The carriage sped smoothly along the Falling Rain Highway, carrying Xu Yi and President Cruz toward Falling Rain Valley.
An oncoming carriage laden with goods swept past them. President Cruz glanced through the window at the large freight carriage receding behind them, then looked at the highway beneath their wheels and suddenly said to Xu Yi, "This road needs widening."
Xu Yi nodded. "That's right. I've been thinking about that for a long time. When we first built this highway, we lacked both money and experience, so we made it only four meters wide. Now it's clear that isn't enough. Ideally, we should double its width."
"There's no need to go that far. I think another two meters would be enough," President Cruz said.
"No, if we're going to widen it, we should add more. After all, carriages won't be the only vehicles using this highway in the future..."
"Other vehicles?" President Cruz's expression shifted. "President Xu, I heard from President Pombelli that you promised him you'd develop a new kind of magic locomotive within this year, something that could replace the carriages used by his transport business and greatly reduce his costs?"
"I only said that to reassure him," Xu Yi said helplessly. "The truth is, we still haven't finished developing the magic locomotive's most important component. I have absolutely no confidence that we can release it this year. If President Pombelli hadn't been pressing me so hard, I wouldn't have made up something like that to mislead him."
President Cruz, however, paid no attention to whether Xu Yi had been trying to reassure President Pombelli. He cared only about the most important implication of Xu Yi's words.
"So this magic locomotive is real?"
Xu Yi glanced at him. "Why are you so interested in it?"
"Why shouldn't I