Engineering Deal Finalized

In the evening, the sun set behind the western hills.

Mom stir-fried a plate of water spinach. "Dinner's ready."

Jiang Miao went to the kitchen to get the bowls and chopsticks.

Dad had finished showering and was sitting under the fan, watching television.

He served each of his parents a bowl of rice.

"A Miao, you've been running around these past few days. Did you go back to delivering food?" Jiang Dahai asked, picking up a piece of pork trotter.

"No. I won the lottery a few days ago and went to Guangzhou to collect the money."

Huang Qiuyue's eyes widened. "You won the lottery? How much did you win?"

"Over ten million." Jiang Miao took a mouthful of rice.

"Buddha bless us!" Huang Qiuyue hurriedly pressed her palms together in prayer.

Though Jiang Miao felt helpless, there was nothing he could do about the older generation's stubborn beliefs. He could only change the subject. "I've been setting up a company these past few days."

"What kind of company?" Jiang Dahai quickly asked.

"An aquaculture company. It's already registered, and its office is at Ma Gong Resort. I had my brother-in-law rent more than eighty mu of fish ponds in Yan Cun Village."

"Aquaculture?" Jiang Dahai looked as if he wanted to say something but held back.

Huang Qiuyue saw her husband's worries. But knowing her son had more than ten million, she was not too concerned. "If A Miao wants to start a business, let him give it a try. Aquaculture doesn't cost that much anyway. He can't keep delivering food all day."

"Dad! Mom! Don't worry. My company needs people to manage it too. Arrange things at home as soon as possible, stop growing vegetables, and come help me keep an eye on the company."

Worried that his son might be cheated out of his money, Jiang Dahai nodded. "Once I finish harvesting this season's vegetables, I'll go to Magong and help you."

"Mom, I hired a local woman from Magong to handle the company kitchen and cleaning. You can help keep an eye on her too."

"Alright. Once your dad has things sorted out, we'll go over together." Huang Qiuyue naturally wanted to help her son.

In truth, Jiang Miao had arranged for his parents to join the company partly to change their lifestyle habits and partly to reduce the intensity of their labor.

If they continued farming, the work would be too demanding, and their schedules would remain irregular while their diets stayed unhealthy.

If he directly told the elderly to change their habits, they usually would not take it seriously. They might even become resistant.

So Jiang Miao took a roundabout approach, using the company's need for help as an excuse to move his parents away from their hometown.

"Oh, right, Dad! Mom! Don't tell anyone that I won the lottery. I don't want people getting jealous."

Jiang Dahai naturally understood the atmosphere in the village. "I know."

"Eat up," Huang Qiuyue reminded them.

The family chatted as they ate.

Early the next morning.

Jiang Miao rode out again on his Electric Scooter.

More than ten minutes later, he arrived at the farm in Yan Cun Village.

His brother-in-law was leading three local middle-aged men as they repaired the embankments around the fish ponds.

After greeting them, he went into the farm's sheet-metal building.

About half an hour later.

A Dongfeng pickup truck appeared at the farm entrance.

"Yao, over here."

Jiang Yao got out of the truck with two dark-skinned middle-aged men.

"A Miao, this is Old Huang. His company handles factory support systems."

Old Huang was broad and burly, and it was almost impossible to discern any expression in his tiny eyes. He took out a business card and handed it over.

Jiang Miao accepted it. "Hello, Boss Huang."

"Boss Jiang is young and accomplished. I'm merely a few years older," Old Huang said with a smile.

Jiang Miao did not make small talk. Instead, he pointed at the large vegetable field. "Boss Huang, I want to build an indoor Eel Farm covering around ten mu."

"A Yao told me about it last night. How about this? Leave the foundation work to A Yao, and you two can discuss the price yourselves. I'll handle the supporting facilities. You need a Water Circulation System, a water temperature control system, a salinity control system, an industrial refrigeration system, a disinfection system..."

The two discussed every item one by one.

After going over all the requirements, Old Huang took out a small notebook and did some calculations.

"The total comes to 3.68 million. Forget the change, make it 3.6 million. What do you think, Boss Jiang? If you have any doubts about this quote, you can ask other companies to come take a look. My price is already on the low side in this industry. I'll only make five or six hundred thousand from you."

