Super Zoo

Chapter 47: 47 How Many Years to Wait?

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After the wasps appeared, the situation suddenly reversed. The bald men, who were chasing Suming with steel pipes, couldn't care about Suming and the fine anymore, as they were frantically chased by the wasps.

The two wolfdogs squatted on the side, looking bewildered as they watched the bald men screaming and running past them, followed by a large swarm of dark objects.

The wasps quickly caught up with the bald men. On the distant riverbank, there were constant wails and howls of misery. The bald man who had been leading the charge was the first to suffer, being stung several times on his bald head, which swelled with large welts, making him look like a descending Buddha from afar.

Under Suming's deliberate control, the wasps stung the men in non-lethal areas. Although the venom released wasn't deadly, it was enough to give them an unforgettable lesson.

In the blink of an eye, the ruffians were stripped of their defenses and had fled without a trace.

The two wolfdogs, realizing their master had disappeared, looked at each other and then stood up, trotting over to Suming, wagging their tails and sticking out their tongues to lick Suming's face.

"Stop licking, that's all slobber, pretty disgusting."

Suming rubbed the wolfdogs' chins, got up from the ground, dusted the mud off his body, and showed Nangong Yan a grin, "A bunch of idiots, they don't even know to hide when they see wasps, with that intelligence, they can only be thugs."

"Are you okay?"

Nangong Yan circled around Suming, inspecting him to make sure he hadn't been stung by the wasps, then she pulled out a pack of tissues, took one out, and handed it to Suming to wipe his face.

Suming acted as if nothing had happened, casually holding the leads of the two wolfdogs in his hands.

"Hey, you're not thinking of..." Nangong Yan's eyes widened as she looked at the two wolfdogs.

"If they want to follow me, what can I do? I'm actually in need of some guard dogs."

Suming shrugged, squatted down, and seriously asked the wolfdogs, "I'm asking you, are you following me willingly?"

The two wolfdogs' tongues hung out long, panting with big huffs of breath.

"Oh my... you really are the king of beasts!" Nangong Yan said, exasperated.

The old man who had been fishing, still shaken up, interjected, "You two, better leave quickly. If they come back with more people, we won't be able to get away!"

Although some specialty fish are valuable, their farming costs are high, too. The more precious the fish, the weaker its resistance to diseases and the stricter its requirements for growth environment and food. A slight inattention can result in complete loss, so for now, Suming wasn't considering them.

Zhu Chenggui continued, "The silver carp and bighead carp move along the water surface, while the black and grass carps stay at the bottom—one vegetarian, the other carnivorous. The mixed farming of these fish not only avoids mutual interference but also promotes each other, increasing yield."

"With mass breeding like this, there must be a significant cost for fry and feed, right?" Suming calculated briefly; he had less than two million left. Without being sure of making a profit, he couldn't possibly invest all his money in fish farming.

Shuijun Lake had over a hundred acres of water surface, but without much experience, he couldn't farm too much. Even at the farming density previously mentioned, investing in fish fry and daily feed for a third of that area wasn't a small expense.

Zhu Chenggui revealed a cunning peasant's smile, "You certainly need to buy the fry, but later on, the big fish produce the little fish, and then you have the fry in your lake, allowing you to gradually reduce the introduction of new fry each year. As for the feed, try to give as little as possible. Let me tell you, fish that grow on feed have a fishy taste and won't sell for much. In the past, when we farmed the four major family fish, no one would ever think of buying feed for them; feeding with feed would be like smashing one's own brand!"

"Then what do we feed them?" Suming asked, puzzled.

Fish grown on feed may not taste great, but they grow fast. What else to use if not feed? Natural growth is good, but it's too slow, sometimes taking years to gain a pound; there was no time for such delays!

Seeing Zhu Chenggui intentionally smiling without speaking, Suming quickly handed over a cigarette, and with a heh-heh laugh, Zhu Chenggui lit up and took a puff before speaking, "You don't need to feed them anything. The key is, you have to raise more black fish in the lake! As long as you have black fish, you don't need to feed the others; they'll grow quickly and well naturally!"

"Why is that?" Suming asked curiously.

"After you raise black fish, go buy some small mixed sea fish for them every now and then. The mixed sea fish are oily, and after the black fish eat them, their feces are oily and nutritious. The other fish will eat the black fish's feces. Since the feces are naturally produced and high in oil, the other family fish grow even better than the wild ones after eating it."

Listening to Zhu Chenggui's explanation, it seemed quite reasonable, so Suming inquired, "Are mixed sea fish expensive?"

"If you buy them in the market, a ton costs about one to two thousand yuan. If you collect directly from the fishermen, it's even cheaper. They usually can't sell those small fish."

"You wouldn't need to feed mixed sea fish every day; grow some aquatic plants, green algae, and mix in some loaches and snails, and that's pretty much it. If you do well over a year, I can't guarantee ten thousand pounds per acre, but harvesting three to four thousand pounds of the four family fish and two to three thousand pounds of black fish per acre is absolutely doable."

Having technical skills doesn't always equate to being a boss, and Zhu Chenggui was a typical example. He had the skills to farm fish but lacked the capital and space to do so. Suming was the opposite.

"But this water of yours..." Zhu Chenggui pointed at the somewhat blackish water of Shuijun Lake and shook his head, "is too poor."

"What should I do then?" Suming asked.

"When we used to farm fish, we had ponds that were just a few acres large. We would drain all the water from the pond when catching fish and then draw fresh water from the lake, so water quality wasn't an issue. Your lake is too big, emptying it entirely is definitely not an option. You can only start by raising fewer fish and growing more aquatic plants to restore the lake's ecosystem first. After a few years, when the water quality improves, you can start large-scale fish farming."

Suming slapped his forehead, after all that, it turned out he would have to wait a few years to start!

I've only leased it for three years!