This venue, which had stood here since the founding of Happiness City, was now over thirty years old.

Ding Yishan walked inside, his leather shoes clicking against the terrazzo floor, mentally calculating how many times he had come here for meetings.

Perhaps a hundred times, or maybe two hundred?

He couldn't remember clearly.

He only recalled that during the "Great Expansion Period" in previous years, meetings had been as frequent as daily meals.

Back then, both the chief and deputy station chiefs attended meetings together. He was the deputy chief, with Reagan Carl as the chief.

The two of them had to rush here almost daily. The ashtrays in the meeting room were always full, maps were covered with little red flags representing new outposts, and everyone's voices seemed perpetually hoarse in his memory.

But when he took over the inspection station, the wasteland happened to enter a "recovery period." The blade was sheathed, and meeting frequency gradually decreased.

Especially in the past two years, often only monthly routine meetings required his personal attendance, with other matters handled through defense communications.

Yesterday's first migration meeting had been a rare major event, with department heads from all sectors required to attend, arguing for over four hours.

The agenda spread like a fishing net, trying to catch everything.

Today's 9 AM first session finally began to focus, centering on infrastructure.

Material allocation, area division, production planning, transforming from various impractical ideas into concrete issues that all had to be implemented.

Originally, Ding Yishan hadn't planned to attend.

Director Liu's secret departure from the city was one reason, but more importantly, the inspection station had never directly involved itself in infrastructure affairs, always playing a peripheral listening role.

He had intended to stay put and wait until the 4 PM second plenary meeting to present his proposal and settle everything with one decisive move.

But now, his thinking had changed.

Since he was determined to seize control of the outer city construction initiative, he couldn't miss any discussion meeting.

The wall clock already pointed to 9:07 AM, and the meeting had long begun.

When he pushed open the heavy meeting room door, the inside instantly fell silent for half a second.

Many people looked up following the sound, and when they saw only Ding Yishan walking in alone, obvious surprise flashed in their eyes.

In recent years, Ding Yishan and Director Liu had appeared almost as a pair but today's Ding Yishan was completely alone, with mud spots still on the hem of his windbreaker, clearly having arrived in haste.

He didn't make his usual rounds of greetings, instead walking straight to the inspection station's seat.

Looking up, his gaze calmly met each participant's eyes one by one.

Most people showed no expression, with no excess emotion in their eyes, including Carlo Dickinson, the big bald head from the Transcendent faction who had previously targeted the inspection station. He was now looking down at documents, only glancing up briefly with an indifferent look.

The Transcendent faction targeted Director Liu, the transcendent who operated outside their control, not the inspection station itself.

As long as Director Liu wasn't present, Ding Yishan represented the rule-abiding, trouble-free inspection station that had no fundamental conflict with them.

However, several members of the Idealist faction reacted noticeably differently than usual.

Especially Yu Hong, whose eyes flashed with surprise when he looked up, and he even nodded slightly when meeting Ding Yishan's gaze.

"Alright, let's continue with the next topic, housing format selection."

Deputy City Lord Yuan Gang was not attending the first infrastructure meeting.

Hou Rui, who was chairing the meeting, adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, his gaze behind the lenses sweeping across the room.

As the faction with the greatest voice in current Happiness City, the Technology faction actually often argued internally over technical routes until faces turned red:

Some advocated prioritizing the restoration of old-era production technologies to solidify the foundation.

Some proposed learning from super sanctuary cities like Xinghuo and Natural, focusing on source guidance technology research.

Others suggested trying source guidance technology, since Happiness City had transcendents and opportunities to capture mother sources for experiments but these disagreements never appeared in the meeting hall. Once they entered this meeting room, the Technology faction had only one voice:

All decisions must be based on scientific theory, and any "experiential talk" lacking data support didn't deserve to appear on the agenda!

This was a very important consensus because even though the transition from old to new eras hadn't completely severed humanity's old-era technological systems.

There were still quite a number of settlements, even sanctuary cities, that had long deviated from the proper path.

Even today, they were still promoting theology, transcendental studies, potion studies, ritual studies, and other things that normal people found difficult to understand.

Previously, someone had tried to promote potion studies in Happiness City, adding mutation crystals and using living people for experiments.

Since the Technology faction took charge, such things were never heard of again.

It was also from then that Happiness City truly began developing toward an industrial sanctuary city and established its foothold.

The projector flickered, displaying a chart.

