"Dad, what have you done? why are your pants on backwards?" Amandine asked.
Ronnie looked down and saw that his pants were indeed on backwards, his face heating up as he said sophomorically, "That's the way these pants are supposed to be worn."
Riel was too shy to get out of the car, but luckily Glo came out to smooth things over, and she looked at them, "Have you bought the ferry yet?"
Ronnie was relieved and gave her a grateful look, "The ferry's bought, now let's get in the car and set sail from the shipyard side."
The atmosphere came alive and the crowd all got on board. Amidst a loud and clear song, the car reached its destination. The owner of the shipyard wondered in his mind as he saw this large group of people, "What the hell are all these people doing?"
Ronnie led the way, and in a moment he arrived at the shipyard and pointed to the ferry he had bought, "That's the one!"
"Dad, does this ferry have a name?"
"Since we're going for a dream, let's call it the 'Dream'!"
Everyone boarded the Dream and took their seats when Amandine stood up and said, "I'll be the captain and I'll steer the boat."
"How can you steer the ferry with a baby in your arms? besides, the ferry is on autopilot and doesn't need a captain," Ronnie said. He went to the control room and set the course, then hit the button and the ferry slowly pulled away from the dock with a roar. The ship had three levels, the first level had a bow section to carry cargo, and there were over thirty seats in the back with a red corridor around it. The second level was the passenger cabin, it only took up half the space of the entire ship, where most of the people were sitting at the moment, there was a small balcony in front of it, and in the back was the control room, where Ronnie was with Riel and the Amandine family. There was nothing on the third level, it was surrounded by iron railings and you could stand on it and look off into the distance or lie down and sunbathe.
The island of Aldabusha, 360 kilometers off the east coast of Africa, once known as Turtle Island, is 133 square kilometers and consists of four separate islands. Ronnie and the others went to the largest island, which they called it "Island Number One," which is the combined size of the other three islands. It was evening when the forty-one men landed on the island, and the first thing they had to do was set up their tents for the first night. They brought twenty tents down from the ship and then each man found a place to set up. Ronnie, of course, and Riel live together. They first found a piece of flat ground, cleared it out, and then the two of them carried the tent up on top. As soon as Ronnie and the two of them entered the house, they hugged each other tightly and were about to share a passionate moment when Amandine's voice came from outside: "Dad, can you help me hold the baby? I have to set up the tent." Ronnie let out his fire as soon as he heard that, he said helplessly, "Wait, I'll be right there."
"I'll go with you!" Riel said.
The duo came out and saw Amandine and Nicola each holding a baby, they reached out and picked it up, "Dad, you're married too, why are you still so grumpy? as soon as you arrive, you go inside and don't even eat."
"It's not your turn to meddle in my affairs!" Ronnie said angrily.
Seeing his angry father, Amandine said curtly, "Norforth and the others are roasting corn over there, you go over and eat!"
After watching Ronnie's duo leave, Nicola laughed and said, "It seems that your father is also sad about beauty, completely mesmerized by my mother, I thought he would be different from other men."
"Go away! don't say anything, he'll get angry again if he hears."
Norforth saw Ronnie's duo coming and laughed, "Mr. Ronnie, you're just in time, I was just looking for you, let's discuss our plans for tomorrow!"
"Good!" he handed the baby to one of the girls and then found a secluded place with Norforth to discuss it. Ronnie spoke first, "If we are going to build the Zi City, the funds we have now are definitely far from enough, the first phase will require at least two billion shillings, and after it's built, we'll need funds to run it as well."
"Then what is your good idea?"
"I propose that we draw sponsors, we give up eight seats, as long as the donation reaches two hundred million shillings, they can become the first Grand Elders of the City-state, and the remaining four seats will be chosen among those of us who donate, and we carve the names of the donors on historical inscriptions."
"You mean we learn from what the City-state is already doing?"
"Yes!"
"Good, let's do it, I'll assign people to go to the island tomorrow to make publicity."
"We'll split up, you do the fundraising and I'll survey the island," Ronnie said.
Norforth nodded and was about to leave when he was called back, "You need money for the publicity, just get it from Riel, I'll make a deal with her."
"Okay!" Norforth asked Riel for two hundred thousand shillings, which was more than the money for the ferry, she was heartbroken and when she saw Ronnie she said, "We've worked hard to earn this money, you're being generous, you've lost almost four hundred thousand in one go."
"Don't be so stingy, building a City-state is a big deal, this amount is nothing."
"What if the City-state isn't built, the money will be wasted."
Ronnie laughed and said, "I'm from the future, do I not know if the City-state can be built?"
"At this rate, the remaining one million eight hundred thousand will be spent in a few days, it's only been two days and we've spent four hundred thousand."
