Beginning with the Ubume Bird-Chapter 509 - 5 Chang

Hesheng’s thugs stormed in furiously, but now they were looking at each other, uncertain of how to react.

"Get out,"

Tears were still fresh on Liang Hui’s face as he said coldly.

The leader, a man with a bristly beard, swallowed his saliva, waved to his followers, and they slowly trickled out.

Liang Hui stood up on his legs, the abundant energy surging from the soles of his feet, his strong muscles and bones, the vivid view before his eyes, the long-missed warmth rising from his lower abdomen... all of it took him a great effort to calm down.

He first glanced at Zhen Lian, a woman skilled in scheming and cold-hearted by nature. She had already recovered from her initial shock and put on a face of arrogance, as if all this was a trivial matter.

Liang Hui straightened his sleeping robe, bent down on his knees, and respectfully said, "Your humble follower Liang Hui offers everything to the great Blue Emperor."

Li Yan casually said, "Except for your life and youth?"

Even for an old hustler like Liang Hui, who had spent half his life in the world of fame and fortune and could change his expressions faster than flipping through a book, found himself at a loss for words.

"Mr. Liang, you might as well stand up and talk. I have no interest in your loyalty or your life. All I hope is that you can be of assistance to me for the limited time you have ahead,"

Liang Hui immediately replied, "I shall dedicate the remainder of my brief life in service to Your Majesty."

He didn’t get up, only daring to sneak a glance upward, "I will make sure to present the entry permit to San Francisco in both hands by tomorrow morning at the latest."

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The kitchen was bustling with activity, with chickpeas tumbling and boiling in the pot. A ladle stirred in the pot, scooping up a bowl of thick soup.

Charles was tall and stout, with deep-set eyes, a hooked nose, and eyes that sparkled blue and greasy. The white chef’s hat hid his balding pate, giving the head chef of Enfield Company a bit more dignity.

"Cha, Cha,"

The head chef tapped the rim of the pot irritably.

Cha Xiaodao, who was daydreaming about the airships outside the tower, turned his gaze back to the chef after being called several times.

"Okay... sir,"

Xiaodao picked up the food tray and walked away.

On stepping out into the exterior corridor of the building, the outer walls of the entire tower were made of tea-colored glass panels. Looking down through the glass walls revealed the bustling San Francisco below. Posters fluttering in the wind trailed behind the airships, featuring the backless portrait of Dorothy Janis, the hottest actress of the Black Rose Theatre.

Enfield Company was the largest arms dealer in California, owning four armories. Over two-thirds of the state government’s Steam Guard were equipped by Enfield. Additionally, Enfield was one of the largest contractors for San Francisco’s marine train railway.

This tower, in the heart of San Francisco and named Cupid Tower, used to be Enfield’s headquarters. However, two years ago, the company headquarters were relocated to the east coast, to New York, and the entire board of directors moved with it. The affairs of Cupid Tower, along with the company’s business in San Francisco, were placed under the full control of one of the former board members, St. Yves.

Cha Xiaodao held in his hand the food tray that was to be delivered to St. Yves. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

People in the building rushed about with intense expressions, either wiping sweat from their brows or clenching their teeth in frustration, most of them fair-haired and blue-eyed Caucasians.

Carrying a tray, Cha Xiaodao, dressed in a white chef’s coat, stood out with the tray balanced in one hand.

Unlike Li Yan, who came from the Fist Rebellion, Cha Xiaodao worked for the Enfield Company, one of the rare Chinese who had settled in San Francisco, usually cramming into a dormitory with a few fellow countrymen — but it was still much better than being homeless.

He carried the tray downstairs, passing by a multitude of metal pipes, power machinery, and all sorts of gauges spinning wildly. In some places, visible cracks spewed steaming vapor.

"Shut down the engine! Do it now!"

"Damn it, can’t we find a larger Tri-Orb Device here?"

"Boiler Four can’t take it anymore, it’s going to explode if we keep this up! First get those men out of there, where are those damned yellow monkeys? Send them down to shut off the boiler."

Anxious shouts and chaotic footsteps mingled in the surroundings.

