This city simulation game can affect reality.

Without lingering by the disgusting river, Chen Jun and Lao Zhou returned to the office the way they came.

They stood at the door and took several deep breaths of clean air until the nausea in their stomachs and chests gradually subsided before entering the room.

"Uncle Zhou, what did you mean by what you just said?" Chen Jun asked, closing the door and plopping down in his office chair.

"Mr. Chen, let me ask you a question first."

Old Zhou also sat down on the opposite guest sofa, crossed his legs, and asked, "If the environmental protection bureau comes, how do you think they'll investigate this?"

"Anyone with eyes can see that this is the work of those upstream companies. If I remember correctly, there is indeed a chemical plant upstream."

Old Chen nodded: "That's right. Ordinary poisons probably can't kill a large number of fish in the water. The most suspicious one is naturally a chemical plant."

He paused, then lowered his voice and continued, "But what you don't know is that the factory has been reported countless times over the years, but each time it's all bark and no bite, and in the end, nothing comes of it."

Chen Jun's face darkened.

The implication is clear: they are the local bigwigs, and with the resort's current power, they can't be easily extorted.

"That chemical plant has solved the employment problem for many villagers in the vicinity. Not only are the higher-ups willing to support it, but it also has a solid foundation among the local people. If we really want to compete with them..."

Old Zhou shook his head with a wry smile.

"So you mean, this is the end of it?"

"Our foundation is still weak, so our primary task is definitely to establish a firm foothold..."

Chen Jun's gaze sharpened, clearly disagreeing with Lao Zhou's conservative approach: "We tolerated it this time, but what about next time? If tourists complain about the resort because of this, are we just going to suffer in silence?"

"..."

Old Zhou also realized that his words were untenable.

In fact, he always knew very well that backing down was not a viable option.

But what can you do when faced with a stronger opponent than yourself, besides choosing to be an incompetent husband?

It's simply a difference between slow death and rapid suicide.

"This matter cannot be left unresolved."

Chen Jun stood up from his chair and made his decision: "Since the open approach doesn't work, let's try another way."

"you mean?"

"First, find a few trustworthy people to gather the evidence, and then I'll take care of the rest."

Old Zhou nodded in agreement. If Old Chen were still alive, this matter might have really gone according to his own ideas, and taking a step back would have made things much easier.

But now, the resort has a new leader.

......

......

"Swish...swish..."

There were even more tourists gathered inside the woodcutter's hut than yesterday.

Due to space limitations, some people who wanted to try it even lined up outside.

At the innermost table, Li Qingxin, just like yesterday, set up her phone and started a live stream.

Although the lively surroundings made her somewhat uncomfortable, she could only grit her teeth and persevere because of the hard-won job.

"Welcome, new friend."

With one hand pressing the wood onto the table, and the other hand picking up a carving knife, she bent down and began scraping and cutting.

On the ground next to the table, there were several wooden carvings of cats and piglets whose features were barely discernible.

This is the best piece she made after practicing all afternoon yesterday.

"Mr. Chen...Mr. Chen."

After spending half a day carving out her first finished product, Li Qingxin looked up and saw Chen Jun standing opposite her on the support.

Looking at these rough but very time-consuming wood carvings, Chen Jun sighed inwardly.

He took out the ring he had casually carved that night from his pocket and handed it to Li Qingxin: "From now on, just follow this. First, master the basics, and then you can do the more difficult things."

"Is this... a donut?"

Li Qingxin picked it up and examined it for a while, then asked curiously.

"...Even so, in any case, don't touch complicated handicrafts until your skills have improved to a certain level."

Li Qingxin nodded, and after thinking about it carefully, she realized that she had indeed been a bit too eager for quick results.

In order not to disturb the other party's live broadcast, Chen Jun did not say anything more, but just stood outside the camera and observed for a moment.

On the phone screen, perhaps out of good intentions, some viewers praised Li Qingxin's work and even asked her to post a purchase link.

Although the number of viewers in the live stream hovered around 400, the number of active users was more than Chen Jun had imagined.

Most of them are enthusiastic netizens who are willing to support others.

The live stream continued until after 9 p.m. Chen Jun returned to his office and worked all day. When he reappeared at the woodcutter's hut, Li Qingxin stopped the live stream at his prompting.

