For an entire morning, Jiang Ye spent his time traveling by vehicle.
His first stop was the major cities, where intercity buses had already been put into operation. He wanted to inspect their running status.
The new buses were painted red, gleaming brightly under the sun, making them more conspicuous and thus reducing the accident rate.
The vehicles were double-decked and electrically powered, running with very little noise. As they passed, people on the streets would gather to watch.
Jiang Ye observed the buses in each city. The passenger load was acceptable; no bus was completely full, but many people were already trying to take them.
These buses were managed by the subway bureau. For the time being, no fixed routes had been established, and the fares were quite arbitrary: five yuan to board, and you could ride as long as you wished.
His second stop was the Termite Real Estate building.
Jiang Ye went straight to the top floor and pushed open the door to the boss's office.
Xu Yan, wearing a white robe and pajamas, held a cup of red date tea, her face flushed and listless, looking quite unwell.
"Caught a cold?" Jiang Ye sat down without invitation.
"A slight fever," Xu Yan smiled weakly. "Coming here in person, do you have a big project?"
"The biggest project to date. I need to build a batch of residential communities in Petroleum City, along with various public urban buildings," Jiang Ye said seriously. "The refugee applications are already being processed. It's likely that within a few days, up to twenty thousand alien refugees will be sent here. These people won't have base vehicles, so we must prepare housing for them in advance."
Xu Yan nodded in understanding and placed her hand on the office desk.
A palm scan initiated, and a holographic projection automatically appeared, displaying a blue interface.
Simultaneously, the curtains closed automatically, blocking out the sunlight, and the entire office darkened. The holographic projection became even clearer.
"Generate a plan for a ground city capable of housing twenty thousand people, standard specifications, preset environment 13, and the latest version of the interstellar common civilian building quality protocol," she said.
The projection immediately changed, with various data cascading down, followed by a planning map. On the flat ground woven with grids, buildings rose one after another, roads extending like plant roots, and the city seemed to emerge from underwater.
Three minutes later, the entire city's planning map was complete.
The densely packed buildings floated serenely in the air.
Jiang Ye's mouth was slightly agape throughout the process. Finally, he said, "I thought such plans were personally handled by you. It actually generated automatically."
"I can do it too, but it's troublesome. It's better to let the software design it," Xu Yan smiled. "Take a look at this plan. If there's anything you're not satisfied with, tell me, and we can modify it on the spot. It's like changing a sand table or building blocks."
Jiang Ye carefully examined the floating city. The overall layout was circular. Most of the residential communities looked similar, but there were also some detached houses with courtyards, commercial office buildings reserved for resident enterprises, and large buildings of unknown purpose.
Xu Yan noticed his confusion. "If you don't understand something, you can ask me."
"What are these individual large buildings?" Jiang Ye asked, pointing.
Xu Yan stood up and pointed at the buildings above, introducing them one by one:
"This is the reserved city hospital."
"This is a school. Those three over there are also schools; a total of four schools are reserved."
"This area is the city park, referencing Central Park in ancient New York's Manhattan. It has a circular lake. We'll green it up and plant some trees, which will help cool the city in the summer."
"Along the main road are the reserved shopping centers where businesses attracted for investment can set up shop. The total building area is 140,000 square meters. Even if the city develops to a population of a million in the future, it will still be sufficient."
"Here are the city art museum, city museum, city library, city exhibition hall, city grand theater..."
Jiang Ye's mouth fell open. This was truly building a new city from scratch, even considering an art museum.
He was very satisfied. Although the previous few cities had some scale, they still remained at a simple living state.
The plan for the new Petroleum City made him feel that it had everything a city on Earth should have. After completion, it should feel like home.
"However, I need to pour some cold water on you," Xu Yan said, changing the subject after introducing the large buildings. "Termite Real Estate is only responsible for building the structures for you; you'll have to figure out what goes inside."
"What do you mean?" Jiang Ye was taken aback.
"For example, for the hospital, you need to procure the medical equipment and doctors. For the schools, you need to recruit teachers and students. For the art museum, we don't provide the hanging artworks. The library will only have empty bookshelves, no books," Xu Yan explained. "The shopping centers too, all empty shelves and bare display windows."
"I understand. I'll figure these things out. Let's get the buildings up first, especially the residential communities. Make sure they have water and electricity. If the alien refugees arrive and have to sleep on the streets exposed to the elements, they'll truly be refugees, and it will be my dereliction of duty as their ruler," Jiang Ye nodded.
"Now we come to the crucial part," Xu Yan said with a meaningful smile. "How much money do you have?"
Jiang Ye took out his phone and tapped the screen.
Account balance: 3,891,000,000 yuan.
Nearly thirty-nine billion, quite a substantial sum.
The reason for having so much money was purely thanks to the Frog Mothers.
Many Frog Mothers had been destroyed previously. The troops were dismembering their corpses and selling various components. The value of each Frog Mother varied depending on its damage, but each could sell for tens of millions. Therefore, Jiang Ye's wealth had rapidly expanded in the past few days.
This windfall was a gift from the Mil people.
"How much will this plan cost?" Jiang Ye asked, pointing at the holographic projection.
"Don't be scared when I tell you," Xu Yan smiled. "Sit tight!"
Jiang Ye shifted his position backward and took a deep breath.
"7.5 billion!" Xu Yan revealed the answer.
Jiang Ye chuckled, "That's all?"
Xu Yan widened her eyes. "You seem dismissive. Listen carefully, it's 7.5 billion, not 700 million, not 500 million!"
Jiang Ye tapped his phone and transferred 3.5 billion in cash to her.
"Start the work, and I'll pay the remaining balance this week," Jiang Ye said, getting up and turning to leave.
Xu Yan stared at the transfer notification that popped up on the office desk screen, her expression utterly dumbfounded.
For projects costing a few hundred million, Jiang Ye would have to grit his teeth and force himself to pay. Once a project's cost reached over a billion, he would have to borrow from everywhere, accumulating a mountain of debt, and his expression when paying was akin to cutting off his own flesh.
Now, he had just paid 3.5 billion in one go, without even blinking!
"Holy crap, Jiang Ye, you're really something! Where did you get so much money?" Xu Yan shouted after his retreating back.
"The wind blew it here!" Jiang Ye replied, a smile appearing in the closing elevator doors as he entered.
Leaving the Termite Real Estate building, he continued his journey by vehicle.
His third stop was the Electric Light Rat Research Institute.
The institute had just been completed, and the researchers had not yet arrived. It was temporarily guarded by the military.
When Jiang Ye arrived, soldiers were sweeping the corridors with brooms, making swishing sounds. For some reason, a lot of dust had accumulated in the corridors, and footprints were visible when stepped upon.
The entire research institute was vast, with one building connected to another, almost like a small town. Furthermore, the underground portion was larger than the above-ground area.
Through the glass walls, various unheard-of large pieces of equipment could be seen in the rooms. Almost all doors required identification to enter. The air was filled with the strange smell of chemical reagents, which did not dissipate even with constant ventilation.
Jiang Ye made a round, spoke briefly to the on-site personnel, and headed back to the office on the top floor of the military base.
Isabelle was still busy in the office, propping her head with one hand and tapping on the office desk screen with the other, her face filled with resentment, as if thinking, "I've been tricked," "This work is really too much," and "If I come here again, I'll be a dog."
Jiang Ye sat beside her, took out his phone, and they began approving refugee applications together.
From afternoon to evening, he remained in the office, busy with Isabelle. They occasionally chatted, but mostly focused on their work, appearing like two office workers who had shared an office for years.
At one o'clock in the morning, they finally processed two thousand refugee applications.
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