Chapter 116: Lai Da Arrives

As the transmigrator group began to show greater and greater power and economic capacity, it was bound to have a strong influence on the entire society. The upper-class scholars of society would have a strong influence on the lower-class people in many aspects.

In less than ten years, there would be no need to force everyone to shave their heads. The young people of Lin Gao would probably follow the veterans and shave their heads and keep their hair short. Just as some of the local girls in Lin Gao had already begun to imitate the female veterans and not wear their hair in a bun, but keep it short, tied in braids with butterfly knots.

“The status of Hanfu in the future will be like the status of the kimono in Japan in the old time and space,” Ma Qianzhu said. “It will be used as formal wear on major occasions. It can be sold very expensively and made very exquisitely, but it is not used much in daily life.”

Yu E’shui said, “We can establish a Hanfu association to specialize in Hanfu research, exhibition, display, and promotion activities, to preserve and promote Hanfu…”

Dingding said, “We can also have a coming-of-age ceremony like the Japanese, where all the young people who turn eighteen that day will wear Hanfu to participate in the ceremony at the district office.”

He Xie resolutely opposed: “I resolutely oppose this practice of making Hanfu a ‘living fossil’!”

According to He Xie’s view, not only should modern clothing not be popularized, but “Hanfu” should also be promoted among the upper echelons of the transmigrator group. On major ceremonial occasions, leaders and officials should wear Hanfu.

“Of course, the Hanfu I’m talking about is not the clothing of the Ming Dynasty, but improved Hanfu.”

Yu E’shui suddenly laughed: “Could you be talking about the improved Hanfu of the old time and space?”

“That’s right, is there a problem?”

“No, no,” Yu E’shui covered his mouth and coughed repeatedly. “But if all the officials wear Hanfu, it would be too comical.”

Wu Nanhai stood under the grape arbor of the Nanhai Farm’s office, with a thick cigar in his mouth, puffing away.

The cigar was hand-rolled, made by Chu Qing herself according to a tutorial on handmade cigars. The tobacco industry was now an important industry for the transmigrator group, and it could even be considered a small source of wealth. However, the raw material for Lin Gao’s cigarette industry, tobacco leaves, was all imported, which slowed down the development of the cigarette industry. For this reason, the Agricultural People’s Committee decided to promote the planting of tobacco leaves in the Jialai Commune’s farm. When there were more tobacco leaves, in addition to making cigarettes, cigars, which did not require special cigarette paper, were also a target for promotion—a future luxury item.

What he was smoking was a rough prototype. Rolling cigars required special skills. A poorly rolled cigar could not be smoked at all. This was the tenth experimental product, and it could be lit smoothly and burned normally.

Wu Nanhai exhaled the blue smoke. Cigar smoke was not inhaled into the lungs, so he was interested in trying it. He felt that holding this cigar and slowly smoking it, and blowing smoke rings was a very relaxing thing—he liked this kind of relaxed and pleasant mood.

Chu Qing stood by his side obediently, waiting for his orders. She was wearing a brand new maid’s uniform. Her hair had grown long and was tied into two ponytails with ribbons. She looked very much like a girl from another time and space.

“This is what you call life,” said the man standing next to him, also puffing away.

This man was in his thirties, with fair skin, a long, square, dark face, and regular features, wearing glasses. When he spoke, his eyes kept glancing at Chu Qing.

“You don’t have a life?” Wu Nanhai was very annoyed by this person. Ji Qili had nothing to do with agriculture. This person was engaged in telecommunications equipment, busy experimenting with crystal radios, spark-gap transmitters, and various primitive telecommunications equipment. This person, who had no intersection with agriculture and agricultural products, ran to the farm office all day long and tried to get close to him. At first, Wu Nanhai thought that this person was trying to get some extra food and drink by getting close to him, but gradually he knew that was not the case.

Not only did this person’s eyes keep looking at Chu Qing all day long, but he also often found opportunities to get close to the Li mother and daughter.

Wu Nanhai was a Christian and considered his moral standards to be very high. The so-called “suffocating farm—the wails of mother and daughter” plot would generally not happen to him, but he still had a man’s possessiveness.

The Li mother and daughter were brought in by him to Zhang Xingjiao. After they were brought in, they had been living under his wing. He also considered himself the protector of the Li mother and daughter. Although Wu Nanhai had no thoughts about the Li mother and daughter for the time being, he would absolutely not allow other men to touch them—even if it was just a thought.

Looking closely, the Li mother and daughter were both quite good-looking. Although Li Quan was still young, it was already clear that she would be a beauty in the future. If the daughter was good-looking, the mother would generally not be too bad. Although this woman, whom he named Li Mo, was unwilling to say her real name and age, Wu Nanhai guessed that she would not be over thirty.

