Chapter 48: Settling for the Next Best
Go home and put the loquat honey on the scale.
"Thirteen pounds!"
Two thousand per catty, thirteen catties is twenty-six thousand! Xia Wu's heart skipped a beat, and his brows lit up with joy.
"It's a bit much. I called and asked them how much they wanted."
Mr. Park changed his mobile phone a long time ago, upgrading his old phone to a smartphone. Now he can watch videos very well and even call the smart assistant to make calls.
After a while, Mr. Ji's voice rang out from the phone: "Old Pu, what's wrong?"
"bump!"
It looks like they are playing mahjong over there.
"Old Ji, don't you want loquat honey? How much do you want?"
"How much do you have?"
"More than ten pounds, do you want all of it?"
"Does it have the effect you said? If so, I'll definitely finish it."
"What's the effect?" Someone else's voice appeared on the phone and asked curiously.
Mr. Ji briefly explained the situation, which aroused the curiosity of several card-playing friends.
Those who can sit and play mahjong with him are not ordinary people. Who among the elderly does not want to maintain their health? They also know that Mr. Ji usually takes a lot of health supplements, including wild honey. However, this is the first time they heard of loquat honey that can relieve cough and moisten the lungs.
Someone said with a smile: "If you have any extra, please give me some. My little grandson has been coughing recently and I feel sorry for him."
"Two thousand per pound, how about that?"
"Oh, it's not cheap!"
"Give me a pound!"
Mr. Pu said nothing and waited for Mr. Ji to fool his poker friends. Soon, several people over there wanted loquat honey.
Mr. Ji said, "Old Pu, I want all the loquat honey you have. Please send it to me."
That would be great. Mr. Pu grinned and said, "Don't worry. All right, you play cards and I'll go and pretend to be sweet for you."
After hanging up the phone, Mr. Pu took credit for it to Xia Wu: "Alright, we got over 20,000 yuan."
"Mr. Park, you are so amazing!"
Xia Wu jumped up happily and praised Mr. Pu. More than 20,000 yuan solved her urgent problem!
"I know that it will cost a lot of money for you to run the mountain, but the difficulty is just at the beginning. Once your mountain starts to get on the right track, it will be impossible for you to be short of money."
Mr. Pu helped Xia Wu pack the honey and asked her to go to the town to send it out by express delivery.
He sent the photo of the honey weighing to Mr. Ji, and soon his bank card received a transfer.
Mr. Pu transferred the money to Xia Wu.
Xia Wu wanted to give Master Pu a reward for his hard work, but Master Pu was not at all happy to accept it. "I don't even care about this little money. I'm waiting for you to work hard and have a good harvest next year. Come and honor me!"
"Guaranteed to complete the mission!"
Xia Wu has been spending money like water recently. The 200,000 yuan loan for the mountain has been spent. Her parents gave her 80,000 yuan, plus the 70,000 or 80,000 yuan she had on her own, a total of more than 100,000 yuan. It sounds like a lot, but she spent 50,000 or 60,000 yuan on buying fruit seedlings. Next, she has a hot spring to build, and she also wants to plant a hedge.
It can be said that as soon as she opens her eyes, she can think of countless places to ask for money.
The most important thing at the moment is to develop hot springs and plant hedges. Other things can be put on hold for the time being.
Otherwise your wallet won’t be able to bear it.
After Ma Fangzhou finished his work at the company, he immediately took annual leave and flew over.
After the plane landed, he had to change buses and take a bus to Donghua Town. Xia Wu rode a tricycle to pick him up.
"here!"
Ma Fangzhou had posted a photo in advance. The man in the photo had a buzz cut, wore glasses, and a plaid shirt, a typical science and engineering guy outfit.
Ma Fangzhou in real life is not much different from the one in the photo. He still has a buzz cut and wears glasses, but he wears a thin jacket over his plaid shirt.
Seeing Xia Wu, Ma Fangzhou walked over quickly, waved and called out, "Xia Xia." His face was a little red, not sure if it was because he was cold or what.
"Hello, Ma Fangzhou, you're very welcome. Tricycle, do you mind?"
"No, of course not."
Ma Fangzhou got into the closed rear compartment and saw Yang Hongwen sitting inside.
He knew about Brother Xia Wu's situation beforehand, and he didn't ask too many questions. Instead, he extended his hand and shook hands with Yang Hongwen.
Yang Hongwen didn't understand the meaning of a handshake. Seeing him extend his hand, he extended his hand as well and said lamely, "Hello."
After returning to Yanggou Village from Donghua Town, Xia Wu took off her scarf and her face turned red.
Ma Fangzhou looked at the surrounding scenery and suggested, "Xia Xia, can you drive? Actually, you can buy a used car. It will be more convenient to send express."
