Chapter 131
Guangming Town, next to the teleportation array in the central courtyard of the town hall.
Mayor Xu - Xu Hai and a group of senior executives stood under the plum tree, occasionally calling up the panel to check the time, then closing it and sorting out their equipment.
In the past world, people had to wear formal clothes when receiving distinguished guests. After the advent of the game, the custom of entertaining guests has quietly changed. Instead of wearing formal clothes, people wear professional suits of their profession.
At this time, Xu Hai and the group of people behind him all took out their best equipment, regardless of whether some accessories and equipment could be stacked together to achieve the maximum effect. In short, they picked expensive outfits, which were almost the same as the local tycoons who wore gold and silver in the past.
It was about to get dark, the light was dim, and Guangming Town had already taken out the glowing crystals, and there were only a few fireflies around.
Xu Hai had a calm expression, his eyes fixed on the dimly lit teleportation array.
"It's about time."
The people behind him breathed hard.
In just a few seconds, the teleportation array lit up, revealing a familiar array pattern.
Xu Hai had already received the system reminder and whispered, "It's from Chihu Town."
When three figures appeared in the center of the teleportation array, he had a faint smile on his face and strode towards them, "Old Tang, long time no see."
This transmission seemed to have kicked off the excitement of tonight.
The lights flickered on and off one after another, and new figures kept appearing in the center of the teleportation array, batch after batch. Soon the central courtyard, which was not very large, seemed a bit crowded.
Looking around, all the players there were well-known players from the nearby towns, including more than a dozen lords.
"Is Fengxi Town coming too?"
"Ruihe, the herbs we agreed on last time..."
Everyone greeted each other, and their words were familiar yet probing.
Some people talked about unfinished transactions, while others looked around and took in the surrounding environment with a hint of contempt in their expressions.
“I didn’t expect that this meeting would be hosted by Guangming Town.”
“Fengxi Town, Chihu Town, and Weilan Town, which one is not better than Guangming Town? There are so many people coming this time, why did they choose to hold the event in a small territory?” The person who spoke glanced to the side, as if complaining in a low voice, but the voice spread intentionally or unintentionally, just enough for most people including Xu Hai to hear.
The town under this man's name is quite far away from Guangming Town. Originally, they had nothing to do with each other, but there was friction in their business two years ago, and they have been holding a grudge against each other ever since.
This time he finally had the chance to ridicule, and he felt that what he said was right. He still felt that it was not enough, and asked with a smile, "Old Xu, there are so many of us, can you accommodate us here?"
There was silence around him for a moment. Seeing that no one spoke, he felt that what he said was right and felt quite smug.
Originally, no one expected that the right to host this Lords' Conference would be won by Guangming Town.
He guessed that other people were also unhappy. Relying on the support of other more powerful lords, they behaved so unscrupulously.
Xia Ruihe glanced at Xu Hai and noticed that his facial muscles twitched, but he quickly suppressed his anger and even chuckled, appearing to be confident of victory.
She was moved and joked, "Qi Fei, your intelligence is too backward. Haven't you heard that the housing prices in Guangming Town have risen sharply recently? If you want to ask whether there is enough space to live in, I'm afraid it's really a problem. After all, I heard that many elite players who want to move to Guangming Town can't buy a house."
After the transmission channel was opened, Qingshui Town was, to some extent, bound to the position of Guangming Town, so she naturally had to say a few words for Xu Hai.
With just a few words, the awkwardness was resolved and Qi Fei was cleverly reminded of the current situation in Guangming Town. The latter was indeed stunned.
"Elite players are rushing to move to Guangming Town. Are you kidding me?" The next second, he asked suspiciously, "What are they after? Because the town is small and has few resources?"
Xia Ruihe: “?”
Where did this idiot come from?
The other people in the courtyard also secretly turned their gazes to Qi Fei, revealing expressions of unwillingness to look at him.
Qi Fei had a bewildered look on his face, and Xia Ruihe slowly realized that this guy probably really didn't know anything about Nuannuan Hot Spring.
Qi Fei's town is called Xuefeng Town. As the name suggests, it is surrounded by snow-capped mountains. There is indeed not much interaction with the surrounding towns, and the residents are not very active. They are self-sufficient by relying on supplies from the snow-capped mountains, and there are very few players who do business there.
but……
Before Guangming Town, didn’t it send gifts to the lords of many surrounding towns as a “show-off”?
