Super Zoo

Suming chose the hummingbird model, then half-jokingly, half-seriously asked Zhao Yun, "Do you want to buy one too? If we order two at once, we might get a discount or something."

"What do I need that for? Without it, I can relax more at home. Once we get a plane, Chengcheng's mother will definitely drag me around flying everywhere, which would be exhausting," said Zhao Yun.

This is the difference between young men and truly old men, Suming couldn't help but reflect. He would be as good to Nangong as he possibly could, while Zhao Yun looked for every chance to be lazy.

Besides the plane, he also needed to discuss the liquor factory expansion with Zhao Yun.

Actually, there wasn't much "discussion" involved; it was just about money. With money, they could expand the factory, hire more workers, and buy more machinery and materials.

"We could also modestly raise the workers' salaries," suggested Zhao Yun. He was well aware that more than half of the workers at the liquor factory were Suming's fellow villagers. Suming had recruited these basically unskilled villagers and even spent money to train them. In a sense, it was a way to give a leg up to his hometown folks.

After thinking it over, Suming said, "Let's not raise wages for the time being; let's use bonuses instead."

It was important to look after his fellow villagers, but he couldn't afford to be indiscriminately generous. Instead of helping, such actions could foster laziness. The current salary level at the liquor factory was already above average for the factories in the city, even higher than some state-owned enterprises. If they raised salaries now, what would they do next time? Salary increases couldn't be too frequent nor become the norm; otherwise, the workers would get used to expecting raises, and if there was a period without an increase, they would grow resentful.

Using bonuses avoided this problem. If everyone worked hard and the business was profitable, they would earn more. But if they were lazy and the business suffered, they'd all be left out in the cold.

Zhao Yun was the type of strategist who could plan battles from behind closed doors. Staying at home wasn't about being idle; he had already drafted a preliminary plan for the liquor factory expansion.

While the liquor was selling well, it had only been on the market for a short time. The initial investment hadn't been fully recovered, and the money that was, went right back into production, leaving not much cash on hand for the liquor factory.

The more than forty million given to Suming by the Horse Club was just a number if not spent. Suming had already planned for this money and allocated eight million from it, with Zhao Yun kicking in another two, making ten million to invest in the liquor factory.

This roughly doubled the size of the liquor factory.

That was the current limit for the scale of Great Sage Liquor Industry: It wasn't due to lack of funds, but due to the limits of Taishui, the most important ingredient. Any more would make it impossible to ensure the purity of Taishui, which would decrease the quality of the liquor and damage their brand.

"A person is named an 'Honorary Citizen' for making significant contributions, for creating economic income for the area. And you, you just made off with almost fifty million Hong Kong dollars in one fell swoop," Zhao Yun shook his head and laughed, "You are really overqualified for business. You should gamble on horses a few times a year instead; it's much better than anything else."

"It was just luck; it can't happen every time. Besides, it was a one-off deal. I reckon I'm almost on the Horse Club's blacklist by now; it would be almost impossible to win so much again," Suming replied.

Chengcheng, who was sitting aside listening to the adults talk, couldn't get a word in edgewise. Finally seeing her chance, she stamped her foot and shouted, "Gambling is wrong! And it's even more wrong to talk about gambling in front of kids!"

Zhao Yun: "..."

Suming: "..."

"Unless you take me to play, then I'll forgive you!" Chengcheng followed up righteously, revealing that the drinker indeed had other intentions. Today, she had overheard Zhao Yun and Suming's plans for visiting the back of the zoo.

"So cunning!" Suming chuckled and gave Chengcheng a thumbs-up, "You're successful. We'll take you with us!"

Chengcheng looked at Zhao Yun, who gestured upstairs with his mouth: "Go up and change into a jacket; waiting for you, ten minutes."

"Yay!" Chengcheng cried out and ran toward the staircase. Read the latest on My Virtual Library Empire

...

Suming and Zhao Yun were originally going to 'inspect' the restoration of Chen Youliang's tomb, another one of their joint projects. Unlike the liquor factory, Chen Youliang's tomb and the Ming Dynasty Ancient Architectural Complex, similar to Zhao Yun's museum, were cultural sites. Neither of them expected to make money from this venture.

The excavation of the ancient architectural complex was nearing its final phase, and after necessary preservation and restoration, it would be open to the public.

Over the next few days, the zoo had to deal with a pile of accumulated matters from the holiday period.

The 'Snake Park' in the back mountain was essentially completed, and Suming went to have a look. The so-called Snake Park was a miniature hill covering around six acres, surrounded by high walls. The interior was still a natural ecological environment. He brought back those hundred-plus snakes, semi-wildly bred in the Snake Park, climbing everywhere on trees and ground. They were regularly fed by staff.