"Alright. Boss Huang, prepare the contract."

"Straightforward. Boss Jiang, shall we have lunch together?"

"Sure. Let's go to Sea View Villa near Jinding Bay."

Right afterward, Jiang Miao also settled the price with his cousin Jiang Yao. At 500,000 per mu, for a total of five million, he contracted the project to him.

The price was fairly reasonable.

After all, it was a ten-mu, single-story steel-structure factory building, plus leveling the ground, installing water and electricity, and adding insulation. It came to roughly 750 yuan per square meter on average.

His cousin naturally needed to make a profit. Jiang Miao did not care much about that. If someone could not profit from doing business, no matter how close their relationship was, it would not last.

"Yao, Magong is easily affected by typhoons. The quality has to be guaranteed. It would be best if the side facing the sea isn't too exposed to the wind."

Jiang Yao patted his chest. "Don't worry. Your big brother will give it everything he's got and build you an indestructible factory."

"When can construction start?"

"Tomorrow. But we need to fill in the land first. There are only a little over four mu of empty land here, so we need to fill in six mu of fish ponds. That will probably take around half a month."

Old Huang added, "Once the infrastructure is finished, it will probably take around four months. Have A Yao contact me a month in advance. I'll need to order the equipment and materials ahead of time."

"No problem."

After settling the farm construction project, Jiang Miao had Ke Yong drive over to pick him up, and the group went to lunch.

That afternoon, he and Ke Yong returned to the Resort Restaurant.

Inside the second-floor office.

Jiang Miao made a list of his recent expenditures.

Resort Restaurant rent: 200,000 yuan, including a 50,000-yuan deposit; annual rent was 150,000 yuan.

Resort Restaurant renovation costs: 500,000 yuan.

Eel Farm rent: 109,200 yuan, at 1,300 yuan per mu per year.

Eel Farm foundation project: 5 million yuan, for 10 mu.

Eel Farm supporting facilities: 3.6 million yuan, for 10 mu.

Patent application agency fees: 80,000 yuan, including eight invention patents.

Company registration agency fees: 6,000 yuan.

Car purchase: 260,000 yuan.

Trip to Hong Kong and Macau: 80,000 yuan.

Shopping: 40,000 yuan.

The total was 9.8752 million yuan.

His previous income was as follows.

Savings from food delivery wages: 73,000 yuan.

Scratch-off prize money: 400,000 yuan.

Earnings from gambling in Macau: 24.84 million yuan.

His total income was 25.313 million yuan, leaving him with 15.4378 million yuan.

Of the remaining money, aside from five million that needed to be kept as working capital, there were still around ten million available for use.

He estimated the expenses that would come next.

To quickly get things moving, the few hundred eels in his family's and brother-in-law's ponds would not be enough. He had to purchase Maturity Stage eels from other farms.

Current offers from Eel Farms were around 50 yuan per kilogram. A Maturity Stage White Eel weighed roughly 1.5 to 2 kilograms.

The farm's remaining seventy-four mu of Open-air Fish Ponds could each hold an average of 800 to 1,000 mature White Eels.

Using 1,000 per mu as the standard, seventy-four mu would require 74,000 mature White Eels. At 80 yuan each, the purchase cost would be 5.92 million yuan.

The feed, medicine, and other expenses that followed would also cost a great deal.

But all of this investment would be worth it.

Because the average import price of Glass Eel Fry this year was 31,000 yuan per kilogram.

On average, one kilogram of Glass Eel Fry contained around 10,000 to 15,000 Glass Eels, though it could contain only several thousand, since Glass Eels weighed around 0.1 grams on average.

Meanwhile, a female eel could produce an average of 1,600 eggs. In an artificial breeding facility, the survival rate was around 90 percent.

In other words, ten female eels could produce around one kilogram of Eel Fry.

However, female eels died quickly after spawning. To increase economic returns, Jiang Miao planned to take over another small factory, purchase a canned food production line, and send the eels directly to be made into Eel Canned Food after they spawned.

A small canned food production line, along with the premises, would cost around five or six hundred thousand yuan.

Fortunately, Magong Town had once been a prosperous fishing port and still had several small seafood processing plants. Taking over one should not be difficult.