1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3993

The special forces soldiers helped with moving the items, but organizing the luggage and belongings was something that Su Zhixing and his servant had to do themselves.

Su Ji was in charge of cleaning the furniture, while Su Zhixing was organizing his personal belongings. The area was surrounded by endless yellow sand, and even with curtains hanging on the doors and windows, dust was still inevitable indoors. Seeing this, Su Zhixing asked Su Ji to fetch some water and wipe down the tables, chairs, and beds.

After asking his neighbors, Suji quickly found the place with his bucket.

Not far from the residence is a deep well, which is the main water source for the nearby residential area. To facilitate water access, the well is specially equipped with a cast iron well pipe and a piston rod at the wellhead. This way, by repeatedly lifting and lowering the piston rod, groundwater can flow continuously from the tap at the wellhead. This not only slows down the evaporation and loss of groundwater but also makes it easier for people to operate at the wellhead, eliminating the hassle of using a traditional well rope and bucket to fetch water.

Su Ji scooped up a handful of water and tasted it. The water was bland and tasteless, without the salty or strange taste he had worried about. It seemed that it was fine to use as drinking water.

Suji quickly returned with two buckets of water, and the master and servant began to work.

They were only halfway through cleaning when someone outside told them to come to lunch, but they had to bring their own utensils.

Su Zhixing had experienced similar situations in Phuket and Hambantota, and knew that the special operations division's area was uniformly supplied with food. So he asked Su Ji to get the tableware that had been prepared in advance and go to the nearby communal canteen.

The canteen was small, just a small courtyard. The entrance faced south, and the two rooms next to the entrance were where firewood and coal were stored. To the west was the kitchen, with six stoves of various sizes. To the north was the area for serving food and serving meals, which was already full of people. The doors and windows of the room on the west side were closed, and it was used to store ingredients such as rice, flour, cooking oil, meat, eggs, vegetables, and cooking utensils.

There were still several hundred kilograms of potatoes piled up in the yard that hadn't been sorted yet. These potatoes aren't grown locally, so they were probably just recently transported from the port. Potatoes are a prized commodity in Fubo Port; they can be used as a staple food or a vegetable, and there are countless ways to cook them—frying, boiling, stewing, roasting, cold dishes, and so on. They are a very popular ingredient.

The small canteen has fewer than ten cooks and helpers, and it serves about a thousand meals a day. There are currently three such communal canteens in Fubo Port, providing meals for settled immigrants, dockworkers, and military troops.

The reason for establishing communal canteens was threefold: first, to reduce the cost of living for the people in Fubo Port, which the government provided as a welfare benefit to everyone; second, to save time on daily cooking, allowing people to devote more energy to their work; and third, because local fuel was hard to come by, and the local production of both firewood and coal was far from sufficient, requiring supplies to be transported from elsewhere, which would save a lot of money by using them in the canteens.

As for the oil buried underground in the Arabian Peninsula, although small-scale extraction is currently being attempted, even if production occurs in the future, Qian Tiandun probably wouldn't want to use it directly as firewood. After some refining and shipping it back to China, its value would be comparable to a shipload of goods.

Lunch wasn't particularly lavish; both new and old immigrants were treated equally, with one meat dish, two vegetable dishes, and a seaweed and shrimp soup. Rice was unlimited.

The meat dish was some kind of sea fish that Su Zhixing didn't recognize. Each person received a heavy piece, almost the size of his palm, with thick, fatty fat and a soft, bouncy texture, but a strong fishy smell that even spices couldn't mask. The vegetarian dish consisted of a large spoonful of local traditional hummus for each person, as well as a salad called "Tabule," which contained parsley, mint, dried wheat, and tomatoes, all chopped and mixed with olive oil, lemon, scallions, and salt—it also appeared to be a local dish.

The canteen was too small and there were no tables and chairs for eating, so after getting their food, people had to take it back to their rooms to eat. However, some people were too lazy to carry their bowls of rice and vegetables around, so they would squat in a row against the wall outside the canteen, quickly shovel their food into their mouths, and then get up and leave.

Although Su Zhixing was already starving, perhaps because he had been at sea for too long, he had little appetite for the food. After all, the ingredients and flavors here were more local, and outsiders needed time to adapt.

Su Ji, however, was completely unaware of what was happening. In no time, he finished off a large bowl of rice and dishes, and even sipped his chopsticks a couple more times, seemingly still wanting more.

Seeing Su Ji put down her bowl and silently look at her, Su Zhixing sighed and divided the food in her bowl in half to Su Ji: "You eat more, I don't have much of an appetite."

Having spent so much time together on their journey westward, Su Ji was already used to it. He didn't refuse and ate all of Su Zhixing's portion for him, then let out two satisfied burps.

Of course, this extra meal wasn't for nothing. After lunch, Su Ji told Su Zhixing to go and rest, leaving the remaining cleaning and tidying work to him. His young master was, after all, a scholar, and should use his time for studying. He had come all the way to Fubo Port with his young master, not to dine and do nothing, but to work hard when it was time to get things done.

Just as Su Zhixing was about to take a short nap, visitors arrived unexpectedly. He got up to greet them and found that it was Qian Shaobao, Chen Pingliao, and Li Yuande who had come together.

It turned out that Qian Shaobao had heard from Li Yuande that they had poached the son of the headmaster of Wansong Academy from Hangzhou, and immediately expressed his desire to visit him in person. In Qian Shaobao's view, Su Zhixing's status was probably more significant than that of the salt merchants' sons who had flocked to Fubo Port with their money.

In his words, Su Zhixing had condescended to come to this remote and impoverished place overseas to be a teacher because he was a low-key person who didn't want to make a fuss, but he couldn't be blind to Su Zhixing's arrival and ignore it.

As the landlord, Qian Shaobao naturally wouldn't visit empty-handed. He brought a lot of local specialties, such as precious honey from the Sid tree in the desert, Arabian hand-woven headscarves, Persian wool carpets, and so on. This made the room, which was already filled with a lot of books and stationery, seem even more crowded.

After thanking him, Su Zhixing didn't refuse any further and let Su Ji accept the gifts. He was, after all, from a prestigious family and had received all sorts of visitors in Hangzhou, receiving all sorts of gifts, including some very valuable items. He was already quite adept at handling such situations.

The main reason, of course, was that Su Zhixing was new to the area and didn't really know the value of the gifts Qian Shaobao had given him. If he kept refusing them, he would only make himself seem ignorant.

Besides, this was my first time dealing with this young marshal Qian, and I knew nothing about his temperament. But since he had come to visit me so quickly, it must be because he valued me. So there was no need to pretend to be a poor scholar in front of him. I just needed to treat him with courtesy and sincerity.