Chapter 369: Extra Equipment

Could kidnapping or killing a few true short-hairs really weaken them and ultimately lead to their submission? Zhuo Yifan began to have serious doubts about the purpose of his mission.

His gaze fell on the three true short-hair Senators. They were strolling through the gymnasium, surrounded by their guards and secretaries, pointing and discussing something from time to time.

Though the area had not been cleared, it was clear that more unfamiliar naturalized citizens had appeared in the gymnasium, creating a certain distance around the few Senators.

“Little Fang,” Wen Desi had just given a speech, full of leadership and excitement. “Your cultural festival is quite a grand affair this time!”

Fang Fei nodded and said, “Yes, after all, as you said, Wen Zong, we are rich now. Since we have the means, how can we not show off the superiority of the Senate’s rule?”

Though this cultural festival was a matter for the education department, Fang Fei, as the head of the mass arts department, would not miss such a large-scale event—this was a time to produce results! As for the Senators in the education department, they were more than happy to have such a powerful department head take on the work. At the very least, it would be much more convenient in terms of resource utilization.

The other person was the principal of Fangcaodi, Zhang Zhixiang. This Principal Zhang was a bit sullen. His management philosophy for the school was the “county high school model,” and he was not very enthusiastic about activities like the “school festival.” In his view, the only thing the students of Fangcaodi should be doing was studying, and studying more.

However, he also knew that he was in the 17th century, and to ensure that the Senate’s rule remained unchanged, the successors of the Senate’s staff had to be trained from a young age in modern thinking and cultural aesthetics. Therefore, he had never opposed this activity, but he would always silently calculate the loss of class hours and try to make up for it in the following semesters.

Today, for some reason, the Executive Committee had suddenly remembered the cultural festival. The General Office called Fangcaodi and informed them that Wen Zong was going to see the preparations. As the principal, Zhang Zhixiang had no choice but to accompany him.

“Principal Zhang, your college has a performance in this cultural festival, right? I heard you’ve rehearsed a few new plays?”

Zhang Zhixiang was not interested in the cultural festival and had entrusted it entirely to Yuan Ziguang. Seeing Wen Zong’s question, he said, “Yuan Ziguang is in charge of this matter. He should be here today as well.” He then said to the secretary beside him, “Go and find Chief Yuan.” Seeing the female secretary about to leave, he added, “If there are other chiefs here, please ask them to come over as well. Just say that Wen Zong is here.”

The female secretary quickly went. In a short while, she had invited all the Senators over.

When Wen Desi saw the lineup, weren’t they just the few from the Plaid Skirt Club? This was probably another case of using public office for private gain, to satisfy their own perverse tastes.

Satisfying one’s own perverse tastes was not a problem in Wen Zong’s view. If one couldn’t even satisfy one’s own little hobbies, then coming to this transmigration would be like being Lei Feng. The key was to satisfy them without causing resentment among the other Senators. Though there were many with peculiar hobbies in the Senate, the string of “political correctness” was tighter here than anywhere else.

One of these “political correctnesses” was stinginess. This habit, which had been left over from the D-Day due to a lack of material and manpower, had imperceptibly become a kind of collective unconscious obsession. It was clear that Hu Qingbai’s invitation to him to “take a look and offer some opinions” at the gymnasium today was, to put it bluntly, a disguised request for resources and support.

“Old Yuan, Wen Zong wants to know about the preparations for the new plays you’re rehearsing for the cultural festival,” Zhang Zhixiang said.

In fact, among the people who came, the director of the Central Experimental Theater Troupe, Okamoto Shin, was also there. In terms of artistic performance, it seemed that he had more of a say. But Zhang Zhixiang, with his own selfish motives, ignored him and directly called on Yuan Ziguang.

Yuan Ziguang’s face was flushed with excitement. He looked full of energy. Hearing that Wen Zong wanted to listen, he spoke with a loud and clear voice, “This time, our cultural festival is planned to be a three-day event. The first day is Drama Day, with a performance of the play ‘The Test,’ adapted from the puppet show. The second day is a short play festival, with some of the propaganda department’s classic works, as well as new, more lively works, including short plays, living newspaper plays, and even some traditional opera and folk art performances. The last day is a gala and song and dance festival. This is the first time that our Plaid Skirt Club and the Eastern Central Experimental Art Troupe will be performing at the cultural festival. Everyone is very motivated!”

The deputy director of the Experimental Art Troupe, Okamoto Shin, naturally could not let him steal all the limelight. He quickly added, “This time, besides the new production of ‘The Test,’ our Central Experimental Art Troupe has also specially formed a small orchestra to cultivate professional musical talent and has rehearsed some programs…”

Wen Desi smiled and nodded, thinking to himself, When are they going to get to the point?

