The Great Worm Lich

Zhang Lisheng kept his mouth shut while Maddie was still hesitating. He just quietly looked at the girl until she gave in and picked the cheque up with both of her hands shaking. She folded it in half and put it in her pocket, Zhang Lisheng then tossed $20 on the table and said, “Wipe your tears and get me a hot beverage.” Maddie wiped her tears off with a pale face and bought a hot beverage at the counter. She then gave it to Zhang Lisheng.

“Didn’t you see I gave you $20? Get yourself a cup as well.” The young man glanced at the girl and took a sip of the hot beverage leisurely. “It’s too cold outside, I’ll send you home after we’re done drinking here.”

Maddie was stunned and looked at the young man in front of her with shock. She noticed that Zhang Lisheng whipped out his smartphone without paying too much attention and began browsing the New York map. He was looking at public land that belonged to the New York government. Just when he was looking at the suburbs on the map, he heard the girl’s weak voice all of a sudden, “After I get home, do I have to come to you regular… regularly?”

“You coming to me regularly? Does that make you my henchman or me your henchman? I’ll contact you naturally when there are errands to run in the future. Put in all of your effort as a henchman when you do it by then…”

“What kind of errands?”

“How would I know what kind of errand I would have in the future? Stop bugging me, I’m looking at the map.”

“What are you looking for? I can help.”

“You’re quick in changing character. That’s right, you should do all of the little things from now on. Label all of the public lands belonging to the New York government, the surface has to be above 10 hectares and the traffic has to be convenient. Email me by tonight.”

“There should be an app that you can download online that does this for you directly, it can be done in a matter of moments.” Maddie took the phone from Zhang Lisheng’s hand and returned it to him after playing with it for a couple of minutes. Zhang Lisheng then looked at the screen and noticed that there were up to 100 lands labelled in black. There were even detailed labels stating the lands’ distance from New York City, which he was stunned to see.

“It seems like a qualified henchman’s much more useful than I imagined…” he mumbled to himself and looked at Maddie next to him whose emotion he could not identify. “Well done, I’ll send you home now.”

The worst case scenarios that she expected did not happen, not even one. The girl who was silent for a long time took the initiative to ask all of a sudden on the way home, “Mr. Lisheng, why did you label those public lands on the map?”

“I have a slaughterhouse factory that needs expansion, I’m looking for a suitable place.”

“I don’t know that much about the slaughtering business but I think it’s very difficult to find a public space for a large-scale factory close to New York City…”

“That’s none of my concern whether it’s difficult or not, my friend will solve that for me naturally.”

“That’s right, I can tell that you’re an Iron Hero and not Spiderman. Of course you know many powerful friends.”

“What?”

“Nothing, I just thought since you can pick any land that you like, it’s best that you build it on land that’s close to the road and the ocean no matter what kind of factory it is.”

Maddie’s idea was secretly compatible with Zhang Lisheng’s. He then asked while feeling interested, “The reason for doing that?”

“It’s simple, as soon as the factory is expanding like a snowball, there’s more potential in cargo such as building a small harbor…”

The girl’s willingness to say a lot to show how useful she was was just a facade to conceal the insecurity she secretly had. They arrived at the filthy area close to Chinatown where Maddie stayed as the both of them continued to chat.

“I’ll consider what you’ve said. Also, I’ll email you whatever I need you to do in the future. Text me your email address later.”

“Thank you so much, Mr. Lisheng. Really…” Maddie nodded and said that before getting off the car.

However, Zhang Lisheng said calmly, “This is just fair trade, you don’t have to thank me.”

He left after that. It was evening when he arrived home. He returned to his room after dinner and began cultivating the secret method. The night went by in his cultivation state that seemed like he was sleeping but not. On the next morning, Zhang Lisheng dressed casually and drove to the New York government office located at Broadway Avenue as promised. There was Battery Park on the south and Manhattan Island on the north, it was an important place where American theatres and musicals came from. There were theatres of all sizes scattered on both sides of the avenue, it seemed like there was music playing in the air.

Zhang Lisheng was a little surprised to find that the New York government town hall was here in the beginning. However, he came to understand that theatre and music was just a part of the long Broadway Avenue as he drove along the streets with buildings on both sides that had an old yet neat design while the noises of bustling crowds could be heard in the morning.

Just when he figured that, his Ford Adventurer turned onto a road as he followed the car’s navigation feature and arrived in front of an old British-style building. Looking from the outside, the old building was considered small. There was a low steel fence around the building but there was no security guard at the entrance. It was considered an open-style structure, which was where the New York government office located.

