Chapter 25 (1/2)

Everything went smoothly at the anniversary. Except for the routine arguments, nothing bothered Huang Xuan. The kids took care of their own business, just as in the past years.

Huang Jianxuan was still in the hospital, and nothing had been heard about Huang Liming. Huang Xuan's mom returned his bank card. Besides the 16 million, 100,000 yuan had been deposited in it as pocket money.

Huang Xuan was supposed to be happy, but the atmosphere in the family was getting weirder and weirder—his mom seldom went to her office; his dad spent a lot of time staying at home, and even lived in the ancestral residence, which had never happened before. Huang Qunsheng was a scholar, who knew nothing about politics and had chosen to be away from the power center of the family, but now, everything was unusual.

Zhang Xinyi shuttled between the company and the ancestral residence several days in a row. Even the butler Zhou Lian was barely at home. n.o.body told Huang Xuan what had happened. He was confused when Huang Xuan demanded, ”I need more energy.”

Huang Xuan was glad that he had something to do, although it would cost more money.

Zhang Haoji seemed to be busier than before. He used to travel to different cities with new female companions; however, he had stayed in Nanjing these days and hadn't been able to make time for Huang Xuan.

Huang Xuan had to take a taxi to f.u.xin construction site, which was as busy as before and didn't change a thing because of the depression of the family. Li Shenggang had become a manager and had his own office, but Huang Xuan only cared about the generators.

Hearing that his young boss would come, Li Shenggang had been long waiting at the entrance to the construction site, wearing a suit. The busy trucks threw up a cloud of dust as they roared by, which fell slowly and stuck to Li Shenggang's suit. The noises of the generators could be heard clearly. Huang Xuan got out of the taxi with his brows knitted. Li Shenggang's face had been covered with dust by then, and there were heavy bags under his triangular eyes. It seemed he hadn't slept well last night.

”Didn't sleep well?” asked Huang Xuan casually. To some extent, Li Shenggang had almost been his immediate subordinate, maybe his first subordinate, although he loathed those triangular eyes.

Li Shenggang blinked his eyes and said, ”The generators are too loud at night.”

”Can't they be put farther from the residential area?” Since the noises could be heard from here, Huang Xuan could imagine how annoying they were during the night.

”There are 30 generators on the site.” Li Shenggang was embarra.s.sed. ”The construction is rapid. Although the generators have been set at the foot of the mountain, the noises are still too loud.” At this point, he peeked at Huang Xuan and continued, ”I have stifled some complaints of the workers, but I am afraid it won't work for long.”

Huang Xuan could understand, but it was impossible to stop the generators, which Rolin would oppose. Besides, there must be a place for them, anyway.

He stopped, looked around with his hand shading the suns.h.i.+ne, and then said, ”Increase the workers' salaries as compensation.”

Li Shenggang seemed indeed under a lot of pressure. He didn't decline. ”It's the only option right now.” He peeked at Huang Xuan again. One month ago, he had been just a secretary, whom could be bossed about by anyone, but now, he could almost boss everybody on the site around, which all was attributed to this bigwig he had attached himself to. Nevertheless, since Li Shenggang hadn't done a satisfying job recently, he was worrying that this teenager might suddenly lose his temper and throw him off the site, or even worse, let him go back to the hopeless secretary position.

However, he had tried everything to deal with the workers' anger. After nearly a month, it was about to burst. He had been worried these two days that when he came to the site the next morning, he would hear no rumbling of the machines or see a group of workers with iron sticks.