Chapter 191: Xun Suji Becomes an Official

“I dare not say if there’s a market for export, but for self-use, the demand for rice noodles is definitely huge—I think you might as well start production,” Huang Dashan said to Xun Suji. “The Executive Committee will start the Tiandu development plan in the autumn. Thousands of people will be gathered on the beach. With rice noodles, cooking will be easy. Just add water and seasoning and boil. It’s even easier than noodles—noodles still need to be treated with alkaline water.”

“Alright, I’ll start producing rice noodles. It’s easy to make and doesn’t require much equipment…”

“Hehe, you think you’re still making rice noodles in the cafeteria? At most, you’re making a few dozen jin. To aim for thousands or tens of thousands of jin, the difference between industrial manufacturing and handmade is huge. Have the machine factory guys make you a few food processing machines.”

“Now that you mention it,” Mo Xiao’an was a bit dejected. “I’m afraid MSG won’t get approved either—sweet potatoes, although not valuable, are still grain.”

“Deep-processed sweet potato products like MSG might be approved for export, as long as the added value is high enough. If one ton of sweet potatoes can be exchanged for one ton of rice or several hundred kilograms of pig iron, Ma Qianzhu will definitely agree.”

Mo Xiao’an really couldn’t guarantee that the MSG made from one ton of sweet potatoes would have such a high return.

“I can’t guarantee that. But when the Japanese sold MSG to China in the 1920s, they made a huge profit. The Ming Dynasty, no matter how rotten, can’t be worse than the 1920s, and we’re not necessarily worse than the Japanese.”

“In a few more days, Zhang Xin will be back in Lincheng to report on his work. You should talk to him,” Huang Dashan said to Mo Xiao’an. “He’s in Guangzhou, so his understanding of the market is more accurate than our wild guesses.”

Huang Dashan said that making MSG was not difficult. As long as you had the right bacteria strain and controlled the fermentation conditions, you could ferment it from starch or even simpler, sweet potato powder. You could have as much as you wanted—as long as you had starch or something containing starch.

“Fermentation is a very mysterious thing,” Huang Dashan’s eyes lit up as he talked about his profession. “Bacteria are really lovely…”

Mo Xiao’an and Xun Suji couldn’t help but move a little further away from him, lest they be contaminated by his “lovely bacteria.”

“This is the fermentation workshop,” Huang Dashan pointed to a row of high-ceilinged, frame-structured workshops at the other end of the courtyard. Inside were sealed pots and stoves heated by steam or gas.

Although it was called the fermentation workshop, each section was actually separate. Huang Dashan was fermenting several different things inside.

At the entrance of each workshop was a disinfection pool filled with limewater. Everyone had to walk through it to enter and exit. It was a basic disinfection measure.

“This is to prevent contamination by miscellaneous bacteria,” Huang Dashan explained. “Some products have low requirements for the fermentation environment, while others are more troublesome.”

Currently, there were several products in the fermentation workshop that used starch or were made directly from sweet potatoes: besides the MSG that Mo Xiao’an planned to make money with in the Ming Dynasty, there was also the currently popular kvass in the cafeteria; vinegar fermented directly from sweet potatoes; and finally, citric acid, an important additive for both the chemical and food industries. The production process for the latter was more complex and occupied a large separate workshop.

“There’s not much to see inside, mainly just pots, fermentation tanks, and pipes of various sizes,” Huang Dashan said. “As for the fermentation part, I’ll still come over to look after it often in the future.”

MSG was now being produced in small batches, with each batch yielding only twenty to thirty kilograms, mainly for use in the various cafeterias. Huang Dashan said that if they could open up an export channel, large-scale production would not be a problem.

“The equipment at the food factory is very primitive, and the scale is not large,” Mo Xiao’an said to Xun Suji in the food factory’s manager’s office after touring the entire factory. “Besides the sweet potato workshop, there’s just the fermentation workshop. You need to think of ways to expand the production of new varieties, not just for export, but also for our own needs.”

This order made Xun Suji feel a heavy pressure. After holding it in for a long time, he managed to say, “I’ll find a way.”

