Big Purchase

In the blink of an eye, it was April 20.

After more than ten days of adjustment, the newcomers had begun to adapt to the pace of work.

At the same time, the large sign on the rooftop of the former resort restaurant had been removed and replaced with a large red sign for Hai Lu Feng Agricultural Technology Company.

The second floor had originally been used as a wedding banquet hall, with a boss's office, a storage room, and two accompanying restrooms.

Jiang Miao inspected the second floor with his cousin Jiang Yao.

"A Miao, according to your idea, this hall has been converted into an office hall..."

All the tables and chairs from the restaurant had been cleared out, and aluminum alloy frames and acrylic panels had been used to partition the space into small workstations.

Aluminum alloy frames and glass had also been used as partition walls, dividing the hall into six relatively large offices.

There were three new offices on each side of the north-south corridor.

In addition, every office had been furnished with storage racks and coat racks.

"Not bad."

"As long as you're satisfied."

Jiang Miao turned and asked, "How much longer will the first-floor renovation take?"

"Around a month. The kitchen is the main issue—it's too large, and the walls in that section need to be chiseled away and replastered with cement mortar. With the new walls and glass sliding doors, a month should be about right."

"Then I'll have to trouble you to hurry it along, Brother Yao."

"Don't worry. Your brother will work overtime and make sure it doesn't delay your June opening."

"How are things at the Eel Farm?"

"The six mu of fishponds have already been filled in. The foundations for the four mu of open land have been compacted, and they're laying underground pipes and building water tanks now. They'll start pouring the ground in half a month. The steel framework will be installed in mid-May. The people from the steel structure factory came over to measure the dimensions a few days ago, and they'll deliver the steel components soon."

Jiang Miao nodded. "That's good."

Beep, beep, beep...

Jiang Yao picked up the phone, looking at him apologetically. "A Miao, I made an appointment to discuss waterproof fabric with someone. I need to head into the city."

"No problem. Go take care of it first. We can stay in touch by phone if anything comes up."

"Alright, I'll be going, then."

After his cousin left.

Ke Yong, Li Zhou, and Wang Feng returned.

Li Zhou and Wang Feng had gotten considerably darker from the sun. These past few days, they had mainly been out purchasing eels.

"Boss, this is today's purchasing list. Please take a look." Wang Feng handed him a handwritten receipt and a list.

Jiang Miao looked them over for a while. "We bought 350 kilograms of white eels today at forty-three yuan per kilogram. That's acceptable. Including what we bought before, we've purchased nearly 5,000 kilograms, but it's still not enough."

Wang Feng sounded somewhat helpless. "Boss, we've already visited every Eel Farm near Hai Lu Feng. The remaining stock is either too small or too expensive."

At that moment, Li Zhou said somewhat embarrassedly, "Boss, how about we purchase some from my hometown in Putian? There are quite a few Eel Farms there, and prices are a little lower than here in Chaoshan."

"Southern Fujian? Sure. You can all go to Southern Fujian together." Jiang Miao turned to Li Wenna. "Wenna, prepare a business trip budget form for Li Zhou and Wang Feng later. Set the limit at thirty thousand. If it isn't enough, we'll add more."

"No problem." Li Wenna noted it down.

Jiang Miao then looked at Ke Yong. "A Yong, drive there with Wang Feng and Li Zhou."

"No problem." Ke Yong nodded.

Wang Feng asked about the purchase quantity. "Boss, exactly how many eels do we need to buy?"

"The current 5,000 kilograms are only enough for three mu of fishponds. The farm still has seventy-one mu of fishponds remaining, and each mu requires around 1,500 kilograms. We need to purchase at least 100,000 kilograms."

"100,000 kilograms?" Wang Feng became nervous.

"But there's no need to rush. It'll be fine as long as we finish purchasing them before July." Jiang Miao suddenly remembered something. "Right, since you're going to Southern Fujian anyway, purchase a batch of eels in the Chaoshan Three Cities along the way."

