Before the New Year

Since Spring Festival in 2025 fell on January 28, the company adjusted the Eel Farm's production schedule. During the first half of the month, it produced around 22.8 million glass eels and quickly sold them off. Sales and shipments before the New Year were wrapped up by January 15, after which only preorders were accepted.

In fact, of the 22.8 million produced in the first half of January, 14.36 million had already been ordered by farms across the country by the end of last December, so there was not much pressure on sales.

January 21, afternoon.

The cold wind howled, and the winter sunset came especially early.

Jiang Miao had just returned from South Lake Farm.

The moment he returned to his office, several managers came over together.

"Boss, this is this month's sales report." Li Zhou handed him the sales report.

Jiang Miao flipped through the figures, then nodded with a smile. "Not bad."

Although the selling price had dipped slightly, the Sales Department's revenue for January still reached 49.82 million yuan, averaging 2.51 yuan per glass eel.

Immediately afterward, Zhang Xinyi submitted the Online Store Department's January sales report as well. The sales figures on it had improved significantly from the previous month.

"Not bad. Keep up the good work," Jiang Miao encouraged.

The Online Store Department brought in a total of 8.09 million yuan in January. Of that, 7.37 million came from old customers ordering eel fry online, while the remaining 720,000 came from sales of feed and eel canned food.

Among the eel canned food products, the unagi kabayaki retort pouch developed by Li Xinhua in October had become the main seller. Low-cost Japanese restaurants and Japanese takeout restaurants in the Pearl River Delta and Chaoshan regions purchased unagi kabayaki retort pouches in bulk to use as ingredients.

The reason the unagi kabayaki retort pouch could become such a hit was that, after roughly a month of pond rearing and feeding with specialized feed, the culled female eels had metabolized away most of the Geosmin in their bodies.

Anyone who had prepared fish dishes knew that when many fish had just come out of the oven and were eaten piping hot, the earthy smell would be masked.

However, once fish dishes cooled down, the earthy smell of lower-quality fish would reveal itself in full.

This was also why, despite using the same process and ingredients, unagi kabayaki at many Japanese restaurants could show such a stark difference between dine-in and delivery.

As a result, Hai Lu Feng Unagi Kabayaki Retort Pouch, with its moderate price, excellent quality, and lack of any obvious earthy smell, became the preferred ingredient for many low-cost Japanese restaurants.

Of that 720,000 yuan in sales, at least 580,000 yuan had been generated by unagi kabayaki retort pouches.

As for those tinplate canned foods, their sales could only be described as disappointing. If not for local supermarkets and stores in the Chaoshan region purchasing a batch, it would have been difficult to gain a foothold online.

After reviewing the sales reports from the Sales Department and Online Store Department, seeing that Jiang Miao had some time, Ye Meijing seized the opportunity and hurriedly reported the company's financial situation for January.

"...Boss, based on the data from the Sales Department and Online Store Department, plus that technology licensing fee, the company's total revenue this month was 162.91 million yuan. Of that, the Sales Department brought in 49.82 million, the Online Store Department brought in 8.09 million, and technology licensing income was 105 million."

In fact, another 15 million dollars in technology licensing fees had not yet arrived. That money was expected to come in April, because Kagoshima Eel Company needed to complete its technical verification before paying the remaining balance to Hai Lu Feng Company.

Ye Meijing then went on to report the company's expenditures for the month.

"...Salaries, performance bonuses, and special allowances totaled 1.13 million; property expenses were 1.74 million; water, electricity, and gas cost 187,532; office supply purchases were 13,200; holiday gifts were 70,000; raw material purchases were 520,000; mature eel purchases were 3.57 million..."

"Bidding for two laboratories cost 72 million; industrial land purchases cost 2.46 million, farm equipment purchases cost 160,000; trucks and company vehicles cost 2.75 million..."

"Total expenditures came to 85,718,509 yuan."

Jiang Miao looked it over and did not see any particularly unusual figures.

The property expenses were so high because rent for some sites was paid annually or quarterly; almost none was paid monthly.

As January was the first month of 2025, many property expenses fell due that month.

However, the company's truly major expense was still the investment in those two laboratories.

