CHAPTER 202: CHAPTER 200: THE CITY GOVERNMENT’S ORDER

The city government wants to install geothermal heat pumps in small shelters, which in Chen Xin’s view should only be an experiment for large-scale application of geothermal heat pumps.

The destruction of the railway this time led to a tension in coal usage in the urban area, triggering an electricity shortage and possibly a heating crisis, all of which has alarmed the city government.

Indeed, various emergency plans had already been prepared before the disaster. In this event, the city government relied on pre-stored emergency coal reserves to sustain for several days, waiting for the provincial government to allocate coal from other places, to solve the coal shortage problem.

But all this is obviously not foolproof.

This time, the railway was only destroyed, delaying rail transport for about a week. As long as the railway is restored, the problem can be solved. But what if this crisis isn’t solved within a week, and the provincial government can’t timely allocate coal from elsewhere, or the railway for coal transport into the city gets blocked again?

The city government must consider the possibility of various contingencies, and at this time the batch of geothermal heat pumps from the special police department naturally became one of the options considered by the city government.

This batch of geothermal heat pumps had long been activated, and the survival points had already been settled. At that time, it brought Chen Xin five thousand survival points and a daily gain of +50 survival points, letting Chen Xin know the current technology level allows a shelter to gain this many points on one improvement, dispelling his idea of massively farming survival points.

Of course, despite this, five thousand survival points and a daily income of +50 points is still quite a generous income for Chen Xin.

It was precisely because of this income that Chen Xin dared to lavishly renovate the bedroom and upgrade the vehicle.

Now the city government proposed to use geothermal heat pumps for heating and electricity generation in a small shelter, which naturally represents another opportunity for Chen Xin to earn a large amount of survival points.

Although he still had several thousand survival points on hand, and his daily survival point income exceeded a hundred points, as an important resource in the system, Chen Xin would never mind having more survival points.

But Chen Xin now had to go pick up his parents, and he didn’t have time to slowly work on geothermal heat pumps in the shelter.

However, the city government clearly has no intention of waiting for him to bring his parents back before proceeding with this project, so can he use the city’s connections to bring his parents over?

Bringing his parents from the hometown through the city government, instead of going himself, was certainly part of Chen Xin’s previous consideration and planning.

However, after consulting Qin Lan and asking Uncle Ding, Chen Xin learned that the current railway transport network was not open for civilian or passenger transport, nor was there a demand for it.

Except for material transportation, only in emergencies would railway trains carry people, and even then, there are no special trains, only additional carriages attached to material transport cars.

Normally, even official personnel requiring to go to other cities also need various certifications explaining the reasons, before they are allowed to hitch a ride on the material transport train.

For example, during the city’s attack event, people from the provincial government came from Star City to the city by attaching a carriage to a northward-moving material transport car through emergency allocation.

Hoping to use the city’s connections to bring his parents over by train is almost impossible for Chen Xin.

Within the province, relying on the city’s connections might adjust things, but Chen Xin’s journey needed to cross four provinces, which obviously exceeded the city’s scope of authority, and even the provincial government might not be able to clear the path.

After all, crossing four provinces is too far, with too many checkpoints along the way.

Moreover, even if the city government could clear the path to bring Chen Xin’s parents over, why would they do him this favor?

So taking the train to pick them up naturally was ruled out by Chen Xin, and he could only drive himself to pick them up.

Yet now the city government proposed to conduct trials with geothermal heat pump equipment in a small shelter, and Chen Xin clearly did not want to pass on this opportunity.

Though it’s just a trial in a small shelter, once proven effective, it would naturally be promoted, and Chen Xin’s journey isn’t to leave forever—at most, he’ll be back in a month or two, so it wouldn’t make sense to refuse the proposal.

But this conflicted with his plans to pick up his parents, how should he handle this?

Delaying his departure by two weeks to complete a batch of geothermal heat pumps for the city government is feasible, but to avoid complications, Chen Xin preferred to leave quickly and not delay by two weeks.

Completing this order quickly and trading with the city government, while being able to set off to pick up his parents as planned, is certainly the ideal solution.

