Chapter 156: VIP Card

Thanks to its competitive prices and services, over 90% of business travelers in the northern part of the city stay at Lin’s Inn. Even many travelers from the southern and eastern parts prefer it as well. The occupancy rate of the lodging building remains above 60% every day, meaning more than 50 rooms are occupied daily—reaching the limit for earning experience points under the inn’s system.

The lobby on the first floor is always packed, with 25 tables and over 300 dining tables daily. Even without considering profits, it’s enough to rename the main branch from Lin’s Inn in Xilan City to Lin’s Inn in Qiufeng City.

Unfortunately, money is equally important. Just Lin Dong’s cultivation benefits alone will require him to earn vast amounts of wealth to sustain them, not to mention the expenses for his guard team, which would need a mountain of silver coins. Add in the beggars from various counties, and if they really wanted to establish the main branch in Qiufeng City, all 25 tables would have to be included in the inn’s system, leaving no room for comfort enhancements on the second and third floors.

Currently, the number of diners on the second floor has surged to over 80 tables per day, allowing seven or eight tables to be included in the system—three more than Lin’s Inn in Xilan City, which has five tables with comfort enhancements.

Though this is just good luck, and Jiale Lou and Yingfeng Lou might not suffer greatly from it, it’s still a promising start. If they can use this opportunity to turn the wealthy families in the northern part of the city into regular customers before the occupancy limit in Xilan City is reached and the inn can no longer earn full experience points daily, Lin’s Inn in Qiufeng City could easily become the main branch.

With the opportunity right in front of him, Lin Dong wouldn’t miss it. Back in his room, he didn’t meditate immediately but instead racked his brains for a solution.

Cutting prices was out of the question. Under the pressure from Fenglin Lou, other inns were already holding their ground. Any price cut would trigger a chain reaction, possibly forcing all major inns in Qiufeng City to slash their prices desperately.

If such a fierce competition broke out, despite having nearly 300,000 taels of silver in reserves, Lin’s Inn could still hold on. But with all major inns competing by lowering prices, cost would become the only criterion, eliminating all the inn’s advantages. As a result, Lin’s Inn might not be able to make any profit in Qiufeng City for a year or two, or even suffer heavy losses. Although breaking down the other inns could lead to a boom once things settled, Lin Dong felt it wasn’t worth it—steady progress was far more reliable.

There’s no chance of a price cut, and various advantages can’t be improved in the short term. After thinking all night, President Lin Dong finally came up with an idea.
VIP cards!
Copper cards, silver cards, gold cards, diamond cards!
Spending ten taels of silver earns a copper card; accumulating to a hundred taels allows upgrading to a silver card, a thousand taels to a gold card, and ten thousand taels to a diamond card.
Now, Thyme is exclusive to Lin’s Inn. Guests with copper cards receive a pot of three-year-aged Thyme each time they dine at the inn, silver card holders get a pot of five-year-aged Thyme, gold card holders get ten-year-aged Thyme, and diamond card holders get thirty-year-aged Thyme.
Having survived the pressure from Maple Forest Restaurant, they can also use different VIP cards to offer varying discounts to retain major clients.
On Earth, this might not be anything special, but in this world… the more Lin Dong thought about it, the more he saw its potential.
Whether it works or not, it’s worth trying—after all, they won’t lose much silver.
VIP cards aren’t just discount coupons with a fingerprint stamped on them for authenticity; they need to be beautiful, elegant, and eye-catching. If they have some collectible value, that’s even better.
To ensure authenticity and give off a prestigious appearance, ordinary blacksmiths won’t suffice. Gu Huanzong, an alchemy sect, is the perfect choice.
Eager and excited, Lin Dong didn’t care about the pitch-black night outside. He immediately left his room and knocked on Xiao Tianchi’s door.
Upon hearing Lin Dong’s request, Xiao Tianchi was both amused and exasperated. In his view, running an inn and competing with large restaurants was already unusual enough. His son was a natural genius who wanted to make money—just take him to various noble families, and he’d surely earn over a hundred pounds of silver. Even if he didn’t want his son to stand out too much for now, it could wait a decade or two. Was it really necessary to go to such lengths to come up with something exotic?
Xiao Tianchi had no idea that Lin’s Inn required experience points, and that Lin Dong would eventually spend far more than a hundred pounds.
With no choice, if he wanted to benefit, he had to follow Lin Dong’s lead. Though he disdained wasting time on worldly matters and hated the idea of Gu Huanzong lowering itself to create items for merchants, he still had to rack his brains and discuss with Lin Dong the materials and design of the VIP cards.
Until the early morning, the room was covered in scraps of paper, with strands of silver hair scattered here and there, before they finally reached an agreement.
“This one!” Lin Dong said, his blood-red eyes blazing as he slapped the paper on the table.

On the paper was a card the size of a business card. On it, the four characters “Lin Ji Inn” occupied nearly half of the space, written in a bold and elegant script that was both graceful and imposing. Just writing these four characters took Xiao Tianchi a hundred sheets of rice paper and over half an hour to satisfy Lin Dong.

Below the four characters was a smoothly drawn giant dragon, which was to be carved onto the card later.

Next to the card were various notes discussed by the two of them. The materials depended entirely on the type of card: copper cards were made of brass, silver and gold cards from silver and gold, while diamond cards were crafted from dark iron adorned with small diamonds.

What satisfied Lin Dong the most was that this VIP card had an additional function—storage. Lin Dong invested heavily in this card. For example, a copper card could be obtained for ten taels of silver. Even if all the materials were spirit beasts or rare substances, after deducting various expenses, the profit would only be six or seven taels. Adding the spirit stones Lin Dong paid Xiao Tianchi as labor costs—although at a favorable price—still amounted to over a hundred wen in total for materials and labor.

The storage function was even more expensive. Although a copper card had a very small storage capacity, one foot in length, width, and height, to enable storage, it required a blacksmith to refine it using spiritual energy, along with a spirit array master to set up a spirit array. Even at a favorable price from the Gu Huan Sect, spirit stones cost over a hundred wen, and according to Xiao Tianchi’s estimate, setting up the spirit array would cost at least three to five hundred wen.

Silver, gold, and diamond cards had significantly higher costs due to different materials and storage capacities.

In total, this meant wasting one-tenth of the profit. And this was still considering profits from spirit beasts and rare materials; if ordinary food and drinks were used, it might even result in a loss. Of course, an ordinary meal cost only three to five hundred wen, and even if one ordered all kinds of delicacies, it would cost only one or two taels—far too little to afford a gold card.

Despite the high costs, in Lin Dong’s eyes, it was worth it as long as it could make wealthy families choose Lin Ji Inn as their preferred place for banquets!

As for anti-counterfeiting, registration numbers and fingerprints printed on the back of the card using a highly preservative ink were used. With these two measures, no one could forge it!

After all, it was just a drawing on paper, and without seeing the actual item, Lin Dong couldn’t feel completely at ease. After finalizing the plans, he and Xiao Tianchi rented a blacksmith shop at a high price and first created a copper card. Its design was flawless!