Chapter 204: The Sea Party (Part 1)

Zheng Shangjie came out of the Colonial and Trade Department’s “Plan, Do, Check, Act” meeting and first invited Pei Xiuli to the party. Pei was now spending almost every day in Zheng Shangjie’s office, busy with the annual meeting, apart from her part-time teaching at the maid class. She was delighted to be invited to the party.

“I’ll definitely go!” she gave Zheng Shangjie a charming smile, then her brows furrowed slightly. “Oh dear, it’s such a headache. I don’t have any suitable clothes to wear, and I can’t wear my Guangzhou clothes…”

“I thought you brought quite a few clothes,” Zheng Shangjie said. In terms of the number of clothes, shoes, hats, and cosmetics brought, probably no one in the entire transmigrator group had more than Pei Xiuli. For example, nylon stockings, that essential weapon for girls, were still in ample supply in Lingao only for Pei Xiuli.

“Shouldn’t I wear a semi-formal cocktail dress for a party? I don’t have one…” Pei Xiuli sighed in frustration. “I only have a cheongsam that might do—but I have to air it out first…”

Zheng Shangjie quickly said, “It’s fine, just dress simply. It’s an informal party, casual dress.”

After inviting Pei Xiuli, Zheng Shangjie quickly got on her own bicycle. Because they had their own boat, they had much more leeway in the amount of luggage they could carry than the average elder. Besides arms and supplies, all sorts of daily necessities had been stuffed into the bilge as ballast, including several bicycles. The one Zheng Shangjie rode was a Chinese-made mountain bike with gears, solid tires, and a full set of repair tools and consumables. She had been using it as her means of transportation in Lingao. Although she had no specific position and had been on an external assignment for a while, she was sociable and had a wide circle of friends among the elders, and many recognized this special bicycle.

She greeted the elders she knew along the way as she rushed towards Bopu. She still had many things to do for this party. She couldn’t count on Ai Beibei—it would be great if she could even get a day off from work tomorrow. All the medical staff in the Ministry of Health had almost no days off.

Mendoza had plenty of time to help, but she didn’t speak the language and couldn’t handle many things. She could only do preparatory work at home.

Zheng Shangjie first rode back to the pier at Lingao Cape where the Feiyun was moored. This area, designated as the future seaside leisure area for the elders, had already been enclosed with barbed wire and trenches, forming a restricted area codenamed “Area 63”—officially called “Lingao Cape Park.” The newly expanded 2nd Company of the Lingao Garrison Battalion was responsible for its security. After the “Summer Awakening” campaign began, the army was stretched thin, and the Lingao garrison was somewhat depleted. With the approval of the Executive Committee and the Senate, the garrison company formerly stationed at the East Gate Market was upgraded to the Lingao Garrison Battalion, and Li Yiyang was promoted to battalion commander. The battalion had three companies. The 2nd Company was responsible for guarding areas like Lingao Cape and Bopu Port.

At the moment, the watchtowers and trenches on the perimeter of Lingao Cape Park were still under construction. The landscaping, roads, and greening within Area 63 were also being carried out under the command of Li Xiaolu. According to the requirements, all engineering in Area 63 had to be completed before December 20, 1630.

Zheng Shangjie showed her pass to the garrison soldiers guarding the entrance to the green zone and sped along the newly built cinder road towards the pier. A dedicated yacht pier had already been built here, and the Feiyun was moored to it.

On the deck of the Feiyun, Miss Mendoza and Qian Xuanhuang were scrubbing the deck and the exterior of the hull. Qian Xuanhuang was a 16-year-old girl, newly purchased by Zheng Shangjie from the maid class. To reduce their housework burden, Ai Beibei, Zheng Shangjie, and Mendoza had held a meeting and decided to buy a maid. According to the maid allowance quotas for their three families, they could afford to buy seven maids. If they bought them all, it would be quite a grand display. Zheng Shangjie had a small fantasy of a life with a retinue of servants.

However, considering the risk of causing family conflicts and the fact that there wasn’t enough space on the Feiyun to accommodate so many servants, they finally decided to buy just one. Ai Beibei needed someone to take care of Qian Duoduo, and Mendoza was getting exhausted from scrubbing the deck, maintaining the yacht, and cooking for three families every day.

In the end, Zheng Shangjie bought Qian Xuanhuang. Of course, the men on the Feiyun had no say in what kind of maid was bought. The Qian brothers and Zhou Weisen had all assumed they would get an average-looking D-class maid. Unexpectedly, Qian Xuanhuang was quite good-looking—by the standards of this era, of course. The receipt showed that Qian Xuanhuang was a B-class.

“Too ugly would affect our family’s image,” Zheng Shangjie explained.

“What’s her name?”

“Mu Jianping,” Zheng Shangjie said. Everyone laughed, leaving the girl, who was holding a wicker suitcase and feeling uneasy, completely bewildered.

“That’s ridiculous,” Qian Shuiting shook his head. “Since you bought her, let her take the surname Qian. She can be considered a member of our family. As for her name, let’s call her Xuanhuang.”

