Chapter 6 Poverty Limits Imagination

"How is this even possible!" After spending the whole morning, Zhang Menglong's face had become somewhat stiff from excessive astonishment.

Although their community wasn't large, it still had 12 buildings, each with 17 floors and 4 households per floor—that was over 800 households, thousands of people, all from his family?

"Mr. Zhang, have you forgotten? Tenghui made its fortune in real estate. This small property doesn't cost much at all. As for those residents, strictly speaking, they are just staff, mainly responsible for your daily security and normal social activities. Certainly, they all signed non-disclosure agreements. I guess after so many years, they have probably started treating you as an ordinary person,"

"Isn't this a little too exaggerated?" Zhang Menglong couldn't help but smile bitterly. His parents had gone to such great lengths for him to grow up like an ordinary person, hiring thousands of actors, "Wouldn't it be nicer to just buy a house in a random community?"

"Is there a big difference between buying a single house and buying 12 buildings?"

"Isn't there a big difference?" Zhang Menglong screamed hysterically in his heart, "Is this the gap between ordinary people and tycoons? Normal people struggle just to buy one house, while his family buys 12 buildings at once, as if they are shopping for vegetables at the market?"

"No, right now, I am the tycoon!" Zhang Menglong suddenly realized the well-intentioned rigour behind the challenge his father set for him, to spend 100 billion in a year.

His concept of spending was completely unfit for owning such wealth!

"Let's go, let's go. Give me a moment to process this." Zhang Menglong sat in the car and fell into silence, even starting to doubt his life choices.

...

"Beep beep!"

"Beep beep!"

"Move it already, why isn't it moving!"

"What kind of driving is this, cmn? Such traffic and still trying to cut in? It's because of people like you that the expressway is jammed like this!"

...

The day Zhang Menglong was returning home was the afternoon before National Day. From that evening on, the expressway was jammed to the point of no return due to the citizens who had been waiting for half a year. And today was another peak period—dreaming of a smooth ride back to Jiangnan City was pure fantasy!

"I am stuck on the expressway right now, and the map tells me it'll be another 7 hours of jam. I am done for!"

"Hahaha, luckily I had the foresight. Isn't a seven-day dormitory tour fragrant?"

"You scoundrel, what's 7 hours? I'm estimated to be stuck for 23 hours, alright? I drove less than ten kilometers from last night until now!"

"Damn, they even deliver takeout to the expressway now? Delivery guys are simply invincible!"

Zhang Menglong took a brief nap and when he opened his phone, there were already 99+ complaints in the dormitory chat group.

He glanced at the time, more than four hours had passed. Under normal circumstances, he would have already arrived in Jiangnan City.

"Mr. Zhang, you're awake. We've been stuck on the expressway for over two hours now. There was a chain-reaction accident ahead, and I'm afraid you'll have to wait a few more hours."

"Oh, it's fine. We'll wait. I'm not in any rush anyway." Zhang Menglong turned on his phone to chat with his roommates, and it didn't seem too boring. After all, he had been stuck on the expressway for six or seven hours before, so he was used to this kind of situation.

Because of the time adjustment, the League of Legends S tournament had officially started that day.

"Damn, why is the signal so bad?" Apart from messages from the roommate group, the streaming videos wouldn't load properly.

"Mr. Zhang, everyone is using their phones to pass the time on the freeway, so it's normal to have no signal," Hong Yi said.

"Forget it, I'll go back to sleep!" Zhang Menglong decided to close his eyes again but just then, he started to feel a faint swelling in his lower abdomen. It seemed that since he got up this morning, he hadn't been to the restroom.

He had drunk two bowls of porridge in the morning and didn't feel anything before, but now he could feel his bladder protesting.

"I'm not going to be stuck here on the expressway today, am I?" Zhang Menglong glanced at the map. They had covered less than half the distance, and they were still on the sea-crossing bridge from their small city. Once they entered the expressway to Jiangnan City, who knew what it would be like.

There were no rest stops on that stretch of road, and his upbringing and sense of shame over the past twenty plus years didn't allow him to relieve himself by the side of the road.

But if he were to use a mineral water bottle in the car, with a girl sitting next to him, how could he possibly pee?

"Guys, is there any way to deal with a bathroom emergency in the car? Waiting online!" Zhang Menglong immediately asked in the chat group, since Sun Yulei had already been stuck in the traffic on the highway all night, he must have some experience, right?

"We're a long-distance bus to begin with, the bus has a toilet!"

"Hahaha, Menglong, can't hold it in anymore? See if you can find a mineral water bottle in the car!"

"Just crack open the car door a bit and stretch your 'buddy' out through the gap, no one will notice!"

"Hahaha, genius, genius, that's so like you!"

"You're the real player here!"

...

"These treacherous dogs, don't they know I'm in deep trouble here? And they still have the mood to joke around?" Zhang Menglong's legs had already begun to rub together uncontrollably.

"Mr. Zhang, are you in a hurry to get back?" Hong Yi could see Zhang Menglong's embarrassment. Of course, she didn't know that Zhang Menglong was just really desperate to pee.

"Yeah... quite in a hurry. A roommate of mine is in trouble, I need to rush back to school to help him. Do you have any solutions?"

"Since that's the case, let's switch to another mode of transportation to get back. Actually, I had intended to take you back this way, but I was afraid you might find it too showy."

"What way? At this point, who cares about being showy or not?"

"I understand, please give me a moment."

Hong Yi took out her phone and dialed a number, "Mr. Zhang's car is stuck on the highway, and there's an urgent matter that requires immediate return to Jiangnan City. Please arrange it right away!"

"Who did you call?" Zhang Menglong asked curiously.

"I called the person responsible for your daily transportation. He said he can send a helicopter in no more than twenty minutes!"

"I never thought I'd actually get to experience a helicopter ride!" Zhang Menglong had thought of this solution earlier, but even by helicopter, it would take an hour to get to Jiangnan City. Was he supposed to anoint the masses with a golden shower from the sky?

"Well, holding it in for another hour is better than being stuck here on the highway for several more hours!"

...

Indeed, in less than twenty minutes, a loud noise of propellers vibrating came from the sky, immediately drawing everyone's attention.

"Mr. Zhang, your private helicopter has arrived!" Hong Yi announced.

"I've seen helicopters before, why is this sound so loud?" Zhang Menglong opened the car window and stuck his head out, and the dark shadow that loomed instantly made him gasp.

This helicopter was more than 40 meters in length, which was completely different from the private helicopter he had imagined!

"Look, the helicopter is starting to land!" The people on this stretch of the highway suddenly erupted with excitement. Such a scene was not something one would see every day.

"I've seen this helicopter on military shows before, it's the Soviet Russia's Mi-26, said to be the world's largest helicopter. There are only two in service with airlines in Huaxia, why would it appear here?"

"Could it be that some big shot couldn't handle the traffic jam and called for a helicopter?"

"How could that be possible? Who has the clout to summon this aircraft? Ordinary private helicopters are usually just small ones that can fit a few people, right?"

"How rich does someone have to be to use this kind of aircraft as a private plane?"

"It's not just about having the money, for such a large helicopter, if you don't have the authority, how could you possibly get through air traffic control?"

"This is just too wild, poverty really limits my imagination!"

...