Da Si Nong: I really don’t want to farm

Chapter 336 The Desert Farm Becomes a Hit
"All is ready except for the opportunity!"

Xu Yue said with a smile.

What Dongfeng?
That naturally means the students are enrolled.

It hasn't been long since I left the industry.

The leader has left.

Xu Yue paused for two days to set up some formations that were relatively difficult for Guo Tianyou and Liu Chengji before driving back to Taoyuan Village.

"I thought you would go straight to Shanghai!"

When Zhang Ruoxi saw Xu Yue, she smiled and said something.

"There are still several days left, aren't there?" Xu Yue said with a smile. "The pasture grass has already been planted over there, and so have the grapes."

"That's good!"

Zhang Ruoxi nodded.

Pasture planting can be carried out simultaneously with the formation deployment.

"The lab over there must have expanded by now, right?"

Zhang Ruoxi continued to ask.

The laboratory there was built to be large.

But now it seems that it may not be enough.

"Not yet," Xu Yue shook his head and said, "It should be enough for now."

This is only temporary; it will definitely expand in the future.

However, construction has not yet begun.

After all, those 110,000 acres of desert were just the beginning.

Even if we don't take over the entire Badain Jaran Desert, it's impossible for us to only take over a fraction of it.

“I expect other deserts will also build laboratories!” Xu Yue said. “This is mainly for desertification control. I’ll have to talk to Lao Tian about it later.”

"Desert control?"

Zhang Ruoxi paused for a moment, then nodded.

With improvements made to agricultural methods, desertification control becomes much easier.

The next day, Xu Yue went to find Tian Yizhi and explained the matter.

The leader only mentioned it briefly.

Although it wasn't explicitly stated, Xu Yue couldn't pretend he didn't understand.

Moreover, farms can use this opportunity to plan ahead.

Build a laboratory, then rent the desert for afforestation, and maybe turn it into a ranch or orchard in the future—anything goes.

Once we have enough manpower, we can turn those green deserts into farms.

How much to repair?

Tian Yizhi naturally supported this.

However, building a laboratory naturally requires sending trustworthy people.

As for whether someone will learn it, he is not worried.

Without cultivation, how can one set up an array?

Even those with cultivation levels may not be able to set up an array.

People like Guo Tianyou and Liu Chengji would probably find it difficult to set up the arrays in the laboratory.

“Build one in each of the major deserts!” Xu Yue said. “We’ll also rent the surrounding deserts while we’re at it. We can’t let others do the work for us. We’ll green the area first, and then let the students from the academy set up the formations after they graduate.”

"How much do you want to rent?" Tian Yizhi asked. "Then the lab shouldn't just be for our own use, right?"

"Rent it as you see fit," Xu Yue said. "Ten thousand acres is not a small amount, a million acres is not too many."

Millions of acres?
Tian Yizhi was somewhat taken aback.

Millions of acres?
One mu is fifty cents, but if it's rented by Xu Yue, there will definitely be discounts or something.

That million mu would only amount to fifty million.

If we lease out several major deserts in China, that would amount to several hundred million yuan.

Huh?
It doesn't seem like there are that many.

How much money is in the farm's account right now?
Tian Yizhi wasn't entirely sure, but it should be in the billions.

Correct!
The farm's cash reserves are just that high!

Extremely arrogant.

Putting everything else aside, the annual income from those few acres of ginseng is astonishing.

Renting millions of acres of desert seems to be no problem at all.

As for losing money?

How could I possibly lose money?

Government subsidies, ecological compensation, agricultural development, ecotourism, energy industry, and forestry product development.
Earning it back isn't that difficult.

Moreover, once those green deserts are turned into farms, that goes without saying.

Just like the tens of thousands of acres of rice paddies in the Badain Jaran Desert, which yield tens of millions of kilograms of rice a year, even if it's just selling the rice, that's millions of yuan. If each kilogram of rice is worth a thousand yuan, that's billions of yuan.

How much was invested in those 10,000 mu of rice fields?
How many acres of desert could you rent with billions of dollars?

Add in other investments, such as labor and machinery costs, and it becomes a highly profitable venture.

"As for other desertification control companies that want to cooperate, you can decide how to charge them," Xu Yue said. "It's obvious that we can't handle the desertification control in China on our own."

Tian Yizi nodded.

Putting aside whether they have the capability and the time, even if they do, would the country allow them and their company to take over everything?
Are you kidding me? More than a million square kilometers!
Can their Taoyuan Farm handle the food?

Would you dare to eat it?

“Then I’ll have someone rent some desert to build the lab,” Tian Yizhi said. “But once the lab is built, you’ll have to do a lot of running around.”

Xu Yue nodded.

He was naturally aware of this.

