The richest man started taking advantage of loopholes after joining Alibaba.

Luochuan, south of Yan'an, Shaanxi Province.

A black minivan covered in dust stopped at the end of the dirt road on the plateau.

The car door opened.

"vomit--"

As soon as Shen Nan got off the car, before he could even stand properly, a strong, almost tangible odor rushed into his nostrils.

That's the smell of sugar fermenting, spoiling, and rotting in the air.

"What's this smell..." Shen Nan covered his nose, his brows furrowed.

His leather shoes, accustomed to walking on office carpets, were now stepping into a layer of dark red mud.

He looked down and his stomach churned.

That's not mud.

Those were rotten apples.

Everywhere you look, the yellowish-brown earth is covered with a thick layer of red carpet.

Thousands of tons of Fuji apples were dumped like garbage in the ditches of the orchards, along the roadsides, and under the trees.

Some have completely rotted, turning into black liquid that seeps into the loess soil; others still retain their shape, their skin wrinkled and covered with swarms of black flies.

"Mr. Lin, is this what 'outside the Fifth Ring Road' looks like?"

Shen Nan lifted his foot, his shoe sole picking up a sticky layer of fruit pulp, his voice trembling.

Lin Che did not speak.

Wearing that windbreaker, he walked expressionlessly along the path paved with rotten apples, heading deeper into the orchard.

The air here is very heavy.

It was so heavy that it made it hard to breathe.

……

……

Deep in the orchard, an old farmer wearing a worn-out cotton-padded coat was squatting on the ridge of the field, smoking a dry cigarette.

His skin was dark and rough, and his finger joints were large.

Behind him was a two-meter-high "mountain of apples".

The apples were large and bright red, but they had some spots on their skin or were not perfectly round.

"uncle."

Lin Che walked over, squatted down, and lowered his gaze to the old farmer.

"Is no one going to buy these fruits?"

The old farmer raised his eyelids, his cloudy eyeballs moved, and he exhaled a thick white puff of smoke.

"Buy my ass."

His voice was hoarse, like two grinding stones rubbing together.

"When the vendors come, they take a look and leave, saying that this year's apple harvest is bountiful across the country, and there are so many apples that they can't be sold out everywhere. Nobody wants the apples from our gullies and hills."

The old farmer stretched out his bark-like hand, grabbed a deep red apple, wiped it casually on his lapel, and handed it to Lin Che.

"Eat up, young man, it's free."

"If we don't eat it now, it will all freeze and rot in a couple of days after the first frost."

Lin Che took the apple, not minding that it was dirty, and took a bite.

Juice overflows.

It's very sweet and crisp, with a rich fruity aroma unique to the Loess Plateau.

"How much did the vendor pay for this fruit?" Lin Che asked while chewing.

The old farmer stretched out a palm, flipped it over, and then withdrew three fingers.

"Eight cents?" Shen Nan interjected from the side.

The old farmer chuckled and shook his head.

"Two cents."

"It costs two cents a pound, and we have to haul it to the collection point in the county town ourselves. If we let them come to our door to pick it up, they won't pay us a penny. They'll just consider it as helping us clean up the garbage."

Shen Nan gasped.

Two cents.

He bought an apple at a convenience store in Beijing for six yuan.

"We don't even have enough money for fertilizer." The old farmer tapped his pipe on the sole of his shoe. There were no tears in his eyes, only a numb, lifeless stillness. "Old Li from the village entrance drank pesticide last night. All the suffering he's endured this year has been for nothing."

Lin Che paused for a moment while chewing the apple.

He took out his phone, opened the JD.com app, and searched for "Luochuan Apples".

The page that popped up on the screen was exquisite and gorgeous, with the words "Directly sourced from the source" and "Selected fruits with a diameter of 85mm or more".

Price: 88 yuan/10 jin (5 catties)

That's equivalent to 8.8 yuan per jin (500g).

