Chapter 8: The Ribbon-Cutting

He had no good solution for the roof. There were no tiles or wooden planks, and his request for tarpaulin had been rejected by the Planning Commission. He had to continue to make do with waste materials, using woven branches as a covering. As soon as the roof was finished, it was lush and green, with a purely natural style, looking a bit like a building in a domestic eco-park. Of course, this toilet made of purely natural materials had basically no ability to withstand wind and rain. Fortunately, Lingao was basically in its dry season after the Mid-Autumn Festival, with little rain and no typhoons, so it would have to do. The final step was to paint large “Male” and “Female” signs on the doors.

The members of the construction group circled the newly completed latrine several times, feeling quite excited. Although its structure was so simple and its purpose so humble that in the 21st century probably not even a beggar would bother with it, it was the first building created by the hands of the transmigrators, and its significance was a milestone. If even a floating pontoon pier could have a monument, this building was even more significant. At the very least, a stone tablet inscribed with “Site of the Transmigrator Landing Base Latrine” should be erected. As several people were enthusiastically discussing how to write the inscription, Mei Wan proposed that, logically, a building related to the people’s livelihood should have an Executive Committee member come to cut the ribbon for its inauguration to make it seem grand and formal. This idea received Tian Jiujiu’s enthusiastic support—after all, the latrine was his creation. So, Mei Wan called the Executive Committee to request a latrine completion ceremony. “This concerns the people’s livelihood, the most fundamental interests of the broad masses of transmigrators. You guys figure it out.” After making the call at the beach telephone station, Mei Wan thought that since they were going to have a ceremony, the toilet couldn’t be stinking to high heaven. That would be inappropriate for the leadership and the media. So, on the grounds of “holding a major public event,” he applied to He Ming, the acting leader of the military group, to dispatch two militiamen for “guard duty.” He specifically stated that he didn’t need any elite soldiers, just ordinary militiamen. He Ming was an old soldier. Hearing that there was a major public event with Executive Committee leaders attending, he immediately assigned two young new recruits to the architectural engineering group. Thus, Ye Mengyan and Wei Aiwen, two young men who, although not from a military background, were the most active in training and on duty, received his order:

“Tidy up your appearance immediately, fix bayonets on your rifles! Run to the Red Beach architectural engineering group to report for a special guard mission!” This order invigorated the two young men, who had been standing guard with their rifles for half a day until they were bored out of their minds. They quickly washed their faces, tidied up, and went to report.

When Mei Wan saw these two energetic young men arrive with bayoneted SKS rifles, looking heroic, he was overjoyed. He had them stand guard in front of the latrine, not allowing anyone to go in to defecate or urinate.

“Without an order from the Executive Committee, no one is allowed in!” he specifically instructed. “This is a political task, and it must be taken seriously!”

Ye Mengyan and Wei Aiwen looked at each other: standing guard for a toilet, what kind of political task was this?

“What damn political task? If you can’t shit or piss in a toilet, what’s the point of building it?” Wei Aiwen was a little annoyed. Before transmigrating, he had often played cards and shot the breeze with many members of the Executive Committee and was quite familiar with them. He thought he would get a small position after transmigrating, but on the first day, he was standing guard with a middle school student with a face full of acne. Now it was even better, he was standing guard for a toilet!

“There will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony later. How can we have the toilet stinking?”

“Damn it, if a toilet doesn’t stink, is it supposed to smell fragrant?” Wei Aiwen propped his gun to the side. “Can the Executive Committee even control when people shit and piss? I’m going to take a piss first.”

Ye Mengyan looked impatient. He was already a bit annoyed, and now these two were arguing. He said, “What are you arguing about? It’s so annoying. Just do it. It’s standing guard over there, it’s standing guard here. Why care so much!”

“This little comrade has insight,” Mei Wan praised, and then promised that they could come to the engineering group’s office tent at night to watch “good-boy movies,” which finally got the job done.

While they were haggling over the guard duty in front of the toilet, the Executive Committee on the sterncastle was also passing the buck on who should attend. Everyone likes to show their face, but showing their face in this way felt indescribably awkward. But not going seemed to show too much disregard for the interests of the masses. In the end, Xiao Zishan, because he held the title of being in charge of internal and civil affairs, couldn’t refuse and had to attend.

A large crowd had already gathered in front of the toilet. It seemed that such a practical project was indeed popular with the people. Just as Xiao Zishan smiled and waved at them, he was drowned out by a chorus of curses:

“What the hell! What are you pretending for? You build a toilet and don’t let people use it!”

“Isn’t this too damn bureaucratic? We can’t even piss until the leader comes to take a leak?”

“I need to take a shit… please hurry up,” someone wailed in agony.

…

Xiao Zishan’s face turned ugly. There were even two guards with SKS rifles and shining bayonets standing guard in front of the toilet—what kind of show was this?

“Commissioner Xiao, look this way!” Ding Ding shouted, holding a DV camera. He was perched on the raised bucket of a specially dispatched excavator, continuing his live report. Apparently, this ribbon-cutting ceremony was very much to his taste. As soon as Ding Ding heard the news, he and his girlfriend rushed over. In his opinion, the guards at the door and the vine serving as a ribbon were nice, but it was too monotonous and lacked some excitement, especially the lack of beautiful women holding the ribbon. So, ten minutes later, Li Xiaolü, who had just returned from surveying, was inexplicably put into an ill-fitting cheongsam and, along with Pan Lin—the full name of Ding Ding’s foreign girlfriend—became the ceremonial ribbon-cutting ladies.

