Liu Wei nodded to the two guards standing outside the door to Wang Chao's office at Phoenix. Knocking on the door, he waited for an acknowledgment before opening the door and letting himself in.
"How did it go?" Asked Wang Chao, looking up from behind his desk. Normally it would have been impossible to pull him away from the business reports, contracts, or stock reports, but this time it seemed that he was waiting for him.
"Honestly?" Asked Liu Wei, trying to get his thoughts together. He had been at the ranch for several hours and he still could not organize his thoughts to make a report. The whole thing had him reeling.
"Would I bother to ask you to lie?" Replied Wang Chao, looking at his normally composed secretary and wondered what was going on in his head.
"Sorry, Sir," said Liu Wei as he took a seat across from his boss and made himself comfortable. "Honestly, Chao, it was nothing that we expected, but there is something definitely going on."
Surprised that his friend would drop the honorifics at work, Wang Chao leaned back in his chair and prepared himself for what was to come next. "How do you mean?"
"Exactly as I said, it was nothing that we expected. There were no indications of anyone else on the property, she was not being cagey or suspicious. Mind you, you can tell that she really does not like people at first. She acted like a lone woman on a ranch and wanted a secure fence to keep herself safe from the animals around."
"Okay," said Wang Chao as he listened to his right-hand man in both the business world and the Wang family army. "If that was the case, then why would you say that something was definitely going on?"
"It was the little hints that she dropped without realizing it," continued Liu Wei as he got up and grabbed himself a glass of whiskey. He was hoping that the drink would help him pinpoint what had set him off.
"She asked if there was a top-of-the-line lock for her gates that was not electric. One of the men said that even if the power went out, the lock would still work and that it was her best option, and the look she gave him was… as if he was stupid. She then specifically asked what would happen if there was an electrical surge."
"His response?"
"He said that the chances of that happening was less than 0.05%. That time, she had an almost pitying look on her face. I said that I was willing to see if our tech department could come up with something and if she had a timeline that she was looking at."
"I assume she did."
"Nine months," replied Liu Wei shooting the rest of the liquor before pouring himself another glass.
Wang Chao looked at his friend concerned. He had never seen him drinking like this. "You okay?" He asked.
"You know what? I don't know if I am. I cannot figure out what it was about our meeting, but now I'm on edge... like something is going to happen."
"You are sure that it has nothing to do with Blood Moon?"
"No, I am almost certain that she has nothing to do with Blood Moon. Hell, if I were to guess, I would say that she has nothing to do with Li Dai Lu. Nothing about her screamed second-generation wealth at all."
"Why do you think that?" Asked Wang Chao, now leaning forward to hear what Liu Wei had to say.
"Contrasting colors," came the reply.
Wang Chao was surprised. "What do contrasting colors have to do with anything?"
"Exactly my point!" Exclaimed Liu Wei, slapping his hand on the armrest of his chair. "Why would she care about contrasting colors so much that she would ask me if there was anyway our techs could invent it and have it set up in nine months… and what the Hell is with nine months!?"
"Did she say anything other than contrasting colors?"
"She said that white concrete at night would be too noticeable and so would black during the day. I replied that if she wanted the fencing to blend in, then maybe go with a forest green."
"That would be a good option if she wanted to blend in with the forest," said Wang Chao, also thinking of a potential solution. His mind loved problems like this and it would be all that he could think about until it was solved.
"Except that in winter, when most of the trees would lose their leaves, then forest green would contrast with the white of the snow."
"So, what are you thinking?"
"I think that we need to look into electric locks that can withstand an EMP and how to blend in with the environment. Because she is certain that something is coming in nine months and I think that she is preparing for whatever it is," said Liu Wei, absolutely sure about that one fact.
"Understood," replied Wang Chao, going back to the papers on his desk. "Then make it happen."
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Days flew by and weeks turned into months. I got what I considered to be standard things; water bath canners, pressure canners, dehydrators, and freeze dryers. I figured that I could put all of the electrical appliances that I wanted to keep in my space to use after the EMP went off.
After all, it was not like there would be no electricity, it just wasn't as high of a priority since the things that used it were all fried. With that in mind, I added more than a few generators to my online shopping cart, to be picked up in-store. They would use gas to create electricity, but I could once again store them in my space to protect them. Given everything on the ranch that would need electricity, I opted to buy ten of them, wondering if maybe I should have picked up a couple more. I added fifteen to the list, just to be on the safe side.
I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what else I would need. I was limited in terms of food right now, as I couldn't grow anything and I already bought six grocery stores out of their coffee. I picked up tea leaves as well, but let's face it, coffee was life.
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