Super Zoo

After arriving at Zhao Yun's home, Zhao Yun was sitting in the living room reading the newspaper. Suming changed his shoes and entered the house, but he didn't bring up "antique appraisal" first; instead, he discussed the distillery with Zhao Yun. At the moment, this was the priority.

Zhao Yun had already found professional engineers and budget personnel, drafted a plan for establishing the distillery, and taken care of the related approval processes. Suming had also already transferred four million from the Taoyuan Fisheries Company's accounts through Zhang Siming's law firm, plus the two million he dug into his own pockets for, making a total of six million.

Once that money was spent, Suming became utterly penniless. If not for the small salary he still received monthly from the zoo and the continuing boat tour business, he wouldn't even be able to afford gas for the Wrangler. The fisheries company's accounts were completely drained; they could only wait to slowly recoup the money from selling fish.

He had originally planned to tour several inland lakes in the Yangtze River Basin before the Chinese New Year, looking for freshwater fish with higher economic value to breed. Now, due to financial constraints, the plan had been temporarily shelved.

Zhao Yun had invested five million himself. With both of their contributions, the total investment was eleven million, which was actually a very, very small scale for a distillery.

The funds were in place, but there were two problems, neither too big nor too small.

"The first is the formula. You need to hurry up with the training of the monkeys you mentioned last time," Zhao Yun said.

Suming nodded, "I've already begun handling it." He had ordered several tons of various fruits from the zoo's warehouse last week, not knowing exactly which fruits the Monkey King would use for brewing; it was better to have a surplus just in case.

The formula was key to the distillery, directly affecting whether it would be profitable. Suming was confident that the Monkey King would provide the formula, but to create a buzz, he was also considering getting a few more monkeys involved, using the excuse of "releasing them into the wild" to have them learn the craft of making Monkey Wine from the Monkey King in the hills behind the zoo. In the future, these wine-making monkeys could "work" at the distillery.

As long as these gimmicks were established, he dared not claim that the distillery could grow large enough to go public, but making money was absolutely assured. Plus, it seemed the monkeys actually enjoyed brewing, probably because it meant they got to eat lots of fruit.

"Then there's the issue of land for the factory," Zhao Yun continued, his expression showing a hint of difficulty.

He had selected a few sites, but none were ideally located; they were merely backup options. If they really couldn't find anything better, they would have to make do with one of those.

"According to the city's regulations, all plots of land must go through public bidding and auction. For slightly better locations, we can only buy through competitive bidding. If it comes to that, our investment will only be enough to purchase land. I've thought of a solution, whether we could rent a piece of land from behind your zoo. After all, the distillery's remote location wouldn't matter; there's no need for it to be in the bustling city center," Zhao Yun suggested.

"I'll have to think of a way," Suming said, also feeling a bit troubled.

Having rights to use the land behind the zoo meant it wouldn't be difficult for him, with his current status at the zoo, to set aside a plot for a different purpose. However, there was a condition: the hillside existed under the guise of an 'animal sanctuary.' If they were to engage in farming pollution-free crops, that could be justifiable, but modern industrial activities like building a factory or distillery would undoubtedly bring some pollution, which was a policy issue.
Find more to read on empire

"What about finding a piece of land near the reservoir?" Suming pondered and asked, "It's close to a water source, and transportation is relatively convenient nearby. Building a factory near the reservoir would be better than in the hills."

"There are indeed several ready-to-auction plots around the reservoir, but as far as I know, the city currently intends to zone these plots for residential rather than industrial use," Zhao Yun explained.

According to the government's planning, different plots of land are designated for different purposes. Industrial land and residential land are, as the names suggest, for building factories and housing complexes respectively. After purchasing a plot, construction must adhere to the plan—you can't buy industrial land and build residential buildings on it, and vice versa; that would be illegal.

Though there is only a two-character difference between the two, the prices for residential land and industrial land are worlds apart; residential land can cost several times more than industrial land.

A significant portion of the government's fiscal revenue now comes from auctioning state-owned land. The prices of residential land are skyrocketing each year, with new record-setting bids for building plots and floors continually emerging. This is a major reason why housing prices remain high. Every year the government says it wants to control housing prices, but when the cost of the land accounts for more than half of the construction costs, along with dozens of various types of taxes, how can housing prices possibly drop if neither land prices nor taxes are reduced?

Getting back to the main point, the area around Huating Reservoir, far from the noisy city center and with its pleasant scenery and serene environment, is perfect for constructing villa communities. It's understandable that the government wants to rezone the surrounding plots as residential land, to sell at higher prices and increase fiscal revenue.

With Zhao Yun's current status, he definitely had influential connections within the government—Suming guessed that his background was probably much more significant than his own. However, changing the land use around the reservoir from residential to industrial involved the financial lifeline of Yangchuan City Government—it was a matter of vital and principled interest. Even if Zhao Yun stepped in, Suming doubted he could make it happen.

Zhao Yun probably knew this as well and ultimately just shook his head, laughing, "If it really doesn't work out, we can buy a plot somewhere else. There's plenty of construction land in the nearby counties and towns. As long as you have the money, buying land won't be a problem. It just means the transportation of raw materials will be a bit more troublesome."

"After I go back, I'll also think of some ways. If possible, it would be best to stay near the reservoir or the back mountain," Suming still hoped to have the distillery close by for convenient management. Besides, if he could build the distillery in either of those two places, he could even cultivate various fruits on a large scale in the back mountains to directly supply the distillery, making the process more convenient and making good use of the mountains—a win-win situation.

The two chatted for a while longer. As parents, their conversations would inevitably turn to their children, and Zhao Yun was no different. Before long, he was talking about Chengcheng.

Suming was taken aback by the conversation; kids these days matured so early. There was a little boy in Chengcheng's class who had written her a love letter!

Zhao Yun didn't seem to care much. It was natural for children to have those misty feelings for each other. It wasn't just the kids nowadays; even when Suming and his peers were in elementary school, it was common to hear about who had a crush on whom. Zhaoqian, on the other hand, was incredibly worried, nagging Zhao Yun every day about how puppy love could distract from studies and affect one's outlook on life, and so on.

"Don't worry, Mr. Zhao, leave it to me! Beating up and intimidating the little kids, helping with homework, pretending to be a parent at parent-teacher conferences, that's my expertise, only fifty bucks a pop!" Suming pat his chest with a resounding thump.

"Forget about it, Chengcheng isn't interested in those kids anyway. She says they're too immature, always playing League of Legends or something, not mature at all," Zhao Yun said casually.

Suming was at a loss for words, thinking to himself that he played too, not only League, but sometimes even CrossFire...

After some idle chit-chat, and seeing that Zhao Yun had no other business to discuss, Suming took out some pieces of broken porcelain and chunks of copper from his bag, piled them on the table, and said, "Mr. Zhao, can you take a look and tell me what these are?"

********

PS: Another chapter coming in fifteen minutes!