Big Data Cultivation
Chapter 1157: Perfunctory

Chapter 1157: Chapter 1157: Perfunctory

Feng Jun came back this time planning to stay a bit longer, so he replied with a smile, "We’ll see, maybe ten or twenty days, perhaps even a month."

Feng Wenhui was startled when he heard this, "What happened... are you in some kind of trouble?"

This is what it means to be parents. While he wished his son could stay home more often, when Feng Jun really came back, his first thought was to worry if something had gone wrong.

Feng Jun chuckled, "Relax, it’s nothing. I just came back to conduct a few tests. Zhengyang isn’t very convenient for that... Gazi also came back to visit his parents and will be leaving in a couple of days."

He had also arranged another task for Lu Xiaoning—taking advantage of this departure from Zhengyang to make a trip to Haozhou.

Feng Jun had long considered finding a couple of people from Haozhou to teach the Luohua people the local Haozhou dialect. The accent from the Mobile Plane was strikingly similar to the Haozhou dialect. Though he hadn’t yet finalized plans for sending the Luohua people to the Mobile Plane, preparing early when it came to language learning was never a bad idea.

In Haozhou, Feng Jun asked a classmate to recommend a few reliable locals who spoke excellent dialect. Gazi’s trip this time was mainly to finalize some preliminary agreements so these people could be ready to come to Zhengyang whenever needed by the Luohua side.

It wasn’t a big deal. In fact, a simple WeChat connection and direct transfers could have sufficed, but Feng Jun felt an on-site visit would provide a more direct perspective and demonstrate Luohua’s sincerity.

—In all honesty, he believed that with Gazi staying there for a couple of days, he might even be able to bring someone back when he returned.

The road leading to the small lake had been repaired by Feng Wenhui and Zhang Junyi. It was paved with gravel, about a meter and a half wide, with tree branches on both sides trimmed back, making the path clean and charmingly secluded rather than obstructive.

A metal gate had been installed at the entrance, with a sign affixed to it.

The white sign bore bright red letters: "High Voltage Ahead, Danger!"

Feng Jun was silent for a moment, thinking to himself that his dad and mom certainly had their own way of doing things, which was pretty nice in its own way.

That very evening, the four people from Luohua, alongside Feng Wenhui and Zhang Junyi, strolled over to the edge of the small lake.

The Spirit Gathering Array by the lake had been active all this time. Feng Wenhui and his wife had no idea how valuable Spirit Stones were. Since their son said it wasn’t a problem to leave the array running, they left it on.

Beside the Spirit Gathering Array, Feng Jun materialized his mobile courtyard and activated the Spirit Gathering Array inside it.

The courtyard residence, which resembled a miniature palace, was a mid- to high-tier product from Guanquan Valley. It was not tailored for the Golden Core level, but the Spirit Gathering and Spirit Restoration Arrays inside could simultaneously host the cultivation of two Intermediate-Level Dust Cleansing Realm cultivators.

High-Rank Dust Cleansing practitioners could also use it to restore spiritual energy, though cultivation within it would be more challenging.

The activation of the Spirit Gathering Array in the courtyard exerted a significant impact on the one by the small lake. By Feng Jun’s estimation, the array in the courtyard needed at least ten to fifteen days to fully absorb the surrounding spiritual energy to function optimally.

This was only because a Spirit Gathering Array had already been running at the lake for a long time. Otherwise, Feng Jun believed it might have taken half a month.

The courtyard was lit from within, though the illumination was subdued and understated. Upon entering, Zhang Junyi couldn’t help but exclaim, "Wow, son, this magical treasure of yours is quite something!"

Feng Jun smiled and replied, "You two have been working hard on the construction site. Why don’t you stay here for the night?"

The six of them spent a peaceful night there. By early morning the next day, the courtyard had disappeared into a shroud of white mist.

That afternoon, they hosted Gazi’s parents at the construction site. But come evening, they received calls from both city and county leaders—they had heard of Feng Jun’s return.

Feng Wenhui and his wife gave vague answers on the phone. They didn’t want to offend local officials, but they also didn’t want their son to be disturbed.

The following day, at noon, County Chief Yang from Chaoyang unexpectedly showed up at the construction site.

At that moment, Feng Jun was helping his parents review the construction quality and progress—something he would never have to trouble himself with in Luohua. But... well, he was home now, wasn’t he?

Upon hearing that the county chief had arrived, he didn’t bother to avoid him—if there was something to discuss, come at me directly.

County Chief Yang indeed had business to discuss. He had transferred to Chaoyang just last month, previously serving as a deputy in another county.

Since his arrival in Chaoyang, he found the county shockingly underdeveloped, with its fiscal revenue practically nonexistent.

The only favorable aspect was that Yunyuan City’s wealthiest individual resided in the county. Although this person was rarely present, his family did own tens of billions worth of assets in the area.

This time, County Chief Yang had come seeking donations—the county was in dire financial straits and needed some help.

Feng Jun knew exactly what this was about. He wasn’t going to flat-out refuse, but he also didn’t intend to shoulder the burden alone. In the end, he promised a donation of one million, with twenty thousand allocated to improving the welfare home, fifty thousand for the county’s No. 1 High School to build an experimental lab, and thirty thousand for the county hospital to purchase medical equipment.

Upon hearing that Feng Jun wanted to specify how the funds should be used, County Chief Yang felt a tinge of dissatisfaction. He thought to himself: Just because it’s your money, do you really think you can dictate everything?

