I Treat You as My Sister, But You Want to be My Wife?!
Chapter 414 Omniscient_1

Chapter 414: Chapter 414 Omniscient_1

Zhou Chengyu was still listening solemnly a second ago, but when he heard the latter half of the sentence, he couldn’t help but curse, "We’re talking serious business here, why are you bringing up household matters? What do you want a RV for?"

"For a travel wedding." Once Shen Dong explained the reasoning, Zhou Chengyu burst out laughing, saying that Shen Dong was always coming up with bizarre and crooked ideas.

The brothers joked around for a bit, and Zhou Chengyu could no longer sit still. He placed the bank card on the table, exchanged a few polite words, and went to find Li Kaiyao to prepare for the project.

Shen Dong watched everyone leave, holding the bank card that contained several billion, and inexplicably felt desolate.

One spends their whole life busy and on the go, without time to gather with friends and relatives. What’s it all for?

When you’re poor, you’re busy, no time—is it all just to earn a bit more money?

Now that you have money, why is it still the same old story?

"Mr. Shen, what are you thinking about?" Zhou Wenbin entered the room after everyone had left, with a big smile on his face.

Shen Dong waved his hand and said self-deprecatingly, "Just overthinking pointless things. Sigh, has Qingyu and those girls settled in fine?"

"Eight two-bedroom apartments, Qingyu alone lives in a three-bedroom. " Zhou Wenbin sat opposite Shen Dong and gestured backwards with his hand, "Mr. Shen, I’m going to take you to a good place, how about that?"

With that, Zhou Wenbin winked.

Shen Dong had a feeling it wasn’t anything good just by looking at him, and raised an eyebrow, "Don’t trick me, I’m still young."

Zhou Wenbin nearly burst into laughter as he rose to his feet and pulled Shen Dong up, "Relax, it really is a good place, and it’ll help with your Hai City project."

From Mr. Shen to Mr. Shen, to the current Mr. Shen, Zhou Wenbin’s attitude had changed, and then changed again.

He didn’t see himself as a hero or a big shot; he only wanted to serve Shen Dong, looking for an opportunity. People behind his back said, look at Zhou Wenbin, playing lapdog to a kid and happy as can be.

But Zhou Wenbin couldn’t even be bothered to dispute it.

Zhou Wenbin, who never went to school, had heard a saying: When others are down, you avoid them, but how can you cozy up when they’re doing well?

Shen Dong truly didn’t expect Zhou Wenbin to have any brilliant strategies, but he thought, since he didn’t have much to do, there was no harm in taking a look.

Zhou Wenbin drove Shen Dong into the village, first giving him a heads up, "A few years ago, a college graduate became a village official in our village. The kid organized the planting of tea trees in the village.

Although it didn’t make a fortune, it was definitely better than farming. I heard about your Volcanic Stone Hot Spring project and thought the tea might be of use, so I brought you to have a look."

"Tea?" Shen Dong was surprised to hear it and thought it might be a business opportunity, but then he immediately dismissed the idea.

He sarcastically thought to himself that he was acting out of desperation, seeing business opportunities everywhere. While it’s true that tea could be profitable, he didn’t have the land to grow tea trees.

He had intended to just give Zhou Wenbin face, make a quick visit and leave, but after meeting the village official, Shen Dong was in for a surprise.

The village official was wearing a tattered cotton-padded jacket, already blending in with the countryside. The glasses on his nose were the only thing that hinted at his education.

When Shen Dong arrived at the village official’s courtyard, the official was discussing farming and soil conservation with some farmers.

"Planting beans is for nitrogen fixation, planting gramineous crops is for carbon sequestration, and also for loosening the soil, you know? If you farm without nourishing the soil, you’ll be eating corn year after year!" The village official playfully chided with a touch of jest, and it was precisely this conversation that sparked Shen Dong’s interest in seeking his advice.

Shen Dong nudged Zhou Wenbin.

Zhou Wenbin immediately called out, "Hey, village officer, you, come here."

