Chapter 17: The Meeting - The Women's Army

During a break, Xiao Zishan found his “women’s army” gathered in the break room, laughing and talking. Most had slipped out of the meeting long ago. The younger ones, seeing him, swarmed around him, chanting “Group Leader, Group Leader,” as if it were a great joke.

“Alright, alright,” he said, “let’s have a small meeting for our General Affairs Group.”

The women’s wild energy, when met with no response from the men, quickly subsided.

“Our General Affairs Group,” he began, “is in charge of logistics.” He surveyed his team. There were eight of them, all but one in their twenties and thirties. He’d seen their registration forms. Except for the one housewife, they had all held clerical jobs. The women with technical skills had been assigned to other groups. This, he realized, was the “remedial class.”

“We’ll be responsible for a lot of miscellaneous tasks. Let’s start with the most basic: food.”

“I’ve never cooked in my life, and I hate it,” one woman declared, a brick of defiance that would have stunned a lesser man.

“Me neither,” another said timidly, “but I can learn.”

“I don’t mind cooking,” a third said with a smirk, “as long as you dare to eat it!”

“I can cook,” said Auntie Cao, a woman in her fifties. “But for so many people… I’ve never worked in a canteen before.”

Xiao Zishan knew her story. Her name was Cao Shunhua. She’d been a housewife most of her life, a simple, resilient woman who had endured great hardship.

“Let’s just order boxed lunches,” a slightly older woman suggested.

“The quality of boxed lunches is terrible,” Xiao Zishan said with a smile. “We’re going to be here for at least half a year. Are we going to eat boxed lunches every day?” He leaned in, his voice enticing. “Don’t you want your boyfriends and families to eat well?”

In any other context, this would have been a manipulative, chauvinistic line. But here, with these women who had followed their men to the ends of the earth, it struck a chord. He was also thinking ahead. There were no fast-food companies in 17th-century Hainan. They needed to learn to feed themselves.

The women exchanged glances, silent.

“Zhao Xiaoqin, you were a purchaser in a catering company, right?”

“Yes, five years of experience,” the woman, nearly thirty, said with a sigh.

“Then you can be in charge of purchasing,” Xiao Zishan said. “You’re a professional in this area.” Affirming her value, he knew, was more effective than any economic incentive.

“Alright,” she said, “I’ll give it a try. But I have a request.”

“Go ahead.”

“I need an office. I have my own computer, but I need a phone line and a fax machine. Internet access would be best.”

He jotted down her requests. “The internet is a problem, but the phone and office are no issue.”

“I need you to draw up a menu,” she said, already lost in thought, “so I can estimate the purchase volume. Vegetables, meat, poultry, eggs…”

This was what he wanted. A professional at work.

“We don’t need to buy all that,” a younger woman said. “We can order pre-prepped vegetables.”

His plan exactly. Pre-prepped vegetables would save them the tedious work of sorting, washing, and processing, a perfect solution for a group of modern women who were not accustomed to manual labor.

“Oh, right,” Zhao Xiaoqin said, her decadent look vanishing. “That would be convenient. I’ll go to the city in a few days, get some catalogs, and check the market prices.”

“Alright.”

“I’ll need one more person to help me,” she said, a veteran of the workplace, knowing when to advance and when to retreat.

“You choose.”

“I’ll help,” the younger woman volunteered. “I can speak Cantonese.”

“Alright. But Group Leader, what about our funding and reimbursement process?”

He explained the system he had devised, a simple but complete administrative and financial framework that would serve as a model for their future government.

“Understood,” she said. “Everything is cash on delivery, right?”

“Right.” This would minimize contact with suppliers.

“Big Sister Cao,” Xiao Zishan said, turning to the older woman, “the leadership of this kitchen army is up to you. We young people are not very good at cooking. Your skills are excellent. I’ll entrust this to you.”

“Look at you, Xiao… Group Leader…” she said, unaccustomed to the title.

“You can call me Zishan.”

“Then I’ll call you Zishan,” she said with a happy smile. “Cooking is not so difficult. I can teach you. It’s just that my skills are all northern style. I don’t know if the comrades from the south are used to it. I hear you have to add sugar when you cook?”

“I don’t think it will be a problem,” he said. “We’re purchasing pre-prepped vegetables with popular flavors. You can just provide some variety, make some staple foods.”

“Alright! I’m good at that.”

“Zhao Xiaoqin, we also need to add some kitchen equipment. You know a little about this, so go and take a look.”

“What is the maximum number of people we need to supply for?” she asked, making a note in her notebook.

“Five to six hundred, I guess,” he said. “Let’s try to be economical. Many things, like rice cookers, we won’t be able to use when we get there.”

“That’s okay,” she said. “Kitchen equipment can be rented. For now, let’s just rent everything.”

He nodded, impressed. In a group, one must make the best use of everyone’s talents.

He laid out the rest of the plan. The General Affairs Group would be responsible for the canteen, with the other transmigrators taking turns helping out. As a reward for their service, the General Affairs Group would have a separate dinner party once a week, with a budget of 20 yuan per person, and could bring their boyfriends or family members.

The small perk was well-received.

“Li Yuanyuan.”

“Here! Group Leader.”

“You will be responsible for all clerical work: personnel materials, meeting minutes, reports, financial statements. All of it must be compiled and archived.”

“Understood! Group Leader.”

“Fang Yijing, you are responsible for the distribution of daily necessities, dormitory management, and sanitation duties.”

“Me?” the woman said, taken aback.

“Weren’t you a nursery teacher?”

“That was for little children. There are many men here—”

“It’s okay. With women around, they’ll pay more attention to their image.”

In half an hour, he had established the framework of the General Affairs Group. Procurement: Zhao Xiaoqin. Canteen: Tian Shunhua. Dormitories: Fang Yijing. Secretariat: Li Yuanyuan. Each with an assistant. A system to follow, a blueprint for the future.