Pokémon: Starting as a Farmer Instead of a Trainer

Chapter 126: Cooperation with Zhu Lan

Watching the Rockets trio build up their stall's business in less than half a day, Mingyou felt bitter inside, but couldn't bring herself to say it.

How come these guys are so amazing!

Thinking about how he couldn't get a single customer for half a day during the masked ceremony and relied entirely on Xiao Zhao's help to promote it, he felt even more embarrassed and couldn't bear to stay any longer.

But after all, these guys are working for him. The better their business is, the more he earns... It's rare for him to make money, and he's so upset about it.

"Cough cough..."

Mingyou coughed twice, forced a smile, stepped forward like a good brother, patted Kojiro on the shoulder, then pointed to Satoshi and the others, and said with a smile, "These are the friends I was talking about. I brought them here to see the goods."

"Since he's the boss..."

"I'm the boss's friend!"

"Right, right, since we're the boss's friends, we must be... kid and Pikachu..."

Kojiro instinctively turned around and saw Ash and the others. He couldn't help but shout out, but Jessie and Meowth immediately covered his mouth, putting on an awkward yet polite smile.

"Let's see what the customer wants to buy~ Our products are genuine and high-quality!"

"..."

Ash and his friends were a little confused. Why did that title sound so familiar? They felt like they'd heard it somewhere before…

As long as the Rockets trio don't self-destruct after changing their outfits or know about it beforehand, no one else will be able to recognize them. This seems to be some kind of special setting.

So they didn't suspect anything. Since he was Mingyou's friend, they decided to take a closer look at the fruit. They walked over and curiously examined it.

"These fruits look so strange."

"Pikachu~"

"Poga~"

Pikachu and Piplup were instantly drawn to the fruity aroma. Pokémon are more sensitive to scents, and seeing their reaction, Dawn nodded: "Then I'll buy two pounds! Boss, come on..."

"Sorry, we sell fruit individually."

"what?"

"The prices are clearly marked. Customers can just pay and take what they want. If it's a snack or appetizer, it's sold by the portion."

"..."

Xiao Guang stepped forward and examined the price, his expression gradually turning strange. Xiao Zhi glanced at him curiously and soon adopted the same expression.

So expensive...

If it were sold by weight, this price would be quite reasonable, but it's sold by the piece. It's one thing to sell apples by the piece, but why are strawberries sold like this too?

Xiao Gang stood to the side, his gaze shifting to the fruits with additional effects. After examining them for a moment, he said, "The price looks expensive, but compared to the move learning device, it's actually very cheap!"

He had just overheard passersby saying that these fruits could indeed teach you moves. If, as the stall sign indicated, there were no side effects and it even helped you become more proficient, then that was truly a conscientious business!

Seeing that they had finished their tour, Mingyou took the initiative to step forward and took out a lemon labeled "100,000 Volts" from the box behind the stall. Upon closer inspection, the lemon peel seemed to be transparent, and one could see the flickering current inside.

[Electric Fruit (B-): A special lemon containing electricity, more sour than a regular lemon, giving a tingling electric sensation in the mouth when eaten. It can be mixed with sugar to make a delicious jam, but it will explode and release an electric current if subjected to a collision force exceeding a certain level, so handle it with extreme care. Non-professionals should leave it to a kind vendor. Eating the fruit will slightly increase one's familiarity with electrical energy.]

[Additional effect: After consuming, the user will learn the move Thunderbolt and accelerate its mastery.]

This was given by the Electrify Beast card; I found it had matured when I went back to the manor a few days ago.

However, since there was only one card, the result was not much; only about 20 electric fruits grew on one tree. So he planned to decide whether to sell them or not after seeing how things went, since these things were also somewhat dangerous.

In addition, all the mandarin oranges were picked, but only three kinds were picked; the blue ones were all sent to Quartz Academy in Evergreen City by express delivery.

He called Ash and the others over and then introduced them: "These are tangs. Although they can't teach Pokémon moves, they can help them understand their own power more thoroughly."

"There are only three types, corresponding to Grass, Fire, and Rock types. You can use them on Infernape or Sceptile. There used to be Water types, but Misty bought them all."

Upon hearing this, Ash was very surprised: "You mean Misty from Cerulean City?!"

"Yes, she's a long-time customer of mine... she's my friend's, and I've even helped her sell goods before."

"Haha, so you know her too? She was a travel companion of mine and Brock's from when we traveled together in the Kanto, Johto, and Orange Islands. It brings back so many memories, doesn't it, Pikachu!"

"Pikachu~"

Ash was very excited, after all, he hadn't seen Misty for a long time. Then he looked at the Electric Fruits and asked about their effects.

"This...?"

Mingyou explained that he could sell him all the Electric Fruits that had additional effects besides those that provided additional benefits, as eating them would be helpful for Pikachu.

Eat! You can eat anything!

If you can't beat them, eat them!

