Chapter 302: A Scorching Summer

A miraculous scene that shook everyone’s hearts.
A fierce hurricane was created out of thin air—such a hurricane that could lift a heavy iron plate along with two people.
Ordinary people could never believe such a thing. Even those who had some knowledge of warriors’ abilities found it hard to believe what was happening, let alone that it would continue indefinitely.
But judging from the actions of Lin’s Inn and its usual marketing tactics, it was clear this situation would persist.
Whether they believed it or not, it was right before their eyes. Everyone reluctantly shifted their gaze from the large spirit stone fan beneath the iron plate to those holding the flyers.
Some stepped forward eagerly, desperate to get the flyers and resolve their doubts as quickly as possible.
As the flyers were distributed, even Lin Dong, when a young man in his twenties handed him one, instinctively took it. Looking down, he saw bold text at the top: “Scorching summer—have you ever thought about not having to hold a fan or wave your sleeves constantly to cool off? Or never having to suffer through the heat all night?”
The carriage moved slowly, with exclamations of amazement echoing behind it. Those who saw the flyers first were thrilled, unable to believe the claims written on them.
Spirit stone fan!
A very peculiar name, with an even more extraordinary function.
It used spirit stones to spin iron blades inside a cage rapidly, creating strong winds. A single first-tier spirit stone was enough to keep an ordinary-sized spirit stone fan running for over a year. This made it affordable even for ordinary families—of course, assuming they had such a fan.
Countless people chased after the carriage. More than a dozen ordinary-sized spirit stone fans generated strong winds just a few meters away.
Strength was the best form of promotion. The news of Lin’s Inn’s miraculous items, like the large spirit stone fan on the carriage, was blown swiftly by the hurricane to every corner of the city’s north, then spread like wildfire throughoutthe entire Autumnwind City.
Compared to the storage capabilities of Lin’s Inn’s VIP cards, these spirit stone fans delivered a hundredfold greater impact in the heat. Whether male or female, young or old, rich or poor, the scorching sun above was their biggest concern at that time.
It was unbearably hot.
The news of the spirit stone fans, along with the scorching sun, drove people crazy.

Moving forward with the crowd, Lin Dong pricked up his ears to listen to the discussions around him. The excitement was several times greater than expected. Along the way, countless people asked about the conditions for obtaining the Spirit Stone Fan. The answer given by Ma Chun and all the others was always that it would be announced the next day. Flyers were scattered everywhere in the streets and alleys, but after just about an hour, the carriage could hardly move forward anymore. The streets were completely blocked by the crowd. With the scorching sun above, this scene was a once-in-a-century spectacle in Autumn Wind City; even an imperial envoy visiting would likely find it hard to witness such a sight. Though it was a spectacular scene, the difficulty in moving the carriage and the collapse of many stalls on both sides of the street meant that accidents might occur if things continued like this. On the horse, Ma Chun looked around anxiously until he finally spotted the face he had seen that morning among the sea of people. Such intense reaction took Lin Dong by surprise, but he didn’t hesitate. He raised his hand, pressed it downward, then moved his hands outward. After a moment’s thought, Ma Chun understood what he meant and immediately turned to Jiang Zhen and the others, saying, “Senior Brother Jiang, Senior Brother Xiao, there are too many people. Take back the Spirit Stone Fan.” Xiao Munan jumped off the carriage in one motion, followed by Jiang Zhen, who clutched the iron plate before leaping down as well. Storing the iron plate in his storage ring, Jiang Zhen began to shut down the Spirit Stone Fans under many puzzled gazes, putting each one into the storage ring. “Dear fellow townspeople, thank you for your support of Lin’s Inn,” Ma Chun cleared his throat and shouted loudly. “But with so many people, accidents are likely to happen, so we’re suspending the promotion for now. Those who want to know more about the Spirit Stone Fan can check the flyers. We’ll announce the specific conditions tomorrow after assessing its popularity. Additionally, we’ll compensate triple the loss for any vendors who get injured or have their stalls damaged…” In the noisy crowd, Ma Chun’s voice wasn’t very audible, so Jiang Zhen had to climb back onto the carriage, channeling spiritual energy into his throat to repeat his words three times. The crowd gradually calmed down, and those responsible for distributing flyers continued forward, while the empty carriage slowly headed back. Like everyone else in the crowd, Lin Dong hesitated for a moment before making up his mind. Following the carriage back to the inn, he strode into the lobby. The lobby was equally bustling, all thanks to the four ceiling fans that had been hung on the beams the previous night and were now spinning rapidly.

