"Mom, everything I’m saying is true." Lu Feng immediately explained to his mom, "I went into the tea business with my cousin and the others. We got a special tea formula, and this business is really profitable."

He immediately used his cousin, Yang Ming, as a cover story.

After all, you need capital to start a business, and given their family’s previous situation, they couldn’t have even come up with the initial investment.

Lin Shuang still couldn’t believe it. "Xiaofeng," she asked, worried, "are... are you telling the truth? Is tea really that profitable?"

It was no wonder she was worried. After all, many towns and villages in Youcheng grew vast fields of tea. Plenty of people were in the tea business, but she’d never seen any of them able to buy a car and a house so quickly.

"Mom, I already told you, we have a special tea formula that’s really popular!" Lu Feng explained again. "Here, let me show you the sales records for the tea house."

The tea house’s revenue was wired directly to his bank account, so he could see the income records on his phone. He took it out and pulled them up.

Lin Shuang took Lu Feng’s phone and saw the account was indeed in her son’s name.

But when she saw the transaction records below, her face filled with disbelief.

"...Your Qingfeng Tea House account has received a deposit of 37,500 yuan!"

"...Your Qingfeng Tea House account has received a deposit of 187,500 yuan!"

...

"...Your Qingfeng Tea House account has received a deposit of 75,000 yuan!"

Lin Shuang saw that most of the deposits were for five-figure sums, and some were even six-figure.

She found it hard to believe someone would spend so much money on tea at once. The tea they drank at home only cost a few dozen yuan per pound.

In a short period, these deposits added up to almost two million yuan.

Besides, she’d heard that tea had huge profit margins.

Even if her son was just partnered with his cousin, his share of the profits should be more than enough for a down payment on a car and an apartment.

Just as Lin Shuang stared in astonishment, another deposit notification popped up.

"...Your Qingfeng Tea House account has received a deposit of 22,500 yuan!"

That meant the Qingfeng Tea House had just sold another three boxes of Qingfeng Tea.

Lin Shuang asked in a daze, "Xiaofeng, do people really spend this much money on tea?"

Lu Feng immediately said, "Mom, we southerners all love to brew tea. Besides, our tea is 7,500 yuan a box, and we sell it specifically to business owners."

"These business owners aren’t short on cash. Some of them can’t even get their hands on tea that costs over 200,000 yuan a pound. If you show them tea like this, they’re guaranteed to pay on the spot!"

He was, of course, thinking of Hu Quan. If he actually brought out the +2 Qingfeng Tea, Hu Quan would fork over the money in a heartbeat.

Lin Shuang was left speechless.

She truly found it hard to imagine spending so much money just to drink tea.

Lu Feng immediately said, "Mom, once you’re discharged from the hospital, I’ll take you to the tea house to see it for yourself."

"Mhm!" Lin Shuang immediately started to look forward to it.

She had been sick for a while and was constantly worried about her son’s future. She never expected him to already have his own business.

If she weren’t still in the hospital, she would have wanted to go see her son’s tea house right then.

After reassuring his mom, Lu Feng chatted with her for a little longer before leaving her with the caregiver and departing from the hospital.

Just as he got in the car, he received a call from Da Fei. "Young Master Feng, I’ve found a site for the tea factory. Do you want to come take a look?"

"Yeah, send me the location." Since Lu Feng had nothing else to do, he agreed.

After receiving the location, he started the car and headed over. The place was in the Red Earth Industrial Zone. It wasn’t very big, but since they were just starting, they only planned to buy one tea production line.

As for expanding and getting bigger later, they could find another place when the time came.

When Lu Feng arrived, Da Fei was already waiting for him.

"Young Master Feng." Da Fei came forward to greet Lu Feng as he got out of the car, leading him inside. "This is a ready-made factory building," he said. "It used to be a biscuit factory, but it went out of business, so we got the building for a low price. This way, we just need to add a withering yard and a drying room, which will save a lot of work."

"Also, about our investments, Brother Ming and I both put in 300,000. Brother Lin and Ah Pao also managed to scrape together 150,000 each. It’s all been deposited into the tea factory’s account."

Da Fei reported everything in one breath.

"Mhm." Lu Feng nodded.

He had always intended to let his cousin and the others invest in the tea factory. When his mom got sick, these guys had scraped together 200,000 yuan for him. He would remember that kindness.

In this day and age, it was hard enough to borrow 1,000 yuan, let alone have someone proactively offer you that much to help.

’Kindness isn’t something to just talk about; it has to be repaid with action.’

’With the Qingfeng Tea formula from the game, once the tea factory is up and running, it’s guaranteed to be profitable.’

His cousin and the others had invested a total of 900,000. He planned to give them 20% of the shares.

In a normal business deal, his cousin and the others wouldn’t get that large a stake. After all, anyone else would have factored in the value of the formula itself.

But his real intention was to help his cousin and the others get on the right track. They couldn’t just mess around for their whole lives, could they? So he wasn’t going to get hung up on those details. Besides, he planned to be a hands-off owner anyway.