“That doesn’t sound like a girl’s name.”

“It’s better than Mu Jianping. This bunch of otaku, they have such bad taste.”

So she was officially renamed Qian Xuanhuang. From then on, Qian Xuanhuang became the common maid for the three families on the Feiyun, busy with housework and childcare every day. Her life was quite fulfilling, and she was spared the “doing all sorts of strange things” that her other classmates had to endure after being assigned.

Qian Xuanhuang was very curious about the three families living on this “white boat”—their words and actions were quite different from the chiefs she had come into contact with. Although she had to do a lot of work every day, Qian Xuanhuang felt that the people on the boat were very good to her. They didn’t treat her like a servant, and they even ate together. She quickly became devoted to Zheng Shangjie.

“Xuanhuang! Get the baskets!” Zheng Shangjie called out from the jetty without getting off her bike.

Hearing the call, Qian Xuanhuang quickly ran down the deck and came back a moment later with several covered wicker baskets and a milk can with a wicker cozy. She then brought out another bicycle.

Mendoza helped hang all these things on the sides of the luggage rack. Taking the ox-cart would be too slow, and some dishes needed to be prepared a day in advance.

Qian Xuanhuang also pushed a bicycle. Under Qian Shuiting’s instruction, she could now ride very well.

“Let’s go, we’re going shopping.”

Zheng Shangjie took Qian Xuanhuang to Bairen City first—she still had to invite other people to the party. First was Bei Wei. This person was hard to find and even harder to invite. First, he was busy with the training and duties of the Special Reconnaissance Command. Second, he was not interested in such social events. He believed the Special Reconnaissance Team should always be in a state of combat readiness. Early that morning, he had ridden his bicycle to all the duty and training points of the Special Reconnaissance Team in Lingao to inspect their combat readiness and training status. Zheng Shangjie had found out in advance that he would be attending the General Military Affairs Directorate’s “Plan, Do, Check, Act” meeting that afternoon and would definitely be in the cafeteria at noon.

After arriving at the cafeteria, Zheng Shangjie met Bei Wei and Xue Ziliang and invited them to come to the Feiyun for a visit the next day, under the pretext of discussing firearms and wilderness survival. Xue Ziliang had been guiding “pacification warfare” in the newly occupied counties like Danzhou during the “Summer Awakening” campaign and had just returned to Lingao for the annual meeting. Hearing there was a party, he was of course eager to go—especially since he could go with Sarina, a perfect opportunity to woo her. As for Bei Wei, he wasn’t very familiar with the Qian brothers, but he was tempted when Qian Shuiting asked him to give some pointers on shooting. He knew that besides procuring arms for the group, these people had also brought many private collections. Although they had handed over a lot, those were all common items. For a firearms enthusiast, the opportunity to handle guns he didn’t often see was a great temptation, so he reluctantly agreed.

As for Sarina, she had Xue Ziliang invite her on her behalf. The two had been getting closer recently, so it wasn’t too abrupt to invite her.

Afterward, she went to the Ministry of Propaganda and Culture and invited Ding Ding and Panpan. Of course, Ding Ding couldn’t actually go—because he was going to Danzhou for an interview the next day. Zheng Shangjie had deliberately set the time of the party for then so that Panpan could come alone.

In addition, Ai Beibei had also invited Lin Chuanqing, Shi Niaoren, and Chen Sigen. All three readily agreed. Shi Niaoren regretfully said he could only stay for an hour as he had a class to teach. Lin Chuanqing even volunteered to BBQ fish on the beach.

“Tomorrow I’ll have the sailors get a basket of the best seafood, the biggest and best crabs,” Lin Chuanqing, now the head of the navy’s fishing fleet, had all sorts of seafood at his disposal.

“You have to issue an invoice. We’ll pay the full price. Whatever it costs, don’t give us a discount,” Zheng Shangjie instructed.

“You’re not those big shots. Why be so fussy about a few fish and crabs?”

“Even ordinary elders must obey the law,” Zheng Shangjie, well aware of the subtleties of politics, said. A basket of seafood might be nothing in Lingao, but in the right context, it could become a handle for “taking advantage of the public.” Since the Otaku Party wanted to develop politically, they absolutely could not leave such an opening for criticism.

“Alright, have it your way. It’s not like this stuff is expensive anyway. At most, you’re getting the advantage of freshness.”

“It’s a deal then.”

After repeated reminders, Zheng Shangjie took Qian Xuanhuang to Wu Nanhai’s farm, where she had ordered eggs and milk. Since the start of large-scale farming, every elder now received a daily egg ration. The farm had also started raising a dozen or so dairy cows. Milk was not yet widely available and was only supplied to children under 14. Elders could also exchange their egg rations for milk.

Zheng Shangjie and Qian Shuiting had been away from Lingao for a long time, and their egg rations had accumulated. Today, she was collecting a large portion of them for the dishes at tomorrow’s gathering.