Chapter 144: New Year's Eve Movie

A strange stench permeated the streets. Clearly, there was no sewage system here. Wastewater mixed and flowed freely on the streets, where pigs and dogs roamed, searching for food. Flies buzzed everywhere. Seeing this, the transmigrators who had been keen on capturing the county town cooled off considerably.

“I’d rather live in a tent than in this dump,” You Laohu, a consistent hardliner who had often questioned the Executive Committee’s policy of not occupying the county town, said. Now, seeing it for himself, he thought, Whoever wants to occupy this place can have it. I’m definitely not going to be part of the occupying force in Lingao County.

The craze for a “17th-century ancient city tour” subsided by evening. The evening meal was a communal dinner in the cafeteria. Although there were no fancy dishes, the New Year’s Eve meal was sufficiently greasy. At last, the masses, who had grown tired of eating fish and shrimp, could get their fill of meat. They even used some of their precious flour reserves to make dumplings. Flour had become an extremely rare commodity, as wheat was not grown locally, and there was nowhere to buy it. The southerners mocked the northerners’ “dumpling obsession,” saying, “You’ve never had good food, treating dumplings like a treasure.” The northerners retorted, “If you don’t like them, don’t eat them. Leave them for us country bumpkins.” But while the southerners weren’t interested in making dumplings, the dumplings were filled with meat, and they were not about to give up their right to eat them.

On New Year’s Eve afternoon, all departments, except for security personnel and those in critical positions who couldn’t rest, stopped working. Xiao Zishan remained in his office, preparing materials for the post-New Year conference. It was a long time before he realized it had grown dark outside and the lights were on. Feeling a bit tired, he stepped out of his office and walked around the Executive Committee compound, rubbing his face and occasionally greeting people passing by. The wired loudspeakers in the urban area were playing a continuous loop of New Year’s songs on a record player. One moment it was “The God of Wealth Knocks on Your Door,” the next it was “Congratulations, Congratulations to You.” It was a bit cheesy, but it added to the festive atmosphere. The music was occasionally interrupted by a sweet, artificial female voice:

“Li Haiping wishes all his comrades in the Navy and all his friends and family that in the new year, all your hopes will be fulfilled, all your dreams will come true, all your expectations will be met, and all your efforts will be rewarded. I sincerely wish you abundant blessings, endless joy, everything to your satisfaction, and a sweet smile.”

“Wu Nanhai wishes all the staff of the Ministry of Agriculture…”

“The Mechanical Department of the Ministry of Industry wishes all the personnel of the Metallurgy Department…”

Besides the greetings between departments, there were also many personal messages. Xiao Zishan smiled. Just then, his PHS phone beeped twice. It was an advertising text message: To celebrate the New Year, Lingao Telecom has launched a Spring Festival greeting service and ringtone download function. Damn, when did we get a Lingao Telecom here! he thought. Those guys in the communications department are full of selfish ideas.

Xiao Zishan was very tired, yet he was exceptionally excited. He felt that Bairen City had never been so bright, just like his mood. It turned out that today, all the lights that were usually kept off to save electricity had been turned on. So, although there were no “lanterns and colored streamers,” it was still a joyous atmosphere. It almost felt like celebrating the New Year in the 21st century—except that most people were still wearing single layers of clothing, lacking the wintery feel.

As he was enjoying the atmosphere, Xi Yazhou walked in, holding a piece of paper. Seeing that he was still there, Xi Yazhou was overjoyed and quickly called out:

“Zishan! Just the man I was looking for! I was afraid you had already left for the day.”

“We don’t really have ‘off-duty’ hours,” Xiao Zishan said, knowing he was probably here about the movie screening.

“I found the movie projector!” he said excitedly.

A few days ago, several members of the Executive Committee had discussed enriching the cultural life of the masses, especially by showing a few movies. The lack of cultural activities had been a recent issue. Xiao Zishan was a firm believer in the “bread, wine, and circuses” theory. The stupidest thing a leader could do was to deliberately deprive the masses of entertainment—the harder the times, the more important cultural life became.

In fact, for several months, various departments had already been showing films internally. At first, it was for work purposes: the construction engineering group showed “Rural Small Hydropower Construction,” the military group showed military training films, and the agricultural department showed things like “Golden Land.” But following the general laws of social development, what began with noble intentions often acquired other elements. Gradually, “welfare films” began to be shown alongside “business films,” ranging from TV series and imported blockbusters to adult films. This phenomenon drew complaints from many ordinary people who were not in the professional groups. At a time when daily electricity use was rationed and most people couldn’t even use their laptops, some departments using projectors to show movies was seen as a blatant act of privilege.

This dissatisfaction had recently grown into a significant outcry, with all sorts of complaints constantly being sent to the Executive Committee compound. But the committee members found it hard to take a firm stance on this issue—they themselves often watched movies in various departments.

