“Rat-a-tat…”

There was a knock at the door.

“Come in, please.”

Fang Qiu who was scrutinizing the map in his office in Beijiang, called out to the person outside the door.

“Fang Qiu, someone is looking for you.”

Mr. Zhao Shanlin walked into the office followed by a young man dressed in a formal suit. He pointed to Fang Qiu and said, “He’s Fang Qiu.”

“Thank you.”

The young man thanked him and walked toward the desk.

“Mr. Zhao, who is this man?”

Fang Qiu, slightly stunned, stood up and asked.

“He said he’s a government official. If there’s anything you want to know, ask him. I have a lot of things to do now, so I’ll take my leave first.”

As he spoke, Zhao Shanlin immediately turned around and walked out.

The young man stopped before his desk.

“Hello, I’m here on behalf of the Beijiang Bureau of Land Management. You can call me Xiao Li.”

While introducing himself, the young man extended his hand to Fang Qiu.

“Hello.”

Hearing that, Fang Qiu immediately understood why he was here and shook hands with him.

“Here’s the thing. The top leaders asked us to allocate a few pieces of land to you. Are you available now? Let’s go take a look.” Xiao Li asked.

“So fast?”

Fang Qiu was surprised.

“It had only been half an hour since Li Ji called me, and this young man is already here at the cultivation base. How could they act so fast?”

“State affairs should be done as quickly as possible.”

The young man smiled and said, “After all, this is a restricted military area, and unauthorized people are not allowed to enter. It’s a waste of resources to leave the land there unused. If it is left in a state of neglect, the land will gradually turn into a desert. So, you should maximize its value.”

“Okay.”

Fang Qiu nodded and said, “Let’s go.”

With the young man leading the way, they passed through the cultivation base and headed for the area at the back.

After going through two expansions, the cultivation base now occupied a very large area. It took them three minutes to get to the back of the cultivation base.

Fang Qiu strained his eyes to look ahead.

Behind the cultivation base were three particularly large pieces of land, one on the left, one on the right, and one in the middle. In particular, each piece of land covered a large area that was the same size as the current cultivation base.

“Which one?” Fang Qiu asked.

“All of them.”

Xiao Li pointed to the three pieces of land with a smile and said, “They’re all yours.”

“Ah?”

Fang Qiu was astonished.

“Three vast tracts of land! How could they give all of them to me at the same time?”

“These three pieces of land are in the inland area, close to the desert. Therefore, they’re under constant threat of desertification. According to the information provided by the higher-ups, you will use all the land to cultivate Desert Cistanche, which will help to combat desertification. Hence, the higher-ups granted all of them to you.” Xiao Li explained.

“But, it’s such an expansive area.”

Fang Qiu gave a wry smile.

“Those high commanders are using me to the best advantage.”

However, deep in his heart, he had longed for the three tracts of land for a long time. The three tracts of land and the Desert Cistanche cultivation base complemented each other well and fell in nicely with his plans.

A long time ago, Fang Qiu had envisaged the layout of the area if he got these three tracts of land. He could build all the necessary equipment and factories in the most central part of the whole land. The balance of the land around the center part would be the cultivation area. This layout could facilitate easy management of the whole setup.

“I’ve brought the relevant documents as well.”

Xiao Li took out the documents from his carry-on briefcase and said, “This contract is in duplicate. Please sign it if you have no more questions.”

Fang Qiu carefully checked all the terms listed in the contract, which were all right. As was written in the contract, he owned the land in perpetuity.

Fang Qiu signed it immediately without thinking too much.

“There’s more.”

After signing this contract, Xiao Li took out another contract and two photos. He handed them to Fang Qiu and said, “This is the land under the snow-capped mountain that you need. Although it is not as big as this piece of land, it’s much larger than your cultivation base at that place. Are you satisfied with it?”

Fang Qiu took the documents and read through them.

The photo was taken via satellite. The Snow Lotus cultivation base on the photo had been circled in red. According to the contract, all the land within the red circle belonged to Fang Qiu.

This piece of land looked smaller than the base here, but his snow lotus base would be increased by two-fold.

It was more than enough to cultivate Snow Lotus.

“I like it.”

Fang Qiu signed the contract immediately without saying anything more.

He couldn’t have enough land.

“What about the land in Nanjiang?” Fang Qiu asked.

When talking to Li Ji on the phone, he reminded him that the production of herbs couldn’t keep pace with the demand, so he needed more land to nurture and cultivate herbs. Moreover, it was not just the cultivation of one herb that required more land, but more land was needed to cultivate all three herbs. Therefore, the high-level executives should give him three pieces of land near each cultivation base.

“And Nanjiang…”

Xiao Li smiled and said, “According to the news there, it seems that they have approved a mountain for you because there is no spare land.”

“Great.”

Fang Qiu smiled with satisfaction.

A mountain was even better for him to expand the Nanjiang dendrobe cultivation base because it could provide an ideal environment for growing dendrobe with its high humidity and rocky terrain.

Fang Qiu thought the mountain granted to him should be connected to his dendrobe planting base. The slightly flat mountain could not be seen from the front but adjoined the base from the back.

