Chapter 264: Shan Liang's Return

Shan Liang yawned and climbed out of bed. The hands on the wooden-cased, quartz-movement wall clock already pointed to nine. The maid sleeping beside him, probably feeling hot, had emerged from the covers and was sleeping soundly on her stomach, completely naked.

“Looks like a fairy, sleeps like a pig!” Shan Liang muttered, kicking her bare bottom. “Get up and make me breakfast!”

Unexpectedly, the kick only made her grunt a few times and wiggle her behind.

Shan Liang raised his calloused palm and slapped the maid’s bare bottom a few times.

With a series of loud smacks, the maid curled up, crying out, “Don’t hit me, don’t hit me! I’m getting up, I’m getting up.”

Shan Liang got dressed and went to the bathroom to wash up. When he returned, he saw the maid still sitting dazedly on the edge of the bed, not even having put on her underwear, with a silly, half-asleep look on her face. A wave of anger surged through him. He really wanted to slap her across the face. Shan Huixiang was an A-grade maid he had been lucky enough to draw back when they were extremely rare. Whether it was truly good luck or a deliberate move by “those bastards on the Executive Committee” to win him over, he hadn’t delved into it. She was a tender sixteen, with a delicate face, large almond eyes, and a petite but shapely figure. After taking her to bed, he discovered she was very responsive and willing to try anything, and crucially, her cooperation was excellent.

She didn’t have the problem many Elders complained about: “lying there like a log, with no sense of fun.” For a time, Shan Liang felt like he had found a treasure. However, he soon realized he had been “screwed”: Shan Huixiang’s clumsiness was on par with Zhu Bajie. Her cooking, laundry, and cleaning skills were all mediocre, and she did everything at a snail’s pace. In short, she was not a diligent or nimble girl.

“Damn the Executive Committee, damn the General Office, for sticking me with this one! This is deliberate retaliation! I want to return her!” Shan Liang would curse inwardly every time he saw Shan Huixiang spacing out or forgetting to add salt to a dish, or adding it twice. But in the end, he never returned her. After spending time with her, he found a certain “naturally clueless” charm in the young girl.

Shan Huixiang stretched lazily and slowly picked up her bra to put it on. Seeing the sway of those smooth, round objects on her chest, half of Shan Liang’s anger dissipated. Last night’s battle had been very satisfying: he had been pent up at the construction site for over a month, and it had taken three rounds last night to finally be done.

“Hurry up and make me breakfast!”

“I’m going, I’m going, A-Liang,” the maid said, flustered, grabbing her skirt and pulling it on. The maid’s uniform had been thrown on the floor last night and was now a wrinkled mess.

The skirt got tangled around her head, refusing to slide down properly. The maid let out a pathetic “whimper” from inside the skirt, her bare bottom wiggling. Shan Liang, annoyed, smacked her on the head. “Hurry up, I’m starving.”

“Mmm, that hurts!” Shan Huixiang squatted down, holding her head.

“Stop acting cute and go make food!”

Shan Liang watched as Shan Huixiang fumbled to get dressed and comb her hair. “What’s for breakfast?” He worked in the field for long periods. Although as an Elder he enjoyed high-grade rations at the construction site and could have a big meal when passing through a county town, there were also many days of eating dry rations and porridge. He was eager to have some home-cooked food during these few and far between days at home.

“There’s leftover rice in the pot, I can make porridge. And there are pickles in the kitchen… Ouch, ouch, Master, your hand is heavy, I’ll go out and buy some now…”

“Didn’t I tell you to learn how to make some pastries before I left on this trip?”

“I did, I did. There’s one I’m particularly good at. I’ll go make you some dough drop soup… Ouch, ouch, it hurts so much…”

Watching Shan Huixiang go out to buy breakfast while rubbing her bottom, Shan Liang pulled a Holy Ship cigarette from the pack. He didn’t like cigars, feeling that if you didn’t inhale, it didn’t count as smoking. He lit it and took a drag.

He had just returned from finishing the fourth phase of the round-the-island telegraph line construction and was on leave. The entire round-the-island wired telegraph project was an auxiliary project to the round-the-island road renovation. The whole project was divided into ten phases, roughly following the old official round-the-island road for road surface renovation and bridge construction and reinforcement, bringing it up to the level of a simple road capable of handling heavy horse-drawn carts. The wired telegraph line was laid along the road. Lingao’s wired telegraph was quite rudimentary, but once completed, it would establish an instant communication system between the various counties along the route and the base, without having to rely on scarce radio sets. The postal system also planned to open civilian telegraph services in each county.

For this project, all the Elders in Lingao Telecom, from top to bottom, took turns on the construction site to direct the line-laying work, with each phase lasting two months. The hardship of the project was something rarely seen since the D-Day. Although it was based on the old official road, most of these roads were in extremely poor condition, some even having become ditches. Not only were the bridges along the road incomplete, but the existing ones were mostly very simple, some being nothing more than a few bamboo poles and wooden planks tied together over a river.

