Chapter 16: An Invitation to Dinner

As they were talking, Wu Nanhai appeared, wearing a straw hat with a towel wrapped around his neck. He was accompanied by Wang Tian, the farm’s staff leader, who, having been a foreman in the past, was considered a skilled farmer.

Wu Nanhai was saying something as they walked, and Wang Tian maintained a respectful posture throughout. Wu Nanhai, now a dark, stout man (he was fair and stout before the landing), looked a bit like a landlord with his foreman.

When they got closer, Wu Nanhai finished what he was saying, and Wang Tian scurried away.

“Xiao Bai, what good things have you brought us this time?” Wu Nanhai greeted Bai Guoshi.

The members of the remote exploration team were like Santa Claus to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Industry and Energy. Whenever they appeared, the leaders of these departments expected a pleasant surprise.

“I’ve told you before, don’t call me Xiao Bai,” Bai Guoshi said painfully. “Please call me Guoshi.”

“No problem, Xiao Bai.”

“Thanks,” Bai Guoshi said. “I got some medicinal herb seeds on this trip.”

“Medicinal herbs? The people from the Ministry of Health are here every day, nagging about setting up a traditional Chinese medicine cultivation base, but no one here has ever grown medicinal herbs.”

Bai Guoshi said, “There must be herb farmers in Guangdong and Fujian, right? If not, we can look through the educational films in the agricultural library.”

Fa Shilu didn’t pick up on that. Instead, he said, “Of the seeds everyone turned in after the landing, most are still in the warehouse, except for the portion we’ve used. I took an inventory of these unplanned seeds recently. There are quite a few problems. First, the storage conditions are poor. Some packages are broken, and some have gotten damp and started to sprout. Second, there’s the issue of seed origin. Most people bought various seeds from their local agricultural supply stores, but the problem is that seeds aren’t universally adaptable. I did a preliminary check, and about a quarter of them are only suitable for planting in the Northeast and North China. Their yield here might be problematic.”

“Can we store them, like in a seed bank, and use them when we conquer the north in the future?” Wu Nanhai asked.

“I’m afraid not. These seeds are in simple packaging, and we don’t have the equipment to process and preserve them.”

“Just plant them?” Wu Nanhai didn’t have a better idea.

“That seems to be the only way. Modern seeds have high-yield traits. We can plant them to reproduce, not for the harvest, but to preserve their superior characteristics.”

“Let’s do that then.” Wu Nanhai agreed—after all, Fa Shilu was more of an expert than he was. He then invited Bai Guoshi to lunch.

The transmigrators knew that the demonstration farm was the most corrupt place in all of Bairen City, and indeed, in all of Lingao. It was one of the two designated spots for the Executive Committee leaders’ “corruption.” Although the farm couldn’t match the modern luxuries of the Navy Club, it offered a wide variety of fresh vegetables and fruits and had a beautiful environment. If the Fengcheng Hotel was a five-star hotel, the demonstration farm was a “farm-stay.”

Bai Guoshi gladly accepted the invitation. Several of his colleagues from the exploration team, including Liu Zheng, also came to the table. Zhao Xue didn’t come because of her leg, and Ye Mengyan, who wasn’t officially part of the exploration team and was always on standby with the special reconnaissance team, couldn’t enjoy the meal either.

Lunch was served in a grove by the river that the farm had specially preserved. They had built a large pavilion with bamboo and straw, and planted some flowers and fruit trees for landscaping. Next to the pavilion was a natural bend in the river, which Wu Nanhai had expanded into an artificial pond. He had planted lotus roots, water chestnuts, and other crops in it, and also raised some ducks and geese. Sitting in the pavilion, one truly felt refreshed and relaxed.

“You guys really know how to enjoy life.” Liu Zheng glanced at the dishes on the table—they were quite ordinary, mostly vegetables. Scrambled eggs with tomatoes was considered a semi-meat dish. The only real meat dishes were a plate of celery stir-fried with cuttlefish roe and stir-fried razor clams with scallion oil. Since everything was pure, natural, and green, the food was naturally delicious.

There was also wine on the table, a fruit wine brewed by the farm from local fruits. It had a sweet and sour taste and a very low alcohol content. For those who loved to drink, it was better than nothing—the Executive Committee strictly forbade the brewing of grain alcohol at the moment.

Since D-Day, these people hadn’t had such a relaxing and comfortable time together. Although the wine was mediocre, it created a good atmosphere, and the table quickly became lively as they toasted each other.

At that moment, a young girl with her hair in a bun appeared, carrying a large soup bowl. White spheres floated in the milky-white soup, sprinkled with chopped cilantro. A mixed aroma of pepper, cilantro, and fresh river delicacies filled the air.

“Please enjoy your meal, masters,” the girl said softly, then bowed and retreated.

“Fish ball soup?” Cui Yunhong said.

“Big Sister Li made it,” Wu Nanhai said, unbuttoning his shirt. “Her cooking is pretty good, except for her love of using Sichuan peppercorns in everything. Luckily, we don’t have many of those here.”

“Loves Sichuan peppercorns, is she from the north?”

“No, from her accent, she’s from the south. She won’t say where exactly. Seems like a woman with a story,” Wu Nanhai said.

