Super Zoo

Nurse Hu's shout was so loud that the other two nurses turned bright red with embarrassment, and the younger nurse gave Hu a punch, "Goodness, why are you shouting so loud? It's so embarrassing…"

"You two are just too delicate. How can you sell anything without calling out? Learn from me!"

Nurse Hu gave them a stern look and continued, unabashed, to shout into the megaphone:

"Selling fish feed! Fragrant and sweet fish feed here! Five bucks a bag, it's not a loss, it's not a cheat, buy a bag of fish feed, get a day's good mood…"

The boat dock already had some people preparing to row and others strolling by the lake; her calls instantly attracted a lot of attention.

People love a spectacle, and with three nurses in uniforms sitting in a row by the lake, many tourists couldn't resist crowding around out of curiosity.

"Didn't they say not to feed the fish?" someone asked.

Nurse Hu said nonchalantly, "That's for not feeding them at random. What have you all been feeding them? Plastic bags, junk food, the fish would all die from that! Our feed is genuine Mixed Sea Fish, mixed with quality feed. The fish grow big and strong from it, how can it be the same?"

The tourists weren't foolish, and someone quickly caught on, laughing, "That's clever, so your zoo is having us feed the fish and we have to pay for it!"

"Give and take, right? Everyone's here to have a good time. A few bucks won't break the bank, that's the idea, isn't it?" Nurse Hu said.

She was right: for Suming, feeding the fish was a job, not entertainment; for the tourists, it was the exact opposite. Throwing feed into the water, attracting a swarm of fish scrambling for food, was entertainment, not work.

Everyone had their own agenda. With different starting points, the calculations differed. For the tourists, spending a few bucks for some fun was only natural.

This approach wasn't original to Suming, as many agritourism sites already offered 'pick your own' or even 'plant your own' experiences. Customers do the picking and planting themselves, effectively sparing the farmers the trouble, and still paying them for it—it's the same principle, paying money for happiness.

On the outskirts of Yangchuan City, there was a famous strawberry farm. Every year, when strawberries were in abundance, many visitors would flock there to pick strawberries and experience the joy of 'hands-on' labor. The growers saved on the costs of picking, transport, and packaging, yet the strawberries sold for a higher price than those on the market, boosting the local farmers' economy and giving city folk a chance to get close to nature—a win-win.

Nurse Hu was eloquent, and in no time, she had sold nearly half a bucket of fish feed.

Those who bought fish feed went on the boats and sprinkled it generously over the lake. They hadn't expected much fish activity, but to their surprise, as soon as the feed hit the water, it boiled with activity as countless fish jostled and surfaced to vie for food.

The fingerlings had been deliberately starved by Suming for several days, so they naturally gorged themselves when they encountered food.

For a while, the lake surface was erupting with schools of fish and large splashes. The scene was quite spectacular; Shuijun Lake seemed to have 'come alive' all at once.

The feed mostly consisted of broken pieces of Mixed Sea Fish which domestic fish wouldn't eat; these would sink to the bottom to be consumed by black fish, while the four domestic species mainly feasted on the small amount of pellet-shaped quality feed mixed in.

"Tell me, young lady, what's the deal with feeding fish with this 'baby bottle'?" an old lady with her grandson asked, looking puzzled at Nurse Hu's sign.

Nurse Hu pulled out a baby bottle from the bucket, which was actually just an empty mineral water bottle, but fitted with a rubber nipple. The bottle was full of quality feed and finely chopped Mixed Sea Fish.

The nipple was cut with a few large slits, and there was a small bamboo pole tied to the back, about a meter in length.

"You see, just like this!"

Nurse Hu took a bamboo pole to the riverbank, extended a bottle full of feed to the water surface, where the feed leaked from the cut nipple and fell into the water, enticing the fish below to surface, swarm towards the bottle, each with their round mouths, jostling to suck the feed from the nipple.

Smack, smack, the little fish vied with each other, rushing to nibble on the nipple, looking like a group of kids sucking on milk.

Since the majority of the feed in the bottle were Mixed Sea Fish, mixed with only a small amount of premium feed, those domestic fish had to suck hard to pull the tiny pieces of Mixed Sea Fish out of the nipple.

In this way, the fragments of Mixed Sea Fish would also sink to the bottom, to be eaten by the snakeheads.

"Granny, granny, I want to play, I want to play..." The little grandson clapped his hands with joy, tugging at the aunt's sleeve and acting coy.

"Alright, alright, dear, how much is it for one go?" the aunt asked.

Nurse Hu handed over a bottle and said, "Ten yuan per bottle, with no time limit!"

A bag of mixed feed cost five yuan, and the bottle contained roughly the amount of one bag, yet the price was doubled. As for time, it was irrelevant – a bottle of feed, at most less than a kilogram, would be eaten up by the fish in no time.

With the first person paying up, others followed suit. Those who come to the zoo were either young people or parents with children, as well as quite a few couples. Nurse Hu had prepared over twenty bottles, and in less than an hour, all were sold out.

A row of older and younger kids squatted by the lake shore, extending the bamboo poles with bottles into the water to attract the fish, creating a scene of merriment.

...

Suming stood at the top of Whisperwind Pavilion, taking in the view of Shuijun Lake and the majority of the zoo, and when he saw Nurse Hu energetically hawking below, he couldn't help but laugh. He really hadn't picked the wrong person; Nurse Hu's personality was just perfect for this line of work. She sold the feed better than he had anticipated – not only did she hawk loudly, but she even came up with the clever idea of using the bottles.

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He had made an agreement with the three nurses from the clinic that when they were off duty, they would take turns coming here to sell fish feed by the boating area, using the money from selling feed to cover the shortfall of buying feed.

Even if he bought the best Mixed Sea Fish and premium feed, including the cost of shipping, it would only amount to two thousand yuan per ton, averaging out to one yuan per jin (half a kilogram).

He would then wholesale the feed to Nurse Hu and the others at four yuan per jin, allowing them to take the goods first and pay later, settling accounts once a week. It was nearly impossible for them to lose money, and any profit they made was theirs to keep.

In this calculation, as long as he could sell 25% of the feed, he would be able to recover his capital completely, achieving a break-even point, which meant he would be raising fish essentially for free.

Suming was shrewd. A profit of one yuan per jin wasn't much, but it couldn't be ignored considering the large total volume. If they sold a certain amount, Nurse Hu and the others must set aside a portion of the profit to be reinvested in the clinic to buy common medications, which would be distributed for free to sick employees at the zoo.

That way, if the feed sales increased significantly in the future, everyone in the zoo would get a share of the benefits, reducing the likelihood of jealousy.

Of course, talking about big profits was still too premature at this point.

Suming observed for a while, noting that there were indeed many visitors buying feed to feed the fish. The three large buckets of feed brought by Nurse Hu and the others were sold out in less than two hours.

He suddenly realized that, including the free fish seedlings, if everything went smoothly, once the hundred acres of fish grew to adulthood, it was practically all clear profit!