Hou Rui opened the folder in front of him, his fingertip sliding across the pages as he said in a deep voice, "Currently there are three plans to choose from: Plan A uses traditional brick-concrete structure. The advantage is local material availability, the cement and bricks currently in warehouses are sufficient to build housing for 200,000 people. But the disadvantage is obvious: continuous rainfall will cause concrete strength to plummet. As long as it keeps raining, construction will be very difficult to expand."

"Plan B uses lightweight steel frames as the skeleton with waterproof panels on the exterior. This structure is fast, a residential area can be erected in three days, very suitable for current rainy weather. But the problem is material consumption. Even if we pull out all warehouse inventory, it can only meet the needs of 100,000 people. Even if we run factories at full capacity, we can supply at most 50,000 to 100,000 people per week. To accommodate all migrants would require at least two to three months. More critically, this temporary construction can't withstand winter cold. We'd have to tear it down and rebuild with concrete structure, or continue investing in insulation layers, with costs only increasing. In the end, it's like throwing materials and manpower into water."

"Plan C..." Before Hou Rui finished speaking, someone in the audience had already raised their hand.

It was Deputy Director Lan Ni from the Works Department, one of the few women in the meeting.

"Deputy Director Lan, please speak."

"It's like this," Lan Ni stood up, "regarding Plan B's light steel framework, our Works Department just completed overnight verification calculations. It won't work."

"We calculated that to build light steel residential areas for 500,000 people within two months would require at least 80 heavy pile drivers to ensure underground pipeline installation. But the Works Department currently only has 28 that can operate normally, not even half of what's needed."

Lan Ni continued, flipping through her folder, "More critically, after the Stand-In Starfish incident ended, skilled workers capable of laying underground pipelines have been reduced by seventy percent through deaths and departures. The remaining thirty percent couldn't handle the workload even working around the clock, unless we could recruit workers from the migrants. But pipeline work..."

Before she finished, the meeting room erupted in small disturbances.

Many people looked down at their materials, clearly not having anticipated such large gaps in machinery and manpower.

Machinery could still be managed by having people work in shifts to barely maintain operations. but the manpower shortage was a real weakness. Pipeline laying was inherently hard and exhausting work, involving kneeling in mud to connect pipes and crawling through sewage.

Previously, they could recruit workers because Happiness City's economic model supported it. This work paid well, allowing families to exchange for adequate nutrition paste and save supplies for winter.

But now, with hundreds of thousands, nearly a million migrants flooding in, Happiness City's entire economic system needed restructuring.

Should nutrition paste be charged for? How much?

Should housing be charged for?

What could migrants' earnings buy? What changes could it bring to their lives?

Without these upper-level rules settled, lower-level production methods couldn't be implemented at all.

"Director Hou, with all due respect, it's not that we don't cooperate with the Technology faction's plans, but realistic conditions simply don't allow it. Light steel frameworks look fast, but most areas designated for the outer city are sandy soil. Once saturated with rainwater, foundations can't be properly secured. When winter comes and the frozen ground freezes and thaws, houses will inevitably collapse. By then, forget emergency response, we'll face even bigger chaos!"

"Fine, I'll record this."

Hou Rui took a deep breath, his chest rising slightly as he heavily marked a star with his pen tip, noting the machinery and manpower shortages raised by the Works Department.

Different fields were like different mountains. They could handle technology iteration research, but construction work outside was completely unfamiliar.

Since the Works Department had spoken this definitively, they had to find ways to solve the problems.

"Continuing, there's also a Plan C using brick-stone structure. The four large brick factories in the industrial zone have been shut down for years, but kilns, brick molds, and other equipment are still there. After inspection and maintenance, they should be able to restart."

"Based on the old production capacity of the brick factories, each production line's daily output is around 250,000 bricks. Under extreme capacity compression, it should reach 300,000 to 400,000. With all four brick factories operating, theoretically we could gather materials for approximately 100,000 people's housing per week. Has the Works Department verified this data?"

"Verified, no problems at all. This is what I wanted to say, brick arch with earth covering and waterproofing structure is actually the current optimal solution. Using the natural load-bearing capacity of brick arch structures, combined with exterior earth covering for waterproofing, we can completely eliminate dependence on cement and steel frames, extremely suitable for current rainy weather."

Hou Rui adjusted his glasses, hope appearing in his eyes behind the lenses, "Elaborate."

"Excellent!"

Lan Ni switched to the Works Department's storage device, displaying prepared images.