“Alright, use your brain more,” Mo Xiao’an said. “You know, the food factory belongs to the Lincheng Grain and Oil Food Corporation, which is theoretically under the dual management of the Agriculture Committee and the Ministry of Light Industry. I’m considered the general manager, and Wu Nanhai is the deputy general manager. In reality, neither I nor Wu Nanhai are managing it properly—we have too much to do. So this so-called corporation is still just an empty shell. I discussed it with Wu Nanhai a few days ago. I plan to resign from the position of general manager, and Wu Nanhai will take over as general manager, with you as the executive deputy general manager—from now on, you’ll be in charge. You’ll use the food factory as the core and gradually build up the entire corporation.”

This time, Xun Suji was greatly surprised. First, he was the factory manager of the food factory, and before his seat was even warm, he was now the deputy general manager of the grain and oil company. It was like being promoted three levels at once.

“This,” he was a bit incoherent. “The responsibility is too great…”

“It’s fine. Whose responsibility isn’t great? The person who used to be a company commander is now the commander-in-chief of the army. The person who used to have a law degree is now the president of the court—from the looks of it, he’s going to be the minister of justice. You, a former chef, becoming the manager of the grain and oil corporation is a professional match.”

Mo Xiao’an briefly introduced the situation of the grain and oil company to him. Overall, the assets under the company’s name were divided into four main parts.

First was the earliest industry of the transmigrator group: the water-powered mill on the Wenlan River. After several expansions, this mill had become the largest grain processing plant in Lincheng. Besides the water turbine, it was also equipped with a steam engine to work when the water level was low. Recently, the Engineering and Energy Committee had installed a set of screw-type cold-press oil extraction equipment in this workshop, specifically for processing the dried coconuts transported from Yulin.

“The grain and oil processing plant is now directly managed by the Agriculture Committee. You don’t need to interfere with the specific management and production details inside.”

“Alright, I don’t know how to mill rice or press oil anyway.”

Second was the earliest food processing plant of the Agriculture Committee in Bopu—the Bopu Seafood Processing Plant. Xun Suji was very familiar with this plant—most of the ingredients in the cafeteria were supplied from here. It could process salted fish, dried grilled fish, fish cakes, fish sauce, fish oil, dried seaweed, and fishmeal. Its operation was very good.

Then there was the slaughterhouse at the South China Agricultural Estate. The original plan was to upgrade it to a meat-packing plant. Besides slaughtering and providing fresh meat, it was also planned to produce salted meat, sausages, ham, and other things. But at this stage, meat itself was scarce. Whenever there was a good day for slaughtering pigs and sheep, almost everything, including the bones and skin, was eaten up. The so-called meat processing industry had so far only produced a few kilograms of dried meat for personnel on long-distance field operations.

Finally, there was the newly built food factory.

Mo Xiao’an said that according to the discussion between him and Wu Nanhai, the Agriculture Committee would be in charge of the grain and oil plant and the seafood processing plant, while the Ministry of Light Industry would be in charge of the meat-packing plant and the food factory. The administrative work of the Grain and Oil Corporation would be handled by the executive deputy general manager, Xun Suji.

“That’s the situation. Any questions?”

“Not for now,” Xun Suji had no clue for the time being and dared not express any opinion.

“It’s fine! Wu Nanhai is a very easy person to work with,” Mo Xiao’an saw his bewildered look and comforted him. “If you have any problems, communicate with him more. He will definitely help. After all, he is the general manager!”

He then turned to look at the office. The room smelled of limewater, raw lacquer, and new woodwork. The four walls were painted snow-white. With the newly made desk, file cabinet, and a few rattan chairs, it looked like a state-owned enterprise office from the 70s or 80s.

“Are you satisfied with this place?”

“It’s great,” Xun Suji nodded repeatedly.

“There is one drawback: there is no electricity here yet,” Mo Xiao’an said with some regret. Due to the need to save wires and electrical equipment, many newly built non-critical facilities now had no power supply. The food factory had no electric motors, and not even the power lines had been laid. So, for night production, they could only use gas lamps for lighting.