But without system blueprints for geothermal heat pumps, even utilizing the workbench to conveniently process parts, he could only make two to three geothermal heat pumps a day at most, and he quoted the city government fifty units which would take at least two weeks to complete.

The only option before Chen Xin seemed to be upgrading the workbench to enhance its efficiency in manufacturing geothermal heat pumps.

Fortunately, this choice was not hard to accept for Chen Xin.

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"Azu, received word from Luu that there will be a batch of materials delivered to that shelter in a few days by the city government," Old Four found Azu and relayed the recently obtained information: "This is a great opportunity to take that shelter!"

"Is the information certain?" Azu didn’t get as excited as Old Four but sought confirmation.

"It’s information from Luu, there shouldn’t be any problem," Old Four was evidently confident in Luu’s capabilities and didn’t doubt the accuracy of the intelligence.

Upon hearing Old Four’s words, Azu nodded, but he clearly considered more: "How does that party connect with the city government? By what means does the government deliver supplies? Have these been clarified?"

"Luu has already inquired; the shelter communicates with the city government using shortwave radios, and a truck will transport the supplies," none of these details were overlooked by Luu, and Old Four naturally informed Azu.

After Old Four’s explanation, Azu thought it through carefully and said to Old Four: "Prepare two plans—get a truck to disguise as the supply delivery vehicle and deceive the shelter to open the door, rush inside, and take control of the people inside.

If this plan fails, then when the city’s people deliver supplies, organize a wave of attack when they open the door, forcibly seize the shelter.

The person inside the shelter who can modify cars to run in snow is important, do your best to control him and have him join us, so avoid killing if possible."

"I understand, Azu, Third Brother is the best at this kind of thing!" Old Four was skilled with intelligence but wasn’t adept at disguised attacks, but among Azu’s brothers, there were people who were.

Despite not having high-level disguise skills, Old Four felt that this operation wouldn’t require such high-level disguises.

Of course, Azu knew the strengths of his brothers, so he nodded and said: "I trust Third Brother’s skills, but to be safe, let Sixth Brother go with him. Sixth Brother is clever; if anything unexpected happens, he’s more capable of handling it than Third Brother."

"Got it, I’ll go find Third Brother and Sixth Brother now," Old Four nodded.

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"A Xin, why do you still want to renovate the shelter? Isn’t your shelter nice enough to live in?" Qin Lan helped Chen Xin confirm matters with the city government regarding geothermal heat pumps, but she couldn’t understand why Chen Xin wanted to exchange so many materials to renovate his shelter.

Although the vague concept provided by the system auto-rationalized Qin Lan accepting Chen Xin’s shelter upgrading as just a renovation, the motive behind the renovation couldn’t rationalize, and explaining remained Chen Xin’s duty.

"I want to bring my parents to live, so I have to make the place more comfortable, right? Living alone in such a large place is already a bit too snug, let alone adding my parents, some expansion is necessary." The system already made the most illogical parts logical, concocting a believable reason and excuse was not difficult for a former online writer.

After hearing Chen Xin’s reason, Qin Lan understood, nodded, and asked: "Then you’ll complete renovations before you set off?"

"Yes, I intend to complete the shelter’s renovation and the city’s geothermal heat pump order before heading off to fetch my parents," Chen Xin nodded and affirmed Qin Lan’s question: "Running this errand may take one or two months; if the shelter is renovated before I leave, I’ll feel more at ease."

One question answered, Qin Lan then had another question: "I understand your reasons, but when you’re away for one or two months, what about the next two months’ supplies you foresaw from the captain? Who will manage them if you’re not around?"

"Let Longniang manage them for me. Previously, she wasn’t willing to come live here with her sister, presumably fearing owing me a favor. Now, asking her to look after my house plus farm, assuming I’m doing her a favor, should be fine." Of course, Chen Xin had considered this question earlier and explained his arrangements to Qin Lan while also stating the reason: "I initially planned for Little Long to send someone to help manage, but thinking twice, I trust Little Long, yet not necessarily his men. If my stuff gets ruined or broken, it would be troublesome, so better to ask Longniang instead."

"Hmm, Qingyan and Qingxin are indeed more reliable than Little Long’s men," Qin Lan also agreed with Chen Xin’s choice.