It wasn’t that Yang had plans to misappropriate the money, but the government didn’t usually take orders from businessmen when it came to spending.

Still, County Chief Yang had heard of Feng Jun’s connections—mostly due to the backing of Elder Hu—so he restrained his displeasure and assured, "As long as you donate, I’ll ensure these funds are used for those purposes, rest assured."

Feng Jun could hear the ambiguity in his statement but didn’t bother to argue. After all, it was only a million.

There was a time when losing fifty thousand in profit would have made him quit a job out of principle and brood over it for years. Now, however, he could think nothing of an entire million. This really showed that wealth empowers courage; without money, confidence disappears.

Knowing not to overplay his hand, County Chief Yang shifted the conversation to other topics, with particular focus on Chaoyang’s tourism industry—a nascent sector for the area in dire need of development. Feng Jun had also leased a large swathe of mountain forests, making him a part of the local tourism narrative.

County Chief Yang mentioned that while interest in tourism development was growing across various regions, state funding support was limited. Developing the Riyue Lake scenic area would be quite challenging for Chaoyang.

Feng Jun thought to himself: How is that my problem? He genuinely had no interest in the matter. Indeed, the landscapes around Riyue Lake were beautiful, and it wasn’t far from the mountain forest he had leased—just over ten kilometers away.

But those ten kilometers were straight-line distances, covering mountainous terrain. Traveling by car would mean at least thirty kilometers, likely more. He couldn’t see even the vaguest connection between himself and this project—besides, his purpose for leasing the mountain forests wasn’t profit-driven.

It was hopeless trying to convince him otherwise. When you’re rich, you get to be willful. His mindset was beyond the comprehension of most people.

However, his aloofness came across to County Chief Yang as a lack of confidence.

The next day, the deputy mayor of Yunyuan City in charge of education, science, culture, and healthcare visited the construction site, specifically requesting to meet Feng Jun.

The deputy mayor’s arrival was a grand display, with police escorts leading the way, followed by sedans and even a minibus.

While the deputy mayor wasn’t entitled to such fanfare, he had come with a secondary agenda. Making such a serious appearance was meant to apply pressure on Feng Jun—the message being: I’m not to be trifled with.

From afar, Feng Jun sensed their convoy approaching and promptly excused himself, disappearing from the scene.

The deputy mayor’s intent was clear; he wanted to address delays in Chaoyang’s tourism development due to insufficient funding. Knowing Feng Jun had the financial resources, he hoped to secure some form of assistance—whether through investment or temporary support, as long as they could reach an arrangement.

Without even showing up, Feng Jun had cut off any possibility of negotiation.

Feng Jun’s parents were not especially outstanding individuals, but they were far from lacking common sense, particularly Zhang Junyi, who was an exceptionally astute woman.

She remarked, "The funds we’ve raised ourselves have their designated purposes. For this project, we might not even have enough for our budget. If the city is short on funds... aren’t there plenty of banks they can turn to? Why come to us?"

The deputy mayor, despite his clearly orchestrated approach, had no choice but to leave empty-handed, harboring unspoken curses that only he would know.

Feng Jun didn’t take these disturbances seriously. Such matters failed to capture his attention.

Two days later, Gazi drove off for Haozhou. In truth, the distance from Zhengyang to Haozhou was not much greater than the distance from Chaoyang to Haozhou, but traveling directly from Zhengyang would have attracted far more attention. Leaving from Chaoyang was much more inconspicuous.

After Gazi’s departure, Feng Jun decisively entered the Mobile Plane.

The Mobile Plane was in the height of its hottest season—its seasonal cycle was closely aligned with theirs.

That said, Feng Jun had accumulated quite a backlog of work in this plane. Topping the list was the fifty-million-ton grain order for Huang Fu Wuxia.

Feng Jun had no interest in dealing with the Nangong Family. Although Nangong Youjiu had stockpiled over two hundred tons of graphene, if Feng Jun were to refuse their deal, that graphene would rot in their hands... seriously, who else would buy it?

The deal involved him providing thirty million tons of grain, while Nangong Youjiu supplied graphene. Additionally, Feng Jun had agreed to prepay twenty million tons to allow Huang Fu Wuxia to manage the Chaos Plane’s operations.

Even if the twenty million tons were a complete loss—a common enough risk when exploring new markets—Feng Jun still had a personal reserve of twenty million tons to fall back on.

These were his assets, and he saw no obligation to use them. Amidst Huang Fu Wuxia’s frenetic handling of logistics, Feng Jun sought out Bai Li Shangren: "Are we still continuing with our refrigerator and air conditioner business?"

Bai Li Shangren had been closely monitoring Mount Zhige’s activities. For him, the refrigerator and air conditioner trade could earn him thousands of Spirit Stones in commissions, but seizing other opportunities from Mount Zhige could result in far greater gains than mere Spirit Stones.

"Of course," Bai Li promptly decided, but then tested Feng Jun’s bottom line, "Although rushing to get this organized might mean not everything can be settled in Spirit Stones... we might need to include some gold in the transactions."

It wasn’t an entirely unreasonable suggestion. The previous fifty-thousand-unit deal had been settled with gold as well. However, with changing demands within the sect, Bai Li’s urgency had transformed into necessity, compelling him to revert to primarily using Spirit Stones for this round of transactions.

Given the sudden shift in circumstances, he thought: Why not make a small profit through exchange rate differences?

But Feng Jun was far more straightforward. "If you’re not interested, just don’t buy. The Taiqing Sect is also looking to purchase appliances like these."