After breakfast, Li Haochen entered the room and inspected the work. The water and electricity installations were complete, with neatly laid conduit pipes, showing no signs of cutting corners, which made him feel comfortable.
Unlike some contractors who intentionally lay conduits across the entire floor to maximize profits, although everything would be hidden once the tiles were laid. If the craftsmanship was good, it wouldn't be an issue, but if it was subpar, even a small flaw could lead to significant problems later on.
With the meticulous handling of all the internal details, Li Haochen was completely at ease.
He walked up the stairs to the rooftop terrace. The protective railing hadn't been installed yet, so Li Haochen didn't dare venture too far. He stood by the doorway, gazing at the distant sea. The sea breeze was gentle. If he were to set up some outdoor rattan chairs and sofas, sitting there to watch the beautiful sunset and the romantic starry sky would be absolutely wonderful.
“Brother Li, how’s the house?”
“Captain Wang, the details have been handled exceptionally well. I’m very satisfied. Please take care of the subsequent construction work. Thank you for your hard work.”
He walked down and saw the construction workers. He went up to them, handed out cigarettes, and greeted them, calling them "big brother" and "uncle," and engaging in casual conversation. Although he didn't know their names, greeting them more often was always beneficial.
He left the villa and went to Butterfly Bay. It was close by, just down the slope and around a bend to the entrance, which was very convenient.
It had been some time since he last visited. The entire gate was covered in a thick layer of dust. Fortunately, he had lubricated the lock with sewing machine oil last time, and the key slid in smoothly with a gentle push.
Walking inside, he saw a construction ship tens of meters away driving piles into the seabed. The hydraulic hammer descended with a thudding sound, at a rather fast pace.
The progress was quite rapid; more than half the work was done. It was estimated that it would be nearly completed in another week. Once the project was finished, the tens of mu of sea area in Butterfly Bay would be transformed into a giant fish trap. Combined with the divine bait from Li Haochen’s spatial dimension, the eventual harvest would be unimaginable.
When he first rented the place, Li Haochen had merely intended to turn it into a breeding base. It was only after discovering that the sea snails in his spatial dimension had a fatal attraction to marine life outside that he conceived this idea.
“A fish trap spanning tens of mu. Just thinking about it makes me excited, hehe!”
Without paying further attention to the construction ship, he went down to check on the sea snails. After several months of rest and recuperation, the sea snail population had returned to its previous numbers, though their size was not very large. Li Haochen did not collect any; he had plenty of sea snails in his spatial dimension. It wouldn't be too late to collect them after Jiu Zhou Island expanded further, as they wouldn't run away anyway.
He returned home, got his car, and drove to the seafood restaurant. Upon arriving, the business was as bustling as ever.
Li Haochen cast a somewhat resentful glance at these shops and walked towards the innermost area. The shops belonging to the Hong and Li families – how could he not be resentful? If he weren't short of seafood at the moment, Li Haochen would have wanted to use seafood to overwhelm these shops.
“Xiao Nian, how’s the cleaning coming along?”
Li Haochen walked in and saw the three of them scrubbing the large glass tanks with steel brushes. With a rinse of water, the algae inside, like the ingrained dirt scraped from Jigong’s body, peeled off layer by layer to the bottom.
“Boss, almost done. Once we finish these glass tanks, that’s it. Please let us know if there’s anything else that needs to be done.”
“Alright, you guys carry on. We’ll all go to the restaurant across the street for a chat later.”
Li Haochen made a round of inspection and was very satisfied with Gu Xiaonian and the other two. Not only were they meticulous in their work, but they were also very proactive.
After Gu Xiaonian and the others had finished all the cleaning, Li Haochen completed his inspection.
“Very good. Tomorrow is a good day for the grand opening. Let’s go have a meal.”
After the meal, Li Haochen went to the property management office to activate the seawater usage. In fact, he didn’t have to, as his spatial dimension had plenty of seawater, but not activating it would raise suspicions.
Paying the bill truly made his heart ache. Fifteen hundred yuan a month! The initial investment was just laying the pipelines and installing a high-power water pump. Endless seawater – a truly profitable venture, although it required strong connections to manage. Otherwise, it wouldn't work.
When he returned to the shop, Gu Xiaonian and the other two were still polishing the storefront. They continued even after it was sparkling clean. Being so dedicated to the shop was a great thing, and Li Haochen certainly wouldn’t dampen their enthusiasm.
“It’s clean enough, you can rest now. Xiaonian, Ah Xian, go buy some tables and stools, and also get a set of kung fu tea ware. Ah Long, I’ll give you a call later, and you can bring the tricycle over. Prepare the sea snails first.”
After assigning the tasks, Li Haochen rode his bike back home, grabbed a few mesh bags, and headed to Butterfly Bay.
A sunshade had been added behind the gate, a hand-crank retractable type. It wasn’t difficult to operate with the crank handle, though an electric one would be better.
Once the sunshade was opened, it resembled a small room, and with the gate behind it, the concealment was excellent.
Li Haochen entered his spatial dimension again, changed into snorkeling gear, and went underwater to collect snails. There were quite a few sea snails on the reef surface, but they were too scattered, requiring a lot of time. It was better to dive to the bottom of the reef where they were in clusters.
Li Haochen’s target was only the Water Dam Snail and the Grouper Snail.
Diving down, Li Haochen didn’t need to pick them up one by one. He simply held a sturdy mesh bag against the reef and scraped upwards. Each scrape yielded about two to three jin, demonstrating the sheer abundance of sea snails beneath the reef.
Li Haochen ignored the sea snails that fell to the ground after being scraped by the mesh bag; they would crawl back onto the reef in no time.
Once a mesh bag was full, Li Haochen would exit his spatial dimension and place it behind the gate. Since a specific spot was designated, he would always appear at the bottom of the reef, which was very convenient.
After several repeated entries and exits, six large mesh bags were piled up behind the gate, each weighing over thirty jin.
Li Haochen also pried off over a hundred jin of mussels. These reproduced very quickly. Although their price wasn't high, there were plenty of them in the sea within his spatial dimension, and each was about three fingers wide. Selling them for six to seven yuan wouldn't be difficult.
Changing his clothes, he called Ah Long to bring the sea snails back to the shop for display, awaiting the grand opening tomorrow.
The next morning, after receiving generous red envelopes from Xie Baolian and Murong Yanran, Li Haochen packed the sacrificial offerings and drove to the Binjiang Seafood Market.
Murong Yanran and the others had other commitments today and couldn't accompany him.
Upon arrival, Gu Xiaonian and the other two were already arranging the large flower baskets at the entrance. There were many of them, sent by friends like Murong Yanran and Chen He.
“Xiao Nian, bring out the tables.”
Li Haochen was very familiar with the sacrificial procedure. He set up the three meats, five fruits, paper money, wine, and other items in sequence.
Li Haochen held the incense and offered his sincere prayers. After completing the entire ritual, he gave Xiao Nian and the other two large red envelopes.
The dozens of flower baskets and festive music at the new store's opening had already attracted the attention of customers buying seafood. By the time the store opened, a crowd had already gathered.