After the round-the-island project left Danzhou, the counties along the way became more desolate, and the conditions grew even harsher. Even Shan Liang, who had been doing fieldwork for years before D-Day, found it hard to get used to. In the old time and space, even at the most desolate construction site, there was always a small town nearby, which usually had a Sichuan restaurant, a few hair salons, and a small hotel that could supply hot water.

But in 1631, on Hainan Island, even the most prosperous county town was just a dilapidated small town by 21st-century standards, let alone places for recreation. As Shan Liang moved forward with the construction team, he rarely even saw any local natives. The places he passed through were mostly endless wilderness. Forget about eating, bathing, or “recreational services,” it was hard to even find a sheltered place to sleep. The dry season had scorching sun, and the rainy season was filled with continuous rain. Even though he enjoyed the best living conditions as an Elder, a month on the construction site was harder than a year of fieldwork in the old time and space.

“Damn it, you bunch of conspirators, I’m not done with you!” When Shan Liang had stepped up to lead the “Maid Revolution,” he had been mentally prepared to be blacklisted, but he hadn’t expected to end up like this. Of course, he couldn’t say he wouldn’t go or that this was “persecution,” because everyone in Lingao Telecom, including Li Yunxing, had to take turns on the construction site.

After the Maid Revolution ended, Lingao Telecom entered a period of “great leap forward development.” First, a short-distance telegraph network was set up between key points within Lingao County. Then, with the launch of “Summer Awakening” and the “Hainan Pacification War,” Lingao Telecom gradually expanded into “Hainan Telecom,” and the telegraph network construction spread throughout the island. As a key member of Telecom with rich experience in telecommunications engineering, Shan Liang was quickly promoted to the head of the engineering department of the Telecom Corporation. Not only did he have to be on the construction site, but he also had to travel frequently between various sites to “guide the work.” The result was that Shan Liang had spent a total of no more than six months in Lingao over the past few years.

Such frequent business trips meant he couldn’t make public appearances often, nor could he maintain his old social connections, and even his presence faded. Meanwhile, the “Otaku Party,” with its strong material base for canvassing, had caught up and surpassed him. Qian Shuixie’s successful rise made him seem like the spokesman for the average Elder. Not only that, Wu Nanhai, with his teahouse, had also gathered a lot of popularity. Blocked from the front and pursued from behind, Shan Liang had basically lost the foundation for political activities. His former “comrades-in-arms,” Cheng Mo and Sun Li, rarely came to see him anymore. He couldn’t be the “biggest opposition,” which made him so angry that he cursed the Qian brothers for “stealing the fruits of the revolution” and being “fake opposition.”

“I’ve seen through it all. Without money, politics is nothing!” Shan Liang secretly vowed to lie low for now, build up his strength, and then re-enter the political arena in the future.

As he was lost in thought amidst the smoke, Shan Huixiang returned with a basket. There was not much breakfast left at the cooperative store in the dormitory area, only some leftover cold buns and rice flour cakes.

“A-Liang, time to eat.” Shan Huixiang put down the buns and rice cakes and was about to pick up her chopsticks to eat a bun when she received a flick on the head.

“Ouch! If you’re going to hit me, hit my butt, not my head! It’ll make me stupid!”

“You’re already stupid enough. How can you eat these when they’re cold?”

“So picky… Ouch, ouch, I’ll go, I’ll go…”

“And don’t call me A-Liang, call me Master!”

After breakfast, Shan Liang, with little confidence, instructed his maid to “clean the house thoroughly, make it spotless.” Then he went out. He hadn’t been back in Lingao for over three months.

To say that Lingao’s appearance was changing with each passing day was not an exaggeration. Every time Shan Liang came back and walked the streets, he felt a sense of unfamiliarity. Even at his own workplace, Lingao Telecom, he would always see some newly manufactured equipment and the company’s organizational chart expanding. The number of naturalized clerks in the office also increased each time he saw them.

Walking down the street, he felt a little bored. Li Yunxing had given him a week’s vacation.

He didn’t need to go to his long-empty office; no one would be waiting for him there anyway. All the routine administrative paperwork of the engineering department was handled by the chief secretary of the telecom engineering department, a capable naturalized citizen.

He wasn’t a woman, so he couldn’t pass the time by shopping. As for going to the teahouse, he had no acquaintances waiting for him there. Besides, few Elders hung out there during the day.

The most pressing physiological need before returning to Lingao had been fully satisfied last night. Shan Liang mused, maybe he should go to the commercial guesthouse for a good meal. The “General Office special field rations” were practically animal feed; after eating too much of it, just seeing the words “General Office” made him shudder.

Due to his frequent business trips, most of which were in the field, Shan Liang’s various allowances added up to a lot. He had almost no opportunities to spend money, so the number in his salary account was quite impressive. If he hadn’t been on the construction site during the auction for the European horses, he could have easily outbid everyone.