Chapter 101: The 101st Day of Lying Flat Like a Salted Fish

He simply didn’t know how far the Desolate Planet’s control over its surface soil could go.

Lu Yuan sighed.

From the current perspective, the Desolate Planet was likely only capable of managing major geological activities. When it came to the finer details of manipulation, it was probably out of its depth.

Otherwise, the Desolate Planet could have easily created numerous underground caverns for the residents to live in.

After all, in many cases, subterranean environments were more habitable than those on the surface. Although living underground presented its own set of problems—such as air purification, water seepage, and cave-ins—these could all be resolved if the Desolate Planet possessed sufficient architectural capabilities.

But currently, there were only a small number of cave-dwelling humans on the Desolate Planet, and none who lived entirely underground.

After sweeping his Mental Power across the Desolate Planet several times, Lu Yuan could say he knew the world like the back of his hand. No one understood this better than he did.

However…

Lu Yuan always had the feeling that the Desolate Planet was capable of more.

Perhaps it was being restrained by something—for instance, certain special items dropped by those suspicious Garbage Ships—preventing it from exerting its full power.

If he shot down some Garbage Ships as planned, he might be able to liberate the Desolate Planet’s strength to some extent.

Or perhaps it was a matter of population density. If more people gathered together, the Desolate Planet might be able to exert a greater influence over such settlements.

After all, it always seemed to trigger earthquakes in places where people lived.

Of course, there was also the possibility that the Desolate Planet truly couldn’t do anything more.

That would be a bit of a problem.

Lu Yuan thought to himself.

It wasn’t that these people couldn’t be settled.

After all, even if the Desolate Planet couldn’t do it, Lu Yuan could. For him, digging a few tunnels with his Mental Power wasn’t a difficult task at all.

It was just that pushing subsequent progress would become difficult.

Just as he didn’t want to be the Desolate Planet’s loudspeaker, Lu Yuan didn’t want to become a dedicated dormitory construction worker either.

–

Goudan was leading the convoy across the wasteland.

Unbeknownst to them, midsummer was approaching. The weather grew hotter by the day, and the midday sun beat down from overhead; even with hats woven from leaves, the glare was enough to make one’s head spin.

Traveling long distances in such weather was undoubtedly miserable.

Goudan wiped the sweat from his face and called the team to a halt for a rest. He ordered men to haul water barrels out of one of the vehicles and had everyone line up for their rations while he found a protruding rock to sit on.

Plucking a leaf from above his head, he popped it into his mouth. As the bitterness slowly spread across his tongue, Goudan let out a sigh.

He was a little tired.

It wasn’t just physical exhaustion, but mental fatigue as well.

The arrival of the Garbage Ships, the volcanoes, the earthquakes, Lu Yuan’s change of plans, his own departure with the team… so many chaotic things had happened today, and all of them required his coordination and arrangement. Although they’d had some contingency plans, the problems encountered when actually doing the work always far exceeded expectations.

Furthermore, Lu Yuan’s adjustments to the plan had come so suddenly that he had to change his arrangements over and over again. He certainly didn’t mean to complain about Lu Yuan… in fact, on the contrary, he was perhaps a bit worried. Though he likely didn’t have the capacity to worry about Lu Yuan’s affairs…

“Boss.” A tall, thin young man crouched down beside Goudan, thumping the camera from his shoulder onto the ground and rubbing his joints. His name was Da He, Goudan’s long-time confidant and the chief cinematographer for Goudan’s television dramas.

Goudan gave a lazy response. “Hmm?”

“Did something happen?” Da He asked. “This is different from our original plan.”

“…” Goudan felt helpless. He was currently pondering that very issue.

He believed he understood Lu Yuan’s mindset quite well.

Lu Yuan had indeed been helping them, but he had always avoided interfering too much. On one hand, Lu Yuan was truly too lazy to meddle in these trivialities; on the other, Lu Yuan intentionally wanted to train his and the others’ abilities.

Otherwise, these minor problems on the Desolate Planet would be nothing more than a flick of the wrist for Lu Yuan. Why would Lu Yuan bother lingering here with them, slowly grinding through five-year and ten-year plans?

Because of this, he was incredibly grateful to Lu Yuan, and thus he never expected Lu Yuan to provide any extra help.

Even if a simple gesture from Lu Yuan could save him an immense amount of work, he preferred to rely on his own efforts to achieve his goals. He preferred to improve his own abilities to face challenges rather than pinning everything on Lu Yuan’s assistance or acting like a parasite.

He even felt a sense of happiness when Lu Yuan provided less help than he imagined. It felt like a form of validation.

Past experiences had always validated his theory. Lu Yuan would only provide a measured, minimal amount of help. He focused on teaching rather than simply handing over a finished product. He never took full responsibility for anything, no matter how easy the task might have been for him.

Except for this time.

“I don’t know what happened either,” Goudan said.

He wasn’t this candid with everyone, but he trusted Da He well enough. So he explained bluntly, “But Lu Yuan is suddenly in a rush to push the progress forward. No matter what, I have to cooperate.”