"Alright." Wang Feng nodded.

After Jiang Miao finished arranging the work.

He went straight home.

He had already put all fifteen breeding tanks at home into use. Over the past few days, he had caught all the eels from his brother-in-law's fishpond.

The fifteen tanks held a total of 150 eels.

He had divided the eels into groups. Along with the feed, nutrients, and medicine that had gradually arrived, he had also secretly had his father purchase Duck Bill Grass near Pu Bian Town.

He had renovated the room as well, adding air conditioning and installing small water temperature regulators, salinity sensors, and other equipment.

Once everything was ready.

A week earlier, Jiang Miao had begun targeted feeding. Whenever he was away from home, he had his father and mother watch over the tanks.

After a week of targeted feeding, Jiang Miao discovered through the Appraisal Panel that the accumulation of special nutritional components within the eels had more than doubled compared to before.

At this rate of accumulation, they would need roughly another eight weeks to reach the threshold for sex-changing reproduction.

This was already the fastest speed Jiang Miao could achieve after making adjustments.

After all, eels could only consume a limited amount of food each day, and he also had to consider the problem of eutrophication in the water.

In other words, for white eels in the Maturity Stage, artificially increasing their accumulation of special nutrients until they reached the threshold for sex-changing reproduction would take at least around sixty-five days.

That was already about ten times faster than wild eels in their natural environment.

Wild eels could not possibly have an abundant supply of food every day, nor could all that food contain the necessary nutrients for synthesizing special components.

That was the advantage of artificial breeding.

The reason Eel Artificial Breeding Technology had made no progress for so long was that humanity's research into eels had not been thorough or comprehensive enough.

Jiang Miao, however, had seen the essence of eel reproduction at a glance. Working backward from there to derive the technology naturally became very easy.

Jiang Miao recorded today's data and once again made fine adjustments to the feed formula.

In the courtyard by the entrance, his father drove back on a tricycle carrying more than a dozen bags of Duck Bill Grass.

"A Miao, why are you back so early today?"

"I finished up at the company and came back to check on the eels."

"That's a thousand jin of Duck Bill Grass. It should be enough for a week, right?"

Jiang Miao untied the bags. They were all filled with fresh Duck Bill Grass. "It'll last ten days. Together with the dozen or so bags from before, we'll have enough for half a month."

"That's good, but is this Duck Bill Grass really useful?" Jiang Dahai was highly skeptical of its effects.

Jiang Miao did not explain. Instead, he brought up another matter. "Dad, I'll need more Duck Bill Grass from now on. Buying it alone may not be enough, so let's switch the family's fields over to Duck Bill Grass."

"Plant Duck Bill Grass? That works. We've harvested all the vegetables anyway, and there are only two rows of cucumbers left."

Jiang Miao thought for a moment. "Doesn't Eldest Aunt have a patch of land by the reservoir? Dad, persuade her to plant Duck Bill Grass too. I'll buy it from her at one yuan for ten jin."

"Mm, she can't make much money growing anything else. Growing Duck Bill Grass would be good." Jiang Dahai understood his elder sister well. After she got married, her husband had died in a motorcycle accident. She had no son at the time, so her husband's family drove her out. Her second marriage had quickly ended in divorce as well.

A few years ago, her daughter had married away too. Now, she lived alone in the village.

Duck Bill Grass was not difficult to grow. As long as it was planted in paddy fields, it did not need replanting after harvesting. It was a perennial semi-aquatic grass with a fairly high yield. Harvesting several thousand jin per mu at a time was easy, and in Lingnan's climate, it could be harvested five or six times a year.

As for Eldest Aunt's paddy fields by the reservoir, aside from the portion she owned herself, Little Uncle in Hong Kong had also given her some. Altogether, they totaled around two mu.

Since Jiang Miao would definitely need Duck Bill Grass over the long term in the future, he naturally chose to look after relatives he was close to in advance.