Chapter 74: Beyond the Mould

Chapter 74: Chapter 74: Beyond the Mould

"How is it, Liam? What do we need to do next now?" Once the two Mason brothers had finished their private talk they came over to where Liam was, Daniel saw him looking at the report, his gaze drifting off into the far distance. That nostalgic gaze seemed to set Liam apart from this world, which made Daniel suddenly feel a flutter of alarm inside. Daniel blurted out the question unconsciously, cutting across the flow of Liam’s thoughts.

Liam came back to himself, saying with a smile: "First we plan out the area for agricultural cultivation, after that we go on to zone the residential quarter and the commercial quarter." He led everyone into the house, sitting down at the large table and spreading the electronic map out wide. The 5D model of the planet Sirius immediately came floating up in mid-air. Whenever Liam mentioned a location, he would press the red-circled region standing for that location, and the map would at once enlarge that spot.

"Take this part of the Southern Hemisphere for example, we will build it on the structure of rural housing for anyone wanting to experience the farming life, this riverside area will be opened in the style of a riverside town, for anyone who likes life on the water.

Moving gradually up to the North, I plan to recreate the structure of hills and mountains at the height the Government permits. Instead of planting fields down on the plain as in the South, we will plant in the style of terraced fields following the mountain slopes. Up on the mountains and across all the remaining land of the Northern Hemisphere, I will recreate primeval forest."

Liam pressed Sunflower open, projecting three-dimensional images of hills and mountains, terraced fields and primeval forest. Among them, he put forward a few models of stilt houses, houses in the homestay style. Naturally, the streams and the waterfalls had to be man-made. The underground water veins on this planet had lost their pressure, they could no longer rise to any height of their own accord, so they could only pump water up from the rivers below.

Liam remembered that in his previous life, the country neighbouring his own had already made a tourist area on this model. The tourists had no idea about any of it until one tourist’s flycam happened to film the water pumping pipeline at the top of the waterfall. People’s reaction whenever this came up was three parts helplessness, seven parts the same as the three.

He would not let a state of affairs like that happen, so the camouflage had to be done really thoroughly.

The three-dimensional images were so beautiful that everyone present drew a breath inwards. Michael had originally only come to visit his younger brother, now seeing these images along with Liam’s presentation, he suddenly found himself hoping the project would be completed quickly, so that he too would have somewhere to spend leave in the proper sense of the word.

"In each one of these areas, we will open a market. A country market, a floating market on the river, a market at the foot of the mountain. Every month, besides the ordinary trading days, there will be two market-gathering days at the start of the month and at the end of the month. Tourists from one area can go across to another area to look around. We call this tourism within tourism."

Gabriel along with a number of others could not help breaking into a thunder of applause: "Splendid!"

Liam waited for these rounds of applause to die down before beginning to speak again: "Besides that, there is one rule that absolutely must be laid down right from the start. That is, apart from souvenirs bought at the souvenir shops we run ourselves, every other item, tourists are not permitted to carry off the planet Sirius, not even a stone or a dry branch!"

Daniel raised a hand to speak: "What if it is something they grew themselves or gathered or caught?"

Liam nodded in satisfaction: "That cannot be carried off either. First, for the things they put up the capital for themselves, growing vegetables or raising chickens for instance, we have sold them the seed and they have spent their own money tending it, so in that case we will buy it back from them. As for the things we put up the capital for ourselves, which belong to us, such as aquatic produce or the specialities of the forests and mountains, we can process them for the guests to take home to eat little by little or to give away as gifts. With a fee, naturally. This is what you are best at, so I am handing it to you, Daniel."

Daniel lifted his head high in pride, Michael in amusement ruffled his younger brother’s hair a few times. The meeting ran on until noon, everyone used high-grade nutrient fluid in place of food. Michael stayed with his younger brother only an hour longer, only then did he leave with regret. He still had military duties on him, he could not pull himself free of them.

Before going, Michael said to Liam: "Mr. Martinez, I very much look forward to the day I get to spend leave on this beautiful planet."

Liam nodded with a smile: "Certainly, a VIP room will be set aside just for you."

Michael snorted a laugh, raising a hand in a military salute before swiftly leaping up into the military ship. Waiting until he was out of sight, Liam asked Daniel: "Your brother is a front-line soldier, I can see from his bearing that he is no amateur either, so why is he still only a Second Lieutenant?"

Daniel’s face darkened: "There is someone who does not want the Mason family lifting its head up, so his war merits have all been blocked. Before this it was by leaning on my eldest brother’s connections that he made Second Lieutenant, and now even this rank of Second Lieutenant is shaky."

"The Eugenes?" Liam guessed.

Daniel nodded heavily: "They are the Third Prince’s loyal dogs. Before this they still acted with some caution, but ever since the former Crown Prince’s fate became unknown, they have been like a pack of star-beasts loose from their pens, biting and swallowing the Mason family’s holdings everywhere."

Having said that, he looked at Liam with some anxiety: "Liam, do you think they will dip their hands in to obstruct our business?"

Liam burst into a laugh: "You suppose they have not put a hand out already? Think about why I pulled Logan Cromwell into our cooked-food restaurant project. Their hand had barely reached out before the Cromwells broke it. As for the tourist planet project..." Liam opened up Light of Time, holding it out for Daniel to see the contracts that had been signed earlier: "Have a look, who have I managed to invite in to invest?" 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Daniel looked at the flourishing lines of signature at the bottom right corner of the electronic contracts, his breathing growing somewhat disordered. Alexander Hall? William Hall? Aurora Coronado?

