Oh Mr General - Chapter 196

“Yes. I am planning a trip back to Country Y soon to make it up to him.” Gray answered.

“That would be good,” Sato agreed with his plans. Byron Tobion was after all one of Gray’s favourite people in his life. The old man had cared for his grandson for his entire life. Gray was basically spoiled by his grandfather ever since he was young.

Gray had told Sato before that on Gray’s 16th birthday, the teenager was given his own private island in the mediterranean. Byron actually had a house built on the island for the young teenager so that he could bring his close friends over during the summer. Of course, Gray complied and had brought Marion, Peter and Delilah over to the island that summer. Though, from that point on, the General never really used that island anymore and was now more of the Tobion Family’s exclusive retreat.

“Would you like to come along to see my grandfather?” Gray asked the young man that was leaning on the bed frame.

“With my voice, I may come off as rude to him,” Sato worried about his predicament, “Maybe it would be best if you went by yourself this time, Gray.”

“We do not have to go now. We can just go when your voice has come back.” He shook his head, giving Sato a solution to his problem.

“Are you sure that your grandfather..” Before Sato could finish saying ‘would not mind me being there?’, Gray had already known what the boy wanted to say.

“He would be happier if you come with me to visit him.” Rubbing Sato’s hair, he continued, “Don’t speak too much right now. Your vocal cords are still weak.”

Sato nodded as Gray reached his muscly arms around the boy’s legs and back. He lifted up the light body without any difficulty, carrying his lover downstairs to have dinner together. Today, the house keepers had prepared traditional Chinese herbal dishes that targetted in boosting Sato’s immune system. The meal wasn’t the most delicious, but it was still very edible.

Knowing that Sato would like to talk, but he couldn’t, Gray decided to share some of the stories that he had heard about the GREEN Suburb Movement introduced by the government and the Tobion Family. Within the first two weeks of the movement being introduced, the households that were going to get their houses demolished had all been relocated to a temporary housing facility. The SMART home that the Tobion Family had invested a huge sum of money to research and developed was a unit house that was able to be mass created and moved portably to whichever location that was required. The houses were geometrically shaped using the idea of shipping containers and were combined to give the house the different rooms. These ‘containers’ had pre-installed tech-ware that allowed for SMART functions to occur around the house. It only simply required construction workers to assemble these compartments together to form a proper house.

As these houses were assemble-ready, they were also stackable in the sense that apartment complexes could be easily created using such SMART homes. The only thing that was required was a separate space to install elevators and emergency exits and that was it. Such houses were not only efficient when it came to construction, but it also allows for a synonymous design throughout the entire country. As Country Z was special in a sense that it only had one city, it was very easy to create a cohesive identity as there was only one parliamentary party.

Sato loved such an idea as he himself had stayed in the slums of Country Z in the past. It was not exactly the most welcoming place, especially when tourists explore the city and they discover the dark side of town. The young man thought that giving everyone a place to call home was the first step to eliminating poverty in their country. The boy remember staying in his dingy one room apartment in his first year, so as to save money. It wasn’t a very nice part of his university life, but that was what people needed to do to survive.

“I’m happy to see that you like such a project.” Gray smiled, “It was something planned by my family for five years. Even though my grandfather does not say this, but everyone knew that he cared about Country Z as much as the other founders of the country. To them, this country was their baby. And seeing that the city wasn’t exactly the most pleasant looking in the suburbs and how many had to live in dingy old apartments, it made my grandfather rather displeased.”

“Only with good living conditions could people start working on themselves.” Sato summarised the point that everyone was thinking about. If people had not met their basic necessities, they would not be able to pursue other aspects that could potentially earn them a higher income. Poverty was a vicious cycle and in order to break that, there needs to be a decisive action made by the government.

After dinner, the couple went back to their room, where Gray helped set up a comfortable desk area for Sato to use. The one thing that Sato wanted to get back on track most, was his university studies. Not studying for five whole months had truly put a stop on the young man’s education journey. It was going to be difficult for Sato to catch up, as now, Sato’s university mates were beginning their third year of education. For the young man, under discretionary agreement by the college professors that had taught Sato during these two years, they were willing to help Sato get back on track. After all, the young man was definitely one of the brightest students they had taught over their decades of teaching. It would be a waste to see the boy repeat a whole year of education.

As such, Sato would now study the second year curriculum under his own timeframe at home, since he was unable to attend school normally. In addition, should he have any queries, the boy could simply call up a teacher during their available slots and they would gladly give him a hand on explaining.