Chapter 249: Thriving and Prosperous
On Tuesday, Jian Xingxia finally arranged the men’s restroom as well.
It featured the same six individual stalls and was placed fifty meters away from the women’s restroom and the smart restroom. It was visible, but not uncomfortably close.
The villagers didn’t know so many toilets had been built up on the mountain; they just saw the small utility trucks driving back and forth every day, which made them very happy.
“Xiaoxia must be making money, building more toilets.”
“It’s wonderful. The manor’s business is booming. The village committee said that because of the official opening over the weekend, we sold two hundred catties of dried goods, and they’ll settle our payments next week.”
“Hehe, tell me about it. Last time I gave directions and gave some water to two tourists, and they even gifted a little pinwheel to my young grandson.”
Now that an agritainment manor had opened in the village, the children who usually worked out of town or lived in the city had caught wind of the news. They took time off to come back, visit the elderly, and join in on the excitement.
While they couldn’t go up the mountain itself, they hadn’t expected the village to be this lively. Staying behind to play in the village was quite nice too.
Since it was summer vacation and the kids didn’t have school, over the past few days, seven or eight families of villagers had successively brought their children back or sent them to stay in the village for a bit.
The parents were also quite clever, having bought beautiful Hanfu for all of them.
Looking around now, there were nearly twenty children in the village. Hu Ming and Fangfang were absolutely thrilled.
Hu Ming dragged three boys his age along, climbing trees to look for bird eggs, fishing for river shrimp by the creek, stealing melons from the fields, and chasing pigs and chickens every single day, causing their elders to yell at them all over the village.
But despite the shouting, everyone was happy.
It had been a very long time since the village had this many young children running around. Further down the age gap, there were toddlers aged three to six dressed like the auspicious koi babies on New Year paintings, wearing sleeveless little Buddhist monk robes and short shorts that left their ribs exposed, playing barefoot beneath the giant banyan tree.
The elderly sat nearby playing bridge and chess, and the ambient noise was pure comfort to their ears.
The older children, like Fangfang and her peers, didn’t like running around outside anymore. They stayed indoors applying makeup, openly putting on flowing, wide-sleeved fairy dresses like the ones in period television dramas, braiding their hair and tying it into topknots, and then reenacting drama scenes.
And it had to be said, the villagers actually quite enjoyed watching them.
At first, it was just their own families watching, but later, Fangfang and the others grew bolder and went out into the village to perform. The elderly in the village loved a lively atmosphere and cheered them on enthusiastically.
As a result, as they kept performing, the tourists going up the mountain started stopping to watch too.
Originally, the tourists’ cars were meant to drive straight up into the manor, but once they entered the village and discovered plenty of free scenery and activities, many simply parked their cars in the village to play and look around first.
A large courtyard specially cleared out by the village committee was packed with mountain goods and agricultural products, and none of the visitors left empty-handed.
Dried goods, mountain specialties, fresh vegetables, freshly picked fruit, farm-raised chickens and ducks, live river fish…
People who loved visiting the mountains simply couldn’t resist the taste of pure nature.
The village helped split some of the tourists’ time and attention for Jian Xingxia, making the overall agritainment experience significantly richer.
The reputation of Xingxia Manor gradually spread.
Coming here, one never had to worry about being ripped off. From the village to the manor, all services and goods were clearly priced. Moreover, the prices of the mountain goods were even a bit cheaper than buying them outside, and the quality was excellent.
The manor didn’t jack up prices just because it was a tourist attraction either; many items were priced similarly to the outside world, but the service and quality were vastly superior.
The tourists who had visited before couldn’t resist posting about it in their WeChat Moments or sharing short videos online.
Jian Xingxia had initially assumed there would be fewer people on weekdays, but she hadn’t expected social media to gradually display its power. More and more people discovered what a great destination Xingxia Manor was.
Not only did the number of tourists not decrease on Tuesday, but it was actually higher than on the first day of reopening after the renovations.
By the end of the day, Jian Xingxia discovered to her pleasant surprise that the manor’s reputation score had risen by 3 points!
It had climbed from 71 to 74.
She opened the system to check the tourists’ anonymous feedback and inner thoughts.
“Wow, came here after seeing a recommendation post, it really is super photogenic! And there are zero hidden fees!”
