Chapter 321: The First Meeting of the Caretaker Cabinet

Xiao Zishan immediately seized the opening. He put on a righteous expression and replied, “I’ve taken a look: there are only about a hundred people present. The total number of transmigrators is over five hundred. Can these hundred or so people represent five hundred?”

Seeing that the few were racking their brains for words, Xiao Zishan pressed his advantage: “Even among these hundred or so people, many disagree with your request. Therefore, I believe your request only represents your personal opinion. Before more widespread opinions are sought, please submit your proposal to establish a supervisory committee according to the proper procedure.”

“How to carry out the distribution is a major issue concerning the interests of all transmigrators and must be decided by the general assembly.”

Shan Liang originally wanted to continue questioning, but with the heavy label of “a matter concerning the interests of all transmigrators” thrown at him, and with people on the scene already questioning his right to represent the masses, he realized there was probably no benefit in continuing to entangle himself. He decided to retreat immediately.

The matter of the maids had received a firm promise, a concrete timeline had been given, and a second general assembly had been promised to solve all existing problems in one go. This gave the originally disappointed crowd a glimmer of hope. The onlookers, their clothes now damp from the light rain and shivering from the night wind, had lost their fighting spirit. Some began to clamor about going back to sleep. Finally, someone shouted, “It’s over, it’s over.”

And so, the Maid Revolution came to a close. The first mass movement within the Transmigration Group ended just like that. Thanks to the restrained attitude of the crowd and the timely handling by the Executive Committee, the only material loss during the entire process was a clump of bamboo in front of the demonstration farm’s café, managed by Wu Nanhai, and some of the day’s earnings—many had left to demonstrate without paying their bills, and some, under the guise of demonstrating, had slipped away after leaving, even taking the unfinished rum from their tables.

Of course, the transmigrators still had some basic decency. No one touched the liquor in the cabinet, the food in the earthen refrigerator, or the money in the cash register.

Afterward, Wu Nanhai tried to collect the money for the drinks, but many claimed they weren’t there and refused to pay. Xiao Bailang was particularly rude, driving away the cafeteria lady who came to collect the debt, claiming he never drank and owed nothing. Wu Nanhai was so angry he cursed him behind his back.

The news of the Executive Committee’s mass resignation spread throughout Bairen City the next day. Many were very surprised. A few suddenly remembered that the Executive Committee had been in power for over a year beyond its term. In theory, this administration was already “unconstitutional.” Many people called Xiao Zishan to ask if they also had to resign and stop working to prepare for a handover—especially the People’s Commissars of various professional departments and other lower-level cadres who rarely appeared in the Executive Committee compound except for meetings.

Xiao Zishan had to respond one by one that the Executive Committee was currently in a caretaker state, and everyone should continue their work as usual. Personnel changes would be made after the second general assembly.

“Our administrative system has major problems…” Xiao Zishan said to Ma Qianzhu.

“It’s quite normal for the system not to be running smoothly,” Ma Qianzhu said. “Is everyone here? Now, let’s have Chief Wen preside over the meeting.”

The Executive Committee compound was the same as before. The committee members who had announced their resignation the previous night were gathered in the meeting room again. Not only were all the committee members present, but also the People’s Commissars and cadres of important departments. The meeting room was full—the first order of business today was to hold a caretaker cabinet meeting. The agenda was naturally how to fulfill their promises and how to convene the second general assembly.

Wen Desi declined, saying that he had already resigned as chairman and it was no longer appropriate for him to preside over the meeting. It would be more suitable for the caretaker cabinet’s prime minister to preside. After resigning as chairman, he was now attending the meeting as the chairman of the Maid Policy Committee.

Xiao Zishan said, “Since everyone wants me to be the prime minister of the caretaker cabinet, it would be disrespectful of me to decline. As for my authority, I believe it should be limited to maintaining the normal operation of the original Executive Committee, without making any adjustments to major policies…”

Wu De waved his hand impatiently. “Everyone understands this!” he said. “I propose we first discuss the internal problems we are facing. To deal with external threats, we must first secure the interior. If people are demonstrating every three days and causing trouble every two, no work will get done, and we’ll all go down.”

