[People Being Evaluated: 396; the list can be expanded to view the detailed entries.]
[Congratulations! You have obtained an opportunity to conduct a Team-Level Lottery Draw.]
Baihui was quite pleased with Wang’s performance.
After dozens of men had brought their families along with them, their numbers had already climbed past three hundred.
On top of that, another two hundred people from the surrounding areas who were in need had arrived over the past few days.
The total population of the Zhao family was now approaching six hundred.
If they could bring in another four hundred people, they would reach one thousand and fulfill one of the requirements for advancing to the next level: the village level.
However, that wouldn’t be easy.
Most of the poor people in the surrounding areas who needed help had practically already come.
As long as they had enough food to get by, most people simply weren’t willing to leave their homeland.
To them, even a distance of ten or twenty li could already be considered a long way.
Most of these people had probably never traveled more than ten li from the place where they were born.
Baihui thought back to the last lottery draw.
Last time, he had obtained a large furnace capable of distilling high-proof liquor.
Thanks to it, he could now make more than twenty liang of silver a day.
But what should he get this time?
The price of Immortal’s Liquor had gone up again.
It now cost three hundred wen per jin.
Even the landowners of Qingniu could barely afford it, yet they continued buying it anyway.
What’s more, some people had already started speculating on the liquor.
Every day, one hundred jin was sent to the village, and the moment it arrived, it would be completely sold out.
Even though each person had a purchase limit, some still tried every possible way to get their hands on more.
At the tavern, it sold for three hundred wen per jin.
In private transactions, the price was even higher.
Boss Zhang, who owned thirty percent of the tavern, had even gone to ask Jinxiu recently if they could raise the price again.
As far as Baihui was concerned, a single jin of Immortal’s Liquor was already enough to cover the Zhao family’s daily expenses.
The population still hadn’t quite reached six hundred, and the average expenditure was around five wen per person per day.
Altogether, their daily expenses didn’t even amount to three liang of silver.
Besides, the raw materials were cheap.
Even if their population multiplied several times over, they could still maintain a balance between income and expenditure.
But there was something else Baihui needed to worry about now.
Their happiness index.
What did these people lack the most?
Food.
Meat.
Baihui thought about it for a moment, but quickly dismissed the idea.
Even if they raised large quantities of livestock and poultry, it would be difficult to produce meat at a price lower than that of rice and refined flour.
And if people couldn’t even afford rice or refined flour, there was no way they could afford meat.
That left only one option.
High-yield crops.
After all, they now had a large amount of wasteland that was being brought under cultivation.
Baihui opened the system’s shopping list and began going through the available options.
Then, something caught his eye.
[Congratulations! You have obtained the right to purchase sweet potato seeds.]
[Sweet potatoes have been added to the shopping list.]
Baihui looked at the price.
Half a yuan per jin.
Not bad at all.
He immediately bought twenty jin.
He then picked up the sack and headed for the kitchen.
The moment he walked in, Jinxiu’s mother was startled.
“Lord!”
She hurried over to greet him and took the sack from his hands.
“What would you like me to do?”
The woman was puzzled.
“Are you going to have me prepare something? I can do it for you.”
“No need. I want some roasted sweet potatoes. Just keep the fire going.”
The woman quickly nodded.
“Of course, Lord.”
Baihui placed several sweet potatoes directly into the fire.
It didn’t take long before a sweet, fragrant aroma began to fill the kitchen.
Meanwhile, the four girls returned after finishing the day’s work.
Since they still had lessons to attend, they came straight back for class.
But they couldn’t find Baihui.
“Where’s the Lord?”
The four girls looked at one another.
Then they began searching the house for him.
Eventually, they made their way to the kitchen.
And what they saw there was quite a strange sight.
Baihui was squatting beside the stove.
Several small children were gathered around him.
His entire face was black with soot, and he was holding something in his hands and eating away with great enthusiasm.
“Pfft!”
Jinyi couldn’t hold back her laughter.
She quickly walked over and pulled out a handkerchief.
“Lord, look at the state you’re in!”
She reached out to wipe his face.
Baihui dodged the handkerchief.
“Wait. Let me finish eating first.”
Jinyi burst out laughing even harder.
Baihui picked up another sweet potato and held it out toward them.
“Jinyi, Jinxiu, come have some. It’s delicious.”
Jinxiu looked at the roasted sweet potatoes.
Then she looked at Baihui’s soot-blackened face.
She couldn’t help smiling.
