After doing all this, he turned off all the lights in the living room.
Darkness instantly engulfed the spacious wooden cabin, leaving only the flickering flames in the fireplace.
Su Wei didn't go upstairs; he was too tired to move at all.
He wrapped himself tightly in the wool blanket, with a down comforter on top, and sank into the soft sofa.
Cotton Candy seemed to keenly sense its owner's fatigue. Instead of running around and playing as usual, it obediently slipped into the gaps in the blanket.
The little guy burrowed around in the darkness, found a comfortable spot, rested his furry head on Su Wei's ankle, and let out a satisfied sigh.
Warm, yet heavy.
This tangible sensation brought Su Wei a long-lost sense of peace, and her consciousness quickly sank as she fell asleep.
The next day.
What woke Su Wei from his slumber was neither his biological clock nor the harassment of the Cotton Candy.
Instead, it was a very regular and muffled reversing warning sound, mixed with the hissing of a hydraulic pump, characteristic of heavy machinery.
"Drip drip drip drip drip"
That was the clarion call for industrial power to invade the wilderness.
Su Wei suddenly opened his eyes. He was dazed for a second and subconsciously reached for the gun under his pillow.
It wasn't until I saw that familiar chandelier on the ceiling that the memories finally returned.
It is home.
He sat up, his body stiff, and his spine cracked like popping beans as he stretched.
Immediately following was a pleasant, tingling sensation that spread throughout my body.
The blanket slipped off, startling Cotton Candy from her sweet dream.
It groggily rolled over, revealing its pink belly, its four paws flailing wildly in the air, then smacked its lips twice before closing its eyes and falling back into a deep sleep.
"What a heartless little thing."
Su Wei chuckled softly, not bothering the newly popular internet celebrity.
He glanced at his phone; it was 7:30 in the morning.
Stepping barefoot onto the cold floor, the biting chill instantly sobered him up.
Su Wei walked to the French windows and pulled back the heavy blackout curtains.
Wow
The blinding morning light, mixed with the reflection from the snow, shone directly in, making the whole world seem to glow.
The sight outside the window lifted his spirits; the huge pit from yesterday had changed.
Two huge cement mixer trucks were parked at the edge of the pit, their tanks slowly rotating and making a rumbling friction sound.
Gray concrete slurry poured down the chute, filling the deep pit filled with steel mesh.
A dozen workers stood in the mud, holding vibrators.
The low-frequency vibrations could be faintly felt even through the glass; they were squeezing out air bubbles from the concrete to ensure the foundation was compact.
This is a violent fusion of industry and wilderness, and also the first step in realizing the blueprint in Su Wei's mind.
Su Wei turned and went into the restroom.
The cold water splashed on my face washed away the last vestiges of sleepiness.
Looking at the young man in the mirror, with sharp eyes and a bluish stubble on his chin, he nodded to himself.
It's another hopeful day.
Ten minutes later, Su Wei pushed open the door of the wooden house.
The morning breeze carried a damp smell of cement and diesel exhaust.
This smells unpleasant.
Instead of rushing to find Matt, he first went to the garage to check on yesterday's haul.
Foreman Matt was standing at the back of the cement mixer truck, holding a blueprint in his hand, shouting something at a worker.
He was dressed as ruggedly as ever today, wearing a mud-splattered Carhart jacket, a knitted hat whose original color was no longer recognizable, and chewing on an unlit cigar.
Seeing Su Wei emerge from the garage, Matt rolled up the blueprints, stuffed them into his pocket, and strode over to greet him.
Good morning, Su Wei!
Matt's voice was a little hoarse, clearly the result of shouting in a noisy environment all morning.
He stopped in front of Su Wei, his deep blue eyes, which had seen countless people, narrowed slightly, and a strange light flashed in them.
Su Wei's condition today is completely different from before.
Although her face showed signs of fatigue and her dark circles were quite noticeable, the sharpness emanating from within was impossible to conceal.
It was the composure and confidence of a top predator that had just survived a life-or-death battle and returned victorious.
Like a knife that has just been stained with blood, though still in its sheath, it exudes a chilling aura.
Matt's gaze involuntarily drifted past Su Wei's shoulder and landed on the half-open garage door.
Snowmobiles covered in ice and snow were parked there.
The sled boards were covered with thick tarpaulins, and although they had been wiped clean, dark red bloodstains had still seeped into the fabric's texture, appearing shocking against the backdrop of the pristine white snow.
In one corner of the tarpaulin, a clump of coarse, stiff black hair, as hard as steel needles, was visible.
Even the glimpse of it exuded a chilling, menacing aura.
As a seasoned veteran who had spent decades in Kodiak, Matt knew all too well what lay beneath that tarpaulin.
"My God..."
Matt looked away, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty.
When he looked at Su Wei again, his eyes held less of the casualness and more of undisguised admiration and amazement.
"It snowed for the past few days, but stopped yesterday. To bring back prey of this caliber under these circumstances... Su Wei, you're even more ruthless than I imagined."
"Just lucky, I ran into a gluttonous giant."
Su Wei calmly took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, shook one out, and handed it to Matt.
"Luck?"
Matt took the cigarette, tucked it behind his ear, and shook his head with a wry smile.
"Luck is also a part of strength. In this land, the grass on the graves of unlucky hunters is already two meters tall. You're practically fighting with death for food."
He took a deep breath, pointed to the deep pit that was being filled in, and his tone became professional and proud again.
"The foundation pouring was completed two hours ahead of schedule. I added the best early-strength and antifreeze agents to this batch of concrete, and the strength is based on the standard proportions for building nuclear bunkers. Once this stuff has solidified, even an 8-magnitude earthquake won't crack your museum."
"That's good."
Su Wei walked to the edge of the pit and watched as the gray mud gradually engulfed the steel frame.
Has the location for the flue been reserved?
He asked.
"Certainly."
Matt pointed to a corner of the foundation pit, where a red PVC pipe stood.
"Fifteen degrees west of west, I calibrated it myself with a total station, the error is no more than three millimeters. I almost got into a fight with that surveyor who was laying out the lines because of your damned sunset."
Su Wei nodded in satisfaction.
Where is the road?
"It's in progress."
Matt turned around and pointed to the muddy dirt road leading to the highway in the distance.
An excavator was working there, its huge bucket scooping up the top layer of muddy silt along with the turf, revealing the dark brown, hard soil underneath.
The area next to it was piled with black geotextile and a large amount of gravel.
"That's a real money pit, it's practically a bottomless pit."
Matt grimaced, looking a little pained.
"Dig one meter deep, backfill with fifty centimeters of rubble, then lay thirty centimeters of graded crushed stone, and finally add asphalt or concrete."
"This is money that has to be spent."
Su Wei looked at the roadbed that was extending, his tone firm and his eyes showing determination.
Without this road, those wealthy people driving low-slung luxury cars would never be able to get in.
Whether for receiving hunting clients in the future or for our own travel convenience, we cannot skimp on investment in infrastructure.
To get rich, build roads first.