Chapter 661 - New Housing
Tang Menglong's life secretary's pregnancy precipitated the complete collapse of the "Bairren City Transmigrator Housing Regulations." The distribution of life secretaries had already raised the issue of private housing for transmigrators; now the matter escalated to urgent priority.
But the question wasn't simply about building homes for transmigrators—it also involved the current management system of Bairren City itself.
The original fortress-style residential district, combining offices, living quarters, and storage, was already obsolete. The prohibition against natives entering made both life and work increasingly inconvenient.
Life secretary distribution was complete, but under Bairren City regulations, these women couldn't enter. The original plan to build a separate residential district for life secretaries had been shelved when word came of the Ming army's expedition. Transmigrators could only meet their life secretaries in the Commercial Hall rooms at East Gate Market. Rooms were limited, and demand far outstripped supply. Li Mei was besieged by complaints—everyone grumbled they could barely book a room. She was forced to limit each transmigrator's time with their life secretary to three hours, then reduced it to two.
"If I'd known, I should have opened a budget hotel myself," Li Mei lamented, keenly aware of this lost business opportunity.
During non-booking hours, life secretaries could only trail after transmigrators at their respective workplaces. For office workers, this was manageable—even brightening the work atmosphere. Agricultural transmigrators had no complaints either—life secretaries mostly came from farming backgrounds and were skilled at field work. But for industrial transmigrators, having women wandering around the factory floor felt wrong. Except for a few particularly enthusiastic men who began teaching their life secretaries to make hammers, most found it distracting.
At night, life secretaries had nowhere to go. Transmigrators without private quarters at their worksites faced a particular dilemma—they couldn't bring women back to Bairren City dormitories, so the women could only return to the life secretary school's collective dormitory.
Transmigrators became deeply dissatisfied with this arrangement. The Administrative Office's proposal to restart the construction project was vetoed by the Yuan Laoyuan. Amid cries of "We want normal family life!", the "Bairren City Transmigrator Housing Regulations" that had been in force for over two years was completely abolished.
Moreover, Bairren City had been designed for defense, with cramped interior space—inconvenient for both activity and residence. Calls to develop a new residential district—at minimum a villa zone—grew louder in the Yuan Laoyuan.
After some "research," the Administrative Office decided to renovate and expand Bairren City. The residential and administrative zones would be replanned. The existing residential district would be relocated outside Bairren City and rebuilt on new ground.
According to the Construction Company's plan, the old city would become an administrative center, retaining only the Yuan Laoyuan, government offices, and critical facilities like the telecommunications hub.
Original living facilities—dormitories, recreation, and services—would all move to the "New Town." The New Town would be designed and built purely as a residential district.
Per the plan, New Town would rise on the banks of the Wenlan River, upstream of the old city, on elevated ground directly by the riverbank.
Old and New Towns would be connected, with a wall and gate between them—convenient both for security and for transmigrators commuting to offices in the old city.
According to Mei Wan's concept, New Town was essentially a residential community of five hundred units. He planned row houses for transmigrator housing—more land-efficient.
He assigned Zhang Xingpei to design these five hundred row houses. Mei Wan envisioned two-story units with approximately one hundred square meters of usable floor space each.
"That's rather stingy," Zhang Xingpei frowned. "Building palaces or castles for everyone isn't possible right now, but one hundred square meters is really difficult to present. We should at least build American-style detached wooden houses with front and back gardens..."
"How big would that community have to be?" Mei Wan countered. "Even this plan doesn't satisfy Ran Yao—he says the new district is too large and difficult to secure."
Mei Lin had been studying the plans, chin in hand. Now he spoke up: "Even building row houses, by this design—three units per building—we'd need over one hundred sixty buildings. Honestly, for the real estate projects I've done, a villa community this size is already quite large. Building the houses is easy; interior finishing will consume tremendous resources. Just lighting and electrical work alone would be significant."
"What do you propose?" Mei Wan was never particularly impressed by his clansman's pronouncements.
"I think apartments would be better..."
Nobody could accept this: senior native cadres were already moving into row houses. If transmigrators lived in apartments—previously justified by security concerns, but now that security wasn't the primary issue—it would be difficult to explain.
