HLM – Chapter 214 The Heart of the Highway

After lunch, Wang Bo headed to work. After all, he was the town mayor. Even though there wasn’t much official business to handle, he couldn’t be skipping work all the time.

Little Hani hitched a ride with him, and the two of them arrived at the town together.

Recently, the earthquake had been cleverly leveraged to promote Sunset Town. Thanks to Wang Bo and his Zhuang Ding, more people had come to know about this beautiful, newly established town on the South Island.

New residents continued to arrive — one or two households each day. Naturally, the people coming now were all targeting Highway No. 8, drawn by the business opportunities this emerging highway promised.

This was a crucial turning point for Sunset Town. Besides Highway No. 8, the town had no other industry to provide profit for residents. If people couldn’t make money or live comfortably here, who would want to move in?

This weighed heavily on Wang Bo’s mind. Hani tried to comfort him. “Lately I’ve been studying your country’s culture. I came across a great saying: You can’t eat hot tofu in a hurry. Mayor, our town is really small, everything is just getting started. It’ll get better — you need patience.”

Wang Bo shrugged. He had patience — what he lacked was a promising development direction, and that left him feeling uncertain.

The town’s construction was progressing steadily. After China Road was completed, America Road was also nearly done. From Highway 8 southward, a new road was being built, connecting with Highway 85 and passing through Louis Town as a midpoint, thus linking Highway 8 with Highway 85 and providing access to Dunedin.

At the same time, urban development was also moving forward. The bank building was almost finished, and the residential housing was basically complete. Dozens of empty prefab homes had been erected along China Road. Once they were renovated, it would become a cozy, beautiful neighborhood.

After the usual morning meetup with Hani, Wang Bo was about to head to his office when he noticed Little Hani still standing there. He turned back and asked, “Aren’t you coming with me?”

His relationship with his father was still tense, though better than before. When he came to town, he didn’t stay at Hani’s office but preferred Wang Bo’s.

The computer had arrived. Though the smart-city network wasn’t yet connected, Little Hani could still play offline games…

The teenager shrugged, pulled out a wrapped bag, and handed it to his father. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but in the end stiffly muttered, “Wang made these. They taste good. You can try some.”

Hani was momentarily stunned. He opened the bag to see a few marinated eggs. He wanted to say something, but like before, the words just wouldn’t come out.

Watching this, Wang Bo smiled. Little Hani glanced at him and stubbornly said, “I still hate him, that bastard!”

Wang Bo waved his hand. “Yeah, yeah, I know you hate him. I’m smiling for another reason. You know, I’ve realized you guys all really like marinated eggs. Honestly, they’re not hard to make. I could teach you. What do you say about opening a little deli or something?”

Little Hani couldn’t stay idle forever. He wasn’t like Little Bartier — he was already fifteen or sixteen, not a twelve-year-old anymore. He didn’t have some billionaire CEO dad either. He needed a proper path forward.

Returning to school was out of the question. Though he was still a minor, he’d been expelled for bullying and harassing underage classmates.

Now, the kid just helped clean the castle and walk Wang Bo’s dogs. Wang Bo provided him food and lodging plus a bit of pocket money — about a hundred bucks a week.

Little Hani was pretty content with this life. He used to be a wild one, so suddenly settling down didn’t sit well with him. But Bowen had been staying by his side. Bowen was great at spinning tales — he boasted about his adventures across America, earning the boy’s admiration and keeping him grounded.

Later, as the Beebe brothers and other cowboys arrived, there were even more people for Little Hani to admire — all of them world-class braggarts.

But as for the deli business, Little Hani wasn’t interested. “I’d rather go raise cattle and sheep with Ian and the others. I don’t wanna sell marinated food.”

Wang Bo shrugged. “Fine, suit yourself.”

Back at the office, Wang Bo pulled out his work log to review past tasks and plan for the future.

At 2 p.m., Anderson, the convenience store manager, gave him a call, saying someone had filed a complaint.

Wang Bo slapped the table. “What the hell? Someone’s rebelling now? Who dared to complain about me? Let’s go see!”

He was working from the police office today, a bit of a walk from the town management committee. As he stepped outside, he saw a woman angrily yelling at Hani in front of the committee building.

Wang Bo rushed over. He knew Hani’s temper — like a firecracker, one spark and boom.

But to his surprise, Hani was quite calm. He was slightly bent forward, listening attentively, nodding frequently, and gently patting the woman’s shoulder as if comforting her.

Seeing Wang Bo arrive, the woman gave him a glance and left.

“What’s going on? Why’d she leave as soon as I showed up?” Wang Bo asked, puzzled.

“Nothing serious,” Hani replied with a hint of schadenfreude. “Remember that roadside garden project we did recently? Some dirt got scattered on the road, and no one’s cleaned it up for a week, so she came to complain — about you.”

“Damn… this one’s on me,” Wang Bo sighed. “Alright, I’ll handle it. Do I need to apologize?”

“No need,” Hani said. “I made a promise on your behalf. She’s willing to wait. Let’s just send someone to clean it up.”

Wang Bo called Bowen, who was working at the ranch, and had him come to town to hire some Maori workers for odd jobs and clean the road.

The Maori liked this kind of work — a full day’s labor earned them enough money to enjoy two days of drinking afterward.

Bowen had become quite adept at these assistant tasks. He took care of things quickly and returned to the office, where he and Wang Bo started a game of chess.

Two people play chess, three play Dou Dizhu, four play poker — this was Wang Bo’s official entertainment policy for his staff.

That afternoon, he casually opened the “Heart of the Lord” interface and saw the draw was available again.

Rubbing his hands excitedly, he clicked — the pointer spun, slowed down, and finally landed on “Heart of the Territory.”

A pulsing “Heart of the Highway” emerged…

It looked like a strip of asphalt road glowing faintly green — about 20 centimeters long and 4 or 5 centimeters wide, with dividing lines in the middle. It looked just like a miniature stretch of real road.

Seeing it, Wang Bo burst into a smile. Maybe rubbing his hands did bring good luck. He’d been waiting for this Heart of the Highway for a while — and finally, he got it.

Without hesitation, he placed it on China Road. He wasn’t sure how long a stretch this heart could affect — hopefully, it would influence Highway 8, China Road, and the under-construction America Road all at once.