I See through Everything

Jiang Miao wasn’t too worried about the bookkeeping. "It’s fine. We can deduct it when we purchase the Egyptian Fish anyway. It just means the payment will be delayed by three months."

"You can get back to work. I’m heading to the Salt Town Farm." As soon as Jiang Miao finished speaking, he stood up, drained the rest of his mineral water, and left the feed mill with Ke Yong and Li Zixuan.

"Take care, Boss."

After exiting the main gate of Feed Mill No. 1, he saw a line of container trucks driving down the main road, seemingly headed toward the Salt Town Farm.

Jiang Miao glanced over and knew exactly what the trucks were transporting. He smiled and said softly, "Those are the trucks from the solar panel installation company. Let’s head over to the farm and take a look."

"Okay." Ke Yong quickly trotted off to get the car.

A short while later, the pickup truck arrived at the main gate of the Salt Town Farm.

The Salt Town Farm hadn’t stopped expanding over the past few months. As of this month, its outdoor breeding ponds covered an area of 700 mu, while the indoor farming area remained at the previous 200 mu.

However, the indoor farm had been gradually converted to a 3-tier elevated design, making its 200 mu equivalent to 600 mu of outdoor breeding ponds.

He had come over unannounced and didn’t have the security guard notify his brother-in-law.

On the embankments of the outdoor fish ponds, numerous construction workers were busy. Some were welding angle steel frames onto concrete pillars set in the ponds, while others were installing solar panels onto the finished steel structures.

This was the project Jiang Miao had instructed his brother-in-law to arrange some time ago—finding a company specializing in solar panels to install them at the farm.

So far, they had signed a contract for an area of 350 mu, which translated to 233,100 square meters of solar panels. The total contract price was 45 million yuan, averaging around 182 yuan per square meter.

In addition, he had also contracted a large mountain hollow on Bamboo Mountain, on the eastern side of Nanhu Village near White Crane Temple. He had another complementary project planned for that location.

Jiang Miao snapped out of his thoughts.

His brother-in-law was already walking over with a middle-aged man wearing glasses.

"Ah Miao, this is Zhang Zhixing, the project manager from Donghao Solar Energy Engineering Company."

"General Manager Jiang, hello! I’m Zhang Zhixing."

"Hello, Manager Zhang."

Jiang Miao shook his hand.

Zhang Zhixing adjusted his glasses and said with a smile, "General Manager Jiang, your solar panels can’t be connected to the grid just yet. I suggest you adjust your daily production schedule. Handle your high-energy-consumption tasks during peak daylight hours, then switch to the power grid at night."

"Thank you for the suggestion, Manager Zhang. We’ll plan our production schedule accordingly." Jiang Miao smiled and nodded.

The group walked along the embankment of the outdoor fish ponds.

Looking at the relatively high-mounted solar panels, Jiang Miao turned his head and asked, "Manager Zhang, can these solar panels withstand typhoons?"

Zhang Zhixing quickly explained, "Please rest assured, General Manager Jiang. Our company previously handled the solar panel project for Seaview Company, and theirs were also installed over fish pond embankments. We have a specialized design that allows the panels to be quickly lowered during a typhoon. You can also adjust their angle to reduce wind resistance."

"Oh, is that so? Then I’m relieved."

The solar panels, installed on the embankments and extending out to both sides, covered more than half of the pond’s surface area.

The height of the solar panels and the concrete pillars beneath them were designed to minimize any impact on passage and work operations.

Due to the shade from the solar panels and the evaporation from the pond, walking on the embankment felt cool and breezy.

Jiang Miao noticed that the surface water temperature of the pond had also dropped significantly. A quick comparison with ponds that didn’t have solar panels installed showed a clear difference in water temperature.

This also solved a major pain point for high-density farming in outdoor ponds.

Water that is too warm not only makes the fish uncomfortable but also lowers the water’s oxygen content, increases the amount of dissolved carbon dioxide, and subsequently raises the water’s acidity.

After all, just as people lose their appetite in high temperatures, so do fish.

This is especially true for somewhat pampered fish like eels, which might even stop growing in overly warm water.

However, the solar panels didn’t provide complete coverage; they were installed with gaps between them.

This was done for two reasons. First, to ensure there was space to adjust the angle of the panels. Second, to allow some sunlight to reach the water’s surface, so that UV rays could kill some of the bacteria and fungi in the top layer of water.

After watching for a while, Jiang Miao remembered the arrangements he had just made at Yandun Mountain Farm. He stopped and looked at his brother-in-law.

"Brother-in-law, the embankments around the farm have a lot of surface area. In a little while, I’ll have the Agricultural Planting Division send over some agrotechnicians to make use of this land."

"Oh? What are you planning to plant, Ah Miao?" his brother-in-law asked, a little curious.

"Alfalfa."

"Alfalfa? The kind you can feed to pigs?"

"Yes. It’s quite valuable and can be used as a raw material for feed. They’re going to plant alfalfa at the Durian Plantation as well."

Standing to the side, Zhang Zhixing was completely baffled. "General Manager Jiang, your company grows durians too? Is that in Qiongzhou?"

Jiang Miao was open about it. "No, it’s right here in Magong."

"Huh? You... you can grow durians here?" Zhang Zhixing adjusted his glasses again, a look of doubt in his eyes.

Jiang Miao answered casually, "Yes, it’s a new variety. In a couple of years, Manager Zhang, you’ll be able to buy durians produced by our company."

"Then I’ll look forward to your company’s durians," Zhang Zhixing said with a smile, but inwardly he was skeptical. After all, the durians from Qiongzhou had been hyped for years, yet their yield and quality never improved. They didn’t even have enough to supply the local Qiongzhou market, let alone sell to the mainland.

Just then, Li Zixuan’s phone rang.

He quickly stepped aside to answer it.