Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Michelle’s words made Zhang Lisheng’s heart shudder, his body obviously turned stiff.
Pensively, he turned his head at the girl, only to find that the girl had already walked up the stairs.
Then, his mother’s shout of “The fried meat patties are done, come to eat, baby!” interrupted his thoughts.
“Mom, your fried beef patties are really the best in the world!” The young man snapped back to reality and ran into the kitchen, sniffing the alluring smell of meat. After chowing down till he was half full, he retreated to his room early with an excuse of an early long journey tomorrow.
He strode along the dim stairs up to the second floor. When he saw the stairs leading to the girl’s bedroom on the third floor, Michelle’s strange question popped up in his mind, eliciting a thought from him to ask her thoroughly about it.
However, he paused, hesitated for a moment and in the end, he shook his head before walking straight to his room. After all, Michelle’s status of ‘family member’ was too special so in the case where he could not use any tough means, he might as well just pretend to be dumb.
At noon the next day, after pretending to pack up, the young man drove to his factory in the suburbs under the watchful teary eyes of his mother, after bidding goodbye to his family.
On the way, Zhang Lisheng called his supervisor and after asking about Professor Effiny’s conditions, he explained the situation that he was facing before finally adding, “For this reason, I plan to go to Shrimp B1 Island right now to avoid the limelight. This should be the best approach to making concessions in order to gain advantages.”
“This is a good idea, Lisheng. Looks like you have a sly and clever manager. In that case, just go back to the island,” Steven pondered for a moment before replying. “Judging from Effiny’s situation so far, I’m afraid it’ll take some time for her to regain her consciousness. How about this? I’ll send you an electronic authorization to entrust you to temporarily host our lab and make it easier for you to do things. I think our Dean, Dr. Maggette, and President Hannes will not have any objection on this.”
It was no doubt a very ridiculous thing to grant the right to preside over the independent science laboratory of the most prestigious university in the US or the top ten prestigious universities in the whole world to a graduate student who did not have any academic title yet, even if it was only temporary.
However, given that the Stanford Biological Laboratory located on the supernatural realm’s island was still in the preparatory stage, there were only two official members. Under the situation where the laboratory leader must stay in New York for personal reasons, it seemed to be just a matter of course for Zhang Lisheng to obtain temporary authority over the lab.
Of course, if it was not for his big donations, Stanford might have sent other biologists to host the lab on Shrimp B1 Island.
“Thank you, professor. You must rest enough and the situation will be better!”
“I hope so, child! I hope so… I heard a honking sound. Are you driving right now? In that case, let’s hang up if there’s nothing else.”
“Alright! See you, Professor!” Knowing that his supervisor was unwilling to expose too much of his fragile side, Zhang Lisheng hung up the phone sensibly.
The call was much more beneficial than he expected. The temporary authorization to host the laboratory automatically granted by Steven gave the young man almost complete freedom, allowing him to bring whatever absurd materials to Shrimp B1 Island in the name of experimental materials.
“This is an unexpected surprise…” The sun was shining outside the car window. Zhang Lisheng muttered while driving the steering wheel under a bright sun before turning into the road directly to the suburbs.
When he reached the factory, he brought Charlie and Edward who were sitting in the reception hall into the office. His first sentence was, “Charlie, you don’t have to contact Professor Steven anymore. Right now, the Stanford lab on Shrimp B1 Island is temporarily hosted by me. I’ll give you another list now so please prepare these materials and ship them to the island within five days. ”
“Yes, boss! Congratulations on being given the opportunity to host an independent laboratory in the first semester of your college. I think this qualification should allow you to get the ‘Doctor of Science’ degree within one year,” Charlie joked.
“Oh, maybe not yet. After all, to become a ‘doctor’ (Ph.D.), I still need to come out with an original paper. Fortunately, originality is not lacking at all on Shrimp B1 Island.” Zhang Lisheng sat in the office and dexterously made a list of supplies on the computer before handing it to Charlie and saying with a chuckle.
Then, he turned his eyes to Edward. “My Mr. Legal Officer, is the ticket to Shrimp B1 Island ready?”
“It’ll depart at 3 pm, boss. Right now, the ferry to the supernatural realm has become very relaxed. Most of the passengers have transformed from ‘new cowboys’ who have dreams to the employees of multinational companies. This time, I believe that you’ll have a refreshing feeling on this ride.”
“Edward, you mean, the big companies have started to make their moves after the general public has tested the waters?” Zhang Lisheng was stunned for a moment before asking in thought.
