After a short eting, Jiang Miao and his brother-in-law headed to the Salt Town Village farm again.
In the car.
Jiang Miao asked, "Brother-in-law, why don’t you have my sister co and help out at the company cafeteria? I’ll even pay for a house for you two in Magong Town."
"That wouldn’t be right, would it?"
"Then consider it a loan. If you keep living in the village, more and more people will surely be coming to you for favors," Jiang Miao reminded him.
His brother-in-law imdiately understood. The news of the company’s success hadn’t spread yet, but it was a matter of ti before it did.
This was actually the reason Jiang Miao didn’t hire locals or experienced employees for purchasing and finance. Even Li Xinhua, the manager of the cannery, wasn’t a Hailufeng local but from Chaozhou.
He was guarding against the intricate, deep-rooted social networks of the locals, trying to prevent them from colluding with the local powers-that-be.
Outsiders and novices might lack experience, but at least they wouldn’t take kickbacks or have ties to the local Hailufeng social circles.
Before Hailufeng Company even opened, Jiang Miao had his parents move into the company headquarters temporarily, precisely because he was worried about the village’s tangled web of relationships.
Otherwise, all sorts of aunts and uncles would co pushing people for jobs, and his parents would find it hard to refuse them all. Plus, employees who were also relatives would be difficult to manage.
So far, aside from his parents and his brother-in-law, whom he knew inside and out, he hadn’t notified a single other relative, nor did he have any intention of letting them into the company.
And his reminder to his brother-in-law today was a preemptive asure.
"I’ll talk it over with your sister tonight."
Arriving at the farm.
They made their way to the indoor breeding area.
The third batch of 10,000 eels had already been moved into the breeding pools. They were currently undergoing sexual differentiation and were expected to spawn in about a month and a half.
Currently, there were 57,000 eels left in the open-air fish ponds. Aside from the 7,000 male eels kept for breeding, the remaining 50,000 could support them for about ten months, assuming a usage rate of 10,000 every two months.
Producing 15.2 million glass eels every two months sounded enormous, but in reality, at a standard of 0.1 grams per eel, 15.2 million glass eels was only 1,520 kilograms.
The annual catch of wild glass eels was decreasing year by year. This year, the total catch of wild eel fry was less than 35 tons.
Moreover, there was a problem with that 35-ton figure.
For instance, glass eels caught near the Mariana Trench typically weighed around 0.1 grams each, while the leptocephali caught near the estuaries of the Pearl and Yangtze Rivers usually weighed around 0.5 grams each.
According to the information Jiang Miao had gathered, the East Asia region could catch over a hundred tons of eel fry annually during peak years.
This ant Hailufeng Company’s current production capacity was not yet enough to satisfy the market. They would need to expand their scale at least tenfold just to barely et the demand for eel fry in the East Asia region.
Furthermore, besides the East Asia region, Western Europe was also a major global consur of eel fry, easily consuming several hundred tons each year.
However, the Western Europe market cooked the eel fry directly rather than raising them.
Therefore, Jiang Miao’s next focus was to capture the largest slice of the East Asian market.
Although he was well aware that once Hailufeng Company’s eel fry hit the market in large quantities, it would inevitably force prices down.
But Hailufeng Company had no other choice. If the price of eel fry remained high, it would inevitably attract other fish fry cultivation companies to enter the competition.
Thus, they had to first capture the most profitable early-stage market, then gradually drive down the price to make it unprofitable for other companies, thereby deterring them from entering the market.
"Brother-in-law, for the next batch, expand to twenty thousand female eels. At the sa ti, increase the scale of our mature eel purchases. We need to skim all the cream off the top."
His brother-in-law nodded. "Exactly. We can’t be slow now; we need to move fast. I’ll go contact the nearby farms right away and see if there are any suitable ones."
Jiang Miao thought for a mont. "Around 1,500 per mu is acceptable."
"Okay, I’ll do my best."
