Chapter 231 - Distributing Apartments

The news of Jinshi Liu’s full recovery made the front-page headline of the Lin’gao Times - Public Edition. The news was provided by He Ping, a special correspondent stationed at the Ministry of Health. Originally, Ding Ding wanted to include a photograph, but printing photos involved resource issues, so it was changed to lithography in the end. A full page of 16 lithographs was specially made, drawn by a manga artist among the Elders. It was like a comic strip, with each panel accompanied by a description.

This promotional effort had an excellent effect. The transmigrators’ manga style was more realistic and beautiful than traditional line drawings. The characters, backgrounds, and objects were all much more “beautifully rendered.” Especially in the portrayal of the characters: although Jinshi Liu still had his beard, he was drawn as a handsome middle-aged man. As for Liu San, he was even more stern and handsome, with an elegant demeanor. Even Zhang Ziyi couldn’t recognize the beautiful woman in the picture as herself.

“My nose isn’t that high, and my eyes aren’t that big…” she muttered, but she was still secretly happy about being beautified. She specially collected a copy of the public edition.

The local naturalized citizens and natives all liked this kind of beautiful “story picture.” The effect was much greater than that of a text-based newspaper. After all, there were few literate people, and the reading level of those who had undergone literacy training was also limited. It was far from being as easy to understand as pictures with a small amount of explanatory text. This gave Ding Ding a good inspiration. Since they had the ability to do lithography, they could create a pictorial, similar to the Dianshizhai Pictorial, to promote popular science and current affairs, and to educate the public.

In the midst of the hustle and bustle, New Year’s Day of 1631 was approaching. According to the original idea of the Council of Elders, they were prepared to use a brand new calendar system, such as the Great Song calendar or the Xuanyuan calendar. However, this was opposed by many people who found the conversion troublesome—especially at this stage when everyone still needed to look up the dates of historical events. Therefore, it was finally decided to temporarily maintain the use of the Gregorian calendar and the Chongzhen era name. The dual era names would be used in official documents, and the Gregorian calendar would be used in internal documents. After the situation had stabilized, the era would be formally changed and announced to the world.

On New Year’s Eve, the first phase of the newly built Elder apartments was officially completed. The first batch of 90 apartments was distributed through a process of voluntary application and lottery drawing, coordinated by the “Housing Allocation Committee.”

The construction of Bairen New City, which concerned the welfare of the Elders, took up most of Mei Wan’s energy. He supervised the construction on the site almost every day, constantly proposing various improvements and demanding modifications, which annoyed Zhen Qian, who was in charge of the apartment design, to no end.

After the first phase of the apartments was completed, Xiao Zishan inspected the already sizable Bairen New City. Ten three-story apartment buildings, each with 9 units, stood on this small highland. The artificial lake and the moat surrounding Bairen New City were already completed. In addition to isolating the outside world and beautifying the environment, the artificial lake also served as a reservoir in the entire Wenlan River regulation project, used to store water during the rainy season and supply water during the dry season. Supporting channels and sluice gates were also built.

Various trees had been planted by the lake, flower beds had been arranged, and several benches had been placed. If it weren’t for the barbed wire and watchtowers set up by the garrison battalion on the opposite bank, and the armed sentries, this place would look a bit like a park from another time and place.

A tall, fortress-like building made of red brick was built next to the artificial lake, with a rather unsightly chimney standing next to it. This was the water tower. Water from the Bairen Beach waterworks was transported here through pipes, and then a steam engine continuously pumped the water to the water tank at the top of the tower to ensure the water pressure on each of the three floors. This steam engine and its supporting boiler were installed in a corner farthest from the residences to ensure that if it exploded, it would not harm others.

The road network, water supply and drainage system, street lighting, and pipeline laying in the new city were roughly completed. The water pipes were made of cast iron—of course, these pipes would have to be replaced every few years. The sewer system was built with bricks and connected to the main drainage channel outside the city. The streetlights used a gas system to save electricity.

The apartment buildings were of a mixed brick-and-wood structure. Zhen Qian had originally planned to use prefabricated reinforced concrete floor slabs, but the quality of the cement produced by the cement kiln was unstable, and the safety factor of the floor slabs was not high. Moreover, steel bars were too rare. In the end, they decided to use wooden floor slabs. The wooden structure of the houses was designed by Zhang Xingpei, an architect who had returned from the United States. He was very familiar with wooden structures. The structure was reasonable, and the area utilization rate was high. A-frame roofs were used to facilitate drainage, and asphalt and tarpaulin were used for waterproofing. The doors and windows were standardized and mass-produced by the woodworking factory. The electrical appliances, wires, and lighting fixtures were taken from the dormitories, and the number of installations in each apartment was strictly limited to save as much electrical appliances and wires as possible.

To meet the Elders’ pursuit of family life, all kitchen and bathroom equipment was fully equipped. For safety and material saving, the kitchens were equipped with energy-saving coal briquette stoves. Sanitary ware was a strong point of the transmigrators. Exquisitely fired ceramic tiles, toilets, bathtubs… all were decorated with various colors of painted decorations, looking extremely luxurious.