What? Qi Fei didn’t receive it?
Xia Ruihe figured it out in a flash and his eyelids twitched.
Maybe it wasn’t that Qi Fei didn’t receive it, but that Xu Hai pretended to miss it inadvertently.
This resulted in the current situation where he was the only one kept in the dark.
Too cruel.
There was a bit more pity in Xia Ruihe's eyes when he looked at Qi Fei.
To this day, we still don’t know about the existence of Nuannuan Hot Spring. What’s the difference between this and the village not having internet access?
Except for Qi Fei, almost all other lords present received gifts from Xu Hai. Although he was narrow-minded towards his enemies, he was very generous towards other lords. When the hot spring products were updated, Xu Hai would even send them some new products, such as tea and fresh fruits and vegetables, and then "low-key" brag about the current development of the hot spring in the attached letter paper.
The gift was not much, but the letter was very long.
It is so detailed that everyone present now basically knows how many buildings there are in the hot spring area and how many people live in the homestay area.
But except for nearby towns such as Qingshui Town, Longyan Town, and Chihu Town, few people have been to hot springs in other towns. A small number of players were discussing in private, but their voices could not reach the ears of the lords and higher-ups.
Therefore, for about half of the lords present, the only channel to obtain hot spring news so far is Xu Hai's low-key and eloquent letters.
As they stood here, they were actually still half-believing and half-doubting the information about the hot springs.
Is Nuannuan Hot Spring really as powerful as the legend says?
That’s right, they were delicacies with additional in-game effects, but when those delicacies were delivered by the summoned beasts, they had already been frozen hard in the cold wind, damaging most of their taste.
Although it is still delicious, who knows if Guangming Town has found a way to make edible props? From those delicious foods, they could never associate it with the prosperous hot spring resort behind them.
What high-rise buildings rising from the ground, what invincible protective shields that can resist the tide of monsters, what lakes and waterfalls that were built at will...
Are you sure this isn't a dream?
It's not their fault that they didn't believe it, because the letter they sent looked too much like the fairy tales they read as children.
It would be perfectly suitable to be used as bedtime reading for children. In the desperate winter doomsday, who would be naive enough to believe in fairy tales?
Even if...
They had to admit that they were indeed a little moved.
This is why when voting to elect the organizer of the Lords' Conference, Guangming Town Council passed it with almost unanimous votes.
We are usually busy with official duties, and this is a rare opportunity to "travel at public expense", which is a good opportunity to verify the authenticity of Nuannuan Hot Spring.
When Qi Fei jumped out, everyone else's eyes were almost all fixed on Xu Hai, trying to see something from his expression.
Seeing that no one paid attention to him, Qi Fei felt embarrassed and stopped talking, but his expression was a little confused.
"Xu Hai, you specially arranged for us to come here at night. There must be a reason, right?" The mayor of Fengxi Town asked after thinking for a while.
As soon as he opened his mouth, everyone's eyes turned to him.
Fengxi Town is the largest town nearby. It even hired two players who can be ranked in the top 50 of the world rankings to be in charge. It has a population of nearly 50,000. The surrounding terrain is rich, the monsters are diverse, the resources are abundant, and the mayor himself is also extraordinary. Before this, most meetings were held there.
He didn't say anything when his spot was taken away this time, and was even a bit polite in his words.
This attitude made everyone feel uneasy. Could it be that he had some information that they didn't know?
Xu Hai smiled slightly, "Of course. Now that everyone is here, I can also announce that the actual venue of this meeting is not in Guangming Town. I specially rented a meeting place. The bus responsible for picking us up has arrived at the entrance of the town. Why don't we talk while walking?"
In order to prepare for this meeting, Xu Hai went to the hot spring in person a week in advance, found Shu Mo to negotiate, and finally booked several luxury suites with her, as well as the Arctic Fox bus for night pick-up.
He even spent a huge price to get Shu Mo to agree to close the villa two hours earlier tonight to make room for the conference participants.
Special conference reservations like this were very common in luxury hotels in the past, but it was the first time for Nuannuan Hot Spring to encounter such a thing.
