Chapter 312: Good Suggestion
Tang Xiu himself was not interested in a sports car and wanted to refuse it instinctively. Yet a dull sound came out of his phone as he then forced out a wry smile on his handsome face.
This familial affection was as though a blazing fire that melted the ice block inside Tang Xiu’s heart.
Just as distance tests a horse’s stamina, so does time reveals a man’s heart. Not only did the Tangs did not seem indifferent, excluding and distancing themselves from him, they instead had shown their familial affection and care to him again and again.
The sun rose and set as three days had passed in an instant. When Tang Xiu went with Long Zhengyu, Tom Reggie, and their assistants to Nine Dragons Island, the duo was immediately attracted to the majestic palace as well as the stunning surroundings.
“What a great place!” Long Zhengyu took a deep breath, feeling the comfort all over his body, and couldn’t help gasping in praise, “When I get older, I’ll definitely spend my retirement here.”
Tang Xiu let out a faint smile and didn’t respond. This place was the most important cultivation land for him, of which would be his base to train talents. How would he possibly allow outsiders to retire here? Though he was friends with Long Zhengyu, it was due to his capital that made Long Zhengyu regard him rather especially. Otherwise, how could he and Long Zhengyu become friends to begin with?
Nowadays, friends are but only friends, whereas trusted aides are the only people that can be trusted. They should be treated separately. For true friends, he could pay a great price to help them, but he would fight for trusted confidantes regardless of anything and take the matter as his own.
“Let’s go! I’ll take you above to have a look.”
Standing on the Spirit Spring, Tang Xiu could feel the fluctuation of the spiritual force of the land as he said with a smile.
Soon, the group of people arrived at the square in front of the castle. Two men in hardcovers appeared and quickly retreated after saluting Tang Xiu as Mo Awu then strode out of the castle.
"You're back, Boss."
“They are my friends and will stay here for two days. You are to arrange their accommodation.” Tang Xiu nodded to him in response and said, “Also, what is Yi Lianyan doing right now? Tell her to take a few people to the cruiser liner since we also have brought a lot of foodstuff and daily necessities, enough for everyone’s uses for some time.”
Mo Awu nodded and led the crowd into the castle. After seeing it, Long Zhengyu and Tom Reggie were gasping in admiration.
“I also wanna buy an island if I’m rich,” said Long Zhengyu with a sour expression.
Taking a deep breath, Tom Reggie sighed with emotion, “The value of this island is definitely not small. Though I have some money in hand, buying this kind of island and reconstructing such a castle will definitely clean me of all my capital; perhaps it won’t even be enough. Otherwise, I also want to buy it.”
“Well, I had good luck since I only spent 2.5 billion for this island,” said Tang Xiu with a smile.
“Only?”
Long Zhengyu and Tom Reggie exchanged looks, shook their heads and forced out wry smiles. They knew clearly well that Tang Xiu was filthy rich, but never thought that 2.5 billion in his eyes was but only a small amount of money.
However, recalling his investment of 20 billion to reconstruct the island, it caused the duo to turn crestfallen. For them, let alone 20 billion, even 2 billion would make them broke! The Long family might be rich, but it was not solely Long Zhengyu’s, whereas Tom Reggie’s wealth didn’t reached 2 billion.
“The comparisons are odious!”
Long Zhengyu let out the sentence in a groan before he turned to look at Tang Xiu and said, “Let’s not rest first, take us to circle around the island! We’ll spend the night here and immediately go back tomorrow to complete the prepping work. We must complete the prepping work as much as possible within these two months so we can officially begin investing in the reconstruction.”
“I’ve marked a few spots in red labels in the reconstruction drawing design; these spots are not to be changed. I will also send some people to guard these places by that time. Even the workers in the island are not allowed to enter it. As for the rest of the island, try not to destroy the trees on the island too much. In the later period of the reconstruction I will ask you to transplant a lot of precious trees from other places here,” said Tang Xiu with a nod.
“Rest assured!” Long Zhengyu nodded.
As dusk came, Tang Xiu took everyone to a Spirit Spring on the coastline. Long Zhengyu looked surprised when he saw the three ships anchored at the bank, whereas Tom Reggie looked in a daze and called out in alarm when he saw the outdated warship among the three ships, “Mr. Tang, why do you have a warship here? Looking at its worn out degree, this old warship should still be usable.”
“When we came here to receive the island a few days ago, a group of pirates had occupied the island. So my men and I had to kill them pirates and recapture this place. The three ships are our spoils,” Tang Xiu said with a smile.
“Pirates? There are indeed some pirates in nearby waters, but they are very strong, even the Japan and U.S governments had tried to jointly encircle and annihilate them several times, yet they failed to do so. A certain pirate group even expanded to more than 200 members within a short dozen years. They are the absolutely hegemon of this sea region with their sufficient firepower. By the way, Mr. Tang, which pirate group have you decimated?”