The tone was like calling an animal.

Shen Dong shot Zhou Wenbin a glance, fortunate that the village official didn’t get upset and even walked over with a smile, "Fourth brother, what’s up?"

The same ’fourth brother’, yet to the village official it was merely a term of address, as if trying to educate Zhou Wenbin.

Zhou Wenbin still had no idea and pointed to Shen Dong, "This is my Mr. Shen, he’s looking for you for something."

The village official raised an eyebrow at the sound and sized up Shen Dong before turning back to Zhou Wenbin, "He’s younger than you, isn’t he? Why do you call him ’Brother’?"

"You don’t know squat, it’s called respecting the superior."

The village official laughed without correcting that ’superior’ should not be ’greater’ and turned his head to Shen Dong, "You’re looking for me for something?"

Shen Dong glanced at the vacant lot outside the door and gestured invitingly, "I’d like to ask, what’s good to plant in saline-alkali soil?"

The village official was initially startled but didn’t hesitate to instruct, "Saline-alkali soil can’t be generalized. Different pH values and salinity levels allow for different plantings. Do you have a specific region in mind, such as the soda saline in the Northeast...?"

So awesome, huh?

The village official named four or five places in a row, giving Shen Dong the impression of omniscience.

Shen Dong was not vague and pointed to the east, "Just over there, the saline-alkali land along the coast."

"Where?" By sheer coincidence, the village official happened to be a kid from a coastal fishing village, and he said in a doubtful tone, "What do you want to know about that for?"

"Are you certain?"

"We haven’t discussed the specifics yet, do you know that area?"

"I know it all too well." The village official let out a long breath.

He pointed at the large rock by the door, signaling Shen Dong to sit, "Basically, anything planted in that area dies, and even if resilient trees like black locusts or peculiar willows survive the saline-alkali conditions, they’ll die from the erosion of the sea breeze."

"Making changes there would be a massive undertaking."

"You tell me, I’m all ears," said Shen Dong earnestly, waving Zhou Wenbin away, "Go get me a pen and notebook."

The village official, seeing Shen Dong’s seriousness, became even more excited and blurted out, "The first thing to do is to collapse mountains and seal the sea."

Shen Dong nearly toppled over, collapsing mountains was fine, but sealing the sea seemed impossible?

The village official noticed Shen Dong’s misunderstanding and quickly explained, "I’m not asking you to enclose the sea, but to establish an underground water circulation while building an underground protective layer, fundamentally preventing seawater backflow and reducing the salt content."

"I’ve thought about strategies too."

Saying this, the village official dashed into the house and then dashed out again.

He took out an extensive engineering diagram, knelt on the ground, and spread it out, "You can roughly understand it, right? Here’s the sea; there’s the mountain."

The drawing was terrible, but very expressive, also annotated with text.

The village official pointed at the windmills above the sea and then to the mountain bridge plunging into the bay, "The topography of the bay is high on both ends and sunken in the middle, causing severe wind erosion. Of course, this is also an advantage; this row of windmills can use the wind to continuously transport water up the mountain."

"Build a deep well reservoir on the mountain top for sedimentation and degradation, desalinate the water, and then feed it into the water cycle. The water cycle pipeline could be constructed with a recessed opening at the top.

The opening is one and a half meters below the ground surface, separated by a filter. Above the filter, at a depth of one and a half meters, is the planting soil where mature willows can be transplanted."

An expert shows his hand, and you instantly know if he’s got it.

First improve the geomorphology, then the soil quality, and finally plant salt-tolerant trees such as black locusts or kinked willows.

This was the main content culled from a host of details by the village official.

Shen Dong had been listening for more than half an hour, already annoyed, but he didn’t have the heart to interrupt the village official’s enthusiasm. Finally, when the village official took a breather, he hastily interrupted, "How come Zhou Wenbin still hasn’t come back?"

The village official’s ears seemed to automatically filter out anything about Zhou Wenbin, completely ignoring it as he asked, "So, what do you think of the plan?"