However, to his regret, after a whole night of busy work in the chat channel, he failed to recruit a single new worker.
Most colony officials did not dare to work in a completely unfamiliar and distant place based solely on Jiang Ye's word.
Especially those colony officials who already had some savings were even less likely to leave.
Jiang Ye couldn't do anything about it; he couldn't forcibly drag people to work, so he had to give up.
At nine o'clock in the evening, the construction site, which had been roaring all day, quieted down.
All construction machinery stopped, leaving only faint blue lights weakly illuminating the darkness.
Workers and robots also entered the spaceship to rest. Occasionally, a few workers stood in a sheltered spot, smoking, their figures lonely.
Jiang Ye, having just finished eating, emerged from Isabel's house and walked along the beach back to the base vehicle.
Xu Yan stood at the door, waiting, impeccably dressed in a suit.
"Good evening, President Xu," Jiang Ye waved.
"Twenty houses have been built. Shall I take you to inspect them?" Xu Yan said.
"Certainly!" Jiang Ye was delighted. "Please lead the way."
The two walked forward along the dirt road and soon reached the outskirts of the town.
White lines were painted on the ground, demarcating each yard like parking spaces. This was actually a cost-saving measure; building walls would cost money, while simply painting lines was much cheaper.
The land in the yards had been leveled, leaving no footprints. Each yard was about three hundred square meters, with a single-story bungalow in the center.
The exterior walls of the bungalows had already been painted white. Jiang Ye inspected the walls, finding them smooth and straight, with good workmanship.
The doors were steel anti-theft doors with old-fashioned locks requiring keys. This was also to save money, as combination locks and fingerprint locks were too expensive.
Xu Yan took out a key from his pocket and opened the door.
Jiang Ye entered the house, and it was so dark he couldn't see anything.
With a soft click, Xu Yan flipped the switch on the wall.
A small, egg-sized light bulb on the ceiling, at most ten watts, emitted a dim, yellowish light.
"Where does the electricity come from?" Jiang Ye asked.
"Solar panels on the roof. Don't worry, these solar panels are salvaged from a scrap yard, and I won't charge you extra," Xu Yan smiled. "On sunny days, the electricity is enough to power the lights all night. If it's not sunny during the day, you'll have to grope in the dark at night. If you find it too primitive, you can add a simple power supply for five million."
"No need!" Jiang Ye decisively cut him off. "As the poet said, 'The night gave me black eyes, and I will use them to seek light.' Light pollution is also pollution. Humans and nature should coexist harmoniously. It's quite good to save electricity and keep it dark at night. Didn't the ancients work with the sunrise and rest with the sunset!"
Xu Yan rolled his eyes. "Just be stingy, and you come up with so many high-sounding excuses!"
Jiang Ye inspected the walls, which were all solid and thick, capable of lasting for decades. These houses certainly wouldn't be lived in for too long.
The windows were surprisingly double-glazed, with each pane being two centimeters thick.
"Aren't these glass panels very expensive? Wouldn't single-pane glass be better?" Jiang Ye questioned.
"Considering that the winter on this planet is very cold, with temperatures dropping to nearly minus forty degrees Celsius, double-glazed windows are already quite restrained," Xu Yan said. "Standard construction would at least have triple-glazed windows."
"Alright," Jiang Ye said, no longer looking at the windows.
There was truly no furniture in the house, and there weren't even doors between rooms. The floor was concrete, and the walls were painted white. There was a living room, bedroom, bathroom, and storage room, totaling one hundred square meters. There was no toilet because toilets were expensive. The bathroom only had a concrete bathtub, no showerhead, because the water supply system was expensive.
Jiang Ye himself felt it was a bit shabby, but with tight funds at the beginning, this was all that could be done for now.
After inspecting all the houses, the quality appeared to be satisfactory on the surface.
"Now, the town's houses and yards are designed for a total of sixty sets, right?" Jiang Ye asked.
"That's correct," Xu Yan nodded.
"I contacted residents based on a standard of one hundred people, so can you build forty more sets with additional payment?" Jiang Ye smiled.
Xu Yan's eyes widened, and his expression was quite displeased. "Are you trying to do installment payments in a roundabout way?"
Jiang Ye felt a bit awkward. "You figured it out!"
Previously, Jiang Ye had asked her if the town could be built in installments, and Xu Yan had flatly refused.
So, he played a trick: he first asked for sixty houses, and now that he had money, he wanted to build forty more. This subtly achieved the effect of installment payments.
"This is very unreasonable!" Xu Yan stomped her foot in anger, but finally sighed. "Of course, you can build more. Forty more identical houses? Forty million in cash, do you have it?"
"Can't it be a little cheaper?"
"How much do you have?"
Jiang Ye made a V sign with his fingers, showing two fingers.
"Twenty million! You call that a little cheaper? That's cutting it in half!" Xu Yan's face turned pale with anger. "There are three days left, and the main part of the town will be completed. If you can raise forty million within three days, we'll expand by forty sets. If you can't, we'll talk about it later!"
"Great! With your words, I'm relieved!" Jiang Ye was overjoyed. "I already have twenty million. It shouldn't be a problem to raise another twenty million in three days."
Xu Yan narrowed her eyes and looked at him. "You, can raise twenty million in three days?"
Jiang Ye nodded. "Yes."
Xu Yan frowned, looking completely disbelieving.
It would be a miracle if she believed him. Jiang Ye was more stingy than a miser, haggling ruthlessly for every project, and building a town that looked like a slum. If he really had the ability to raise twenty million in three days, why would he be so stingy?
Jiang Ye also noticed her disbelief but didn't explain further. He would just produce the money in three days.
After bidding farewell to Xu Yan, he returned to the base vehicle.
He sat in front of the console and checked his account balance.
Today's passive income had been credited, and his account balance had risen to 25,407,000 yuan.
In just this short period, the task of raising another twenty million in three days was already one-quarter complete, with fifteen million remaining.
Jiang Ye was full of confidence and went to sleep.
The next morning, before six o'clock, he was already out at sea by boat.
He didn't go to Isabel's place for breakfast but brought two apples and two cans of meat to eat when he got hungry.
The sea breeze was strong today, with waves reaching a meter high, crashing against the hull and splashing white foam.
Perhaps due to the strong wind and rough seas, there were only scattered small fish in the sea, and no large schools were encountered along the way.
Soon, they reached the opposite side of the strait.
The jellyfish that had been in the water had rotted away, leaving almost no trace. Up close, one could see thin membranes like plastic bags. The smell had long since disappeared.
In the distance, Amy's corpse still lay on the sand, already beginning to decompose.
Seeing Amy's corpse, Jiang Ye knew that no carnivorous animals had been in this area, so it was still safe.
He immediately got into the excavator parked on the beach and began digging for fluorite!
The nearby fluorite had already been depleted, but there were still significant reserves of fluorite ahead. He could smell it in the air.