Furthermore, the departments that were privately showing films were some of the most important ones in the Transmigration group. For this reason alone, they couldn’t be forcibly banned without damaging the morale of the technical personnel. The final consensus was that instead of letting everyone complain, it was better to have regular public screenings. As the saying goes, people don’t worry about having too little, but about having it distributed unevenly.

The most common projection equipment the transmigrators had brought were projectors, which could be connected to computers to show all sorts of films they had brought. This was what the departments had been using for their internal screenings in recent months. However, the projector bulbs had a short lifespan and were fragile. One bulb had already burned out. At this rate, all the spare bulbs would be gone before long.

After some searching, Xi Yazhou finally found the forgotten 16mm small film projector, along with its speakers, screen, power equipment, and several boxes of old film prints in the mountain of supplies at the Planning Committee’s warehouse. Besides these, there were also two 16mm movie cameras and portable film developing equipment. He and a few buddies had stolen these from his father’s factory before the transmigration.

“From now on, let’s not use the precious projectors for movies. That stuff is valuable,” he said excitedly, waving a yellowed piece of paper in his hand. “This is the catalog from the print boxes. See what you want to show.”

“Excellent!” Xiao Zishan was very happy. The 16mm projector was basically a purely mechanical and electrical device, making it relatively easy to repair. Some spare parts could be manufactured with their future industrial capabilities, giving it a longer service life. In their future cultural development plan, showing movies would be an important means of cultural promotion, and they even had long-term plans to mass-produce this equipment.

“‘From Victory to Victory,’ ‘The Joyful Family,’ ‘Our Niu Baisui,’ ‘Walter Defends Sarajevo,’ ‘New Look of the Motherland, 1979, Issue 3,’ ‘Agricultural Knowledge, 1981, Issue 5’—” Xiao Zishan looked for a long time. They were all domestic films from the 1950s to the 1980s and old foreign films. Many of them were familiar to people of their age, enough to hold a nostalgic film festival.

“Is this all?” Xiao Zishan put down the catalog in disappointment. “Who wants to watch this stuff?”

“Don’t be so ungrateful. Where are we going to get new film sources? You expect to watch blockbusters with this?”

“It’ll do for a while, but what about later? Watch them over and over? The complaints will drown you!”

“Then what do you suggest we show?” Xi Yazhou was dejected. He also knew this stuff was a bit too old.

“Let’s use the projector for now. We’ll figure something out later,” Xiao Zishan thought for a moment. “I remember celluloid isn’t that hard to make. Once we can mass-produce film stock, we can try to transfer the programs onto film.”

“I guess that’s the only way.”

So they discussed the movie selection for New Year’s Eve. Xiao Zishan pulled up the resource catalog. After fully considering everyone’s preferences and the festive atmosphere of New Year’s Eve, they selected three different films.

Luo Duo was strolling in the square. It was New Year’s Eve, but he hadn’t participated in the “Lingao One-Day Tour.” In the days since their arrival, he had successfully joined the intelligence and data group thanks to his powerful human data retrieval abilities. His role in the group was akin to that of a librarian, responsible for registering and querying various materials. At first, this job made him feel important—many group leaders and committee members would ask him to look up information and even consult him for advice. But over time, this desk work became tedious. He applied to join the militia, and when he wasn’t on duty, he would patrol and stand guard with a rifle, which served as a form of recreation. His real goal was to be transferred to the soon-to-be-established intelligence department during the post-New Year organizational restructuring. He had been fascinated by such things ever since watching “Seventeen Moments of Spring.” Besides his current round-the-clock study of relevant materials, he believed that his service in the militia would add some weight to his case during the upcoming job adjustments.

“Attention, attention,” a man’s voice came from the loudspeaker. “Tonight at 7 o’clock, there will be a special New Year’s Eve movie screening at the Bairen Cinema. No ticket required. Featuring top-tier blockbusters, not suitable for children. Not suitable for newly acquired girlfriends. Suitable for girlfriends you want to ‘get to know better’ and wives—”

Suddenly, a roar came from the loudspeaker: “What nonsense are you spouting!” This was followed by a burst of chaotic noise, then everything was cut off and the “Congratulations, Congratulations to You” song resumed.

This interlude startled him. It was probably a prank. But he had heard about the movie screening. As for whether they would show adult films, he wasn’t interested. The computers in the intelligence and data group were not subject to electricity quotas, so he could watch as many movies as he wanted. But watching too many adult films was just empty. No matter how many actresses there were, how lewdly they moaned, or how angelic their faces and demonic their figures were, it was still just a phantom image. How could it compare to a living, breathing woman? Luo Duo couldn’t help but reminisce about his past girlfriends.

He was already scheming how to get himself a “life secretary” during the post-New Year distribution. There was an internal rumor that the women bought from Guangzhou and sent to the “Public Health School” for training, except for a few who would become full-time nurses, would soon be graduating. After that, they would be distributed as “life secretaries.” Of course, not everyone would get one. And Luo Duo had already set his sights on a girl named “Guo Fu.”