Liu Zheng said, “Is it the mother and daughter that Zhang Xingjiao brought back from the Gou family village? They looked like skeletons back then. How did the girl become so beautiful so quickly?”

“This is Chuqing. She used to be a maid in Gou Er’s household. Big Sister Li’s daughter is only eight—a loli, a loli.”

Chuqing had been kidnapped by Xue Ziliang and his team when they were scouting the Gou family village. Ye Mengyan had insisted on bringing her back, but then forgot about her. After spending over a month in the quarantine camp, she was taken in by Wu Nanhai, who was scouring for manpower.

Wu Nanhai smiled. “She’s an orphan, so I took her in to help with daily chores. I’m also teaching the two girls to read.”

“Nanhai, your honest and simple facade is truly deceptive. Look at how many women you’ve collected on your farm!”

“That’s right. First, a mother-daughter duo, and now Chuqing. Tsk tsk, you’re undoubtedly the number one beast of our transmigrator group.”

“Damn it, raising lolis is my dream!” Someone stamped their foot in frustration. The feeling of being beaten to the punch was never pleasant.

“Damn, running a ‘Princess Maker’ game, training a mature woman and a loli in this environment—it’s like living a dream.”

“The Cries of the Mother and Daughter on the Beastly Farm—” An AV-savvy otaku immediately came up with a new movie title.

“Don’t talk nonsense,” Wu Nanhai waved his hands frantically. “Big Sister Li is now a full-time nurse at the Ministry of Health. She just helps me with the cooking here—”

“A nurse? I didn’t know you had a uniform fetish. How about it? When can we exchange hard drives?”

…

After being thoroughly teased, Wu Nanhai was finally let off the hook, and the conversation at the dinner table turned to the main topic. As the saying goes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. An invitation to dinner usually has a purpose, and Wu Nanhai was no exception. Fortunately, everyone at the table was Chinese and understood this basic principle.

He proposed that the exploration team organize resource-gathering expeditions.

“You bring me a few fruits today, a few fish and shrimp tomorrow, and some kapok the day after. It all seems useful, but for me, it’s useless except for enriching the biological specimen room. Minerals are one thing; they require large-scale construction to excavate. But can’t we collect more agricultural and forestry resources?”

“Don’t we have the liaison system? If you need something, just send a notice through Wu De, and the nearby villages will deliver it as tribute.”

“The problem is that some things aren’t available in this county. Coconuts, for example. We’re eagerly waiting for our coconut saplings to mature, but this stuff is everywhere on Hainan Island, it just doesn’t flow to us.”

Liu Zheng said, “That’s true, but our resource exploration team only has—” He suddenly realized he had misspoken; the specific number of personnel in the Ministry of Resources was classified. “—a few people. How much can we carry back for you?”

“Well, take the Yizhi we found yesterday. When it’s mature, we could probably harvest a few hundred jin,” Bai Guoshi chimed in.

“That’s why I’m proposing resource expeditions,” Wu Nanhai had been thinking about this for a long time. “I plan to propose this at the Executive Committee meeting. For the agricultural and forestry resources that you’ve already surveyed but are outside our sphere of influence, we can organize a few hundred laborers with vehicles and boats, and an armed escort, to collect as many resources as possible.”

“It’s not impossible,” Liu Zheng knew that Wu Nanhai wanted the resource exploration team to support this proposal at the meeting. From his department’s perspective, this wasn’t a bad idea. A large-scale expedition would be much safer and more comfortable than a small team. But—

He also made his own request: “It would be great if our exploration team had a boat.”

“Indeed, indeed,” Wu Nanhai nodded repeatedly. “With a boat, we could conduct a circumnavigation survey of the island, greatly expanding our exploration range.”

After more laughter and drinking, the banquet ended. Bai Guoshi walked alone towards the residential area.

His dormitory was in Block Five, known as the “prime location” because it was opposite Block Six, the single women’s dormitory. From his dorm window, he could see the entrance to Block Six. When the weather was hot, he could often see female transmigrators in revealing clothes strolling in the square in front of the block. Sometimes, he could even see a few foreign women in revealing outfits. One time, Salina appeared in low-rise hot pants and a tight-fitting tank top, nearly causing a riot among the otaku. On particularly lucky occasions, people claimed to have seen girls changing clothes in their dorms, and there were even rumors of peeping toms watching them bathe.

However, such good things rarely happened. For safety, each block was separated by a wooden fence, and each had its own gate that was closed at night. The main gate of the residential area was closed at 10 p.m., and the gates of each block were closed at 11 p.m. Anyone entering or leaving after hours had to register. The strict security measures were mainly for internal security reasons: the Executive Committee couldn’t guarantee that everyone was a perfect gentleman. In fact, the former security group, now the police headquarters, had reports of petty theft among the transmigrators. The stolen items were mainly modern consumer goods like Coke and cigarettes. Besides, with several hundred single men living in such harsh and boring conditions, it was hard to imagine what they might do when they saw women. Xiao Zishan, through the women’s director Du Wen, had distributed a number of precautions to the young women, including not wearing revealing clothes outdoors and drawing the curtains when changing.