After struggling at sea for a long time and taking several flights after landing in Casablanca, Gu Kun finally returned to Shanghai.
After spending a few days remotely handling some of Lanfang's business and listening to some reports, Gu Kun reviewed his homework before facing the final exam for the first semester of his junior year.
A lot of professional knowledge in shipbuilding and ocean engineering is still very useful to him. He does not learn it for the sake of gold plating, but really needs this knowledge——
As for the ship design courses, a lot of knowledge played a certain role in his procurement negotiations this time. At least it helped him evaluate the cost of ship modifications, making it easier to negotiate prices.
These can be learned and used in real time, so of course you must learn them carefully.
Because he didn't have classes for more than two months, Gu Kun's progress was a little behind. Fortunately, the Lunar New Year in 1996 was late, and the New Year was not celebrated until mid-February, so the university also had final exams in the first week of February, and then went on winter vacation.
When Gu Kun returned to China, there was still half a month before the final exam. In an emergency, he relied on his many years of practical experience to master the practical courses relatively quickly, and he quickly caught up with the progress.
However, the final exam scores for each subject were on average ten points lower than the midterm scores, generally only in the mid-seventies, but at any rate, they all passed.
After the exam, Gu Kun flew back to Lanfang without stopping.
Lin Ying, who came to study abroad with him, Tang Jia, who was already working under him, and other overseas students from Heklan who he sponsored also returned to Lanfang.
Some are going back to celebrate the New Year, some are busy with business and learning skills, and some are looking for a hotel to practice in advance.
Who asked Gu Kun to pay internship wages to the international students he sponsors? Those Heklan girls are happy to come out and make money in advance.
On the first day after returning to Lanfang, Gu Kun first paid attention to where his ship was. Among the Lanfang sailors on the ship were people from the Blackwater Security Company, and they were also equipped with civilian satellite phones.
So you can contact us at any time anywhere on the planet.
(The original military satellite communication system on the aircraft carrier was dismantled, and the Nikolaev Shipyard temporarily installed a civilian satellite phone during the modification after signing the contract.)
At this time, more than a month had passed since Gu Kun landed in Casablanca in early January. After contacting him, Gu Kun learned that the "Isakov" had arrived in the waters of Namibia in South Africa, and was stationed in Caribibu or Cape Town.
After making preparations for rest, we can pass the Cape of Good Hope.
As an old captain, Gu Kun certainly knew that the killing waves at the Cape of Good Hope were very violent. The westerly circulation and other undercurrents combined and violently stirred up the force. If the operation was not good, it was not impossible for an aircraft carrier of tens of thousands of tons to be capsized. Therefore, he
Fully agree with the crew's prudent decision.
Fortunately, the most violent season at the Cape of Good Hope is the local winter, which is the summer in the northern hemisphere, around June and July. Now it is the local summer, so the waves are smaller.
During the week of anxiously waiting for the New Year, Gu Kun called the satellite phone almost every other day to check on him, and finally got a piece of good news on New Year’s Eve:
The "Isakov" has passed the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas in one day, and finally bypassed the southernmost tip of Africa and entered the Indian Ocean.
Apparently, the crew waited near Cape Town for several days until the weather forecast showed relatively minimal wind and waves before starting to circle this dangerous zone.
After surviving the murderous waves at the Cape of Good Hope, all that was left was just a piece of cake. Gu Kun worked hard on the map and estimated that in two months, the ship should be able to return to Lanfang, that is, before May Day.
…
In the following months, Gu Kun kept a low profile.
After all, there is a semi-finished aircraft carrier floating on the sea, so it is better to be cautious and try not to provoke new enemies or do anything sensational and attract attention.
After returning to school after the winter vacation in early March, Gu Kun spent the first three months studying peacefully, occasionally taking stock of his business, or taking leave to return to Lanfang for a short stay, and personally take the boat out to sea for operations.
Since there have been no new cooperative construction projects recently, everything is progressing steadily.
In the past three months, the civil construction of the control tower facilities at Lanfang International Airport has been almost completed, and two 35,000-ton bulk carrier terminal berths have been built at Lanfang Port.
In addition, the days when Gu Kun personally led the fleet to sea accounted for more than a month in total. In addition, he spent a month during the winter vacation in Lanfang, so he used this time to move the "South China Sea bottom terrain" that had been dragged by the long and thin water before.
The "Survey" project has been completed.
After all, he had been too busy before to calm down and run the ship himself, so Du Guowei, who was recruited from the Design Institute of Jiaotong University, helped him manage the "Nightingale" survey ship for most of the previous six months.
After all, Du Guowei was not cheating. It took more than a month to complete a survey of a 50 by 50 nautical mile sea area with a contract price of 2 million yuan. How could a cheater like Gu Kun complete a survey in a week worth 2 million yuan?
plot of land.
As Gu Kun's business has further expanded and he is about to become one of the top cultural and tourism tycoons in Nanyang, he certainly does not need to deliberately earn 2 million yuan of hard-earned money this week.