His brother-in-law hurried off to find the owners of the surrounding fish ponds.
anwhile, Jiang Miao contacted his cousin Jiang Yao and Old Huang from the factory equipnt company, asking them to co to the farm when they had ti. He was ready to discuss the construction of another indoor breeding facility.
The two didn’t drag their feet, driving over that sa afternoon.
However, Jiang Miao was shocked when he saw his cousin. The man’s eyes were sunken, with dark bags underneath, and completely bloodshot.
"Brother Yao, what happened to you?"
"Sigh, don’t ask. I’ve been staying up late and having midnight snacks these past few days, and my gout flared up."
Old Huang, standing to the side, sighed with a look of shared hardship. "Life isn’t easy. Once you hit middle age, all sorts of health problems start showing up."
Suddenly, Jiang Miao’s brow furrowed slightly.
[Status: Hyperuricemia, Acute Gout, 37 Tophaceous Deposits in Feet, Hyperlipidemia, Moderate Fatty Liver Disease, Gallbladder Polyps, Cystitis...]
[Foreign artificial drug components detected in the body: Glucocorticoid "Dexathasone" (Blood concentration...), "Dexathasone Acetate" (Blood concentration...)... (Expandable)]
’What’s going on? He’s taking glucocorticoids? And two different kinds?’ Jiang Miao was shocked. He quickly asked:
"Brother Yao, have you been taking any dication?"
"Yeah, my wife got so for from an old doctor in Gongping Town. His dicine is made from so kind of tree root. They say it’s a secret ancestral formula, harmless to the body, and works great. I take it whenever my gout acts up, and it works almost instantly."
Jiang Miao was speechless but didn’t want to say anything directly. Instead, he asked, "Brother Yao, do you have any of that dicine with you?"
"Yeah, I took one packet this morning, and I still have five left." As he spoke, Jiang Yao pulled a sealed bag containing five small packets of dicine from his pants pocket.
"I’m not so sure about this. Stop taking this dicine for now. Give two packets, and I’ll have a friend of mine get them tested." Jiang Miao took two packets of the powder from the sealed bag.
"Is there really a problem with it?" Jiang Yao grew nervous.
Jiang Miao shared his suspicion. "After all, with purely herbal dicines, unless it’s a banned substance like opium, it’s rare for sothing to work so fast. I suspect it’s either a steroidal drug or a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug."
Hearing this, Jiang Yao broke out in a cold sweat. "Then let’s get it tested. Problem or not, I just want peace of mind."
"Don’t worry, the results will be back in two or three days." He turned to Li Wenna. "Wenna, later, send these two packets of powder by Shunfeng Express. I’ll send you the address and recipient info on WeChat."
"Okay, Boss." Li Wenna took the dicine packets and placed them in the side pocket of her briefcase.
Jiang Miao reminded his cousin again, "Brother Yao, if you’re sick, go to a hospital. Don’t just trust these quack redies. After we’re done talking, you should go get checked out."
"I’ll go right after," Jiang Yao said, a little shaken.
Half an hour later, Jiang Miao and the two n had finalized the next project: the construction of another 20-mu indoor breeding facility.
The price was the sa as last ti: 10 million for the foundational engineering and 7.2 million for the supporting equipnt, for a total of 17.2 million.
Once the contract was settled, his cousin rushed off to see a doctor, and Old Huang also took his leave.
Jiang Miao sent the address, contact number, and other details to Li Wenna, telling her to send the package out as soon as possible.
Then, he opened WeChat and sent a ssage to a blogger he knew from B Station. The person specialized in clinical drug research with a focus on gout dications and also offered paid drug analysis services online.
An assistant from the blogger’s lab—who was a PhD—replied shortly after. Jiang Miao explained the situation and transferred the fee for the commissioned analysis.
Although he could see the exact components of the powder at a glance, he couldn’t just co out and say it. He needed a formal analysis report to settle the matter conclusively.
This incident also served as a reminder: he needed to pay more attention to the dications the elders in his family were taking, especially the so-called fast-acting "miracle" folk redies. He had to be extra vigilant.
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