"Transmigrators are all planning on multiple wives and concubines. Put them in apartments—where would you fit all those women? They'd skin you alive."
"Hear me out." Mei Lin said calmly. "Apartments use less land. Five hundred apartments in three-story buildings—fifty buildings would suffice. Compared to over one hundred sixty row houses, that's a much smaller footprint. First, it's easier to secure. Second..."
He predicted: by the end of the First Five-Year Plan, many transmigrators would be scattered across Hainan, some even posted to the mainland or beyond. They wouldn't be living in Bairren City. Many units would sit empty—too large a villa district would become deserted and difficult to maintain, manage, and protect.
"If one hundred-plus square meters of apartment can't accommodate transmigrators' future concubines, one hundred-plus square meters of row house can't either—you know many people are planning estates and manors. We can't build five hundred estates in Lingao, can we?"
Transmigrators wouldn't make Lingao their permanent residence—in the future, it would serve merely as a "holy site." For actual living environments, there were far better locations on Hainan alone.
"Eventually, a Bairren City apartment will be nothing more than a status symbol. I imagine transmigrators returning from postings abroad will stay in luxury hotels or the Administrative Office guesthouse, not necessarily their apartments."
Rather than building something half-baked now, better to set standards lower, save resources and land, and simply meet needs for the next three to five years. Besides, what transmigrators currently wanted was simply a private nest to cohabit with their life secretaries, girlfriends, and wives.
This reasoning persuaded Mei Wan. Mei Lin's analysis was clear: transmigrators' ultimate housing aspirations were palaces, estates, castles, manors, and oceanfront villas. Not just row houses—even Zhang Xingpei's American-style wooden houses wouldn't fully satisfy them.
Also, the Construction Company was severely short of finishing materials and building supplies. Even if they built villas, they could only manage Ming-style interiors.
"I'm just worried transmigrators won't agree."
"Put the proposal up for review. That won't cause problems." Mei Lin continued strategizing. "Design comfortable, practical housing, and transmigrators will accept it."
After discussion, they settled on standard transmigrator apartments: three bedrooms, living room, bathroom, and kitchen. Approximately ninety square meters usable.
Mei Lin said: "One room for the transmigrator, one for the life secretary, one spare."
Zhen Qian, with her residential design experience, was assigned the detailed work. She suggested not making every unit uniform.
"Identical layouts waste space, and some transmigrators don't need that much room. Agricultural Department people basically live at their farms—give them an apartment and they won't use it. So there should be smaller units for transmigrators who rarely stay in the residential district."
"Yes—for someone like Wu Nanhai, three bedrooms probably isn't enough." Mei Wan said sourly.
Everyone laughed heartily, mingling admiration with envy.
Zhen Qian rolled her eyes: "You people only care about that!" She outlined her design concept: large, medium, and small units, with large units predominating.
"Reinforced-concrete construction with precast slabs—within our production capacity," Zhen Qian explained. "For finishing, plumbing fixtures are manageable—all domestically producible. Bathroom fixtures and tiles can also be supplied. What's lacking mainly are industrial flooring, paint, and coatings. With some compromises, we can roughly meet requirements. Only electrical wire, lights, and switches are Class-1 controlled materials. It depends whether the Planning Committee will allocate them. But gas and running water should be achievable."
"Use gas lamps for lighting," Mei Lin suggested. "Brighter than candles or oil lamps, clean and convenient."
"Also convenient for dying—aren't there enough deaths from gas water heaters?" Mei Wan was concerned. "Gas street lamps are fine, but direct indoor gas lighting isn't as safe as electric."
"That depends on whether the Planning Committee agrees. But if people had electricity in dormitories and then none in apartments, Wu De probably wouldn't dare refuse." Zhen Qian observed.
They discussed additional details. Besides housing, there would be shared garages, a recreation and fitness center, and a housekeeping services center staffed by strictly vetted native women to handle laundry, cooking, and cleaning for transmigrators. Such an organization had existed before but was located outside Bairren City, making service inconvenient. This time it would move formally into New Town.