Chapter 3

Xia Ke's hometown is a village in a poor county in western province called Hongqi Village. It is located in a small basin surrounded by mountains. A national highway winds its way through the mountains, passes through Hongqi Village, and then disappears into the more distant mountains.

For convenient transportation, most of the villagers' houses are built along the highway.

Hongqi Village is a medium-sized village with more than 50 households. Xia Ke remembers that the village was very lively when she was a child, and she often saw children playing together.

As time goes by, the village remains the same simple village, but the number of people in the village is decreasing.

The village lacks a pillar industry and cannot provide jobs and income for the growing children. Naturally, it cannot retain young people who yearn for a better life. The young people leave to work or settle down in the city, and the population gradually decreases. In the end, only the elderly without means of livelihood and the left-behind children who have been abandoned by their parents who have gone to work in the city and left to be cared for by their grandparents are left behind.

"If you ask me, why can't you open your tech company in our village? I see those companies on TV and on social media, they're all in big cities, surrounded by skyscrapers. But you're so stubborn, insisting on opening your tech company in the village!"

"Besides, you know how far our village is from the county seat and the provincial capital. When we actually sell the goods, transporting them will be a real hassle."

“Oh, Dad, I know what I'm doing. Those places are rich enough; they don't need my company to contribute to the GDP.”

Unable to reason with his daughter, Xia Zhongguo was a little unhappy. He was genuinely worried that his daughter would go through all that trouble and end up with nothing but debt.

Although he is old, he is not the kind of old-fashioned person. He is very willing and proactive in learning new knowledge in the new era. Therefore, he knows that starting this kind of technology company requires a lot of money to invest. Since his family doesn't have money, his daughter can only borrow money from the bank if she needs it. He doesn't want to end up with no money and a mountain of debt.

Xia Ke noticed her father's mood, but she couldn't listen to him. Her company was different from other tech companies. It skipped the research and development step and could directly purchase goods from the system and then resell them at a higher price. In essence, although she was now using the shell of a tech company, she was actually doing buying and selling, so her costs were kept very low, and she didn't need to consider the issue of talent acquisition for the time being.

There's no need to worry about transportation. She's in the business of spatial loops, but once she builds a spatial tunnel connecting the company to the provincial capital's express delivery point, the problem of inconvenient transportation can be easily solved.

As for future research and development needs, what if we can't recruit people because we're stuck in a small mountain village?

Don't be ridiculous. In the current job market, as long as she offers high enough salaries and can solve the transportation problem through the space loop, there's no way she won't be able to find workers.

No matter how you put it, her hometown nurtured her, and now that she's grown up and has some ability, she wants to give back to her hometown.

The procedures for setting up a company are quite complicated, and she was too lazy to go through them. She only planned to show up when she had to.

Xia Ke plans to find an agency to handle this matter, but before contacting the agency, she needs to first obtain payment for the agency to do the work for her.

...

With the internet so readily available, the first choice for quickly monetizing online spaces is undoubtedly live-streaming e-commerce.

"Hello everyone, good afternoon! I'm your host Xia Ke, and today I'm livestreaming our move!"

“My rented apartment is on the edge of the Sixth Ring Road in Beijing. Look, you can see the subway station in the distance when you look out the window. I usually take the subway from there to work.”

"The reason for this move is that the streamer plans to leave Beijing and return to his hometown. So all these things have to be moved back to his hometown. The distance is far and there are a lot of things. Hiring a moving company is too expensive. The streamer plans to move them little by little by himself."

After Xia Ke finished speaking, she looked at the single-digit number of viewers in the upper left corner and sighed silently.

Her resignation procedures were officially completed today, and she is now truly free. She no longer has to clock in at work or endure the psychological manipulation of her idiot boss, but she is not happy at all.

"Indeed, starting a business is always difficult!"

Xia Ke was only distracted for a moment. Seeing that more people had entered the live stream, she quickly greeted them warmly, "Welcome to the stunningly beautiful female cockroach in black stockings~"

[What's going on? Did a thief break into the house?]

The stunningly beautiful female cockroach, upon entering the messy room, asked curiously...

[Moving.]

[This isn't just any ordinary move; they're moving from Beijing to a village over 1500 kilometers away in the south.]

[With so much stuff, the shipping costs must be high.]

[No, the streamer isn't hiring a moving company; they plan to move everything themselves, trip after trip.]

[How much can a person carry in one trip? Even if you take the cheapest train, the cost of carrying things in multiple trips would be exorbitant.]

Xia Ke also saw the comments and took the opportunity to recommend the Space Ring to the seven viewers in the live stream.

"As we all know, the express delivery industry in our country is developing very rapidly. Even long-distance moves like those of livestreamers have become more convenient. All you have to do is pack your things and call a courier. But while express delivery is convenient, it is expensive for livestreamers with a lot of stuff. The distance is also long, and the waiting time for delivery is also long."

"But this space ring can solve this problem! Within a straight-line distance of 150 kilometers, you can achieve spatial traversal simply by creating a location, making even a heavy move much more convenient. Don't hesitate, take action now! The space ring is newly launched and on sale for only 5,000 yuan! You won't regret it, but stock is limited, so first come, first served."

She buys goods from the system at a cost of 1,000 yuan, sells them for 5,000 yuan, and after deducting the purchase price, she makes a profit of 4,000 yuan per item!

It's incredibly profitable.

In reality, even if she sold such practical high-dimensional technological products at a higher price, there would still be buyers. But in the system's world, the space ring is just an ordinary tool that provides convenience. So why should her world turn it into a luxury item that only the wealthy can afford, all for the sake of profit?

She wants every ordinary person to be able to enjoy this convenience.

