Chapter 37: Building a Factory

  Facing Dai Zhong's question, Zhou Hao and Zhao Yuqin exchanged a glance, then Zhou Hao said: "I plan to build a factory here, because the land price in the city is too expensive, so I'm considering building the factory here."

  Dai Zhong originally just asked casually, anyway this large piece of wasteland in Suo Hua Village can't be developed, it's better to sell it out and increase the village's income. Thinking of this, he asked: "How much land do you plan to buy?"

  Zhou Hao looked at the wasteland, which was densely covered with wild grass. The area near Shuo Hua Village had become a small garbage dump. He wouldn't buy the entire land, but he still wanted to get as much land as possible, so he asked Dai Zhong: "How much land can you sell me?"

  Dai Zhong was startled by Zhou Hao's question, but since he was going to build a factory, the area would definitely not be small. He discussed with several villagers of similar age behind him for a while before saying to Zhou Hao: "It's not possible to sell all of it to you, after all we might use it in the future, but selling half of it to you is acceptable."

  Zhou Hao had originally thought that getting one or two thousand square meters would be enough, but he hadn't expected Dai Zhong and the others to be willing to sell him half of this wasteland, which was a staggering seven or eight thousand mu. With such a large piece of land, even if those Japanese people didn't buy it in the future, when Xiangcheng developed outward, this land would still be extremely valuable.

  He suppressed the excitement in his heart and appeared extremely calm on his face, "So, Village Chief Dai, if I buy half of this land, what kind of price do you want?"

  This put Dai Zhong in a difficult position, as he had no experience in this area. He then consulted with the villagers who seemed to be of high moral character and discussed it for half an hour before turning to Zhou Hao and saying: "Sir, look at how big this land is, and I also can't let the village lose out. How about 1 million? We'll sell it to you for 1 million."

  "One million?" Zhou Hao exclaimed, to think that when those Japanese came to buy out the land, each of the villagers who lived next to the wasteland got more than one million. Calculating it, their family's area wasn't even a hundred square meters. Now Zhou Hao only needed to spend one million to take down seven or eight thousand mu of land, and even Zhao Yuqin beside him showed a surprised expression, giving Zhou Hao a glance, indicating that this piece of land was worth buying.

  Dai Zhong heard Zhou Hao's exclamation and thought he had quoted a price that was too high, so he said with a difficult expression: "Sir, is the price too high? Actually, we can still negotiate on the price." In fact, for the villagers in Shuohua Village, even if they took their agricultural products to sell in the city, they would only make a few hundred yuan per household per year.

  Zhou Hao heard Dai Zhong's words, but in his heart, he secretly smiled. It wasn't that it was too expensive, but rather too cheap. He naturally wouldn't tell Dai Zhong what he was thinking, and instead furrowed his brow, saying: "Indeed, it is a bit high. Village Head Dai, look at this place, it's just a barren land. Even if you want to open it up for farming or fish breeding, you'll have to put in quite some effort, let alone me wanting to build a factory."

  "So what's your point, Mr.?"

  "Why don't we just take a good intention and say 800,000, can't be more than that." Zhou Hao said.

  He nodded thoughtfully and said, "For them, 800,000 is already a big number. If we distribute it, each villager can get several thousand yuan. It's better than letting the land go to waste." He looked up at Zhou Hao, "Okay, 800,000 it is, but you have to pay in full at once."

  "That's no problem." Zhou Hao said: "However, there are too many wild grasses on this land, you have to help me get rid of them."

  "Alright, alright." Dai Zhong hastily replied. The villagers here were originally farmers and were extremely skilled at farm work. All they had to do was remove some wild grass, which was naturally an easy task.

  Time waits for no man, Zhou Hao and Zhao Yuqin, as well as Yan Tong, followed Dai Zhong to the village committee of Shuohua Village to handle the formalities. Yan Tong saw that Zhou Hao had bought 7 or 8 thousand mu of land in just one afternoon, and it felt a bit like a dream come true.

  The village committee of Shuohua Village is actually the back courtyard of the ancestral temple in the village. Inside, there are several wooden tables and stools, with a few barefoot old men playing cards and chess together, looking like an elderly club. Dai Zhong's status in the village is obviously very high, and the villagers all show great respect for him. Everyone listened to him as he said that the wasteland next to the village had been sold off by half, so that each person in the village could get several thousand yuan, and they all looked extremely happy. They were even more enthusiastic towards Zhou Hao and Zhao Yuqin, these wealthy bosses.

  Although the village committee of Shuohua Village can decide to sell the land to Zhou Hao, since the area involved is so large, they still need to inform the town government. Shuohua Village belongs to Pingtou Town, so Dai Zhong made a phone call to the town government.

  The town government also quickly agreed after hearing that Shuohua Village was going to sell the land, because they could also get some "benefits" from it. With profit in mind, the town government immediately had someone prepare the sales documents and send them to Shuohua Village.

  Zhou Hao asked Dai Zhong: "Village Chief Dai, do you want a bank transfer or cash?"

