Returning to the village, Li Yu thought that if he wanted to build a base, he definitely couldn't bypass his parents.
So he thought of giving them a reassuring reason: constructing a rural tourism park.
Creating a comprehensive rural tourism park that combines fishing, fruit picking, tourism, and countryside cooking, and besides, it wasn't too far from the county. If it wasn't for the impending apocalypse, perhaps building such a place would attract many city dwellers to spend their money.
Li Yu was frank at the dinner table that evening.
His parents were stunned for a moment and somewhat confused.
His father lit a cigarette and took a slow drag.
Leisurely, he said, "I support you in returning to start a business here. I've saved some money over the years, meant for your future wedding. But based on the scale you've just described, this money certainly won't be enough."
Upon hearing his father's response, Li Yu anticipated this and immediately took out the photos of the lottery tickets he had purchased and the prize money he had collected.
Liu Fanghua and Li Hongyuan were shocked by Li Yu's words.
They stared blankly at the balance in Li Yu's mobile bank account: 31 million.
Having convinced his parents, the next day Li Yu brought his father to meet with the Village Chief to get the land approval procedures for the renovation.
The Village Chief was delighted to hear that Li Yu wanted to start a business, which would certainly drive local income.
They also took the opportunity to lease the land next to the Li Family's, which was publicly owned by the village and had been lying fallow. The Village Chief, seeing that Li Yu was starting a business and seeking development for the village, rented it to him at a bargain price.
Snap! The Village Chief was swift and the official seal was stamped. After all, most of this land was allocated under Li Hongyuan's household registration.
Back when Grandpa's family divided up the property, the three uncles' families and Li Hongyuan's together had 50 acres, with nearly 10 acres going to Li Hongyuan's family, located near Mountain Pond.
With the procedures settled, Li Yu began the construction of the base.
Li Hongyuan himself had a background in construction and still ran a small workshop in town. He had transitioned to specializing in culvert production in recent two years, but his decade of expertise was not to be underestimated.
When Li Hongyuan saw the rough sketches Li Yu had drawn up, he was taken aback, nearly spitting out a mouthful of old blood.
"Are you building fortifications? For a rural tourism park, do you need walls over 6 meters high?
And electrified fencing?
And an Observation Tower 10 meters high?" Li Hongyuan said, almost in disbelief.
Seeing his father's astonishment, Li Yu felt a bit prickly but knew he still had to persuade Father Li to take charge of this, as he couldn't trust outsiders to be responsible for it.
Moreover, in the construction industry, cutting corners was a common issue. Having his father supervise the work would ensure the base would be built more solidly.
Li Yu replied, "Building it higher is to prevent people from trespassing. Just build it according to my specifications."
Li Hongyuan wanted to say something, opened his mouth, looked up, then lowered his head again.
Then he saw another part of the plan and couldn't help but ask again, "What's with this 2,000 square meter underground garage?"
Li Yu patiently replied, "We can park underground, Dad."
Li Hongyuan asked again, "And why are there five villas and two rows of three-story buildings?"
Li Yu answered, "Guests can stay over in the future, and we can also move in."
Li Hongyuan then asked, "What about these 100 surveillance cameras?"
Li Yu replied, "To prevent vandalism..."
......
And so, back and forth, Li Yu gradually answered his father's questions. Of course, those challenging to answer were simply skipped. Father Li couldn't be bothered to ask any more; after all, Li Yu had all sorts of excuses and reasons.
After the talk with Father Li concluded, Li Yu, with a grave expression, earnestly said to his father,
"Dad, I know you have many doubts, but please trust me, okay? During the construction process, if you have any questions, feel free to discuss them with me. Don't make any changes on your own. If there's something we need to alter, consult me first."
You see, parents often want to do what they think is best for their children.
But in the current situation, Li Yu was very afraid his father might alter his designs for the sake of saving money or other considerations.
The design in front of Father Li was the result of countless reflections and considerations Li Yu had made.
Additionally, Li Yu had hired professional personnel to create the formal architectural blueprints.
Li Yu was slightly relieved to see his father seemed to take it in.
Though their relationship wasn't that close, his father had fulfilled most promises he made to him from childhood to adulthood.
He checked the time; there were 175 days left until the apocalypse.
