Siheyuan: Xu Damao's New Life

Xu Damao was leisurely dozing off under the parasol on the deck, letting the sea breeze kiss every inch of his skin.

The days on the boat were really boring. When Xu Damao first boarded the boat three days ago, he was very excited to go fishing. However, after three days of fishing, he felt that fishing was boring and simply lay down under the parasol and went to sleep. As for the scenery, it was non-existent. The sea and sky were the same color all around, and there was really nothing to see.

Xu Damao was dreaming when he was awakened by a call.

"Da Mao, Damao, it's almost noon, what would you like to eat?" asked a bearded man in his forties. His name was Lou Xinhua, and he was Lou Zhenhua's cousin. He was also the captain of this ship and the leader of the Lou family fleet. Generally, he was responsible for all affairs of the entire fleet when it was sailing.

"Yeah," Xu Damao stretched and became more awake. "Uncle Xinhua, we can eat anything for lunch, but don't eat fish. I've had enough."

"Okay then, I'll ask someone to arrange Chinese food," said Lou Xinhua.

"By the way, how many more days will it take us to reach Tianjin? I've been out for more than ten days now, and I really miss home." Xu Damao said with some emotion. It's not that he doesn't want to teleport back, but since his location is still in the courtyard, he also needs to escort such a large amount of supplies for handover.

"It will probably take another four or five days. The ship is loaded with a lot of cargo, and is also affected by ocean currents and wind direction. I haven't been back to Tianjin for a long time. I usually stay in Southeast Asia. It's only thanks to you that I can go back to Tianjin to visit my hometown this time."

"Okay, I'll go back to my room first. You can just send lunch to my room." After saying that, Xu Damao got up and went back to his room. While he had some free time, he decided to sort out the gains from this trip.

Not long after Xu Damao returned to the room, Lou Xinhua arranged for someone to bring him lunch. Three dishes and one soup were very good on the boat.

After lunch, Xu Damao began to take stock of the gains of this trip.

Xu Damao left half of the US dollars, British pounds and Hong Kong dollars to Wang Chao and Ma Han, and only kept the other half on himself. He left all the currencies of Southeast Asian and East Asian countries to the two of them. Of course, the biggest gain of this trip: gold, jewelry, antiques and everything else were all lying in his space.

Xu Damao put all the things in different categories. In addition to gold, all the domestic and this time's antiques, jewelry and other things were also placed separately. Then he selected some national treasures and played with them carefully.

It was dinner time after playing with it all. After dinner, Xu Damao was too lazy to fiddle with these things, so he took out a pen and paper and continued writing. There was no other way. There were too many classic works by martial arts masters in his previous life. Xu Damao had to hurry up and write the book. The martial arts school in this world was still waiting for him to open it!

Five days passed in a flash. Early in the morning, Lou Xinhua came to call Xu Damao to have breakfast together.

"Da Mao, we are about to arrive at the port of Tianjin. Let's go to the deck together after dinner to take a look." Lou Xinhua said.

"Well, I've been on the boat long enough. Now I can finally go home. I don't know how you can sail for so long at a time."

"Haha, these people on the ship now either grew up by the sea or have been in this business for a long time. Just get used to it, just get used to it." Lou Xinhua said with a smile.

Perhaps because they were about to reach land, Xu Damao was in a particularly good mood and ate an extra steamed bun for breakfast. As soon as he finished eating, Xu Damao couldn't wait to pull Lou Xinhua to the deck at the bow to look around.

"You can't see it with your naked eyes now, you have to use this!" Lou Xinhua took out a folding monocular telescope from his pocket and handed it to Xu Damao.

"Hey, Uncle Lou, you had this great thing but you didn't take it out earlier. I've been looking for a long time but didn't see anything." Xu Damao took the telescope and looked around.

"Da Mao, stop wandering around. Look in that direction. Is there a black line? That's land."

Xu Damao adjusted the direction as he was told and saw a black line stretching across the distance. "Uncle Lou, how long will it take us to get there?"

"It will be almost done by noon. You are just too anxious."

"Hey, I just want to go home and hug my kids! I haven't seen them for more than half a month, and I don't know if they have gained weight. Besides, after unloading the ship, I still have to take the bus back to the city."

"Oh, you're not taking the train?"

"The train is still loading equipment and it's taking too long. I can't wait to get home!"

In a flash, it was one o'clock in the afternoon, and the cargo ships lined up neatly and sailed into Jinmen Port. After the ship stopped and the gangway was put down, Xu Damao was the first to get off the ship, followed by Lou Xinhua.

“It still feels better to be on land!”

“This is also the first time I’ve been so close to my hometown since I left home!”

As the two were expressing their feelings, a group of soldiers came up to them. The officer leading the group saluted and asked, "Hello, comrade. Are you Mr. Xu Damao?"

Xu Damao also returned a not-so-standard military salute, "Yes, I am Xu Damao, and this is my ID." Xu Damao took out a special ID and a special pass from his pocket and handed them over.

The officer said, "Hello, Comrade Xu Damao. I have been ordered to lead the entire regiment to wait here under martial law. All future actions will be under your command until we return to Sijiu City safely."

"Okay, officer comrade, you can arrange some people to continue martial law, and others to drive the vehicles over quickly so that we can load them quickly. All vehicles will be grouped into groups of ten and set off for your destination. At the same time, arrange personnel to follow the guards. We will unload the grain first, and the machines will be loaded directly onto the train for transportation later."

"Yes!" The officer immediately went down to arrange vehicles and personnel.

"Okay, Uncle Xinhua, let's arrange for someone to help!"

"Well, I'll arrange some staff right away!"

Soon, both sides had their personnel in place and began to move the supplies. Xu Damao and the officer stood on land to direct the operations, while Lou Xinhua was on the boat to direct the operations to prevent any chaos.

Xu Damao secretly pulled the officer by the hand and whispered, "I have acquired a lot of advanced equipment this time. We will transport it back to the city by rail. The state will decide how to arrange it. However, we must strengthen security on the road, as enemy agents are still rampant in the country."

"Yes! I will definitely do a good job of guarding, and I will personally escort the train later."

"Well, then I'm relieved. Some of the grain I purchased this time is from our steel mill, and I need your help to deliver it to the warehouse we rented."

"How much grain is in this batch from the steel mill?"

"All of them are in that boat over there."

"Hiss, so many." It's no wonder that the officer was surprised. The ship that Xu Damao pointed to was not big but not small either, and its carrying capacity was estimated to be around 5,000 tons.

"What's so much? It's only 5,000 tons of food. We have 13 ships coming this time! Our steel mill has 10,000 people, so the food consumption is quite high. We only need this much food. You just need to help me transport it to Sijiu City. I won't ask where the other things go."

"Okay, then I'll have them send it to City 49 first. Where is the warehouse exactly?"

Xu Damao told the officer the location of the warehouse and said that there were people guarding it, and that he could just report his name when the time came. The officer turned around and made arrangements.

At around three o'clock in the afternoon, Xu Damao boarded a Jiefang truck loaded with grain and set off for Sijiucheng.

Sijiucheng, I, Xu Damao, am back!