Chapter 101: The War Begins!

Chapter 101: The War Begins!

After a night had passed, those who followed the Liyuan Farm online were mostly aware of the events at the administrative center. However, the flower walls surrounding the administrative center had become a popular spot for tourists to take photos.

The administrative center, with its agricultural style, was built with a combination of wood and cement. Thanks to the accelerated construction, various emissions seemed to have been sped up as well. Lin Muxue tested the area with some instruments and found that the levels of harmful gases were within acceptable limits, making it fully ready for immediate occupancy.

Therefore, after selecting the office area yesterday, Lin Muxue and her team eagerly moved their belongings from You City.

Zhang Lin also arrived early at the office in the administrative center.

Today, the recruitment period for some servers and chefs was approaching, so he chose to extend their contracts. He then checked the level information on his mental screen:

Level: 4

Upgrade Requirements: 1. 200 workers (208/200)! 2. Earn 30 million in profit (10,635,472/30 million)! 3. Develop 10,000 acres of agricultural land (3,585/10,000)! 4. Achieve one agricultural honor (0/1)



Bank Card: 62122614

Balance: 10,635,472.25 RMB

Agricultural Area: 7,000 acres!

Game Constructions: Colorful Steel House, Warehouse, Service Center, Bamboo Maze, Bamboo Cultural Park, Administrative Center, Camping Ground (Under Construction)



Number of Constructable Buildings: 0

There were still three upgrade conditions that needed to be completed.

Profit was a tricky issue; it increased with earnings but decreased with expenses.

However, after spending 10 million on the colorful flower sea, the total profit once again exceeded 10 million.

During this period, he had planted honey peaches, sunshine roses, and fast-growing white-heart sweet potatoes, reaching a total of 3,585 acres. This progress couldn’t be rushed, as he didn’t want to plant ordinary crops just to meet the quota.

Currently, he was cultivating sweet potato seedlings, which would soon allow him to produce his own seedlings without relying on the game.

At that point, developing and planting thousands of acres would be much easier.

The only thing he had no clue about was the agricultural honor.

As he was thinking, Fu Yao walked in with a list. "Uncle, take a look at this list. If everything is fine, sign it, and I'll go buy the items."

Zhang Lin looked over the list: computers, printers, scanners, pen holders, file folders...

These were all things he needed for his office, and Fu Yao had listed them clearly.

"Buy these first, and if anything is missing, we can add it later." Zhang Lin smiled and nodded, signing the document. He then instructed, "Fu Yao, go check what Lin Shijie and the others need for their offices. Also, ask around the other office areas. Oh, and help find someone to design work uniforms for the servers and security guards."

Zhang Lin had given her a lot to do, and anyone could see that these were mostly logistical tasks. However, Fu Yao took it all very seriously, showing great enthusiasm for her first part-time job during the summer.

A girl who hadn’t yet been jaded by the world.

"Uncle, is there anything else?" Fu Yao asked after noting everything down.

"Yes, design a uniform for the office staff as well, and don't forget your own," Zhang Lin added with a smile.

A secretary uniform would be a business suit plus black stockings, right?

He was curious to see how Fu Yao, with her high school girl’s innocent and beautiful face, would look in a uniform with black stockings.

"Alright, I'll go ask Director Lin and the others!" Fu Yao nodded and left the office with enthusiasm.

Zhang Lin also walked to the tea table outside, boiled some water, and prepared to clean the tea set.

The tea set was left by his father and brought over this morning.

While boiling the water, he took out his phone and called Huang Tao.

The rapeseed flowers would bloom in about ten days, and it would be time to harvest the rapeseed. Therefore, he needed to build a workshop for making moisturizing cream.

The game didn’t offer a building option for such a workshop, so he had to call Huang Tao.

On the other side, Huang Tao had also scheduled a meeting with a client early in the morning.

The client was a bit tedious, repeating simple matters several times, which made Huang Tao somewhat reluctant to continue the discussion.

Fortunately, Zhang Lin’s call came just then, and he answered immediately, "Zhang Lin, what's up?"

Zhang Lin got straight to the point, "My administrative center is just finished and we’ve moved into the new office. Come over for some tea, and we need to build a workshop at the farm!"

"Got it, I'll be right over!" Huang Tao immediately agreed with a smile, feeling much better.

Initially, he had just wanted to maintain a connection with Zhang Lin, without expecting any benefits. After all, Zhang Lin wasn’t developing in You City. He hadn’t expected that Zhang Lin would now be a significant connection for him.

