The Great Worm Lich

Tina quickly passed by while the weather was gradually turning warm. Zhang Lisheng wore a gray unlined top while standing on a thick cement base that was covering the saline-alkali ground under the warm sunlight. He was listening to a white architect with a big nose that wore a hardhat as he held a one-meter wide blueprint. “Mr. Lisheng, thank… thank you once again for this opportunity. This slaughterhouse will be the best work of my life. When it’s done, it’ll change the trend of the entire American livestock industry. Imagine this, the barren land before us will soon have an intensive slaughterhouse that challenges the old traditions. By then, those people who are high and mighty who… who look down on us architects…”

“Mr. Welling, let’s not talk so far into the future just yet. I’ll need billions of dollars to complete all of your designs, it’s something that’s not going to happen that easily. I’m coming to you today because I’m hoping that you could design a pipe that links the ecological waste’s gully from the factory straight to the ocean before you start the first phase of construction. Its diameter has to be at least 20 meters.”

“Oh-Oh… That’s… that’s a major modification Mr. Lisheng. It’s a big modification…” Welling was stunned as he said while his expression changed through various states.

“I can tell that you misunderstood what I mean, your face is telling me all of it,” Zhang Lisheng said with an understanding tone. “I’m not suggesting this pipe to pollute the ocean but for something else. Think about it Mr. Welling, a large-scale slaughterhouse that’s less than 30km from New York City would have very strict supervision from the EPA. Moreover, one could easily see it with their naked eyes as soon as the blood gushes into the ocean. I didn’t spend over 40 million dollars to get a penalty that’s going to cost me billions and also get sent behind bars for a while.”

“So… so what is it for?”

“I’m sorry, it’s the core confidential secret of the biological science company that I founded… Okay, you’re a credible person Welling. I’m asking you to dig the pipe to collect some kind of bacteria in the ocean water. I can’t explain any further, what I told you just now is the reason why I’m doing this. You definitely can’t reveal this to anyone. This sounds ridiculous but it’s very informative to the people of the same industry.”

“Don’t worry Mr. Lisheng, your secret is safe with me. I definitely won’t tell anyone about this,” Welling’s plump face showed satisfaction from being trusted and said immediately in a tit for tat manner. “Although the factory’s much higher than sea level, the deepest point of the underground storage pit is much lower than sea level. It’s not difficult to design a pipe that goes straight to the ocean, let me do the calculations right now.”

He squatted on the ground directly and laid a piece of sketch paper flat. He then played with a protractor he retrieved from his pocket. “The pipe must have an open and close function, and that requires mechanical control. If it’s under sea level…” He fell into deep thought as he mumbled to himself.

Zhang Lisheng smiled while looking at the architect who was fully immersed in his work, he then began looking around the construction site. At the moment, there were tens of connecting rectangular pits that were 40 to 50 meters deep and over 100 meters long on the saline-alkali ground close to the ocean. Many workers were working on the big pits, it seemed like they were using cement to reinforce the pit walls.

A skinny black man who was supervising the construction work loudly shouted at Zhang Lisheng who was looking around far away. “Mr. Zhang Lisheng, I already warned you that you must wear a hardhat when you walk into the construction site. Also, you can’t walk around as you like without my permission, this is not a playground. I can give you detailed data if you want to check the progress, I could also bring you around following the procedure…”

As the black man rushed towards Zhang Lisheng with a hardhat, a big jeep parked at the border of the construction site all of a sudden. Two muscular white men got off the car and put on hardhats on their head before shouting, “Hey man, who is the head here?”

“I’m the site manager, do you have any problem?” The skinny black man turned around and asked the two white men.

“Hi sir, we’re representatives from the Pivot Construction Company Union. May I know if there are any good restaurants around the area?”

“Company Union representatives who are asking for good restaurants, freaking morons…” the black man cursed softly while raising his voice. “Oh so it’s people from the Pivot Construction Company, there’s a good restaurant five kilometers west to Datler Town. Are you guys here to work as well?”

“It’s uncertain, we’re still bidding for it. We’re just here to look around. Don’t you know that the new New York Harbor will be built near here? I heard they’re scattering the export of goods out of New York City in order to prevent the tragedy at Queens Harbor to happen again. Now that I think about it, the fella who bought this place is in great luck now. I wonder how much the land’s value has shot up by now…”

The black site manager could not help but shift his focus onto Zhang Lisheng. Zhang Lisheng, who had taken up the Mutteslow saline-alkali land whose surface area came up to over nine square kilometers, stepped on the grayish land under his feet and said while smiling, “Mr. Pinot, this is government land. I can’t sell this within a span of 15 years. Furthermore, I’m going to do business from investing tens of millions in this place. It’s impossible that I would sell the land. But since it’s close to the upcoming harbor, it’s true that it’ll be more convenient no matter if it’s traffic or business.”

