134 Commercial Investment (Monthly Votes Urgently Needed!)

After Zhan Xiaobai wrote his own biography, countless players flocked to Xiaobai Village to request a copy. Even more players raised their voices loudly across various forums, hoping Zhan Xiaobai would publicize the complete task procedure and process for writing a biography so that everyone could share it.

Zhan Xiaobai slipped back into the administrative courtyard and, late into the night, held an emergency meeting in the council hall with Jianba, Qiushui, Chunqiu Shaoxia, A Fei, and others to discuss how to properly resolve this issue.

In fact, the four elders still did not know how Zhan Xiaobai had managed to write his biography. They were extremely curious and wanted to know the secret behind it.

Zhan Xiaobai smiled and explained, "Actually, it's quite simple. You just need to find a high-level NPC Confucian scholar and ask him to write a biography for you. Then, you hand the biography over to an NPC storyteller and spend a certain amount of money to have him chant and spread it in the teahouses of various villages. Your renown will slowly rise on its own. Fifty copper coins per chanting session isn't expensive, but it's definitely not cheap either."

The four of them suddenly understood. So it was simply buying renown with money.

A Fei immediately said, "Big Brother, I think we should keep this method to ourselves and see no need to reveal it to others. That way, Big Brother's renown will soar, and our village can maintain its leading position as much as possible, upgrading to a large village as soon as possible."

Jianba disagreed, however, and said, "A Fei, you cannot consider things from only one perspective; you need to think as comprehensively as possible. Xiaobai's method for writing a biography is very simple with no high technical threshold, so I estimate that the method will soon be researched and published by other villages. Instead of that, we might as well take the initiative and win greater benefits from it."

"Benefits? How do we get benefits?" everyone asked.

Jianba smiled and said, "Take tea leaves, for example. To have a storyteller, you must build a teahouse. To have a teahouse, you naturally need a large quantity of tea leaves... Right now, many villages haven't built teahouses at all simply to prevent their copper coins from flowing out. Hehe, as long as we publicly announce that teahouses are extremely important for raising renown, do you think other villages won't build them? I'm afraid the sales of tea leaves in our village are about to exceed supply."

"Haha, this move is brilliant!" A Fei was so pleasantly surprised he almost jumped up. "Jianba truly lives up to his nature as a born cunning merchant; every sentence never strays from his trade. This is a brilliant stroke to make a fortune on tea leaves!"

Qiushui pondered for a moment and analyzed, "That's right. I believe publicly announcing the quest workflow has at least three major benefits. First, it stimulates tea consumption, allowing us to sell our tea leaves at high prices. Second, very few villages currently have teahouses—they can be counted on one hand. Even if Big Brother Xiaobai hires an NPC storyteller to chant it, the number of NPC listeners is likely very small, resulting in minimal renown gains. If teahouses are established in villages all across the world, more NPCs will be able to hear Big Brother's biography, and his renown will naturally rise much faster. Third, this is actually a great opportunity to win the hearts of the people. If we publicize this process, no matter what, we will at least win the hearts of players everywhere. Players across the entire world will believe that we have magnanimity and boldness, rather than being a petty-minded village."

Zhan Xiaobai looked at everyone admiringly, nodded, and said, "Good, what everyone said is correct; the benefits are indeed numerous. Since everyone thinks it's better to make it public, let's operate this way. I will go post the biography-writing quest workflow on the forum. Jianba, send someone to contact Hualing Village and work together to drive up the price of tea leaves. Qiushui, Shaoxia, A Fei, you go out into the village, tell them the quest workflow is out, and have them immediately restore normal order within the village."

The others acknowledged their orders and went off to carry out their respective tasks.

After Jianba and Hualing Village had already negotiated and reached an agreement, Zhan Xiaobai logged offline and, using his in-game username, published an article on the official website forum of *Three Kingdoms: City Rise*. The title was: *The Complete Process of The Biography of Xiaobai*: 1. Build a teahouse (requires tea leaves and a tea master) -> 2. Attract an NPC storyteller to arrive and accept the personal biography-writing quest -> 3. Find a Confucian scholar to write a biography for you -> 4. Complete the biography-writing and hand the biography over to the NPC storyteller.

This published process prominently highlighted the importance of teahouses and tea leaves. It intentionally or unintentionally omitted a few minor details—it did not mention that the Confucian scholar had to be a high-level one to write a biography, nor did it point out that having the NPC storyteller chant the player's biography required consuming a massive amount of copper coins.

As soon as Zhan Xiaobai posted the thread, the reply speed reached dozens per second. In the blink of an eye, it surpassed hundreds of replies, and it was instantly pushed to the very top of the official forum section.

"Wow, Xiaobai posted! Wife, come look quickly, an immortal!"