Xia Wu said helplessly, "I'd like to, but unfortunately there are too many places to spend money. I can only focus on some projects first. When I start making money in the mountains next year, I will definitely buy a car. It will be convenient to pick you up then."
She was pretty, spoke openly, and was a little intimate. This was an experience that Ma Fangzhou, a die-hard straight man, had never had before, and it always made his heart flutter.
But he also knew that Xia Xia was like this to everyone, and after a strange thought arose in his heart for a moment, it was suppressed by him.
As soon as Ma Fangzhou put down his bag, he wanted to go up the mountain to check the situation, but Xia Wu forced him to rest at home. He was treated to strawberries and honey water. In the kitchen, Liu Guizhen and Yang Guojun were busy preparing lunch.
Xia Wu and her brother sat in the aisle and chatted with Ma Fangzhou.
While drinking the honey water, Ma Fangzhou thought of something and said with a smile: "I took the honey water you sent me last time to the company and drank it all in a few days."
Xia Wu was surprised. "But there were several kilograms. Did you share it with others?"
Ma Fangzhou has a good temper. "There are many girls in our company. When they see me drinking honey water, they ask me about it. I share some with them. They all say it tastes good and that there are many benefits for women to drink honey water. If everyone shares a little, it will be gone. If you have extra honey, tell me and I will let them buy it themselves."
Xia Wu smiled and said, "There's not much strawberry honey left, but there will definitely be other honeys next year. I'll send you some then."
The lunch was prepared according to the standards for entertaining Jiang Zhen and Li Jianbin. Ma Fangzhou praised the food highly and even took photos and posted them in the group to stimulate others.
After dinner, Xia Wu told the village party secretary Yang Guofeng in advance that Ma Fangzhou would temporarily stay at Yang Guofeng's house, but he had no habit of resting and insisted on going up the mountain to work quickly.
Xia Wu couldn't persuade him, so he took his men up the mountain.
Trees are still being planted on the mountain, and the loquat trees are still being pruned. At first glance, there seem to be quite a lot of people.
After these two days of work, there is no more work to do in the mountains.
Xia Wu can also save some expenses.
These days, she has spent several thousand yuan just on paying the villagers' salaries.
Currently, there are only expenditures but no income. Xia Wu is holding on to the pitifully small assets, fearing that Ma Fangzhou will say that the hot spring development requires too little money.
"Before coming here, I did some research and asked some of my classmates and friends. They said that natural underground hot springs are easy to develop and are available at all price points. It really depends on your choice."
Xia Wu chose to speak the truth: "I don't have much money right now. Although I would like to develop the hot springs in one go, my financial situation does not allow it. Is there any way to save money and temporarily make a living?"
"I understand that starting a business in your hometown isn't easy, so I've already thought it through for you," Ma Fangzhou said, pulling out a plan from his bag. "Take a look at these, these are some of my designs. They're simple, but they're definitely enough as a transitional step, especially since your mountain hasn't been developed yet. For customers who want to enjoy the hot springs, this undeveloped area might actually offer a bit of rustic charm."
"Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. You might consider this."
Xia Wu stood aside reading the plan, while Ma Fangzhou took out tools and began to measure the hot spring area, stopping from time to time to write and draw on the notebook.
His plan is very simple, it is original and wild.
If you want to develop hot springs as a whole, you need to consider many aspects, such as functional zoning, architectural style, landscape design, etc., and you must fully consider reasonable layout, aesthetics, and environmental protection.
At the same time, there are many things to consider during the development process.
For example, relevant policy approval procedures, land use, water resources development, health permits, etc.
There is also infrastructure construction, the most basic of which is road construction. From the foot of the mountain to the hot spring area, only a small part is a flat concrete road, and the rest is through weeds. Such a road is too challenging for guests going up the mountain to soak in the hot springs. If they encounter elderly people or people with mobility difficulties, or if it rains or snows, the situation will be too bad.
In addition to road construction, there are also water and electricity supply, sewage treatment...
All of this costs money to achieve.
These are just the prelude to hot spring development. When the hot spring project is actually built, more will be needed, including hot spring wells, pump rooms, water treatment systems, hot spring pools, etc.
It’s not enough to just have a hot spring pool; supporting facilities, such as accommodation, also cost money.
Ma Fangzhou's plan described the steps for hot spring development in great detail, so detailed that Xia Wu's heart sank after reading only half of it.
She forced herself to finish reading it, then flipped to the back and saw the basic quotation, silently counting 0s in her mind.
Reluctantly flipping through the plan twice, Xia Wu asked, "Is that all?"
Ma Fangzhou turned around and asked, "What's missing?"
Xia Wu said pitifully: "Is this the simplest plan?"
