Chapter 103 Lu Family General Store: Every Household Has a Portable Space
Yes, you read that right, Lu Xuan opened a general store in a small cave.
Previously, the villagers would come to Lu Xuan to exchange any supplies they wanted, in a scattered manner, at random times. To be honest, it was really troublesome.
Lu Xuan had long planned to open a small shop for them to exchange their items, which would not only be convenient for the villagers but also allow him to sell off his ever-growing stock of ordinary blind boxes.
It was just that there hadn't been a suitable opportunity before, so it was temporarily put on hold.
This year's bumper harvest has filled the villagers' pockets considerably, which will be a good opportunity to stimulate consumption.
Long before the harvest, Lu Xuan had set up the small cave. Once the second round of planting was over and the villagers could take a break, the general store, filled with all sorts of goods, officially opened for business.
Lu Xuan specifically hired three employees to help him open the shop.
The three are Wei Xiang's lame father, Old Man Wei, who is responsible for helping to move goods; Xu Wenze, who is responsible for accounting and record-keeping; and Lin Man (10 years old), the clever grandson of Granny Lin, who can run errands.
On the day of the official opening, the small cave general store, which had received advance notice, was packed with villagers who came to exchange goods.
Miao Jinfeng, Aunt Zhang, and other close female friends came together, each carrying a bag of grain. Their eyes darted here and there, finding everything so appealing that they were dazzled and wished they could exchange everything for their own homes.
"Salt, sugar, alcohol, nutrient solution, cooling patches, pine needle lamp, heatstroke medicine, fever reducer, wow, there's so much stuff! I'll have to get a lot of this back today."
Aunt Chen said excitedly, "Before the earthquake, I was so focused on stockpiling food that I forgot to buy more salt. My family is about to run out of salt, so we need to replenish it."
Aunt Sun added, "We still have cloth! All our clothes are torn and I can't even keep up with the repairs. This is a good opportunity to exchange some cloth for new clothes. Oh, who would have thought that in a year of famine, we wouldn't go hungry and could even buy cloth to make new clothes? Nobody would believe it if I told them."
Miao Jinfeng said seriously, "It's all thanks to Lu Xuan. We must remember his kindness and not be like those ungrateful wretches who only take benefits without knowing how to be grateful."
The others nodded repeatedly, "Of course not, we all remember."
"They even put out space rings? Brother Wei, I need a 10-cubic-meter one. I don't have enough food with me. Save it for me and I'll go get it right away."
"I want a change of space too! I also want to experience the magic of being able to pack things away at any time. In the future, I won't have to pile up my luggage in the makeshift hospital anymore, and I can live in a much more spacious place."
Because every household had a bumper harvest, and the guard team had also received their wages, none of the villagers, who had never felt so wealthy, left empty-handed.
The most prioritized item that everyone must replace is space.
The 100 cubic meters of public space that had been exchanged earlier was still not enough. Li Tie took out the 50 cubic meters that he had left over from last time and used them to exchange for 600 jin of grain. He then added another 4,400 jin of grain to exchange for 500 cubic meters of space, almost emptying out all the public resources he had received from this harvest.
The Li family also upgraded their own space to a larger one, and several other families who had previously purchased space also upgraded their 10 cubic meter units to 50 cubic meter units.
The original 10 cubic meters were replaced with new ones, and some meat was added as compensation.
Otherwise, taking 600 jin of grain at once would really hurt.
Others, even those from relatively poor families like Grandma Lin's, who only had her and her grandson, gritted their teeth and exchanged for a 10-cubic-meter space.
Lu Xuan successively drew dozens of spaces of different sizes from the blind boxes, and except for the large spaces of more than 100 cubic meters, all the others were exchanged.
If 10 cubic meters is not enough, use two 5 cubic meter rings instead.
In just one day, Yunlu Village achieved the goal of every household owning a spatial ring.
The person who had been transferred to the new space returned to the cave and packed away all the vacuum-packed supplies and other odds and ends that had been piled up in their makeshift shelter. The house suddenly felt much more spacious and refreshing.
Besides space, the supplies mentioned above are also popular items.
Other items include communication devices, toilet paper, sunscreen spray, insect repellent, lip balm, household medicine pills, knives and swords, children's toys, dry ice, starry sky cotton sets, thermos flasks, plastic buckets, eco-friendly plastic boxes, plastic bowls and chopsticks, alloy bowls and chopsticks, and four-piece bedding sets...
Many of the useful supplies from the regular blind boxes and a few silver blind boxes have been exchanged for other items.
Incidentally, dozens of bio-suits were also replaced.
A small number of families who had previously shared the same piece of clothing were finally willing to buy one for each member. Most of them bought an extra one on top of the one they already had for changing and washing.
Some even went so far as to upgrade to better bio-suits.
From the moment the shop opened at eight in the morning until sunset, the small cave-like entrance to the general store was always bustling with people. Lu Xuan's space bead containing the surplus items from his blind boxes was emptied by half, and supplies like salt, sugar, and nutritional supplements, which are considered hard currency, were almost completely sold out.
The total revenue for that day was also astonishing.
The income from the exchange space alone amounted to more than 8,000 jin of grain, more than 2,000 jin of radishes and cabbages, and several hundred jin of meat.