“First, obviously, is the issue of women…” Xiao Zishan said.

“Wrong. Women are not the problem at all,” Wu De snorted. “How many of our resources can women consume? If we had just spent a little money to solve this problem earlier, it wouldn’t have dragged on and caused all this trouble. First, pick a batch from the quarantine camp for distribution, then order another batch from Guangzhou. Settle it all before the Spring Festival! To prevent anyone from using this as an excuse to stir things up.”

Ma Qianzhu once again expressed his opposition: “Few resources? You can’t have people keeping women in the collective dormitories. This involves building independent housing for everyone—not villas, but at least single-room apartments. With houses, you need furniture and lighting at the very least. All of this will consume our resources!”

“And it adds a lot of pressure on internal security,” Ran Yao said. This was the reason he had never been enthusiastic about distributing secretaries. Bringing 500 native women into Bairen City at once—not children, but adult women. As “life secretaries” for the transmigrators, they would naturally move freely in the living areas of Bairen City, which posed a huge security risk. Ran Yao pointed out that if the secretary distribution plan was implemented, just screening and surveillance would consume a large amount of manpower and resources.

The implication was his dissatisfaction with the idea of distributing women to everyone.

“I think the only option now is to build another residential area for everyone outside, place the women in this residential area under fully enclosed management, and give everyone a single room for their woman to live in. They can go and live a family life if they want. For safety’s sake, they must return to Bairen City before midnight,” Ma Qianzhu sighed. This plan could only be considered relatively safe, but it would consume no fewer resources than letting the maids live in Bairen City.

“This makes the security problem even worse,” Ran Yao said. “Think about it, a transmigrator walks into a sea of five hundred native women… If someone has malicious intent, three or four women could quietly strangle him. With our operations so spread out now, it might take days to find the body!”

The thought of such a scene sent a shiver down everyone’s spine.

Xiao Zishan said, “It’s not that serious. There are many transmigrators working and living with native laborers now, and we haven’t heard of anyone being assassinated. The overall security level in Lingao is still relatively high.”

Wu Nanhai also expressed his doubts: “I think we are a bit paranoid about security.” He said, “The members of the Heaven and Earth Society often go to the countryside and stay in the homes of natives, and no one wants to assassinate them. We have no enmity with the common people, and to the women we buy, we are their benefactors. Why would they hate us?”

“It’ll be too late if someone really gets strangled,” Ran Yao said, still skeptical. “We must nip it in the bud! I am very worried about rashly stuffing five hundred women who haven’t been tested by time into our comrades’ beds.”

“This small matter can be resolved,” Chief Wen coughed, full of confidence. “The issue of women is nothing. Since everyone has objections to distributing women to each person and thinks it’s inappropriate, I have another plan.”

This second plan was to create a Lingao version of “Heaven on Earth.”

“Everyone knows that the Zhiming Tower of the Guangzhou station is doing very well, with bathing, sauna, and male organ maintenance services that are all very effective,” Chief Wen said. “We can totally set up a Lingao version. There’s no reason why our creativity and professional knowledge should only serve the natives and not our comrades.” He continued, “Moreover, the Ming Dynasty should have had such professional institutions. The ‘Slender Horses of Yangzhou’ are very famous, and I hear the women of Datong are not bad either. We can just send people on a business trip to buy a batch. Fair-skinned young women, and we can provide them with professional training—it’s a pity we didn’t kidnap a few technicians from Dongguan back then…”

At this point, he coughed again and continued, “If we don’t have professional personnel, we can show them AVs. There are plenty of AV resources, both public and private. If anyone is willing to provide professional resources or guidance, we can just give them discount coupons or vouchers!”

“This Lingao Zhiming Tower will also consume a lot of resources. The price of a ‘Slender Horse of Yangzhou’ is not low,” Cheng Dong expressed his concern.

Chief Wen waved his hand: “As for that, what do we have the Special Reconnaissance Team for? We can just send a batch to Yangzhou, or even Guangzhou which is closer. When they see a suitable girl, they can just kidnap her and bring her back. For those who like foreign women, we can go to Macau or Manila to kidnap them. At worst, we can train them ourselves after bringing them back. It’s a win-win situation: we train our troops and get maids.”