The reason why I still lead the team myself is simply because I need to keep a low profile these few months and can't do anything else, so I am idle. Going out to explore in person can also play a role in keeping a low profile and biding my time.
Just like Liu Bei personally planted vegetables in the back garden during the sensitive period when he took refuge with Cao Cao. It was not because Liu Bei's labor force was only worth the level of a farmer. The real purpose was to show that he had no ambition.
And the value of two million yuan a week's hard-earned money to Gu Kun,
It is equivalent to the value of an acre of leeks to Liu Bei.
In addition to money, Gu Kun personally operated the ship to conduct ocean survey, and another purpose was to complete the project as soon as possible - he had previously estimated that this project would generate a cumulative income of about 50 million yuan.
I only achieved a turnover of over 10 million yuan, and I still have over 30 million yuan left.
Du Guowei alone could not complete the 30 million yuan in one year, so Gu Kun personally took action for two months before completing the cooperation on the South China Sea topographic survey before May Day.
In this way, it can also avoid that after the "Isakov" arrives at Lanfang Port in the future, Gu Kun's other cooperation with the relevant Chinese departments has not yet ended, creating opportunities and suspicions for the other party to ask for help.
This also means that this 50 million yuan order, which has been delayed for nearly a year and a half, has finally been completed and all the money has been obtained.
During the survey, Gu Kun picked out two sunken ships that were relatively less valuable and less difficult to salvage. The profit from each ship was more than 5 million U.S. dollars, and the combined valuation was 1,300 U.S. dollars.
Ten thousand US dollars, but it will take the second half of the year for Van Bilson and Miss Sophia to help him arrange sales channels and repayment.
As a result, the number of sunken ships he still remembered in the waters around Nanyang has dropped to eight.
Three of them are among the "Top 20 Famous Shipwrecks in the World" in later generations, and are estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The remaining five are also more valuable than the two newly recovered by Gu Kun, at least five million dollars.
Most of the above are distributed in the range of one to two million.
Surveying and auctioning allowed Gu Kun to earn a total of US$18 million while "pretending to grow vegetables" in the first half of 1996.
Coupled with the shipping industry (including self-operated import and export trade), the monthly income from fishery is nearly one million US dollars.
There is also the Lanfang tourism industry supported by COSCO, which can achieve 20,000 to 30,000 tourists per month, equivalent to a turnover of 20 million U.S. dollars and a net profit of 4 million U.S. dollars.
Adding up the income from all businesses, by the end of May 1996, Gu Kun had amassed an additional $35 million in new cash flow.
At this moment, his "Isakov" finally returned to Lanfang Port and entered a 50,000-ton dock to temporarily berth and wait for renovation.
Gu Kun himself has almost finished the busy study period of his junior year and took the final exam in advance. The reason is that he wants to participate in this year's Olympic Games and needs to prepare to go abroad to adapt to the environment and avoid acclimatization.
His senior sister Luo Haili has now officially graduated from Jiaotong University and became a 1996 graduate, and then immediately served as the deputy director of the Lanfang Islands Olympic Committee and the Lanfang Islands Culture, Sports and Tourism Department.
Under Luo Haili's management, Lan Fang completed all the procedures to join the Olympic family in the first half of this year, and then also helped Gu Kun complete the athlete registration procedures.
As for Gu Kun's Olympic A-standard qualifiers, he does not need to participate in most events because last year's Universiade competition was less than one year away from the current Olympic Games.
According to the Olympic selection standards, as long as you have valid results in any international first-level official competition within the first anniversary before the start of the Olympic Games and meet the Olympic A standard, you do not need to swim again.
However, Gu Kun still took the time to participate in the notarization selection competition for some events, mainly because he did not register for these events at the Universiade last year, so he did not have valid results. In the past six months, during the days when he was studying in school, he deliberately
After taking some time off, I learned how to swim butterfly again with Coach Chen. I barely learned how to make my movements meet the standards of professional competitions without being judged as a violation.
With Gu Kun's level, it will definitely be a bit difficult to win a gold medal in butterfly swimming, because his movements are not very accustomed, and he cannot swim fast. However, he is also very aware of his own strength. As long as he "can swim well, there are no violations" in butterfly swimming.
", then he can sign up for the trials of the 200-meter and 400-meter medley.
Because even if his butterfly stroke is slower than others, he can easily overtake him in the time of the other three strokes.
Therefore, in the Atlanta Olympics during the summer vacation, Gu Kun signed up for 11 events, two more than the 9 events at last year's Universiade.
Time finally came to June 1996, and a new curtain was about to open.
——
(ps: I have to hold back in these few months, it is not easy to write, and there is no exciting development. After looking at the outline, all the things that can be done are old things that have been done before, so I won’t go into details. Let’s fast forward the timeline a little bit.
.
After the 1997 Southeast Asian financial crisis and the complete break with the West, many plots became easier to write and unfold. There was no way. We had to balance IQ and authenticity. We could only be tough and stubborn, but when we are stubborn, it feels better.
I can’t take care of it. If there is a system, the plot will be much smoother.)