Chapter 238: Treating Guests to Dinner
As they talked, Wu Nanhai appeared wearing a straw hat and a towel draped around his neck, trailed by Wang Tian, one of the farm's work team leaders. Wang Tian had formerly been a foreman for long-term laborers, which made him something of an expert farmer.
Wu Nanhai was issuing instructions as he walked, and Wang Tian maintained a deferential posture throughout. Wu Nanhai was now tanned and portly—he had been pale and pudgy before landing—so the pair looked rather like a landlord and his hired hand.
Upon reaching them, Wu Nanhai concluded his directions, and Wang Tian hurried off.
"Little Bai, what treasures have you brought us this time?" Wu Nanhai greeted Bai Guoshi with a grin.
The Long-Range Exploration Team played Santa Claus for both the Agricultural Committee and the Industrial and Energy Committee. Every time they appeared, the department heads anticipated some pleasant surprise.
"I've told you before—don't call me Little Bai," Bai Guoshi said with pained resignation. "Please, call me Guoshi."
"No problem, Little Bai."
"Thanks." Bai Guoshi sighed. "I obtained some medicinal seeds on this expedition."
"Medicinal seeds? The Ministry of Health people come nagging me every day about establishing a Chinese medicinal herb planting base, but no one here knows the first thing about cultivating herbs."
"There must be herb farmers in Guangdong or Fujian," Bai Guoshi suggested. "If not, check the agricultural library for instructional films or something."
Fa Shilu ignored this tangent. "Regarding the self-purchased seeds everyone handed over after landing—apart from the portion already used, most remain in the warehouse. I inventoried these unplanned seeds recently and found numerous problems. First, preservation conditions are poor; some packaging is broken, and some seeds have become damp and sprouted. Second, there's the issue of seed origin. Most people bought their seeds from agricultural supply stores near their homes. The problem is that seeds aren't universally suited to every climate. After preliminary examination, approximately a quarter of them are varieties adapted only to Northeast or North China. Their yields here would be questionable."
"Can we store them? Perhaps in a seed bank, for use after we conquer the North?" Wu Nanhai asked.
"Probably not. These seeds are in simple packaging, and we lack the specialized equipment for long-term seed preservation."
"Then we just plant them?"
"It seems the only option. Modern seeds carry high-yield traits, after all. We can plant them for reproduction—not for harvest, but to maintain their superior characteristics."
"Let's do that, then." Wu Nanhai agreed readily; Fa Shilu was the professional here. Then he invited Bai Guoshi to lunch.
The transmigrators knew the Demonstration Farm was the most "corrupt" location in all of Bairren City—indeed, in all of Lingao—one of two designated spots where Executive Committee leaders could abuse their privileges. While the Farm couldn't match the Navy Club for modern indulgences, it offered a rich variety of fresh vegetables and fruits, and the environment was beautiful. If the Fengcheng Inn was a five-star hotel, the Demonstration Farm was an upscale farmhouse resort.
Bai Guoshi accepted the invitation gladly. Liu Zheng and several other exploration team colleagues joined them at the table. Zhao Xue couldn't attend due to her leg injury, and Ye Mengyan wasn't part of the exploration team's formal establishment—the Special Reconnaissance Unit maintained constant standby, so naturally he couldn't join the leisure.
Lunch was served in a riverside grove that the Farm had carefully preserved. A large pavilion of bamboo and straw had been erected here, with flowers, ornamental trees, and fruit trees planted around it for landscaping. A natural river bend beside the pavilion had been expanded by Wu Nanhai into an artificial pond, planted with lotus roots and water chestnuts, and stocked with ducks and geese. Sitting in the pavilion, one genuinely felt the spirit lift.
"You people really know how to live." Liu Zheng surveyed the dishes—actually quite modest, mostly vegetables. Tomato scrambled eggs counted as half a meat dish; the genuine meat offerings were cold cuttlefish roe and razor clams stir-fried with scallion oil. Because everything was pure, natural, and organic, the flavors were naturally delicious.
Wine graced the table as well—a fruit wine brewed by the Farm from local fruits. It tasted sweet and sour with minimal alcohol content, barely adequate for those who loved to drink. The Executive Committee absolutely prohibited brewing liquor from grain.
Since D-Day, none of them had enjoyed such leisurely, comfortable time gathered together. Though the wine was wanting, atmosphere compensated. Toasts were exchanged, and the dinner table quickly grew lively.
At that moment, a young woman with twin buns came over carrying a large soup bowl. Snow-white dumplings floated in the milky broth, garnished with chopped coriander. A mingled fragrance of pepper, coriander, and fresh river fare drifted through the air.
"Masters, please enjoy," the girl said softly, retreating with hands folded.
"Fish ball soup?" Cui Yunhong asked.
"Sister Li prepared it," Wu Nanhai said, unbuttoning his coat. "Except for her habit of adding Sichuan pepper to everything, her cooking is quite good. Fortunately, we have very little Sichuan pepper here."
"Loves Sichuan pepper? A Northerner?"
"No, sounds like a southern accent. She won't specify exactly where she's from. Seems to have quite a story." Wu Nanhai shrugged.
