There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

Rod? Poppy's father who's away from home?

After he finished speaking, the tavern fell silent instantly.

After a long silence, Mr. Dart finally spoke.

"Tell me, how's Rhodes doing lately?"

Chapter 56 Night Road

At 11:30 p.m., a car picked up its last passenger and sped onto the highway.

The white car, with its high beams on, illuminated the traffic signs on both sides of the road, appearing silent and solemn, with no one else to accompany it on the empty road.

On this road in the dead of night, the number of vehicles passing each other or traveling side by side has become increasingly scarce. The black car, like a lonely traveler, silently moves forward.

This highway marks the boundary between the western region and the eastern mountains. The route was difficult and expensive to build, and the project team spent a long time raising funds and developing plans before it was completed in two sections.

However, the atmosphere inside the carriage was exceptionally harmonious.

Given the quiet and still environment outside, driver Jackie took the initiative to start a conversation with the newest traveler.

"Sir, why are you taking a ride to the neighboring city so late?"

The last person to board the bus was not tall, but very sturdy, with sharply defined features. His eyes, ears, nose, and mouth all appeared particularly prominent and powerful, yet he did not inspire disgust.

He smiled and said, "I just got a message from a friend asking me to go to the next city. It's so late, it's really hard to find a car. Luckily, you have one!"

Driver Jackie said proudly, "You've come to the right person. I've been driving this road for nine years, and I've done countless night driving trips. You can rest assured."

After saying that, he relaxed and placed one hand on the steering wheel, while using the other to adjust the car's audio channels, preparing to make some noise.

In the back seat were two men, one exceptionally young, the other with a round head and face, the other with a square face. I wonder if they were looking for complementary facial features when making friends.

The two men were both university students from the city, and they were going to a neighboring city to conduct scientific research. However, when asked what they were investigating, they both became very secretive.

One of the round-faced youths joked, "So, Mr. Jackie, you're just a night shift driver? You can't get any business during the day?"

The square-faced young man chimed in, "Maybe they pay more at night, so they just take the night route."

Driver Jackie feigned displeasure and said, "Ahem, since you've said so, I'll charge you double the fare. The gentleman next to you will pay the original price."

"No!" *2

"Hehe, don't make wild guesses. My job is two days on and two days off, so I start soliciting customers after get off work so I can get back home relatively late."

The conversation didn't last long before the car fell silent again, with only the car radio, which had failed to tune, emitting a harsh, monotonous hissing sound.

The round-faced young man, who was good at lightening the mood, quickly continued, "Mr. Jackie, you must know this highway very well, right?"

The key to choosing topics for conversation is not to firmly take control of the conversation, but to throw out some thought-provoking topics at just the right time to encourage the other person to speak.

This approach subtly enlivens the atmosphere and gives the impression of being understanding. It's more effective than endlessly stating one's opinions, achieving maximum impact with minimal effort.

"Of course, the construction of this highway has been a part of my life for almost the entire first half."

Sure enough, the driver showed considerable interest and began his description.

“This road was started when I was a child, but the technology at the time made the project too expensive, so it remained in the planning stage. I heard that the person in charge of the planning team at the time was raising funds while searching for construction plans, and it was only in the end that it was able to be built.”

"I see! This person in charge really has perseverance!" the two young men exclaimed.

"Of course! My father was also the deputy leader of the transportation group at the time, and he talked to the person in charge about the difficulties. In the end, they adopted a very special construction plan."

What plan?

Seeing that the two young men's curiosity had been piqued, the driver Jackie continued.

"The main difficulties at the time were in funding and technology. So the plan proposed by an expert found by the person in charge at the time was to build it in two phases."

"By ensuring basic traffic needs in the first section, and taking the route along the relatively easy-to-build mountain slopes, we can complete the road within a year and a half and start making a profit."

"The second section will utilize more mature viaduct technology to directly build road bridges across the towering mountains in the eastern mountainous region, allowing cars to travel on them."

