Landlord in the Arctic

Chapter 322 - 258: Problems (2)

At Feng Mountain’s question, everyone finally turned their attention back to him.

Jenny first placed the plate of berries gently in front of Feng Mountain, then cleared her throat. "The restaurant’s revenue for the past five days was 25,000 US Dollars, but the cost of ingredients and transportation took up half of that. Luckily, the tourists only ate vegetables grown here at the camp, and we generate our own electricity, which cuts down on a lot of expenses. If this were in a city, we’d definitely be operating at a loss."

After hearing Jenny’s report, Demi silently picked up a berry and popped it into her mouth. She chewed it slowly, a sullen look on her face, likely worried about the tavern’s current financial situation.

"The tavern is still losing money. The tourists just have one quick drink and then leave. It feels like the Chinese visitors aren’t too fond of the tavern atmosphere. Most of our income comes from Young Master Xu, Su Ziweng, and those four old men."

"The outdoor activities are doing pretty well, though. The tourists really enjoy exploring the Tundra. I’ve already organized three Tundra expeditions, a one-day tour for 1,000 US Dollars. If they’re lucky, they can even see reindeer. I think we should organize more of these events."

Yves followed up, reporting on the results of the outdoor projects from the past few days. His face was filled with pride; after all, if the outdoor projects did well, they would bring a lot of revenue to the camp.

Seeing that everyone else had spoken, Maria pulled Tammy forward and said,

"The vegetable garden... Tammy and I are taking good care of it. Mr. Gordon and his partners have already planted strawberry seedlings in the new plot of land they cleared. They should bear fruit soon."

After she finished, Tammy glanced at Feng Mountain, who was still eating.

"Khilla, Uncle Gordon wants to stay in the Crown Territory."

’Gordon?’

Feng Mountain froze at the name. His chopsticks stopped mid-air, and he looked at Jenny in confusion. "Who’s Gordon? Do we have someone by that name in our camp?"

"Brother Feng, he’s one of the four poachers you caught. You left them at the camp for labor reform, remember?" Feng Jun quickly reminded him.

Now that he mentioned it, realization dawned on Feng Mountain. The faces of the four poachers appeared in his mind. He never expected one of them would actually want to stay in the Crown Territory. It was quite a surprise.

He decided to set the matter aside for now, though. He’d see how they behaved later. Then, he turned to Feng Jun.

"You’re in charge of the tour groups. Tell me about the tourists’ reactions."

Feng Jun was silent for a moment, his experiences with the tourists over the past few days flashing through his mind.

"Well, how should I put it... Most of the tourists are quite satisfied with the camp, especially the middle-aged and older ones. They have high praise for it. Some of the younger people, after the initial novelty wore off, were unhappy with the quiet environment. I arranged for them to visit Kivalina and Kaktovik Town, but of course, we don’t get any of that revenue."

"But according to the feedback from those two towns, the tourists are big spenders. Whether it’s chartering boats or buying meat for the Polar Bears, they’re willing to shell out the money."

Feng Mountain nodded. While dipping a steamed bun into the musk ox stew, he continued his questions.

"How are Daisen’s leather goods shop, Su Ziweng’s Chinese restaurant, and the Sun Jia Shooting Range doing?"

Feng Jun’s face immediately lit up as he spoke.

"The leather shop’s business is incredible. Their stock was sold out by the third day, and Tom has already made several more deliveries. The Chinese restaurant is just so-so. Everyone’s traveled abroad, so they come to a foreign country to try Western food. The shooting range has the best business. When our fellow Chinese see guns, their eyes light up."

"Sun has been waiting for you to come back. From what he says, the armory is almost out of bullets. They need to restock urgently, but he isn’t authorized to buy ammunition. He’s been worried sick."

Having gotten a general understanding of the camp’s situation, Feng Mountain finished his dinner. He accepted the berry juice Jenny offered him and looked at everyone seated around the table.

He could see varying degrees of exhaustion in the corners of everyone’s eyes; the weariness was impossible to hide. Feng Mountain knew in his heart that they had all been working incredibly hard these past few days to accommodate the tour group.

Thinking of this, Feng Mountain took a small sip of the berry juice. The sweet and sour flavor spread through his mouth before he spoke.

"It sounds like things have been going pretty smoothly overall, but I’m sure there have been some problems. Let’s hear them. We can figure out how to solve them together."