With more space, they could hire more workers to open up the land for cultivating herbs. Besides, Mr. Zhao should speed up the growth of the seedlings.

With so many favorable conditions, the output of the three herbs like Desert Cistanche and dendrobe would be greatly increased within a month, which would be enough to meet all needs.

“The land management institution has already signed the contract related to Nanjiang on your behalf. It’s completely the same as our contract so that you can rest assured,” said Xiao Li.

“Thank you for specially making this trip.”

Fang Qiu expressed his gratitude.

“It’s what I should do. It’s my contribution to the country.”

Xiao Li answered with a smile, and then discussed some specific terms with Fang Qiu, for example, the details about the construction team. After that, he left Fang Qiu his phone number and turned to leave.

When Xiao Li left, Fang Qiu quickly took out his mobile phone to call Li Ji.

“What do you think? The land you received is pretty good, isn’t it?”

As soon as the phone was connected, Li Ji’s proud voice came from the other end of the phone.

“But it’s excessively vast!” Fang Qiu exclaimed.

“I’ve told you that the state won’t let you down.”

Li Ji chuckled and said, “Feel free to use the land.”

“Thank you, and please convey my gratitude to your mighty leaders.”

Fang Qiu thanked him and said, “Tell the higher-ups that I’ll give you another 100,000 jars of liquor in the first year.”

“That’s great.”

When Li Ji heard this, he said happily, “Now that you have enough land, deliver the liquor to us as soon as they’re ready. I’m so tempted by it.”

“Okay, we will work at our fastest speed.”

Fang Qiu nodded.

He hung up.

Fang Qiu called He Xue.

“Hello?”

He Xue answered the phone.

“It’s me.”

Fang Qiu nodded and said, “Give He Gaoming all the magic herbs growing close to the center in each cultivation area.”

“Close to the center?”

He Xue was stunned.

“Yes.”

Fang Qiu said with a nod, “The effect of those magic herbs there will be better if they are used to make wine.”

He Xue felt puzzled.

“Aren’t the herbs all the same?

“Why are those close to the middle better?”

Although she didn’t know the reason, He Xue didn’t probe any further. After all, from the day Fang Qiu rescued her, she clearly knew that he was not an ordinary man, so she kept her doubts to herself and never asked him questions that she thought were inappropriate to ask.

“Okay, I’ll let the workers collect them in different batches.”

He Xue nodded and then grumbled. “By the way, is there something wrong with your friend? He never stops talking. Such a blabbermouth!”

Fang Qiu immediately shook his head and smiled wryly.

It seemed that He Gaoming and He Xue had been plaguing each other for the past few days.

In other words, they were well-matched in the clash of wills and neither of them gave in to the other.

“You settle the case yourselves.”

With a wry smile, Fang Qiu answered casually and quickly hung up the phone.

“Gee!”

As soon as he was free, Fang Qiu suddenly thought that his father also liked drinking.

Usually, his father drank a few sips of wine every day, but he never got drunk because he only took in a small amount of liquor each time.

“Dad will love Heaven Dew!”

Fang Qiu immediately got the wine he had produced and sealed some in one jar, and sent the jar of liquor back home to his father.

After sending it out, Fang Qiu called his father.

“Hello?”

The call went through. His father’s voice came from the other end of the line.

“Dad, I recently developed a delicious medicated liquor. I just sent you a jar of it. Try it first. This liquor is tasty, but it’s very strong. Don’t drink too much just because it’s tasty. Just take a few sips each time like what you usually do.” Fang Qiu advised.

“Okay.”

His father didn’t stand on ceremony. He growled a response and continued, “Your mother and I were about to call you. We’d very much like to talk about your movie. You acted the part with consummate skill. Like father, like son. In addition, the script is also very good. I admire your taste in that. Anyway, it was very enjoyable. I heard it broke the record with its box office takings.”

“It broke the record?”

Fang Qiu was stunned.

“Oh, you played the leading role in the movie. How could you not know it?”

Fang Qiu’s father said, “This movie is a mega-hit, and your performance was good. But remember that it is very important to guard against arrogance and impatience. You can’t be overly proud of it and should do your best at all times. Do you understand?”

“Absolutely.”

Fang Qiu replied, “As you said, like father, like son. I’m not the arrogant type.”

“You’re right.”

Hearing that, Fang Qiu’s father nodded with satisfaction and said, “Remember what I’ve told you. I’ll tell your mother not to call you. I know you’re busy, so I’m gonna hang up now.”

“Bye.”

Fang Qiu nodded and hung up the phone.

He muttered in a low voice, “That’s a straightforward call.”

“However, did the movie become a box-office record breaker?”

Thinking of what his father said on the phone, Fang Qiu quickly put down the phone, turned on the computer on the desk, and began to search for it online.

Only then did he realize that “Yang Yizhi” had run for almost a month.

Within the month, its box office takings had taken off and rocketed sky high. Up till today, the movie’s ticket sales added up to 4.5 billion Huaxia coins, and counting.

This was a sheer record-breaking act!