Xia Ke had no experience in live-streaming sales. She thought it was easy when she watched those online anchors introduce products fluently, but now that she did it herself, she realized how difficult it was. Her mouth felt like it was glued shut with superglue, and she couldn't say a word she wanted to say.

I really want to slap myself!

Stop talking nonsense! Hurry up and get to the point! Introduce the product! Stop rambling on about moving! All you do is copy overused advertising slogans; can't you come up with some original ideas?!

As expected, the comments were full of mockery, and some even started cursing.

[Netizens' mindset is really getting more and more advanced these days.]

[The girl is quite pretty; why not be a beauty streamer instead of treating netizens like fools?]

[Just quit, quit, it's just another attention-grabbing tactic.]

[stupid*! ]

[***!]

Ignoring the insulting comments, Xia Ke maintained a smile throughout the product introduction. Then, carrying the two large bags of clothes she had just packed, she activated her spatial ring.

Viewers in the live stream were astonished to see the vortex appear out of nowhere, their demeanor completely changed from its previous irritable and cursing state.

[Is this a special effect?]

[To be honest, although this streamer is exaggerating, the special effects are actually pretty cinematic; they look almost real.]

[It's starting! It's starting! The streamer's going to lie again.]

[For newcomers, here's a quick explanation of the streamer's tricks: the live stream will go black for two minutes, after which the streamer will drag items to another room and announce that she's successfully teleported.]

[They actually use such a low-level scam to fool people? They really think we're all idiots.]

The bag was a bit heavy, so Xia Ke held her phone in one hand and dragged the bag into her spatial ring with the other, thus missing the decryption comment.

She experimented and found that the inside of the space ring could not be photographed; no matter what equipment was used, the screen would be black once inside the space ring.

Xia Ke started her live stream on Sunday afternoon, a time when many working people and students were resting at home. Many viewers stayed because they thought Xia Ke's remarks were outrageous, and at that time, the number of people in the live stream room reached 32.

It was a small number, but pitifully small; this was the peak number of online viewers for Xia Ke's live stream over the past few days.

Perhaps feeling that Xia Ke's behavior was too outrageous, the new audience members were quite active in their comments.

I don't usually watch things that are outrageous, but I'll definitely check out this one that's ridiculously outrageous.

[Let her do something stupid; I want to see how she makes up a story later.]

Viewers in the live stream followed the camera and saw the streamer struggling to lift two large bags. Then, it seemed like the streamer's other hand wasn't holding the phone properly, and after a series of chaotic spins, the camera went dark.

[She's here, she's here! She's using her familiar tricks to treat the audience like idiots!] These are old viewers who have already seen Xia Ke move a bunch of stuff.

Two minutes later, the live stream lit up again.

"I've now arrived at my rural hometown, 1,500 kilometers away from Beijing. Look, these are all the things I moved earlier. My parents went to the market today, so they didn't have time to help me organize them, and they're just piled up here in a mess!"

The camera pans to the room, where the open space is piled with bags of all sizes, all of which Xia Ke has brought over in trip after trip.

Xia's parents originally wanted to help with the move, but the space ring had limitations. After real-name authentication, only the authenticated person could use it, and others could not cross the space vortex. So Xia Ke had to move slowly by herself.

[It's just moving things from one room to another, right? Everyone knows your tricks, are you still treating us like fools?]

"It is true that one room was moved to another, but it is also true that the two rooms are 1,500 kilometers apart. Look out the window, downstairs is my small courtyard, and in front of the door is the only road in the village."

Xia can turn the live stream to her own yard.

It is currently afternoon.

The golden sunlight cast a hazy glow over the Xia family's courtyard, making the flowers planted by Xia's mother look as if they had been filtered through a lens, incredibly beautiful. Cars occasionally passed by on the dark asphalt road, and people were working in the fields not far away, while the setting sun hung on the distant, layered mountains.

The scene captured by the camera truly is a peaceful rural landscape.

Even so, netizens still didn't believe it.

[It's fake, definitely fake. No country in the world, not even in the Flower Kingdom, has mastered the technology of space jump.]

[But the subway station view outside the window that the anchor filmed earlier, and this scene right now, both look very real. It shouldn't be AI-generated; a bustling metropolis instantly transforming into a rural village? Interesting, I'm following.]

[The person upstairs is still out of touch. Many self-built houses on the outskirts of the city have urban views on one side and rural views on the other. What's so amazing about that!]

Xia Ke picked up the tablet again and opened the map.

"My real-time map also shows Hongqi Village. The streamer wasn't lying. As long as you buy the Space Ring, you can achieve spatial travel! If you want to experience it, click on the streamer's little yellow cart to buy it. Stock is limited, so buy now!"

"Let me take you downstairs to show you. Behind my house is my parents' vegetable garden. It's definitely not a rural-urban fringe area."

Xia Ke has been live streaming all afternoon. As a newcomer, she doesn't have many viewers. In addition, she was busy moving before and didn't have time to deal with the questions in the comments. Now that she sees a lot of people in the live stream, she decided to take them to the back of the house for a walk.

Whether it's a scam or not, you'll know once you go behind the house.

Xia Ke's family lived in a two-story self-built house. All the family's rooms were on the second floor, while the kitchen and living room were on the first floor. Just as she was about to leave after finally getting around the messy things on the ground, her phone screen suddenly went black.

Forehead.

My phone died and shut down.

By the time Xia Ketong found the charger among a pile of things, almost twenty minutes had passed, and the sun had already set.

Twenty minutes passed, and all the viewers in the live stream must have left. No one would watch a random video of the vegetable garden behind the house.

Forget it, let's wait until tomorrow when it airs and see if the audience has any questions before we prove it.