41: Chapter 41 Tianxing Garden

Early the next morning, Cao Xiao drove his Leopard to the foot of Baiyun Mountain. Following the signs, he soon reached the woodland he had purchased. The entire perimeter of the woodland was enclosed by a two-meter-high wire fence. The main gate was designed in a Chinese style with white stone and green tiles. The original sign had been removed. The gate was over six meters high and the entrance was ten meters wide, allowing large freight vehicles to pass through. At the entrance, there was also a ten-meter-diameter rockery feng shui pond. The rockery was only two or three meters high and not very large, which seemed rather stingy to Cao Xiao.

No one lived within several miles of this woodland. The original employees had all resigned after the previous boss was imprisoned. Seeing no one around, Cao Xiao got out of the car and, with a thought, stored the rockery into his space. Then, an eighteen-meter-high boulder appeared in its place. This massive rock was the hundred-plus-ton Agate Jelly Floating Cloud Blood chicken blood stone he had discovered in the abandoned old mine in Changhua. Although the blood coverage on the surface of this giant chicken blood stone was less than thirty percent, that was relative to its massive volume. In certain areas, it was quite rich; if cut separately, it could yield several decent-sized pieces of great red robe. It was just that the blood was scattered relative to its enormous surface area.

He had already polished the surface of this chicken blood stone until it was smooth. If one looked closely, its smoothness was no less than that of fine jewelry. The red cloud-like patterns on the surface also looked very beautiful. On one side of this flat chicken blood stone facing outward, he had carved several large characters. He had asked his teacher to write these characters last night. While his teacher's calligraphy might not match that of the great masters, his brushwork was quite elegant.

This place originally had a name, but when he asked Liu Guitang to handle the handover procedures, he had the name changed as well. Eighteen meters was as tall as a six-story building with three-meter ceilings. From a distance, one could see the three large black characters "Tianxing Garden" on it.

"Tianxing Garden" was the name Cao Xiao had chosen. "Tianxing" (Heavenly Star) corresponded to "Dizang" (Earth Treasury). The stars in the sky were also his goals and ideals; he hoped that one day he could live on another planet. This was his private manor, so naming it after the stars was quite appropriate. As for how others interpreted it, that was none of his concern.

Taking out the remote key for the electric gate, he pressed the open button. The gate slowly swung open, and Cao Xiao drove into the garden. Previously, his concept of ten thousand mu of land was just a number. One mu is approximately 666.67 square meters, so ten thousand mu is over 6,666,700 square meters, equivalent to a square with sides 2,580 meters long. In other words, walking around the perimeter would be a ten-kilometer journey. At an average human walking speed of one meter per second, it would take two and a half hours to complete one lap.

Only upon truly entering the garden did he realize just how vast ten thousand mu was. As far as the eye could see, there were fruit trees stretching to the horizon, the entire garden bursting with vitality. He parked the car on a small path and took out the detailed records of the orchard to look through. Most of the trees planted here were peach trees, though other common fruit trees were also present, albeit in smaller areas. Because no one had looked after the place for the past two months, the early-ripening varieties of loquats, plums, bayberries, honey peaches, nectarines, cherries, and apricots had already begun to ripen without anyone noticing. Now, upon entering, one could smell the fragrance of the fruit.

These trees had been planted several years ago, and this was their first year bearing fruit. While the yield wasn't high, these mature trees occupied nearly half the area of the orchard—about three thousand mu. Taking peaches, the most widely planted fruit, as an example: under normal circumstances, a typical peach tree produces 200 catties. Here, they were densely planted at 200 to 250 trees per mu, so one mu could produce 40,000 to 50,000 catties of peaches. Even if the first harvest only reached a third of the peak production, the yield from over two thousand mu would be more than fifteen thousand tons. Including the other ripe fruits, it could probably reach twenty thousand tons.

Not to mention selling them for money, even if used to provide bio-energy for the industrial mother machine, they could provide at least two percent energy. This was even after halving the value compared to grain. Of course, Cao Xiao wouldn't be so foolish; the price of fruit was much higher than low-quality grain, and grain provided more energy than fruit. Therefore, it would be better to sell these fruits and use the money to buy grain for energy conversion. From this perspective, the annual lease fee of ten million was really not high. Even if twenty thousand tons of fruit were sold wholesale at a low price, they would fetch over twenty million. This was just based on the price of peaches. After deducting labor and other costs, there would still be a profit. Once it entered the peak production period, the profit would be even more impressive. If all ten thousand mu were fully developed, earning tens of millions a year would be no problem.

There was no rush to sell them now; the fruit would only ripen on a large scale in a few days. It would be soon enough to recruit employees for harvesting then. He wanted to take advantage of these few days when no one was around to get some things done; otherwise, the commotion might lead people to notice something unusual.

He picked a large, ripe peach, wiped it with his hand, and took a big bite. It tasted great—fragrant, crisp, and sweet!

He continued driving forward until a row of large white buildings appeared. From the records, he knew these were the orchard's warehouses: two large warehouses each covering two thousand square meters and six meters high, a five-hundred-square-meter fruit processing plant, and a one-thousand-square-meter cold storage. Looking at this cold storage, Cao Xiao felt that the thirty-five million transfer fee was an absolute steal. The value of this recently built cold storage alone was no less than several million. Cao Xiao hadn't noticed these large warehouses at the auction; he only found out about them after reading the records just now. With two large warehouses, there was no need to rent others. Although these two warehouses could only hold about ten thousand tons of supplies at most, all Cao Xiao needed was a hidden space. Since there was currently no one in Tianxing Garden, the purchased supplies could be piled on the flat ground outside the warehouses. He didn't need to store them for long anyway; he just had to wait until they were full and come to collect them once.

Thinking of this, he quickly called Hao Linger to tell her she didn't need to rent a warehouse anymore. Hao Linger started complaining as soon as she picked up, saying that he, the boss, didn't care about the company and only knew how to torment people; she had already found a warehouse and was negotiating the rent. Cao Xiao could only sincerely admit his mistake and promised to arrange an apartment for her near the company, which finally managed to appease Hao Linger's resentment.

Since the warehouses were ready and he had 150 million in funds, he could buy 100,000 tons of corn if he spent it all. However, it was unlikely that anyone would sell him that much, and they might not even have that much in stock. Besides, he couldn't spend all his money on corn; he needed to keep some for other things. He planned to purchase around 80,000 tons, spreading the orders across multiple suppliers. He called the company he had purchased from last time and placed an order for 20,000 tons. Since the volume was larger this time, Cao Xiao haggled the price down to 1,400 yuan per ton. Because the transport distance wasn't far, the company proactively waived the shipping fees.

The other 60,000 tons would be ordered from other companies. After spending half an hour finding information online, Cao Xiao got everything settled. The price was also 1,400 yuan per ton, but the delivery times were staggered.

Once all 80,000 tons of corn arrived, they could provide sixteen percent energy for the industrial mother machine, which was enough for him for the time being. The current energy capacity was a hundred times what it had been before the authority upgrade. This energy was sufficient for him to solve problems that did not exceed the level of current civilization's technology.