Chapter 839 Contracting
What is the most abundant thing for fishermen? Of course, fish.
This lunch was just an ordinary lunch for Chen Wu, but for Zhang Jian, who grew up in Sichuan Province in the inland area, it was a seafood feast.
Let’s not talk about prawns and shellfish. A yellow croaker that is slightly bigger than a child’s arm is the best thing. Add some other fish from the sea, and Zhang Jian was so happy with the meal that he toasted Chen Wu with several glasses of wine.
After three rounds of drinking, Chen Wu started to talk more, and he and Zhang Jian chatted lively. After talking about the fun of fishing, they laughed. Zhang Jian finished the wine in his glass and filled it for Chen Wu. Seeing that the time was almost right, he casually mentioned the real purpose of his visit today.
"Do you want to contract the beach?" After hearing Zhang Jian's request, Chen Wu was stunned.
"Uncle Chen, I won't hide it from you. I want to rent a section of the beach in front to do some small business. Do you think it's possible?" Zhang Jian helped Chen Wu light a cigarette and asked with anticipation.
"What kind of business is it that requires renting a beach?" Chen Wu asked in confusion.
"Haha, look at this..." Zhang Jian opened the shoulder bag he carried with him at all times and took out his camera from it.
“Is this… a camera?”
"You have good eyesight!" Zhang Jian flattered him and continued, "I have to find something to do when I live in the village, right? Look at me, I can't fish or anything like that, and I'm a landlubber, let alone get on a boat. But I can take pictures, and don't we often have tourists here? I'm thinking of making some money with this skill, so I can support myself, right?"
"Just take pictures. It's such a big place and you can take pictures as you like. Why do you need to book a beach?" Chen Wu waved his hand and said nonchalantly.
"Uncle Chen, although that's what I said, if I let anyone take pictures, who would I take pictures for? You know, most people who come here to play bring their own cameras. If they take pictures, how can I still have the opportunity to make money? And then again, the place where they take pictures is in the village, why should they let people take pictures for free? Since it's in the village, it shouldn't be allowed to be taken for free by anyone. It's better to let me do it."
"We'll circle this area and make a rule that tourists who want to take pictures here cannot use their own cameras, and can only let me take pictures. In this way, won't I make money? In addition, if the village gives me this beach, I will also pay rent to the village, which is also a good thing for the village."
"Hey, that's a good idea!" Chen Wu's eyes lit up immediately, and he thought Zhang Jian's idea was good. In the past two years, many people have traveled to Qiongdao Island, and the beach belonging to the village is often visited by tourists. Now the village has opened several small shops near the beach, selling snacks, dried seafood, and drinks, and usually has some income.
But as for Zhang Jian's idea of booking the beach, anyone who wants to take pictures here cannot take them by themselves but must pay through Zhang Jian, it is unprecedented. But if you think about it carefully, this idea is actually not bad, and it may succeed if it can be done.
Thinking of this, an idea suddenly flashed through Chen Wu's mind. Why should he take this job by himself? Why should he let Zhang Jian, an outsider, do it? But this idea only went through Chen Wu's mind for a while, and he gave it up again. After all, Chen Wu couldn't do this job by himself, because he didn't know how to take pictures at all!
Not to mention taking pictures, he didn't even have a camera at home. It wasn't just that his family didn't have one, but probably no one in the whole village knew how to use one. If he wanted to do this, he would either have to work with Zhang Jian or find someone else. If he had to find someone else, he might as well work with the guy in front of him who looked more pleasing to the eye.
Chen Wu was able to become the village party secretary not because of his high seniority and prestige in the village, but also because Chen Wu understood some policies better and was smarter than ordinary fishermen. Otherwise, with so many people in the village, why did Chen Wu sit in the position of village party secretary for so many years?
Although Chen Wu looks simple and honest on the surface, he actually has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. This is what happened when he rented out his second son's yard to Zhang Jian. Now that the house has been rented out, he can earn more than ten yuan a month, which is free money!
After hearing Zhang Jian's suggestion, Chen Wu's mind started to spin rapidly. At first, he even wanted to kick Zhang Jian away and do this job himself. But soon he realized that he couldn't do it without Zhang Jian, so he immediately changed his mind.
"Xiao Zhang, it's not that easy to book a beach." Chen Wu said earnestly.
Zhang Jian asked in confusion, "Isn't the beach over there in the village? Chen Wu is the Party Secretary, so wouldn't it be enough if he just said one word?"
Chen Wu shook his head and said that he couldn't say that. Firstly, if Zhang Jian booked the entire long beach, it would have a bad impact. What if someone reported that their village was occupying land as a pretext? Wouldn't that be a policy mistake?
As for the second point, although he is the village party secretary, the beach belongs to the village as a whole and not just to him. This matter must be decided by the village committee and must be agreed by everyone.