"Mr. Chen, as you probably saw today, during the live stream... many viewers asked me to post the purchase link for the wood carvings. What do you think..."

"There's still not enough traffic, and you can't make that many products in a short time. Just do as I say and carve more donuts."

"OK."

Although she wanted to generate more revenue for the resort, Li Qingxin had no choice but to follow Chen Jun's arrangements.

......

After a day of operation, the Woodcutter's Hut's experience points have risen to 87/100, and it's just a matter of time before it reaches the next level.

After following Chen Jun's guidance, Li Qingxin's production speed also increased significantly.

In one day, she made 29 wooden rings.

Although there is still some distance to go before leveling up, as long as you persevere, you can easily fill the experience bar within a week.

Compared to yesterday, the satisfaction and attractiveness of the interface have increased slightly again.

The acquisition of new buildings and skills is not far off.

If you were to ask what the resort currently lacks most, besides funding, Chen Jun thinks it's vitality.

Outdated facilities, unremarkable attractions...

Everything looked lifeless.

The rewards offered by the game can largely make up for its shortcomings.

Before going to bed, Chen Jun, as usual, spent more than half an hour repairing the resort's underground pipes.

Construction has begun on the third batch of buildings that need to be relocated, according to the previously planned area.

......

For the next three or four days, Chen Jun kept an eye on Li Qingxin's live stream while waiting for news from Lao Zhou.

After working overtime for several days, Li Qingxin had already increased her experience bar to 164.

With her current skill level, if she fights hard for the last day, she should be able to accumulate the 200 experience points needed to level up.

However, Li Qingxin, who was completely unaware of this, felt increasingly exhausted both physically and mentally, and did not feel much of a sense of gain.

"Mr. Chen... I... I'd like to try making some more complex wood carvings, is that alright?"

Looking at the mountain of donuts piled up next to her on the table, she felt physically uncomfortable.

"Hang in there for one more day. Starting tomorrow, you can carve whatever you want."

The lumberjack's hut has now been upgraded to level 2, and two more advanced tools, the wire saw and the wood wax, have been unlocked.

Not only can it speed up the process for the maker, but it will also improve the control over the fineness of the wood carving.

With Li Qingxin's current abilities, she can indeed try some more challenging handicrafts.

Over the past few days, the live stream has accumulated quite a few regular viewers, and more and more big spenders are willing to send gifts.

However, perhaps due to the relatively simple nature of the handicrafts being produced, the overall traffic increase was not significant.

Even at its peak, the number of people did not exceed the peak of the first day.

"New viewers, please follow me."

Compared to when the show first aired a few days ago, Li Qingxin has become much more relaxed.

Although I still can't catch the jokes, I occasionally make what I think are jokes.

"Mr. Chen...this..."

As Chen Jun finished his inspection and was about to leave the small house, he saw Li Qingxin pointing nervously at her phone screen.

He leaned over and saw that the live stream had been banned for spreading false information.

"What should we do...Mr. Chen?"

Tears welled up in Li Qingxin's eyes instantly. She was more afraid of losing this hard-won job than ever before.

"Appeal first, and explain your situation truthfully."

Chen Jun immediately offered a solution: when he was running a murder mystery game shop, he had also tried working as a self-media creator for a few days.

Although it didn't amount to much, we did accumulate some experience.

Those who work in the live streaming industry inevitably attract jealousy.

Sometimes they are colleagues, and sometimes they may just be passersby who clicked in by chance.

Perhaps they simply wanted to take revenge on society and casually clicked the report button.

"Beep beep beep".

Just as Li Qingxin was in a flurry of activity, Chen Jun's phone rang.

He pressed the answer button; it was Lao Zhou.

"Mr. Chen, the investigation results are in."

This was probably the sentence Chen Jun had wanted to hear most in the past few days: "I'm coming right away."

"Submit your appeal first. If the lockdown can't be lifted today, we won't broadcast anymore, but the handmade items still need to be done."

"I'm giving you two days off starting tomorrow. I have some new tasks to assign you when you get back."

After giving Li Qingxin his instructions, Chen Jun turned and left the woodcutter's hut.

