Chapter 32: Gratifying Harvest, New Mission Released!

"Fifty-three thousand four hundred plus one thousand six hundred minus three thousand three hundred and thirty..."

On a weekend evening, the last batch of tourists left the Ancient City, still longing for more.

Chen Yan, however, did not leave the ticket office. Instead, he sat at his desk with all the receipts, exchange records, and revenue reports from the past few days lined up in a row, calculating each item one by one with a calculator. After a flurry of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and having deducted the daily operating costs, he suddenly took a deep breath.

51,669 yuan.

This was the net income of the Ancient City over the past six days after deducting operating costs. Fifty thousand yuan might be a drop in the bucket for some people, but for the Ancient City—which had been on the verge of bankruptcy a month ago—it was significant. This sum of money would not only directly cover the Ancient City's expenses for more than two months, but it was also a shot of adrenaline injected straight into Chen Yan and all the scenic area's staff!

Looking at the numbers on the calculator screen, Chen Yan felt the boulder that had been weighing on his heart for exactly three years finally vanish.

In a normal scenic area's business model, the largest expense was employee salaries. Many scenic areas that appeared to have decent foot traffic ended up with negative returns at the end of the year simply because they failed to control this particular expense. As it happened, Ning'an Ancient City's labor costs, while not entirely nonexistent, were pitifully low.

Apart from the few original veteran employees of the scenic area and companion residents like Ma Qing and Ding Qi—who were responsible for public sanitation—the Shopkeepers on Qinghe Street and the Waiters working under them were completely self-sufficient. They even had to pay a percentage of their profits to Chen Yan.

Because the comprehensive labor costs were so low, he dared to let the shops in the scenic area stick to a budget-friendly pricing strategy.

Although he had been incredibly busy these past few days, he still carved out some time whenever possible to check online content related to his scenic area. As more and more tourists visited Ning'an Ancient City—or more accurately, Qinghe Street—every detail of the street was thoroughly analyzed online, and its ratings skyrocketed.

First and foremost was the powerful sense of immersion that made every tourist feel as if they had actually traveled back in time. Although there weren't many shops operating on Qinghe Street, each one offered something more unique than the last. There was Li's Tea House with its Song Dynasty tea-whisking techniques that even professionals admitted they couldn't replicate. There was Yu's Guduo, selling fried Guduo that seemed simple to make but scored top marks in taste, price, and cultural significance. Then there was the Su Family's Fragrance and Medicine Shop, which had become the most popular store among female tourists in the scenic area in less than a week.

Even the Zhang Family Iron Shop, which Chen Yan had initially been the least optimistic about, attracted numerous tourists rushing to buy items. This was all thanks to Zhang Dazhu's masterful ancient forging techniques and his beautifully handcrafted Peace Talismans. The demand was so high that Chen Yan was recently considering implementing purchase limits.

Most importantly, after analysis by experts with a deep understanding of Song Dynasty history, it was confirmed that these shops on Qinghe Street, as well as the architecture of the entire street, strictly adhered to Song Dynasty building regulations. To the uninformed, it looked as if the scenic area's boss had somehow transported an entire ancient street straight from the Song Dynasty.

And how much did it cost to deeply experience this authentic ancient street of the Song Dynasty?

Fifty yuan, or rather, fifty copper coins.

That's right, it was that cheap—outrageously cheap!

Starting from the moment you stepped onto Qinghe Street, you could head to Li's Tea House and order a fine cup of Xianchun tea for only 8 coins. After finishing your tea, you could go to Miss Yu the Third by the bridgehead and eat a few skewers of fried Guduo. Based on a normal adult's appetite, you would be absolutely stuffed after four or five skewers at most.

After having tea and eating fried Guduo, you could stroll around Yongtong Bridge for a while, completely free of charge. If you felt bored later, you could cross Yongtong Bridge to the North Shore and wander around Su's Fragrance and Medicine Shop, picking up a sachet to take home along the way. You could choose your own spices for the sachet, with prices ranging from 10 to 20 coins.

Even if you bought a 20-coin sachet, and deducted the 8 coins for tea and 10 coins for the Guduo, you would still have 12 coins left out of your initial 50. And those 12 coins were enough to buy a purely handcrafted Peace Talisman at the Zhang Family Iron Shop.

With that, your tour of Qinghe Street would come to an end, having experienced everything at a premium level. And all of this cost less than 50 coins.

In reality, most tourists wouldn't experience every single item. Chen Yan had calculated it; the average total consumption per tourist on Qinghe Street over the past few days was only about 30 coins. Ticket price was 50 yuan, and the consumption on Qinghe Street was 30 yuan. This meant that for less than 100 yuan a day, you could enjoy the entirety of Qinghe Street, as well as the other areas of Ning'an Ancient City that few people paid attention to.

With its highly immersive Song Dynasty charm and incredibly touching low prices, the word-of-mouth reputation among tourists was sky-high. Even though Ning'an Ancient City's online fame was only just beginning to brew, it was no exaggeration to say that they had staged a beautiful comeback.

After verifying the accounts, Chen Yan closed the ticket book and leaned back in his chair to rest for a moment. He then turned off the lights in the ticket office, locked the security door, and walked toward his own office.

But before he could take a few steps, a familiar notification sound suddenly chimed in his mind.

DING.

The moment he heard the notification, Chen Yan halted his steps and quickly looked at the pop-up window.

[Anchor stability improved to 9% (Extremely Low). 'Qinghe Street' Scene Fusion (Middle Level) unlocking...]

[Core scene missing detected. 'Qinghe Street' Scene Fusion (Middle Level) unlock failed.]

[Missing scene unlock quest issued: Explore and record 'Shuiyi Street'.]

[Please complete the missing scene unlock quest as soon as possible. Upon completion, the 'Qinghe Street' Scene (Middle Level) will automatically upgrade, synchronously unlocking quest rewards and new features.]

[Accept quest: Yes/No?]

After reading the pile of system messages that popped up all at once in the corner of his eye, Chen Yan's brain crashed for two seconds.

He thought, "You've got to be kidding me. Again?"

It had been barely a week since the primary scene of Qinghe Street was unlocked. During this week, he had been so busy that his feet barely touched the ground, and the scenic area had completely climbed out of the mire of bankruptcy. Just when everything was thriving and steadily advancing toward a better future, the system actually issued a new quest?

He looked closer. This quest was noticeably different from the first one. For starters, the trigger method was different. The first time, the Ancient City was on the verge of bankruptcy when the system fell from the sky, forcing him to transmigrate to that alternate-history Song Dynasty ancient city to complete a series of tasks. This time, however, the trigger was a "missing core scene."

He didn't know exactly what core scene needed to be unlocked first for Qinghe Street to upgrade to the Middle Level. But he knew that the system issuing this quest meant that if he still wanted to unlock Middle-Level Qinghe Street, he had to take a trip to the unknown Shuiyi Street first.

As for the second difference, it wasn't too far beyond his expectations. As expected, this quest was no longer mandatory; the lethal countdown was gone. Yet, even without the death-pressing countdown, Chen Yan knew he actually had no choice at all.

If what he wanted before was for the Ancient City to survive the brink of bankruptcy, now that his wish had been fulfilled, he had already formed a new goal. He wanted to completely recreate that living, flourishing Song Dynasty ancient city he had seen during his transmigration right here in his own scenic area!