“Yes, boss! More than two hundred years ago, there were also many US cowboys who had the ability to rely on their passion, strong body, a pioneering spirit, a rifle, and a caravan to go to Texas to drive the Indians away in order to get land and wealth. However, it seems that the ‘new cowboys’ who have embarked on the island of the supernatural realm who had such optimistic ideas will undoubtedly fail and even die. Only an organized, disciplined, and, more importantly, planned powerful development could be said as a rational, true development. The government has long known about this and this is why it has concentrated all of their power on Shrimp World No. 1 while opening Shrimp World No. 2 to the public. In short, boss, everything could be said as only beginning.” Edward ended his answer with a meaningful sentence.
“It has only begun for everybody else but we already have a good start!” Zhang Lisheng became silent for a moment before shrugging and saying, “Charlie, since other investors have started to make their moves, we shall not fall behind and we can’t just let that five million USD to go to waste. Yeah! Send a few courageous employees to open up shop on Shrimp B1 Island first!”
“Yes, boss!” Charlie said immediately. “I’ll do this tomorrow.”
Zhang Lisheng nodded and saw that the hour and minute hands of the clock on the desk had already reached the position of 1:50 in the afternoon. He hurriedly stood up from the office chair. “Time passes really fast. It’s almost time for me to go to the new port now.”
“Miss Maddie should have already prepared the car. I’ll go have a look.” Charlie smiled and stood up from the chair before hurrying down the stairs.
When Zhang Lisheng heard Charlie mention Maddie whom he had deliberately kept an evasive attitude from despite meeting her eyes on the first floor of the office building just now, he unnaturally coughed and went through half of his office to the refrigerator, before taking out an iced Coke and opening it.
Right at this moment, he saw a tall and seductive figure gently pushing the door open, appearing in the office.
“The car is ready, Lisheng. Are you going to leave now?” Then, Maddie who was wearing a very stylish beige plaid suit, with an elegant and professional feminine aura looked at Zhang Lisheng from the door and asked.
Noticing that the girl’s attitude towards him was no different than before, Zhang Lisheng finished the can of iced Coke and felt much at ease before answering, “It’s almost time now. I’ll leave now.”
Then, he strode out of the office.
A regular minibus commuting in the factory was parked downstairs. The young man sat alone in the car and rolled his window down to wave and say goodbye to his manager and the legal officer. “Charlie, Edward, goodbye! remember what I just said. Don’t delay those things.”
“Don’t worry, boss! We know what to do.” The LS’ general manager and chief legal officer waved at the car and replied at the same time. At this moment, Maddie, who was by the side, suddenly ran to the side of the car and kissed Zhang Lisheng’s cheek gently while whispering in his ears, “Be careful, baby!”
The car then started and drove to the new New York port.
Sitting in the middle of the bus by the window, Zhang Lisheng looked at the ever-changing scene of the factory, wilderness, to lake outside of the car in a daze, recalling the sudden kiss Maddie planted on him by seizing the right timing that seemed to be just a goodbye between friends but at the same time had an ambiguous meaning. He could not help but feel confused over it.
It was only until he had arrived at the new New York port and began to walk on the deck of the ferry leading to the supernatural realm and looked at the mighty ocean connected to the sky that his heavy heart finally became at ease.
“Zhang Lisheng, oh, Zhang Lisheng! I really don’t know what got into you recently! There are a lot of serious works awaiting for you on Shrimp B1 Island but you actually have the time to think of such boring things now. This is really f*cked up!” Zhang Lisheng muttered and shook his head, stopping his mind from running wild. Standing on the deck and looking around, he realized that it was just as Edward described, there are many groups of young and middle-aged people who knew each other and were gathered together in groups of 30 to 50 people by his side.
In comparison, there were much fewer of those passengers who came with three to five of their family members or friends.
Just as he was looking around, the ship’s whistle suddenly sounded. Under the escort of the battleships, the cruise ship slowly started to leave the port, carrying a full load of passengers who were filled with excitement, worries, and anticipation to ride along the wind and waves to the mysterious distance.
After several dozen minutes, the ship slowly docked at the port of the supernatural realm’s island. Looking down from faraway, Zhang Lisheng noticed that despite the fact that he had only left for less than two weeks, the situation of the gathering place had already become completely different.
The streets that were filled with the non-commissioned army who bartered with the natives during their holiday and the official bartering spot that had a white-headed eagle flag had already disappeared.
The small scale private shops that had slow business in the past had become regular in size and busy.
Even so, the number of indigenous people in the gathering place was still a lot less. It was obvious that the civilian power could not fill the gap left behind after the disappearance of the official bartering spot.