"I'll find some people and have them stay with Xu Wei for a while," Tian Yizhi continued. "Shouldn't we build a larger laboratory? And also construct living quarters for the agricultural production team?"

Xu Yue nodded.

Xu Wei did a pretty good job.

"Do you think that as the farm grows bigger, it might develop into a small town, or even a county seat?"

Xu Yue asked with a smile, seemingly as a joke, but Tian Yizhi thought it was very likely.

"Actually, the farm might attract a lot of tourists!"

Xu Yue believed Tian Yizhi's words, but he didn't pay them any mind.

There are quite a few people who travel to the desert.

No one expected that the desert farm would suddenly become a hit online.

The kind that goes viral.

After it became popular, it instantly attracted countless curious tourists to visit.

Rice plants have appeared in the desert!
A tourist posted a video he filmed online, which instantly attracted the attention of countless people.

If it's not photoshopped, then that would be truly shocking.

Rice is being grown in the desert, and the yields appear to be quite impressive.

The video went viral on short video platforms, drawing both admiration and skepticism.

However, the video was determined by "experts" to be genuine.

Then more and more people went there, and many online celebrities even started live streaming.

Then the discovery of tens of thousands of acres of rice in the desert instantly sparked public outcry.

The transformation of deserts into oases is not uncommon online, but these videos don't generate much buzz.

Desertification control has indeed yielded some results, but these are the result of accumulated efforts over time.

But this time is different.

Someone has grown rice in the desert—no, it's dryland rice.

But that's still something that's hard to believe.

Rice has been planted; this has turned the desert into fertile land!
If this can be done, then controlling the desert is a piece of cake, isn't it?
"The desert farm has become a hot topic, and the hype is astounding," Zhang Ruoxi said. "It's even trending on social media. Should we call someone to try and reduce the hype?"

“If the authorities wanted to suppress the hype, it wouldn’t have generated this much buzz,” Xu Yue said. “This matter will die down after a while.”

"Aren't you afraid that Taoyuan Farm will be exposed by netizens?" Zhang Ruoxi said. "You're going to become famous if you keep doing this."

“The higher-ups won’t suppress the hype, but they definitely won’t let it be exposed online, right?” Zhang Ruoxi said. “Who cares? Tian Yizhi will consider this.”

Rice grown in the desert has become an astonishing phenomenon online.

So who planted it?
This naturally attracted a lot of attention, and it was quickly uncovered by someone.

Peach Blossom Farm?

Most people don't know about him, but he's quite famous among wealthy people.

Those who work in or frequent high-end restaurants have almost all heard of "Taoyuan" brand vegetables, meats, and fruits.

These are things that few ordinary people actually know.

Now he's completely famous.

Where there's traffic, there will naturally be people trying to piggyback on it.

Therefore, many things about "Taoyuan Farm" have been dug up by netizens.

A single serving of stir-fried chives and eggs costs over a thousand!

Vegetables and meats, even the purchase price is ten or twenty times higher than the market price.

Some people have also revealed that the products from Taoyuan Farm were sold to Xiaohongdian for at least a hundred times the market price.

It is said that it later increased tenfold.

Correct!
That's just outrageous.

They sold it to the Japanese for a thousand times the market price!
A pound of chives costs only a few yuan in the market, but the chives from Taoyuan Farm are sold to high-end restaurants for tens or even hundreds of yuan per pound.

But they sell it to Xiaohongdian for several thousand yuan per kilogram.

This is just the price we paid them.

Regardless of transportation or tariffs.

Do you want love?

That's awesome.

Do you want it?
I want it!

And it seems they've sold quite a lot.

There are still a lot of wealthy people over there, near the little red dot.

Some say that the people at Peach Blossom Farm obviously didn't want to sell their stuff to Little Red Dot, so they set an extremely outrageous price.

Then, the other party actually accepted!

Why?

Are the products from Taoyuan Farm really that good?
Okay?

Naturally, that's good.

However, so many rich people aren't stupid.

Of course, in everyone's eyes, the most outrageous thing is Peach Blossom Immortal Wine.

It's broken the six-figure mark!
Six figures! How many people in China can earn six figures a year?

The desert farm is a hit.

Taoyuan Farm has also become popular.

Someone revealed that rice from Taoyuan Farm costs several thousand dollars per kilogram, and it's the kind that's expensive but unavailable.

There were even times when it exceeded 10,000.

Moreover, there have been many instances where the price was driven up to tens of thousands of yuan per kilogram.

Tens of thousands!
Even if it's only 1,000 yuan per kilogram, how much would nearly 10,000 mu of rice be worth?

The estimated yield per mu is no less than 1,000 jin, which is nearly 10 million jin of rice. How much rice can be produced from that?

