Chapter 457: Chapter 15: Summer Villa (Part 2)
"They say it’s artificially farmed, but the crab seedlings were bought from Yangcheng Lake, about over two thousand jin of seedlings, and they raised more than one thousand and five hundred jin of crabs," Yu Gang continued to explain to Mei Nian fearing she might not yet fully understand: "Take the well-known farming enterprise Huang Family for example; they claim to have spent hundreds of thousands of yuan to purchase about ten thousand jin of crab seedlings, which were released into Mingkun Lake. Each jin has about a hundred seedlings, and if they can get five thousand jin of mature hairy crabs at harvest, that would be pretty good. The ratio is 1:2. The ratio at Lu Zuo’s farm is 3:4."
"Huang Family? You’re talking about that shoddy company run by Huang Tengchong? I still have a score to settle with him," Mei Nian warned Huang Tengchong to keep the events of that night and Xiao Xian and Xuerou’s identities a strict secret before leaving the Huang Family villa, and not to leak anything to Xu Changfu. That guy agreed briskly on the surface but turned around and started setting fires and exaggerated the story to Xu Changfu.
"The focus isn’t there; the important thing is that you also noticed that this batch of hairy crabs, thanks to the technique of Lu Zuo and his young farming master, can rival the wild hairy crabs from Yangcheng Lake. However, there is one point, all the crabs are slightly smaller in size. As an economically farmed product, especially for aquatic products like hairy crabs that are sold by the piece and size, a difference of a jin or two can double the price. Lu Zuo wants to ask for my help to analyze the reason," said Yu Gang, who had only returned for a day and without rest had hurried to the small reservoir that Lu Zuo contracted, to check the local farming environment.
It must be said that Lu Zuo and his young farming master knew the habits of hairy crabs very well. In fact, they had already analyzed the reason for the smaller size of the crabs—it was due to the lack of suitable aquatic plants.
The Yangcheng Lake area has abundant aquatic plants, and the crab seedlings can grow well even without feed, relying only on the irregularly introduced small shrimps and fish, combined with the local aquatic plants available for crabs to use.
The reservoir that Lu Zuo contracted has good hydrological conditions, only the aquatic plants are insufficient.
"Do you want me to help find some suitable aquatic plants? This season is not the breeding period for aquatic plants. Even if I can help transport some aquatic plants from the south, it wouldn’t solve the breeding needs of a large number of hairy crabs. But you just mentioned, Mingkun Lake is going to farm hairy crabs? And it’s the Huang Family who’s taking the lead?" Mei Nian asked with ill intentions.
"Yes, it’s said to have been fully released these past few days. Money indeed makes the world go round; I heard the future fishing prices will skyrocket," Yu Gang was not optimistic about such business practices that exploit loopholes for profit.
"Then let’s do something, like making use of your expert identity to provide some suggestions at Yi Garden, like there’s a new method for aquatic plant dredging. Offer to help clear the aquatic plants for free. As for where you place those dredged up plants, it’s up to you. As for those crabs of the Huang Family that need aquatic plants..." Huang Family? People who offend Mei Nian, no matter who they are, are bound for a bad end.
Xiao Xian was still surprised after getting off the car, pondering why Xuerou was so rushed to sneak out from the back door in the morning.
After Mrs. Zeng sent them off locally, she went straight to Tianjin to attend a real estate developers’ bidding conference. She left Xuerou with a phone number of a local friend, instructing her to make sure to contact them.
Xuerou verbally agreed, and right after sending her mother off, she turned around and tossed the name card with the contact number into the trash.
"Hey, Xuerou, why did you throw away the phone number of our ride?" Chengde is located in northeastern Hebei Province, not far from Tianjin. Zhang Yiyi hadn’t had the chance to visit before. Excitedly looking around as soon as she stepped off the vehicle, when she turned back to find her companions, she saw Xuerou discarding the business card.
"That person is a friend of my mom’s from the business circles, a person who attracts investment. Whenever he sees my mom, he keeps wanting her to invest, and I don’t want to be entertained by him to avoid owing favors. Relax, everything is already arranged. Our trip to Chengde is purely a free-style trip. The places we’ll eat and stay at are all about authentic experiences. I guarantee you’ve never had anything like it," Xuerou did not clarify that the arrangements she mentioned were not made by her. Even though she’s capable of managing tasks calmly, she is still just a fourteen-year-old student. In comparison to Xiao Xian and Zhang Yiyi, she was only a bit more clever. The arrangements for the local visit and the destination of the trip were made, but Mei Nian hadn’t said much about what exactly they would do next.
She just told them to first play around in the Summer Villa, saying that they would naturally meet whoever they were supposed to meet.
"What? Free-style trip? I didn’t hear wrong, did I?" When Zhang Yiyi walked out of the East Gate of the bus station, she was still holding a brochure about the Chengde Summer Villa, a promotional material given by the local travel agency when they exited the station, which clearly and explicitly described, "Chengde Summer Villa, the summer palace during the reigns of Kangxi, Yong Zheng, and Qianlong." Deeply influenced by "Princess Returning Pearl," Zhang Yiyi also inquired clearly that several scenes from the show were filmed in the Summer Villa. She had her camera ready and planned to make a pilgrimage there.
"You heard right; I mean to say a summer retreat in Chengde. Because of the local terrain, everywhere here is pleasantly cool in summer. Stay a few days, and you won’t want to go back to the Jingjin area where it’s hot and hard to bear," said Xuerou as they reached the bus station entrance. She hailed a yellow handicapped tricycle and jumped on, "Excuse me, please take us to the Sunset Army District three kilometers away from the Summer Villa."
**
I’m sorry for being late in updating, as I came back from going out this afternoon.
**(To be continued... If you like this work, please feel free to give your recommendation tickets and monthly tickets at Qidian (). Your support is my greatest motivation.)