Chapter 78. Over 100 million

     The little mermaid didn’t respond for a long time, and it was unknown whether she really didn’t hear it or pretended not to hear it.

     Li Yaolin didn’t ask any questions, but she couldn’t help but have the wild impression of the little mermaid dancing in the nightclub.

     She responded to Lin Qitong: “You haven’t seen it, but you should have heard of it. It’s my assistant.”

     Lin Qitong was confused: “Ah, you have an assistant?”

     Zheng Xuan thought: “Is it Miss Yu who often goes out to work in the office?”

     Lin Qitong was shocked: “Brother Xuan, how do you know? I don’t know! I have never seen her work.”

     Li Yaolin said: “Well, its work content is quite special. It usually doesn’t come to the island to work. Generally, it is needed to apply for projects or something.”

     Therefore, Li Yaolin didn’t think of arranging an office for the little mermaid.

     Lin Qitong and Zheng Xuan suddenly stopped talking, and seemed to be a little confused as to why Li Yaolin would let an assistant who was supposed to be with her to handle all matters work outside for a long time.

     However, after working on Xingzhou Island for so long, they have also come into contact with some procedures for applying for projects. They know that it is not easy to apply for a project. However, Miss Yu is very efficient and has almost never been blocked by the relevant departments. It can be seen that she is really capable.

     Lin Qitong decided that if she sees her next time in the bar, she must say hello to her.

…

     After the winter solstice and Christmas, it was the end of December, the eve of New Year’s Day.

     The highest temperature in Yóushì during the day has dropped to 18℃, and the lowest temperature at night is only 8℃. Many people have already put on cotton or down jackets.

     On Xingzhou Island, the daytime temperature is still around 25℃, and the lowest temperature at night will not fall below 20℃.

     The pleasant climate makes tourists who come to Xingzhou Island to celebrate the New Year even more fortunate that their decision is correct.

     Although Xingzhou Island does not hold large-scale New Year’s Eve activities, it still organizes a “Happy New Year’s Day” festival activity as usual.

     There are two activities: one is the “naming activity” for the joint protection area to collect names for the dugong family.

     The collection and review period is one month. Once the name is adopted, the namer will have a one-day opportunity to visit the reserve.

     The content of the visit includes but is not limited to giving turtles a physical examination under the guidance of staff and “shaking hands” with dugongs.

     There are only six dugongs in total, which means that only six people can finally get this opportunity. So once the event was released, the sand sculpture netizens who were still in a playful mood when naming the turtles were extremely serious this time. In order to think of reasons for naming, they took the attitude of treating college entrance examination essays.

     Another activity is the “check-in activity” of Xingzhou Island. However, in addition to the scenic spot requirements, this check-in activity also stipulates that it must be a night view.

     As long as you collect the night views of five scenic spots, you will have the opportunity to participate in the lottery. The prizes are the same as those during the National Day, and there is even an extra postcard with the island owner’s stamp.

     Many tourists did not put this postcard in their wish list, but Zhou Qunfang’s agent Yingjie was excited.

     She wanted this postcard more than the annual ticket. She was busy with work, so even if she got the annual ticket, she could only come a few times a year. It was better to use a postcard with a “lucky blessing effect”.

     Originally, she planned to open the blind box, but she heard that the first batch of blind boxes produced 30,000 postcards, and only 30 of them were stamped with the island owner’s seal, which means that there is only one limited edition postcard in a thousand postcards. And there are only five postcards in a blind box. According to probability, she has to buy at least 200 blind boxes…

     Although the postcards of Xingzhou Island are exquisitely made and have collection value, she really doesn’t need so many postcards!

     Currently, it is known that seven people opened the blind box and got this limited edition postcard. There are only 23 left in tens of thousands of blind boxes!

     She thought about it and finally bought ten blind boxes to test her luck.

     As expected, she got nothing. So when she learned that there was a check-in activity, she took a spirit of unwillingness to admit defeat and pulled Zhou Qunfang to accompany her to check in.

……

     Xingzhou Island was very lively on New Year’s Eve.

     After dinner, the tourists who stayed overnight on the island were not in a hurry to return to the holiday cabins or camping areas to rest, because there was a bonfire party on the beach of Xingzhou Island.

     The bonfire party was advocated by Vice President Qi, but the main participants were some employees of Xingzhou Island who were not on duty that night and their families. It was just a team building to enhance the relationship between employees and their families.

     Since the bonfire party did not avoid tourists, many tourists who did not know why also participated.

     Vice President Qi was not worried about the cold scene. After all, he had long required that each department and each project team should arrange at least one performance, whether it was singing or dancing, or other skills, as long as they dared to perform.