This place wasn't convenient to open to visitors for the time being; firstly, there was no path, and secondly, most of these snakes were highly venomous. Even if visitors did come, they could only look from the perimeter. To actually enter the Snake Park would be to get bitten beyond recognition.

The donation that Luo Jiaju made to the zoo was put towards building roads, connecting Ancient Moon Xian Residence, the ancient tombs, the Snake Park, and various parts of the zoo. Currently, each scenic spot was isolated. Visitors wanting to go from the zoo to Ancient Moon Xian Residence could manage it, but there were practically no roads to the other two places.

If the back mountain was to be developed, the first step was to build roads. Previously, Suming had planned to work with Zhao Yun on this, but after some consideration, he felt that since it wasn't a toll road but meant for the zoo's attractions, it was more suitable to proceed under the zoo's name. Even if it was a toll road, it would be hard to break even in the short term.

Wang Hao's recruitment for live stream hosts was nearly coming to an end; twenty-five part-time hosts were hired in total, and the live streaming platform entered a relatively stable phase of development.

In the mainland zoos' exchange group, leaders from various places were also in good moods these days, eagerly exchanging live-streaming experiences with Suming. Following Yangchuan City Zoo's lead, they 'imitated' and set up their own live streaming platforms. Although they were not as explosive as the pioneering platform of Yangchuan City Zoo, it was much better compared to the deserted live streams of Shanghai Zoo in the beginning.

The money won from horse betting, aside from buying a helicopter and expanding the liquor factory, Suming nearly assigned all the rest to the entertainment and fisheries companies.

The fisheries company mainly aimed to scale up breeding, buy fingerlings, and hire workers and technical staff. Several of Liang Shi's classmates were now working for the fisheries company, and with sufficient funds, an expansion of the current breeding scale by three to four times was no problem.

The entertainment company received the bulk of the funds; a part was used to purchase small pleasure boats for Huating Reservoir, and with another portion, Suming planned to build a small hot spring resort near the hot spring discovered in the back mountain. Then, he would connect the resort with the various attractions of the zoo. In this way, the entire back mountain would become a scenic area.

Of course, relying solely on these few spots, the back mountain scenic area still seemed a bit thin, but at least it had some scale. Moreover, the back mountain itself was already a leafy green haven. Even without any additional attractions, with some minor roadwork, it would be a purely natural scenic spot. If Suming were a bit more thick-skinned, with his relationship with the government, applying for a 3A rating would be no big deal.

Another three million was put into his mother's safety fund. Suming had developed a habit: every time he made a big sum of money, he would set aside a portion for this fund, providing a safety net for himself and his mother, just in case.

Counting on his fingers, the forty-plus million he had just received hadn't even had time to warm up before most of it was invested back into production, embarking on the journey of money making more money. The cash Suming had left was less than three million in liquid funds.

"I'm really looking forward to the coming year," Suming pondered, anticipating a considerable income by the year's end after ramping up investments.

In the zoo, the two horses were getting along quite well with the alpacas. The alpacas were learning from Da Kuaihuo and Lion Fortress Dragon on how to run faster and how to carry people, while the horses were picking up spitting techniques from the alpacas. Horses could snort loudly, and each snort would spray out some saliva or snot, but compared to the alpacas' spitting prowess, it was amateur hour. Lion Fortress Dragon seemed particularly interested in the ability to expel a large amount of saliva in one go and to spit at a long range.

Three days later, two giant pandas from Xiangjiang Ocean Park finally arrived. Both Yangchuan City TV Station and Yangchuan Daily reported on the event, drawing a significant surge of attention. The live streaming platform's online audience count and the zoo's visitor flow both shot up substantially.

That afternoon, while Suming was walking the horses in the back mountain, Mrs. Tong suddenly called, saying that someone from the bank was looking for him.

"The bank? What business do I have with the bank?" Suming was momentarily stunned. He neither needed a loan nor owed any money, so why would the bank be seeking him out? Perhaps it was a personal acquaintance trying to attract deposits.

There was a female classmate from university who was said to be working as a bank salesperson, in charge of the customer sector. At one point during university, Suming had briefly lusted after that girl. Based solely on looks, she wasn't particularly breathtaking, but she had a certain seductive charm. Even without makeup, every glance and gesture carried an allure, the kind of woman you'd immediately want to pin down on a big bed.

If there had been no Nangong, perhaps he could still be flirting with that classmate. After all, it didn't matter where he kept his money, and Suming didn't care about the small interest.

"What am I thinking about?" Suming rubbed his face and asked, "Did they say what it's about?"

"They said it's your classmate," Mrs. Tong said.

"Ah? No way, what's the name?"

"A woman, the business card says 'Industrial and Commercial Bank Business Manager,' named Luo Sha," Mrs. Tong said.

Suming nearly spat out blood, truly people pop up when you talk about them; this Luo Sha, wasn't she that very university classmate he had thought of pinning down!?