Chapter 326
Chapter 326: Thriving
While Yu Sheng fought a desperate battle against a mountain of interstellar navigation regulations, Bai Li Qing’s “technical support staff” finally started arriving one after another.
The first batch included familiar faces—Engineer Sun and the engineering crew that came with him. They were the same people who had helped the orphanage’s children build the temporary camp back then.
There were also dozens of deep-space navigation experts.
Deep inside the valley, on the starship docking platform near the black forest, Engineer Sun stood with his head tilted back, staring at the pitch-black giant tower jammed into the platform’s “slot.” He stared for a long time, awe written all over his face.
“Last time I came, you only had one big platform in the middle of the valley,” Engineer Sun said at last, finally lowering his gaze. He looked at Yu Sheng with deep feeling. “And you built a toilet on it. Now it hasn’t even been that long, and you’ve built a whole starport here already?! And you even turned the old platform into a pyramid…”
“I’ve told you a hundred times, that wasn’t a toilet,” Yu Sheng said, the corner of his mouth twitching. “But I’ll give you this—at least you admit my new transit hub is a pyramid. That’s not bad. Little Red Riding Hood and the others all said it looks like a grave mound.”
“I was going to say that too,” Engineer Sun blurted, almost laughing. Then he saw Yu Sheng’s expression and scrambled to patch it up. “But honestly, it is pretty impressive. If someone insists it’s a grave mound, then it’s a wonder-level tomb. I used to take my team to ‘other places’ to help build a museum. That museum was built right on top of an alien tomb, and that tomb looked a lot like what you built. Locally it was even called one of their eight ancient landmarks…”
Yu Sheng’s face turned green. “You can stop ‘helping’ now.”
Engineer Sun cleared his throat and dragged the topic back to business. “The director told me: from now on, all my projects revolve around your valley. Whether it’s building the starport, adding basic infrastructure, or doing interior work and utilities for your hub, you just come to me. You tell me what you need, I’ll give you a plan as fast as I can, and the bureau will issue special funds. Don’t worry about the schedule. This is an internal project, so we’ll use whatever good tech we’ve got.”
Yu Sheng listened in silence, then lifted his head and looked at the scene nearby: heavy six-legged robots laying thick cables around the starport; construction workers in powered exoskeletons setting foundations on the platform; engineering shuttles in midair hauling materials toward the center of the valley, looking like alien ships themselves.
He tugged at his mouth. “Yeah, I can tell. When you were working here last time, you didn’t bring this kind of setup. You’ve been hiding your true strength.”
“Different job,” Engineer Sun said with a cheerful grin, pride plain on his face. “Building a starport isn’t the same as throwing up a few temporary houses. I can take any job, with any kind of people. You want me to go to Boundary City and build a disguised civilian house at some otherworld gate? No problem. You tell me some colony is being besieged by rebels and you want me to drop a couple orbital fortresses over there… anyway, it’s not like we don’t have armed engineering ships.”
As he spoke, the middle-aged man—who looked no different from an ordinary site contractor—rummaged in his pocket, pulled out a business card, and handed it to Yu Sheng.
“Save my private number. Next time you go to ‘other places,’ you might need it. As long as it’s within the Borderland sphere of influence, even if I don’t have hands free, I can still help you contact the other seventeen teams.”
Yu Sheng took the card and put it away carefully, then glanced again at the docked giant tower beside them.
“Your director suggested I change this ship’s… aesthetic,” he said thoughtfully. “She said the design screams Hermitage Order style. If I take it out, it’ll cause trouble.”
“I heard,” Engineer Sun said, nodding. “Old Liu is in charge of that. He’s from the aerospace vessel engineering department, and he’ll report here tomorrow.” He looked curious. “But I do want to hear how you plan to change it. I don’t know ships that well, but I know a bit. With a ‘special-fit ship’ like this, the range of modifications is usually limited.”
“I know. I’m just changing the paint, adding casing in key areas—stuff like that,” Yu Sheng said, remembering the conversation he’d had at home with Foxy and Irene.
This was the Hotel’s first real “big item,” the household’s first heavy-duty vehicle, and both Irene and Foxy had been wildly enthusiastic. Especially when they learned there’d be a modification plan—those two got so loud it was like a festival.
Irene said the first thing was that the tower’s black, villain-looking paint job had to go. She suggested pink. If not pink, then magenta.
Foxy hoped the ship could show the dignity of an immortal—install a stargazing pavilion at the top, then add some colorful auspicious clouds around it.