Moreover, with this next investment of 4.8 million—excluding the cost of the factory and production line—they could produce 2,000 boxes of Qingfeng Tea, generating 10 million in profit.

20% of that was 2 million.

With this single batch, his cousin and the others would not only make their investment back but also earn a tidy sum!

Naturally, he would earn even more.

If the tea factory expanded in the future, they could earn much, much more.

"Have you ordered the production line?" Lu Feng asked.

Da Fei nodded. "It’s ordered. I paid a 100,000 yuan deposit. The line should arrive in the next couple of days!"

Entering the factory, Lu Feng saw two guys cleaning up. They were none other than Da Fei’s two underlings, Lin Qian and Chen Hai (from Chapter 20).

When the two of them saw Lu Feng, they came forward and greeted him respectfully.

Da Fei added, "Young Master Feng, once the tea factory starts operating, we’ll need to promote the tea. I plan to have Lin Qian and Chen Hai take some guys and visit tea shops in the surrounding cities. We’ll pay them a salary plus commission!"

"Mhm!" Lu Feng naturally had no objections. If Lin Qian and Chen Hai could do this well, it would be far better than them just messing around on the streets.

After leaving the tea factory, Lu Feng went to the Qingfeng Tea House.

When he entered, a few tables in the main hall were occupied by people brewing tea. They were all covered in tattoos—clearly the group of brothers from his cousin’s circle.

When these men saw Lu Feng enter, they all greeted him respectfully. It was clear that within their circle, they all knew of Lu Feng’s current status.

Lu Feng nodded in response. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Once he got to the office and saw there was nothing to do, he locked the door from the inside and turned his attention to the world of *After the Apocalypse*.

Inside the Qingfeng Tea Shop, Lin Jiao and the other three were gone. They had obviously gone to scout out Gold shops for him again.

With a thought, he entered the game. With another thought, the steel blade appeared in his hand. He was bored anyway, so he figured he’d go kill some zombies for fun.

After all, killing zombies gave experience points. With enough experience, he could level up, and leveling up would increase his stamina, strength, and agility.

’Getting a little stronger is always a good thing, right?’

At the very least, he could fully appreciate the benefits of increased stamina when he was with Yang Qingxue.

He left the Qingfeng Tea Shop, and before he’d even gone down two floors, he ran into a few zombies.

With 1.5 times the strength and agility of a normal person, he could easily deal with them.

[Congratulations on killing a zombie. You have gained 5 experience points!]

...

[Congratulations on killing a zombie. You have gained 5 experience points!]

In the blink of an eye, he had cut down several zombies, gaining another 35 experience points and bringing his level progress to LV4: 345/800.

Lu Feng went down to the 8th floor, arriving at the spot where he had dealt with the first Mutant Beast.

There were a few more zombies in this area. Soon, he had cut down another 13 in a row, gaining 65 experience points.

LV4: 410/800.

’This feels just like a real game,’ he thought. ’In fact, this *is* a real game world.’

But when he went down to the 6th floor to investigate, he felt that something was wrong. There wasn’t a single zombie on the entire floor.

He remembered that when he was getting the Gold before, this floor had been crawling with zombies.

He even noticed that the floors below were terrifyingly quiet. There were no zombie roars.

’This is very wrong.’

’There should be more zombies downstairs.’

He was just about to poke his head out to check the situation below when he was startled to find a zombie watching him from a short distance away. In the empty corridor, that single zombie was extremely conspicuous.

The scene was incredibly strange.

Lu Feng frowned, planning to grip his steel blade and go cut down the zombie. But suddenly, he heard frantic zombie roars erupting from all around him.

They were coming from the stairwell entrance.

By the time he realized what was happening, a dense horde of zombies was already pouring out of the stairwell.

And from the shop next to that strange zombie, another dense horde poured out.

These zombies swarmed directly toward him.

’???’ Lu Feng was completely stunned by the sudden turn of events. ’Did I just get ambushed by zombies?’

In the next moment, a zombie lunged at him.

He hastily swung his steel blade, cutting down a few, but the zombies behind them immediately lunged forward, leaving him with no room to counterattack.

He couldn’t figure out the situation, so he quickly ducked into a nearby shop and exited the game, planning to use this bug to slowly clear out the zombies.

Normally, when he left the game, the lack of movement would cause the zombies to become inactive, and not many would follow him into the shop.

But this time, things didn’t go as he expected.

Even though he had already exited the game, the zombies still swarmed into the shop. Soon, the inside was packed so densely with zombies that there was barely any room to move. Even more had gathered in the corridor outside.

"What the hell." Lu Feng stared at the game screen, dumbfounded. ’Even if I re-enter the game now, there’s no room to maneuver. The moment I appear, I’ll be swarmed by a horde of zombies.’

’If I get scratched even once, it’s game over.’

In other words, the spot where he entered the game was now being camped.

But being camped by a group of zombies just felt bizarre!

’What the hell is going on?’