Chapter 379: Domestic Dispute

Just as he was wondering how to bring it up with his wife, Chen Sigen said:

“I wonder what her value is?” He gestured for Liu San to look at a girl who was rope-skipping on the field. She looked to be about seventeen or eighteen. Although her hair was just a short stubble, she had clear, delicate features and a tall, slender figure. Her not-so-small breasts bounced rhythmically with her jumps.

“Value?” Liu San wasn’t too concerned about it, knowing he likely wouldn’t get a taste anyway.

“You don’t know?” Chen Sigen was a little surprised. This was something that should have been common knowledge. Following Wen Desi’s instructions, the maids’ figures and looks were being graded into five levels: S, A, B, C, D, and E. The reason for the grading was that the distribution would be done through cash purchases, allowing everyone to choose freely. Since they were commodities, they had to be marked with a grade.

According to the policy set by the Maid Policy Committee, the value of a C-grade maid was equivalent to the maid allowance received by an elder. If one wanted a better one, they would have to pay extra out of their own pocket. Conversely, one could also save money by buying a D or E-grade maid—the choice was yours.

“Circulation coupons are useless right now anyway, so why not just buy a good one?”

“You only know half the story,” Chen Sigen laughed. “How could there be such a good deal? For C-grade and above, you have to draw lots for the order of selection. If you have bad luck in the draw, you’ll be at the end of the line. As for the S-grade, there will probably be a competitive bid.”

“Damn it, the Executive Committee is just constantly coming up with ways to make money,” Liu San said, feeling a pang of jealousy. I can’t even spend the money if I want to!

“It would be a mess if they were all rated S-grade.” Chen Sigen knew this young lady had been named Zhao Min—there were also others in the maid school named Huang Rong, Li Ke, and Mu Jianping. In his opinion, this girl should at least be rated A-grade. Money wasn’t the issue; the problem was whether she would be chosen by someone else before his turn. Chen Sigen thought that if it weren’t for everyone’s recent intense focus on the concept of “collective interest,” he could have easily used his position to pull some strings…

On his way home, Liu San thought long and hard about how to bring up the subject and prepared a whole speech. Unfortunately, his wife, Wuyunhua, held a very firm stance. His application to purchase a maid solely for household chores was immediately rejected.

“If it were for someone else, I wouldn’t have an opinion,” Wuyunhua said bluntly. “After being pent up for so long, a man needs an outlet. Can’t always rely on himself, right? But you—when have I ever left you pent up?”

“You’re right, my dear wife,” Liu San nodded repeatedly. “It’s just that the housework is tiring you out…”

“You can do the housework,” Wuyunhua chuckled. “Fu Wuben can also help you. Don’t apprentices usually empty the chamber pots for the boss’s wife?”

“That’s the evil old society.”

“I think the new society you guys are trying to build is even worse than the old one,” Wuyunhua said with a smile.

“‘Not ‘you guys,’ it’s ‘us,’” Liu San persisted. “Wife, think about it. You have a lot of work yourself, and we’ll definitely have children in the future, maybe more than one. How can we manage without someone reliable to take care of the house?”

“Reliable to take care of the house, or to take care of you in bed?”

“That’s absolutely not what I mean.” Liu San was playing the long game. His plan was to get the person into the house first, then slowly work on softening her opposition and eventually achieve his goal.

Once he made a breakthrough, the second and third would be much easier. But for now, his wife’s defenses were formidable, unwilling to yield an inch.

However, his masculine nature kept him enthusiastic about the matter. He still clung to a sliver of hope that his wife might agree to him having a few life secretaries in the future—after all, the social environment has a significant influence on people.

“I hear you’ve been very busy with work recently?” Wuyunhua suddenly asked with concern.

Liu San was on alert. “Yes, a bit busy, a bit busy.”

“If you’re so busy, you can go sleep at the ministry.”

Five minutes later, Liu San was on the streets of Bairen City with a bedroll on his back. Someone who knew him joked, “What’s this? Sent by the missus to contribute to the transmigrator cause again?”

“Busy with work, busy with work. The Ministry of Health is having a meeting,” Liu San said evasively and quickly slipped away.

The Ministry of Health was certainly not a good place to sleep. Its offices were inside the General Hospital, and the two were practically one entity. The smell of disinfectant was strong, and the basement housed rows of fresh human specimens. Liu San didn’t like the place much. The pharmaceutical factory was another option, but the smell of medicine there was too strong, and if he went, he would surely be cornered by employees asking for technical advice on various Chinese patent medicines. Normally he would be happy to oblige, but today he had no interest.

After some thought, he decided to spend the night at the Runshitang Pharmacy. Yang Shixiang was his sworn brother and held him in high regard for helping to revive the family business. A visit to Runshitang would surely be met with good food and drink, and he could enjoy a bit of a family atmosphere.

Runshitang was in the county town. The Executive Committee had recently removed the town from the list of “locations to be entered with caution” and classified it as a Blue Zone. After taking over the county yamen, the transmigrators had effectively gained complete control of the town, making it a reasonably safe place.