Lin Che looked at the numbers on the screen, then at the pile of rotting fruit at his feet, fruit that nobody wanted even for two cents.

The difference is 44 times.

This 44-fold price difference is completely eaten up by layers of middlemen, expensive cold chain logistics, platform traffic fees, and exquisite packaging boxes.

The Internet is touted as connecting everything and eliminating information asymmetry.

But at this moment, Lin Che saw a huge, insurmountable chasm.

On one hand, elites within the Fifth Ring Road are complaining about "consumption downgrade" and saying that fruit is too expensive to afford;

On the other side, farmers outside the Fifth Ring Road watched their fruit rot in the ground, feeling like they wanted to die.

What's broken in the middle isn't just the road.

It's the arrogance of the entire business logic.

……

……

Half an hour later, a Santana from the county government compound hurriedly drove to the field.

Before the car had even come to a complete stop, a middle-aged man wearing glasses jumped out.

That was County Magistrate Zhang from Luochuan County.

He wasn't wearing a suit; the cuffs of his jacket were worn white, and his trouser legs were covered in mud.

"President Lin! President Lin!"

County Chief Zhang practically jogged over, at the speed a drowning person would run when they see a straw.

He grabbed Lin Che's hand with a frighteningly strong grip, his palms covered in cold sweat.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know you were coming. I'm still checking for potential hazards in the villages down below... Welcome to Weiguang Technology for your guidance!"

Although he spoke in official jargon, the anxiety in his voice was impossible to hide.

"County Chief Zhang, let's skip the formalities."

Lin Che withdrew his hand and pointed to the rotten apples covering the hillside.

"How long has this been going on?"

The smile on County Chief Zhang's face instantly vanished, replaced by a bitter expression.

"It's been half a month."

He took off his glasses and wiped the fog off with his sleeve, his movements utterly exhausting.

"Of the 200,000 tons of apples in the county, 70% are unsold. I and the county officials are running around to the market every day, posting on WeChat Moments, looking for e-commerce platforms, and begging and pleading."

"But it's no use."

County Chief Zhang pointed to the winding mountain road.

"The road is long and the fuel costs are high. When the e-commerce platform representatives came and did the math, they said that the delivery fee for one order would be 10 yuan, plus packaging losses. They said they couldn't do it because it would be a loss."

"President Lin."

County Magistrate Zhang suddenly took a step back, looked at Lin Che with a solemn expression, and spoke in a tone that was almost pleading.

"Weiguang is a large platform with hundreds of millions of users. Can you help us? As long as we can sell these fruits and prevent the people from losing everything, the county is willing to cooperate in everything! Even... even if we have to use all the government subsidies to cover the transportation costs!"

Several fruit farmers who were watching also looked over.

That look in his eyes.

It was like grasping at a straw that could save a life.

Shen Nan, standing to the side, was also somewhat moved.

He took out his calculator, did some quick calculations, then leaned close to Lin Che's ear and whispered:

"Boss, I just did the math."

"The purchase price here is low, even if we buy it for 5 cents, logistics is the biggest expense. From Shaanxi to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the minimum agreed price for express delivery of a 5-pound box of apples is 6 yuan, plus 1.5 yuan for cardboard box packaging and 1 yuan for labor costs."

"The fixed costs alone amount to 9 yuan."

"If we want to sell, we need to sell it for at least 12.9 yuan or even 15.9 yuan to break even."

"This price is not competitive at all on Taobao and JD.com, where there are many merchants offering 9.9 yuan shipping included. Although they are selling aged cold-stored fruit, users don't know that; users only look at the price."

Shen Nan closed the calculator and shook his head.

"This is a dead end, unless we donate our own money to charity."

Upon hearing Shen Nan's words, the light in County Chief Zhang's eyes dimmed.

Is even a faint light useless?

The wind picked up, whipping up withered leaves and rotten fruit peels from the ground, which stung people's faces.