Yuan Ziguang continued, “We still have some difficulties that we can’t solve, not just for our club, but also for the Experimental Art Troupe. We hope the Executive Committee can help us solve them. I’ve made a list…” He took out a piece of paper from his briefcase.

Wen Desi took it and glanced at it. “These are all first-level controlled items, right? These large speakers, audio cables, microphones, and colored light bulbs… It might be difficult to allocate them all to you…”

Yuan Ziguang quickly said, “We don’t need them to be allocated, just borrowed for three days. This place is too big. Without enough sound amplification equipment, it’s impossible to perform.”

Wen Desi nodded. “If it’s just for borrowing, it’s no problem. I’ll talk to Old Wu when I get back. You should also submit a report. As for these nylon stockings…”

Seeing this, he couldn’t help but look troubled. The list also included thirty-two pairs of nylon stockings. These inexpensive undergarments had now become extremely scarce. Even the female Senators and a few male Senators who had hoarded a lot in their private luggage had very few left. As a result, even stockings with runs and holes were still being worn. Even completely damaged nylon stockings that could no longer be worn were required by the Planning Commission to be handed over as reserve materials—who knows what industrial use they might have in the future, as the nylon technology tree was a bit high.

The fact that the Planning Commission’s warehouse still had this crystal of modern petrochemicals was entirely due to Lan Du’s contribution: a portion of the clothing recovered from the A-ship. But the quantity was extremely small, and it had only been sold to all Senators once, with a limit of one pair per person.

Wen Desi didn’t care much about how many nylon stockings were left, but he vaguely remembered that there weren’t enough for every Senator to have one pair, which was why they were being kept in the Planning Commission’s warehouse—because no matter how they were distributed, someone would complain, so they were just kept and planned to be used as prizes in the future.

This request really put Wen Desi in a difficult position. He knew that many Senators wanted to buy nylon stockings for their maids but had been unable to do so. If he now satisfied Yuan Ziguang’s request, he would undoubtedly be flamed to death.

He looked at Fang Fei, who just stood there with a blank face and a silly smile. Wen Desi knew that he probably agreed with the application. After all, the cultural festival was his achievement, and these stockings would undoubtedly add a lot of color to the performance.

“Can’t we use our own products? Didn’t we have knitting machines long ago? We’ve also made socks.” The Senators were now wearing knitted cotton socks. Except for the slightly rough texture, they were fine to wear.

“We have already tried. The material performance is not good. Whether it’s cotton yarn or silk, the elasticity is not as good as nylon. It doesn’t have the same effect,” Okamoto Shin said with a helpless expression. Since he became the director, he hadn’t done much artistic work, but logistics had taken up a lot of his energy. The biggest difficulty was the problem of clothing fabrics.

No matter how much the literary youth praised the “exquisite craftsmanship” of past handicrafts, at least in terms of fabrics, the level of modern synthetic fiber textiles in color, pattern, and texture was difficult for ancient textiles to match. Nylon stockings were just one of the difficulties. When making training clothes and performance costumes for the actors, though the Planning Commission said that as long as it was a fabric that could be found in this time and space, whether it was in the warehouse’s inventory or sold in the market, they could get it for them as long as they had a need. But Okamoto and Liu Shuixin had seen almost all the possibly useful fabrics, and they were still not satisfactory.

The best imperial silk gauze bought at a high price from Jiangnan still couldn’t produce a dance skirt with the same effect as cheap synthetic fiber georgette.

Okamoto Shin remembered reading a memoir by an old ballerina. She recalled that when the Central Ballet of China was founded, everything was scarce. There were no stockings, no dance costumes. The substitutes made of cotton cloth and silk were of poor quality and had no effect. It was only after Premier Zhou specially approved the import of fabrics that the problem was solved.

Now their situation was even worse. At least back then, they could import from Hong Kong. Where could they find these things now?

Unfortunately, Okamoto Shin was also a perfectionist. Every time he saw the members of the art troupe rehearsing in costumes made of substitutes, he felt tortured.

“Alright, I’ll go back and discuss it with Old Wu. You also know that things are scarce. You should still rely on the existing conditions.” Wen Desi stuffed the list into his pocket and changed the subject. “Besides the students, who else are you planning to invite to the performance this time?”

Fang Fei said, “Mainly activists among the naturalized citizens—personnel who have received commendations from the Senate and the Central Government, and representatives from various industries, enterprises, and administrative departments. We will also invite some native activists, including more important business partners. Because the gymnasium has limited space, each person will only have a ticket for one performance, to ensure that as many people as possible can come and watch.”

“If you’re inviting natives, you need to be more careful in arranging the performance schedule, so as not to scare them,” Wen Desi said. “For example, don’t let Liu Dalin and the others watch the performance of your Plaid Skirt Club.”

“Of course. The performance of our Plaid Skirt Club is mainly for the naturalized citizens. Even when facing the natives, it’s for the young people who are more receptive to new ideas,” Yuan Ziguang said quickly.