“I saw online before that a major drawback was not having enough toilets, and that if you weren’t an overnight guest, you might have to queue forever… But there are plenty of toilets here!”
“Holy crap! This restroom is so high-end! The toilet automatically replaces its seat cover, and the public restroom doesn’t have a single trace of odor. Was that humming sound from a vacuum ventilation system just now?”
“Ahhh, there’s actually a changing room! They even provide hairdryers and hair straighteners to make styling convenient! No more sneaking around to change clothes inside a disposable pop-up tent outside! Sob, sob, I’m definitely writing a recommendation post when I get back tonight!”
Because of these recommendation posts, the beautiful Hanfu photos taken by the tourists, and the immersive ancient scenes in the village and manor, Jian Xingxia’s Hanfu pre-order business exploded in popularity overnight.
Over Monday and Tuesday, she had to turn away a massive number of tourists each day, hardening her heart to set a strict limit of only ten orders a day.
She didn’t even dare look at her WeChat; a horde of people added her every day, claiming to be fellow enthusiasts, netizens, colleagues, or friends referred by recommendation posts, all wanting to inquire about ready-to-wear Hanfu and custom orders.
Jian Xingxia could only reply to each one: “Thank you all for your interest. The Manor Owner is deeply flattered, but given the current limited capacity of Xingxia Manor, we are unable to open an online store. If it is convenient for you, you are welcome to visit the manor to experience it firsthand before making a decision. If you cannot visit, we have recorded your suggestions. When our capacity allows in the future, we will certainly exhaust every effort to fulfill your wishes.”
Jian Xingxia had originally written this response simply because she felt too embarrassed to reject them bluntly.
She hadn’t expected that this reply would end up being posted online by someone else as well.
However, it wasn’t a warning post to avoid the place, but praise.
“Recommending an ancient-style agritainment manor, it’s seriously super interesting.”
“Ahhh, even though I haven’t gone yet, I’m certain I won’t step into a trap when I go! The Manor Owner herself speaks with such an authentic, ancient flair, there absolutely won’t be any issues!”
Jian Xingxia read the comments with a cheerful chuckle.
Of course, where there was praise, there was criticism, and some people speculated about Jian Xingxia’s intentions.
“You still need to be careful. What do they mean by limiting purchases and turning away guests? In my opinion, it’s just that same old hunger marketing gimmick.”
“Exactly, exactly. I’ve scrolled past three recommendation posts this week already. The owner must have paid for influencer promotions, right?”
“Be careful of Hanfu influencer XX. Her recent sets of photos were all shot at this so-called Xingxia Manor. It looks like a paid ad at first glance.”
“Are you talking about XX above? I thought her recent photos looked gorgeous. Were they shot at Xingxia Manor? Then I want to go check it out too.”
Jian Xingxia clicked her tongue. See that? This was pure strength—even a warning thread could attract tourists.
But with so many tourists, the supply deficit for ready-to-wear and custom Hanfu was growing wider and wider. The sisters on both Lin Sanniang’s and Shaoyin and Ruan Xiang’s sides were working frantically against the clock, but since they relied entirely on manual craftsmanship, no matter how fast they were, they could only produce two or three sets a day.
Don’t look at how Jian Xingxia had only accepted twenty orders over two days; those twenty sets represented the maximum production volume for a full week’s production cycle.
For the remaining five days of the week, she couldn’t accept a single order.
She had to reject all of them.
Being unable to scoop up the money placed right in front of her face made Jian Xingxia’s heart ache intensely.
The [Manor Business Mission Six] issued by the system last time had stated it would resolve the issue of insufficient hands and heavy business demands.
Yet when Jian Xingxia completed the mission and happily waited to receive her reward, the system threw her a line—
[The reward vehicle is currently under construction. Please wait for the construction to conclude.]
Jian Xingxia: “…”
After a bitter wait, it was finally Tuesday evening.
The construction workers from the flatbed truck crew finally packed up their gear, bringing their index cards to find Jian Xingxia for her signature.
Jian Xingxia’s hand was practically trembling as she signed her name under the “Completed” section. The moment the flatbeds drove away, Jian Xingxia dashed toward the location of the 400-square-meter academy without a second thought.
She had been waiting entirely for this!