  "Cash, cash." Dai Zhong replied repeatedly. Although the town government had long asked Shuohua Village's village committee to open a bank account, due to the fact that there was hardly any money in the village committee and the villagers did not yet have the concept of saving at banks, they were still accustomed to using cash.

  Zhou Hao was in a bit of a dilemma because the tens of millions of dollars in prize money were all in Yan Tong's account, and it would be very troublesome to withdraw such a large sum from the bank.

  Zhao Yuqin, who was beside him, saw Zhou Hao's expression and immediately guessed his difficulty. She smiled and said, "My securities company has cash, I'll have someone bring it over first."

  Zhou Hao nodded, "Thank you, Aunt Zhao, I'll transfer the money back to you as soon as I get back."

  "Don't worry, sister has money that isn't urgently needed." Zhao Yuqin smiled and made a phone call to Xinghe Securities Company to have the cash brought over.

  During the waiting process, Dai Zhong and other villagers were very kind and enthusiastic to Zhou Hao and his group. They even brought out their treasured tea leaves. However, for Zhao Yuqin, compared to the special supply of top-grade tea that her father drank, these tea leaves were like clouds and mud. But she wouldn't refuse the villagers' good intentions either. Meanwhile, Dai Zhong introduced Shuo Hua Village to Zhou Hao and his group.

  There is a road leading to the city in Shuohua Village, which is not of high standard but still convenient. Shuohua Village is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and there is also a Huaping River flowing through it, with a very quiet environment. Zhou Hao remembered that after the construction of this large production base was completed, the city specially built a highway here, and the development of Xiangcheng City afterwards was closely related to this production base.

  Before long, people from Pingtou Town Government and Xinghe Securities Company arrived one after another. The Pingtou Town Government sent an office director, while Zhao Yuqin's Xinghe Securities came with four male employees in a Santana, as it was necessary to carry 800,000 cash safely.

  When the four employees took out stacks of 100-yuan bills, everyone including the director of the town government office was stunned, especially Dai Zhong and several other villagers who had never seen so much cash.

  Yan Tong also had a bit of an eye-opener, although the money was theirs, from winning to Zhao Yuqin transferring the prize money into her account, all she could see were the numbers on the passbook, and she herself didn't have much concept of how much several million yuan was.

  "Sign this contract and the deal is done." The office director was the first to come back to his senses, "Also, give me a copy of your ID card, it's needed for filing with the government."

  Zhou Hao took out two pieces of paper, which were exactly Yan Tong's ID card copies. Since Zhou Hao himself was not old enough to have an ID card, he handed one copy to Dai Zhong and the other to the director, then asked Yan Tong to sign his name on that contract.

  The contract states that the land purchased by Zhou Hao is on one side of Shuohua Village, with an area of over 7,600 mu. Later, someone will also be allowed to set up a landmark on that land.

  Eight hundred thousand was handed over to Dai Zhong and his men, who very tactfully handed over 150,000 of it to the office director, to be distributed among the big shots in the town government. He also volunteered to have a few stronger young men from the village escort the director back to ensure safety.

  After everything was settled, Dai Zhong said to Zhou Hao and others: "Mr. Zhou, Miss Zhao, why don't you stay here for dinner?"

  Zhou Hao shook his head, "No, we still have things to do, so we won't disturb you village leaders anymore." He said to Dai Zhong, "We'll come back in a few days to take a look. I hope by then, Village Leader Dai, you will have cleared the wild grass on that land of mine."

  "Alright, alright." Dai Zhong hastily replied and personally escorted Zhou Hao and the others to the village entrance with several elderly villagers who were highly respected.

  When Zhao Yuqin drove the car far away, Dai Zhong and the villagers were still standing at the village entrance, waving their hands to them from afar.

  "These villagers are really simple and honest." Zhou Hao said, looking at them through the rearview mirror.

  "How can you bear to cheat such simple people?" Zhao Yuqin glanced at Zhou Hao with a smile, "You made a big profit by buying this land for less than a million."

  "You can't say that." Zhou Hao smiled and said, "In our opinion, we made a profit, but in the eyes of Village Chief Dai and others, they are the ones who profited. They might be laughing at us now, eighty thousand yuan for a useless piece of barren land."

  Zhao Yuqin burst out laughing, "I didn't expect you to be so young, but your mind is quite vicious."

  "By the way, Zhao Jie, do you know any construction teams?" Zhou Hao asked Zhao Yuqin.

  "You know some people, so what? Are you really planning on building a factory there?"

  But Zhou Hao nodded, "It's not really a factory building, just build the outer wall well and nothing else is needed, and the area doesn't have to be very large, just build three two-thousand-square-meter factory buildings."

  "This is why?" Zhao Yuqin was somewhat perplexed.

  "It's not clear for now, but it will be useful in the future." Zhou Hao smiled and thought that industrial land and ordinary vacant land were quite different in price. When those Japanese people came to buy land from him next year, he would make more money from them. He asked Zhao Yuqin: "Sister Zhao, just building the outer wall, how much will it cost?"

  "In that case, it won't cost much money, and if I'm in charge, the building materials will also be a lot cheaper. All in all, it should add up to around 2 million at most."

  "Then I'll trouble you, Sister Zhao."