"Chang, hurry up, Mr. St. Yves is waiting for you. If you can stop the ’Cupid,’ Mr. St. Yves will be very pleased."

An old man with a gentleman’s hat and a brass monocular frame incessantly urged the man behind him, who was a young Chinese man dressed in a red vest, blue overalls, and kept his head down without a word.

Maybe due to their similar skin tone and hair color, Chang, who was being constantly rushed by the old man, couldn’t help but cast his gaze towards Cha Xiaodao.

Bang!

An unrestrained spinning valve suddenly flew off and headed straight for Cha Xiaodao’s temple. Xiaodao barely glanced at it before tilting his head slightly, causing the valve to smash into a nearby chimney. Metal shards scattered, provoking many screams.

That

A man with a bulbous nose, wearing a construction helmet and imperiously giving orders, accidentally bumped into Cha Xiaodao’s shoulder. It was like hitting a wall; he fell to the ground with a smack and struggled to get back up.

The man with the bulbous nose stood nearly 1.9 meters tall; Cha Xiaodao was just over 1.7 meters, yet the taller man was knocked to the ground in a pathetic state, which surprised Chang who was watching nearby.

"Are you looking for trouble?"

The man with the bulbous nose, furious, grabbed the collar of Cha Xiaodao’s coat and raised his fist as if to strike.

Cha Xiaodao remained silent, steadying the tray with one hand without spilling a drop of soup, and calmly met the gaze of the man with the bulbous nose.

The man glanced at the tray, recognizing it as Mr. St. Yves’ lunch soup, and hesitantly let go of Xiaodao’s collar, cursing, "I’ll settle the score with you later."

After saying that, he intentionally squeezed past Cha Xiaodao, and the two brushed past each other.

The man with the bulbous nose then collided with several apprentice workers, exhibiting the same aggressive and foul attitude, swearing under his breath.

In the midst of the chaos, Xiaodao’s face showed neither anger nor fear but instead, he whistled cheekily. He continued walking forward, reciting a playful chant: "North to south, east to west go the thoroughfares, in front of the streets dogs bite men, pick up a dog to knock on bricks, yet it’s the bricks that do the biting, there’s an old man ninety-nine, drinks winter lotus with cold wine, never seen a story so fine, as coal-carrying camels marching in line."

Pfft!

The others surely couldn’t understand such an authentic Jingjin joke, but the young man being pulled along by the old man in formal attire cracked a smile at the corner of his mouth.

But urged by the old man, he had no choice but to pick up the pace, leaving Cha Xiaodao, who was moving leisurely, behind.

Soon, the young man and the old man hurriedly arrived at an extremely spacious workshop.

Standing on the floating elevator, St. Yves appeared very tall, with orange curly hair and a plump belly. He, who usually had pleasant chats with the mayor and council members, now had a sullen face and was swearing loudly in the workshop filled with coal ash.

"You are all a bunch of pigs. I pay you a salary of twenty US dollars an hour, and all I get in return is ’we can’t do it’ from you? I’m telling you for the last time, immediately, right now, stop this damned thing! Stop!"

What St. Yves referred to was a gigantic hot pot-shaped device, with metal chimneys densely packed like blood vessels, ladders accommodating one person on each side, jumbled glass gauges, and brass valves. At the very center was a three-dimensional triangular structure made of red, yellow, and blue minerals from which massive amounts of smoke spewed out.

This was the power core of the entire Cupid Tower, a peculiar technology known as the Tri-Orb Device. Essentially, all large-scale mechanical equipment of this era came equipped with a Tri-Orb Device of equivalent scale. As the current world hub and the forefront of technological advancement, London had long been transformed into a steam-powered flying city floating in the sky. The colossal force that lifted London upwards was a Tri-Orb Device comparable to the Cupid Tower.

However, at this moment, the Tri-Orb Device, which represented the starting point of mankind’s conquest of nature, was emitting sparks and steam from all around. In many places, it rumbled and trembled, as if it were about to split open any moment.

This morning, the personnel from the equipment department accidentally damaged the power core Tri-Orb Device while testing the latest model of the integrated-class steam soldier "Giant Ymir," triggering a series of chain reactions. St. Yves, who hadn’t even had breakfast, hurried over to deal with this emergency, but the situation didn’t look good.