One hundred catties of paddy rice will generally yield sixty-five to seventy-five catties of rice.

Even at the lowest estimate, that's 6.5 million catties of rice.

Let's not even talk about what happens after a pound, even if it's a thousand yuan per pound.

That's 6.5 billion!

What the hell!

That's not rice, it's gold!

Taoyuan Farm has grown gold in the desert!

Then, the number of tourists visiting the desert farm increased, as did the number of uninvited guests.

"Stealing rice?"

Xu Yue glanced at Tian Yizhi and his lips twitched.

Thinking about it, it doesn't seem so hard to understand.

After all, rumors are circulating that it costs several thousand or even tens of thousands of yuan per kilogram.

Stealing dozens of kilograms of it would amount to tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan.

Steal a whole carload from him.
That would be incredibly lucrative.

“We’ve arrested several groups already, and there are still some we haven’t caught,” Tian Yizhi said. “In addition, quite a few tourists couldn’t resist taking some money.”

Are the tourists behaving inappropriately?
Perhaps that's part of the reason, but in Xu Yue's view, the biggest reason is probably curiosity.

Of course, some might also want to collect some to use as seeds.

"A huge loss?"

Xu Yue frowned.

Tourists prohibited?

That place is surrounded by desert on three sides. If tourists want to go, how can we stop them?
Should we install a fence?

"We recovered some, but the rest was only about a hundred kilograms," Tian Yizhi said. "The trouble now is on our side, especially in Taoyuan Village, where tourists are frequently seen picking rice and stealing from vegetable fields."

Xu Yue was speechless. What kind of situation was this?!

Some tourists are curious, but many are probably also looking for a bargain.

Indeed, as the saying goes, "People fear becoming famous, just as pigs fear growing fat."

Taoyuan Farm became a hit, and this is the aftermath.

"How was it handled?"

Xu Yue shook his head and couldn't help but ask.

“We’ve put up some warning signs along the roadside, increased security patrols, and the workers are reminded when they see them,” Tian Yizhi said. “These are all fine. Although we didn’t make them pay compensation, it’s been effective. But what about those people caught stealing rice at the desert farm? What will happen to them?”

"How to deal with what?"

Xu Yue asked a question subconsciously.

“It seems the police want to hear our opinion,” Tian Yizhi said. “You know the value of our farm’s rice. Stealing even a few kilograms of rice can be a serious crime.”

Xu Yue frowned upon hearing this.

If he, as the victim, was sentenced for stealing a few kilograms of rice, he would instinctively feel that the sentence was too harsh, let alone others.

The police over there clearly thought so too, which is why they sought their opinion.

"what is your opinion?"

Xu Yue did not answer, but instead asked Tian Yizhi.

“Make an example of them!” Tian Yizhi said. “But that wouldn’t be good for our farm’s reputation. After all, a lot of people are paying attention these days. If we don’t pursue it, this kind of thing will be hard to stop, and it might even become more frequent. Besides, those people clearly knew the value of the rice when they went to steal it.”

The person who stole the rice was clearly different from the tourists who casually picked up some rice and vegetables.

"We respect the law, and we also believe that the law is inseparable from human sentiment."

Xu Yue thought for a moment, then said something.

Tian Yizhi's lips twitched upon hearing this.

Should we tell them to sentence as they see fit, or should we let them give a lenient sentence as appropriate?

That's like saying nothing at all!
“How to judge is not our business,” Xu Yue continued. “We are just ordinary citizens.”

Tian Yizhi understood this time.

How they handle it is up to them.

We don't demand severe punishment, but don't expect us to plead for them either.

"How was it resolved over there?" Xu Yue continued. "The Special Administration Bureau probably wouldn't get involved in this, would they?"

“Several groups of people were arrested, causing quite a stir over there,” Tian Yizhi said. “In addition, the police have been patrolling the farms recently. They’ll probably leave once the rice harvest is complete. As for the Special Administration Bureau, they haven’t been standing idly by either.”

“Those rice thieves are really stupid,” Xu Yue said with a laugh. “Why didn’t they wait until we finished harvesting before stealing? That would have been so much easier!”

“That would be extremely difficult,” Tian Yizhi said with a smile. “However, shouldn’t the security over there be strengthened?”

Stealing from the fields is naturally simpler and easier than stealing from the warehouse.

"Ok!"

Xu Yue nodded; indeed, no one had been assigned to security over there.

After all, the Special Administration Bureau has people there.

But there weren't many people.

They were mostly targeting江湖人 (jianghu people, people from the martial arts world) there.

For the average person, they really wouldn't be a good fit.

"I'll have Guo En take some people with him later."

Xu Yue thought for a moment and then said.

(End of this chapter)