Shi Niaoren objected: “This approach is very dangerous! We don’t have rubber resources, so we can’t make condoms. With so many people having unprotected sex, there’s a risk of a venereal disease outbreak—we can’t guarantee that all the maids we get are clean. Secondly, there’s the ethical issue. Once they get pregnant, we won’t be able to identify the father…”

“We can just raise them collectively,” Wen Desi said. “The children are also our resources. We can instill new knowledge and ideas in them. They will be completely loyal to the Transmigration Group by blood, and they won’t have a native maternal family to take care of. This is a very good human resource.”

“Chief, when these children grow up, they will fall in love and get married. This is like the ethical risk of consanguineous marriage among children born from artificial insemination,” Shi Niaoren said.

“And some people simply don’t like this kind of public sexual toilet,” Xiao Zishan said. “Some people want skilled sex life, while others want a married life. It’s difficult to balance the two.”

It was clear that no consensus could be reached on this issue. Finally, Xiao Zishan asked Ma Qianzhu if there were any condoms in stock that could be distributed.

“Yes,” Ma Qianzhu said, “but the quantity is limited.”

The Transmigration Group had indeed purchased a batch of condoms before the transmigration. The main purpose of purchasing condoms was not to ensure safe sex, but to utilize some of their other properties.

Now, a portion of these condoms was held by the Planning Committee, and the rest by the Ministry of Health.

“If they are distributed evenly among everyone, each person can get about fifty,” Ma Qianzhu said. “It’s conceivable that with this ‘Heaven on Earth,’ a black market for condoms will form among the transmigrators. Those who brought a large number of condoms will take the opportunity to speculate.”

There were quite a few people who had brought a large number of condoms in their personal luggage allowance. Ma Qianzhu knew that someone in the weapons research group had removed the outer packaging boxes to save space and weight, and the quantity was considerable.

Wen Desi said, “Commissar, I have a suggestion for you. Your tendency to control everything, including reproduction, is not good. The masses have a lot of opinions. Private trading of condoms is no big deal. The total amount is very limited. Once they are used up, they are gone. It won’t affect our overall economy.”

Ma Qianzhu’s face was impassive, and he did not respond.

Wu Nanhai spoke up at this point: “Gentlemen, I feel that our Executive Committee—now that it’s dissolved—has been a bit too controlling. Matters of love and sex should be based on mutual consent and don’t need special intervention. I think we should just let people fall in love with native women. Then we can have a ‘Heaven on Earth’ as a supplement, for those comrades who don’t fancy native girls or whom native girls don’t fancy.”

He continued, “In fact, when our agricultural technicians go to the countryside, several landlords have already hinted that they would be willing to offer women as personal rewards. I think if we are willing, there will be no shortage of landlords willing to marry their daughters to us.”

“This issue involves the status and rights of native women. Also, once someone marries a landlord’s daughter, whether their allegiance will remain straight is a question mark. Aren’t you afraid that these agricultural technicians will become spokesmen for the landlords?” Wu De said. “This is different from buying female slaves, who have no family ties.”

“This can be resolved through discussion. Brainstorming will always lead to a solution,” Wu Nanhai insisted.

“There’s also the issue of electricity quotas, which people have strong opinions about…”

“In the end, it’s a matter of interest distribution,” Ma Qianzhu said slowly. “Everyone is dissatisfied with the distribution of interests. Now that we have some achievements, as the saying goes, it’s not poverty but inequality that’s the problem. When we first landed, everyone suffered together, and the poor environment didn’t matter. Now that the situation has improved, things are still the same, especially when others can enjoy benefits while they get nothing. This has accumulated a lot of resentment. This is the most crucial point.”

“Regarding this issue,” Ma Jia said, “I once commissioned my colleagues in the Law Club to conduct a survey among the masses and have gathered a lot of first-hand information. If everyone is interested, I am willing to talk about this issue.”

Everyone was already aware of the Law Club’s activities and knew that the position of President of the Maritime Court was not Ma Jia’s ultimate goal. Ma Jia’s various actions the previous night had made his ambitions clear to everyone.