Shu Mo found it quite novel and even gave him a friendly discount as a partner.
Despite this, it still costs a lot.
For example, the Arctic Fox bus has a single ticket of 30 points and can carry up to 100 passengers. Recently, the occupancy rate has almost always been above 80%. If we calculate based on 2,400 points used at a time, it would still be thousands of points after the discount.
Not to mention the cost of clearing the annex for two hours.
But Xu Hai felt that compared with what he was going to discuss this time, the money was well spent.
Imagining everyone's reactions later, he could hardly hide the smile on his lips.
*
What was it like when you first visited a hot spring?
I’m afraid all the players who have been to Nuannuan Hot Spring can give different answers to this question.
But there is only one thing in common, that is shock.
It is the heart-stirring shock when you witness everything being destroyed and collapsed and then rebuilt again ten years later.
For old customers like Jiang Qing, when they first visited, the hot spring was just a small wooden house and the visual impact they felt might not have been that strong.
For them, it is more of an emotion of witnessing and accompanying the development of hot springs step by step.
But for later customers, the first sight of the buildings of Nuannuan Hot Spring was truly a strong shock to their worldview.
Just imagine that at the same time yesterday, I was still sitting in a dim room eating canned food, and my family was sitting around simple furniture, with a piece of raw glowing crystal in the middle. The light dyed everything around and the faces of my family members a bleak green...
Even if you are a lord, at most you can live in a slightly larger room, wear more advanced equipment, and do the same things as ordinary players.
And just 24 hours later, they were standing in a brand new, modern, tall building.
There is the gorgeous Milky Way above my head, and on the snowy field in front of me are dotted stars and endless lights.
The difference is not enough to be described as "Grandma Liu entering the Grand View Garden". It is clearly like primitive people wearing animal skins from the Stone Age suddenly entering a modern metropolis.
And what was slightly different from other players was that most people came to the hot spring for the first time during the day, but they took the night bus.
The warm hot springs at night look different from those during the day.
The main building and the annex are brightly lit, with hidden lights illuminating the landscape hot spring and small waterfall at the entrance.
The arrival of night did not affect the players' enthusiasm for consumption. On the commercial street, the orange lights of the shops were lit one after another. A heavy snowstorm had just fallen during the day, and the eaves were covered with a thick layer of snow, reflecting the light, and the eyes were full of bright colors.
Hot pot, barbecue, freshly baked bread...all kinds of warm and overbearing aromas rush up. The neon lights of the bar at the end of the street are flashing, and people are returning to the hotel after a busy day. Now is the time to enjoy the nightlife.
The long street was bustling with people, and the aroma of delicious food mixed together and penetrated into people's nostrils.
Someone's stomach made a loud "gurgling" sound and that person quickly covered his hand in embarrassment, but the rest of the people were no longer in the mood to care.
They were wearing their best gear, but they looked like a bunch of dull fools.
Just now, as the Arctic Fox bus slowly drove into the barrier, the expressions of everyone on the bus became very interesting.
They were trying to encourage themselves on the way, thinking that no matter what they would see, they would have to act calm and composed, and not lose face for their town...
But, they are also human beings.
The desire for warmth and delicious food is almost an instinct engraved in our bones.
Anyone who sees the scene before them will involuntarily feel their eyes warm and their stomachs growl with hunger or thirst.
The only one who seemed out of place was Qi Fei.
He couldn't even speak, and his face turned as green as a goblin.
"Dinner has been arranged. We will eat later and then go to check in. Everyone should be hungry, right?" Xu Hai was pleased with the scene and said happily.
The hot spring does not have a dedicated banquet hall, and the Nuannuan Restaurant needs to serve the guests staying there, so it cannot be reserved. He sent people to ask around, and finally, only the hot pot restaurant on the commercial street said that there was enough space and could accept reservations, so dinner was arranged there.
The hot pot restaurant itself is an antique Chinese-style building, and the tables, chairs and benches inside are of the same style. It may not be noticeable in Nuannuan Hot Spring, but compared with the simple system houses in ordinary towns, it is quite impressive.
Even Fengxi Town is just an enlarged version of Guangming Town.