"Woohoo, I finally know how to write a biography! Boss Xiaobai is truly a good person; he's my idol."

"Good, good post! Bump!" — Spammed.

"Boss Xiaobai, I am a super strategic player in the game and I'm here to offer you advice! I once studied under Shuijing, and I'm a fellow disciple of Zhuge Liang and Guo Jia, with super formidable strategic abilities! Let me be the military strategist and commander of Xiaobai Village! I guarantee that wherever my troops point, they will be invincible, sweeping across the entire Xiliang in a month and pulling the emperor off his horse in three months."

Following this post was a string of scornful replies: "Left Green Dragon, right White Tiger, do you think you're a GM?!"

"Damn, I'm even sworn brothers with Jia Xu and old buddies with Xun Yu! Am I not more formidable than you?! Why don't we spar? Whoever wins gets to go pledge allegiance to Xiaobai!"

Within a single day, this thread was viewed and replied to at least a million times.

...

After posting the thread, Zhan Xiaobai was somewhat surprised to see that the replies were coming in so fast. When he opened it, he was instantly dazzled by the contents, feeling as though the heavens were collapsing and the earth splitting apart, with the dark clouds of war rolling in. He hurriedly closed the forum and quickly logged back into the game to recover his vigor.

When he reappeared in the courtyard, the clamor could no longer be heard.

Under the persuasion of Qiushui, Chunqiu Shaoxia, A Fei, and others, the players gathered around the courtyard quickly dispersed, rushing off to read the post and learn how to write a biography. The various villages were busy building teahouses and purchasing tea leaves, leaving them with no spare mind to harass Zhan Xiaobai further.

When Hualing Village received Elder Jianba's notification instructing them to immediately hike the price of tea leaves by fivefold for direct sale, they were extremely surprised at first. They hesitated and felt completely baffled—how could such a price sell? However, considering their relationship with Xiaobai Village, Xiaobai Village had no reason to pitfall them. They still agreed to Xiaobai Village's request, raising the price of tea leaves and selling even the lowest-grade tea at a fivefold price increase.

After Zhan Xiaobai publicized the quest, numerous player-merchants within Wuwei Commandery instantly caught a whiff of business opportunities and flocked to Hualing Village and Xiaobai Village to snap up tea leaves. Even though the high prices were astronomical, demand still outstripped supply. The village chief and elders of Hualing Village were so overjoyed they practically wanted to enshrine Jianba like a god of wealth.

Hualing sighed deeply with emotion, "It seems Xiaobai Village truly treats us as an allied village; whenever there's a good money-making opportunity, they pull us in to make money together. In the past, I even heard players from Daqi, Brilliance Village, and Tiger-Leopard Village say that Xiaobai Village acted very domineering and bullying, snatching resources from them. It seems one shouldn't just listen to rumors; you have to interact with them to truly know. It must have been the people from Daqi and Brilliance Village who provoked Xiaobai Village first, otherwise why would they bully others for no reason!"

The elders chimed in one after another, "That's right. Rumors are untrustworthy; money in your hand is the most trustworthy thing!"

...

On May 20th, five days after the auspicious fortune of the month had passed, Zhan Xiaobai was reviewing village affairs in the administrative courtyard.

Li Asan rushed in cheerfully and reported, "Reporting to the lord, an NPC merchant is requesting an audience to seek financial backing."

"Oh, seeking financial backing?"

Zhan Xiaobai didn't quite understand what was going on, guessing it must be an NPC quest, so he told Li Asan to bring the NPC merchant in.

Soon, Li Asan led in an honest-looking NPC merchant wearing a gray robe.

Zhan Xiaobai sized up the merchant and asked with a smile, "I wonder what kind of financial backing this gentleman requires?"

The NPC merchant bowed to Zhan Xiaobai, put on a smiling face, and said, "This humble person is a small-time peddler in Wuwei City, doing small business in various villages throughout the commandery. The day before yesterday, this humble person discovered a good business venture and wanted to try doing it, but lacks capital, so I would like to request Village Chief Lord to sponsor a sum of funds. As for the profits earned, my lord will take a major share of 70 percent, and this humble person will take a minor share of 30 percent."

Zhan Xiaobai asked, "What business? How big is the business? How high is the risk? How large is the profit?"

The NPC merchant paused for a moment and said, "The grain and forage business. The Wuwei Chief Commandant has recently been mobilizing troops and horses for training and urgently needs a batch of grain and forage. This humble person happens to have some connections and thought we could make a profit from the middle. It requires about five strings of copper coins in capital, the risks are hard to estimate, and it can yield a profit of two strings of copper coins. Of course, your investment can be anywhere between one and five strings; I will figure out a way to resolve any shortfall myself."