After all, even though he was the lord of such a huge household, whenever it came to eating something he liked, he still acted like a child.
Since the lord had already given the order, the girls had no choice but to do as he said.
That said, they were much more reserved about it.
Although it was their first time eating roasted sweet potatoes and they found them absolutely delicious, they certainly didn’t lose all sense of propriety.
Zhao Baihui was completely satisfied.
He dusted off his hands and stood up.
“Roast a few more tonight. I didn’t get my fill.”
Jinyi wiped her hands and came over to help clean his face.
Jinxiu’s mother was eating roasted sweet potatoes as well.
When she heard that the lord wanted more that evening, she immediately nodded.
This was seriously delicious!
Fragrant and sweet, soft and tender, with such a pleasant texture.
What a treat!
“Jinyi, this is called a sweet potato. I’m more used to calling it a ‘camote.’ I’ve actually been thinking about growing these.”
Jinyi nodded and continued eating the sweet potato still in her hand.
She thought it was delicious too.
“Lord, are we going to plant these sweet potatoes across all the wasteland? Do we have enough seeds? They’re actually pretty good.”
Suddenly, Jinyi remembered something.
“By the way, how’s the yield?”
“One mu of land can produce two or three thousand jin, I suppose. At least ten times more than ordinary crops.”
Plop!
Jinxiu forced a smile.
“Lord, you’re joking with us again. How could something with such a high yield possibly exist in this world?”
“If you don’t believe me, let’s make a bet. Bet whatever you want.”
Jinwen smiled.
“The Lord is going to give us something good! Come on, everyone, join in.”
“Heh. You really haven’t seen much of the world, girl. You’ll see. You’ll be crying soon enough.”
“Girls, come with me.”
Zhao Baihui led the four girls to an empty storeroom in the backyard.
“I’m going to tell you a secret. The truth is, your lord is an immortal.”
Baihui turned around, expecting to see looks of shock on all four girls’ faces.
Instead, the four of them simply stared at him calmly.
Zhao Baihui felt a little frustrated.
Is the mental preparedness of people from ancient times really this good?
They’re not even surprised to see an actual immortal?
Unwilling to give up, he raised a hand.
Ten thousand jin of sweet potatoes suddenly appeared out of nowhere, nearly filling the entire room.
“Wow! The Lord is amazing!”
The four girls clapped excitedly.
For fuck’s sake!
Wasn’t their reaction supposed to be a little different?
Shouldn’t they at least be a little scared?
They had accepted it far too easily.
Revealing his true identity was a decision Zhao Baihui had made only after giving it considerable thought.
It was obvious that he would continue bringing all sorts of things out of nowhere in the future.
Besides, there were more and more people around him, which meant it would become increasingly difficult to keep everything hidden—especially from the four girls who were constantly by his side.
In that case, it was better to come clean with them and have the four of them help him keep his secrets.
Only then could he keep the truth hidden from most people.
“You’re really not surprised?”
Jinyi smiled.
“We’re not stupid. We’d already figured some things out. Lord, you’re with us every day, and you practically never come into contact with anyone else. The things you bring out… they can only appear out of thin air.”
She paused for a moment before continuing.
“Actually, we don’t care whether you’re an immortal or a monster. The four of us have already decided that we’ll rely on you for the rest of our lives.”
Zhao Baihui’s eyes grew slightly moist.
These girls…
They’re not even afraid that I might actually be some kind of tiger monster and eat them.
“All right. Then I’ll tell you everything. I came to this world by accident. Well… I suppose you could say I’m an immortal.”
“I do have a certain amount of power, but my body is still that of an ordinary person. I’ll grow old, get sick, and eventually die too.”
“So none of you must ever reveal my secret to anyone else.”
“Lord, don’t worry! Even if I were starving to death, I’d never tell anyone!”
It had to be Jinwen.
For her, everything in life could be measured in terms of food.
I really shouldn’t have named her Jinwen back then.
‘Jinzhu’—Brocade Piglet—would probably have suited her much better.
“Then I’ll tell you something else. My power depends on the number of people under my command. The larger our estate and the more people we have working for us, the greater my power becomes.”
Yes.
One person equals ten yuan of power.
Jinyi pondered this as hard as she could.
Then she nodded solemnly.
“Lord, I understand. Jinyi will work very hard to make sure you become the emperor someday.”
For fuck’s sake!
Girl, don’t go throwing something like that around so casually!
What the hell is going on inside that little head of yours?
You don’t want to make the Lord emperor.
You want to send him straight to the other world!