Standing on a slightly higher city wall, you can already see the roofs of most of the houses in the city.
You can imagine what the living conditions are like.
In the hall, the wooden tables, chairs and benches are as shiny as new, and the operating system cleans them automatically, so they are not stained with indelible oil and become greasy like ordinary hot pot restaurants. Even if it is used to entertain guests of lord level, it does not look low-class.
Of course, most people don’t even think about whether the table is clean or not.
Their eyeballs were about to fall into the pot of red oil soup.
Among all the people, only the people from Guangming Town and Qingshui Town behaved particularly reservedly, and even looked at everyone with a bit of complacency.
——I just like the way you look like you haven’t seen the world.
Originally, the two towns were not particularly outstanding among the surrounding towns, but this performance suddenly made them stand out from the others.
The people at the next table from Qingshui Town were confused: It’s okay for Guangming Town to show off, but why are you people from Qingshui Town so proud of yourself?
This warm hot spring has nothing to do with you!
The others were so jealous that their eyes were about to bleed, but the people in Qingshui Town became even happier under this comparison.
They just couldn't bear to watch it anymore.
They were a group of people from Weilan Town. The Lord and Xia Ruihe were also somewhat acquainted. At this moment, she leaned over and asked curiously, "Hey, why are you guys reacting like this? A hot spring appeared near Guangming Town, and you are happy for them? I'm afraid that we will be controlled by that guy Xu Hai in the future."
I've never heard of when the relationship between the two towns became so good.
Xia Ruihe pursed her lips and smiled reservedly, "Well, Guangming Town is indeed lucky to have a hot spring. We can't envy it... Why don't we change our thinking and think about how to maximize the use of hot springs to improve ourselves."
"Although Nuannuan Hot Spring is the closest to Guangming Town, it doesn't mean that the rest of us can't benefit from it. The appearance of hot water and beautiful things in the game is a good thing for everyone."
The mayor of Weilan Town was stunned when he heard this. "When did your ideological awareness become so high?"
The mayor of Windbreak Town happened to clear his throat at this moment.
His seat was right next to Xu Hai. Although this meeting seemed to be held by Guangming Town, in the eyes of others, the mayor of Fengxi Town was still the most respected. After all, the town's hard power was far behind.
Seeing that he seemed to be about to speak, everyone fell silent.
The mayor of Fengxi Town glanced around casually and looked at Xu Hai with a smile. Just like Qi Fei just now, the volume was neither too loud nor too soft. It seemed like two people were talking, but it was just loud enough for everyone to hear.
"I heard a while ago that Guangming Town and Qingshui Town have opened a fixed transmission channel? I wonder if Fengxi Town can participate." He smiled, "Of course, we don't make requests in vain. To show our sincerity, we are willing to trade the remaining iris stones mined in the next year with Qingshui Town at a price of 800 points, except for the ones used by Fengxi Town itself."
Everyone: “???”
What is going on?
"800 points of Iris Stone, am I dreaming..." The mayor of Azure Town pinched his thigh and almost cried out.
Among the nearby towns, only the area around Fengxi Town has iris stone, and there are two large veins with extremely stable output. They also know that they have a monopoly in this area, so the conditions for every transaction are extremely harsh, almost an unequal treaty. Although the other towns were annoyed, they had no choice but to go to Fengxi Town and beg with various conditions every time they needed help.
But now, Fengxi Town has taken the initiative to say that it can take out all the iris stones produced in the next year and let Guangming Town choose for themselves.
Or at such an unbelievably low price of 800 points? ?
Doesn’t this mean that they will have to wait until Guangming Town has picked up all the items left before they can go to Fengxi Town to trade?
Everyone gasped.
By the way, with such good conditions, what does the mayor of Fengxi Town want to exchange?
What to transmit? What channel?
It took them several seconds to realize the key.
The mayor of Azure Town was stunned for a moment, then suddenly turned his head to the next table——
The actions of the mayor of Fengxi Town were completely to promote Qingshui Town... This unexpected surprise came too suddenly, and the corners of the mouths of everyone at the table curled up wildly, and they simply couldn't suppress it.
They say it’s useful to have a good relationship with the boss! !
The mayor of the Azure Town next to him: “…………”
traitor! ! !
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