As Jiang Zhi Shu explained the situation with his band of Merry Men, Lin Fan continued to look over the reports until he narrowed his eyes after seeing a certain report.
This was an investigation that he had Jiang Zhi Shu's men take of the surrounding villages, namely the resources that each village contained.
Jiang Zhi Shu had been confused why Lin Fan had given this order, but he still had his men investigate those villages and put all their findings in this report.
Jiang Zhi Shu noticed the change in Lin Fan's expression, so he asked, "Boss Lin, is there something wrong with the reports?"
Lin Fan turned to him and revealed a smile, "Rather than something wrong, there's something great about these findings."
"Great? What do you mean by great?" Jiang Zhi Shu was confused.
Lin Fan had the same smile as he said, "There's quite a few natural resources in these villages that we can turn into a business while also making these villages more prosperous. If we do this, don't you think that we will have even more fame?"
Jiang Zhi Shu was even more confused, "But we're bandits? If we create a business, wouldn't it be attacked by others using the justification that we are bandits?"
Lin Fan just calmly said, "We'll take a few of your members and create a separate merchant group. If anyone tries to mess with that merchant group, that's where you guys will come in to take care of them. That way, it'll be a simple merchant group hiring mercenaries for protection."
Jiang Zhi Shu gave it some thought before giving a nod. Based on the traditions of this world, this was a common occurrence and it did prevent people from attacking their businesses just because they were bandits.
But then there was another issue that he had with this plan.
Jiang Zhi Shu asked, "But what kind of business can we run with these resources? They're nothing more than some fruit trees and some crops that no one wants."
Lin Fan couldn't help laughing at this.
This world was indeed more advanced when it came to technology since the human race had to quickly advance their technology to deal with the beast invasion, there were other aspects that they were inferior in when compared to earth.
One such industry was the culinary industry.
Humans only had limited space to cultivate food and they were more focused on cultivating just enough food to survive on before, so there wasn't much progress when it came to delicious food.
Even the cakes that Angela loved were only created within the last century and it was considered an enormous innovation even with how simple it was. The cakes of the Blue Star Planet were very simple, being made of sweetened cream on soft bread, but yet it was something that everyone loved.
The simple ones for lower class consumers which Lin Fan bought used low quality ingredients while the ones which nobles ate used pure white sugar to sweeten the cream.
But even then, all of the culinary inventions of this world could only be considered crude in Lin Fan's eyes.
Since he would have to live in this world from now on, he didn't mind bringing out a few recipes to make some money while also improving the culinary industry in this world.
The first thing he would take out would be preserved fruits and jams.
The only reason Lin Fan knew the recipes for these things was because of his grandmother.
When he was young, the earth Lin Fan's parents had been too busy with their business to take care of him, so his grandmother had taken care of him for most of his childhood.
One thing that his grandmother loved to do was cook, so Lin Fan would often help her with her cooking because her food had been delicious.
His childhood was one of the happiest times in his life, but unfortunately all things had to come to an end.
His grandmother had lived for a long time and finally her time had come, so she left Lin Fan before he was fully grown.
After losing his grandmother, there was no one to take care of him, no one to manage him, no one to bring him back from the dark side. Lin Fan fell deeper and deeper into the vices of the rich and became quite the villain.
However, he would never forget the recipes that his grandmother had taught him.
He would now be bringing them into this new world, letting everyone taste the delicious food that he had in his childhood. This would be a way of passing on his grandmother's legacy in this new world.
He was sure that everyone would love his grandmother's recipes as much as he had back in his childhood.
Lin Fan said to Jiang Zhi Shu with a smile, "Even if others don't know how to use these resources, I do. Just follow my instructions and I'll give you a few recipes…"
…
After taking care of Jiang Zhi Shu's group, Lin Fan headed back to the shop.
His plan for the band of righteous bandits right now was to expand their power in the surrounding area and build up their foundations before deciding on how to expand them.
Lin Fan would still be in Green Wood City for another month or so, so he was planning on seeing how far they developed before deciding whether to bring them with him to his next city.
Lin Fan had planned two months out of the six for each of the three cities he had to visit. Even though he had completed the mission for the shop in Green Wood City, he wanted to make sure that everything was running fine before moving on, otherwise it would be meaningless if the store collapsed before he finished setting up the third shop.
When Lin Fan came back to the shop, he was surprised to see who was in it.
It was the patriarch of the Mu Family, Mu Bo Hai with another person who Lin Fan wasn't familiar with.
When Mu Bo Hai saw Lin Fan appear, he came forward with a friendly look, but he faltered when he saw Angela following Lin Fan. He still had bad memories of Angela from Snow Wind City.
But Lin Fan was actually the first one to speak, "Elder, you're back from Snow Wind City? Does that mean the crack has been closed?"
The only reason Mu Bo Hai had gone to Snow Wind City in the first place was to close the crack which the Beast Clan had planned to invade from. If he was back, it meant that he had either closed the crack or the crack was getting worse. Lin Fan of course didn't expect the crack to become worse since the news of a crack break would be top news that would be spread immediately, but he was still worried about his family in Snow Wind City.
Mu Bo Hai gave a nod, "Un, I closed the crack a few days ago and after resting up, I came back right away." Of course Mu Bo Hai could tell what Lin Fan was thinking, so he added, "Your family is fine, but they did give me a message for you before I left."
Lin Fan looked surprised as he said, "Oh? What message did they have for me?"
Mu Bo Hai said, "It seems to be your little sister's birthday next week and they wanted to see if you could make it back in time for it. Of course they understand if you were too busy, but they really want you to come."
Lin Fan fell into thought as he searched the memories of the original owner and found that it was indeed Lin Xue's birthday next week.
He also realized that after all the time he had been in this world, it was already December and getting close to Christmas, but Christmas wasn't a holiday in this world.
Lin Fan gave a nod before saying, "I should be able to make it back in time." Then he turned to the person beside Mu Bo Hai and asked, "Elder, who is this?"
Before Mu Bo Hai could introduce them, that person came forward to introduce themselves, letting Lin Fan finally get a good view of that person, "Hello Owner Lin, I am Zhu Ba Jie of the Zhu Family of Water Pearl City."
Zhu Ba Jie?
Looking at his face, he really did seem like a Zhu Ba Jie with his flat nose that looked like that of a pig and his fat build. If Lin Fan didn't know better, he would have thought that this was a pig that walked on two feet instead of four.
Still Lin Fan didn't say this out loud since it would have been rude, so rather he just said with a smile, "Hello Elder Zhu, what can I do for you?"
Zhu Ba Jie gave a laugh before saying, "Owner Lin really is as direct as the rumours say you are, but I like that! I'll be straight with you, Owner Lin, are you interested in building a branch in our Water Pearl City? We have long heard your fame and our Zhu Family would like to invite you to build a branch."
Zhu Family? Water Pearl City?
Finally Lin Fan reacted to these names and there was a memory that was triggered in his mind. He had heard these names before when he was reading about this world.
The Zhu Family were like the Mu Family, they were also a Legendary Realm Family!