Before the words were even out of his mouth, the floodgates opened, and a torrent of difficulties poured out.

"The facilities are too basic, and there’s not enough to do. It’s actually not bad as a retreat, though."

"Staffing is also an issue. Just this 50-person tour group has us all swamped."

"It’s fine when they’re in the camp, but once they leave, the tourists wander off everywhere. We have to send people out to find them."

"And then there are the living arrangements. The tourists have a lot of requests that we just can’t meet."

...

Hearing all these problems gave Feng Mountain a headache. His original intention was good—to build a tourist town and bring more people to the Crown Territory—but he hadn’t expected it to be this much trouble.

"It’s okay. We can overcome these problems." Seeing Feng Mountain frown, Jenny felt a sudden pang in her heart. She quickly comforted him while shooting a look at the others, signaling them to stop talking.

"Right, right, we can overcome these problems."

"It’s okay, Khilla. We can do it."

"Exactly. Forget what I just said."

Feng Mountain raised a hand to quiet them. "I’ll figure out a way to solve these problems. For the next few days, I hope you can all just hang in there."

"Alright, Khilla flew all day, so he must be tired. We can talk about everything else tomorrow morning." As the group’s de facto manager, Jenny decided to end this less-than-perfect welcome meeting.

Hearing this, the others realized that bringing up these issues now would only add to Feng Mountain’s worries without providing any real help.

So, one by one, they got up and left.

Before leaving, Jenny gently hugged Feng Mountain. "Feng, we can solve all of these things. Don’t give up. The Crown Territory is our last home."

Then, she gave him a light peck on the cheek and immediately blushed furiously.

They walked out the door in silence. Feng Mountain changed the subject. "Are Nash and the Bear Tribe settled in?"

"They’re settled! Just by a riverbend outside the camp. It’s very late now, you should go see them tomorrow."

"Okay. Good night!"

He watched Jenny walk away, her graceful silhouette possessing an indescribable charm under the lamplight.

Feng Mountain believed that if he asked Jenny to stay, she wouldn’t refuse.

’But...’

...

「The next day.」

Feng Mountain slowly woke up in his familiar, warm bed. He blinked groggily for a moment before becoming fully awake.

He habitually stretched, listening to the slight creak of the bed frame. He slowly sat up, rubbed his still-sleepy eyes, and turned to look out the window.

Outside, it was still pitch black. The endless night was like a giant black curtain, shrouding the entire world.

He took a neatly folded set of clothes from the wardrobe, put them on, and opened the door.

There, perched pitifully on the hallway railing, was Loki.

Seeing Feng Mountain, he immediately flapped his wings, flew onto his shoulder, and rubbed his head against Feng’s cheek pitifully. "Daddy, Coca-Cola is a bad person! A bad person!"

MEOW!

Coca-Cola padded lightly over to Feng Mountain’s feet, acting cute, but its gaze was fixed on Loki.

Terrified, Loki quickly flapped his wings and flew up to a roof beam, as if that was the only place he could feel safe.

Seeing this, Feng Mountain knew something must have happened last night that he wasn’t aware of.

And it was clearly Loki who had gotten the short end of the stick, or he wouldn’t have come tattling so early in the morning.

When it came to disputes between his animals, Feng Mountain’s consistent policy was to not get involved, as long as things didn’t go too far. He let them sort it out themselves.

Therefore, Loki would have to find a way to deal with Coca-Cola on his own.

Just as he got to the bottom of the stairs, he saw Nash in the living room. Feng Mountain smiled and asked,

"When did you get here?"

"This morning."

"How’s your father?"

"He can move around."

"Is the tribe’s camp set up?"

"It’s set up. Some of the tribe members have come. The young people stayed on the reservation to work for the mining company."

Finally hearing Nash speak a full sentence felt like a rare achievement to Feng Mountain. He walked closer and clapped Nash on the shoulder. "Come on, work out with me for a bit, then we’ll go check on the tribe."

With that, the two of them headed for the main door.

Seeing that Feng Mountain was leaving, Loki hurriedly flew down from the beam. But Coca-Cola suddenly darted out and blocked the doorway. Defeated, Loki could only circle once before flying back to the roof beam. Staring at the cat, who was still watching him intently, he cried out miserably,

"Coca-Cola, I was wrong! I was wrong!"

"Please don’t eat me, okay?"

...