One of the men from the Pivot Construction Company Union was shocked when he took a glance at the young man who seemed smaller under the huge cranes in the construction site. “Oh my god, I can’t believe that this little fella is the owner of such a massive construction site. The rich kids nowadays are unbelievable… Oh oh, what’s… what’s that on the sea?”

“Those are military naval ships buddy, what’s there to stutter about? You’re so embarrassing. But indeed, it’s rare that there are so many battleships patrolling around the waters of New York City during the day.”

“One aircraft carrier, six cruisers, and destroyers, two integrated supply ships,” Zhang Lisheng mumbled softly as he identified the navy crews that appeared on the peaceful Atlantic Ocean following where the two Pivot Construction Company Union representatives were looking at. “I can’t believe there’s a whole crew of military ships patrolling today, this is indeed rare…”

Watching the ships disappearing as he mumbled to himself, the young man removed the jelly gem from his wrist and tied it onto his finger without paying much attention. He took out his phone after pondering for a bit and then dialed Maddie’s number. “There are many battleships patrolling around the ocean outside New York City. Could you check the news online and see what’s up?”

“Isn’t it faster if you look for it yourself? I’m in a rush since I have to finish my homework…”

“Finish what I asked you to do first at a fast speed then you’ll naturally have time to proceed with your own stuff. I’m waiting for your news.” Zhang Lisheng hung up the phone after he was done speaking. He put away his phone into his pocket and walked to Pinot who had just gotten rid of the two Pivot Construction Company Union representatives. “Mr. Pinot, I got Mr. Welling to modify something minor in the blueprint earlier. Talk to him and follow the new design.”

“What? You must be kidding Mr. Zhang. The construction phase will be finished half a month later at the most…”

“I’ll pay more, also it’s just a minor modification.”

“You know very well that our company has no profit to be taking this job… Okay okay, I’m making an exception to go with your request since you know our big boss. But this is it, let’s shake on it. This is the last time, no more next time.”

“Okay, no more next time.” Zhang Lisheng brought the black site manager to the architect to get both of them to think of ways to dig the pipe. Meanwhile, he drove back to New York City. He received a text from Maddie along the way. ‘The ships aren’t patrolling the ocean outside New York, the navy crews are leaving New York Harbor all of a sudden.’

Zhang Lisheng read the text twice and felt an indescribable amount of relief. He pulled over while searching for information using the car computer installed in his Adventurer, using the keyword ‘New York navy retreating’. Very soon, odd news titles such as ‘New York regained its peace 100 days later’, ‘See you again never, dear little eagle’, ‘The military’s slacking on their responsibility and gave up on the World Trade Center’s safety’ and so on appeared on the screen.

After skimming over a couple of news articles, he noticed that although every article had a different take on the news, they were telling the same thing. The American military forces had retreated from New York. In other words, the ocean outside of New York would not have ships patrolling every few days. There would no longer be professional armies with guns in armored vehicles on the streets.

“We got lucky this time.” Zhang Lisheng let out a long sigh of relief after reading the news. He raised his arm into the air behind the car while smiling, “I won’t use you guys so hastily in the future…” As he spoke, a giant black-scaled lizard whose body was slender and long curled into a ring in the air, vanished after flashing under Lisheng’s palm for a second.

Zhang Lisheng talked to himself for a while in joy and proceeded onwards with his journey. Over an hour later, he turned into an al-fresco restaurant along New York’s most bustling street, Fifth Avenue. He pulled over and looked around with his head out after rolling down the one of the car’s window. He heard a surprised voice that shouted, “Lisheng, we’re here.”

He gave a thumbs up to Tina before following the voice where she was waving. Zhang Lisheng got off the car and gave a $5 bill to the young attendant who was parking his car. He arrived at the Fordham Sisters’ side under a huge beige umbrella.

“Sit down and rest Lisheng, I didn’t expect you to come so soon. How’s the construction going, is it going well?”

“Pretty smooth. Hi Trish, hi Sheila. Congratulations Sheila on losing weight and getting your attractive body back.” Zhang Lisheng grabbed a seat next to Tina and waved at a waitress wearing a sleek white suit. “Get me a glass of Coke please, thanks.”

“Stop it with your compliments Lisheng,” Sheila said happily. “How is it so far? I heard from Tina that the hillbillies in the little town near New York City are giving you a bit of trouble when you talked to them these past few days…”