Chapter 136 - 134: Why Cooperate

Words : 1084 Updated : Sep 17th, 2025

Chen Xin’s explanation made Qin Lan’s eyes widen. Once she understood what Chen Xin was talking about, she finally realized what Li Yulong was up to, which made her glare angrily at Li Yulong, even tempted to pull out her gun and shoot him right away. "Sister Qin, don’t look at me like that! Brother Chen is exaggerating; this is just normal business activity," Li Yulong felt a chill down his spine under Qin Lan’s gaze and hastily explained to her, "Besides, by doing this, I can help more people survive! You can’t just kill a businessman because he’s making money, can you?" "A businessman earns money through labor, but what have you put into this endeavor? You can earn money lying on your back!" Qin Lan was somewhat angry; after all, Flame Country isn’t a Western-style capitalist society and has an instinctive aversion to such exploitation methods. However, before Li Yulong could explain, Chen Xin patted Qin Lan’s shoulder to signal her to calm down. "It’s not that extreme, Ah Lan, you’re overreacting." Chen Xin soothed Qin Lan’s feelings, then continued, "Although the essence of the matter is what it is, as Xiaolong said, by doing this he indeed can allow more people to live, and it’s not genuine exploitation." "How do you explain that?" Qin Lan looked at Chen Xin, not understanding why he still supported Li Yulong even after seeing through the essence of what Li Yulong planned. "It’s the apocalypse now, for survivors, having a job that allows them to earn rewards and ensures they have enough food to survive is superior to anything else." With a helpless expression on his face, Chen Xin tugged at his mouth to smile slightly before continuing, "Though it looks like Xiaolong hasn’t put much effort into it, once the entire model starts operating he can continuously derive profit from it. But, Ah Lan, think about it this way: if Xiaolong didn’t create this business circulation, how do you think other survivors would continue living? The food in their hands is limited, after it’s consumed, they might seek help from the official refuge, hoping to get a meal there. But what if they can’t make it into the official refuge? Once their food is gone and there’s no heating equipment, they’ll just freeze to death or starve. Xiaolong’s plantation, while seeming exploitative, admittedly does allow more people to survive, and this can be considered normal business activity. After all, the greenhouses are Xiaolong’s investment in production materials; you can’t say an entrepreneur who hires workers to produce products should not only pay wages but also distribute all the profits they earn to the workers, right?" With Chen Xin’s explanation, Qin Lan finally realized she had been misled by Chen Xin. Even though what he said was true and indeed the essence of the matter, from another perspective, Li Yulong hadn’t actually done anything wrong. Instead, he was earning money through his own skills. Despite the appearance that Li Yulong was really exploiting others, without his so-called "exploitation," the whole business circulation cycle wouldn’t exist. Without the output from the greenhouse, there wouldn’t be necessary food to sustain others’ lives; without the trading platform, people’s resources couldn’t be exchanged, and they would struggle to survive with limited supplies. But instead of merely struggling for survival with limited resources, they could, once this entire model is operational, obtain necessary resources to sustain themselves and live better. Moreover, just as no one assumes that a worker sees the profits from the business’s product sales as their own after receiving their wages, Li Yulong employs these workers for farming, and the greenhouse, crop seeds, and other inputs belong to Li Yulong’s production materials. The value generated should belong to him rather than to the workers who only provided labor. Workers put in labor and receive remuneration according to their work, while the remaining profits rightfully belong to Li Yulong. This would be true even if Flame Country weren’t a capitalist society, otherwise people like Erma and Wang wouldn’t have appeared. "As expected of Brother Chen, always seeing things so clearly!" Li Yulong swiftly praised Chen Xin, his face again displaying a flattering smile, "So, Brother Chen, about this ground source heat pump, could you..." Facing Li Yulong’s flattering demeanor, Chen Xin countered with a question, "Since I understand all this, why should I sell you the ground source heat pump?" "Uh..." Li Yulong stuttered; he hadn’t anticipated Chen Xin would ask such a question. "The ground source heat pump is mine, I can establish the greenhouse myself, and I can also collaborate with Ah Lan and the special police team to employ people from the refuge officially to plant crops and cooperatively establish a trading market with the authorities." Chen Xin looked at Li Yulong, grinning mischievously, "I possess the ground source heat pump, and you don’t; moreover, I understand the principles and operations behind it, so I can entirely build such a system bypassing you. Why should I partner with you?" Hearing Chen Xin’s question, Qin Lan also looked at Li Yulong with interest, curious to see how he’d respond. "Uh..." Li Yulong was momentarily at a loss for words; as Chen Xin said, he could indeed implement everything Li Yulong envisioned bypassing Li Yulong, but Li Yulong couldn’t bypass Chen Xin. Yet, since Li Yulong could come up with such an idea, he was indeed clever and talented. After pondering for a moment, he told Chen Xin, "Brother Chen, you really know what to do, and you own the ground source heat pump as a resource, but you’re just one person. If you handle both the production of the ground source heat pump and establishing a trading market, you can’t manage everything alone. You need to collaborate with someone, right? Instead of partnering with others, why not partner with me? I have my dad’s resources and consider myself quite capable as well. With my cooperation alongside my dad’s resources, the efficiency of establishing the entire business circulation would be much higher than if Brother Chen worked on it solo, wouldn’t it?" As he continued explaining, Li Yulong also organized his thoughts clearly, and his persuasive words to Chen Xin flowed more smoothly, "The world has entered a new era; though it’s an apocalypse, it’s also a sign that everything old is destroyed, and new opportunities abound. At times like this, how does solo effort compare to unity and collaboration? So, Brother Chen, partner with me!"

Chapter 136 - 134: Why Cooperate

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