865 Contras
Once Steve saw Li Du, he waved enthusiastically like he had seen an old friend. Li Du hugged him as he laughed and said, "You look good. Your health seems good, too. So, can we continue mining together again in the future?"
Steve laughed loudly. "Of course I would love to team up with you. Come on, I have some information. You can take a look at what I've found out. I have also contacted two experts in real estate sales."
Wide networking, great powers... it was really convenient working with these in hand. Steve was a passionate man, and maybe it was because Li Du had saved him twice in the past, in addition to the fact that they had a lot in common, but he treated Li Du really well.
Knowing the reason that Ivana had come to Sydney this time was to get ready for skin grafts and cosmetic surgery, Steve immediately called Elson over and had him contact the top specialists for her consultation. Li Du said that they had already consulted specialists on this matter, but Steve simply said, "Then just consult a few more specialists, just to get a few more opinions."
The two real estate sales experts Steve had found were named Stuart Burr and Tony Theodore. Stuart was an experienced real estate agent for the Auswell Group, the biggest real estate company in Australia, and Tony was a supervisor in Australia's National Land Assets Strategy Center. Li Du discussed the matter with both of them and had gained more details about purchasing Seagull Island.
In Australia, the process of purchasing an island was very lengthy. Sometimes it would take up to a year because just as Li Du had found out earlier, it involved the country's land use regulations, environmental protection, national security, and other policies.
The Australian government had many restrictions on the usage of islands. For example, some islands only granted usage rights for 50 years. Also, some islands would draw their borders based on the highest point during high tide, and the huge piece of beach underneath the water could only belong to the government.
Tony had told Li Du from the beginning that if he just wanted to buy an island because of its view and for vacation, then he suggested that he should go to Canada. Canada was currently the largest supplier of private islands in the world. It had over 100 inland lakes and a never-ending coastline, hence there were many islands available on the market.
It was impossible for Li Du to buy an island in Canada, but he could not explain that clearly. He just told them that he was aiming for the black gold abalone resources around Seagull Island, and that he wanted to buy it to slowly harvest its black gold abalones. Knowing this, Tony and Stuart did not say another word and stayed focused on helping him research Seagull Island.
They studied the island from a satellite map, and they thought that it would not involve the protection of any endangered wildlife species or national security, so the government would most likely be willing to sell it. However, because of the island's size, the price would not be low. Both of the real estate agents estimated that the island was worth 50,000,000 Australian dollars or even more.
Upon hearing this price, Li Du let out a sigh of relief. He said, "Fifty million is not that high. I think I can afford it. I can get a loan from the bank for buying an island in Australia, right?"
Stuart and Tony looked at each other, and they both shook their heads. "Mr. Li, this is different from buying a building on land. The difficulty of getting a bank loan approved is very high. Because more than half of the islands are unowned, the banks are generally not willing to approve the loans. We suggest that you prepare a large amount of cash."
If he could not take out a loan, then Li Du would be a little troubled. He had to transfer another 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 Australian dollars in a short time. After all, you had to pay tax to the state government and the Australian Taxation Office when you purchased an island, and the tax was very high.
This was not the only difficulty. Stuart told him that buying an island was expensive, but maintaining an island was more expensive! Buying an island was merely the beginning. The food supply, tourist accommodations, and other facilities on private islands were the bigger expenditure.
Any small island just like Seagull Island would need another few million Australian dollars to build its waste disposal system, water supply system, and electric power system because the island was still undeveloped.
Australia was very environmentally friendly. They could not pollute the environment in the process of developing the island, thus they had to add another few million Australian dollars into the budget to handle this matter. On top of that, the island was very far from the mainland, so Li Du would have to build a deep water pier. He had a helicopter, too, so he still had to build a private airport. These were not small expenditures.
Finally, Tony summarized, "Buying an island is not difficult, but the main point is how to develop the island. Mr. Li, to make the island livable and have enough facilities, you will have to solve the traffic problem, create the electricity and telecommunications facilities, and also create systems for drinking water, medical treatment, and other problems."
Stuart added, "Also, Mr. Li, it is not an easy thing to start construction work on an island. Just take building a house as an example. The cost will be equivalent to 1.5 times the cost of building it on land, because the materials and workers will all need to be shipped to the island by boat…"
Li Du had already thought about these problems before. They indeed caused him a pretty big headache, but he was confident in settling them. "At the end of the day, these difficulties can all be summarized into one word, money." Li Du asked, "Isn't that right? As long as there is money, these all are not problems."
Stuart nodded as he said, "Yes, this is the reason why Sea Turtle Island cost over $5,000,000, even though its size is less than ten hectares. The living facilities on the island are very complete."
Hans reminded Li Du, "Buddy, just leave it. You have to know there is still another large problem on Seagull Island, which is countless numbers of snakes!"
Hans was right. They needed to think of a way to drive the snakes away if they wanted to live on the island, or else they would not know when the venomous snakes would bite them. That really made it unlivable.
Li Du nodded and expressed his understanding, and he considered it for the night. The next day, he told Stuart and Tony that he was willing to hire both of them as his think tank for purchasing Seagull Island. This island had no name yet, it would be a long battle to purchase it, and he had to have some help from insiders.
The two of them gladly agreed. There were many difficulties in purchasing this island, but they hoped that Li Du could overcome these difficulties, because the commission of assisting him in this purchase was very grand, with each of them receiving a two percent commission. In other words, if the island was worth $50,000,000, then each of them would get $1,000,000 just from the commission!
The initial work did not require Li Du, so the two of them had to think of a way to get the approval from state government and each of the departments to put Seagull Island on the market.
...
Li Du joined in the preparation for Ivana's surgery. Elson was very effective. He had arranged an appointment with the specialists that night for a consultation. They were all Australia's top experts in the field of dermatology.
Maybe it was due to the strong UV rays in Australia, but the incidence of skin diseases was among the highest in the world, thus they had the world's top dermatologists. The experts that Elson contacted were from Greenslopes Hospital and Saint-George Hospital. These were the two biggest public hospitals in Australia, and their medical backgrounds were also the strongest.
For the first time, Li Du saw what Ivana looked like. No wonder the girl had worn a veil over her face all this time. Her face was destroyed to the point of being scary. Her entire face appeared almost melted. There was only one big and one small seam for her eyes, and there was only half a nose left. A big piece of hair was gone, and her ears were melted into lumps. The skin on her body was even harder to let anyone see…
Li Du saw photos of Ivana currently, and there was a photo beside that of a lolita who had pure blue eyes, a shy face, and golden hair. This was how she used to look. After seeing these photos, he looked at Brother Wolf, but Brother Wolf had no emotion on his face. He only said repeatedly, "I will definitely cure Ivana, I must!"