     After the tourists participated, the employees had fewer opportunities to perform, but the enthusiasm of the tourists to perform was mobilized, and the atmosphere gradually became hot.

     Zhou Qunfang and sister Ying came over and took a check-in photo as one of the night views of Xingzhou Island.

     After taking the photo, Sister Ying was ready to leave, but Zhou Qunfang got into the crowd.

     Sister Ying was confused: “Hey, where are you going?”

     But when Zhou Qunfang squeezed to the front, she saw everyone singing and dancing, and she joined in on a whim.

     She was wearing a hat and a mask, which made her stand out in the crowd. Soon someone recognized her: “It’s Zhou Qunfang!”

     “It’s really her!”

     When Zhou Qunfang saw someone recognized her, she simply took off her mask, smiled and greeted everyone, saying: “Today, I’m just Xiao Zhou who came to the bonfire party. Everyone, don’t just stand there, let’s have fun!”

     An employee played a song with a faster rhythm very spiritually. After everyone was stunned for a moment, they started to twist their bodies.

     Although it looked like a group of demons dancing wildly, everyone looked very happy.

     Seeing that the crowd kept a safe distance and it was not easy to get into any danger, Li Yaolin retreated.

     Vice President Qi was old and couldn’t twist anymore, so he squeezed out of the crowd. He asked Li Yaolin: “Boss, don’t you like the hustle and bustle?”

     “I like the hustle and bustle!” Li Yaolin said with a smile, “But I have something to do, so I won’t join you. Your family is here, go spend the New Year’s Eve with your family! I’ll come over during the countdown.”

     Vice President Qi wanted to say something, but when he thought that it was not his turn to worry about Li Yaolin’s family affairs, he swallowed his words and said, “I know.”

     The bustling places are not only on the beach, but also in the camping area, the mermaid square, the Sun Viewing Platform, and even the exhibition room on the first floor of the lighthouse.

     The infrastructure of Xingzhou Island is now well built, ensuring that there are lights everywhere where there are roads, and there are landscape lights around the Sun Viewing Platform and the lighthouse.

     The orange-yellow lights convey visual warmth to tourists on this winter night.

     Li Yaolin found a chair on the roadside and sat down, then took out her mobile phone and began to do one thing happily – check the annual summary!

     First, there was a flashing light in the 【Business Level】 column, and it was clear at a glance that there were new changes.

     As expected, after clicking on it, a system notification popped up:

   【Subsidy item for Sea God Support Project: When the business level reaches Level 4, you will get the wonder ‘Meteor Shower’, and the visible range is limited to the island. 】

     Li Yaolin’s eyes were as bright as the condensation of thousands of stars. She thought that she had only seen meteor showers on TV since she was a child, and she didn’t expect that one day she would be able to see a live version of the meteor shower?

     However, isn’t Sea God in charge of the sea? When did he manage outer space?

     Or is the meteor shower actually a high-tech means of the advanced plane?

     Li Yaolin didn’t delve into it. She clicked on the description of “Meteor Shower”.

     Unlike the first two wonders that can be released at any time according to her preferences during the allowed period, “Meteor Shower” has a cooling time, that is, after it is released once, it will take at least one month to release it again.

     In addition, the process from release to presentation will take several days.

     For example, if she releases it today, it may take a few days before she can see the meteor shower appear.

     Li Yaolin was not in a hurry to see it immediately, so she clicked on a delivery and then went to see this year’s revenue, because it was related to how much sea area she could increase next year!

     During the National Day holiday, the turnover of the entire island exceeded 10 million yuan. After the holiday, although it was a low season for tourism, the revenue from tickets, holiday cabins, camping areas, convenience stores and seafood buffet restaurants was relatively stable.

     The turnover of the diving shop has declined, but after the promotion of the “Beibu Gulf Cup” fishing competition, the sales of “Poseidon” fishing gear and bait are as good as ever, and they are often sold out.

     The sales of cultural and creative products and newly launched postcards this month are also better than expected.

     Since the operation of Xingzhou Island, the total turnover… has exceeded 100 million? !

     Li Yaolin thought she had read it wrong, and counted it again. Yes, it really exceeded 100 million! ! !

     The seafood buffet restaurant alone contributed half of the turnover, and the praise rate remained high, and it could even be upgraded to a three-star restaurant.

     The second largest share is the turnover of convenience stores, cultural and creative products and online stores, accounting for 20%. Poseidon brand fishing gear and bait are well-known in the fishing circle for their excellent quality. The top three regions for order volume have spread from cities to provinces.

     The remaining boat tickets, holiday cabins, camping areas and sea fishing projects account for 20% in total, and finally the turnover of diving shops accounts for 10%.

