Chapter 3: Building the Base
Li Yu, who had returned to the village, realized that if he wanted to build a base, he definitely couldn't bypass his parents.
So he wanted to give them a reassuring reason: to build a rural tourism park.
Building a comprehensive rural tourism park that combines fishing, picking, sightseeing, and outdoor cooking. Moreover, it's not too far from the county town. If it weren't for the coming of the apocalypse, perhaps building such a place would attract many urban residents to come and spend money.
Li Yu was frank at the dinner table that evening.
His parents were stunned for a moment. A bit dumbfounded.
His father lit a cigarette and took a slow drag.
He said languidly: "I support you if you want to come back and start a business doing this. I've saved some money over the years, which was meant for getting you married. But according to the scale you just described, this amount of money is definitely not enough."
When Li Yu heard his father's answer, it was exactly as he had predicted. So he directly took out the photos of the lottery tickets he had bought before and the prize money collection.
Liu Fanghua and Li Hongyuan were instantly shocked by Li Yu's words.
They stared blankly at the balance in Li Yu's mobile banking account: 31 million.
Having convinced his parents, Li Yu took his father to find the village secretary the next day to process the paperwork for the land to be renovated.
Hearing that Li Yu wanted to start a business, the village secretary was very happy, as this would definitely boost local income.
He also leased several mu of land next to the Li family's plot. This land was also village-owned and had been left fallow. The village secretary saw that Li Yu wanted to start a business that would benefit the village's development in the future. So he rented it to Li Yu at a dirt-cheap price.
Bang! The village secretary was very efficient, and the official seal was stamped right away. After all, most of this land was allocated to Li Hongyuan's household.
When Grandfather's family divided the property, the three uncles' families plus Li Hongyuan's family had a total of 50 mu of land. Li Hongyuan's family got nearly 10 mu, and this plot was by the mountain pond.
With the procedures completed, Li Yu began constructing the base.
Li Hongyuan himself had a background in construction, and even now he still ran a small workshop in town. In recent years, he had shifted to specializing in making culvert pipes, but his skills from over a decade of experience were not to be underestimated.
When Li Hongyuan saw the sketch Li Yu had drawn, he was momentarily stunned, almost spitting out a mouthful of blood.
"Are you building a fortress? Does a rural tourism park need 6-meter-high walls? And electricity? And a 10-meter-high watchtower?" Li Hongyuan asked incredulously.
Seeing his father's astonishment, Li Yu felt a bit troubled. But he still needed his father to take the lead on this project, after all, he wouldn't feel at ease letting outsiders be responsible for it.
Moreover, in the construction industry, cutting corners and skimping on materials often happened. Having his father oversee the work would ensure the base was built more solidly.
Li Yu replied, "Building it higher is to prevent people from wandering in randomly. Anyway, just build it according to my instructions."
Li Hongyuan wanted to say something, his mouth opened and closed, he looked up and then lowered his head.
Then he noticed another detail and couldn't help but ask, "What's the deal with this 2000 square meter basement?"
Li Yu patiently answered, "The underground can be used for parking, Dad."
Li Hongyuan continued, "And why are you building five villas and two rows of three-story houses?"
Li Yu replied, "Later when guests come, they can stay overnight. And we can live there ourselves too."
Li Hongyuan asked again, "What's the situation with these 100 surveillance cameras?"
Li Yu answered, "To prevent people from causing damage."
And so it went back and forth, with Li Yu gradually answering his father's questions. Of course, some questions that were difficult to answer were simply skipped over. Li's father also got tired of asking, as Li Yu had all sorts of excuses and reasons anyway.
After Li Yu finished talking with his father, he pulled his father close and said with a serious expression:
"Dad, I know you have a lot of doubts, but please trust me, okay? If you have any questions during the construction process, feel free to ask me anytime, don't make changes on your own. If you want to modify anything, tell me first."
It's worth noting that as parents, they often want to do things they think are good for their children.
But in the current situation, Li Yu was very afraid that his father, in order to save money or for other considerations, would alter his design.
The design currently presented to Li's father was the result of Li Yu's countless thoughts and considerations of various aspects, which led to the final overall design.
Additionally, Li Yu had also hired professionals to create specialized design drawings.
Li Yu saw that his father seemed to have taken his words to heart. He felt a bit relieved.
Although their relationship wasn't particularly close, his father had basically kept every promise he'd made to him since childhood.
