wait until they rip you off, then you’ll know exactly what ‘encouragement’ gets you.”
The guy, Luo Yang, was highly skeptical. Transportation in Jinmen Town wasn’t particularly developed. Years ago, a lot of people had fled the area. Although the roads had been paved over the last two years, the economic situation wasn’t that great.
The year the roads were first finished, a whole bunch of restaurants and hotels opened up in town at the exact same time. The end result? The fast ones closed down in three months, and the slow ones lasted half a year to a year before wrapping up operations. There was simply no helping it; the economy couldn’t sustain them.
Never mind a grand manor—even investing in a basic agritainment farmhouse would cost at least a hundred thousand yuan. Anything remotely decent would require an investment of two to three million yuan.
One million to build the house, five hundred thousand to lease and cultivate the land, a few hundred thousand for renovation, soft furnishings, and advertising, and only after all that would you factor in labor and ingredient costs. With the spending level in Jinmen Town, how long would it take to recoup millions of yuan? It was practically throwing money down the drain.
Luo Yang didn’t think much of this “Xingxia Manor.” However, his girlfriend, Xiao Ya, had somehow gotten her hands on a promotional flyer. Staring at the illustrations of the fruit and vegetable greenhouse, the creekside campsite, the reed marshes, and the quaintly traditional guesthouse rooms, she had thrown a tantrum insisting on coming.
Luo Yang said helplessly, “Look at that jam-packed fruit greenhouse in the picture. Do you honestly think that’s possible? It’s all AI!”
Xiao Ya felt it didn’t look like AI, but even if it was, it couldn’t possibly be that the mountains, trees, fruit, and rooms… were all AI, right? There wasn’t much to do for fun around Jinmen Town anyway. If even one or two spots matched the flyer, she felt it was worth a shot.
Furthermore, Xiao Ya’s reasoning was perfectly sound: “A large standard room is only 150 a night, and with the 20% discount during the trial run, it’s only 120 a day. Going out for a meal costs about that much, so why not give it a try?”
Luo Yang remained noncommittal, though the price was indeed acceptable. Jinmen Town had nothing entertaining to offer, so he and Xiao Ya usually had to take a bus to Xiangshan City, and then take a high-speed train or a flight to travel elsewhere for fun. Hotels started at two to three hundred a night, and chain or membership-based hotels around four to five hundred weren’t considered expensive.
Looking at it that way, Xingxia Manor was certainly cheap.
“Fine, fine, fine, we’ll do what you want.”
Luo Yang figured that with accommodation at 120 and meals at most two to three hundred, if it wasn’t fun, they could just head back the next morning. It wouldn’t cost them much even if it was a rip-off. Plus, it was local—just a half-hour drive without needing to take a long-distance bus, buy plane tickets, or high-speed rail tickets. It was far more cost-effective than traveling out of town.
Luo Yang drove with the mindset of “at worst, we won’t lose too much anyway,” but Xiao Ya’s excitement grew higher and higher.
“Luo Yang, I think we’re going to have a great time on this trip. Look at the banners by the roadside—they’ve been hanging since we entered the mountains, one every kilometer, and there are guides at the intersections. An agritainment farmhouse that puts in this much effort will at least have decent service.”
Luo Yang grunted twice. “You have to spend money to make money. If they didn’t invest a bit of capital, how else would they trick you into the mountains?”
The more Luo Yang thought about it, the more unreliable it seemed. According to Xiao Ya, if the service was excellent, then the investment had to be leaning toward two to three million yuan. Wouldn’t that mean they would treat them like fat sheep to be slaughtered!
He spoke up immediately, “Xiao Ya, let’s agree on this beforehand. Leaving accommodation aside, we’ll budget three hundred yuan for two meals. If the rip-off inside is too severe, we’ll leave immediately, even if it means wasting a night’s worth of accommodation fees.”
Luo Yang was dead serious. “Remote mountains and treacherous waters breed lawless people. In case the mountains are full of bandits and highwaymen, we’ll be in serious danger.”
Xiao Ya hesitated for a moment, then agreed. Having dated Luo Yang for so many years, she knew he just had a bit of a sharp tongue, but he was a good guy at heart. Just like now—even though he felt it might be a scam, he still prepared himself and accompanied her anyway.
“Fine! Excluding accommodation, if meals and activities exceed three hundred, we go back. If we spend a single cent more, we’re dogs!”