     Of course, after deducting the cost (including the daily operating costs of Xingzhou Island) and income tax, and then deducting the boat tickets, diving shops and tickets that have to be shared with others, the actual net profit attributable to Xingzhou Island is not that much, but Li Yaolin’s attention is not on the profit at the moment. What she sees is that the usable sea area will increase by 10,000 hectares next year!

     You should know that the usable sea area along the coast such as Yuhai Park and Romantic Sea House is less than 2,000 hectares.

     I don’t know if Xingzhou Island will be envied for getting so much sea area all of a sudden.

     However, the increase in the use of sea area means that the operating cost will also increase. The higher the cost, the greater the pollution control efforts. When the pollution index decreases, everyone will see the effect of pollution control and there should be no objection, right?

…

     Time passed by minute by minute, and soon it was eleven o’clock in the evening.

     Zheng Xuan and Lin Qitong called Li Yaolin and asked her to go to the camping area. She had to put away her mobile phone and came to the small tent set up by Zheng Xuan.

     There were tourists gathered together to celebrate the New Year, most of whom were young people. Middle-aged and elderly people usually stayed at home to watch TV with their families.

     There were also many entertainment programs for young tourists. They had barbecues at night, and after eating and drinking, they opened mobile games to play games, or pulled tourists from the camping sites next to them to play script killing, werewolf killing or even Three Kingdoms killing. Li Yaolin also saw some people bringing mini mahjong to play.

     Zheng Xuan and Lin Qitong had brought a few tourists to play Werewolf from nowhere. When Li Yaolin arrived, the werewolf had just stabbed the prophet, but was saved by the witch. The werewolf jumped on the witch and the real witch was in a fierce fight. 

     Li Yaolin suddenly found that a man at the scene looked familiar. After thinking about it, he remembered that it was the modeling boss Qin Yutang.

     After a round of Werewolf was over, Li Yaolin asked Zheng Xuan: “Why is the modeling boss here?”

     “He is on vacation. He remembered that the last camping experience was good, so he decided to come camping again, and he also invited his office team members, which are these people.” Zheng Xuan said.

     “Is there any causal relationship with your decision to come camping?”

     Zheng Xuan knew what Li Yaolin wanted to ask, and she smiled and said, “Don’t think too much. I decided to camp here tonight not because of him. But after knowing that he was also camping here, I invited him and his colleagues to come and play games together.”

     Li Yaolin glanced at Qin Yutang and thought, you didn’t come to camp because of him, but he might not be!

     However, this is Zheng Xuan’s private matter, and Li Yaolin didn’t intend to interfere.

     Zheng Xuan asked, “Where did you go after you slipped away from the bonfire party?”

     Li Yaolin laughed and said, “Just… patrolling around.”

     “Are you still busy later? If not, come and play Werewolf together?”

     Li Yaolin worked part-time in a board game store during college, and was often pulled in by insufficient customers to make up the number, so she also knows how to play Werewolf.

     “How can I rest so soon? You guys have fun, I still have some work to do.”

     Lin Qitong said: “You are really a busy person. It’s almost the middle of the night, and you don’t let yourself relax.”

     Li Yaolin just showed a mysterious smile and didn’t intend to explain what she was busy with.

     In fact, she also likes to count down to the New Year with everyone, but Xingzhou Island has no fireworks, no drones, and no countdown light show. In her opinion, it is still lacking a bit of flavor, so she decided to use “sea fire” as the easter egg of the New Year’s Eve event.

     She returned to the beach fifteen minutes early. At this time, the bonfire party had come to an end. There were fewer tourists than at eight or nine o’clock, but there were still two or three hundred people chatting around the bonfire or walking on the trail.

     As time passed, fluorescence slowly appeared on the dark sea surface, and the brightness became brighter and brighter as the fluorescence gathered, colorful and dazzling.

     A uniform countdown sound came from somewhere:

     Ten, nine, eight, seven…

     With each shout, the light on the sea surface became brighter, as if responding to the tourists’ countdown.

     After the tourists discovered this, the atmosphere, which had been fading, was pushed to the peak again. More and more people joined in the countdown shouting. Every time they shouted, they felt that their blood was boiling and their hearts were warm.

     In the sea breeze, there seemed to be mermaid songs mixed in. In the protected area, the dugong tribe issued a high and cheerful cry, in the mountains and forests, countless seabirds also called a few times to accompany tonight’s performance; tourists in the camping area only need to look up at the night sky to find that tonight’s starry sky is brighter and more brilliant than usual.

 

     …Three, two, one!

     “Happy New Year 2022!”