"According to preliminary estimates, the cost of the second phase will be more than ten times that of the first phase. The expert who proposed this construction plan seriously asked the person in charge if he was really confident that he could stick to it. If the subsequent funding cannot be solved, or the technology of the viaduct cannot be improved, or if he decides to give up halfway, all that will be left is a simple, winding, and embarrassing rural road."

The round-faced young man listened to the story with surprise, finding it hard to believe that someone could be so persistent in road construction, turning a task that could be solved immediately into a long-term project that might take more than ten years to show results.

The principle of "do as much as you have" has always been the guiding principle of the federal government and trusts. They claim that not spending the budget is wasteful, while exceeding the budget is a crime.

So what kind of obsession led him to build this road into the magnificent and opulent place he envisioned?

The round-faced youth looked out the window and saw that the environment on both sides had changed from flat and wide to winding and majestic. Many mountains suddenly appeared in the field of vision, like the rough hand of a giant, slowly lifting them up, trying to grasp them in its palm.

Their little car transformed into a black beetle, crawling among the endless lines of the giant hand's palm.

In such a treacherous environment, the highway is like a road to heaven, with a solid underground roadbed as its skeleton, steel guardrails on both sides as its veins, and reflective road signs as its nerves. It transmits a dense stream of signals, whether for those returning home or traveling.

"Young man, what are you thinking about?"

Driver Jackie glanced in the rearview mirror and noticed that the young man who had asked the question was just standing there in a daze. He couldn't help but speak up to remind him so that he could continue his explanation.

"Oh, it's alright, driver, please continue. What happened next?"

"Later, after the first phase of the road was completed, the entire project team was put on hold indefinitely, with only the person in charge still working on the plan. He took the plan in his hand and went from company to company, from city to city, looking for all the potential investors along the highway plan, and finally completed the fundraising."

"At this time, the breakthrough in elevated bridge technology that the expert mentioned has not yet occurred. Under the current technological conditions, the cost will still be more than half short."

"At this point, the now gray-haired leaders and experts were at a loss, facing a project on the verge of collapse..."

"Failed?" the round-faced youth asked incredulously, followed by his square-faced companion's merciless criticism.

"If you hadn't succeeded, how would you have gotten to where you are now!"

"Haha, that makes sense. So how was it handled afterwards? Technological breakthroughs don't just happen overnight," the round-faced youth said awkwardly.

At that moment, the middle-aged man sitting in the passenger seat suddenly spoke with a smile.

“Mr. Jackie, are you referring to the legend of building a road right in front of you? I’ve heard of that too.”

Chapter 57 Phase II Project

The middle-aged man, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke, startling the two young men in the back seat. However, they were immediately intrigued by the legend he was telling them.

"What legend? This road looks like it was only built five or six years ago, what kind of story could it possibly have been passed down?"

"Haha, I just heard it from a friend, I don't know if it's true or not." The middle-aged man dismissed the round-faced youth's question nonchalantly.

"Sir, please continue. What happened next?"

The middle-aged man adjusted his posture in his seat, finding a more comfortable position, and smiled at the driver, Jackie, who gestured for him to continue.

"There are rumors that the old expert felt bad about it and formed a research and development team to tackle this key problem. But this is different from what I know."

"What's the difference?"

"I heard from a friend that the expert's main field is mechanical manufacturing, and he doesn't have a deep understanding of engineering. In fact, the opportunity to finally complete this project was the discovery of an ancient site during the construction of this highway."

The square-faced young man's eyes lit up, and he, who had been silent until now, took the initiative to ask, "Ancient ruins? What kind of ancient ruins! Could it be that a major technological breakthrough has occurred?"

His round-faced companion advised him, "Don't rush, let this gentleman finish speaking first. Since there's this rumor, there's bound to be a follow-up story."

The middle-aged man in the front row smiled slightly: "You're right. Indeed, quite a few engineers witnessed this scene at the time, and some people went into the mountain again later, but they couldn't find the ruins."

"The ruins are gone? Weren't they fixed in the mountains?" the round-faced youth asked curiously.

