Chapter 116 - 93: Getting Anxious! You’ll Have to Pay More

Chapter 116: Chapter 93: Getting Anxious! You’ll Have to Pay More

Seeing the construction site bustling with activity, Zhao Neng grew even more uneasy. He had paid too high a price to cut off Li Yuan Farm.

It wasn’t just the fifty-million-plus investment in the camping ground.

There was also the matter of all the land he had leased.

To deliver a perfect death blow to Li Yuan Farm, he had leased all the land surrounding it.

Li Yuan Farm was nearly 5,000 mu. To be absolutely ruthless, he had leased the tens of thousands of mu of land surrounding it. In fact, it was only after securing all that land that he had resolved to cut off Li Yuan Farm.

If not for leasing those tens of thousands of mu, he would have never made this decision.

This was the only way to restrict Li Yuan Farm’s expansion and completely box it in.

Only by boxing in Li Yuan Farm could the rest of his plan proceed.

The Agriculture Bureau was clearly aware of the impact this would have on Li Yuan Farm, so they had remained noncommittal, believing his actions would hinder the farm’s development and disrupt the currently favorable situation.

Fortunately, his sister had married into a good family, which allowed him to pull some strings with a certain Party Secretary. This enabled him to lease all that land, laying the groundwork for his plan to cut off Li Yuan Farm.

According to his original plan, he would use the land to encircle Li Yuan Farm, then quickly launch his first project, the camping ground, to poach their customers by offering a feature Li Yuan Farm lacked.

Once the first step was complete, he could take out loans to proceed with the second and third steps—all projects Li Yuan Farm didn’t have—and continue to devour their market share.

But the Agriculture Bureau threw a wrench in the works, leaving Li Yuan Farm with a good amount of leasable land.

And the price he paid to lease those tens of thousands of mu was enormous.

Previously, land here cost a few hundred per mu. Now, thanks to Li Yuan Farm, the surrounding land was going for 1,500 per mu. The annual rent for tens of thousands of mu already came to 60 million.

However, he had been advancing cautiously, so the impact wasn’t huge. He had signed contracts with all the major construction teams in You City and two nearby counties. He had also signed exclusive supply agreements with the material suppliers. His competitor wouldn’t be able to find local teams or materials and would have to look out of town. They should have been dead in the water.

But now, he was discovering that his plan wasn’t going as expected at all.

The other party’s construction site was already bustling with activity, but his own construction teams hadn’t even arrived.

If they were also building a camping ground, things would get really ugly.

"Go see what project they’re actually working on," Zhao Neng said hastily, then walked off his own site.

...

Back at Li Yuan Farm, Zhang Lin watched the bustling construction site on the game screen in his mind. He called Liu De over and gave an order. "Liu De, go get a sign made and put it up over at the new site. It should say, ’By popular request from our visitors, Li Yuan Farm is now constructing a camping ground to provide accommodation!’"

"Right away, Boss!" Liu De nodded and immediately went to handle it.

Zhang Lin’s gaze returned to the construction site in the game interface.

’This was, of course, intentional.’

’Since Kailin Investment has gone to such lengths, they must have people watching the farm, right?’

’I’m going to let them know I’m building a camping ground, too.’

’Kailin Investment leased a huge amount of land. How much did that cost?’

’They’re banking everything on this first camping ground project.’

’So what happens when they discover that their camping ground project isn’t progressing as fast as Li Yuan Farm’s?’

’They’ll have a mental breakdown.’

’That leaves them with only two options: abandon the project, or throw more money at it to keep pace.’

’They spent a fortune leasing all that land. If they can’t poach Li Yuan Farm’s customer traffic, all that money will go down the drain. What else are they going to do, grow fruit on it?’

’So they have no choice but to spend more. What do you do when your construction crew can’t keep up?’

’Spend more.’

’What if my teams work around the clock?’

’They’ll have to spend more.’

’This will undoubtedly inflate their costs to a terrifying degree. Then, when the time comes to open the camping grounds, they’ll realize in despair that just keeping up with the schedule isn’t enough. The difference in the final quality will be enough to make them weep.’

’The game’s attributes are no joke.’

’That’s right. This is all to screw Zhao Neng over and make him bleed even more cash.’

...

After leaving his own construction site, Zhao Neng took his men and drove to Li Yuan Farm. He immediately headed for their construction site.

When he got closer, his expression darkened even more. This wasn’t just ’bustling with activity’—these people were working like their lives depended on it. It was insane.

"Where did they find this construction team?" his assistant asked, his face a mask of disbelief.

"Go ask!" Zhao Neng frowned and walked toward the site. But as soon as he entered, he was blocked by two workers.

"Construction site. Authorized personnel only!"

"Sirs, please leave immediately!"

Zhao Neng quickly forced a smile. "Hey friends, I just wanted to ask, which construction team are you with?"

One of the workers shot back, "Who are you calling ’friend’? Didn’t you hear what I said? This is a construction site. Authorized personnel only!"

Rebuffed so bluntly, Zhao Neng felt a surge of embarrassment. ’A grunt will be a grunt for life,’ he cursed inwardly, before turning away, utterly dejected.

Just as he was about to leave, he saw someone from Li Yuan Farm carrying a large sign and setting it up in front of the construction site.