Zhan Xiaobai nodded. Earning a profit of two strings of copper coins on a capital of five strings was an exceptionally high margin. However, the risks of this commercial investment were unknown; if it failed, the losses would likely be severe.

Zhan Xiaobai asked further about the details of the grain investment, but the NPC merchant could not provide any other more detailed information. Whether it would result in a loss depended entirely on luck.

Normally, Zhan Xiaobai might not have agreed to this kind of gambling-like investment. However, with the current stroke of auspicious fortune, it would be too much of a waste not to give it a try.

He asked Li Asan about the background and reputation of this NPC merchant.

Li Asan was also quite tempted by the profit and advised, "This merchant is a legitimate businessman in Wuwei with a proper background and is completely trustworthy."

"Alright, give him five strings of copper coins as capital," Zhan Xiaobai said. Five strings of money nowadays were no difficult matter for Xiaobai Village, and it wouldn't have much impact on the capital chain.

The NPC merchant immediately rejoiced and said, "Thank you, my lord, for the financial backing. It will only take two days for this humble person to bring back good news. Please await the good news in peace."

The merchant signed and pressed his fingerprint, obtained the five strings of copper coins, and hurriedly departed by post horse.

Zhan Xiaobai felt somewhat worried—not because he feared the investment would incur a loss, but because of the severe drought. Rain in Wuwei Commandery kept failing to fall, and it looked like there was no hope of it falling these days either. Not just Wuwei, but the entire Liangzhou was currently experiencing an extreme shortage of rain.

Water was scarce in the rivers, a phenomenon that had already made all player villages in Liangzhou highly alert and even panic-stricken and flustered. Drought was approaching; while it had little direct impact on players initially, once issues arose, the construction, production, and logistical support of various villages would completely collapse, defeating themselves without a fight.

Every day, Zhan Xiaobai had A Fei dispatch large numbers of personnel upstream and downstream along the river to scout for intelligence, checking whether there was any abnormal activity in various villages so they could respond early.

According to the scraps of intelligence gathered over these days, many villages had already engaged in armed clashes privately over the contention and capture of fish. Although it had not yet escalated to a full-scale war between villages, the atmosphere was already extremely thick with gunpowder, and they could erupt into war at any moment over competing for water or fish.

Although Zhan Xiaobai was a village chief tasked with the responsibility of maintaining regional stability, he knew he could not possibly stop this war triggered by natural disasters.

He could only have Li Asan direct craftsmen to frantically step up the production of weapons and equipment within the village, stockpile large quantities of raw materials, store up medicines, and have Chunqiu Shaoxia, A Fei, and others pull back, concentrating warrior players in a few leveling spots as much as possible, ready at a moment's notice to form an army so they could deploy for battle in a timely manner.

The defense legion led by Qiushui strictly inspected the village's security, remaining vigilant against outsiders and players from other villages instigating plots and agitating unrest. Jianba seized the time to stockpile raw materials and all kinds of supplies needed for warfare.

In fact, all player villages in the game also knew that a full-scale war would break out sooner or later—if not this month, then the next. They desperately endured and accumulated their strength precisely for this day. Warfare required merely a suitable pretext. A war could start because someone urinated in the upper reaches of a river and polluted the downstream water, or because someone was injured while fighting over fish and grain. If there was never a war, the ultimate deadline would be the Yellow Turban Rebellion in the spring of 184 AD.

It remained unclear when wars would break out in other commanderies and provinces, but the players within Liangzhou definitely could not wait until the Yellow Turban Rebellion of 184 AD. If Zhan Xiaobai's guess was correct, around May 25th, right before and after the river completely ran dry, the fires of war in Liangzhou would ignite.

...

Two days later, on May 22nd, Li Asan brought the NPC merchant to report the good news, saying excitedly, "Congratulations, my lord! This investment by our village went extremely smoothly. We invested a capital of five strings, and combining the principal and the profit, it is now a total of 6.4 strings of copper coins, which has already been entered into the financial accounts."

This piece of good news was fine, but Zhan Xiaobai simply couldn't muster up any joy right now.

"Understood," Zhan Xiaobai nodded, and said to the NPC merchant, "If you have any more good business ventures in the future, come find me for investment again."

The NPC merchant hurriedly expressed his gratitude, "Thank you, my lord, for the financial backing. This humble person will take his leave."

After the merchant left, Zhan Xiaobai thought for a moment and said to Li Asan, "Asan, recall all the peasants cutting wood outside and any other NPCs. Do not send them out of the village these days; let them stay inside the village and prepare to harvest grain."

Li Asan was slightly stunned, but knowing that the atmosphere among the various villages was somewhat tense right now, he quickly acknowledged the order.