Chapter 50: Evening Leisure

After locking the memorandum, Huang Dashan called: the test results for the dead chicks sent for inspection yesterday were out.

“The culture results from the samples sent showed no signs of avian influenza or other pathogens,” Huang Dashan said over the phone. “We can basically rule out epidemic infection.”

“That’s great,” Wu Nanhai had been worried about this. Hearing that they didn’t die from disease, he felt a great sense of relief. “But I still need to go to the hatchery to check. The mortality rate is a bit abnormally high.”

“It’s a good idea for you to go and see. If you’re still not at ease, you can collect a few more samples. If there are any secretions, collect a sample of that too. I’ll do another culture experiment.”

“Okay,” Wu Nanhai hung up the phone and decided to go to the hatchery himself.

“Ah Shui, take me to the hatchery,” Wu Nanhai said to Liu Ah Shui, who was pushing a cart to deliver hot water bottles to various offices in the courtyard. Besides pulling his rickshaw, Liu Ah Shui also served as a handyman for the Agricultural Committee when he wasn’t pulling the rickshaw.

Liu Ah Shui quickly handed the pushcart to another handyman and went to pull out the rickshaw. He looked at the sky and put up the canvas canopy.

Wu Nanhai took the rickshaw all the way to the farm’s hatchery. The reports from the past few days showed an abnormal number of chick deaths, more than 30% higher than usual. This, combined with the recent chicken plague, made him very worried. Even in the old world with all kinds of medicines, the way to deal with avian influenza was mainly through large-scale culling, let alone in the 17th century where technology, equipment, vaccines, and medicines were scarce. Huang Dashan had promised to develop a special vaccine, but there had been no results yet.

The only thing he could do was to strengthen system management and take strict disinfection measures to minimize the incidence rate.

Yang Baogui had already arrived before him. When Wu Nanhai went in, he was taking off his isolation gown. A naturalized apprentice wearing a mask walked by, holding a box. Wu Nanhai asked, “How’s the situation?”

“It’s about what you estimated. We can preliminarily rule out avian influenza,” Yang Baogui said as he took off his gloves and put them and the isolation gown into a special bag. Through inspection of the facilities and examination of the dead chicks, Yang Baogui could roughly determine that the chicks had been crushed to death. It was likely due to the negligence of the breeding staff. The temperature in the chicken house had dropped in the middle of the night, causing the chicks to huddle together for warmth.

“But to be cautious, I’ve taken a second sample, all from chicks that died this morning. You can send them to the lab for another culture check.”

Wu Nanhai opened the box and saw a large glass jar containing a sealed chick sample, and a few small bottles with some unknown liquid. He shook his head and closed the box again.

“The density here is too high. Sooner or later, there will be a chicken plague,” Yang Baogui said, watching his student pack up the equipment box. “The high mortality rate is normal. I just measured the air humidity here, and it’s a bit high. You need to pay more attention.”

Wu Nanhai nodded, “You’re right. Besides diverting them, we also need to strengthen management.”

After leaving the hatchery, Wu Nanhai rushed to the construction site of the farm’s water conservancy project without stopping. He found the person in charge of the construction site and made arrangements for the 800 slave laborers who would be arriving in a few days.

“The food will be supplied according to the standard for ordinary civilian workers: they’ll have enough to eat, and plenty of pickles,” Wu Nanhai instructed. “You just need to assign tasks and supervise the foremen to complete them on time. Don’t interfere with the management of the guards and foremen. Understand?”

These slaves were transported by Querétaro. Although a large number of laborers flowed in every day due to the start of the Engine Project, the local labor force in Lingao was still in a state of scarcity as construction spread across the island, especially for heavy physical labor with high mortality rates. It was very uneconomical to use immigrants who had undergone long-distance transportation, purification, and conditioning.

These slaves were originally purchased for the development of Sanya. Although the high-intensity and high-risk work was accompanied by a huge mortality rate, Querétaro, driven by huge profits, continuously transported slaves, which actually led to a sharp increase in the number of slaves. Now Sanya was basically saturated. After a collective discussion at the last Senate plenary meeting, it was decided to expand the scope of application of slaves. They would be used in all heavy physical labor businesses in Hainan Island, Taiwan, and other places.

However, this opening was limited to the scope of labor in infrastructure projects and mining. In the instructions issued by the Planning Institute, it was explicitly forbidden to use slaves in industrial and agricultural production. Except for temporary camps, slaves were strictly prohibited from obtaining fixed residences near their workplaces or mixing with the natives and naturalized citizens. Slaves were not allowed to have contact with the native people and naturalized citizens who were not related to their work. Any slave who attempted to hide or escape during transportation and labor would be executed on the spot.

Thinking of this notice, Wu Nanhai felt a little uneasy, and a small ripple stirred in his heart.

“Under every sleeper, there is the body of an Irishman,” Wu Nanhai said, looking at the gradually darkening construction site and making the sign of the cross.