Other goods were exchanged for several thousand kilograms of grain and several hundred kilograms of vegetables and meat.
Viewers in the live stream sighed: "The villagers finally had a bumper harvest, but most of it went into the streamer's hands. The streamer is a real capitalist."
Lu Xuan disagreed.
"Free trade, buying and selling are voluntary. I didn't cheat them out of their food, nutrients, medicine, bio-clothing, and space. Aren't all of these good things that can improve their survival index and happiness index?"
People outside don't even have the chance to buy it.
The villagers might feel the pinch when they take out their grain, but what if they actually tried to return the goods?
I'm afraid not a single one would be willing.
They would only regret that they didn't harvest enough food to make them more willing to buy, buy, buy.
However, such a grand occasion only occurred on the first day.
The villagers have already spent most of the available supplies, and what's left is for their own food, so they can't touch it.
After that, only a few people would come to consume a small amount each day, and what they brought was not necessarily food, but rather meat hunted by the hunting team or a very small amount of vegetarian food that could still be gathered.
Lu Xuan had anticipated this and was not disappointed.
We need to accumulate more blind box shipments and wait for the second wave of harvest; it will definitely explode again then.
·
As the grocery store's business declined, the orchard behind the Lu family villa, following a bountiful harvest in the fields, also reached maturity.
There are fifty fruit trees in the orchard, which have yielded a total of 1,500 catties of fruit.
These fruits belong to Lu Xuan privately, and after being ripened artificially, they do not need to be shared with the village.
However, after a moment's thought, Lu Xuan approached Li Tie and offered to donate some of the fruit to the elderly and children in the village as a benefit.
“Every senior citizen over sixty and every child under ten can receive ten catties of fruit, the type of which will be random. I will do this every time I harvest my orchard, as a small token of my appreciation.”
Li Tie's eyes lit up. "Good, good, you've got a kind heart! The old folks and children in the village are in for a treat!"
Although fruit cannot be eaten as a meal, the fruit that Lu Xuan ripened was much tastier than any wild fruit or the fruit sold in the city. Apples, pears, and peaches were particularly large; even a person with a small appetite could feel half full after eating just one. Ten pounds was quite a lot.
In some families with many elderly people and children, each family can receive thirty or forty kilograms, which is a considerable income.
Lu Xuan's idea also inspired Li Tie.
Lu Xuan was indeed the richest man in the village with the most resources, but he had also accumulated a considerable amount of public resources for the village.
Aside from villagers coming to exchange for supplies they don't have, the main purpose of the supplies is to pay the guards' wages.
Public resources are meant to be saved up for the villagers; it doesn't make sense to just hoard them without spending them.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Li Tie simply invited several elders in the village to discuss the matter and decided that every month, a sum of money would be allocated from the public resources to provide subsidies to elderly people, children, widows, widowers, pregnant women, and other villagers in special circumstances.
The subsidized supplies include 30 jin of random coarse grains, 5 jin of random meat, 5 jin of fish, 3 radishes and 3 cabbages, and 2 bamboo shoots.
The supplies weren't much, but they met the basic survival needs of these vulnerable groups, ensuring that they wouldn't starve even without any additional income, and could even live comfortably.
Now that they had been in the mountains for over a month, Li Tie simply distributed the first subsidy along with Lu Xuan's fruit.
As a result, almost every household received a large amount of supplies.
The villagers were overjoyed: supplies had fallen from the sky!
Admittedly, this income was less than the amount of food they spent when the grocery store opened.
But it's free, doesn't require them to exert any physical effort, and it's a fixed monthly subsidy!
Lu Xuan's orchards, like his grains, ripen every two weeks, allowing him to harvest two batches each month, which is quite a pleasant surprise.
Even more surprisingly, the grocery store also received a new batch of fruits, and these weren't ordinary fruits, but rather larger and tastier mutant fruits.
Lu Xuan told everyone, "These mutated fruits are not only larger and taste better, but they also have special effects. I suggest that everyone buy some to take home and eat."
Zhang Chengming asked expectantly, "What special effects? Does it grant immortality?"
Lu Xuan: "..."
The audience booed loudly. "Even superhumans can't achieve immortality, and you think eating fruit will make you live forever? A few dishes and you're already this drunk."
Lu Xuan said, "There is no way to achieve immortality, but we can strengthen our bodies, enhance our immunity, and reduce the probability of getting sick."
Moreover, unlike ordinary fruits and vegetables that require long-term consumption to see any effect, this effect can be reflected in physical data after eating just three to five fruits. It can quickly bring the villagers' physical fitness to the level of a low-level body enhancement ability user, greatly improving their self-defense capabilities.
Of the first batch of about 300 jin of mutated fruit, 50 jin were kept to be made into fruit wine to see if there would be any changes, and the remaining 250 jin were taken to the general store.
Low-level physical enhancement abilities and 'immortal arts' are far less impressive to watch.
Nevertheless, when Lu Xuan said that eating more mutated fruits could enhance strength, the more than 200 catties of fruit were sold out instantly, with each household buying four or five catties.
Because the fruit is large, four or five pounds doesn't actually amount to much; if the whole family shares it, each person can only eat a few bites.
But the results were truly amazing.
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