"I'm not sure about that; maybe they remembered the location wrong. At the time, only the project leader and senior experts were in charge of the search; everyone else was just mechanically following orders," the middle-aged man said.

At this point, Jackie, the driver who was focused on driving, joined the discussion, saying, "Actually, my father was also involved in this."

"Really?!"

"At that time, the first phase of the project had been completed for seven or eight years. My father retired from the construction team and was in charge of transportation in a neighboring city. He walked this road every day and kept the second phase plan in mind."

"One day, the old manager called him and asked if he would like to return to the highway project team. He would still be the deputy captain of the transportation team. I remember my father's ecstatic expression when I was young. It was completely different from his usual self when he would drown his sorrows in alcohol if he wasn't driving."

"At that time, my father's first task was not to transport supplies, but the exploration in the mountains that I just heard about. He had to inspect a difficult part of the project deep in the mountains in advance."

"The inspection team consisted of three vehicles: key project personnel, expert team members, and construction workers. The first two were SUVs, and the last was a medium-sized bus. They drove into the mountains overnight."

"According to my father's recollection, the road was lined with tall trees on both sides, and the road conditions were terrible. There was only one simple road that was probably used to transport timber or minerals from the deep mountains."

"The final stretch of road stopped at a narrow spot. The project manager ordered the bus to stop on the spot and the engineering staff to stand by. He and the expert team would go and inspect it."

“My father was driving the car that the person in charge was driving, so we drove a little further ahead. He told me that what we saw in the distance was an ancient tomb.”

The driver paused to catch his breath, gripped the steering wheel with one hand, and took a sip of water from his thermos with the other.

At this point, everyone's curiosity was piqued.

The words "ancient tomb" were like nails driven into their curiosity.

"Mr. Jackie, please continue. What happened next?" the round-faced youth urged energetically.

“My father didn’t tell me, he just said that at the end of the road there was a round building covered in moss, like a house, but no house would be built alone in such a mountain. He guessed it was an ancient tomb that had stood in this deep mountain for a very long time.”

"Later, that old expert stayed at the highway project team and used a new type of material as the bridge foundation to build a series of long bridges that spanned the mountains and completed the second phase of the road project."

The carriage fell silent once again, with only the breathing of a few people rising and falling, accompanied by the roar of the car engine, shattering the loneliness of the long night.

The two young men in the back seat probably felt a bit stuffy, so they opened the sealed car window a crack, and instantly a gust of damp and cool air blew in from outside.

“Mr. Jackie, I don’t see the bridge you mentioned,” the round-faced young man said.

“Don’t rush,” driver Jackie explained. “We’re still on the border of the plains in the west, which is also a major section of the first phase of the project. Once we get to the heart of the eastern mountains, we’ll be driving on bridges in all those high mountains.”

Several passengers looked out and indeed saw that the environment outside was gradually changing. The flat and wide plains had completely disappeared, replaced by gradually rising mountains that added many curves to the highway.

The car radio, which had been crackling, suddenly picked up a voice and started broadcasting the weather forecast.

"...Dense fog at night. Drivers are advised to drive carefully. In case of emergency, please give way at service areas."

"Next up is the traffic channel's midnight talk show..."

Fog?

Several passengers looked at the clear sky and bright moon outside, which did not look like there was any fog at all, and looked bewildered.

Driver Jackie laughed and said, "You guys don't understand the mountains. Many of the overpasses here are level with the mountain peaks. At night, thick fog often rises from the valleys, boulders, and shady areas, spreading across the entire road in a very short time. But it also dissipates very quickly. I'm quite experienced with this."

"Back then, the construction teams did the same thing. When they were working day and night, they would stop work on foggy nights, otherwise it would be easy for construction accidents to happen. There were a total of three serious accidents at the time, all of which were caused by not stopping work as required during heavy fog."

"Later, I was severely criticized by the person in charge and was required to follow orders completely, except for the team of senior experts who could continue to work."

The square-faced young man was clearly more interested in the stories about the veteran expert and asked, "Won't there be any objections within the team regarding these two different standards?"