The family's anniversary celebration seemed to proceed smoothly. Apart from the usual quarrels, no one bothered Huang Xuan, and everything seemed to follow the familiar patterns of the past years—letting the children settle their own matters.
Huang Jianxuan hadn't been discharged from the hospital yet, and Huang Liming had gone quiet. Surprisingly, Huang Xuan's mother returned his bank card to him, not only with the original 16 million dollars but also with an additional 100,000 as pocket money.
Initially, Huang Xuan was quite pleased, but the atmosphere at home grew increasingly strange. His mother rarely went to the company, and his father stayed home for extended periods, even residing at the old family estate—something that had never happened before. Huang Qunsheng was a scholar, deliberately distancing himself from the family's power center, yet now, everything seemed out of the ordinary.
For several consecutive days, Zhang Xinyi shuttled between the old estate and the company. Even the family butler, Zhou Lian, was seldom at home. No one told Huang Xuan what was happening. Amidst his confusion, Lorin requested more energy from him.
Huang Xuan was more than happy to have something to do, even if it might cost more money.
His cousin, Zhang Haoji, also seemed busier than usual. Normally, he was always traveling between cities and often finding new female companions, but lately, he had stayed in Nanjing, too busy even to meet with Huang Xuan.
Huang Xuan had no choice but to take a taxi to the Fuxin construction site. The place was still bustling with activity, seemingly unaffected by the Huang family's recent decline. Li Shengang now had his own office and appeared to have become some sort of manager, but Huang Xuan was never interested in such matters—his focus was solely on the generators.
Upon hearing that his young boss was coming, Li Shengang, dressed in a sharp suit, had been waiting at the construction site's entrance. The air was filled with dust, which the passing trucks kicked up repeatedly. The dust, following the laws of physics, slowly but persistently settled on Li Shengang's suit under the bright sunlight.
Even before entering the site, Huang Xuan could hear the rumbling noise of the generators. He frowned as he got out of the car. Li Shengang's face was covered in grayish-yellow dust, and his tired, triangular eyes indicated that he hadn't slept well.
"Not sleeping well?" Huang Xuan asked casually. Li Shengang had become his direct subordinate, possibly his first, despite Huang Xuan's dislike for those triangular eyes.
Li Shengang blinked twice, oblivious to the dust on his face, and said, "It's the generators; they're a bit noisy at night."
"Can't you move them further away?" Huang Xuan frowned, hearing the engines from where they stood. He could only imagine how annoying the noise must be at night.
"There are already 30 generator units on the site," Li Shengang said sheepishly. "The construction is progressing quickly, and the generators have been placed at the foot of the mountain, but the noise is still loud." He glanced at Huang Xuan, adding, "The workers have some complaints, and I've managed to keep them under control, but if this continues, it won't be sustainable."
Huang Xuan understood the frustration with the noise, but shutting down the generators was out of the question—Lorin would never agree. Besides, the generators needed to be placed somewhere.
He paused, shielding his eyes from the sun as he looked around. "Maybe we should give the workers a bit more money as compensation."
Li Shengang, clearly under significant pressure, readily agreed without hesitation, "That's probably the only solution for now." He glanced at Huang Xuan again. A month ago, he had been a lowly clerk, at the mercy of anyone on the construction site. Now, he could command almost anyone, all thanks to the young boss he had latched onto. But lately, he felt he wasn't living up to his position. He feared Huang Xuan might suddenly get angry and kick him off the site or, worse, send him back to his dead-end clerical job.
But the workers' anger was also growing. He had managed to stall them for over two weeks, but now he was running out of time. Every morning, he worried that he'd arrive at the site to find it eerily quiet or, worse, filled with workers wielding heavy iron rods.
Now, it seemed Huang Xuan wasn't too displeased. Quietly wiping the sweat from his brow with his sleeve, Li Shengang followed closely behind Huang Xuan.
A row of generators stood neatly at the foot of the mountain, their oily surfaces gleaming in the sunlight. The front units were 250KW, while the ones at the back were 300KW and 500KW. Watching the bustling workers, Huang Xuan suddenly felt a bit of admiration for the triangular-eyed man behind him. In just two weeks, with nothing but fuel money, this guy had managed to keep adding generators, accumulating debts in the millions.
Huang Xuan smiled slightly and asked, "How much debt are we in now? They're still willing to rent you more generators?"
"We owe the site 3 million, and another 4 million to Shangcheng Technology," Li Shengang answered cautiously. "They don't dare stop renting to us. As long as they keep renting, we'll keep paying—though it's slow, the money keeps coming in. If they stop renting, the debt will just rot."
Huang Xuan couldn't help but laugh. It seemed like only someone like Li Shengang could pull this off. Feeling the ground vibrate beneath his feet, Huang Xuan pulled out a bank card from his pocket. "Here's 5 million; you can use it to pay them back." He then handed over another card. "This one's mine—it has a few hundred thousand in it. Give the workers some bonuses."
Li Shengang's hands trembled slightly as he accepted the cards. Seeing the smile on Huang Xuan's face, he finally felt somewhat relieved.
The noise from so many generators was far louder than that of a plane taking off. Huang Xuan couldn't stand it for long and soon found himself looking away from the stacks of empty oil drums. In just a short time, he had seen five or six drums emptied. The thought of current oil prices made Huang Xuan shudder, and he quickly averted his gaze.
As they walked away, listening to Li Shengang's report on the recent accounts, Huang Xuan realized it had only been about ten days. They reached the vicinity of the construction site office when Li Shengang hesitated, his expression suggesting he had something else to say.
"What is it now?" Huang Xuan asked, puzzled.
Li Shengang smiled awkwardly. "Recently, some people have been curious about why we need so much electricity. They also noticed that the power was connected to the distribution room, but the site doesn't need that much power, so…"
Huang Xuan was startled. He had been away twice recently, leaving these covert matters to Lorin. Hearing this, he couldn't help but subtly mouth, "Lorin, what have you been doing? Has anyone found out?"
"There's no record of any regulatory department getting involved yet, but you might want to consider relocating the energy chain," Lorin responded.
"Where to?"
"How about an abandoned factory?"
Lorin rarely used such a consultative tone when speaking to Huang Xuan, but the latter didn't notice the difference in tone.
Their conversation ended there. Huang Xuan glanced at Li Shengang, who was now amusing himself by teasing ants with his triangular eyes. It seemed he suspected something, but that was Lorin's problem. Huang Xuan trusted that the guardian would ensure his safety. "The original plan was to route the power to a factory via the public grid. Since people are asking, I'll pay to have it connected in a few days."
The technicalities of routing power through the public grid to a factory weren't something Li Shengang needed to worry about. Since Huang Xuan had given an explanation, that was enough. Leaving his manager in the dust, Huang Xuan quickly hopped into a taxi.