Later, the two of them reached a consensus: they should advertise the Hotel too. And the Hotel’s biggest signboard was Yu Sheng himself, so they needed a hologram projector on the tower’s body to loop Yu Sheng’s giant headshot around the ship…
Put it all together and the plan became: a pink giant tower floating through space, a pavilion on top, magenta clouds swirling around it, and Yu Sheng’s face circling the pink column over and over.
Yu Sheng imagined it and decided that, sure, it might not look like a villain anymore, but any villain who saw it would call the police. He’d rather be shot down by local air defenses.
Engineer Sun had no idea why Yu Sheng suddenly froze. Seeing him stop mid-sentence, he hesitated, then couldn’t help asking, “So, I—”
“Uh, it’s nothing. I spaced out,” Yu Sheng said quickly, rubbing his forehead and shaking the terrifying image out of his head. “Where were we?”
“Paint. And adding a shell. That stuff.”
“Right. Paint,” Yu Sheng repeated, rubbing his forehead again. “Once the ship engineering department people arrive, have them add some white decorative lines. Take off those creepy spikes and chains on top—or change them into normal bridges. That should be enough.”
“Just that?”
“Yeah. Just that,” Yu Sheng said with the determination of a man prepared to find another ship full of cultists and blow it up again. “And remind the engineering department: if Foxy and Irene come over and secretly try to get them to ‘add extra stuff,’ they absolutely cannot agree. And they have to tell me immediately!”
Engineer Sun looked confused, but he still nodded, half-dazed. “Oh. Okay.”
Yu Sheng finally relaxed. He watched the platform—now in full construction mode—and pictured what it would look like once it became a real starport. Then he casually pushed open a door and stepped through.
He arrived in the little town in the valley’s central zone.
After a period of construction and management by the fairy tale members, the “town” finally looked like an actual town.
…Maybe a little too much like an actual town.
Beyond the densely arranged temporary houses, a whole cluster of new buildings had appeared. They were all “new homes” the fairy tale children built according to their own ideas. The children’s imaginations ran wild, so their houses looked just as strange.
Treehouses suspended in midair and colorful “candy houses” were only the basics. There were also stone houses shaped like miniature castles (Snow White’s), a “pumpkin house” molded into a giant pumpkin (Cinderella’s), and caves piled up to look like dragon nests (Dragonslayer’s)…
He even saw a massive cat climbing frame—over two hundred square meters, three stories high, a maze-like structure. In the middle sat a basket the size of a shoebox, and the King was curled inside it. Two sycophants stood on either side, opening cans of cat food for it.
The whole town gave off the feeling of, No one can control us here, so we’re going to do whatever makes us happy. There was also a faint vibe of wild, revenge-like freedom—what happens when you’ve been suppressed for far too long, and then the pressure finally vanishes.
Compared to all that, Little Red Riding Hood, who had obediently built a simple two-story wooden cabin, was honestly a rare breath of normal.
The other breath of normal was Mermaid. She was still living in the old temporary house assigned to her, except she’d dug a massive water pit behind it. Rumor said she went to the pit every day to practice swimming. In one hour of practice, she could stay underwater for fifty-nine minutes, and on the last minute someone had to fish her out…
Yu Sheng climbed up onto the roof of the “castle” in the deepest part of town and looked out over a town that had changed completely and expanded to several times its original size.
The expansion itself was normal. The real issue was that those bizarre “buildings” took up a ridiculous amount of space.
He couldn’t help smiling.
A rustling sound came from the side.
Yu Sheng looked over and saw a ball of golden hair creeping along the dark outer wall of the castle. It crawled to his feet, and then a young lady with a sunny grin popped out from the hair.
“Bro, you came to sunbathe?”
“Taking half a day off,” Yu Sheng said, his gaze drifting back over the town. “You guys… built this pretty fast.”
“The kingdom craftsman summoned by the King is amazing, and the Thunder Titan helped too,” Rapunzel said happily. “Isn’t it pretty? A lot of the houses were designed by everyone together!”
Yu Sheng didn’t speak for a moment. He stared into the distance for a long time, then smiled after thinking carefully. “Yeah. Very fairy tale.”
“Very fairy tale?” Rapunzel tilted her head, like she didn’t understand at first. But soon she laughed too. “Of course. It’s the fairy tale headquarters, after all. Red Hood said there’s a word for it… oh, right. We need our own signature style. That’s the word, right? She’s always so serious about stuff like that.”
As she spoke, she propped her hands behind her on the castle roof and looked up at the bright sky. Her waterfall of golden hair spilled down from the roof, and her smile grew brighter.
“That serious girl turns eighteen tomorrow.”