Although Li Mo rarely spoke at the farm and hospital, she strictly followed the principle of belonging to Wu Nanhai and never gave other men a second glance. She ignored Ji Qili’s attempts to get close to her and never spoke behind Wu Nanhai’s back. But the little girl was easily tempted by his smile and the candy he brought, and she would chat and laugh with him.

Wu Nanhai was very cold to Ji Qili at first, but Ji Qili didn’t care and kept running to the farm. This made Wu Nanhai very embarrassed. He was not good at refusing people—besides, Ji Qili was not the kind of person who was annoying in terms of personal character. He was knowledgeable, knew a lot of things, and was also very talkative and interesting, a good chat partner. And this person ignored Wu Nanhai’s coldness and always maintained a pleasant smile.

In this way, he could no longer refuse him—Wu Nanhai, for the sake of his future political career, did not want to spoil his relationship with the veterans. So Ji Qili became a frequent visitor to the farm. Of course, he rarely saw the Li mother and daughter: Li Mo felt the master’s coldness towards this man, and not only did she rarely appear herself, but she also did not allow her daughter to show her face in front of him.

The reason he was able to smoke Chu Qing’s hand-rolled cigar today was not because of Wu Nanhai’s hospitality, but because he had promised to make some audio equipment for the farm’s coffee shop to create some atmosphere, and Wu Nanhai had given him a small thank-you gift.

“I’m living the life of a tech otaku, while you’re living the life of an industrialist.” Although Ji Qili said so, he was not interested in the “life of an industrialist” at all. For him, the greatest pleasure in life was playing with electronic components and having many MMs to roll around in bed with.

Wu Nanhai thought to himself that he had worked hard by standing in the muddy water, sowing seeds, planting seedlings, and weeding. But he didn’t want to say such arrogant words. After a few perfunctory words, he sent Ji Qili away.

Ji Qili hummed a little tune as he came out of the farm. The area of the demonstration farm was constantly expanding, and now it had become a large independent entity. Not far from the gate was the side of the Bairen-County Town highway.

On one side of the Bairen-County Town highway was the construction site of the Wenlan River governance project. The laborers were busy working on the construction site, and the roar of the machines and the sound of labor chants echoed each other.

As Ji Qili was walking, someone suddenly stopped him from the side:

“Chief—”

It was a dark-skinned laborer with a straw hat. His face was covered in dirt, and he was holding a shovel in his hand. He spoke the new dialect with a Guangdong accent.

“What’s the matter?” Ji Qili was in a good mood at this time—he had just smoked a cigar hand-rolled by Chu Qing, which made him very satisfied.

“Is there a girl named Chu Qing in this farm?”

“Yes,” Ji Qili said carelessly.

“About sixteen or seventeen years old.”

“That’s right.”

The laborer said thank you and left. Ji Qili walked a few more steps and suddenly became alert. Why would a laborer suddenly ask about Chu Qing? He wanted to call this person to ask, but he found that he could not recognize this person among the laborers all over the ground. They were all wearing similar work clothes in the style of the Lin Gao-produced imitation training uniforms. In Ji Qili’s eyes, everyone looked almost the same—he had not looked at the other person’s face carefully just now.

“Strange,” Ji Qili was a little uneasy. Should this matter be reported to the Political Security General Bureau?

But he was afraid that he would be laughed at if he reported it with just this little information—it was not a big deal for someone to ask about Chu Qing. It could be her old acquaintance, or her relative, who did not dare to go to the door to find her and asked a veteran to inquire first.

Thinking this way, Ji Qili put the matter aside. However, he suddenly remembered: Wu Nanhai had told him that Chu Qing was originally from Goujia Zhuang—Gou Er’s maid. Could her relatives or old acquaintances also be related to Goujia Zhuang?

Originally, everyone was indifferent to the matter of the Gou family. In fact, neither the Senate, the Executive Committee, nor the Political Security General Bureau had ever regarded Gou Er and his gang as a particularly important target. The arrest of Gou Er and his son was not so much because they were regarded as the biggest threat and needed to be “eradicated,” but rather to achieve a propaganda purpose of “no one can escape the grasp of the chiefs.”

But this time, the foreign intelligence bureau learned from the interrogation of the aides captured in the great victory at Chengmai that Gou Er’s son had participated in this suppression campaign. This person had provided many detailed information about Lin Gao and had also secretly sent people to Lin Gao to try to incite the local gentry to rise up in support of the government army.

After grasping this situation, the Political Security General Bureau listed the arrest of Gou Er and his gang as an important task. At the same time, this matter was reported at the weekly security situation meeting of the Senate.

The Senate paid great attention to the education of the security situation. The weekly Senate briefing, the notices on the bulletin board, and the “Lin Gao Times - Internal Distribution Edition” were constantly reminding everyone: danger is around us!

Although Ji Qili was not very attentive during the meeting, he still had an impression of this matter after repeated indoctrination. He immediately became nervous. He turned back and searched the construction site several times, hoping to find this strange inquirer. But he found nothing.