After a few times, Zhang Lin had indeed made a good amount of money from the game.

This was probably the benefit of having connections.

With that thought, he directly said to the client opposite him, "Mr. Sun, please consider this deal further. If you decide, feel free to give me a call. I’m heading to Liyuan Farm to have tea with a classmate, so please make yourself comfortable."

With that, he walked out of the office.

Liyuan Farm.

Just as Zhang Lin hung up with Huang Tao, another call came in. It was from Lin Mengxi, the girl from the Agriculture Bureau.

He answered, "Miss Lin, is there something you need me to assist with from the Agriculture Bureau?"

Lin Mengxi explained, "Mr. Zhang, it's not about the Agriculture Bureau. I have a favor to ask of you. Your office center is all set up, right? With the two upcoming projects, you'll definitely need to hire a lot of people. My sister is a human resources major. She graduated a year ago and has accumulated some work experience. I was wondering if your farm is hiring."

Zhang Lin understood her intentions and smiled, "Miss Lin, it just so happens that I need to start hiring. The HR department is really short-staffed!"

In fact, his HR department had no one at all.

For the upcoming projects, the Rainbow Flower Sea could transfer people from the rapeseed flower fields, but the camping site would need to hire externally once it was built. It would be a lot of work, so it wasn’t a problem to do this favor for her.

After all, it’s about relationships and favors, right?

In this country, personal connections are often unavoidable, even in the purely physical sports industry, where you need connections to get anywhere. Otherwise, how could someone like Young Master Su, who is clearly not qualified, make it onto the Olympic team?

"Thank you, Mr. Zhang!"

"You're welcome, Miss Lin!"

After hanging up, the water for tea had boiled, so he immediately used the hot water to sterilize the tea utensils.

Soon, Huang Tao was led into his office by a server.

The moment he sat down, Huang Tao said in amazement, "Zhang Lin, I saw the video of your office center online yesterday. It looks impressive even just from the video, but now that I’m here in person, I realize how impressive it is. How did you manage to make it so cool inside?"

Zhang Lin, not wanting to reveal too much, said, "Do you think I built that artificial mountain and garden for nothing? Did I spend the money for nothing? Go build one yourself and see if you can do it!"

Huang Tao shook his head, "I don’t have that kind of spare money. Besides you, which other boss would spend so much on an office center, with flower walls, courtyards, and artificial mountains and gardens?"

Zhang Lin didn’t respond to that and instead poured a pot of tea, filling a cup for Huang Tao. "It’s just ordinary tea for now, so bear with it. I’ll buy some better tea later and invite you again."

Huang Tao took a sip and smiled, "By the way, what kind of workshop are you planning to build? I’ll arrange it for you right away."

Zhang Lin explained, "I want to build a workshop for making moisturizing creams. It needs to fit two oil presses and a stove for making the creams. The main requirements are proper ventilation and building specifications."

"That’s no problem, I’ll have it arranged when I get back," Huang Tao responded, then added, "By the way, I know a friend who deals with oil presses. I can connect you with him!"

"Sure, that would save me a lot of trouble," Zhang Lin nodded and refilled Huang Tao’s cup.

After the business was discussed, they chatted for nearly two hours, as is common in the south where people can sit and chat over tea for half a day.

Most of their conversation was about their high school days.

"Man, you were really something, taking Lin Xin to a hotel in high school. We couldn’t even imagine such things back then!" Huang Tao said, his face filled with admiration and nostalgia, as Lin Xin was quite popular among the boys back then.

"What’s so great about it? You guys got married and had kids first," Zhang Lin didn’t want to dwell on the past. His feelings for Lin Xin had long faded, and she was just a high school classmate to him now.

"You’ve been consistent for ten years, your taste hasn’t changed a bit. You still like girls from No. 1 High School. How about that girl you met last time? She’s even prettier than Lin Xin back then, and more innocent. Your eye for beauty is still sharp."

Huang Tao sighed and even gave Zhang Lin a thumbs up.

Zhang Lin knew he was talking about Fu Yao and rolled his eyes, "Are you seriously thinking that about me? Don’t project your dirty mind onto me."

Just as Huang Tao was about to say something, his phone rang. He answered and then hung up, saying, "Zhang Lin, I need to cut this short. My wife has something going on, and I need to go back and handle it. I’ll arrange the workshop as soon as possible!"

"Alright!" Zhang Lin nodded.