The dashboard in his Adventurer showed that it was 9:48 a.m. at the moment. After parking the car at a public car park nearby, Zhang Lisheng walked to the famous arched front hall of the town hall, following the people who were visiting. The journey was smooth, it was 10 a.m. sharp when he arrived.

Sunday was the usual opening day for the New York government town hall, there were many tourists excitedly taking photos of the front hall. Zhang Lisheng blended in the crowd and looked around, he heard a happy chuckle behind him all of a sudden, “Being on time is another important characteristic of a successful person. It seems like you’ll definitely be successful in the future, Mr. Zhang Lisheng.”

“You’re on time just like me. Good morning Mr. Howick.” Zhang Lisheng turned around and smiled while looking at the big hunk who walked towards him from the entrance.

“Good morning Mr. Lisheng, I would like to thank you in person. You saved my whole family.” Mr. Howick, who dressed like a tourist in an inconspicuous dirty-gray jacket, lowered his voice as he arrived next to the young man. His face became serious. “I can’t imagine at all if I were to lose my daughter after losing a son…”

“Mr. Howick, I just did what I did within my ability…”

“It might really be like that to you but it has a completely different meaning to me. Alright, this is not a good place to talk. Let’s get down to business.” Howick brought Zhang Lisheng out of the arched hall and headed towards the corridor. After turning here and there and climbing the stairs up and down twice, they arrived at an inconspicuous town hall’s office.

“It’s here.” The office wooden door had a sign with the words ‘New York City Land Administration and Management Department’ written on it. Howick straightened his collars, trying to make the jacket he was wearing look more formal. ‘Bang bang bang…’, he knocked on the door.

“Cough cough, please come in.” It was supposed to be a rest day today, a young man’s low voice came out of the office that had no people inside. Howick opened the door and walked to a nearby table directly. He gave a friendly hug to the plump, bald man who looked like he was in his 30s before snapping back to his senses. “You must be Mr. Thomas. I’m Howick, I heard about you from Mark a long time ago. My old buddy told me that you’re his most credible subordinate and good friend. Birds of a feather flock together, I can tell that we can be friends by looking at you.”

“Oh oh, yes Mr. Howick.” Thomas was feeling a little lost from the friendly hug that came out of nowhere from the strong and big man who he met for the first time gave. However, the anxiety he felt was almost gone right now. “It was Mr. Mark who asked me to wait in the office during the weekends…”

“Call me Howick. I’m so sorry that you have to work because of my friend’s urgent matter. If you have the time, I hope that we could go to the Dumbo House next Saturday to play poker. Go relax. You’ll see many familiar faces by then.”

Inviting him to a poker game actually meant that he was opening up his social circle to Thomas. People who were not familiar with that would hardly get the meaning. Fortunately, although Thomas lived with a lifetime pension, as a civil servant who had no right to vote or to be voted, he knew very well that he did not live in a vacuum.

“It’s my pleasure to be invited by you Mr. Howick, I’ll definitely be there next Saturday.” He was clearly stunned for a moment from the reward that he did not expect and said passionately, “Let’s get down to business instead of delaying it. Is this your friend…”

“Zhang Lisheng, a very young and talented industrialist. He had just received a handsome guarantee loan from Mr. Dolby Douglin and he’s planning to expand his slaughterhouse.”

“Mr. Dolby Douglin? The… That Mr. Dolby Douglin from Wall Street!”

“I don’t think there’s another Dolby Douglin in America apart from him.” A grim flash appeared in Howick’s eyes but he joked anyway.

“Then you’re really admirable,” Thomas said feeling honored, he was much more passionate now when he turned his head to look at Zhang Lisheng. “Mr. Zhang Lisheng, since you’re here for me, you must want to pick a suitable land from our New York government’s public land reserve.”

“That’s right, Mr. Thomas,” Zhang Lisheng nodded and said.

“Did you see anything you like?”

“Yes, the beach land three kilometers on the west side of Totley Town.”

“Totley, Totley…” Thomas mumbled while browsing the land Zhang Lisheng mentioned on the computer on his office table. He then said all of a sudden after looking at it attentively for a while, “Mr. Lisheng, I think I roughly know your requirements. Convenient transportation on land and bigger potential in development when it’s close to the ocean. Big space but a horrible situation, it won’t cause any backlash from environment enthusiasts. The land in Totley Town isn’t bad but I have a better recommendation. What do you think of this land in Mutteslow? It’s also close to the sea, it’s even bigger and the transfer fee’s cheaper, especially since the land’s utility rate is the lowest D-Rank. You’ll be able to use more land for your factory if you don’t offer many job opportunities. You’ll also enjoy preemptive privileges with the same condition.”