Chapter 62: The Start

The interior of the wooden house was the classic American village abode. It was small but fully equipped with living room, kitchen, storeroom, basement storage and so on. As Tommy dragged Zhang Lisheng into the house, a tall, strong man with seborrheic keratoses on his face was having breakfast and coffee in the tiny dining hall within the open-style living room.

Seeing that someone intruded the house, he pushed his glasses calmly and spoke while frowning, “Tommy, how many times do I have to tell you that you must knock before you come into the house ever since you moved out?”

“You’ve told me 10,000 or 20,000 times, but I really have an emergency this time, so I forgot to knock. Dad, that old fella Rudolph sold his slaughterhouse. He really sold it this time, he sold it to this young man next to me. This young man’s in high school from New York City, he’s planning to join the National Farmers Union and run the slaughterhouse by self-service rental. I thought the idea’s great, so I brought him to see you right away.”

“Rudolph sold his slaughterhouse!” The old man was stunned in shock and pretending to tease while smiling, “It’s nothing out of the ordinary that he sold his slaughterhouse. I’ll be shocked if he made a deal under the sun and arranged an alternative for the couple Willy and Tiffany who worked for him for over 20 years. I bet he took the money and he’s on Greyhound Lines back to Texas now, or he had happily bought himself a first-class plane ticket to spend a warm Christmas in Hawaii, before dying an agonizing death in Texas…”

Oh, I think I’ve said too much. I’m sorry young man, I should’ve introduced myself. I’m Kaiserland Town’s mayor, Howard Miller. I’m also the town’s National Farmers Union’s chairman. Although the law prohibits one from taking both positions, this is just a small town after all.”

“Hi Mr. Howard, it’s my pleasure meeting you. My name’s Zhang Lisheng,” Zhang Lisheng walked to the old man and handed over the contract in his pocket while speaking, “I bought Mr. Rudolph’s slaughterhouse, I would like to discuss with you on how to improve the business to serve Kaiserland Town better.”

The old man took over the contract and took a good look at it after pushing his glasses. He said without even looking up, “That’s right, that’s Rudolph’s ugly and pretentious handwriting. Alright Mr. Lisheng, I heard from my son that you’re planning to join Kaiserland Town’s National Farmers Union. To be honest, as the union chairman, I’m glad to take in a slaughterhouse owner to the organization. Could you tell me more about how you’re planning to manage your self-service rental business?”

“I’m planning to take pre-registration online, rental prepay, and centralized slaughtering schedule…” Zhang Lisheng told his plan in details.

“The rental price you suggest is very reasonable but… young man, I think it’s better to give the slaughterhouse usage order’s authority to the National Farmers Union.”

“Not a problem Mr. Howard, we’ll do according to what you said.”

“Also the couple Willy and Tiffany in town who have been working for Rudolph, I hope that you could continue to hire them. Both of them only make around over 20,000 dollars annually. Willy’s a great slaughterer, electrician, and repairman while Tiffany’s a great helper in cleaning and making meatloaves. You’ll need them.”

The old man’s request seemed a little too much, giving that Zhang Lisheng was planning to run the business by self-service rental. However, Zhang Lisheng answered without hesitation, “Sure, Mr. Howard.”

The old man finally nodded in satisfaction hearing that. It was the first time he looked at Zhang Lisheng smiling and extended his hand, “That’s great, young man. Since you’ve shown your respect to me, then I’ll show my kindness. We’ll sign an agreement on what we’ve just discussed, I’ll handle the rest. As long as you clear the slaughtering waste on time and not bringing the Environmental Protection Agency here, I guarantee your fortune and benefits will be perfectly protected in Kaiserland Town.”

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“Thanks, Mr. Howard,” Zhang Lisheng shook hands with the old man and said wearing a smile. After they came to a deal, Howard called Kaiserland Town’s National Farmers Union’s lawyer right away. He then pulls together a last-minute Kaiserland Town’s National Farmers Union meeting when the lawyer arrived in town. Soon after the meeting was over, the farmers in the town agreed on the proposal of getting Zhang Lisheng’s slaughterhouse to join the Kaiserland Town’s National Farmers Union.

As Zhang Lisheng signed the agreement, Rudolph who had been living in the town for over 40 years was now in the past. In the afternoon on the day itself, the farmers followed the new rule and began slaughtering their livestock themselves at the new LS Slaughterhouse. Zhang Lisheng enjoyed himself staying at the slaughterhouse watching the farmers getting their hands busy until evening. He had 1,920 dollars added to his bank account, while the underground tank in the slaughterhouse had tonnes of fresh organs and blood.