Looking at the time, there were still 175 days until the apocalypse arrived.
So he said to his father, "Can the entire project be completed in 3 months?"
His father looked at Li Yu in disbelief...
Three months... this included two mountains, a mountain pond, and 15 mu of land.
In three months, they had to surround two mountains, the mountain pond, and over ten mu of flat land with high walls.
The total area was nearly tens of thousands of square meters, with the wall alone being several kilometers long. Considering the wall's thickness of 1 meter.
He calculated that currently in the market, building a 6-meter high wall costs about 500 yuan per meter in length, and with this 2-meter thickness, it would probably cost several times more.
In other words, just building this enclosing high wall would cost about 5 million yuan.
Three months?
What was he thinking?
Seemingly seeing the disbelief in his father's eyes, Li Yu continued:
"We can hire more people, transportation is convenient anyway, and materials can be easily transported. Try to get it done within three months."
Li Hongyuan looked at his son, who had become so decisive and efficient. Through their interactions these past two days, he felt a sense of unfamiliarity with his son, vaguely feeling that his son had become more decisive and assertive.
He felt somewhat proud inside: This is how a boy should be.
Li Hongyuan then rambled on: "Well, it's your lottery money anyway. I'll help you do it. Last time I told you to buy two apartments in the city first. But you didn't listen."
Then he looked up and said: "I'll do my best with the timeline. But three months is a bit of a stretch."
After saying this, he turned and walked out of the living room, immediately going into phone mode.
"Hey, Foreman Zhang, does your team have any projects right now? I've recently taken on a project here." Li's father was smart and didn't specifically mention whose project it was.
After one phone call ended, he made several more calls in succession.
"Hello, Manager Zhang, what's the current price of cement at your factory?"
"Hello, Director Liu, is your company working on any new projects recently?"
Watching his father go into work mode, Li Yu felt both amused and a bit sorry for him.
This old man, for all his talk, was so fierce when it came to work.
After all, in the earlier era of major construction, whether in rural areas or county towns, the market for building houses and renovations was very vibrant.
It's only been in the past two years that house construction has slowed down, so Li's father switched to making cement culvert pipes.
Seeing his father seemingly return to that energetic state, this was undoubtedly the biggest project he had ever taken on.
Li Yu went up to the mountain again to re-verify and observe the terrain.
Two contracted mountains, plus a 5-mu mountain pond.
The mountain pond was surrounded by mountains, with a picturesque scene of water and mountains reflected in the lake surface.
In front was the 15 mu of flat land, with a small pond in the middle.
A centuries-old camphor tree was planted in the center.
This camphor tree had been registered, with the government coming to give it an "ID card".
The scenery was nice.
In Li Yu's vision:
There would be two layers of walls in total. The outermost 6-meter high wall plus electric fencing, and the inner layer was a 2.5-meter high small wall surrounding the residential area.
The walls would definitely need electric fencing, which would require solar photovoltaic power generation. The vast mountaintop could provide ample solar energy.
The solar panels on the mountaintop would power the electric fence on the walls, while the photovoltaic panels on the roofs would ensure all indoor electricity needs.
In addition, three 10-meter high watchtowers would be set up at the highest points of the two mountains and on the plain.
Moreover, crops like rice would definitely need to be planted on the 15 mu of flat land. The initial plan was to plant 4 mu. Based on the current yield of 1000 jin per mu, and an average annual consumption of 200 jin of grain per person.
Plus, they could plant 2 seasons a year, or even 3 seasons.
This means one mu of land could support 15 people. That is, in the warm south, combined with intensive farming, the two together result in such high yields.
4 mu of land could support about 60 people.
Fish would also be raised in the mountain pond. Currently, Li's father had contracted the mountain pond for fish farming.
Most of the mountains were now planted with orange trees, and other fruit trees would need to be planted later.
Garden.
In Li Yu's heart, he always felt that a beautiful garden should be built.
This could preserve a pure land even in the desperate apocalyptic world.
It would be extremely good for people's improvement.
Li Yu had always been quite fond of Suzhou gardens, so many aspects of the construction style had classical Chinese features.
Coincidentally, there was a large quarry not far from Li Yu's home. It could be perfectly utilized in the base construction.
Everything was proceeding in an orderly manner.
Regarding money, 25 million could leverage several hundred million in value.
This humble author offers two chapters daily, 6000 words each day.
(End of Chapter)