“The Bloodfish Pirates!” said Tang Xiu calmly.
“What?”
With a huge change on his face, Tom Reggie exclaimed in amazement, “You actually decimated the Bloodfish Pirates? That was the biggest pirate group in this sea region! Oh my God! That Duffsky was a notorious pirate leader, cruel and merciless as well as beyond crazy. But the second leader—Ingelund was more ruthless and cruel than him. I had once fought Ingelund in Africa’s rainforest when he was an elite soldier of the U.S. Marine Corps back then.”
“Huh?” Tang Xiu was surprised and asked, “You’re very familiar with them?”
Killing intent burst out from Tom Reggie’s eyes as he nodded, “Beyond familiar, I hated and loathed them the most. Duffsky killed the woman I liked the most. She had followed me for years during my fugitive time, but the bullet hole mark on my chest was left by Ingelund. Half a centimeter more and it’d have hit my heart.”
“They’re all dead already. We kidnapped Duffsky, but then Ingelund shot and killed him, while I killed him myself,” said Tang Xiu slowly with a nod.
Bowing deeply toward Tang Xiu, Tom Reggie then said, “Mr. Tang, you have killed them, that can be considered as helping my revenge. Count that as this Tom owing you a favor. I decided to help you reconstruct this island for free. I won’t take your money from it.”
“No,” shaking his head in response, Tang Xiu smiled, “Personal friends aside, we are business partners, and we must get the money we should earn. Besides, though this place is rather far from Saipan, it’s also the nearest one. If my men are in transit to Saipan and are in need of your help later, don’t refuse them.”
Tom Reggie nodded, “Don’t worry. You’re not only Mo Awen’s Boss but also a friend. With such a favor, you can freely call me if you need something later.”
Tom Xiu revealed a faint smile and looked at Long Zhengyu who was lost in thought, saying, “Do you think it’s wrong for us to slaughter them?”
Forcing out a wry smile, Long Zhengyu said, “I don’t know what it feels like to kill people, to be honest! I grew up under the red flag and lived in the middle of the modernization process. [1] At the most, I’m usually a rebellious, silk pants son of the rich who raises some arrogant villains. In contrast with you, I feel like a flower inside a greenhouse.”
Feeling good after hearing that the Bloodfish Pirates had been decimated, Tom Reggie made fun of his comment with a smile, “Being a flower in a greenhouse feels too womanly. For me, I think a man is like a little baby if he has yet experienced the darkness of the world or hasn’t gone through bloody and cruel battles.”
A little baby?
Touching his nose, Long Zhengyu looked a bit awkward and helpless.
Tang Xiu chuckled and smiled as he directly changed the topic of the conversation. He pointed to the nearby sea and said, “Tell me, how much would cost if I wanted to build an apron at the beach and a runway for landing aircraft?”
Shaking his head, Long Zhengyu replied, “I can’t answer that since I have yet to do such a project.”
Tom Reggie stroked his chin as light glittered in his eyes. After half a minute, he slowly said, “If we are using steel construction materials to build an Airport runway hundreds of meters away from the beach as well as a large sized apron, I’m afraid we’d need to increase several billion from the initial estimation. My first estimation should be more than 3 billion; the larger part of the cost would be for the workers’ wages.”
Tang Xiu was silent for a moment and then slowly said, “The reconstruction of the entire Nine Dragons Island will take place first! After it has been completed, we’ll discuss building the apron and the runway again.”
Tom Reggie shook his head, “Mr. Tang, I actually want to say that it’s best to build the apron and runway first.”
“How so?” asked Tang Xiu, puzzled.
“Once the reconstruction begins, the number of building materials that needs to be delivered is likely to be very large. If it were to be delivered by ocean freighters alone, the shipping cost per trip would be very huge, and it will take a long time. But if we use air transport, we can speed up the delivery of the materials and reduce the shipping cost,” said Tom Reggie.
Tang Xiu was stunned as he clapped his hands and said, “You’re right, Mr. Tom. Air transport is indeed more suitable than the marine ones. If we set sail from Saipan, will it take a few hours to get here? We can shuttle a few times a day by airplane and the shipping speed will definitely be many times faster than using marine transport.”
Quickly, Tang Xiu turned toward Mo Awen and asked,” Do you have any means to order several cargo planes? The sort of good quality cargo planes that can deliver reinforced concrete?”
“The Sacred Paramita Aviation Tech company is in a business of airliners and cargo planes and I happen to have a contact with Blayne Dunn—the company’s vice president,” said Mo Awen.
“How much is the price approximately?” asked Tang Xiu.
“I don’t know,” Mo Awen shook his head. “I haven’t purchased a cargo plane before. How about I call Blayne Dunn?”
[1] Growing up under the red flag refers to having gone through Communist education in China.