Using a laser pointer on a cross-section diagram, she said, "First is the masonry technique. Brick arches use dry laying methods, without concrete mortar joints, relying entirely on brick interlocking for structural support. This way, rainwater at most moistens brick surfaces without affecting masonry stability. Light rain is even better, we can use clay mortar for joints, and rainwater helps clay solidify faster, making gaps tighter."

"Second is construction rhythm. Earth covering can be done after rain when soil is slightly moist, when clay adhesion is best. Covering at this time prevents cracking and saves manual watering steps. In other words, continuous rainfall is not only not an obstacle but actually saves us half the maintenance work."

"There's also practicality."

Everyone's eyes brightened as they quietly listened to Lan Ni explain, "The earth covering itself is a natural insulation and sound barrier. In winter it blocks cold wind, in summer it blocks heat. It's much more comfortable to live in than light steel houses. Moreover, this structure's waterproofing actually exceeds ordinary brick-concrete. Rainwater flows away along the earth covering's slope and can't penetrate the arch roof."

At this point, she changed tone, her voice becoming more earnest, "The only shortcoming is indeed slow construction speed. Dry-laid brick arches require skilled craftsmen to control curvature and interlocking precision, unlike light steel's mechanical assembly line operations. But as long as we can provide proper training and standardize arch forms, we should be able to meet the schedule."

"Proper training?"

Zhao Kai, head of Human Resources, sitting in the back row, suddenly shook his head, "Deputy Director Lan, as far as I know, brick arch masonry requires extremely high craftsman experience, right? I've seen in materials that skilled arch masons can only advance one to two meters of arch length per day. Do you think 'proper training' is just lip service?"

The Works Department only handled plan formulation. When it came to actual training implementation, the burden would fall on Human Resources.

Modern construction had long been dominated by reinforced concrete. The "arch mason" profession had nearly lost its lineage, with training costs higher than training a hundred ordinary construction workers.

"The city has no one who knows the technique you're talking about." Zhao Kai didn't even bother opening his folder, directly stating, "Even if we have materials, we'd need to organize people to struggle with materials until they understand, then teach others, while risking various problems from inadequate learning during construction projects. Do you think this suits the current situation?"

"This is already the optimal solution the Works Department has developed."

Lan Ni slammed the table, "If you won't even organize people for learning, then what? Want me, this Works Department deputy director, to lead by example and lay bricks for you?"

"Heh, I'm just explaining to everyone what your so-called shortcoming actually means." Zhao Kai calmly adjusted his cuffs, "Getting worked up?"

"Me, worked up?" Lan Ni smirked, "Since last year, which batch of workers you've reported has actually met our requirements? How many times have we discussed this in meetings? You could muddle through before, but bringing it up now really hits your sore spot?"

"Meet requirements?" Zhao Kai also got angry, suddenly standing up, "What kind of impossible requirements does your Works Department give? Requiring age under 25 while also demanding 5-10 years of skilled experience, do your workers start practicing crafts in the womb? Also, workers over 35 have equally solid skills, so why do they earn ten percent less than younger workers? Every time conflicts arise over this ridiculous issue, who has to clean up the mess?"

"Bullshit!" Lan Ni's face instantly flushed red, "Those old workers you send over talk better than they sing, but their actual work is worse than each other. These past weeks when buffer zone pipelines burst and we need them for midnight emergency repairs, I as department head have to personally visit their doors to request help. You say I pay them high wages to show the Works Department is generous with money?"

"What do you mean by that?"

Zhao Kai left his table and stepped forward half a step, "Many people can't even guarantee 6 hours of rest per day, and you want them to work overtime at midnight. Are you trying to work these people to death?"

The meeting room instantly exploded.

They were arguing again!

Usually, the Works Department complained that Human Resources recruited people either too green or too slick, while Human Resources resented the Works Department's unrealistic demands. Add in old conflicts over wage systems and evaluation standards, and it was like piled dry kindling, just needing a spark.

This outer city construction happened to be the spark that ignited everything.

"Enough!" Hou Rui slammed the table hard, his gold-rimmed glasses sliding to his nose tip, "Is this the time for such arguments? We need plans, solutions, not blame-shifting here!"

But Zhao Kai and Lan Ni completely ignored his words.

Especially Zhao Kai, who suddenly turned his head, veins bulging on his neck, "Go to hell, I've long been sick of your wishy-washy attitude! Without clarifying things, can plans be implemented? Who the hell is blame-shifting here?"

"Then what's your solution?"

