"Old Fang, I'm sorry, I couldn't secure this piece of land!" After sending Guo Xinyu and the others back, Fang Jueyu received some disappointing news.
Recently, there was a land bidding near Shandong. This area was quite large; it was originally a wasteland. Because the local government wanted to develop it, a lot of the land had been gradually leased out.
After some investigation, although it was a bit small relative to their construction plans, the surrounding area also seemed to have development intentions in the future, so starting with local construction wasn't a bad idea.
Many real estate developers participated in this bidding, but it was eventually auctioned to a company that needed to build an industrial town. Wang Cong also returned empty-handed, and the issue of site selection was delayed repeatedly, making him feel somewhat guilty about Fang Jueyu's investment.
"No problem, I'll think of a way too. This isn't something that can be rushed," Fang Jueyu consoled.
"No way, the special effects team I hired only signed a two-year contract. If this drags on, they might pack up and leave."
"What are you afraid of? At worst, just buy them outright!" He was prepared to buy such a large piece of land, could he be troubled by a mere special effects team? Even if taken a step back, if he used the knowledge recorded in Xiao Yi's database, the special effects they could create wouldn't even compare.
"Oh, this is really a big problem!" Fang Jueyu sighed. Although Huaxia had vast lands, there was only so much available, even with money. He couldn't conjure a place out of thin air, could he?
"Master, if places with people are hard to build on, why not build in places without people?" Xiao Yi seemed to have an idea.
"Build in the Antarctic or Arctic?" Fang Jueyu's mind didn't process this immediately, only thinking of these two places.
"Are you stupid?" Xiao Yi was already used to cursing a bit, "Land on your Earth only takes up a small part of the surface. Oceans, deserts, these uninhabited areas, aren't they endless? Not to mention anything else, if you build this film city in the desert, the state would probably give you full support!"
"Is it that easy?" Fang Jueyu had thought of it too. If built in the desert, even the Tagore Desert could be used off-the-shelf, almost reducing the workload of the first phase by one-third.
"The desert has unstable foundations and lacks water resources. It's difficult for a person to survive a few days here, let alone build a film city. Dream on!"
"Are you looking down on me?" Xiao Yi was not satisfied, "The civilization that created me is so advanced that you Earthlings can't even fathom it. Isn't desert land salinization a problem? If you can't solve it, maybe I can!"
"You have the technology?"
"Of course. Whether it's something you can think of or not, as long as you want it, I have it!" Xiao Yi said with utmost confidence.
"I have a gene modification technology for a type of plant. Once planted in the desert, these plants can take root quickly. Their root systems can extend deep into the earth to draw underground water, and while surviving, they can also solidify the land. If you can cultivate this plant, within a year, you could create a fully functional area in the desert!"
"And the technology on your Earth can achieve this now. Several countries have made some progress, but to truly develop this plant, maybe it would take ten more years."
"Is anyone in our country doing similar research?" Fang Jueyu knew that this technology couldn't just appear out of nowhere. If he wanted to use it to create land in the desert, he'd need a medium, at least to make the technology reasonably available.
"Of course, but not many, and most are progressing very slowly," Xiao Yi browsed all the documents in an instant, "The best work is probably from a project group at your Jiangnan University, led by a Professor Qi Dong. They're stuck on issues with the plant's activity and growth cycle after genetic modification. You can negotiate terms with them using this technology!"
"And this technology... heh heh heh!" Fang Jueyu chuckled humbly.
"Then forget about it!"
Half an hour later, Fang Jueyu rubbed his temples, finally digesting some of the knowledge he had just gained. To comprehend fully, Xiao Yi even infused a lot of foundational biology and genetics knowledge into his brain.
At least in these two areas, he could now be considered an expert among experts!
"Xiao Yi, will it always hurt so much when loading knowledge into my brain?" Fang Jueyu looked a bit weary, feeling as if he hadn't slept for three days and nights, filled with pain and fatigue.
"That's because your brain development is still too weak, unable to instantly process and handle such a massive flow of information. If it were your dad, a few seconds would be enough!" Xiao Yi explained, "So you should quickly complete the authorization task!"
"Nevertheless, your technology is truly amazing, extending new blank segments from the fundamental biological gene chains, artificially adding new base pairs for gene modification. This method is unheard of!" Fang Jueyu couldn't help but marvel at the superior technology Xiao Yi taught him.
"These are just minor tricks. Plant modification is the most basic. If you want, human modification isn't a problem either. This technology has matured in our civilization, and even if you want wormhole technology, it's no issue. Just don't use Earthling logic to gauge my capabilities!"
Though Xiao Yi's attitude was supremely arrogant, it was undeniable that Earth's technology paled compared to their civilization.
"With this, things will be much easier!"
Even though school hadn't started yet for half a month, most university graduates still didn't get vacation. Professor Qi Dong was also a well-known professor at Jiangnan University. Before he graduated with a PhD at 28, he had published eight papers as the first author in the journal Nature and was directly hired as a distinguished professor upon returning to Jiangnan University.
Professor Qi Dong was now 65 years old and had achieved the title of academician. His project group has always been devoted to conquering this biological gene technology to combat Huaxia's increasingly severe desertification problem. However, the difficulty of this technology was quite high. He had been researching this field for ten years and, though making significant progress, faced many critical technical challenges.
As usual, Professor Qi Dong was in his office, reviewing the latest international journal progress on this subject. However, his peers were almost all at the same level as he was, and his team's advancements already held a leading position in the academic community.
Even though he had long reached retirement age, out of dedication to scientific research, he was rehired by the university to continue his work. However, his health no longer supported such high-intensity research work, so he feared he might not see the day when this technology matures.
Thinking of this, he sighed heavily and closed the document search interface.
Suddenly, his email notified him of a new message. He paid little attention, thinking it might be from a student who needed his approval to use the school's equipment—a common occurrence several times a day.
But when he opened the email, it wasn't from the school's equipment reservation platform. Instead, it was a simple personal email, yet the email's domain belonged to Jiangnan University.
The email contained only one attachment. He opened it to find a genetic model diagram that appeared to be of a biological entity, with extensive notes beside it.
"This…" As an academic heavyweight, he glanced at it and immediately gleaned a wealth of information.
Instantly, he dialed his PhD student's number, "Chaofan! Liu Yang! Quickly gather all your junior and senior peers in my office for a model analysis! There's been a major discovery!"