"Sir, if you want to stop it, the best way would be to first destroy all of the steam furnaces and engines inside the tower..."

The maintenance engineer couldn’t finish his words before St. Yves impatiently interrupted him, "Impossible, the loss would be too great."

"Sir, the internal structure of this Tri-Orb Device is just too complex. We simply can’t make it stop anytime soon. Plus, any part of it might release high-temperature steam at any moment, making the maintenance environment too harsh for the engineers."

Without waiting for the other party to finish speaking, St. Yves immediately turned around: "Chang! Chang! Has Chang arrived?"

"Here, here, sir, I’ve brought him to you."

The old man with a monocle hurried over, gasping for air, and took off his hat to salute St. Yves.

Chang walked up to St. Yves, bowed deeply, and said in standard English, "Greetings to you, respected Mr. St. Yves."

"Oh! Chang! You are my last hope!"

St. Yves extended his right hand to Chang, who seemed somewhat overwhelmed, taking quite some time before realizing and firmly shaking his hand.

"Alright, Chang, we need your help to stop this behemoth, are you confident?"

Chang looked up at the Tri-Orb Device for a moment before saying, "I can try, but I need an assistant and some tools."

"No problem."

St. Yves looked over to the engineering personnel.

They exchanged strange looks and eventually the one who started speaking before stepped out: "Chang, indeed you have accomplished many incredible tasks before, we don’t doubt your ability, but this time it’s way too dangerous. We all have families, we really can’t..."

Chang’s expression remained unchanged: "I just need one person to assist me, that’s all, Robert, you won’t need to go to those dangerous spots."

Robert looked down, unconvinced.

Before St. Yves could get angry again, Cha Xiaodao, who had snuck off to have a cigarette and had now made his leisurely way back, approached, offering a salute with his mouth full of smoke: "Sir, your chickpea bacon soup."

St. Yves stared at Cha Xiaodao for a while before suddenly pointing at him: "You, be Chang’s assistant."

Cha Xiaodao raised an eyebrow, took a quick look around to grasp the situation, and then observed the massive Tri-Orb Device.

[Tri-Orb Device](For Use by Cupid Tower)

Mass: 7500 tons

Status: Extremely unstable

A breakthrough discovery of the human steam civilization, the power core of steam machinery.

Stopping this device requires a mastery of over 95% of Magic Motion Technology.

Note: Please do not stare at it for too long.

Cha Xiaodao’s heart inexplicably throbbed, but without much hesitation, he bowed to St. Yves.

"At your service."

————————————————

"Throw me the number four component of the crane, and then press the numeric keys on the console in front of you in sequence, until I tell you to stop."

Chang, with his face up, clung to a red gear holding a small wrench in his mouth, and mumbled to Cha Xiaodao below.

St. Yves, wiping his hands, watched from a distance as the two worked.

Within the huge integrative mechanism, Cha Xiaodao stood at the control console, throwing parts to Chang from the toolbox while Chang, referred to as the young man, climbed back and forth across the Tri-Orb Device that was constantly trembling and emitting high-temperature steam. Sweat soaked his back, yet Chang’s face remained very calm.

"By the way... I mean, Cha, where are you from?"

Chang, continuing his work non-stop, called out to Cha Xiaodao below him.

"Jinhai."

Cha Xiaodao was succinct in his reply.

"I’m from Shanghai. I was sent to Hong Kong when I was nine, and at the age of eighteen, I ended up in San Francisco. How about you, how long have you worked here?"

Cha Xiaodao wasn’t interested in Chang’s rambling; he had his own plans in mind.

The tier and intensity of this reality were quite low, and the physical condition of the people relatively weak. The only noteworthy aspect was the steam war forces of this era.

Steam-powered soldiers capable of firing grenade launcher, airships mounted with machine guns, and the like; but for Cha Xiaodao and Li Yan today, these things, still stuck in the rudimentary concept of "more rivets, stronger steam," were not too difficult to handle.

However, it was the inexplicable stir in his heart when facing the Tri-Orb Device that motivated Cha Xiaodao to take the task, to observe the Tri-Orb Device up close.