Her Cultivation Diary
Chapter 354 - Chapter 354 354. Forest Planning_1

Chapter 354: 354. Forest Planning_1 Chapter 354: 354. Forest Planning_1 Zu Jun said this, and Song Tan also became alert–

Although she could guarantee that the other families wouldn’t be affected by her Spiritual Energy at all, her Peach Forest was lush and thriving, while other places remained as they always were, wasn’t that blatantly provoking envy?

Moreover, she was now restricting it due to insufficient Spiritual Energy, but she intended to gradually release it a bit in the future.

But she estimated she wouldn’t be able to do that for the next few years.

On one side, it would be lush and brimming with fruit, while on the other, it would be ordinary with worms and birds pecking at it… Even the most honest person would feel frustrated looking at it day and night.

Therefore, it was better to prevent it if possible.

She calculated her current savings and said bluntly, “Then, could you please go back and help me contact them? At the end of the month, I’ll pay the remaining 70,000 yuan in full, and we’ll resign the agreement for the surrounding hills.”

However, this time, she might not be able to give so much for the down payment, and would have to make several installments.

All right!

Zu Jun was just waiting for her to say this. Otherwise, why would she be squatting here with Song Tan on this hilltop in the sweltering heat? What for?

Of course, it wasn’t for the watermelon in her hands–well, maybe just a little bit.

But most importantly, it was for rural development.

At this moment, she pointed forward with her hand, her dominance like drawing a map of a kingdom, “Come, take a look and see which area you fancy!”

She always liked to take the lead in matters. When she initially persuaded Song Tan to contract this hilltop, she had already reviewed the surrounding landscape and prices in her mind, so she spoke now with extra confidence.

Song Tan also took a serious look at the area.

As mentioned before, the topography here resembled a basin, with the fish pond contracted to Song Tan at the bottom of the basin, where one could occasionally see traces of fish frolicking, and ducks quacking merrily in the corner shed.

Around this pond, on all sides, there were several slopes stretching out like the Peach Forest, with the hills facing different directions, north and south. Inside the basin, there was a ring, and naturally, there was an even larger ring outside of it.

After looking around, Song Tan suddenly asked,

“If I were to contract this entire area, roughly how much would it cost?”

Zu Jun gasped in shock.

She hoped that Song Tan would show some boldness, but this level of boldness was unnecessary–just the remaining area in the inner circle alone was close to 80 acres! Not to mention the outer circle!

Such a large area, if she really started to work on it, the entire village’s labor force would not be enough! She needed to think carefully about the follow-up!

After contracting, once the land was planted, where would she find people to take care of it? Could it be that she would have to bring in people from the neighboring village for development?

Hmm…

Zu Jun suddenly stroked her chin–well, that was not impossible.

After all, everyone in this area was about equally poor. Although she was only responsible for this one village, joint cooperation to expand the business and developing together was the path to sustainability.

Not to mention anything else, if they led more villages, it would make them stronger when applying for road construction and other infrastructure, right?

Lost in her thoughts, for a moment, she felt it was quite a good idea.

And Song Tan had a knack for planting. With a larger area, even if it meant slow development and a loss of a few thousand yuan a year, that was manageable.

But if she didn’t take it all in one go, and someone else contracted it later, what Song Tan would have to pay might be more than just a few thousand yuan.

In principle, as a village official, Zu Jun shouldn’t have personal desires–why wouldn’t it work to contract the hills to someone else?

But the problem was she didn’t know whether others would succeed in what they planned to do with the land, and if after signing the contract they provided a year or two of contract fees and then walked away…

The village would only be left gaping.

But Song Tan’s strength was firmly established.

With such a comparison, it’s no wonder she became even more thorough in her considerations.

“What’s the matter?” Seeing her silent, Song Tan asked.

She had previously leased those 20 acres, and the contract fee for the initial twenty years had already cost her 140,000 yuan. Surely, the unit price for the remaining land wouldn’t be even more expensive, right?

Zu Jun just gave a wry smile.

“At the beginning of the year, if you had leased it together, the whole mountain area, about 248 acres, with the same duration, the first 20 years would have been securely covered with 1.6 million yuan.”

“But this year, everyone can see, even if they don’t know the specifics, that things are growing well; they have an idea in their minds, proving that the quality of our mountain land is very high.”

“If that’s the case, I’m afraid the price might have to be raised again.”

Goodness gracious, Song Tan was so surprised that her eyebrows shot up.

However, Zu Jun quickly reassured her, “But don’t worry, there’s no competition at present, and the price fluctuation won’t be significant. Plus, there’s a benefit; you can make more demands–for example, this land is quite extensive, and a lot of it is still forest, which they don’t easily allow to be cut down anymore, and the procedures for approval are also quite troublesome. But if the price could be raised a little, they would naturally help to get these processes sorted out altogether.”

“Besides, with the income for the village, the villagers get dividends, and I could even start applying for road repairs in stages.”

“You also know, once there’s investment, applying for funds from higher authorities becomes slightly easier. We’re not in a rush; we can start with repairing the worst sections of the road gradually, and if we can schedule it for the winter, it won’t affect your side’s sales and transportation…”

Zu Jun spoke at length.

Goodness gracious! Song Tan was astounded.

How should she put it? Her grandfather’s eldest granddaughter had really taken everything into account.

Except…

Her wallet wasn’t so hefty right now.

Never mind that her online store was netting twenty to thirty thousand yuan a day, but for how long had the online store been up and running?

And besides, there was still a gold-guzzling beast under construction here. Song Tan could afford a few hundred thousand, but any more than that would indeed be difficult.

But she was rather open-minded about it; after all, the money didn’t have to be paid all at once. If necessary, she could just owe it.

Owing 70,000 the first time, 700,000 the second time, wasn’t a big issue.

However, with such a large area, if she wanted to properly manage it in the future, she couldn’t just hammer away casually, planting whatever she felt like anymore; she seriously needed to hire an agricultural expert to properly plan it out…

The two reached a tacit agreement on this matter, but Song Tan pointed to the Peach Forest next to Zhang Wang’s plot of mountain land: “What about this area?”

“If Zhang Wang is unwilling to lease it out, then we’ll have to partition it off separately.”

Zu Jun’s smile was especially radiant: “Why don’t you go and ask him yourself? I think he would definitely be willing.”

As the village chief, she had a general understanding of each household in the village.

Zhang Wang’s plot of mountain land was also allocated many years ago, and originally the old couple had no interest in managing it, let alone now when he was on his own.

And on this mountain, what had originally been some wild Kudzu root, thanks to his intentional composting, had grown quite well.

But with Kudzu root, those who have worked with it know just how laborious it is.

How many pounds of flour can you get from 100 pounds of Kudzu root? It’s all about putting in hard labor to pound it out.

Zhang Wang’s family is now helping out at Song Tan’s home, with a fixed monthly wage; why bother toiling over these Kudzu roots himself?

He lacked the business acumen of younger people, and the Kudzu roots weren’t cultivated on a large scale. In the past, all he could do was carry them to town to sell to traders, with the price being pressed very low, barely scraping together some hard-earned money.

But if he were to lease it to Song Tan at a slightly higher price according to the village’s planned rate, that would be a completely different story.