In contrast to Bi Rongxing, Cen Yemeng's exile planet was attempting to establish a city in the tropical rainforest region.
The exile planet had a large proportion of landmass near the equator, most of which was tropical rainforest. Giant, strange trees and barrier-like dense grasses firmly occupied the land, while colorful large snakes, venomous insects, and fierce primates guarded the rainforest.
Ordinary people could not enter the tropical rainforest at all; the consequence of forcing entry was disappearance.
In cities near the tropical rainforest, all schools issued notices during holidays stating, "Strictly forbidden to approach the tropical rainforest, pay attention to holiday safety."
There were also bright red danger signs on the roads leading to the rainforest, and flying cars automatically received voice warnings from the traffic bureau upon approaching the rainforest.
Despite this, people still kept venturing into the tropical rainforest to their doom. Only one out of ten who entered came out, with their relatives later publishing missing person notices in newspapers and on television programs.
Troops from nearby areas went to search for the missing, either finding nothing or only some corpses.
Corpses in better condition were only half-eaten by beasts and could still be identified through DNA testing. Unluckier ones had already turned into dry bones within giant pythons. Rescue teams once killed a giant python, one meter thick and twenty meters long, with an armored vehicle. Upon cutting it open, they found hundreds of pounds of bones inside, including four human skulls, wrapped in greenish intestinal fluid, along with some clothes, keys, flashlights, and other items.
With the economic recovery of the exile planet and the increase in alien immigrants, new cities had to be built.
After inspection and recommendations from an expert team, Cen Yemeng and Isabel unanimously decided to claim land from the rainforest.
Although the rainforest was resilient, human firepower was more potent.
The method for clearing the rainforest was simple: bomber formations bombed day and night, relentlessly dropping high-explosive and incendiary bombs to burn the forest repeatedly. Then, armored vehicle units would enter to clear the remains of giant trees, shoot animals, and blast away large rocks, gradually leveling the land.
Once a section of the rainforest was cleared, construction teams could move in to begin building the new city.
Cen Yemeng, like her husband, personally inspected the sites.
The rainforest was destroyed, but the tropical rainforest climate remained, hot and with abundant rainfall. After many inspection tours, Cen Yemeng's skin tone changed. Originally, her skin was as fair and tender as mangosteen, with a face that could be broken by a light touch. Now, it had become a more common beauty complexion.
She was very sad. After reuniting with her husband on the weekend, she sat in front of the mirror, silently touching her face, her expression dejected. "Honey, am I not fair and tender anymore? I'm not as pretty as before, right?"
Jiang Ye hugged her from behind and touched his own face. "Look at my face, how rough it is from the sand. Neither of us should complain about the other."
"Honey, you smell like the desert," Cen Yemeng said. "Very faintly, I don't know if it's just my imagination."
"It's probably your imagination. I showered very thoroughly," Jiang Ye sniffed his wife's long hair. "You also seem to have a faint smell of the rainforest."
"I washed so many times," Cen Yemeng also grabbed her hair and sniffed it.
"I'm a desert person, and you're a rainforest person," Jiang Ye smiled. "If only we could average the moisture between the humid rainforest and the arid desert, saving us all this trouble."
"Some planets use weather weapons to forcibly change precipitation in different regions," Cen Yemeng said. "But it's too expensive and not cost-effective."
Jiang Ye nodded.
"After this busy period is over, let's change our ages," Cen Yemeng said. "Let's restore our looks."
"Change age... to how old?" Jiang Ye pondered.
"How about both of us become twenty?" Cen Yemeng asked. "Young and vibrant, and our figures are already mature."
"Okay," Jiang Ye nodded. "Then let's change to twenty, and we can be peers. But speaking of which, our son is already nineteen, just one year younger than us. If we're busy until next year and then change, our son will also turn twenty, and if we change again, the whole family will be the same age."
"That's true, it feels a bit awkward," Cen Yemeng said. "Why don't we age a few more years? To maintain the dignity of older parents?"
"No need, twenty is twenty. Even if one day my physiological age becomes younger than my son's, I can still spank him with a belt. Father is father, and son is son," Jiang Ye said. "Let's both hurry up and finish our work, and then we'll go change our ages."
"Hearing your tone, you're quite eager," Cen Yemeng looked at her husband with some concern. "Do you feel your physical condition is declining now?"
"No," Jiang Ye suddenly smiled. "Mainly, I want to see what you look like at twenty."
Cen Yemeng's ears immediately turned red.
...
Jiang Ye had originally planned to finish the new city on Bi Rongxing before the year ended, and the exile planet should have been about the same.
However, the complexity of the work exceeded expectations. The allocation of various industries, population migration, resource extraction, cultural conflicts, regional economic coordination, and so on. The new city involved too many factors, and it was not until the spring of the following year that the new cities on Bi Rongxing and the exile planet were barely settled.
Just as the couple was about to take a week off to undergo age surgery on Zhigao Star.
A new task arrived.
Director Dai called and told Jiang Ye that the planet exchange could be launched and should be completed as soon as possible.
With no other choice, Jiang Ye plunged into a new round of busyness.
The planet exchange was a major undertaking, requiring consideration of numerous aspects. Despite having preliminary plans and preparations, Jiang Ye was still swamped.
Director Dai sent a large group of people to assist Jiang Ye, including military personnel to maintain order and experienced hands from other planet exchanges.
The first thing to be decided was the location of the planet exchange.
A new urban area was to be specially built in the suburbs of Binhai City.
The scale of the exchange building was extremely grand, even equipped with a dedicated large starport capable of docking over five hundred spacecraft.
After all, more than ninety-nine percent of the customers who came to the planet exchange were from other planets, and a starport would facilitate convenient transportation.
The new urban area was designed to a very high standard, with continuous high-end restaurants and luxury hotels, primarily service-oriented. After all, those who could come were all dignitaries, like gods of wealth. They were brimming with money, so much money that it was like scales on a fish. Just by engaging them with services, a large amount of wealth could be scraped off, enough to support the hundreds of thousands of people in the entire new urban area.
In addition to the starport, a dedicated military base was established, with elite troops stationed there for security.
These were all relatively simple matters, but there were too many and they were too trivial. Jiang Ye was so busy that his hair was almost falling out. He stayed up late every day, and when he showered, his hands would be full of hair. His personal physician prescribed some medication for Jiang Ye, which temporarily stopped the hair loss.
Some of Jiang Ye's old friends were very shocked and called to inquire why Jiang Yexing, a small planet, could suddenly launch such a massive undertaking as building a planet exchange, which was simply incredible.