“My electricity quota is wasted!” Xun Suji was still thinking about this.

“We’ll have to make do for now. There will be bread,” Mo Xiao’an said nonchalantly.

After Mo Xiao’an handed over all the procedures and related documents, he slipped away. He still had the clothing factory to deal with, and also the boast he had made in front of Chief Wen: “Even if the small merchants come, they won’t be able to take the silver away”—he had to think of more new products that could keep the small merchants’ goods here.

Xun Suji sat alone in his office, looking at the snow-white walls, the standard desk and file cabinet, and a box of documents and account books from the food factory and the grain and oil company, contemplating what he should do first.

Logically, a new official should first think about making some achievements. But Xun Suji’s mind was on his large box of private goods. The common feature of these things was that they couldn’t be used without electricity. Since the food factory had no electricity, he thought it would be better to go back to the dormitory area to sleep, at least there was electricity there.

He had originally planned to discuss with Xiao Zishan whether he could be assigned a single dormitory room, so that he could use his own quota without disturbing his roommates. This was not difficult to arrange now: many people slept at their work departments at night, and it was common for one person to occupy a four-person dormitory. Xiao Zishan would definitely agree.

Xiao Zishan said that arranging a single room for one person was possible, but his extra electricity quota would be invalid in the dormitory area. To avoid disturbing others, the power in the entire dormitory area was cut off at bedtime. It didn’t matter if you had extra electricity quota; you had to go to sleep. If you wanted to read or play on the computer, you had to go to the public recreation room, but that was only open until midnight.

“Right, don’t I have a secretary now?” Xun Suji’s eyes lit up. With free labor, things would be much easier.

He quickly called Xiao Zishan and said he didn’t want a separate dormitory anymore; he would just stay in the food factory office. But he needed a secretary.

“Naturally, a girl, who can help me with laundry and so on. But she needs to be strong, not frail. Yes, she must be able to do heavy work.”

“No requirements for appearance, right?”

“No, this is purely for work. As long as her appearance isn’t scary, and she looks clean.”

The administrative apprentice who came was a girl, both dark and thin, and plain-looking. She introduced herself in a not-so-fluent but basically understandable Mandarin, saying her name was Jin Xishan, and she was eighteen or nineteen this year. She came from Fujian and was a runaway slave from an orphan background. As for why she ran away, during the political screening, everyone thought she would say it was because of abuse by her master, or an attempted rape, but the real reason turned out to be that her master did not allow the maids in the household to marry.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the wealthy in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong had the custom of “confining maids.” The maids in the household were never married off after they came of age and were kept in the household to serve until they died. This very inhumane practice was to prevent the loss of one’s property. After all, most maids were raised from a young age. No matter how much of a bride price they could fetch, it was no match for the labor of an adult woman.

Jin Xishan had somehow ended up in Guangdong, was almost sold by human traffickers, and was almost “kidnapped for marriage” by a peasant in the countryside who had no wife. After a period of displacement, she was rescued by the people of Qiwei and then came to Lincheng.

Jin Xishan? Xun Suji couldn’t connect this person before him with the artificial beauty in any way—this was a bit too “natural.” He didn’t know which Korea-phile had given her that name.

Fortunately, Xun Suji hadn’t expected her to be beautiful in the first place. But could such a girl be considered “strong”?

Unexpectedly, when they went to the dormitory to pack his things, he immediately witnessed the hard work and endurance of an ancient working woman. He had a lot of equipment: a box full of technical data on microfilm and related reading devices, a telescope, a hand-cranked generator, a vehicle-mounted supercapacitor, various tools, a computer, and a large box full of various digital products, plus a set of extremely heavy copperplate encyclopedia. These things had hardly been unpacked since D-Day. There was no space in the dormitory to lay them out, and no electricity to use them.

Xun Suji unfolded his folding bicycle and tied the basic repair tools and accessories to it. For the other things, he asked Jin Xishan to go to Xiao Zishan and ask for two laborers to help move them.

