HLM – Chapter 21 The Construction Team Arrives

So today’s breakfast was marsh chicken egg pancakes. He had taken out the clutch of eggs—six in total. They were slightly smaller than regular chicken eggs, with a faint green hue to the shells and a slightly rough surface.

Marsh chickens are highly active birds. They rarely stay in one place for long, unless they are incubating eggs. But if they’re incubating, the mother hen wouldn’t leave—her meals would be brought by the rooster.

Therefore, since this marsh chicken had left, it meant these six eggs were now abandoned, and would inevitably become food for grassland possums.

Well then, since they were going to be eaten anyway, might as well let Old Wang eat them.

He mixed the six eggs with some flour, added a bit of water and soy sauce, stirred it all together, and made egg pancakes. Because of the soy sauce, he didn’t even need side dishes to enjoy them with rice.

The aroma of marsh chicken eggs far surpassed that of domesticated chickens. These were genuine, pure, naturally raised eggs without any pollution. The resulting pancakes were golden and glossy, with a mouthwatering fragrance.

Old Wang sipped his porridge and took a bite of the pancake—soft and flavorful. It was just a pity he didn’t have his hometown’s spicy meat sauce. Otherwise, he couldn’t imagine a better breakfast than this.

Seeing how much he was enjoying himself, the parrot “Commander” stopped pecking at his grapes. The little guy’s beady eyes rolled around, staring intently at the pancake in Old Wang’s hand, clearly scheming something.

Old Wang held the pancake out toward him, and sure enough, Commander opened his beak and went in to peck.

Too bad for him, Old Wang was quicker. Just as the bird stretched out its neck, Old Wang stuffed the pancake into his mouth and laughed, “Little rascal, you think you can snatch food from your old man’s mouth?”

Commander had a fiery temper. Despite his small size, his voice was anything but. He flapped his wings angrily and squawked, “Ah! Ah! Your mom’s exploded!”

Hearing this, Old Wang rolled his eyes and scolded, “It’s not like I’m not giving you any, what are you screeching for? Look, aren’t there crumbs on the table? Go pick some up.”

He placed the little parrot on the table. Seeing the crumbs, Commander was overjoyed and lowered his head, pecking at them like a chick eating grain.

Being alone was dull, so Old Wang entertained himself.

Watching Commander happily pecking at the crumbs, Old Wang clasped his hands behind his back and, imitating a leader’s tone, said earnestly, “Child, to a wasteful bird, crumbs are round—they roll away and disappear. But to a thrifty bird, crumbs are flat—they can be stacked up piece by piece.”

Commander looked up and glared at him, “Ah! Ah! Your mom’s exploded!”

Though simple, this kind of daily life wasn’t boring. Whenever he had free time, Old Wang would check on his homestead, and sometimes a pleasant surprise would be waiting for him.

But such carefree days didn’t last long. On Thursday, Wang Bo received a call from Charlie. He said the officials from the highway authority and the construction team responsible for Highway 8 had arrived in Aocheng and asked him to meet with them.

So, the next morning, Old Wang set off with little Commander on an ultra-long-distance cross-country trip, spending half a day running from the castle to the small city.

Once he entered the boundaries of Aocheng, he was no longer running alone—many others were jogging too. At first, Wang Bo thought New Zealanders were just passionate about fitness. It wasn’t until he overheard some of their conversations that he realized they were warming up for the weekend sports meet.

After listening to their conversation, Old Wang suddenly remembered that the small-town sports meet was about to begin. Since he was already in the town, of course he had to check it out.

Upon entering the town, he first returned to the hotel he’d stayed at before. After taking a shower and tidying himself up, he headed to the city hall, where the construction team’s boss and the official in charge of the project were already waiting.

Wang Bo shook hands with everyone one by one. One of the officials took out the road construction approval document and asked him to sign it. After confirming the route and road conditions, he signed again on the authorization form. With that, the road construction could officially begin.

Old Wang found it a bit odd and asked, “Don’t we need to conduct a geological survey or something?”

The construction team boss told him that all the preliminary work had already been completed. The New Zealand government had been waiting a long time for Highway 8 to pass through this section.

This boss was a white middle-aged man in his forties, named Thomas Wesley. His actual identity was the head of roadworks at the New Zealand branch of Australia’s Leighton Holdings. The entire stretch of road passing through Sunset Town was under his management.

Leighton Holdings is the largest construction contractor in the Southern Hemisphere. Since New Zealand doesn’t have large-scale heavy industry and doesn’t develop related sectors, it relies on its “big brother” Australia for support in such areas.

That cleared things up for Old Wang—it explained why Charlie was so certain about the route of Highway 8.

Once the papers were signed, Wang Bo didn’t have to concern himself with it anymore. This was a national-level highway project—not something a small-town mayor had any say in.

When the weekend arrived, the small town turned lively and bustling. Banners and posters promoting the sports meet hung all over the streets and alleys. It was December—summer in New Zealand—so many people were dressed in cool clothing, sweating under the scorching sun as they exercised outdoors.

Wang Bo wanted to experience a foreign sports meet, so he changed into his athletic wear and jogged outside.

Over time, he had become quite familiar with the hotel owner and his wife. When he mentioned he was going to watch the sports meet, the owner gave him a bottle of sunscreen and told him where to catch the bus.

New Zealand’s public transportation system is notoriously bad—few buses, frequent delays, and sometimes drivers even change routes on their own. Wang Bo had heard Charlie talk about it, but he’d never experienced it firsthand.

This time, while waiting for the bus to Prince Street, he felt that maybe Charlie had exaggerated a bit, because the buses actually seemed to come fairly frequently.

After the bus had been running for a while, Wang Bo was admiring the sports posters outside the window when a crisp and sweet little girl’s voice rang out:

“Auntie Sunita, why does Prince Street feel farther away? Why aren’t we there yet?”

The plump female ticket collector chuckled, “Dale, you silly little cutie, you got on in the wrong direction.”

Wang Bo found the voice familiar. He turned around and saw, four rows behind him, a soft and chubby-faced little girl—it was the same little Dale who had asked him and Charlie to help retrieve her paper airplane that day.

Hearing the ticket collector’s words, the little girl sniffled and puffed up her cheeks in frustration. With great effort, her short legs kicked and wriggled as she turned herself around and sat backward on the seat, resting her chubby chin on the backrest. She pouted and asked:

“Auntie Sunita, am I sitting right now? You have to tell me when we get to Prince Street!”

Everyone on the bus was charmed by her adorableness and smiled warmly. Wang Bo couldn’t help but laugh too.

The ticket collector shook her head helplessly. “You adorable little scatterbrain. How could your sister let you go out alone? Alright, Old Kant, stop the bus—our little princess Dale needs to get off.”

Before the bus had even reached the next stop, the driver was already stepping on the brakes. Wang Bo had to admit—Charlie was right. New Zealand’s bus drivers were something else.

But the driver was even more impressive than Wang Bo expected. He didn’t just brake and stop—he actually reversed the bus, turned it around, and drove back to the previous stop to drop off the little girl. He even gave her instructions on which bus to take from there.

As the bus started up again, Wang Bo was still replaying the little girl’s cuteness in his mind. But when he recalled her initial question, a sudden jolt of realization struck him.

Wait a minute—she asked about Prince Street?

He was heading to Prince Street too!

“Oh no!” Old Wang blurted out instinctively.

Commander immediately opened his beak and echoed, “Oh no! Oh no!”