As he originally anticipated, it was now time to implement the next phase of the plan.

Therefore, this ban will allow Li Qingxin to rest and recuperate.

......

Inside the office.

As soon as Chen Jun entered the room, he saw two items lying quietly on the table: a USB flash drive and a brown paper document bag.

Old Zhou cut to the chase: "Things might be more serious than we think."

"Is this evidence...strong enough?"

Chen Jun didn't mince words and asked the question he cared about most.

Although he was fairly confident in Lao Zhou's abilities, this matter was of great importance.

Without enough trump cards, all his plans are meaningless.

"You'll see when you open it; there's one physical copy and one electronic copy."

Chen Jun picked up the document bag, quickly untied the seal, and shook out the contents.

There are three items in total:

A test report with CAM certification.

Two photos.

Chen Jun quickly glanced through it.

Fearing he wouldn't understand some of the terms, Lao Zhou explained, "The COD and ammonia nitrogen levels exceeded the standard by forty-seven times."

"COD can accelerate oxygen consumption, and ammonia nitrogen is basically poison. With these two evils combined, it's already a miracle that the fish in the water have survived until now."

Chen Jun looked at the photos again.

"The photo was taken by someone at a flood control observation point upstream."

"They are very cunning. They discharge sewage between midnight and 4 a.m., especially on rainy days, using rainwater pipes as cover to dump it in large quantities."

Chen Jun nodded: "Uncle Zhou, thank you for your hard work."

"Don't try that with me. Besides this written evidence, I've also found a witness. I can contact him anytime if you need him."

"Is this witness...reliable?"

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

With that statement, Chen Jun no longer had any major concerns.

The matter is clear: the upstream chemical plant illegally discharged pollutants, causing a large number of fish and shrimp to die, which then floated downstream with the river.

The evidence provided by Lao Zhou was not only convincing but also comprehensive.

"Young Master Chen, what's the next step?" Old Zhou asked Chen Jun.

"The fact that this evidence was obtained so easily is enough to show that they are not afraid of being investigated and do not care."

"If we continue with the conventional approach and give the things to the wrong people, then in the end it will be the same as before, like a stone sinking into the sea."

Chen Jun sneered, beckoned, and gestured for Lao Zhou to come closer.

......

......

The situation began to escalate, and a silent struggle began.

Chen Jun remained calm and continued to handle the affairs of the resort as usual.

Two days passed quietly.

After multiple appeals, the live stream was finally allowed to resume on the same day that Li Qingxin's vacation ended.

At this moment, her experience bar was full, and she had leveled up to Lv2 Skilled Craftsman.

"Starting today, you can try making some more intricate handicrafts."

Seeing Li Qingxin's increasingly skillful movements, Chen Jun finally "lifted the ban" on her.

He had some doubts about the game panel at first, but the scene before him was enough to show that leveling up was very effective.

He casually picked up a "donut" that the other person had just finished making and placed it together with the "wooden ring" that he had casually dug up at the time.

The differences are particularly noticeable in both the smoothness of the edges and the regularity of the overall shape.

Even compared to Li Qingxin's works from a few days ago, the craftsmanship and quality of her recent carvings have shown a visible improvement.

"Thank you, Mr. Chen. I've also come up with some new wood carving ideas these past few days. If I can make them, I believe the viewers in the live stream will like them."

Chen Jun nodded: "Starting tomorrow, I'll have someone film you and edit some clips from your live streams to post on Douyin."

Upon opening Li Qingxin's live stream account homepage, Chen Jun directly changed her ID to 【Legendary Carpenter Li Qingxin】.

The live streams during this period have amassed over 500 followers for this account.

Although it still can't catch up with some of the big names in the same field, the speed at which it gains followers is not slow.

Compared to traditional artisans, Li Qingxin's biggest advantage lies in her potential for growth.

With the panel in City Simulator, over time, her hand dexterity will gradually allow her to overtake some people who were previously far behind.

The exact upper limit that can be reached still needs to be verified over time.

After doing all this, Chen Jun returned to his office as usual.

[Resident: Li Qingxin]

[Rank: Lv2 Skilled Craftsman]

Experience points: 37/300

[Residents gain one experience point for each craft item they create.]