After figuring out the key, Xiang Yang's eyes gradually became sharper.
Xiang Yang has never been the kind of person who would hang up on others' feelings.
Once he has made up his mind about something, Xiang Yang is even more daring and courageous than Zhang Qicheng, whether it was when he bought a drift net fishing boat, replaced it with a larger ocean-going fishing boat, or paid for road repairs.
"How do we do it? How much does it cost?" Xiang Yang asked directly.
The first sentence was said to grandpa.
The next sentence is asked to Zhang Qicheng.
Grandpa Fu counted on his fingers and said, "Then we have to make it as lively as possible, with at least ten teams of people playing gongs, drums and suonas, two pagodas, two fire dragon lanterns, and ten thousand blessing lanterns."
Zhang Qicheng grinned, "I like your spirit, Brother Xiang. You are exactly the same as Brother Chao when he was young." Then he slowly stretched out a finger.
Xiang Yang was surprised, "Only one million?"
"Hundred, million?" Grandpa Fu's eyes widened in shock, and then he was shaking with excitement. As long as he had this one million, he believed that he would be able to hold this pagoda burning event in a lively manner.
Zhang Qicheng rolled his eyes. "The most basic one is just three troupes beating gongs and drums. There are no blessing lanterns or fire dragon lanterns. Just burning a pagoda costs two hundred thousand a day. If we do the grandest one, from New Year's Eve to the seventh day of the first lunar month, do you think it would only cost one million?"
"One, one... ten million?" Grandpa Fu exclaimed.
Xiang Yang glanced at Grandpa Fu, then looked directly at Zhang Qicheng, "Okay, I'll pay for it. According to the agreement, you and I will each get 5 million."
"Okay, that's great." Zhang Qicheng clapped his hands and smiled, "Shall we get ready now?"
Xiang Yang looked at Grandpa Fu, "Grandpa Fu, may I ask what we need to do for our preliminary preparations?"
Grandpa Fu finally recovered from the shock of hearing about the huge sum of 10 million yuan. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and said, "If there really is such a large sum of money, then there is actually no need to prepare anything. It is still in time to ask people to make arrangements the day before the burning of the pagoda. The only thing that needs to be prepared in advance may be the 10,000 blessing lanterns."
Xiang Yang nodded and explained to Zhang Qicheng: "I know about blessing lanterns. They are essentially the same thing as Kongming lanterns, but the paper used for Kongming lanterns is not good. If it is slightly cloudy at sea, they will not be able to fly, while blessing lanterns can."
Grandpa Fu also smiled and nodded, "Yes, making blessing lanterns is an old craft in our Huhai Town. All in all, there are no more than a hundred people in the whole Huhai Town who can make blessing lanterns, and I happen to be one of them."
The size of the blessing lantern is slightly larger than the Kongming lanterns produced on a normal assembly line when expanded, because it is much heavier than the ordinary Kongming lantern and requires more heat to be able to rise normally.
Secondly, because the prayer lanterns are released at sea, the sea is wider and the view is broader. People who release the prayer lanterns need the prayer lanterns to be larger and brighter than normal Kongming lanterns, and fly higher so that they can stand on the shore and see the prayer lanterns they have released.
"Everything else about making prayer lanterns is easy, but there is one difficulty, which is that it requires peanut oil. Ordinary alcohol cannot be used as fuel because the heat generated by the burning alcohol is unlikely to support the prayer lanterns to fly high. The peanut oil needs to be heated to a boil, and then paper money is placed in the boiling peanut oil to cook. The paper money cooked in peanut oil can burn for a long time, allowing the prayer lanterns to fly very high." Grandpa Fu said with a smile.
Xiang Yang nodded. It turned out that what was burning under the blessing lanterns were paper money boiled in peanut oil. No wonder he had always felt that the flames of the blessing lanterns released in Yanlong Village were much brighter than those Kongming lanterns bought outside.
In the past, every time the village lit blessing lanterns, people selected by the village would row boats to the sea to light them. After the lanterns were lit, no one was allowed to go into the sea. Xiang Yang could only see the blessing lanterns rising slowly from the shore, which looked extremely mysterious. People of Xiang Yang's age actually didn't know what was burning under the blessing lanterns. Grandpa Fu's words satisfied Xiang Yang's curiosity.
"Are you really going to release 10,000 prayer lanterns? Then I can arrange for people to make them. These prayer lanterns are handmade, and peanut oil is not cheap, so the cost of making one is not low. It costs about two dollars, and including the labor cost, it will be three dollars a lantern." Grandpa Fu said seriously.
"Well, it's just 30,000 yuan, right? Old man, do you know how to use a mobile phone? Come, I'll transfer it to you." Zhang Qicheng said.
Grandpa Fu nodded quickly. "Yes, I can use it. I have been teaching for decades, and students often call me and add me to many WeChat groups. I use my mobile phone frequently."
"That's great." Zhang Qicheng opened his phone and was about to make the payment.
"Wait." Xiang Yang shouted at this time.
"Huh?" Zhang Qicheng looked at Xiang Yang puzzledly.
Grandpa Fu was even more nervous. When it came time to pay, he was afraid that Xiang Yang would suddenly say he didn't want to do it anymore.
Xiang Yang said to Zhang Qicheng: "Transfer 300,000 to him. I want 100,000 blessing lanterns."
Zhang Qicheng was shocked. "You want to release 100,000 blessing lanterns? Can we put so many?"
"I will transfer an extra 270,000 to you later, and 90,000 of them will be my personal possession." Xiang Yang said.
Zhang Qicheng was about to say that there was no need to divide it so finely, but when he saw the smile on Xiang Yang's face, he suddenly had an idea, "Do you want to sell blessing lanterns to tourists?"
Xiang Yang smiled and nodded.
The reason why the Water Splashing Festival can be so popular and lively is because it allows tourists to participate.
The burning of the pagoda is lively and exciting, but in fact it is only the people of Yanlong Village who are doing the whole thing, and tourists cannot participate at all.
An activity without a sense of participation will not leave a deep impression on tourists no matter how lively it is. At least after tourists have participated in it once and lost the sense of mystery, they will not think about participating in it a second time, let alone recommend it to their relatives and friends.
certainly.
Xiang Yang had no intention of selling the 90,000 Fire Dragon Lanterns himself.
Xiang Yang planned to sell the dragon lanterns wholesale to the villagers and let them sell them so that they could make some money and everyone would be happy. Xiang Yang, who had the Qinglongwan Beach, a money-making artifact, no longer cared much about this little money.
"Yangzi." Grandpa Fu said in embarrassment, "It won't be long before the pagoda is burned. Even if I gather all the people in Huhai Town who know how to make blessing lanterns, it is impossible to make 100,000 blessing lanterns before the pagoda is burned."
Xiang Yang asked: "How long does it take you to make a blessing lamp?"
"It's not calculated one by one. You need to cut the paper before pasting the lanterns. You can only cut 20 sheets of paper at a time. After the paper is cut, it's very quick to paste a blessing lantern, about a few minutes. That means you can paste about 20 blessing lanterns in an hour."