Liu Zheng asked, "Is that the mother-daughter pair Zhang Xingjiao rescued from Gou Village? They were skeletal then—the girl actually grew up to be so pretty?"
"This is Chuqing. She was originally a maid in Gou Er's household. Sister Li's daughter is only eight—a loli, just a loli."
Chuqing had been inadvertently kidnapped when Xue Ziliang and the others went to scout Gou Village. Ye Mengyan had insisted on taking her at the time, then completely forgot about her after returning. After spending more than a month in the quarantine camp, she was taken in by Wu Nanhai, who was gathering manpower wherever he could find it.
Wu Nanhai smiled. "She's an orphan, so I brought her in to help with daily matters. I also teach both girls to read, incidentally."
"Nanhai, this honest-and-dutiful mask of yours is quite deceptive. Look how many women you've collected on this farm!"
"Indeed—first a mother-daughter two-for-one, then Chuqing. Our Transmigration Group's number one beast is clearly you."
"Damn it, raising a loli was my dream!" Someone stamped his foot and beat his chest; the bitter taste of someone else seizing the initiative was always unpleasant.
"Playing a real-life Princess Maker, training milfs and lolis in this setting—it's practically a fantasy life."
"The Beast Farm: Mother and Daughter in Distress—" An otaku with extensive AV experience immediately invented a new title.
"Stop talking nonsense," Wu Nanhai waved his hands frantically. "Sister Li is now a full-time nurse working at the Ministry of Health. I simply let her help with cooking here—"
"A nurse? Didn't realize you had a uniform fetish too. So, when shall we exchange hard drives?"
After Wu Nanhai endured public mockery for some time, he was finally released, and the dinner conversation turned to substantive matters. As the saying goes, there's no such thing as a free lunch; treating guests to dinner usually implies ulterior motives. Wu Nanhai was no exception. Fortunately, everyone at the table was Chinese and understood this fundamental principle.
His proposal: he hoped the Exploration Team could organize resource collection expeditions.
"You bring me a few fruits one day, catch some fish and shrimp the next, and bring kapok or something the day after. Everything looks useful, but for me, beyond enriching the biological specimen room, it's practically worthless. Forget minerals—those require massive infrastructure to extract. But surely agricultural and forestry resources could be collected in greater quantities?"
"Isn't there a liaison officer system? If you want something, issue a notice through Wu De, and nearby villages will naturally send tribute."
"The problem is that this county lacks certain things. Coconuts, for example. We wait eagerly for our coconut seedlings to mature, but actually, coconuts grow everywhere on Hainan Island—they simply haven't reached us."
Liu Zheng said, "That's true, but our resource exploration team only has—" He suddenly caught himself—the specific personnel count of the Resource Department was classified. "Not many people. How much can we bring back for you?"
"Exactly. Take that patch of Yi Zhi we encountered yesterday—at maturity, we could harvest several hundred jin," Bai Guoshi added.
"That's precisely why I'm proposing resource expeditions." Wu Nanhai had been contemplating this issue for some time. "I intend to raise this suggestion at the Executive Committee meeting. For agricultural and forestry resources that you've already surveyed but that lie outside our sphere of influence, we organize several hundred laborers with vehicles and boats, provide armed escorts, and collect as many resources as possible."
"It's not impossible," Liu Zheng acknowledged. He understood Wu Nanhai was hoping the Resource Exploration Team would support this proposal at the meeting. From the department's perspective, the approach held appeal—moving with a large force was always safer and more comfortable than operating as a small team. However—
He raised his own request: "It would be excellent if our exploration team had a dedicated boat."
"Indeed, indeed." Wu Nanhai nodded vigorously. "With a boat, you could conduct round-the-island exploration, vastly expanding your operational range."
The group continued joking, eating, and drinking for a while longer. After the banquet dispersed, Bai Guoshi walked alone toward the residential area.
His dormitory was in Group 5, known as the "prime location" because it faced Group 6—the single women's quarters. From his dormitory window, one could observe Group 6's main gate. In hot weather, female transmigrators in revealing clothes could often be seen wandering the square before the gate. Sometimes foreign women in equally revealing attire appeared as well. Once, when Salina showed up in low-rise hot pants and a tight vest, it nearly triggered a riot among the otaku. When luck ran especially high, some claimed to have glimpsed "MMs" changing in their dormitories; rumor even held that some had peeked at them showering.
Such windfalls rarely occurred, however. For security, wooden fences separated each group, and each had its own gate that closed at night. The main residential area gate closed at ten every evening; individual group gates closed at eleven. Entry or exit after curfew required registration. These strict security measures existed primarily for internal order: the Executive Committee couldn't guarantee everyone was a gentleman. In fact, both the former Public Security Team and the current Police Headquarters had received reports indicating petty theft existed among transmigrators. The stolen items were mainly modern luxuries brought from the other timeline—cola, cigarettes, and the like. Beyond theft, several hundred single men resided here; in such a harsh and monotonous environment, imagining what they might do upon seeing women required little effort. Through Women's Director Du Wen, Xiao Zishan had distributed several notices advising young women not to dress revealingly outdoors and to draw curtains when changing.
(End of Chapter)