"In that case, let's build a laboratory on the island first and continue to produce our skin care products, the last thing this place needs right now is manpower, so we can produce more."
"That's great, I also think it's a shame to give up selling skin care products, it's the fastest way to make money."
The next day, Norforth and Glo took ten people off the island to do publicity, while Amandine and Riel went out to buy the equipment and materials needed to build the lab. They took with them eight hundred thousand shillings and three helpers, and so the two groups left the island together in one ferry. Ronnie, on the other hand, took the two men to survey the island's terrain, he first had to establish the northwest district in the nine grid, this district would be the location of the labs, factories and administrative offices in the future. The entire Zi City was a square of fifteen hundred meters (the total length of an ordinary City-state was nine hundred meters), while the northwest zone accounted for one-ninth of the total area, with a length of five hundred meters. After three days of measuring, the nine areas were finally divided, and now they waited for the Amandine guys to bring in the materials needed for construction. Ronnie was idly teasing the baby, he was still interested in the little guy named De Silva and was carefully observing the big black mole on his face, when Nicola came over and asked, "Mr. Ronnie, how come Amandine and the others haven't come back after being gone for a few days?"
"They still have to go home and move the lab equipment, it won't be that fast, it will take a few more days," Ronnie replied.
The few days he was talking about were actually a week later. When Amandine arrived at "Island One" with a full load of supplies, the first thing he complained about when he saw Ronnie was, "Dad, the ferry is too small, it'll take three more loads in the back to get it all."
"Tough, where's Riel?"
"She said she was going to hire some architects and workers and let me get the stuff back first."
Ronnie nodded, "Go get some rest, I'll take care of the rest."
He then called the people to unload all the goods onto the ship, going back and forth a few more times to finally get all the purchased items to the island, just as Riel returned with four architects and more than twenty workers. Ronnie met with the men, told them what he wanted to do, and on July 7, 2362, construction began on the Northwest Side. Ronnie and Riel went to the site daily to check on the progress. Another ten days passed, and Norforth returned with his head hanging low; after more than half a month of fundraising, he hadn't found a single donor and had spent more than fifty thousand shillings. "Mr. Ronnie, I'm sorry, am I useless? not a single thing has been accomplished," Norforth sighed.
"It wasn't supposed to be easy, in my place the result would probably be the same, take your time!" Ronnie said this with his mouth, but in his heart he was extremely disappointed.
After Norforth left, Riel frowned and said, "Norforth's ability is too average, why should he be the founder of the City-state in the future?"
"But he has a strong cohesive force, look how he brought back more than twenty members this time, that's something I can't do."
"What's the point of having a lot of people, they're all here for the free meals, what's missing here now are workers, and they can't do it, all day long a bunch of people just sing and do nothing."
"Yes, the City-state will not keep idle people in the future, if they have no skills, they must be removed, when the Northwest District is built, there will be an examination of these people, all those who don't pass will have to leave."
"Why wait for the Northwest District to be built, can't we test them now?" Riel asked.
"There are no jobs for them here now, they can't all go to work as laborers!"
The labs and factories in the Northwest Sector were the first to be built two months later, but they too were down to six hundred thousand shillings. The island's population had now reached over a hundred people, most of them raised by Norforth and Glo. Ronnie was ready to hold a meeting when all the people on the island arrived, he stood in the center and said, "The City-state has just been established, everything is starting from zero, what we need most at this time is money, the purpose of building the factory first is to solve this problem. Right now, the most needed professions on the island are: scientific researchers, medical personnel, city guards, Zi City preparatory office personnel, commodity and food administrators, and backup emergency personnel. All of you, please fill out the form first to choose the job that suits you, and as long as you pass the test, you are ready to start."
At this point, a man stepped forward and asked, "What does a Rescue Worker do?"
"It's a job that deals mainly with emergencies, right now it's helping the factory make a skin care product," Ronnie explained.
After this meeting, Ronnie turned to Norforth and said, "You hurry up and develop an honor value system, just like the City-state originally did."
"Good! I'll get right on it."
Another three days passed, and the production of "Riel Anti-Wrinkle and Anti-Aging Skin Care Products" finally resumed. Ronnie was also free, and he was thinking about the donor. "What are you thinking about?" Riel asked, looking at him.
"I'm thinking about the names of the donors on the historical inscriptions, maybe if we go directly to those people, we'll have a much higher success rate of being donated to."
"So do you remember them?"
"Of course, I can't forget everything, how could I forget the names of these people?"
"Awesome!" Riel revealed an adoring look and said, "You seem to know everything, just like God."
Ronnie did what he said he would do, made a list of names and called Amandine to use his cloak of invisibility to go into the government system and investigate these people. Amandine had long been bored with taking care of his two sons all day on the island, so he was happy to get the job and set off.