The guys were busy going back and forth, patiently explaining things to the customers. Above their heads, strong winds blew, yet they still couldn’t dry the sweat on their foreheads. Seeing this, Lin Dong realized it was a certainty that the Spirit Stone Fan would become popular quickly. Now, it depended on how long Ling Zhengyang could hold on. After leaving the lobby and seeing Ma Chun return, Lin Dong gave him a signal before heading to the back yard of Lin’s Inn. Not long after entering the yard, Ma Chun rushed in, wiping his sweaty forehead, and said excitedly, “Boss, I think we should just sell the Spirit Stone Fans. Our current cost is about 500 coins per unit, but if we sell them for 180 taels each, we can definitely sell thousands of them. If we sell them for just 2 or 3 taels each, half of the people here can afford them and will buy them. This is still Autumn Wind City—just by selling Spirit Stone Fans, you could become the richest man in the Great Han Kingdom.” Lin Dong shook his head with a smile. If he really wanted to become the richest man in the Great Han Kingdom, there were many ways to do it; this wasn’t the only one. Moreover, even if the Spirit Stone Fans became popular throughout the Great Han Kingdom and he became rich, it wouldn’t last long. Once demand for them reached saturation, all the silver he had would need to be converted into Spirit Stones within a few years to support his cultivation. What he wanted was for his inn branches to spread across the Great Han Kingdom, generating steady income so he could have enough Spirit Stones for cultivation and to train his guard team, ensuring Lin’s Inn could keep upgrading. Everything had to revolve around the inn first. Ma Chun seemed disappointed and said helplessly, “Boss, then how do you plan to give away the Spirit Stone Fans?” “How many of our customers have reached the Silver VIP card level?” Lin Dong asked. “156 Silver cards,” Ma Chun replied without hesitation. “How much silver has the top customer accumulated so far?” Lin Dong pressed further. “475 taels of silver,” Ma Chun explained. “It’s Boss Liu from Fengxiang Pawnshop. He comes to Lin’s Inn every few days and always orders turtle stew with maple leaves.” This amount was still quite far from the Gold Card level. With only 156 Silver cards in total, given the wealth levels in Autumn Wind City, there was still plenty of room for growth for both tiers. After careful consideration, Lin Dong decided, “Give away one ordinary-sized or small Spirit Stone Fan that can be hung on a carriage for free to Silver card holders. For higher levels, give away one fan for every 100 taels of silver spent on food and drinks. If they want a hanging Spirit Stone Fan or a larger one, they can exchange three units of food and drinks for one.” “Okay!” Ma Chun nodded firmly.

“Do it again!” Lin Dong mused, “Find a way to get some people to buy the Spirit Stone Fans. Twenty taels of silver per unit, with prices gradually rising.”
Ma Chun was shocked. “Our cost is only around five hundred coins per unit. Twenty taels of silver each, with prices rising slowly? If we actually sell them, won’t we suffer huge losses?”
“That’s the only way to make everyone aware of the value of the Spirit Stone Fans and drive demand even higher. Otherwise, I’m afraid Ling Zhengyang won’t give up,” Lin Dong said casually. “Have the owners of the other allied restaurants come over and discuss raising the prices of dishes and drinks gradually. Before Fenglin Restaurant and those large restaurants that have joined it shut down, we can offer them Spirit Stone Fans at a low price in limited quantities to attract customers.”
Ma Chun nodded. If it could force Fenglin Restaurant to close, some losses would be worth it. Besides, since a Spirit Stone Fan was worth dozens of taels of silver, raising dish prices wouldn’t cause too much resentment among customers.
“Alright, that’s enough for now. If anything happens, we’ll discuss it when I arrive in Shuangxi City,” Lin Dong stood up.
“Uh, may you go safely, boss!” Ma Chun quickly stood up to see him off.
Lin Dong walked to the storage room and used the transport door to reach Shanye City.
Half a day earlier than expected, Lin Dong sent his assistants searching for over an hour before finding Liu Hua and Wu Guang, who were planning to spend the day strolling around.
Afterward, the carriage left Lin’s Inn in Shanye City, which was busy preparing for its opening, and headed toward Shuangxi City.
By evening, the Spirit Stone Fans had become well-known throughout Qiufeng City. The various restaurants were mixed in their reactions—those who had left the alliance were devastated with regret, while those who relied on unique features to attract wealthy customers were overjoyed, secretly thanking fate for not making their restaurants targets of Fenglin Restaurant’s attempts to divide them.
For them, the emergence of Lin’s Inn’s Spirit Stone Fans confirmed Lin’s Inn’s invincible position in Qiufeng City.
With Lin’s Inn being unshakable, it naturally had a huge impact on the businesses of other restaurants. But Qiufeng City was large. Even if Lin’s Inn were located in the city center rather than the north, once the news spread and dish prices returned to their original levels, geographical disadvantages might still allow other restaurants to gain a share of the market.

If they could completely overwhelm Maple Forest Restaurant and those larger restaurants that switched to it, their business would surely not be worse than before Maple Forest Restaurant started the conflict. Before new large restaurants emerged, they believed their own restaurant had enough time to build up a sufficient customer base.
In the backyard of Maple Forest Restaurant, Ling Zhengyang chewed on the chewy and fresh Vital Beef Balls, barely tasting anything.
Headache, nothing but headache.
At the entrance of the courtyard, Jiang Youcai rushed over, holding a homing pigeon unique to Maple Forest Restaurant.