Ma Fangzhou smiled innocently, "Yes, I've consulted a lot of information and suggestions. This is already the most simplified version. A lot of it can be omitted. Just the simplest ones will do. For example, for accommodation, you can discuss with the villagers and ask them to provide food and lodging. This can not only increase the villagers' income, but also save you some money on building a house in the early stage."
"But things like road construction and hot spring construction projects can't be saved, otherwise it will cost a lot of effort later."
Xia Wu fell into deep thought. She was thinking of making use of the hot springs this winter to make a small profit, but she had no idea that it would require an investment of at least one million yuan in the early stages!
Isn't this treating her like a Japanese?
"How about it, is there anything you don't like?"
"No, no, no, your plan is very good, I like it very much."
Xia Wu quickly waved her hands. Ma Fangzhou really took the trouble. Otherwise, if she did it herself, she probably wouldn't understand the procedures.
"How about we think about this first? The higher-ups say we can't build a hotel on the mountain, but we can build small buildings for workers. Where do you think it would be best?"
At that time, we will also plant flowers nearby to hide it from the public.
Ma Fangzhou had already thought of all these. With the mountain map drawn in advance by Li Jianbin, it was not difficult for him to design it. After an on-site investigation, he found that the mountain that Xia Wubao owned was really good and particularly suitable for development.
The small building he had chosen for Xia Wu was halfway up the mountain. It wasn't too far from the hot spring pool, and they could plant flowers in that area. "What kind of flowers do you plan to plant?"
Xia Wu had already seen Xiaolou's offer. She was filled with grief and indignation: "I'll plant whatever flowers can make money."
Choked.
A penny can hardly kill a hero.
Ma Fangzhou nodded. "Indeed, your mountain is large and there are many things that need to be developed. You do need to consider the economic return, but once you get on the right track, you'll be profitable very quickly."
Alas, when will things get back on track?
Taking practical issues into consideration, Xia Wu had to give up the hot spring development temporarily. Even if she sold herself, she couldn't come up with more than two million!
It's going to kill her!
Since the hot spring and building construction matters have to be put on hold for now, the little money Xia Wu has can be used elsewhere.
She wants to build a drinking water channel on the mountain.
Although there are water sources and streams on the mountain, it is inconvenient to water the orchard. If a water tower and a drinking water channel could be built on the top of the mountain, watering would be more convenient.
She told Ma Fangzhou her idea, and Ma Fangzhou said confidently: "This is easy."
He had observed the mountaintops, and Xia Wu also took him to the valley to see that the lakes there were not only replenished by waterfalls, but also by groundwater. Building a water tower was not difficult, and as for the water diversion channel, it was even simpler.
After coming down the mountain, Ma Fangzhou realized that Xia Wu was short of funds and had to put the hot spring development on hold for the time being.
"That's fine. Actually, this entire mountain is in a state of disrepair. It's like playing a game. You've only just reached the bow in the tech tree, and you're already thinking about designing artillery. It's definitely going to be incredibly difficult."
Ma Fangzhou comforted Xia Wu: "I'll help you design the water tower first, and leave the aqueduct to me. Things will definitely get better after next year."
In the next two days, Ma Fangzhou, like Li Jianbin and his wife who came last time, ran to the mountains during the day and drew pictures at the village party secretary's house at night.
Xia Wu referred to the design drawings left by Li Jianbin and his wife for what kind of fruit trees to plant and what to do in other places. Ma Fangzhou had to unify the overall style with their design, making it both beautiful and practical, which took a lot of hard work.
In just one day, Ma Fangzhou designed the site for the water tower and the water diversion channel.
The next step is to find a professional construction team to build the water tower.
Xia Wu found a company responsible for this project online. After contacting them, he sent them information about the situation on the mountain and the design drawings, and they sent him a quote.
Because Ma Fangzhou had already designed the drawings, Xia Wu saved some design fees, but the construction and material costs could not be saved. Overall, Xia Wu was completely bankrupt.
Xia Wu: “…”
But the water tower had to be repaired, so she gritted her teeth and paid the money. The construction company quickly sent people to conduct an on-site inspection and determined the condition of the mountain. Considering that the terrain was not complicated, they gave Xia Wu a slight discount of 5,000 yuan.
Xia Wu wanted to repair the water tower during the New Year period, so the construction team quickly sent people over. The construction materials were first transported up the mountain, followed by various machines.
Soon the rumbling sound of machines could be heard on the mountain.
That's all the sound of Xia Wu spending money!
Ma Fangzhou completed the task perfectly, and before leaving, he did not forget to comfort Xia Wu:
"The hot springs are right up the mountain. I'll come back when you've saved up some money."
Xia Wu waved goodbye to his friends and presented the design fees and various local specialties with both hands.
Money, money, she is so short of money!
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