As a far-flung suburb of Ningnan City, the area where Xihong Zoo is located has not developed well over the years due to early development issues and its own geological problems.
The soil is not suitable for agriculture, commercial ventures are too remote, and factories lack convenient transportation.
Even real estate developers are reluctant to settle in this area riddled with underground caves, making it a persistent headache for the Ningnan City government.
Finally, Hengtai Real Estate developed a property in this area, only for it to be abandoned midway.
It is no exaggeration to say that this region is completely holding back Ningnan City's development.
However, fortunately, Xihong Zoo has now emerged prominently, giving them a glimmer of hope.
"Director Yang, we have planned everything. From now on, this entire area will be your Xihong Zoo's designated development zone. You can do whatever you want with it."
"Whether you want to expand the zoo further or establish a nature reserve, it's up to you."
"And don't worry about the money. This time, we've applied for a 10 billion yuan commercial loan from the Dragon Country Bank in the name of Xihong Zoo."
"We are eagerly looking forward to seeing a city-level natural animal kingdom..."
...
Yang Lin still couldn't quite believe it as he walked out of the conference room.
"Isn't this too good to be true? They've given me this entire area?"
"And a 10 billion yuan loan on top of that?"
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but look at the loan contract in his hand.
After confirming that he wasn't mistaken about the string of zeros, a wry smile appeared on his face.
Just half a day ago, he was still worrying about where to find money, and now he was already saddled with a 10 billion yuan debt.
He figured he was probably the fastest person to accumulate debt in the entire Dragon Country; Hengtai itself only owed the bank a little over 30 billion.
After the wry smile, however, he instantly perked up.
"No more worrying about that for now. The point is, I have money now. I'll complete the overall park renovation plan first, and then think about how to spend the rest."
With that, he drove back to Xihong Zoo.
His first action upon returning to the zoo was to immediately contact Designer Wu from the design institute.
After all, with money now available, they could accelerate the construction progress.
They wouldn't have to proceed with construction in phases like before.
What was originally a three-year construction period might now only take two years with the influx of substantial funds.
After contacting Designer Wu, he opened the map of the surrounding area again.
Immediately, a blank area, roughly twenty times the size of Xihong Zoo, appeared before him.
The reason this area was called "blank" was that within it, there were no residential areas, villages, or factories.
The only three relatively large landmarks were the now-defunct city zoo, Xihong Zoo, and the abandoned Hengtai Emerald Pearl.
Seeing this, Yang Lin couldn't help but suspect the Feng Shui of this area.
No wonder developers were unwilling to come here, and the government would rather lease this land to him than spend money on its development.
After all, developing such a vast area might not be achievable even with a hundred billion yuan.
"This area can be converted into grasslands in the future, just by planting turf and trees."
"The forested area here can be preserved."
"There's also a lake here, not bad..."
Looking at the map before him, Yang Lin's face occasionally showed a satisfied expression.
This continued until he saw the Hengtai unfinished building under construction.
It looked like a festering sore embedded in the skin, an eyesore no matter how he looked at it.
If construction hadn't started, it would have been one thing, but most of the buildings had already been topped out.
To get rid of it, they would have to demolish everything, which would undoubtedly incur significant expenses.
Suddenly, Yang Lin understood why the Ningnan government had dumped such a problematic project on him.
"This is bad, I've become the one to take over."
Of course, he could also choose not to accept this area and exclude it.
After some thought, Yang Lin finally decided to go to the site and see for himself.
Perhaps he could come up with a good solution.
...
Fifteen minutes later, as Yang Lin's pickup truck slowly pulled over to the side of the road, a massive construction site appeared before him.
Within the construction site, rows of villas, already largely taking shape, stood tall.
Looking at these villas, Yang Lin couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache.
How many people in the entire Dragon Country, after exhausting several generations' worth of effort and hard work, still couldn't afford a house, yet here they were, being discarded like trash.
The only fortunate thing was that although these houses were pre-sale properties, due to their location, nobody bought them. They were now planning to sell them as finished properties, so no homebuyers were victimized.
If they had already been sold, the complexity of the situation would have multiplied several times over.
As Yang Lin surveyed the construction site, a large number of animal sculptures displayed outside the site caught his attention.
The moment he saw these animal sculptures, he recognized them.
"Huh? Isn't that Great Grandpa?"
"This one looks like Auntie Hua."
"Is this the Lion King? Why has he gotten so thin?"
At a glance, there were dozens of animal sculptures, each modeled after the animals in Xihong Zoo.
In addition to these sculptures, there were rows of cute-style small houses along the outermost perimeter of the development.
Looking at these small houses, a past memory immediately resurfaced in Yang Lin's mind.
He finally understood why these things were here.
Undoubtedly, these were materials that Hengtai Group had prepared for the marketing campaign of this development.
Those small houses were clearly what Yang Lin had specifically requested before.
Yang Lin hadn't expected that even though Hengtai's development was stalled, they had still produced his requested items in advance.
Yang Lin guessed that they had intended to collaborate with Xihong Zoo for a pre-sale to recoup some funds.
However, due to Hengtai Real Estate's continuous defaults in other regions of Dragon Country, they were forced to terminate this project.
This led to the meticulously prepared marketing campaign ending before it even began.
As the sole victim, the Ningnan City government had then handed this project over to him.
Looking at these animal sculptures and the exquisite small houses, a bold idea quickly formed in Yang Lin's mind.
"Since no one is going to live here anyway, why not transform it into an animal city and let the animals move in!"
With this slightly crazy idea born, Yang Lin could no longer remain calm.
Before long, he obtained the construction blueprints for this development from the Ningnan City government and then found Designer Wu again.