The company contracted to build the two laboratories was a professional laboratory engineering contractor from Peng City. They had already sent people over a few days earlier to sign the contract.

Construction on the laboratories would begin after Spring Festival.

The laboratories would be located in South Lake Village, directly across the road from the company headquarters, less than a hundred meters away.

The site was an open area at the foot of a mountain, covering fifty mu.

Land leveling and foundation work were already underway.

Although the expenditures were enormous, the company's revenue could support them.

"January's profit was 77,201,438 yuan. Last year's retained balance was 36,832,581 yuan. The company currently still has 114,034,019 yuan in working capital."

Clearly, Hai Lu Feng Company's finances were very healthy, with more than a hundred million yuan in liquid funds still on the books.

However, considering that the profit carried over from last year had already been taxed, Jiang Miao had transferred all of that money into his personal account in advance to avoid mixing it with funds in the company's corporate account.

In any case, Hai Lu Feng Company was a sole proprietorship. He did not need to go through a board of directors or anything of the sort, so naturally he could transfer post-tax profits into his own account.

If it was needed later, he could inject the funds back into the company.

After hearing the financial report, Jiang Miao began arranging the company's holiday schedule. He had already promoted the HR manager, Jiang Haibo, to deputy general manager to help oversee the company's daily operations.

Therefore, Jiang Haibo was in charge of the holiday scheduling.

"Boss, this is the staggered holiday schedule I drafted. Please review it."

Jiang Miao examined it carefully.

Jiang Haibo's arrangement was fairly reasonable and took the employees' family circumstances into account.

Employees from out of town would begin their holiday on the 25th, return home to visit family, and report back to work on the fifth day of the lunar new year;

Local employees were divided into two groups. Those whose families lived in Ma Gong Town continued working as usual, especially security guards, farm planting staff, and technicians and caretakers at the aquaculture base—some of them had to remain on duty.

Those whose families were local but not near Ma Gong Town would begin their holiday on the 27th and return to work on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.

However, none of the three industry managers chose to take time off.

His brother-in-law was worried about the eels at the aquaculture base.

Li Xinhua planned to bring his family to Ma Gong Town for the New Year.

Lu Weibin had his eye on the triple wages during the Spring Festival. Besides, his home was nearby in Jinding Bay, so it would not interfere with the New Year's Eve Reunion Dinner.

Jiang Haibo, on the other hand, was from Southern Jiangxi. He planned to go home during the Spring Festival and bring his parents back with him. He had already decided to settle down in Shanmei City after the New Year, mainly because he had started dating a local girlfriend.

There was another reason as well: Jiang Miao's unfailingly accurate "medical skills."

Li Ke from the Tax Bureau had undergone surgery some time ago. A few days earlier, he had even brought over a basket of fruit to thank Jiang Miao.

Combined with Jiang Miao's previous performances, the company employees had immense faith in his medical skills. At the very least, when it came to diagnosing illnesses, his eyes were practically supernatural.

As a result, many company employees intended to take advantage of this special benefit. If their family members lived nearby and felt unwell, they could ask the boss to take a look.

Jiang Miao did not refuse, though he told the employees not to make too much of it and limited it to their relatives.

After all, this was beneficial to internal unity and increased Jiang Miao's authority within the company.

Just because Hai Lu Feng Company was a sole proprietorship did not mean Jiang Miao could forcefully suppress every employee. A sole proprietorship only meant he could make final decisions within the company; earning the employees' respect was not something that came easily.

Thus, by treating people for free, Jiang Miao had built an excellent image in the hearts of the company's employees.

That was the principle of loving the house and its crows.

Jiang Miao could sense this in his daily life as well.

If someone had something to hide, unless they were a well-trained agent, the moment their heartbeat sped up and the hormones in their body changed abnormally, he could easily tell what they were thinking.

After all, a person's joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness could perhaps be concealed through their expression, but the secretion of hormones within their body was much harder to hide.

When a person became excited, dopamine secretion in the brain increased.

Other emotions also caused fluctuations in various hormones.

In Jiang Miao's eyes, there was basically nowhere to hide.