Lin Che stood in the wind, still clutching the half-eaten ugly apple in his hand.

He was thinking.

Countless streams of data are flowing through my mind.

In its previous life, how did Pinduoduo manage to break through the iron curtain of Alibaba and JD.com?

It relies on low prices.

But low prices are not achieved by burning money; they are achieved by restructuring the supply chain.

Why are express delivery fees so expensive?

Because it's a single point of shipment.

A package travels from the village to the town, to the county, then to the transfer center, and then to the trunk line logistics... Every step involves moving air and cardboard boxes.

What if... we don't send packages?

Lin Che's eyes suddenly lit up, like the light of a hunter locking onto his prey.

"Who said anything about sending a package?"

Lin Che suddenly spoke.

Shen Nan and County Chief Zhang were both stunned.

"How can we sell without shipping? Are we just letting users come and pick it up themselves?" Shen Nan asked, puzzled.

Lin Che threw the remaining half of the apple into his mouth, chewed it, and swallowed it.

"The whole vehicle will be shipped."

He turned around and looked at County Chief Zhang.

"County Magistrate, if I asked you for 100 large trucks, each 9.6 meters long, every day to transport apples directly to local distribution warehouses in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, could you coordinate the availability of these trucks?"

"Yes! As long as there are goods to deliver, I have plenty of trucks!" County Magistrate Zhang's voice trembled with excitement.

"it is good."

Lin Che then looked at Shen Nan.

"If I'm transporting a full truckload of apples, with each truck carrying 30 tons, what would the freight cost be per pound of apples?"

Shen Nan's mind raced: "Full truckload logistics... that cost can be reduced to 3 cents per pound! Then, with same-city delivery from the city warehouse, the cost per order can be controlled below 3 yuan..."

"That's right."

Lin Che interrupted him.

He quickly constructed a new cost model in his mind:

Purchase price: 0.8 yuan/jin.

Full truckload trunk logistics: 1.5 yuan/5 catties.

Same-city delivery: 3 yuan/order.

Packaging (minimalist mesh bag + burlap sack): 0.5 yuan.

Total cost: 9 yuan.

"County Magistrate Zhang, there's no need to choose."

Lin Che pointed to the pile of blemished apples behind him.

"I want all of these spotted ones, as long as they're not rotten or spoiled and taste good."

"No fancy cardboard boxes, no foam netting, just use the cheapest burlap sacks or mesh bags."

"President Lin, this...this kind of fruit doesn't look good. People in big cities will dislike it." County Chief Zhang hesitated.

"They won't mind."

A cold smile curved Lin Che's lips.

He turned to look at Shen Nan, his eyes burning with a mad ambition.

"Shen Nan, notify the technical department to update the backend rules of 'Weiguang Group Buying' tonight."

"Kick out all those resellers. Starting tomorrow, all Apple orders will be switched to direct shipping from Luochuan."

"Whether it's a white-collar worker within the Fifth Ring Road or a middle-aged woman outside the Fifth Ring Road, no one can refuse this price."

Shen Nan swallowed hard. "Boss, how much are you planning to sell it for?"

Lin Che raised a finger, his voice echoing across the vast Loess Plateau.

"9.9 yuan."

"5 jin (2.5 catties)".

Free shipping nationwide.

The calculator in Shen Nan's hand fell into the mud with a "thud".

"9...9.9 yuan? That's only a few cents in profit? They might even lose money! What's the point?"

Lin Che raised his head and looked at the gray sky in the distance.

"We're after their heads."

"I want to use these rotten apples covering the mountains and fields to blast out all 200 million low-level users who have been accumulating in WeChat."

"Shen Nan, remember this."

"On this land, the ultimate cost-effectiveness is the highest form of morality."

Lin Che turned to look at County Chief Zhang, who was beaming with excitement.

"Make the warehouse available, County Magistrate."

"Starting tomorrow, you'll see trucks from all over China heading to Luochuan."