Chapter 264: Assignment of Work

Ma Ming took up a pencil and carefully wrote his conclusion on the report in crooked simplified characters — he did not believe these immigrants in Chengwei Village possessed clan characteristics.

A prerequisite for a clan is a shared surname, and Yu Chengde's group had mixed surnames. Moreover, during his interactions with them these days, Ma Ming had also found no trace of any secret-society or sect affiliation — they were simply a group of ordinary fishermen who worshipped Mazu and Guanyin.

After mulling it over one final time, Ma Ming solemnly signed his name on the report.

He could not afford to be careless. Previously, someone had encountered people from their hometown and helped cover things up. But clan activities are impossible to conceal — all the recruiting, spirit tablets, meetings, public fields, sacrificial rites, and fee collections.

Before long, after the "higher-ups" came down to investigate, the local Street Office was uprooted entirely, and together with those fellow townsmen, they all vanished in one sweep — reportedly sent to Huangshan in Taipei, with no news of them to this day.

Secondly, even as Ma Ming was writing his report, he knew that others were also writing reports — the Street Office was not his family business, so he had to ensure objectivity.

Having finally signed the report, Director Ma's first-stage work could be considered concluded. And Yu Chengde, utterly unaware of any of this, had in his slumber evaded an investigation that might have seen him banished to the frontier.

Early the next morning, Director Ma began handling matters strictly by the book, the smile on his face much diminished — from now on, everyone had truly become "one of our own," and there was no need to keep up appearances.

First came the assignment of work.

The crippled carpenter was dispatched to the collective dormitory of the Kiln District Woodware Factory — there he would not have to endure the tossing of the sea, nor commute back and forth every day, which suited him quite well.

Watching the crippled man, bedroll on his back and a document folder in hand, slowly receding into the distance all alone, Yu Chengde and the others could not help but feel a sting in their eyes.

Director Ma, long accustomed to such scenes, hurried to boost everyone's spirits — the crippled man had a craft; as long as he could operate those woodworking machines in the factory, his monthly pay would start at three taels, with meal subsidies on top — that was practically middle class.

He could buy a Japanese girl to marry within two years, and skilled workers got zero-down-payment loans for housing — so everyone should stop worrying about the crippled man and worry about themselves.

After finishing his morale-boosting talk, Old Ma pulled Yu Sibao aside and handed him over to a clerk from the Port Authority.

The news that the Zheng family's sunken ship had been salvaged by a group of fishermen was now known to quite a few people. In fact, ever since Li Kuiqi's Great Gang was annihilated, the truth about the disappearance of the Zheng Family Fleet was no longer a top-level secret. After all, an operation involving several hundred people could be kept under tight secrecy for a short time, but it was impossible over the long term.

So the moment the Yu family disclosed the location of the sunken ship, the Port Authority people knew that these fishermen had fished up the Zheng family's silver. Yet the oblivious Yu Chengde still believed even now that what his family had salvaged was a ship belonging to the Kun lords — who could blame him, when the only two Kun items, the copper Buddha and the bayonet, had both been fished up by his son.

Thus, Yu Sibao was targeted by the Port Authority.

Back when the Zheng family's ship sank, the Transmigrators had conducted a simple survey while clearing the battlefield — the sunken ship lay eleven meters underwater.

Generally speaking, once you go ten meters underwater, a diver must bear the pressure of one full atmosphere. Under such conditions, ordinary people cannot manage it; professionals are required. And since this fisherman's boy Yu Sibao had been able to retrieve objects from the sea, that proved he indeed possessed a natural gift in this area.

The Port Authority paid close attention to talent of this kind, because projects requiring divers — including underwater surveying, underwater demolition, and comprehensive harbor management — were originally the responsibility of the Port Authority.

So Yu Sibao was selected. The Port Authority clerk who had come specially to fetch him informed Yu Chengde that his precious son was, from this moment on, a "Trainee" of the Port Authority.

Yu Sibao would henceforth "work and study part-time," attending school on one side to catch up on academic courses, while on the other side serving as an Apprentice to the divers at the Port Authority, with a monthly wage of two taels of silver — divers were a high-skill, high-risk profession, and their monthly salary was very high.

Yu Chengde could not understand all those roundabout terms, but he recognized the peaked cap of the Port Authority, so he had no objection to his son entering the "Public Gate."

After this, several more able-bodied laborers were assigned to other departments. In short, even though they had passed the screening, the Street Office was still, intentionally or not, scattering the villagers apart.

The women, however, were treated far more leniently in this regard — Yu Chengde's old wife could choose to work nearby at the Community mess hall or in sanitation; if she wanted to earn a bit more, the Kiln District Textile Factory and the farm's silkworm breeding room both needed female workers, and she could start work at any time.

And Third Sister, just fifteen years old, was even more sought after. Director Ma spared no effort in recommending the benefits of working at the Munitions Factory — high wages, and after a one-month probation, she would become a permanent worker.

However, once Yu Chengde inquired and got clear on just what sort of place the Munitions Factory was, he still vetoed that option — his family was now all laborers and had no lack of that bit of monthly pay; there was no necessity to let his daughter take risks.

In the end, Third Sister still signed up for the full-time adult education class. Director Ma earnestly told Old Yu that here in Dayuan, holding office made no distinction between men and women; if Third Sister studied well, once she graduated from high school in the future, she could sit in the seat of Street Director.

And so, in a moment of heated impulse, a certain someone enrolled his daughter in the class — let her study for a year first and see how things went; if the girl truly proved to be scholarly material, then continuing on would not be too late, and anyway, the family was not short of that bit of her monthly pay, was it?

After this second round of reassignment, the number of fishing families still living in the district had been reduced to five. The remaining able-bodied men here who could go out to sea, including the Yu family's eldest nephew Yu Chushui, numbered only six in total.

Someone like Monkey, who had absolutely no seamanship skills, ultimately moved away from the district with his old mother — relying on his familiarity with the trade routes across Fujian, Monkey quickly found a job at the General Commerce Corporation. Now, as soon as he finished his remedial academic courses, he could become a permanent employee.

Now, Yu Chengde and the others who remained had finally gotten what they wished for — they were all getting on in years and unwilling to go to factories to learn new trades; they simply wanted to fish by relying on their own skills.

Yu Chengde had not been idle these days either; he had already inquired and made plans — sell that broken wreck at a bit of a price, then go to the Taijiang Shipyard to have the Green Fish repaired, and everyone could set out to sea to make a living.

Although the 1,000 taels of silver had been exchanged by the authorities for Treasure Notes, shattering his dream of buying a new boat, the Treasure Notes were still worth some money no matter what — based on his observations over these days, Yu Chengde had found that the local authorities were, after all, far more honest than those of the Great Ming, so he reckoned the silver in that so-called "passbook" should be enough to cover the cost of repairing the Green Fish.

And so, early the next morning, Yu Chengde and his party excitedly boarded a public bus and arrived at Chikan Wharf.

Upon reaching the Port Authority lobby and asking around, they learned that their two boats had already been towed to the Taijiang Shipyard. Well, wasn't that convenient! Before the clerk attending to him could finish speaking, Yu Chengde rushed excitedly out of the Port Authority and called his crew to head straight for the Taijiang Shipyard.

The next moment, on the sandy beach near the shipyard, Yu Chengde saw the Green Fish — already gutted, its heart gouged out, hacked into eight pieces. At that moment, Old Yu broke down.