After all, you've already used Nightmare, who knows how many legendary Pokémon are coming up? So, do you mind if we upgrade our strength a bit too?

Just as Mingyou was continuing his introduction, the sudden sound of a camera shutter pulled him back to reality. Turning around, he saw Shali holding a camera, smiling and waving at him: "We meet again~"

"Sister Shali, I also plan to..."

Just as Mingyou was about to go over and say hello, it suddenly seemed like a big black rat darted past her!

He only felt a strong gust of wind rise up, and before he could see what was happening, Xiao Gang was already kneeling on one knee in front of Sha Li, a rose in his mouth, and gently holding her hand.

"what?"

Shali stared blankly at the strange man who had suddenly appeared in front of her, listening to him put on a handsome face and say some very cheesy love words.

Before she could react, a wicked frog appeared beside her, grinning and slapping her on the buttocks. Xiao Gang's body instantly froze as if electrocuted, and then he fell to the ground.

"It's...numb..."

"Giggity~"

The rascal frog chuckled and dragged him away from the scene. Hikaru stepped forward and said with a helpless expression, "Sorry, please ignore him..."

"Well……"

Sha Li was stunned for a moment before finally coming to her senses. She looked at Ming You and said with a smile, "Sister Zhu Lan asked me to find you at the venue, but you seem to be busy right now. She asked me to wait a little longer..."

"It's alright, I'm almost ready here, I can go anytime, Sister Shali, please lead the way."

Mingyou responded softly.

Listening to their conversation, Xiaozhi asked curiously, "Eh? Is that Cynthia? I didn't know you and Cynthia knew each other!"

"Haha, we met by chance. Why don't we all go together? We can chat on the way."

"Is it okay?"

"It doesn't matter."

Sally responded, then asked with a smile, "You must be Ash, right? I've heard Cynthia mention you guys before. When we stopped Team Galactic at Mt. Coronet, it was thanks to your help that we finally succeeded."

"After all, the Galaxy team did something like that; we can't just sit idly by!"

"That's quite impressive! Let's go together then, otherwise we'll be eating soon if we delay any longer."

"Here it comes!"

Xiao Gang suddenly appeared and interrupted the conversation. Xiao Guang was startled by his appearance: "Wow, the resurrection was so fast this time!"

"The energy booster works!"

"Haha, let's go over there then!"

Mingyou waved his hand, signaling the Team Rocket trio to continue working, and then left with Shali, joining everyone in a conference room inside the venue.

The room was very spacious, with tables and chairs neatly arranged and not a speck of dust left. It must have been where the league officials had recently held a meeting, and now there was only one person in the room.

Zhu Lan sat at the round table with an open book in front of her. She rested her cheek on one hand and gently turned the pages with the other, completely absorbed in the book. She didn't even notice them coming in.

"Everyone's here, Sister Zhulan~"

Upon hearing Shali's voice, Zhulan closed the book, gently brushed her hair back with her fingers, and stood up. Just as she was about to greet them, she saw Xiaozhi and the others, and was quite surprised.

"Ash? You guys came too?"

"Miss Zhulan, it's been a long time~"

"Since I happened to be with Mingyou, I came over to say hello."

Ash and Dawn each replied with a comment. Cynthia was also surprised by the coincidence that everyone knew each other. She then smiled and said, "You did well in the preliminaries. Keep up the good work in the preliminary rounds tomorrow!"

"Yes! It definitely will!"

After exchanging greetings, Mingyou stepped forward and chuckled, "I also have something I want to talk to Sister Zhulan about, but you can go first, Sister Zhulan."

"It's alright, let me hear what you have to say... but I have a pretty good idea why you're looking for me."

Zhu Lan's lips curled up slightly, as if she could see through everything like a mudskipper: "It must be about those fruit sales partnerships, right? Like what happened this morning, and that very popular stall this afternoon..."

After they parted ways in the morning, she curiously searched online. Although there was very little information, she still found out that these fruits were produced in Beishang Township. It was such a remote place, and she guessed it right away.

In the afternoon, the administrator in charge of the booths at the venue, after discovering that the fruit was becoming increasingly popular and was indeed effective, finally couldn't sit still and came over to talk to the members of the alliance.

And it was in this very conference room.

She convinced the others that she would talk to the stall owner and try to cooperate first, since it was impossible to know in the short term whether there would be any side effects.

So I was originally planning to bring this up, but I didn't expect Mingyou to have the same idea, so we hit it off and gave her a chance.

"They'll move your stall to a better location tomorrow. Tell your employees to work harder; we need to see results to facilitate deeper cooperation later!"

Hearing Zhu Lan's words, Ming You couldn't contain her excitement. She clenched her fists and exclaimed with a smile, "Thank you so much, Sister Zhu Lan!"

"After all, I'm a beneficiary too..."

Cynthia responded with a light laugh, but Ash and the others were stunned by their conversation.

What? Mingyou is the boss?

Oh no, some idiot has been fooled...

……

(End of this chapter)