The furniture in the apartments was also provided by the construction company. This project of the Lin’gao Construction Company was not only responsible for the construction and hard decoration but also for the soft decoration.

However, everyone had different tastes in aesthetics, and it was difficult to please everyone. Therefore, in the specific selection of furniture styles, decorations, and fabrics, Zhen Qian adopted the model of a show flat, displaying the products they could currently provide. Everyone could see the effect on site and then purchase according to their own needs.

The furniture was modern, simple-style furniture mass-produced by the woodworking factory—of course, all in natural wood color. Colored furniture paint was still a luxury. There were also various Ming-style furniture pieces from the spoils of war warehouse; decorations included various porcelain, lacquerware, curios, and paintings.

Xiao Zishan looked at a show flat apartment and felt that it had a very “IKEA” feel. The natural wood-colored simple-style furniture, the rattan European-style sofa, the comfortable rocking chair, and the matching fabric products were brightly colored—made of the famous Indian printed cloth. The filling material was kapok.

“Very good, both generous and comfortable, and it also saves materials,” Xiao Zishan expressed his praise to Zhen Qian, who was accompanying him on the tour.

“This is the modern style. There’s also the classical style,” Zhen Qian said with a smile. “The classical style has more choices. There’s everything in the spoils of war warehouse.”

As they came out of the show flat, they met Liu San and Wu Yunhua, who were strolling on the road outside the apartment. Wu Yunhua was pointing here and there, and Liu San was listening attentively. Xiao Zishan knew that they were choosing a house. As a couple, they were supposed to be allocated an 80-square-meter apartment, but there were not many 80-square-meter apartments, so the choice was limited. Wu Yunhua always felt that something was not right after looking around.

Liu San felt that all these houses were the same and there wasn’t much difference, but his wife insisted on being picky. He had no choice but to accompany her.

Wu Yunhua had already dragged Liu San to see all ten buildings, even the small-sized units, but she still couldn’t make up her mind. She started looking again from the beginning, which made Liu San complain endlessly. He had been closely monitoring Jinshi Liu’s condition at the Liu residence these past few days and hadn’t slept well. He had originally wanted to rest well after returning home. Director Shi had generously given him a three-day leave. He had also planned to take a day off to go to the Runshitang and have a tryst with Xuan Chun. He didn’t expect his wife to win the first batch of housing in the lottery, and as a result, his three-day holiday became a house-hunting trip.

“How about it? I think 201 in Building 8 is not bad. It has a good orientation and a good view from the window,” Wu Yunhua finally made up her mind.

Liu San nodded eagerly. “Of course, of course. I think it’s very good too.”

“Hmm,” Wu Yunhua nodded with satisfaction. “What kind of decoration do you think we should choose? I still think the classical style is beautiful, but the modern style is also good, clean and neat.”

“Yes, yes.”

“What do you mean, ‘yes, yes’?!” Wu Yunhua said with dissatisfaction, glaring at his perfunctory attitude.

“The modern style is good,” Liu San quickly stated his opinion.

Liu San’s house-hunting trip seemed endless, but his PHS phone saved him. Li Mei called him and said that Yang Shixiang was looking for him to discuss the matter of opening a shop in Guangdong next year. This was a lifesaver for Liu San. He quickly claimed that he had an important work matter and had to go to work immediately, thus escaping from Wu Yunhua.

Seeing his sworn brother was, of course, a very pleasant thing for Liu San. Not only was he warmly received at his sworn brother’s house, but there was also Xuan Chun to serve him meticulously. Liu San had been busy with work recently and didn’t have much time to go to this little love nest for a rendezvous. Now that he had this good opportunity, he certainly wouldn’t miss it.

Liu San rode his bicycle and quickly left Bairen City, heading for the county town. When he entered the town, he didn’t forget to first go to Liu Dalin’s house to help measure his blood pressure and temperature, and only left after confirming that Master Liu’s body was recovering. Zhang Ziyi had helped their family train several male and female servants, teaching them some nursing and rehabilitation knowledge.

A banquet had already been laid out in the flower hall of Yang Shixiang’s house. Li Mei and Jiang Shan had been waiting at the table for a long time. Liu San thought that dealing with his sworn brother was good in this regard; they always talked at the dinner table. The Yang family’s daily life and enjoyment were all in the Guangzhou style, very exquisite, and now they were also using the various new gadgets made by the transmigrators.

Both the Foreign Intelligence Bureau and Li Mei’s trade department had taken a fancy to the value of the Runshitang, so they both regarded the expansion of the Runshitang’s network on the mainland as an important project.

Yang Shixiang was very welcoming of the expansion of his business share. He readily agreed to open the first branch of the Runshitang in Guangzhou after the New Year.

“How can one branch in Guangzhou be enough?” Jiang Shan said with a smile.

“Where else should we open one? Chaozhou is also a good market.”

“Don’t just stick to Guangdong,” Jiang Shan said with a smile. “What about Hangzhou? And the two capitals.”