Huang Tao bid his farewell and left Zhang Lin’s office. Not far down the hall, he saw two girls walk in, one of whom was the familiar figure of the girl from No. 1 High School.

"Is this the way to Zhang Lin's office?"

Zhang Lin chuckled, "That guy Zhang Lin, his mouth is even tougher than a duck's!"

Zhang Lin was tidying up the tea set when he saw Fu Yao bringing a young woman in.

Fu Yao reported to Zhang Lin, "Uncle, I've roughly checked out those things. I found a few suppliers and talked about long-term supply cooperation, but at first, they thought I was a scammer!"

Zhang Lin laughed at this. He knew that the office center of Liyuan Farm needed a lot of daily supplies, and for the suppliers in Youcheng, it wasn't a small deal. It was no surprise that Fu Yao, at her age, wasn't trusted right away.

He then looked curiously at the girl beside her, "And this is?"

Fu Yao quickly explained, "This is Lin Mengxi's younger sister, Lin Mengyao. She's here to apply for a job, so I brought her over. Sister Mengyao, this is the farm owner, Uncle."

Lin Mengyao hurriedly handed over her resume, "Mr. Zhang, hello. My name is Lin Mengyao. This is my resume."

Zhang Lin took the resume and glanced through it, then said, "You're applying for the human resources department. We have a camping site project starting soon, so you can calculate how many people we need to recruit. I'll prepare the contract for you."

"Sure, Mr. Zhang," Lin Mengyao clearly didn't expect to be hired so quickly and given a task right away. She had thought she would have to go through a round of interviews at a big city company and wait for news.

She felt the farm's hiring process was a bit hasty, but she knew how well Liyuan Farm was developing and the great prospects of working here. Otherwise, her family wouldn't have asked her sister to use connections to help her get a job.

Moreover, the more hasty the process, the less complete the farm's organizational structure, which was an opportunity for her.

So, she immediately started to understand the situation and made a plan.

By evening, she came to Zhang Lin with a recruitment form, "Boss, I've made a rough plan. For a 2000-acre camping site that can accommodate 5000 people, we'll need a lot of staff. Front desk customer service, tent guide attendants, security personnel... we'll need at least 150 people, and about 50 cleaning staff as well!"

In other words, the camping site would need to recruit over 200 people, and the monthly salary would be at least 15 million.

However, if the camping site could accommodate 5000 people every day, with each camping spot costing 200 yuan, the daily revenue from accommodation alone would be 1 million yuan.

Thinking this over, he wrote the salaries for the positions and then called Lin Muxue.

"Mr. Zhang, what do you need?" Lin Muxue asked as soon as she entered the office.

"Senior Sister, post these job openings on the farm's account," Zhang Lin handed over the form Lin Mengyao had made to Lin Muxue. After a moment's thought, he added, "Mark that we are currently prioritizing local residents of Youcheng."

This wasn't a hard requirement, but he knew that the tourism bureau's Zhao Han and the county's Liu would be pleased by this.

"Sure, Mr. Zhang!" Lin Muxue nodded and took the job posting to leave.

Zhang Lin also handed a contract to Lin Mengyao, "This is your contract. After signing, you need to recruit a few more people for the HR department and find a place for the employees to stay. Look around the nearby town for a cheap building to rent for the dormitory."

"Sure, Mr. Zhang!" Lin Mengyao responded, taking the contract. When she saw the content, her eyes lit up.

HR Department Manager, salary 13,000 + bonus!

This salary was 2,000 yuan higher than the HR manager at her previous large company.

Indeed, the prospects at Linyuan Farm were great.

Without hesitation, she signed her name, officially joining Linyuan Farm.

By night, the recruitment post on Linyuan Farm's social media account attracted a lot of attention. After all, recruiting 200 people, all from Youcheng, was a significant move.

Moreover, with Linyuan Farm's current reputation in Youcheng, many people wanted to work there.

Kailin Investment's Zhao Neng also learned about Linyuan Farm's recruitment information right away.

He immediately called his assistant, "Have you seen Linyuan Farm's recruitment post?"

"I have, Mr. Zhao. It looks like they're starting to prepare," the assistant's voice came through.

Zhao Neng nodded, "So, we can't fall behind. Let's start recruiting for Kailin Investment Farm too. To outdo Linyuan Farm, we need to make a bigger splash. The salaries for regular positions should be 200 yuan higher, and 500 yuan higher for management positions."

The first direct battle with Linyuan Farm had begun!

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end