Hou Rui's voice suddenly rose, his body actually lifting slightly off the ground, feet hovering half an inch above the floor. Pale white radiance surged around him, and intimidating presence spread like invisible waves.

But the next second, a low voice dropped like a boulder into the waves, instantly suppressing all agitation:

"Hou Rui, calm down."

Looking over, they saw Carlo Dickinson from the Transcendent faction had somehow stood up.

On that shiny bald head, mysterious blue-gold patterns were slowly crawling across the skin surface, as if living things flowed beneath.

His originally cloudy pupils now glowed with faint light, and wherever his gaze swept, even the air seemed to stagnate.

Human Resources was a subordinate faction of the Transcendents. He naturally wouldn't allow Hou Rui to resolve problems by force.

If he really let the Technology faction use violence here, where would the Transcendent faction put their face?

"What, trying to teach me how to do things?"

Hou Rui slowly turned his body, his gaze colliding hard with Carlo Dickinson's.

Invisible pressure rapidly accumulated between the two men, like two thunderclouds compressed to the limit.

All the anger suppressed from yesterday's meeting, all dissatisfaction from ideological conflicts, plus the special obsessive influence of transcendents...

No one called start, and no one set rules.

Boom.

A sharp explosive sound suddenly tore through the air. The two figures had already disappeared from the meeting hall like residual images.

The originally thick gray brick wall collapsed with a crash, instantly showing two irregular large holes. Broken bricks and cement chunks poured down like waterfalls, a scene far more dramatic than when Director Liu had flown out last time.

Immediately after, a thunderous roar exploded outside the meeting hall, shaking all the meeting room windows with buzzing vibrations.

Almost simultaneously, a translucent light blue protective barrier rose sharply from the ground, completely enveloping the entire venue.

This source guidance barrier imported from Xinghuo both isolated external observation and firmly contained all impacts and sounds within the barrier, preventing harm to ordinary people in the inner city.

The meeting attendees were first stunned, then rushed to the holes and windows, gripping the edges and nervously peering outside.

They saw two figures on the open ground outside the meeting hall colliding and crossing at speeds barely visible to the naked eye.

Hou Rui was wrapped in silver-white energy flows, each punch accompanied by the sharp whistle of tearing air.

The moment his fists collided with Carlo, they could even see ring-shaped shock waves formed by energy impacts.

Carlo had a completely different style. Without external energy release, his body could twist like liquid metal. Several times when Hou Rui's fists had clearly approached his face, they slid past from impossibly twisted angles.

Bang.

Another hard collision, both men sliding back several meters.

"Brute who only knows how to solve problems with fists, die."

"Idiot whose brain was ruined by technology, get lost!"

The two roared and charged at each other again but as soon as their words fell, under everyone's gaze, the ground outside the meeting hall suddenly split into two human-shaped furrows, perfectly covering their shadows.

Thud!

Terrifying pressure descended from above like an invisible giant palm slapping the ground hard.

The two men were pressed to the ground without any resistance, forming "big" character shapes, foreheads against the cold cement ground, unable even to resist lifting their heads.

An indifferent voice came from somewhere unknown yet clearly reached everyone's ears:

"Enough."

It was... Yuan Gang!

Everyone looked up to see the scholarly-dressed Yuan Gang descending from the sky, his entire body seeming unaffected by gravity, floating lightly in mid-air.

No energy flows, no abnormal radiance, not even violent movement of his robes, like a leaf ready to fall at any moment but Hou Rui and Carlo on the ground were crushed until their bones creaked under that invisible pressure.

They could only lie humiliatingly flat, glaring at each other from the corners of their eyes, unable to move even a finger.

Yuan Gang slowly descended to the ground, his cloth shoes not splashing a single drop when they touched the water.

His gaze swept over both men in turn, "Any more problems?"

Hou Rui gritted his teeth, forcing out a muffled groan from his throat, while Carlo turned his head away, clenching his fists tightly but both ultimately shook their heads.

The invisible pressure instantly disappeared.

The two men crawled up awkwardly. Under Yuan Gang's indifferent gaze, neither spoke again, walking back toward the meeting hall entrance with lowered heads.

Soon, the meeting room door was pushed open.

Yuan Gang walked in the middle with Hou Rui and Carlo following on either side with heads down, like two children who had done something wrong.

The people who had just been peering through holes and windows at the excitement had already returned to their chairs with lightning speed, sitting straight-backed with serious expressions, as if nothing had happened.

Yuan Gang sat in the empty seat beside the main position, not looking at anyone, only saying flatly, "Continue the meeting."

