Why it never ends

Chapter 1170 Harvest
So under Stella's questioning, Lai Lin excitedly told the story of her and Ellie's childhood. It was not until she helped Stella carry the things to the bottom of the palace that she suddenly remembered that the reason she brought up this topic was to test Stella's attitude towards children by giving them gifts.

——After all, she still wanted to bring the topic back to why Stella wanted to have that legendary surgery.

"Okay!" Stella clapped her hands in satisfaction. "Thank you so much! Let's have a drink some other day!"

"Okay, okay." Lai Lin could only nod - saying "sometime later" was better than nothing.

The two of them parted ways and went about their own business.

As night fell, from that night on, the palace was strictly under martial law at night. People were not allowed to move freely after 7:30, not only children, but also adults. After 6 o'clock that night, Santa and other people who worked were busy everywhere like they were fighting a war. In the past, they always worked until 9 o'clock at night, and when most people fell asleep, they would go to the garden or the glass house to sit and chat for a while, and then go upstairs after 10 o'clock. Today, they were suddenly ordered to finish all work at 7:30, which caught them off guard. They also wondered in their hearts, why was the time set so early? They saw that the inspector himself was a night owl!
However, Hesta was ruthless in her rule. At seven o'clock that night, she went downstairs and patrolled everywhere to see where people were still gathering. At that time, Santa was the last one to come out of the kitchen. She heard Hesta calling her name in a somewhat unhappy tone, asking her why she was still outside at this time. Santa quickly replied that there was no one in the kitchen, everyone was empty, and she was the last one, and she would go back after locking the door.

Hesta did not ask any further questions, but seemed slightly satisfied.

People were wondering why Hesta did this, but at 7:30, after the lights in most rooms were turned off, Hesta went back to the study alone.

Si Lei, Lai Lin and Ximoya were sitting there waiting for her. On her desk was the account book sent from the farm this afternoon, which showed the revenue of the entire farm last year.

"Okay, now everyone is here," Hesta closed the door, "Let's get started."

"Is that all? Isn't the old gentleman coming this afternoon? He seems to be very experienced in accounting——"

"He will be leaving the farm soon, so there's no need to look for him," Hesta sat down. "We are enough for these discussions. Lai Lin, please synchronize the situation we discussed this afternoon with Si Lei and Xi Moya - can you read the account book?"

"A little, but not much." Si Lei replied.

"Me too." said Ximoya.

"You don't need to learn more. I don't understand these things. I'm a tavern owner..." Lai Lin flipped through the account book, "but there are some obvious problems in it, which can be easily found."

Si Lei and Ximoya leaned slightly towards the table at the same time.

“The account book says that our coffee plantation actually has 150 hectares of planted area – I personally think it’s more than that, but I’ll leave that aside and talk about the plantation first.

“Generally speaking, coffee yields are affected by planting density, variety, altitude and management level, which are reflected in agricultural costs and management costs.

"Generally, one hectare can be planted with 1,000 to 5,000 coffee trees. The higher the density, the higher the yield. The more concentrated the picking, the less manpower is needed. However, if the ventilation is poor, the trees are prone to disease. If leaf rust comes, the trees will wither in large areas. In addition, the competition for nutrients between trees and insufficient sunlight will also deteriorate the flavor of the fruit.

"Low density will not have these problems, but the total output will decrease, so more planting area is needed - so the planting density of general specialty coffee producing areas will be selected at 2600 plants per hectare. In order to pursue quality, we have less, with an average of only 1400 plants per hectare. "Speaking of altitude, most of our planting areas are about 1200 meters above sea level, and the higher mountains are 1800 meters, which is a particularly suitable altitude. Because below meters, the coffee berries mature too quickly, the flavor is light, and they are very prone to disease. After meters, all aspects are balanced. If you want to produce some high-end varieties with particularly sour, sweet or relatively complex flavors, you need to open up special planting areas at to meters, and we naturally have this condition..."

Lai Lin flipped the pages quickly, explaining and pointing out the specific numbers to Ximoya and Si Lei.

“… All these show that our coffee plantation is one of the best in terms of variety, age, planting volume and management level.”

"But?" Ximoya added in an estimated manner.

"We'll talk about that later," Lai Lin said. "A coffee farm like ours can generally produce 1500 to 2500 kilograms per hectare. Based on the average export price of 5 to 7 robis per kilogram from District 6 to District 1500 - remember, this is the average export price, not the premium beans, because premium beans have their own trading market. I haven't found out the trading price this year yet - let's take the median, 135 robis. The yield is at the bottom, per hectare, so the final income should be million robis."

Si Lei listened with great interest. She folded her arms and followed Lai Lin's fingers closely with her eyes: "But?"

"But, what was our revenue last year, no, what was the revenue they reported?"

Lai Lin flipped the pages again, as if he knew the contents of every page of the account book by heart.

"25 Robbies."

Ximoya and Si Lei let out an intriguing "Oh..." at the same time.

"Don't forget that the park still had gray industry income last year." Lai Lin added, "Until November last year, hundreds of people from the South District whose names were not registered at all worked for them in the fields for free, growing that kind of thing - the price is more than six or seven times higher than coffee."

Si Lei looked up at the ceiling, already lost in thought. Ximoya was shocked when she heard this: "...Where did all the money go?"

"...Now I understand why the baron was willing to transfer this plantation to you for free for a few years." Si Lei suddenly looked at Hesta. "No matter where the money went in the end, he didn't have the ability to collect it after all."

Ximoya opened her mouth again: "...Oh!"

"So we called everyone here tonight to discuss this," Lai Lin said, "According to the figures on the books, not only will we not be able to collect any money this year, it looks like we may even have to lose some money..."

"It's impossible to compensate." Hesta, who had been sitting next to him spinning a pen, said softly, "I have an idea to discuss with you. Of course, this idea has nothing to do with the coffee plantation's harvest... But I can trust you guys, right?"

Si Lei looked at Hesta's face and caught a glimpse of cruelty and determination in those calm blue eyes.

"You're going to start killing people."