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A real estate project from start to finish requires no fewer than seventy or eighty seals of approval. Even in a large city, for newcomers like Taoyuan Real Estate, breaking through all the bureaucratic hurdles is no easy feat, despite having strong backgrounds and connections.
The reason why the Lure Community project proceeded smoothly last time was mainly that it operated under the grand umbrella of being the ’Fifty-Seventh Ethnic Group’. All departments gave it the green light, no one daring to challenge with the risk of being accused of ’undermining ethnic unity’. Rather than causing any difficulties, they were actually quite helpful.
Sun Town, Maoxi County, although Su Ming’s hometown, has little influence beyond Sun Town itself, and virtually no powerful allies or friends who can offer assistance.
Luckily, Su Ming had his advantages: the land was in Sun Town’s hands, and how the land would be used was theirs to decide—which meant that this particular plot was reserved specially for Su Ming, as if it was a tailor-made recruitment call.
He made an upfront investment of ten million in cash, a substantial sum for Maoxi County, which had been impoverished for many years.
And the ten million was just the initial investment. If everything goes well, there will be a continuous stream of further investments.
Economic development is a top priority. The annual fiscal revenue of Sun Town is just twenty to thirty million, making Su Ming a precious asset as an investor, not to mention that once the retirement community is built, it will greatly promote the economy of Sun Town and even Maoxi County in many aspects: tourism, local specialties, and even the chemical manufacturing industry will be affected.
Not to mention, construction materials for the retirement community, such as cement, bricks, and other building materials, couldn’t possibly be transported from afar into the mountains—all must be bought from Maoxi County; the employment of workers could help alleviate some of the county’s unemployment issues as well.
Therefore, from a policy perspective, Su Ming felt this deal shouldn’t have too many problems. Of course, there will certainly not be a shortage of details to attend to.
"There’s another thing. I want to go out for an inspection trip for a while, to take a look at the big cities, to see the world," Wu said.
"That’s a great idea, and I suggest your first stop be Hua City. The town’s finances are limited, so I’ll cover it." Maoxi County is subordinate to Hua City, making it an ideal first destination to pave the way for the subsequent construction of the retirement community.
Speaking of the inspection, Su Ming suddenly thought, why not just start a tourism company? To later bring groups of tourists to the zoo and Sun Town... But this thought was fleeting, as the timing wasn’t quite right. After the complete acquisition of the zoo in the future, a proper tourism company would certainly be necessary.
After talking with Wu for a long time and tentatively setting the development direction for Sun Town, Wu excused himself to go back to the town government. Su Ming was about to have lunch when he heard a very deep ’woo...’ sound coming from the backyard.
It sounded somewhat like the moo of a cow but deeper and more powerful. At first listen, it seemed like synthesized music... yes, like the roar of a tiger or the cry of a dragon!
It was reminiscent of the dragon’s roar in the recently released movie, The Return of the Great Saint. The sounds weren’t the same, but both were filled with majesty.
It was the Wuguang Ox calling.
Su Ming walked to the backyard and saw a large group of kangaroo mice hopping around the Wuguang Ox’s cage, while Nangong Yan was feeding the ox through the cage with a handful of green grass. The Wuguang Ox still had the expression of a senior leader on an inspection tour. Su Ming guessed its facial muscles probably didn’t move, similar to Sylvester Stallone with facial paralysis, having only one expression.
"Boss, should we let him out? He seems very unhappy in the cage," Tony said, munching on a yellow peach. The town had delivered two to three hundred kilos of peaches the day before, and the foreigner seemed to particularly love them, always washing one to eat whenever he could.
"How about I lock you up like a monkey instead?" Su Ming glanced at his blond hair and the peach in his hand, smiled, and walked straight up to the cage.
Thud... thud... Several long-eared kangaroo mice leaped at Su Ming like small rockets. A few with strong jumping capabilities soared over him, arcing over his shoulders and head like pole vault athletes. One little fellow with less jumping ability hit Su Ming square in the chest.
Su Ming laughed and held the little guy steady. It seemed a bit dazed from the collision. It shook its big rabbit-like ears vigorously, looked up with its bright, shiny eyes, flicked its long tail, and scurried onto Su Ming’s head, happily hopping around.
"Oh boy..." Su Ming tilted his head a few times, trying to shake the creature off, but to no avail—the little guy had very good balance and managed to land exactly on top of his head each time.
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Suming simply stopped caring and let the little guy use his head as a trampoline.
Nangong Yan laughed so hard that tears ran down her face. Suming casually scooped up a jumping mouse that was on its way down and pushed it towards Nangong.
The long-eared jumping mouse in mid-air, its ears flattened against the wind, its slender tail stretched out straight, hurtled toward Nangong Yan. Just when it was about to collide with her, it agilely executed a 180-degree mid-air twist. With the powerful legs of a kangaroo, it bounced off Nangong Yan’s full and elastic chest and zipped away in the opposite direction.
"No more messing around," Suming laughed, spreading his spiritual power to make contact with all the jumping mice.
These little rascals were filled with curiosity and joy, their spirits wildly unbridled. Making even the slightest contact with their spiritual power made Suming feel like he was in a bar with intense rhythm, unable to resist the urge to jump around to the beat.
"You guys… don’t… run around… it’s very… dangerous outside… just stay at home… and jump jump jump…"
He greeted the jumping mice intermittently, then turned his attention to communicate with the Wuguang Ox.
If the inner world of the jumping mice was a noisy, bustling concert, then the Wuguang Ox’s inner world was an ancient well without a ripple.
In an instant, a sense of tranquility filled Suming’s spiritual power, like a deeply meditating monk, undisturbed, neither sad nor joyful.
"Big brother, you’re only a few years old, try not to be so mature, okay? With everything so undisturbed, what fun is there left in an ox’s life?"
You could feel this was still a young Wuguang Ox. Suming rubbed its head through the cage and said, "I’ll let you out, but don’t run off, and, do not use your horns to hurt people, got it?"
"Hmm…" The Wuguang Ox grunted in response, Suming opened the cage, and the Wuguang Ox ambled out, shaking its head. It walked over to Nangong Yan with a serious expression and chomped down on the tender grass in her hand.
"Be careful, its horns are very sharp!" Tony, holding two large peaches, aimed at the Wuguang Ox’s horns, one on each side, and pushed the peaches onto them. Then he said with satisfaction, "Ah, now it looks safe."
The Wuguang Ox, with two peaches on its horns, stared indifferently at Tony for a moment, then, swishing its tail, sidestepped into a shady spot in the yard and lay down. The two round peaches on its horns made it look like a little girl with two hair buns at first glance.
Lunch had just ended when three SUVs parked outside the yard like a row of small hills.
Amir and the deputy head of the zoo’s security department arrived with thirteen people. A group of zoo security, ten Lure People, a total of fifteen people.
Dong, being older, thought things through more comprehensively, even considering issues that Suming had overlooked at the time. Among these fifteen people, three had more than passable cooking skills, so that they wouldn’t need Mrs. Su to cook and clean for them when they arrived.
After introductions, Suming was about to invite them to eat when more people arrived at the door.
The originally formidable Land Rover, parked among the three SUVs, seemed somewhat isolated and weak.
No sooner had Su Lijun gotten out of the car than he was surrounded by a large group of muscular men.
"My boss would like to have a chat with you," Su Lijun said.