"They... they? Liam, how could you possibly get the number one and number two families to invest in our project???"

Liam threw an arm round Daniel’s shoulders, pulling him back into the house, saying calmly: "So what did you think I went to the Capital planet for twenty days to do? I am exactly the sort of person who will stop at no means to turn every connection into a support for himself. All right, my other friend will be arriving in a little while, during that time, we need to have a heart-to-heart. Out with it, my dear friend, what have you done to my brother?"

The moment Daniel heard this subject come up he unconsciously wanted to take to his heels, but his shoulder was already pinned down by Liam, so however much he wanted to flee he could not. In the end Daniel was dragged into a private room by Liam to be interrogated, with no choice but to confess every last thing.

Liam looked at Daniel with an utterly astonished expression, asking: "You, an Omega, told my brother to be your bedtime story machine? Since when did you become enlightened?"

Daniel’s face went red, saying: "Enlightened or not enlightened, nothing of the sort, I really do have insomnia..."

Liam shook his head: "No no no, Daniel, I am not talking about that. I am simply glad that you have stepped out of the mould this world forces onto Alphas and Omegas."

Daniel’s mouth fell open, letting out one "huh?". Liam did not spell it out, only asking back: "You like my brother, don’t you? Answer honestly."

Daniel’s face went redder still, nodding in embarrassment. Liam went on to ask: "If my brother’s glands can never be cured, so he can never release pheromones like other Alphas. Or supposing he were a Beta, would you still like him?"

Daniel was left stunned by this question. He thought for a very long time, so long that the assistant’s call had already rung out outside, announcing that Leonardo had arrived. Liam patted Daniel’s shoulder:

"You stay in here and think it through carefully, I will go out to receive my friend then come back."

The door closed, shutting Daniel off inside a world of his own. Daniel thought without stopping, what was the first thing that had made him notice Benjamin?

It did not seem to be his gender. There were so many Alphas around Daniel, Benjamin did not count as outstanding. Even Jacob Eugene was a grade-A Alpha, stronger than Benjamin, wealthier than Benjamin and more impressive in bearing than Benjamin.

And yet Daniel, who had always found his own fiancé an eyesore, had come to notice a grade-B Alpha with no scent of pheromones about him.

He had noticed Benjamin’s honest, simple-hearted smile, he liked listening to that deep, warm, gentle voice of his, liked the clumsy way he showed his concern, liked that he had become the one reading him to sleep every night in spite of his shyness just to help him sleep well, liked the way he used that soft voice to call him out of bed each morning...

Daniel realised that he liked Benjamin the person, not his Alpha gender.

So then, stepping out of the mould Liam had just spoken of was precisely getting past the perception of gender, taking another person in with one’s own heart.

Having thought it through, Daniel immediately stood up to go out and find Liam. Liam’s friend was a Beta, the two of them were standing side by side pointing together at the positions of the rivers, seeming to be discussing something.

Daniel drew a deep breath, stepping over swiftly, raising his voice to call: "Liam."

The two people in front turned round at once. Liam smiled, introducing Leonardo and Daniel to each other: "Daniel, this is the friend I told you about, Leonardo Santiago. Leo, this is another friend of mine, who is also half the owner of this tourist planet, Daniel Mason."

Leonardo at once broke into a bright smile, reaching out a hand to greet Daniel out of professional habit: "Hello, Mr. Mason, we met at your restaurant last time, I never got the chance to greet you."

Daniel glanced at the hand Leonardo was holding out. Leonardo awkwardly meant to draw it back, when unexpectedly Daniel swiftly took hold of it, saying with a smile: "Hello. I have heard Liam mention you a great deal, only today do I get to meet you properly. Just call me Daniel, I will call you Leonardo. A friend’s friend is a friend, so you and I count as friends to each other already."

Leonardo was slightly stunned, after which the delight showed on his face: "Right, right, from now on we are friends. Daniel, Liam and I are discussing the work of sealing the acid-sulfate layer beneath the ground with Subsurface Vitrification technology. I feel we ought to seal a little deeper, but Liam does not want to because it would drain the water source dry. What do you say we should do now?"

Daniel came closer, examining the projected images Leonardo’s ship had recorded, rubbing his chin as he said:

"It is true that if we do not seal deep, the soil could very well turn acid sulfate again. But if we seal deep then the underground water veins that supply the soil are certain to be sealed along with it. Tell me, can we switch the direction of flow of the water veins?"

Leonardo knitted his brows, saying hesitantly: "It can be done, it can, but it has to be carried out after the upper layer has been sealed. That means performing the sealing operation twice, so the money would have to be counted double."

Daniel laughed it off: "Money is not a problem, you need only do it..."

Liam stood beside them, watching Daniel discuss the work with Leonardo animatedly without the slightest reserve, not even shy of pushing in among the technical Alphas Leonardo had brought along to set out his own argument, and a feeling of gladness welled up inside him.

Like an owner seeing with his own eyes the timid kitten that had always hung about inside his house find the courage for the first time to push the window open, stepping out to explore the grassy yard outside.