As soon as the curvaceous Pan Lin, wrapped in a tight, high-slit cheongsam, made her appearance, the focus of the crowd shifted. Those who needed to shit or piss quickly found a place to relieve themselves and then immediately returned to claim a spot. If not for the engineering group’s efforts to stop them, some people would have climbed onto the roof of the toilet.

In Ding Ding’s plan, Pan Lin not only had to be a ceremonial lady but also a reporter. According to his plan, all this footage had to be collected according to the standards of a news propaganda film to serve as important historical material in the future.

Pan Lin’s Chinese was very fluent, with almost none of the tonal problems that foreigners often have when speaking Chinese. When she held the voice recorder, everyone was more willing to cooperate. Ding Ding himself held the DV camera and first filmed a few interviews with the crowd. The crowd expressed that the completion of this project greatly facilitated their toilet use and improved the sanitation of the base. During the interview, Shao Zong from the logging group said emotionally, “In the past, we had no toilets and could only relieve ourselves on the swaying deck, which was both dangerous and polluting. Now, the Executive Committee has thought of what the masses think, is anxious about what the masses are anxious about, and has timely built this popular project. We, the broad masses of transmigrators, see it in our eyes and feel it warm in our hearts. On behalf of the broad masses, I thank the Executive Committee and all the comrades of the engineering group!”

As he was speaking enthusiastically, someone from behind squeezed through. “Damn it, how come even here there are people representing me without my consent!”

“Panpan, remember to delete that last sentence,” Ding Ding instructed.

Then the recorder turned to Ye Mengyan at the door, asking him for his thoughts. Little Ye stared at the deep, white cleavage visible under the collar of the cheongsam, feeling dizzy and light-headed, and didn’t even know what he said. Ding Ding thought he would have to re-dub this part later. Right now, besides his girlfriend, he couldn’t deploy any other personnel. There was no one to hold the cue cards. If this continued, the quality of the interviews would not improve. He had to have a good talk with the Executive Committee.

Finally, the ribbon-cutting ceremony ended in a harmonious atmosphere—although there was a small accident when cutting the vine. The thing was very tough, and Xiao Zishan had a hard time getting it done.

Before leaving, covered in sweat, Xiao Zishan suddenly remembered something. He instructed the engineering group to erect a large bulletin board at the entrance of the toilet for posting notices—the walkie-talkies might run out of battery, but everyone always had to come to the toilet.

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In a clearing in a sparse wood near the beacon tower, the camp’s health station had already been set up. The medical department had a very high priority. The health station was set up almost immediately after the landing command post. As soon as the power line from the ship was connected, an independent power supply line was pulled here—although there was no need for electricity for the time being.

Several large canvas tents constituted the outpatient department—for now, seriously ill patients would still be sent back to the Fengcheng, where the conditions were much better. Looking out from the tent window, the trees that had been deliberately left uncut and the stream next to them formed a beautiful scenery—to give the patients a good mood!

At the entrance of the outpatient department, a bamboo pole had been erected. The head of the health group, Shi Niaoren, raised a Red Cross flag.

The other members of the health group were sorting out some of the daily necessities they would receive, mainly surgical instruments (orthopedic and general surgery), dressings, some glucose and saline solutions, and some common drugs.

While they were sorting, the hospital received 4 cases of heatstroke, 5 of diarrhea, and 2 of upper respiratory tract infections. One of them was a person who had been lazy at night and had slept on a lifeboat without a sleeping bag, and now had a fever. He Ma was squatting to one side, taking the unlucky guy’s temperature.

“39.4 degrees, that’s quite high,” He Ma said, looking at the thermometer. “Take him to the infirmary on the ship.”

“Upper respiratory infection?” Zhang Ziyi was filling out the medical record card. She was the wife of another doctor, Yang Baogui. Although Dr. Yang also belonged to the health department, he did not work here—he was a veterinarian and was currently busy taking care of the large and small animals in the animal containers on the deck, including the five dogs he had brought himself.

“Fortunately, it’s just this one. The weather is helping,” He Ma said, packing up his medical kit. “I’m more worried about the problems after landing. I talked with Dr. Shi last night. He is an expert in infectious diseases. Hainan has many infectious diseases. Malaria and cholera are very common, and there are also problems with parasites…”

The members of the health group held a short meeting to discuss the focus of their future work. After the meeting, Shi Niaoren wrote a “Proposal for Disease Prevention Work” for the Executive Committee:

1. Discover traditional Chinese medicine talents as soon as possible (including possible use of local talents) to ensure a certain level of health for the transmigrators while saving modern drugs.
2. Modern drugs must be used as sparingly as possible. Antibiotics should be reserved for post-operative patients.
3. Do a good job of health monitoring of the population and immediately isolate any signs of infectious diseases.
4. Transmigrators cannot arbitrarily use wild animals and fruits as supplementary food. Such foods should first be sent to the health station for quarantine inspection.
5. Do a good job of water purification.
6. Investigate the local sanitation conditions and grasp first-hand statistical data.
7. Formulate mandatory health department regulations.
8. Strengthen camp sanitation management; domestic waste must be buried deep.