“Master, where are we going now?” Liu Ah Shui asked.

“To the Farm Teahouse.”

The Farm Teahouse was formerly the Nanhai Farm Cafe. Since it became an independent accounting unit under the Agricultural Committee, its official registered name became the bland “Farm Teahouse.” However, everyone still habitually called it the Nanhai Cafe.

At the end of Agricultural Second Road, by the artificial lake, a row of houses was brightly lit. The nightlife of the Farm Teahouse was just reaching its peak.

The teahouse was a multi-story composite building. The main part had three floors, and a protruding two-story annex was built on the waterside. The water-facing part was a large glass wall, offering a beautiful view of the water. There was also an open-air waterside platform outside. On sunny days, tables, chairs, and umbrellas were set up on the platform for the senators to relax.

On the other side of the building, there was a wooden one-story old teahouse, which was now used as the office of the special supply food store and the teahouse’s ancillary facilities.

Not far from the teahouse, across a nursery, was the “farmhouse” Lotus Pavilion in the farm. It was now also under the management of the teahouse.

Lotus roots and other aquatic crops were planted in the artificial lake, which was also used to raise ducks. Because the senators complained about the occasional smell of duck droppings in the wind when they were relaxing on the terrace, the duck shed, which was originally on the other side of the lake, was moved away.

Outside the entire teahouse building, there was a small garden surrounded by dense hedges and flowers to separate it from the outside world and ensure privacy.

Today, the Farm Teahouse was also brightly lit, and the faint sound of music drifted in with the evening breeze. Accompanied by the fragrance of the tuberoses on the roadside, it had a decadent and luxurious atmosphere.

Wu Nanhai’s rickshaw had a pass, so it passed smoothly through the gate outside the garden and was pulled directly to the steps of the main building of the teahouse. A tall Spaniard in a long European-style coat walked down the steps and bowed respectfully to Wu Nanhai. He said in not-so-fluent Chinese, “Welcome, Your Excellency.”

“Hello, Sancho,” Wu Nanhai got out of the rickshaw and said to Liu Ah Shui, “You can go back first, you don’t have to wait for me.” Then he took out a cut “Li Quan Special Limited Edition” cigar. Sancho immediately took out a lighter and lit it for him. He took a deep puff, blew out a smoke ring, and took out a card from his pocket.

“My membership card.”

This Spaniard was one of the several Spanish sailors captured in Bopu. After working in the labor camp for more than a year, he was requested by Wu Nanhai because he was from a grape-growing family in Galicia, Spain. After a futile attempt to grow grapes, Hainan Island once again proved that it was not suitable for grape cultivation. Sancho then became a winemaker in the fruit wine workshop run by Xue Ziliang, and at night he served as a bartender in the teahouse bar.

Sancho was a poor man in Spain. His family had long since died or scattered, which was why he had drifted to East Asia. Now that he had a stable life and no longer had to live the hellish life at sea, he was naturally happy to spend his days here.

In addition to being a bartender at the teahouse, he was also responsible for checking membership cards at the reception. The Farm Teahouse, as a special leisure and entertainment place for the Senate, adopted a membership system. For the time being, only senators were accepted as members, and each senator, whether in Lingao or not, was given a card. The membership card could be used to apply for supplementary cards, which were currently limited to naturalized citizens, adopted children over sixteen, and apprentices with a formal master-apprentice relationship.

Members could use their cards to charge their consumption at the teahouse and the attached special supply food store. The bills were sent to the General Office every month to be deducted from the senators’ personal accounts. The main card of the senator could be used for all items, while the supplementary card could only be used for some services.

“Thank you,” Sancho did not take the card, bowed again, and then turned to lead the way.

Opening the tightly closed leather-clad door, a soft music sound came out. The hall was dimly lit, with only a few glass-covered candlesticks shining like stars. The small dance floor in the middle had some electric light, and the semi-dark atmosphere combined with the soft music created a relaxed and gentle atmosphere.

The first floor of the main building was a leisure and entertainment area. All were high-backed train seats. There was a bar selling various alcoholic beverages, tea, cocoa, and coffee. There was a special smoking area with special hookahs, pipe tobacco, and cigars. There was also a small dance floor with a small stage and orchestra pit for performances. At present, it was purely for decoration. They lacked musical instruments, and even more so, suitable musicians. The music still relied on sound equipment.

The second floor was in the form of teahouse private rooms, where members could have their own relatively private gatherings. The second floor provided various desktop board games. From Ludo, military chess, poker, Chinese and international chess, Go, mahjong, pai gow, dice, and other traditional games, there were also various board games: Three Kingdoms Kill, Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer, and so on. There was also a large entertainment room with locally made snooker and nine-ball tables and pinball machines. All these things were made by skilled craftsmen in Guangzhou according to the styles provided by Lingao through Zichengji, and they were truly exquisite.