After hearing what Chen Wu said, Zhang Jian thought about it and asked Chen Wu if there was any alternative solution? Instead of taking over the entire beach, only a part of it?
As for how to contract the land, Zhang Jian supported and accepted the decision of the village committee. After all, it was collective land, so any conditions could be discussed, right? As long as the conditions were not excessive, they could talk about it. He also hoped that Chen Wu could help as much as possible in this regard, implying that as long as this matter could be accomplished, Chen Wu would definitely benefit from it.
Chen Wu pretended to think about it for a long time before reluctantly agreeing, saying that he would call the village committee for a meeting later to discuss the matter. However, in order to convince everyone, he also had two requirements. One requirement was that Zhang Jian should first select the beach section to be leased. This place must not be too big, and the smaller the better, otherwise it would be difficult for him to make suggestions to the village committee.
As for the second requirement, it was how much money Zhang Jian could offer, which also had to be made clear. Then he asked the village committee to vote and decide. Of course, there was one more thing Chen Wu didn't say, which was the personal benefit that Zhang Jian had hinted at earlier.
Zhang Jian thought about it, pointed at the wine on the table and gestured, and said a location. This location was on the beach, which was the place where Zhang Jian had chosen the scenery for taking pictures of the two girls , especially including all the big rocks.
As for the contract rent, Zhang Jian tentatively said a number. After listening to it, Chen Wu frowned slightly and said that the number was a little too low. Zhang Jian quickly said another number and told Chen Wu that this number was given to him privately. Only then did Chen Wu relax his brows.
After drinking, Chen Wu asked Zhang Jian to go back and wait for news. After Zhang Jian left, Chen Wu was very happy. This really is the case that money will come from the sky while you sit at home!
Today, not only did I rent out the second boy's yard, but I also unexpectedly gained another source of extra income. With Zhang Jian contracting that section of the beach, I will be able to earn a lot of extra income every month.
More importantly, Zhang Jian's move gave Chen Wu a business opportunity, a good opportunity for himself and the village to make money in the future.
Chen Wu has given so many reasons before, some of which are actual situations and objective factors. In addition, Chen Wu also has his own little calculations.
At present, Chen Wu is a little unsure about this matter, and he doesn't know whether it will succeed or not. Let Zhang Jian try it out first. Anyway, he has only leased a small section of the beach to him. If Zhang Jian really makes money, Chen Wu can completely follow suit in the name of the village to take over the rest of the beach.
If Zhang Jian failed, there would be no loss for Chen Wu. This was the real reason why Chen Wu found a reason to only contract a small section for Zhang Jian.
Chen Wu's calculations were working very well, and he was not at a disadvantage in any way.
Thinking of this result, Chen Wu couldn't help but secretly give himself a thumbs up. With the alcohol still in his body, he began to sing an opera, slapping his thighs rhythmically while singing with a very contented look on his face.
Chen Wu was very efficient. He convened the so-called village committee meeting that evening. In fact, as the village party secretary of a small fishing village, Chen Wu had the final say in this village committee meeting, which was just a formality at best.
Moreover, most of the other people in the village committee are illiterate and have no idea about anything except fishing. They just go by whatever Chen Wu says.
But according to the procedure, this is a necessary step. Chen Wu has been the branch secretary for so many years, so he still attaches great importance to this. After the meeting, when the group reached a result, Chen Wu excitedly found Zhang Jian and told him the final decision.
In this way, Zhang Jian contracted a small piece of beach land and signed a three-year formal contract with the village. According to the agreement, Zhang Jian not only had to pay the village an annual contract fee, but also had to give Chen Wu a bonus in private.
As Zhang Jian was short of money at the moment and it was impossible for him to give all the money to Chen Wu first, he gave Chen Wu 100 yuan as a benefit fee privately and then requested to pay the subsequent contract fees in installments.
After receiving the bribe, Chen Wu was still easy to talk to. He agreed that Zhang Jian should pay the first quarter's contract fee first, and the subsequent payment could be paid to the village in the last month of the first quarter.
After finishing all this, Zhang Jian thanked Chen Wu again, and then got back to work without stopping.
He used the last bit of money he had left to hire someone to build a wooden pavilion. He wrote a big "Take Photos" sign on the outside, made a price list for photography, and set it up directly on the section of beach he had contracted.
Then, he used bamboo railings to fence off the beach to prevent people from entering and leaving. After doing this, Zhang Jian found two buckets of red paint, a brush, and a ladder to carry to the beach. After setting it up, he climbed up and began to carefully paint on several large rocks.
After working for quite a while, he finally wrote several large characters on several large rocks with red paint. Each character was larger than a human head, and was written in artistic fonts. When he was done, Zhang Jian took a few steps back, folded his hands across his chest, looked at the final result with great satisfaction, and laughed happily.