Liu San and Fu Wuben left Bairen City, registering their destination at the gate—a system proposed by the General Political Security Bureau requiring everyone to register their whereabouts when leaving the city for safety reasons. At a shop in the East Gate Market, he bought some fruit drops and colorful candy balls as gifts for his “nephews,” then boarded an ox-cart heading to the county town.

As an elder, Liu San was entitled to a vehicle. Of course, it wasn’t a jeep or any other motor vehicle, nor was it one of the rare “Red Flag” horse-drawn carriages. It was either a “28-inch bar” utility bicycle, a mountain bike, or an electric bicycle. As someone who often had to travel and carry things, Liu San had chosen a utility bicycle.

The road to the county town had been paved, making for a smooth and comfortable ride. The distance from Bairen City to the county town was only five or six kilometers, a twenty-minute ride.

Major construction was underway along the road. This was a key project in the first Five-Year Plan: the Wenlan River Comprehensive Management Project. Every day, thousands of laborers were digging earth and building dams along the river. Piles of excavated mud, transported stones, wood, bamboo reinforcement, and various other building materials were everywhere.

As Liu San passed by, both sides of this section of the river had been blocked by dams, revealing an empty, rocky riverbed. Some sections had already been cleared of stones and were being dredged deeper. The plan was to increase the depth of the Wenlan River’s channel to 1.5 meters, which would not only increase the river’s water storage capacity but also allow larger barges to pass.

Swarms of laborers were hard at work. Liu San recalled a meeting the Ministry of Health had held a few days ago about summer heatstroke prevention and epidemic control in densely populated areas—especially concerning the development at Tiandu. Shi Niaoren had demanded that a certain stock of “Plague-Averting Powder” and “Zhuge’s Marching Powder” be maintained for emergencies.

“They talk about modern medicine all day, but when the time comes, they still have to turn to Chinese medicine!” Liu San felt a sense of indignation. In the Ministry of Health, he was an outlier. Dr. Shi and Dr. Ai, both returnees from abroad, practically treated him as a “witch doctor.” Liu San’s interest in traditional Chinese medicine was limited, and he was skeptical of the mystical Five Elements theory. His major was Chinese pharmacology; TCM was just a side interest. But in the Ministry of Health, he had involuntarily become the defender of TCM.

Grumbling aside, the work still had to be done. The more effective the Chinese patent medicines were, the more say he would have in the Ministry. Fortunately, almost all the commonly used medicines currently relied on Chinese patent formulas, so his position in the Ministry was becoming increasingly important.

His bicycle arrived outside the west gate of the county town, near the Xuetian Manor. Militia armed with standard pikes stood guard at the manor gate, checking for suspicious individuals. On the manor’s gatehouse, a lookout was posted to observe the situation in and around the county town.

The ragged, shifty-eyed yamen runners at the county gate had been replaced by strong young men in crisp new uniforms, holding long pikes. These were soldiers seconded from the army—a company of infantry was garrisoned in the town.

The state of the county town had greatly improved. To ensure the health of the personnel stationed there, the Civil Affairs Committee had conducted a comprehensive cleanup and reorganization shortly after taking over the yamen and gaining control of the county. This included cleaning the streets, registering households, drawing a detailed map of the entire county, and renovating some public facilities. For the first time, Lin’gao county town had roads that didn’t flood, and some public buildings had been repaired.

The Lin’gao County Police Station, disguised as the local constabulary, carried out several large-scale crackdowns, detaining all the vagrants in the town and sending them to quarantine camps for “purification” and resettlement. The Ministry of Health also came into the city to launch several large-scale sanitation campaigns, clearing away tons of garbage and spraying large amounts of disinfectant.

Without much major infrastructure construction, the atmosphere in the town was already completely new. Liu San, who frequently visited the county town, felt the contrast particularly strongly.

“A place like this is worth visiting often, maybe even staying for a few nights,” he said to himself.

Yang Shixiang was a bit surprised by his sudden visit—it was almost time for the city gates to close, and Liu San rarely visited at such an hour.

“Little brother will have to impose on you for a few days,” Liu San said with a wry smile.

“Not at all,” Yang Shixiang said, not knowing what had happened but agreeing readily. “Make yourself at home.”

He led Liu San in and settled him in a small courtyard—Yang Shixiang’s outer study. The Runshitang had a dedicated guest courtyard, so arranging for him to stay in the outer study was a sign that he was considered family. Liu San didn’t understand the nuances, but the Yang family had some heritage. His father had migrated from Foshan and had seen the world. The study was arranged neatly and elegantly, very comfortable.

Two young apprentices were immediately assigned to serve him, tidying the room and preparing bathwater. After his bath, he was obliged to greet his sworn brother’s family. After a round of elaborate formalities, Yang Shixiang ordered a banquet to be set up in the study, and the two of them drank and talked together.