King of the Wilderness

"How will those super modules pre-made in China be accurately transported from thousands of kilometers away at the Seattle Port to this ranch deep in the interior of Wyoming?"

"Regular road transport might require hundreds of trucks, and the timing is uncertain; no telling how long it will take for them to arrive one after another."

"No." Lin Yu’an laughed, his eyes gleaming with confidence.

"We don’t need to use trucks for transportation, because the road has long been there."

He turned to the final pages of the Giant Stone River Heritage Ranch’s materials, focusing on the appendices on history and inheritance.

The Giant Stone River Heritage Ranch was originally founded by the late 19th-century railroad tycoon and mining giant, Patrick Connelly in 1888...

The ranch was initially established to provide meat and timber supplies for his North Pacific United Mining Company.

To efficiently transport silver ore from the mine and supplies from the ranch.

The Connelly Clan, in 1902, invested heavily to build a five-mile railroad spur directly from the BNSF Railway’s main line to the heart of the ranch."

He displayed an old black-and-white photograph on the tablet, yellowed with age.

The photo showed an old steam train, billowing thick black smoke, loaded with timber, slowly exiting under a beautifully designed stone archway bearing the name "Connelly Ranch".

Lin Yu’an continued: "As mid-20th-century mines dried up, and road transport arose, this railroad spur gradually fell into disuse."

"Until the last owner, an oil magnate from Texas, bought this land a decade ago and completely modernized this ancient railway."

"The tracks were replaced with 136 lb heavy rails to support the maximum tonnage, the roadbed was reinforced, and the switches and signal systems connecting to the main line were upgraded to computer-controlled systems."

Mick looked at the modern railroad satellite map, astonished, covering his mouth: "So... Does the ranch really have a private train station where modern freight trains can enter?"

Lin Yu’an’s eyes were filled with admiration for this land, "Yes. That’s the meaning of inheritance; it’s not only a piece of land but the culmination of generations of wisdom and capital."

He walked to the office whiteboard and picked up a pen to draw a clear logistics route map.

"Now, look again. If these hundreds of super modules precisely numbered at Chinese factories are to be shipped by ocean freight, departing from Shanghai Port to the Seattle Port."

"At the port, they wouldn’t even need complicated disassembly and transfer. They would be directly hoisted onto the waiting BNSF freight train’s flatcars."

"Then this train would head east, crossing the plains of Washington State and the mountains of Idaho."

"It wouldn’t need to stop at any public freight depots, directly diverting from the BNSF main line onto our ranch’s exclusive railway spur."

"Delivering these hundreds of modules directly to our construction site on the South Shore of Mirror Lake!"

Lin Yu’an looked at Mai Ke, continuing: "The third part is the global procurement of core equipment."

"This part is your area of expertise. I need you to draw a global technology map for me."

"The core of the life support system, ultra-large water filtration, and protein separators, we customized from Germany’s Xylem Company."

"The venue’s main cooling unit and precision environment control system, we use military-grade products from the United States’ Trane."

"As for those highly cost-effective yet extremely reliable high-powered water pumps and pipeline valves, I will find the best suppliers from Shandong and Jiangsu in China."

"Money is not a problem. I want to use the very best and most reliable parts on our planet at every position."

He paused for a moment, looking at the grand blueprint on the whiteboard, co-designed by China and the United States, manufactured in China, and globally procured, his voice was filled with infinite hope for the future.

"Mick, just imagine."

"One year from now." He directly compressed the original eighteen-month construction period by one-third.

"In just one year, in our Kingdom, a December Arctic Home covering over fifty acres will rise from the ground."

Lin Yu’an gazed at the whiteboard, summarizing the ecological cycle consisting of forty acres of tundra, eight acres of bay, and two acres of polar exhibition hall:

"So, Mick, do you understand? This habitat will not be a cage."

"It is a miniature Arctic for December, forcibly recreated in the temperate region!"

"What I’m providing is not just a venue but a Domain. A land where it can unleash all its instincts while being absolutely protected by us."

He turned to a somewhat entranced Mai Ke, smiling and saying, "And you will no longer be a scientist isolated and unsupported by bureaucratic systems."

"You will have your own, the world’s most advanced Arctic biological research base. You can invite colleagues worldwide to collaborate on research."

"You can publish the most impactful papers, you can turn our rescue of December into a great scientific example that could transform the entire industry concept!"

These words utterly shook Mai Ke.

She looked at the imaginative grand blueprint on the whiteboard, then at Lin Yu’an, his blue eyes glimmering with an unprecedented excitement, admiration, and complex light.

As a scientist devoted to Arctic biological research all her life, the future Lin Yu’an painted for her was her ultimate ideal!

However, only seconds after the excitement, a much colder reality pulled her back instantly.

The flame in her eyes, just kindled, quickly replaced by a trace of disappointment and helplessness.

"Lin..." Her voice was a bit dry, "This... this conception... It’s too great, too... perfect. But..."

She struggled to speak out the most fatal word: "...Money."

"I just roughly estimated, merely the cost of constructing and equipping the two-acre all-weather polar exhibition hall might need twenty to thirty million US Dollars."

"Plus the wide outdoor Domain, the future operating and maintenance costs of the life support system over decades, salaries for top veterinarians, food procurement... The total budget of this entire project will be astronomical."

"Your promise of forty million US Dollars, although it sounds a lot, but facing such a bottomless pit, might just be a drop in the ocean."

She looked at Lin Yu’an, her eyes full of worry, "I cannot let you undertake such a heavy financial burden that may crush you for my dreams."

This is Mai Ke, even at the most excited times, she always considers scientific feasibility and realistic logic first.

However, Lin Yu’an, looking at her anxious expression, simply smiled.

He slowly said, "Mick, you’re right. Precisely assessed costs, but you seem to be using the wrong dimension of thinking."

"Hmm? What dimension?"

"You are still using the mindset of spending money to think about this project."

Lin Yu’an walked to the whiteboard, picked up a pen, and wrote a brand new name beside the title of December Arctic Home.

December Global Polar Protection and Research Foundation.