Spending so much time together had allowed him to accumulate enough understanding and trust in Lu Yuan. He was convinced that Lu Yuan wouldn’t act without a specific purpose.

Since Lu Yuan had suddenly become urgent, even to the point of abandoning his usual lazy attitude to start micromanaging things… then Goudan naturally had to match that urgency and get everything organized.

Goudan had always been good at prioritizing. He knew the difference between what he could do and what he should do.

Speculating on Lu Yuan’s motives was clearly pointless. If it was something he needed to know, Lu Yuan would tell him sooner or later. If it wasn’t, he wouldn’t be able to guess it anyway.

What he needed to do now was focus on the present, lead his team well, and complete the tasks Lu Yuan required of him.

“So when you said Lu Yuan would help us… I understand now,” Da He said.

Although Goudan hadn’t explained the reason for the change in plans earlier, he had made it clear that Lu Yuan would take responsibility for the food and housing of the new outsiders to dispel everyone’s doubts.

“However,” Da He added, “everyone is still very curious about what made you, and Lu Yuan, suddenly change the plan. I’ve heard a lot of speculation along the way.”

He spoke tactfully, but Goudan quickly understood his meaning.

As the leader of the group, he didn’t need to explain every single order. But this kind of sudden reversal, which left everyone confused and skeptical, still required an explanation.

Otherwise, morale would inevitably suffer.

But the explanation he gave Da He obviously couldn’t be given to everyone. That would mean shifting all the responsibility onto Lu Yuan, while still failing to explain why Lu Yuan had made such a decision.

Blindly following a mysterious whim would not only undermine Goudan’s leadership but also erode the trust everyone had in Lu Yuan.

Therefore…

“Make up a reason, Boss,” Da He grinned. “Don’t those generals in the TV shows always give a speech to provide some Inspiration before the march? Otherwise, in this heat, who wants to keep walking?”

He pointed to the nearby camera. “Besides, this is important footage! Recording our first march!”

“…”

Goudan smiled.

“Thanks,” he said, patting Da He on the shoulder. If Da He hadn’t come to remind him, he might have truly overlooked the group’s doubts for the moment. After all, he was quite exhausted and his mind was preoccupied with Lu Yuan’s unusual behavior.

Da He rubbed his head, laughing with a somewhat goofy expression.

Goudan thought for a moment longer and finally came up with a reason that wouldn’t be easily debunked. Then he stood up and clapped his hands.

Every eye in the vicinity turned toward him.

“Let me explain the current situation,” Goudan began. “Regarding why the plan was adjusted, I didn’t want to say anything at first because it’s a bit embarrassing. But since Da He just asked, I figured I should let you all know.

“I received a message back from Siming. He’s already established a foothold out there and says he’s made quite a bit of money. He’s started preparing to buy a warship to come back and bring us supplies.”

Goudan paused deliberately, scanning the crowd.

Everyone’s eyes lit up, flashing with excitement and ambition.

Goudan laughed.

“What’s this? You all look pretty happy?” he teased.

Da He chimed in, “Isn’t that a good thing?”

Goudan rolled his eyes at him and slapped his own thigh. “Don’t you feel ashamed? Huh? Don’t you think our progress is too slow? We agreed that they would go out to expand our territory while we reclaimed lost ground here on the Desolate Planet. They’ve been out there conquering for ages, but where is our land? We haven’t gained an inch!”

The crowd laughed awkwardly.

Someone shouted, “But we’re starting right now!”

“So we need to be faster! Faster! Faster!” Goudan shouted. “We need more people! More troops! More resources! Do you understand!” Goudan raised his voice.

“We understand!”

“That’s why I’m going to bring all the disaster victims in the surrounding areas directly to us and make them our people! That’s why I went out of my way to beg Lu Yuan to help us with the logistics. It wasn’t easy to get him to agree!”

He deliberately acted a bit resentful, making it seem as though he had worked incredibly hard to plead with Lu Yuan and had signed many unfair treaties to make it happen.

The crowd burst into laughter.

Goudan watched them joke around for a while before shouting, “In any case, we need to pick up the pace! We have to be faster than Siming! Do you have confidence?”

“Yes!” the crowd roared in response.

Goudan flashed a smile at Da He, who was holding the camera, and waved his hand. “Then, keep moving forward!”

The team set off once again, and this time, everyone’s steps seemed much lighter.

However, Goudan’s heart felt even heavier.

Despite how seriously he had boasted on Siming’s behalf, it was all entirely made up. It had nothing to do with the actual situation.

Siming hadn’t sent much news back lately. Without a doubt, establishing a foothold on an alien planet was difficult enough, let alone buying a Starship.

What worried Goudan even more was Geshu Qing.

Since returning to the Capital Star, Geshu Qing’s external communications had been sparse because every contact could be monitored. The content was mostly superficial, with nothing of substance.

Everyone knew he was safe and that his interactions with the Geshu Family were fine, but whether he was being secretly restricted was completely unknown.

It was truly difficult to feel at ease.

It wasn’t that Goudan didn’t trust Geshu Qing’s abilities.

It was just that, alone in a strange place, he was ultimately outnumbered and isolated.