Luo Yang: “…”
Whatever. In case Xiao Ya became a dog, he would have to be a dog right along with her anyway.
The highway cut through mountain streams at one moment and wound around the mountain slopes the next. The distance wasn’t particularly long, but driving it felt a bit dizzying.
Xiao Ya had heard that only two guest rooms were left, so she had woken up early in the morning to secure their accommodation. She hadn’t eaten breakfast and was currently experiencing a bout of motion sickness.
Luo Yang’s eyes were sharp. “Hey, look at that banner ahead. There seems to be a line of small print written on it!”
Suppressing the discomfort of her motion sickness, Xiao Ya looked up—
“This area belongs to Lu’an Village’s public roadside greenery. The citrus trees have never been sprayed with pesticides. If you experience motion sickness or discomfort, feel free to pick the roadside citrus and sniff the peel to relieve your symptoms.”
Luo Yang was astonished. “These oranges can be picked freely?” With that, he frowned again. “They won’t charge us for them once we get inside, right?” An agritainment farmhouse that didn’t mark prices clearly and instead induced consumption like this wasn’t a good sign.
Xiao Ya also felt a bit uncomfortable, though she couldn’t tell if it stemmed from the motion sickness or if she shared Luo Yang’s sentiment after reading the banner. To avoid becoming a cash cow to be harvested, Xiao Ya turned her head away. “It’s fine, I’m okay. No need to sniff orange peels.”
Luo Yang didn’t say anything, but he still stopped the car, reached out, and picked two. “Just take them and have a sniff. Motion sickness is miserable, and we aren’t short of this bit of money.”
No matter how expensive they were, it couldn’t be that bad. They hadn’t spent much on travel expenses for this trip anyway, so the saved money was more than enough to buy oranges.
Xiao Ya felt a bit bad inside and insisted on tallying the cost. “We’ll count this as me spending an extra twenty yuan outside of accommodation. We’ll ask at the farmhouse later and settle the difference.”
Inhaling the crisp fragrance of the citrus peel, Xiao Ya, despite her empty stomach, finally didn’t feel quite as carsick.
Ten minutes later, they arrived at Lu’an Village.
Before even entering the village, they spotted a crowd gathered under the massive banyan tree at the village entrance. Some people were holding a rope, seemingly prepared to block travelers.
Xiao Ya’s heart leaped in fright—could Luo Yang have actually guessed right? The flyers were meant to lure unsuspecting victims into the mountains, only to rob them at a roadblock!
Luo Yang braked slowly, stopping a hundred meters away from the banyan tree, gazing toward the villagers from a distance.
Meanwhile, the villagers under the banyan tree had been standing there since early morning, and their smiles had practically frozen on their faces. They had finally managed to wait for the first car, yet the driver had gone and stopped.
Hu Ming, who was holding the rope, looked up at Hu Da. “Dad, why aren’t they driving over?”
Hu Ming scratched his head. “Xiaxia didn’t say what to do in this kind of situation…”
As the saying goes, ‘If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, Muhammad must go to the mountain.’ Since the car had stopped a hundred meters away, should they walk over?
But Hu Da looked around at the village elders gathered on either side—even Great-Uncle Chai, who leaned on a cane, was present. They couldn’t possibly have Great-Uncle Chai and Old Grandma Hu walk over with them while dragging the rope, right?
Hu Da pondered for a moment. “Hu Ming, you go. Ask them if they’re heading to Xingxia Manor. If they are, guide them and have them drive over.”
“Alright!”
Hu Ming had been waiting all morning and was bursting with energy. He ran over immediately.
Seeing that it was just a kid, Luo Yang rolled down the car window.
A moment later, Luo Yang said in surprise, “Little brother, you’re saying the rope ahead is a ribbon-cutting privilege for the very first guest?”
“That’s right!” Hu Ming nodded with a beaming smile. “Great-Uncle Chai said that since Sister Xiaxia is opening a guesthouse for the first time, we have to follow the old traditions and hang a red rope across the road for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to invite good fortune.”
Luo Yang chuckled. “They certainly know how to have fun.”
With that, he turned to look at Xiao Ya. By now, Xiao Ya’s motion sickness had completely vanished, and she felt incredibly delighted inside—the guesthouse she had taken a fancy to was truly living up to expectations and hadn’t made her lose face.
Xiao Ya directed, “Let’s go! Drive on in!”