Zhao Neng immediately strode forward and saw the words on the sign: "By popular request from our visitors, Li Yuan Farm is now constructing a camping ground to provide accommodation!"

Seeing this, his expression instantly soured.

’So they really are building a camping ground, just as I suspected.’

"Boss, this..." The assistant also realized how bad the situation was.

"Let’s go back!" Zhao Neng said, and hurriedly left Li Yuan Farm with his assistant, returning to the company office.

His worst fears had come true.

’You want to poach their business, but your site hasn’t even broken ground while theirs is already in full swing. They’re going to finish first. How are you supposed to cut them off then?’

"Boss, what do we do now?" the assistant asked as soon as they got back to the office.

Zhao Neng frowned. "What else can we do? Get on the phone with those construction teams immediately. Urge them to get to the site and start work quickly. No, tell them to come over and start today!"

The assistant didn’t dare to hesitate. He immediately stepped aside and started making calls. But with each call he made, his expression grew uglier.

After finishing the calls, he reported sheepishly, "Boss, the major construction teams said that the contract states they’ll come over after finishing their current projects. Our request would mean they’d have to break their other contracts, and they’re not willing to gamble with their reputation."

"Damn it!" Zhao Neng had been so consumed by anxiety he’d overlooked that.

The assistant immediately reported again, "Two of the teams did say that if you’re really in a hurry, Boss, they could subcontract their current projects to someone else and come over today. However, you would need to compensate them for their lost profits."

"Com... compensate them," Zhao Neng said without the slightest hesitation.

The assistant frowned. "Boss, that could be another several million!"

"Pay them!" Zhao Neng didn’t hesitate. The land lease and the camping ground combined were already over 100 million.

He knew how to weigh a few million against over a hundred million.

Hearing this, the assistant didn’t hesitate either and immediately contacted the major construction teams.

The boss of the largest construction team in You City was named Chen Hu.

Chen Hu was a well-known figure, something of a gangster who’d gotten lucky during the government’s crackdown on organized crime.

He was, in the end, incredibly lucky. He started as just a thug in the sand and gravel business, made some money from loansharking, and then stumbled upon news of You City’s demolition plans. The demolition zone happened to include his own village, which gave him an opportunity to make a killing.

Somehow, he even managed to get a construction license. His back-alley sand and gravel crew transformed into a proper construction team, growing larger and larger until it became the number one team in You City.

Today, Chen Hu was ecstatic, because someone was in a hurry to throw money at him.

So, he immediately called a subordinate over. "Get the men. We’re heading back to You City now to get the job done at Kailin Investment’s site."

The subordinate was stunned. "Hu, our project here isn’t finished yet!"

Chen Hu smiled. "The client is compensating us for our losses and wants us to subcontract this project to another team. They’re in a big hurry over there."

"I’ll go round up everyone right now," the subordinate said immediately.

But Chen Hu smacked his subordinate on the head. "Are you fucking stupid? Just call half the crew. Leave the other half here to take their time with this job. Only a fool wouldn’t bleed him for that extra compensation!"

The subordinate frowned. "But then the project here won’t be completed on time."

Chen Hu said, exasperated, "Just find any excuse. Say the client’s materials aren’t up to standard and we can’t in good conscience use them. A delay caused by material issues isn’t our breach of contract."

"Got it. You’re brilliant, Hu." The subordinate’s eyes instantly lit up.

Coincidentally, it wasn’t just Chen Hu. Almost every major construction team that got the urgent call from Kailin Investment Group came up with a similar scheme.

Still, with Kailin Investment compensating them for their "losses," the major construction teams did, in the end, arrive on site that afternoon.

When Zhao Neng learned that the teams had arrived, he rushed to the site immediately. But when he got there, he found the crews lazily settling in. Apart from a few who were setting up the prefabricated dormitories, most of them were gathered in small groups, chatting.

This left him speechless. He gathered Chen Hu and the other construction bosses together and asked bluntly, "Gentlemen, why haven’t your men started working yet?"

Chen Hu looked at Zhao Neng, completely baffled. "President Zhao, come on. What kind of construction crew starts working the second they arrive without a chance to rest and reorganize? Are you kidding me?"

"Why not? I paid you to start work." Zhao Neng frowned. ’After all, the crew at Li Yuan Farm started the second they got there this morning.’

Another construction boss said awkwardly, "President Zhao, it’s true you hired us to work, but we also signed a contract that specifies a project deadline."

Another boss chimed in, "That’s right. A deadline was set. As long as we meet the deadline, how we manage our workflow isn’t really up to you, President Zhao."

Zhao Neng was dumbfounded.

’I pushed them to come here to speed things up, and now they’re here telling me they’ll stick to the original schedule? Is this some kind of joke?’

’But the contract was signed. It looked like he was powerless.’

Chen Hu watched Zhao Neng’s anxious expression, and his mind started turning. ’This guy is clearly a fat sheep.’

’But I know about Kailin Investment. Forget all their other projects; they can pull out one or two hundred million in liquid cash without a problem. The boss of a company like that shouldn’t be acting so desperate.’

’For him to be this frantic, there must be a reason. He’s been backed into a corner by something.’

’Well, this makes things simple.’ He then turned to Zhao Neng. "President Zhao, it’s not impossible to speed up the work. We’d just need to sign a new contract with a revised deadline. Of course, the price will naturally be higher than the original agreement. You’ll have to pay extra!"