The noise faded when the slaughterhouse closed at 7 p.m… The huge factory was only left with the couple Willy and Tiffany who Mayor Howard suggested to hire. Willy who was always wearing a filthy blue cowboy overall was a middle-aged hunk in his 40s with extraordinarily strong muscles, but rather simple-minded. He was very grateful that Zhang Lisheng was willing to hire him and his wife to work at the slaughterhouse. Although he only muttered ‘thank you’ to Zhang Lisheng a couple of times, one could tell how grateful he was, judging by the effort he put in. Not only that, he was cleaning the factory floor with his wife with big brooms, although he was exhausted.

Seeing Willy’s strenuous effort, Zhang Lisheng who was standing aside said, “You don’t have to clean it anymore, Willy. It’s already very clean, bring Tiffany home now. Also, you don’t have to help so much when the customers are here slaughtering in the future. We’re doing self-service business now, it’s not your job to serve them like you used to. You and Tiffany’s job now is to help me check the machines and electricity. Clean a bit when the factory’s closed and do rounds occasionally. You don’t have to do the rest.”

“It’s okay, sir. Strength is all that I have,” Willy said honestly with a smile. He treated his boss Zhang Lisheng equally despite Zhang Lisheng being young, his tone seemed very respectfully. Meanwhile, Tiffany said gratefully standing next to her husband, “Willy and I are very grateful that you continue to hire us, sir. Apart from the work here, we could only do some part-time job in town.”

Zhang Lisheng said firmly, “Your hard work’s repaying me completely. Moreover, Willy fixed my friend’s SUV doors and promised to bring it back to Fordham High School tomorrow for her. I really don’t need any more cleaning here, go home now. It’s very late, I’m leaving when my cab’s here.”

“Do you need me to send you dinner, sir?”

“There’s no need to do that, Tiffany. My mom has made dinner, she’s waiting for me to go home.”

“Alright then sir, we’ll leave now. Goodbye,” Tiffany said while nodding, she left the slaughterhouse with her husband. Seeing both of them left, Zhang Lisheng shut the slaughterhouse’s metal gate with the remote control and came to the factory’s back door. With the help of the dimmed lights, he found the giant, rusty metal cover on the ground. He put down his backpack and placed Mountoad next to the metal cover. He began chanting witchcraft incantation.

Mountoad sucked in the air and its body expanded over two meters tall all of the sudden. It showed its giant tongue, stuck it on the metal cover and opened it slowly. Zhang Lisheng was smiling as he sniffed the disgusting blood smell that was nauseating in the chilly wind. He controlled Mountoad to release the air in its stomach, it then hopped into the metal cover after its body shrunk into the underground pit filled with animal organs and blood.

The wizard worm was expanding again in the pit. It opened its giant mouth to eat those bloody waste, it soon finished all of them. Noticing that the pit was now empty with a flashlight, Zhang Lisheng chanted witchcraft incantation and controlled Mountoad to hop onto the ground. He then controlled it to use its giant tongue to close the cover, it hopped back into his backpack after it shrunk.

“I’ve never thought everything goes so smoothly. It only takes a day for the slaughterhouse to be on track. Now that the most important thing’s solved, I’ll learn to drive and find a suitable venomous worm to refine it into wizard worm,” Zhang Lisheng was relieved and mumbled while smiling. He then walked out of the slaughterhouse in a relaxed fashion, while calling a cab. Following the narrow road, he returned to New York City smoothly as he went into the cab.

The two-way cab journey from Brooklyn to Kaiserland Town cost a few hundred dollars, it would be impractical for him to do that in the long run. ‘Sharpening your ax will not delay your job of cutting wood’, Zhang Lisheng planned his life one month ahead, whereby his priority was to obtain his driving license. As a country on wheels, almost every American citizen above 16 would have a driving license. All of the procedure about the driving license program was simple, as there were only two steps.

The first step was to provide your identification at the New York Department of Motor Vehicles, pay some ten dollars application fee and fill the form to take part in the written test. After passing the test, get an eye examination to complete the pre-licensing course. Get someone to practice with you, proceed to the next step which was the road test, after one was familiar with driving. One would receive the driving license, once he passed the road test.