Chapter 70 - 71: A New Way to Make Money

Chapter 70: Chapter 71: A New Way to Make Money

Li Yang showed up at the village committee office.

Li Shunsheng was smoking his long-stemmed pipe. When he saw Li Yang approaching, he waved him over.

"Uncle Shunsheng..." Li Yang went over and sat down. "I wanted to discuss something with you."

"Go on."

"Well, I have a friend who wants to develop our village. He’s taken an interest in our Cold Water Lake and says it would be great for a mineral water business. Plus, it won’t pollute the environment. What do you think?"

Li Shunsheng instantly sat up straight, his eyes shining. "Cold Water Lake? To lease it?"

"That’s right!" Li Yang said with a smile. "Lease it, bottle the water, and sell it as mineral water. Oh, and actually, I have a stake in it too."

"Of course!" Li Shunsheng grew excited. "Our village has been trying to attract investment for ages, but no one ever comes. Forget our village, even the township can’t get anyone to invest. This is wonderful news."

Li Yang breathed a sigh of relief. "So, what would be a fair price for the lease?"

"How does eighty thousand a year sound?" Li Shunsheng thought for a moment before speaking. "Cold Water Lake is plenty big; it’s just that transportation is a bit inconvenient. Look, I know things aren’t easy for anyone, so I won’t ask for a high price. Eighty thousand a year."

’That’s even lower than I expected.’

"Deal. But can we sign a ten-year contract and only pay for the first two years upfront?"

"Sure thing!" Li Shunsheng nodded. "Since it’s your business too, I trust you."

"Uncle Shunsheng, thank you so much. I’ll go let my friend know."

"Alright!"

...

Leaving the village committee office, Li Yang let out a huge sigh of relief. He didn’t know if the water company would succeed, but at least he had taken the first step.

He made a call to Qin Susu. "I’ve settled things with the village. It’s a ten-year lease, with two years paid upfront. The rent is eighty thousand a year."

"Great!" Qin Susu said happily. "I’ll handle the business registration and all that on my end. In a couple of days, I’ll send a technician over to do a water quality test. If it checks out, we can start building the factory."

"Okay!" Li Yang nodded.

As soon as he hung up, Li Yang’s thoughts turned to other matters.

He had about 130,000 in cash on hand, but that was far from enough to renovate the elementary school. And the school was going on break in a little over a month.

He had to raise the money for renovations before summer vacation, or else it would be pointless even if he got the funds later.

’There is one way. I could ask Sister Han to pay me for those wild boars early, but that doesn’t feel right...’ Li Yang mumbled to himself. ’It’s not good to be unprofessional in business. I need to find another way.’

As he thought, he suddenly remembered what Xia Lian had told him about fishing last night.

He suddenly let out a mischievous grin. ’I refuse to believe no one will come here. Just you wait!’

Li Yang immediately pulled out his phone and started searching online for information on fishing enthusiasts.

He focused on a local community forum, scrolling through the posts.

As he browsed, he discovered that many people were asking for good fishing spots.

Ruizhou was indeed in an awkward position. No major river ran through the city, and there were no large lakes nearby.

If people in the city wanted to go fishing, they either had to go to artificial ponds or travel to places farther away.

Because of this, an organization had formed that specialized in taking fishing enthusiasts to various fishing spots.

When Li Yang read this, he grew excited.

’Looks like I was right. There really is a demand for this.’

Without another word, he grabbed his phone and started snapping a flurry of photos of Bishui Lake. CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! He captured it from all sorts of angles, making sure to highlight some of the best fishing spots.

Finally, he organized the pictures and posted them in the fishing section of the local forum.

"Sigh, life is as lonely as snow. Such a great fishing spot, and not a single fellow angler to share it with!"

Those few short lines, paired with the photos, were all it took.

Now, all he could do was leave it to fate.

After posting, Li Yang returned to the mushroom house to check on the workers’ progress.

But what he didn’t know was that after he made the post, the fishing enthusiasts on the forum were going crazy.

"Where is this? Is this even in Ruizhou?"

"I don’t know, does Ruizhou even have a place like this?"

"My god, that looks like an amazing place to fish!"

...

By the time Li Yang got home, the post had already gotten over a hundred replies.

Li Yang opened it and was stunned.

"Fellow angler, where is this?"

"Same question!"

"I want to know too!"

...

There were countless replies like this asking for the location; the thread was on fire.

Before Li Yang even had a chance to reply, private messages started pouring in.

He received a lot of private messages, many of them asking him directly.

But one private message, in particular, caught his attention.

"Friend, your spot looks great. Where is it? Interested in a partnership?"

A partnership?

Li Yang’s eyebrow twitched. He immediately replied to the private message, "Friend, what kind of partnership did you have in mind?"

"I’m a ’fishing lead’!" the other person revealed. "I have a lot of fishing enthusiasts under me. My job is to find suitable fishing spots for them and arrange transportation to take them there. As long as the place is good, I can bring them. You just tell me where this spot is, and I’ll bring people to fish. When they’re there, you can handle their meals, and you’ll make money too."