So he asked his father, "Can we complete the entire project in three months?"
Father Li looked at Li Yu with disbelief...
Three months... This included two mountains, Mountain Pond Lake, and 15 acres of land.
In three months, they needed to surround two mountains, Mountain Pond, and over ten acres of plains with high walls.
Altogether, it amounted to nearly several tens of thousands of square meters, with the wall alone stretching for a few kilometers, assuming a thickness of one meter.
Calculating the current market cost to build a 6-meter-tall wall, about 500 yuan per meter, those two meters thick will probably cost several times more.
That is to say, just building these high walls would cost nearly five million yuan.
Three months?
What am I thinking?
It seems he saw disbelief in Father Li's eyes. Li Yu continued:
"We can hire more people; transportation is convenient after all, and transporting materials is easy. Let's try to get it done within three months."
Li Hongyuan looked at his efficient son, and through the contact over the past two days, he felt a sense of strangeness towards him, faintly perceiving the son's decisiveness and firmness.
He felt somewhat reassured inside: That's how a boy should be.
Li Hongyuan then rambled on: "Oh well, it's the lottery money you won anyway. I'll just help you with this. I told you to buy two apartments in the county earlier. You wouldn't listen."
Then he looked up again and said: "I'll try my best with the timeline. But three months is a bit iffy."
After saying this, he turned and walked out of the living room, immediately getting on the phone.
"Hey, Zhang, does your team have any work right now? I've got a project coming up..." Father Li was clever, he didn't specify whose project it was.
One phone call after another followed.
"Hello, Factory Manager Zhang, what's the price of your cement these days..."
"Hello, Director Liu, is your company working on any new projects lately?..."
Watching Director Li get into work mode, Li Yu felt a bit amused and a bit distressed.
This old man talked a lot, but worked with such ferocity.
After all, in the earlier years of the big construction era, whether it was in rural areas or the county, the market for building houses and renovations was quite boisterous.
Only in the past two years had the construction of houses slowly decreased, so Father Li had shifted to making cement culverts.
Seeing Father Li seemingly return to that full-throttle state, for him, it was definitely the biggest project he had ever taken on.
Li Yu ran to the mountains again to check and observe the terrain once more.
Two contracted mountains, plus a 5-acre Mountain Pond.
The Mountain Pond was surrounded by mountains, reflecting the beauty of the lake and the mountains, which were upside-down in the water, creating a pleasant scenery.
Directly ahead was the 15 acres of flat land, with a small pond in the middle.
Right in the center grew a camphor tree hundreds of years old.
This camphor tree was registered, the government even gave it an "ID card".
The scenery was nice.
In Li Yu's plan.
There would be two layers of walls. The outer 6-meter-high wall with electric fence, and the inner layer, a 2.5-meter-high wall surrounding the residential area.
Electric fences were a must for the walls, which needed photovoltaic solar power generation. The vast mountain top could provide ample solar energy.
The solar energy from the mountain top would power the electric fence of the walls, and the photovoltaic panels on the roofs would ensure all indoor electricity needs.
Additionally, three 10-meter-high Observation Towers would be set up on the highest parts of the two mountains and on the plain.
Furthermore, on the 15 acres of flatland, it was certain that crops like rice would be planted, with initial plans to cultivate 4 acres, based on the current yield of one ton per acre, with an average annual consumption of 200 kilograms of food per person.
Plus, two, or even three, seasons of crops could be grown in a year.
That's to say, one acre of land could support 15 people. This high yield was only possible in the warm South, combined with meticulous farming techniques.
4 acres of land could support more than 60 people.
Of course, this was just his ideal thought.
In addition, fish should also be raised in the Mountain Pond; Father Li had already contracted the pond for fish farming.
Most of the mountains are now planted with orange trees. In the future, other fruit trees need to be planted as well.
Gardens.
In Li Yu's heart, he always felt the need to create a beautiful garden.
It would be a sanctuary in the midst of a despairing apocalypse.
Excellent for improving people's spirits.
Li Yu has always liked the Suzhou Gardens, so many aspects of the construction style bear a classical Chinese character.
There happens to be a large Quarry not far from the Li Family's home, just right for use in the base's construction.
Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion.
Regarding money, 25 million could leverage the value of several hundred million.
....