But Jin Xishan only borrowed a “Zidian” wheelbarrow and began to tie all the miscellaneous equipment onto it. Then, with a sudden burst of strength, she actually pushed up the wheelbarrow, which weighed nearly two hundred kilograms. Xun Suji watched, dumbfounded.

“Hey, hey, it’s too heavy. Let’s ask for two people.”

“Chief Xiao said we have to wait an hour for someone. We’ll be there by then. Let’s go, there’s still another load,” Jin Xishan said nonchalantly, pushing the cart towards the farm. She talked as she pushed, her face calm and her breathing even.

On the entire journey, Jin Xishan not only did not rest but also chatted with Xun Suji. She pushed the cart and talked at the same time, her face calm and her breathing even.

After arriving at the office and unloading the things, she did not rest but immediately returned to the dormitory area and, in one go, transported all the remaining items. The unloaded things were piled up in a large heap—Xun Suji himself hadn’t realized he had brought so many things. Jin Xishan took out the broom, wooden basin, rag, and soap beans she had just received from the Planning Committee warehouse. She cleaned, moved furniture, hung curtains… she was busy as a bee. Xun Suji just stood there dumbfounded, unable to help with anything—except when she asked him where to put a certain piece of luggage, he showed a little value.

Xun Suji went into his bedroom and saw that the table had been cleaned spotless, a fine bamboo curtain hung on the window, a kerosene lamp sat on the raw wood desk, and everything was neatly arranged.

“Chief, are you satisfied?”

“It’s great,” Xun Suji nodded with satisfaction. A secretary is a wonderful thing. No wonder everyone had been hoping the Executive Committee would assign them one.

Jin Xishan then opened her own luggage roll and began to tidy up. Her bedroom was arranged in a small room next to his. Although Xun Suji had no initial thoughts, seeing his secretary living next door, he couldn’t help but wish Jin Xishan were a little prettier…

He took out the hand-cranked generator from its packaging himself. This thing hadn’t been opened since D-Day. He connected it to his UPS, battery pack, and vehicle-mounted supercapacitor one by one, and finally took out a power strip. As if to make up for the regret of not having played with them for almost a year, Xun Suji plugged in his PSP, digital camera, and laptop all at once.

“Alright, Little Jin, you will come every afternoon and turn this handle until this light turns green, understand?” Xun Suji said seriously. “This is a very important task and must be completed on time!”

“Yes, chief.”

With this human-powered charger, he could fully enjoy the wonderful time of an otaku at night. Although the 3D character in front of him was not very “moe,” the 2D world was still perfect.

After fully arranging his little life, Xun Suji began to think about what he should do to ensure that his treatment could be maintained for a long time.

Mo Xiao’an wanted him to achieve some results. Where would this achievement come from? Exporting goods was too complicated; it was better to let Mo Xiao’an worry about that. It was more realistic for him to start by expanding the variety of supplies.

He looked at the food factory workshop production chart on the wall several times, checked the supply records and the list of available raw materials from the farm. After studying for a while, he picked up the phone, found Wu De’s office number in the “Administrative Staff Directory” he had just received, and dialed.

That afternoon, Yang He at the quarantine camp received a notice to sort out the immigrants who had passed the quarantine period and were awaiting assignment. He picked out the apprentices from the sauce workshop, the tofu makers, the brewers, the former cooks, the restaurant waiters, and the butchers, and sent them all to the food factory. Wu De also selected a few people from the commune members who had expertise in this area but had not yet been assigned a position.

Xun Suji’s first step was to separate the workshop functions from the cafeteria. After communicating with Wu De and Xiao Zishan, the native workers and equipment originally responsible for making tofu in the cafeteria were all transferred to the food factory, establishing a soy product workshop to specialize in the production of tofu, dried tofu, and tofu skin, as well as sprouting yellow and green beans. Xun Suji had also planned to use fermented tofu to make fermented bean curd, but he soon encountered a problem—not enough soybeans. The soybean production in Lincheng, like in all of China’s rural areas at that time, was small-scale miscellaneous grain planting. After supplying the few tofu workshops in the county, there was little surplus.