After listening to Luo Changsheng's words, a village core member chuckled and said, "Little Fan wants to contract the White Python Lake, and I have no objections."
"In retrospect, if it weren't for Little Fan finding the White Python Lake, we wouldn't even know our ancestors' dwelling place to this day."
Another village cadre smiled and said, "Besides Cheng Xiaofan, I don't think anyone else has the ability or qualification to contract this place."
Mei Xueyun was not from this place; she was just a dispatched cadre, so she couldn't express any opinions and was only responsible for taking notes.
At this moment, Tang Guihua said, "Logically speaking, Xiaofan has opened up several profitable avenues for Zhuxi Village, and his fiancée has invested tens of billions to help our village with construction. We shouldn't charge any contracting fees!"
"However, since Xiaofan insists on paying the contracting fee, we'll just charge a symbolic amount!" 138 Reading Network
"Yes, I wholeheartedly agree with Tang Guihua's suggestion!" Immediately, a village core member echoed.
Hearing this, Luo Changsheng smiled and said to Cheng Xiaofan, "Xiaofan, I think everyone has a good point. You just need to contribute a little money!"
"Grandpa Luo, and all leaders, thank you for your support. I'll toast everyone!"
Cheng Xiaofan tilted his head back and finished the wine in his cup, then said with a smile, "How about this, I'll contract this place for twenty million yuan per year, and we'll sign for ten years first. Once the contract is signed, I'll immediately transfer two hundred million to the village!"
Twenty million a year?
Immediately transferring two hundred million to the village!
"Xiaofan, this... isn't this too much?"
Luo Changsheng was so shocked that he almost jumped up.
In his opinion, it would be very generous if Cheng Xiaofan could pay around one hundred thousand yuan a year.
Twenty million a year, and immediately paying two hundred million to the village, was simply terrifying!
In the eyes of others, Cheng Xiaofan had a white goddess behind him, and such an amount of money, for someone worth tens of billions, was indeed not a big deal.
However, the contracting fee couldn't be so high!
Seeing the stunned expressions of the village cadres, only Bai Yiling knew very well that the contracting fee proposed by her man was not high at all, but ridiculously low.
If he ate twenty Splendid Chinese Clawed Lobsters a day, he could sell them for two million yuan.
In ten days, twenty million yuan would cover the entire year's contracting fee!
Was that still considered high?
Not to mention that the resources here had not been fully utilized by Cheng Xiaofan yet.
"Grandpa Luo, no matter how much it is, it's just a small token of my sincerity, Cheng Xiaofan. Please don't worry too much about me!" Cheng Xiaofan said with a look of sincerity.
He had originally wanted to propose a contracting fee of one hundred million yuan per year, but he was afraid of scaring the village cadres into having heart attacks.
In Cheng Xiaofan's estimation, an annual contracting fee of twenty million yuan was already considered the ceiling in the minds of Luo Changsheng and others.
There was no other way!
He had grown up here, and they saw each other every day. He knew their backgrounds very clearly.
Cheng Fugui and his wife remained silent.
They both knew that their son must have discussed the matter of contracting the White Python Lake with Bai Yiling beforehand.
No matter how much contracting fee their son proposed, the old couple felt they had no right to interfere.
Luo Changsheng said to Cheng Xiaofan earnestly, "Xiaofan, we, the village cadres, unanimously agreed that you should pay a symbolic contracting fee. We didn't expect you to propose such a high fee. Don't be too impulsive!"
"Once the contracting contract is signed, it cannot be changed!"
Cheng Xiaofan smiled and said, "Grandpa Luo, don't worry. I have carefully considered this contracting fee; there is no impulsiveness at all!"
At this moment, Bai Yiling also chimed in, "Grandpa Luo, I support Xiaofan. If everyone has no objections, we'll draft the contract this afternoon and sign it!"
Luo Changsheng pouted and looked at Cheng Fugui and his wife, "Fugui, Xiuhua, do you two have anything to say?"
For Luo Changsheng, this contracting fee was simply too high.
As Cheng Xiaofan's parents, they surely had their own stance.
However, to Luo Changsheng and the others' surprise, the old couple said almost in unison, "Since Yiling supports Xiaofan, we will absolutely not hold him back!"
Luo Changsheng's gaze swept over the few village cadres, "Do you have anything else to say!"
A village cadre immediately said righteously, "Xiaofan's contracting fee is indeed too high. We can't treat him like a fool. No matter how much he offers, we can't just accept it all. If we do that, do we still have a conscience?"
"My suggestion is this: for the annual contracting fee, Xiaofan offers twenty million, but we can only accept ten million at most!"
Hearing this, Cheng Xiaofan was dumbfounded and stared at the other person.
Who was the fool here?
Didn't his heart bleed when he reduced my contracting fee by half?
Who did they think they were looking down on? I could make a common stone here turn into gold, believe it or not.
Sigh—Cheng Xiaofan couldn't help but shake his head inwardly. If they knew that just the lobsters they ate today, plus what Tiaoqibao and the ten geese wasted, amounted to hundreds of thousands.
However, this was all Cheng Xiaofan's business secret, so he naturally wouldn't reveal it here.
Even though his goddess invested tens of billions in Zhuxi Village, he would earn it back countless times over in no time.
"I disagree!"
At this moment, Cheng Xiaofan said with a smile that could charm the heavens, "What is said is like spilled water. Since I have opened my mouth, the annual contracting fee for the village is twenty million yuan, and I will not easily lower it!"
As soon as his voice fell, the village cadres looked at Cheng Xiaofan as if he were an idiot again.
"Since Xiaofan has said so, then it's settled!"
Finally, Luo Changsheng made the final decision, "We'll sign the contract at the village office this afternoon and announce it to the entire village through the broadcast!"
Cheng Xiaofan immediately said again, "Grandpa Luo, right, I'd like to contract the pond in the back mountain as well!"
Luo Changsheng laughed and said, "Xiaofan, that pond was originally given to your family when you contracted that piece of land."
"At that time, the pond couldn't be used for raising fish, so it was left unused. When your family contracted that barren land, the village considered the irrigation problem for that land and gave the pond to your family."
Cheng Fugui chuckled and said, "Xiaofan, Grandpa Luo is right. You can check the contract at home, and that pond now belongs to our family!"
Hearing this, Cheng Xiaofan said with a smile, "In that case, I was worried for nothing!"
After lunch, everyone rested for a while by the White Python Lake before boarding the helicopter to fly back.
As soon as Cheng Xiaofan returned to the back mountain, he contacted the village's fishery group and asked them to use a net to scoop out all the fairy fish fry from the pond and release them into South Mountain Lake.
Around three o'clock in the afternoon, Cheng Xiaofan received a call from Mei Xueyun, notifying him to go to the village office to sign the contract.
The contract was personally drafted by Mei Xueyun. Cheng Xiaofan glanced at it briefly and then signed his name.
As Cheng Xiaofan was on his way back from the village office, Luo Changsheng's voice rang out from the village broadcast.
"Hello, fellow villagers. I am now announcing to you all that the White Python Lake, where our ancestors once lived, has now been contracted by Cheng Xiaofan. The annual contracting fee paid to the village is twenty million yuan, and we have temporarily signed a ten-year contract period."
"Cheng Xiaofan has now paid the village two hundred million yuan upfront!"