No one dared respond.

Including Lan Ni and Zhao Kai, who now acted like obedient chickens, even managing slight smiles when seeing each other.

"Continue discussing architectural structure."

Hou Rui took a deep breath, his voice somewhat stiff as he said word by word, "Three plans have been presented. Everyone... let's vote."

"Plan A, traditional brick-concrete structure. Those in favor, raise your hands!"

Dead silence in the meeting hall, no one raised their hands.

"Plan B..."

Still no one raised their hands.

Raising hands for already-rejected plans might result in being assigned the mess by Hou Rui, which would be troublesome.

"What about Plan C?"

The same situation continued. Even Lan Ni, who had proposed the plan, didn't dare raise her hand to take responsibility.

Because what Zhao Kai said was correct, brick arches were indeed very difficult. Training skilled craftsmen was very hard for Happiness City's current capabilities!

Moreover, this wasn't child's play, but responsibility for the livelihoods of 500,000 to one million people.

If something went wrong, they weren't transcendents who could fly away and survive.

"Can't even determine housing styles?"

Yuan Gang suddenly spoke, looking at Hou Rui, "When the buffer zone first had quite a few people, how was it built from nothing?"

"Yes..." Hou Rui suddenly froze, instinctively wanting to speak, his gaze unconsciously drifting toward Ding Yishan.

"Ding Yishan, you speak." Yuan Gang's gaze turned over.

Instantly, everyone's eyes focused on him, filled with complexity.

In their view, Ding Yishan should be very regretful. He could have hidden at the inspection station and waited for the afternoon plenary meeting to appear, but instead came to join this infrastructure meeting commotion.

Now Yuan Gang had personally called his name, and without Director Liu to help smooth things over, if he said something wrong and touched the deputy city lord's nerves, he'd be in serious trouble.

But no one expected that Ding Yishan's face showed no tension whatsoever. Instead, he slowly developed a slight smile, a smile they hadn't seen in this place for a long time.

"The buffer zone was built brick by brick by Station Chief Cheng Wu, leading by example."

His voice wasn't loud but clearly reached throughout the meeting room, "Back then there were no machines, no blueprints, not even adequate tools or materials. Most inherited old-era buildings were already dilapidated. Station Chief Cheng led residents using stone rollers to compress foundations, using yellow clay mixed with plant ash as cement to build and repair, collecting materials from city ruins. Even though the shantytown looked terrible by today's standards, even though underground pipelines needed maintenance regularly, the main structures are still in normal use today."

Cheng Wu...

Someone in the meeting couldn't help but gasp.

Just as the name Cheng Long was taboo within the inspection station, the name Cheng Wu was taboo in the inner city.

No one ever dared mention it actively, because Cheng Wu's departure had brought enormous trouble to Happiness City.

It took the deaths of several transcendents to fill that mess.

Yuan Gang's expression didn't change as he nodded slightly, "Previously Cheng Wu led people to build it. Now you're the inspection station chief, so you tell me, which style should we choose?"

"I don't know." Ding Yishan answered straightforwardly.

"Don't know?"

Yuan Gang repeated this, his brows furrowing almost imperceptibly, seemingly very dissatisfied with this answer but soon, as Ding Yishan spoke again, his expression changed slightly.

"Yes, I don't know who can take responsibility for the plans."

Ding Yishan stood up slightly, his gaze coldly looking at Hou Rui, "Director Hou, if we choose Plan B, can your Industrial Department take responsibility?"

Hou Rui paused, his expression calm, saying nothing.

Responsibility?

Light steel framework's material shortages, maintenance, winter cold resistance modifications, material expenses, any problem could pressure the entire Industrial Department's operations. How could he dare commit?

Ding Yishan stopped looking at him and turned to Lan Ni and Zhao Kai, his voice carrying no warmth, "Deputy Director Lan, Director Zhao, if we choose Plan C, can your Works Department and Human Resources Department take responsibility?"

Both simultaneously lowered their heads as if they hadn't heard anything.

Craftsman training, brick supply, schedule delays, any one of these could strip them of their positions. No one dared touch this hot potato now.

Ding Yishan slowly sat down, the chair making a dull groan.

He looked up at Yuan Gang in the main seat, his tone carrying somewhat mocking calmness, "Deputy City Lord, since from beginning to end no one intends to take responsibility, what's the point of discussing plans here?"

"Is it for peace of mind, or... does it not matter if all the migrants outside die?"

[NEXT CHAPTER]