Chapter 484 - 457: Booming Business

To attract more people to Bailong Village, they needed a sufficient number of fossilized skeletons.

Whether it was searching for bones in the sea or assembling the bones into complete skeletons, it was a massive undertaking.

Yun Jiao also had to attend school and study Chinese medicine, so she didn’t have much time to search for bones in the sea.

Fortunately, the trench was large enough, and it contained plenty of skeletons from various marine dinosaurs.

There weren’t just dinosaurs, but also fossils of shellfish and ancient conches.

She even found the bones of a giant python.

It wasn’t a complete skeleton, but it was still astonishing.

And just like that, another busy year went by.

By the summer of Yun Jiao’s tenth year, Bailong Village had finally prepared all the dinosaur fossils for tourist exhibition.

Yun Jiao also cooperated with the government, allowing them to take back several special dinosaur fossils.

These included the Giant-toothed Shark, a Mosasaurus, and the prehistoric giant python.

「The summer of 1990 arrived.」

With the booming development of electric appliances, televisions were still in high demand, but most families already owned one.

Even in some remote villages where not every household had a TV, there were always one or two families that did.

In villages lacking other forms of entertainment, whoever owned a TV was guaranteed to attract the entire village to come and watch.

And Bailong Village’s dinosaur fossil exhibition was now being advertised on television.

"Whoa, what is that thing!"

Everyone watching was captivated by the images of the dinosaur fossils on the screen.

"A dinosaur? What dinosaur? Couldn’t that just be a dragon? A creature that big has to be a dragon."

"Come on, it’s not a dragon. Didn’t the person on TV say it’s a dinosaur? It seems they pulled it out of the sea. Good heavens, if there are creatures that big in the ocean, it must be so dangerous for people living by the coast."

"Grandma, the reporter said those things are already dead. They’re extinct now."

Bailong Village’s dinosaur fossils immediately garnered widespread attention.

This method of promotion was a huge success, quickly attracting many people to come and see for themselves.

Even in families where the adults weren’t keen on visiting, the children couldn’t resist the allure of dinosaurs, throwing tantrums until their parents agreed to take them.

And so, little by little, Bailong Village began to bustle with activity.

The entrance fee wasn’t expensive, just thirty cents.

But most visitors would stay for a day or two. Not only did they come to see the dinosaur fossils, but those who had never been to the coast would also go to see the ocean. They would experience the fun of beachcombing and then grab a bite to eat in the village.

To accommodate them, some villagers started selling beachcombing tools and fishing gear. Others used their boats to take tourists out for deep-sea fishing experiences. A few families even converted their homes into restaurants, specifically to cook for the visitors.

To protect the village’s reputation, Village Chief Sun enforced strict rules: those who weren’t good cooks weren’t allowed to open restaurants, and there was to be no price gouging.

The temple on the mountain also saw a surge in worshippers.

"Hahaha... We’re making money! I told you our coconut milk would sell well."

Yun Xiaoqi stood in the house with his hands on his hips, laughing wildly.

Yun Jiao sat to the side, sipping her coconut milk.

’It really does taste good.’

Speaking of which, this was actually Yun Xiaoqi’s idea, which he had proposed to Village Chief Sun. In fact, the ideas for villagers to open shops, restaurants, and take people sea fishing were all his.

After Yun Xiaoqi gave Village Chief Sun his ideas, the chief went back and rallied the villagers to seek a partnership with a soda factory.

However, their luck was bad. The soda factory in town was struggling, and while other places were updating their soda formulas, this factory’s manager had allowed his brother-in-law to make some idiotic moves, which ended up driving away the technical staff.

As a result, the factory’s performance declined steadily. By the time the villagers approached them, the soda factory was on the verge of bankruptcy.

When Yun Xiaoqi heard this news, he immediately borrowed a sum of money from Yun Jiao and bought the factory.

Then, he fired all the deadwood at the factory and offered high salaries to hire experienced soda-making masters and technicians. He led them in developing new drinks, and the coconut milk was one of their creations.

It was also the most successful one.

Although it wasn’t a soda, the drink was pilot-tested in Bailong Village and received excellent feedback.

This was the first money Yun Xiaoqi had earned from his own business venture.

"Jiaojiao, the money you lent me—do you want it back in cash, or do you want to invest it? If you invest, I’ll give you a forty-percent share of the soda factory’s future profits."

Yun Jiao didn’t really mind either way, but seeing the expectant look in Brother Qi’s eyes, she said, "Then let’s invest."

Yun Xiaoqi was so happy he started jumping for joy.

Outside, Yun Xiaoqi, now a high schooler, projected the image of a shrewd, calculating, and handsome young man. At home, however, he was impossibly childish.