HLM -Chapter 1410 The Opening

After finishing a detailed investment meeting, the next day Wang Bo met again with Huang Xingzhi, Yang Zhilong, and the others, presenting the outcomes of the discussion.

“Sunset Town can accept this investment. I’ll take responsibility for the land, while you can manage the executive team yourselves. As for the workforce, priority should be given to recruiting locally,” Wang Bo said.

“That’s fine, but we hope to manage the land ourselves,” Huang Xingzhi said with a smile.

Wang Bo shook his head. “I’m not selling the land. Apart from the church and the university, which I donated, all other land remains under my control.”

“So… you’re not donating the land?”

Wang Bo smiled. “No. I’ll contribute the land as equity, but my requirement is low—just 10%.”

Huang Xingzhi leaned back, slowly saying, “That’s not a small share.”

Wang Bo replied, “Mr. Huang, you know I’m not trying to bargain. My base price is very low; I’m only asking this out of gratitude for your help in developing overseas Chinese communities.”

“You also know the number of tourists and the tourism potential in Sunset Town. Much of the town’s industries are under my control, so you understand how much establishing a resort would impact my enterprises…”

“Therefore, if your plan is to set up a resort without contributing anything—expecting to get it for free—I’m afraid I have to say sorry.”

After saying this, he closed the folder. If they couldn’t reach an agreement, everyone would go their separate ways.

Huang Xingzhi, Yang Zhilong, and their advisory team murmured for a while. Yang Zhilong finally said with a smile, “Mayor Wang’s conditions aren’t unreasonable. We overseas Chinese need to stick together and not bring shame to our ancestors, right, Mr. Huang?”

Huang Xingzhi replied frankly, “Yes. I was a bit petty earlier, focused only on negotiation. Since Brother Wang is sincere, I have to reciprocate. Our group accepts your terms.”

They shook hands. Another major project was about to begin in Sunset Town.

Wang Bo was pleased. Once the Liancheng Resort and Lincoln University were completed, tourism and academic collaboration could be established, attracting research institutions, which would greatly benefit the town’s development.

The Liancheng Group attached great importance to this project and hoped it could be completed quickly to capture the tertiary industry market in the Southern Hemisphere.

By the end of May, after completing all the formalities, the group immediately started the bidding process for construction companies, planning to begin work during winter.

In June, the youth horse racing event in Sunset Town reached a critical stage. A small casino in Oak City participated voluntarily. The casino’s motivation wasn’t charity—they saw profit potential. The horse race would bring them publicity and new customers, so the casino management team was very enthusiastic.

By early June, large posters were hung across Sunset Town to promote the race. Dale rode a red pony, Ron rode a black horse, and all the children were featured in posters either on horses, donkeys, or alpacas. Ten-meter-long banners were also displayed.

The casino rented hot air balloons, dropping long promotional banners from the sky—an unconventional marketing tool.

With media coverage, IKEA, the Red Cross, and the Salvation Army also promoted the event through their branches, attracting a large audience.

Despite cold winter weather on the South Island in early June, the number of tourists remained high, showing a huge increase compared to previous years. Hotels and inns in Sunset Town were fully booked again, and bars and cafes were crowded daily.

By the first weekend of mid-June, the race was ready to start. Wang Bo chose the rugby field as the venue.

Formal horse races require a track, and Sunset Town has a racetrack. Initially, the race was to be held there—after all, it was all ponies, and a short track would suffice.

However, ticket sales exceeded Wang Bo’s expectations. By early June, five thousand tickets had already sold, far more than the racetrack could accommodate.

So he decided to use the rugby field.

Although professional races aren’t held on grass, the mini-horses normally lived on grass, so after several trial runs on the rugby field, he found the ponies performed even better there.

Ultimately, over eight thousand tickets were sold, generating more than 200,000 in ticket revenue alone.

On Saturday morning, police, auxiliary police, and volunteer security began maintaining order at the rugby stadium as tourists and locals entered to watch the race.

Fifty temporary windows were set up for ticket holders to place bets.

Before the race, Wang Bo asked Hani, “How’s the betting going?”

“Total bets are around five million, mostly online. On-site betting is less than five hundred thousand,” Honey replied.

Wang Bo nodded. “That’s not bad.”

The crowd wouldn’t exceed ten thousand, mostly locals and tourists, not professional gamblers. They bet mainly for fun, spending at most a few dozen each. Still, receiving five million in bets surprised him. No wonder New Zealand cracks down on private gambling—the money-making potential is terrifying.

At 10 a.m., the pre-race performances began.

The Sunset Group returned to support the race, performing two songs.

In two years, the Sunset Group had become famous across Oceania, dominating the New Zealand music scene. They released albums quickly—roughly one per quarter—solidifying their strong influence.

Reddy’s powerful, penetrating voice filled the huge rugby stadium, and the audience joined in singing.

After the songs, the Māori performed their traditional war dance, led personally by Atulu, baring his chest in winter to show his dense tattoos, jumping and shouting.

Someone using binoculars exclaimed, “What the… Chinese tattoos? ‘Rising smoke over the north, dragon banner unfurled, horses neigh, sword aura like frost…’”

“Loyalty to the country?” another person asked in surprise.

It was a Chinese tourist. Wang Bo overheard and chuckled bitterly. Atulu’s tattoo was his fault—he hadn’t explained the meaning of the loyalty tattoo, and the naive kid had a Chinese tattoo artist put the whole verse on his back.

Ryan changed clothes and came out. “Hey, Boss, how was our singing just now?”

Wang Bo gave a thumbs-up. “Excellent. You need a bigger stage.”

Ryan smiled. “Well, I’ll tell you—our next album will be released starting in New York. The group plans to use us as their ace to enter the North American music market!”